Blog Break 2–Busy is as Busy Does
Because of many days of not staying on top of things, I got into some very old dust on the back of a shelf desperately needing organizing. I got lots of steps and busy stuff done to prepare for a busy day tomorrow, but I need more sleep for real preparation. That means, another day of taking a break from trying to write any meaningful words, but I can almost always find some pretty images to share.
These images are called digital squared circles because they are created with software (digitally designed in the Mirror Lab app for Android) and you can clearly see the circle in the middle of the square. I learned about these from a Flickr group I’ve now inherited and need to add more of my own images to. But it’s fun to see what others add—when they follow the rules. (That is, when they actually add squared circles and not just add whatever in haste to get their stuff out to multiple groups.)
And with that, I say goodnight and sweet dreams. I hope my busyness will pay off with some good sleep to revive my creative words. 😴
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I Break for Creativity
I’m running late on some things today while I rest from sciatica pain, so in my photo memories, these actual fireworks I captured were desperately needing creative editing. The pink one is the most obvious that it’s a real picture because it only needed a little creativity, but I really have fun with the alchemy filter in the Mirror Lab app for Android.
Here’s one before image…
You can see where I got rid of the smoke and added some saturation for better colors. Those simple edits, plus an AI request to clean up the smoke behind the big fireworks were done with the Photo Studio Pro app. (Link goes to the free ad-supported app, but if you have Play Pass, this is one of the included pro apps.) After that I applied the alchemy filter.
One more mid process…
This one has been cropped and had contrast and saturation adjustments before putting it through the strong alchemy filter to really stretch out all those points of light.
Finally, when I got a few I liked (and it got too late to work on anymore of them, I grabbed my 3 favorites and put them in a collage using the Photo Studio Pro app.
And that’s my day and night for this post. I sure would love to see some responses from people trying any or all of these apps I share to tell me what you think and maybe show me some results. I do not use affiliate links to share these, so I’m not even certain what’s clicked on, but it’s important to me to think I’m being helpful to people. And because I have no Apple devices, I can only hope you can find some of these if that’s the system you prefer to work in.
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The Love Story that Created a Love Story
Truthfully, if it wasn’t for this couple’s love story, I may not have turned my life around and started really living for The Lord.
It started with a move from LA to Arizona. Then my sister and our mom moved there, and our mom got a switchboard job at the county courthouse. She met Steve, introduced him to Candie, and the rest is 43+ years of history.
But within that history is the wedding where I got to be the matron of honor because I’m the big sister. 😁 And then, a stubborn ultimatum about someone refusing to attend their special day unless I agreed to visit a church service turned into my ultimate turnaround moment.
It doesn’t matter that I didn’t want to be there. It doesn’t matter that I once walked by that very church with a huff, heard the music from inside, and stated, “You won’t catch me dead in a Pentecostal church!” And it doesn’t matter that my heart was not in it when I attended for all the wrong reasons. What matters is that God set all the details in place to make sure He could get me to a place where I would hear His voice.
Since that night, life has been filled with changes—both good and bad, but mostly good. It has had additions and losses, fill-ups and drainages, moves and stays, and bumps and bruises. There have been moments that challenged my faith, but there have been far more moments that strengthened it. And through all those changes, the Creator who pursued this resistant soul has never left me.
So when you think your little rejected invitation, or your prayers for someone’s soul, don’t really matter—they do. Even if you can’t find the perfect words to win someone, speak from your heart anyway. God may decide to use a couple that isn’t even serving Him yet as a tool to draw a daughter who desperately needs to meet her Heavenly Father simply because their event helps put all the pieces in place. And in return, just look at how God blessed their event to become a marriage and a family that serves Him and has lasted 43 years so far.
Happy Anniversary Steve and Candie. Thank you for falling in love. Thank you for getting married. Thank you for letting God use you both in my salvation story even when none of us knew what He was doing. May God’s holy presence fill your every moment and bless you abundantly in return for this major blessing in my life. In YahShua’s name, Amen! 🙏💕
2 Corinthians 4:15 NLT
[15] All of this is for your benefit. And as God’s grace reaches more and more people, there will be great thanksgiving, and God will receive more and more glory.
https://bible.com/bible/116/2co.4.15.NLT
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Blog Break: Fireworks Converted by AI
You’d think I actually did a play for 3 days with how tired those 3 posts left me. I have so many drafts I’m working on and excited to share, but it’s one of those nights where sleep seems to be calling more loudly.
So this is an image of beautiful fireworks at Patoka Lake in Indiana. But with night pictures, there’s almost always a little blur and a lot of photo noise. I took my beautiful photos through AI to clean them up and add even more beauty. I’ll let y’all know when I’ve completed the album, so you can see before and after shots.
Good night and sweet dreams. 😴💭
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Great Smoky Mountain Journeys
by Crystal A Murray (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)
While growing up in the western half of the United States, I had no idea what I was missing a couple thousand miles away. Oh, that first time you see the mist begin to settle over the layers of the Appalachian mountains—it’s a view to remember.
This particular view was during the trip when I got to meet my brother Shayne and sister-in-law Heather for the first time. Sharing the beauty of Great Smoky Mountains National Park seemed the perfect location for our introductions after months of phone and digital communications. It was May of 2019, and this scenic overlook presented itself with perfect springtime majesty.
On June 15th, 2026, the park celebrates its 92nd birthday. Some highlights from the website state that it’s the most visited national park in the United States, it’s loaded with wildlife and places to explore. And it’s also free because of an agreement made when “Newfound Gap Road” was built. (While daily parking passes are now required to stop, enjoying the scenery out the car window does not require an entrance fee or toll.)
One of the best destinations you can drive to on your visit is Cades Cove Loop. There’s an excellent chance of seeing wildlife, so be sure to bring your zoom lens so you can keep your distance while you get the shot (and keep your health). And remember that no matter how cute they seem, they are wild—so no feeding them, no matter what Yogi or Ben may have said on TV! 😁🐻 Any effort to interact with them can result in enough domestication that the animal no longer fears humans and could need to be put down. In the case of the image you see below, I was a long way off and could see the mama bear in the field across the road. All the cars were stopped and many people were taking pictures while the babies made their way across.
Some of the prettiest scenery within the towns of Gatlinburg, Pigeon Forge, and Sevierville is that along the Little Pigeon River. That’s where most of the lodging and restaurants are built, meaning you have great views even when you stop for a rest or a meal. Here’s a collage of images from around the area. It includes an image of The Old Mill Restaurant, where you’ll usually wait at least an hour to get in for some of the best food in the area (or anywhere else, for that matter). And can you believe the color in that November sunset?
by Crystal A Murray (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)
I’ll close with a slightly manipulated image from late spring of 2020 when the flowers were in full bloom. On the bridge near The Old Mill, they used to have openings filled with flowers, but that has changed now for some reason. It makes me even more glad I got this image way back when trying to be creative and look through the flowers to see the waterfall. And I hope you’ve enjoyed this little visit to The Smokies.
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Shabbat Shalom & Weekend Blessings
Real life means that even with the joyful activity of lighting Shabbat (Sabbath) candles on Friday evenings, the image you took to remember it may not be the best for sharing. A little camera shake, too much wax on the candlesticks, or a bit of clutter captured in the image, and you’re looking for some creative editing tricks to make your image look prettier. So I took my candle picture to Wombo Dream and described the table and background I wanted, and then I let it work its magic. After a number of creations, I couldn’t decide between the one from the botanical filter and the filter they call abyssal void for my favorite. So, I made a collage in the Photo Studio Pro app and framed the two together. Here are a few more from the same two filters plus a couple more filters…
(CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)
So we’ve been lighting candles together on Friday nights for over 25 years now. I say the prayer as I first learned it in a brief Hebrew class I took with the sweet friend who opened up this world to me. Understanding some aspects of original Judaism has helped me to better understand both the Old Testament and my Jewish Messiah. When I first started to learn these things (1999), I wrote a poem called YahShua The Jew, and blogged it here in 2016 in a post also called “YahShua The Jew.”
The Hebrew prayer says …
Hebrew:
בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה הָ׳ אֱלֹהֵינוּ מֶלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם, אֲשֶׁר קִדְּשָׁנוּ בְּמִצְוֹתָיו וְצִוָּנוּ לְהַדְלִיק נֵר שֶׁל שַׁבָּת.Transliteration:
Baruch atah Adonai, Eloheinu Melech ha-olam, asher kid’shanu b’mitzvotav v’tzivanu l’hadlik ner shel Shabbat.
English Translation:
Blessed are You, Lord our God, King of the Universe, who has sanctified us with His commandments and commanded us to kindle the light of the Sabbath.
And right after we light the candles, we sing two songs together. The first is “Shabbat Shalom” and the second is from Isaiah 28:16…
Isaiah 28:16 BSB
[16] So this is what the Lord GOD says: “See, I lay a stone in Zion, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation; the one who believes will never be shaken.
https://bible.com/bible/3034/isa.28.16.BSB
And here are the videos of those songs…
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Where’s Bob?
Years ago, my aunt in Arizona bought me some adorable handmade tissue box covers. They are the kind of sewing art that makes you want one of every design, so you can have a different one in each room in the house. They are some of the most unique pieces of sewing art I’ve ever seen, and my aunt offered to get me as many as I wanted, but I settled for only two of them. Growing up, it was crocheted covers that adorned everything in the house—from the spare roll on the back of the toilet to the winter doorknob covers to eliminate some of the static. While crafting isn’t my own personal strength, I truly appreciate the artistic abilities of others.
Plus, a beautiful cover gives some dignity to an object that goes through a lot of workplace drama in our house. If you’ve ever reached for a tissue only for the chain to break, you know the drama; the frustration of having to dig blindly into the cardboard to fish the next one out. In our family, we blame “Bob”—the imaginary little guy we picture living inside the box. Bob runs things like a one-man machine with a crank that pops the next tissue up each time you grab one. It can be a thankless job, but we try to tell Bob thank you when we think about it. Whenever the chain breaks, we just say Bob is taking his fifteen-minute scheduled break. Even if it’s not on our schedule, we understand. 😁
So, today, I asked hubby for a tissue, and he reached in to get one, but…
It wasn’t just a broken chain; the box was empty. My husband reached in to dig one out and said, without any fanfare or forced humor, “I guess Bob moved to another box.” It caught me by such surprise that I lost it and just laughed (out loud for real) for a long time. 🤣 Now I’m wondering if Bob moved into the Christmas box to take a nap—or a vacation since it’ll be a while before that one comes out again. We may have to offer him a raise to come back to the polka dot box. Teehee.
I did find an active Etsy seller who’s got 180+ designs of these couches, and the store says they’ll make them to-order as well. I’ve never ordered anything from Etsy, or even set up an account there, but it said it was last active on May 26th, so I hope that’s a good sign that it’s a good store. It’s called Royal Makings, and this link goes straight to the couches.
I hope this brought you a smile. Never forget the value of a joyful heart.
Proverbs 15:13a BSB
[13] A joyful heart makes a cheerful countenance.
https://bible.com/bible/3034/pro.15.13.BSB
Proverbs 17:22a BSB
[22] A joyful heart is good medicine.
https://bible.com/bible/3034/pro.17.22.BSB
And with that, I’ll close with a picture that may possibly be Bob’s new job site…
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