Manipulated Mexico...

It was an absolutely beautiful day in South Texas today...no humidity and temps around 80. What a wonderful relief from the 100s. I didn't feel like sitting at home, so I decided to head out to Wimberley just to get out and enjoy the weather. Even though it was Market Days in Wimberley, I passed on that because I've been there a couple times and didn't feel traipsing through all those booths. I just went to the main downtown area and went through some of the shops. I brought my camera but ended up taking only one picture because I didn't feel like taking the same ol' photos.

Two of the shops I went into were jewelry stores. I'm not really in the market for any jewelry, but I was just killing time. The first one was run by a young Mexican woman. The reason I went in was because I saw a ring in the window that was identical to mine, only smaller.

I love fire opal because it reminds me of all the different hues of the water in Mexico. I actually liked the size of the ring I saw today better than mine, so I thought I'd ask how much it was out of curiosity. $175.00. Whoa! I bought mine on Isla Mujeres several years ago and paid $100.00 from a new shop that I had never been to before. Of course, the original price the salesman there quoted me was $400.00 US dollars, but you know you're never supposed to pay the first price. I'm a terrible bargainer, but I kept saying, "That's too high" (because it wasn't in my budget), and would start walking out the door and he would pull me back and offer less. Finally, it got down to $100.00, and I caved because it fit perfectly and I really wanted a fire opal ring. Anyway, I think I got a pretty good deal on it.

So, the Mexican lady at the jewelry store and I started to chat and, of course, we talked about Mexico. She has a relative who lives on Isla Mujeres...go figure...small world. I honestly felt like I had walked into a jewelry store somewhere south of the border.

Since I was going into almost every shop, I stopped in another jewelry store that also had fire opals. I think they're becoming more popular in the states. A woman about my age showed me what they had and, again, I started talking about Mexico and she told me that she used to live in Aruba and St. Thomas, and had been to Mexico many times in her BC (before children) years. She was a single lady who pretty much raised her kids on her own...just like me. Well, we ended up chatting for about a half hour about Mexico and how the lifestyle is so different down there and how much we miss it.

So, with my intention of taking pictures of Wimberley today, I ended up feeling nostalgic for Mexico and ended up coming home and playing with Photoshop with some of my Mexico photos. Photoshop has the ability to manipulate photos to look like works of art, so I just had some fun with it. In no particular order, I will just mention the technique used to achieve the effect...they're pretty interesting. Remember that you can click on them to enlarge them and get a better look.

Accented Edges...

Crosshatch...

Cutout...

Glass...

Ink Outlines...

Mosaic Tiles... (Recognize Qubano?)

Paint Daubs...

Plastic Wrap...

Rough Pastels...

Sponge...

Stamp...

Here's the original of that one...

And Watercolor...

Kind of interesting techniques, right? It would be fun to print them off to see what they would look like as frameable pictures.

So what's that one picture I took today in Wimberley? Here it is. Just having fun in a costume store. And, of course, they yelled at me for taking pictures. *sigh* Sometimes you just can't win.