Palm Sunday

This took place to fulfil what was spoken through the prophet:

‘Say to Daughter Zion,

“See, your king comes to you,

gentle and riding on a donkey,

and on a colt, the foal of a donkey.”’

The disciples went and did as Jesus had instructed them. They brought the donkey and the colt and placed their cloaks on them for Jesus to sit on. A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, while others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. The crowds that went ahead of him and those that followed shouted,

‘Hosanna to the Son of David!’

‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!’

‘Hosanna in the highest heaven!’

Matthew 21:4-7 

Hosanna by Paul Paloche

:   :   :

Christ, our all in all,

into your presence I come, Lord;

a few moments of quietness,

closeness

in a busy world

that demands my attention.

Breathe on me now,

that I might know your power

to see this day though

Faith and Worship 

:   :   :

Blessings to your week,

Nina 

Here's a printable 

of Matthew 21:5

for you 

Sharing with 

Give Me Grace 

Scripture & Snapshot

Photo iPhone 5S - Camera+, Snapseed, Brushstroke, Glaze & Stackables Apps
Textures - Tableaux Old Style by FrenchKiss, ArtCanvas2 by Coppercurls Designs, Simple1 by Kim Klassen

Forestry Botanical Garden, Charlottenlund

... Greetings and signs of spring from Charlottenlund Forestry Botanical Garden, Denmark,

Nina

Sharing with

Roses of Inspiration
Wednesday Around the World

Wordless Wednesday at Create with Joy

Photos taken with iPhone 5S: Camera+, TadaaSLR, VSCOcam, Snapseed - Apps

God's Helping Spirit

Meanwhile, the moment we get tired in the waiting, God’s Spirit is right alongside helping us along. 

If we don’t know how or what to pray, it doesn’t matter. 

He does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans. 

He knows us far better than we know ourselves ... and keeps us present before God. 

That’s why we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good.

Romans 8:26-28 The Message

Arms of Love - Vineyard Records UK

This is another day, O Lord.

 I know not what it will bring forth, but make me ready, Lord, for whatever it may be. 

If I am to stand up, help me stand bravely. 

If I am to sit still, help me sit quietly. 

If I am to lie down, help me to do it patiently. 

And if I am to do nothing, let me do it gallantly. 

Make these more than words, and give me the Spirit of Jesus. 

Amen. 

from Uplifting Prayers

:   :   :

Blessings to your week,

Nina 

Here's a printable 

of Romans 8:26

for you 

Sharing with 

Give Me Grace 

Scripture & Snapshot

Photo iPhone 5S & Olloclip macrolens

Tidbits and Snapshots

I have figured out a smart way of "simplifying" my gluten-free diet - I bake to loaves of gluten-free bread (the image above), I slice them and then freeze the slices. And each morning I set one frozen slice in the toaster ... and Voila - Out pops a slice of warm and crispy bread! 

Glaze-app

The theme in art lessons for the 2-3 graders at my work is Surrealism. They formed the other day Surreal Watches, inspired by Salvador Dali. These lovely watches are now hanging on branches, decorating their Arts Class ... I snapped the photo above as I peeked in.

Brushstroke App

I spotted a squirrel on my way home from church last Sunday. It froze and was completely still, as it spotted me - almost as posing :) ... As soon as I had taken the picture, it quickly climbed up to the nearest tree.

I have beed sewing Easter Eggs - combining colourful cloth, adding some sheet wadding in between - and finishing with a ribbon. They ended up being rather sweet! 

It was planned that I would visit my friend yesterday after work - and I hung 9 of these eggs on a bunch of cherry tree branches - she was happy and surprised to receive them! I will sew some more this weekend, to decorate our home for Easter.

Afternoon light created a nice shadow-light-play in the old chair - that inspired me to create "an old photo".

The photo above is inspired by the Creative Self Portrait Photography course. I took two photos with the Koloid Photo app, layered them with the Image Blender App, and added the text with the Over App ... On an evening this week, when the light lamp casted contrasting light on my face.

Now it is Saturday ... The men in the house are planning a jogging tour in the forest - I will pop by a book store and swim some lanes in the swimming hall thereafter - That will be good for my neck and shoulders. And thereafter no hurries, no plans ...

... Wishing you a peaceful weekend,

Nina 

sharing with

Friday Finds Friendship Friday Random 5 Friday

Weekly Top Shot Saturday Share Fest Friday Photo Journal

Photos with Iphone 5S 

Chocolate Muffins [Gluten free & Sugar free]

I found the recipe for these delicious gluten-free and sugar-free chocolate muffins from Den Glutenfri Kogebog -cookbook, which I bought for myself in December. Dates sweetens these muffins naturally so sugar is not needed at all. The taste is pleasantly soft - cocoa powder and 50 g of dark chocolate bring about the rich taste of chocolate.

Ingredients (8 to 10 muffins):

250 g of dried dates
2 eggs
1 dl (0,4 US cups) of water
1/4 dl  (0,1 US cups) of olive - or coconut oil
50 g (1,8 oz) of peanut butter
1/2 dl  (0,2 US cups) of almond milk
1 teaspoon cinnamon
30 g (1 oz) of cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
50 g (1,8 oz) of rice flour
50 g (1,8 oz) of chopped dark chocolate
decorate with walnuts (they replaced them with almonds)

Recipe

Cut the dried dates into smaller pieces with scissors, thereafter soak them in hot water (1 dl / 0,4 cups) for about 15 min.
Mix the soaked dates and the water in a mini chopper, then add the eggs and olive oil, and mix them together.
Pour the dough into a bowl - add rest of the ingredients and mix them together with a whisk or a mixer.
Pour the batter (I was using table spoons) to a muffin plate, and decorate each muffin with a walnut or an almond.
Bake for about 15-20 minutes in 175  C (350 F) degrees  in oven (165 C / 330 F degrees in an convection oven).


I  served the chocolate muffins with  raspberries and tea - and yes, they tasted delicious!

Click her for a printable recipe

... Wishing you scrumptious moment with baking,

Nina

Sharing with 

Inspire Me Mondays
Roses of Inspiration

Fountain of Light

How exquisite your love, O God!

 How eager we are to run under your wings …

You’re a fountain of cascading light,

 and you open our eyes to light.

Psalm 36:7 The Message

Faithful by Chris Tomlin

:   :   :

Blessings to your week,
Nina 

Here's a printable 
of Psalm 36:7
for you 


Sharing with 

Give Me Grace 
Scripture & Snapshot

Photo: Nikon DS3200 50mm 1/100 sec at f/8 ISO 400

Highlights of My Week

Mornings with tea and sunshine

Having the wooden Cubebot as my muse in the daily photos

Returning in my daydreams to the landscapes with pine cones and the sounds of a woodpecker

Finding pretty linen to the kitchen from the flea market nearby

Getting ready to sew something pretty to Easter

Admiring the reflections of the sunlight on dishes & chopsticks

Being inspired by Creative Self Portrait Photography-course by Lindsay Crandall 

at Skillshare

What has been highlighting your week?

Happy Weekend greetings,

Nina

sharing with

Friday Finds Friendship Friday Random 5 Friday

Weekly Top Shot Saturday Share Fest Friday Photo Journal

Photos with Iphone 5S - Camera+, VSCOcam, Snapseed, TadaaSLR, Over, Rhonna Designs -apps

Air + Light [Texture Tuesday]

“What light is to the eyes – what air is to the lungs – what love is to the heart, liberty is to the soul of man.”

Robert G. Ingersoll

:   :   :

airlight

Word Origin

noun

1.

light scattered or diffused in the air by dust, haze, etc., especially as it limits the visibility of distant, dark objects by causing them to blend with the background sky.

[Dictionary.com @Random House, Inc. 2016] 

:   :   :


A warm and cozy scent of burning wood and bonfire tickled my nose on my evening walk in the neighbourhood ... The smoke keeps on lingering on my mind, hovering over the image play above. Hazy, warm, deep yet mild smoke ... by a friendly fire ... sending sparkles to the stars above...

The image is a playful layering of images with different blending modes, inspired by Kim Klassen's Week 39  - "A breath of fresh air" - in Be Still 52 course.

I have used on of my favourite textures, kk_simple2, together with a Lightroom preset Sidelight by Kim Klassen. 


... Sharing with Texture Tuesday by Kim Klassen,

Nina

Pour on the Blessings

God can pour on the blessings in astonishing ways so that you’re ready for anything and everything, more than just ready to do what needs to be done. As one psalmist puts it,

He throws caution to the winds,

giving to the needy in reckless abandon.
His right-living, right-giving ways
never run out, never wear out.

This most generous God who gives seed to the farmer that becomes bread for your meals is more than extravagant with you. He gives you something you can then give away, which grows into full-formed lives, robust in God, wealthy in every way, so that you can be generous in every way, producing with us great praise to God.

2. Corinthians 9:8-11 The Message 

You're Beautiful - Phil Wickham

:   :   :

Happy International Women's Day & Blessings to your week,

Nina 

Here's a printable 

of 2. Corinthians 9:8-11

for you 

Sharing with 

Give Me Grace 

Scripture & Snapshot

Photo: iPhone 5S, Camera+, Brushstroke, Glaze
Textures: Tableaux-OldStyle by FrenchKiss & ArtCanvas 02 by Roxi Hardegree

One Photo Four Ways - Adobe Lightroom Course

I have greatly enjoyed One Photo Four Ways-course at ShillShares, where Kelly Ishmael shows the basics of her post-processing workflow in Adobe Lightroom. I am smitten by Kelly's photography style, especially the soft haziness and the feeling of vintage in her images. Kelly is a co-writer & photographer on Focusing on Life ; that is where I her beautiful and serene photography caught my attention. You will find more of Kelly's photography on her blog Minding My Nest.

Kelly gives you a brief and concise introduction to the develop mode in Lightroom, before she starts to guide you through the four different edits. Her videos are very helpful in orientating you in the Lightroom - you can easily follow along, even if you are not familiar with editing in Lightroom.

I chose  to use my "Message in a Bottle"-photo, that I took a few weeks ago, for this course. I like the highlights on the flower and on the bottle ... and that the focus is on the flower in the foreground. 

One of the things I appreciate for learning in this course is how to create a hazy look to an image in Lightroom by making slight adjustments to the tone curve - therefore the edit above is my favourite of these four. 

Achieving a proper amount of contrast and colour play in the X-pro edit above was a bit of a challenge to me ... Yet I enjoyed a lot adjusting the curves and playing with the endless possibilities.

Another "Aha"-experience to me was the making of a black and white- image. I appreciate finding an easy way of creating natural highlights to the areas of your choice by simple adjustments.

I warmly recommend Kelly's inspiring and enriching One Photo Four Ways-course at ShillShares - Thank you Kelly for giving insight in your post processing workflow!

 ...Until next time,

Nina

Sharing with 

Saturday's share Fest by The Sits Girls

Still Life Photography [Sidelight - Organic]

The theme of week 38 in Kim Klassen's Be Still 52-class is Sidelight - Organic. Kim inspires us to use natural materials - tin, linen, cotton, branches - anything from nature ...  in order to create cozy Still Life images, with her Lightroom preset Organic.

I am fond of the tin bowl from my husbands grandmother, and the tin plate from my grandmother. The green linen fabric is at least 12 years old - I sewed anoraks and trousers to our boys of this fabric when they were toddles. The pine cones and the packthread are "leftovers" from out Christmas decorations - to be packed down to the cellar.

And this plant ... I was looking for something nice to my colleague and I fell for this pretty plant - and I ended up buying also one plant for myself. I have no idea what this plant is called, I only know that it needs to be watered twice a week. I find the  combination of green and lilac in the leaves as special and beautiful.

Using dark cotton cloth, I covered partly the window to the left - setting black cloth as a back drop, to create depth and feeling of shadow. 
I adjusted my camera settings to 18 mm 1/10 sec at f/3,5 with ISO 100, and I reduced the exposure even more with going down 3 stops.

The Organic preset creates a lovely dark mood. I did made some further adjustments in Lightroom, opening the shadows a bit, and increasing slightly the light and highlights.

This is the "setting behind the scenes": I used dark cloths to block out part of the sidelight from the window.

The great contrast in the photos awakened my curiosity to find out, how the photos would look like in black and white. I did the conversion to black and white in Lightroom, using Summer Rains BW/5 -preset from 2 Lil Owls Studios. 
Since I wanted to create a feeling of antique, warm tint, I used the split tone-function in Lightroom, adding just a bit orange hue to the shadows.

... I cannot wait to see the Still Life photography my classmates have created: I am sure, many of them will share their interpretations of the Sidelight - Organic -theme in Kim's Texture Tuesday this week.

Every thought you produce, anything you say, any action you do, it bears your signature.

Thich Nhat Hanh

... All the best to your Tuesday,

Nina

Sharing with 

Texture Tuesday Roses of Inspiration   

Saturday Share Fest 

Gentle and Quiet Spirit

... but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart 
with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, 
which in God's sight is very precious.

1. Peter 3:4 English Standard Version

Heart of Worship by Matt Redman

:   :   :

Blessings to your week,
Nina 

Here's a printable 
of 1. Peter 3:4
for you 


Sharing with 

Give Me Grace 
Scripture & Snapshot

Photo: iPhone 5S, Olloclip lens, Camera+, VSCOcam