Virtual Brush Box

Awareness of the outside world. No links to worldwide photos of the year. These tend to be dramatic photos of horrible news events. Worthy, but sobering, particularly when taken all at once. Do not look through the top 100 photos of the 20th century unless you are feeling strong.

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Big Camera

Slideshow, swipe or click arrows to view

[Wind, Chair, Passage, Strange, Vulcanis, Creek, Bridge, Road Closed Tracing The Lee Branch, Lee Branch Greystone, Not Finding Inspiration, Lee Branch Emerges, Cool Water, Reflection, Leaf, Dock, Trail]

Stats. 17 photos. Two per month January thru April. May 3. June 1, July 0, Aug 2, Sep 2. Oct 1. Well-lit, stationary, inanimate objects. Not as an artistic statement. More for ease of use.

Go somewhere. Do something. Check.

Process notes. I’ll do a slide show! As with most things, took longer than it sounded in my head. Find photo. Load. Adjust. Repeat. Adjust gallery. Check order. Check order again. Switch to slide show. Still it was interesting, for me, to see what I took and when.

Instagram

Account – @virtual_brush_box

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This year – Posted one photo that was not on the blog. All other Instagram photos were new post notifications.

Restart – Since December of last year. Two non-blog photo posts. That’s it. “I keep thinking it would be fun to have an active Instagram account. Then I tell myself a daily blog is enough.” Still true. [Back on Social Media]

Local copy. Same photo, resized & watermark added. Instagram photo is close-up of sticker with shirt fabric as background.

Onwards!
Katherine

Awareness of the outside world. Fix The News: 86 Stories of Progress from 2024, Not everything that happened this year was terrible. Hervey, Rose, Koren, & Boyd. Dec 19, 2024.

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Hunter Barn

One lesson. Fussy horse gave me flashbacks. Other lesson choice was an off-track Thoroughbred. Been there, done that, have one in the backyard.

[Checking Out A Possible New Lesson Barn] March

[Lesson Plan, Or Not] April

[Well, That Lesson Did Not Go The Way I Hoped It Would, Other Horses] April

Update. Additional thoughts while waiting for hunter lesson, comes before Lesson Plan, Or Not. [Other Barns] April

Western Barn

[First Western Lesson] September

One lesson. Since the western saddle was not the miracle fix for Rodney, did not pursue. [Interim Report On The Western Project]

Saddle Seat Barn

Coach Courtney was right, medals are fun. [Horse Show Pageantry]

Back in 2013, I said, “Saddleseat has been a slender bridge over the abyss of despair that is my riding career.” Overly dramatic, but also true. Stepping Stone Farm has provided me with horses to ride & drive, people to talk to, and a place to go. And shows. Let us not forget shows.

Not listing lesson posts. Saddle seat lessoning in 2024 was intermittent in frequency and in quality. Moving on.

Shows of 2024

Winter Tournament

[Staying With The Series, Show Report AWTA 2023-2024 #2]

[Finishing The Series, Show Report AWTA 2023-2024 #3]

[Celebrating The Series, AWTA 2023-2024 Banquet]

Regular Season

[Achievement Unlocked, ASHAA Banquet for the 2023 Show Year]

[Hey Kids, Let’s Put On A Show, ASHAA Fun Show]

[A & B & Me, Show Report, Alabama State Games]

[Summer Showing, Show Report]

[Soloing In A Crowd, Show Report, ASHAA Summer Fun Show #4]

Winter Tournament

[The Winter Blues You Want, Show Report AWTA 2024-2025 #1]

Onwards!
Katherine

Awareness of the outside world. Colonial Williamsburg: The Twelve Myths of Christmas (in early America), 2023.

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Process Note

Christmas decor turns out to be spiky: stars, tree branches, snowflakes, candy wrappers, the non-fluffy part of ribbons & bows.

Previous Posts

[Holiday The First]

[Holiday The Second]

Onwards!
Katherine

Awareness of the outside world. Also residing at the intersection of food and Christmas tree, KFC Golden Drumstick Tree Decoration.

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Lobby
Children’s of Alabama
December 2024

Lobby from outside
Children’s of Alabama
December 2024

Muppet Wiki: Cookie Monster

But Why?

Because Milton is a cookie monster.

[C is for Cookie, C is for Costume Class, Halloween 2022]

[The Return of Cookie Monster, Guest Photos]

[The Return of the Son of Cookie Monster]

& also

[More T-Shirts for the Barn]

Onwards!
Katherine

Awareness of the holiday world. “Have Yourself A Merriam Little Christmas” Merriam, a career-oriented lexicographer from the city, returns to her small town for the holidays and meets Webster, a ruggedly handsome librarian, who shows her the true DEFINITION of Christmas. Bluesky @merriam-webster.com‬, December 11, 2024.

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Stepping Stone Farm

Diego. Note bows & greenery on fence lines.

Onwards!
Katherine

Art of the outside world. Snowflake Bentley.

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Process Notes

Inspiration. Wordflake, from personal noodling. Single letter flakes, the idea to rotate a letter around a point came from Julie Wildman during a presentation for the Washington Calligraphy Guild. At the time, I thought she was making cute ornaments from the letters & that the snowflake idea was my clever interpretation. Turns out, not so much, wildmandesigns: Snowflake Ornament – Rotated Letter G on etsy.

Reference. If you are wondering – and when I wonder in six months – which letter is which …

… the easiest way to see which letter makes up the snowflake is to look at the 3 o’clock position.

Onwards!
Katherine

Words of the outside world. Reactor: All of Reactor’s Short Fiction in 2024. Hat tip to A.

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Supposition. It’s A Wonderful Life is a reverse A Christmas Carol.

I came to this conclusion when I was noodling ideas for Christmas fiction posts. The problem with A Christmas Carol, in all its various iterations, is that the main character spends most of the the story unhappy. What if you did the opposite? What if the main character started the story unhappy but then you pointed out all the things that went right and all the good things the character had done, perhaps not realizing it at the time.

If you did that, you’d have It’s A Wonderful Life.

Huh.

Wiki agrees.

“It’s a Wonderful Life is a 1946 American Christmas supernatural drama film produced and directed by Frank Capra. It is based on the short story and booklet “The Greatest Gift” self-published by Philip Van Doren Stern in 1943, which itself is loosely based on the 1843 Charles Dickens novella A Christmas Carol.” Wiki: It’s a Wonderful Life, citing “AFI Catalog of Feature Films The First 100 Years 1893–1993”. AFI Catalog. American Film Institute. Retrieved September 5, 2020. Emphasis mine.

Ah well, I’m pleased with having come up with this insight, even if it turned out not to be terribly deep.

Onwards!
Katherine