How to draw an eye?
For this blog post I thought it would be nice to go back to the basics of portrait drawings: the eyes. You can also see this blog as an addition to Annelies’ article, namely: how do I start drawing portraits? In this article, we focus on what really makes a face expressive: the eyes. They are not called ‘mirror of the soul’ for nothing.
For this tutorial I used the following reference photo:
The photo is quiet, front-sided, fairly sharp and without too much make-up.
For this tutorial I used the following materials:
- Mechanical pencils: HB 0.7 mm, 1B 0.3 mm and 2B 0.5 mm
- Erasing: Faber Castell pencil eraser and Tombow mono eraser
- Signo uniball fineliner
- Canson Bristol paper
- Blending products: stumpers, cotton swabs and tissues
Even though there are many art materials available, after more than 10 years of drawing, I found out that the materials listed above work the best for me. These are the materials that I use for every black and white portrait. I definitely recommend using similar materials. Especially thick paper, a mechanical pencil and a gum pencil will give a lot of improvement in your drawings. On thick paper you can build more layers, and with a mechanical pencil and a pencil eraser you can work much more detailed because of their thin points.
We divide the process of drawing an eye into four parts:
- The eye itself
- The skin
- The eyelashes
- The eyebrow
Step 1: The alignment and shape of the eye and the eyebrow
A drawing actually consists of two parts: sketching and coloring. It is therefore important that you have the basis sketch on paper first. Try to trace your reference picture as a kind of coloring picture for yourself. Ask yourself: ‘Which lines are important and will I use during the process of coloring?’ It is mainly about the base: the eyelid, the tear duct, the pupil, the iris, the eyebrow shape and the highlights. The highlights in the eye are usually a reflection of light from the environment (such as a window). Often you can see some eyelash hairs as a shadow that block the light. For the sketch it is useful to use an HB-2B pencil so that you do not make the lines too dark, as you also do not want the sketch to be visible in the end.
Step 2: Coloring the pupil
If you are satisfied with your sketch, you can start to colorize after erasing unnecessary lines. I always work from the inside out because you can apply corrections even better if necessary (especially the proportions). Color the iris carefully tight and dark. You get the best result by working in layers. Color the iris, wipe the pigment with a stumper and color another layer over it. Continue until it is evenly dark gray. It is important that you do not fill in the reflections with pigment already. If these remain white you will eventually get a much nicer contrast and a shiny effect. The coloring of the pupil can be done with a softer pencil. I use 2B myself but as long as you work softly and in layers you can also use up to a 6B pencil.
Step 3: Shaping the iris
The iris is an area with a lot of depth and details. Both dark and light shades are close together. It is therefore important to have gray as your basic tone. Later on you can draw over dark areas and erase light details. Personally, I achieve the softest colored result using a stumper. So actually you fill in the iris with the graphite that is still on your stumper (mine are always dirty). To make sure that your stumper does not leave any nasty stains, I first wipe off the first layer of graphite that is still on, on a loose sheet of paper. I always color with my stumper by making circular movements. Continue until your iris is evenly light gray. Do not forget to keep your highlights in your iris and pupil white.
Step 4: Drawing lines in the eye and accentuating the forms of the iris
The edge around the iris is almost always darker than the rest of the eye because of shadows and a higher density of structures in the eye. At the top of the iris (against the eyelid) there is almost always a shadow present. We are now going to draw extra shadows over the iris that we have just colored. To build up solid saturations for your shadows, I will advise to work in layers and to use a soft pencil (2B-4B). You apply the shadow with gentle sketching movements while pressing the pencil on your paper. This gives you a nice blended effect with nice contrast.
Furthermore, we will work on the lines in the iris. They scatter out of the pupil like a kind of sun, as well as from the edge of the iris. It is important that you draw different lines. Think of thin and thick lines but also light and dark lines. This gives a more realistic appearance. Build up the lines again. Spontaneous sketching lines often look more realistic than very straight lines.
Step 5: Blending lines and shadows
To make everything look nice and smooth, we will blend everything softly. For this you can use both a stumper and a cotton swab. You will see that some dark lines become more blurred. This can be fixed by re-drawing certain lines. As you may notice, we are drawing in layers again. There are no guidelines for how many layers are needed. This is a matter of continuing until you see a nice contrast, but everything also nicely overlaps. I usually need two to three layers (blending – drawing – blending – drawing – blending – drawing).
Step 6: Adding highlights
The nicest thing to do is to add the highlights by using a pencil eraser. This makes the eye so much more lively. Many people are always surprised that you can do so much by erasing. Erasing is actually the same as drawing for me. The only difference is that you create lines by removing graphite on your paper instead of adding graphite to your paper. You get the best result by working as precise as possible. This is possible with a pencil eraser or a Tombow mono eraser.
By looking carefully at your reference photo, you determine what kinds of shapes are present in the eye. Sometimes the lines are nicely located next to each other but eyes can also have more comples iris patterns. All eyes are different. Again, you get the best result again by gently, but precisely, erasing it. Often, I put more pressure at the beginning of a line so that it flows nicely into the rest of the iris. To create round shapes, I make a dotting motion. I repeat this until the spot becomes light enough.
Step 7: adding the final shadows in the iris
Now that you have many highlights you will see that your eye looks a lot more realistic but also has become a lot lighter. To create a beautiful contrast, you move your pencil one more time along the darkest shadows and the sharpest edges. For example, it is nice to have a dark shade next to a white shape so that it becomes even more striking and conveys depth. Erasing and drawing shadows over it can be repeated several times until you are satisfied. You work here again with layers.
Step 8: Working out the big highlights
It is now time to work out the big highlights. This is the great reflection of light that you can see in the eye. This can be one reflection but it can also be multiple. The eyelashes can often be seen in a reflection. This is because eyelashes prevent the light from shining in the eye. This is especially true if the reflection is high on the eye. We will focus on drawing the eyelashes later on.
Step 9: adding super highlights with a white gel pen
If you like it, you can also make the lightest spots and lines in the iris stand out even more by adding highlights with a white gel pen. I always use the signo uniball for this step.
The eyeball and the skin:
Step 1: Shaping the eyeball
The eyeball is never completely white. If this were to be the case, this would look flat and unrealistic. Because it is a ball, there is almost always a shadow around the edges of the eye and light falls in the middle. Build this very gently with a 2B pencil and wipe it inwards. I do this again by working in layers. The light on the eyeball can eventually be made more visible by erasing.
Step 2: The shades of the skin
There is always shade around the eye. It is therefore important to look carefully at your reference photo. Which parts are the darkest and where does the light fall? Often light falls on the eyelid and on the tear duct and there is a shadow under the eyebrow and under the eye. In order to build up all the shadows as evenly as possible, we work again in layers. Because you do not want to make spots in the skin, everything stays clean by blending with clean tissues or cotton swabs. I often use a B or 2B pencil for this.
As a finishing touch, it is nice to erase small highlights with a pencil eraser (you often find small points of light; for example, from pores or hair follicles). I do this often by making dotting movements. Keep it subtle.
For hairs, it is the best to use a very sharp pencil. I always use my 5mm 2B mechanical pencil. With a mechanical pencil you can work in much more detail and more beautifully mimic the shape of hair. Pay attention to each individual hair, especially with the eyelashes.
Below I will give some useful tips using illustrations:
Important to the eyelashes is that they are banana-shaped hairs and therefore certainly not straight lines. When we look at the origin and the course of the eyelashes, we see that a hair never grows straight up from the hair follicle as people often draw. Eyelashes first grow slightly forward and then grow upwards. The farther the eyelashes stand out, the more you look at it as a side view and the more bent they are. Below I will show an example:
The incorrect but widely used way:
The correct way:
Eyelashes from different views:
Eyelashes are the thickest at the origin and become thinner towards the end. This is why you put the most pressure at the origin and less at the end of the eyelash.
An eyelash drawn by putting the same pressure everywhere or by gradually reducing the pressure.
Make your eyelashes more realistic by varying in length and thickness. All eyelashes do have a different lenght. Often, I start with a few long lashes and I use the smaller thinner hairs to fill everything up.
Eyelashes also overlap. Take a good look at your own lashes.
Step 1: Determine the direction of the eyelashes.
Start by drawing a number of long eyelashes spread over the lash line to determine the direction and curve. After that, it is easier to place the other lashes in between.
Step 2: Completion
If we have drawn a few hairs that indicate the direction in each area we can draw more lashes in between them. Do not forget that the direction and bending is a guideline. There are always lashes between them that do not run perfectly. Play with length, thickness and direction.
Step 3: Small eyelashes
We fill the lash line even more by drawing small hairs. They often stick to other eyelashes. Keep this in mind.
With eyebrows a lot is the same as with the eyelashes. Eyebrow hairs are also thicker at the origin and end in a sharp point.
Step 1: The alignment
Normally this step would be: ‘drawing the outline’ but we have already done this at in the beginning of this tutorial.
Step 2: Basic color
Color the alignment shape very light gray. This provides a nice base for adding hairs later on and making it whole.
Step 3: Hair direction
Start as with the eyelashes with a few eyebrow hairs in each area. Look carefully at the hair direction. At the start, the hairs run from the bottom to the top, then horizontally and on the outside more from the top to the bottom.
Step 4: Completion
Fill your eyebrow with hair. Keep track of the origin and the direction, but do not be afraid to keep variation. Especially in men, we see that the hairs run in random directions. A neat and predictable eyebrow hair pattern looks unrealistic. So keep track of the growth direction per zone but also play something with some hairs.
Step 5: Blending
To make the eyebrow a little less rough, I often go over it with a stumper. Also here I recommend to work in layers as some hairs will fade when you start blending. Continue blending and drawing until you have found a nice balance between softness and contrast.
Step 6: Finishing touch
If everything is neatly on paper and you are satisfied with the eyebrow, it’s time to zoom in. Are there dark spontaneous hairs that you have forgotten? Are there some extra highlights to be found? In most cases there is sometimes some light glimmering on some hairs. You can replace the hairs in a few places with some erased lines. This way, your eyebrow gets so much extra depth.
This is my end result:
- Use thick paper, a sharp pencil and a sharpened eraser with a sharp tip (pencil eraser, tombow eraser)
- Only start coloring when you are completely satisfied with your sketch
- Work in layers by gently leaving graphite on your paper every time, blending it and then applying details with a pencil or an eraser. Repeat this several times for the most blended and realistic effect.
- Notice that erasing is also actually drawing. Play with your pencil eraser and you will see endless possibilities!
- Practice drawing hair on a another sheet of paper or practise in your sketchbook. Find out which way works best for you.
This blog has become a bit longer than expected. I hope you learned something from it. Please show your results because I am very curious!


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A Garden Evolution
One couple’s garden unfolds room by room
Some country gardens bring to mind a vision of cheery flowers in bountiful beds or borders, but Jill and Dan Sczepanski’s one-acre garden in Rowley, Massachusetts, unveils its style and beauty room by room. The progression through these spaces is so structured and so unexpected that you have to move slowly to absorb the full impact of what you see.
“Things are there to be discovered,” Jill says about the garden’s design. “You don’t want to show a garden off all at once. It’s your experience in the garden that counts.”
For 30 years, the Sczepanskis have nurtured their garden, expanding and transforming a barren yard into a showpiece of connecting, formal and informal outdoor rooms, each with a different function in the landscape. Spaces include a stunning formal entry, pool, patio, fountain area, teahouse, woodland memorial garden, English garden folly, and seating areas set in borders and beds filled with shrubs and flowers. They design, hardscape, and maintain the garden themselves.
Dan is a banker and Jill recently retired from a career in clinical laboratory sales to paint, create ceramics, and offer garden coaching and design services. “My husband and I are creative, and we’ve worked in jobs that box us in,” she says. “The garden was necessary for us, like air to breathe.” Dan’s particular strength and passion is hardscaping—he is a carpenter and craftsman, using skills he learned from his father. “Dan knows how to connect the inside of a structure with the outside. Whenever he builds something, he believes it’s important to build something that will last beyond our lifetimes. The sense of creating a garden to last is important to us. We’re visitors here for a while, but the structure of the landscape will be here for a long time.”
The couple moved to Rowley when Jill was expecting the first of their two daughters, Sarah and Anna. “The garden ebbs and flows like our lives,” Jill says. “Some of it was planned, some was intuitive.” The house, built in 1900, had been vacant for a year and the old landscape could not be salvaged. The couple’s first garden room was a patio outside the back door with gravel floor, peaked white lattice arbor leading to the main lawn, and stone walls made of rocks saved from an abandoned fishpond on the property. A small boxwood-enclosed parterre followed the patio, then a swimming pool screened from the rest of the yard. Brick pavers surround the pool, forming discreet sitting areas that alternate with beds of shrubs and small flowering trees. An orchard and shade, woodland, and formal gardens came later, along with a teahouse and an English storybook cottage, each in a distinctive landscape. A new vegetable garden is on its way.
Dan built the picturesque cottage as a playhouse for the girls when Sarah was five and Anna, three. He had a pile of lumber delivered to the main house and started building with no plans to guide him. “Early on we were influenced by visits to Old Town and ’Sconset on Nantucket, as well as ‘visits’ we made to English and French gardens via coffee table books,” Dan says. The cottage door opens into a small but comfortable living room; up a tiny flight of stairs is a bedroom with a balcony offering stunning views of the surrounding landscape, including a tiered fountain, a woodland garden, and the central lawn, all connected to the cottage by various paths.
“I remember reading that a garden isn’t a garden without a path. That comment stayed with me,” says Dan, who did landscape construction and maintenance jobs in college. “A path takes you on a journey through the garden; it pulls you through the different rooms and spaces, winding and twisting and making you wonder what’s around the next turn. We most definitely needed a path.” The Sczepanski’s paths vary from straight and wide to narrow and curving. Each has a focal point at the end to entice you forward—a fountain, a glimpse of sculpture, a planted urn, or a structure through which you can see another garden room.
Over time, the couple acquired land abutting their house. They purchased a lot behind their property on which they intended to install an informal woodland garden. The stones Dan ordered for this shady area were delivered September 11, 2001, transforming this informal space into a memorial for the victims of 9/11, a deceased uncle, and their dogs Booka and Dahlia. Next to the house, they bought a second lot where a lavish formal entry garden now flourishes.
As in any formal layout, design elements are identical on either side of an imaginary line drawn down the plan’s center from a particular point of view. Symmetry creates a feeling of stability in a garden plan. In the Sczepanski’s entry, matching black urns on pedestals flank low black gates. Just beyond the gates in the center of the garden is a circular bed with a similarly symmetrical design, composed of a tall central urn ringed by roses and enclosed by a short boxwood hedge.
But that is where symmetry ends. The plantings display Jill’s delight in color and texture. Massed arborvitaes on either side of the gates provide a solid green backdrop for the urns, beyond which the foliage of trees and shrubs in tints of green, gold, and purple interweaves.
The circular path in the center branches off to a dark green teahouse decorated with comfortable wicker furniture. The teahouse overlooks a large, open lawn. In high school, their daughters’ friends would come over for band rehearsals on the lawn, and the family still enjoys clambakes and summer parties there. The teahouse, built from leftover wainscoting Dan had used on a kitchen project, has a window on the back wall. Even in that detail, the couple kept the design in mind. Instead of installing glass in the window, they used mirrored panes to reflect the colorful mixed border across the lawn.
The garden develops successive waves of color from spring to fall. In spring, the front of the house shines with masses of blooming tulips, daffodils, hyacinths, and Siberian and bearded irises. By summer, hot-hued daylilies and other perennials flower in sunny borders and in beds near trees and shrubs. Fall transforms the leaves of deciduous trees to shades of red, yellow, orange, and purple. To keep the beauty of autumn fresh in her mind, Jill collects fallen leaves, which inspire her ceramic designs.
In winter, the garden’s structured, connected plan keeps the landscape alive. Abundant evergreen shrubs and trees accent beds, borders, and paths. Many of these woody plants are topiaries pruned into neat cones, mounds, and hedges, lending vertical interest to the garden even under a thick layer of snow. Jill uses some of the prunings for Christmas decorations and collects seedpods and dried grasses from the beds to include in her arrangements.
Jill, a founder of the Great Marsh Garden Club of Rowley, studied design with the Garden Club Federation of America and is a landscape design consultant with the Massachusetts council. She says the courses she took helped her refine her own garden’s design. Time spent in both her garden and several civic gardens also gave her valuable knowledge that she has applied to her own property. She and Dan are generous with their time and knowledge and like others to enjoy what they create. “The garden is not a possession; it’s an expression, and one of our joys is sharing it,” says Jill, who offers aspiring gardeners three tips for an effective landscape design:
• When designing a new garden, install the hardscape, trees, and shrubs before the flowers.
• Before you buy a plant, always research its height and width at maturity so you can visualize its effect in the garden.
• When placing garden sculptures and ornaments, look at possible locations from different points of view to ensure the best position.


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The logo is the new mark for a new marketing campaign happening in my hometown county, Stanislaus Grown. The story of our agriculture industry is often unheard or misunderstood and I’m honored to be a part of telling it’s truth. Among other things, the logo will be used as a sticker to mark produce that was grown in Stanislaus county. I am so excited to see it in action! Below is a little behind-the-scenes of the creation process, including a snapshot of some of my sketches as well as a few more options that went through consideration before landing on our final.


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The name C.H. Wolf goes back to the tower clock factory founded in 1868 by Carl Heinrich Wolf, which produced in 1872 in Feldstraße 2 among other things clocks for churches and schools. From the turn of the century, Wolf's sons continued to do business and subjected the factory to extensive refurbishment.
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The Vinyl Factory and Island Records are proud to present a luxurious limited edition of 'No Light, No Light', the new single to be taken from Florence + the Machine's acclaimed album Ceremonials.
This is the second of a series of limited Florence vinyl releases with The Vinyl Factory; each cover will showcase the creative collaboration between Florence Welch and Chanel creative director Karl Lagerfeld, who personally chose Florence as his muse for next season's collection and for whom she performed at Paris Fashion Week.
Each cover has been screen printed, silver foiled and hand numbered on pristine white card and features a unique series of photographic portraits personally taken by the fashion legend, which will remain exclusive to these releases.
Each sleeve houses a heavyweight 180-gram 12" white vinyl contained in a black inner bag. The record itself is the only physical release of 'No Light No Light', and includes a remix by TV on the Radio's Dave Sitek, only available physically on this release.
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Find out more about the PianoDisc iQ system in this brochure.
New iOS App for ProRecord
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Now you have the possibility to choose a language for your App that you are most comfortable with. The operation of the system will now be easier and more enjoyable.
To access all of these possibilities you only have to download the app and connect your iOS device via the USB camera adapter to your ProRecord system.
The ProRecord app allows users to easily select from a variety of sounds to play, adjust the type and amount of reverb added to the sound, add chorus or delay, and change the transposition of the sound. The onboard metronome can also be controlled by the ProRecord app, allowing adjustment of beats per measure, tempo, and volume of the click. The app makes recording and playback of performances easy and intuitive. Online demo songs can be selected and played from the ProRecord app.
The PianoDisc ProRecord and QuietTime systems are popular because of their ease of use and high-quality playback performance. With the new user-friendly ProRecord iOS app, playing and recording great music on your piano is now as easy as using your iPhone or iPad.
The User Guide for the ProRecord App can be downloaded here.
Designed by musicians to meet the needs of discerning musicians, PianoDisc’s ProRecord brings the most musically and technologically advanced player piano system to the market. With numerous innovations that effectively create a custom-designed and installed player system regardless of the piano’s brand or model, and with the exciting addition of ProRecord’s realistic digital synthesizer recording/playback functionality, the undeniable result is that with ProRecord virtually all brands of acoustic pianos can compete in and join the burgeoning music arts and education markets that increasingly demand high-quality record/playback player systems and require pianos that communicate with other piano systems connected over the Internet. For the pianist, the new non-contact optically-driven system has nothing under the keys to change the feel of the piano. Whether recording the music or not, the performer will feel absolutely no difference in the performance or action of the instrument. A user-friendly app will make operation and adjustment of the system simple and intuitive. Key to the system’s optimal adaptability across piano brands and models are the adjustable trill position and key depth management functions. The system’s adjustable feature that captures trills from the top or bottom of the key expands ProRecord’s unique capabilities to include the upright piano market in addition to the traditional grand piano market. With these features and much more, ProRecord can capture, record, and reproduce the performances of even the most virtuosic of pianists on pianos with a wide range of actions like never before. With the push of a button, ProRecord also instantly turns an acoustic piano with a mute rail into a weighted-action digital recording synthesizer with multiple piano samples plus the high-quality sounds of over 100 other instruments and drum sets. The music can be heard with headphones or even an external speaker system. The same setup allows ProRecord to also function as a silent piano. The addition of sympathetic string and damper resonance as well as a key release action sound creates an ultra-realistic piano experience. Other highlighted features include an integrated metronome; integrated play/record with tempo change; 108 note polyphony; reverb, chorus, and delay effects; and transpose and inter-note shifts. In concert with PianoDisc’s highly touted and patented SilentDrive HD, which captures 1024 levels of expression for each note without adding delays or reducing velocity accuracy, ProRecord truly brings a high-definition performance package to the marketplace.


Elina Diaz is a designer and illustrator/hand-letterer based in Miami, Fl. She holds a Graphic Design and Creative Advertising B.F.A from the University of Miami. Elina is currently a Senior Designer at an Independent book publisher where she brings stories to life through her covers and interior designs. She also works independently with clients from industries varying from beauty to home decor. Elina pulls inspiration from her travels, culture, and life experiences. She loves creating colorful and playful pieces that radiate positivity and empowerment. When she isn't designing, she is daydreaming of the next destination she wants to explore. You can view recent work at www.instagram.com/elina_designs :)
Contact firstname.lastname@example.org for more information.


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Free Download Luminar AI full version standalone offline installer for macOS. It is an advanced image editor fully powered by powerful AI.
Overview of Luminar AI
This program is the first image editor fully powered by artificial intelligence. With it, creating striking photos is fun and surprisingly easy. It is a standalone photo editor and a plug-in for macOS.
Features of Luminar AI
- Gently sculpt and refine a portrait
- Create eyes that are rich and expressive
- Remove blemishes and imperfections for more natural portrait photography
- Add depth and detail to skies in landscape photography
- Bring warmth and enhance the sun in photos
- Transform photos and add an all-new sky in seconds – also includes Water Reflections
Technical Details and System Requirements
- MacOS 10.13.6 or later


Determining your creative brand can be difficult and laborious to start with. If you are a startup company trying to establish an effective label or a business facing a transition phase for revamping, then you can start visualizing now or bring creative minds on board to materialize such goals. The brand will serve as the face of your business in building relationships with the target audience. Hence, it will play as the touchpoint for consumers looking for the right product or service.
As mentioned earlier, establishing a brand is not an easy-peasy task. It should comprise all the essential elements including how it would convey the message and the way it represents your business objectives overall.
Here is a quick snapshot of how you can bring out an effective concept for your ideal brand.
- Connect with Creative Vision – You don’t have to face an empty painting canvas to design your ideal brand. To start out a productive brainstorming process, one must consider all the professional aspects of the business and let it intersect with your artistic vision. Think about the people who can see your brand; how do you think they would react to it? Do you think your industry niche would fit on your innovative and whimsical vision? Or should it be formal and less dramatic to uphold consistency and formality? The verdict? — it’s up to you.
- Build the Character – Perhaps you just have your long list of aesthetic ideas and have also formulated the ideal concept it should in. Now it’s time for you to develop the persona and make an objective judgment that would fit the business niche. Look at it in a marketing approach; do you think it will work on your future audience? Will it be appropriate to become extra on the structure and rule out the conventional design? Don’t be afraid to be meticulous in the process. It is crucial for you to do so, in order to establish a sound decision.
- Understand the Design Elements – Design aesthetics are dynamic and modifying. There are constant tweaks here and there just to conform with the audience standards. With this, you have to think about the minor detail elements of your proposed brand and look at how it would play in the digital culture and prospect consumers alike. Do you aim to establish a minimalistic yet sleek design or you wish to rehash a classic style by incorporating the scope of fonts, color symmetry, and overall design structure? Though you can do your own research or get insights from a professional marketing practitioner.
- Finalize and Get Feedback – In this phase, culminating the right judgment can be done with the right people — especially in the company. There might be certain aspects you overlooked during the creative process that can be added to make your branding more effective and widespread. You get to see the bigger picture and possible roadblocks you will encounter in the future for the best of the brand. Thus, to make sure the design is not replicated or subconsciously duplicated from those existing ones. The main objective of creating a brand design is to make it unique and outstanding in the eyes of people.
Establishing the right brand and thinking about its possible receptions is overwhelming. But the creative process should not be pressure, to begin with. It will take time to determine your goals and how you can leverage creativity to succeed. The most important thing here is to make your business brand resonating with the right audience — aesthetically and practically — to make marketing initiatives both effective and efficient. Also, the creative process must be an exciting and rejuvenating experience — not a heavy burden. So get off your anxiety from your chest and be creative!


The power of music is undeniable. Just a few lines in a song can transport us back to a particular time, place, and event in our lives. Research shows that those suffering dementia or traumatic brain injury who listen to familiar music from their past have triggered long, lost memories. This relationship between music and memory has already been used with dementia patients but has continued to spur new research. These researchers are now working to better understand how music and memories support the therapeutic effect.
As a young teenager, song lyrics and poetry helped to heal me and give me a voice. For some friends it was about the guitars, drums, keyboards. For me it was the words. To this very day, as a senior who more often has memory gaps, I can sing lyrics from decades old songs. What is it about music that seems to stay with us and can automatically place us in a time machine, retrieving vivid feelings and memories from days gone by?
When working with young people in counselling sessions, I have observed music aid in the release of emotions that may otherwise have remained buried deep inside. Somehow music seems to illicit the feelings that words cannot. Music moves us in ways like no other and has always been present in the most poignant times of our lives.Whether it be our happiest moments of celebration, like birthdays, weddings, graduations, or our darkest moments at funerals in the loss of a loved one music is always there. Music always seems to be an identifier in our lives, marking a particular event or moment in time.
When examining the impact music plays in our lives, it is important to have a basic understanding of the brain and memory.The hippocampus and neocortex are crucial areas of the brain when we examine memory. As mentioned previously, it is not always easy to retrieve certain memories and we may literally be at a loss for words. It appears that the structure of a song, along with the melody and rhythm of the words help to evoke images that stay with us. These songs appear to provide a conduit for the memory. As early as kindergarten we teach children their A,B, Cs , prayers, and stories via rhyme and song. Lyrics or song is a vehicle that not only aids the transmission of memories but also seems to illicit strong feelings. So why is it that music often allows us to access these strong feelings?
When researchers examine memory, they identify two very different kinds of memory: explicit and implicit memory. Explicit memory is a very deliberate type of memory in which we very consciously attempt to retrieve information. It often occurs when we are sharing stories.We may ask ourselves specific questions about a particular event in time to try and narrow down the details. “Was that my first year of university? Who was my roommate? Was that the year we went to Boston? What movie did we see?” On the other hand, implicit memory tends to be unintentional and sometimes come up when we least expect it. It is often precipitated by a smell or a sound, such as the smells from a walk in the woods or listening to a song from your past.
Implicit memory appears to come from a different part of the brain and is sometimes referred to as unconscious memory or automatic memory. We remember past experiences without ever thinking about them. Memories that are stimulated by music most often come from a time in our lives as teenagers or young adults where music had great significance with where we were in our lives and in fact seemed to be the sound track of our lives. In psychology this is referred to as the “reminiscence bump” where we remember more from late adolescence and early adulthood than any other stage of our lives. As we age, we tend to harken back to our youth when everything was new and fresh. Researchers have theories regarding the reason why we remember more from this period in our lives, most common being the brain’s ability to transcribe novel information more than the day to day mundane ones. However, there are still not enough studies to confirm this theory. That being said, we do know that with Alzheimer patients it is usually the explicit memory that is most impacted. It appears that it is the implicit memory being activated when listening to generational music.
Though we still do not have enough research based evidence regarding the impact of music on our brains and how it relates to memory, and therapy, I believe the research we do have and even anecdotal evidence points to the importance of music in our lives. Music produces endorphins that help us to relax and provide a temporary escape from the day to day stressors of our lives. Music can give a voice to people who may feel they do not have one. Music can move us to access the deepest part of our souls and memories from bygone days. Music can make us laugh, and music can make us cry. Music can help to calm and heal. Music is an accessible and viable tool that we all need in our tool box. Hopefully, as more study and research is done in this area, the better able we will be understand and use music in our day to day lives and in our counselling spaces.


Photography has been one of my hobbies since I was a teenager. As a professional earth scientist I have been travelling, working and living in many countries around the world. In combination with my passion for the “great outdoors”, in particular mountain hiking, this has offered many opportunities to pursue my photographic interests.
For over 40 years I have been using Nikon and Canon (d)SLRs. Currently I am mainly using full-frame cameras such as the Nikon D800 and D600/610, with a limited number of professional (zoom)lenses, plus Sony's RX100 Mark V high-end compact camera. Using quality photographic equipment with large size sensors is important, since these offer a higher dynamic range and markedly higher signal-to-noise ratio, and thus give visibly better results, especially in landscape photography and low-light environments.
However, the photographer creates the image - the camera is merely the tool to capture the scene. Given the major improvements in camera technology, the critical factor is rarely the camera equipment used. Instead, an evocative image often reflects the alignment of the photographer's mind and the subject. In my experience, the critical factors for a memorable photo are (a) the subject - being somewhere special at the right time in terms of light (early morning and late afternoon are the 'golden hours'), (b) creativity, in particular regarding composition, and (c) patience to wait for the right moment or conditions.
Photography offers a life-long opportunity for learning, not just in terms of imaging techniques, but in particular about the fascinating celestial body we live on - Planet Earth.
Earth and the surrounding atmosphere display an immense variety of continuously changing and evolving shapes, forms, colours and hues at all scales - a true 'Terra Magica'.
Big three-dimensional features on Planet Earth, ranging from very slowly evolving mountains and landscapes to fleeting objects such as clouds and waves, constitute wonderful photographic subjects. The challenge is to capture the essence of such large spatial objects in the two-dimensional world of photography. I try to put a personal perspective on my subjects, e.g. through repeated observations under different circumstances such as changing weather and light conditions.
Exploring our 'Terra Magica' with a camera and a creative state of mind is a fascinating way to enjoy nature in all its forms. Taking the time to make photographs slows down the pace, concentrates the mind, and helps one appreciate the surroundings more - often leading to observations and/or small discoveries which otherwise would have been missed.
The images featured on this website hopefully provide inspiration for your next activities, travels and/or photographic exploits, or trigger a desire to know more about a certain country, location or subject.
About this Website :
My website features a selection of my photographs, covering landscapes, different environments and habitats, people, wildlife and a wide range of other subjects. The galleries are regularly updated with selected new photographs or older images from my digital collection. Images have undergone only limited processing - I like them to be a reliable representation of reality.
My Home page displays a random slideshow of images, plus digital links to five Collections. Each of these Collections contains a series of photo galleries dedicated to a specific theme or subject. At the bottom of the Home page is a Search option - allowing you to do a quick check if a certain country, location, subject or topic is featured on this website.
Within the photo galleries, thumbnails are shown on the left. If there are more pictures than currently displayed, click the < or > buttons or the page navigator below the thumbnails to navigate through the whole gallery. Larger versions of the images are shown on the right, with a caption below.
To view a full-screen slideshow of all images in a particular gallery, simply click the ‘Slideshow’ button in the top right corner. The slideshow can be navigated using the < or > buttons on the screen; alternatively, you can use the arrow keys on your keyboard. Return to the gallery view by using the X button at the top right, or using the Escape button on your keyboard.
All images on this website are photographs made by Jeroen Peters (Amsterdam, 1958), except the above picture of myself swimming with a manta ray in the partially submerged Monokini volcanic crater in Hawaii which was shot by my son.
Images are copyrighted © Earthfocus by Jeroen Peters, and may not be reproduced or used for any commercial purposes, in whatever form, without permission. If you are interested in one or more images, you can contact me by e-mail here.
This website is dedicated to the memory of Maria Christodoulou, my beloved wife and enthusiastic travel and hiking partner, together with whom I explored our beautiful planet for more than 37 years, until her untimely death in early 2016.


Molly Roy is a cartographer and artist whose work centers on dynamic, storytelling maps and graphics. She is the head cartographer for Rebecca Solnit’s Nonstop Metropolis: A New York City Atlas and a contributing cartographer to Solnit’s Unfathomable City: A New Orleans Atlas. Molly is a cofounder and board member of Guerrilla Cartography, a non-profit producing globally crowd-sourced and crowd-funded atlases. She was a lead editor on both Food: An Atlas and Water: An Atlas, two of Guerrilla Cartography’s most recent works. Molly runs her own mapping business, M. Roy Cartography, and her work can be viewed at mroycartography.com.


This service provides an RDF representation of music artists and their similar artists based on the Last.fm API. Last.fm, when available, uses musicbrainz identifiers which allows us to easily inter-link this data with bbc.co.uk/music/artists as well as with dbtune.org/musicbrainz.
This representations is designed using the Music Ontology and MuSim the music similarity ontology.
Starting from a Last.fm artist name:
http://dbtune.org/artists/last-fm/<last-fm artist name>Alternatively (and preferably) you can use a musicbrainz identifier:
For example _the_ Godfather of Soul James Brown has the uri:
http://dbtune.org/artists/last-fm/James%20Brownas well as the musicbrainz-based uri:
The service returns RDF/XML representations.
As usual, all the code running this service is open source and based on Python and CherryPy.


Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. Foundation Commits $100M to Bolster Arts & Culture Sustainability, Economic Impact and Access in Southeast Michigan
DETROIT – The Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. Foundation announced today a $100 million commitment to transform the financial strength and long-term viability of Southeast Michigan’s arts and culture communities through the establishment of an endowment that will support the sector now and forever.
The Wilson Foundation will contribute nearly $60 million over 10 years to establish an endowment at the Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan. This investment will create permanent operational funding streams for 11 of the region’s largest arts and culture institutions that play a critical role as economic drivers. It also includes an annual grant opportunity for additional arts and culture organizations across the region. Once fully funded after 10 years, the endowment will generate approximately $3.75 million in annual payout to permanently support the operations and sustainability of the region’s nonprofit arts and culture organizations.
To ensure the program has immediate impact on the sector and regional economy, the Wilson Foundation will provide an additional $3.75 million annually over nine years, for a total of $33.75 million, allowing grantmaking to begin in 2022 while the endowment is built.
Finally, the Wilson Foundation is awarding a $5 million capital campaign gift to the Motown Museum, one of the largest gifts to-date for the museum’s $55 million capital campaign.
“We are building upon years of substantial investment by critical public funding streams and philanthropic funders that have helped these institutions become the cultural treasures and economic drivers they are today,” said David Egner, president & CEO, Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. Foundation. “As a regionally focused foundation with a limited life, we saw a unique opportunity to make this significant contribution to impact the region’s quality of life and economy through jobs, tourism and more. We hope this annual operating support will help to strengthen the financial condition of these institutions allowing them to continue to develop creative, audience-centered initiatives that make them more inclusive, welcoming, and accessible places for all.”
Of the $3.75 million in annual funding, a total of $3 million will be dedicated to the following 11 institutions including their annual grant allocation: Arab American National Museum ($100,000 annually); Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History ($300,000 annually); Detroit Historical Society ($200,000 annually); Detroit Institute of Arts ($700,000 annually); Detroit Symphony Orchestra ($700,000 annually); Detroit Zoological Society ($150,000 annually); Holocaust Memorial Center ($100,000 annually); Michigan Opera Theatre ($200,000 annually); Michigan Science Center ($200,000 annually); Motown Museum ($200,000 annually); and The Henry Ford ($150,000 annually).
The overall impact of these gifts is significant as these unrestricted funds can be designated for general operating needs. Each organization will also co-design, in partnership with Community Foundation and national consultants, metrics and benchmarks that support their goals and strategic plans.
The Wilson Foundation is also dedicating $500,000 annually to support other arts and culture nonprofits, primarily of small to medium size, across the seven counties of Southeast Michigan. These funds will be deployed flexibly based on organizational and community needs. The first grants will be awarded by the end of 2022.
“From arts organizations that anchor a neighborhood to ones that anchor a region, these creative businesses make significant contributions to the economic health and growth of communities, and the Federal Bureau of Economic Analysis supports this insight with data showing the arts industry as larger than construction, transportation, and agriculture,” said Omari Rush, executive director, CultureSource. “The attention this Wilson Foundation investment gives to wide-ranging arts groups is a beacon of opportunity for any policymaker, philanthropist, or agency looking to drive economic development. It is a provocation to shift narratives from the arts being nice to the arts being essential.”
The remaining $250,000 in annual funding will support permanent capacity at the Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan to manage and operate this endowment and grant program, which includes leading the efforts to advance inclusion and access within the grantees individual operations and the sector. The Community Foundation, together with CultureSource, will launch community conversations to help build capacity for adaptable and inclusive arts organizations. Local arts and culture organizations can sign-up to participate at https://cfsem.org/initiative/wilson-arts-and-culture-investment.
“The vision of the Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. Foundation to make such a significant investment in our regional arts and culture organizations is transformational and will serve the residents of southeast Michigan for generations to come,” Mariam Noland, president, Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan.
Since its inception in 2015, the Wilson Foundation has paid out more than $540 million in grants, including nearly $100 million within its “Entrepreneurship and Economic Development” focus area. In Southeast Michigan, this has included support for major projects including the New Economy Initiative’s Inclusive Small Business Network Fund, Detroit’s Strategic Neighborhood Fund, Enterprise’s Community Development Organization Fund and more.
“While arts and culture are not specific funding priorities for the Wilson Foundation, the pandemic laid bare the fragile operational health of this critical sector of our economy,” said Eugene Driker, life trustee, Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. Foundation. “Witnessing the subsequent struggles within this sector, the Foundation trustees made the decision to address this broadly with a one-time strategic approach through the lens of our economic development focus area. Consistent with Ralph Wilson’s philosophy of giving, reflected in how he structured his foundation, our aim with this historic gift is to make an immediate and significant impact. We know there is more to be done and hope it will inspire many others to fund operations of cultural organizations across the sector and help further build their endowments.” The mission and administration of the Wilson Foundation’s arts and culture funding program are mirrored in Western New York, its other region of focus, with the Community Foundation for Greater Buffalo as the managing partner. The following institutions in western New York are receiving endowment grants: Buffalo AKG Art Museum (formerly, Albright-Knox Art Gallery), Buffalo & Erie County Naval & Military Park, Buffalo History Museum, Buffalo Museum of Science, Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, Buffalo Zoo, Burchfield Penney Art Center, Explore & More: Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. Children’s Museum, Frank Lloyd Wright’s Martin House, Michigan Street African American Heritage Corridor and anchor institutions, National Comedy Center, Shea’s Performing Art Center and The Strong National Museum of Play. Additionally, the Buffalo AKG Art Museum and The Strong Museum of Play are each receiving $5 million capital campaign grants.
The Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. Foundation is a grantmaking organization dedicated primarily to sustained investment in the quality of life of the people of Southeast Michigan and Western New York. The two areas reflect the devotion of Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. to his hometown of Detroit and greater Buffalo, home of his beloved Buffalo Bills NFL team. Prior to his passing in 2014, Mr. Wilson provided that a significant share of his estate be used to continue a life-long generosity of spirit by funding the Foundation that bears his name. Based in Detroit, the Foundation began with a grantmaking capacity of $1.2 billion over a 20-year period, which expires January 8, 2035. This structure is consistent with Mr. Wilson’s desire for the Foundation’s impact to be immediate, substantial, measurable, and overseen by those who knew him best. For more information visit www.rcwjrf.org.


Cricut® CollectionsWe’re delighted to introduce Close To My Heart’s exclusive Cricut® cartridge collections. We’ve worked with Provo Craft to bring you incredible Cricut® cartridges filled with inspiring shapes and projects hand-selected by company founder and CEO Jeanette Lynton. You’ll love how fast and easy it is to cut embellishments, cards, 3-D flowers, gift boxes, and more with the touch of a button. Simply insert the cartridge into your Cricut® machine (sold at retail stores), add your paper, and presto!—perfectly cut shapes appear.
Cricut® Machine Comparison Chart
Cricut® Machine Tips & Tricks
Complementary Stamp ImagesNumerous My Acrylix™ stamp images in our Idea Book pair wonderfully with images on our Cricut® cartridges. When you see the Cricut® symbol or a stamp image outlined in red in the Idea Book, you will know there’s a matching shape on one of our cartridges. Cut out the coordinating shape with your Cricut® machine using the setting indicated on the stamp’s carrier sheet, then stamp your image on the base shape — quick and simple!
Cricut® Artfully Sent CollectionCardmaking has never been easier or more fun! With our newest Cricut® collection you can make handmade masterpieces in no time at all. Choose from cards with sentiments cut directly into them, or combine several cutouts to create your own pop-up scenes. Featuring more than 25 different themes and 5 different card formats including dynamic interactive designs, this cartridge has a card for any and all occasions—even if the occasion is “just because”! Card styles include pop-ups, scenes, sentiments, sleeves and pocket cards. Order your Cricut® Artfully Sent collection (Z3017) today.
Cricut® Artfully Sent Sample Cards
Cricut® Artfully Sent Shape Index
Cricut® Artbooking CollectionTake your scrapbooking to never-before-seen levels with the new Cricut® Artbooking collection! With oodles of images in each of 15 layout themes, you can create several coordinating pages for each theme using just two keys and one dial size. Images include accents, borders, titles, overlays, photo mats—in standard photo sizes!—and more.
The Cricut® keys are optimized for creating 12" × 12" pages in a jiffy. You’ll love creating 10 themed mini books, also optimized for several different sizes using just two keys and one dial size. Celebrate birthdays, new baby, vacations, friends, sports, Halloween, Christmas, and more. When you’re finished cutting, use the coordinating stamp sets and Dimensional Elements shapes to add even more pizzazz! Order your Cricut® Artbooking collection (Z1906) today.
Cricut® Artbooking Sample Shapes
Cricut® Artbooking Shape Index
Cricut® Artiste CollectionThe Cricut® Artiste collection helps you turn everyday events into magical celebrations! The unique cartridge takes creativity to a new level allowing you to cut themed projects and shapes using a single key. Color-coded images in the accompanying booklet indicate shapes that are linked and can be cut using the same size setting for hassle-free layering and assembly. Choosing a themed project is easy with the project reference pictures, and assembling 3-D items is a snap with the separate assembly and folding guide.
With 700 images, you’ll find a themed project for any event, large or small, from Valentine’s Day, Christmas, and Halloween, to occasions like birthdays and baby showers, plus clever motifs like signage, game night, gears, timepieces, awards, and more. Use the three coordinating My Acrylix™ D-size stamp sets to jazz up your Cricut accents, then splash in some Dimensional Elements shapes from the three included sets for added flair! The Cricut® Artiste cartridge makes it easy to create a charming, cohesive project, taking you from crafter to awesome artiste in a flash. Order your Cricut® Artiste collection (Z1790) today
Cricut® Artiste Sample Shapes
Cricut® Artiste Shape Index
Cricut® Art Philosophy CollectionOur Cricut® Art Philosophy cartridge includes foundational shapes and building blocks that are an essential staple for every crafter. You’ll find versatile geometric shapes, classic brackets, frames, florals, flourishes, borders, fonts, numbers, and more. With 700 images to choose from, it’s the cartridge you’ll buy and never take out of your cutter. Favorite elements include unique gift boxes, elegant doilies, and stunning 3-D rosettes, to name just a few.
You’ll also receive three 12" × 9" sheets of Dimensional Elements shapes, including Mixed Shapes, Tags, and Banners, as well as three exclusive, D-size My Acrylix™ stamp sets featuring sentiments and images—all designed to work together for mixing and matching fun! Order your Cricut® Art Philosophy Collection (Z1686) today
Cricut® Art Philosophy Sample Shapes
Cricut® Art Philosophy Shape Index


Today I’m excited to tell you about a worship CD for kids that I received from Little Songbirds. We’ve bought quite a few worship CDs for the kids over time, but many of them never catch on. It seems like we always come back to the same few that they love! When Little Songbirds offered to send me a CD in exchange for my honest review, I was happy to try something new.
In two short weeks, the Little Songbirds CD has become a new family favorite! Here’s a little about why my kids and I are loving this album. They’ve also sent me a CD to give away to a reader and I’ll let you know at the end how you can win!
1. The music is very catchy. This is very important for kids, who typically become connected to the music before the lyrics. My kids quickly embraced these songs and immediately were moved to dance – even my normally stoic 3-year-old son. About half of the 12 songs are Hawaiian in style, which naturally makes you want to get up and have fun! I’ve found myself humming the songs when my kids aren’t even around.
2. It’s different from the other CDs they have. Is it just me or do a lot of kids’ CDs start to sound the same after a while? I feel like if you buy 10 CDs, you are guaranteed to have 9 songs re-creating Noah’s Ark. This CD is highly original and refreshing, especially with the Hawaiian flare.
3. The lyrics, for the most part, are simple AND clear. This is huge for me because I love for the kids to hear the lyrical message as well as the tune itself. I’m often amazed by how complicated the lyrics can be on some kids’ CDs. My kids quickly memorized several of the songs because the lyrics are clearly enunciated, simple and repeated several times. There are a couple of songs that are less clear, but it doesn’t detract from the album overall.
4. The kids who sing complement the songs rather than detract from them. It makes me a little crazy when, on almost every kids’ worship CD, it’s difficult to understand the words the children are singing, despite their good intentions. I love that on this album the kids are involved in just the right way.
5. The message of the songs is impactful. The lyrics of the songs provide a wonderful Christ-centered message that can be the basis for a variety of discussions with your kids (for example, there is a very fun song about what is and what is not a fruit of the spirit). To give some variety to our nightly worship, I’m going to start using the CD this week for both singing and discussion!
You can hear samples of all 12 songs on the Little Songbirds website: http://www.littlesongbirdsmusic.com/music/ The CD is offered in both a physical and digital form. If you are interested, you can buy it here (non-affiliate link): http://littlesongbirds.bigcartel.com/.
How to Enter the Giveaway:
Little Songbirds also sent me a CD to give away to a Christian Mom Thoughts reader! Here is how to enter the drawing (one person will be chosen at random). Leave a comment on this post (not on Facebook!) and tell me: 1) One thing you like about this blog and 2) one topic you would like to see me post about (if you have more than one, I’m all ears!). That’s it! I will do the drawing on Friday and contact you via email if you win. Good luck!
Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this CD in exchange for my fair and honest review.


Cowboy Christmas is a delightful mix of song, story, poetry and drama capturing the “Old Fashioned Cowboy Christmas”. Rob Dinwoodie and the band will bring you into the Christmas season by playing both new and favourite Christmas songs and carols that you’ve grown to love. Throughout the show a drama will unfold that will transport you to a Christmas in the early years of BC. Jason Armstrong, popular Okanagan DJ, playwright and actor plays the part of Shorty Pringle of the historic Gang Ranch from the Chilcotin. Jason depicts a cabin-fevered cowboy looking for community in the winter of the late 1800s and the Christmas that changed his view of this occasion.
Rob Dinwoodie has been a singer songwriter for almost 4 decades with many venues and shows under his cowboy belt buckle. A cowboy first and singer songwriter second, Rob has entertained folks from around the world as he and his band Open Range have hosted the popular Cowboy Dinner Show at the Historic Okeefe Ranch just north of Vernon. His style ranges from pure western, country, swing with a touch of bluegrass. Rob and Open Range have recorded 2 albums and are working on their newest recording to be released in 2024.
Ken Mather, popular historian, author and cowboy poet will bring cowboy poetry and his special way of sharing the history of the region. Ken has written 6 books on the BC West and has shared the stage with Rob for many years. His poetry and stories will bring back memories of the historic Okanagan Valley and some of his favorite personalities and Christmases past.
What would Christmas be without a fiddle? Anjuli Dynna joins the musical troupe for this Christmas occasion. She has played for the Okanagan Symphony Orchestra as well as in popular bands in the valley. Anjuli will entertain the audience with her mastery of this instrument as she both accompanies and plays some of the old-time favourite Christmas songs. Sing along to these favourites and enjoy the arrangements of songs that have made Christmas the favourite season of the year.
Once again this year net proceeds from Cowboy Christmas are directed to our own Common Threads ministry. “There are so many needy folks in our community and Common Threads really fills that gap physically, emotionally and spiritually. So as folks come they contribute to this important ministry of Vernon Alliance Church “ says Rob Dinwoodie.
Cowboy Christmas is sure to bring back fond memories of Christmas and is sure to be the highlight of your family's Christmas season.
Tickets - $30 – Adults
Students - $15
Tickets at Ticketseller.ca
Use the link to order tickets online. If you prefer to buy tickets in person, Ticketseller is open at the Performing Arts Centre, Monday to Friday, 9 a.m.-5 p.m., and Saturday, noon to 4 p.m.


- This event has passed.
Learning at the Library – “Bouquets for Every Day”
May 20 @ 10:00 am - 11:00 am
Brazos County Master Gardener Donna Murray will show how to create “Bouquets for Every Day” with materials from the cutting garden, flower and veggie beds, untidy edges of the yard, and even roadside ditches. Her delightful creations dress up Master Gardener events and are weekly features on the MG Facebook page. Some lucky attendees will take home the arrangements created during the presentation.
The event is open to the public at no charge.


Final Registration Deadline Extended to August 15th.
To register online, please log into your APPNA account at the following link.
You may also register for this meeting by downloading the registration form and returning it with payment to APPNA by mail/fax/email.
Phone: (630) 968-8585 ext. 106
Fax: (630) 968-8677
6414 South Cass Avenue
Westmont, IL 60559
APPNA 24th. International Meeting
Cuba & Santo Domingo
November 11-18, 2017
DAY ONE, SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 11th
Arrival in Havana
• Arrive in Havana at José Martí International Airport and transfer to the hotel.
• Check in hotel.
• Enjoy the unique opportunity to learn about the mysteries of the most famous Cigars in the world by the hand of a Habanos Sommelier. You will learn about the origin, cultivation, processing and final consumption of the product. As a culmination they will enjoy a pleasant tasting of Habanos and their pairing with Cuban coffee thus achieving an exquisite mixture of flavors.
Departure for dinner in Restaurant Café del Oriente, located in Plaza de San Francisco de Asis. Dinner with traditional live band.
Departure to Tropicana to enjoy a great tropical show in this “paradise under the stars” The Cuban culture was forged in a mixture several cultures, fundamentally the Spanish and the African. From there came the roots of their rhythms, their dances and their music. Tropicana Show is a trip through Cuban rhythms and dances from its origins to the present day. Here you will not only enjoy a cultural event but also learn about the island’s musical culture and dance.
Return to Hotel.
DAY 2, SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 12th
Havana, its history and architecture.
Breakfast in Hotel
Depart to visit Fusterlandia. Discuss the artist’s public art revitalization project and stroll down streets decorated with mosaics, pausing to interact with the locals whose neighborhood has been transformed by the project.
Straight to Old Havana for a walking tour. Enjoy a private tour around old Havana highlighting the main historic plazas: Plaza de la Catedral, Plaza de Armas, Plaza de San Francisco and Plaza Vieja. During the tour, you will be able to exchange with their residents and learn about how the city was founded and developed, as well as how Cubans live today.Then cross the tunnel of Havana to enjoy a Panoramic visit to Morro Castle.
Lunch at La Divina Pastora, a place where not only you will enjoy a tasty meal, but also enjoy one of the most beautiful views of the city, as well as the calm waters of the entrance of the Bay of Havana.
Peruse Almacenes de Depósito San José, a giant arts and crafts market, and interact with artists and practice your haggling for those final mementos. For those who want to return to the hotel to freshen up and get ready for the night, a 15-minute transfer service will be provided between 4:30 pm and 6:00 pm.
Enjoy a dinner with music hosted by the Ambassador of Pakistan to Cuba at his residence. Here you will have the opportunity to exchange with the Ambassador of Pakistan on the island, and learn about the influence of Pakistani culture in Cuba. In addition, they will know about Cuba seen from the eyes of the Ambassador. Dinner on the pool and performance by Salsa band.
Return to hotel
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
DAY 3, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 13th
The countryside and its beautiful landscapes, flora & fauna.
Breakfast in Hotel
Departure to visit Las Terrazas, a rural experience of sustainable development located within the Sierra del Rosario Biosphere Reserve that occupies a natural area of about 5 thousand hectares. The territory enjoys numerous landscape values, mountain ranges and narrow valleys refreshed by rivers and streams with beautiful waterfalls that mix with profuse evergreen forests of characteristics similar to the rainforests. Here you will have the opportunity to exchange with residents, and learn about their customs and way of life. Arrival at Villa Soroa where you will enjoy a Walking tour to a ceiba tree, the most ancient tree in the region with more than 650 years, brief explanation of its history and values on afrocuban religion; Visit to the Botanical Garden, Soroa’s Orchids Garden including varieties of Cuba and the world as ornamental plants and trees; Continue the tour until “Complejo Las Terrazas”; Welcoming cocktail at Rancho Curujey. Brief explanation of that nature wonder project; Visit to Buenavista coffee plantation a partially restored XIX century farm; Visit to Moka Hotel; A walking tour along the main streets of the community gives the visitors the opportunity to get in touch with the warm and hospitable locals. Lunch including one drink in Casa del Campesino.
• Briefing and Q&A with a local anthropologist on Cuban society. During this conversation, you will have the opportunity to learn about the status of Cuba-USA relations, their impact on the Cuban population and the expectations of Cubans based on the changes made, all from the perspective of a Cuban anthropologist.
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
DAY 4, TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 14th
Havana, its culture and art.
Breakfast at your hotel.
Drive to Ernest Hemingway’s Finca Vigía. You’ll hear about some eccentric stories surrounding the writer on the bus over, and then have some time to wander on your own around the property.
Lunch at El Aljibe, a restaurant where everything evokes Cuba from its infrastructure to the way of peasant ranch, to the stools and tables of simple assembly but finely decorated, as well as the uniforms of the service dressed with Guayaberas. A place where they will taste the best of traditional Cuban food through recipes whose secrets jealously guard their founders.
Depart to visit an agricultural market. This will be a good opportunity to learn about the agricultural production in Cuba and the commercialization of its products, while interacting with the farmers and traders.
Visit to the project ROX950, In Search of the Sun: “The true beauty in the simplicity of the exclusive”, which builds the imaginary of its creator, Rosana Vargas and places it in the most contemporary slopes, while implying its altruistic feeling when being constituted in Light and path for unemployed young people who learn from their teachings in the office of fire and forge. Here you can exchange with its founder and learn about how difficult the art of goldsmithing in Cuba can be developed.
Visit to the home-studio of the young painter and engraver Kelvin Lopez, who if something characterizes his work, is the diversity of styles that make of his art an expression of his own style. With many individual and collective exhibitions, this painter has achieved that his works are exhibited in places like: Arizona State University Art Museum, Phoenix; Amistad Foundation, New York; And MOLAA, Museum of Latin American Art, California. During the visit you will be able to interact with the artist, who will gladly receive you, and his work.
Return to the hotel to freshen up.
Take a cruise in old classic convertibles up to Club Havana, where you will enjoy a dinner specially prepared for you with spectacular views and an unforgettable sunset. APPNA has rented fleet of old classical convertable cars that will drive us through scenic route to Club Havana located on ocean. you will enjoy sunset views and followed by delicious dinner with live music.
Return to the hotel
• Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
DAY 5, WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 15th
Breakfast at your hotel.
Transfer to Airport for charter flight to Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
Arrive in Santo Domingo; Transfer to hotel – Check-in
Santo Domingo City Tour:
Have a fascinating journey around the great capital of Dominican Republic and discover the important cultural and historical sights of Santo Domingo on a 4 hour guided tour of the city. Explore the city of Santo Domingo on board a comfortable vehicle with a professional guide to assist you through the tour. Learn the interesting history and some fascinating facts about Santo Domingo as you tour around the city taking in the attractions and sights along the way.
Start the tour at Colonial Zone, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and explore the notable landmarks situated in the area, such as Fortaleza Ozama, Catedral Primada de America and Calle Las Damas. Stop at National Botanical Garden and Blue Mall, as well as the Three Eyes Park, an underground cave with three natural lakes.
With many amazing attractions around Santo Domingo, make sure to capture wonderful photo opportunities, particularly at Palacio Nacional, Waterfront Artisan Kiosk and Columbus Lighthouse.
Dinner on own (many restaurants to explore near hotel in down town)
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch
DAY 6, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 16th
Las Maravillas Caves & Altos de Chavon Day Tour
Embark on a fascinating adventure as you journey from Santo Domingo to Maravillas Cave and Altos de Chavon. Learn about the culture and history of each place from an expert guide as you discover the wonders of the Dominican Republic’s southern coast.
After hotel pick-up in Santo Domingo, head towards Las Maravillas Cave, the first natural museum of Rupestrian artwork in West Indies, located inside a hundred year old cave. Have a glimpse of the cave’s exquisite geological formations and learn about the history of the pictographs left by the native Taino Indians.
Continue to Altos de Chavon, a re-creation of a Mediterranean village situated atop the Chavon River. One of the most popular attraction in the city, Altos de Chavon has an archaeological museum, amphitheater and cultural center. Browse through the craft ateliers and small production centers where local artisans develop and create ceramic, silk-screen and woven-fiber products showing the island’s history at the same time boldly introduce design concept and quality internationally.
DAY 7, FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 17th
Catalina Island Tour with Snorkel
Discover the beauty and charm of Catalina Island on a day trip from Santo Domingo and spend the day filled with fun activities, including eating, drinking, snorkeling, swimming and even dancing. Considered as the hidden treasure in the Caribbean, the island of Catalina is surrounded by coral reefs and white-sand beaches. With an expert guide, get an insight of the geography and history of Catalina Island and its natural environment.
After hotel pick-up, head towards La Romana Port to board on a boat going to the island of Catalina and enjoy the scenic views of Boca Chica and San Pedro Town as the guide talks about the sugar industry and famous baseball players born in the region. Upon arrival, take in the beauty and charm of Caribbean’s exquisite paradise. Take delight in a welcome drink and learn about the island of Catalina as your guide shares the island’s interesting history and fascinating facts highlighting the natural features of the island.
Continue to the Wall, one of the most beautiful diving sites in the country, and snorkel your way into the water using the equipment provided. Get a chance to see extraordinary species underwater and observe them at their own habitat.
Enjoy a typical Dominican lunch buffet with drink from the open bar, including water, soft drinks, beer, coffee and cocktails such as Cuba Libre and the famous Ron Dominican Mamajuana.
Hit the white-sand beach for your free time and take a refreshing swim in the island’s crystal clear waters, take some time to relax and stretch out on a lounge chair, or show off your impressive dance skills as you dance merengue and bachatas on the dance floor with the local entertainers and guides.
DAY 8, SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 18th
Fly back to USA
Day One – Wednesday, November 15, 2017: 8PM – 11PM
|Arif Muslim, MD||Intestinal Gas|
|Sajid Jalil, MD||Liver Cancer – HCC|
|Fauzia Rana, MD||Bleeding Disorders|
Day Two – Friday, November 17, 2017: 7AM – 10AM
|Uzma Nasim, MD||Alzhemier’s Dementia|
|Shahid Ahsan, MD||Sleep Disorders Current Guidelines|
|Fayyaz Hashmi, MD||Minimally Invasive Cardiac Surgery|


Alexandra Steinmetz has been blogging under several different guises for the past 11 years. Prior to relocating in Montana in 2014, Alex spent several years in New York City working in film and television production, as well as in the production side of graphic design and animation where she worked on projects for clients such as Visa, Verizon, and TJMaxx. Her live production work includes Behind the Heckle and Jokes Through the Ages for Official Comedy, as well as Deadly Devotion for Discovery ID.
After six years of living the fast paced hustle and bustle life in New York City, Alexandra retreated back west to her hometown to help her father open his office for Lyndon Steinmetz Design Co., LLC., where she works as his Business Manager. When she’s not in the office, she’s always chasing down an independent film job where she can find it, or working with collaborators on personal projects.
Alexandra’s inspiration and hope for The Native Transplant is to explore a bit more of Montana in a way she hasn’t experienced it. Having grown up here, Alexandra spent most of her time working on art and playing in her backyard, but hasn’t fully grasped all the opportunity Montana has to offer. The Native Transplant will be a chronicle of those adventures, as well as a story on a native Montanan becoming a bit more Montanan.
Alexandra currently resides in the beautiful Flathead Valley in Northwest Montana, with her Staten Island rescue dog, Caboose. She loves to spend her weekends exploring the outdoors, experimenting in the kitchen, or curled up with a good book.
For more information or to work with Alexandra, please contact her at: email@example.com


When is National Tile Day?
National Tile Day may not be a day that you remember at first. If you are into interior design and especially into tile design, you’ll never forget February 23. Because Feb 23 marks the day for national tile day celebrations.
Tile Day Trends in 2020
If you are struggling to find a beautiful tile, you have to check the websites of famous interior designers like Alena Capra. Also, social media activations will certainly increase before and after this day. It may be a good opportunity to listen to social voices to learn more about benefits of tile.
Miss Capra is also the brand ambassador of the event. She quotes:
“National Tile Day is rooted in a desire to celebrate the many great benefits tile has to offer as a material. We’re encouraging the architecture and design community to get inspired by tile.”
National Tile Day is relatively a new day. It was founded by Coverings which is the largest international tile stone show in North America. Participants from 40 countries showcase each year their new designs, building material, printing technologies, and so on.
It is a very important event for the stone industry. Ceramic tile, porcelain, mosaic tiles, marble, travertine, granite, limestone, and all other natural stones will shine a timeless element of architecture and design at Coverings 2020.
Tile trends may change every year. If you are an interior designer, bath designer, or designing outdoor spaces, or if you are someone who just wants to remodel his/her kitchen with durable, efficient, and less costly materials, you have to observe National Tile Day.
Before Coverings tile and stone exhibition, many tile stores are doing extreme discounts to celebrate Tile Day.
In 2018, Coverings was held in Atlanta, Georgia. In 2019, it was held in Orlando, Florida, In 2020 it will be held in New Orleans, Louisiana.
Every year new trends emerge in tile making. Recently, we see more bold tile patterns. This is because of 3D Modeling. This new technique adds more flair and dimension to 2D-looking walls. A stunning tile can change an ordinary surface into exquisite beauty. This is the power of tile design.
Natural stones are not only natural stones anymore. With water-cutting technology, 3D designs are easily implemented with the usage of natural stones as source material.
There are certain tiles that will never be out of date. Black and white marble for instance is one of these timeless classics. With digitally printed images, black and white tiles changed their form and became more intriguing and eye-catchy.
National Tile Day is the highlight, a mark in the calendar that alerts us about the next Coverings event. Every year more than 1000 exhibitors participate in the event. It is a powerful networking opportunity for professionals in the tiling industry.
“Code to import my old blog: 8784006400”


Grainge and Hodder provide laser cutting services to the modeller and the model trade.
We are always happy to help with design ideas, and are able to assist beginners with artwork production.
With our laser cutting facilities we are able to cut through, or engrave into, sheets of material normally Plywood, Card, Perspex or MDF. with an accuracy of .1mm with parts up to 1200mm x 900mm.
The length of time it takes for the laser cutter to run your artwork determines it's cost. Using simple or small artworks reduces this cost, while using complex or very large artworks increases this time. Therefore it is advisable to make your artworks with time-to-cut in mind.
It is usual to build up models of several layers. As shown in the illustration above, the bottom layer is plywood, with added card layers to model the panels.
We keep in stock a variety of sizes up to 9mm in Plywood and MDF, but we can cut many different materials, which can either be ordered in for you, or we can use your own material if suitable.
Producing Laser Cutting artwork is similar to Photo-Etching artwork but with some important differences, outlined in our guide.
Usually a CAD produced dxf file is submitted to us. We then convert this to the Laser software and set cutting depths as required for the material.


"How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!" 1 John 3:1
This is my first year at Evergreen working in the kindergarden class as an aide and taking on recess duty as well. I graduated from Everett Community College, in Everett Wa, in 2015 with an Associates in Technical Arts degree in Education Paraprofessional. I also have and Associates of Arts in Communication from the University of the Nations in Kailua-Kona, Hi. For the 2014-15 school year I worked at Whittier Elementary in Everett, WA in the library and in a 5th grade classroom.
I grew up in Washington in the Snohomish area and I have been volunteering in youth groups and as small group leader at ever church I have attended since I was 14 or so. I grew up doing missions every year since I was 6 years old, and that passion for missions has continued with me as I grew up. To the point where I spent most of 2010 to 2012 traveling the world as a missionary/photojournalist with YWAM (Youth With a Mission). I am a very creative person and I enjoy anything that allows me to think differently and be creative such as baking, photography, journalism, painting, drawing, digital design, etc.
I am very happy to be working at Evergreen in such a God centered community of people, raising up the next generation to love Christ and to the love those in the world to Him.


Overview of the musical fact that develops in this era, contemporary to the splendor of Romanesque, and that extends into five chapters, each specifying the various aspects from which the subject can be treated.
It is varied the theme carved in stone framed in the eardrums of the covers that go from simple crismones to more complex biblical scenes or moments of lives of saints that will be described in a detailed way.
Contemporaries to the Romanesque works are these buildings that exerted such an active role in such turbulent times. We present a photographic catalog with brief information and links to deepen in each of them.
The group formed by the churches of the Serrablo has a series of common characteristics, with specific differences between them, that seek in the combination of architectural and aesthetic elements, the constructive and decorative solutions, forming a very well-characterized set.
In the first place, it should be noted that these are very small churches. Their ships are of rectangular plant, with the exception of San Pedro de Lárrede, that is of Latin cross, and have their apses in the Eastern side. In several cases they have side naves attached to the main one, such as Basarán, Oliván, Lasieso, etc., but always of construction much later than the original building.
The lateral walls are different, since the North-oriented ones are totally blind, being the South wall where both the doors and the vanes that illuminate inside are located (except for the case of Ordovés). To collaborate in this lighting, there is usually a gap in the gable of the feet. The factory of the walls is made with sillarejo little worked in general.
The doors are constituted by horseshoe arches, of half a point in other so many occasions, and linned to support an arc of unloading in enough occasions, but always to the interior, except for some very particular case. In certain cases they are framed with an alfiz (San Pedro de Lárrede and San Juan de Busa). The arches are always formed with voussoirs.
The apses are, together with the towers, the most typical constructive element of these churches. They are built on the eastern side and their shape is basically semicircular, but sometimes it is rectangular, in the case of San Bartolomé de Gavín, or in the shape of a horseshoe. They have a decoration composed of a series of blind wall arches (between seven and nine, depending on each case), and a bocel that goes on top of them, on which is placed a frieze of baquetones or semicircular columns that go through the entire apse . Immediately above these is a small course of wall on which the tejaroz stands directly.
The roofs of these churches used to be of wooden armor in practically all cases, although later reforms were made in stone in some cases, constituting barrel vaults, as in the case of San Pedro de Lárrede. To support the sustaining work of the walls, in some of them buttresses were built. The apses are covered with a shell vault.
The other most characteristic element of these churches is the bell tower. These are very slender towers, decorated with tríforas windows and friezes of baquetones in the most outstanding cases, which are reduced in size as they gain height. They are covered with vaulted vaults and roofs with two or four slopes.
The windows that are placed in these towers or sometimes in the walls, have a high decorative content and are of one, two or three spans, built with horseshoe or half-point arches. In some cases they are framed by an alfiz. Perhaps the most beautiful are those of San Pedro de Lárrede, San Bartolomé de Gavín or the parish of Susín.
It should be noted that the decoration in these churches is made with architecture, lacking any type of carvings or inscriptions (made the exception of San Bartolomé de Gavín in the tower or the Kufic characters on the cover of San Juan de Busa). This architectural decoration is based on the blind arches and the friezes of baquetones of the apses, in the tríforas or simple windows, and in the alfices that frame doors and windows. With these simple elements are achieved solutions of great aesthetic capacity, of which some churches take all the elements or some of them in isolation.
Apart from this stylistic singularity, both in the Serrablo and in the sierras of the middle course of the Gállego there are numerous examples of rural Romanesque, small rectangular churches with a simple drum apse without any decoration, which were parochial of small villages in many cases today abandoned or exercising chapels of cemeteries. Not for that reason there are some majestic examples of Romanesque architecture, such as Santiago de Aguero or the castle of Loarre, although more closely related.


Text from: Quattro progetti. Ed. Essegi. 1988
This residential complex consists of six duplex houses and a terraced building comprising 14 dwellings. The location is the boundary fringe between a small village of detached houses ,near the basilica of Sant’Apollinare in Classe ,and the agricultural land towards Ravenna. The aspect of this zone is suburban with decidedly “human” features, due both to the size of the houses, each with a small private garden, and to the surrounding cultivated fields. The concept of designing an entire street, and therefore a piece of town, guided us in our planning. The typology at the origin of the project was indicated by the client. We sought to build with a selected type, a given typology and existing standards, an urban form that might be recognisable through completeness. The latter is given by the overall form of the intervention which, notwithstanding repetition and the different composition of the elements themselves, takes the location as being determining. The new street consists on one side of the row of terraced houses that defines the village boundary and on the other of its more fractioned counterpart (the duplex houses), the limit between the urban part and the countryside. Recognizability is given by the assembly and repetition of certain elements, which from those of type proceed to the microscale of materials, constructional details and colours. All these groupings, none excluded, constitute the architecture, resolving without tricks the passage from design to construction. All the dwellings have a private garden front and back. The building materials are traditional, which is to say exposed brick, door and window frames in painted wood, copper roof and cement rendering.
Progetto architettonico: arch. Claudio Baldisserri, ing. Lorenzo Sarti, arch. Aldo Aymonino (Teprin Associati).
Realizzazione e Direzione lavori.
Direzione lavori: arch. Claudio Baldisserri (Teprin Associati).
Impresa: C.M.C. Cooperativa Muratori e Cementisti di Ravenna


Kate Ashton | Owner
Kate draws on several years of experience in the spa and salon industry. After exploring different crafts, she found her passion in waxing and hair removal. Exclusively waxing at some of the Kentucky's premier waxing salons for the past 8 years, Kate has established a variety of techniques and an abundance of product knowledge to help make the unpleasant task of hair removal as pleasant as possible by pampering, personalizing and catering to the client’s individual needs. Kate has obtained numerous certifications throughout the years in male brazilian waxing, eyelash extensions, threading, lash perming, spray tanning and microblading.
Holly Gohmann | Technician
Holly has the ability to make all who enter her room feel warm, welcomed and right at home. She is versed in the latest trends and techniques of waxing, including brow design, body waxing, lash perming and microblading. She has an eye for detail, and is very thorough in her work. With Holly's 15 years of experience and sweet demeanor, you can't go wrong in her hands!
Maisie Rose | Technician
Maisie brings 5 years of experience to Body and Brow- along with her enthusiasm for all things waxing and beauty related. She provides excellent waxing, lash perming and brow design services. If you desire a calm, relaxed service, Maisie is your go to girl!
ashley | Technician
Many of you know Ashley as our fearless leader, but now you will recognize her in a new role as a beauty technician. While Ashley specializes in all services offered at Body and Brow, she is most known for her painless and quick brazilians for both men and women. She loves making men and women feel confident in their own skin by keeping them smooth, comfortable, and educated in all of the latest waxing techniques. Want a fast and nearly painless body service? Ashley is your go to girl.
Mary Pat | Technician
Mary Pat brings years of experience with makeup and beauty to our team. She first found her passion in the beauty industry as a makeup artist and has since branched out to esthetics. She enjoys making women feel beautiful, whether that be through makeup, spray tanning, or a simple wax. Because of her knowledge, she serves as a staff trainer for makeup techniques, but her favorite service to perform is a brow wax and tint. Ask her how she can transform your brows today.
Morgan Schmidt | Skin Tech