Hopping Fun!

Well, I've hopped all over blogland during this week and weekend... ignored my DH and puppies too much, couldn't wait to get home from work each day to continue this journey, discovered many new blogging friends all over the world, found so much great inspiration, discovered some awesome blogs as well as links, and am now on Inspiration Overload, :0! 

And I still have at least 120 blogs yet to discover!  I began my journey with the first blog on Kelly's Blog Hop list, got to #10, then said, OMG there are 180+ on the list ~~ perhaps I should go to the bottom and work upwards, as it will take everyone forever to reach the bottom, and perhaps these blogging folks need some visitors!  As of this morning, I believe I've reached 1-10 and 130-180 (but the list continues to grow!), but I still have 110+ blogs still to visit ~~ I need an entire vacation week to get to each of them, lol!  Thankfully, Kelly is going to archive this Blog Hop List, so we can reach everyone...eventually.

It's been great fun!  I've located many of my "Fellow Suzi Blu Students" (Suzi cracks up at this title), several whom are passionate about art journaling ~~ my new love! ~~ and many whom are also passionate about mixed media ~~ my first love!  I have "followed" each of them in hopes of staying in touch, watching them continue to grow, continuing to gain inspiration from their blogs and, I'd be amiss if I didn't say that I hope they also will do likewise, ;).

Now, I've determined that I should have been writing all the inspiring links and ideas down as I went along this journey ~~ I should have been more prepared, but instead, I dove in head-first, no pen or pad in hand, and went on an awesome journey...hoping to retain everything mentally ~~ what a joke of an expectation that was!  However, I have put several links in my "Favorites" . . . for a later date when I need that boost of inspiration!

While on this journey, somehow a link discovered on one blog stayed up and running.  I must assume that this is where I should begin my quest to try each of the inspiring things discovered along this journey, since it was readily available, right?  The picture at the top of this post was created using the link, Andrea Mosaic.  Admittedly, it took me a few attempts to get a "solid" image (without black tiles), but how awesome is this???  In my humble opinion, this is such a neat application!  I will definitely be playing with it again.  There is something about mosaics that have always intrigued me.  Following is the original image, used as a base for this first mosaic (posted at the beginning of this post).

While creating this post, I had to experiment with a second mosaic, using the same application (Andrea Mosaic).  Here is the original photo:

And here is the mosaic created using several images.

So now I'm attempting to figure out how to create the mosaic using only the original image, ;).  Currently, it is using a selected "library" of photographs on my hard drive.

Okay, it's off to work I go...so I can continue to afford to play with art in my off time!  Happy Living and Creating to each of you!