Makeover Magic

Makeover 101

Taking what’s beautiful, and making it MORE beautiful!

Makeover 201

Applying the Alie James Makeover Philosophy …

Finding a little bit of "Extra" to add to Your "Ordinary" …
Making It - Extraordinary!

Makeovers are exciting, yet the word seems to imply something is wrong with the Original. I certainly don’t take that view; I think getting a Makeover is about taking what’s good, and making it the best it can be.  We take the "original" (ourselves and our homes) and simply revive, revise and refocus our efforts and energy to create something new - a "masterpiece" - something that turns out (in our eyes) beautifully perfect and perfectly beautiful. I like to use the analogy of what I do with my Photoshop software - I crop, layer and use filters on photographs.

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I thought I’d use the backdrop of The Yellow Rose from my recent work in Photoshop to further illustrate my idea of a Makeover. A little background first. Late April in North Carolina is always beautiful. There is a road I visit quite often while the Wisteria flowers are in bloom. I’ve loved the colors and fragrance of Wisteria since I was a little girl. (I used to play under a huge Wisteria bush every spring, and later pick the green pods for my dolls and animals.) Also, I like to dry a sprig or two of Wisteria each year and place it somewhere in my home because I love the faded lavender colors as much as the live vibrant purples. 

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This year I noticed some yellow roses that were growing wild among the thousands of Wisteria blossoms, so I took quite a few pictures. I love the original picture because you can see so many shades of purple, which for me is a feast for my purple-loving eyes. But after many attempts to crop the picture, I realized that it was too busy and didn’t have a focal point, so to make it into a picture would be "pointless". 

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Also, during the time I was working on this project, I came across a beautiful picture of yellow flowers on flicka, and I wanted to create something like it. So I began by "cropping" the Original, and then I "added layers" and "filters" to it. After about a few hours, I ended up with the perfect picture - it had just the look and the color I wanted in a picture.

The original picture was beautiful AND (not but) the "photoshopped" picture (the Makeover) was even more beautiful. In fact, it turned out … extraordinary!

So be encouraged! Makeovers are a good thing! Makeovers take what is good already, and make it into something better. And as The Yellow Rose suggests … "Beauty IS in the Eyes of the Beholder", because who’s to say this picture would touch you as much as it does me. 

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I hope you enjoyed the Slide Show I made, which follows the stages of "The Yellow Rose Makeover".