random reflections

Photowalk #20: The Cornell Ornithology Lab---Sapsucker Woods

Another favorite spot in Ithaca is the Cornell Ornithology Lab, Sapsucker Woods. It's interesting to me that no matter what time of year or what time of day we go, we rarely see very many birds. We hear hundreds, but don't see many. Nonetheless, it's always fun to search out other subjects for photographs.

The back of the main building from the trail around the pond.

Most of the serious photographers were actually inside the building at the observation windows. Clearly I need a longer lens!

There are benches all along the trail, but only one that is protected. It was very hot and humid so we appreciated the shade.

If you look closely in the center of the photograph, there's a bee working it's way around the flower.

My second contender for the SPSH alternate: A Birdhouse

And for #9: A bridge

An aviary hotel.

The deer was busy eating something. I had to wait quite awhile for him to pickup his head, but he never turned around while I was there.

The chipmunk posed for several minutes before scampering off into the woods.

Another possibility for #7: A Curving Path for the SPSH.

This dragonfly's wings are amazing.

You have to look closely because the green frog's camouflage is very effective. He/she is peeking out under the tree trunk.

And, lastly, one of the beautiful water lilies on the pond.

 

Birthday Flowers for You

The current Time Out Challenge features this quote:

My card features a bouquet of bright summery flowers---who could not be happy surrounded by such beautiful blooms? It's also another candidate for AAA Birthday: For the Girls.

With the exception of the embossed sentiment from Papertrey Ink's "Balloon Bash," all the elements for this card were laying on my desk. The flowers  from Altenew's "Adore" were colored with Copics some time ago, and the Pink Fresh Studio "Essentials: Braided Tag" was from an earlier failed card design. 

I'm a huge fan of Pink Fresh Studio's braided die cut designs. I love the subtle color that comes through from the card itself, and there are multiple layers to each one. In this case, I used all three of the pieces for this tag. I'm also a huge fan of bright colors set against a black background, so this card makes me pretty happy.

This big bouquet of blooms is a bit of a departure from my more CAS card designs, but it seems like a perfect summer birthday card!

Photowalk #19 and July Five in Five: Ithaca Farm Market

On Saturday we took a day trip to Ithaca and Aurora--both on Cayuga Lake. Our first stop was the Ithaca Farm Market. It's one of our very favorite markets. Everything sold there must be locally produced; within 30 miles of Ithaca. Over the years, we've purchased a hand-loomed table runner, jewelry, eggs, honey, flowers, fabulous baked goods and bread, plants for the garden, and fresh fruits and vegetables. It's also a great place for photos, and only being a day late for Sandi's 5 in 5 meme, I took the DSL-R to capture some photos. The first five were taken within the meme's required five minutes. This is a very easy task at the market since booth after booth has beautiful products to photograph.

This stand also sold perennials. I purchased two to add to my cutting garden---an unusually beautiful variety of Black-eyed Susans and two delphiniums.

I've been doing a pretty good job of sticking to my relatively gluten-free and sugar-free diet, but it was really hard to pass by my favorite bakery stand.

I did purchase two blocks of cheese from this vendor who had samples to share. Interestingly, the two I bought were "Goblin" and "Ghost." When I commented on the unusual names, the man told me the cheese is named after particular cows in the herd.

Several of these photos are candidates for the second alternate in the Summer Photography Scavenger Hunt: Fresh Local Produce.

 

 

 

Mom's 90th Birthday: Part 2

Friday was Mom's actual 90th birthday, and although we celebrated with a big party for extended family and friends a couple of weeks ago, we didn't want to let the actual event go unnoticed. The immediate family all gathered at our house for lunch on Friday with great stories, lots of fun, and of course, another cake!

Everyone had more cards and some gifts to share as well. Here's the new card I made for Mom:

I started by die cutting two elements from Pink Fresh Studio's "Essentials: Braided Circle" on a white linen card front. I added that to a Pale Peony card base and stamped the sentiment from Papertrey Ink's "Birthday Basics." 

Then I added the floral cluster from Pink Fresh Studio's "Fancy Blooms" that was watercolored on Bristol paper and then fussy cut.

In the photo you can just barely see the Wink of Stella glitter added to the centers of the flowers, but it's much clearer IRL.

I'm linking this card up to the following challenges:

AAA Birthday Card Challenge:

CAS Watercolour: Bouquet of Flowers

The Flower Challenge: Pretty Pastels

 

Card Concept: Cacti Clusters

As soon as I saw this challenge pop up in my reader, I knew exactly which new dies to pull out. My first order to The Greetery was to purchase the "Succulent Dies" and the "Small Terrarium" die. Both were a gift from a friend for my birthday. I've had extra time in the craft room this week to play with new and unloved stamps and dies, so this was a perfect excuse to get out my ink blending tools and some Distress Inks.  

We have a nice selection of succulents both inside and outside, but for my first attempt in coloring the succulents, I followed Betsy Veldman's lead in choosing colors. Each succulent has four parts that are ink blended separately before putting them together. Here's a closer look:

I die cut the terrarium from bronze metallic cardstock, and after attaching it to the succulents, "hung" it with some twine to the background which was embossed with Taylored Expressions "Subway Tile" embossing folder. It is the perfect backdrop for the terrarium. 

The sentiments, tag, and banner are also from The Greetery: "Sentiment Suite: Birthday" and "Sentiment Suite Basics" die. It's not often that I have a lot of unaccounted-for time, but it's a great excuse to play with my crafty supplies and get a few cards made ahead for a change.

A Trio of Challenges

Sometimes creating a card comes easily; other times not so much. Today was a not.so.much. day, but I'm pretty happy with the overall outcome. Friday I spent some time with two stampers and had a chance to play around with some stamps and dies I don't own. It always turns out to be useful; usually I find some things I wish I had, and other times I discover I really don't need or want a stamp set I had on my "wish list." This time is worked both ways. The flowers on this card are from the Ink to Paper "Many Anenomes" set. I loved a lot of what I saw during the release, but decided after playing around with them, it was not a set I needed. I did stamp a few on Bristol cardstock, and last night watercolored some for the current Color Throw Down challenge: Blue, Orange, and Gray. Blue and orange flowers were easy to create, but it was adding the gray that turned out to be the real challenge. I tried all kinds of papers and dies, and finally settled on a piece of beautiful patterned paper by Pink Fresh Studio. 

The Geometrix Hexagon die I used from Ink to Paper was not on my list. It makes a delicate CAS frame which I like quite a lot, so it may eventually find a home here. The sentiment and banner are from the new Greetery release. I was given a gift certificate for The Greetery for my birthday, and have purchased several sets. Betsy Veldman was one of my favorite designers for Papertrey Ink, and her new company has a lot to offer already. This is the "Sentiment Suite:  Birthday" set, and comes with a great assortment of tag and banner dies that hold the sentiments perfectly.

In addition to the Color Throw Down challenge, I'm also entering it in the Seize the Birthday: Cover the Card (that's the topping,) and Simon Says: Anything Goes.

Thank You

Last night our interfaith book group had a special guest who shared a wealth of knowledge with us. I wanted to write her a thank you note, and pulled out a new Altenew set I just purchased during a sale at Ellen Huston. After one use, I'm pretty sure you'll be seeing a lot of "Weekend Doodles." I love the sketchy look of the flowers and they are beautifully arranged, and perfect for coloring. This afternoon I decided to pull out my Copic markers, and chose the colors based on the monthly Altenew Challenge.

I didn't have quite the same purple as the stripe behind the photograph, but if you look at the pansies, you will see a more traditional purple which I used in the flowers.

The design of the card was also dictated by a challenge: the AAA Card Challenge: One Corner and Optional Twist: Flowers. I've got both of those.

After coloring the flowers, I die cut them and added some dimensional tape before adding them to the white cardstock where I had already stamped the sentiment from Papertrey Ink's "Thank You Kindly." 

I tried a variety of tiny embellishments, but in the end, decided to leave it truly CAS, and just added it to a top-folded card of Ripe Avocado.

I'm off to check out the other entries at these challenges.

 

The Library Challenge: The Rainbow

The Library Challenge is an interesting one. The challenge is based on a book cover, and you can use the cover art, the title, or the story as your inspiration. In this case, I'm using the title.

Not long ago I purchased two dies from Reverse Confetti: the "On the Curve" cover plate, and "Over the Rainbow." The design team for Reverse Confetti highlighted multiple ways to creatively use the cover plate, and I'm always looking for interesting dies that might appeal to grandchildren. A rainbow seemed like a good choice. As it turns out, my first card with these dies went to an adult cousin who loved it! 

Admittedly, it took a bit of time to cut the cover plate from so many different colors of cardstock, but I now have a stash of bright colors all cut for the next card. Once I had the colored pieces, I die cut the cover plate from Select White cardstock and inlaid all the pieces. This was made much easier by applying a sheet of Stick It behind the die so that each strip immediately adheres to the background. 

The next step was to die cut the cute clouds and sun from the "Over the Rainbow" set, which does include the die for a much smaller rainbow. I did some ink blending around the sun rays and popped up the center of the sun and the clouds on the cardbase.  The sentiment is from Simon Says "Best Ever" set which I curved on an acrylic block to add to one of the rainbow stripes. I'm pretty sure I'll be using these dies for birthday cards as well as thinking of you cards. Who could resist smiling at such a bright and cheery card?

Happy 90th Birthday!

Yesterday we celebrated my mother-in-law's upcoming 90th birthday with a party for about 75. She knew about the party, but had no idea how many family members and friends would show up for it. Tracy's sister was the mastermind and planner for the event which she and her siblings had catered. It was a gorgeous day, and the event room where Ellie has her condo was the perfect spot for it. A nice big room that opened up onto a patio with lots of grassy lawn for the great-grandchildren who ranged in age from one to eight.

Here's Mom before the doors opened. You can see the stunning cake on the right, and the family tree that Tracy put together in the center.

Here she is with her five children and two step-children. Tracy (standing behind his mom) is the oldest of five born within five years! Bobbi and Marcy (on the left) are the daughters of Ellie's second husband. 

Making a card for this momentous occasion was a lot of fun. Jill had decided on black, white, and lime green as the color scheme for the party (Mom's favorite colors), so that's where I started. I also knew I had exactly the right stamp set and dies for the card: Papertrey Ink's "Big Birthday Wishes" and "By the Number."

After die cutting the numbers, I layered the top piece on a piece of patterned paper from Reverse Confetti's paper pad, "Fun Times." It's a pretty appropriate title, as yesterday was definitely in the "fun times" category.

I'm linking this card up at Seize the Birthday without the optional twist this time.

Take Three Thursday: Garden Vibes

It's been a few weeks since I joined in with Mary-Lou's Take Three Thursday meme. Last night we attended the George Eastman Museum's "Garden Vibes" concert on the lawn of the mansion and I thought I'd share three photos from the event. It's been a favorite summer activity of ours ever since we joined the museum and found out about them. Typically there are three concerts during the summer---one each month. This year, however, there are only two because the gardens are undergoing extensive renovation this summer. We missed the first concert last week while we were at the lake, but the weather was much better last night---a nearly perfect summer evening in the high 70's with a gentle breeze. 

Songs From the Road Band from Asheville, North Carolina was terrific! They're a bluegrass band that perform highly original remakes of a few familiar songs and lots of their own compositions. All four are excellent musicians but two are truly outstanding--the mandolin player and the fiddler. The fiddler has won two National Fiddler Championships.

We arrived an hour before the concert, knowing it gets crowded, and we had great seats. It's bring your own chairs, your own supper, and your own wine if you'd like. We stopped and got delicious wraps at a new deli, and did bring a bottle of wine, so waiting was not a problem. The crowd was appreciative and it was a perfect way to spend a summer evening

I'll be anxious to see the renovated gardens next year, and equally anxious to get to the Garden Vibe Concerts which they promised would return in 2020.