random reflections

Storytelling Sunday September Edition: The Silver Box

It's time for Sian's Storytelling Sunday.  This year it's about precious things. Here's Sian:

Pick Your Precious is about celebrating the little things you love: those souvenirs, bits and pieces, things from your past you can't bear to throw out. You know, the special little something you have tucked away in a drawer or up on a shelf? Or the thing you love most in a room? Or the object you would save if you knew you had to leave the country? Your favourite things.

I didn’t have something particular in mind for this month’s Storytelling Sunday nor was I prepared early with my story. For once, that was a good thing. Earlier this week, I gathered up a lot of very tarnished silver that I inherited. We are unlikely to ever use any of it, and neither of my children would be the least bit interested. I thought perhaps we might sell it and use the money for something we would use. Sadly, it all turned out to be silver plate, so there was no selling, and I still have the box of very tarnished silver in my basement. 

I did, however, find a lovely small platter and some beautiful spoons that I will use. I have cleaned them and put them away for some night when we are entertaining. But the subject of this “precious” post is a box that clearly belonged to my paternal grandmother, Mame Griffith. Mame died before my parents were married, and to my knowledge the only item I’ve ever owned that was hers was the doomed opal ring of last month’s Storytelling Sunday post. 

Here’s the box in the condition I found it this week.

After half an hour of rubbing vigorously with two different silver polishes, I got this far. 

I was about to give up for the day, but found a third metal cleaner in a box in the basement which worked a bit better. I’m not done, but it’s presentable, and you can see it’s potential.

And the inside, which clearly needs some work:

I’m planning on relining or cleaning the inside and using it to keep some of my “precious” jewelry in it on top of my dresser. It turned out that gathering up the silver, monetary value or not, was a worthwhile endeavor! I've found a precious thing I didn't even know I had.

Summer Scavenger Hunt 2013: August Link-up

There are just a few weeks left to complete this year's Summer Scavenger Hunt, and I'm closing in on it. I need to do the self-portrait, and our heads are still in the clouds looking for something recognizable. But I have a few new ones to add to the list as well as a few extras.

While Sarah and Caleb were here, we went to the Seneca Park Zoo one morning with Betsy, Matt and Skylar. Our zoo is tiny, but well-kept. Skylar's a member of the zoo and goes regularly. For a little girl just under two, she knows her way around well, and was eager to take Caleb to see her favorite animals.

I got quite a few good shots. I'll choose one of these from the mix for the final Summer Scavenger Hunt layout. (#11 Animal in a Zoo)

I decided to add the animal names to the photos (there are quite a few more) and make a little photo book for Skylar and Caleb. I finished Skylar's in time to give it to her when they came to dinner last night. 

This cute photo of the two of them in front of a mural of the zoo made for a good title page.

Here's one of the inside spreads. After the animal photos, I included a group of photos of just them at the zoo.

One of the items on the scavenger hunt list that's been giving me a lot of trouble is #9:  someone or something that's clearly out of place or doesn't belong. Yesterday on our walk through Highland  Park, we came upon this cute little guy who was sitting in a tree. Clearly not a permanent resident of the park.

Last month I posted a photo of a windmill. It was actually a flower container, and I've had my eye out for a real one. Last week while my brother was here, we went to the Finger Lakes for a day, and passed this one overlooking Seneca Lake.

At the beginning of the hunt, I started a collection of benches and I've been adding to it all summer. But this post is already photo-heavy so I'll save those for another day. You can find link-ups to other hunts right here on Rinda's blog. Clicking on the Summer Scavenger Hunt logo on my sidebar will take you to a collection of all my photos so far.

Birthdays

There were a lot of birthdays to celebrate in August, but I ran out of blogging time so I'll be sharing three of them here today.

The first one was cased from Stephanie of Clearly Besotted Stamps. I loved the cut out clouds and knew they would work with balloons as well as a kite.

All the papers and stickers came from the July Simon Says Card kit. 

Since my grand-nephew was celebrating his birthday right around the time he was here visiting at Conesus Lake, a nautical card seemed in order.

The card is one I've had in my stash for years, and I can't remember who manufactured them. They came pre-embossed and I bought several pack of them. 

This card is really one of the most versatile around. By changing the colors of the cardstock and candles you could create a card for almost anyone. I loved Papertrey's new birthday set, Wishes Come True, as soon as I saw it because along with the candles the sentiments are perfect for men, women, or children.

I added some glitter to the flames with my Gelly Roll Clear Star glitter pen, the quickest and cleanest way to add some glitter.

Card Recipe #1:
Cardstock: Robin Egg's Blue (Bazzill ), Soloar White (Neenah)
Patterned paper: Sweet Shop (Lily Bee) 
Stickers: Sweet Shop (Lily Bee)
Dies: Balloon Bash & Clouds (PTI) 

Card Recipe #2
Card from stash
Patterned papers: Bitty Dots (PTI)
Stamps: sailboat from Celebrate (Unity), sentiment (Stampendous)

Card Recipe #3
Cardstock: Summer Sunrise, Scarlet Jewel (PTI)
Stamps: Wishes Come True (PTI), Tilted Banners (Simon Says)
Die: Tilted Banners (Simon Says) 

 

 

August 2013 Papertrey Ink Blog Hop

I knew Papertrey Ink's Blog Hop came the day after the Stamp-a-Faire, but I had no time to prepare ahead. Luckily, the inspiration pieces are great, and meant to help you complete a card quickly. Since I need a couple birthday cards for guys in September I chose this combination of colors and sketch.

I followed the sketch almost exactly, skipping only the ribbon/twine & bow. I pulled out some Fine Linen and True Black patterned papers and cut strips for some of the diagonals, and two thinner strips of Dark Chocolate. The 2012 Birthday Tags were a perfect answer for the circle element in the sketch.

The Birthday Tags cut perfectly with a circle punch and I added slightly larger True Black and Fine Linen circles as mats.

Quick and easy---another sketch to come back to when I'm in a hurry for a card. You can find the other color combos and sketches here.

Card Recipe:
Cardstock: Classic Kraft, True Black, Fine Linen (PTI)
Patterned Papers: True Black, Fine Linen (PTI) 
Stamp: 2012 Birthday Tags (PTI)
Circle punches  

Sweet Sugar Coated Embellishments

After a fantastic dinner with a group of church folks last night at a new restaurant, Revelry, I took a look at the rest of the Papertrey Ink Stamp-a-Faire Challenges. There are a few more I'd like to tackle, and I managed to get this one done this morning. Glitter was the focus for this challenge, and I ended up making a masculine card! I would have never thought glitter would be appropriate for a guy, but I do like this one.

Danielle Flanders demonstrated how to use Score-tape to creat a striped, glittered die cut. It was much easier than it looked thanks to her great directions, especially the quick way she took care of all the negative space after the Score-tape was applied. 

I wasn't quite sure what to do after I finished the sentiment, but found the perfect Washi tapes and some black enamel dots to finish off the card. A little glitz is good for the guys, too, I think.

I just realized today is also the Papertrey Ink Blog Hop which I always enjoy. Is it possible to have too much inspiration? It's a good thing I'm in need of some cards for September! Hopefully, I'll be back later today with another card or two.

Card Recipe:
Cardstock: Smoky Shadow (PTI), Medium Morning Mist (WorldWin)
Stamp & Die: Wonderful Words: Birthday (PTI)
Washi tape
Glitter: Ultra-fine Crystal (Mark Enterprise)
Enamel dots: My Minds Eye 

Mixing Mists to Match Challenge

I have a second card completed for a challenge at the Papertrey Ink Stamp-a-Faire. For this one I mixed rubbing alcohol with a reinker to create a mist. It was easy to do, and I'm quite sure I'll do it again. My misting bottle is a mini-mister by Ranger so I had to make significant adjustments to the quantity, but it worked really well. Originally I tried a white embossed design like Nicole demonstrated and wanted to mist with Lemon Tart, a rather pale yellow. The white embossing just did not show well so I turned the watercolor paper over and misted the back side. Then I die cut the three flowers from Beautiful Blooms 2.

Much to my surprise, I liked the design created by my flawed embossing attempted and ended up using those instead! I decided to use another of the sketches from the first challenge to put together the card.

Sticking with my goal to use my newer stamps, the sentiment came from Delightful Dahlias Additions. On Monday a group of us are taking a good friend out to lunch to celebrate her retirement. This will be the perfect card for a garden loving lady!

Card Recipe:
Cardstock: watercolor paper (Canson), Canyon Clay, Summer Sunrise
Stamps: Delighful Dahlias Additions
Twine: Papertrey Ink
Pearls:  Kaiser
Dies: Beautiful Blooms 2 (Papertrey Ink), Tender Leaves (Memory Box), Happy Everything Tags      (Spellbinders)
Ink:  Lemon Tart for mist 

Papertrey Ink Stamp-a-Faire

I've been "off the grid" for a lot longer than I expected. I really thought I'd have time (and energy) to blog from Chicago, but I was wrong. By the time we'd spent the day unpacking boxes and organizing Sarah and Adam's new house, all I had energy for was reading a few blogs! It wasn't all work and no play, however, so I'll be back with some photos of our week there. But today, and this weekend, I'm hoping to find time to play along with some of the challenges at Papertrey's second annual Stamp-a-Faire. 

The first challenge of the day was a color and sketch challenge. The color combinations and sketches could keep me going all day, but new challenges will be popping up all day long! I'm quite sure I'll be back to play with more of these combos before long.

I chose this color combination to start with:

And this sketch:

My personal goal is to use some of the newer stamps and dies that have arrived in the last few months. For this card I chose the dies from Maille Belles new set "Bubble Talk." None of the sentiments with that set fit my needs, so I turned to an older set, "Fillable Frames #7" for that.

I followed the sketch almost to the letter, just substituting the talk bubble for the circle. The inside sentiment is an anniversay one. I think I'll use this sketch again. It seems really versatile.

Card Recipe:
Cardstock: Enchanted Evening, Hawaiian Shores, Spring Rain, Select White, New Leaf, Limeade Ice
Die: Bubble Talk
Stamp: Fillable Frame #7
Enamel Dots: My Minds Eye

 

Happy Birthday, Sarah! & Family Fun

Sarah's birthday was August 3rd, but we waited until she arrived with Adam and Caleb on Monday to celebrate. Matt, Betsy, and Skylar came to dinner, and we had a great time. From elementary school on, the only birthday cake Sarah ever wanted was an ice cream cake, and that was her request again. There were three candles for 33 years. :-)

Skylar wasn't quite sure what to make of having another toddler in our house. Initially she told Caleb that the toys were "mine," but she soon recovered, and they had a lot of fun running up and down our driveway together, shouting and laughing.

Skylar kept losing one shoe, and eventually was running barefoot. I was just glad neither of them fell!

But this is my favorite photo of the evening --the two of them on our poor glider at the bottom of the driveway that's waiting to be refinished.

Here's the card I made for Sarah. Her personal "symbol" is a tree, and she has a wonderful one designed by Adam on her business cards and website. There's a tree hanging over their bed, a colorful tree that hung over the fireplace in Ashland, and one on her favorite totebag. When I bought the "All Seasons Tree" die by Simon Says , I knew it would be on her next birthday card.

I'm linking this up at the Moxie Fab Birthday Card challenge. It's the last of the white woodgrain cardstock that came in a Simon Says card kit mounted onto a green Memory Box card. The sentiment is an old wooden stamp from A Muse that I've had for years stamped onto one of Papertrey's banner dies.

Yesterday, all the cousins (but one who couldn't come) gathered at Conesus Lake. We don't think they've ever been all together in one place before. They arrived from Illinois, Arizona, Oregon, Vermont, and Louisana as well as locally. The only damper on the day was the my mother-in-law was too ill to join us. She had been looking forward to this day for months! But we got great photos. First, one of all the cousins and their children.

A pretty good-looking group, if I do say so myself!

And then one of all of us. I'm amazed that we actually got one with everyone (except Caleb) looking at the camera with a smile on their face, and their eyes open!

Tomorrow Adam heads back to Chicago. Sarah and Caleb are staying for the last two days at the lake (we drive back and forth each day), and we'll be driving them home. We'll leave sometime on Sunday and spend one night on the road. Tracy and I are planning to spend a week in Chicago, helping to unpack a house full of boxes and get everything settled. Once we get back home, my brother is coming for a few days.

I have a few posts to put up for the time we're away, but I won't have much time to visit blogs or comment. I'll be sure to catch up with all of you toward the end of August.

Storytelling Sunday

Sian at From High in the Sky hosts a monthly Storytelling Sunday. This year it’s about those precious things and memories we hold dear to our hearts, and this month Sian suggested we consider “something about togetherness or something given in love.” I knew right away what I wanted to share. It’s a piece of jewelry. I’ve done a scrapbook page on it before (part of my very first Christmas Journal in 2006), and I shared jewelry last month as well, but this comes to mind immediately.

Here’s the journaling I did nearly seven years ago. I don’t think it can be improved on much.

The perfect present--I got it years ago, and there’s a sad story behind it. My mother died while I was in college. She didn’t have a lot of jewelry, but she had a beautiful fire opal my father had given her on their wedding day. It was her birthstone. When she died, I took the ring and wore it constantly, not knowing that opals are very soft stones. The opal had a small crack in it when I got it, barely noticeable, but with in a few years a large crack developed down the middle. I was heartbroken when the jeweler said that nothing could be done to save it. 

That Christmas Tracy gave me a beautiful opal ring. We had just bought our first home, my job was not secure, and there wasn’t a lot of money for gifts. I was stunned and so moved. It is my favorite ring, but I only wear it on special occasions. One damaged opal is enough.

You'll be able to find other precious stories right here today.

Summer Feet and the BPC Phone Photography Project

On a whim, more or less, I enrolled in the Big Picture Class "Phone Photography Project" in July. I'm not sure if I didn't read the class description accurately, or if it wasn't quite presented as billed, but I was a bit disappointed. From reading the message boards during class, I know I wasn't the only one. I was hoping to get some good ideas about how to improve my iPhone photography, but there was little, if any, content related to that. There were great reviews of apps, and I learned how to use a few I already had, and picked up a new camera app that I'm quite pleased with so far. I also got in the habit of posting to Instagram regularly which I'm always meaning to do, but don't. The bulk of the content was a project to work on each day. The first day was Summer Feet, and I decided that would be my Project 365 for the month of July.

This turned out to be a lot of fun. Trying to capture some context to the photo was the challenge, but most days it worked out well. Here's where I was this month (left to right, top to bottom): Strong Hospital, working at Foodlink, at an RPO concert, in the garden, under our tree where mushrooms are sprouting daily, at the gym, at church, buying groceries, at the Irish Harp for lunch in Niagara-on-the-Lake, in the OR waiting room with my friend, on a walk with Tracy, at book group, on the Ford St. Bridge walking to the Corn Hill Arts Festival, at the pool, on the patio, catching up with email, in the kitchen, getting a haircut, out to dinner, at a wedding (no context here though I really tried!), at the Dryden Theater (waited too late for good context on this one), lunch on the Erie Canal, dessert on our patio with candle light through our open work table, a midsummer pedicure, at Charlotte Beach for sunset photos, with Skylar, at the Mt. Hope Cemetery where Susan B. Anthony and Frederick Douglass are buried, at the Silver Thread Winery, pumping gas, waiting for the dermatologist, and ready to run errands. 

Most of the other projects were ones I was familiar with after doing Capture Your 365 for nearly two years. I may go back to look through them another day, but I didn't find any of them compelling. I'm not sorry I took the course, but I'm not sure it was worth the money.