random reflections

Happy Halloween!

The blog hasn’t been as quiet as it might have been since I planned some posts to go love while we were away. I didn’t expect it to be so quiet when we returned, but as always after being away for nearly two weeks I returned with a long to-do list, and a miserable cold as well. I shouldn’t complain because I don’t remember the last time I was ill, but it definitely has slowed me down.

I have to admit that Halloween has never been one of my favorite holidays. I have a few Halloween decorations I put out each year, and I loved getting together costumes for Sarah and Matt when they were little, but otherwise it leaves me rather uninspired. 

This year I was determined to come up with more age-appropriate cards for Caleb and Skylar than I managed last year. When I saw this cute ghost during one of Papertrey's recent releases, I grabbed it, and I'm glad I did. The card design is lifted from one of Maile Belles' always creative designs.

I love that the little bow can be a hair bow---

or a bow tie.

I found the perfect Halloween board book for two year olds at Barnes and Noble. I'm quite sure they'll love it.

The story is in rhyming verse, there are doors to open to see who is there, but the best is a door bell you press to hear the trick 0r treaters arrive at your house. If you celebrate this holiday, I hope it's filled with treaters and not many tricks!

 

Santorini Note Cards

After we returned from our trip to Turkey and Greece, I made a set of note cards to send to a couple we spent some time with in Santorini. I didn't share them at the time since I hadn't shared my travel posts, but that's done, and before I come back with more vacation photos to share I thought I'd get these posted.

I embossed Select White cardstock by Papertrey with a Spellbinders die, and then cropped the photos to sit inside the embossed frame. It's a technique that would work with almost any photo you'd like to turn into a note card.

The first photo is of the bottle of wine they gave us to celebrate our anniversary. They had done quite a bit of wine tasting on the island, and brought us this bottle as an anniversary gift one night when we met for dinner. I used it as a thank you note.

The rest of the cards were some of my favorite images from Santorini.

I was very pleased with the way they turned out, and need to make a set to use myself. Just seeing them brings back such wonderful memories of that vacation!

 

Congratulations, Juan and Rachel!

Today is the day! The wedding is this afternoon, and if the weather holds, the reception will be on the beach! We're so delighted to be able to be present at such a special event. Here's the card I made for them.

Simple and elegant; the way I expect Rachel will look this afternoon. Although I don't anticipate taking a lot of photos, I hope I'll have a few to share with you when we get home.

The flourish (Inkadinkadoo) was stamped with Delicata ink. It has a beautiful sheen which is hard to see in a photograph. The narrow strip of gold paper is from the last of many sheets that I purchased nearly 15 years ago. I admit to hoarding it now. The sentiment is from Mat Stack 2 Collection (Papertrey Ink).

Tuesday Trigger: Apache Tears

When I first saw the inspiration piece for last week's Tuesday Trigger at Moxie Fab World, I knew exactly what I wanted to do. Neither of these two cards come even close to the original idea. 

I loved the arrows, and knew I had several stamps that might work. I decided on one of the arrows from Papertrey Ink's "Live Love Life," and stamped and hand cut multiple arrows in colors represented in the inspiration piece. I could not, for the life of me, get them put together in any way that I liked. Finally I just gave up. Later in the day I laid one of the arrows on some black cardstock, used a few die cuts from my "left-over die cuts" caddy, and came up with this.

Then yesterday after completing a card for another blog post, I used some of the supplies left laying on my desk to create this card. The Washi tape and tag from American Craft both have a chevron arrow design so I think it works for the challenge as well. Personally, I like this one a lot better!

 

Card Recipes:

Card #1: Cardstock: True Black, Hawaiian Shores, Raspberry Fizz, Harvest Gold, Orange Zest (PTI)
                   Stamp: Live Love Life (PTI)
                  Dies: "You" (Simon Says), Headline Alphabet (PTI),  Typewriter Numbers (Memory Box)
                  Corner Punch 

Card #2: Cardstock: Select White, Pure Poppy
                  Patterned Paper: Hip Hip Hooray (American Craft)
                  Clothespin (American Craft)
                  Stamp: Balloon Bash (PTI)
                  Die: Fabulous Frames (PTI) 
                  Twine: unknown

Happy Birthday, Cathy!

Today is one of my good friends' 60th birthday. She's celebrating in Florida with her family as they enjoy a week together before Rachel (her oldest daughter) and Juan's wedding on Saturday in Boca Raton. We're leaving bright and early tomorrow morning to drive to Florida for the wedding. Then we're spending a couple of days exploring southern Florida (Miami's Art Deco architecture, the Keys, and the Everglades) which we've never seen. On our way home, we're stopping to see our good friends in Charlotte, NC and visiting the Biltmore Estate in Ashville with them. I've been to Ashville several times, but never to the Biltmore which is supposed to be amazing. I'm excited about the whole trip! 

Here's the card I made for Cathy. It's one of my favorite birthday cards. 

A little Washi tape, a tag cut with a Tremendous Tag die from Papertrey Ink and edged with a gold leaf pen, some gold sequins and a bow with some gold twine I bought years ago. The numbers were cut with the Typewriter Numbers by Memory Box. They were the perfect size for the tag. I gave the card to her husband before I remembered to take a photo of the inside which says in gold letters "and fabulous!"

It's going to be a very busy 12 days so I'm not sure how much time I'll have to read and comment on blogs, but I'll be sure to catch up with you when we return. 

A Weekend in Canada

Our annual trip to the Shaw Festival in Niagara-on-the-Lake was this weekend. This summer we wondered if it would take place when Mike was so sick, but he’s nearly fully recovered, and we had a great time.

I took this shot out the front window of the car as we approached the Rainbow Bridge at Niagara Falls. The cloud of mist was amazing. Sadly, the Falls were on the far side of the bridge so I didn’t get any shots of it.

The Niagara River is always beautiful in the fall.

Friday night we relaxed at our favorite B&B. We’ve been coming here for many years, and the new owners are the third set we’ve known. John and Phyllis are warm and friendly, and we had a great time with them Saturday afternoon on their patio.

(This photo is from the web since I totally forgot to take a shot myself.)

Saturday was clear, sunny, and warm. We headed off to a few of our favorite wineries. We always seem to learn something new on these tasting tours, and inevitably end up with a case of wine to bring home. This year was no exception.

Strewn Winery has the best ever semi-dry reisling. 

There are still a lot of grapes on the vine. I think this is my 52/50 shot for this week.

This still life was arranged in a nook at another of our favorite wineries, Vineland, our favorite winery for red wines. Tracy bought six bottles to put away for five years. It's good now, and inexpensive, but they told us it will be exceptional in a few years and worth a lot more than we paid for it.

After Vineland, we went off to lunch at The Irish Harp. We couldn’t get the parking meter to work, so one of the guys at the restaurant gave Tracy a band-aid (they had no tape) to attach a note. The parking meters are monitored constantly here, and we didn’t want to have to deal with a ticket in Canada.

Here’s a shot of Karen and Mike at The Irish Harp. You can see how great he looks, thanks in part to all your good thoughts and prayers!

After lunch, we strolled down the main street. The flowers are still beautiful.

And I loved this window filled with caramel apples decorated for Halloween.

Saturday night we saw a wonderful production of Guys and Dolls at the Shaw Festival Theater.

Before we left on Sunday, we stopped at the Pie Plate and picked up a pumpkin praline and a cranberry/apple/pear pie. They’re safely tucked away in my freezer for November entertaining.

There was a long line of cars waiting to cross the border. Nearly all of them were from Ontario. This weekend is their Thanksgiving, and our Columbus Day holiday, so folks from both countries have a three-day weekend. 

Today I’m busy organizing and packing for the next trip. We’re home just two days before we head off for Rachel and Juan’s wedding in Florida.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Project Life: September

It's hard to believe that we're nearly half-way into October. I wanted to be sure I finished my Project Life pages for September before we got too much further into October. I really think this project is going to work for me. I like that I can do it in stages, and do little bits and pieces when I have a few minutes. This month I started a sketch notebook to help me plan the pages ahead of time, based on the page protectors I wanted to use. It saved a lot of time. 

I knew there'd be lots to document in September.

I had the cute Jolee's sticker of bread in a sack in my stash which worked perfectly for the journaling card.

The reason for our September trip to Chicago was the Installation Service for Adam as Associate Pastor for the Winnetka Presbyterian Church. It was a beautiful service. Although we had attended church there in August, the full choir wasn't present, and the music was simply gorgeous. It is a wonderful, friendly congration, and it's clear to me that Sarah and Adam have ended up in a very special place. I didn't get any really sharp photos of this page. Rest assured the photos themselves (taken by a member of the congregation) are sharper than they appear here. The little title photo was taken with my iPhone as we drove around Chicago and popped into a Cathy Z. template.

A huge contingent of Adam's relatives live in the midwest and were able to attend the service. His sister, brother-in-law, and nephew were here from England as well as his parents from the west coast. After the church reception, Adam's parents hosted a luncheon at the church for the relatives. Caleb and Samuel had a great time playing together all weekend. They will both be two this winter.

We woke Caleb up early from his nap our last day there to take him to the Model Railroad Garden at the Chicago Botanic Gardens. When we were there in August we didn't arrive in time to get to the trains. He absolutely loved it, and never lost his interest the whole time we were there.

I had fun this month creating some journaling cards. On this one I used Papertrey Ink's "Little Hot Rod" stamps to create the train, and some Studio Calico paper for the "track."

This journaling card is from Banana Fish. I love the way Caleb is leaning over the fence on his tiptoes to get a better look at the trains.

I had photos from two events--dinner out and a haircut--I wanted to include so I used a piece of Washi tape to divide one of the journaling cards from the PL Midnight Edition and used some very old arrow stickers.

And a page for our birthday girl, Skylar, from her visits this month. I used a Simple Stories 4X3 card, and an old cupcake sticker as well as some alphas I've had for a long time the filler card. Another good thing about Project Life:  using up the stash.

And finally, our weekend in the Adirondacks. While we were in Chicago, I discovered a great little independent stamp store and picked up a Lawn Fawn "Into the Woods" 6X6 paper pad. It had the perfect papers to create the journaling card for this page.

It feels so good to have all these events documented and saved! I hope I manage to maintain my enthusiasm. 

World Card Making Day

Today is World Card Making Day, and it seemed like a great reason to sit down and work on the cards I need for upcoming birthday and special events. Most of them can't be shared on the blog quite yet, but I did make a card set to share.

Once I finished the first one, I decided to make a couple more in different colors. The Flourish is a wooden stamp I picked up at The Paper Source a year or so ago, and the sentiment is from Papertrey Ink's "Botanical Silhouettes." I scored the bottom with the Martha Steward ScoreBoard which I use nearly every time I do some crafting, and finished them off with a couple of rhinestones from Hero Arts. 

As well as cards, I've been working on the journaling cards for the September Project Life pages. My friend, Mary, is coming over to craft on Monday and I want to have the photos printed and the cards ready so I can get September finished before too much happens in October. 

Hope you're having a great weekend. It's gray, chilly, and dreary here---a good day for crafting!

Card Recipe:
Cardstock: Neenah Solar White, Bazzill (green and blue), Plum Pudding (PTI)
Stamps: Paper Source, and Botanical Silhouettes (PTI)
Gems: Hero Arts 

Happy Fall: Two Challenges and Fall Foliage

When I saw this week's CAS(e) This Sketch I knew exactly what stamps I wanted to pull out. 

I've always love the "Take Three" series by Papertrey Ink, and the fall images are great. I chose pumpkins for this card.

You can see by the shadows that the pumpkins were attached with some dimensional tape. This card also meets the challenge at Addicted to CAS:  Autumn/Fall.

We had a fabulous weekend in the Adirondacks this past weekend. We left at 6:00 am, stopped in Old Forge for a hearty brunch, and dropped off the intrepid backpackers around noon.

Bob and Tracy have been working to hike most of the 46 High Peaks in the Adirondacks. Cathy and I have done a few as well with our kids when they were growing up, but we gave up serious backpacking quite a few years ago. After dropping the guys off, we head for Keene Valley for a bit of shopping (turned out neither of us bought a thing), and then checked into our hotel in Wilmington, NY. This was the view of Whiteface Mt. from our balcony.

We drove into Lake Placid, did some window shopping and had a lovely dinner overlooking Mirror Lake. The next morning we had a fabulous breakfast at our favorite diner, did a bit of shopping, and then changed into our sneakers to walk around Mirror Lake. 

It was a stunning day, in the mid-70's and sunny. By the time we got around the lake (about 2 1/2 miles) we were pretty warm and headed back to our hotel. We sat on our balcony, had some veggies and dip, and enjoyed the wonderful fall day. We decided not to drive back into Lake Placid and went to a lovely restaurant just a mile or so from our hotel. We'd been there before. The food is great, and very reasonable. I'll leave you with one last photo of the stream that runs by the parking lot of the restaurant.

The leaves are beginning to turn here, but it will be a couple of weeks before it's as beautiful here as it was in the Adirondacks. (The guys, by the way, had a great time, and added another peak to their list.)

52/50: A Long overdue Catch-up

When I went back to look at the last 52/50 post, I was shocked to see it was at the end of July. I've kept up with the project and had most of the photos filed appropriately, but I did have the last few weeks to edit. Posting them in batches seems to make sense, but I'll try to be a little more timely for the rest of the year.

Week 32:

Two of my nieces and a grand-niece kayaking on Conesus Lake. It doesn't seem like it was that long ago we were all enjoying the lake together.

Week 33:

Handsome Caleb at 20 months. I love those big brown eyes.

Week 34:

Vineyards overlooking Seneca Lake. We do live in a beautiful area.

Week 35:

Matt and Skylar; it's so good to have them just around the corner!

Week 36:

Bread at the Ithaca Farmers Market; this photo got the most votes when I asked which one to choose.

Week 37:

Miss Skylar playing with Grandma's iPhone. Both my grandchildren are techno-savvy at a very young age!

Week 38:

Lake Michigan. I almost didn't get a photo with my 50mm lens that week. Got this on our way home from dinner. I had lots of photos, but they were all taken with my phone.

Week 39:

Caleb and his English cousin, Samuel, playing after Adam's Installation Service. 

Week 40: 

 

I have lots of lovely photos from this past weekend. We were in the Adirondack Mts. from Saturday to Monday. The weather was gorgeous, and the autumn colors were at their peak.

I'll be back tomorrow with a little recap of the weekend and some more photos of the beautiful fall foliage.