random reflections

Happy Birthday, Matt!

Today is Matt's 32nd birthday. He's celebrating with his three favorite girls, Betsy, Skylar, and Ella in Niagara Falls. They're staying at a hotel overlooking the falls with a swimming pool, and have plans to visit the aquarium and perhaps, the butterfly garden nearby. It's a weekend retreat from the winter weather here. They'll get to see Niagara Falls frozen over, which is a rare event! 

I took this photo yesterday when I delivered our gift and card to him before they left. For the first time in either of our memories, I bought him a birthday card rather than make one. He's been into brewing his own beer in their basement, and I found the perfect "Hoppy Brewday!" birthday card at Trader Joe's a few weeks ago. Here's another shot of Matt with Skylar on their way out to play in the snow. He's a great husband, dad, and son, and we are so proud of him!

Even though I didn't make Matt a card, I do have a couple birthday cards for guys that I haven't shared. The first one was for a friend in Denver.

A piece of woodgrain patterned paper from MME, a die and stamp from Papertrey Ink, and three wooden embellishments, also from MME, and it was done.

Lots of gold embossing on this one. The triangle background stamp is from Hero Arts, and the sentiment is one of my favorites from Winnie and Walter's "The Big, The Bold, and The Happy."

We're off in a few hours to celebrate Tracy's and Tom's birthdays (both occur in March). For the last several years, we've gone out to dinner with Jill (Tracy's sister) and Tom to celebrate. Usually we go between their two birthdays, but we won't be in town on Tracy's birthday, and Jill won't be here on Tom's so tonight's the night. (Both their cards are finished in and in my tote bag to be given--or mailed--on the appropriate dates!)

 

 

Pairs: Open and Closed

Two posts in one day is unusual, but I'm already a day late for Helena's wonderful Pairs meme. Those of you that have been following me through several winters know I rely on grocery store flowers to get some early spring into the house. Trader Joe's had bunches of daffodils this week for $1.49. Grabbing two bunches of them was a no brainer.

I've been fascinated with all the different pairs that have shown up on Helena's blog. I keep meaning to make a list so when I'm at a loss for a pair, I can channel someone else's genius.

Pile of Postcards

It's been a week since I've posted and I really can't explain where the time has gone! It's not for lack of content. I have quite a bit to share, and hopefully, will get most of them drafted before we head south next week. 

I thought I'd received all my postcards from Sian's wonderful Postcard Swap last week, but it turns out I was one of the lucky ones to receive an extra from my friend, Cheri. If everything goes as planned, Cheri and I will be meeting up next week for the first time. We've been trying to figure out a way to meet for several years now, and we think we've done it. More on that soon, I hope! So one advantage of procrastinating with this post, is another card arrived on Tuesday, so now I can share them all.

I love that Alison managed to find an adorable postcard of a puppy that looks like hers, relaxing by the side of a pool. Hopefully, I'll be right there with him in about 10 days! Cheri's postcard features a great quote.

Laura (not a blogger) created her own postcard with a wonderful vintage sticker, and Ruth sent me this great collage of images from London. 

These next two cards seem to go together perfectly. Julie sent me the one of The Ladybird books. They are unfamiliar to me, but the covers of these remind me of the orange-covered biographies I loved in elementary school. I have no idea who the publisher of those were. My sixth grade teacher had a whole bookcase filled with them, and I think I read nearly all of them that year. The Dickens Festival card from Jane sends me right to the Shaw Festival in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario where we go every fall. 

And last, but definitely not least, is another fabulous postcard of the iconic double-decker red buses of London with some landmarks as well, sent to me by Sheena.

Many thanks, Sian, for all the organizing you did to pull off another great postcard swap!

If all goes as planned, I'll be back tonight with my Pairs for Helena's meme --- already a day late for that as well!

Family Cards

In my continual rant against the weather, it is -4° this morning, with a wind chill of -22°. Really? Worse yet, we discovered ice damming in several places yesterday, which can cause all kinds of damage. The last time it happened, we had to have three rooms repaired and repainted. Since then we've had the roof replaced. We also have cables on the roof which usually take care of the problem. This year it's just been too cold for too long. The icicles on everyone's homes are amazing. Beautiful, but a potential sign of problems to come. Tracy has a call into the man who came many years ago, but all the folks who deal with these problems are overbooked. Two weeks from today, we'll be in Florida,, although it's even chilly in Florida (they were predicting lows in the 30's this week), but it's surely better than here. I'm actually glad to be here right now, so we can keep an eye on the ice damming.

Well, on to more pleasant topics. I don't usually leave making a card to the last minute, but for Sarah's ordination, I did exactly that. I made it the evening before, just before we gave her a stole. (I never got a photo of that either, but I will on Easter Sunday when we'll be celebrating at her church.) But she immediately said, "Nice card!" I think she's partial to CAS as well.

It couldn't have been simpler. White cardstock, a piece of patterned paper from the Studio Calico "Print Shop" pad, and a die cut from Penny Black in gold.

And somehow, when I posted about Caleb's birthday from Chicago in December, I never shared his birthday card.

Caleb LOVES cars, and this little car die from Savvy is one of my favorites. I cut it three times in Limeaid Ice, Pure Poppy, and Hawaiian Shores and mounted them on a piece of Summer Sunrise (all Papertrey Ink). It's been ages since I used any of my 12X12 scrapbook papers, but I found a piece of map paper and cut two banners. I can't remember (and didn't record) where the "happy, happy, happy" sentiment comes from. 

On one final note about the weather, it's sunny today! Makes going out a little less onerous. I'm going to lunch with two friends from college, but otherwise I'm staying inside!

Three Pairs

I have three pairs to share with you today for Helena's wonderful meme. Yesterday afternoon Adam's parents, Tracy, and I spent the afternoon at The George Eastman House. After we saw the new exhibit on Technicolor, we took a tour of the mansion. Luckily, it was one of my very good friends who was our docent, so we got a great tour. Every year, the Eastman House is filled with Dutch bulbs. George Eastman had three greenhouses and from November to April each year, he had wonderful Dutch bulbs blooming in his home. Excellent records were kept, so the staff at The Eastman House knows what kind of bulbs he ordered. Rather than have a few bulbs over many months, they flood the house with gorgeous blooms from the middle of February to the first of March. Needless to say, the residents of Rochester are very grateful for a breath of spring during our long winter---this year in particular!

Outside and Inside:

Upstairs and Downstairs:

Zoom In, Zoom Out: 

This is just a glimpse of the gorgeous flowers we saw, and the exhibit on the development of Technicolor was also wonderful.

 

Ordination Weekend

It’s been a whirlwind around here for the last few days. Sarah, Adam, Caleb, and Sadie (their dog) arrived on Thursday as did Adam’s parents from Chehalis, Washington. We all gathered for Sarah’s ordination service yesterday at Third Presbyterian.

The weather could not have been much worse. We’re well over 3 feet of snow, and there were five fresh inches in the morning. Worse yet, it was 1°, with a wind chill substantially below that. Nonetheless a lovely group gathered during the 10:45 service for her ordination. It was truly a beautiful and moving service. I, of course, am very biased, but many members of the congregation said the same. We have a large and wonderful choir who sang during the service, and both Tracy and I were members of her Ordination Commission and participated in the service. 

Our pastor, however, engaged three photographers to take photos during the service. We will eventually get copies of all of them. For now, I have an iPhone photo taken by my friend, Jane, after the service, and three gorgeous black and white photos takes during the Constitutional Questions and the Laying on of Hands by one of the photographers, Jenn Poggi, a professor of photography at Rochester Institute of Technology.

The ordination service is a somewhat scripted event. Sarah wrote all of the liturgy except for the sermon. There is the Reaffirmation of Baptism, a set of Constitutional Questions, the Laying on of Hands (by all ordained elders of the church, past and present---over half the congregation in this case), and then the Charge to the Ordained and Presentation of Symbols of Ministry. 

Here is a photo of Sarah answering the Constitutional Questions.

And two of the Laying on of Hands:

Sarah is in the middle kneeling. It's a pretty emotional event even when it's not your daughter! 

It’s been a long road to ordination. Sarah completed a Masters of Divinity at Columbia Seminary seven years ago, completed a Masters of Theology degree at Princeton Seminary, and then began work on a Ph.D. in Spiritual Theology at GTU in Berkeley.  In April of last year, she decided to let the dissertation go, and left as an ABD (All But the Dissertation). It was a wonderful decision in many respects. And now she has received a call as Associate Pastor for the Winnetka Congregational Church. Yesterday, she officially became The Reverend Sarah Walker Cleaveland. We are so proud.

Adam and Sarah are now officially a clergy couple--both Associate Pastors at churches in the same community which is really amazing in itself.

After the ceremony there was a lovely reception at the church.

And this was the gorgeous, and delicious cake:

Afterward, we hosted a casual luncheon at home for about 30 of our friends and family. I was really worried about where everyone would park with the high snow drifts, but it all worked out fine. The only photos I took were of grandchildren after everyone else had left. 

Sarah, Adam, and Caleb headed back to Chicago this morning. Adam's parents are still here for a couple more days. We saw "Still Alice" this afternoon, a heartbreaking story of early onset Alzheimer's Disease, and then had a lovely dinner at TRATA. Tomorrow we're headed for the George Eastman house. Hope your weekend was a good one!

Let's Hear It for Animal Valentines

I have the rest of the family valentines to share today. All of them feature animals. And all of them qualify for the Simon Says Wednesday Challenge: "All Creatures Great and Small" and the CAS-ology "Love" challenges.

The first card doesn't feature any stamps. I drew the hedgehog from an image I found online. Despite a search on Pinterest and Google, I haven't been able to retrace where I found it. If anyone can direct me to the original, I'd love to credit it. Sarah's a huge fan of hedgehogs so it seemed to be the perfect image for her valentine.

After drawing the hedgehog with a fountain pen, I use a combination of Copic markers and watercolors to color the image. The red and pink hearts make this card qualify for the Simon Says Monday "Red and Pink" challenge, as well. I made the frame by layering two Papertrey Ink "Stitched Rectangles" on Pure Poppy cardstock. It's all adhered to a Fog (Simon Says) card base.

The next card is for Adam. I purchased the W Plus 9 "Knock, Knock Valentine" set for future use with grandchildren, but I decided it would work for Adam when I discovered the iguana (TPC Studios) in my stash.

I stamped the sentiments, and layered it behind a Pure Poppy frame created with a Nestability Small Classic Rectangle frame, stamped and cut out the iguana and added it with some dimensional tape.

The last card was inspired by this card by Kathy Racoosin. I already had the "Quite the Pair" set from Simon Says and loved how she sat the frog on the paper airplane.

The heart was cut from some "Kiss, Kiss" patterned paper from Crate Paper that came in the February Simon Says card kit. The cardstock for the card base was also in the kit. The frog and the paper airplanes were stamped and cut out, and the clouds are die cuts from Papertrey Ink. I colored Mr. Froggy with Copic markers and added some googly eyes for fun.

I hope you have a wonderful Valentine's Day. I'm delighted to be spending it with family!

 

 

Happy Heart

Another valentine, this time for the Addicted to CAS "Hugs and Kisses" challenge as well as the 
CAS-ology Challenge: Love. 

Nothing but die cuts on this card, all from Simon Says. I love the new Heart Banner die. It makes an inlaid die cut so easy. I also like the soft gray, red, white, and Smoky Shadow color combination. I happened to find the perfect match sequins in my stash. I left the "valentine's day" sentiment for the inside.

We have happy hearts here today. Sarah, Adam, and Caleb are here for the weekend, as are Adam's parents who flew in from Seattle last night. We all went to The Strong Museum this morning with Betsy, Matt, Skylar, and Ella. There's nothing finer than having all your family in one place for a few days!

Birthday Greetings

A little break in the action from all the valentines. My niece's birthday is this weekend, and the Less Is More challenge to combine pink and gray appealed to me. I also wanted to put the Simon Says December card kit and stamp set to use. I have a couple different "Sparkle and Shine" sets from different companies, and I like them all. I also got to use the Simon Says "Stitched Circle" dies which I just love. The rectangles and squares are on their way to me. I finally broke down and ordered them after making this card. The die creates a stitched line on both the outside and inside of the circle.

The Smoke cardstock (Simon Says), Hibiscus Burst (Papertrey) and silver from the December card kit were all layered onto a white card base. The sequins are all from Pretty Pink Posh. Their sequins are the best!

Here's a look at the inside sentiment:

Two more stitched circle dies and a stamp from the "Sparkle and Shine" set. I hope this isn't too "fancy" for my niece who is one of those absolutely lovely Earth girls!

Pairs: Inside and Out

Although it was quite unexpected, I ended up with a new car today. It turned out I could move up to the nicest of the Subaru Foresters for less money/month than I was currently paying for my older Forester. It was a no brainer, and it's the nicest car I've ever had. It's also the very first car with automatic transmission. It's going to be awhile before I stop thinking I should downshift when I come to a stop!

The dealership had some Valentine's Day decorations on the windows, so it seemed like the perfect spot for the outside photo.

I've owned a Subaru for years, now. After the first winter with All-Wheel drive, I knew I'd never go back. I've also relied on the five-speed in bad weather as well, but Matt tells me I'll have no problem. He moved to an automatic last year, since Betsy didn't drive a standard transmission. It won't be long before I'll be able to test it out. More snow is on the way tomorrow. I hope there's not too much because Sarah, Adam, and Caleb are headed here from Chicago tomorrow.