random reflections

Baby Shower

There is a baby shower today in Hyde Park for my niece who is expecting her first baby, a little boy. She's due the day after my birthday, so I'm hoping for a delivery a day early! I wish I could be there, but we leave (again) this afternoon for Chicago. Sarah and the youth group from her church fly to the Dominican Republic this morning for a mission trip. She's returning Tuesday night (before the youth group returns) to be back in town for Holy Week services. With both Sarah and Adam in church a lot this week, Grandma and Grandpa will be spending lots of time with Caleb. A good deal all around!

I sent the gift and card for the shower to my brother ahead of time. 

A CAS card, my preferred style. All the products except the enamel dots (MME) are from Papertrey Ink: Bitty Dot Basics, Select White cardstock, Wonderful Words: Baby die, Sheer Basics vellum, and the new Keep It Simple frames. I love that striped vellum which worked perfectly with the frame.

My Dining Room Ministry prepares lunch today at church, so I'm off to cook lunch before we get on the road. I'm not sure how much time I'll have to post or comment while we're away, but I'll be catching up with you when we return. We got another inch or so of snow last night, and the wind is whipping outside my window. I hope Spring finally decides to make an appearance by the time we return!

Pairs: Top and Bottom, Front and Back

The last day we were in Florida, we went to visit Selby Gardens in Sarasota. One of the things I enjoy doing in a botanical garden is to look for pattern and light. Once I found one of these pairs, I started looking for others. I'm not sure which label works best for these three pairs, what do you think?

Sometimes both sides of a plant or flower are beautiful! I'll have more to share about our visit to Selby once I get time to edit the rest of the photos. I'm linking up to Helena's meme and off to see what other pairs were posted this week.

It's All About Butterflies

When these cards were made I was so sick of winter I decided to break out the butterflies for some of the March/April birthdays.

This card uses my new favorite paper pad, "Watercolor Wonder" by Maile Belles, "Life is Beautiful" dies, and some of the new "Sheer Basics" vellum, all by Papertrey Ink. I think it was Nicole Heady who created the card with this die cut technique during the anniversary release. It turned out to be pretty easy to do.

The next card uses one of my favorite papers from "Watercolor Wonder." It reminds me of the little embellishment clusters that some of my favorite scrapbookers use on their layouts, but so much easier.

I die cut the solid butterfly from an old Papertrey Ink pad I hadn't used in quite some time called "Pretty Pastels." The lovely sentiment is from "Inside and Out: Birthdays" by Papertrey.

It turned out to be very difficult to photograph, but the vellum is covered with tiny polka dots.

After two weeks in the sun, I'm hoping for an early spring in the northeast!

Project Life: June 2014

There won't be any scrapbooking done in March since we'll be away more than we're home. Once we get settled in again, Project Life needs to rise up to the top of the priority list. June was a pretty quick month to put together. It only needed two pages.

Sarah and Caleb left at the beginning of the month after being here for Matt and Betsy's wedding reception. I love the photo of Caleb pulling his suitcase down our front sidewalk. It's always so poignant when he leaves!

A week later, I left to go to Detroit for the Presbyterian, USA General Assembly. Our head of staff was standing for moderator. Sadly (for the Presbyterian Church, and for John) the election did not go his way, but I learned a lot about how the larger church functions, and enjoyed my time in Detroit with my church friends.

Abi asked on a recent blog post, if her readers really felt like adults, or did we still feel like kids. I'm so far into adulthood, that I guess it's a moot question. Nonetheless, I really did feel like there was a shift when Matt and Betsy asked us to their house to celebrate Father's Day. I love to entertain, but it was so nice to be asked to celebrate with them. And I just adore the photo of Matt and Skylar. I don't know what the topic of conversation was, but it's clear they both were taking it seriously.

June marks the month of the beginning of Farmer's Markets in the area. Before then there isn't enough local produce to warrant the market. We make weekly trips to our local Brighton Farmer's Market, and almost always, make a trip to the Ithaca Farmer's Market some time in June. Taking photos at the market is one of my favorite things to do. 

When this post goes live, we'll be on our way home from Florida. It's been in the high 70's and low 80's the whole two weeks on Longboat Key. Rochester's temps are still varying widely from the 30's to the 50's. Matt says the snow has melted off our roof, but not from the yard. It's going to be an adjustment!

 

A Reason to Celebrate

Recently a friend celebrated her 65th birthday AND her retirement. We had a great time at her open house, and took this card and a bottle of wine.

The card turned out to be a snap to make. I picked up Teresa Collins' Studio Gold "Create a Beautiful Life" paper pad at Joanne Fabrics a few months ago. I gold embossed the sentiment from "The Big, The Bold, and The Party" by Winnie and Walter, and added that panel to another patterned paper from the same pad.

 

The gold embossing powder turned out to be an almost perfect match.

The wine tag was created with the "Uncorked" dies by Papertrey Ink, some gold and silver papers from The Paper Source, and a strip of same paper used for the card. And, of course, some sequins.

All I can wish for someone who retires is that they enjoy themselves as much as I have since I retired! A former colleague told friend of mine who was considering retirement not to be in any hurry, since retirement was "lonely and boring." I felt so bad for her. I'm never bored, never lonely, and fortunately, neither is my friend who retired in October and is having a fine time of it.

We're off tonight to celebrate a wonderful vacation at The Dry Dock. Our friends, Bonnie and Ed, who just happened to be here on Longboat Key with us for several days took us there the first week we were here. We loved it, and already know what we're going to order this time around. Can't say I'm very excited about heading back to the cold. Matt tells us a lot of the snow has melted, but as I expected, there's still snow on the ground. Hard to imagine, sitting here looking out on the Gulf of Mexico in the bright sunshine.

Pairs at The Ringling

One of the top items on our To Do list for this vacation was to visit The Ringling Museum. We spent the afternoon at the Circus Museum, and walked down to Ca'D'Zan, the Ringling mansion but never made it to the art museum which we know is fabulous. Obviously, we'll need to come back to Sarasota another time to visit the art museum and go on the house tour.

I'll have more on this excursion when I do my vacation recap, but on our walk from the Circus Museum to the mansion we passed a grove of banyan trees. They never fail to amaze me and I thought a look up and down (or more appropriately "high" and "low") would make for a good pair for Helena's meme.

And then we discovered this hiding among the roots of another banyan tree.

Off to check out the other Pairs at Helena's.

Happy, Zappy Birthday, Tracy!

Today is Tracy's birthday, and what fun to be able to celebrate it in sunny Florida! When Papertrey Ink released "Zappy Birthday" I just fell in love with it. I decided I didn't need the stamps, just the die cuts and so far, I'm happy with that decision.

The patterned papers are from a pad called "Comic Strip," released at the same time. The sentiment is from a W Plus 9 set, "Super Star."

Here's the inside:

I have to admit this card took me quite awhile to put together. My desk was cluttered with all kinds of die cuts in different colors and patterned papers. I tried vertical cards, horizontal cards, and all kinds of arrangements when I finally came up with this, and I do like it a lot.

I made a second card for my niece's husband, Kevin, while I had all the die cuts out. This one looks more complicated, but in reality, came together quite quickly, thanks to the patterned paper.

It's really a fun card, and Kevin is a fun guy so I hope he likes it! The sentiment is from "Sentiment Sampler" by Paper Smooches, as is the inside sentiment:

The font of this set seemed to fit the playful nature of the card.

Off to celebrate!

Swoosh! It's a Birthday!

As soon as I saw the dies and stamps designed for Papertrey Ink's anniversary by Maile Belles, I knew I'd be adding them to my collection. I also purchased her new paper pad, "Watercolor Wonder," and some of the gold adhesive paper they released. With these three products and a few sequins I got several March birthday cards created.

All the colors in the Watercolor Wonder pad coordinate with Papertrey's cardstock, so matching it to a card is so easy.

This gives you a better look at the gold adhesive paper which makes using these die cuts a breeze.

I needed a couple cards for guys as well, so I made two of these. I thought the colors were more masculine, and there are no sequins to be found.

This paper pad is going to get a workout! All the designs are printed on beautiful linen cardstock that's a great weight for "bumping out." I used to use dimensional tape to do that, but after watching Jennifer McGuire use "fun foam" from Michaels, I've started using it. It's a much better for mailing, pretty economical, and easier!

 

Christmas Gifts?

I was looking through some Christmas Pinterest boards this morning (another nice thing about vacation), and remembered I wrote this post before I left. Hard to think about Christmas here, but as far as I know there's still plenty of snow left in Rochester.

Well, yes, it's March, but I never shared the Christmas gifts I made. I didn't want to post them before the recipients received them, and then time slipped away from me. Every year for the last three or four years, I've made calendars for friends and family. They're fun to make, and seem to be enjoyed by everyone. Here's this year's version:

The first couple of years, I didn't include a list of where the photos were taken, and everyone wanted to know. Now I type up a list and include it with the calendar. I found these little white bags in the bakery section at Michaels. They're the perfect size for the calendars which slide into a 4X6 picture frame.

January: snow in Highland Park; February: tulips on my kitchen table

March: still life of Rainier cherries; April: Clivia at the Dutch Collection at the George Eastman House

May:  Morikami Japanese Garden in Florida; June: The George Eastman House gardens

July: Grand Haven Lighthouse, Muskegon, MI; August: Sunset at Bailey's Harbor, WI

September: Cana Island Lighthouse, WI; October: Pennisula State Park, Door Co., WI

November: Oak Leaf Hydrangea; December: Christmas tree ornament from the Biltmore Mansion

Every time I'm at Sarah's it seems they need some sewing done. She doesn't have a sewing machine, and the only sewing tools she has are those tiny sewing kits you pick up at some of the nicer hotels. I've seen lots of these on Pinterest so I put one together for her. I have to admit it took two tries to get the pincushion lid just right.

I was really happy with it, and I think she was glad to receive it. No surprise, I was mending Caleb's blanket within the first two days of being there!

Pairs: Morning and Evening

One of the great pleasures of being on the beach are morning and evening walks. Although I took my DSLR on one walk, most photos are taken with my iPhone which I always have with me. These are both iPhone photos.

Now that we're on Daylight Savings Time, the sun doesn't come up as early. On this morning we were walking before the sun came over the horizon.

Last night after the sun had slipped past the horizon.

Linking up to Helena's meme, Pairs. Check them out.