random reflections

Happy Retirement

It's 90° as I write this. We've gone from winter to spring to summer in less than three weeks! It won't last, but I never complain about the heat. It does seem odd, however, to have turned on the air conditioning in my car this early in May. We won't do that in the house for awhile as it always cools down nicely at night in the spring.

We're off to help our friend, Bill, celebrate his retirement tonight. I hope he enjoys it as much as I do!

I started with a piece of white cardstock that I scored on the scoreboard every half inch. Then I used the Sentiment Splits die and backed the split with patterned paper from the Mini Market "Clipsters" kit from Papertrey Ink. The "Oh Yeah" die and stamp are from the same kit as is the sentiment on the bottom of the card. The starts are left over from die cutting the Simply Stars cover plate a long time ago. I layered three of the "Oh Yeah" dies to get some extra dimension.

I find it hard to believe given how many stamps sets I have that there are very few (I found two!) sentiment stamps for retirement. This one is from one of the first sets I purchased from Papertrey many years ago, "Mega Mixed Messages." The "Cheers" die cut and stamp are from Retro Birthday.

I'm linking this up to Virginia View's latest challenge "Layers and Dimensions."

Lots of Thanks

I needed three thank you cards---quickly! Luckily I found two in my stash, and this one came together very quickly by going through my stash of already stamped and colored images and pre-cut die cuts. I'm not sure I would have put this together starting from scratch but I like it quite a bit and think I'll use this design again.

I started with Papertrey's "Building Blocks" cover plate die in True Black and adhered it to a white card. Then I stamped the sentiment with Simon Says "Thanks" set. The "Delightful Dahlia" was already colored with Copics and fussy cut, so all I had to do was pop it up with a piece of dimensional tape. 

My friend is a fan of florals and pink, so I think she'll enjoy this card. 

Pairs: Zoom In, Zoom Out

This might be the first ZIZO pair for the year. I've been trying to be more creative, but this just works when it's flowering trees that are the focus. Monday I posted some photos from our walk in Highland Park on Sunday night. I saved these three (yes, one more than a pair because I couldn't choose) for this week's Pairs.

Zoom In:

 

Zoom Out:

 

Although most of the trees are labeled in the park, I neglected to note exactly what kind of flowering tree this is. Next time I'm there I'll look. (Thanks to Cheri, I can tell you now that it's a Kwanzan Cherry tree. She has one in her backyard--lucky lady!)

Spring has Sprung

It takes a long time for Spring to arrive in Western New York, but after several days in the 70's and 80's it is here. Last night after dinner, Tracy and I walked to Highland Park. Designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, it is a fabulous place, and less than two blocks from our front door. According the website, there are over 1200 lilac bushes, 35 varieties of magnolias, and many azaleas, rhododendron, and gorgeous flower beds. The pansy bed supposedly has over 10,000 plants and was totally redesigned this winter. The lilacs are just beginning to bud. Hopefully, our warm weather will continues because the annual Lilac Festival begins on Friday. Visitors won't be disappointed, however, because the magnolias and flowering trees are simply beautiful. Here are some highlights from our walk:

 

I've saved a couple photos for Wednesday's Pairs posting, and I'm likely to be back with some photos of the Lilac Festival in the next week or two.

 

Project Life: October 2014

October saw us on the road again, off on the postponed July trip to Petoskey, MI and Door County, WI. A friend of mine lives in Milwaukee and vacations regularly in Door Co. and a friend of Tracy's made a winter trip to Petoskey and we were intrigued. Of course, we ended up in Wilmette for some time with Sarah, Adam, and Caleb.

I finished September's layouts with a Design G page so went with a smaller title card: Papertrey's Monthly Moments die cut, some stamps from the July Monthly Moments set, and a piece of Washi tape on a Becky Higgins' Midnight card. The photos (clockwise) from top left are Petoskey; my friend, Nancy and her friend, Mary; the lighthouse at Muskegon, MI; Peninsula Park in Door County; and a dramatic sunset after a cold, windy, rainy day in Petoskey. (The photos look a bit out of focus here, but it's the photo of the pages causing the problem.)

I scanned two pages from my travel sketchbook to show our itinerary, my favorite photos of Caleb at the garden center and Kohl's Children's Museum, and ended up with two photos from our stop on our way home to meet our friends, Karen and Mike, for our annual weekend in Niagara-on-the-Lake.

I had fun creating the cards for the Halloween spread. I used an OLD piece of Scenic Route patterned paper for the title card with some equally old Doodlebug border stickers, and a stamp from Monthly Moments on a Keep it Simple Frame die cut. I die cut the Journal Card #5 from a piece of patterned paper from the Lawn Fawn "Beachside" paper pad and layered it over a contrasting piece from the same set. The cute little owl is by Doodlebug that I picked it up recently in a lovely little store near Sarah's. 

Caleb tried on his Halloween costume which I made for Matt when he was little. The only alteration needed was to hem the pants. He practiced his roars for us, as well. When Halloween actually arrived it was cold with hail. After three houses, he announced he was ready to go home. Candy was definitely not worth slogging through the terrible weather. When I asked on Face Time about trick or treating next year, he said, "NEVER!" We'll see.

It wasn't great here, but not quite so bad. No surprise, Skylar was Elsa from Frozen, and had a better time than Caleb. The pumpkins are Matt's creation; every year he gets a little more creative with them.

The second page of the layout is just photos from the trip. Door County is known for it's lighthouses as it extends into both Green Bay and Lake Michigan. We visited several of them. Here are a few more photos I added at the end of the month's pages.

Although it's hard to read, the third photo on the left-hand page is of the plaque at the 45th Parallel which we crossed twice on this trip. It marks the theoretical half-way point between the North Pole and the equator. The hot dog on the right-hand page is a Chicago Dog--which I actually had in Petoskey, MI. It turned out to be the best one I've ever had. (I've eaten three of these calorie-laden dogs now, and I'm quite sure there are more in my future.)

Today is International Scrapbooking Day, and with some time off to go to spinning class, and walk down to Matt's to get our bikes out of his garage, I expect to be working on Project Life. It's May, and I didn't quite meet my goal of getting caught up. I did, however, finish all the pages for 2014, so there'll be more spreads to share soon.