random reflections

2015 Summertime Scavenger Hunt June Link-up

I always love Rinda's Summertime Scavenger Hunt, and it amazes me how quickly friends and family start looking for items on the list as we're traveling together. My niece's husband wanted to know what was on the list this year. He remembers the year I got a great photo of a train passing by as we were walking down to the Hudson to see the fireworks over the Fourth of July. This weekend we were on a road trip to the Hudson Valley. I knew exactly where I could find #6, a metal bridge (even though we have a lovely one right here in Rochester.) We got a bit of exercise in the process. 

This photo is taken from a metal bridge, The Walkway Across the Hudson, looking out to the Mid-Hudson Bridge that crosses at Poughkeepsie, New York. It's 1.28 miles across and the longest pedestrian bridge over water in the United States. Here's a better view of the Mid-Hudson Bridge.

And a map that shows the views from the bridge.

 

While we were in Hyde Park, I wanted to go to the Culinary Institute of America. They have a lovely shop, and I've purchased some perfect spatulas there in the past. I wanted a second small one, but they no longer carry them. It's in an old monastery situated on the Hudson River and a wonderful place to take photographs. I'd forgotten how many architectural columns there were, however. Here is #5:

We took a scenic route to Hyde Park through the Catskills this year, and found #9, a tent along Rte. 20.

When my brother heard "tent" was on the list, he drove by this one. I took it quickly from the window, and didn't check to see if it was blurry. It is.

# 11 is a cellular tower or satellite dish. I was looking out the window to the right on Rte. 30 when Tracy suddenly turned around. Out to the left he spotted this row of satellite dishes.

Someone plugged into social media is #8. Tracy and I regularly walk our neighborhood, and we track our distance on an iPhone app called Runkeeper. Tracy's also known for adding to his "to do" list as we walk along, and here he is, doing just that.

The week we were in Chicago helping Adam and Sarah move, we took a morning off to take Caleb to the Chicago Botanic Garden. I have lots of photos from that morning, but this is the only one I've edited: #19 A ticket booth. The Chicago Botanic Garden has a separate Model Train Garden for which there is an additional charge (and well worth the price of admission!)

We're very fortunate not to have significant traffic in the Rochester area, but Monroe Ave. which I travel regularly is getting busier and busier. We had quite a wait to get through the traffic signals one evening when Tracy was driving, so I got #14, a traffic signal.

So that's eight items (#1 was posted earlier). I have my sign for #21 all printed and in my folder and hope to find a really beautiful spot in the Canadian Rockies for that photo. I'm thinking there are quite a few other items on the list that should be easy to find on our vacation as well. All my photos are in a SmugMug album you can access by clicking on the 2015 Summertime Photography Scavenger Hunt logo on my sidebar.

And a special thanks to Rinda for hosting, yet again, another fun hunt.

 

 

 

 

Me on Monday

It was another road trip weekend. We left Thursday and drove to Hyde Park via the Catskills to check out the location of the wedding venue for Saturday. Good thing! It was at the end of a dead end road five miles from the nearest town, which was pretty remote already. I was glad to know exactly where we were going and how long it would take to get there. On our way we found a couple of items on Rinda’s Summertime Photography Scavenger Hunt, but I’ll post those later this week when her Linky goes live. We had a lovely lunch at the Apple Barrel Cafe sitting on the beautiful patio.

When we arrived in Hyde Park at my niece’s we got to meet my new grand-nephew, Finn Robert McDonald! He’s the first grandchild on both sides. He’s a cutie and Stephanie has adapted to her new role with ease. He weighed in at 12.5 pounds at his one month check-up this week.

Here’s a photo of the whole family, including Rocky who seems to love the baby just as much as everyone else.

My niece, Julie, arrived and then my brother with his girlfriend (lovely lady; we like her a lot) for a delicious barbeque on Kevin and Stephanie’s deck. Alas, I took no photos!

On Friday we visited the Culinary Institute of America on a search for my favorite spatulas, but they’ve been discontinued. It’s a gorgeous place for photos though.

I love this sign on the crosswalks.

You’ll be seeing more of this lovely spot on the Scavenger Hunt post.

After another visit with Finn, we went to the Walkway Over the Hudson. 

The last time I was there, it was cold and windy and we didn’t walk all the way across. There’ll be more photos from this event later this week, but here’s one from the walkway of one of many trains that were going south as we walked across. 

The Walkway is the longest pedestrian bridge over water, 1.28 miles long, and 212 feet above the Hudson River. It was originally a railroad trestle, and had long been a bit of an eyesore before The Walkway was built.

On Saturday we attended the wedding of our neighbor’s daughter, Lauren, and our son’s soccer buddy, Andy. We’ve known both families for years, so it was wonderful to be part of such a lovely event. Both Andy and Lauren are artists, and their artistry was evident from the Save the Date video, the stunning invitations, and all the beautiful details at the wedding itself. Lauren and her friends did all the flower arrangement and bouquets, and each person had a hand-lettered card on their plate. The venue itself was magical despite a gray and rainy day.

 

Here's the card I created from the Simon Says May Card Kit and a stamp and die cut from "Grand Ampersand" by Papertrey Ink.

I just love this patterned paper and wish I had several sheets of it. You'll see the left-overs again next month on my anniversary card for Tracy. I didn't want to waste a bit of it!

We’re home now for a week before taking off again on our summer vacation which was planned long ago. Little did we know there would be so much travel prior to the vacation! We’re off to Calgary, Alberta; the Calgary Stampede; Glacier National Park; and then four stops in the Canadian Rockies. This trip was planned two years ago, but then we got the opportunity to go to Istanbul, and postponed this trip until this summer. No regrets about that decision. 

Waving to Sian, who hosts this weekend recap each Monday.

Retirement Wishes

The best four years of my teaching career were spent team teaching a blended class where 1/3 of the students were learning disabled. Almost half my career was spent teaching special education, but when this opportunity arose, I had moved back to the regular classroom teaching fifth grade. My friend, Karen who taught special education, and I had great success with this model and loved every minute of it. When the district stopped funding blended classrooms, we continued to work across the hall from one another for many years. After a year or two, she ended up switching to the fifth grade as well. She didn't start her teaching career until her kids went to school, so she had a few more years to put in after I retired. This was her last year, and now we'll get to see more of one another!

Four of us celebrated her retirement with a dinner with last night. Her lovely party was earlier this month, but I saved my gift and card for the more intimate celebration.

Every fall, Karen and her husband travel with us to Niagara-on-the-Lake for the Shaw Festival and some touring of our favorite wineries. This "Uncorked" set from Papertrey seemed perfect, and the card is a close copy of one Nicole Heady created for the release, although I changed up the colors and used a different floral set by Simon Says called "Life is a Journey."

A former neighbor is also ending her teaching career this year, and I found this card on Danielle Flander's blog and couldn't help but recreate it. Love the design and the message.

The patterned paper is from Simple Stories, and the tag is the Tag Sale #11 die cut. The stamps are all from the Monthly Moments line: "Travel Plans" and "July."

I hope both these ladies enjoy retirement as much as I do!

 

Pairs: Front and Back

Miss Skylar and I went for a walk last night, and happened upon this beautiful garden. The tall purple and blue flowers reminded me of my mother who had great success growing them. (Thanks to Mary-Lou, I now know they are delphinium; none of us could remember the name last night.) We often had a tall blue cut-glass vase filled with them on our grand piano. After I took the first photo of Skylar admiring the flowers, I asked her to turn around so I could take another photo. She's not always amenable to such requests, but I got a cute smile this time. So here's my pair: Skylar from the back and from the front. (Love those braids.)

I'm always curious to see what other pairing show up on Helena's blog each Wednesday. You can check them out here.

Happy Father's Day

We're celebrating the first part of Father's Day with Sarah, Adam, and Caleb. Later this afternoon we'll be hitting the road home. Matt will get his card tomorrow night, but I don't think he ever reads my blog, so posting it now will make no difference!

All three of these guys are the greatest dads! The love they have for their children is boundless, they spend hours with their kids, and are available for advice and help at any hour! I couldn't be more proud of them. 

The first one is for the #1 Dad---that would be Tracy! After forty plus years of marriage, and thirty-five years of parenting together, I can say without a doubt, you'd be hard pressed to find a more devoted and caring dad.

The #1 wood veneer came with a recent purchase from Gossamer Blue. I already had the starred wood veneer frame from Lawn Fawn, and the card didn't need much else beside a strip of black and white paper from the "Black and White All Over" pad by Papertrey.

The next card is for Adam. I recently purchased the Petite Places: City Station stamp set (a bargain at $5) and wanted to play with it. It took a little doing, but I'm happy with the result.

I started by stamping, masking, and cutting out the pick-up trucks to create the little scene. It's pretty tiny so in my scrap dish, I found a piece of Smoky Shadow paper I'd embossed with the Herringbone Impression Plate. It was the perfect size to fit behind the Tag Sale #11 die cut from Pure Poppy. The sentiment was die cut from one of the small dies included with the Center Style: Masculine die set which I just received in my last Papertrey order.  The Fog card needed a little texture, so I stamped it with a watermark ink, using the Diagonal Stripe stamp from Simon Says.

Matt's card came together much more quickly. 

After cutting the die from True Black and decided on yet another paper from the "Black and White All Over" pad, I needed three stamp sets to complete the sentiment: Winnie and Walter's "The Big, The Bold, and The Happy," "The Big, The Bold, and Party," and Papertrey Ink's "Handy Hardware."

Happy Father's Day to all who are celebrating today!

A Pair for Pairs

We've been in Chicago since Sunday helping Adam and Sarah move to a new house. Their landlord didn't renew their lease because he wanted to move into the house himself. Despite the hassle, they've found a much nicer place---more room, much more light, and a great location---so it's all turned out quite well. We can walk Caleb to his new school---only two blocks away, it's less than a block to a Walgreens, and just over a mile to a lovely shopping area. Despite the nearness of stores, the house itself is on a nice residential street, and none of the commercial activity impinges on it. We have most rooms fairly well settled, and most boxes unpacked, but there's still a lot of cleaning to do at the old house, and some decisions to make about where to put things here. Tracy and Sarah have been busy the last two days building shelves in the garage (yeah, for a garage!), and organizing a workshop in the unfinished part of the basement. I was in charge of the kitchen (much larger, nicer), and except for one box of stuff that needs to be curated, it's done and functioning well. Last night, Sarah and I sorted most of Caleb's toys and decided where to put them in the new playroom/family room.

Through all of this, I've been thinking about pairs, and had several ideas, none of which worked out. This afternoon I went for a walk through a beautiful Memorial Park about a block away, and discovered the perfect pair.

There are only a couple of spots in Rochester where you might get a photograph of swans, but it's rare that they are in an area where you can get a good shot. This photo was taken with my iPhone.

You'll find more pairs to enjoy at Helena's blog. We're here for just one more day and then heading home for a brief stay before leaving again to visit my brother and meet my new grand-nephew.

 

 

Artful Flowers & The Wednesday Challenge

As soon as I saw this stamp set from Simon Says, I knew I wanted it. The first few times I tried to use it, however, I didn't have much success. Finally, I've managed a set of birthday cards using the artful flowers that I die cut and colored with Copic markers. I'm quite happy with the way these turned out.

For the first card, I grouped three of the flowers together on a very old card I purchased from the first stamp store opened in Rochester. It's been closed at least 15 years now, and I'm shocked that I still had one piece of this left. I still love it, and would purchase more if I knew where to get it. The sentiment was die cut from Papertrey Ink's "Wet Paint II."

Next up, is another sheet from Maile Belle's "Black and White All Over" pad. When I first saw this, I couldn't quite figure out how to use it, but the two flowers and a few sequins worked very well with the sentiment.

The pink gingham card is another oldie from A Muse (I think) that I purchased at a wonderful stamp store in California when Sarah was living there. I still have quite a few sheets in different colors, but had forgotten about it until I found the folder during the recent cleaning out.

Last, a design using the Tag Sale #9 die from Papertrey, and piece of ribbon from my stash, and some patterned paper from the Papertrey Ink Raspberry Fizz Pattern pack.

I finished it off with another die cut from Hawaiian Shores cardstock with the "Wet Paint II" dies.

Those of you who know me, realize it's a rare card that doesn't include at least one die cut. This week's challenge at Simon Says Wednesday Challenge is to use your favorite technique. Can't imagine creating cards or Project Life pages without my die cutting machine! So I'll be linking these to today's  challenge

Cards for a Friend

I have two thank you cards to share that went off to friends. The first one uses an embossing plate that usually too fussy for me, but it seemed an appropriate background for the three butterflies. Because it's white on white, it still satisfies my CAS sensibilities. 

The embossing folder is an old Cuttlebug one that I just gifted to a friend in my latest purge. The butterfly die is Papertrey Ink, and the sentiment is from Penny Black's "Salutations." I'm linking this card to the current Addicted to CAS challenge: Butterfly.

Quite some time ago, Jacky emailed me to say she thought the Clearly Besotted stamps were ones that I would like. Now that Simon Says carries them, I've added a couple sets to my collection. Jacky was correct, I love the Clearly Besotted stamps and am particularly taken with these simple tulips.

I embossed them in white onto Tim Holtz's watercolor paper and then watercolored them and added the sentiment from the same set, "Friends Forever." I die cut the piece with Simon Says "Stitched Rectangle," an mounted it on a Raspberry Fizz (PTI) card.

This card's off to be entered in the Simon Says Monday Challenge: For the Love of Plants.

 

With Sympathy

We're of the age that many of our friends are dealing with the illness and death of parents. This week a friend lost her mother. Betty lived a long and happy life, but the last few months were very difficult. For some reason I never seem to have a stash of sympathy cards ready to mail, but since I had just watched the Papertrey Ink Make-it-Monday video I had an idea. I don't often stamp a background. Except for changing the ink color, I copied the background design Dawn created on the video. The neutral colors seemed perfect for a more somber card.

I used both Soft Stone and Fine Linen cardstocks and inks in creating the card. The die cut is the "Christmas Label" which I haven't used in a long time, but will remember it for times like these. The sentiment is also from a set I haven't used in a long time, "Boutique Borders."

The pearls from A Muse Creative Candy were the perfect color. I purchased a lot of these before A Muse went to a private party format, and I'm glad I did. This card seems perfect for the current Virginia View challenge, Ombre and Monochromatic.

Pairs: A Bouquet of Peonies

Our peonies are in bloom, and I brought enough in to create a bouquet for the dining room table since we had guests for dinner on Monday night. Here are two views, one from the top, and a closer look from the side. 

 

I'm linking this pair up to Helena's meme, Pairs, where you can always find some weekly inspiration for your photography.

 

This also qualifies for my first find (and #1 on the list) for Rinda's Summertime Photography Scavenger Hunt. Almost every year, there is one item for which I find multiple subjects. A bouquet of flowers may just be the item this year. It's not too late to join in on the fun. You can check out the list on Rinda's side bar. And on my sidebar, you can click on the Summertime Photography Hunt image and it will take you to this year's SmugMug album.