random reflections

Project Life: July 2015 (Part 1)

We spent most of July hiking and sightseeing in the Canadian Rockies and Glacier National Park. The first page, however, documents some of the events prior to our trip. Tracy's mom turned 86, and we spent three days with Sarah, Adam, and Caleb in Chicago before flying out of O'Hare to Calgary. It also includes one of my favorite photos of Matt, Betsy, and the girls taken on their vacation in Nantucket while we were away. Then there's the story of the worst hike of the summer at Indiana Dunes State Park. The second page includes our itinerary, and the story of our missed flight. Luckily, we got to Calgary in time to see the Stampede on Saturday, although we lost our great tickets for the Friday rodeo.

More Calgary Stampede and a road trip to Missoula, MT. We stopped for a visit at the St. Ignatius Mission.

We spent a wonderful three days in Glacier National Park. The first two days we were at Many Glacier, and then we drove across the Going to the Sun Road---just gorgeous!

We hiked to Apikuni Falls, around Swiftcurrent, Josephine, and Grinnell Lakes, and on the Going to the Sun Road, hiked from Logan's Pass to Hidden Lake.

There's one more page to come with photos from Two Medicine at Glacier before we drove back to Canada to Waterton National Park, but I'll save those for the next installment.

Project Life: June 2015

I finally got my June and July Project Life pages completed. Most of June had been done quite some time ago, but I was waiting to figure out who took the photo of Karen, Debbie, and me at Karen's retirement party. Just a few weeks ago, I was texting with Karen's sister in Wisconsin, and discovered she had the photo I wanted. July has taken so long because there are SO MANY photos. I had most of them printed locally with a white border, and had started the pages in October and November. The whole project got sidelined when I took on doing a Christmas Journal, and then we were gone for several weeks. Now they're done before we head off again for nearly all of March. In the next few days I'll get the July pages posted. They'll need to be divided up into several posts. Now my goal is to be caught up over the summer. We'll see how that goes.

So here is June:

We took an unexpected trip to Chicago in the middle of June to help Sarah, Adam, and Caleb move to a new house. It's only five minutes away from the old one, but five minutes or an hour, the packing up, preparing the new house, cleaning the old house, and getting it all moved is still the same amount of work. On our way, we stopped for dinner with my cousin, his wife, and my aunt in Ohio.

 

As always, the focus is on the photos and the story, and there's minimal embellishment. I've recently realized I opt not to tell longer stories, and I think I might begin to do more of that in the near future.

Right after we got home from Chicago, we took off to Hyde Park to meet my grand-nephew, Finn, and to attend a really special wedding where our neighbor's daughter (who we've known since she was in preschool) married a soccer buddy of Matt's. They are both artists (a fashion designer and an animation designer) so the wedding had lots of special touches.

And lastly, a page with Miss Ella and Miss Skylar, and my friend Karen's retirement party.

Karen (in the middle), Debbie and I spent three years together working in a blended classroom (1/3 special education students). They were the best four years of my 37 year teaching career.

Back tomorrow with the first installment of July's pages.  

 

February Papertrey Ink 2016 Blog Hop Challenge and Pretty in Pink

The inspiration piece for this month's blog hop at Papertrey Ink is so lovely, soft and springlike.

It was a great color combination for an early April birthday card that I was getting ready to work on when this inspiration piece appeared. I'd already chose the Bold Blooms watercolor paper by Papertrey Ink, so pulled out my Kuretake watercolors, and mixed up some colors to match.

After it was watercolored, I adhered it to a Memory Box green card, added a gold die cut sentiment that was in my "die cuts to use" box, and added a few sequins. 

The last touch was to add the butterfly from the inspiration piece. I used an old Martha Stewart punch and a piece of patterned paper with gold dots from the "Fancy That" paper pack by MME. It wasn't quite the right color of pink, so I added a wash of watercolor to it, and now it's just right.

You can check out the other creations right here.

I'm also linking this up to the FUSION challenge, Pretty in Pink. I channeled the color and also the blooms!

 

SNAP: The Dutch Collection and 5 in 5 Minutes

This is the second week in a row that I'm posting flowers as the subject of my SNAP meme sponsored by Helena. I admit a slight obsession with flowers during the month of February. Despite unusually warm temperatures this month, we have had plenty of snow recently. Even with two days of temperatures in the 40's and 50's the depth of the snow in our front yard has not significantly diminished. So, as I do each year, I visited the George Eastman House this weekend. The Dutch Collection just opened, and it's a great place to get a glimpse of spring and some good photos of flowering plants.

The top left are a German primrose. I don't recall seeing them in previous years, but I love that one plant has so many colors. I was able to purchase one of these, although mine doesn't have quite as many colors in it. The top right in Clivia. Before I started going to this show, I'd never heard of it, and it remains one of my favorites every year. And who can resist the beauty of the Heleborus and the tulips? Not I.

Here's a larger view of the conservatory. Although the largest groupings of flowers are here, the Heleborus line a walkway overlooking the gardens on the way into the house, and there are groupings in a smaller solarium as well. Many of the groupings are color coordinated. One of my good friends is a docent here. She was scheduled to water these plants a week ago on the day of the big snow. Luckily, the museum closed, as did most institutions. I had never given any thought to watering these plants, and I forgot to ask her how long it takes.

I was there on Saturday afternoon after a retreat at our church which is just down East Ave. I was surprised and pleased to discover that there was an organ recital being played. I thought they were just on Sundays, but perhaps I wandered in at a time when the organist was rehearsing

While I was at the Eastman House, I got my five photos in five minutes for Sandie's meme. I just have one day left to get it posted, so here are even more beautiful flowers from the Eastman House taken during the first five minutes I was there.

All in all, it was a pleasant way to spend a half an hour or so on a winter afternoon.

Memorandum Monday

One Monday seems to follow another in quick succession, but I'm back again to wave to Sian and friends for Memorandum Monday: a chance to share something new you did or learned over the weekend. I have both to share today.

First, what I learned. I've taken on the challenge of reading the Bible cover to cover this year. I picked up a copy of the NRSV Daily Bible at the Presbyterian General Assembly a couple of years ago, and decided this was the year to tackle it. I'm enjoying it, but am now about to start reading some commentaries alongside it to learn a bit more about the historical context, and interpretation of the Old Testament.

Lucky for me, our church hosts a Sunday Seminar each week, and a three-part series on the wisdom books of the Old Testament is being taught by a dynamic professor of religion at the University of Rochester, Ann Meredith. Last week she talked about Proverbs, this week about Job, and next week we'll be talking about Ecclesiastes. First off, I had no idea Job was considered one of the wisdom texts. Job, of course, presents the problem of human suffering, particularly the suffering of innocents. It wasn't what I expected to be a wisdom text. The other big piece for me was the division of the book into two parts, a prose narrative and a poetic dialogue. I knew from lectionary readings the narrative story, but I had never read the dialogues. I skipped ahead in my reading this week to read Job before yesterday's session, and was glad I had. That, of course, is just a bit of what I learned. We have an eight page handout that summarizes the presentation. This week I'll be reading as much of Ecclesiastes as I can in preparation for next Sunday's seminar.

And now, a trip to a new venue. Saturday night we went with our friends, Karen and Mike, to a brewery on Seneca Lake. It was a gorgeous afternoon/evening, warm enough that many people were gathered outside on the patio when we arrived. Quite the contrast from a week ago when the weekend temperatures never got about 0°.

We weren't so hardy, but I did go out to get some photos before we ordered our dinner.

The view from our table was of the setting sun over Seneca Lake, and to the east a full moon rising above the bare trees. The flights of beer in the photos above were for the guys! We decided to share three sandwiches:  meatball, Italian sausage, and steak and cheese. They were all great, but we agreed the meatball sandwich was the best.

A band played from 6-9. They were reasonably good, and pretty entertaining, as were all the dancers. All in all, quite a fun night. With the hour and a half drive both ways, we got a chance to catch up with one another, which was a good thing. We were sitting so close to the band that talking while they played was nearly impossible. We don't often make the trip to the Finger Lakes in February, but it turned out to be a great way to spend the evening.

I'm off this morning for my annual check with the dermatologist, getting my car inspected, and then to lunch with a friend. Our contractor says he's got three more days of work left in the smallest bathroom which had to be totally gutted. I'm guessing the painter won't be back until the plumber's done, and then he probably has several days of work as he's painting the upstairs hall as well as that last bathroom. I'm trying to figure out what to do with the powder room walls now that we no longer have wallpaper. They're looking rather bare. Hope you have a good week!

 

 

 

 

 

Color Throw Down

I've been working on getting the cards made that I need for the next month and a half. While I had a die laying on my desk for another project, I happened across a blog where the card maker was participating in a challenge called "Color Throw Down." I was unfamiliar with it, but when I saw the colors for this week, I knew I'd participate. The die I had on the desk worked perfectly for it. It's one I purchased some time ago, but hadn't put to use. Here are the inspiration colors.

My new bathroom is functional, and almost totally "decorated." When I post photos, you'll know this color combination is right up my alley! It's been painted two shades of gray with white woodwork and red accents. Even the shower curtain in red, gray, and white. Since I had to make several runs through the die cutter for the first card, I had extra pieces for a second card as well. 

 

Aside from the multiple cuts on different colors of paper, this comes together quickly. I used "Fog" and " "Smoke" from Simon Says, and "Select White," "Pure Poppy," and "Smoky Shadow" from Papertrey Ink. The die is the "Stars and Stripes Photo Card" by Frantic Stamper. Although it includes a die cut for "celebrate," I preferred the Wet Paint II die from Papertrey.

The star dies are also included, and that worked out well. An enamel dot or two and the cards were done.

We've had a busy weekend, and I'll be back tomorrow to participate in Memorandum Monday. Hope your weekend is going well.

SNAP

I thought I knew exactly what I was going to post for Helena's SNAP meme this week, but I totally changed my mind when I got this beautiful bouquet of flowers for Valentine's Day. 

There were just the right number of different flowers to create this week's SNAP collage.

We spent yesterday house-bound with the biggest snow of the year, and the greatest accumulation in a day in the last seven years. It's beautiful, but I hope the roads have improved as I do need to go out today.

 

 

Memorandum Monday: The Valentine Edition

I'm back again this week, joining and waving to Sian and friends who post something new they did or used for the first time over the weekend ( or in my case during the week.) I saw some Valentine products I couldn't resist this year. Now that I have grandchildren who I can create for, this holiday is ramping up for me. 

First off, my favorite and an almost total case of a project Danielle Flanders did for the release of this stamp and die set: "Petite Places: Home & Garden." I've resisted this whole line of product from Papertrey Ink, but Danielle got me on this one. I knew Skylar would love it, and I made a second one for a crafty friend who loves this kind of thing. She makes wonderful creations from paper, but she's not a stamper, so I knew she wouldn't have seen it. Got to say, both loved it, and for a first try, I was pretty pleased with how it came out. By using different colors, you can change out the look of the project so it would be great for other occasions.

The clear dome makes photos pretty tricky, but in this one you can see the cute little swing hanging from the tree. There are also lots of other little additions I didn't add this time. I added a strip of adhesive cork paper to made the walkway, and combined some green Flower Soft and glitter to made the "grass." I threw in a few flower sequins as well.

The card for Skylar and Ella used Simon Says "Baby Party Animals" which I've used before, but the sentiment is from "Paper Hugs," included in last year's February card kit which I had never used.

With all the stamping, sequins, and die cut foil hearts, this is definitely a busier card than I usually come up with.

I ordered a die and some clear totes from Reverse Confetti to made Caleb's valentine gift. This combo is sure to get lots of use; it's perfect for hostess gifts, small birthday gifts . . . I can think of almost endless possibilities. The patterned papers are "Pure Poppy + White," from Papertrey Ink, and the heart border die is also an older Papertrey die.

Here's the tote with the card, which also uses new stamps and dies from Papertrey's "Valentine Pin-up" kit. I have plenty of material in that kit to create for grandchildren for several years to come. The little fox was one of my favorites.

I used a Simon Says heart die to make the balloons, and used another new die, "Balloon Strings" from Papertrey. It's been on backorder for awhile, and just came in the last order.

We have a wonderful homemade candy shop nearby, and that's where the Valentine candy corn and the chocolates in Caleb's valentine came from. I was thrilled to find little chocolate cars wrapped much like the Matchbox cars Caleb loves.

And here's what the tote looks like from the side.

We had quite a lovely Valentine's Day. It started with some car trouble due to the extreme cold, so we ended up coming in at the end of the first hymn for church. It was worth the effort to get there, though, since we had an excellent guest preacher and some beautiful solos by the bass section leader in our choir. From there I went to Sunday Seminar presented by Ann Meredith, a professor of religion at the University of Rochester. One of my friends was amazed that I had never attended one of her presentations, and said I would love it. Indeed, I did, and luckily it was the first of a three part series. It's days like this when I realize what wonderful resources we have in Rochester.

We played duplicate bridge in the afternoon. The last couple of times we've played we haven't done very well, but yesterday was much better. There are several couples in the group who play bridge regularly, and two who play competitively. We play only in this group, and do not study or practice, so it's quite a miracle that we can keep up with them. We rarely come in first (and we didn't yesterday) but we seem to hold our own, and have been playing with one of the couples for 42 years. The group started the year we were married. We came home for an hour, and then met friends for dinner. Quite an usual (and different-"new") Valentine's Day for us. I hope your weekend treated you well.

Happy Valentine's Day

I'll be back tomorrow with some more valentines to share for Memorandum Monday, but today I have one to submit to the Card Concept challenge blog. Here's the inspiration photo:

Clearly, the hearts were my inspiration.

I have to admit that photographing valentines can be a challenge in itself, especially when reflective papers are being used. I started with a piece of patterned paper from Teresa Collin's "Studio Gold" collection, then die cut Simon Say's "Heart Tic Tac Toe" from the middle and backed it with red and gold foil paper from Michaels. The sentiment is one of the dies from Papertrey's "Swoosh" set. There are a variety of categories to choose from at Card Concept, but I guess this fits the CAS Layered category the best.

Here's another look at it.

Tracy outdid himself this Valentine's Day. I received a gorgeous bouquet of flowers, a charm for an Alex and Ani necklace, and a gift certificate for a facial. I'm a spoiled lady! Our duplicate bridge group is playing this afternoon (very unusual; it's usually a Saturday night), and then we're off to dinner (again!) with friends. It's been a cold, but festive weekend.

Addicted to CAS: Bloom

The current challenge at Addicted to CAS is Bloom.

We could all use a bloom or two here today. The high was 0° and the wind is blowing hard enough that the wind chill was predicted to be -24°. I ran a few errands after helping register folks at a conference this morning, and decided I was not going out again although I should have gone to the gym. I stayed home and made soup instead.

Tomorrow is my niece's birthday. I know she reads my blog, but I hope she's already opened the card, or won't have time to check here before she opens this card tomorrow. I thought she should have some blooms as well. I'm guessing it's just as cold or colder in Vermont.

I chose not to purchase the "Bold Blossoms" stamp set last month at Papertrey Ink, but I did buy a pack of the watercolor sheets that already have the blossoms printed on them. I used my Kuretake watercolors. They're not quite as transparent as the Daniel Smith ones in my palette, but they are vibrant and colorful. After watercoloring the flowers, I die cut the sentiment with "Birthday Cheers" die, and added a few Pink Posh sequins. The card was in my stash, but I'm pretty sure it's a Simon Says cardstock.

We're off to friends for dinner, so I am going to have to bundle up one more time.