random reflections

Ten on Tuesday: Memorial Day Weekend

This week's list for Carole's Ten on Tuesday asks for 10 things you did on the weekend. Mine was a busy one, but most of my photos are from the last part of the weekend. It was a three-day weekend in the U.S. although mine started on Friday and spans four days!

1. I walked with my friend, Debbie, from Pittsford to Bushnell's Basin (about a 5.75 mile walk) which we end with breakfast at the Coal Tower. 

2. Friday afternoon I picked up my pots for the patio. For the last three years, I've taken my three biggest pots to a local garden center and have them planted. It's proven to be very cost effective, and I'm always pleased with the results.

3. Although I have photos from my very special evening on Friday, they aren't ones I can post on the blog. The agency where I volunteer once a week has conducted a year-long project funded by a generous grant for the fourth and fifth grade girls. They've had the opportunity to visit a college, attend etiquette lessons while having a tea party (their favorite activity), go rock climbing, and visit local businesses. It expands the horizons of girls who are growing up in one of the worst neighborhoods in Rochester. The culminating event was a very fancy dinner at one of the nicest hotels in the Rochester area. The staff acquired fancy dresses for all the girls, and transported them. The girls chose the menu, picked out the color of the napkins, and created a lovely invitation. I was lucky enough to receive one of them. The girls loved every minute of the dinner, and everyone received a diploma for "graduating" from the program. The staff has applied for another grant for next year, and I hope they get it. It was such a positive experience for everyone.

4. Saturday morning was hot and humid. Not a great day for cooking for a crowd in a kitchen with no air conditioning, but that's what my Dining Room Ministry team did. The food is always appreciated and I work with a great group of people from elementary school age to over 90 years old from my church. Our church hosts a lunch every Saturday (even on Christmas if it falls on a Saturday). We serve 80-90 meals each week. There are 10 teams, and we rotate throughout the year.

5. When I got home, Tracy and I went to visit our friend, Bob. Keep your prayers coming. The chemotherapy is doing some good, and he is feeling stronger. He was able to enjoy visits from both his daughters, and from family who was here visiting from California this week.

6. Late that afternoon, we attended our final performance at Geva Theater, our wonderful local repertory theater. The play, The May Queen, takes place in a small city in the Hudson Valley, just a few miles from where I graduated from high school so I was familiar with all the places that were referenced. It was an odd play (neither Tracy nor I know quite what to make of it), but it was well acted and the staging was great---as always.

7. It had cooled down considerably by the time we left the theater so we treated ourselves to dinner outside at one of our favorite restaurants on Park Avenue. It's a Lebanese restaurant, and the food is always excellent. Watching the folks parade up and down the street adds an element of entertainment to the dinner.

8. Sunday, after purchasing some plants for the front circle and our vegetable beds, we went off to Home Depot to buy a new shower head for my bathroom. On the way out of the store, we happened to find a sale on a wonderful new umbrella for our patio. Sarah had recently found a solar-powered, lighted patio umbrella which we loved. We hadn't had any luck finding one that was affordable online or in the one or two places we'd previously looked. This one is rectangular so provides a lot more shade for our rectangular table. It was the final touch to setting up the patio for the summer. I turned on the lights for the photo, but I'm sure it will be more charming in the evening. In the background you can see Tracy's lush shade garden. It's really in top form this year. We still need to set up the fountain, and do some transplanting, but it's ready for use. We'll be eating breakfast and lunch out here regularly. If it's hot, we usually choose to have dinner inside since the patio gets the strong afternoon sun. This photo was taken about 7:30 at night, and then it's great for reading and having a glass of wine.

 

9. Monday was Memorial Day---a day to remember all the veterans who have given their lives in far too many wars over so many years. One way people commemorate the day is with parades. Matt and Betsy's neighborhood has traditionally held a parade for the kids (and their parents) in the neighborhood. After a short speech to help the kids understand the reason for the holiday, a fire truck and police led the parade through the neighborhood. Ella and Skylar were all ready for the event.

Skylar rode her bike which she and her dad had decorated.

10. Betsy's father recently moved into a new house, and he hosted a huge picnic for family and friends Monday afternoon and evening. The girls absolutely love his new pool. Ella is amazing as she floats around the pool (adult close by). She couldn't wait to get into the water.

Skylar and two of her friends spent a LONG time jumping into the pool on the count of three, climbing out and jumping in again. It never lost its appeal and finally, the parents told them it was time to get out of the pool. Miss Skylar is the one closest to the camera.

In between all this activity, I managed to get some reading, planting, and organizing done. I recently completed a free four week online course hosted by InkWELL Press. I'd already cleaned out a lot of the areas covered in the course, but still had some things I wanted to clean up in our bedroom. Spurred on by Honoré's book sorting, I redid the book shelf in our bedroom, purged some volumes, and reorganized all the rest. Let me just say, I have enough books on those shelves alone to keep me busy for at least another year or two! 

 

 

 

One Card, Two Ways

I recently started following the My Favorite Things release posts after seeing some really cute cards on Kay Miller's blog. For the May release one of the designers created a card with primary colored stripes on a black background. I immediately thought of my Papertrey Ink cover plate, "Horizontal Stripes." I needed two cards for totally different reasons. The first for my niece's birthday.

I die cut the cover plate seven times with different colored cardstocks, then layered them into a cover plate cut from True Black. The die cut sentiment is from "Wet Paint," and the stamped sentiment from "Big Birthday Wishes."

The other card is for one of our dearest friends who has very suddenly been diagnosed with aggressive cancer. It's taken all of our breath away, but I wanted to send a card that might brighten his day a little.

Both the die cut and the stamped sentiment are from "Wet Paint" by Papertrey Ink. Please keep Bob and his family in your prayers. There are rough days ahead. 

SNAP: The Poet's Garden (Spring Edition)

In February (SNAP #5) I posted photos of a walk through the Poet's Garden in Highland Park, and I promised to do another walk through this spring. I must say, it's a lot lovelier in the spring than it was in February. I ought to go again this winter when there's snow, and see what it's like then.

I told a bit about the garden in my previous post, but here's a link to an article about the garden which was first planted in 1916 to honor William Shakespeare. Thanks, as always, to Helena who's hosting this meme each week featuring three or four linked photos.

Memorandum Monday: More Crafting

Because we were on the road so much in March and April, I didn't have much crafting time. I'm finally getting around to using some new products which qualifies this post for something new you did over the weekend. I have two friends from church who are both in rehab, one at home now and the other in a rehab facility. I wanted to get cards and notes off to both of them, so pulled out the new "Friendship Jar Flowers" from Papertrey Ink. The older Friendship Jar sets are among my favorites, and I pulled the little Mason jar from the "Summer Fillers" set issued several years ago. The label die is also from PTI, and the sentiment on the first card is from the new stamp set.

I think this is one of the first times I've ever stamped directly onto patterned paper. I'm pretty sure this one is from an old Basic Grey pack, but it had been separated from its pad in my storage box. Except for the label, die cut from vellum and embossed and the three enamel dots, it would be a one-layer card. I tried stamping the centers of the flowers, but they just didn't pop out as much as I wanted. Another new trick is attaching the vellum piece with a small piece of "Stick It." Interestingly enough, the trick did not come from the latest Online Card Class on vellum and acetate, but from another card blog. I can't seem to find the link. If someone knows who it was, please let me know. It's the best technique ever.

The inspiration for the second card came from Danielle Flanders, one of my favorite members of the Papertrey Ink Design Team, even though she specializes in heavily layered and more intricate cards than I usually create. She took the Friendship Jar Flowers, and stamped them on the side of the card as you see here.

I love the new color Papertrey Ink introduced a month ago, called Amethyst Allure. The patterned paper came from an old Doodlbug pad, "Kraft in Color," although this piece doesn't feature kraft.

I die cut two of Simon Says "hello," dies from last October's Stamp kit and adhered them over a vellum die cut of the leaves from Friendship Jar Flowers. I thought it needed a few sequins as well.

Waving to Sian, and her friends, at Memorandum Monday! 

A Bookish Birthday

Yesterday was one of my college friend's birthday. Since mine was last week, we typically celebrate together which we did with another college friend a week ago. When I was in New Orleans I picked up two bookmarks for them at the Faulkner Book Store just off Jackson Square.It's an utterly charming shop, and Susan and I bought a book to share called Read This! Handpicked Favorites from America's Indie Bookstores. You can see Tracy (in the hat) and my sister-in-law, Susan, looking at a book. She took our joint book home with her, and I got it on Mother's Day to keep until July when the family gets together on Honeoye Lake.

Since I already had a bookmark for my friend, I decided a gift certificate to Barnes & Noble was in order. I recently got a new set of dies from My Favorite Things that creates a card front that lifts up. I knew when I saw it released that I could put it to good use.

I masked off the outer frame and used Simon Say's "Tiny Alphabet" background stamp on the flap. The other stamps are from Papertrey Ink's "All Booked Up," a set I've used over and over again for card making, gift wrapping, and scrapbooking. The banner and the circles that hold the twine are also part of the MFT die set.

And this is what you see when you lift the flap. The card is held down with the sticky "stuff" they use to attach it to the B&N gift card enclosure. Worked like a charm. 

SNAP: The Lilacs

It was a bit belated, but the lilacs are finally in bloom at Highland Park. I've made a couple more trips to the park to take photos, not only of the lilacs, but of the festival since there were a couple of requests to know a bit more about the Lilac Festival itself. First, this week's SNAP collection---thanks again to Helena for hosting this meme of three or four related photos every week.

This years festival was the 118th Lilac Festival. It's held every year at Highland Park designed by Fredrick Law Olmstead and planted with over 1200 lilacs representing over 500 different varieties. It's grown over the last 40 years that I've lived here, and there are more and more special events, activity booths, food tents and trucks, as well as the children's ride area. The first weekend of the festival is the parade. This past weekend was the 5K and 10K runs. There's live music nearly all day, every day, and into the evening. Tracy's brother played the first night of the festival. He came in from Austin, TX and played with two other musicians from his very popular band of the 1970's and 1980's. 

The pansy bed is always an attraction. Every year it's planted in a different design.

Most of the tents and activities take place in the park across the street from the lilac bushes, the magnolias, and other flowering plants and trees.

Cornell Cooperative Extension always has a plant sale. This year there were lilacs (of course), hydrangeas, peonies, a variety of succulents and other perennial plants.

This is the area where the activity and informational booths are set up. Just up this path a ways was the Artful Fairy booth where Skylar made her fairy garden.

Thursday morning when we walked over, one of the high school bands was setting up to play. Professional bands that draw big crowds are scheduled for the weekend evening slots.

The one area I didn't get to this year was the craft fair which is set up on the two weekends. The first weekend we were busy with the parade and the fairy garden, and last weekend was cold and rainy so we decided to pass. 

I'll leave you with a few photographs of the flowering trees and lilacs.

 

 

 

Don't Forget to Write

I'm a fan of Papertrey Ink's Mini-Market kits and have ordered three or four of them. They're very affordable, and filled with great coordinating products. I rarely splurge for one of the large Make It Market Kits, but last month I did, and I'm really glad. I hemmed and hawed about it for several days, but finally broke down, and it arrived just in time to make a whole batch of needed thank you notes. The "Don't Forget to Write" kit comes with stamps, dies, stencils, stickers, envelopes, and beautiful patterned papers in three different sizes as well as a few other goodies. I used lots of the patterned papers, a few stamps, and a couple of dies and came up with quite a nice selection of cards. I have lots more ideas for cards, so you'll be seeing more of this in the near future. 

One of the dies makes this pretty scalloped square card, just perfect for a short note of thanks. I sponged some ink onto the die cut sentiment to give it an ombre look, and added a few pearls. You'll see more of the same technique in different color combinations.

 

The square note uses one of the stickers included in the kit.

This might be my favorite. The frame is actually two dies. A smaller circle can be put inside the frame creating a spot for the stamped striped border. I love how easy it is to stamp the flourishes on the frame as well. The flower grouping is preprinted and the die not only cuts it but gives it a slight embossed look. I used a Simon Says Stitched Square die to frame the patterned paper.

 

 

I have to say these were lots of fun to put together. I'll be ordering more of the patterned papers which really make these cards go much more quickly. I am, however, looking forward to trying the stamps as well.

 

SNAP: On the Slide

When I edited the photos Sunday night from the Lilac Festival Parade, I realized I had a great set of photos of Matt, Skylar, and Ella on one of the "rides" at the Lilac Festival.

We knew Skylar would love the slide. It was her first choice. We weren't so sure about Ella, and about half way down she looked rather uncertain. There's a good little "bump" in the slide that gives you a bit of a surprise. By the time she got to the bottom, she was hooked and wanted to go right back up to the top, which they did!

Linking up with Helena, as always on Wednesday for the SNAP collections.

There were a couple requests for more information about the Lilac Festival. I'll be back with that! 

Memorandum Monday

It seems quite unbelievable to me that I have never attended the Lilac Festival parade, but in fact, I have not. Even though we've lived near the parade route for over 30 years. On Saturday I joined Matt, Betsy, Skylar, and Ella to watch the parade. It was Skylar's second year, and she was very anxious for the parade to begin. We had perfect viewing "seats" at the edge of South Avenue, but it was a bit of a wait. Ella started out in the stroller,

but got restless, so Skylar took her for a walk along the edge of the street while we were waiting for the parade to reach us.

The parade was worth the wait. There were policemen and women on horses, marching bands, bagpipes, and many groups including veterans and animal rescue groups hoping that someone in the crowd might adopt one of the dogs. I'm missing photos of the animal rescue folks and the veterans. There were lots of folks on this beautiful day along the parade route, but it didn't seem particularly crowded until the parade was over, and we all headed for the food tents.

The best of the marching bands!

 

The drum lines were excellent.

Skylar and I have been talking about making a fairy garden for several months. Saturday we had planned to go to The Artful Fairy in Victor after the parade. When I called to find out if Saturday afternoon would be a good time, I discovered that they had a booth at the lilac festival so we were able to make our fairy garden right there at the park. It was lots of fun and easy to do. She's very pleased, and the owner told her it was one of the nicest she'd seen and took a photo of it for the business!

The plants are real and we purchased the fairy, her bench and the bridge. The rest of the decorations were free---blue stones, shells, pebbles, and sphagnum moss. We also purchased a vial of "fairy dust" (aka silver glitter which really finished it off.) I'm surprised the glitter doesn't show in the photo---the bridge is covered with it in real life!

Waving to Sian and others posting about new ventures over the weekend.

 

Happy Mother's Day

It's Mother's Day in the United States, and I want to wish all the mothers (here and elsewhere) a happy day! I've certainly had one. We started the day at church, and then just as we started out to brunch at Tracy's brother's and sister-in-law's, a van from a florist pulled up in front of our driveway. He delivered a wonderful basket of flowers from Matt, Betsy, Skylar, and Ella. My gift from Sarah, Adam, and Caleb is on its way. We had a lovely FaceTime talk with them this evening, and evidently my new bike seat will arrive tomorrow. I'm excited to try it out, so we'll have to get our bikes out of Matt's garage. Tracy gifted me with a pretty hanging basket, and a gorgeous necklace that we discovered in New Orleans. It was more than I wanted to pay, but he purchased it for Mother's Day. 

We had a lovely brunch with all of Tracy's family who is in the area. This year it included his brother from Texas who was here to play at the Lilac Festival on Friday night. It doesn't often happen, but I simply enjoyed myself, and never thought about taking photos until we were on our way home!

I made three Mother's Day cards this year. The first for my mother-in-law. I used another of the watercolored magnolias that I first shared here. 

I found the perfect Memory Box card to match the watercolored flower---don't think I have any more of these. The tag is the "Dressed Up Tags" by Simon Says. This time I add the tag top using a piece of watercolored paper I had in my scrap pile. The sentiment (die and stamped) are from Simon Say's "You."

This gives you a better look at the gold embossing that was done before the watercoloring.

Betsy also got a magnolia/tag card for Mother's Day.

This is the first year I've noticed the beautiful yellow magnolias in the neighborhood, and they inspired this magnolia. Same technique, same tag. The sentiment is from an old Papertrey Ink set, "Fillable Frames #4," and the card is also from Memory Box. Both the beautiful magnolias are part of the Alt&New "Magnolias for Her" set.

I didn't think these flowers which are almost three-dimensional would make it through the mail to Sarah, so I needed to find a flatter design. 

I just acquired a new purple paper and ink from Papertrey, "Amethyst Allure." It's going to be a favorite for sure. The flowers are from a free set sent by Papertrey to customers at the holiday called "One Big Happy." The sentiment is from "Happy" (Simon Says) and "Happy" (Mother's Day by Avery Elle). The green leaves were die cut from New Leaf (PTI) with "Leafy Green" die from My Favorite Things." They were all arranged in the Horizontal Stripes cover plate cut from Amethyst Allure. 

Looking forward to a quiet evening of cleaning up my studio and getting some reading done.