random reflections

SNAP: Zoo Lights

We spent the week of Thanksgiving in Chicago with Sarah, Adam, and Caleb. Sarah is expecting a little girl in January so a lot of our time was spent moving their office from the second floor to the basement, and then painting one wall with pink and gray stripes to turn it into a nursery. The crib and dresser got set up, but there's still some decorating to do. The last night we were there, we rearranged the living room to make space for the Christmas tree, which will then be used for baby paraphernalia. The weather was unusually warm, so Saturday night we took off to the Lincoln Park Zoo to see the Zoo Lights.

The zoo was packed but it was still possible to walk through the zoo to see the amazing variety of lights. What you can't see in the still photos are all the interactive lights. The only disappointment (to Caleb) was that the polar bears and penguins were "sleeping." He told the Sunday School director that it was all his mother's fault since she made us eat early! Actually, we were incredibly lucky to get a table at a restaurant just across the street from the zoo. We ate there a year ago, and it's a very family-friendly place with good food.

So here's Week 48:  The Zoo Lights

If you look closely at the bottom left photo, you can see a cute almost five year old peeking out! Off to link up with Helena and my fellow SNAPpers (a bit late since the photos didn't get edited until late this afternoon.)

Addicted to CAS: Congratulations

This week is the Addicted to CAS challenge site's 4th birthday, and appropriately, they've chose Congratulations as their theme for the current challenge.

Long time friends of ours are celebrating their anniversary this coming week. It's definitely an occasion for "congratulations."

This one came together quickly:  a piece of patterned paper cut on the diagonal, the happy die cut from PTI's gold adhesive paper, one stamp, and a punched heart.

Hope you're enjoying a good weekend! We're being blessed with sunshine, and unusually warm temperatures for the end of November.

SNAP: Weather Extremes

We've had an unusually warm and sunny November, for which I've been very grateful. This past weekend we set two records:  one for a high temperature and one for the amount of snow in one storm for November!

From top left:  On Friday at the University of Rochester (54°), on Friday afternoon (72°), Saturday evening (rainy and 37°), and Sunday evening (at the beginning of the storm, 32°). We ended up with nearly a foot of snow with very windy conditions. Linking up with Helena, as always, our lovely SNAP hostess!

 

Best wishes for a wonderful Thanksgiving tomorrow if you're in the US and celebrating. I have so much to be grateful for, and I count those blessings every day.

Memorandum Monday

It was a very unusual weekend. It began with a record high temperature on Friday of 72°. This morning we woke up to nearly a foot of snow and very windy conditions. We've definitely been spoiled, and I'm definitely not ready for this kind of winter!

The big event this weekend was celebrating Ella's second birthday. Her birthday falls on Thanksgiving this year, and most of us will be traveling. We went over after church to give her our gifts. Several years ago, we bought Skylar her own chair from Pottery Barn Kids. This year it was Ella's turn and she was delighted to get her own personalized chair.

We also gave her a box filled with notepads and pencils. Her favorite character is Mickey Mouse, and that was the theme for her party in the afternoon. I found some cute stickers to decorate the box where she can store her pads and pencils.

Later in the afternoon there was a party at "The Little Gym." It was the perfect place for toddlers and some of their older siblings to run around and play. The staff there was fabulous and there was just the right mix of activities and free play.

Of course, there was cake. Wegmans, our local grocery store extraordinaire, creates the most amazing and delicious cakes.

I made Ella a shaker card for her birthday, which she promptly pulled apart to get at all the sequins. Later on, we pieced it back together again.

Waving to Sian and other Memorandum Monday folks! Here's to a great week.

 

Virginia's View: Stripes and Plaid #2

As promised, I'm back with another card for Virginia's View Challenge: Stripes and Plaid.

On our way home from Chicago in September we stopped at Buffalo Stamps and Stuff. I found a really cute stamp set from Impression Obsession called "Tidings of Joy." I specifically purchased it for the image of a cute little car with a Christmas tree on top, although I haven't used that image yet. When I finished my granddaughter's birthday card (coming soon on a post) I had a series of stitched rectangles left over from cutting frames. I didn't want to waste them, so I looked for a Christmas image that would fit nicely into it. This sentiment fit the bill.

In addition to the stripes on the sentiment which I colored with my Tombow markers, I created some tone-on-tone stripes with my scoring board. 

I don't usually share my Christmas cards online until after they've been mailed. There are six of these, and there are nearly 50 total (several designs.) They are all done except for the inside greeting which I hope to finish over the Thanksgiving holiday so they'll be in the mail early next month. I can thank the World Series for being so timely with my cards this year. I set up a card table in the living room and worked on them while I watched the games. Hope next year's games interest me as much as this year's. It's a great way to get a head start on the holiday card making!

Virginia's View: Stripes and Plaid

Somehow I always seem to be late to Virginia's challenges; sometimes I miss them altogether despite the fact that I always have ideas for them. This time I'm down to the last two days for Virginia's View Challenge:  Stripes and Plaid. I'll have one today to share and another tomorrow. Both were done a week ago, but I just didn't get to posting them. This card was made for a dear friend who just had a mastectomy. She got through the surgery well, and is recovering at home. Last alert said all was going well.

The striped paper is from Maile Belle's "Black and White All Over" pad. I love these designs, and will need to order more next time I order from Papertrey Ink. the cute stamp is from Papertrey's "Inside and Out: Well Wishes." I stamped it on Limeade Ice paper and then attached the tear-off strips with a piece of Washi tape. The rest of the sentiment was stamped on a die cut from the A2 Noted die set. The leaf is from the Mini Market Kit: Color Pop Autumn.

I'll be back tomorrow with a Christmas card for the challenge.

SNAP: Views From My Windows

On Monday we drove up to Niagara-on-the-Lake to pick up a watercolor we ordered and had framed. It had been a month since we'd been there last, and I was surprised to see that most of the leaves on the trees along the Thruway had fallen. The predominant colors were faded yellow and brown. Not so here in town yet. Our proximity to Lake Ontario buys us another week or two, so when I looked out the living room window yesterday I was struck with how much color still remains. 

From top left: the view out my kitchen window looking to the west. You can see the new brick sidewalk here, and the hanging plants and yellow mums that still have not succumbed to a heavy frost. Top right: out the kitchen window looking north across the street. You can see a bit of the new landscaping here. The grass probably won't fill in until next spring, and then I'll do a big sidewalk/landscape post. It's very different from what we had before, and I love it. Bottom left: out the living room window looking south. Most of the color here is yellow and a bit of orange. Out big Japanese maple which has bright red leaves has lost most of them already. Bottom right: out the hall window looking west. I'm guessing our bright red maple will be leafless within a week or so. But I'm so grateful to have had such a mild and colorful fall. Often by now, we're like the Thruway, brown and dreary.

Linking up with our fine hostess, Helena, for the weekly SNAP of 3-4 related photos.

Memorandum Monday

We celebrated the life of our friend, Bob, this weekend. It was a beautiful and meaningful service. Tracy was one of three speakers. He reflected on their 22 years of hiking through the backcountry in the Adirondacks which brought smiles and tears to our eyes. Later we gathered together to share stories at a local restaurant. It was a lovely tribute to a kind, generous, and loving man. He will be missed. Tracy found several photos of Bob taken in the Adirondacks. My favorite is of the two of them, taken many years ago.

Here's the card I sent to his wife and daughters, all dear friends. I combined PTI's "Splits: Best Wishes" and "Inspired Faith" along with the die from the latter set. A few tiny pearls finished it off.

And the inside:

Sunday afternoon we attended an "apartment warming" party for my nephew. He has some developmental disabilities, but with the help of his mom, stepfather, and support team he has moved into his first independent living apartment. Marc drives and holds down a job, but has never been on his own. It's a huge change, and he's alternately excited and apprehensive. The party was in the apartment complex's party room, but he proudly took anyone who was interested on a tour of his apartment. It's a great space, and I hope he'll be successful in making this huge transition. He made chocolate keys for everyone as party favors.

The message reads: "The key to happiness is friends and family like you."

Then after supper, I took my camera outside to see if I could capture a photo of the Super Moon. It's supposedly the largest and brightest moon we've had since I was born. I was too lazy to set up a tripod, and in retrospect wished I'd taken a tripod to a better location, but got a decent shot handheld (and then cropped.)

According to Honoré, we won't see another one for eighteen years, and if we weren't having company tomorrow night (supposedly even a brighter, bigger moon) I'd be off with my tripod. But I'm happy to have captured it. 

Waving to Sian and other Memorandum keepers. Hope you have a great week!

 

Project Life: August 2016

August was a very heavy photo month with a week in Nantucket. Not only were there lots of family photos, but many photos of the beautiful island. And, of course, the trip was not the only activity I wanted to capture.

Once again, I relied heavily on Tracy Larsen's Simply White photo templates, adding journaling to some of them, and a few stickers and one filler card I made with a Project Life Everyday card and a Heidi Swap clear sticker.

I buy postcards wherever we go, but rarely use them. This time I used one of a map of Nantucket which I loved. 

These pages have some of my favorite photos. Ella loves to figure things out, and spent a LONG time learning out to insert and release the buckle on the stroller. The one of Matt with the two girls is in a frame in our living room. I'm rarely a fan of selfies, but the one Nadia took of the five of us on the beach is great of everyone. The filler card at the bottom was made from a purchased notecard added to some patterned paper.

This page documents our trip to the Whaling Museum, the Cisco Brewery, our "date night," our bike rides, and a family photo taken at the Nantucket Hotel before a family dinner.

The last pocket page documents the trip to Providence, Rhode Island on our way home from Nantucket, and the other activities of the month. 

Then I added foue pages of photos that I had printed with white borders at a local camera shop. I don't really keep separate photo albums any more, so the Project Life album is where any photos that get printed are kept.

 

I still have a few pages from early in 2016 to finish embellishing, and September's pages are all planned out. Now to find time to get to them!

 

A Trio of Pink

The current challenge at The Card Concept is "Pretty in Pink." One of the things that's interesting about this challenge is the categories they've set up for card designs. I have a trio of cards for this challenge:

A simple CAS card---the tag was die cut from Maile Belle's Ombre cardstock by PTI, and the the Hugs die cut & stamped sentiment are also Papertrey Ink. I adhered it to a premade Memory Box card (A4) size and tied it with a bit of yellow & white twine.

Everything about this card came from the "Don't Forget to Write" Make-it Market Kit by Papertrey Ink, without a doubt the best kit purchase I've made. The cardstock is Hibiscus Burst, and I added four enamel dots by MME to the center of some of the flowers. I think this one fits the Clean and Layered category.

Last, a "Botanical Blocks" rose (PTI), colored with Copics, and layered with Raspberry Fizz, white, and black cardstock and adhered to a Bazzil card. The die cut is also Papertrey Ink--"Wonderful Words Thank You." Another CAS card, I think.