random reflections

Anniversary Weekend: NOTL & Photowalk #23

We had a lovely weekend in Niagara-on-the-Lake. The weather was hot and humid, but not so oppressive that you couldn't enjoy being outside. We visited a couple of our favorite wineries, saw two terrific shows at the Shaw Festival, and enjoyed some excellent food. A good way to celebrate our 46th anniversary! On Saturday afternoon we saw The Lady Killers, an hilarious farce about five musicians who plot a robbery using a little old lady as a foil. Needless to say, the little old lady is the winner at the end. On Sunday afternoon we enjoyed an excellent production of the musical, Brigadoon. Everything about it was first rate---the voices, the dancers, the set, the costumes---just delightful!

While we were there I set off to do another photowalk. Most of the photos were taken on Saturday. I found three more items for the Summer Photography Scavenger Hunt, but you'll have to wait for the upcoming link-up for those. For the most part, I stayed away from photographs of flowers since my last two Photowalks from Nantucket were exclusively florals.

This photo of Old Fort Niagara on the United States side of the Niagara River was taken on Friday evening after we'd eaten too much for dinner and needed to walk it off! As was this photo:

Saturday morning we strolled through town, visited a winery, and had lunch at one of my new favorites: The Farmhouse Restaurant at Caroline Cellars. I had my favorite meal there, a seasonal salad of spinach, feta cheese, fresh sliced peaches, candied pecans, and red onion slices with a honey balsamic dressing. I'm hoping to replicate it when two friends come to lunch next month.

It will be awhile before the grapes are ready to harvest, but the peaches were ripe and featured in nearly every farm stand. Sadly, we're not allowed to transport produce or any living plant across the border. (One of my first stops this morning was to our local farmstand to buy some peaches.)

Here are some shots that caught my eye as we walked through town:

I couldn't totally resist taking a few photos of the gorgeous flowers that are everywhere in town.

Saturday night we had dinner at Strewn Winery. We hadn't eaten there in many years, but it was lovely. We had a coupon for a free dessert which we shared. It tasted as good as it looks:

After dinner, we went to Ryerson Park to watch the sunset.

The last photo is technically not part of the photowalk. Sunday morning after we checked out of our B&B we went for a drive. We happened upon a large freighter going through a lock on the Welland Canal. The fact that these huge ships can get from the Atlantic Ocean and through the Great Lakes via a series of canals is always mind-boggling to me.

We're only home for a week before we head off again on another adventure. When the summer began, the weekend in NOTL was the only trip planned. Both the trip to Nantucket and the upcoming trip to The Chautauqua Institute were surprise gifts---in more ways than one.

 

 

 

For the Girls: Take 2

I have another card for the AAA Birthday Challenge: For the Girls.

This one is a bright pink, and one of the more simple cards I've created recently. I do like the vellum embossed flowers though on the pretty cardstock. I die cut the Raspberry Fizz cardstock with a Stitched Rectangle die and adhered it to a white card. Then I add the white embossed flowers.

Once again, the flowers are from the Simon Says "Delicate Flowers" set. I fussy cut them right up against the white embossing, although I do have the dies for this set now.  

The sentiment, also white embossed, is from the Papertrey Ink "Just Desserts" set.

Hope your weekend is off to a good start. We're off to Niagara-on-the-Lake to celebrate our anniversary.

Photowalk #22: Nantucket Flowers

The flowers on Nantucket are not confined to window boxes, so on another trip downtown I focused on flowers along the way.

The hydrangeas on Nantucket are truly amazing. I have several hydrangea plants. The ever-blooming varieties that Matt planted in our front yard are loaded with blossoms. The large hydrangea off our patio, not so much.  Some years there are multiple blooms. This year we've only had three. I picked all three of them to put in a vase so I could enjoy them.

None of us had ever seen this variety with the two-toned flowers. I need to see if I can find out what variety they are. Gorgeous!

Most hydrangeas are blue or pink, but these are really a lovely shade of purple. Maybe they count as a pink?

I love them along a fence.

The roses are also lovely along a fence.

I love Shasta daisies wherever they are. Mine have spread out so much we had to dig up a few.

I'm a huge fan of orange---flowers, clothes, shoes---whatever!

I loved the pretty flowers with the flags in these pots.

And, finally, a beautiful pink flower--a kind of geranium? I would love to have some in pots on my patio!

 

Color Throwdown

The current Color Throwdown is pink, gray, silver, and white. I'm in need of several anniversary cards, and these seemed like appropriate colors.

I started by diecutting Simon Says "Hearts Trio" in a piece of white cardstock, and then die cutting it again with "Stitched Rectangles." I cut a piece of Sunny Studios "Silly Stripes" paper to back the hearts and added the piece to a card base made from Papertrey Ink's Weathervane.

For the sentiment, I die cut a Weathervane banner from The Greetery's "Sentiment Suite: Basics" and embossed the greeting in silver. To add a bit more silver, I die cut two small hearts with Simon Says "Large Holiday Shapes" from beautiful silver paper from Paper Source.

The sentiment is from an old Papertrey Ink set "Mat Stack #3." It's an oldie that I turn to over and over for small font sentiments. Finally I added some Rainstones for a bit of sparkle.

I'm off to link up to the challenge which ends in just a few hours!

Photowalk #21: Nantucket Window Boxes

We had an unexpected opportunity to join Matt, Betsy, and the girls for a few days in Nantucket last week. As always, it was a wonderful time spent with family. Nantucket is truly a magical place. We were staying within walking distance of town this year, and since driving and parking in Nantucket can be challenging, we walked into town nearly every day. Each day I chose a different focus for my photowalk. The flowers of Nantucket are truly amazing, and many, many people have window boxes planted with beautiful flowers. This is a very heavy photo post, so I won't do any commenting. However, beyond enjoying the flowers, I'm taking note of color combinations and flower combinations for my pots at home next year.

I hope you've enjoyed the stroll down several of the residential streets in Nantucket. Are there any color/flower combinations that speak to you?

Shimmer

The current challenge at CASology is "Shimmer." It was a chance to pull out Altenew's "Needlework Motif" in my ongoing determination to use stamps that have seen little love or have never been used. 

I also pulled out a piece of shimmery bronze cardstock for the card base. The gorgeous design was stamped in black on white cardstock and watercolored with beautiful shimmery metallic paints that I acquired many years ago during a class at a new defunct stamp store here. The paints were hand-labeled and I have no memory of who the manufacturer might have been. I used just two colors: gold and bronze.

Here's a closer look, although the shimmer of the cardstock and paints are much more beautiful IRL.

I've been away from the craft room for a few days, and it's good to be back!

Photowalk #20: The Cornell Ornithology Lab---Sapsucker Woods

Another favorite spot in Ithaca is the Cornell Ornithology Lab, Sapsucker Woods. It's interesting to me that no matter what time of year or what time of day we go, we rarely see very many birds. We hear hundreds, but don't see many. Nonetheless, it's always fun to search out other subjects for photographs.

The back of the main building from the trail around the pond.

Most of the serious photographers were actually inside the building at the observation windows. Clearly I need a longer lens!

There are benches all along the trail, but only one that is protected. It was very hot and humid so we appreciated the shade.

If you look closely in the center of the photograph, there's a bee working it's way around the flower.

My second contender for the SPSH alternate: A Birdhouse

And for #9: A bridge

An aviary hotel.

The deer was busy eating something. I had to wait quite awhile for him to pickup his head, but he never turned around while I was there.

The chipmunk posed for several minutes before scampering off into the woods.

Another possibility for #7: A Curving Path for the SPSH.

This dragonfly's wings are amazing.

You have to look closely because the green frog's camouflage is very effective. He/she is peeking out under the tree trunk.

And, lastly, one of the beautiful water lilies on the pond.

 

Birthday Flowers for You

The current Time Out Challenge features this quote:

My card features a bouquet of bright summery flowers---who could not be happy surrounded by such beautiful blooms? It's also another candidate for AAA Birthday: For the Girls.

With the exception of the embossed sentiment from Papertrey Ink's "Balloon Bash," all the elements for this card were laying on my desk. The flowers  from Altenew's "Adore" were colored with Copics some time ago, and the Pink Fresh Studio "Essentials: Braided Tag" was from an earlier failed card design. 

I'm a huge fan of Pink Fresh Studio's braided die cut designs. I love the subtle color that comes through from the card itself, and there are multiple layers to each one. In this case, I used all three of the pieces for this tag. I'm also a huge fan of bright colors set against a black background, so this card makes me pretty happy.

This big bouquet of blooms is a bit of a departure from my more CAS card designs, but it seems like a perfect summer birthday card!

Photowalk #19 and July Five in Five: Ithaca Farm Market

On Saturday we took a day trip to Ithaca and Aurora--both on Cayuga Lake. Our first stop was the Ithaca Farm Market. It's one of our very favorite markets. Everything sold there must be locally produced; within 30 miles of Ithaca. Over the years, we've purchased a hand-loomed table runner, jewelry, eggs, honey, flowers, fabulous baked goods and bread, plants for the garden, and fresh fruits and vegetables. It's also a great place for photos, and only being a day late for Sandi's 5 in 5 meme, I took the DSL-R to capture some photos. The first five were taken within the meme's required five minutes. This is a very easy task at the market since booth after booth has beautiful products to photograph.

This stand also sold perennials. I purchased two to add to my cutting garden---an unusually beautiful variety of Black-eyed Susans and two delphiniums.

I've been doing a pretty good job of sticking to my relatively gluten-free and sugar-free diet, but it was really hard to pass by my favorite bakery stand.

I did purchase two blocks of cheese from this vendor who had samples to share. Interestingly, the two I bought were "Goblin" and "Ghost." When I commented on the unusual names, the man told me the cheese is named after particular cows in the herd.

Several of these photos are candidates for the second alternate in the Summer Photography Scavenger Hunt: Fresh Local Produce.

 

 

 

Mom's 90th Birthday: Part 2

Friday was Mom's actual 90th birthday, and although we celebrated with a big party for extended family and friends a couple of weeks ago, we didn't want to let the actual event go unnoticed. The immediate family all gathered at our house for lunch on Friday with great stories, lots of fun, and of course, another cake!

Everyone had more cards and some gifts to share as well. Here's the new card I made for Mom:

I started by die cutting two elements from Pink Fresh Studio's "Essentials: Braided Circle" on a white linen card front. I added that to a Pale Peony card base and stamped the sentiment from Papertrey Ink's "Birthday Basics." 

Then I added the floral cluster from Pink Fresh Studio's "Fancy Blooms" that was watercolored on Bristol paper and then fussy cut.

In the photo you can just barely see the Wink of Stella glitter added to the centers of the flowers, but it's much clearer IRL.

I'm linking this card up to the following challenges:

AAA Birthday Card Challenge:

CAS Watercolour: Bouquet of Flowers

The Flower Challenge: Pretty Pastels