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Five in Five: Myakka River State Park

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Sunday we met Tracy’s high school friend and her husband for a boat tour and walk in the Myakka River State Park, about an hour from where we are staying in Florida. The photo opportunities on the boat were not frequent enough to get five in five minutes, but afterwards we walked out to an observation deck next to the weir and I was able to capture 5 in 5.

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The first photo shows an inlet to the fresh water lake (behind me) where there were a variety of birds congregated.

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This is a wood stork, not as sharp as I would have like.

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A white egret in the air, and a blue heron on the shore.

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I’m not sure what kind of snake this is, but he was having a feast with the hundreds of minnows swimming along the shore.

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This was taken when I turned around toward the lake which is filled with alligators. I took several photos of the alligators sunning on the shores of the lake, but this photo might be my favorite.

I’m linking up to Sandie’s Five in Five for March with thanks for hosting another great photography meme.

Happy Birthday, Tracy!

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It’s St. Patrick’s Day, but more importantly in this house, it’s Tracy’s birthday! It’s the second year we’ve celebrated in Florida, and it’s been a really lovely day. It started out foggy.

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But by 10:30 it had cleared up.

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The resort where we’re staying had a party in his honor. (Well, actually in honor of St. Patrick, but it works out the same.)

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We actually celebrated with dinner last night at The Waterfront on Santa Maria Island. We celebrated there last year, and the food and service were outstanding. Fortunately, nothing had changed. 

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Tonight some of us are eating left-overs, and Tracy is picking out a couple of items and a dessert from Harry’s Deli up the road. We had dinner at Harry’s Restaurant the first night we were here, and it was also excellent. I made Tracy’s birthday card before we came, using Papertrey Ink’s “Uncorked” stamps and dies, as well as a few MME’s enamel dots.

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And a closer look.

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I forgot to take a photo of the inside, but the sentiment is as good as the one on the front:   “Love is like wine. You know it’s good when it gets better with time.” Perfectly true.

One more day in paradise, and then we’re headed back to the cold and snow. Hopefully, not too much snow, but the forecast calls for snow showers in both North Carolina and Virginia!

 

 

SNAP: The Rodeo

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When we come to Florida in March, we always try to find something to do about halfway between where we’re staying and where my mother-in-law spends the winter. This year we decided on Arcadia, FL, where the All-Florida Rodeo was being held. It drew cowboys from all over the country and as far as Manitoba in Canada. Although it couldn’t quite compare to the Calgary Stampede, it was lots of fun and the competition was very good.

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There was cattle roping, bronco riding, entertainment by a very talented clown, and barrel racing (the only event for women). These photos are a testament to our great seats and the power of the iPhone camera. I took my “big” camera to the rodeo only to discover that the battery was nearly dead, and I’d left the spare battery at home. I was delighted to get these photos with my phone.

I’m linking up, as always, with Helena and off to see what other collections have been curated this week.

A Nautical Birthday Card

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While we’re enjoying the beach, I thought it would be a good time to share a nautical card I sent a friend for his birthday. He’s the owner of a large boatyard in the Chesapeake Bay, so nautical works for him any time. I purchased this WPlus9 set several years ago, since Tracy is, at heart, a sailor. But after we sold our boat, it never seemed quite appropriate. 

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The little notebook I keep with all the details of what I used is home, so I’m not positive exactly what products I used. I started with a Pure Poppy card, and added a piece of patterned paper from one of my many 6X6 paper pads, and then added the die cuts and stamps from WPlus9 and Simon Says. The stamp set by WPluse9is no longer available, but the dies, “Nautical Notions”, are.

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I used a piece of glitter paper from a pack from Michaels to die cut the anchor. It was perfect, and a Simon Says “Stitched Circle” for the background. The sentiment is from a Papertrey Ink set, and the twine from a vintage twine holder I picked up at a shop about a year ago.

One week down, and one week to go at the beach. I’ve managed to finish two books, and am now enjoying two issues of Uppercase, a Canadian magazine Melissa recommended awhile ago. It’s subtitle is “for the creative and the curious.” I’ve already got a long list of ideas in “Notes” on my iPhone from just the first issue, and am very impressed with the breath and depth of the articles. Long walks on the beach, some time at the pool, and lots of reading time equals a pretty perfect vacation!

(The new banner is a photo of the first sunset we saw from our patio a week ago. I won’t be able to keep it up for long, but the snowy scene from the previous banner just seemed wrong.)

A Bit of Green for Two March Birthdays

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My brother-in-law and my niece’s husband both celebrate March birthdays, so the Simon Says Challenge this week for a “bit of green” fit the bill perfectly. 

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I started with PTI’s Enclosed Star die and stamp, cutting twice, once in green (Simply Chartreuse) and once in black and piecing them together. A few black enamel dots finished it off. Pretty quick and easy.

For the next card, I switched out the patterned paper (from the same pack).

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Here’s a closer look:

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And the  a peek at the inside:

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Linking up to Simon Say’s Wednesday Challenge.

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SNAP: Blue

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We arrived on Longboat Key on Sunday. It’s been sunny and warm every day—exactly why we come in March when the temperatures are still chilly and there’s still snow on the ground at home. There are lots of pretty colors here, but blue seems to be predominant.

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Upper left: the view from our condo window. I love to sit in the chair by this window and read.

Upper right: one of the umbrellas at the pool.

Lower left: a row of chairs at the pool.

Lower right: the steps into the pool.

So far, it’s been an ideal vacation:  a little sun, lots of steps (I’m aiming for an average of 10,000 a day), lots of reading (have finished When Breath Becomes Air—highly recommended, and am enjoying My Brilliant Friend), and good meals and conversation with our friends. We’re here with another couple from our church (our daughters were baptized on the same day), and last night we met two other couples from church who are vacationing here as well for dinner and viewing the sunset. I’m linking up with Helena and off to check out the rest of the SNAP photos for this week.

 

Travel Journal

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A year ago, I splurged on a Midori Travel Journal. My first venture out with it was to the Canadian Rockies, and now that I’ve posted the Project Life pages for that trip, I thought I’d share the travel journal.

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The cover is leather, and gets more worn-looking (and lovely) over time. I bought the pen clip and uses some stickers to put my initials on the front. They’ve held up very well, but can be easily replaced if they start to get ragged looking. One of the things I like the most about the Midori are all the choices you have for inserts. I’ve always been a big fan of graph paper so that’s what I chose. I also had a watercolor paper booklet behind it, but I’ve not gotten to the point where I’m sketching while traveling often enough to make good use of it.

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I used an old camera charm from my stash for the title page. I wasn’t sure if it would interfere with writing in the journal, but it didn’t. I put a dash after the July date, but filled up enough of the first book, that I started a new book for 2016.

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The first couple of pages were devoted to the itinerary. Since we had to book our hotels way in advance, the itinerary didn’t change much.

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One of the things I love about this journal is I finally committed to putting in some memorabilia along with a recap of our day. I also bought an Instax Smartphone printer. I was wishing for one so I could include photos in the journal, and Matt kindly gave me a gift certificate to Amazon for my birthday which made it affordable. Here I combined a business card as well as a photo from the Three Sisters cafe.

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Here I added another photo, and cut out the portion of the trail guide for our hike around the three lakes at Many Glacier.

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Thanks to Melissa, we knew to get ice cream at Cows in Banff. I didn’t take a photo so I drew a sketch instead. I added a piece of Washi tape to the bottom for a little color.

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Another sketch (of my backpack) for our longest day of hiking in Yoho National Park, and two of my favorite photos from the day.

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I included a portion of a business card from my favorite shop in Jasper. I bought several gifts there as well as a scarf and necklace for myself. The prices were amazingly low for such nice products. On the second page, I cut out a portion of the flyer about the Glacier Adventure tour.

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I wrote all the journaling for our trip from Jasper back to Calgary and totally forgot to add the bookmark from the Royal Alberta Museum in Edmonton, so I adhered it to the margin with some score-tape which worked out great.

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The other add-on I purchased was this zipper envelope which held some items I thought I might use as well as the business cards and other memorabilia that ended up in the journal.

This year we don’t have any “big” trips planned, but there are trips to Florida and Chicago for sure, and several other weekend trips this summer. I think just one of the graph books will be enough to cover the year, but another advantage of the Midori is I can always add another books. I love that the format is small enough to fit in either a purse or my tote bag, and I find it pretty easy to sit down each night and get the day’s events recorded.

Project Life: July 2015 (Part 3)

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As usual, we did a lot of advance planning before we took off on this trip. Somehow we totally missed the write-up of Sunshine Meadows in our guide books. Luckily, I picked up a brochure at the ranger’s desk in Banff that proclaimed Sunshine Meadows as the #1 Hike in Canada. We would put it at #2 for a hike, and our afternoon there would be rated #3 after the Plain of Six Glaciers and our day in Yoho National Park.

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To reach Sunshine Meadows, you must take a bus up to the ski lodge. We figured that once you were up there, it would be a pleasant stroll through the meadows. Not so much. It was pleasant, but it was no stroll! There were several steep inclines, and the hike around the three lakes was much more extensive than we expected. Not only are the views stunning, but the wildflowers were amazing. No photo came even close to capturing how beautiful it was. I cut a piece of the map apart and used it in the spread. The hike actually passes through parts of both Alberta and British Columbia.

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The photos on the left-hand side of the next page are of Moraine Lake, and on the right of the first hike we took as we drove up the Icefields Parkway from Lake Louise to Jasper.

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The journaling says that we aren’t typically “WOW” people, but that was the operative word as we drove the 145 miles from Lake Louise to Jasper.

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Our Glacier Adventure Tour was one of the most touristy things we did on the trip, but one of the most fun thanks to Ness, our amazing and hilarious driver.

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We spent four days in Jasper, one of them was actually the day of the Glacier Adventure since we drove back down the Icefields Parkway the next morning to catch the first tour.

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I’m not sure how we found our accommodations at Pyramid Lake, but it was a stunning setting about five miles out of town. The hike through the Valley of Five Lakes wasn’t on our list until a ranger at the Icefields Centre told us about it. We ended up hiking with a young couple from Edmonton, and had a really great morning despite the gloomy skies.

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Really, my only disappointment on the whole trip was not getting to see Maligne Lake. We drove out there twice, and it was foggy and rainy both times. The weather in Jasper was truly fickle. At one point, it was raining in front of us, but when you looked in the rear view mirror, it was sunny behind us! After hiking the Moose Lake trail in the rain the last day of our time in the parks, we gave up and decided to head west on Route 16. We knew we were headed east to Edmonton on our way back to Calgary so we thought we take a drive in the other direction. Little did we know that we’d end up in Robson National Park with a good view of the tallest mountain in Canada.

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I didn’t have enough photos of our day in Edmonton or the last day in Calgary before heading back to Chicago, so I ended July right here. By the time we left Chicago, we were into August, and those pages will have to wait until we get home from the current trip! I don’t think I’ll have anywhere near this many photos from a trip in the near future. It was an amazing three weeks. We hiked nearly 75 miles, and saw nearly everything we hoped to see, but we’d be happy to return if the opportunity presented itself.

SNAP & The Winter Scavenger Hunt

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Tracy and I had a Groupon that was about to expire for a new-to-us restaurant last week. I’d heard great things about it, and we were not disappointed. It’s a small place, but the service and the food were both exceptional. On one wall were three pieces of cutlery, and I immediately thought of the Winter Scavenger Hunt even though I’d already taken a photo of our cutlery at home. Then I spotted another photo of cutlery—a graphic design on the window as you came into the restaurant, and realized I had (with one more photo from another favorite restaurant) my four photos for SNAP.

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If you look carefully at the bottom left photo, you can see Tracy looking at me as I take the photo, and the cutlery on the wall inside as well. The only way I could get our cutlery in the template was to put it in sideways, but fortunately the soup spoon is at least right-side up. The top right photo is the graphic design for a great restaurant a few blocks from us called Orb—they specialize in meatballs. 

So here are the last of the scavenger hunt items. I’m still hoping for a better photo of a robin, but I’ve found the required items for the hunt.

11-Your favorite pudding. This was made easier once I was assured “pudding” was synonymous with dessert. I splurged and purchased my favorite cake to take to friends- chocolate raspberry ganache.

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12 A fancy button. Here are three I cut off a favorite dress once it went out of style. I have several of each, and hope someday to find some way to use them.

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14 Afternoon tea. I usually have my tea in a mug, but for this occasion (a photograph) I used one of the fancy tea cups I inherited from my great aunt.

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21 Your own handwriting. I’m keeping a gratitude journal this year and so here are a couple of pages from it. I’m trying to find a quote each week to “illustrate” as well.

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And a page from my daily journal. Keeping a daily journal is critical for me especially when I’m so far behind in my Project Life pages.

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So that’s it for the Winter Scavenger Hunt. My other finds are here, here, and here. I know I’ll still be looking in case I find some more good candidates. Linking up with Helena for SNAP, and with Joy and Eileen for the Winter Scavenger Hunt.

 

Project Life: July 2015 (Part 2)

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Originally we didn’t plan to visit the southeastern corner of Glacier called Two Medicine. But when I read about it in the guide book as we were driving to Missoula, we changed our minds and spent a morning and early afternoon hiking in Two Medicine. We were glad we did, and the drive from Two Medicine to Waterton National Park in Alberta was nearly as beautiful as the Going to the Sun road.

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We had hoped to do a lot of hiking in Waterton, but the weather wasn’t very cooperative. We did get to take the cruise from Waterton to Goat Haunt and it was just beautiful. The view of the lake is from the Prince of Wales Hotel which sits up on a cliff overlooking Waterton. We had a lovely dinner there. There’s also a photo of the cut line which I knew nothing about, but explained in this post.

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The number one item on our bucket list was a hike to the Plain of Six Glaciers in Lake Louise. It got a two-page spread.

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A good friend of mine told me not to miss a chance to visit Yoho National Park and Emerald Lake. It was great advice, and our day in Yoho was our second best day of the trip. Emerald Lake is even more beautiful than Lake Louise, and we went from there to Takkawa Falls which we were told was the second highest falls in Canada. When I did a bit of research, however, it ranks 45th in British Columbia. It’s beautiful, nonetheless, and we hiked from there to Laughing Falls. All in all, we hiked nearly 11 miles that day and by the time we got to the Truffle Pig for dinner we were ready for a great meal.

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I have to admit to being really excited to actually see loons on this trip. When we travel to the Adirondacks, I sometimes hear loons, but I’d never seen any. On this trip we saw them on several lakes, but I finally got a photo on Emerald Lake. The last two photos on this page are just the first two from another wonderful afternoon at Sunshine Meadows. More about that, next time.

Project Life: July 2015 (Part 1)

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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.

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

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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!

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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.

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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

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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:

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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.

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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.

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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.

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

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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

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

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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.

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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. 

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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!

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SNAP: The Dutch Collection and 5 in 5 Minutes

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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.

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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.

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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

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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.

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

Memorandum Monday

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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°.

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

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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.

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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.

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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!