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Thanks with a Grateful Heart

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A quick post to enter a card in the TIME OUT challenge:  “Give Thanks with a Grateful Heart.” This is the first time I’ve entered one of their challenges, but the challenge has popped up a couple of times lately, so I went to check it out.

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This is a quick and easy one; great for when you need a thank you note in a hurry! The patterned paper is from Maile Belle’s collection “Black and White” for Papertrey Ink, and the stamp is from Papertrey’s “Sentiment Signs,” backed with a piece of True Black card stock. This was for one of our male friends so I wanted to be sure it was a CAS design.

Project Life: July 2016

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July was a jam-packed month, but I managed to limit my pages to two double page spreads. Madelyn Tyler was born early in July, and her arrival brought Sarah, Adam, and Caleb to Rochester for a week’s visit. During that week, Tracy’s mother turned 87 and we hosted a birthday picnic for her. The photos of the cousins enjoying one another both in Matt and Betsy’s backyard and at the water park are some of my faves.

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Once again, there are minimal embellishments. I made a filler card with some patterned paper for Madelyn’s birth data, added a few stickers and made another filler card with a wood veneer word that I colored with some Orange Zest ink.

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The third page documents the week Tracy’s family shared a cottage on Honeoye Lake this summer. 

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We had a wonderful tour of the Frank Lloyd Wright’s Darwin Martin home in Buffalo, and celebrated our 43rd wedding anniversary in Niagara-on-the-Lake. I was delighted to find the teacup “button” which I added with a ticket stub for the “Alice in Wonderland” performance for a filler card. I have a little jar filled with these buttons, and rarely can find a good use for one.

SNAP: Halloween

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Monday I posted our activity for Halloween, but I saved some photos for this week’s SNAP.

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The upper left photo is my favorite of the little cat and little panda trick or treating. Their adorable baby sister was dressed for the event as well. I babysat for Madelyn on Monday morning while Betsy helped out at Skylar’s kindergarten class. The pumpkins are this year’s masterpieces carved by Matt–Mickey Mouse for Ella and Little Pony for Skylar. They chose the patterns from the internet, and Skylar helped poke the holes along the design that mark where Matt needs to cut. Much more elaborate than anything that was ever done for him as a child! The bottom right is of a neighbor’s chihuahua dressed up as a taco. Too cute!

Linking up with Helena as always, the wonderful hostess of SNAP–a series of three or four related photos.

Happy Halloween & Memorandum Monday

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As an elementary school teacher for 37 years, I was never a great fan of Halloween. Being the grandmother to several youngsters has changed my tune a bit, and I enjoy crafting for all of them. I made little tins filled with some Halloween goodies for three of them. They all got stickers, fake tatoos, a squishy little pumpkin that lights up when you toss it, and some chocolates from a local candy shop. Caleb got a little ball that looks like an eyeball, and the two little girls got black cat coin purses. I took a photo of Caleb’s which I left with Sarah when we visited in September, and decided since the girls’ look just the same so there was no need for another photo.

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The clothespin on the top was made with some patterned paper and little ghost stamps, and tag from an old, but fave, “Friendship Jar: Fall” stamp set by Papertrey Ink. Here’s a look at the little coin purses which I thought were just adorable.

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They each got cards, too, of course. I had quite a few reward points at Papertrey and decided about a month ago, I’d really like the Halloween Pin-Up Make It Market Kit. Glad I did, as both these cards were made much easier with the preprinted images and dies.

Here’s Caleb’s. I’m not sure he knows anything about Frankenstein, but I know he likes monsters and super heroes, so I figured he’d like the images.

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The “Night Star Cove”r plate is the perfect frame for the card. It’s cut from Royal Velvet cardstock which is such a great contrast for the Orange Zest.

The card for Skylar and Ella uses those colors as well as Limeade Ice. Not my usual combination, but great for Halloween. Ella’s a little young to get the humor from the sentiment, but Skylar certainly did!

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She also appreciates the glitter on the shoes and socks. I bought a couple Spectrum Noir glitter pens for Christmas cards, and the “Crystal Clear” one is becoming a favorite.

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It was a busy weekend. My father was a music professor and I grew up on musical theater, but I’d never seen “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.” We saw it on Saturday at the newly refurbished Geva Theater. The musical was terrific, and the renovations are quite lovely.

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On Sunday, Skylar came over and we made Halloween cookies, also a first. She’s really very adept with a rolling pin, and can cut out the cookies with no supervision.

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For a five year old, she’s also pretty good with frosting the cookies as well.

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Her mom, dad, and sisters came for dinner, and we had cookies and ice cream for dessert.

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And a quick look at the little girls out for trick or treating tonight. Skylar started out very hesitant about the event, but Ella quickly caught on and was a very eager trick or treater! There’ll be more for SNAP on Wednesday.

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A very late wave to Sian and the Memorandum Monday crew!

 

Project Life: May & June 2016

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We had a lovely sunny day on Friday, and tonight while watching the World Series I had time to edit the photos of the Project Life pages I completed earlier this week. May ended up being one double page spread. Both pages use journaling cards from Paislee Press’ “Fresh Air.”

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The first page documents events in Rochester: the Lilac Festival and parade as well as a very special dinner for the 4th-5th grade girls from Cameron Ministries. 

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We made an unexpected trip to Chicago in May, celebrated Mother’s Day, started work on the patio plantings, and celebrated Memorial Day with a neighborhood parade and the first picnic of the season.

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June was another double page spread.

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We attended the opening of an exhibit on the National Parks (which celebrated their 100th Anniversary this summer) at the Eastman Museum, and had another wonderful picnic celebration for a high school graduation and Father’s Day with the Adams family. There was a night of croquet with good friends as well. That was a first in so many years, neither of us could remember the last time we played. I also included a Month in Review card from Paislee Press that documented these events as well as a very busy social calendar.

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The upper left photo template documents my first venture as a docent for the Landmark Society on their Home and Garden tour. We did a lot more work on our shade garden, and were back at the Eastman Museum for the first of the Summer Garden Vibes concert. I couldn’t resist adding the cute photos of the girls at Pam’s house after dinner, and with Pam outside their Papa’s house earlier in the month.

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Although I’ve yet to finish January-March for this year, I have completed July and August which I’ll get posted in the next week or so.

 

Card Concept: Chevron Pumpkin Challenge

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When I spotted the inspiration photo for the Card Concept Challenge this week, I knew I had the perfect stamp set for it.

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I recently bought the Hero Arts set, “Autumn,” which I had yet to use. The design of the pumpkin reminds me of the recent coloring book/doodling craze. Included in the set are several leaves with the same kind of patterns.

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I gold embossed the images and colored them with my Kuretake watercolors. Papertrey Ink’s burlap coverplate added just the right kind of texture for the background. I added a stitched strip from a rejected piece from yesterday’s crafting session. The sentiment is also from an used set which I’ve had for quite some time. Papertrey sent it as a thank you awhile ago, and it turned out to be perfect. I die cut the word from Canyon Clay paper and then made a banner with a stitched edge for the rest of the sentiment. 

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One of the interesting features of the Card Concept Challenge is the ability to make a card in any style. I’m sticking with my usual “Clean & Simple” for this one, and I’m happy to have another birthday card ready to put in the mail next month!

SNAP: Signs of Fall

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When we were in the Finger Lakes Saturday, it was clearly peak time for the foliage. Despite the gray skies, the leaves were lovely. 

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The prettiest views were along Cayuga Lake, but there wasn’t any good place to stop for a photo, so most of these are from the Rochester area. The upper right is my view walking across the pedestrian bridge from the University of Rochester campus to my assigned parking lot. The sky that morning was a prelude to the totally dark clouds that arrived over the weekend. Today was cold, but lovely, and Matt was finally able to get some more work done on our landscaping. Sadly, the weather forecast is dismal the rest of the week, so we’ll see when he’s able to get back to it.

Papertrey Ink October Blog Hop

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The 25th of the month snuck up on me, and I didn’t get started on this card until this morning. I love the inspiration piece of this month’s Papertrey Ink Blog Hop, so I was determined to create a card for it.

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I’d like to report that it came together quickly, but alas, not so much. There are all kinds of scraps on my desk, and at least two versions of the card are in the circular file. I am happy with the end result, but would have preferred to have posted it an hour or so ago!

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I started with the fall leaves and the music in the inspiration piece, stamping and fussy cutting some Leaf Prints, one on a musical themed patterned paper (Theresa Collins, perhaps) and the others with Distress Inks on watercolor paper. Then the red berries from Spruce and Sprigs with some Glossy Accents. The acorn sticker is from Little B. I die cut a stitched circle from Rustic Cream paper and mounted it on a piece of woodgrain (again from the inspiration piece) paper from MME. The die cut (from Ripe Avocado) and stamped sentiment are from the Color Pop Autumn Mini-Market Kit, which is turning out to be a great purchase. Then I popped it all up with some fun foam and added it to a Canyon Clay card (to pick up the orange in the inspiration piece) and added a stitched strip to the bottom of the card for a little added interest. 

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Off to see what inspiration is linked up for the hop. There are 12 birthdays in November on my calendar, and I need to make a lot of cards.

Memorandum Monday

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Waving to Sian and the Monday Memorandum folks recounting weekend adventures and things learned.

The weather was pretty awful all weekend. After being spoiled for so long with warm, sunny weather, we were inundated with rain and cold winds. Friday was particularly dreadful. The rain never stopped all day, and the wind was so strong you had to fight to keep the umbrella right side out! Friday, however, was saved by our very first charity event. We regularly donate funds to several local organizations, but we’ve never attended a fund raiser before. This one was held at City Hall downtown, and the first floor and second floor balcony were filled with tasting stations from local restaurants, bakeries, wineries, breweries, and distilleries. It was held to raise money for Cameron Ministries where I volunteer twice a week in the after school program. I was delighted to see it so well attended.

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Saturday was a bit better since the rain was intermittent, but it was still very windy and chilly. We were supposed to go to the Finger Lakes with friends, but they backed out. We decided to go to our favorite Amish market just north of Seneca Lake and to the Outlet Center where we both picked up a few new things. We treated ourselves to lunch at Ventosa Winery on Seneca Lake where I had the best escarole and white bean soup I’ve ever had. They have a fabulous view of the lake.

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So what did I learn this weekend? Well, I started an online class with Ali Edwards two weeks ago called “Hybrid.” I’ve been having this ongoing debate with myself about whether to stick with hybrid scrapbooking or to go digital with my Project Life pages. In September, I finished Cathy Zielski’s class,”Scrapbook Your Year,” where she documents every month digitally and makes a photo book each year. I see real advantages to that system, but I can’t quite give up the paper. So I’m going to stick with hybrid for 2017 at least. 

The best thing to come out of Ali’s class so far is her system for organizing digital supplies. Despite the fact that I’ve been primarily a paper scrapper, and only in the last year or so a hybrid scrapper, I had accumulated a HUGE supply of digital files, most of which I downloaded for free over the last 7-8 years. Her system of organizing by theme made so much sense to me, and in about 4 hours time, I had organized my digital files, and reduced them by about 75%. The 25% I kept are ones I’ll use (and most of them I paid for.) Each category of digital supplies (brushes, kits, templates, etc.) has a set of themed subfolders. The themes vary by supply based on what I have.

Once that was done, I tackled all my Project Life cards, and organized them the same way, reducing them by about the same amount.  Finally, I did the same with my embellishments and stickers, filing them in the same clear envelopes I use to store my clear stamps. The charity shop is getting two shopping bags of goodies later this week. 

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This weekend I learned just how effective it is. In just one afternoon, I finished four months of Project Life pages with the filler and journaling cards and embellishments all in place. It was so easy to find just the items that might work out for a given page. A couple of years ago, Ali wrote in a blog post that the fewer supplies you have, the easier it is to make decisions. That motivated a huge clean-out two years ago, but I still had (and have) way too much stuff. Once my class at the University of Rochester is over, I plan to tackle my craft closet again, and make similar changes there. And once the sun comes out long enough to photograph them, you’ll begin to see some Project Life pages once again.

 

 

SNAP: Fall in Niagara-on-the-Lake

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Monday I wrote about our weekend in Niagara-on-the-Lake, but I like this collection of photos from the weekend. Since I’m thinking about putting all the SNAP collections from this year into a photo book, I want to document our travels as well as show four related photos for Helena’s meme. One of the photos here is similar to one I posted on Monday, but the rest are new.

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Every fall there is a wonderful display of pumpkins and fall flowers arranged around this carriage near the golf course (upper left). The upper right photos is of the sailboats moored along the Niagara River. On Saturday, many of them were on the water both in the river and on Lake Ontario. I loved the colors of the tree against the bright blue sky (lower left), and the lower right photo shows the patio of the Lake House where we ate lunch on Saturday afternoon. 

Virginia’s View Focal Point Challenge

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I’m getting in just under the wire for Virginia’s View Focal Point Challenge.

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I actually have two sets of cards ready for the challenge, but only time enough to post one of the them. I was inspired to make these cards by the beautiful fall card Alexandra posted a week or so ago.

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I used a Simon Says Stitched Circle die to cut a circle in a piece of Rustic Cream cardstock by PTI. The leaves are from Paptertrey’s Leaf Print set. I stamped them with a variety of Distress Inks, and then spritzed them with a bit of water before stamping them on watercolor paper. I don’t own the dies for this set so they were fussy cut by hand. The three-dimensional acorn is by Little B and was included in the October Simon Says Card Kit. The sentiment from Birthday Style (PTI) was stamped on Canyon Clay cardstock, and then I layered the Rustic Cream with leaves on top with dimensional tape. Three rainstones finished it off.

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Of course when I finished I had a circle of Rustic Cream, and it seemed a pity to let it go to waste.

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The only differences here are the cardstock (not sure where I got it) and a few splatters of Tim Holtz’s Distress Mica Spray in bronze on the circle before I added the leaves which are stamped with the same process.

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The sentiment here is a partially inked one from Simon Says “You Matter” set which was sitting on my desk at the time. I edged the hand-cut banner with Chai Tea ink from Papertrey. Off to link up with the challenge before it closes!

Memorandum Monday

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Sneaking in at the very end of Monday for a wave to Sian and other memo keepers with a look at their weekends—and perhaps a bit of learning something new. We had a particularly lovely weekend in Niagara-on-the-Lake with our friends. The weather was truly amazing—almost summer-like, and we enjoyed every minute of it. 

On our way into town, we stopped at one of the local parks along the Niagara River, and I hopped out to take a few photos.

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I loved the door and the brick work on this house at the edge of the park.

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We arrived on Friday afternoon, and had tickets for an evening performance at the St. George Theater downtown.

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Typically we get tickets to the musical production. This year’s was Sweeny Todd, and all of us had already seen it. It’s a bit dark for a second take, so we decided on one of Shaw’s plays, Mrs. Warren’s Profession. Frankly, it had been quite a while since we’d seen one of his plays, and we’d forgotten that they can often be a polemic–which this one certainly was. We were hoping for a bit of humor, but none was to be had. The acting and sets were, as always, first rate, but we think we’re done with Shaw as a playwright. 

Fortunately, Saturday held much better experiences. We visited a new winery, recommended by our bed and breakfast hosts, called Big Head. The wines are a little pricier that some, because they are made with the appassimento process of drying the grapes before pressing them. This is the second winery in the area to use this process. We discovered Foreign Affairs quite a few years ago. Both wineries produce wonderful wines, well worth the increase in price, especially since we save them for a special occasion. I love the logo for Big Head.

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We made a stop at Foreign Affairs as well to pick up two bottles of Sarah and Adam’s favorite wine, and discovered something new in the front of the winery.

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The owners found this huge moose in a yard in northern Ontario, along with a whole collection of like-sized animals. The moose is one of the Canadian animals featured on their wine labels, so he found a new home.

Nearly every fall, I get a wonderful photo of grapes hanging on the vines. We didn’t see any grapes on any vines at any of the wineries. Finally I asked, and discovered that because the summer had been so hot and dry, the harvest had just been completed. And yes, it was earlier than usual.

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Here you can see Lake Ontario beyond the vineyards. I liked the reflection of these same vineyards in the winery window.

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It was so warm, we were able to enjoy lunch on the patio at Lake House.

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And although we chose to eat inside, it was still warm enough at night to eat outside if you preferred.

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Regardless of the weather, and our satisfaction with the theater, we always have a wonderful time in Niagara-on-the-Lake. We’ve been going with our friends for over 15 years now, and we’ve yet to tire of it. 

 

 

 

SNAP: The Architecture River Cruise

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Tracy and I spent a long weekend in Chicago about seven years ago. Number 1 on our sightseeing list was to take the Chicago Architecture Foundation River Cruise. We purchased our tickets ahead of time, but it rained as hard as I can ever remember the day of our cruise. They sail rain or shine. The tour guide was wonderful, but the tour was a bit of a disappointment in terms of getting any photographs. This year we bought our tickets the night before, and it was a perfect day, sunny and warm enough to sit on the upper deck of the boat. Our tour guide from the Architecture Foundation, Harry, was exceptional. How anyone could remember all the dates, architectural firms, and history without ever referring to a note is beyond me! 

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I’m sure I have enough photos to make a small mini-book, but I’ll probably just add a page of photos to the Project Life pages for last month. In the last seven years, new buildings have gone up, and if we take the tour again in another seven years, the skyline will have changed again. It’s absolutely fascinating, and if you’re ever in Chicago, don’t pass up the opportunity to take the tour.

Memorandum Monday and September’s Five in Five

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There’s a bit to report this Monday. We’ve done quite a bit of work on our house in 2016. All the bathrooms have been refurbished, and all of them received new plumbing. We’ve added a new chair to the living room, a new bed in the guest room, and a new sleeper sofa in the den. The last of the big projects was replacing our front sidewalk. It’s been in the planning stage for several years, actually. At one time, we thought we’d relocate the front walk, but in the end, decided just to replace the cement sidewalk with a brick walk that would match the one on the side of the house which was there when we moved in 31 years ago.

Here’s a look at the sidewalk in mid-September:

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Notice that my beautiful Korean pear tree is already dark brown. Sadly, it’s not from the change in weather, but a fungal disease for which there is no effective treatment.

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About a year ago, Matt and Tracy pulled up the cement sidewalk that led to the kitchen door. At that time, we still planned to move the sidewalk toward the center of the yard. Tracy laid down pavers to get us through until the new sidewalk went in.

Last spring, Matt started his own landscape business, and he’s doing all the work himself. It’s very nice to have him around every day, and I have lots of photos of the process. For today, however, I’ll stick with the photos I took this weekend.

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You’ll notice the Korean Pear tree is now gone. If I were a crier, I would have cried the day it came down. We’re not sure, but we think we’ll replace it with a Kousa Dogwood in the spring. I had no idea what was involved in replacing the walk, but it was much more involved than I imagined. Matt is meticulous so everything was done very carefully.

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This week the lawn has to be regraded, and a new bed will be designed for the glider and the new tree if we choose to replace it. He’s also going to resize the bed around the light pole. One thing I really wanted was to have some of the existing beds cleaned out and replanted with a lot fewer plants. Matt has two of them done, but there are still some hostas that need to be moved from the front of the house behind the holly. I love to look out my studio window (top left) and see the new sidewalk. It’s a bit of a consolation for no longer being able to watch the birds in the pear tree.

On Saturday Matt and Betsy had an out-of-town wedding to attend, so we babysat for Skylar and Ella. Maddy went to her Aunt Pam’s. We had a great time, and I took the opportunity to collect some photos for Sandi’s 5 in 5 monthly meme. Here’s Ella writing and drawing at 23 months old.

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Five photos in five minutes; it’s a fun exercise and you can join in right at Sandi’s blog, itchifingers.

SNAP: The Terracotta Warriors

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When we were in Chicago in May, we happened to see advertisements for a special exhibit at The Field Museum, China’s First Emperor and His Terracotta Warriors. I’ve long been fascinated by this amazing creation, and we decided to make seeing it a priority on our next trip. We were not disappointed. China’s first emperor commissioned the creation of an entire underground empire made from terracotta to guard his mausoleum. It is estimated that there are over 8,000 life size terracotta figures in the area surrounding his mausoleum. The Field Museum has a small collection of those warriors, archers, chariots, and horses on display with other artifacts from that time period (475-221 BC.)  I would love to see them in person, but that’s highly unlikely, so I was delighted to have time to explore this exhibit. Emperor Qin Shihuan (247-221 BC) was also responsible for the building of the Great Wall of China. Should I ever visit China, those two sites would be high on my bucket list. Here’s a peek at the exhibit.

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In the photo on the bottom left, behind the terracotta soldiers, you can see a photo of a part of the underground empire. I had no idea that the area that is open to visitors in China is just a fraction of the emperor’s tomb. The actual tomb has yet to be excavated.

Afterwards, we spent over an hour in the Evolving Planet exhibit, but we just touched the surface of all there is to see in this fabulous museum.

This was one of many highlights of our week in Chicago. Sarah’s Installation was one, of course, and so was my meeting with Alexandra from Art, Scrap, and More. I discovered Alexandra’s blog through Sian at From High in the Sky. I love how bloggers connect with one another, and meeting Alexandra in person was such a delight! Next week I’ll be sharing another highlight of our day in the Windy City for SNAP.