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With Sympathy

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We’re of the age that many of our friends are dealing with the illness and death of parents. This week a friend lost her mother. Betty lived a long and happy life, but the last few months were very difficult. For some reason I never seem to have a stash of sympathy cards ready to mail, but since I had just watched the Papertrey Ink Make-it-Monday video I had an idea. I don’t often stamp a background. Except for changing the ink color, I copied the background design Dawn created on the video. The neutral colors seemed perfect for a more somber card.

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I used both Soft Stone and Fine Linen cardstocks and inks in creating the card. The die cut is the “Christmas Label” which I haven’t used in a long time, but will remember it for times like these. The sentiment is also from a set I haven’t used in a long time, “Boutique Borders.”

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The pearls from A Muse Creative Candy were the perfect color. I purchased a lot of these before A Muse went to a private party format, and I’m glad I did. This card seems perfect for the current Virginia View challenge, Ombre and Monochromatic.

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Pairs: A Bouquet of Peonies

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Our peonies are in bloom, and I brought enough in to create a bouquet for the dining room table since we had guests for dinner on Monday night. Here are two views, one from the top, and a closer look from the side. 

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I’m linking this pair up to Helena’s meme, Pairs, where you can always find some weekly inspiration for your photography.

 

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This also qualifies for my first find (and #1 on the list) for Rinda’s Summertime Photography Scavenger Hunt. Almost every year, there is one item for which I find multiple subjects. A bouquet of flowers may just be the item this year. It’s not too late to join in on the fun. You can check out the list on Rinda’s side bar. And on my sidebar, you can click on the Summertime Photography Hunt image and it will take you to this year’s SmugMug album.

Enjoy the Ride!

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I have a birthday card today for a friend who is an avid bike rider. I’m guessing the Memory Box bicycle die doesn’t exactly replicate his road bike, but I thought he’d enjoy the card nonetheless.

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I started with the bicycle die, and finally decided on one of the papers from Maille Belle’s “Black and White All Over” collection. It’s proving to be pretty versatile. The sentiment is from a Papertrey Ink stamp set of the same name, “Enjoy the Ride” that’s an oldie, but goodie.

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I love the dimension you get with the die cut for the bike basket. I’m entering this into the Wednesday Challenge at Simon Says, “Make It Masculine.” I still have a few hours to get a couple Father’s Day cards done for the challenge as well, but probably will enter them through Flickr since all the fathers I’m creating for read my blog at least occasionally.

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Project Life: May

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It probably won’t happen again, but I finished the May Project Life spread on June 1!!! Happy dance, here. It was pretty easy since there wasn’t any travel and I never took any photos on Mother’s Day or my birthday. 

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Although I’ve been keeping up with my Project 365 on my iPhone and getting each day into the Collect app, this is the first month I’ve exported the photos and printed the cards. I like them a lot. There’s lots of white space, the captions and date are great for Project Life as well.

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When you’ve survived a long, cold, snowy winter spring flowers are such a pleasure! We spent lots of time outdoors in May and it was a treat.

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I found these beautiful pink and purple sequins by Pretty Pink Posh when I was in Buffalo a week ago, and knew right away I wanted to make a shaker card for this layout. When I carried the album downstairs to take the photo, they arranged themselves in a lilac shape—how convenient! I really like the Paislee Press Calendar cards as titles, and may continue that again next year.

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I found two tiny wood veneers in my stash and combined them with a narrow piece of washi tape by Little B to embellish the journaling card.

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We have the most amazing hedge of spirea on our property line. Every June I’m amazed by how beautiful it is; I wish it lasted longer. I included Collect cards with two of my favorite photos of Skylar and Ella from this month, my meeting with Melissa in Buffalo, and my new bicycle basket–my birthday gift from Sarah, Adam, and Caleb. I almost always change up the mantle decorations for each season, and include a photo of the summer themed mantle. A new addition are the three candles under the wreath which I purchased in April from Crate and Barrel. I should have taken a closer shot of them. I layered two colors of sand in the bottom of each, and am really happy with how it turned out. The filler card was made with a piece of patterned paper from my stash (unknown). I cut the camera image from a Cocoa Daisy filler card and used some dimensional tape to pop it up a bit.

June will likely be a bit more involved since we’ll be on the road again, and there are several big events planned.

I’m still plugging away at purging. I took four big bags of supplies to the charity shop today, but still haven’t totally finished going through my studio to say nothing of tackling the basement.

Pairs: Two Ways of Seeing

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When I took up photography as a serious hobby about eight years ago, I learned to see in new ways. Colors, light, composition, contrasts, photos within photos . . . all took on new meaning. We spend a fair amount of time on the road these days, and I’m always struck by how many wonderful subjects there are for a good photograph, if only we had time to stop!

For years, I’ve wanted to be able to draw. Last summer, thanks to links on Alexa’s and Deb’s blogs, I enrolled in Sketchbook Skool. Learning to sketch opened a whole new world of seeing. Every angle and detail matters. I see things when I’m planning and executing a sketch I’d never seen when composing a photograph. Like photography, sketching has improved my vision.

Truthfully, I love both hobbies. In May, I participated in a sketching challenge called Everyday in May. I drew all 31 prompts, but the day I had the most fun was a week ago when I met up with the Rochester Sketch Meet-up Group to sketch on the Canandaigua Pier. Here are two ways of seeing:  the photograph and the sketch.

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There’s so much more to learn for both hobbies. I could spend all day watching videos and reading about both of them. As it is, I’ll keep practicing and trying to improve.

I’m linking up with Helena’s wonderful meme: Pairs. You can find more of them here.

Project Life: All Caught Up

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It’s June 1, and I’ve already started working on my May Project Life pages! I’m hoping never to get as far behind as I did last year. Today’s post is a bit longer than usual. March was a busy month for us; we were only home seven days the whole month. But April was quiet, so there’s just one two-page spread. I thought I’d share them both today.

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Since I ended February on a right-hand page, March begins with a one-page spread. I used a stamp from Papertrey Ink’s “Get Lost” set to stamp a message on the calendar card. We’d had such an awful February weather-wise, and got stuck in a terrible winter storm on our way to Florida, so it seemed like the perfect sentiment! The Long Boat Key bumper sticker made a perfect filler card, and I finally managed to get some memorabilia on my page with a strip from the ticket to the Philadelphia Flower Show. Meeting up with Cheri was definitely the highlight of that stop!

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Who knew fish had teeth? We came upon these Amish fishermen one morning and one of them had just caught a sheepshead. They have a set of very real teeth!

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More memorabilia from two day trips–one to Spanish Point with a high school friend of Tracy’s and her husband, and one to Sanibel where we met up with Tracy’s mom and her two friends for a drive through the wildlife refuge and had lunch on Captiva Island.

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High on our list of places we wanted to visit was the Ringling Museum. It’s huge, and we spent the whole afternoon at the Circus Museum, never getting into the mansion or visiting the art gallery. We’ll definitely be going back next year. More memorabilia: I cut my wrist band apart for the strip on the filler card and the elephant embellishment on the journaling card. I had saved a postage stamp that came in the mail just for this occasion! Everywhere we go, I pick up business cards from the restaurants where we eat. I never know what to do with them, so this time I made a pocket with an embellishment from Pink Paislee’s Atlas collection and a stamp from their Sentiment Series.

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All the photos on this page are from our last day in Florida. We visited the Selby Botanical Gardens in Sarasota (definitely worth a return trip), and took a selfie at our last meal out.

We were home for just four days before heading off to Chicago to visit Sarah, Adam, and Caleb for Holy Week. With two full-time pastors at two different churches, some babysitting, meal planning, cooking, and general help around the house was in order. Needless to say, we were happy to oblige. Although we were only there the beginning of April, my whole spread for this month documents that visit. Once we got home, we hunkered in. The weather was still very cool, and we had lots of projects on the back burners to attack. 

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There’s a cute paper craft store about 20 minutes from Sarah’s. I don’t get there often, but made a quick run over there one afternoon. The cute Easter embellishments all came from one sheet of 12X12 paper by Echo Park. 

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Several of these photos were posted earlier for a Pairs post, but my favorite photo of the trip is this last one of Tracy and Caleb at brunch after the Easter service. 

Hope your week gets off to a good start. My volunteer stint at the after school program in the inner city ends this week. They take off a few weeks before starting the summer program. We’re gone so much this summer, that I can’t participate in that. I have a committee meeting, some entertaining to plan for, and two lunches out with friends. There should be plenty of time to get to the gym, finish the May Project Life, do some decluttering, and keep up with some other ongoing projects.

Happy Anniversary

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There were three anniversaries to celebrate in May. The last one is today—Sarah and Adam are celebrating their ninth anniversary! Nine years—that hardly seems possible. Here’s the card that went in the mail to them. Hopefully, it arrived today before they see the blog.

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If you remember a post for Pairs in April, I created a whole set of cards using the “happy” die from Wet Paint II from Papertrey Ink. The strip of patterned paper is from Amy Tangerine’s “Plus One” paper pad.

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I stacked three die cuts on top of one another for dimension, and added a gold heart from my stash of die cut hearts and stars.

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This card was made for a couple who were married on my birthday the year Matt was born. Everything except the stamp (“Banner Sentiments”) came from the Simon Says May Card Kit.

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Lastly, a card for Tracy’s brother and his wife. I bought the Art Deco Background stamp from Papertrey quite some time ago, and this is the first time I’ve gotten it to work the way I wanted. The die cut above is also from Papertrey Ink—“Block Talk.” It was another die cut in my little box of previously cut dies.

Now I’m off to make one more anniversary card—another one like Sarah and Adam’s perhaps, for friends who celebrate their anniversary next week.

Pairs: One last trip to Highland Park

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A week from now, most of the flowering plants and trees in Highland Park will be past their peak. It will still be a beautiful place for a walk, but all the stunning color will be gone. This past week the azaleas stole the show. I ended up there in mid-afternoon, not the best hour for good photographs, but you’ll get the idea. I’m posting four photos (2 pairs?) so you can get the whole effect: a zoom out, zoom in sequence.

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I must admit I’ll miss all the gorgeous color when we walk.

 

Ten on Tuesday, and a Wave to Sian a Day Late

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I’m joining in today with Ten on Tuesday, and I think this qualifies for Sian’s “Me on Monday” meme, though a day late.  The prompt seemed perfect: 10 Things You Did This Weekend. This weekend was a holiday weekend, and it seemed like one. The weather was lovely, and we made time for some special activities.

  1. I started my weekend with a meeting with my personal trainer. Since we’ve returned from our winter travels, I’ve been great about going to spinning class and/or walking regularly, but I was not getting back to the weight room. A half hour review was all the motivation I needed. Went back yesterday as well.
  2. We’ll be away again for part of June, and nearly all of July so I needed to get a head start on making cards for the upcoming birthdays and anniversaries, as well as several special events. I finished 14! Some of them will be forthcoming on blog posts.
  3. We watched the Blue Angels fly over our house for three days during the Rochester Air Show. Almost (but not quite) got a great photo of them flying right over my head while I was walking home from the library.
  4. Saturday we made our annual spring trip to the Ithaca Farmer’s Market (and a few other fun stops along the way). I bought some French Breakfast radishes, some green garlic, a loaf of Zatar pita bread, some curly parsley to plant at home, a cherry filled scone, and a gift for an upcoming birthday.

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        5.  For the second year in a row, we managed to pick graduation weekend to go to Ithaca. The
             Cornell campus was busier than usual, and there were lots of families celebrating at
             The Boatyard where we had a wonderful lunch overlooking the inlet to Cayuga Lake.
        6.  Saturday night we had dinner with our good friends, ending it with a delicious piece of
             strawberry-rhubarb pie.
        7.  Sunday morning Tracy dropped me off in Canandaigua to join the Rochester Sketch Meet-up
             group at the pier on Canandaigua Lake to sketch the boat houses. It was a perfect day, sunny
             but not too warm with a lovely breeze coming off the lake. While I sketched, Tracy drove
             to Naples to visit the cemetery.

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         8. When Tracy returned we went to lunch at the very best Mexican restaurant in the area,
              Rio Tomatlin. It was our first visit since they moved into a much larger (and nicer) place
              following a fire about a year ago. The food was, as always, outstanding, and it was nice
              enough to eat outside.

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        9.  I finished the planting in my cutting garden, adding some new perennials and filling in
             with some zinnias, snapdragons, and dahlias. Some of them are budded already so maybe
             there will be some flowers on the table earlier than usual.

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        10.  Unexpectedly, but delightfully, we had dinner with Matt, Betsy, Skylar, and Ella two nights
                in a row. Once at our house, and then at their’s. Here are the cuties all dressed up for the
                annual Memorial Day parade their neighborhood hosts every year.

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I’m off to Buffalo tomorrow to meet Melissa and Robbie from Texas, so the fun doesn’t end here!

 

February Project Life

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February was the coldest month on record in Rochester. It never got above freezing the whole month. But despite the cold, it was a big month in the life of our family, and almost all the photos for this month were taken during the week prior to and right after Sarah’s ordination as a Teaching Elder in the Presbyterian church. In the Presbyterian church there are Ruling Elders (I am one), and Teaching Elders who are the pastors or ministers.

Although Sarah was eligible to be ordained over eight years ago, just finishing your Masters of Divinity, and passing all the ordination exams is not enough. You must receive a “call,” and while Sarah was pursuing her advanced degrees, that didn’t happen. Last fall, however, she received a call to be Acting Associate Pastor at a Congregational Church, and that started the ordination process.

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I took advantage of a sale at Shutterfly and had quite a few photos printed. I couldn’t justify the expense of reprinting them in my usual “Simply White” templates. All these photos are from the Sunday morning service.

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The photo in the Title card is of the Ordination Commission getting ready to process after the choir. I wasn’t present for that because my part in the service was the Call to Worship, so I was in the sanctuary. The members of the Ordination Commission are set by the Book of Order, and must include pastors from different congregations and ruling elders from at least three congregations. The young lady pouring the water into the baptismal font is the granddaughter of our friends, Bill and Tina. The bottom photos are where the acting Moderator of the Presbytery (our head of staff) presented the questions to Sarah, and of the Laying on of Hands by any Teaching or Ruling Elders present at the ordination.

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I cut out the announcement of the ordination from our church newsletter, and finally found the perfect use for the letter press filler card from a Cocoa Daisy kit.

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It is customary for family and churches to present the new minister with stoles. Sarah received several beautiful ones. They are different colors that are to be worn during the different liturgical seasons (white for Easter, for example.) Although Sarah wrote the whole service (except for the sermon given by our pastor), her only part in the actual worship service was to give the benediction. Adam’s parents flew in from Washington state for the service, and spent five days here.

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We spent one morning while they were here with Matt, Betsy, Skylar, and Ella at the Strong Museum of Play.

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There was another big event in February, Matt’s 32nd birthday which we celebrated rather quietly. I included my favorite photo of Ella from February looking at herself in the mirror as she tried to roll over. It wasn’t long after this photo was taken that she was successful.

I also included some photos from our trip to the George Eastman House with Adam’s parents. Just by chance, one of my very good friends happened to be the tour guide that day. The journaling card here was created with some of the Monthly Moment stamps by Papertrey Ink—just perfect for the occasion.

Pairs: On the Bush & In the Bowl

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When we moved into this house nearly 30 years ago, a kind neighbor walked us around the property pointing out some valuable plants that might not have been recognized. One was a tree peony. Sadly, it’s in our lower yard, in a corner that can’t be viewed easily from the house or our patio. One year when Matt was living here, he cut one of the flowers and floated it in a bowl. Ever since, that’s been our practice, so now we can enjoy the beautiful blooms for as long as they last on the tree.

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Project Life: January 2015

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Well, finally, I’ve gotten to the current year. January found us in Wilmette with Sarah and Adam, and then quickly after our return, on our way to Florida with my mother-in-law’s van. 

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Last year, all my title cards were created with Papertrey Ink’s Monthly Moment dies and stamps. For 2015, I switched to the Paislee Press Calendar Title cards, and I like them very much. I wish the family photo on the card showed up better on the layout. It’s one of my favorites. The journaling card and the filler card are both from Papertrey’s Monthly Moments Journal Collection, and the mittens were punched with a punch I bought so long ago, I have no memory of where I purchased it.

Adam thought we ought to take Caleb on a “bean hunt,” so we headed to Millennial Park for the morning. Sarah thought it was way too cold, but she was a good sport, and I appreciated the opportunity for some good family photos. Caleb was fascinated with the ice skaters on the level below. This was also the weekend of Sarah’s official start as Acting Associate Pastor for the Winnetka Congregational Church.

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I decided at the beginning of the year, to do another Capture Your 365, but this time soley with my iPhone. I’ve kept it up for 4 1/2 months now, and have learned to use quite a few of the apps I had already downloaded to my phone. When I looked at them for January, I realized they painted a pretty good picture of my life:  family, travel, and some of my volunteer commitments. This is the first page of them. The photos of the beautiful pottery are from the Cameros Collection on view at the Rockwell Museum in Corning, NY. It’s one of our favorite museums, and we stop there whenever we go through Corning.

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I created the filler card with some patterned paper from MME, and some stamps from My Favorite Things and Live, Love, Life by Papertrey. The die is an old Spellbinders: Label II.

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The filler card here was created with some Avery Elle paper, “Sorbet,” and a wood veneer from Ali Edwards. The photo of Ella and me has to be one of the very few selfies I’ve ever taken that I liked enough to print! I was babysitting, and the mirror over Matt and Betsy’s couch proved to be a great way to get a photo without the iPhone showing.

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I was sick the whole trip to Florida. We managed to get to an Antique Auto Museum in Tallahassee (photo on the Instagram page), and drove out to St. Mark’s Wildlife Refuge. When we finally arrived at Fort Myer’s Beach, I basically vegged out the whole five days. Not many photos to show for it.

Project Life

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When I returned from Chicago in early April, I had nine months of Project Life pages to complete. Tuesday I finished them all!!! It took six weeks, which isn’t bad considering all the other things that were on the calendar. Now my goal is to be like Becky, and get the pages done as soon as the month ends. Even with a lot of upcoming travel this summer, I think I can do that. 

Today was the perfect spring day, warm temperatures and sunny. I took a long walk to the Ellwanger Gardens, and then through Highland Park. Today was the last day of the Lilac Festival, and it was very crowded. I’m so glad we have easy access to the park when it’s not under siege! Although there are a lot of lilacs in bloom, it’s not yet at peak.

So sharing a layout from last December seems kind of odd, but in the interest of chronology, that’s what I’m doing. You’ll get a heavy dose of Project Life pages in the next few weeks.

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The title card was made with a variety of die cuts from Papertrey Ink, Savvy, and a couple old punches. I used an Ali Edward photo template to collage four photos of the Christmas decorations. I created the journaling card with some washi tape and a cute little house clip that came in a kit (not sure which one.)

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I’ve saved Christmas cards that I thought I might be able to use in my scrapbooks for several years, but I think this is the first time I’ve actually used one. The little Christmas tree made the perfect filler card.

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We celebrate Christmas twice, once in Rochester on Christmas Day with Matt & Betsy and all of Tracy’s family, and then again in Wilmette with Sarah, Adam, and Caleb.

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The top card was created with a Silhouette file, and an old sticker from Michaels. Once again Cathy Zielski’s Tiny Template came in handy for some journaling.

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The big event in Wilmette is not Christmas, but Caleb’s birthday which comes very quickly after our Christmas with them. There wasn’t a party, but he had a wonderful day! Adam found a grocery store that created a Thomas Train cake for him; just what he ordered! 

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You might remember a craft exchange among bloggers several years ago. Alexa sent me all kinds of wonderful goodies, including these metal letters that spelled out Caleb’s name. She probably wondered if she was ever going to see them put to use! The balloons were die cut from a Simon Says set of balloon dies.

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The adorable “three” clip is another of the goodies sent by Alexa. I cut a small slit in the Simple Stories journaling card to hold it.

Now that I’m caught up with Project Life, I’m on to the next BIG undertaking: purging! I’ve gotten a good start on my studio. Despite the fact that I got rid of at least half of what I owned last year, it’s clear there is still way too much stuff here for one person to use. I think it was Ali Edwards who said it’s so much easier to make decisions when you have fewer things to consider. I’ve eliminated almost all my patterned 12X12 paper, I kept just one container with papers I thought I’d use for Project Life or card making. Embellishments have been cut in half as well, and today I packed up 3/4 of the button collection I’d accumulated to take to the paper crafting charity shop. They’ll be happy to see me. 

The rest of the house is in pretty good shape from last year’s purging, but our basement and attic haven’t been touched! We will have been in this house 30 years come September and I’m guessing we’ll be into the fall before this project is completed.

 

Pairs: Bud and Flower

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Last week for Helena’s meme, Pairs, I had three photos because I couldn’t choose. This week I have just one photograph with both bud and flower. I love the lilacs in Highland Park. They are just beginning to pop out, but I think I like them just as much when they are budding as when they are in full flower. 

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You really can’t tell the exact color the lilac will be from the bud which is a different hue. Both are lovely.

Project Life: November 2014

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It’s been a few days since I’ve had time to make any progress on my Project Life pages. I’ve switched gears a bit, and am working on getting all the photos printed for the last four months I need to do to catch up. I’m hoping by this time next week, I’ll be done. Meanwhile, I do have photos for the November layouts, so it’s time to start sharing again.

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I rarely do a page with all black and white photos, but I love how this came out. Most of these photos were taken in the hospital by a professional photographer, and we have both color and black and white versions. I converted the rest to black and white, and used Papertrey Ink’s new Mini Market Kit and Monthly Moments stamps and dies to embellish the page. I love the pink and gray with the black and white photos.

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Tracy gave me a three month subscription to the project life kit at Cocoa Daisy a year or so ago, and I still had this card from one of the kits. The letter stickers are from Hobby Lobby, and the little bird is from Wee Folk. This photo of Betsy and Ella is one of my faves.

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It’s not often that both my kids are here for Thanksgiving, but thanks to Ella’s arrival, Sarah, Adam and Caleb arrived from Chicago to spend a long weekend. 

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We spent a lot of time at Matt and Betsy’s taking turns holding the precious baby!

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It’s hard to tell, but the die cut on the Paislee Press journaling card (Simon Says Stitched Circles) and the die cuts here (Paper Smooches) are cut from a bronze metallic paper and have a beautiful shimmer to them.