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Think Spring: 30 Steps

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Today’s prompt was to take thirty steps outside and photograph what you found. I found lots more to photograph than I expected. This is the diptych I posted on BPS for class. We’ve never seen our helleborus bloom before. Probably it’s because it’s not warm enough to spend any time outside. Today we even got yard work done that usually is done in mid-May. Sadly, the blooms of the helleborus face downward, but when you turn them over they are just beautiful.

HeleborisDiptychw

Right next to the helleborus is a brick walk and the pretty blue flowers are popping up all over it.

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Walking toward the front yard, are the daffodils. In just one day they’ve gone from bud to full flower.

DaffodilDiptychw

When we arrived home Wednesday night there were few signs of spring. In just three days, there’s been a wonderful transformation!

Think Spring: Start Your Day

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It was another amazingly hot day. The thermometer outside our bedroom window registered 90° as we got ready to go out to dinner. We met friends at a lovely restaurant on Consesus Lake and sat outside on the patio. It was just like summer, except for the bare trees. That won’t last long if this keeps up. Our daffodils went from tight buds to full flower in just one day. When I drove past Highland Park this morning you could see the lilacs beginning to bud. The annual Lilac Festival doesn’t begin until May 14th this year, so I’m sure the festival organizers are praying this heat wave will be short-lived. I, on the other hand, am perfectly happy with the warm weather. It was very warm, but certainly did not feel like 90°.

Today’s prompt for Think Spring was to capture the start of your day. I took several different photos, but finally settled on this one of my Eggbeater omelet and a catalog I was browsing while I ate. Tracey Clark took her photo with her wide-angle lens so I got mine out. It hasn’t been on the camera since last summer. It’s good to try new things.

Breakfast1ijpg 

Think Spring: Beginnings

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I decided to enroll in Tracey Clark’s Think Spring class at BPS. I’m already glad I did. I really needed some motivation after the trip to take photos, and the inspiration in the class gallery is wonderful. Each day we’ll be getting an email with a photography prompt. Today’s was “Beginnings.” We don’t have much to show for the beginning of spring in our yard, but these lovely little purple flowers magically appear year after year.

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Something From Nothing: Patterned Paper

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Despite all I have cleared out, I have tons of patterned paper and find it hard not to buy any more. But I didn’t cut into one new piece of paper for either of these projects. They both were done with scraps that I keep in a plastic baggie.

The calendar templates, (created by Celeste Smith), I found on Pebble’s blog. I thought it would be fun to have a perpetual birthday calendar hanging on my bulletin board. I haven’t quite decided how to bind it yet. I don’t have a Bind-it All so perhaps I’ll take it to Kinko’s. They’ve done some binding for me in the past, and it’s been quite good and inexpensive.

BDCalendar

Yesterday when I was looking for photos for the little metal frames, I found all these little square photos in the envelope with a common theme. (Thanks, Stacy Julian!) I knew right away I’d do a layout with them. Then I saw all the great pages done with punched circles on Shimelle’s class forum and thought they’d work well with the photo cluster. This is not my usual “clean & simple” layout, but I’m quite happy with it. Along each side of the photo I wrote where the picture was taken.

Shutterbugs 

 I’m off to chair the Youth Ministry Committee at our church tonight, so it’s unlikely I’ll get any more done today. Chicken Cordon Bleu is next on the agenda, at Matt’s request.

Something From Nothing: Metals

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Classimage

It’s been a particularly productive week, but finding time to get to the computer to blog has been difficult. I broke down and decided to take Shimelle’s class Something From Almost Nothing for two reasons. One, several of my blogging friends were taking it, and second, I have plenty of stash to work with even after cleaning out and giving away a LOT of my supplies since the holidays.

The first prompt involved using your metal stash. I have several little drawers filled with metal letters, words, and frames as well as a little box devoted to brads. One items I saw used in the prompts was bottle caps. Ever since I bought them (probably 3-4 years ago) I have wondered what I was thinking. So I pulled them out and this is what I came up with.

StarBottleCapCard
Matt thought this was a particularly cool card–“Wow, a card with beer bottle caps!” Well, not exactly, but it sure is the idea.

3BottleCapCards
Three very similar cards, but all with a slightly different shape and size.

BottleCapDetail
These cards will need to be hand delivered or put into a padded envelope, but I like the flowers.

And a card with brads. I saved this paper when I cleaned out earlier this year and cut it into little squares. But then didn’t know quite what to do with it.

BradCard
I have quite a bit of it left for another project or two or three.

When I was perusing my metal goodies, I found a set of Making Memories metal frames. Then I started going through the little square photos I have in a drawer (a tip from Stacy Julian’s Photo Freedom). I found a set I have piled on my desk for a later layout, but these four fit the frames perfectly. Since the three of us were just talking about Kiawah the other night at dinner, the journaling came easily.

MetalFrameLO
I have a lot of ideas for prompt #2 (patterned paper), and hope to get to some of them this week, but the days are pretty filled with appointments and errands that need to be done before we leave for California early Saturday morning. I knew when I signed up that I would never be able to keep up, so I’m pleased to have created a few things for the beginning of class.