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Anniversary Post and 52/50

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We had a lovely day Sunday celebrating our anniversary along Seneca Lake. Our first stop was a new to us winery, Damiani. The staff was delightful, and so were the wines. Later that night, we ended up choosing one of their wines to have with our dinner. Tracy was anxious to get back to a lovely, small organic winery called Silver Thread. Although their wines are a bit more pricey, their whites are just perfect for summer entertaining on the patio.

The view from Silver Thread is not bad either.

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This is my pick for this week (#31) for the 52/50 project.

The grapes are still green, but beautiful.

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But the best part of the day was the fabulous dinner at Suzanne’s.

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It’s a beautiful setting, overlooking the lake. If you look closely you can see tables and chairs on the porch for dining. We opted to eat inside as it had rained off and on all day.

Imagine my surprise, when I looked at the menus Tracy and I were handed.

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Not only did we get anniversary wishes from the hostess and our waitress, but the chef came out at the end of the meal to wish us happy anniversary.

The food was amazing. Each of us chose a different entree, and all four of us were delighted with our choices. Before dinner we were offered a complimentary appetizer, and we shared a cheese plate as well.

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Much of the food served here is sourced locally, and if it’s not, you know where it came from. All four cheeses were from New York, three of them from the Finger Lakes. My rack of lamb came from Colorado and was cooked to perfection.

There are beautiful gardens surrounding Suzanne’s but by the time we finished dinner, it was (once again) raining, so we’ll have to save those for another trip. At the end of the meal, we were given our menus rolled up and tied with a green bow. I did take a photo, but the light was so poor for the iPhone by that time, that it’s not very good.

So this week’s 52/50 photo is at the top of the post, and here are the last few weeks in reverse order:

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Miss Skylar, for Week 30

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A yellow daisy from my garden for Week 29

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An umbrella from a crafter’s booth at the Corn Hill Arts Festival for Week 28

Here are a couple more shots from the festival, one of three huge arts festivals that are held every summer in Rochester.

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I loved the name this crafter chose, and we loved her art—bought two gifts and a little something for ourselves. I also found something for Rinda’s Scavenger Hunt at the festival, but I’ll save that for tomorrow.

Heartfelt Thanks

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I serve on three Presbytery committees. Our Presbytery serves 60+ churches throughout the Genesee Valley. I’ve been chair of one of them (Education and Resource) for the last three years. We plan and execute education events for youth and adults in the Presbytery. We host an annual Church Leadership Day with a variety of workshops and speakers, Presbytery-wide youth events and worship services, as well as oversee a resource center at the Presbytery office.

The chairs of the three standing committees also sit (with six other members) on a committee that awards grants to agencies working with congregations in the area.

The last committee is one of several under the “Urban Presbyterians Together” umbrella. Like many churches, most of our urban churches are struggling with decreasing congregations, inadequate budgets, aging buildings, and increased need for mission to the neighborhood. UPT’s aim to to help these churches find ways to collaborate and work together to serve God in increasingly difficult circumstances.

When I accepted a position on Resource and Education four years ago, I had no idea where that would lead. All of it is rewarding work, but meetings are just one part of it. Next week, I’ll be attending a workshop on violence in the city, a mission day at an inner city store-front mission, and a meeting with folks who are trying to figure out how to help feed the hungry in our urban areas where little good food is available. (Most grocery stores have moved out of the inner city.) 

Last night, two of the committees met back-to-back. (Fortunately that doesn’t happen often.) I was asked to make a thank you card that one of the committees could send to a group of Presbyterian women who turned over a lovely sum of money for us to use for our work. It caused me to finally break out the card-making supplies after nearly a month away from them. 

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It was fun to get back into the crafting mode. I also got my Father’s Day cards done which you’ll be seeing on Sunday. I started with “Lovely Layers” by Papertrey Ink. No matter what color combination you choose, it always seems to come together nicely. It’s hard to tell fromt the photo, but the circle and darker ink on the card are Royal Velvet, a beautiful dark purple. The front of the card was embossed with the Diamond Impression Plate, and the sentiment and frame are from the “Mat Stack 3 Collection.”

 

Weekend Recap

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Tonight I tuned into the nightly news and heard the awful news from Boston. My hairdresser (I’ve been going to her for over 30 years and feel like she is family) was running the Boston Marathon today, and I am anxious about her safety, and the safety of her family.

We had a busier weekend than usual, and I thought I’d share some photos. Friday night Betsy and Skylar came for dinner. Skylar’s been under the weather with ear infections, and was feeling enough better in the afternoon to come to dinner, but it was easy to tell she wasn’t her usual happy self. No smiles, and very clingy. Nonetheless we were delighted to see both of them.

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Skylar did feel good enough to play with the toys for awhile, but decided being in the toy box was best.

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Saturday I drove to Syracuse to spend a few hours with my brother. When he retired a few years ago, he decided he needed a new job, and became a school bus driver. He’s a people person, loves the kids, the other drivers, and the structure it gives his days.

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He drove a group of middle school students from Highland to Syracuse University for a state science competition. He had most of Saturday free while they were in competition, so we met at the newly expanded Destiny Mall.

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This is the rope and climbing area that is suspended above the addition to the mall. I’m guessing there’s a 30% addition to an already large mall; about half of the stores are filled. We had lunch at a fabulous Mexican restaurant. I’m sure it’s a chain, but the food was incredibly fresh and delicious. 

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We opted to have the guacamole which is made fresh at your table, and we both chose the Enchilada Vera Cruz. It was fabulous.

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The guacamole cart.

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I got home about 2:30, just in time to get ready to have good friends for dinner.

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Cathy and Bob were our companions on our Alaska adventure two years ago. Their daughter, Rachel, is a good friend of Sarah’s. Rachel and her husband recently moved to Istanbul, Turkey. They’ll be there just a year with a Citibank training program, and we’ve been invited to come visit. We’re taking them up on the offer, and one month from today we’ll be on our way to Istanbul. Since this year is our 40th wedding anniversary, we’ve decided to extend our trip with two days in Athens, and a few days on Santorini—long on our bucket list. I’m very excited. Bob and Cathy will be going this fall for two weeks. I made a Mediterranean appetizer platter in anticipation of our trips.

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On Sunday we christened my mother-in-law’s new home with a impromptu picnic. The condo is completed (and stunning!), but Ellie will have to completely furnish it since there was almost nothing salvaged from the fire last January. Sadly, none of the photos I took were good of everyone, but this one was the best of the bunch.

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Later that night, we had dinner at Tina and Bill’s. No photos of the delicious dinner, but suffice it to say, I need to get back on The Plan quickly!

Hope your weekend was a good one!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oregon Day Trips

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It’s still cold and snowy in western New York, but we’ve had fabulous weather in southern Oregon. Sarah, Tracy, and I visited Harry and David’s flagship store in Medford on Friday and took the factory tour. 

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We had a wonderful tour guide. The production line moves so quickly it’s hard to believe how fast some of the basket packers can work! We loved watching them make Moose Munch and arrived just as the caramel mixture reached the right temperature for adding the popcorn and nuts.

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We came home with three different kinds of Moose Munch along with quite a few other goodies.

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I loved their old pick-up on display. Harry and David (and the Medford region) are renowned for their pears which they used as a decoration on the truck rails.

While we were on the tour, the guide asked me what we had been doing while we were visiting here. I mentioned that I’d love to have gone to Crater Lake, but that it wasn’t a particularly great time to visit. She said she’d talked to several folks that had been there that week, and that it was wonderful. We checked the weather, and discovered the temperature for Crater Lake on Saturday was supposed to be in the 50’s, so after breakfast at The Breadboard in Ashland, Sarah, Tracy, Caleb and I took off for Crater Lake. Adam opted to stay at home and get some quiet time. The drive from Ashland to Crater Lake is wonderful. Despite the warm temperatures, there is still a LOT of snow at Crater Lake. The annual snowfall there is 44 ft. (the equivalent of over an inch of snow falling every single day!)

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After some time at the visitor center, we headed up to the Rim. Crater Lake is reputedly the cleanest water in the world. Crater Lake gets no water from rivers or streams, so all the water comes from the sky. According to the newsletter, it’s cleaner than the water that comes from your faucet at home.

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I love this panorama taken with my iPhone!

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Thanks to a kind offer from another visitor we have a nice family photo from the event. 

You’ll find my social media and email links on the sidebar now, and here’s the signature. Jessica’s class was well worth the money not only for the design, but for the confidence in knowing how to refresh the blog!

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Winter Storm and Project 52/50

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It’s sunny, but cold here today. There is nothing but a remenant left of the storm we had a week ago. Unlike the east coast, we got lots of snow, but NO wind. The result was exceptionally beautiful as the snow clung to the branches for nearly three days.

It started like this:

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And developed into this:

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Here are a few more photos of the first two days:

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But it was Sunday when the snow came out that it became simply stunning. 

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Lots of these were taken with my iPhone and a few with my wide-angle lens. This one was taken with the 50mm and it’s my pick for the 52/50 project I’m doing this year. I’m linking it to Kent Weakley’s P52.

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You can find more photographic inspiration here.

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January Art Journal & Pass The Book

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I’ve had this book far too long, but I thoroughly enjoyed it, and have a page of typed notes and sketches of ideas I found within its pages. You can see some of my post-its here. So it’s time to pass it along.

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 You can read about Pass the Book here. If you’re interested in taking a look at this one, leave me a comment, and on Monday night I’ll pick a recipient. I’ve been interested in art journaling for a long time, but haven’t done anything with it in years. Sarah and I took an art journaling class together years ago, but I’m not even sure where mine is at this point. This book, however, and a couple of books I purchased this summer have renewed my interest. Since I’m not doing a monthly layout of my Capture Your 365 photos this year, I decided I’d start an art journal and recap my months there. I’ll probably add other pages as well. 

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I started by using my water color crayons to create a background, and then stamped on top of them with a texture stamp. I typed up the recap of the month and inserted it into a vellum envelope. The date stickers are from the Simple Stories Snap! line, and the wood veneer arrow from Studio Calico. I printed three photos from our trip to Florida on Epson Project paper and tore around the edges.

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The photo in the middle of the page was altered with an action in the new Photoshop Elements 11. I’d read mixed reviews about this upgrade, but received a copy of it for Christmas, and like it very much! I’ve spent a fair amount of time playing around with it, and think it is the most user friendly yet. This page shows more stamping, some hand-drawn dots, a bit of Washi tape, and another wood veneer piece.

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Since we drove to Florida in January and flew home, I added the car on the first page, and the airplane on the second. Here’s a look at the two pages together.

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Here’s the monthy recap:

It was an unusual January for us. The month got off to a great start with the 50th Anniversary Party for the Presbytery at the Planetarium. All of us involved in the planning were greatly relieved by its huge success. 

As soon as it was over, Tracy & I hit the road for Florida. We drove Ellie’s packed van to her and then flew home. Our road trip to Florida couldn’t have been better. We visited with Susan & Eric in Delaware, Carole and Gordon in North Carolina, and Betty in Stuart, FL. We made quick stops in Atlantic Beach, St. Augustine, and Ponce’s Inlet on our way to Stuart. 

After two nights with Betty, we drove across to Ft. Myers Beach where Ellie is staying for 3 months with her friends, Dick & Caroline. They are avid birders, and I spent a lot of time photographing birds which they kindly identified for me. All of us spent a wonderful morning at the wildlife refuge on Sanibel Island. Another highlight was a trip to Naples to the Naple’s Art Gallery–a beautiful place with two fascinating exhibits: one on women painters and one by blind photographers.

Once we got home, we had the usual busy schedule with meetings, volunteer commitments, and social events. 

I finished two books: “The Plan”, and “The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry”; saw one movie, “The Life of Pi”; & enjoyed GeVa’s “Next to Normal” (powerful!). We had dinner with Tina & Bill, Cathy & Bob, Jill & Tom, Betsy & Skylar, & entertained  our book group.

Despite being away, I finished 16 cards & 1 layout, & started three online classes (The History Project, A Flash of Brilliance, & Inspired), as well as an 8 week course at the Community Darkroom on Photoshop.

For a first attempt I’m pretty happy with these pages. I actually had another two-page spread done in a different journal, but decided the pages were not heavy enough to handle the different medias I want to explore, so yesterday I took it apart and started over in this journal that has 140# watercolor paper.  Should be a bit more sturdy.

Don’t forget to leave a comment if you’d like a chance to read the book!

A Bit of Snow

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We had an exceptionally mild November and December, but yesterday we began to catch up with the average snowfall amount. We got about 9-10 inches overnight, and it was truly beautiful this morning. There wasn’t as much wind or blowing snow, so although travel wasn’t great, it wasn’t as treacherous as they predicted. Matt flew out of Rochester just ahead of the storm, and made it to Denver with about an hour’s delay in Atlanta. All in all, his travel was a nonevent—thank goodness!

I always have a urge to purge right after the holidays, so I spent the day sorting through a very large pile of articles that has accumulated over the fall. Now I’m trying to decide how to file the ones I do want to keep—and a system for knowing how to find them. Anyone have a systemt that works for them? I’d love to hear about it.

The only time I ventured out was to take a few photos and to put the cards I made into the mail box. Our birdfeeders got very attractive caps in the snow.

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This was the front walk after Tracy’s first pass with the snowblower.

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I liked the patterns the snow made on our glider.

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But my favorite was the railings on the front porch. The pattern reminded me of Frank Lloyd Wright designs.

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And for fun, I hung an ornament in our Korean Pear tree. I think I could have used a narrower aperture, but I like the red against the white.

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I finally have photographed all the pages I’ve completed of the Christmas Journal, so I’ll be back soon with the first of them. Still have three days left to do.

 

Drawn Together

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I’ve spent the last six days praying for the survivors of the Newtown, CT tragedy and wondering what I could do that would be meaningful aside from urging my Representatives and Senators to pass gun control legislation and look for ways to fund better mental health counseling. This morning I found it on Amber Kemp-Gerstel’s blog “Damask Love.” Please take time to read her blog post, and to contribute in any way that seems appropriate to you. Just sending a card to be included with the kits would be a wonderful contribution.

FMM: Christmas Questions

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Rinda posted a list of Christmas questions on her blog that originated with The BoysMum2Blog and is sponsored by the All the Weigh blog. I’ve been off the computer for nearly a week except to answer important emails, and this seemed like the perfect way to get back to blogging. (Think this will be the next entry in my Christmas Journal, which is coming along, although I’m still not up-to-date.)

Christmas Questions 

1. How will you celebrate the holidays this year? This year Matt will be here for five days over Christmas, so Christmas morning will seem more like the old days. We’ll go out to dinner on Christmas Eve, and then to the 11:00 service at church. On Christmas Day, Tracy’s family will arrive for dinner at 4:00. This year we’ll be twenty strong. It’s always a day of laughter and fun!

2. What’s the weather currently like where you live?  This year it’s been warmer (40’s-50’s), but lots of rain and gray skies. There’s a storm headed our way later this week, so there’s a chance we’ll have snow by Christmas. It looks like the storm will pass through Denver and not quite here when Matt is traveling. I hope that part of the forecast is correct.

3. Do you decorate your home for the holidays? If so, share a picture please!  I love to decorate my house for Christmas and it looks so festive even though I put out fewer decorations every year.

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4. What’s your favorite Christmas movie? We’re not big movie watchers, but we used to watch Christmas at Sesame Street every year, even when the kids got older. I know Sarah has a copy ready to share with Caleb.

5. What is your favorite Christmas song? I love singing carols, and my favorite is “Once in Royal David’s City” which is always the first carol sung at the Christmas Eve service.

6. Do you have an advent calendar? I made this advent calendar when Sarah was two years old. We’ve hung it now for 30 years. (And a sneak peek at some new photos of Skylar who was here for dinner on Friday.)

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7. Do you prefer colored lights or white lights? We have colored lights. The first year Sarah lived in an apartment Matt, Tracy and I decided to give white lights a try. I’m the only one who liked them, and Sarah threatened to boycott Christmas. (An idle threat, I might add.) Here’s a shot of some star bokeh I took for the Twelve Days of Christmas class. I’m sure they’d be beautiful in white as well.

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8. What is your favorite food to eat over the holidays? We bake lots of cookies, but the food I look forward to the most are the roasted vegetables my sister-in-law brings to Christmas dinner, and the cheesy potatoes Tracy’s cousin brings. 

9. Do you display a live tree, or do you prefer fake trees? We always have a live tree. All the years that the kids were in town, we cut ours down, and made a day of it. Now that’s we’re on our own, we’ve started buying a pre-cut tree. This year’s is beautiful, but getting the tree is not as much fun as it used to be.

10. What would you need to make your holiday perfect his year? I know I’ll have a fabulous holiday, but it would be even more perfect if we could visit Oregon for a few days and spend some time with Sarah, Adam, and Caleb.

I’ll be around to get caught up on all the blogs later this week!

 

 

 

Weekend Recap

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It might seem a bit late for a weekend recap, but our weekend really ran Saturday to Monday. We went camping at Keuka State Park with our good friends, Bob and Cathy. (Warning:  it’s a heavy photo post with several new scaventer hunt photos included.) We started our weekend at Lloyd’s in Penn Yan for lunch, and then drove to the camp ground and pitched our tents.

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Before dinner we went to a darling Farmer’s Market to get some sweet corn . . .

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and then off to find the Garrett Memorial Chapel which is hidden in the woods on the bluff overlooking Keuka Lake.

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(Another chapel for #17 on the scavenger hunt)

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(# 19 an outdoor stairway)

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(#6 a historical landmark)

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The view of the lake from the chapel

Although we’ve camped here before we never knew about the chapel. We returned Sunday morning and attended the service there. The chapel seats about 100, and I’d guess there were 75-80 people there. Photos of the interior are prohibited, but it’s very beautiful and has a series of Tiffany stained glass windows. 

We cooked steaks for dinner and had a campfire Saturday night. By Sunday morning it had started to drizzle. It continued all day long, sometimes raining steadily. It didn’t deter us from having a great time. After church, we had an excellent breakfast at the Antique Inn.

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 After brunch (it was nearly noon by the time we finished), we visited a couple of our favorite wineries and brought home some new wines to try.

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At Rooster Hill, they had live music on the porch. (#7 on the scavenger hunt)

For several years now, Tracy has wanted to go to the Curtiss Museum in Hammondsport. It turns out Glenn Curtiss was one of the most influential and important pioneers in aviation. The museum is filled with interesting artifacts. Curtiss initially was interested in bicycles, then motorcycles. He started to develop engines for motorcycles, which then led to the interest in airplanes.

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By the time we finished at the museum, the rain had cleared and we headed back to the campsite for dinner.

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Afterwards, we went down to the lake for the sunset, and then called it a night after roasting marshmallows for S’Mores.

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After breaking camp and breakfast in Penn Yan, Tracy and I headed to the outlets. We bought some 12 mo. clothes for Caleb who is growing by leaps and bounds, and I picked up a couple of new shirts and a pair of shorts at Eddie Bauer. The prompt for the Photo of the Day just happened to be ice cream, so we stopped at the new Pittsford Dairy for an ice cream cone, which turned out to be plenty for lunch. 

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I’ve spent the better part of yesterday and today editing photos in Lightroom from the weddings we attended and our camping weekend. I opened a trial account at SmugMug so I could create albums to share with family and am very impressed with how easy it is, and how nicely everything is arranged. (With almost no effort on my part!)

Card Lifting and Purging

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As I travel around blogland, I frequently save images of cards and layouts I love to vi.sualize.us. I started using it long before Pinterest arrived, and although I also save to Pinterest, I use vi.sualize.us a lot more. One of the best things about it is tagging the images so they are easier to use. Recently I’ve started adding tags for the specific stamp set as well as manufacturers, design, and occasion.

Before either of those internet resources appeared, I clipped ideas for projects from magazines and put them into binders. I realized recently that I never use those binders anymore so I emptied two huge binders and combined two binders that housed articles and class notes from photography classes and blogs. I kept the photography inspiration binder because I want to start making better use of that. Several online photography classes I’ve taken suggest that keeping an inspiration folder is a great way to help you identify what images draw you in, and suggest possible projects. Going through mine is one of next week’s projects.

All of this to say, I used two images from my vi.sualize.us collection to make three cards this week. Two are nearly identical. I needed a couple of retirement cards, one for a man and another for a woman. I was pleased with how they came out. You can see the original inspiration piece here.

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Both cards use the “Celebration” stamps from Papertrey Ink. The blue cardstock came from my stash (I’m guessing it’s Bazzill), and the patterned papers are from Cosmo Cricket, Lime Twist (MME), Martha Stewart, and Papertrey Ink (Pretty Pastels, Vintage Holiday).

The next card is for dear friends of ours who are celebrating their 60+ anniversary next week. I loved this card by Debby, and used the white on white and cluster of leaves and flowers from her design.

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I never purchased the Turning a New Leaf dies from Papertrey Ink, but found both the leaves and the flowers in my Silhouette files. The frame is an embossing plate from Lil Inkers which turned out to be a bit more difficult to use than I thought. I still like it a lot, and hopefully next time I’ll find it a little easier to use. The sentiment came from Fillable Frames (Papertrey Ink)

Today is another busy day, but both little blocks for Saturday and Sunday are empty on our calendar. I’m hoping to get a lot of crafting and computer cleaning-out done. Hope yours is a good one!

Memorial Day Weekend

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The weather here was absolutely fabulous for the holiday weekend. In fact, Sunday and Monday were more like the middle of July than the end of May. I thought it might be fun to do a weekend recap (warning: a heavy photo post) ala Deb at Paper Turtle.

Saturday we were up with the birds, and at the Rochester Public Market at 6 am. We bought three flats of impatiens, a flat of geraniums and a flat of Dusty Miller all slated for the front yard. (photo to follow)

After dropping the flowers off at home and having a quick breakfast we headed out for Ithaca, arriving at the Farmer’s Market about 9:15. We were greeted by this adorable “Parking Fairy” who assisted us in finding a spot to park.

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She took the time to explain that her wings were made from old stockings stretched on hangers and then painted. The Ithaca Farmer’s Market is one of our favorites, and we picked up some seeded sour dough bread, a couple pastries, and some heirloom tomato and pepper plants for our garden.

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On our way out of town we stopped at the Green Star Market, Ithaca’s natural food cooperative. I found a market basket there as well as a couple vegetables I didn’t see at the Farmer’s Market. Driving through Trumansburg I spotted a cute shop and within minutes emerged with a sun hat for the garden and the pool. I was able to put both to use later in the weekend.

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The real reason for this little excursion was a Reisling event at the Silver Thread Winery on Seneca Lake. It had been five or six years since we’d been there, but we remembered liking the white wines. We still do, and we left with a few bottles. The winery sits at the end of a long dirt road abover the lake.

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I offered to take photos for a couple on the porch overlooking the lake, and they reciprocated.

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On the way out, we stopped so I could get a photo of the grape vines as well as a fabulous old red barn at the end of the road.

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By then it was definitely lunch time, but we decided to wait until we got to Canandaigua so we could go to Rio Tomatlin, the very best Mexican restaurant in this area. I had a tamale, which is fast becoming a new favorite!

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On the way home, we stopped at two more nurseries, and now have almost everything we need for the yard and the garden.

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We played bridge Saturday night for the first time since December. Several members of our group have had (and are continuing to have) serious health issues. It was great to get together again with good friends.

Sunday afternoon we finally got to the Community Garden. It took three hours in the blazing sun, but we uncovered the plot, weeded, tilled, and got everything in the garden.

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Sunday night we had a real treat:  tickets to the Bonnie Raitt concert. It was a strictly “no photos allowed” show, but I did get a shot of the stage before the concert began. She did not disappoint, playing for nearly two straight hours. The white slats you can see in the photo were lit with different colored lights as the show progressed. Fabulous staging.

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Yesterday Tracy played 18 holes of golf and I got a chance to visit with a friend who’s been ill for nearly a year. They don’t know what’s wrong despite many, many tests. She’s experiencing severe nausea nearly every day. Yesterday was a good day for her, and we caught up sitting on her beautiful porch. When Tracy got home, we met friends at the pool, had supper together, and celebrated Bill’s birthday a day early. When we got there the pool was mobbed, but by the time I remembered to take a photo most people had left for the holiday barbeques and parties.

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You might notice a watermark on some of the photos. I recently came across a blog post on how to export your photos from Lightroom with a watermark, and made a quick one to see how it might work. Not all these photos were in Lightroom yet, so some have them and some don’t. I think I’d like to do a more sophisticated one, and I need to work on the opacity a bit, but it’s another great feature of Lightroom.

Hope your weekend was a good one, and if you stuck through to the end today, you deserve a pat on the back!

A Cut Above: Dry Embossing with Dies

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Yesterday’s lesson for A Cut Above was a series of four videos about embossing folders, Tim Holtz diffusers (I’d never heard of them), and dry embossing with dies. All the lessons are accompanied with pdf documents with the steps to creating all the sample cards. The best part of this class is that all the videos remain available to you after the class ends. This might be my favorite card yet, and certainly one of the simplest ever. The inside sentiment says, “Happy Anniversary.” I need four anniversary cards in May. Since we’ll be gone for the first two weeks, it’s good to get them completed now.

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I used some black wire to create the antennae (another tip from an earlier lesson), and used Copic markers and glitter markers to color the Hero Arts “Antique Engravings” stamp. The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink’s “Pretty Poppies.” I embossed the circle with two Small Classic Circles by Spellbinders. Here’s a closer look at the butterfly.

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I’ll definitely be using this technique again.

Here’s a view of our front yard yesterday morning:

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Luckily we didn’t lose any trees, though some of our neighbors lost large branches from the trees. It’s not that we haven’t had April snowstorms in the past, but this winter was so mild, this seemed really shocking. It’s just as windy and cold today (30’s), but the sun is out.

I spent a lot of time yesterday editing photos from our weekend in Washington. I’m doing it in Lightroom with the Visual Quickstart Guide right next to me. I watched the “Up and Running with Lightroom 3” videos at lynda.com so I knew some of the possibilities, but it’s impossible to remember where all the tools are, and exactly how to use them. It’s taking a long time, but I’m learning a lot in the process.

A Cut Above: Lesson 5 Other Than Paper & Retro Sketches

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Recently I’ve seen the Retro Sketch site show up on some of my favorite card-making blogs. This week’s sketch appealed to me and was perfect for trying out the lesson on cutting materials other than paper in the Cut Above Class.

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I used some Magenta Adhesive-backed cork and some Papertrey Ink felt to die cut the banner.

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The cardstock is Classic Kraft by Papertrey Ink and the patterned paper from the new Neopolitan line by American Craft. The twine is from Paper Source and the brad is an old Making Memories one.

We’ve had a fabulous weekend despite cold, rainy weather. Yesterday afternoon I attended a three hour workshop with Cole Thompson on Black & White Photography. If I had paid double or triple what I did, I would have thought it worth the money. An excellent speaker, very well-prepared, adn wonderful content.  I’ve been reading some books by David DuChemin (Within the Frame and Vision and Voice), and Cole’s workshop was a perfect accompaniment to what I’ve been reading. The lessons from my current online course, A Sense of Place, also fall right in line. I could easily immerse myself all day in this material!

Today was the birthday brunch and later this week, I’ll have several posts heavy on photography. The egg boats were fabulous (thanks, Deb!) as was the cinnamon French toast, and Chocolate Raspberry Ganache Cake. My sister-in-laws brought wonderful fruit salads. It was great to have the family together. Most of them had not seen Matt since January, or Skylar since October. 

10 Things I’m Loving Right Now

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I was totally unprepared for 10 Things this month. How did we get to the 10th of April so quickly? But then I realized how many things I’m enjoying right now so I thought I’d share them.

1. Planning for a weekend away in Washington, D. C. on Friday. We’re looking forward to meeting long-time friends we haven’t seen in years, doing some serious sightseeing, a bit of shopping, and going to see the Annie Leibowitz exhibit, “Pilgrimages” at the Smithsonian. I’m just about finished reading this book in hopes I’ll get some good photos. The last time we were there (22 years ago!), I took what I hoped would be some great photos, only to discover there was no film in my camera!

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2. Our weekly Face Time with Caleb. This week he was so much more focused on what he was seeing. I’m loving that we aren’t missing everything as he changes so quickly. Just one month from now, we’ll be in Oregon to spend some time with Sarah and Caleb while Adam is at a conference. Before Adam leaves, Caleb will be baptized. Then when he returns, Matt is flying out from Denver to meet Caleb and spend my birthday weekend with us. Can’t wait to get my hands on this cute baby, and have some serious family time!

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3. Betsy and Skylar have been coming to dinner every week recently. We just love having them here. Skylar’s old enough now to use a high chair, and can pick up the Gerber puffs and get them into her mouth. 

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4. Shortly after I purchased my Silhouette last year, I took an online course. It was very helpful, and I’ve been using it regularly. I subscribe to Kerri Bradford’s blog, and have purchased several of her Silhouette files, so when I saw that she was giving an introductory course for Jessica Sprague on the Silhouette, I signed right up. I’ve only been through the first two of five lessons, and have learned more in those than I learned in entire first course! Today I signed up for the Intermediate class which begins next week. Both classes are self-paced and you have forever access. I finished my March 365 layout today, and used a bit of what I’ve learned. Just learning the key commands has really speeded up my process.

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5. I’ve also just started a photography class called “A Sense of Place” with Kat Sloma. I’ve know Kat for awhile through the internet, and since we’re planning a bit of travel this spring and summer I thought the timing was perfect. The first week’s lesson was about preparing to take photos, particularly when traveling. She made me rethink my camera bag and equipment. I’ll be testing out a new messenger-type bag this weekend which will hold my camera gear plus all the essentials I usually have in a purse. It’s a bit bigger, but carrying only one bag should be an improvement. It will hold everything I need for airline travel as well.

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6. Before I signed on to the Silhouette class, I’d already signed up for a new online card class that begins next week with a wonderful line-up of teachers called “A Cut Above.” I use die cuts all the time, and know I’ll learn a few tricks here as well.

7. I belong to a local camera club, Camera Rochester, and attend a photo critique monthly at a photo gallery, Image City. Recently, a friend I met through these groups invited me to come to a Rochester Photo Editing Group. I’ve been learning a lot in the couple of months I’ve belonged. The organizer of the group sends regular, informative emails, and on Saturday I went to my first photo shoot with the group. The purpose is to shoot to edit, so I downloaded Photomatix, and created my first HDR image today with three images I took at Artisan Works. Because it’s a trial version, it has the Photomatix watermard on the image. Once I see what it can do, I may purchase the program. This photo was taken in the Frank Lloyd Wright room.

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8. Spring. Well, it was here for a while, but there wasn’t much sign of it today. Nonetheless, this is the earliest spring we’ve seen in a long time. The magnolias have already peaked. Fortunately, we got to Highland Park before they started to deteriorate.

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9. Finding Photo Flow and Lightroom. I finally finished the lessons in Finding Photo Flow. It was the best money I’ve spent on a class in a while, although for a time, I was pretty frustrated. I have now created a work flow that will meet my needs, and today I did some basic editing in Lightroom and was quite pleased with the results. The other realization is that despite good intentions, my photographs are NOT well organized. It’s going to take months to get everything in place, but once it’s there I think we’ll be good to go for many years.

10. OLW. My One Little Word for 2012 is Balance, and I’ve been struggling with trying to make time for all the things I love to do along with all of my commitments. The last couple of weeks have been much better. I’ve found time to create, have been doing lots of reading and learning (books and internet), spending time with friends, and keeping up with most of the blogs I want to read. I’ve been to the gym nearly every day, and have been enjoying lots of cooking and entertaining in the new kitchen. Life is good.

I’ll be linking to Shimelle’s Ten Things.

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