Skip to content

Home

  • by

I must admit that leaving Oregon was MUCH harder than I expected it to be, and I never thought it would be easy. Fortunately, we already have our next trip planned, so that makes it a bit easier. For the first time in several trips we actually got home on time, despite a long delay leaving Medford. So here we are, a bit jet-lagged trying to get ourselves back into some semblance of routines. I’ve cleaned our basement pantry since we returned and done a huge grocery/pantry shopping. Today was filled with appointments and commitments, and tomorrow doesn’t look a lot better.

But what I really want to do is get busy in my studio. I have over 100 photos of the baby to edit. (Don’t worry, you won’t be subjected to all of them!) I started working on Finding Photo Flow, an online course by Kayla Lamoreaux, while we were away and which I can already recommend. I really need to get through the next lesson soon. Then in just a week or so, two new courses begin:  a BPC class on type with Cathy Z. and a class by Amy Tan at Studio Calico on stretching your scrapbook kits.

January is a month filled with birthdays. I got most of them made ahead of time so I could mail them from Oregon. Most of them are for guys, so I made a set of cards with a new Hero Art set I picked up in Buffalo earlier in the month. 

BDSetCard1

BDSetCard2

BDSetCard3

BDSetCard4

All four cards were made with small ready-made cards from Paper Source, the new Hero Arts “Past Times,” “Simple Sentiments” by Papertrey Ink, and patterned papers from the “Funday” paper pad by My Mind’s Eye. The tags are from my stash, and I wish I knew where to get some more of them.

And because I’d hate to leave you without a baby photo or two, here are two favorites. The first one Adam took with Caleb in one hand and his Rebel in the other. Nothing I’d ever be able to do, and I just love how it came out.

CalebElijahw
And one of Sarah and Caleb:

1.19SarahCalebColorizedw

He’s so tiny now, but he gained over a pound in the second week we were there, so I know he’s not going to be tiny for long.

Journal Your Christmas: Part 4

  • by

I’m still working on my Christmas Journal. I have seven or eight more pages to go, and I’m determined to get them finished before we leave to visit Sarah and the new baby. Matt comes home today. We’re off to Buffalo to pick him up, but he’ll leave from Rochester on Sunday. It’s a short trip for him, but I’m so glad to be able to see him as part of the holiday. We’ve left our tree and Christmas decorations up until he has a chance to open the rest of his presents. It will all get packed away this weekend before we leave on Tuesday.

Here are the latest three pages. I continue to work on them in a random fashion, and it’s a process that seems to work very well this year.

12.7

Sometimes I put one of the cards I make in my Christmas Journal, but I didn’t have any left this year, and wasn’t inclined to make any more so I was glad I’d taken a photo of some of them ready to go with the letter to out-of-town friends and the family photo. The journaling reads:  

Almost all of my Christmas cards this year were of the same design. I’ve found over the years, it’s just easier to mass produce a lot of the same card than do many different designs. I did send out the cards I made in a Memory Box class in Buffalo, and ones I made for the Scrap-Mart design team. The beautiful snowflake die was cut from some silvery text-weight paper from Paper Source which required a quick stop in Berkeley to pick up some more on our way to Sarah’s at Thanksgiving.

12.20
 
It’s been awhile since I played around with the opacity of a photograph. I didn’t want the large one to overpower the strip of close-ups so I decreased the opacity to about 65%. I tried printing the journaling right on the patterned paper, but it has a bit of a shiny surface so that didn’t work. I ended up printing it on vellum and attaching it with the border sticker. Journaling:  

Although we frequently walk past Lamberton Conservatory, we don’t often stop. Today we enjoyed a leisurely stroll through their lavish display of poinsettias. They’ve also installed lots of tiny lights among the tropical plants which are lit on Sunday evenings. We’ll definitely be going back on January 1st to take another look.
12.27
I was blessed by receiving cards from all over this Christmas, many of them handmade. One of Shimelle’s prompts encouraged us to use postage stamps from some of our cards to embellish the page. I still have a few saved to use on other pages (or projects). Journaling: 

Being part of a crafting community, both locally and through blogging means I received many beautiful, handmade cards. This year they came from England, Ireland, New York, Pennsylvania, Oregon, Arizona, and California. I also got a lovely card from Australia. I decided to showcase all the handmade cards on my new magnetic chalkboard in the kitchen. They were admired by many during the holiday!

I can’t resist leaving without sharing a couple of baby photos. This one of Caleb was taken in the brief hours they spent at home last Sunday. Within several hours of arriving home, Sarah developed a high fever, and they were back at the hospital. She had a kidney infection which took several days to get under control. They’re all home now, and doing well.

1.2.12_Calebw

I can’t wait to get my hands on this little one. In the meantime, I’ll be spending more time with Skylar this weekend while Matt is home. I have to figure out how to post a video. Betsy posted the most fabulous video of Skylar laughing on Facebook yesterday. Here are a couple of my favorites of Skylar, taken right before Christmas.

Skylar4w

Skylar6w

 

So Excited!!!

  • by

CalebNewBorn1w

The best Christmas and New Year’s gift ever arrived today. Caleb Elijah was born this morning and weighed in at 8 pounds, 4 ounces. Caleb, Sarah, and Adam are all doing well, and we got a Face Time introduction to him shortly after he was born. LOVE technology! 

Here are the proud and relieved parents!

SarahCaleb12.11w

AdamCaleb12.11w

We can’t wait to meet him in person! 

Happy Thanksgiving from Ashland, Oregon

  • by

It’s hard to believe but we’ve been in Oregon for nearly a week. Our goal was to get Sarah and Adam settled, and we’ve made remarkable progress. All the rooms are arranged and organized, all the boxes have been unpacked, and Tracy has nearly all the artwork and photographs hung. We’re planning a pretty low-key Thanksgiving celebration with plenty of time to rest and relax. I’ll have photos of our accomplishments later.

Sarah and Adam are renting a lovely home with quite a beautiful yard and view.

ViewDiningRoomw

This is the view from their living room. They have the same view from the kitchen and family room, as well as a lovely deck off the family room.

YardInspectionw

The yard is large, but has a steep drop-off.

FenceBuilding2w

In addition to unpacking, Tracy and Adam got some great help in putting up a new fence  in the backyard. Sadie is delighted with the room to run around. Amazingly, a deer leaped over the fence last night, and put Sadie in a fury of excitement. After some time, the deer leaped back over the fence and disappeared.

Ashland is a beautiful small city surrounded by mountains. We were a bit worried about driving up from San Francisco since there had been snow in the Siskiyou Pass where chains are often required. In anticipation we upgraded our rental vehicle to a 4X4 SUV. Fortunately, we didn’t need it, but it’s easy to see why you might. From Siskiyou Summit to Ashland, there’s a drop in elevation of more than 2,000 feet in a pretty short amount of time. It was pitch dark when we drove through last Friday, but the headlights of the traffic lit up the towering, snow-covered evergreens against a star-lit sky. Truly a beautiful sight.

After church on Sunday, we decided to drive up to Mt. Ashland. It was a beautiful, clear day in Ashland, but we found a totally different environment on the road up to the summit.

RoadMt.Ashland4w

SnowyPines1w

Clouds totally obscured the summit, but there were some beautiful views of the valley as we drove down.

ValleyView3w

I hope you and your family are enjoying a wonderful holiday if you’re in the States. I love the opportunity to be with family and take stock of all my many blessings. Being able to travel and spend time with Sarah and Adam is top on my list today. I’m also grateful to Matt’s friends in Denver for including him in their Thanksgiving festivities.

 

 

Bear!!!

  • by

Meet Samuel Bear Harrison, Adam’s sister’s new baby boy. Allison and her husband, Simon, live in England, and Adam’s parents arrived just after he was born. Perfect timing! He sure is a cutie pie!

Screen Shot 2011-11-06 at 7.43.04 PM

Photo Collage by Adam

I couldn’t resist buying him a little outfit embroidered with bears, a long-sleeved onesie, a hat, bib and adorable little socks. I forgot to take a photo of it, but I did take a photo of the package with the card I made.

Bear'sPackage.

I cut the card with my Silhouette using cute gingham paper by Memory Box. Then I stamped the little bear from Papertrey Ink’s Baby Button Bits on brown gingham paper and added a button from my stash tied with some twine by Martha Stewart.

BearOnsie

 

Baby Shower Scrapbook

  • by

I found this amazing jungle scrapbook by BoBunny at the Buffalo stamp store in September, and couldn’t pass it up. I had no idea what I might do with it, but I’m sure glad I grabbed it. It turned out to be the perfect format for Sarah’s shower scrapbook. After all the guests wrote their tags out, I printed a photo of each of them that Tracy had taken with Sarah that afternoon. The tag and the photo fit perfectly on a Grand Nestability Scalloped Circle die which fit perfectly into the scrapbook. 

Cover

The cover

TitlePage

Matt

Inside4

 The bottom photo is of Sarah and her babysitter who is still like family to us!

Inside1

The album came with several adorable chipboard animal faces which I used as dividers for the pages.

Inside2

Inside3

Sarah liked the animals so much she asked me to buy a second album so she can hang the faces on the nursery wall. Fortunately, the store still had an album left when we stopped there on our way home from Canada recently. I’m really pleased with the way this turned out, and think it makes a good record of a lovely afternoon.

Baby Shower for Sarah

  • by

Sarah and Adam left almost two weeks ago, and time has flown by, partly because we had to be out of the house for the better part of two days while the hardwood floors in the  kitchen and hall were redone. They are beautiful, and Jack spent three days installing the hutch near the window, and the crown molding. This week the tile guy, the painters, and the siding folks all arrive, and we should be done except for the final coat on the floor. The contractor took all his tools out of the kitchen and powder room on Friday, and we finally have our kitchen back for the weekend, at least.

The first day Sarah was here I hosted a baby shower for her. It was so much fun to have  so many of our good friends here to celebrate with her. The day after Sarah and Adam left was the anniversary of Micah and Judah’s birth and death; a sharp reminder of the grief and trials of the last year for all of us, but especially for Sarah and Adam. It was wonderful to be celebrating the upcoming birth of Caleb Elijah, and so good to know that everything is going very well this time around.

CollageforBlogw

I put together a collage of some of the photos. Sarah has chosen a jungle theme for the nursery and it was a lot of fun choosing and making decorations for the shower. The cake was fabulous. All the little animals marching around the cake came from the design of the paper products. It was a pumpkin spice cake and as delicious as it was cute. The cookies were made by a friend of a friend and matched the food picks in the muffins (see below). The centerpiece had three little stuffed animals, the giraffe and lion as well as a monkey on the other side. The family photo shows four generations:  Tracy, his mother, Matt, and Sklar—and Betsy and me as well. (I wonder where Sarah was when this was taken?) Sadly the light over Tracy’s head doesn’t do much for the photo.

Here are some close-ups of the banner and some of the things I made for the shower. 

2Pennantsw

BasketTags2w

Each guest was asked to fill out a tag with good wishes or advice for Sarah. Then Tracy took a photo of each guest with Sarah, and I’ve put them together in a scrapbook for her.

Muffins2w

FavorsBasketw

I used my favorite fry-box die to make favors we filled with chocolate-covered almonds.

FavorsClosew

These cute papers from My Minds Eye were just perfect for the jungle theme. I’ll be back tomorrow with some photos of the scrapbook album I put together. I’ll be taking it with me when we go to visit in a couple of weeks.

 

October Recap & Pass the Book

  • by

A bit (well, maybe more) about what’s been happening here. The first weekend of October, Tracy and I were in Lake Placid along with our good friends. Tracy and Bob did some hiking (more about that), and Cathy and I enjoyed some time in the shops in the area. It was a cold, rainy weekend, but beautiful, nonetheless.

MirrorLake1w

The following Wednesday, I began a class on learning how to use Lightroom 3, taught by one of the professional photographers and gallery partners at Image City. My friend, Nancy, and I attend their monthly photo critiques at the gallery. We’ve now had three classes (the last is this week), and I’m beginning to feel comfortable with the program. I had tried to teach myself how to use Lightroom 2, but got all confused about the catalog and how to import the photos. Now I have that mastered and must say it is a very powerful editing program, and much more affordable than full Photoshop. With Lightroom and PSE, I know I’ve got all I’ll ever need in the way of software.

I’ve prepared dinner for Interfaith Hospitality guests at our church, we’ve signed new wills (and taken our children to the lawyers to sign notary documents), attended two meetings in my role as chair of a Presbytery committee (two more to go before the end of the month), crafted with my friends and on my own, had lunch with college friends, attended an Arts & Lectures presentation, and moved back into the kitchen (though it is still not done & there will be more about that later as well.) Tracy and I redid our guest room. Tracy repainted it, and I chose the new bed linens, curtains, and decorations. We also spent a day in Ithaca, visiting our favorite Farmer’s Market, and hiking in Buttermilk Falls State Park.

Falls1w

But the best part of the month was that both Sarah and Matt arrived on the 15th for a visit. Matt was here a week, and has returned (safely) to Denver. While he was here we spent a lot of time with Betsy and Skylar as well. It was so much fun to have everyone here. Sarah could barely keep her hands off Skylar. On the 16th, I hosted a baby shower for Sarah who is expecting a little boy in early January. It was a lovely event (more about that later). Our friends were so happy to have a chance to see her (as well as Matt), and it was lots of fun to have everyone together. I made the favors, a banner, and have started a scrapbook about the event. Sarah and I have spent quite a bit of time in baby stores, and I’ve had a lovely time picking up some special things for this new addition to our family.

SarahMattSkylarw

(Love this photo of my two kids and Skylar)

Adam arrived from Virginia on Thursday where he had been presenting at a conference at Union Seminary. We went out for a family dinner on Thursday night (Skylar slept through the whole meal), and got our family photo for the Christmas cards. Sarah and Adam drove to New Jersey (and back) Saturday for a wedding, and took off for California late this afternoon. They will be there for just two more weeks, as they are moving to Ashland, Oregon where Adam has accepted a position as Associate Pastor for Christian Education at the Presbyterian church. We’ll be going out next month to help them unpack & organize and attend Adam’s ordination back in Livermore after Thanksgiving.

And over the weekend we went on our annual trip to Niagara-on-the-Lake with our good friends, Karen and Mike. We dined, we visited some favorite and new wineries, and saw a fabulous production of My Fair Lady at the Shaw Festival.

GoodEarthw

If you skimmed through the above, I certainly don’t blame you, but I’ve had a couple of emails about things going on here so I thought I’d do a recap. Somehow there wasn’t time to blog about it as it happened. But here’s the big news: the new recipient of Sharing Your Story.

PassTheBook

Deb, I’ve got your address, and the book will be on its way tomorrow!

Hands, and Contented Baby!

  • by

Ihf_logo

I’ve got some more beautiful photos of Sylar Rose to share as well as a photo of her tiny fingers wrapped around Tracy’s hand. I’m posting it at the I Heart Faces blog for their Hands challenge.

Grandpa'sHandsw

Skylar is one of the most contented babies I’ve ever known. I’ve only seen her eyes once in the times I’ve visited her; she’s a great sleeper and is giving Betsy four-five hours of sleep at night. Tomorrow she’ll just be three weeks old!

Peacefulw

ReadyToGo2w

Off to the pediatrician’s

Sleeping2w

We think she’s just the sweetest baby ever! I can’t wait for Matt to get here this weekend to meet her.

 

Look Who’s Here!!!

  • by

While we were away, Betsy delivered Skylar by C-section. Both mom and baby are doing great. Betsy and Skylar went home on Saturday, and Betsy called us yesterday morning to say she was ready for visitors. To say we’re delighted is putting it mildly. Matt had sent us a couple of photos while we were at my brother’s so we knew she was a cutie, but we are smitten.

OneDayw

One Day Old

BetsySkylar2w

Mom and Skylar

KBWSkylar2w

 

Sleepingw
  She never woke up the whole time we were there. She slept four hours straight last night. I think she’s going to be as good a baby as she is cute!

TOWSkylar1w

Happy Birthday, Sarah!

  • by

It’s hard to believe I have a daughter who turns 31 today, but it’s true. We’ll be leaving the cruise ship and beginning the land portion of our Alaskan tour today, but I’m hoping I’ll be able to get a phone call through to her. She knows I’m thinking of her, for sure! Here’s the card she’ll open today.

Sarah'sBD

And the inside greeting:

S'sBDInside

I found the Melissa Francis crown at CKC in June, so I knew I wanted to use that as the focal point. Sarah’s not a fan of fussy cards, so I tried to keep it pretty clean and simple.

Supplies:
Cardstock: Royal Velvet (PTI)
Patterned Paper: Kioshi (Basic Grey)
Stamps:  Mat Stack 1 & Mat Stack 3 (PTI)
Die:  Small Classic Circle Nestabilities (Spellbinders)
Resin Crown: Melissa Francis
Pearls:  Hero Arts

Happy Fourth of July!

  • by

Yesterday  Tracy and I took nearly a three mile walked around my brother’s neighborhood in Hyde Park, NY. It was drizzling most of the way and since I didn’t think I had any great fireworks photos to post, I was looking for Fourth of July decorations for today’s post. First I saw this:

July4bunting

I love the way the bunting was reflected in the puddle. Then we came upon this:

July4Lawn

The little doggie ornament is holding a flag as well.

Then last night I uploaded photos from my point and shoot (above) and my photos from my SLR from Saturday night’s fireworks. In frustration, I had pointed my camera to the sky and took about 20 photos with my remote, not expecting anything. Imagine my surprise when I saw these:

Fireworks3

Fireworks6

Fireworks8

Edited to add: I’m submitting this one to Sweet Shot Tuesday:

RedFireworks1

Just four of ten decent photos of the fireworks. What a pleasant discovery! If you’re in the U.S. have a wonderful holiday! My brother and Tracy are off to golf this morning, and I’ll be hanging out with Stephanie. There’s a cookout planned for tonight. Early tomorrow morning, we’ll be headed home.

 

 

Vacation Recap

  • by

Warning this is a long post and there are a lot of photos!

We’ve been home just a week, and it’s time for a vacation recap. I’ve finally been through all the photos once and chosen those I think I might want to print. I deleted a few, but must go back again and get rid of all the duplicates. Yesterday I managed to edit the ones you’ll see here.

We were gone nearly 3 weeks. I took over 1100 photos, we drove through four states (Tracy drove clear across the country, but I flew from NY to Colorado), we visited three national parks, four sets of friends and family. I read five books, but sadly missed meeting up with three blogging friends I hoped to meet. Aside from serious pain issues, it was a great vacation. As some of you know, I had surgery in early March and was left with some serious, undiagnosed, and untreatable pain which made walking very difficult. It went on for 10 weeks, and really impacted my lifestyle, and sadly, our vacation. Miraculously, the day we left to come home it disappeared, and I’ve now been painfree for a little over a week. I have new appreciation for chronic pain, and don’t know how you get accustomed to it. I never did, and I was worried that this would be a lifetime affliction. The surgeon has now diagnosed it as an impacted fibroid, but the truth is none of us are quite sure what it was. But yeah, it’s gone!

So, on to vacation. We started in Denver where Matt has taken a new job, which thankfully, he seems to love. We found him an apartment, but weren’t there to help him move in, but our friends did. I’m still waiting to see photos! But here’s the apartment building. He’s on the fourth floor and on a clear day, can see the mountains.

M'sAptw

He’s just two blocks from the Denver Botanic Gardens where we spend a couple of hours one afternoon.

DenverBotanicGardenw

When we left Denver, we drove to Santa Fe and spent an afternoon in the downtown area and visiting a fabulous photography gallery. We were here ten years ago, and would love to spend more time again.

SantaFew

Tracy much prefers state roads to interstate highways, so on our way to Phoenix to visit family we took the long way and got to see El Morro National Monument where Native Americans and pioneers left their marks on the rocks. The earliest are petroglyphs, but I was amazed at this beautiful script carved into the rock.

MorroNMw

And we drove around the Painted Desert and Petrified Forest National Parks:

PaintedDesertw

In Phoenix, we visited Tracy’s brother, here with his beautiful daughter, Lena. I was terrible about getting photos of family and friends. Not like me, I’m blaming it on the pain, but I’m so sorry I don’t have better photos. (Or in some cases, any.)

Scott&Lenaw

We also got a chance to visit Taliesin West, Frank Lloyd Wright’s western home. Thanks to Deb, I also did a little shopping at Scrapbooks, Etc. and sent myself a box of scrapping goodies which I can’t find locally.

TalisienWestw
From Phoenix, we drove to Tucson. We’d never been here before, but had a lovely time. We visited Saguaro National Park . . .

SaguaroNPw

the absolutely fabulous Desert Museum . . .

Entrancew

Tohono Chul . . .

TohonoChulw

the beautiful San Xavier Mission . . .

Missionw

and the fabulous Center for Creative Photography as well as having dinner with old book group friends from Rochester.

On our way to California to visit Sarah and Adam, we stopped for a day at the Joshua Tree National Park,

JoshuaTreew

Spent a night at Morro Bay:

MorroBayw

And visited San Simeon, William Hearst’s castle on a hill overlooking the Pacific. The gardens and walkways were my favorite part.

HearstCastleStairsw

But this shot of the indoor pool, gives you a better idea of the ornate and elaborate house.

IndoorPool1w

And finally, we ended up with Sarah and Adam for five restful days of family visiting. I did get a great family photo here (and you’ll see it later), but I love this one of Sarah and her dog, Sadie.

SarahSadie1w

If you made it to the end, you deserve a treat!

Happy Easter

  • by

After a beautiful service at our church (always totally uplifting) we’ll be headed to my brother- and sister-in-law’s for Easter dinner and a celebration of Bill’s 90th birthday. I think there are 14-15 people scheduled to attend. This will Matt’s last dinner with us before he heads to Colorado on Monday. I expect to have more than a few mixed-emotions today and tomorrow!

Here’s an Easter project I did for the Scrap-Mart blog. I love these Quickutz fry boxes and they make a perfect home for a little bag of jelly beans.

Boxes&Card

The patterned papers are all Jillibean Soup and just perfect for Easter. I cut the bunny and the grass with my Silhouette. A Lacey Circle and Small Circles (Spellbinder’s Nestabilities) made a perfect home for the Papertrey Ink sentiment on the card. I used some Fun Flock on the bunnies’ ears and on their tails. The tag is a Papertrey Ink die.

If you celebrate Easter, I hope it’s with family and friends and that the day is a joyous one!

90 Sensational Years

  • by

Today is Tracy’s stepfather’s 90th birthday. We’re celebrating Bill’s birthday on Easter when we’ll all be together at Tracy’s brother’s. We decided to make a donation to his favorite charity for his birthday since he doesn’t want any gifts. I was appointed to make the family birthday card, but I already had it done. I love this Papertrey Ink set and the number dies. They work for nearly any birthday. It’s safe to post the card today as Bill definitely does not read my blog!

90SensationalYears

Cardstock: Fine Linen, Dark Chocolate (Papertrey Ink); Patterned Paper: Turning a New Leaf (Papertrey Ink) & Conservatory (7 Gypsies); Stamps: Big Birthday Wishes (Papertrey Ink); Dies: By the Number (Papertrey Ink)