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Happy Valentine’s Day!

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This was my father’s favorite holiday, and I always think of him. He made a big deal of it—presents for everyone and celebrated before we left for school. So it’s no surpise that I love it too. Tracy and I decided not to exchange gifts, but as always, I got flowers and a beautiful card. 

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I got gifts for the kids and grandchildren and was glad to have a reason to package up the ones for Betsy and Skylar who came to visit yesterday.

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I also made some dark chocolate almond clusters to take to someone who went above and beyond the call of duty last week. I delivered several of these today. (Quite yummy, I must say! We saved a few for ourselves as a treat after dinner tonight.)

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And finally the last of the valentines. A couple of them were made for challenges that, once again, were done on time, but not posted in time. My favorite of the bunch was Matt’s.

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Sarah and Adam got one of the valentines I made earlier for challenges as did Betsy and Tracy. Here’s Skylar’s.

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And finally, one for my mother-in-law.

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Hope you had a love-filled day!

52/50: Week 4

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At the last minute, my resolve broke, and I signed up for Candice Stringham’s “Flash of Brilliance” class at Jessica Sprague. I’m already glad I did. Tracy bought me a Canon Speelite 430EX for Christmas two years ago. I’ve been moderately successful with it, but had a lot of trouble at a recent Presbytery event. In just the first week, I’ve learned quite a bit.

Betsy and Skylar came to dinner last night, and Skylar was willing to let me practice a while. Here are some of my favorites, all taken with my 50mm lens.

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This little girl is almost always happy and agreeable.

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She loved crawling up into the rocker . . . 

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. . . and was able to rock herself. She didn’t want any help!

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But she was willing to sit in Tracy’s lap and rock.

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Although she doesn’t have many words yet, she can surely let you know what she wants, and she understands all kinds of directions. She’s also very good at signing for what she wants.

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It wasn’t easy to pick, but I’m linking this one up at P52 this week. I love the catchlights in her eyes and the expression is “so Skylar!”

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Still Here

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Yes, I’m still here, and I’m trying to get around to blogs for a few minutes each day, but I haven’t wanted to take the time to post recently since our time with Sarah and Caleb was nearing the end. Sarah, however, came down with a nasty cold on Tuesday. Yesterday she felt so rotten she cancelled two meetings–one with a pastor advisor/friend and one with her grandmother. Her grandmother suggested she stay a few extras days and offered to pay for the change fee. It turned out to be quite a hassle, but Sarah finally found a new flight home for the same price as her original one. Lucky us, she’ll be with us for another week! It proved to be a good decision as the same night, we found Caleb’s first two tiny teeth emerging which has caused a bit of disruption in his sleep patterns. It hasn’t, however, altered his happy disposition. Here’s one of my favorites from yesterday, playing with a basket of Bill Dings–toys we saved from Sarah and Matthew’s childhood, and one I remember from mine as well.

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Needless to say, crafting time has been put aside for the most part, although I do have some earlier projects to share and will try to get them up this week. I’ve also decided on a format for a gratitude project for November (thanks Amy and Mel!) and will try to get some photos it soon.

Here is a card I made the day Sarah and Caleb arrived for good friends who just celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary.

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I think it’s a bit easier to see the metallic paper (silver and blue) in the close-up. I think both are by Bazzill, but I’m not sure. I try to buy a few sheets of it whenever I visit Buffalo Stamps and Stuff, but it has no manufacturer on the paper itself. The dies are By the Number and the sentiment from Big Birthday Wishes (Papertrey Ink), and the gems from Hero Arts. 

Happy Halloween

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It’s past time for trick or treaters, and we’ve only had about four sets appear at our door. Probably the least ever, and although the weather is dreary, it’s been worse on Halloween before. We have a LOT of candy to dispense with!

But we had our own celebration. There were several of my friends who wanted to meet Caleb, so Sarah suggested we have a little open house today. I made some invitations with my Silhouette, and the Bleeding Cowboy font.

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We had a lovely time, and although I took photos of two of the desserts, I never did take a photo of the whole table. Here are the cupcakes, decorations courtesy of Target. (I love that store.)

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And a yummy pumpkin pie dip with gingersnaps that we found at the Amish market.

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The hit of the party, of course, was the cutest pumpkin ever!

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And here, with Grandma.

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I made Skylar and Caleb Halloween cards. I don’t really own any Halloween stamps, so I used my Silhouette and came up with this. Not really cute enough for babies, but it’s really more for the parents anyway. I’ll need to be more prepared next year.

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The inside was really cute, but my only photo was blurry. If you celebrate Halloween, I hope it was a safe and fun one!

 

Family Time

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Luckily, Hurricane Sandy did not interfere with either Sarah’s or Matt’s travel plans. And even more luckily, we escaped the effects of the heavy winds and rain. There were power outages here, and trees downed, but compared with much of the east coast, the storm was a non-event in Rochester. The damage and destruction downstate is devestating, and my thoughts are with all those who lost property and are without heat or electricity.

Sarah and Caleb arrived on Thursday night. It was a long day for them, with the typical airline delays, but they both arrived in good spirits. We took advantage of the one last nice day before the rains appeared and drove to Seneca Falls, visited a friend who is in rehab, and then came home to play in the leaves. Caleb’s yard is a manicured rock garden, so this was his first experience in the grass. I think he liked it.

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Matt arrived safely on Saturday, and we went to Mario’s for a fabulous meal. Caleb was delightful, and
we all were able to enjoy the meal and our time together. I got this one photo of Sarah and Matt with my iPhone.

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Sunday after church, the family arrived to meet Caleb. The table was all set. Tracy treated me to a wonderful flower arrangement, and carved out two little pumpkins to make candle holders.

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It’s always good to have an excuse to get family together.

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Tracy’s sister, Jill; her husband, Tom; her son, Marc, and Caleb

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Tracy’s mom, his cousin, Mona, and his brother, Randy

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Sarah and Susan, Randy’s wife

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Matt, Tom, and Jill

Last night, we got together with Betsy and Skylar so the cousins could meet each other for the first time. I only took photos with my iPhone, and I wish I’d taken the better camera, but you can tell they had a good time.

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Although Skylar is three months older than Caleb, Caleb is both taller and heavier than she is, but Skylar can certainly hold her own!

Matt’s on his way back to Denver as I write this. There was a short delay with both flights, but he should be home by 11:00 Denver time. Today marked Caleb’s 10 month “birthday” and we needed to take the monthly photos. We also set up the tripod to take a few family photos for Christmas. Neither of those sets are edited, but I did get some of Sarah, Matt, and Caleb in the process and edited one of them for this post.

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It was so good to be together. Sarah is here for another nine days, and Matt will be back for Christmas, but we don’t know when we’ll all be together again. I love that everyone gets along so well, and enjoys just hanging out with one another.

Ten on the Tenth: Caleb

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This post was ready to go when I found out this morning that my dear blogging friend, Deb, has lost her mother to ovarian cancer. Marti was such a lovely, strong woman and she will be sorely missed by her family and friends. I feel blessed to have had a connection with her through the mail this past year. Deb and her family are being held close to my heart today.

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It’s Ten on the Tenth again. September flew by, and I thought I’d better share some photos of the darling Caleb taken in August before he arrives here in just a couple of weeks for a visit. He’s already grown quite a bit from these photos, and is now crawling and pulling himself up. I’ll try to be more timely for the next set of photos. So here are ten of Caleb:

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Possibly my favorite, but when I asked Sarah to pick one for my photo-of-the-day, she chose this one:

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I love this litte suit that protects Caleb from the sun. Less sunscreen to apply.

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In general, this is one happy baby!

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Even before he could crawl, he could scoot across the floor on his belly. One morning he got himself all tangled up in his carrier.

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Caleb and his mom

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At Zoo Atlanta with Grandpa

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Playing with a bag from our shopping spree at the outlets.

Sarah and Caleb are coming for two weeks the end of this month. It’s been a year since Sarah was here. I hosted her baby shower a year ago. The extended family hasn’t had a chance to meet Caleb, and we’ll be going to my brother’s for a couple of days while they are here. I’m already counting the days.

Just Playing

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Our drive from Atlanta to Denver included stops in Birmingham, AL, and Little Rock and Bentonville, AK. I’ll be back in a week or so with some vacation posts and some photos of what we did and saw along the way. For the last four days we’ve been in Colorado. Saturday afternoon to Monday night, Matt, Tracy, and I enjoyed Boulder, CO and the Rocky Mountain National Park. The park is simply spectacular, and we had perfect weather for hiking and driving the Trail Ridge Road. Today we’re relaxing at our friends’ house in Denver. Tonight we’ll have our last meal here with Dan, Nikki, Matt, and Stevie and head out for New York tomorrow morning. Dan and Stevie’s parents were also here for most of our stay so we’ve really had a great time.

We’re anticipating a four-day drive home with stops in Amana, Iowa and Lancaster and Amanda, Ohio (where I grew up.) But we can decide along the way if there are other things we’d like to see or do, or if we’d just asoon drive a little further and get home earlier. So nice to have the time to decide. Here are two cards I made before I left. I have to say, I’m itching to get back to the craft table, and have a few new projects I want to tackle this fall.

Often I have a recipient in mind for a card, or I’m making a card for one of the challenge blogs. But before I left on our trip, I spent some time just playing with some products. I love this die from Memory Box, but have never used it. Once I finished the card, I remembered the sentiment from Papertrey’s “Love Lives Here” set, and thought it would make a good anniversary card. 

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And here’s yet another Lovely Layers card. I used the Gridlines paper from Papertrey to help organize the stamps to create the background. Until recently, it’s not a technique I’ve used often. I think next time, I’d use the smaller image to create the background, but I’m happy with this as I have been with just about every card I’ve made with this set. I don’t have anyone in mind for this one yet, but it’s always good to have a few birthday cards stashed away.

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Although I’ve kept up with some of your blog posts, I haven’t taken the time to comment as my internet time has been very limited. I’ll be back soon to catch up, and I’m looking forward to getting reconnected.

Ten on the Tenth: Summer Road Trip

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We’re leaving today for a three week road trip, so I thought I’d share 10 things I’m looking forward to seeing in August. I’ll be linking this up with Shimelle’s 10 Things later today when I get some wi-fi.

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So here are the 10 Things in the order that we’ll be seeing them. (Not necessarily in the order in which I’m excited about them.)

#1. Our good friends, Carol and Gordy. I have no recent photo of them although we’ve seen them both in 2011 and 2010. I’ll be sure to get good photos this time around. We’ll be staying with them two nights, and if the weather is good, will be enjoying Gordy’s boat on Lake Norman on Saturday.

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#2 Sarah, Adam and Caleb

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We’ll be meeting them in Atlanta on Sunday. On Monday and Tuesday, we’ll be babysitting while they participate in The Fund for Theological Education conference. We last saw them in early May, so we’re due for a good visit.

#3 The Atlanta Aquarium. It’s been a few years since we visited, but Caleb loves to look at new things, so we figured a trip to the aquarium might entertain him (and us) for a few hours on Monday.

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#4 Hilton Head Island

Following the FTE Conference, the five of us will be heading to Hilton Head for five days. We haven’t had a beach vacation in several years, so I’m looking forward to family time and some time on the beach. 

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#5 After we leave Sarah, Adam, and Caleb in Atlanta to travel home to Oregon, we’re headed to Birmingham, AL where we hope to visit the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute.

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#6 From there, we’re headed through Memphis, TN (not sure if we’ll have time to explore or not) to Little Rock, AR where I’m looking forward to visiting the National Historic Site at Central High School. Our neighbors highly recommended a stop at the visitor’s center there. They also recommended a stop at the Bill Clinton Library, but I’m not sure we’ll have time to do both.

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In preparation for the two civil rights stops, I’m reading Elizabeth and Hazel: Two Women of Little Rock. It’s an excellent book, and since I was pretty young at the time these events took place, I don’t have any strong memories of them. I know I’ll get a lot more out of both stops because I’ve read the book.

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#7 Next on the agenda is a stop in Bentonville, AR to visit  Crystal Bridges, an art museum and park built by the Walmart heiress. Everything we’ve read about this place sounds wonderful!

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#8 Then we’re off to Denver, Co (via Wichita, KN) to spend some time with Matt. We last saw him in June, so it’s time for a good visit.

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#9 While we’re in Denver, we’re staying with our long-time friend, Dan, and his wife, Nikki. We haven’t seen them in over a year so it will be good to catch up with them.

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#10 One of the things we’ve always wanted to do in Colorado is visit Rocky Mountain National Park. Matt is taking the second part of a national landscape certification exam on Saturday. As soon as he’s finished, we’re headed to the national park for two days. Although he’s been in Denver for over a year now, he hasn’t had the time to visit the park either.

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Given that any month when I see both of my kids is a good month, and that I love road trips and new experiences, I’m really looking forward to this trip!

 

 

Happy Birthday, Sarah!

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Today is Sarah’s birthday, and I would typically be feeling rather sorry for myself that I am so far away on her special day, but a week from today we’ll be heading out to meet Sarah, Adam, and Caleb in Atlanta. Sarah and Adam are involved in a Fund for Theological Education conference there, and we are happily babysitting while they are busy at the conference. When they finish, we’re all off to Hilton Head for five days, so I am sending birthday wishes across the country today, but don’t have long before I can present them in person!

Her package was sent by UPS, and ended up taking much longer to deliver than I expected, so I made an extra card (forgot to photograph the one in the package) so she’d have something to open on her birthday.

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I’ve seen so many lovely cards made with the Daydreamer set by Papertrey that I ordered it last month. I combined the sentiment and flowers from that set with the jar from Friendship Jar: Summer to create this card. The patterned paper is also Papertrey, and the card is a Memory Box card I cut down a bit.

LOAD: Days 3 & 4

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Here are the latest layouts of the grandchildren. 🙂 

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Patterned paper:  “Pink Quatrafoil” (both sides) Style Essential (Echo Park), “Green Flourish,” Style Essential (Echo Park), and “Metropolitan” (American Craft) for the title; Silhouette, Stamps: Lawn Fawn and Papertrey Ink; punch:  Knock-out heart scallop (American Craft); Flower: unknown from stash.

We bought this hat for Skylar in the gift shop of the International Rose Garden in Portland. Her middle name is Rose, so we knew we wanted to find something for her there. This was perfect, and I do think she’s pretty cute in it.

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Patterned paper: “Everyday Moments” (Teresa Collins); Cardstock:  Neenah Solar White; Alpha: Puffy (American Craft); stickers: Pebbles.

One of Tracy’s first jobs when we arrived in Oregon was to hang Caleb’s new jumper. The jumper was a huge hit, and provides Caleb with a much needed way to burn off some excess energy! The journaling reads:

Today’s version is called “Mighty Muscle Builder,” but in Sarah and Matt’s baby days it was the “Jolly Jumper.” I much prefer the older name, and it certainly suits Caleb as he is definitely a jolly jumper. From the moment Tracy hung it up, Caleb has loved it. None of the photos here really capture his joy, but we have several videos that do. Furthermore, I think it helps tire him out. Since he’s a fussy sleeper, anything that contributes to a good night’s sleep is wonderful.


May in Review and LOAD

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I’ve kept up with a Photo-a-Day now for five months, two months longer than I’ve ever done before, and I’m  committed to seeing it through. I love popping all the photos into Ali’s monthly template and writing a review of the month. 

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I think you can click on the layout to see it better. I follow the daily prompts when they seem to fit or when I’m feeling uninspired. The rest of the time, I focus on what we’re doing. The patterned paper is Bella Blvd, the cute tags from Ormolu, the camera stamp from Studio Calico, and the chevron die for the tag from Papertrey Ink.

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Here’s this month’s journaling which I put on the “pull-out” tag. I added the little stamp “pull here” from Papertrey Ink’s “Movers and Shakers” set:

May was a fabulous month! Our trip to Oregon was as perfect as could be—two cross-country flights with no delays, Caleb’s baptism, a week with Sarah & Caleb, and along weekend with Adam & Matt as well! Mother’s Day & my birthday were celebrated with the whole family—nothing makes me happier!

We spent two days driving up the coast of Oregon & were treated with bright, sunny days. Oregon’s coast is even more stunning that California’s. We finished our trip in Portland, visiting with Jessica & her family, & dinner with Mason & Meghan. An hour or so at Powell’s Bookstore, a self-guided tour of City Hall, & a visit to the Portland Art Museum were highlights. Lots more to see and do!

We ended the month with lots of plant-buying & gardening, including a trip to Ithaca to the Farmer’s Market, always a favorite day trip. Had a great lunch at my favorite Mexican restaurant, Rio Tamatlin.

 I finished two books in May:  Thinking About Memoir, & Unless It Moves the Human Heart. Mary & I enjoyed Jennifer Haigh’s talk at Arts & Lectures, and Tracy & I saw a great  Bonnie Raitt concert. Karen & I celebrated our birthdays with dinner at Bennuci’s, I shared meals with Nancy & Mary, & on Memorial Day we helped celebrate Bill Jones’ birthday.

 I’m well into Ali’s class 31 Things, but I’m not sure quiet how I’ll “publish” it. Kat’s Sense of Place has been a fabulous class with lots of thought-provoking ideas about photography. The material here will keep me busy most of the summer. I still need to finish up the Cut Above cards class, & the first of two Silhouette classes with Kerri Bradford. 

There wasn’t a lot of time for creative pursuits at the crafting table, but I did manage to create one layout and ten cards.

I’ve been participating in Simple As That‘s monthly review as well, and I added some photos to that collage that didn’t make it in the POTD collage. I love the photo of Matt and Caleb watching a golf tournament on TV–the same look of concentration. Skylar Rose’s photo will be showing up in a layout sometime soon, as will a series of  Caleb jumping in his “Jolly Jumper.”

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I never posted April’s since we left early in May for our trip, so here it is as well.

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Participating in LOAD in February was a great experience, and although there was another session in May, I knew I couldn’t do it then. So I’m doing my own version this month since I have so many photos that need to be scrapped. The May layout above is today’s. Yesterday I created this one.

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This one didn’t photograph terribly well. The colors are a bit brighter than they show here. It’s much truer in the detail shot below. (Both taken at the same time with the same light; go figure.) The patterned paper is MME “Follow Your Heart,” and I added five rows of Washi tape to it to create a border. I think both rolls of Washi came in Studio Calico kits, but I’m not sure. The tag definitely came in a kit, and I backed the cut-out with cardstock from my stash file. The alphabet is October Afternoon.

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The journaling reads: Caleb was perfecting his smile while we were in Oregon, but despite many attempts, I never captured one like this. Adam posted Caleb’s five month portrait on Facebook this week, and I just had to get it in the album.

Hope you’re having a great day!

 

Happy Mother’s Day & Twelve on the Twelfth

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Happy Mother’s Day! My very best present is being with all of my family on Mother’s Day. After church we got a few Mother’s Day photos.

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Yesterday was the perfect day for 12 on the 12th:

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(You can click on the photo to read the journaling–finally figured that out!) We had a great day. When Caleb got up from his morning nap, we headed to the Farmer’s Market, and then to an Artisan’s Market. After lunch at The Standing Stone Brewery we took a walk and “played” at Lithia Park. Matt and Adam tried climbing a huge jungle gym made from cables. It was a hot, sunny day—just perfect! 

Ten on the Tenth: May

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It’s very easy to lose track of the days while you’re on vacation, and even easier when you are beguiled by your grandson, so I was a bit surprised this afternoon to open up Shimelle’s blog and see that today was the 10th of May. Since I have hundreds of new photos of Caleb what better subject for this post? Here are 10 photos of a real cutie!

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Tracy put up a jumper for Caleb on Monday, and it is a huge hit. When Sarah had one, it was called the Jolly Jumper, and Caleb certainly is a jolly jumper!

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We spent most of the day today shopping and sight seeing in Jacksonville. Caleb and Grandpa walked the streets while Sarah and I browsed.

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On Sunday, Caleb was baptised, and Adam’s parents were also here for the service.

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March-A Month of Photos

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I had my templates for Capture Your 365 and A Month in Photos done the first of April. I’ve been waiting to post them until I got the layouts done, but it’s just not happening. So here is my March Month of Photos template. I will be back with the layout of the photo-of-the-day which I’ve managed to stay on track with for three months now.

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Some of my favorites from March: Skylar (I just love those chubby arms and bright eyes), my brother-in-law’s birthday party, Tracy’s birthday celebration at the Irish Harp in Niagara-on-the-Lake, high school rowers practicing on the Genesee River, a favorite photo from the orchid show, my self-portrait for the month (reflection in the doors at LLBean), and the beautiful magnolias in Highland Park (typically taken in late April or May!)

Winners and Some Sad News

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First off, the winners of the blog giveaways:

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Jacky, I’ll be sending you Botanical Silhouettes. I have  your address and will get them in the mail before the week is out.

Donna C., I need your address so I can send you the Papertrey Ink Thank You set. Please email me with the information: karen@walkermediadotnet

Rinda, later tonight you should find an Amazon gift certificate in your inbox.

Once again, thanks for coming to the blog to visit, and especially, for the kind comments and support I’ve gotten over the last few years. I’ve really enjoyed getting to know you!

And now for the sad news . . .Tracy’s mother and stepfather have operated a wildly successful bed and breakfast for the last 20 years. They renovated their beautiful home where Tracy and his four siblings grew up. Yesterday they suffered a terrible tragedy. About noon, a neighbor saw smoke pouring out of the roof and called 911. Then the neighbors contacted Tracy’s sister since his mom and Bill are in Florida for several months. By the time Tracy and Jill arrived it was clear this was a major fire.

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The cause is still unknown, and thankfully, no one was hurt. The damage was extensive. The roof and entire third floor (where there was a lovely suite of rooms) are totally gone. Most of the rest of the house received extensive smoke and water damage. Tracy’s mom and stepdad are handling it remarkably well. We are so grateful they were safe in Florida when this happened as well as to the fire department of Rochester who worked for nearly seven hours to be sure the fire was extinguished. Today when Tracy and his siblings walked through the house, they were immediately aware of the care the firemen took to protect as many of the antiques and valuables as they could. We really don’t know what can be salvaged. It’s another reminder for me to live each day to the fullest, and to count my blessings which are many.