In just a bit, we'll be off on a long road trip. You can see the general route here on my Journey Journal which I ordered from Cracked Designs on Etsy. She kindly made me a version with just the right number of pages for our trip.

Luckily Matt is here to take care of the house, keep our yard beautiful, and bring in the mail, etc. Not having to deal with any of those arrangements has made this much easier. Tonight we'll be having dinner with my cousin in Toledo whom I haven't seen in almost 20 years.

In addition to getting ready to go, I've been taking an online photography class with Katrina Kennedy at Get It Scrapped! I don't consider myself a true beginner, and this course was billed for just such a photographer. I looked at the content, however, and knew there were topics being covered that I didn't know that much about. I haven't been disappointed. There were only two lessons that didn't have new-to-me material , and I learned a lot more about my camera. Last year I tried and tried to get a good photo of the baby robin in our burning bush. Mama Robin is back this year and thanks to my new knowledge I got a pretty good photo. I've taken several online classes. Barbara Carroll's at Big Picture Scrapbooking was fabulous and Katrina's (although not as comprehensive) rates right up there as well.

I also made some cards for upcoming events:  Sarah's birthday, my brother's retirement, and this one just for fun with one of my all-time favorite (and brand new) Paper Trey stamp sets:

Vintage Picnic Baskets come with multiple baskets and items to put in the baskets as well as a great variety of messages (some in a separate set.) I know I'll be using these a lot.

When we were in Chicago a few weeks ago I found a set of letterpress tags at The Paper Source. This sketch was the perfect opportunity to use one and I'm really please with it, although the color on Typepad is a bit off.

I layered the tag on an embossed Nestabilities rectange, used a new EK Success border punch, and three green pearls from Hero Arts.

PaperTrey Spring Moss and Dark Chocolate cardstock.

I've never played along with a Mosaic Monday post, but I needed to do a color challenge for another site so it's fun to play along here as well. All my pink photos for May were flowers, most of them from our yard but the orchids were photographed at the Buffalo Botanical Gardens and the tulips were from Wegmans.