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Project Life: July 2015 (Part 1)

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We spent most of July hiking and sightseeing in the Canadian Rockies and Glacier National Park. The first page, however, documents some of the events prior to our trip. Tracy's mom turned 86, and we spent three days with Sarah, Adam, and Caleb in Chicago before flying out of O'Hare to Calgary. It also includes one of my favorite photos of Matt, Betsy, and the girls taken on their vacation in Nantucket while we were away. Then there's the story of the worst hike of the summer at Indiana Dunes State Park. The second page includes our itinerary, and the story of our missed flight. Luckily, we got to Calgary in time to see the Stampede on Saturday, although we lost our great tickets for the Friday rodeo.

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More Calgary Stampede and a road trip to Missoula, MT. We stopped for a visit at the St. Ignatius Mission.

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We spent a wonderful three days in Glacier National Park. The first two days we were at Many Glacier, and then we drove across the Going to the Sun Road—just gorgeous!

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We hiked to Apikuni Falls, around Swiftcurrent, Josephine, and Grinnell Lakes, and on the Going to the Sun Road, hiked from Logan's Pass to Hidden Lake.

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There's one more page to come with photos from Two Medicine at Glacier before we drove back to Canada to Waterton National Park, but I'll save those for the next installment.

Project Life: June 2015

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I finally got my June and July Project Life pages completed. Most of June had been done quite some time ago, but I was waiting to figure out who took the photo of Karen, Debbie, and me at Karen's retirement party. Just a few weeks ago, I was texting with Karen's sister in Wisconsin, and discovered she had the photo I wanted. July has taken so long because there are SO MANY photos. I had most of them printed locally with a white border, and had started the pages in October and November. The whole project got sidelined when I took on doing a Christmas Journal, and then we were gone for several weeks. Now they're done before we head off again for nearly all of March. In the next few days I'll get the July pages posted. They'll need to be divided up into several posts. Now my goal is to be caught up over the summer. We'll see how that goes.

So here is June:

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We took an unexpected trip to Chicago in the middle of June to help Sarah, Adam, and Caleb move to a new house. It's only five minutes away from the old one, but five minutes or an hour, the packing up, preparing the new house, cleaning the old house, and getting it all moved is still the same amount of work. On our way, we stopped for dinner with my cousin, his wife, and my aunt in Ohio.

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As always, the focus is on the photos and the story, and there's minimal embellishment. I've recently realized I opt not to tell longer stories, and I think I might begin to do more of that in the near future.

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Right after we got home from Chicago, we took off to Hyde Park to meet my grand-nephew, Finn, and to attend a really special wedding where our neighbor's daughter (who we've known since she was in preschool) married a soccer buddy of Matt's. They are both artists (a fashion designer and an animation designer) so the wedding had lots of special touches.

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And lastly, a page with Miss Ella and Miss Skylar, and my friend Karen's retirement party.

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Karen (in the middle), Debbie and I spent three years together working in a blended classroom (1/3 special education students). They were the best four years of my 37 year teaching career.

Back tomorrow with the first installment of July's pages.  

 

February Papertrey Ink 2016 Blog Hop Challenge and Pretty in Pink

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The inspiration piece for this month's blog hop at Papertrey Ink is so lovely, soft and springlike.

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It was a great color combination for an early April birthday card that I was getting ready to work on when this inspiration piece appeared. I'd already chose the Bold Blooms watercolor paper by Papertrey Ink, so pulled out my Kuretake watercolors, and mixed up some colors to match.

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After it was watercolored, I adhered it to a Memory Box green card, added a gold die cut sentiment that was in my "die cuts to use" box, and added a few sequins. 

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The last touch was to add the butterfly from the inspiration piece. I used an old Martha Stewart punch and a piece of patterned paper with gold dots from the "Fancy That" paper pack by MME. It wasn't quite the right color of pink, so I added a wash of watercolor to it, and now it's just right.

You can check out the other creations right here.

I'm also linking this up to the FUSION challenge, Pretty in Pink. I channeled the color and also the blooms!

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SNAP: The Dutch Collection and 5 in 5 Minutes

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This is the second week in a row that I'm posting flowers as the subject of my SNAP meme sponsored by Helena. I admit a slight obsession with flowers during the month of February. Despite unusually warm temperatures this month, we have had plenty of snow recently. Even with two days of temperatures in the 40's and 50's the depth of the snow in our front yard has not significantly diminished. So, as I do each year, I visited the George Eastman House this weekend. The Dutch Collection just opened, and it's a great place to get a glimpse of spring and some good photos of flowering plants.

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The top left are a German primrose. I don't recall seeing them in previous years, but I love that one plant has so many colors. I was able to purchase one of these, although mine doesn't have quite as many colors in it. The top right in Clivia. Before I started going to this show, I'd never heard of it, and it remains one of my favorites every year. And who can resist the beauty of the Heleborus and the tulips? Not I.

Here's a larger view of the conservatory. Although the largest groupings of flowers are here, the Heleborus line a walkway overlooking the gardens on the way into the house, and there are groupings in a smaller solarium as well. Many of the groupings are color coordinated. One of my good friends is a docent here. She was scheduled to water these plants a week ago on the day of the big snow. Luckily, the museum closed, as did most institutions. I had never given any thought to watering these plants, and I forgot to ask her how long it takes.

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I was there on Saturday afternoon after a retreat at our church which is just down East Ave. I was surprised and pleased to discover that there was an organ recital being played. I thought they were just on Sundays, but perhaps I wandered in at a time when the organist was rehearsing

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While I was at the Eastman House, I got my five photos in five minutes for Sandie's meme. I just have one day left to get it posted, so here are even more beautiful flowers from the Eastman House taken during the first five minutes I was there.

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All in all, it was a pleasant way to spend a half an hour or so on a winter afternoon.

Memorandum Monday

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One Monday seems to follow another in quick succession, but I'm back again to wave to Sian and friends for Memorandum Monday: a chance to share something new you did or learned over the weekend. I have both to share today.

First, what I learned. I've taken on the challenge of reading the Bible cover to cover this year. I picked up a copy of the NRSV Daily Bible at the Presbyterian General Assembly a couple of years ago, and decided this was the year to tackle it. I'm enjoying it, but am now about to start reading some commentaries alongside it to learn a bit more about the historical context, and interpretation of the Old Testament.

Lucky for me, our church hosts a Sunday Seminar each week, and a three-part series on the wisdom books of the Old Testament is being taught by a dynamic professor of religion at the University of Rochester, Ann Meredith. Last week she talked about Proverbs, this week about Job, and next week we'll be talking about Ecclesiastes. First off, I had no idea Job was considered one of the wisdom texts. Job, of course, presents the problem of human suffering, particularly the suffering of innocents. It wasn't what I expected to be a wisdom text. The other big piece for me was the division of the book into two parts, a prose narrative and a poetic dialogue. I knew from lectionary readings the narrative story, but I had never read the dialogues. I skipped ahead in my reading this week to read Job before yesterday's session, and was glad I had. That, of course, is just a bit of what I learned. We have an eight page handout that summarizes the presentation. This week I'll be reading as much of Ecclesiastes as I can in preparation for next Sunday's seminar.

And now, a trip to a new venue. Saturday night we went with our friends, Karen and Mike, to a brewery on Seneca Lake. It was a gorgeous afternoon/evening, warm enough that many people were gathered outside on the patio when we arrived. Quite the contrast from a week ago when the weekend temperatures never got about 0°.

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We weren't so hardy, but I did go out to get some photos before we ordered our dinner.

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The view from our table was of the setting sun over Seneca Lake, and to the east a full moon rising above the bare trees. The flights of beer in the photos above were for the guys! We decided to share three sandwiches:  meatball, Italian sausage, and steak and cheese. They were all great, but we agreed the meatball sandwich was the best.

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A band played from 6-9. They were reasonably good, and pretty entertaining, as were all the dancers. All in all, quite a fun night. With the hour and a half drive both ways, we got a chance to catch up with one another, which was a good thing. We were sitting so close to the band that talking while they played was nearly impossible. We don't often make the trip to the Finger Lakes in February, but it turned out to be a great way to spend the evening.

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I'm off this morning for my annual check with the dermatologist, getting my car inspected, and then to lunch with a friend. Our contractor says he's got three more days of work left in the smallest bathroom which had to be totally gutted. I'm guessing the painter won't be back until the plumber's done, and then he probably has several days of work as he's painting the upstairs hall as well as that last bathroom. I'm trying to figure out what to do with the powder room walls now that we no longer have wallpaper. They're looking rather bare. Hope you have a good week!

 

 

 

 

 

Color Throw Down

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I've been working on getting the cards made that I need for the next month and a half. While I had a die laying on my desk for another project, I happened across a blog where the card maker was participating in a challenge called "Color Throw Down." I was unfamiliar with it, but when I saw the colors for this week, I knew I'd participate. The die I had on the desk worked perfectly for it. It's one I purchased some time ago, but hadn't put to use. Here are the inspiration colors.

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My new bathroom is functional, and almost totally "decorated." When I post photos, you'll know this color combination is right up my alley! It's been painted two shades of gray with white woodwork and red accents. Even the shower curtain in red, gray, and white. Since I had to make several runs through the die cutter for the first card, I had extra pieces for a second card as well. 

 

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Aside from the multiple cuts on different colors of paper, this comes together quickly. I used "Fog" and " "Smoke" from Simon Says, and "Select White," "Pure Poppy," and "Smoky Shadow" from Papertrey Ink. The die is the "Stars and Stripes Photo Card" by Frantic Stamper. Although it includes a die cut for "celebrate," I preferred the Wet Paint II die from Papertrey.

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The star dies are also included, and that worked out well. An enamel dot or two and the cards were done.

We've had a busy weekend, and I'll be back tomorrow to participate in Memorandum Monday. Hope your weekend is going well.

SNAP

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I thought I knew exactly what I was going to post for Helena's SNAP meme this week, but I totally changed my mind when I got this beautiful bouquet of flowers for Valentine's Day. 

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There were just the right number of different flowers to create this week's SNAP collage.

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We spent yesterday house-bound with the biggest snow of the year, and the greatest accumulation in a day in the last seven years. It's beautiful, but I hope the roads have improved as I do need to go out today.

 

 

Memorandum Monday: The Valentine Edition

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I'm back again this week, joining and waving to Sian and friends who post something new they did or used for the first time over the weekend ( or in my case during the week.) I saw some Valentine products I couldn't resist this year. Now that I have grandchildren who I can create for, this holiday is ramping up for me. 

First off, my favorite and an almost total case of a project Danielle Flanders did for the release of this stamp and die set: "Petite Places: Home & Garden." I've resisted this whole line of product from Papertrey Ink, but Danielle got me on this one. I knew Skylar would love it, and I made a second one for a crafty friend who loves this kind of thing. She makes wonderful creations from paper, but she's not a stamper, so I knew she wouldn't have seen it. Got to say, both loved it, and for a first try, I was pretty pleased with how it came out. By using different colors, you can change out the look of the project so it would be great for other occasions.

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The clear dome makes photos pretty tricky, but in this one you can see the cute little swing hanging from the tree. There are also lots of other little additions I didn't add this time. I added a strip of adhesive cork paper to made the walkway, and combined some green Flower Soft and glitter to made the "grass." I threw in a few flower sequins as well.

The card for Skylar and Ella used Simon Says "Baby Party Animals" which I've used before, but the sentiment is from "Paper Hugs," included in last year's February card kit which I had never used.

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With all the stamping, sequins, and die cut foil hearts, this is definitely a busier card than I usually come up with.

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I ordered a die and some clear totes from Reverse Confetti to made Caleb's valentine gift. This combo is sure to get lots of use; it's perfect for hostess gifts, small birthday gifts . . . I can think of almost endless possibilities. The patterned papers are "Pure Poppy + White," from Papertrey Ink, and the heart border die is also an older Papertrey die.

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Here's the tote with the card, which also uses new stamps and dies from Papertrey's "Valentine Pin-up" kit. I have plenty of material in that kit to create for grandchildren for several years to come. The little fox was one of my favorites.

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I used a Simon Says heart die to make the balloons, and used another new die, "Balloon Strings" from Papertrey. It's been on backorder for awhile, and just came in the last order.

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We have a wonderful homemade candy shop nearby, and that's where the Valentine candy corn and the chocolates in Caleb's valentine came from. I was thrilled to find little chocolate cars wrapped much like the Matchbox cars Caleb loves.

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And here's what the tote looks like from the side.

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We had quite a lovely Valentine's Day. It started with some car trouble due to the extreme cold, so we ended up coming in at the end of the first hymn for church. It was worth the effort to get there, though, since we had an excellent guest preacher and some beautiful solos by the bass section leader in our choir. From there I went to Sunday Seminar presented by Ann Meredith, a professor of religion at the University of Rochester. One of my friends was amazed that I had never attended one of her presentations, and said I would love it. Indeed, I did, and luckily it was the first of a three part series. It's days like this when I realize what wonderful resources we have in Rochester.

We played duplicate bridge in the afternoon. The last couple of times we've played we haven't done very well, but yesterday was much better. There are several couples in the group who play bridge regularly, and two who play competitively. We play only in this group, and do not study or practice, so it's quite a miracle that we can keep up with them. We rarely come in first (and we didn't yesterday) but we seem to hold our own, and have been playing with one of the couples for 42 years. The group started the year we were married. We came home for an hour, and then met friends for dinner. Quite an usual (and different-"new") Valentine's Day for us. I hope your weekend treated you well.

Happy Valentine’s Day

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I'll be back tomorrow with some more valentines to share for Memorandum Monday, but today I have one to submit to the Card Concept challenge blog. Here's the inspiration photo:

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Clearly, the hearts were my inspiration.

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I have to admit that photographing valentines can be a challenge in itself, especially when reflective papers are being used. I started with a piece of patterned paper from Teresa Collin's "Studio Gold" collection, then die cut Simon Say's "Heart Tic Tac Toe" from the middle and backed it with red and gold foil paper from Michaels. The sentiment is one of the dies from Papertrey's "Swoosh" set. There are a variety of categories to choose from at Card Concept, but I guess this fits the CAS Layered category the best.

Here's another look at it.

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Tracy outdid himself this Valentine's Day. I received a gorgeous bouquet of flowers, a charm for an Alex and Ani necklace, and a gift certificate for a facial. I'm a spoiled lady! Our duplicate bridge group is playing this afternoon (very unusual; it's usually a Saturday night), and then we're off to dinner (again!) with friends. It's been a cold, but festive weekend.

Addicted to CAS: Bloom

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The current challenge at Addicted to CAS is Bloom.

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We could all use a bloom or two here today. The high was 0° and the wind is blowing hard enough that the wind chill was predicted to be -24°. I ran a few errands after helping register folks at a conference this morning, and decided I was not going out again although I should have gone to the gym. I stayed home and made soup instead.

Tomorrow is my niece's birthday. I know she reads my blog, but I hope she's already opened the card, or won't have time to check here before she opens this card tomorrow. I thought she should have some blooms as well. I'm guessing it's just as cold or colder in Vermont.

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I chose not to purchase the "Bold Blossoms" stamp set last month at Papertrey Ink, but I did buy a pack of the watercolor sheets that already have the blossoms printed on them. I used my Kuretake watercolors. They're not quite as transparent as the Daniel Smith ones in my palette, but they are vibrant and colorful. After watercoloring the flowers, I die cut the sentiment with "Birthday Cheers" die, and added a few Pink Posh sequins. The card was in my stash, but I'm pretty sure it's a Simon Says cardstock.

We're off to friends for dinner, so I am going to have to bundle up one more time.

The Last Pages of the Christmas Journal

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The day after Christmas, we loaded everything into the van and headed off to Chicago. Much to our surprise we were there for dinner, and were able to celebrate Christmas with Sarah, Adam, and Caleb after dinner.

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I got this crazy idea in my head that I wanted a car with a Christmas tree on top to embellish the journaling card. I didn't have any dies or stamps that worked, so I went to the Silhouette shop and quickly found this cute car. It had been so long since I used the Silhouette, that the software had changed (and the whole interface), so getting this cute car on the journaling card turned out to be quite the time-consuming process. I was happy with it, although the state of my workspace was pretty awful by the end of the process. Lesson learned: use your tools regularly!

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Nothing much happened on the next two days. Everyone was tired, and happy just to hang out together. On the 29th, though, Tracy and I decided to take Caleb to the Chicago Botanic Garden to see Wonderland Express. We'd gone last year, and loved it, and were lucky to get early morning tickets this year so it was a lot less crowded. This year Caleb was able to find all the items on the scavenger hunt which we all enjoyed.

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Caleb celebrated his fourth birthday on the 30th. His first "friends' party" was on the 2nd of January so that will go into my Project Life album. We kept this day pretty low key, opening a few presents off and on during the day. The photo of Caleb on the bottom left is on the annual poster that Adam makes each year. When Caleb wakes up the poster is there to greet him. This year each of us wrote a message to him. There was enough snow that Caleb was anxious to go outside, and he and Adam had a fine time in the front yard.

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I guess one advantage to being behind in the process is seeing what other people do in their Christmas albums. One thing I've always liked, and saw repeatedly this year, was an end of the year review. I've never taken the time to print out all the photos for one before, but I loved going through all the photos from 2015 and trying to decide which ones to include. It also made me aware of some I wish we'd taken! In the end, I could have filled another page easily. I love that you can see in just two pages how much my grandchildren grew during the year.

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Now, once I get the Valentine Day's projects completed, I need to get back to last year's Project Life pages. I promised myself I'd never get this far behind again, but we're just too busy for me to keep up, and it's not going to improve any in the next couple of months. I'll just keep snapping the photos, and keeping my daily journal, and eventually I'll be caught up again. Thanks for hanging in there with me!

 

SNAP: RED

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In honor of Valentine's Day this coming weekend, I thought I'd do a collection of red items. The cyclamen is sitting on our coffee table, and the red throw and pillow are on the red chair in my studio. The other red flowers were photos taken earlier.

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Red is my favorite color, and as I sit and write this post, I'm sipping tea from a red cup. I could have photographed my red kitchen chairs, the red carpet on our stairs, or one of my red sweaters, or even the new red heart charm I purchased this week in anticipation of Valentine's Day. I'm surrounded with red hearts and valentine stamps as I try to get ready for the weekend. Valentine's Day was my father's favorite holiday, and I try to honor his memory by making sure my kids and grandchildren get a special card on Valentine's Day. I'll be back on Monday with a look at this year's projects. 

What's your favorite color? Linking up with Helena and off to see what other collections have been posted this week.

 

Christmas Journal: 19-25

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Last Tuesday, I finally finished my Christmas Journal, but I've been waiting for time and sunshine to merge in order to take decent photos of it. Over the next day or two, I'll post the rest of the pages. Every time I finish one of these, I'm so glad I put the time and effort into it. Every year is different, and yet some things remain the same. Capturing those traditions and special events are my reason why.

This year Skylar was old enough and very interested in helping bake Christmas cookies. She came on Saturday to bake, and again on Sunday to help decorate the sugar cookies. She caught on very quickly, and was quite efficient in using the rolling pin to roll out dough. 

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I used a photo for the Dec. 21 layout that I had taken earlier in the week from our neighbor's back patio. They live at the top of the hill, and have this amazing view of downtown Rochester. I took this day to type up a list of all the social events of the month. (Tracy found a small typo in the list, but I wasn't upset enough by it, to redo the page. It's the first time I've ever managed to create a page with all digital elements without struggling through the process!)

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Betsy and her sisters planned a wonderful Christmas party for family and friends on the 22nd. I used one of Cathy Z's 6X8 templates for this page.

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We celebrate Christmas with Matt, Betsy and the girls early since the Walker family Christmas starts so late, and goes so long. It's a bit overwhelming as well, so it's nice to have a quiet dinner and Christmas with just family.

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Christmas Eve Day has traditionally been a quiet one for us, and a good chance to rest up before Christmas and the travel right afterwards. The story of the necklace is one of those stories I want to capture so I can remember exactly when it happened. Looking back over earlier Christmas Journals, I was surprised at how much I had forgotten.

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My goal on Christmas Day is to try and get a photo of everyone who is here that year. This year there were 18 of us, and I think I did it, although I didn't have close-up photos of everyone. Thanks to my sister-in-law, Jill, there's even a photo of me this year!

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And the last, and favorite spread, with these cute photos of  Skylar and Ella "playing" the piano with Sonora. Sonora, of course, is playing Christmas carols, while the girls are accompanying her. 

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Back soon, with the rest . . .

 

Memorandum Monday

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It's Monday already, and I'm joining in with Sian (and waving to her and everyone there) with Memorandum Monday. Sian's started a new Monday meme that asks that we "tell us something [we] did over the weekend FOR THE FIRST TIME." I don't have much in the way of photos because photos weren't appropriate in either setting.

As part of the exploration of my One Little Word, MINDFUL, I've been doing a lot of reading and thinking about mindfulness and meditation. Specifically, both of those in relationship to the teachings of Thich Nhat Hanh. Two weeks ago, I attended an evening workshop at the Assisi Institute on Mindfulness and Meditation, but the practices there didn't seem to be a perfect fit. This week I was talking to a friend from church about other matters. I knew she had a long history in practicing meditation, and she offered to take me to the Newcomer's Orientation and Sangha at the Zen Center. (Although they meet at the Zen Center, this group does not practice Zen meditation which I am learning is quite different. They follow the teachings of Thich Nhat Hanh.) After a warm and welcoming introduction to the practice, the Sangha began. There is a 20 minute guided meditation followed by a 10 minute walking meditation, another 20 minute meditation session in quiet, and ending with another 10 minute walking meditation. For someone who has barely practiced at all, I thought I'd be in over my head, but not so. It was peaceful, relaxing, and I was pleased that I could keep myself centered on the breath for far longer than I anticipated. They only meet once a week, and it will be a couple of weeks before my schedule allows me to return, but I'm quite sure I will. The most important thing, however, is I now know a daily practice at home should be easier to establish than I imagined.

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I've been wanting to attend the Compline Service on Sunday evening for a long time. There is a concert preceding it on the first Sunday of every month, and instead of watching the Super Bowl, my friend and I went to Christ Church. The organ recital was lovely, but the compline service sung by a group of highly talented voices was simply divine. No other word for it. Everything is performed in total darkness except for the alter which is bathed in candlelight. It was beautiful, moving, and totally refreshing. What a wonderful way to end a weekend! 

We're in the midst of having all the galvanized pipes replaced to our bathrooms. Our house was built in 1930, and the water pressure upstairs is poor to horrible. The contractor has finished the new plumbing in our powder room off the kitchen, and the new fixtures are in place. The old ceramic tile floor in my bathroom is gone (YAH!), and the plumbing there is complete. This week the new floor and fixtures should go in there, and then we'll be down to the last and, and very difficult, job of replacing the pipes to the small bathroom in the back of the house. That bathroom will need to be completely gutted, and the pipes go up the wall of the living room. (And that's another first for this week. We've lived here for 30 years, and I've never had to take a shower in that tiny shower before. Must admit, I'll be glad to be back in mine in a week or so.) 

Happy Monday to everyone! I hope it's a great week!

Winter Scavenger Hunt: Part 3

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In addition to finding items on the Winter Scavenger Hunt hosted by Joy and Eileen on our trip, I've found a few around town as well.  I think I have just five to find, and all of them are doable for sure. The hardest one has been the robin. I have a photo to share from our walk through the park earlier this week, but all I had with me was my iPhone so he's pretty tiny. If it warms up again (the temperature is headed down for a few days), I'll go back with the DSL-R and try sitting quietly on a bench and see if I have more luck. I'd love to get one anywhere near as wonderful as the bird photos Miriam posts, but I don't have much hope of that!

Here's the "little" robin in Highland Park. Not very clear because I cropped it so much so you could actually see that it was a robin.

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As I was driving into the library parking lot the other day, I followed this truck. I pulled alongside and hopped out with my iPhone. The driver was very personable, and wanted to know all about this scavenger hunt. He was fascinated that people in Europe as well as across Canada and the United States were playing along with it. Here are three ladders in one shot.

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The driver really wanted me to take a photo of the other side of the truck, so here it is, but not so well composed due to the angle at which he needed to park. I think there were six ladders in total, and he offered to open up the back end where evidently there were even more. I assured him all I needed was one!

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I'm still looking for a more interesting chimney, but this one is quite nice on a home that borders the path Debbie and I walk each week on the canal.

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And lastly, for today, some outside lights. I took this the second week of January as we pulled out of my MIL's housing development. I was afraid, even then, that most people would have already taken down their Christmas lights. These were particularly nice. You can see my shadow caused by the lights of our car.

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I haven't gotten around to creating an album in SmugMug for this hunt, but you can see the earlier collections here and here.