Today’s prompt is dip: To put something down quickly into liquid. We saw these amazing kite sailors outside of Santa Cruz, CA this summer. They flew through the air, dipped down into the cold Pacific, and flew back up into the air. There were about 20 of them, and it was an amazing sight.

Autumnal: A characteristic of or occuring in Autumn. Find something autumnal in your space today. Today’s prompt couldn’t have come at a better time. Tracy, my brother, and I spent yesterday hiking in Minnewaska State Park. The autumn colors are at their peak, and it was the perfect fall day. Here are two favorites, although I’m sure I’ll be posting some more from both our hike and our day in Vermont on Saturday.

A rare second post in one day. Today’s prompt from HS, MS, HS is Look: To view or investigate. Find ‘Look’ in your space. I guess this is really “THE look,” but I’ve always loved this photo taken after my daughter’s wedding. It kind of symbolizes for me the fun attitude she and Adam have always shared. So it’s an “oldie but goodie.”

We’re off on our fourth annual Columbus Day weekend road trip. Tonight to Albany, then to Manchester, VT, and finally to Hyde Park to visit my brother, Kathy, and my nieces. We’ll be indulging in a few favorites: Up for Breakfast (their Morning Glory pancakes are to die for!), the Northshire Book Store (a hugely successful independent book store), and Max’s Memphis Barbeque in Red Hook. I’m looking forward to getting lots of photographs, we’ll be hiking in the Minnewaska State Park, and best of all, the weather report is fabulous for the whole weekend.

Before I left I wanted to post the last two layouts for Cathy Z’s Design Your Life class. I’ll have Week 2’s projects waiting for me when I get home. This is turning out to be a great class. Still struggling with how to get a good, straight, in focus photograph of the 12 X 12 layouts or two page spreads.

Balance:

Real World Color challenge:

One thing I really like about this class is I can scrap photos I have in my files as well as supplies in my stash.

HS, MS, HS prompt for today: Sign: To convey information or a command. Find ‘Sign’ in your space.

Our street sign at the corner.

I started volunteering in my friend Sandy’s special education class today. She has seven of the most adorable students. I helped them make pumpkin paintings by painting the palms of their hands orange and one finger green for the stem. They loved it, and the paintings were really cute. I have to remember to get my camera out. Then I read three books the kids picked for their free time period. They’re all kindergarten and first graders, and I love the snuggle you get when you read on the rug. Although I loved my fifth graders and they loved to listen to books, they definitely weren’t snugglers. I’ll be going in every Thursday, and I can already tell it’s going to be something I look forward to each week.

Her Space: My Space is now Her Space, My Space, His Space and there’s a brand new site as well. Appropriately, the prompt is welcome. I had to make my own welcome sign!

Three photos for today’s prompt at HS: MS. Split: Break, or cause to break into parts or halves along the grain. Find ‘split’ in your space today.

If you look carefully the top carrot split into three parts.

The new lift bridge on the Genesee River near Lake Ontario.

A giant Redwood in Muir Woods where we visited this summer.

It was a busy weekend, but I managed to finish up all my layouts for Stacy Julian’s More Fun class for September. Now on to complete two more layouts for the Design Your Life class with Cathy Z. I’m already loving this. Here’s the first layout for Week 1: Balance & Symmetry:

I’m not one to use enlargements, but I think that might change. It took a while to get the photo printed the way I wanted it. I’ve been trying to work with color profiling, but in this case the printer default produced a better photo than choosing a color profile in Photoshop Elements. The more I get into photo editing, the more I realize I don’t know. Still working on trying to learn the basics in Lightroom as well.

The other big project was card making. A friend is coming over this afternoon for her first experience with this hobby so I made a lot of simple cards so she could see the possibilities without needing to spend a fortune to get started. Since Saturday was World Cardmaking Day there was a lot of inspiration on the internet.

The first two were inspired by a card on Kimberly Kesti’s blog. She got her inspiration from Ali Edwards.

Also inspired by Kim Kesti:

And a two more from three sheets of new Basic Grey paper I picked up on Friday.

And one final card with a stamped image. This was one of my earlier stamp purchases from PrintWorks. I used it to practice blending colored pencils with Gamsol. So many things to learn!

Yesterday Karen, Marie, and I walked in the Breast Cancer Making Strides walk downtown with about 9,000 other walkers. It’s always a fun event and the weather was perfect: sunny and cool.

So, I didn’t post on HS: MS this weekend. Today’s prompt is Tranquil: Free from disturbance. Find something tranquil in your space today. Here are the Canadian geese at the Brighton Town Park. They used to migrate, but so many people feed them that they stay here all winter. It is a tranquil spot.

I’m a day late with this. I got so busy yesterday working on the first assignment for Cathy Z’s Design Your Life class, I forgot to post. More about this class later. I’m still thinking on today’s prompt: wait. We’re all waiting for Anita’s announcement on HS: MS, but I can’t take a picture of that.

Beam: A ray or shaft of light, or a sturdy support of wood.

Taken at Taughannock Falls State Park two weeks ago. There have been very few beams of light this week in Rochester. Generally overcast and rainy, although there have been some breaks of sun. Today is supposed to be better.