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Memorandum Monday

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It seems quite unbelievable to me that I have never attended the Lilac Festival parade, but in fact, I have not. Even though we've lived near the parade route for over 30 years. On Saturday I joined Matt, Betsy, Skylar, and Ella to watch the parade. It was Skylar's second year, and she was very anxious for the parade to begin. We had perfect viewing "seats" at the edge of South Avenue, but it was a bit of a wait. Ella started out in the stroller,

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but got restless, so Skylar took her for a walk along the edge of the street while we were waiting for the parade to reach us.

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The parade was worth the wait. There were policemen and women on horses, marching bands, bagpipes, and many groups including veterans and animal rescue groups hoping that someone in the crowd might adopt one of the dogs. I'm missing photos of the animal rescue folks and the veterans. There were lots of folks on this beautiful day along the parade route, but it didn't seem particularly crowded until the parade was over, and we all headed for the food tents.

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The best of the marching bands!

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The drum lines were excellent.

Skylar and I have been talking about making a fairy garden for several months. Saturday we had planned to go to The Artful Fairy in Victor after the parade. When I called to find out if Saturday afternoon would be a good time, I discovered that they had a booth at the lilac festival so we were able to make our fairy garden right there at the park. It was lots of fun and easy to do. She's very pleased, and the owner told her it was one of the nicest she'd seen and took a photo of it for the business!

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The plants are real and we purchased the fairy, her bench and the bridge. The rest of the decorations were free—blue stones, shells, pebbles, and sphagnum moss. We also purchased a vial of "fairy dust" (aka silver glitter which really finished it off.) I'm surprised the glitter doesn't show in the photo—the bridge is covered with it in real life!

Waving to Sian and others posting about new ventures over the weekend.

 

Memorandum Monday

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I'm a day late with this post, but we just got home tonight from a six day trip to New Orleans for a family wedding. Thirteen of us shared a house on the water out near Lake Ponchartrain, and I knew I wouldn't have any computer time, so I didn't take my laptop. I did, however, have one very new experience and learned quite a few new things, one of which I'll share tonight.

Friday night, the groom's family hosted an amazing party at their home with a crawfish boil. I had to get a lesson in eating crawfish from one of Randy's friends but it was easy after that and delicious! They boiled 110 pounds of crawfish, and then quite a few pounds of blue crabs which were much harder to peel and eat.  Included in the crawfish boil were spicy sausages, corn on the cob, potatoes, sweet potatoes, and even some brussel sprouts. It was quite the feast.

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My grand-niece, Bella, is an old pro at this. Living in Lousiana has its perks!

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Saturday morning five of us took a walking tour of the Garden District.

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We had a fabulous tour guide, and I learned all kinds of things. One of the most interesting was the difference between Creole and Cajun. Both terms are used frequently in New Orleans. Creole is anyone who was native born to New Orleans but nationality is not important. Their ancestry might be French or Spanish, or someone who descended from African/Caribbean heritage. Cajun describes people who immigrated from Acadia after the British took over the area in Canada and demanded that the Acadians adopt the king's Protestant religion. The British forced them to leave and many were shipped south to the Louisiana territories.

When it comes to food, Creole cuisine is considered "city" food, and Cajun "country food." While many of the ingredients are similar, if the dish has tomatoes in it, it's Creole. I had both Cajun and Creole gumbo and both were excellent. One had alligator sausage as well, and it was my favorite.

It was a fabulous trip and a beautiful wedding. I'll have lots more to share once I get the photos organized and edited.

SNAP: Easter

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Celebrating Easter in Chicago is always fun. Sarah's church in Winnetka is lovely, and the service is always beautiful. Caleb's Cherub Choir sang during the service, and the weather was good enough that the Easter egg hunt could be held outside. When we got home from lunch, Caleb got the first of eight clues (drawn by his talented father) for a scavenger hunt to find his Easter basket. He couldn't wait to begin. I have lots of great photos which will eventually show up in my project life pages, but for now here's a collection for Helena's meme: SNAP.

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We're spending today in the city. For all our trips to Chicago, we usually spend all our time on the North Shore. There's an exhibit at the Art Institute I'm anxious to see, and I'm hoping to get to a few other sights as well. The weather is somewhat iffy, so we'll see how it goes.

 

Happy Birthday, Tracy!

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It's St. Patrick's Day, but more importantly in this house, it's Tracy's birthday! It's the second year we've celebrated in Florida, and it's been a really lovely day. It started out foggy.

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But by 10:30 it had cleared up.

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The resort where we're staying had a party in his honor. (Well, actually in honor of St. Patrick, but it works out the same.)

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We actually celebrated with dinner last night at The Waterfront on Santa Maria Island. We celebrated there last year, and the food and service were outstanding. Fortunately, nothing had changed. 

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Tonight some of us are eating left-overs, and Tracy is picking out a couple of items and a dessert from Harry's Deli up the road. We had dinner at Harry's Restaurant the first night we were here, and it was also excellent. I made Tracy's birthday card before we came, using Papertrey Ink's "Uncorked" stamps and dies, as well as a few MME's enamel dots.

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And a closer look.

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I forgot to take a photo of the inside, but the sentiment is as good as the one on the front:   "Love is like wine. You know it's good when it gets better with time." Perfectly true.

One more day in paradise, and then we're headed back to the cold and snow. Hopefully, not too much snow, but the forecast calls for snow showers in both North Carolina and Virginia!

 

 

Pairs: Process and Product

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Yesterday was Ella's first birthday—how time flies! Typically she is a happy little girl, and she and her sister are lots of fun. For once I started her birthday card with a pretty clear idea of how I wanted it to look. Here's a view of the card in process.

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At this point, I had colored and die cut all elements for the card, and was laying it out on my desk trying to decide on which sentiment to use. After I assembled the card, as I stamped the last word of the sentiment, I got a smudge of ink on the card. So I took it apart and decided to use a brighter pink cardstock. So here's the final product.

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The adorable little animals are from Simon Say's "Baby Party Animals," the frame from Pretty Pink Posh, the #1 from Papertrey's "By the Numbers," and the sentiment from Papertrey's "Stylish Sentiments: Birthday." The animals were all colored with Copic markers.

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And of course, I couldn't post this without some photos of the birthday girl. Matt and Betsy had a lovely party for family and a few close family friends. Ella is teething, and was sound asleep when the party started. They woke her up an hour later, and she was not her usual cheerful self. She showed no interest in eating any of her personal cupcake. (There was a big cake for the rest of us.) 

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But once she was given a spoon, she had a good time going at it!

I'm popping this card into the Simon Says Wednesday Challenge: Anything Goes.

 

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Me on Monday-A Recap of Our Travels and Halloween

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Well, this is actually a bit of a wrap-up of our time in Chicago, as well as the weekend Halloween adventures. It seemed like a good time to share a few photos. We had no idea when we planned our trip to Chicago, but Caleb made his debut in the Cherub Choir the Sunday we were there. Here he is all dressed up before the service on the front portico of the church.

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I found this handsome blazer at a consignment shop for $12. It had never been worn!

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Mom was checking in with Caleb before the service started. I asked him if he wanted me to come with him to the Sunday School room after he sang, but he is completely comfortable in this church and made it clear he could do it on his own.

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And here they are, ages 3 1/2 to 6. It's amazing the height differences a couple of years makes! They sang loudly and clearly—and in tune! This was taken during the practice before the service, as I don't take photos during a church service.

If you read this blog regularly, you already know from my Pairs post that we went to the Lincoln Park Zoo while we were there. I thought I'd share a few photos so you could get a sense of what a lovely place it is.

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This magnificent creature was one of our favorites. 

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The zoo has created some very lovely and spacious environments for the animals. I took lots of photos but these two were among my favorites.

This lion is at the main gate. Caleb posed for several photos here, but I think he was practicing growling in this one.

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The carousel is one of the more beautiful ones I've seen. It would have made a great photo for Rinda's Summertime Photography Scavenger Hunt this summer.

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I passed up the opportunity to ride so I could practice panning with my new camera. I have to admit, after several sessions of trying, I've yet to take a successful panning photo. This time it was so bad, that I was lucky to have gotten one decent photo of Caleb, Sarah, and Tracy.

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We walked across the street from the zoo to have lunch, and I was really glad we'd chosen to do it or I would have never seen this view of the Chicago skyline.

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We arrived home on Wednesday, and Saturday night headed down to Matt and Betsy's to go "trick or treating" with Skylar and Ella. 

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Skylar went as Snow White.

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And Ella was a baby pumpkin!

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This is one of my favorite photos from the night. It captures so perfectly the relationship these two have already developed.

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But I love this one, too. I'm always a sucker for photos taken of the little ones from behind. Love her candy bag!

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Matt and Betsy do a great job of decorating for all the holidays. Matt is the best pumpkin carver I know. I thought he did a great job last year, but this year's jack o' lanterns were even better.

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The Cinderella pumpkin is just amazing, and Skylar just loved it! Sadly, we missed all the little ones trick or treating in our neighborhood. We left a sign on our door telling when we'd be back, but we got just the older ones, and not very many at that. Our street only has sidewalks for the first few houses, and there are no street lights. By the time it gets dark, the little ones have gone in, or moved onto the next street with sidewalks and street lights.

Yesterday we drove to Buffalo for lunch with our book group. One couple moved to Buffalo a year ago, but wanted to stay in the book group. They have family here so come three times, and then the rest of us travel to Buffalo. We wanted to get our trip in before the weather turns nasty, as I'm sure Suzanne and Mike do not want to have to put us all up at their house. We're having unseasonably warm and sunny days right now, and I'm thrilled.

 

Happy Halloween

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Halloween has never been one of my favorite holidays, but now that I have grandchildren excited about trick or treating, I've started to make a couple of  Halloween cards each year. This year I used an old stamp set from Papertrey Ink that I've always loved, Friendship Jar:  Fall Fillers. They recently released some dies for the stamps, and I couldn't resist. The two cards are somewhat similar, but clearly one is for the girls (Skylar and Ella) and one is for the little boy.

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I made a shaker card for  Skylar and Ella. In addition to the Friendship Jar: Fall Fillers, I used the original Friendship Jar stamps, the friendship jar shaker die, and the Night Sky Cover Plate. The patterned paper is a tiny piece of an old Doodle Bug paper as well as a glitter border sticker from the same line. The sequins are a mix of ones I purchased at Michael's and online.

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I used some of the same supplies for Caleb's card, but instead of a shaker, I used another image from the Friendship Jar: Fall Fillers—the candy corn. All the images on both cards were colored with Copic markers.

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The border on the bottom of this card is also from Doodle Bug as are the stars (which are also glittery.)

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Caleb went with me on my run to Paper Source in Evanston. (There's a bakery with great cookies a few doors down.) He saw all their Halloween craft supplies, and we picked out one that made some Halloween ornaments. Let me just say this was NOT a craft for toddlers! It took me most of the morning to get the four ornaments put together, and ready for Caleb to finish them when he came home from preschool. He thought getting all the eyes, hair, spider legs, etc. on the ornaments was fun, so it was definitely worth it. I've saved another set for Skylar for next year; there isn't time for us to get them made this year.

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And right before we left, Caleb and Grandpa picked out a design for the jack o' lantern, and Grandpa got it carved. A bit scarier than anything I would have chosen, but Caleb was delighted!

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We're going out trick or treating with Skylar for awhile tonight. Don't know whether we'll give in before she does or not!

Pairs: The Birthday Cowgirl

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Monday was Skylar's fourth birthday, and we celebrated twice. The first time was at her party on Saturday. Thunderstorms were forecast, but didn't show up until well after the party. Thank goodness, since the Cowgirl theme included pony rides in their back yard. Betsy rode at a stable growing up and knew the woman who ran the stable, so she brought over two ponies for an hour, and the kids loved it. Here's the girl all decked out!

 

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It took her awhile to decide about the ponies, but once she got on she absolutely loved it. By that time, most of the other kids had moved on to the swing set and making bubbles, so she was able to ride for quite awhile.

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On Monday, just the family assembled for cake and family presents. We gave Skylar a homemade gift certificate for Zooclasses at the Seneca Park Zoo. Grandma and Skylar are going together. Yeah, for that! They're specifically for 4 and 5 year olds, and each month focus on a different group of animals. October will be our first class, and it's all about birds. We're doing it on a month-by-month basis to see how she likes it, and to coordinate schedules.

Here's the birthday card I made for her. For once, I had the design in mind beforehand, and it came out just the way I envisioned it. 

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This one took a few dies to put together:  Balloons & Baby Party Animals (Simon Says), and By the Numbers & In the Meadows (Papertrey Ink), as well as a little heart punch I've had forever. The stamps were from Baby Party Animals, and Winnie and Walter's Big, Bold and Merry. The confetti in the balloon came in a Simon Says card kit and is from Martha Stewart.

Linking the Pairs to Helena's fine blog where you'll find other interesting pairings for sure.

 

Me on Monday

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It was another road trip weekend. We left Thursday and drove to Hyde Park via the Catskills to check out the location of the wedding venue for Saturday. Good thing! It was at the end of a dead end road five miles from the nearest town, which was pretty remote already. I was glad to know exactly where we were going and how long it would take to get there. On our way we found a couple of items on Rinda’s Summertime Photography Scavenger Hunt, but I’ll post those later this week when her Linky goes live. We had a lovely lunch at the Apple Barrel Cafe sitting on the beautiful patio.

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When we arrived in Hyde Park at my niece’s we got to meet my new grand-nephew, Finn Robert McDonald! He’s the first grandchild on both sides. He’s a cutie and Stephanie has adapted to her new role with ease. He weighed in at 12.5 pounds at his one month check-up this week.

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Here’s a photo of the whole family, including Rocky who seems to love the baby just as much as everyone else.

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My niece, Julie, arrived and then my brother with his girlfriend (lovely lady; we like her a lot) for a delicious barbeque on Kevin and Stephanie’s deck. Alas, I took no photos!

On Friday we visited the Culinary Institute of America on a search for my favorite spatulas, but they’ve been discontinued. It’s a gorgeous place for photos though.

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I love this sign on the crosswalks.

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You’ll be seeing more of this lovely spot on the Scavenger Hunt post.

After another visit with Finn, we went to the Walkway Over the Hudson. 

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The last time I was there, it was cold and windy and we didn’t walk all the way across. There’ll be more photos from this event later this week, but here’s one from the walkway of one of many trains that were going south as we walked across. 

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The Walkway is the longest pedestrian bridge over water, 1.28 miles long, and 212 feet above the Hudson River. It was originally a railroad trestle, and had long been a bit of an eyesore before The Walkway was built.

On Saturday we attended the wedding of our neighbor’s daughter, Lauren, and our son’s soccer buddy, Andy. We’ve known both families for years, so it was wonderful to be part of such a lovely event. Both Andy and Lauren are artists, and their artistry was evident from the Save the Date video, the stunning invitations, and all the beautiful details at the wedding itself. Lauren and her friends did all the flower arrangement and bouquets, and each person had a hand-lettered card on their plate. The venue itself was magical despite a gray and rainy day.

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Here's the card I created from the Simon Says May Card Kit and a stamp and die cut from "Grand Ampersand" by Papertrey Ink.

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I just love this patterned paper and wish I had several sheets of it. You'll see the left-overs again next month on my anniversary card for Tracy. I didn't want to waste a bit of it!

We’re home now for a week before taking off again on our summer vacation which was planned long ago. Little did we know there would be so much travel prior to the vacation! We’re off to Calgary, Alberta; the Calgary Stampede; Glacier National Park; and then four stops in the Canadian Rockies. This trip was planned two years ago, but then we got the opportunity to go to Istanbul, and postponed this trip until this summer. No regrets about that decision. 

Waving to Sian, who hosts this weekend recap each Monday.

Happy Anniversary

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There were three anniversaries to celebrate in May. The last one is today—Sarah and Adam are celebrating their ninth anniversary! Nine years—that hardly seems possible. Here's the card that went in the mail to them. Hopefully, it arrived today before they see the blog.

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If you remember a post for Pairs in April, I created a whole set of cards using the "happy" die from Wet Paint II from Papertrey Ink. The strip of patterned paper is from Amy Tangerine's "Plus One" paper pad.

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I stacked three die cuts on top of one another for dimension, and added a gold heart from my stash of die cut hearts and stars.

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This card was made for a couple who were married on my birthday the year Matt was born. Everything except the stamp ("Banner Sentiments") came from the Simon Says May Card Kit.

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Lastly, a card for Tracy's brother and his wife. I bought the Art Deco Background stamp from Papertrey quite some time ago, and this is the first time I've gotten it to work the way I wanted. The die cut above is also from Papertrey Ink—"Block Talk." It was another die cut in my little box of previously cut dies.

Now I'm off to make one more anniversary card—another one like Sarah and Adam's perhaps, for friends who celebrate their anniversary next week.

Baby Shower

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There is a baby shower today in Hyde Park for my niece who is expecting her first baby, a little boy. She's due the day after my birthday, so I'm hoping for a delivery a day early! I wish I could be there, but we leave (again) this afternoon for Chicago. Sarah and the youth group from her church fly to the Dominican Republic this morning for a mission trip. She's returning Tuesday night (before the youth group returns) to be back in town for Holy Week services. With both Sarah and Adam in church a lot this week, Grandma and Grandpa will be spending lots of time with Caleb. A good deal all around!

I sent the gift and card for the shower to my brother ahead of time. 

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A CAS card, my preferred style. All the products except the enamel dots (MME) are from Papertrey Ink: Bitty Dot Basics, Select White cardstock, Wonderful Words: Baby die, Sheer Basics vellum, and the new Keep It Simple frames. I love that striped vellum which worked perfectly with the frame.

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My Dining Room Ministry prepares lunch today at church, so I'm off to cook lunch before we get on the road. I'm not sure how much time I'll have to post or comment while we're away, but I'll be catching up with you when we return. We got another inch or so of snow last night, and the wind is whipping outside my window. I hope Spring finally decides to make an appearance by the time we return!

Happy, Zappy Birthday, Tracy!

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Today is Tracy's birthday, and what fun to be able to celebrate it in sunny Florida! When Papertrey Ink released "Zappy Birthday" I just fell in love with it. I decided I didn't need the stamps, just the die cuts and so far, I'm happy with that decision.

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The patterned papers are from a pad called "Comic Strip," released at the same time. The sentiment is from a W Plus 9 set, "Super Star."

Here's the inside:

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I have to admit this card took me quite awhile to put together. My desk was cluttered with all kinds of die cuts in different colors and patterned papers. I tried vertical cards, horizontal cards, and all kinds of arrangements when I finally came up with this, and I do like it a lot.

I made a second card for my niece's husband, Kevin, while I had all the die cuts out. This one looks more complicated, but in reality, came together quite quickly, thanks to the patterned paper.

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It's really a fun card, and Kevin is a fun guy so I hope he likes it! The sentiment is from "Sentiment Sampler" by Paper Smooches, as is the inside sentiment:

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The font of this set seemed to fit the playful nature of the card.

Off to celebrate!

Happy Birthday, Matt!

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Today is Matt's 32nd birthday. He's celebrating with his three favorite girls, Betsy, Skylar, and Ella in Niagara Falls. They're staying at a hotel overlooking the falls with a swimming pool, and have plans to visit the aquarium and perhaps, the butterfly garden nearby. It's a weekend retreat from the winter weather here. They'll get to see Niagara Falls frozen over, which is a rare event! 

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I took this photo yesterday when I delivered our gift and card to him before they left. For the first time in either of our memories, I bought him a birthday card rather than make one. He's been into brewing his own beer in their basement, and I found the perfect "Hoppy Brewday!" birthday card at Trader Joe's a few weeks ago. Here's another shot of Matt with Skylar on their way out to play in the snow. He's a great husband, dad, and son, and we are so proud of him!

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Even though I didn't make Matt a card, I do have a couple birthday cards for guys that I haven't shared. The first one was for a friend in Denver.

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A piece of woodgrain patterned paper from MME, a die and stamp from Papertrey Ink, and three wooden embellishments, also from MME, and it was done.

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Lots of gold embossing on this one. The triangle background stamp is from Hero Arts, and the sentiment is one of my favorites from Winnie and Walter's "The Big, The Bold, and The Happy."

We're off in a few hours to celebrate Tracy's and Tom's birthdays (both occur in March). For the last several years, we've gone out to dinner with Jill (Tracy's sister) and Tom to celebrate. Usually we go between their two birthdays, but we won't be in town on Tracy's birthday, and Jill won't be here on Tom's so tonight's the night. (Both their cards are finished in and in my tote bag to be given–or mailed–on the appropriate dates!)

 

 

Ordination Weekend

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It’s been a whirlwind around here for the last few days. Sarah, Adam, Caleb, and Sadie (their dog) arrived on Thursday as did Adam’s parents from Chehalis, Washington. We all gathered for Sarah’s ordination service yesterday at Third Presbyterian.

The weather could not have been much worse. We’re well over 3 feet of snow, and there were five fresh inches in the morning. Worse yet, it was 1°, with a wind chill substantially below that. Nonetheless a lovely group gathered during the 10:45 service for her ordination. It was truly a beautiful and moving service. I, of course, am very biased, but many members of the congregation said the same. We have a large and wonderful choir who sang during the service, and both Tracy and I were members of her Ordination Commission and participated in the service. 

Our pastor, however, engaged three photographers to take photos during the service. We will eventually get copies of all of them. For now, I have an iPhone photo taken by my friend, Jane, after the service, and three gorgeous black and white photos takes during the Constitutional Questions and the Laying on of Hands by one of the photographers, Jenn Poggi, a professor of photography at Rochester Institute of Technology.

The ordination service is a somewhat scripted event. Sarah wrote all of the liturgy except for the sermon. There is the Reaffirmation of Baptism, a set of Constitutional Questions, the Laying on of Hands (by all ordained elders of the church, past and present—over half the congregation in this case), and then the Charge to the Ordained and Presentation of Symbols of Ministry. 

Here is a photo of Sarah answering the Constitutional Questions.

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And two of the Laying on of Hands:

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Sarah is in the middle kneeling. It's a pretty emotional event even when it's not your daughter! 

It’s been a long road to ordination. Sarah completed a Masters of Divinity at Columbia Seminary seven years ago, completed a Masters of Theology degree at Princeton Seminary, and then began work on a Ph.D. in Spiritual Theology at GTU in Berkeley.  In April of last year, she decided to let the dissertation go, and left as an ABD (All But the Dissertation). It was a wonderful decision in many respects. And now she has received a call as Associate Pastor for the Winnetka Congregational Church. Yesterday, she officially became The Reverend Sarah Walker Cleaveland. We are so proud.

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Adam and Sarah are now officially a clergy couple–both Associate Pastors at churches in the same community which is really amazing in itself.

After the ceremony there was a lovely reception at the church.

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And this was the gorgeous, and delicious cake:

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Afterward, we hosted a casual luncheon at home for about 30 of our friends and family. I was really worried about where everyone would park with the high snow drifts, but it all worked out fine. The only photos I took were of grandchildren after everyone else had left. 

Sarah, Adam, and Caleb headed back to Chicago this morning. Adam's parents are still here for a couple more days. We saw "Still Alice" this afternoon, a heartbreaking story of early onset Alzheimer's Disease, and then had a lovely dinner at TRATA. Tomorrow we're headed for the George Eastman house. Hope your weekend was a good one!

Zoom In, Zoom Out on Three!

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It's the last Wednesday, the last day of 2014, and my 53rd Zoom In, Zoom Out pairing. I've loved this project and send many thanks to Helena for hosting it this year. I'm looking forward to next year's pairings which you can read about here.

We've been in Chicago for the last four days. We celebrated Christmas with Sarah, Adam, and Caleb when we arrived, and yesterday was a day-long celebration of Caleb's third birthday. Rather than opening all his gifts from his parents and two sets of grandparents, we spaced them out over the day. He was delighted with them all.

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Caleb wanted a Thomas the Train cake, and luckily a local grocery store was able to accommodate him.

Here are a few other faves from yesterday.

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Caleb woke up to this great poster drawn by his dad, and balloons on the stairway and on his chair at the table.

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This was one of his favorite gifts (and his grandpa's, too.) Both Sarah and Adam and Tracy and I bought track sets that work together to produce this amazing spread with three motorized cars that zip around the track, over the hills, and through the tunnel. There are endless combinations, and he and Grandpa have created at least four different variations over the last day and a half.

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Another big hit was a huge collection of matchbox cars we found at B.J.s. I couldn't resist and wasn't sure Sarah would appreciate them, but she found a Superman lunch box and all 64 cars fit right in it.

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Have the Happiest of New Year's and best wishes for a wonderful 2015!