I've been trying desperately to catch up (and keep up) with my blog reading. With all my travels and the rearranging here at home, I got way behind. I've now caught up with all my blogging friends (though not all the photo and scrappy blogs), and I'm trying to stay current. Late last night, I found that Alexa had honored me with a blog award! And honored I am, especially when it came from a blogger whose posts are as beautiful and thoughtful as Alexa's.

There are some requirements associated with this award. First, thanks to Alexa. Next post the award:

Third, list three things you love about yourself. (I wonder why this is so much harder than listing three things you'd like to improve.) Nonetheless, here are three that come to mind: I am loyal, organized, and on time. Fourth, pass the award on to bloggers you love. Many, many of my blogging friends are already members of the Cherry on Top Club, but here are three that I love. If they've already received the award, a second nod is definitely in order. I have many other favorites, but know for a fact they've received this as well. And of course, I am neglecting many others whom I love as well. So with no further ado:

Kat–Her "Kat's Eye View" is filled with stunning photography as well as wonderful informational posts on                composition and other photography-related topics.

Amy–"Over At Our Place" showcases top-notch clean and simple scrapbooking and photography with lots                 of digital tips, but it's Amy's wonderful story-telling abilities that bring a smile to my face day after                 day.

Sharyn–Sharyn's blog title, "Living Arfully," aptly describes her photography and scrapbooking. All of it is a                     feast for the eyes.

And lastly, post a photography you love (that comes to mind right away). It's harder and harder these days to get a photo of both of my children at the same time. In March, we were all together for a drive from Anaheim to Livermore and I took this shot at dinner in Morro Bay. Two happy, productive adults—couldn't love them more.

This week's prompt was "old" and Nancy and I both chose to photograph heirloom objects from our family. Mine is a watch that belonged to my grandmother. For quite a few years after I inherited it, it worked perfectly and I wore it occasionally. I was always afraid I would dent the case. The last time I had it repaired, it kept accurate time for only a brief time. I love the beautiful chain with the trio of opals. The Methodist Hymnal also belonged to my grandmother. She died before my parents were married so I never knew her. Her portraits make her appear to be a very stern woman, but my father was devoted to her so I imagine that she was more personable than her pictures make her appear.

The beaded bag in Nancy's photo dates from early 1900's,  the small gold watch from late 1800's and belonged to her grandmother, the paisley shawl was used as a throw on Nancy's grandparent's piano in the front parlor ( late 1800's), the doll still has her original wig and costume. It was given to Nancy's mother by her uncle when she was about six (1916ish). The canaries are Victorian and are housed in a glass dome which Nancy removed for the photo. Finally, the wind-up tin toy, called Ham and Sam. The toy was given to my mom and her brother (1910-1920). Ham and Sam jump up and down and clap their hands when the toy is wound up.

I ran Pioneer Woman's Heartland action on my photo and reduced the opacity to 37%.

This week's prompt is big, and it's no surprise that I chose a tomato to photograph. We planted four heirloom tomato plants and the fruit is huge! It amazes me that the tomatoes manage to hang onto the plant. Nancy found these incredible bales of hay in Yates County this week. Makes for an interesting pair, although I wish I had thought to have a frame of reference for the tomato as Nancy has for the bales of hay. I guess you'll have to take my word for it.

I got home from CHA and the CHA Super Show late Saturday night. On Sunday, I decided to fly out to California to spend a week with Sarah. Adam is off on a mission trip, and Sarah wasn't feeling well enough to go, so Tracy suggested I come. You didn't have to ask me twice. I arrived yesterday. Both of us are delighted, and it was great to be here for her 30th birthday today.

She got her "big" gift when we were here in March—plants and pots for a garden which is doing quite nicely. She has tomatoes, beans, strawberries, basil, peppers, zucchini, and some other herbs and flowers. Before I knew I would be here, I sent a couple of gifts to be opened on the real day. The first was a book she and I saw at Disneyland in March called The Princess Handbook. It's a really cute picture book with quite good instructions on how to be a princess. She's actually been practicing for 30 years now. The second was a journal Tracy and I found on our recent road trip. When we saw it, we both thought of her.

Of course, you can't have the journal without the tiara and the cape. I was hoping she'd be with a group of high school kids when she opened it, but it was just me. Nonetheless Sadie and I enjoyed the whole thing.

You can't have a birthday without a cake, so we went to Nothing Bundt Cakes today. Just as we were about to pay for our purchase, Sarah spotted Bundtinis and we changed our order. We have a dozen tiny cakes in four flavors: White White Chocolate, White Chocolate Raspberry, Chocolate Chocolate Chip, and Cinnamon Swirl.

And here's the card I sent her. It's a close lift of a card I saw on Melissa Phillips blog a long time ago. As soon as I saw it, I knew this would be Sarah's birthday card and I ordered the wooden crown from the Etsy shop linked in Melissa's post.

It's been a whirlwind week. I have two more posts to get up about CHA. I finished editing the photos today, so hopefully tomorrow I'll have time to do some writing too. Sarah and I are off for pedicures and manicures tomorrow morning, and perhaps to the mall afterwards. This visit is a gift for me as much as it is for her!

Here's this week's Team-up Thursday diptych. I love silhouette photos, and Nancy's of the horses is so lovely. The sky was just perfect.

Between exercise class and heading off to another busy day away from home, I thought I'd tried another of Shimelle's prompts. This one was to try using textures with your photos. I've played around with textures a few times, and see lots of examples on blogs that I like a lot. Shimelle's directions gave me some new ways to play with them. Before today, I usually just played with opacity and levels to get the look I wanted. Today I played around with the blending modes, and it certainly gives one a lot of options! I'm not totally happy with any of these but would like to hear your thoughts about improving them.

Here's the first image I played with from our trip to Vermont a week ago.

Here's the first adaptation. I used a texture called "branded" that I downloaded a while ago. Sadly I have no information on where I got it or who created it. I decreased the opacity to 61% and then ran the Pioneer Woman Lovely and Etheral action on it.

The next one uses Kim Klassen's Simple Things texture at 51% opacity.

Lastly, I played with the photo I took of the rope at Shelbourne Museum.

For this I used a texture called Brown Paper with the opacity at 82%.

Hope to be back with some layouts, but it probably won't be until tomorrow since our book group meets tonight at our house. I have the photos chosen, just need to get them on the paper!

I love playing with aperture and depth of field. For some reason when I was learning to use my SLR my understanding of aperture came pretty readily. I didn't have as much success with shutter speed. I understood the concept but it took me a long time before I could get the settings the way I wanted them. I recently bought a new box of crayons specifically for photo practice so I decided they'd be a great way to play with depth of field. I'm not sure what I'll do with the photos, but they may come in handy for a layout or something some day. I had a good time regardless.

f/1.8

f/1.4

There's not much difference in aperture here but just the slight change puts more crayons in focus in the first photo.

We had a great day today. We took a good friend sailing, and it was perfect weather for it. I'm really a fair weather sailor. I don't like the water to be too rough, and I don't like to be cold. The winds were coming out of the south today so it was just wonderful.

Another pet peeve of mine is all the motor boats that create large wakes and make our little sailboat (one of the smallest on Lake Ontario) tip and bump. Today this sailboat in the distance was about our only company. Fine with me!

And one last photo for today for Amy. The stuffed zucchini was excellent. Tracy is a very reluctant zucchini eater unless it comes in the form of bread or cake. Even he ate all of his and said he'd be willing to have it again. It's not a great photo because I forgot to take the photo until we'd already dug into it. Thanks for the suggestion, Amy, we'll be having it again.

I've managed to catch up with the assignments for Love Your Photos, Love Your Pages. The first layout is based on a sketch from Prompt 4. It's quite simple, but it took a really long time for me to finally arrive at an arrangement of paper I liked. The photos are two that I took for an earlier assignment.

Cardstock: Bazzil; patterned paper: Jillibean and October Afternoon; butterfly button: Flair (American Craft); journaling circle: Jillibean; alphas: Nerdy Glittler (Sassafrass Lass) & Mini Market Stickers (October Afternoon); date stamp (Staples)

As soon as I read yesterday's prompt about adding text or a title to a photograph I knew exactly what I wanted to do. Here's the layout I did once I got the photograph done.

Patterned paper: Paper Loft; cardstock: from scrap file; chipboard sticker: Mama-Razzi (Bo Bunny)

I forgot to upload the layout so it can be enlarged so here is the journaling:

I have always had a good eye for color. Once I started making cards and scrapbooking my sense of design and space really improved. But nothing has improved my eye as much as taking photographs. Now I see things I would have missed totally before I started taking photos every day. I love this quote because it has been so true for me.

And last, a layout of our garden with photos I took this evening. The garden looks fabulous, and we are enjoying lettuce, zucchini, and cucumbers as well as lots of basil. There are even a couple of pepper plants that are looking much better and have developed some flowers. If all the tomatoes survived, I'll be doing a lot of canning later this summer!  The pole beans have crawled up the poles and attached themselves to the sides of the fence as well. As I was catching up with blogs this weekend I came across a series of posts on Write. Click. Scrapbook. by Moon Ko. There was lots of inspiration but even nicer, a set of free templates. As soon as I saw this one I knew it would work perfectly for a garden layout. I'm planning to go back and do one for May and June as well.

Patterned Paper: Bo Bunny; Journaling spot: Scenic Route; template: Moon Ko