It’s always interesting to look back at the intentions I set at the beginning of a year, and reflect on how I did with them. Last year’s word(s) was “Choose Joy” with the emphasis on gratitude. I’ll have more to say about that when I post my 2018 One Little Word tomorrow.

In general, “Choose Joy” was a good choice, particularly in a year fraught with so much national conflict, division, and violence. In the face of the daily news, it was good to “choose joy,” leaning in to all the things for which I am so grateful and blessed.

So here are my 2017 intentions with a brief summary of how I did

1. Keep one weekday free of obligations. With few exceptions, I kept Wednesdays free of commitments. When I did put something on the calendar for Wednesday it was a social engagement or an unavoidable meeting. My membership on a variety of committees means I have to be flexible with other members commitments as well.
2. Maintain morning reading time: 1 hour book; 1 hour blogs. Totally kept this one. If I had an early morning appointment, I made sure to find time later in the day to read. It paid off as I read more books this year than I’ve ever read: 54. You can find the list here. Note that I only use 3-5 stars to rate my books. If it’s less than 3 stars, I’ll abandon it by page 50.
3. Continue volunteer commitments: RHR, Spiritual Formation, Dining Room Ministry, Rochester Area Interfaith Hospitality Network, SW Food Cupboard Board, Cameron Community Ministries, Church Leadership Development Day.  Kept this one, too. At one point when I thought I could use some more time at home, I looked at this list, and recognized that each one of these was really important to me. Only two of them are weekly commitments. I volunteer at Refugees Helping Refugees one or two days/week depending on their class schedule, and two afternoons/week during the after-school program at Cameron. Most of the rest are monthly commitments.
4. Sketch: 3/week Didn’t do as well here, but my one accomplishment in this area was completing the 100 Day Project. I did 100 sketches, and filled 1 1/3 sketchbooks.
5. Photography:
   1. CY365
   2. Contemplative Photography practice: read Adventures in Seeing, Photography and the Art of Seeing
   3. Five in Five meme monthly                   
      This was a mixed bag. I completed two online classes with Kim Manley Ort on contemplative photography, and attended a weekend workshop with her in Niagara-on-the-Lake. I kept up with CY365, and completed 11/12 Five in Five memes. I didn’t finish reading either book.
      
6. Blogging Schedule: Monday Memo, Wednesday cards (challenges), Friday contemplations. I never had a blogging schedule. If I had something to post and/or time to write a post, it went up. I was more consistent at the beginning of the year than I was at the end.
7. Make time for creativity: minimum 3 hours/week I didn’t keep track of the time I spent, but I’m pretty sure I came close to meeting this one.
8. Choose one challenge and participate regularly (CASology?) Didn’t happen, although I did participate in different challenges pretty regularly.
9. Exercise: walk, yoga, weights: 3/week Like blogging this was inconsistent. I do well, then fall off the wagon, and hop back on again.
10. One book/month from the following list. This is one of the most interesting ones to me. I didn’t include the list here because, frankly, I only read 7 of the 18 books I listed. For next year, I also have a list but it’s titled “List of Books to Consider.” I know now that as I listen to podcasts, read books, talk to friends, and read book reviews that books I’ve never considered will rise to the top of the list. Ten of the best books I read in 2017 weren’t on my original list.

I’ll be back tomorrow, I hope, with my One Little Word for 2018. I “found” it in November and think it will serve me well.

Last night I thought I'd type up this post using some photos we took at the Albright-Knox Museum last month, and then realized that they were not taken within five minutes. When I woke up this morning, I immediately saw the beautiful patterns the ice had made on some of our windows, so decided to take five photos from five different windows. It was 0° when we woke up, with a wind chill of -20°.  Last night, all the county schools closed for today in anticipation of unsafe wind chill numbers. The high is only forecasted to be 4°.

When we arrived home from Chicago on Wednesday night, our furnace was not working. We know it was working earlier in the day because we can change the thermostat from afar, and did so before we left Chicago. It wasn't nearly as cold that night (22°), and the house was still a little warm, but by 10:00 when the repairman appeared, the house was getting really cold. We needed a new motor, and fortunately, there was one in the truck! We still need another repair, one that will require the furnace to be off for six hours. It's scheduled for tomorrow, but Tracy is calling to reschedule for the middle of the week when it's supposed to be in the high 30's. This cold snap will last through tomorrow night. 

All these photos were taken about 7:00 this morning with my iPhone.

The last photo was taken from one of our kitchen windows. They are new windows, and better insulated so they don't frost up often. Nonetheless, while I was having breakfast sitting near them, it was much colder than in the living room! You can see that we've had a bit of snow, and if you look closely, you can see the red ribbon from the evergreen ball blowing in the wind. I'm intending to stick close to home today despite the fact that I badly need a workout at the gym.

I'm joining in with Sandie for her monthly 5 in 5. Yesterday I discovered that I never did a 5 in 5 in December, but managed every other month last year. Hope to be here every month this year.

This is the first time I've sat at my desk for the last four days. They've been busy, busy, busy, but not hectic. I did have a chance before all this holiday activity to make a few cards for my friends who do not celebrate Christmas. The inspiration piece at Time Out Challenges was perfect, and once again, I had a pile of silver snowflakes on my desk which made for some quick and easy, but I think, elegant cards.

I seem to have a navy, white, and silver thing going for the holidays this year. The card I sent out to most folks (I'll post it when I'm sure everyone has received their cards) also followed the same color scheme.

I made four cards, but there are two identical ones. All of them use Papertrey Ink's Dark Indigo cardstock and a sentiment from "Stylish Sentiments: Holiday." The snowflakes were cut with dies from Papertrey Ink's "Silver White Winters" and My Favorite Things ""Stylish Snowflakes." All the silver paper came from Michaels.

And my favorite:

I hope your holiday preparations are going well. The six-year-old and three-year-old granddaughters were here yesterday to make cut-out cookies. We had a great time, but it was good there were two of us present, as Ella lost interest long before Skylar who has had two years of previous experience in Grandma's kitchen. I should be able to finish the cookies today. Then there is just one last shopping run to get gifts for my son-in-law. I'm looking forward to lots of time with friends and family over the next week or two over lunch, breakfast, and visits. We'll be entertaining for lunch tomorrow, on Friday evening, and then again on Christmas night. That, truly, is the best part of the holiday! 

I'm back with another post featuring some fall birthday cards. The first one uses a new Cover Plate die from Aletnew. When I first saw it featured on their blog, I knew I'd find good use for it. This is the only card I've made so far, but I have more ideas for it.

I started by watercoloring a piece of watercolor paper with a variety of fall colors using my Daniel Smith watercolors. When that dried, I splattered some gold watercolor onto the piece using one of the "Starry Colors" from Gansai Tambi. Then I used the die on both the watercolor paper and a piece of Canyon Clay. 

I popped out the leaves from the Canyon Clay piece and adhered it to a Rustic White card base and a piece of Stick It, which makes putting the watercolored pieces into the piece much easier. Using the Quick Stick also helped get all the tiny pieces of watercolored paper where they needed to be. I cut a banner from vellum and embossed the sentiment from "Birthday Bash Sentiments" (PTI) in bronze, and added a few sequins and pearls to finish it off.

Next up is another new die set from Papertrey Ink's Mix and Mat series. I didn't think I was going to purchase this one, but I broke down and I'm glad I did.

I kept all three dies together for this one, cutting them from Classic Kraft. I backed the die with a piece of bronze specialty paper that's been in my stash for years. It needed some contrast so I added a black mat before adhering it to a Saffron Spice card. The sentiment (same as above) was embossed in bronze on True Black.

This gives you a better view of the beautiful specialty paper, and if you look closely you might be able to see the glitter on the leaves which I added with a clear Spectrum Noir marker.

There are still two more fall birthday cards to share next time. 

One more challenge before we head off for the long weekend. This week's challenge at Less is More is Watercolour, and I'm always happy to pull out some paints.

This card was inspired by this pin that I pinned to a board quite some time ago. I chose to use a piece of Simon Says Woodgrain cardstock, and used just three of the leaves, also a Simon Says stamp set, "Explore Nature." It couldn't be much more CAS, and it came together quickly once I'd embossed and die cut the leaves. It was so quick, I made a second to have on hand.

The sentiment, also by Simon Says ("Thanks") was embossed in white on True Black (PTI) and trimmed out. I used the Zig Kuretake Gansai Tambi watercolors which are so beautiful.

There is already lots of inspiration at the Less is More site. You can check it out here.

 

 

I'm joining Mary Lou at Patio Postcards where "the idea is to take 3 photos that are linked some how; by theme, by colour, by date, by moment, by points of view." I spent last weekend in Niagara-on-the-Lake at a wonderful workshop, "Adventures in Seeing" led by Kim Manley Ort. Kim's book, Adventures in Seeing: How the Camera Teaches You to Pause, Focus and Connect with Life, focuses (like the workshop) on contemplative photography. The group that gathered for the workshop was diverse and inspiring, and I'll have a lot more to say about it later. But for now, here are three photographs:

Heartstring

Stairway to Heaven

Survivor

Blogging is likely to be intermittent at best for the next several weeks. I'll pop in when I can, but family and travel are going to be taking up most of my time. It's a blessing I don't take for granted, and in the spirit of mindfulness I'll be focusing on the experiences (with a camera nearby, no doubt!)

 

These photos were all taken on June 6th when we returned from trips to two garden centers. By the time the weekend is done, most of them will surely be planted. These don't include all the annual packs we bought for the cutting garden:  asters, dahlias, snapdragons, zinnias, stock, and gazanias. There are also astilbe, shasta daisies and some other perennials that have returned to the cutting garden.

Royal Candles Veronica

A beautiful lily that came home without a tag

Asiatic Lily: Pink 

One of four lupines I purchased to replace those that didn't come back this year. This is the only one with a bloom. The others are red, and a wonderful mix of colors.

Two different colors of geraniums for the bed along the patio.

When this post goes live, I'll be in Niagara-on-the-Lake with a friend for a weekend contemplative photography workshop with Kim Manley Ort. I'm really looking forward to it, and the weather looks like it will be very cooperative. 

Waving to Sandie and others participating in the June 5 in 5 at Itchifingers.

My niece's birthday is coming up, and when I recently came across WPlus9's "Sparkle and Shine" set, I knew I'd use it for this year's birthday card. She definitely leaves a "sparkle wherever [she] goes." Once I had the two circles embossed and die cut, I was thinking about how to arrange them, and remembered this week's Freshly Made Sketch:

I originally thought I'd use gold or silver embossing powder, but found a jar of Enchanted Gold in my stash that is loaded with glitter. The larger circle (cut with a Simon Says "Stitched Circle" die) is from WPlus9's set. The smaller one was stamped from a Simon Says set of the same name.

I made the banner from a piece of beautiful, shiny Washi tape that I picked up in Florida. I die cut that panel with a Simon Says "Stitched Rectangle, and mounted it on a Smoky Shadow card base. A few gold and silver sequins added the final touch.

Neither the shiny Washi tape nor the embossing powder show up as well in a photograph as they do IRL. I'm popping this into the Freshly Made Sketch pool just before Monday's deadline. Although I've been following this blog challenge for awhile, I think this is my first entry.

It's amazing what two beautiful, unusually warm days will do for the view. On Friday, I wrote that there were almost no flowering trees in bloom, and very few trees greening. Last night Tracy and I took a walk after our Easter celebration at his brothers, and the neighborhood has burst into color. 

We had a pretty quiet weekend until Easter Sunday when we were away nearly the whole day. On Friday and Saturday, I caught up with my online class assignments, and worked on getting my studio back in order. We made our second run to the garden center, and picked up two beautiful pots for our front yard, and some pansies which will withstand the great variation in temperatures expected this week. 

Yesterday we started the day at Matt and Betsy's with the girls for breakfast and their Easter egg hunt. Skylar and Ella were really into it, and it was so much fun to watch them run about the yard looking for their eggs. The Easter Bunny had left a letter for them, telling them what color eggs they should look for. Skylar's were light blue, Ella's were dark blue, and Maddy had green. Then there was one golden egg for everyone. Maddy, of course, was just an observer this year.

They needed Daddy's help to reach some of the eggs. The Easter Bunny may have had a drone!

Then, of course it was time to find out what was hidden in those eggs.

From there we went to church. I don't take photos in church, but I wish you could have seen the gorgeous flower arrangements, and heard the amazing music. There was brass and timpani, and a full choir. Absolutely glorious!

Tracy's brother and sister-in-law hosted Easter dinner. Thunderstorms were predicted, but aside from a brief shower just as we arrived, the day remained sunny and warm. Susan set the table with her grandmother's china, and we had a wonderful feast of ham, potatoes, broccoli au gratin, salads, and hot cross buns. I've been pretty good about watching my portions, but I definitely overate yesterday.

There wasn't much in the way of exciting mail this week. Last week, I noticed Melissa had received her copy of Uppercase, and I wondered where mine was. It did arrive this week along with the newest issue of Cloth, Paper, Scissors. The latter subscription was a gift from a friend. Now that I don't do much multi-media work, there's not as much that interests me. There's always one article, though, that attracts my attention. 

On the ride home last night I finished the novel for our book group, Shadow of the Wind. It was a long book with a very involved plot, but I enjoyed it, and am looking forward to next week's discussion. I should have time now, to catch up on reading some periodicals. A rather large pile has accumulated since we returned from our trip.

I thought, perhaps, I'd get a Happy Easter post up yesterday, but I was too tired last night, so if you can hang in there just another minute or two, I'll share the Easter cards I made for the grandchildren. All of them were created with the March Simon Says Card Kit. (Maddy's card was made earlier and shared here.)

Ella loves her sunglasses, and I couldn't resist casing this card from Yana Smakula.

The inside sentiment continues, "thinks you're awesome! Happy Easter"

"Happy Easter!"

And last, but not least, for the newest grandchild:

Waving to Sian and Monday Memo Makers! Hope you have a great week ahead.