I found this the Ten on Tuesday meme through Honore's blog, but have only participated a couple of times. This week's prompt was so timely I decided to play along. 

10 Things You Put In Your Travel Tote Bag

We hit the road again yesterday, so I just finished packing the tote bag. There are definitely more than 10 items in there, but here are the essentials:

1. Glasses case with glasses and sunglasses
2. Umbrella
3. Plastic zip envelope with articles, cards to mail while we're away, important documents
4. iPad
5. Kindle (I could probably get away with just the iPad, but reading in bed with the Kindle is just easier!)
6. current novel
7. sketchbook
8. watercolor markers
9. pens and pencils
10. Contact solution

My current tote is a Baggallini that a friend recommended when Sarah and Adam lived on the West Coast and we were flying back and forth several times a year. It still looks like new and fits over the handle of my rolling suitcase. I just love it. What's in your travel bag?

We're of the age that many of our friends are dealing with the illness and death of parents. This week a friend lost her mother. Betty lived a long and happy life, but the last few months were very difficult. For some reason I never seem to have a stash of sympathy cards ready to mail, but since I had just watched the Papertrey Ink Make-it-Monday video I had an idea. I don't often stamp a background. Except for changing the ink color, I copied the background design Dawn created on the video. The neutral colors seemed perfect for a more somber card.

I used both Soft Stone and Fine Linen cardstocks and inks in creating the card. The die cut is the "Christmas Label" which I haven't used in a long time, but will remember it for times like these. The sentiment is also from a set I haven't used in a long time, "Boutique Borders."

The pearls from A Muse Creative Candy were the perfect color. I purchased a lot of these before A Muse went to a private party format, and I'm glad I did. This card seems perfect for the current Virginia View challenge, Ombre and Monochromatic.

I have a birthday card today for a friend who is an avid bike rider. I'm guessing the Memory Box bicycle die doesn't exactly replicate his road bike, but I thought he'd enjoy the card nonetheless.

I started with the bicycle die, and finally decided on one of the papers from Maille Belle's "Black and White All Over" collection. It's proving to be pretty versatile. The sentiment is from a Papertrey Ink stamp set of the same name, "Enjoy the Ride" that's an oldie, but goodie.

I love the dimension you get with the die cut for the bike basket. I'm entering this into the Wednesday Challenge at Simon Says, "Make It Masculine." I still have a few hours to get a couple Father's Day cards done for the challenge as well, but probably will enter them through Flickr since all the fathers I'm creating for read my blog at least occasionally.

I'm joining in today with Ten on Tuesday, and I think this qualifies for Sian's "Me on Monday" meme, though a day late.  The prompt seemed perfect: 10 Things You Did This Weekend. This weekend was a holiday weekend, and it seemed like one. The weather was lovely, and we made time for some special activities.

1. I started my weekend with a meeting with my personal trainer. Since we've returned from our winter travels, I've been great about going to spinning class and/or walking regularly, but I was not getting back to the weight room. A half hour review was all the motivation I needed. Went back yesterday as well.
2. We'll be away again for part of June, and nearly all of July so I needed to get a head start on making cards for the upcoming birthdays and anniversaries, as well as several special events. I finished 14! Some of them will be forthcoming on blog posts.
3. We watched the Blue Angels fly over our house for three days during the Rochester Air Show. Almost (but not quite) got a great photo of them flying right over my head while I was walking home from the library.
4. Saturday we made our annual spring trip to the Ithaca Farmer's Market (and a few other fun stops along the way). I bought some French Breakfast radishes, some green garlic, a loaf of Zatar pita bread, some curly parsley to plant at home, a cherry filled scone, and a gift for an upcoming birthday.

        5.  For the second year in a row, we managed to pick graduation weekend to go to Ithaca. The
             Cornell campus was busier than usual, and there were lots of families celebrating at
             The Boatyard where we had a wonderful lunch overlooking the inlet to Cayuga Lake.
        6.  Saturday night we had dinner with our good friends, ending it with a delicious piece of
             strawberry-rhubarb pie.
        7.  Sunday morning Tracy dropped me off in Canandaigua to join the Rochester Sketch Meet-up
             group at the pier on Canandaigua Lake to sketch the boat houses. It was a perfect day, sunny
             but not too warm with a lovely breeze coming off the lake. While I sketched, Tracy drove
             to Naples to visit the cemetery.

         8. When Tracy returned we went to lunch at the very best Mexican restaurant in the area,
              Rio Tomatlin. It was our first visit since they moved into a much larger (and nicer) place
              following a fire about a year ago. The food was, as always, outstanding, and it was nice
              enough to eat outside.

        9.  I finished the planting in my cutting garden, adding some new perennials and filling in
             with some zinnias, snapdragons, and dahlias. Some of them are budded already so maybe
             there will be some flowers on the table earlier than usual.

        10.  Unexpectedly, but delightfully, we had dinner with Matt, Betsy, Skylar, and Ella two nights
                in a row. Once at our house, and then at their's. Here are the cuties all dressed up for the
                annual Memorial Day parade their neighborhood hosts every year.

I'm off to Buffalo tomorrow to meet Melissa and Robbie from Texas, so the fun doesn't end here!

Rinda has been working on one creative project each month, and I decided to designate April as Project Life Catch-up. I have the layouts mapped out by the number that need to be completed each week, and if I can stay the course, I'll be caught up by May 2.

It's not hard to reconstruct our months. My Lightroom library keeps all the photos organized, and I keep a daily journal. I have to admit, I rarely have to consult the journal. As soon as I see the photos, the stories come right back. I've decided not to worry about filler cards and embellishments. What matters to me are the photos and the stories. If I come across the right embellishment I'll use it; otherwise I'll stick to photos and journaling.

Here's June 2014:

I'm using the Papertrey Ink Monthly Moment dies and stamps to create the title cards for 2014. I have a different plan when I reach 2015. I also used the Monthly Moment stamps "celebrate" and "4th of July." Other supplies on these two pages are Tracy Larsen's Simply White templates, Cathy Zielski Tiny Templates, a template from Sahlin Studio,a die (remember) from Paper Smooches, Stitched Rectangle die (PTI), a Simple Stories 4X3 card for journaling, and a bit cut from the brochure from the Antique Boat Museum.

I'm not quite sure where the "hello summer" card came from. It was a freebie, and if anyone knows who to attribute it to, I'd love to know. The two journaling cards came from Monthly Moment card packs. I only have two sets, and plan to order some more now that I have a template all figured out for getting my journaling exactly on the lines! Both bits on the journaling cards are from Crate Paper: "The Open Road." 

The importance of scrapbooking became even more apparent this week. About six weeks ago, a dear friend who was 92 passed away. She'd been in a skilled nursing home with dementia for nearly two years, but was surprisingly alert on occasion. This week her husband (of 67 years), and one of our former pastors, also passed away. It seems this is often the case where one death leads rather quickly to another, and I will miss both of them tremendously. I've been helping their son go through some of their belongings this weekend, and we came across a scrapbook of sorts that includes photos of my family going back 35 years. The first photo of Sarah is when she is about two, and there are a few of Tracy and me before that. In addition to our photos, there were photos of so many couples we know from church. Some of them have changed a lot; others hardly at all. It was so much fun to go through them. Like my photos, a single photo can conjure up quite a story.

A little break in the action from all the valentines. My niece's birthday is this weekend, and the Less Is More challenge to combine pink and gray appealed to me. I also wanted to put the Simon Says December card kit and stamp set to use. I have a couple different "Sparkle and Shine" sets from different companies, and I like them all. I also got to use the Simon Says "Stitched Circle" dies which I just love. The rectangles and squares are on their way to me. I finally broke down and ordered them after making this card. The die creates a stitched line on both the outside and inside of the circle.

The Smoke cardstock (Simon Says), Hibiscus Burst (Papertrey) and silver from the December card kit were all layered onto a white card base. The sequins are all from Pretty Pink Posh. Their sequins are the best!

Here's a look at the inside sentiment:

Two more stitched circle dies and a stamp from the "Sparkle and Shine" set. I hope this isn't too "fancy" for my niece who is one of those absolutely lovely Earth girls!

I'm joining in with Abi's meme to share one of my favorite moments from our recent trip to Chicago.

Sarah has been called as Acting Associate Pastor at the Winnetka Congregational Church. Proud parents on her first official Sunday.

Merry Christmas!

We'll be celebrating with all Tracy's family later this afternoon, and in Chicago with Sarah, Adam, and Caleb over the weekend.  We had a quiet celebration with Matt, Betsy, Skylar, and Ella earlier this week, and this is just the perfect photo to wish all of you a joyous holiday!

I'm pretty sure everyone has received their Christmas cards so I'll share the three designs I made this year. Two are very similar in design, but different in content.

I certainly did not need a new Christmas/winter stamp set this year, but when I saw "Fair Isles" I knew exactly what I'd do with it. I rarely use embossing on cards that I need to mass produce, but this year I used that technique on all three cards.

This card is very similar in design, but has a more religious feel to it. These churches reminded me of the ones we saw in Santorini last year. The churches and the sentiments on this card and the one above are both from Papertrey Ink's "Holiday Home" set.

Last, but actually the first card set I made, is one with an embossed vellum tag. I've seen a lot of that on cardmaking blogs this fall, and wanted to give it a try. I could only make 12 of these since I had just six sheets of Simon Says' woodgrain cardstock. I tried one without it, and it just wasn't anywhere near as good.

The sentiment is from Papertrey's "Stylish Sentiments: Holidays" and the tag is the Tag Sale #6.

It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas. The countdown has definitely begun!