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Ten on the Tenth: Summer Road Trip

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We're leaving today for a three week road trip, so I thought I'd share 10 things I'm looking forward to seeing in August. I'll be linking this up with Shimelle's 10 Things later today when I get some wi-fi.

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So here are the 10 Things in the order that we'll be seeing them. (Not necessarily in the order in which I'm excited about them.)

#1. Our good friends, Carol and Gordy. I have no recent photo of them although we've seen them both in 2011 and 2010. I'll be sure to get good photos this time around. We'll be staying with them two nights, and if the weather is good, will be enjoying Gordy's boat on Lake Norman on Saturday.

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#2 Sarah, Adam and Caleb

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We'll be meeting them in Atlanta on Sunday. On Monday and Tuesday, we'll be babysitting while they participate in The Fund for Theological Education conference. We last saw them in early May, so we're due for a good visit.

#3 The Atlanta Aquarium. It's been a few years since we visited, but Caleb loves to look at new things, so we figured a trip to the aquarium might entertain him (and us) for a few hours on Monday.

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#4 Hilton Head Island

Following the FTE Conference, the five of us will be heading to Hilton Head for five days. We haven't had a beach vacation in several years, so I'm looking forward to family time and some time on the beach. 

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#5 After we leave Sarah, Adam, and Caleb in Atlanta to travel home to Oregon, we're headed to Birmingham, AL where we hope to visit the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute.

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#6 From there, we're headed through Memphis, TN (not sure if we'll have time to explore or not) to Little Rock, AR where I'm looking forward to visiting the National Historic Site at Central High School. Our neighbors highly recommended a stop at the visitor's center there. They also recommended a stop at the Bill Clinton Library, but I'm not sure we'll have time to do both.

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In preparation for the two civil rights stops, I'm reading Elizabeth and Hazel: Two Women of Little Rock. It's an excellent book, and since I was pretty young at the time these events took place, I don't have any strong memories of them. I know I'll get a lot more out of both stops because I've read the book.

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#7 Next on the agenda is a stop in Bentonville, AR to visit  Crystal Bridges, an art museum and park built by the Walmart heiress. Everything we've read about this place sounds wonderful!

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#8 Then we're off to Denver, Co (via Wichita, KN) to spend some time with Matt. We last saw him in June, so it's time for a good visit.

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#9 While we're in Denver, we're staying with our long-time friend, Dan, and his wife, Nikki. We haven't seen them in over a year so it will be good to catch up with them.

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#10 One of the things we've always wanted to do in Colorado is visit Rocky Mountain National Park. Matt is taking the second part of a national landscape certification exam on Saturday. As soon as he's finished, we're headed to the national park for two days. Although he's been in Denver for over a year now, he hasn't had the time to visit the park either.

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Given that any month when I see both of my kids is a good month, and that I love road trips and new experiences, I'm really looking forward to this trip!

 

 

July Photo of the Day

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Before we head out on our road trip, I thought I should get my POTD layout completed. I printed differently (by accident) this month. The plus is that the photos are larger, but it seemed more difficult to scrap.

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I used a few Papertrey Ink dies on this one: Heart to Heart #6, Clouds 1 and 2, and the Block Alphabet. I hand cut the banner. I love the little button on the tag that says "Here's the Story" . . . and here it is:

July started with a birthday cruise on the Erie Canal to celebrate Ellie’s birthday. Greg and Sonora were here from Texas, so it was a bigger family group than usual. We left on the 4th for Hyde Park to celebrate Stephanie and Kevin’s wedding on the 6th. All the festivities were wonderful! We had an early breakfast with Dane on the 7th, and arrived home in plenty of time for Dane and Jen’s wedding here that afternoon.

Other fun events:  the Giant Panda concert at Highland Park, camping with Bob & Cathy at Keuka Lake, Mati’s baptism, and a day in Niagara-on-the-Lake with Dane who came for a three day visit. It’s not often we see one another twice in one month. We entertained our bridge group, attended a film at The Eastman House on the Lost Bird’s project, and went to the Third Church Picnic.

On the 28th, we celebrated our 39th wedding anniversary. Amazing how time flies! It’s still great after all these years!

Our neighborhood had it’s first-ever book group and the author attended. He gave us some advice on how to create a more active, caring, and interesting neighborhood. I had lovely meals and visits with Nancy & Karen, Chris, Mary & Jean, and Tina. It’s so nice to have the time to really catch up with friends.

 I finished three books:  Canada by Richard Ford, The World Without You by Joshua Henkin, and The Cost of Hope by Amanda Bennet. I liked them all. I started and abandoned John Irving’s new novel. After 80+ pages, I hadn’t become invested in the narrator’s story. There are just too many books I want to read to finish one I don’t care for.

 I have all but two of the photos for Rinda’s Summer Scavenger Hunt, created 13 cards & 2 layouts, and made great progress in another purge of unused/unwanted supplies in my studio.

Hopefully, I'll have time to schedule a post or two before we leave tomorrow morning. We're lucky to have a friend's daughter living here while we're away, a young couple who will harvest the vegetables from our community garden, and neighborhood kids who will water plants and mow. I'm quite sure time at the computer will be sporadic, but I'm hoping to visit blogs occasionally, and perhaps do a post or two from the road. I'm so looking forward to time with my kids!

Liberate Your Art

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Last year I read with interest about Kat Sloma's Liberate Your Art project, but didn't do anything about participating. This year I signed up early, but let the printing of the postcards sit on the back burner for too long. I finally ordered 4 different prints from Zazzle, and I have to say their customer service has been wonderful. Nonetheless, the order came in two parts, and I was nervous enough that I got the first set in the mail to Kat before the rest arrived. The very next day, of course, the remaining postcards arrived here. In the end, I'm happy with the photo that I sent along with a greeting from my garden. 

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Kat has over 150 participants in this year's swap. I can't imagine trying to organize all those packages, but I'll be excited to get my postcards from other participants when I get home from our road trip. I made a card for Kat, and wrote a note thanking her for doing this. Now I have three sets of postcards I can use for thank-you notes or encouragement notes. I would never have done this without the push a new project gave me.

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Almost all the products on this card are from Papertrey Ink. The exceptions are the patterned paper from Teresa Collins' World Traveler paper pack, and the camera stamp from Studio Calico.

We're having too good a time to spend much time trying to edit photos, but rest assured there are a lot of cute baby photos to come!

Extending Sympathy

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I've recently had two occasions to send sympathy cards. One to a friends whose mother passed away, and another to Sarah's mother-in-law who lost her father last week. Both of the deceased were in their 90's, and both were ready to go. Nonetheless, it is always hard to be the ones left behind. I know that they have many happy memories to help ease the loss.

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I actually created this card for one of the challenges in an online class, "Stretch Your Stamps." I've only seen one or two days worth of the wonderful videos in this class, so I'll be working on it again in the fall. The stamp is one of my Hero Arts cling stamps that doesn't get enough use.

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Once again Lovely Layers came to the rescue. This stamp set seems destined for a record number of uses. It looks so different depending on the colors you use. I also used my new PTI Impression Plate, "Stripes," which will also see a lot of use. Both cards used a sentiment from Botanical Silhouettes (PTI). 

Summer Scavenger Hunt Link-up

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It's time for the mid-summer link up for Rinda's scavenger hunt. I'm nearly finished and you can find my previous posts here,  here, and here. Last week, I got one of the three final photos:  border. Actually I got a lot of different shots as we waited on the bridge to get into Canada.

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Here's the official Boundary Sign about three-quarters of the way across the bridge.

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We frequently have a long wait to get back into the states, but this was an unusual sight approaching Canada, espcially on a Thursday morning.

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There was a slight drizzle that morning and you can see the raindrops on the window. The U.S. flag was flying at half-staff in honor of the victims in the horrible Aurora shooting.

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We got out our passports as we approached the inspection booth. The bright red cover was given to me by a friend for my birthday one year. We travel to Canada together at least twice a year.

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And finally, the welcome sign once we were through the inspection station.

We were on our way to Niagara-on-the-Lake for the day. My brother was visiting and had never been there. We knew he'd like the Irish Harp for lunch, and we visited some of our favorite wineries. We both brought back a few bottles of our favorites.

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The town itself is charming, and we walked off our lunch with a stroll down the main street.

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Two of my favorite guys!

Happy Birthday, Sarah!

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Today is Sarah's birthday, and I would typically be feeling rather sorry for myself that I am so far away on her special day, but a week from today we'll be heading out to meet Sarah, Adam, and Caleb in Atlanta. Sarah and Adam are involved in a Fund for Theological Education conference there, and we are happily babysitting while they are busy at the conference. When they finish, we're all off to Hilton Head for five days, so I am sending birthday wishes across the country today, but don't have long before I can present them in person!

Her package was sent by UPS, and ended up taking much longer to deliver than I expected, so I made an extra card (forgot to photograph the one in the package) so she'd have something to open on her birthday.

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I've seen so many lovely cards made with the Daydreamer set by Papertrey that I ordered it last month. I combined the sentiment and flowers from that set with the jar from Friendship Jar: Summer to create this card. The patterned paper is also Papertrey, and the card is a Memory Box card I cut down a bit.

Happy Occasion Cards

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I never shared the wedding card I made for my niece. It's a close copy of one by Maille Bells that she created for the release of the Gracious Vases stamp set by Papertrey. I love the simplicity and elegance of it.

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Cardstock:  Select White ; Die: Mat Stack #5, Impression Plate: Diamonds; Stamps:  Gracious Vases and Delightful Dahias; Silk ribbon. (All by Papertrey Ink); Copic Glitter pens; Clear Dimensional Magic.

Last week we attended a baptism and luncheon for a friend of ours almost three year old son. I didn't want to do a religious card, but wanted something I thought he'd enjoy.

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Cardstock: Select White and Summer Sunrise (Papertrey); patterned paper: Summer Sunrise pack (Papertrey); stamps: Clear & Simple & Lighten Up Sentiments (Papertrey)

Purging and Creating

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I've been on another purging expedition in my studio, and have made some remarkable progress in handing off some supplies that I've had for just too long to a friend who is delighted to get them. In the process, I've done some reorganization as well. As I was going through the embellishment drawer I came across a couple of tags I thought would make quick and easy cards.

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The tag is from American Crafts (Amy Tangerine). I die cut a circle from the Nestabilities Small Circles dies, tied a Pink Hibiscus ribbon (PTI), and attached it to a ready-made Paper Source card.

(This card is off to a friend who was diagnosed with a brain tumor last week. I saw her yesterday, and was amazed at her positive spirits. She's been feeling nauseous for over a year, and seeing specialist after specialist. Finally her new GI sent her for an MRI and this is what they found. The expectation is that surgery will occur early next week, but they won't know for sure until further tests are completed today. She's the second of my very good friends to have received this diagnosis in the last six months. I find that really hard to believe. My other friend is stable right now. Her tumor was inoperable, but they were able to shrink it with radiation.) 

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One of the things that got reorganized during the purge were the non-PTI acyrlic stamps and cling stamps that were housed in a notebook. I now have them in CD boxes on my shelf and can easily flip through them so I'm sure they'll see a lot more use. I stamped the background on this Hero Arts kraft card with the chevron background stamp (Hero Arts). The tag is another one by American Craft (Amy Tangerine). I cut another circle with the Nestabilities and a double ended banner from Papertrey. The sentiment is from Everyday Sayings (Hero Arts) and the ribbon is from my stash. It's hard to tell in the photo, but the little gems are heart-shaped (A Muse).

July Papertrey Ink Blog Hop

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I got involved in another purging episode in my studio last night, so luckily I was up earlier enough this morning to get a couple of (needed) cards made for the Papertrey Ink Blog Hop. In August, I'll be on the road when the Blog Hop comes, so I didn't want to miss this one.

Here's the beautiful inspiration piece. 

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It's just perfect for the new Sweet Life stamp set, but I don't have that, so I used Rosie Posie for the first card.

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For some reason the Berry Sorbet looks more like Pure Poppy in the photo, but not IRL. I used Dawn McVey's video from Stamp-a-Faire to tie the bow. 

The next card is my favorite of the two, and uses one of my all-time favorite stamp sets:  Lovely Layers.

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All the supplies except the ready-made tag are from Papertrey Ink. I really need to put in an order for new inks as the Sweet Blush ink is no longer stamping images well. I had a similar problem with other ink pads last week. 

Papertrey Ink’s Stamp-a-faire: Limited Supply Challenge

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Well, this was not easy as my supplies for this challenge were exceptionally limited. I don't own the right color buttons or the dotted ribbon, both of which I really needed. But I did what I could. I chose Four of a Kind for my floral stamp, and used the colors given: Hawaiian Shores, Select White, and Simply Chartreuse.

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After I took this photo, I decided this card really had to have some embellishment. Lacking buttons I had some rhinestones that were very close to Hawaiian Shores. I'm happier with this version.

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Papertrey Ink’s Stamp-a-faire: Make & Take

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I was hoping I'd had lots of crafting time today, but it hasn't turned out that way. Today is the Papertrey Ink Stamp-a-faire with loads of inspiration and videos for projects. Fortunately we have until Monday to get projects completed and uploaded. Although we'll be at a baptism and luncheon tomorrow, I'm hoping to get some serious crafting time in the late afternoon and evening. But I did get the Make & Take project done this morning. The card Nichole posted used Raspberry Fizz ink and cardstock—one of my favorites, but my ink pad is no longer making good impressions, even with reinking, so I had to go to another pink. I don't have the new floral set (yet) so I went to one I haven't used in a long time: Beautiful Blooms II.

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Creating a background isn't something I do often either. It took me awhile to figure out placement, but I'm happy with it. The vellum strip is scored at the top and bottom, and the sentiment is from In Bloom. I'm off to see if I can get another project done before I need to finish up the dinner plans for company tonight.

Summer Scavenger Hunt

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I'm making good progress with the Rinda's Summer Scavenger Hunt, although not quite a good as Amy! Here are a few more:

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#14 Bocce Ball at the church picnic last night

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More ball playing at the picnic

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#7 A fife and drum group practicing in the park

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A group playing at the Farmer's Market this afternoon

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#20 A hammock (I love the ivy that climbs up our friends' trees and frames this hammock.)

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#11 Our shadows as we went on our walk

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#13 Our library stacks

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#18 A movie poster (The only movie we've seen this summer.)

I have just three more photos to take, and I'm expecting to find them before summer's end. I have more than one for several prompts, and I think I'll continue to collect them as I see them. I have an idea for a project at the end, and multiples will work just fine.

Weekend Recap

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It might seem a bit late for a weekend recap, but our weekend really ran Saturday to Monday. We went camping at Keuka State Park with our good friends, Bob and Cathy. (Warning:  it's a heavy photo post with several new scaventer hunt photos included.) We started our weekend at Lloyd's in Penn Yan for lunch, and then drove to the camp ground and pitched our tents.

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Before dinner we went to a darling Farmer's Market to get some sweet corn . . .

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and then off to find the Garrett Memorial Chapel which is hidden in the woods on the bluff overlooking Keuka Lake.

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(Another chapel for #17 on the scavenger hunt)

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(# 19 an outdoor stairway)

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(#6 a historical landmark)

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The view of the lake from the chapel

Although we've camped here before we never knew about the chapel. We returned Sunday morning and attended the service there. The chapel seats about 100, and I'd guess there were 75-80 people there. Photos of the interior are prohibited, but it's very beautiful and has a series of Tiffany stained glass windows. 

We cooked steaks for dinner and had a campfire Saturday night. By Sunday morning it had started to drizzle. It continued all day long, sometimes raining steadily. It didn't deter us from having a great time. After church, we had an excellent breakfast at the Antique Inn.

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 After brunch (it was nearly noon by the time we finished), we visited a couple of our favorite wineries and brought home some new wines to try.

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At Rooster Hill, they had live music on the porch. (#7 on the scavenger hunt)

For several years now, Tracy has wanted to go to the Curtiss Museum in Hammondsport. It turns out Glenn Curtiss was one of the most influential and important pioneers in aviation. The museum is filled with interesting artifacts. Curtiss initially was interested in bicycles, then motorcycles. He started to develop engines for motorcycles, which then led to the interest in airplanes.

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By the time we finished at the museum, the rain had cleared and we headed back to the campsite for dinner.

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Afterwards, we went down to the lake for the sunset, and then called it a night after roasting marshmallows for S'Mores.

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After breaking camp and breakfast in Penn Yan, Tracy and I headed to the outlets. We bought some 12 mo. clothes for Caleb who is growing by leaps and bounds, and I picked up a couple of new shirts and a pair of shorts at Eddie Bauer. The prompt for the Photo of the Day just happened to be ice cream, so we stopped at the new Pittsford Dairy for an ice cream cone, which turned out to be plenty for lunch. 

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I've spent the better part of yesterday and today editing photos in Lightroom from the weddings we attended and our camping weekend. I opened a trial account at SmugMug so I could create albums to share with family and am very impressed with how easy it is, and how nicely everything is arranged. (With almost no effort on my part!)

Take Twelve: July

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A very quick post before we leave to go camping for the weekend. The forecast for the next three days says temps in the 90's so I don't think we'll get cold. Hopefully our camp site will have some shade!

Here's this month's Take Twelve layout. The teal patterned paper is a bit dull in the photo, but nothing I could do in PSE quickly seemed to help it much. 

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The journaling reads:

My day started a bit later than usual and one of the first jobs was to make a new To Do List. I love these Knock Knock pads with the four quadrants. I had an early appointment for my first complete opthamology appointment in several years. I got a great report and don’t need to go back for two years.

The big tasks for the day involved getting ready to host our three-table duplicate bridge group. Some of us have been playing together for 39 years. It’s a fun, social bridge group which is a good thing for us since we don’t play very often.

When I brought some fresh oregano in to chop for the tortilla roll-ups a little ladybug came along. Once I rescued her, I got it all chopped with my Ulu, certainly the most useful souvenir I bought last summer in Alaska. 

The pile of books are this week’s haul from the library. I read The World Without You in just two days—the perfect summer read. I’ve started Gold, and we used the national parks books to help plan our time at Rocky Mountain National Park in August with Matt. 

I thought I’d capture our typical lunches for this month’s layout. Tracy has toast with crunchy peanut butter, yogurt, and milk every day for lunch. I’m not quite so predictable, but usually make a nice salad, and today had unsweetened iced tea.

Here's  a close-up of the bottom border. I cut out the cameras from a border on a 12X12 piece of Amy Tangerine scrapbook paper that I used on a layout previously.

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Once again, nearly all the supplies came from the last one or two Studio Calico kits. 

Have a great weekend! Hope yours is a cool one.

 

 

Ten on the Tenth: Summer Scavenger Hunt

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We were away over the Fourth and attended two weddings in two days! The tenth of July has snuck up on me once again, but thanks to the brides I have ten of Rinda's 21 items for this summer's scavenger hunt. I love this project, and hope I'll be able to find the other 11 before summer's end.

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#1 The Charlotte Pier on Lake Ontario

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#2 The clothesline off my brother's deck

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#4 A roadside stand on the way to my friend, Mary's house.

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#5 A train. We had just walked across the tracks on our way to the marina to watch the fireworks when the passenger train roared by!

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#8 A statue of an angel in Mt. Hope Cemetery

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#9 A fountain at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, NY

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#10 Horse(s)–both shots taken at Mendon Ponds Park

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#15 Someone dancing. The first photo is the bride and groom at Saturday's wedding. The second is of my brother and his daughter during the Father and Daughter dance. Both weddings were just perfect events!

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#16 Bride #1 (the daughter of my husband's best friend)

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Bride #2 (My niece, Stephanie and her husband, Kevin)

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#17 The outside of the chapel where my niece was married

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The inside of the chapel (this photo does not do justice to the stunning interior of this church.)

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I'm linking this to Shimelle's Ten on the Tenth. You can find other lists here.