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Five in Five: September

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It's very warm and muggy here today. The effects of Irma seem to be much warmer weather and a higher level of humidity. A small price to pay given the destruction she reeked on Florida and some of the southern states. Until yesterday it has been, however, much cooler than normal, dropping into the 40's at night. I'm beginning to see leaves turning color and signs that fall is upon us. The flowers in my garden and on the patio are still going strong. Usually by now I would have replaced many of the summer planters with mums, but not this year. 

For this month's, Five in Five, I decided to capture some of those gorgeous blooms. I'll be missing them soon enough.

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Actually the focus is on our new glass hummingbird which hangs with the basket of impatiens which are still going strong. We can see this from our kitchen window and are enjoying the new addition.

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The hydrangeas in our front yard were planted last fall, so this is their first blooming season. These were a deep purple just a few weeks ago. This beautiful transformation was certainly unexpected.

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We're even getting new buds and blooms in the patio planters.

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One reason I love geraniums is their long-lasting nature. They just keep blooming and blooming, both in our pots and in our patio bed.

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The ornamental pepper plant adds a huge pop of color to the patio.

I'm linking up with Sandie at itchifingers who kindly hosts this meme each month.

Monday Memo

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It's been awhile since I posted a Monday Memo, but I did have some great mail this week, so I thought I'd do a quick recap of our weekend which was a particularly busy one. Friday night we attended a wedding for a good friend's daughter. It was held in a barn, and was absolutely lovely!

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The bride and her father

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The bride and groom–sadly not the sharpest of iPhone photos

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The barn before dinner

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The favors: a Mason jar mug with chalkboard labels—used for our beverages and ours to keep

The bride did all the decorating and planning. She's a wonderfully creative girl, and the wedding invitations were spectacular and all handmade. 

On Saturday I helped a friend who is moving to New Mexico pack up his library. We packed 30 boxes of books, and he still had two more bookcases to go! That afternoon, our street had a neighborhood picnic. I only took one photo, and got only a fraction of the folks who attended. It was pot luck, and the food was great. It was also a good chance to meet some new neighbors and connect with those we don't often see.

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Sunday, after church, was a bridal shower for Betsy's sister who is getting married in Boston over Columbus Day weekend. Once again, I didn't take many photos, but I did get one of the table where all the gifts were placed. 

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I do, however, have a couple photos of the card I made for Karen.

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I started by using the "Falling Hearts" stencil by Simon Says with three different shades of pink ink from Altenew. I stamped the umbrella from Papertrey Ink's "Dress-up Dolls: Rainy Day" (I knew this little $5 set would come in handy), fussy cut it, and colored it with Copics. The sentiment was computer generated and cut with banner dies from PTI. I added a silver heart and a few sequins at the end.

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And then there was the mail. In one day, I received a pretty new skirt that was 70% off (no photo), this gorgeous hand-decorated envelope and card from Nan, and three items from the latest Altenew release.

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Today was a busy day. I went to the gym before breakfast, and it's a good thing I did because once I left the house, I was only here for a few minutes between one event and the next. I finally got home about 8:30 tonight. Tomorrow is much the same, but Wednesday is clear and I'm hoping to put these new Altenew products to good use. 

Lastly, today is September 11 and a day to remember all those who lost their lives 16 years ago as well as remembering all those who worked so hard to rescue and provide help to the victims. Like most Americans, I know exactly what I was doing when I heard the news. Sadly, the world was forever changed, and I fear not for the better. In addition, I'm thinking and praying for all those in Houston who are trying to rebound from Hurricane Harvey and all those who have been in Hurricane Irma's path. Not a day goes by that I'm not aware of my many blessings, but days like these remind me how very fortunate I am.

Color Throw Down Challenge

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This week's Color Throw Down Challenge is my favorite color combination: red, black, and white. I have a quick anniversary card to share, and may be back before the challenge ends with another card. One of my favorite paper packs from Papertrey Ink was Black and White All Over. It's no longer available, and when they had their big paper sale back in February it was sold out before I got my hands on some more of it. 

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This giant XO was one of the papers, and I was never quite sure what to do with it. . . until now. I cut it down, used a corner punch on the top corners, and adhered it to a Pure Poppy card, cut a banner for the sentiment which I adhered with foam tape, and added a puffy heart sticker from Bella Blvd. The sticker was a dark pink so I colored over it with a red Copic marker. I made two of these since there are two sets of friends are celebrating their anniversaries. Now I wish I had a couple more pieces of this paper. I'm quite happy with the card, and it went together very quickly.

Ah, September!

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It’s Labor Day, and the start of the school year tomorrow for most students in Rochester. Caleb started kindergarten in Illinois two weeks ago. September has always seemed like a second restart to me. I’ve been living with my One Little Word for eight months, and the list of intentions I wrote in January.

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It’s a good time to reassess. Actually, I started the process in August when I became frustrated with my ability to get to some of the projects I love and have committed to, and printed out a new copy of my tracking sheet. It’s rather amazing how well this works for me.

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I finally finished my #100DayProject, and only sketched once after that. My card making fell into a string of days when I made sure to have the cards I needed for August and early September.

And finally, at the end of the month, I got going on Project Life. I was nearly a year behind, but have finished all the pages for 2016 and have the title page for 2017 completed.

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A lot of advance planning for the next several months is also done. I gave up on my Christmas Journal, and decided to include the holidays in the Project Life album. I think that’s probably the path of the future as well. The mail brought a package from Gossamer Blue this week. They had a Half Price sale so I bought one full kit as well as a Life Pages kit. This is only some of the goodies. I put away the stamps and several other items before I thought to take a photo.

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Exercise was the biggest improvement. I scheduled a meeting with my personal trainer and started a new routine at the gym. That plus walking meant that there were only a few days in August that I wasn’t active.

Journaling didn’t happen, and it’s on the list for September. I’m trying a new eating plan which I added to the list for September and a 4 week shopping ban—only groceries, gifts, and necessities. I’ve had some serious issues with my feet, and have purchased several pairs of good shoes which allow me to wear new orthotics which were prescribed by the orthopedic surgeon. Somehow that seemed to give me leeway to go on a shopping spree.

You can see that I only missed one day of reading, and it paid off with seven books read in August, possibly the most I’ve ever read in a month. Two of my favorites were theology-based, but I can recommend two novels.

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The first is our September book group book, A Stranger in the Woods: The Extraordinary Story of the Last True Hermit. It’s a compelling story of a young man who parks his car on a dirt road, throws the keys on the dashboard, and walks into the Maine wilderness. The next time, he emerges is 27 years later. How and why that happens is the plot of the book, but much of what I loved was the author’s inclusion of the research and history of solitude. How is it that one person can thrive on total solitude, but it drives most people crazy? (Sometimes literally.)

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The second book is Gail Godwin’s Grief Cottage. It’s a ghost story of sorts, but also a meditation on loneliness, solitude, memories, and grief. I've long been a fan of Gail Godwin, having enjoyed Father Melancholy's Daughter, Evensong, and Flora, among others.

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We’ve had a busy weekend. We were invited to a lovely Shabbat Dinner on Friday evening, entertained two couples here on Saturday, and went to a Fantasy Football picnic yesterday. Today has been very quiet, but there are more good things coming in the week ahead.

Stemmed Statements

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A friend and I were talking about our process when working with a new stamp set. I don’t vary the process much. I think about what card I need, who the card is for, and then try to design it from there. My friend, on the other hand, lays out the stamps, and just starts playing with them. I purchased “Stemmed Statements” from Papertrey Ink because I just loved the flower images, and liked the small sentiments as well. I decided to “just play.” I stamped a lot of images, colored them with Copic markers, and die cut them all. Here they are laid out on my craft mat after I arranged them into clusters I thought might work on a card.

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I ended up with eight cards, some of which have gone in the mail already, and several are ready to mail out in September. I thought I’d share a few today, and will share the rest later when I know the recipients have gotten them.

The first two use the Nasturium image. When Papertrey had a paper sale during their February anniversary release I picked up the Woodblocks prints pad. This beautiful orange pattern seemed perfect as a backdrop for the nasturiums.

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I layered a couple of the Infinity Frames and added a tag from the Stemmed statements. The patterned paper was die cut with the Stitched Rectange die from Simon Says and it was all adhered to a Terracotta Tile card.

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In order to cut the stitched rectangle from the patterned paper for the card above, I was left with a narrow frame of the paper, and didn't want to throw it in the trash. I layered it on white cardstock after embossing it with an old embossing folder.

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For the sentiment, I used an old favorite PTI die Double Ended Banners cut from Terracotta Tile. The sentiment is from Banner Sentiments which I partially masked to get just the three words.

Next up for today are the cards created with the poppy image. I love red poppies so decided to color them all in red. I'd seen a card during the release of Stemmed Statements with the poppy image on kraft paper, so that's where I started.

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I die cut the Horizontal Stripes die from kraft as a subtle background for the poppy, and tied a bit of twine to it for an accent. I also added three black enamel dots. 

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Next up might be my favorite from the Stemmed Statement play date.

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Red, black, and white is always one of my favorite color combinations. I die cut the black "frame" from the Mix and Mat: Pretty Brackets die, adhered it to Fresh Snow Linen cardstock and added the poppies and a small tag from Stemmed Statements.

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That's it for today. We have a very quiet weekend. Matt, Betsy, and the girls are coming for dinner tonight, but there is nothing else on the calendar. I'm hoping to get the desk cleared off, and get back to my long neglected Project Life pages.

#The100DayProject

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When I took on the #100DayProject I knew it would be hard for me to commit to doing a sketch every day for 100 days. I also allowed myself some slack so if I missed a day, it would be OK to catch up the next day. It didn’t happen often, and I did really well, until Day 75. At that point, we had company here, and then were on vacation. Despite the fact that I’ve taken some online courses on sketching while traveling, it’s not anything I’ve been comfortable doing. I always feel like my photography takes enough personal time while traveling, and to ask fellow travelers to find something to do while I sketch has never seemed reasonable.

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But over the last month, since we’ve returned I’ve been working to complete the project, and now have 100 sketches done between April and August. Since I hadn’t done any sketching for nearly a year, I’m pleased with the outcome. Page2

Some of the sketches I like quite a bit, some I wouldn’t think of sharing! I found some of the images to sketch on Pinterest, some came from photographs I took, some are objects I found around our house, or flowers from our garden.

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More than half the sketches were done in ink, then watercolored. I used my good Daniel Smith watercolors, my Inktense watercolor pencils, and my Kuretake Gansai Tambi watercolors. Some were left as pencil sketches, and a few were just pen and ink, or colored with markers or colored pencils.

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All in all, it was a good project. I don’t expect I’ll be able to maintain a daily habit even now, but I do hope to get 3 or more sketches done each week.

 

 

 

August Five in Five: The Front Yard

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I don't remember the last time I took a two week break from blogging. This one was unintended and it's the result of just having too many things on the calendar. We're definitely enjoying the end of summer weather with day trips to Ithaca and the Finger Lakes, and a fair amount of entertaining.

This weekend will serve as an example of our schedules. Friday morning I got up early to start dinner preparations since we were entertaining. I was not happy to discover that the refrigerator was not working. The freezer was fine, but everything in the fridge was warm. It's a long story, but by Saturday we'd figured out (and solved) the problem but not before having to toss a lot of food, and transfer all our frozen food to my mother-in-law's extra freezer.  Friday afternoon I spent three hours at our final Cooking Matters class run by Food Link at the refugee center where I volunteer twice a week. We had a potluck luncheon and there were many delicious international dishes to choose from. Saturday we spent with Matt and our granddaughters while Betsy attended her sister's bachelorette party. We spent a few hours at the zoo, and just hung out playing on the swing set and blowing bubbles in their backyard, but let me tell you, a one-year old, a two-and-a half year old, and a nearly six year old can keep you really busy no matter where you are! Yesterday our book group met for lunch and a discussion, and I attended a going-away party for one of the refugees who is moving to North Carolina. Then I finally got to the store to replace all the food we had to throw out. This week, both of the nonprofits where I volunteer are closed so hopefully, I can get back to a more consistent posting schedule. I spent a couple of days last week playing with a new stamp set, so I'll have cards to share as well as photos from our July vacation. But now, here's the 5 in 5 before I miss this month's deadline.

Nearly a year ago, Matt started working on our front yard. By the end of October, he had replaced our front walks with a new brick walk, and started the new landscaping. You can see before photos here (last September's Five in Five.) This summer he replaced the the front porch, and we had new railings made that extend down the steps providing needed support for some of our less mobile friends. I thought this might be a good subject for this month's Five in Five.

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This is the view of our house from the street. We replaced our glider (to the left in the photo,) and Tracy built a brick "platform" for it to sit on.

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Here's a closer look at the new front porch and railings. The house was built in 1931, and the stones on the top of the porch had worn away.

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Last fall, Matt planted a total of six hydrangeas (three on each side of the walk) and a hydrangea tree, all of which are blooming this summer. He also left some bluestones on which we've placed some planters.

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The planters on the front porch.

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And, finally, a closer look at the planting closest to the house.

Matt also redid all the landscaping to the right of the driveway which is so much better than it was before. Now we're working (again) on the back of the house. Tracy's laying a small patio below our shade gardens for our fire pit (only used once since we bought it two years ago), and a set of red Adirondack chairs. I'm not expecting it will all get done this summer. I'm linking this up with Sandie, who kindly hosts this monthly meme.

CASology: Juicy

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A quick post to enter a couple of cards in this week's CASology challenge: Juicy.

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One of my go-to kits for quick cards is the Papertrey Ink: Still Life-Summer kit. When I saw this challenge, and needed a couple of thank you notes, once again, it filled the bill.

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I scored a pattern onto some white cardstock, added a strip of patterned paper from the kit and four die cuts. A quick, easy, and cheery thank you note.

Recently, I've been attracted to bright colors on dark backgrounds, so for the next card, I made essentially the same card but with a black background. The all black was too stark, so I layered it on a Raspberry Fizz card. Bright and cheery, even on dark cardstock.

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The cherries reminded me of one of my favorite treats in the summer:  Rainer cherries—expensive, but oh, so sweet.

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Hope your day is bright and cheery, too!

Summer Photography Scavenger Hunt: Part 2

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It's time for an update on the scavenger hunt being hosted by Mary-Lou at Patio Postcards. I found 11 of the 25 items in June and I was certain I'd find most of the remaining items on the list while we were on vacation. In fact, by the end of the month I'd found them all. There are a few I'd like to find better examples for, but the pressure is off. I have several photos to posts for some of the items.

Number 4: A zigzag. I found this one at the McKenzie Barn Sale:

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Tissue box holders

Number 5: A seasonal relaxing space.

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Jetties Beach on Nantucket

Number 6: A pipe

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At The Heritage Gardens in Sandwich, MA. This also is another entry for #10: Something Yellow

Number 7: The inside of something. I have two for this one.

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The idea for this one came to me while cooking breakfast in Nantucket.

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The inside of a geode. Also works for #20: Something found underground

Number 9:  A kite or a balloon.

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At Jetties Beach

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See from our boat on our harbor cruise in Portsmouth, NH.

Number 12: A wedding

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Two photos from my niece's wedding in Vermont 

Number 14:  Someone Fishing

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Getting instruction at Orvis in Manchester, VT

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In Portsmouth, NH

Number 15:  Something crafted from wood.

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At the Burlington, VT pedestrian mall. Another entry for #9: A kite or balloon

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On the road from Manchester to Burlington

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At the Kittery (Maine) Trading Post

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Outside the Kittery Trading Post

Number 18: A fan (This is one I'd still like a better photo for.)

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An old fan refashioned into a clock, found in a gift shop in Stockbridge, MA

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On the porch at The Fisherman's View in Sandwich, MA

Number 20:  Something found underground:

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Oil well (oil underground)

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Marble sidewalk and wall (marble from underground)

Number 22: A dial. I found several sundials. I'm sure I could find some other kinds of dials, as well.

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Sundial at Eastview Mall

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A most unusual sundial on the side of a barn on the road from Manchester to Burlington, VT

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The sundial at The Heritage Gardens in Sandwich, MA

Number 23: Something powered by wind.

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The Old Mill on Nantucket–the oldest functioning mill in the country

 Number 24: Seasonal food or drink

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Sangria on the harbor in Portsmouth, NH

Number 25:  A hat

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My hat and my camera bag ready to pack in the car.

Thanks for hanging in there for a LONG photo-heavy post. You can see the entire collection on Smug Mug.

We had a lovely weekend in Toronto. I'm hoping to get a travel post up in the next few days about our vacation as well as the weekend away. I finally have most of the photos sorted and edited.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Happy Anniversary

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Today is our 44th anniversary, and my card says it all.

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Wonderful husband, best friend, fabulous traveling companion, amazing dad and grandfather–Tracy is the best! 

As soon as I saw this amazing "Mountain Majesty" cover plate released this month at Papertrey Ink, and the gorgeous card Nicole Heady created, I knew this had to be my anniversary card for Tracy. He loves the mountains, and has hiked to the top of most of the 49 High Peaks in the Adirondacks. My card is a shameless copy of Nicole's with just one change, but it was too perfect to mess with, so I hope she takes it for what it is—a tribute to her wonderful design skills. Also my thanks to a friend, who loaned me both stamp sets. 

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The sentiment is from "Quoted: The Most." There are three interchangeable sentiments that can be used. Instead of a heart Nicole used as an embellishment, I embossed the interchangeable sentiment on a red banner which I popped up with dimensional tape. I did add the glitter to the mountains, although it was rarely snowing when Tracy was hiking. 

We're off to Toronto tomorrow to celebrate. It's been years since we've been there. We have tickets to the Georgia O'Keeffe exhibit at the Royal Ontario Museum. The exhibit closes on Sunday so we're getting there at the last moment. (In fact, there's no more mention of that exhibit on the website. I'd be nervous, but we got a lovely email yesterday reminding us we have tickets for the exhibit tomorrow.) We have dinner reservations at Eastside Social, and will spend the night before heading off to the McMichael Museum on Sunday morning before we head home. We've never been there, and I'm looking forward to exploring the exhibits as well as the grounds.

CASology Balloons and Color Throw Down

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It's CASology's fifth birthday, and they're having a party! You can find the blog hop right here. The word for the week is "balloon."

Week 259 - Balloon

It was the perfect opportunity to get a birthday card ready for an upcoming birthday, and to use a combination of old, but loved, and brand new products. The "old, but loved" is Papertrey's Balloon Bash set. This set is a fave for it's birthday sentiments, but this time I pulled out the three balloons. The Balloon String dies (PTI) are also a favorite. The new product is Papertrey's "Infinity Frames," which was just released this month. When I purchased the die, I had lots of ideas, but ended up using them in a totally unexpected way to create a white on white background for the pretty balloons.

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The sentiment from "Initial Sentiments: Birthday" (PTI) was embossed in white on black, cut out by hand, and popped up with dimensional tape. I chose the colors of the balloons from this week's Color Throw Down Challenge. Although I've been aware of the challenge for awhile, this is the first time I've played along.

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I used Raspberry Fizz, Bright Buttercup, and New Leaf inks to stamp the balloons before die cutting them. They seem to be a perfect match!

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Another morning of steady rain here. It was a good day to stay inside and craft, so I'll have more to share very soon.

Papertrey July Blog Hop Challenge

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I've been so busy recently, that I didn't even realize it was the 25th of July until I got on the computer this morning. Luckily, I had time before I set off on errands and to the refugee center to volunteer, to make a card since I loved the inspiration post. Now that I'm finally home, I can get it linked up to the July Papertrey Blog Hop Challenge. 

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Soft blues and white, clean and simple design. I really like the lovely leaves, so started with the leaf diecut from Songbirds in two colors: Aqua Mist and Ocean Tides. I wasn't sure where I wanted to go with them so I cut quite a few. Once I laid two of them on a white card, I knew I wanted to try the new Mix and Mat: Postal as a background. I must say I'm a fan of the new Mix and Mat die cut sets.

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Just two of the leaf clusters was all I needed. I backed the open part of the Mix and Mat die with a soft blue vellum that's been in my stash forever. The sentiment is a die from Still Life Summer Mini-Market kit. I sponged some ink on the bottom of it to create an ombre effect to set it off. 

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Since this card is totally die cuts, no stamping at all, I'm also entering it into the current Less is More Challenge: Anything But Stamping.

 

 

 

Mini-Market Kit: Herb Garden

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When I need a card in a hurry, I often turn to the Papertrey Ink Mini-Market kits. They're typically a great value, including patterned papers, stencils, die cuts, and stamps. Thanks to a lovely gift certificate Sarah gave me for my birthday, I didn't hesitate to order the latest kit released in June. And it came just in time, to create two needed thank you cards.

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This kit was a perfect match for a much older set, "Garden Variety," which I've always loved. I stamped and die cut the seed packet from "Garden Variety," and added two die cuts from the "Herb Garden" kit. Each of the herbs included in the set comes with a sentiment showcasing the herb's meaning. Finally, I stamped "Parsley" and adhered it to a piece of patterned paper from Echo Park cut with a stitched rectangle die and adhered to a white card base. On the first card I stamped the word with New Leaf ink, but decided True Black really looked better as it balanced the black of the die cut at the bottom of the seed packet.

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I used some dimensional tape to add the parsley die cut to the seed packet. These cards went off to two college friends. We celebrated birthdays late this year.

There hasn't been a lot of time to create since we returned from vacation. I made these just before we left, and have another post from that session to put up soon. This week looks more promising, but you just never know what's going to pop up on the calendar.

Take Three Thursday

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I'm joining in with Mary-Lou at Patio Postcards for Take Three Thursday. The three photos were all taken today, which started very early. A friend and I spent the night at her family's cottage on Owasco Lake. Our alarms went off at 4:45 and we arrived at the famed McKenzie Child Barn Sale at 6:00. There was already a long line, but it actually moved along pretty quickly, and we were admitted to the sale around 7:15. It was a beautiful morning, and McKenzie Child is located in a lovely spot with gorgeous landscaping. 

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This is just a fraction of the line, and when we left the sale around 9:15, the line had only grown longer. To get a birds-eye view, you can see a video shot by a television station in Syracuse right here. (Let me add, that if you watch the video, not everyone at the sale had a list of over 100 items to buy, nor were we all buying items for over $100.) Everything, however, is 50% off, and I did add some bowls and vases to my Courtly Check collection, as well as picking up some gifts. 

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The ladies ahead of us in line clearly expected to do some serious shopping. The sale is incredibly well-organized. All these paper bags were handed out by staff as we waited in line. When you leave, there is a line of staff there to help you carry your purchases to your car. (We, however, did not need assistance.)

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They also come along with this cute frame, and offer to take your photo. Couldn't pass up the opportunity for a souvenir of my first McKenzie Child Barn sale.

 

Five in Five at The Heritage Gardens

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Although I don't often check my email on my phone, as we approached Cape Cod last week, I decided to see if there was anything of interest, and indeed, there was. Anne from Artful Journey had sent me an email suggesting we stop at The Heritage Gardens in Sandwich, Massachusetts if we had time. Since we had a couple of hours to kill before we needed to line up for the ferry to Nantucket, we decided to explore. It was a fabulous suggestion. The gardens are beautiful and it's just the beginning of hydrangea season there. I'm a huge fan of hydrangeas, and need to take some photos of the beautiful hydrangea tree Matt planted in our front yard last fall as well as the more traditional ones that now grace the new landscaping. Even my huge hydrangea that has failed to bloom for three years is loaded with blossoms this year.

Here's an introductory photo from The Heritage Gardens, followed by five photos of the gorgeous hydrangeas. I have more photos from the garden that I'll share in later posts.

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In addition to the beautiful gardens, they also have a lovely outdoor cafe where we had an excellent lunch, an art gallery, a carousel, and an antique car museum. Plenty to explore on another trip. I also found two more items for the Summer Scavenger Hunt. I can't think of a better way to have spent our time.

I'm linking this post to Sandi's Five in Five. Take five photos in five minutes; you have until the 25th of the month to link them up to Sandi's post, and you can check in there for more inspiration.