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Memorandum Monday

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We celebrated the life of our friend, Bob, this weekend. It was a beautiful and meaningful service. Tracy was one of three speakers. He reflected on their 22 years of hiking through the backcountry in the Adirondacks which brought smiles and tears to our eyes. Later we gathered together to share stories at a local restaurant. It was a lovely tribute to a kind, generous, and loving man. He will be missed. Tracy found several photos of Bob taken in the Adirondacks. My favorite is of the two of them, taken many years ago.

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Here's the card I sent to his wife and daughters, all dear friends. I combined PTI's "Splits: Best Wishes" and "Inspired Faith" along with the die from the latter set. A few tiny pearls finished it off.

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And the inside:

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Sunday afternoon we attended an "apartment warming" party for my nephew. He has some developmental disabilities, but with the help of his mom, stepfather, and support team he has moved into his first independent living apartment. Marc drives and holds down a job, but has never been on his own. It's a huge change, and he's alternately excited and apprehensive. The party was in the apartment complex's party room, but he proudly took anyone who was interested on a tour of his apartment. It's a great space, and I hope he'll be successful in making this huge transition. He made chocolate keys for everyone as party favors.

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The message reads: "The key to happiness is friends and family like you."

Then after supper, I took my camera outside to see if I could capture a photo of the Super Moon. It's supposedly the largest and brightest moon we've had since I was born. I was too lazy to set up a tripod, and in retrospect wished I'd taken a tripod to a better location, but got a decent shot handheld (and then cropped.)

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According to Honoré, we won't see another one for eighteen years, and if we weren't having company tomorrow night (supposedly even a brighter, bigger moon) I'd be off with my tripod. But I'm happy to have captured it. 

Waving to Sian and other Memorandum keepers. Hope you have a great week!

 

Project Life: August 2016

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August was a very heavy photo month with a week in Nantucket. Not only were there lots of family photos, but many photos of the beautiful island. And, of course, the trip was not the only activity I wanted to capture.

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August1

Once again, I relied heavily on Tracy Larsen's Simply White photo templates, adding journaling to some of them, and a few stickers and one filler card I made with a Project Life Everyday card and a Heidi Swap clear sticker.

August2

I buy postcards wherever we go, but rarely use them. This time I used one of a map of Nantucket which I loved. 

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August3

These pages have some of my favorite photos. Ella loves to figure things out, and spent a LONG time learning out to insert and release the buckle on the stroller. The one of Matt with the two girls is in a frame in our living room. I'm rarely a fan of selfies, but the one Nadia took of the five of us on the beach is great of everyone. The filler card at the bottom was made from a purchased notecard added to some patterned paper.

August4

This page documents our trip to the Whaling Museum, the Cisco Brewery, our "date night," our bike rides, and a family photo taken at the Nantucket Hotel before a family dinner.

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August5

The last pocket page documents the trip to Providence, Rhode Island on our way home from Nantucket, and the other activities of the month. 

Then I added foue pages of photos that I had printed with white borders at a local camera shop. I don't really keep separate photo albums any more, so the Project Life album is where any photos that get printed are kept.

August6

August 7

 

August8

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I still have a few pages from early in 2016 to finish embellishing, and September's pages are all planned out. Now to find time to get to them!

 

A Trio of Pink

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CardConcept61

The current challenge at The Card Concept is "Pretty in Pink." One of the things that's interesting about this challenge is the categories they've set up for card designs. I have a trio of cards for this challenge:

Hugs

A simple CAS card—the tag was die cut from Maile Belle's Ombre cardstock by PTI, and the the Hugs die cut & stamped sentiment are also Papertrey Ink. I adhered it to a premade Memory Box card (A4) size and tied it with a bit of yellow & white twine.

JustANote

Everything about this card came from the "Don't Forget to Write" Make-it Market Kit by Papertrey Ink, without a doubt the best kit purchase I've made. The cardstock is Hibiscus Burst, and I added four enamel dots by MME to the center of some of the flowers. I think this one fits the Clean and Layered category.

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Last, a "Botanical Blocks" rose (PTI), colored with Copics, and layered with Raspberry Fizz, white, and black cardstock and adhered to a Bazzil card. The die cut is also Papertrey Ink–"Wonderful Words Thank You." Another CAS card, I think.

 

SNAP: The Grocery Run

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Our church has sponsored The Grocery Run (a 5K race/walk) for the last six years. This is the third or fourth time I've walked the 5K. 100% of the proceeds go to hunger ministries, not only at our church but across the city. This year over 1200 people participated, and $41,000 was raised. It was perfect weather for it, really amazing for November—sunny and in the high 40's, nearly 50° by late morning. Some years it's been snowing!

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In addition to funds, participants bring donated food to FoodLink, a nonprofit organization that sponsors food cupboards, backpack programs, and summer food programs for children. The top left photo shows folks loading the truck with the donated items. The top right is a photo of our retired Associate Pastor for Outreach who has always come in costume for the event. Now our current Outreach Pastor, Lynette, also comes in costume. I love the frame someone created for photo ops! By the time I remembered to take a photo of the finish line, most folks had finished. Needless to say, the runners were done well before any of the walkers! It's a great way to get some exercise and do some good at the same time.

And so, our election. I went to bed at 10:30 knowing in my heart what the results would be, was awake in the middle of the night for over an hour, and awoke to more anxiety than I can express. One consolation is that Hillary appears to have won the popular vote. (I've always believed the Electoral College was a flawed process, and today confirms it.) I find it so hard to understand how one can vote for someone who has shown such contempt for so many groups of Americans, but I also know there is a sense of futility felt by many that causes them to latch on to anyone who promises them a better future. Now to move forward, and to find ways to bridge the wide divisions that exist in this country. So I'll be praying to find ways to bring about reconciliation in my small corner of the country.

November 5 in 5 and Memorandum Monday

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I'm joining in with Sandi and her monthly 5 in 5—five photos in five minutes. I had to pick up my pace today to get these photos in five minutes, but it was a gorgeous November day, and it seemed like a good time to share some photos from the University of Rochester.

I'm on the campus three days a week this fall for a course, "Introduction to the Old Testament." I took on the project of reading the Bible from cover to cover this year. Two years ago I purchased a Daily Bible which is divided into 365 readings, and I decided this was the year to tackle the project. I've found it fascinating, and when I finished reading the Old Testament I had many questions, so asked to sit in on this undergraduate course. The course covers the historical, social, economic, and political background of the writings of the Old Testament. It's been a wonderful experience with lots of reading, although I'm not taking the exams or writing the paper.

The last couple of weeks we've been reading and studying the prophets, and I must say during this awful election season in the United States, I'm afraid that not much has changed politically since 600 BCE.

Now to the photos:

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The Rush Rees Library; the building where my class meets is on this quad.

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Just around the corner from the library, Wilson Commons, the student union and activity center.

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I couldn't pass by this beautiful tree. There are Novembers in western New York where all the leaves have fallen by now. This has been an exceptional fall season.

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Even the roses are still blooming, with the lovely leaves as a background.

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I think this is a dorm, but I'm not sure.

The weather this weekend was pretty nice as well. It started with the annual Grocery Run, a 5K race/walk to raise funds for hunger ministries. (More about this on Wednesday.)

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Here we are before the start of our walk.

On Sunday after serving Communion at church, I helped a friend get out the vote for her political campaign. She's running for the New York State Assembly. I totally neglected to get any photos, but this is my first foray into any kind of political action. She's a Democrat running in a deep Republican district, but has made a lot of headway, even getting the endorsement of a very conservative radio host. It will be interesting to see tomorrow what kind of impact her campaign has had.

This morning we learned that our dear friend, Bob, passed away peacefully early in the morning. His wife and daughters were with him. He had been admitted to hospice on Saturday. After church we visited with the family; by then he was not aware of our presence. Just 10 days ago, we had lunch with him at one of our favorite restaurants. It's hard to comprehend. Please keep his family in your thoughts and prayers, and many thanks to those of you who have asked about him in recent weeks.

CASology “Welcome”

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Week 222 - Welcome

I'd hoped to have two entries to this week's CASology Challenge, "Welcome," since we have not one, but two, friends who have just moved into new homes. But the weekend was particularly busy, and only one is finished. It's a tag attached to the house warming gift we'll be taking this Friday when we go for dinner.

GiftBag

I used the house from Papertrey Ink's "Winter Hills," "welcome" from "Wonderful Words: Baby," and "new home" from Reverse Confetti's "Whole Lotta Happy." I was thrilled to find that last set in my box of stamps, having forgotten that I picked it up a few months ago because it had so many versatile sentiments. They were all gold embossed to match the strip of gold on the tag. Both tags are from a set by Jen Hadfield for Pebbles. The black bag and tissue are both from Paper Source. There's a Paper Source store within walking distance from Sarah's house in Evanston, so I almost always make a visit. The fact that it's several doors down from Caleb's favorite bakery doesn't hurt either!

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The gift inside is a beautiful winter candle holder which I was thrilled to find at a local gift shop. I picked up another one as a birthday gift for a friend.

Thanks with a Grateful Heart

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A quick post to enter a card in the TIME OUT challenge:  "Give Thanks with a Grateful Heart." This is the first time I've entered one of their challenges, but the challenge has popped up a couple of times lately, so I went to check it out.

ManyThanks

This is a quick and easy one; great for when you need a thank you note in a hurry! The patterned paper is from Maile Belle's collection "Black and White" for Papertrey Ink, and the stamp is from Papertrey's "Sentiment Signs," backed with a piece of True Black card stock. This was for one of our male friends so I wanted to be sure it was a CAS design.

Project Life: July 2016

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July was a jam-packed month, but I managed to limit my pages to two double page spreads. Madelyn Tyler was born early in July, and her arrival brought Sarah, Adam, and Caleb to Rochester for a week's visit. During that week, Tracy's mother turned 87 and we hosted a birthday picnic for her. The photos of the cousins enjoying one another both in Matt and Betsy's backyard and at the water park are some of my faves.

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July1

July2

Once again, there are minimal embellishments. I made a filler card with some patterned paper for Madelyn's birth data, added a few stickers and made another filler card with a wood veneer word that I colored with some Orange Zest ink.

July3

The third page documents the week Tracy's family shared a cottage on Honeoye Lake this summer. 

July4

We had a wonderful tour of the Frank Lloyd Wright's Darwin Martin home in Buffalo, and celebrated our 43rd wedding anniversary in Niagara-on-the-Lake. I was delighted to find the teacup "button" which I added with a ticket stub for the "Alice in Wonderland" performance for a filler card. I have a little jar filled with these buttons, and rarely can find a good use for one.

SNAP: Halloween

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Monday I posted our activity for Halloween, but I saved some photos for this week's SNAP.

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The upper left photo is my favorite of the little cat and little panda trick or treating. Their adorable baby sister was dressed for the event as well. I babysat for Madelyn on Monday morning while Betsy helped out at Skylar's kindergarten class. The pumpkins are this year's masterpieces carved by Matt–Mickey Mouse for Ella and Little Pony for Skylar. They chose the patterns from the internet, and Skylar helped poke the holes along the design that mark where Matt needs to cut. Much more elaborate than anything that was ever done for him as a child! The bottom right is of a neighbor's chihuahua dressed up as a taco. Too cute!

Linking up with Helena as always, the wonderful hostess of SNAP–a series of three or four related photos.

Happy Halloween & Memorandum Monday

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As an elementary school teacher for 37 years, I was never a great fan of Halloween. Being the grandmother to several youngsters has changed my tune a bit, and I enjoy crafting for all of them. I made little tins filled with some Halloween goodies for three of them. They all got stickers, fake tatoos, a squishy little pumpkin that lights up when you toss it, and some chocolates from a local candy shop. Caleb got a little ball that looks like an eyeball, and the two little girls got black cat coin purses. I took a photo of Caleb's which I left with Sarah when we visited in September, and decided since the girls' look just the same so there was no need for another photo.

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The clothespin on the top was made with some patterned paper and little ghost stamps, and tag from an old, but fave, "Friendship Jar: Fall" stamp set by Papertrey Ink. Here's a look at the little coin purses which I thought were just adorable.

CoinPurse

They each got cards, too, of course. I had quite a few reward points at Papertrey and decided about a month ago, I'd really like the Halloween Pin-Up Make It Market Kit. Glad I did, as both these cards were made much easier with the preprinted images and dies.

Here's Caleb's. I'm not sure he knows anything about Frankenstein, but I know he likes monsters and super heroes, so I figured he'd like the images.

CalebHalloween

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The "Night Star Cove"r plate is the perfect frame for the card. It's cut from Royal Velvet cardstock which is such a great contrast for the Orange Zest.

The card for Skylar and Ella uses those colors as well as Limeade Ice. Not my usual combination, but great for Halloween. Ella's a little young to get the humor from the sentiment, but Skylar certainly did!

Feet

She also appreciates the glitter on the shoes and socks. I bought a couple Spectrum Noir glitter pens for Christmas cards, and the "Crystal Clear" one is becoming a favorite.

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It was a busy weekend. My father was a music professor and I grew up on musical theater, but I'd never seen "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum." We saw it on Saturday at the newly refurbished Geva Theater. The musical was terrific, and the renovations are quite lovely.

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On Sunday, Skylar came over and we made Halloween cookies, also a first. She's really very adept with a rolling pin, and can cut out the cookies with no supervision.

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For a five year old, she's also pretty good with frosting the cookies as well.

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Her mom, dad, and sisters came for dinner, and we had cookies and ice cream for dessert.

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And a quick look at the little girls out for trick or treating tonight. Skylar started out very hesitant about the event, but Ella quickly caught on and was a very eager trick or treater! There'll be more for SNAP on Wednesday.

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A very late wave to Sian and the Memorandum Monday crew!

 

Project Life: May & June 2016

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We had a lovely sunny day on Friday, and tonight while watching the World Series I had time to edit the photos of the Project Life pages I completed earlier this week. May ended up being one double page spread. Both pages use journaling cards from Paislee Press' "Fresh Air."

MayDouble

The first page documents events in Rochester: the Lilac Festival and parade as well as a very special dinner for the 4th-5th grade girls from Cameron Ministries. 

May1

We made an unexpected trip to Chicago in May, celebrated Mother's Day, started work on the patio plantings, and celebrated Memorial Day with a neighborhood parade and the first picnic of the season.

May2

June was another double page spread.

JuneDouble

We attended the opening of an exhibit on the National Parks (which celebrated their 100th Anniversary this summer) at the Eastman Museum, and had another wonderful picnic celebration for a high school graduation and Father's Day with the Adams family. There was a night of croquet with good friends as well. That was a first in so many years, neither of us could remember the last time we played. I also included a Month in Review card from Paislee Press that documented these events as well as a very busy social calendar.

June1

The upper left photo template documents my first venture as a docent for the Landmark Society on their Home and Garden tour. We did a lot more work on our shade garden, and were back at the Eastman Museum for the first of the Summer Garden Vibes concert. I couldn't resist adding the cute photos of the girls at Pam's house after dinner, and with Pam outside their Papa's house earlier in the month.

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Although I've yet to finish January-March for this year, I have completed July and August which I'll get posted in the next week or so.

 

Card Concept: Chevron Pumpkin Challenge

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When I spotted the inspiration photo for the Card Concept Challenge this week, I knew I had the perfect stamp set for it.

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I recently bought the Hero Arts set, "Autumn," which I had yet to use. The design of the pumpkin reminds me of the recent coloring book/doodling craze. Included in the set are several leaves with the same kind of patterns.

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I gold embossed the images and colored them with my Kuretake watercolors. Papertrey Ink's burlap coverplate added just the right kind of texture for the background. I added a stitched strip from a rejected piece from yesterday's crafting session. The sentiment is also from an used set which I've had for quite some time. Papertrey sent it as a thank you awhile ago, and it turned out to be perfect. I die cut the word from Canyon Clay paper and then made a banner with a stitched edge for the rest of the sentiment. 

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One of the interesting features of the Card Concept Challenge is the ability to make a card in any style. I'm sticking with my usual "Clean & Simple" for this one, and I'm happy to have another birthday card ready to put in the mail next month!

SNAP: Signs of Fall

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When we were in the Finger Lakes Saturday, it was clearly peak time for the foliage. Despite the gray skies, the leaves were lovely. 

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The prettiest views were along Cayuga Lake, but there wasn't any good place to stop for a photo, so most of these are from the Rochester area. The upper right is my view walking across the pedestrian bridge from the University of Rochester campus to my assigned parking lot. The sky that morning was a prelude to the totally dark clouds that arrived over the weekend. Today was cold, but lovely, and Matt was finally able to get some more work done on our landscaping. Sadly, the weather forecast is dismal the rest of the week, so we'll see when he's able to get back to it.

Papertrey Ink October Blog Hop

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The 25th of the month snuck up on me, and I didn't get started on this card until this morning. I love the inspiration piece of this month's Papertrey Ink Blog Hop, so I was determined to create a card for it.

PTI

I'd like to report that it came together quickly, but alas, not so much. There are all kinds of scraps on my desk, and at least two versions of the card are in the circular file. I am happy with the end result, but would have preferred to have posted it an hour or so ago!

PTI

I started with the fall leaves and the music in the inspiration piece, stamping and fussy cutting some Leaf Prints, one on a musical themed patterned paper (Theresa Collins, perhaps) and the others with Distress Inks on watercolor paper. Then the red berries from Spruce and Sprigs with some Glossy Accents. The acorn sticker is from Little B. I die cut a stitched circle from Rustic Cream paper and mounted it on a piece of woodgrain (again from the inspiration piece) paper from MME. The die cut (from Ripe Avocado) and stamped sentiment are from the Color Pop Autumn Mini-Market Kit, which is turning out to be a great purchase. Then I popped it all up with some fun foam and added it to a Canyon Clay card (to pick up the orange in the inspiration piece) and added a stitched strip to the bottom of the card for a little added interest. 

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Off to see what inspiration is linked up for the hop. There are 12 birthdays in November on my calendar, and I need to make a lot of cards.

Memorandum Monday

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Waving to Sian and the Monday Memorandum folks recounting weekend adventures and things learned.

The weather was pretty awful all weekend. After being spoiled for so long with warm, sunny weather, we were inundated with rain and cold winds. Friday was particularly dreadful. The rain never stopped all day, and the wind was so strong you had to fight to keep the umbrella right side out! Friday, however, was saved by our very first charity event. We regularly donate funds to several local organizations, but we've never attended a fund raiser before. This one was held at City Hall downtown, and the first floor and second floor balcony were filled with tasting stations from local restaurants, bakeries, wineries, breweries, and distilleries. It was held to raise money for Cameron Ministries where I volunteer twice a week in the after school program. I was delighted to see it so well attended.

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Saturday was a bit better since the rain was intermittent, but it was still very windy and chilly. We were supposed to go to the Finger Lakes with friends, but they backed out. We decided to go to our favorite Amish market just north of Seneca Lake and to the Outlet Center where we both picked up a few new things. We treated ourselves to lunch at Ventosa Winery on Seneca Lake where I had the best escarole and white bean soup I've ever had. They have a fabulous view of the lake.

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So what did I learn this weekend? Well, I started an online class with Ali Edwards two weeks ago called "Hybrid." I've been having this ongoing debate with myself about whether to stick with hybrid scrapbooking or to go digital with my Project Life pages. In September, I finished Cathy Zielski's class,"Scrapbook Your Year," where she documents every month digitally and makes a photo book each year. I see real advantages to that system, but I can't quite give up the paper. So I'm going to stick with hybrid for 2017 at least. 

The best thing to come out of Ali's class so far is her system for organizing digital supplies. Despite the fact that I've been primarily a paper scrapper, and only in the last year or so a hybrid scrapper, I had accumulated a HUGE supply of digital files, most of which I downloaded for free over the last 7-8 years. Her system of organizing by theme made so much sense to me, and in about 4 hours time, I had organized my digital files, and reduced them by about 75%. The 25% I kept are ones I'll use (and most of them I paid for.) Each category of digital supplies (brushes, kits, templates, etc.) has a set of themed subfolders. The themes vary by supply based on what I have.

Once that was done, I tackled all my Project Life cards, and organized them the same way, reducing them by about the same amount.  Finally, I did the same with my embellishments and stickers, filing them in the same clear envelopes I use to store my clear stamps. The charity shop is getting two shopping bags of goodies later this week. 

Themes

This weekend I learned just how effective it is. In just one afternoon, I finished four months of Project Life pages with the filler and journaling cards and embellishments all in place. It was so easy to find just the items that might work out for a given page. A couple of years ago, Ali wrote in a blog post that the fewer supplies you have, the easier it is to make decisions. That motivated a huge clean-out two years ago, but I still had (and have) way too much stuff. Once my class at the University of Rochester is over, I plan to tackle my craft closet again, and make similar changes there. And once the sun comes out long enough to photograph them, you'll begin to see some Project Life pages once again.