Wednesdays Color Throwdown and pictures!

Welcome to the Color Throwdown #180 hosted this week by Lori Tecler!  This lovely combo really had me scratching my head, but another Wryn came to the rescue. 

This adorable digital image is from Tiddly Inks and it was printed on Flourishes Classic White card stock along with the sentiment and colored with Copics.   After coloring I cut out the image with a Spellbinders Classic Rectangle die then sponged it with London Fog from Memento with the die still in place.   All of the paper is from MME, Stella and Rose, Hattie. 

And now check out the other ladies!

Broni ~ Barbara ~ Tammy ~ Lori ~ Wanda ~ Joan ~ Lynn ~ Kerri ~ Kristin ~ Keva and our February Guest Designer Jenny Peterson

This past weekend I went to the Intermediate Copic Certification class in Richmond Virginia and was instructed by the wonderful Debbie Olson.  I also got to meet several fellow CTD ladies and we had a wonderful time!

Here I am with Kristine Eberline at the hotel.  I spent the weekend at Kristin's house and she is a wonderful hostess!  I felt right at home with great food and friends!

 

This is Kristin with Lori Tecler. 

 

 Here is a group shot from the class with Lori on the left, then Broni Holcombe, Barbara Anders, Debbie Olson, and me.  

 

Last but not least, here we are again at Red Robin, getting a little sustenance before heading back to class!  

 

These ladies are all so sweet and I had a wonderful time meeting and spending time with everyone and I hope we can do it again in the near future!  

Wednesday’s Color Throwdown

Today our hostess is Broni and she picked this interesting color combo to challenge us.  And yes, it challenged me!  But before I get into that…
I have re-entered the world of the living!  Hurricane Irene knocked out our power for 5 days and internet for 6.  I had so much catching up to do, but it could have been worse. So, sorry I have been absent for a while.   On the bright side-yesterday was the first day of school!  Lordy, I have been counting down the days! 
First, Joey began the 3rd grade today…

Too cool for school he thinks!
Then my baby…Sean, started kindergarten today. Sigh.  This is the only picture he let me take.  He made a face, hid, or waved his hands every time I pointed the camera at him.  This was taken on the bus on the way home.  Finally, he smiled for me.  He loved it!

Tomorrow is Sean’s first full day of school and my first time ever as a stay at home mom with both kids in school!  Six whole hours alone!  I have so much to do I don’t know what to do first!  I know, deep breath, there will be so many days like this…but I am so excited! 
Okay, now for my card.  My peach parfait is more orange, but I love this paper from DCWV Café Mediterranean Stack.  I used three patterns from the pad.

I used the PTI Mat Stack 4 Collection and Mat Stack die for the main label and sentiment.   The flowers are all from Prima, some with buttons in the center and brads.  The butterfly is a Martha Stewart punch and the body created with Viva Decor Pearls.   The decorative border is another Martha Stewart punch.  
The design team, and our September guestie, has some really beautiful samples to share – so check ‘em out!  And don’t forget to visit the Color Throwdown to enter your own creation this week!  Have a great day!!
Broni ~ Barbara ~ Tammy ~ Kristin ~ Laura ~ Carole and our September guest designer Julee Tilman

Photography and Poetry and Beer

Wait, that should be Beer, photography, then poetry...yeah...

I have a wonderful friend John Radigan who is an amazing photographer, teacher, and writer. I have been very fortunate to have taken several workshops with John. You can visit his website or the Adirondack Photography website for a list of workshops that are offered. It’s a wonderful experience and I highly recommend you take one…or more!

John began a blog called ADKLIGHT to help him put down thoughts as he writes his book. Here his photography has a dream like quality and his poetry thought provoking. Did I mention that he’s single? Well, just sayin’…

Head on over to ADKLIGHT for a daily dose of inspiration…and don’t forget to raise a pint! Happy St. Patrick’s Day! Here’s to you John! You were right, there is a picture of me swilling a pint on my blog! Mmmmm…

ps - I know the photo is a bit blurry but there's a very good explanation for that...the softening reduces harsh lines and wrinkles. It has absolutely nothing to do with me, uh I mean the photographer, being on their second pint.

A visit with the seals

Sunday my family and I decided to take a ride to the east end of Long Island, to West Hampton, to a beach where the harbor seals hang out in the winter. They were very far out…and I couldn’t get much detail of them as a group even with my 300mm lens…of course had I not been too lazy to carry my tripod they might have been a bit clearer. The first picture you can see how far out they were in the bay…they are basking on a sandbar.

Here they are a bit closer…I think they were smiling for the camera!

There were several that were playing in the water…

They kept getting closer…

Curious things they are!

And so cute!

But man it was cold at the beach today! They usually stay here until April, so we will head back again another weekend and this time I will bring my tripod!

Happy Monday! Or not…

Is it really New Year's Eve already?

Yikes! I've been off since Christmas Eve and I seem to have lost all conception of time and day. It's children really...you know they kill adult brain cells, right? Thank goodness they're cute! Anyway, I finally found a way to recover the corrupt files from my cf card from my digital camera. I had taken pictures of some Christmas cards that I wanted to share and also some pictures of my puppy romping through the snow for the first time. I am so glad I was able to recover them. I am just going to post them all here without detail. If anyone wants to know any products please contact me!

I was able to get the back door open after mother nature dropped about 16 inches on us last week and I shoveled this path to the grass in my backyard including about a 3 foot circle for Rosie to do her, uh, business...


After a few cautious steps and a thorough smell down she began to run back in forth in the path.

Then she went for it-an all out romp into the deep fluffy white stuff itself! This is my favorite picture! Can't you just see the joy in that furry face?! The snow was up to her head and when she ran through it it looked as though she was swimming-it was really funny!



Here are a couple of money holders I made to send off to my niece and nephew...I used an EK Success reindeer punch.




This image is from Penny Black...Peas on Earth, get it?! Oh, just cracks me up! Yeah, I'm easy...

Another Forever Bear...I love these cuties!


Oh, and my Bella Carollers. I love these adorable animals!

I wish everyone a very Happy and Healthy New Year! Be back soon with regular posts! Have a great holiday weekend!

High Hopes Challenge #51

Sorry I'm late folks! I got home Saturday afternoon after the most awesome wedding Friday night and then spent the day trick or treating! That was rough when all I really wanted to do was sleep! LOL! Anyway, here is High Hopes Challenge #51 "Snowflakes" hosted by Amy Leggate. I just love making sparkly snowflakes!

I stamped this sweet snowlady on watercolor paper with Versa Fine black ink and painted it with a combination of Twinkling H2O's, Shimmerz, and Blingz. The design paper is from the Eskimo Kisses by Basic Grey and the solid cardstock and ribbon is PTI. The blue mat behind the image is glitter paper from Doodlebugs and both were cut with Nestabilitie dies. I added a snowflake charm to the bow and snowflakes from both Marvy and Martha Stewart punches coated in Diamond Glaze and Martha Stewart Mica Flake glitter. I added a Prima flat backed gem to the center of each snowflake and some dots of Liquid Applique to the flower center on her hat. It's really very shimmery irl!

Come on over to the blog and join in the challenge and take a look at all the wonderful projects from the Diva's!

Now if you want to scroll down a bit I will share a few pics from the weekend...

This is the gorgeous bride and groom. The bride wore stunning bright red satin heels with her dress and the wedding party was in black and the ladies all had on leopard print shoes-they were so elegant and so much fun! I can't wait to see the video!

Of course there are no pictures of my husband and I together...but here's what I got...

This is me with some Marines who'd crashed the wedding...that was fun! There was a dozen of them at least. How cute are they? Wish it was a better picture of me, but that doesn't happen often anyway, lol!

This is my hubby on the right with the limo driver...no he was not invited to the wedding. Turns out he and my hubs knew each other-small world!

This is Sean my 3 year old. He was a medieval knight and this is the only time he would wear his helmet.


This is Joey my 6 year old with his makeup done by dad. He loved being Dracula-he's a natural for the stage...I can see him now, lol!



I hope everyone had a fun Halloween and a great weekend!

Just sharing...

Just a few photo's today...Joey's first day of First Grade-which he loves! And look how big Rosie is getting! Ooh, she's a feisty little one that pup!



I just can't resist this face! She loves her lion and her pacifier...and she treats them appropriately-the lion she throws all over and growls at and the pacifier she carries around and whines. It's very funny!

I know it's not polite to brag

And I know I have mentioned several times that I am a nature photographer and even shared a few pictures...but now here's the proof. I have a subscription to Adirondack Life Magazine as my family has a summer home there on Schroon Lake and I have been vacationing there my whole life. I have been so busy that not only have I been neglecting my blog but also my reading. I got this issue a couple of weeks ago, October 2009, and never even opened it until a friend and founder of the Adirondack Photography Institute, John Radigan, mailed me his copy with a note.


Here on page 28 is a shot I took of a spider web two falls ago with a macro lens. If you look really close you can see the red maple leaf reflected in each water droplet on the web. I have to say that this is one of my very favorite photo's of all time and I was elated, ecstatic, overjoyed, and ridiculously giddy when I opened up to see this! You can read the entire article here.

Now my hubby can stop laughing at me whenever I say I am going to submit a photo to ADK Life Mag-because I've been saying it for years and never did it! Thanks for letting me gloat!

Cool waves and it's a bowling party

It's been so hot here the last week that I wish I was that fish in the water! I hate the hot hot humid weather. I'm a crank when I am sticky, ew! So today the fish is appropriate...the cool colors and waves are refreshing!

This fish school is another new release from Whipper Snapper. It's colored with Copics and paired up with some fun paper from Imaginisce. I punched the top edge of the dp panel with a Fiskars Wave Border punch and added some random raindrops to the dp and for the fish's bubbles. Hello is from the Anna Wight designed set Sending Happy Thoughts.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We celebrated Joey's birthday at a local bowling alley with some of his friends on Sunday. I appropriately made him bowling pin and bowling ball cupcakes. The design came from Hello Cupcake, a wonderful cupcake decorating book. Mine however were less like bowling pins and more like melting ghosts...but in the end they were cute and the kids loved them! And I was done making them by midnight Saturday night and able to take some pictures and get some sleep...so it was all good! You can't expect anything less than last minute with me these days... Anyway, here are some pics!

He's 6 today...

Today is my first borns birthday. My baby is all grown up. How did this...

and this...

become this?


Happy 6th Birthday Joey! I love you!

They call it puppy love

Meet Rosie. She's the newest addition to the Kennedy family. She's 8 weeks old. We picked her up from the breeded yesterday. She's a Petit Basset Griffon Vendeen, or a PBGV for short. I fell in love with the breed when I first saw it on a kennel club competition on tv several years ago. When I researching breeds that would be good with my children this one came up. Needless to say I was thrilled, but I couldn't find a breeder anywhere so I dropped it. Then a few months ago, after searching the local rescues and shelters unsuccessfully I began to research it again and located a breeder in NJ who had a female she'd just bred. The timing was perfect and four months later I picked up this little girl! Now don't think for one second that I got her for the boys...she's all mine!! They can enjoy her too, even my husband, but it got her for completely selfish reasons!

Here you can see her very long ears! She will resemble a shaggy basset hound full grown, although no relation to the Basset. It was hard to any kind of head on shot without her charging for the camera every time I got down to eye level, so here my mom is holding her.

And on another note here's Joey sportin' his new haircut. My kids have always had their kids on the long side...I just love the shaggy bangs! But Joey had been asking for a mohawk, and while I wouldn't go that far, I let him get it shaved short with a little bit extra on top to spike up.


He was so proud and so excited, as you can see, he posed for a few shots. He's shy, like his mom, lol! Sorry, I couldn't help but share! Hope your Monday was good!