100DayProject Day 19 | Card 10

I was happy to finish Card 10. I found it a bit tricky to learn how to use this layering stamp set using yellow ink; it’s not that easy to see the earlier layer for alignment.

Card 11 – inspired by Altenew All About Layering 4 Lesson 5a

I had some extra flowers from when I made some for Card 10 so I decided to try to use them for my Card 11. As you’ll see below, the inspiration photo has a black background and the instructor coloured the white edges around the flowers and leaves black. Rather than having a black background, I decided to try to use of the extra backgrounds made for Card 9. I haven’t finished the card yet, but my preliminary impression is that colouring the edges turquoise for a turquoise background isn’t quite as effective as colouring edges black for a black background. Where I didn’t have much white outline, the turquoise became more green and didn’t really match the background turquoise. And black seems more natural against the leaves or flowers where there is overlap; turquoise seems a bit weird. I haven’t glued anything so I may decide to trim off the turquoise border where there is overlap.

Thankful Thursday

It was a beautiful morning for a walk. Crisp, fresh air. Hard packed snow and grippy ice underfoot. The trail conditions seem to change daily. As does the sounds and look of the stream. It was quite pretty this morning with fresh and interesting ice formed around the small waterfall area. That is such a nice spot to pause and take a few deep breaths to savour being outside and to really take in the sights and sounds of nature. Lots of birds chirping. The bubbling and gurgling of the stream.

I am going to stick with a Thankful theme for today and likely some upcoming Thursdays. I want to try to remember to take some photos during the week of small (or big) things that I’m thankful for to share on Thursdays. I really enjoyed doing that when I was regularly writing Thankful Thursday newsletters.

If you are reading this I hope that you will pause for a moment to reflect on some small (or big) things for which you’re thankful.

I am thankful for …

licorice tea and the lovely tea cup that Lynda gave me several years ago … and for the other favourite tea flavours and mugs that I have on hand to warm up my mornings.

blackberry almond scones from Vicki … and having Stef home for the weekend and being able to share one with him freshly warmed up from the freezer …

help from my Crafty Crew to make my card kits … and for being able to spend time connecting them while making the card kits … and for time connecting with my Creative Cards and Crafts participants when we put the cards together … and for having completed cards ready to send out to brighten someone’s day

taking the time to create cards for myself … and for the instruction and design inspiration from the Altenew courses that I’m taking.

On Thankful Thursday’s I’m also going to try to share photos of Thank You cards that I have sent during the week leading up to and including each Thursday.

Throwback Thursday (to Tuesday 13 March 2012 – Crafty Creation)

• The 19th anniversary of our first date; skiing at Mont Ste. Marie, mistakenly arriving 1/2 hour before the lifts opened. Roland had moved to Ottawa from Toronto the year before and had been pestered for several months to call me by his U of T, match-making friend Gerry from Toronto who was married to my Waterloo friend Karen. We had a great ski day which included Roland handily fixing my binding which broke during a mogul run. I’m so lucky to have him taking great care of me ever since them.
• I stopped at Country Grocer on the way home: a roast chicken and some hashbrowns were my non-pasta/non-tomatoey dinner selection.
• Stef didn’t join us for dinner since he was still over at Kyle’s, having gone to Rideau by bus with Kyle and Kyle’s friend, Alexi (or something like that), during the afternoon.
• Heidi entertained us at the dinner table with her abilities to independently raise her eyebrows, flair her nostrils and wiggle her ears. I had suggested that it would have been better to exercise the inside of her head (during those long hours at school, apparently with quite a bit of idle time to master such talents) rather than to exercise the outside of her head. Not necessarily a highly useful claim to fame, but certainly an entertaining one.
• Heidi had a skating treadmill session over at OSPC. We were grateful that her teammate, Emma’s mom was able to bring Heidi along with Julia Y and Erin.
• Heidi’s hip, which she hurt in a quirky fall a while back, was acting up a bit yesterday after her run to/from Emma’s and was sore again today after ‘skating’ so Roland made a doctor’s appointment for Friday to get a physio referral.
• I worked a bit on a scrapbook layout while listening to an online class video before my walk.
• Dawn, Kyle’s mom, was the only other walker out today despite the gorgeous weather. A high of 16 degrees; crazy for early March in Ottawa but well appreciated. So many families are away for March Break; I’m not sure if the slopes are holding onto much snow and I’m not nearly as envious as I had been of the south-heading friends since we are experiencing such great weather here.
• Heidi’s after dinner activity was some volleyball in Emma’s driveway then likely inside since I doubt they played until 10:00. Somehow trumpet practice didn’t get done; she hesitates to practice in the day since Roland doesn’t really like it, especially in the midst of working from home.
• Stefan had declined a ride home from Kyle’s with Dawn, claiming instead that he had a light and could ride home. He stopped in at Bennett’s on his way home so hasn’t yet had a discussion with us about that (wrong) choice nor about his increasingly frequent and inappropriate tendency to forget to ask permission/consult us about his plans; we are getting very upset about how he seems to assume he can just do whatever he wants and often has things much to far in planning stages with his friends before even mentioning it to us, much less it actually occurring to him to seek our permission.
• Roland did the dishes then tackled some more editing of ringette Provincials photos.
• My decluttering focus for this evening was my craft room; slowly but surely I’m working my way down to the work surface. I am so looking forward to having it totally cleared so that I can actually to some scrapbooking and cardmaking.
• It is fun to come across some of Heidi (and occasionally Stefan’s) old crafty creations during the clean-up process.
• Posted at 10:58 p.m.

It is so interesting to read about what was going on 13 years ago and to see a few photos from that day. I am still battling with trying to declutter my craft things. I am still posting my blog entries much later than I would like. It’s nice to have Stef home from Toronto this weekend and it is fantastic that he still has much the same friend group that he did back when he was 12. Heidi’s still playing ringette, sometimes with hip issues. I’m still walking almost every Tuesday night and the group of ladies still includes Dawn. I still love when I come across something that the children or a friend have made. I’ll have to ask Heidi if she can still wiggle her ears, raise her eyebrows and flair her nose. She’s a high school math teacher now and is spending the day at a coffee shop with a colleague to try to get focused on an extra qualification course she’s currently enrolled in. Roland’s still taking great care of me and fixing everything around the house and cottage.