the work week is half way over

So today we have freshmen orientation day at school. Shouldn't be too bad and I will say that work is eazing itself in. But I am tired at night, a bit at least. It is from getting up-a little earlier each day and also not being outside. I do miss my morning walks, and my time in the sun. That's because I get cooped up inside at school. Not too big of complaints though, especially since I have Friday off and it is suppose to be beautiful. YAHOO! Plus I am not staying really late this week at work..those days will be here soon enough.

I like this card. I started with a base of pink cardstock and then took a piece of torn watercolorpaper and stamped a rose background (I believe Stampa Rosa) and then washed the whole background with some pink watercolors...just a light wash as you can tell. And I took a light green Copic marker to color in the leaves. Then I stamped the dragonflies, bee and butterflies (all Hero Arts) and colored them also with Copics. I added the twig-which is from one of those K and Co. packages. Then I stamped the saying twice, once on the card and once on some clear acetate, cut out the acetate and match it to the writing underneath and glue it down. I like to do that because it makes the black words so very distinctly black and visable. I also restamped the glittery butterfly on white paper, colored it and glued it down over the one below it to make it pop up a bit. I also added some glitter to it using some Spica gel pens. Fina 2 steps, I added the twine and then I put some tiny Viva orange dimensional dots in the corners.

I hope you get out and enjoy some of your day in sun...do it for me!



Made it through day 1

Not that I had any doubt I would. This was the first day of my 27th year teaching at present school, the first day of my 28th year teaching high school.

It wasn't even a stressful day.

I think the biggest stress I had was when I came home and scrap journaled my NC photos for a couple hours...had a general dissatisfaction...thought it was my pages...and then decided it wasn't the pages but it was the flow of one page to the next. They just didn't work together.

Glad to figure it out-it does take one thing off your tired mind...if you know how it is when you just don't like the way something you create. It kind of gets under your thoughts and nags at you, keeps picking and poking and your brain just keeps turning it around.

Latest read. Have never read one of her Tracy Chevalier's books but am enjoying it.

So here's a couple of quick snaps I took yesterday morning on my way to work- of the minor damage from  hurricane/tropical storm Irene.

Don't know if you can see it or not but there's a tree down in the road pulling an electrical wire down with it. And you can see all the leaves down and some little branches down on my road and driveway.

We were lucky...no basement/house flooding, only lost power for a couple of hours...I am grateful.

Happy Tuesday

Back to School

It's the official start of the work year for me!

Summer has been great, went at a nice pace, was a lot of fun, and now it is ALREADY time for routine, schedules and productivity.

I don't mind working but don't want to give up my laid back mental mode.

But in another way, the schedule will feel good.

Tough to give up the can do it today or tomorrow mind frame.

Tough to give up the morning walks and the hours in the studio playing.

Not that I can't do either AFTER work.

I do hate the having to get up and be on a time schedule.

But I've done this for so long I can do it some more.

I am writing this Sunday evening and so I am assuming we have work and the storm hasn't changed anything. Since our power is back and we didn't get the storm as bad as they originally said-Irene moved a bit west of here-but we did get TONS of rain and some wind...my yard is covered in leaves- but not the issue some people had so I will count my blessings.

So my card for today is more because of my mental health rather than physical health. I started with a long pink cardstcok card and I stamped red crosses over it, using Kim Hughes' feel better set from Cornish Heritage Farm set. Then on white I stamped the little buggies from that same set and colored them with some nice bright Copics.  I also added the stethescope. Then I attached it, added the sayings, and that was it. VERY SIMPLE but a fun little card to cheer up anyone, even me in my back to work mode.

Have a great day yourself...and if you're a bit down in dumps yourself

feel better soon!

Irene

Posting this Sunday but writing it Saturday night as I am NOT sure whether we'll have power Sunday...not sure what this storm will be- a big wet blow or a big bust? Plus I am watching a DR Who mini-marathon before the new shows start again tonight at 9. Can't wait.

Spent my Saturday running around-LOL-here's a card for that kind of day. Not that I've done much art this past week-I did finish scrapping some OLD Grand Canyon photos from 6 years ago in a travel journal, but this past week was more cleaning, moving things, getting cleaned up for the storm. Yesterday we moved Katie off to school, and I'm both happy and sad about it. I MISS her terribly, but I want her to go to school and have fun and work hard and get an education. I took some moving photos but as usual for me, they're not yet on the computer.

At least Saturday night we had a new DR. WHO and a marathon of the earlier season shows on BBC America...you know what I did when I was being a couch potato after doing all my running around!

So this card...

White cardstock covered with this great old sneaker stamp by Stamp in the Hand. Stamped in both wine colored ink and black ink. Then I added some 7Gypsies paper tape.

I stamped the Converse in a Box stamp (Postmodern Design) on white-stamped in red and then I colored the background this lovely torquoise. Add. Stamp the saying (Stampotique). Add the off white writing which is a scrap from a piece of October Afternon Seaside paper. Stamped the star word (already in a box by Stampotique) and made my own ALL word in a box. To go with the Converse brand of show-do they still make their All Stars? Finally, some red Ranger Dimensional Pearl dots and the corners rounded. AND baby, you have a CARD! 

Anyhow, hope you are safe and dry and maybe even enjoying some sunshine.

Think of me home in the storm-HOPEFULLY with power and crafting up in my studio...

I will let you know later.

100 Places in the USA

So the other day I bought one of these LIFE magazines special travel issues off the shelf at the grocery store check out. I love when I find these special travel magazines with gorgeous glossy photos...gets me dreaming and wanting to go...since I have a BAD case of travel addiction.

Decided to come up with my own list-100 places in the USA I have NOT been to and want to go to. Just to see if I can do this, of course. (so these are only places in the USA and only places I have never been too. They might be a museum, a National Park, a city...where you pick is VERY open. That's the rules...as they say.)

The first 16 are easy-as I want to visit all 50 states and have 16 left to go to. So any place or anywhere in the following states

1-Hawaii

2-Alaska

3-Washington

4-Idaho

5-New Mexico

6-Kentucky

7-Alabama

8-Mississippi

and then we have the big belt in the middle of the USA

9-North Dakota

10-Iowa

11-Wisconsin

12-Minnesota

13-Kansas

14-Nebraska

15-Oklahoma

16-Arkansas

Now, for the other 84

17-Charleston, SC

18-Drive from Miami through the Florida Keys to Key West

19-Glacier National Park

20-Monument/Navajo Valley and the 4 corners-making a big loop that also includes a visit to Mesa Verde Nat. Park

21-Mesa Verde National Park

22-Volcano National Park

23-Williamsburg, VA

24- Ashville, NC and the Biltmore

25-Seattle, WA

26-Portland, Oregon

27-Way  Down East Maine-on the edge of the Bay of Fundy

28-The Hudson Valley, NY

29-the MOMA in NYC

30-The Columbia River Gorge/area, Oregon

31-St. Gaudens in Cornish, NH

32-The Mark Twain House in CT

33- The Emily Dickinson House in MA

34-The Edward Gory House in MA

35-Thoreau's woods and Walden Pond, MA

36-Pittsburgh, PA

37-the Las Vegas sign- been to Las Vegas 2 times and have never seen this sign

38-Big Sur, CA and Monterey

39-The Saguarro National Park, AZ- becauseI want to go somewhere to see BIG cacti

40-Memphis, TN and Graceland

41-Theodore Roosevelt National Park, North Dakota

42-The aquarium in Atlanta, Georgia and Stone Mountain

43-Arches National Park and the other parks in southeastern Utah

44-Wakiki Beach

45-Grand Teton Nat. Park

46-kayak  a smooth canyon river (no white water-I am a whimp)
47-Salvador Dali Museum in FL
48-Buffalo Bill Museum, Cody, WY
49-The Sawtooth/Beartooth Highway in Montana-is that what it is called?
50-Evans Notch, ME,NH ???
51-Sandwhich Notch, NH
52-Boothbay Harbor, ME
53-The Queens Ink Craft store and any GOOD/great Craft store
54-Isle of Shoals, NH
55- Stay at the Mount Washington Hotel, NH
56- have a donut at Voodoo Donuts or some place with CRAZY donuts
57-Jumpin Jays Fish Cafe in Portsmouth, NH

This is hard since there's so many places to list AND there are plenty of cool places I'd love to see but I just don't know what they are...
when you travel you discover them
58-climb a local mnt called Moose Mnt which I'm not sure where it is
59-take the boat up the coast into Maine
60-visit an island in Maine or 2 or 3-there's a lot to chose from
61-historic Nachez, Mississippi
62-stay in the Balsams in Dixville Notch, NH
63-Lenox and other town in Western MA

Let me think about this and finish this up later.
Where would you like to go? Where have you been that you suggest going?

AUGH! Last Day of Vacation is Here

I'm not moaning TOO loudly. It is time to go back to work but I will need to readjust my brain to work mode...busy structured days compared to long, lazy not always productive summer days. But I feel refreshed and more or less ready.

And we're still on the Hurricane watch. Right now we're suppose to get something Monday...so who knows if I'll be going back Monday. But since it is only Friday we're too far away yet to know anything definately...so who knows what Irene will do.  Later yoday we need to help my mother-in-law clean up and we need to pick up...put the lawn chairs out of the wind and take down the bird feeders tomorrow....that kind of thing. And after we move Katie back to school we need to go batten down the hatches on the boat and be sure there's nothing lose.

And tomorrow I move my baby back to College and I'm sad she's gonna be gone...but I know I'll see her since she's in and out a lot and since she wil be home to work next weekend. But right now my livingroom is FULL of her boxes and bags and assorted paraphenalia...

So I am going to my favorite craft store today to just do something for me and fun and something I LOVE to do-shop for craft supplies! On the last day of my summer vacation before I am back to work and the schedule and everything that comes with another school year.

And yesterday I had a great shopping trip- got a couple of things at the GAP outlet and BASS shoes had buy 1 get 2 free so I got some clogs and black sandals...gave Katie the other pair. It was fun to go shopping with my baby.

BUT

Let me show you something out of my studio...

I've been into a lot of orange lately I've noticed. This was a simple easy card but I like how it came out. I started by making a card out of ornage cardstock-obvious.

Then I cut and used some pink polka dot paper and I cut some white paper. The way this is laying makes the white right edge look a bit curved, which it is not-but maybe not quite straight if you want to nit pick it, I never seem to do anything straight, but don't look too closely!  LOL.

Anyhow, I used these fun PAPERSMOOCHES stamps for the fish and stamped a BUNCH of them. I used Copics to color them and some clear Sakura glitter pens for the bubbles.  Then is used just a blush of blue ink brushed on the white paper.  I don't know who makes the just keep swimming stamp- BUT I love it and use it a lot. (Thanks to Finding Nemo too). Finally, a few Viva dots in orange.

Hurricane Watch

We're on the hurrican watch- a good possibility that Hurricane Irene will hit us Sunday night- depending of course, on how it tracks. Wonder what that means for going back to school for us teachers on Monday. UNH has changed their upperclassmen move in day back to Saturday from Sunday, and I can say I have one very excited girl to go back. Especially since she can move back 1 day early!

So I went in and set up my classroom yesterday-though I will say our custodians did a super fantastic job and my room was in great shape when I went in. AND the computer tech people did a great job and had rehooked up all my computers. YAHOO! Then I got my crown put on (which was an ordeal since it was a little too close on 1 side and the cement got out and sealed up the other side). So one and half hours later I got out and went and had a yummy lunch with my friend Joanne. Took a quick stop at Michael's and they were just putting out Martha Stewart Halloween items- got this FUN punch-

It make BIG pumpkins-which you can't tell here!!! Love their silly scary faces. I also got some Halloween tape and a small stamp set all by Martha Stewart-the queen of great Halloween items. I figured I better pick them up before they aren't there any more...and I'll be making Halloween items before you know it.

So since we're doing orange pumpkins, lets coordinate and I'll show you this card. Simple but fun.

I started with the mustard colored cardstock and used a KaiserCraft stamp to do the big swirls. I colored those orange and yellow and then added the white dots with a Uniball white pen (THE BEST white pens I think).

I stamped the flower (from the same clear stamp set as the swirl) on white paper and then colored it in with the orange, pink, purple and yellow Copics. I added a few white dots in the colored parts but left the very outer edge white paper (it has the black zig zagged stamped lines in it). Then I cut out the flower and attached it right in the middle of the swirl. I added the word which is from an older word set by Hero Arts.

So today Kate and I are off to a nearby outlet mall to do some last minute school shopping-for both of us. Something fun to do before the routine sets back in.

Thanks for visiting.

 

Going Into Work

Summer is not over quite yet...the official start of school isn't until next week, BUT since I have to go to the dentist this morning and school is right across the stree, I am going in to set up my room. I need to stop by...I have procrastinated long enough.  Not that I need to do a lot, but the furniture needs to be arranged after it got cleaned this summer and my computers need to be rehooked up. So what a morning-back to work AND the dentist.

Need I say anymore?

I like this sign-I actually love the crazy little crabbies at the bottom and the grey wood. Took this Sunday when we were out in the boat.

Here's a commorant flying low over the water.

Something about the orange color on this life ring makes this photo.

***

Have a happy Wednesday!

Pip, Pip, Cheerio

Here's another card from these awesome London stamps by Artistic Outpost. For this card I embossed some white paper with Tim Holtz/Sizzix gear plate and then rubbed a lot of block ink over it to make it look well used. Then on seperate sheets of white paper I stamped the man, the Big Ben Tower, the sign and a clock (sorry, not Artistic Outpost but an older stamp from the now defunct Postmodern Designs). I colored in the man with Copics. Then I cut these all out.

Meanwhile, I added a strip of cardstock horizontally from the same paper as the card background. To this I attahced the blue underground sign, the man and the Big Ben Tower. Then I die cut in white using  Tim Holtz/Sizzix distressed banners. I took one of these banners and used just one side of it. But before I attached it I distressd it with some brown ink. I stamped the London postmark and the saying. Then I attached  the clock.

Next step, take some Ranger blue Dimensional Paints and make the blue edges to the right side of the card and above and below the saying-flatten out with a little brush and let dry. Then I added some Viva Dimensional dots in bronze (my favorite color) along the blue-I think they kind of look like some type of old hardware heads-which fits this card. Then I used some crackle on the clock and let everything finishing drying.

Thanks for stopping by.

a little of this and a little of that

I have lots to show you today, starting with a few pages from my travel journal from last month when we went to North Carolina.

The cover is shown above. I like to use a board book when I travel because it can't get mushed and bent in my suitcase. But I have used other types of books too. This cover was stained with Tim Holtz stain-I love that stain!- and then overstamped with one of Obsession Impression's Cover a Card stamp. I stamped the grasses-Tattered Angels seaside set, and die cut the sign.

So I created a 3 page flip and this is the top of those pages. I did die cut the sun and sailboat.

And when I lift the top page this is what I did. Cut up postcards, a tag and some oldie but goodie Making Memory Stickers.

And when you do the final lift you get this. The duck stamp is because we stayed in Duck, NC.

I made this page first using gesso on my board book page and then adding this sheet from october Afternoon. The little boy I colored could easily be my hubby when he was a boy and although the girl isn't quite me, it's what he would do. I colored them and added the a dotted circle stamp around them plus a Hero Arts circle heart. At the top I added a Technique Tuesday phrase stamp and I made the vacation film strip with a Hero Arts stamp on seperate paper. I embossed the beach bum words, added some die cut shells, stamped the little saying at the bottom right corner, the OBX sticker I bought and added on vacation...

I use this book as a memory book, and a guide when I do my scrap/travel/journal, as a fun thing to do some art when I'm gone. I love doing the book when I'm gone, and I have a little metal lunch box that I use to carry my supplies.

More pages coming some other day.

*****

So yesterday I finished fixing and reorganizing my book shelf-took my almost all day. Talk about being sore. It was a crispy cool day-GORGEOUS for working. But I did go out in the late afternoon and use some Tattered Angels spray and some Ranger Spray and make some fun colored watercolor paper for later craft projects.

Look and see!

Doesn't look to colorful, kind of like my card on Sunday, eh? Anyhow, colors are brighter than they appear! Can't wait to use it and make some FUN items with it.

So today's agenda?

?????????

It is still open. Any suggestions?

Sizzix Embossing Folders

I know, the top photo isn't centered!!!!!!!

The I know there's 2 of these, but I've lightened the bottom one a bit so the colors are more true to life.

But look at how much better it looks in large format compared to when I make the photo smaller. I actually left the dark wood background because it makes the cards color pop at little bit more.

Interesting I think!

So I was playing around with inking my embossing plates to get some colored designs. I'm not sure these cards  look like me, but sometimes you need something a little more subdued and traditional. I actually like the bottom card beter than the top card, what do you think? Maybe I should figure out a way to add a little bling to zip them up.

So for the top card I took white cardstock and an embossing folder. I inked the flat side of the folder, the side that doesn't make the embossed image, in green. When I ran the paper through the Big Kick  it came out with the embossed image staying white and the other area inked green. Cool. I cut out the embossed image and attached it on this peach colored cardstock-though it looks kind of washed out tan. Anyhow, Istamped a few little daiseys and colored them and then I punched out some bright checked flowers because I felt this card needed color (and not sure these blossoms really do that). I put the bright side down and then flipped the middle section on so you the see the white back of the paper and then for the center I added a fuzzy peach colored brad-which is actually more like the color of the paper. Then of course, I added the saying.

For the bottom card I used a light coco colored cardstock. This time I embossed the image on white paper but flipped the embossing folder so the debossed parts came out green. Think of it as using the embossed image flipped over so the green leaves are actually indented and the brown center is actually higher then the green zig-zaggy border of the oval. Then I ran a brown ink pad over the cut out embossed image. This card was super easy. I attached the image and then added some assorted Prima flowers inclusing one made of felt which does give this card much more texture than the top card. Then I added the words-the big Smile by Hero Arts and the some words by Technique Tuesday.

Went to Barnes and Nobel today and brought the latest issue of Craft Stamper (Aug. since we're always behind the British dates here) and I saw a couple of techniques I want to try this week before I got back to school. EEKS!  Did I say back to school? I did. We had gone boating and almost beached the boat so we pulled out to flush out the engine before we ended up with a BIG repair bill. I really wanted to get another Louise Penny mystery novel- particulary the one that was published before Bury Your Dead-it's a fantastic book (BYD) but now I must read the novel with the crime they keep refering which happened a book earlier-guess that is what happens when you start reading a series well into the series and skip the first several books.

Anyhow...I know this is double post for today, Sunday, but this will be the post for tomorrow too! I've got to finish my bookshelf fixing tomorrow (their just metal cubes connected not real book shelves, and I noticed they were leaning forward, ready to fall, so I've had to unload and tie-wrap them together and readjust the connectors) since I want them done veore I go back to that place of my employment and since I now have books all over my studio where the bookshelves are located...

Have a fantastic day!

Is there such a thing as destiny?

I wonder. I think we each have a lot of control over our lives and our choices, but do we have total control? Does making a choice mean things will happen in our lives that we cannot change? Is there a plan in the universe for each of us that we can twist a bit but not toslly change? See I wonder. I wanted a big family-3 or 4 kids, yet I had only one. Now, I am glad I had only one, and it has been a fantastic journey, one where having only 1 child took me is very different trip than having 2 or 3 or even 4 children. Now I wonder, was the universe only aligned for me to have 1 child even though I wanted more?

I used to want to be a fiction writer, and I wrote all the time. REJECTION after REJECTION. Got a short story published here and there and a novel short listed once, but it always felt like whether I "made it" or not was out of my control. I know that making it doesn't really mean you need to be published. And I know that it probably really wasn't what I was meant to be, as I realized once I rediscovered art since I'd loved crafts as a kid and as an adult but I discovered it as something to let go of stress and put me in a really good place. I discovered what art could do for me and how happy it made me and how it really was something my creative self was really good at ...so then I decided

I'd love to be one of these big artists...you know, be on design teams, write articles for magazines, design my own stamps, work for an art supply company and do something more creative with arts as my career than teach for a career. Like having 1 child, I love my job and it is not a regret...but was there some plan in my destiny why I am not more of a designer? Or is it just that I am not in the right place at the right time? Or is is it just that a place like that hasn't yet arrived in my life? Maybe I took a different turn at some intersection in life and by passed those options.  Or is it I am not exactly aligned to really be that? Or is it...?

I wonder. Sometimes it is fun to think about these things-can drive you crazy if you take those thoughts TOO seriously.

Maybe I wonder too much and maybe this doesn't really make sense. Maybe it is just about being who you really are and not who you think you should be. Maybe you should just let go of all your expectations about what you want out of life and just let yourself fly free in the universe and let destiny take you are to go...if there is destiny that is. Maybe it is just a random journey.

But maybe not.

ANYHOW

Let's look at some art and be a bit less philosophical. (ha-ha! I'm confusing myself.)

Dogs and cat-cards I made one morning.

I LOVE this silly cat by Postmodern Design. I collect their stamps, seeing they are a defunct company. I stamped and colored this silly guy, and then used an Inkadinkado stamp to put down the background meows, and the other words are from an Autumn Leaves set. I colored those in and then added some gold sparkles (only gold for this guy) and the outer edges of the scalloping.

Love this card above. I started by punching out a printed circle, which I attached and then ringed in marker. I stamped the little doggie (CHF stamps) on white paper and colored and cut him out and then attached him. The little dog and the bones on the background are from a dog walker set by My Favorite Things. I used more of those favorite open circles (from a Hero Arts clear stamp set) in the background. I then stamped the saying (Prickly Pear) on green and outlined it with brown.

And lastly this guy who definately has something on his mind. I started with a green cardstock card. Then is used  Sizzix/Tim Holtz embossing plate on white which distressed with some brown ink.  I stamped the dog twice because of the little grass blades in this stamp. First I stamped the dog directly on the card and then I stamped it on white paper. I colored the white paper dog and cut him out and then attached him onto the card, leaving the grass blades (which I colored green) visable. Then I stamped the saying (also CHF with the dog) on the green rectangle, outlined that in green and then put 2 cute little dogbone brads in before attaching all that to the card. Then I added some little round open circle stickers on each corner.

I think my Katie will love to get these cards when she's off to school-in just 1 more week she moves back to school. Should be easier than it was for me last year, but it is coming too soon. I don't really want her to go back, but I do want her to go, just gonna miss her!

Birthday Card

As I mentioned yesterday, the other day I went to one of my bookclub girlfriend's 40th birthday. This is the card I made her. I love it.

I used pink cardstock to start with. Then I texturized some silver striped mateallic paper with a Sizzix texture plate. I then took a glitter gel pen and colored the stars, and I took a Copic glitter marker in pink and tapped the dotted swirls just to give them a glint of colot. All the stamped images are from a Rubber Soul set. I stamped the saying on the same pink cardstock as the card. The girl is stamped on white paper, then I colored her glass drink margarita green (seeing we were going out to a Mexican restaurant). I cut out the images and attached them. I did take the same glitter gel pen and outlined the upper edges of the glass to look like margarita salt.

I'm happy with this card. Hope my friend Melinda liked it (and the copper earrings I made for her too!).

Have a great Saturday all- I don't know what I'm going to do today yet, but hopefully it will be something fun with my family.

Have a great Saturday too!

Playing with the Camera

Today was a humid and lazy day. Went to a 40th birthday party for a friend in my bookclub last night at a local Mexican restaurant and then came home and sat up late watching the recorded episode Project Runway I had missed from earlier that night , so today I was dragging a bit-plus was feeling a bit under the weather- nothing horrible but just not perfect. Anyhow- Played with my camera a bit this morning, when I was walking and up at the lake visiting my daughter while she worked at the boat ramp. Saw the eagle again this morning-think my spirit animal is an eagle, have had too many close encounters with one and I do share some personality traits with them...of course my daughter thinks I'm nuts saying that.

The rest of the day was kind of lazy...just puttered around the house and read my latest read-it's a great discovery Louise Penny and her Quebecois detective Gamache. I'm reading Bury Your Dead and want to read some of the earlier books in this series.

OK, here's some of days photos from my iPhone with my Hipstamatic app-my favorite app.

Doesn't the light play just perfect on this mushroom? Where's the fairy?

Miss Katie

A slight lie-I took this when I was working at the boat ramp last Sunday.

Design on the beach chair

Nice depth to this photo...and nice lighting.

Sign on the end of boat dock.

Merrymeeting Lake-a favorite place

Boat dock at the boat ramp

Sunlight on rocks under the water

Water scene from last Sunday

Another water scene from Sunday

Thanks once again for stopping by.

Snippets of summer

So I want to show you some photos today. Just the right thing to do. Maybe I've been mentally starting to prepare myself for summer winding down and I want to be back into the thick of it. I really do-

Been blueberry picking a couple of times-don't they look yummy?

FUN lobster (I should say lobstah) statue at the marina where we keep our boat

Summer is about the beach, especially since Dave and I went to the Outer Banks of North Carolina for almost a week in July. I am ready to go back.

And  Merrymeeting Lake. Both of these photos are of the lake.

The farm where I picked blueberries and raspberries.

And of course, flowers in my garden. These lilies were beautiful.

I can feel it's starting to get away from us-the mid/late August weather change when we get the first cool nights. Kind of like those cool nights, must admit. So this morning on my walk I was thinking about what I thought summer would be and what it actually was. In a lot of ways it was what I expected, but I did plan of taking more roadtrips once we got back from North Carolina. That didn't happen, but that's not a bad things as I've had a GREAT summer so far and I've been plenty busy...didn't really miss those roadtrips. Maybe I'll take them in the fall, to see the leaves change colors. I will say I did relax and enjoy the summer--really slowed down my pace, and I really enjoyed doing that.

What 's been special about your summer?