Another Anniversary and a Birthday

I did make a card for HWNSNBP for our anniversary but not recently.  It was something I had in my stash from a few years ago and I didn't take a current picture of it.  I can tell you though that it had 2 lovebirds on the front.  Maybe I'll get a picture in the next couple of days when it gets sunny again.  

As we've done for the past few years, we planned a little day trip down to Cape May on Friday so we left for the condo on Thursday afternoon hoping to get a little fishing in before we lost the sunlight.  Well, we were the only ones out there fishing and much to our dismay, we didn't stay long because we were pretty much attacked by a gang of sea gulls.  They weren't attacking us but our fishing lines and bobbers.  No sooner did we cast into the water than they were hovering over the bobber ready to grab it and pull it up to get the bait off the hook.  Of course, if you yank it back at the wrong time you run the risk of hooking the gull and trust me, you're not going to pull that gull in.  You're definitely going to lose the hook and bait but if you're lucky, the bobber will remain.  After a few attempts at trying to fend them off, we gave up and went back to the condo.  Not more than 15 minutes later I noticed that someone pulled into the parking lot across the street where the dock is and proceeded to feed the gulls from their car.  Needless to say, it's not legal and frowned upon to do it, but there are those regulars that come several times a day.  So the sea gulls have become accustomed to it.  The plus for the evening was catching a beautiful sunset.

We took our time leaving for our trip the next morning and regretted it when we got down there as it was very busy with people so we didn't stay long.  We also didn't eat at the Lobster Dock like we usually do because it was extremely windy from the impending storm.  Instead, we got back on the Parkway and went to the Grilled Cheese and Crabcake Company in Somers Point for lunch.  

On the way back from lunch we stopped in Manahawkin at Anna Banana's Bakery to check out what they had advertised as their Harry Potter Week celebration.  

We entered at 9 3/4

We checked out what they had in the case.  There was much more spread around the shop including specialty HP cookies, candies, and even pretzel wands.

I ordered a butterbeer which tasted like an extra fizzy cream soda with caramel on the whipped cream.

And I also got a sorting hat cupcake (which fell over in the car, thus the messy top).  HWNSNBP ordered another non-HP treat and we enjoyed those later when we got home.

Apparently I have been sorted into the House of Ravenclaw and I think that these characteristics do fit me to some extent - witty, intuitive, intelligent, quick-thinking, creative, wise, and independent.  

The cupcake was delicious by the way.  That was a brownie cookie for the brim of the hat and the filling was icing.  

Saturday was my mother's birthday and I did make a brand new card for her.  It started with some watercolors blobbed onto a watercolor paper postcard to which I added a die cut of a bouquet of flowers.  Then I added a stamped Happy Birthday sentiment popped up.

I did a few of those watercolors to have on hand.

 

I whipped up a pistachio pudding pie that HWNSNBP took over to her in between all the rain.  We've had just a little bit short of 2 inches over the last two days and more in the forecast for tomorrow.  

HWNSNBP picked up flowers and ice cream (pumpkin/graham cracker) for me today, our 46th anniversary.  And it was quite by accident that while I was going through some boxes that we had stored in our bedroom, getting things together to donate to a rummage sale, that I came across this.....

our wedding cake topper.

Wish It Were Closer

Something came up in my IG feed earlier this summer about a place that we kind of pass by on our way back and forth to Delaware in Swedesboro called Hens & Honey Coffee Shop.  What really intrigued me was the drink that they were featuring at the time for Shark Week which I honestly thought that I had made a post about already, but apparently not so let me catch up a bit. 

It takes about an hour and a half to and hour and forty-five minutes to get there from here but HWNSNBP had a free afternoon and was up for the drive to have a late lunch.  We found it no problem - only a few minutes down the road and one turn - easy peasy.  

It's a little cafe with a couple of bistro tables outside and a few inside which happened to all be taken when we got there, but we moseyed up to the counter and besides ordering our Shark Week drinks, ordered some of their delicious gourmet toast open-faced sandwiches.  They took our names and said they would call us when we were done so we rounded the corner to look for a place to sit.  There were a couple of high-top seats against the wall that were open and we were on our way there when a nice couple around our age asked if we would like to sit at their table as they had 2 open seats.  We looked at each other (HWNSNBP and I) and decided to join them.  It was a very nice conversation and we learned that they considered themselves "regulars" as they came pretty often for the coffee drinks and lunch.  They stayed and talked with us as we ate our lunch and after I had taken pictures of the food and drinks, offered to take our picture.

The shark is a finger puppet and they put the berry syrup in the mouth too.  I saved the sharks for the grandsons but forgot that the cups were printed with the Shark Week logo and we threw them away unfortunately.

They had a little bit of a vacation break at the beginning of August but we managed another visit just before Labor Day in time to try their Fall Coffee Flight which consisted of coffee drinks flavored called Jack O'Lantern (pumpkin spice), Pecan Lane (pecan), Flannel Jacket (maple), and Harvest Moon (pumpkin pie).  

We also had the gourmet toast again and it was just as delicious as the first time.  I'm anxious to get back to try the affogato flight that they're featuring for the fall before it goes off their menu.  We missed out on their ice tea flight this summer.  I would love it if there was a place like this near us and we didn't have to travel as far.  They're not open on Mondays and Tuesdays and they also have gift-type merchandise in the store, plus they have a second store that's a boutique that I haven't been to yet as they're not opened on Wednesdays which is when we've been to the coffee shop.  Not sure I can talk HWNSNBP into visiting that one with me...... but we'll see.

Jingle Belles - Merry Sketch-Mas

The lovely Stephanie has provided a sketch for this round of the Jingle Belles challenge.  I'm once again squeaking in under the wire with my card.

Here's the sketch - 

I found this die on my work table while I was working on a birthday card that I need for later this week and remembered the sketch I had seen on the JB blog using a hexagon.  The physical die actually has the straight 6 sides to it but when you cut it out you get the snowflake.  I used some gold metallic thread to add the stitching forgoing beads at this time.  We were having work done in our basement today involving jack hammers and a lot of noise and doing this "embroidery" on paper helped keep my sanity a little closer to normal (for me at least).  I did two of them and then I had to decide what other elements to add to conform to the sketch.  There was some trial and error involved ..... taking more time of course...... and then I thought I had misplaced the second snowflake and spent a good amount of time searching for it before I found it in and amongst the other pieces of the cards that I was going to complete all along.  The little town scene in the circle cut is from last year's Unity advent calendar and the sentiment is from an old Stampin' Up set.  I struggled with the embossing of that sentiment because I didn't use the fine embossing powder the first time and it was very broken up.  Luckily I had been using my Misty and hadn't removed the stamp from the lid yet and was able to add more VersaMark ink and emboss it again with the finer powder.  I think it still doesn't show up too well against the dark green background paper, but I'm letting it ride this way.

I hope to be back on track with the JB challenges for the next several months and may go back and do a few that I missed so that I have all the cards that we'll need.  This summer has been busy with family events and life changes that I'm still trying to adjust to, but hopefully more arting will be in my future to share.  Please check out the Jingle Belles blog by clicking here to see all the other wonderful creations.

A Little Tangling Practice and a Ramble

I came across a post on a tangling site that pictured a tangled piece by Tomas Padros that used hexies as a base and explored some of the hex-based tangles on Tangle Patterns.  I have a pack of hexie index cards and they were perfect for this exercise.  In the first one you can see some of the variations.

This nest one is based on Tomas' tile.  Trust me, it looks complicated but it's repetitive and simpler than it appears.  In my case I did have the hexies to begin with as my base.  It would be harder to lay down the "bones" of the hexies by hand first I'm sure.  

I fooled around with it some more.  Kind of reminds me of a chainmail bracelet I made once.

Then I saw a step out for this acorn tangle by Annie Reiser, CZT called, Annie Oakie.  She also had a Youtube video showing how to add the oak-leaf tangle (I forgot to write down the name) to the spray and left it up to the tangler to embellish with other tangles and background.  I think I'm going to try this in color too (and work on making those acorns not so wonky).

There's a big rummage sale coming up sponsored by the Visiting Nurses Association and I'm not planning on going, but rather, thought it would be a good idea to go through some "stuff" to see what we could donate.  (This is a huge sale on a fairgrounds with many large tents with different categories of items and they make a lot of money during their sale.)  I found a basket of bits and bobs from when the kids were little and found some memories.  One of them pictured below.

This little elephant brooch, minus the fastener now, took me back to the early 60's.  I remembered that I had gone to the Englishtown Flea Market with my grandparents, I think I was in the 4th grade at the time.  When I got home (we lived upstairs in my grandparents house), one of my great uncles came to visit later in the day and my grandfather told me to show him the pin.  I remember my uncle made some kind of comment about not many people would be happy to wear that pin after the elections and remember being very confused about that statement.  It wasn't until years later that I realized that he was referring to it being the mascot of the Republican party and this was  the election after JFK had been assassinated and things were going the way of the Democratic party then.  I just liked elephants at the time and thought it was pretty cool.  Like I mentioned, it's broken now, but it didn't go into the donation box or in the garbage.  I'll slip it back into my jewelry box and when I'm gone and they're going through it, the memory that went along with that little elephant will be gone too.  But I wasn't ready to part with it yet, even though it had been hiding for all these years. There were other memories that went into the 3+ boxes of "stuff" that HWNSNBP took yesterday to the drop off.  Only a small portion of what we still have to go through.  

Anniversaries and a Special Request With a Glimmer

There are two couples that celebrate their wedding anniversaries back-to-back in September and sometimes I cheat a little and make the same card for them both but usually in different colors.  In this case I knew that the first couple had green as their wedding color (only because we were in that wedding party) so I went with the green background.  I only wish I'd used a darker shade for the sentiment so it showed up better.  But I stamped and embossed the heart motif on the background paper first just using clear embossing powder. 

I'm not sure what color the bridal party wore at the other wedding but I know the bride's favorite color is pink and I usually go with that color for them.  Again, I used clear EP on the background.  I liked using this die with the two birds as a couple.

Two birds as a couple showed up in this card also.  Our former school superintendent reached out to me in late July to make a personalized wedding card for her nephew who was getting married in NY in September.  I don't usually do requests outside of the family but in this case I did as a pay-it-forward (or backward) for something she had done for me before she moved out of state.  She had given me a whole bunch of craft punches, stickers, and a few other miscellaneous items she no longer wanted from her craft stash.  She makes pottery and was going to mainly focus on that in her retirement so I was the beneficiary of some nice things she was getting rid of and she wanted no reimbursement for them at the time, so I used that as an agreement to make the card for her in repayment.  

I've made wedding cards for Rachel to give to her friends in the past, and even with those that I make that I need I usually take into consideration the colors if they're known, the design of the invitation (theme), or their hobbies or collections.  The info I got on this couple was that they lived in Queens NY and loved NYC, had a corgi that they loved, and her name is Raven and his Steve.  I had this tree die that I hadn't used yet with the birds on the branch and the heart carved into it.  I watercolored it and added their initials to the heart.  I also found a stamp I had of a crown which is the symbol of Queens.  I stamped it and embossed it in gold EP.  I was able to trim down the stamp to get a crown the size that I needed to fit on the heart.  I found a stamp of a corgi with a heart on the chest which I thought would be perfect.  That was fussy cut out and popped up in front of the tree. For the background I cut some rectangular strips of cardstock in grays and blues and lightly drew in hints of windows with colored pencil which are supposed to represent the NYC skyline.  The sentiment was embossed in gold and die cut with a word bubble die that resembles a cloud.  I framed the tree and background with an embossed piece of cardstock.

I e-mailed her a picture and she liked it so I mailed it off to her in North Carolina.  I was pleased to see that the wedding was this weekend and she messaged me to tell me that the "card was a HUGE hit and they are planning to frame it to hang in their home".  That was certainly a "glimmer" in my day.

If you haven't heard about glimmers, this is something that has been going around lately -  

A Little Guide to Glimmers

~ Glimmers are the opposite of triggers

~They are tiny moments of awe

~ They spark joy and evoke inner calm

~ They have a positive effect on our mental health

~ They are micro-moments causing tiny mood shifts

~ They send cues of safety to our nervous system

~ They bring feelings of ease and contentment

~ Our body responds with positive energy

~ They allow us to feel hope when lost

~ Our nervous system is strengthened by them

~ They can help increase our well-being

~ Once we start embracing them it can be a beautiful way to see the world around you