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Week #36 - LIFE'S simple pleasures - the sounds of Summer

 

When you think of Summer today.... or from the past... what SOUNDS remind you of Summer??

 

Lots of traffic honking traveling in and out of the city on a holiday weekend?  Children laughing while jumping in the waves at the beach?  The crack of a baseball bat hitting a home run?? A stereo blaring Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville?? A serene spot on a river hearing the soft ripple of water heading down stream?  The crunch of the first leaves beneath your feet??

 

There are so many sounds of summer! 

 

Step outside right now (or after you finish reading my post!!) for a moment during your busy day, take a breath .... and listen... what sounds do you hear during this summer of 2013?? Simple!

 

Chime in... wont you?

Ding-a-Ling

What are the sounds of summer?  There are so many sounds really.  It would possibly take all the fingers on my hands and all the toes on my feet to count all the sounds I hear when I step outside my door.

And when there is peace and silence and everything is still, it does take me by surprise and I think "what is wrong" ?.... because there is always some sound.

 

When I think of the word summer I think of sun, sand and surf.  When I think of summer sounds, I think of what I hear when my window is open and LIFE just happens in my backyard.

 

It's relatively quiet as I type this.  Almost eerily quiet .... but it's not like this all the time. 

 

On any given day in the summer I will hear: sirens screaming, crickets chirping, frogs bellowing, dogs barking, fire works booming, train whistles tooting, cicadas buzzing, music from a radio or a teenagers' car blaring, lawn mowers rumbling, wind chimes dinging, a fountain rippling, airplanes soaring, birds singing, cars rambling, motorcycles roaring and sometimes I hear the laughter of children playing, the ice cream man dinging, a hot air balloon whooshing and a helicopter hovering.

 

Week #36 - LIFE'S simple pleasures - sounds of summer

 

Just like stopping to smell the roses... have you ever just stopped in place, taken a deep breath, silenced you mind and body... and listened to the sounds around you?  I am so blessed and fortunate that I can hear those sounds ... the sounds of a beautiful summer!

 

Not only is the sun SHINING and the birds are singing... but it's also time for me to go and Brighten Someone's Day!!!

With a Cherry on Top!

You can't buy happiness
but you can buy ice cream
and that is pretty much the same thing!

Week #31 LIFE'S simple pleasures - summer time

As an adult, summer still means, lazy afternoons, flip flops, the beach, a good book and ice cream!

Ice cream has gone gourmet, it now is know as frozen custard, frozen yogurt, sorbet and gelato.

We went to one of our local hangouts where you build your own frozen yogurt cup. They have a choice of about 6 different flavors you can swirl into your cup and then you can go crazy with toppings like: crushed cookies, fresh fruit, chopped nuts, crushed candy bars, cereal, cheesecake crumbles, any kind of chocolate, Carmel & butterscotch chips, sprinkles, syrups and sauces and whip cream!  And even the cherry on top!!

Yum!  or should I say YUMZ!!!!

The family of 4 in line ahead of us probably had never been to this type of ice cream parlor before. Each one made an exquisite frozen yogurt cup topped with ALL of their favorites.... their total bill was over $25. (*I know I'm frugal.... but an ice cream treat for a wee one costing over $6 I think is a bit extravagant, but that's just me!) I remember when..... you could get ice cream cones at McDonald's for .25¢

 

 

Ice cream is BIG business in the U.S. I read that on average each person consumes 48 pints per year.  Some laugh, but think it should be made into the 5th food group! What's your favorite flavor?  I don't have a favorite... I like to always try something different.... variety is the spice of LIFE!

I just read in a book for my book club, the main character made a point that really stuck with me... and it relates to the reason I've picked the topic LIFE'S simple pleasures for my blog this year..."Having surrendered to a simpler life, I am finding excitement in little things, that others might find dull."

 

I know that some of the topics I find to highlight here on my blog can't be relateable to everyone.  My hope is to point out that we truly can enjoy the little things. Probably I write this statement most of all....to remind myself.

 

 If the simple things in life don't put a smile on your face, then you will never be truly happy.

 

LIFE is simple, when you live simply!

 

Just a reminder: When you see large bold text, it is a quotation that I found.  If the author is listed I will certainly give credit, some quotes are 'unknown' or 'found' in a google search.  Most all of the creative greeting cards you see here on my blog are for sale.  I'm a very small business with a big desire to Brighten Someone's Day!!!!

Not so Bumpy

Similar to the Mother's Day card I made, I found a few more cards on KittieKrafts blog to case.  I really am liking the 'frames' because they make the scene pop, but you don't have to worry about buttons or brads or something making the sending envelope get all out of whack for mailing purposes. (However, you wont see any time soon my cards completely change and go from bling to no bling!!)

Using Nestabilitie dies is a great way to get this framed matting look.  Miss Kittie has a few techniques similar to my favorite Zindorf style.  Beach scenes with sand fences, birds flying over the water and tall grasses swaying in the wind all make for that place we'd want to be enjoying a nice cool drink and day dreaming!

I like this card.  I think with a nice sentiment it would be a beautiful card to receive.  The middle frame is all white with no inking or embossing on it... leaving that area nice and crisp and fresh!  Again, with no brads or buttons, this card is much easier to put in the mail and Brighten Someone's Day.

Although very sad, it yet is a part of life.  Yesterday our family attended the funeral of my Godmother. She was 90 years old.  Aunt Millie was my dad's cousins wife.  They had been married 64 years.  It wasn't unexpected, she had been ill and in a nursing home for the last 4 years after a fall and a broken hip. Rest in Peace.

Magic School Bus

I saw this card... well really a similar card, because this is the one I CASed while blog surfing the other day and thought it would be perfect for a back to school letter, note to the teacher, reminder of the hard work ahead. I just love to look at these type of cards and try to figure out how to re-create them with the supplies I had on hand. The library tag (I made a template on my computer) can be easily pulled from the pocket and a surprise note written on it too!

The days are getting better, as I knew they would, and as another mother of a college bound kid said.... it takes about two weeks for things to be the "new" normal. I read that somewhere recently too, it takes 21 days to make or break a habit.

I ran into another mom while walking the dogs.... her daughter is going to a college 15 hours away (Bubba's one way trip is 3-1/2 hours and I thought that was long!) She said her daughter was having some difficulty transitioning. And she is so surprised because her daughter was so strong willed and confident about the choice of going that far away for school. The mom was at a loss of what to do, but support her over the phone. In talking with other parents, it makes me go to that emotional wave of sadness again, but it just reassures me that I am not alone... and of course that we mom's love our children!

I'll repeat a favorite quote of mine: Nothing lasts forever- not even your troubles.

One of our last pictures on the beach of our summer vacation on Hilton Head Island 2011. We had just finished dinner of crab cake sandwiches, lobster grilled cheese and broiled scallops at a locals Main Street Cafe. the cafe got rave reviews on Trip Advisor ... we admit it was very delish and friendly... and wanted to get back to the beach for one last walk on the beautiful white sand and warm Atlantic water.... the sun was setting on the other side of the island and we needed to move fast if we wanted to get any pictures. Good thing our 'daddy' has long arms to get us all in the picture!

This is my version of slowly working into to collage art. I think I need to take a class, or get tips from my collage artist friends. I stamped the background paper and inked it... and then with some glimmer mist something like Mod Podge... I put my text on. The card is really stiff.... I like the machine stitching around the edges and the pretty heart eyelet. Fun 'love' card. Hear the words sung by Faith Hill.

Today, give a stranger one of your smiles. It might be the only sunshine he sees all day.

Blowin in the Wind

Although this particular beach in Hilton Head SC didn't yield any surprises as in colorful shells, round sand dollars or left over sea erchens... it lends itself to creating a fun beach scene from a recent Zindorf tutorial. If you ever want to see how amazing Michelle Zindorf is... you can always click the right side of my blog on her link and it will take you directly to her site!

This card has it all :foam, water, wet sand, dry sand, swirls of the wind and dimensional popped up images....

Your own need to be

Sh!nes out of any dream

or creation you imagine.

James Earl Jones

Lickety Split

Know what's weird? Day by day nothing seems to change... but pretty soon everything's different.
Calvin & Hobbes

That's how I'm feeling lately.... just like both of these cards.... all the images are the same....yet different.... working on the color challenges for my on line class and then CASe-ing lots of cute cards. Impact statement.... multiples. Used oval punches and corner rounders and word punches. More details if you want them. :0)

People's blogs are different. Oh yes! it's a good thing...but before in the olden days I liked when they talked about their family, or their adventures, or their cards, or their crafts... now all of a sudden (yeah, right) I'm being bombarded by advertisers in the right column, advertising in the left column, links to blog hops and other places I NEED to go to. It's almost getting hard to read the good stuff... the words in between the spaces.

People down the street in the next block are all using generators. We only had about a 10 minute outage yesterday. The final branch that cracked in the wind splintered off the tree this morning. Jeff should be getting home from Italy today... I'll let him help me figure out what to do with 4- 8" round branches that are 30 feet long! So happy this is all that our drama is about!

Peggisms: made up

Boom boom, ain't it great to be silly? boom boom, ain't it great to be silly like us, be silly and foolish the whole day long, boom boom, ain't it great to be.... silly!

I think a card, a silly card.... should put a smile on your face. This one seems to be part smiley face and part flower... and the tongue hanging out... is just silly!!! Just doodles!!

Wow... I think I like the definition in the Urban Dictionary better: to be funny in a cute way. If I look it up in the Wiktionary is states that silly is: weak-minded or lacking good sense.

Then I wondered why we have so many dictionaries... it's a form of freedom of speech for the slightly different vocabulary... Urban Dictionary is more hip and relates to those from the younger computer generation. A real dictionary.... a book with thousands of pages with millions of words with definitions for the older generation who doesn't know how to work a computer... in an instant, however, at our finger tips on the computer is the wiki series, which means you can edit it (to suit your definition of what is.... is!)

I like the fact, if you don't like the definition of a word, you can create your own, and call them 'isms'..... Peggisms.... adorkable..... a goofy silly kid,that is just too too cute, adorkable@@

Who can make the sunSH!NE?

No one wants to be SAD or (*seasonal affective disorder), especially in the summer time .... so I'm creating my own Happy SunSH!NE here on my blog. HAPPY cards!!!! You get tired day after day, same ole same ole, it gets boring and if you have chosen to be sad... You can certainly CHOOSE to be HAPPY! Right? I think? It's about day 4 or rain and clouds here in the midwest, rain gauge says about 2" of rain in the past 3 days.... it's SUMMER time.... come on get HAPPY!!!

Happy, smiley, SH!NE-y, fun cre8tive greetings. Bright yellow for the ball of fire, blue for the perfect summer time sky (clouds, go away) and fun activities that can be done on a beautiful day!!

Oh mister SUN, sun... Mr. Golden Sun, please shine down on me....

Definition of happy is: characterized by or indicative of pleasure, contentment, or joy, a happy mood, a happy frame of mind.

Happiness is different for everybody and is largely affected by the conditions that are around us. Having a positive attitude can help create happiness. The antonym of happy is sad * see above.

Keep smiling, it makes people wonder what you are up to!

You've got True Form

Because imitation is the highest form of flattery.... I thought that maybe I would add that to my title on the blog... but I did a little follow up and found this...the higher compliment is to emulate (match or surpass) them, not imitate them. As you can tell, I must have great guilt over copying or CASe-ing all these cards I showcase on my blog. For me, the challenge is re-creating with the materials I have on hand... which means doodling, not stamping... which means using the paper I have in my stash... not going out to purchase the exact brand and style.

Okay, so if I justify it this way... I surpass the original art by adding my cre8tive hand and because in most cases I doodle (or draw) the image, I am truly original to the actual art itself. Do you think that will make it better???

It's going to be a hot day, but it is a beautiful morning. I've been out watering and enjoying the birds chirping and the fresh clean air. I am so fortunate. Some of our bushes and trees seem to have gone wild overnight... branches are popping out all over.

Here's the scoop!

Ready for your icecream cone to start melting before you get your first lick?? These cones are $1 stamps from M's! Inspired from Markie's Mom for all the dots... each cone has a raised popped up scoop of ice cream, topped with a cherry that is sparkling because of a red gel pen. On the second card I used the cuttlebug swiss dots background. I also found in my stash some brown ribbon with dots, love the chocolate brown with the pink!! What type of icecream will you have today?

Fun, fun, fun

Man, I just had the bestest post about this card and my blog space would not accept it, so now I have to try and type my great thought once again! This card is inspired off of SCS and Tater's blog, where she describes it from Zindorf's blog. And you can only understand what I'm saying if you are a card making blog hopper!!! This technique is using light to dark inks and smearing them into each other. I used acrylic craft paint to get the white foamy affect. Flip flops are drawn, cut out and then popped up. I so love being inspired. This technique is so easy to do, but I would not think about it unless inspired by the great card artists out there!
It has been a good card day!
PS - do you ever actually click on the picture??? If you do, it brings you close up to the card and you can see any little mistakes I make, or you can really see the blending and the ink color. This is so cool!