Friday, September 16, 2011

One More Taste of Summer…

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“It’s apple-picking day!”, I happily announced to my girls yesterday…so ready for the joys of fall…so ready to let summer pass me by…

But Mother Nature had other plans that day.

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A short drive took us to a beautiful local farm where you can pick your own berries in the summer, apples in the fall…

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The website had said that apple picking began in September, so we were off with thoughts and plans of homemade applesauce, apple pies and apple butter in our heads…

“We’re here to pick some apples today!”, I said to the man in the barn…

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“Oh, ma’am…it’s a little too early.  They won’t be ready for you to pick for about three more days”…What?!

“You can still pick strawberries, though, if you’d like”, he said, a bit apologetically…

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I was crushed!  Wished I had called ahead to make sure…but, not wanting to leave empty-handed, we decided to walk to the strawberry fields and pick our fill…

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We’d been a bit sad, this summer, as we hadn’t gotten our usual bunch of wonderful strawberries from our generous local farmer friends—we were gone too much this year…but the opportunity hadn’t passed us by, after all…

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I imagined that there wouldn’t be many good berries left for the picking this late in the season…Oh my, was I ever wrong!

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Perfect, succulent, red & bursting, we collectively picked an overflowing flat-full…

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DSC06039_edited-1{so happy that Daddy had some time off & could join us on our adventure!}

Juice-stained fingers, full bellies and happy hearts…we headed for the car, homemade strawberry shortcake plans for dessert that night filled our heads and our conversation as we walked…

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Walking back down the lane through the heavy-laden apple trees, I smiled to myself…

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“You should never rush the seasons”, I seemed to hear Mother Nature say…

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…and we’ll be back next week for the apples…

DSC06031_edited-1 {my new hair…what do you think?!}

Sweet lesson learned.

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See you soon with something new…

Julie

{Strawberry card made today…just to remind me to savor the sweet summer days…the vintage strawberry image is found in Crafty Secrets’ Garden” Creative Scraps…paper from their new “Creating with Vintage Patterns” CD}

Monday, September 12, 2011

Vintage Beauty

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Hello, my friends!

Just came back from yet ANOTHER family trip…more to tell you about later this week!

But for now, just a fun & simple layout to share with you…

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I’ve been playing with a wonderful new kit from Vintage Street Market

Family Fun Paper Kit

…the “Family Fun Paper Kit”…

The page in the kit was so beautiful as it was, that I didn’t want to add or change too much…

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…just added a copy of a beautiful photo of my great-grandmother, Estella (a true beauty all her life—inside and out…)

DSC05946_edited-1 {is any vintage portrait complete without a framing of Platinum Stickles?  I don’t think so!}

…added a little journaling tag from the kit, topped with her name and a few fabulous vintage buttons from my button stash…

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…cut out and popped up additional images of the toiletries…

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…and powder—had to glitter them up a bit, too, of course!

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And that’s about it!

Sometimes a page—or a person—is perfect…just as it is!

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Hope your day is wonderful…where will you find beauty today?

Julie