Summer to Fall Transitions

(Taken from our upper level deck)

I love fall. It really is my favorite season. I also enjoy other seasons, and particularly the CHANGE that comes with each new season. But my favorite is fall. Always has been.

I love the sounds of fall, like the acorns falling to the ground with a thud, the leaves rustling as the squirrels are gathering those acorns, and the sounds of post-season baseball on TV, especially if the Cardinals are still playing.

I like the smells of fall, like the Pumpkin Bars baking, the fresh coffee in my cup while sitting on the deck, the Pumpkin Pie and Spiced Orange candles burning, cinnamon, the bonfire where we are roasting hot dogs and marshmallows. Closely related to the smells, I like the tastes of fall, like the Fresh Apple Pie, the Pumpkin Spice Latte, the caramel apples, homemade soups and breads, and all the wonderful tastes of Thanksgiving.

I love the sights of fall, like the pumpkins and the mums and the haystacks, the colors of the leaves, and all the colors of fall.

I love the fall. I like to hang out here. I don’t like it when the harvest season and Thanksgiving are rushed through, to get to Christmas. I like the thankful season.

One of the things I enjoy most about fall is the contrast I see as the “world” around our house transitions from summer to fall. We are blessed to live in a woods filled with lots of hard maples. I know this because my husband told me. He is the tree guru. He knows about trees. If you’ve ever had a conversation with him, you probably know why he knows all about trees (don’t ask him about cutting wood as a young lad, unless you have time for long stories—good ones, actually). You can ask him about any tree, and he can identify it for you—“That’s a water oak (insert sound of son’s laughter here—“There’s no such thing as a water oak, Dad…” Response: “That’s what my dad called it, so it’s a water oak...”…that’s a scaly bark hickory…a black hickory…walnut…that’s a pin oak, a white oak, a post oak, a red oak, a hickory, white ash, sycamore, cottonwood…” He knows them all.

For me, the important thing about having a lot of hard maples in the woods all around us is that the time of transition, from summer to fall, is the most beautiful time of the year where we live. This afternoon I grabbed my camera and just walked around the house, taking pictures of all the views. I asked my husband if this would be the best time to get pictures, or if the trees would get still prettier if I waited. He explained that some of the trees would get prettier, but by then some of them will have lost their color or the leaves will have fallen to the ground.

So, during the transition time, there remains a lot of green, providing a sharp contrast and a complementary backdrop for the trees whose leaves are already a bright yellow or orange. This is my favorite time. Perhaps I like it best because I like the color combinations better than after there is a lot of brown. But perhaps I like it best because I like the symbolism of green (summer) to orange (fall) better than orange to brown. Perhaps it’s all wrapped up in my “stage of life” (isn’t everything these days?), and I don’t like much of anything that tends toward the “brown” stage. But my husband also reminded me today that the trees are most glorious just before they turn brown. Maybe I will allow that thought to motivate me to make this the most glorious time of my life.

For me, for now, I enjoy this beautiful season (of the year, and, okay, also of my life).

                   

Pumpkin Bowl

For several years, our church has enjoyed a fall celebration called “The Pumpkin Bowl.” I’m not sure whether “bowl” refers to a “bowl game” or a “bowl of chili,” but both references are appropriate. The event is held on the 11 acres of property owned by RiverOaks Church, and this year we were blessed with incredibly gorgeous weather.

There were several activities occurring simultaneously, including face painting, bag toss, lots of good food, and the main event, a touch football game (with about 40 participants). It was personally fun for me to be a cheerleader for my son, grandson and granddaughter. I’ve always wanted to watch my son be a quarterback (not really, but it was okay this time, since it was touch football—at least I think that’s what they called it—I know there was no tackling and no flags—so it was all good).

The main “food” event is chili—and there were at least 18 entries in the Chili Cook-off this year.

This was my first event to attend with my new camera in tow: my first DSLR, a Canon Rebel T3i. I just snapped random pictures, didn’t worry about getting everyone. There was a HUGE crowd (parking was a challenge). It was a great time of fellowship!

I even played around with my additional zoom lens. I’m so proud of myself (still kept the settings on intelligent Auto, though, so can’t be too impressed—hey, but I DID figure out how to mount it on the camera!). Following pictures using the zoom (I was comfortably sitting in my lawn chair, quite a distance from the playing field).

It was interesting that our sermon yesterday morning (on the Acts 2 church) was a lot about fellowship. It was great!

Coffee Conversation

Anyone who knows me (in real life) knows that I’m a coffee person. I’m not a connoisseur by any means, but I know what I like when it comes to my favorite beverage. Although I often say, “Coffee is my only vice,” in my heart of hearts, I can’t think of coffee as a “vice,” really.

Recently a friend was teasing me about how many coffee makers are in my house. Well, there are three that I use regularly. But, I have a large house, and one must have coffee available regardless of the area of the house one finds oneself in when it’s time for a cup of coffee!

In the kitchen (upper level), we have a Capresso, a wonderful machine we have used for years. It grinds the coffee (with a Swiss burr grinder) then flips the basket over and brews it. Our favorite blend of coffee (whole bean, obviously) is Ronnoco, Columbian Supreme.

This is the coffee maker we use for our morning coffee, enjoyed in the sitting area of our bedroom, where we have a nice view of the woods behind our house (we are on five acres of woods, and our upper floor places us quite a bit above the ground).

Summer

Fall

Winter

It is in the lower level of the house where we spend most of our routine daytime and evening hours. Among the rooms on that level, we have a family room, a small kitchen, my hobby room, and my husband’s office area. The coffee maker for the lower level is a Keurig (LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it). Our favorite K Cups are Green Mountain Nantucket Blend and Kona.

Also, in the lower level kitchen area, where we have a “coffee bar,” we have a very nice espresso machine (from Starbucks). I use the Starbucks espresso beans and grind them in a Swiss burr grinder.

Our favorites from the coffee bar include Caramel Macchiato, Nonfat Latte, and this time of year, of course, Pumpkin Spice Latte (the syrup, compliments of my sister!).

Speaking of “time for a cup of coffee,” that Pumpkin Spice Latte is sounding pretty good about now!

How I Scrapbook

Recently I was asked if there was a description somewhere on my blog of my “method” of scrapbooking. In case it would be of help to someone, here is a brief and general description of how I scrapbook.

First of all, although I do some digital pages just for fun, for my “real” scrapbooks, my method is traditional/paper. I scrapbook chronologically, rather than topically. I take pictures of most everything that happens in our lives, and I scrapbook most pictures. I complete 2-3 albums, 12x12, each year. So far, I have almost exclusively used Creative Memories albums. (I do topical albums for vacations/trips, and usually use K&Company post albums for those.) I started scrapbooking in 2004 and have about 30 albums, stored on several shelves such as this one:

I have a hobby room with lots of supplies, laptop, printer, Cricut Expression and Cricut Imagine. I have a table to sit and work on embellishments (inking, stamping, for example), and another table where I stack some things in process. But I stand to scrapbook. My husband made a raised box that brings my work area up closer for me, for comfort for my neck and shoulders. This is my main scrapbooking station:

This is my process: When I have a group of photos (I order from Snapfish), I organize them by “event” and try to keep each event to 5-8 photos (for a two-page layout). I label each group of two-page layouts with the date. Each of these “stacks” represents a two-page layout.

For a layout, I spread out the photos on my work mat.

Next, I think about the colors I want to use for the layout. I tend to let the colors of the photos, and the “mood” of the “event” determine what background paper (actually cardstock) I will use. Foundational to my scrapbooking style is the use of color. So, I look through my Die Cuts with a View card stacks. Some of them are here:

I pull one or more stacks and/or a few sheets from the stacks to play with, laying out the photos to see how they look on the different backgrounds.

 

I narrow down the paper/cardstock selection until I’m down to a couple of sheets per page.

 

Then I play around with placement and paper use. I work some with simple embellishments (Cricut die cuts, etc.). For me, the pictures really are the main thing, followed by journaling. So there is not a lot of room for elaborate embellishments.

I mat some of the photos (using white cardstock in this one), add some buttons with baker’s twine, ribbon, etc.

I usually use the Cricut for the letters of the title, but occasionally I revert to my old method of self-stick alphas.

This layout came together quickly. Sometimes I do more elaborate layouts and spend much more time. I was putting together an album on our Florida trip and had about 80 photos to scrap, so I wanted direct and simple, with focus on the pictures and journaling.

It’s difficult to give a brief description , but this is a general overall picture of how I scrapbook. If you have questions, email scrappermamo@gmail.com.