Hiking the Pacific Northwest

"Real life," said Hans Christian Anderson, "is the best fairy tale."

He was right, wasn't he?

Yesterday I hiked Artist Point at Mount Baker, right near home. We are on that lovely cusp between summer and autumn, when nature is at its vibrant best.

Blueberries were everywhere and I ate them by the handful as we climbed the very steep shale to the top of Table Mountain, then descended toward the Chain Lakes.

Wishing you fresh air and brisk breezes as autumn arrives.

Planning ahead... Christmas Cookie Exchange

This is a special blog hop post for Spellbinders Paper Arts... after this feature you can hop over to another blog for more paper crafting fun if you’d like.

As soon as the weather changes I start thinking of autumn and winter fun.

But it's only fun if you plan ahead so there's no last minute time crunch.

Luckily my new Sweet Christmas crafting dies are just out from Spellbinders Paper Arts!  For me, the heart of the celebrations revolve around shared food, especially cookies. My grandma used to say cookies are made of butter and love. I agree and celebrate with plenty of both!

First up: invitations for the annual Christmas Cookie Exchange.

I love to keep it simple so I used the Love & Cookies die for the main image, adding a strip of decorative paper and a swash of striped washi tape.

True confession: I adore the recipe card set. I'm using it for everything this year.

It will be tucked into the vellum envelope to make the envelope just that much fancier.

If you come for the Christmas Cookie Exchange you'll get a little booklet like this with the recipes for everyone's cookie contributions and a box for taking home your cookies. I did the recipe booklet mock up two ways... which one should I use to bind the recipes together? Or both?

As always, each friend will go home with a lovely box of delicious festive cookies! I'm using the gingerbread boy die to make decorated boxes so everyone will go home with a special container.

And I promise not to be smug about the fact that I made it all without stress or rush in September so I can enjoy myself during the Christmas season! Hurrah for doing it ahead... 

You can order your dies here if you'd like these Sweet Christmas crafting dies. And more!

It was the summer of inspiration

Summer was glorious here, weeks and weeks of living outdoors, hiking, gardening, creating cut paper and painting and lettering until the wee golden hours faded into starry nights. 

The sound track was laughter and the trickle of melting ice, the gentle breeze in trees and the crunch of bike tires on gravel.

  

It was a long, sunny summer, now drawn to a quiet, happy close.
What will the next season bring?