Spring, Happy Birthday Corey, Vacation on my Mind

This is the card I made for my youngest son, Corey, whose birthday is today. He 32 now. The picture that I transferred on to fabric for the card, is one I took when he was about 5. This is how I always see him in my dreams, not the big strapping man that he is today.

Thursday evening, I spent over 6 hours arranging for our next big vacation, outside. By "outside", I mean, out of Alaska. That's how we refer to any place other than here. We had to wait until Warren got his new schedule, so it is all very last minute for our reservations. We usually book a full year ahead to get where we want to stay. As it is, our vacation is the end of August, & NONE of the places we really wanted were available, so we had to take what there was. Instead of Newport, Rhode Island, we ended up with a place in Great Barrington, Mass., called "Wind In The Pines". We'll be spending a week there.

The same thing happened when I tried to book on the West Coast. The only place we could get was Deer Harbor, on Orcas Island. The agent gave me 2 cottages, which have been recently renovated, & they are supposed to be nice, but not the usual Westmark condo with full kitchen.

I also booked airline tickets, & in order to use our mileage, & spend less, we are flying to Washington DC, staying the night at a Holiday Inn, & taking the train to Windsor Locks, CT, where we will pick up a rental car to drive the last 41 miles to Great Barrington. After all that planning, we got this in the mail:

Have you ever been inspired by junk mail? It was an offer from American Express for Delta Sky miles. I took the paper & used it for a pattern.
This is what I made. Front,
& back. I used Angelina fibers, some of the black Misty Fuse, which I painted with copper paint, the fused Glad Wrap with paint, inks & more Angelina fibers. I made cloth beads for the front.

Here it is opened up.

& inside, I used clear vinyl for 2 layers of pockets, to carry ticket/boarding passes, & ID in the smaller pocket on the corner.

Helen Suzanne had emailed me recently, & asked how the yard was looking these days. Even with it being "Spring" on the calendar, we will still have snow on our ground until at least May. I went out & shot these this afternoon.

I think the temperature is above freezing, it feels warm, though my thermometer isn't registering at the moment. The sky is clear, & lovely, & this is the way it has been for most of the past week. Our house is high enough on the mountain, that it takes a while for our snow to go away. We also have a lot of trees, which shade it too, so it melts slower. Those are bunny tracks in the snow. (Arctic hare, to be more precise).

So happy Springtime!