Special Family Weekend

Hi blog friends,
Today I'm not posting a card for you to see, but rather some photos I thought you might like to see of a trip my hubby and I went on last weekend in Aroostook County, or more familiarly known in Maine as "The County".  If you've ever eaten a Maine potato, chances are it was grown in "The County".  It's a big agricultural area and is located in the northern most part of the state.  As is so many areas in Maine, it's a beautiful area and the people embrace their farming life and they make a visitor feel right at home.  

First a little background - when my husband retired a year ago, he began an interest in genealogy.  Quite by accident, he found he had family in The County and a contact with them was made.  We were invited to come to "Mapleton Daze", a summer celebration of a town and their agricultural roots by our new found "cousins" and we couldn't wait to go.  It's a 5 hour trip by car from where we live in Maine to The County, but the entire trip is gorgeous. 

We also met up with my husband's uncle who brings his horses to a farm event every year in Mapleton.  It was good to see him again - he treats his horses as if they were puppies and they adore him.

So, here are some photos I wanted to share with you of the area. 

This photo is my husband's uncle Elmin Mitchell and his prized Belgians. 

They're huge! This was at Mapleton Farms where antique farm implements are demonstrated by very skilled men, women and work horses.

This is Elmin again after his horses were hitched to an antique potato digger.  He is 85 years old (not sure if he'd want me telling you that, though).  He was demonstrating the digger and how, a century ago, the farmers dug their potatoes with it and horses.

This is a panoramic view of some potato fields and a farm house.  The vista goes on forever in The County

A second crop being raised in The County is canola.  The yellow flowers are blooming canola and there are thousands of planted acres of both potatoes and canola, as far as the eye can see.

I hope you enjoyed the photos.  Have a great day!  I'll be back this weekend with a fun challenge from the CAS DT at Outlawz.  I hope you've all had a chance to join in on some of those great challenges....the celebration ends Saturday, July 7. 



Designer's Choice Challenge at Repeat Impressions

One Nation Under God

HAPPY BIRTHDAY USA

Happy 4th of July everyone!!!!
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It's time for another designer's choice challenge at Repeat Impressions, aka, The House That Stamps Built - this time it's Lynette's turn and she has challenged us to a color challenge - using greens and purples.  (I bet you thought it would be red, white and blue, LOL!) 
I hope you'll have a chance to play along with us.  Simply go over to The House That Stamps Built and link your card photo.  You might be the lucky winner of some fabulous new Repeat Impression Stamps if you do. 

Here is my card for Lynette's challenge.

Once again, I used this beautiful hydranga stamp from the Beautiful Days collection and colored it with Copic markers.  The wainscot bg was created using Gina K's tutorial.  A very easy way to create a nice bg.  The flourish "frame" is a die from Sizzix called "Corner Flourishes".  Spellbinder oval was used to cut the shape of the stamp.  I stamped the bumblebee twice and popped the second image on with dimensionals.  My sentiment #8607 was stamped on lavender cs with Memento "grape jelly" ink and die cut with a scalloped oval die. 

Please visit these other Rock Stars for more inspiration using Lynette's great color challenge.

Lynette - Makiko - Joy - Karen - Dawn - Patti - Kecia 

Thanks so much for stopping by and for all your sweet comments. 
A big hug and shout out to my dear blog friends in the states where there is horrid heat and no power, as well as those enduring the aftermath of the wild fires in the west.

SEEING STARS AT OUTLAWZ

Hi blog friends!!!  Happy July 1 and HAPPY CANADA DAY to all my Canadian friends!!! 

Did you notice that Outlawz has extended it's "Where in the World" party for another week???  (June 24 - July 7)  Woohoo!!!  More time to play and win great prizes.  I hope you've had a chance to play in one or more of the games and challenges....there are some really fabulous prizes to win!!! 

Speaking of the Outlawz it's once again time to play along with a new CAS challenge.  This challenge will run concurrently with the "Where in the World" party so you have time to do both and win in both th party and the current CAS challenge. 

The current CAS challenge at Outlawz is called "Seeing Stars" and this month we are welcoming Lisa Arana as our Guest Design Team Member.  Please visit her blog and leave her some love - she is so talented. 

Here is the challenge  for the "Seeing Stars" challenge and I hope you'll play along with us. 
"Seeing Stars" Challenge: We are celebrating Independence Day here in the US this week. The anticipation of the fireworks display has me seeing stars. It is all I can think about :) Your challenge this week is to create a CAS card or project that features star shapes. Big, little, single, multiple..whatever sticks in your mind. It can be any colors or theme that you want. Let's get star struck with CAS flair!

For my card, I used GKD PL Black Onyx and White CS.  I put the while layer through my stars CB EF, "Stars" and then stamped Tami Mayberry's "Stars" stamp set by Gina K Designs. (Do you see a pattern here???)
The tiny stars were made using scrap cs with a $1.00 punch I found at Michaels (gotta love those dollar bins!).

Thanks for stopping by! 
Have a great week and HAPPY 4TH TO ALL AMERICANS!!!