A Summer's Day

A beautiful June day at Lake Arrowhead... 

and at Lake Arrowhead Village, which is right next to the lake. 

It was still early in the summer season, so the village wasn't too crowded yet. 

In July and August the parking lot is jammed with cars and the lake is jammed with boats. 

But in early June...bliss. 

Linking with: Through My Lens
                    Image-in-ing

Sunday Sunlight

This photo is from June of 2007.  There isn't any sunshine around today; last night it snowed, and today the mountains that I live in are wrapped in fog and rain.  After all the rain we've gratefully received I'm looking forward to being able to plant a few pots with some pretty blooms this spring.  I might even replace one or two rose bushes that expired from drought.

This map shows what areas are still being affected by drought.  The white areas are where the drought is over, the yellow areas indicate "abnormally dry," the beige areas indicate "moderate drought," and the two orange areas indicate "severe drought."  The area where I live is still considered abnormally dry...maybe I better rethink replacing those water-hogging rosebushes and just stick with cheerful pots of annuals.

Sunday Sunlight

Light and shadow dappling Seely Creek in the Valley of Enchantment, San Bernardino mountains, California.

A Cat's Eye View

These photos of a Spotted Towhee are horrible, but I so rarely see them I couldn't resist the opportunity to get a picture of one.

The black shape in the bottom of the photos is the head of Purrcilla, one of my cat children.

She was making that strange little noise that cats do when they see a bird.  I don't think the towhee could hear her, maybe not even see her through the screen and window glass, but Purrcilla was thrilled.

I'm linking with Saturday's Critters

Making Cards

I've been spending a lot of time in my studio lately making cards for friends.

I backed the die cut on the front of this card with iridescent glitter paper, and used that same paper for the snowflakes.  The camera didn't do a very good job of picking up the sparkle.

The die cut on this one has the same paper backing, but I inlaid the snowflakes with silver mirror board.

I used the iridescent glitter paper for the die cut frame on this card,

and made my own embossing powder by mixing Ranger Super Fine Detail White embossing powder and Diamond Dust fine glitter from Stampin' Up.  To get the camera to pick up even a bit of the shimmer, I had to shoot slightly out of focus.

I used the same embossing powder mix for the trees and sentiment on this card and die cut the frame from silver mirror board.

The interior uses the same embossing powder mix plus Ranger Super Fine Detail Silver embossing powder.

For the frame on this one, I used the iridescent glitter paper and my embossing powder mix for the tree and sentiment, but the sparkle didn't show up at all, even when I adjusted the focus. 

I just stamped the snowflakes with white pigment ink and used the silver embossing powder for the sentiment on the inside of the card.

I'm going to have to dig out some of my photography lights and see if I get better photo results with more controlled lighting...I'm loving making cards, though.  I'm still very new to it, so I make lots of mistakes.  But, even with all the mistakes, it's so much fun and so relaxing!

Sunset Colors

A pretty sunset down in San Bernardino. 

Linking with: Through My Lens