Toledo Cathedral

I hope you are having a good weekend.  We had a decent amount of snowfall and it finally feels like winter around here!  Today I have some photos from our trip to Spain last November to share.   We spent part of one day visiting the city of Toledo. 

We spent a lot of time in the Cathedral in Toledo.  It was very beautiful with elaborate carvings, statues and paintings.  Before we visited the city, we had lunch at a hotel on the opposite hill so we had a chance to get a great overview of the city.  (The cathedral is a little left of center in this photo).

The weather was fine and we were lucky to have a bright blue sky - here is a closer view of the tower.

On of the first areas we visited was a treasure room.  There were incredibly ornate medallions and crosses.

I think that the designs of these crosses would make interesting cutting files.

The amounts of gold and silver and the precious gemstones used for these items are overwhelming.

I think illuminated manuscripts are fascinating - this Bible was beautiful with lots of gold and great details.

The ceiling in this room was incredibly intricate.

It is tricky to get a good photo of a ceiling - I was leaning back so far that the Japanese tour group was very amused!  You can also try putting the camera on the floor and shooting straight up.

 Here are a few more ceiling shots - they had such beautiful patterns and designs.

These enormous cherub or angel heads along the arches were very interesting.

This was one of the most ornate cathedrals I have visited.

There were incredible carvings in the choir area depicting various castles and fortresses.

Some of the armrests were shaped as imaginary animals.

Here are some intricate inlaid patterns and carvings on the underside of a lectern.

Another lectern with an amazing bird.

I thought this star pattern in some floor tile was very striking.

These look like they could be painted but they are actually done with inlaid stone.

The floral swag border here is one of my favorites.

There are carvings and statues everywhere.

Many different Madonnas can be found in various chapels.

One of the most amazing areas was this section where the statues and painted figures rise to the ceiling and then are continued as painted images and frescoes.

It can be confusing to tell which images are painted and which are three dimensional.  They seem to morph before your eyes.

I hope you can get a sense of this - the contrast in the light made it very difficult to get a photo that shows everything clearly.  It might be easier to get a good photo on a cloudy day.

One more unusual feature was this enormous figure on one section of the wall.  I don't think I have ever seen something on this scale.

This is just a small sampling of images from the cathedral.  I hope you found them interesting.  I am sure I could go again and find many more fantastic things to photograph.

Toledo is also known for marzipan.

We bought some delicious marzipan candy at this shop and they had a model of a city gate - made completely of marzipan in the window!  (After showing gummy bears and a gingerbread house on the first two Saturdays, I had to sneak in a little candy here too!).

I am busy getting ready for my trip and also catching up on posting my Project 366 photos - I sure could use more hours per day!  Enjoy the rest of your weekend!


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Successful Search and Hello Thursday

Thanks so much to everyone who posted or emailed me with helpful suggestions about finding my missing receipt.  I do appreciate all of you for looking out for me!

Good news - I found the receipt!  Inside  the folder for the camera was the original ad from the week I bought the camera.  It showed a package deal with a "free" photo printer - free after you mailed in a rebate form.  Then I remembered - I did get the printer and send in for the rebate - Aha!  I looked and found another file for the photo printer and there were copies of all the rebate paperwork and the original camera receipt.

I still don't know if the repair will be covered under the warranty but it is worth a try.  Apparently the plastic used in the mounting mechanism is known to get brittle.  So now I have to wait and see - and I just have to use the small camera in the meanwhile.

I think it often doesn't matter which camera you use if you have good photo editing software and are comfortable with using it.  Here is a quick example...

I took this photo of some of the Russian Santa figures that I have collected over the years.  I wanted to photograph them all before putting them away so I can do a layout for my book of collections.  There are in front of a window and I didn't want to use a flash - as you can see the lighting is terrible!

Here is the same photo after cropping, adjusting the light levels, sharpening, and adjusting the colors and contrast.  I don't use Photoshop - I use the Creative Memories Memory Manager program to organize and edit my photos.  I think it is much easier to learn and faster to use.

I am sure I could get a better photo with my D40 - but for now the Coolpix will have to do.  If the repair is not covered by the warranty I will have to decide whether to buy a new lens.  Please keep your fingers crossed that they fix it under warranty - a new lens would be several hundred dollars!

Hello Thursday

Yesterday was the third Thursday of the month - and the day when new cartridges are announced by ProvoCraft.  There are ten new cartridges.

Full Cartridges:

Letter Envy (the exclusive Cricut Circle cartridge for the next quarter)
Elmo and Friends Holiday 
Type Candy
Olé

Lite Cartridge: 

Fun in the Sun 

Project and Event Cartridges:

My Quiet Book
Baby Shower
Bridal Shower
Giant Flowers

Imagine Cartridge:

Greeting Cards Inside and Out

 Click HERE to go to the Hello Thursday page on the Cricut.com site.  You will see colorful boxes with the names of each cartridge on the shelves.  Click on a cartridge box and a pop up window will show you the "look book" for that cartridge.

You can see some projects made with these cartridges on the Official Cricut Blog HERE.

Joy (Obsessed with Scrapbooking) and Melanie (Courtney Lane Designs) will be posting projects on their blogs over the next few days.

I haven't really had a chance to look carefully at this latest round of cartridges. At first glance there isn't anything I can't live without but I'll need to look more carefully.  Are there any that you particularly like?


Travel Plans:

I am not going to the Winter CHA show in California.  At this time next week I will have arrived in Frankfurt, Germany.  I'll be meeting up with Mandy from Scrappy-go-Lucky in Australia and Enfys (Going Buggy) is coming from England.  We will be attending several trade shows (PaperWorld,  CreativeWorld, ChristmasWorld) and we'll be looking for the latest and greatest trends from Europe.  I'll try to post some updates while I am there - there should be good internet availability.

It's snowing and accumulating - the most snow we've had this winter.  Stay safe if you are in a snowy place.


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Something to think about...

I was searching for something on and off all day on Wednesday - and thinking about organization...

I called a photo repair shop and found out that Nikon has a five year warranty on their lenses.  In order to send my broken lens in for repair, I need the original receipt and some other paperwork that came with the camera.    No problem, I thought - I save everything (those of you who know me in real life know that this is true!).

I found all of the other paperwork, a neatly labelled file folder that says "Diane's New Nikon" (with the ad for the camera from 2007) but I still can't find that receipt.  I have discovered through my searching that I have entirely too many outdated and useless bits of paper stashed around our house.  In addition to reorganizing the craftroom, I need to do some serious purging all through the house.  (Middle School newsletters when your youngest is a college graduate - it's time to let go!).

I will find that receipt.  It must be here somewhere (though why it is not in the file or with the other papers is a mystery).  The interesting thing is that I have come across all sorts of other things while I have been looking for that elusive receipt.  Some are "priceless" and and some are ridiculous (the schedule of events at the public library from three years ago...).  I'll keep looking until I find it and try to get rid of all of the outdated stuff that is just taking up space.


However... 

This was the daily quote in the Boston Globe on Wednesday.  When I first read it in the morning I hadn't started on my search for the receipt.  I assumed it would be in the file and it would only take a few minutes to track it down.

What this quote made me think about was the state of my crafting island.  You may have noticed that the photos of the trimmer storage were pretty tightly cropped.  That's because the top of the island is usually covered (and I mean really fully covered!) with bits and pieces from recent projects, things I just purchased and haven't put away, notes with ideas I want to try - you name it - it lands on the island.

While it is very untidy, I often find that when I am putting together a card or another project, some little bit or piece on the island gives me a great idea and helps me to create something that is better than what I may have originally planned.  So the "things in my way" do lead to some happy accidents.

So the question is - how do you find the balance between having everything neatly put away (so there is no chance of having a "happy accident") and total chaos with the risk that you will never find what you are looking for?

What do you think?  (...has anyone seen my receipt?)

Please leave a comment - I'd love to hear what you think about creating and keeping the balance between order and chaos.  If you just wanted to see something cute or pretty today - here is a card I made a couple of years ago - you'll find the original post HERE.

Have a great day!

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Fresh and Pretty Love You Card

Happy Wednesday!  I have been busy sorting and organizing around the house (and yes, I am still taking down Christmas!).  We do finally have snow on the ground (not much) and it feels more like winter.  I promised that today I'd give more details about the second card I made for the Creative Charms blog.

 Here are all of the cardstock layers.  The card is a vertical A2 card (4 1/4 x 11 inches folded in half).  The printed paper was cut to center the design so it is a bit narrower than the usual cuts at 3 1/4 x 5 1/2 inches.  The white layer is 4 x 5 1/2 inches, the aqua layer is 3 7/8 x 5 1/2 inches.

The patterned paper is from the Enjoy the Seasons imagine cartridge.  I printed a full sheet to use for several projects.  The pink and aqua cardstock is from a Martha Stewart value pack - these colors were a great match for the Imagine printed paper.

I wanted to use the  Fancy Polka Dot Ribbon as a border on the patterned paper so I added 1/8 inch Scor-Tape along the two long edges of the paper. 

I peeled off the Scor-Tape on one edge and carefully lined up the edge so that one row of dots was showing.  I also tried to make the scallops line up with the end of the cardstock.

If you look carefully at the patterned paper you can see that the vines come together to form some heart shapes - three are visible on the card front.

If your pieces are slightly off (a little movement while trimming can cause this) you can just neaten up the edge with a quick cut across all of the layers after assembly.  I added the white cardstock layer to give a nice clean edge between the bright colors and to echo the white scallop of the ribbon.

Can you see the three full hearts formed by the vines?

I cut the sentiment from the same pink cardstock as the card base with the Cuttlebug Love Language die.  The busy patterned paper makes it a little bit difficult to see the words. 

There is no shadow option when using the dies so I just cut another set of the same words with white cardstock.

By offsetting the two sets of words, I was able to create a sort of "drop shadow" which helps to make the words more legible against the busy paper.

These Groovy Petals string flowers are a great match for the printed cardstock.  I removed the brad from the larger flower and put the two sizes together with the pink brad from the smaller flower.

I used a small square of 1/2 inch Scor-Tape to adhere the flowers to the center of the card between the three hearts.

The finished card is cute and casual - perfect to brighten up a winter day!


There should be some new deals up later today on Blitsy.  If you haven't joined this free membership bargain shopping site yet, please use my link to sign up.

http://blitsy.com/rewardsref/index/refer/id/989/  

Once you have joined, you can refer friends and family to earn credits that you can use to shop on the site.  If you "like" Blitsy on Facebook, you can also get a fan code for a discount on your first purchase.


Are you working on any organization projects?  Every magazine I see seems to have articles about getting your home into shape.  I am hoping that I'll be able to put my hands on the receipt for my camera - it turns out there is a five year warranty on the lens so I may be able to get the lens repaired by Nikon.  I found all of the other paperwork but the receipt wasn't there - it is here somewhere!  Yet another reason to keep your files in good shape - I am sure I wouldn't have thrown the receipt away...but where is it...?


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