Autumn

Autumn Bucket List

/ Jodi / 37 Comments

Autumn tree loose watercolor

  • Enjoy long walks kicking crunchy leaves and smashing acorns
  • Deeply inhale the crisp Fall air
  • Snuggle under blankets by a warm crackling fire
  • Sip warm spiked apple cider
  • Gobble up honey-sweetened candy corn
  • Buy Halloween candy for Trick or Treaters (that never come) – and eat it all
  • Bake apple cakes and apple crisps and apple pies
  • Wear hoodies and flannel shirts and yoga pants
  • Break out the fuzzy slippers
  • Watch football games and eat salsa and guacamole
  • Cook chili and stew all day long in a crockpot
  • Bake pumpkin EVERYthing
  • Roast salted pumpkin seeds
  • Burn cinnamon-scented candles
  • Sip dark, dry red wine
  • Jump in a pile of leaves
  • Learn a new soup recipe
  • Curl up with a good book
  • Write a long letter to a friend
  • Paint with red and yellow and orange
  • Hug the people you love

Cheers & Hugs,
Jodi

Autumn Weekend Wandering

/ Jodi / 53 Comments
mcconnells mills 101715

McConnells Mill State Park, Lawrence County, PA – 101715

Rocky trails,
a rushing creek,
earthy smells of Autumn pines.

A churning mill,
a covered bridge,
sunshine, clouds, a slushy sleet surprise.

Laughter and love,
reminiscing and remembering,
moments to cherish always.

An Autumn weekend afternoon
wandering with
one of the besties of bestie friends.

Nothing is ordinary
nature is EXTRAordinary
when we cherish life in between.

mcconnells mills 101715 1

McConnells Mills State Park, Lawrence County, PA 101715

Cheers & Hugs,
Jodi

Broken can be Beautiful

/ Jodi / 33 Comments

broken down barn autumn

Broken can be beautiful…

… in people too ❤

Cheers & Hugs,
Jodi

Extraordinary – Nothing is Ordinary

Annual Krautfest Time

/ Jodi / 65 Comments

pumpkins

For our gang, one of the best things about Autumn is the Annual Brugnoli Friends and Family Krautfest (maybe you remember last year’s), and this past weekend delivered beautiful weather for our festivities!

We started with a crisp, foggy morning that included a beautiful breakfast buffet at Sandy and Bill’s, where most of the gang hung out to watch the annual Conneaut Lake Fall Festival Parade (and the rest of us served as candy passer-outers and parade marchers for our Boro Council candidate, dear “Oh Rob” Brugnoli.

parade 1

parade 2

kf rob boro council

parade 3

After the parade, we hurried home to prepare for the Kraut-making festivities.  Halupkis and Pierogies and Brauts and Dogs in Kraut simmering, while we set up stations to make 800 pounds worth of cabbage into the world’s best homemade saurkraut in the warm Autumn sunshine.

Stations were set up… and then began…

the cutting…

kf cutters 4

and the slicing and shredding…

kf shredders

then measuring and weighing…

kf louis and louise

kf measuring

(…and always time for a mother-daughter pose)…

kf cindy louise
kf dumping 2kf scooping

then finally stomping and pounding.

kf pounding

and laughing…

kf all betsy carl stomping laughing

and composting.
kf compostkf cutters 2

 

 

 

 

Older generations taught younger generations…

kf roddy mason

kf cutting more

kf nikole shreddingkf cuttersand friends taught friends.

kf holly slices

kf holly

More laughs…
kf joyce holly

kf rob and al

kf joyce holly laughs

lots of hugs… and giving thanks.

kf rob hug

kf rob speech

 

 

 

Pumpkins were painted…

kf painting pumpkins

 

kf painting pumpkins 3

kf painting pumpkins 2

 

&
kf kids painting pumpkins

Swings were swung…

kf kids swing

and laughter filled the air.
kf kids swing 2

Treasures were searched for…
kf kids hay

and discovered.

kf ella treasure skeleton

kf kids hay skeleton find

Lots of delicious food was eaten…

kf pretzels

kf food 1

and YES – these cookies consist of three amazing layers: chocolate chip cookie topped with Oreo cookie topped with brownie!

kf brownies

Delicious, intoxicating beverages were enjoyed.

kf bourbon apple cide

kf joyce linda
Hot peppers were sauteed and served on fresh crusty bread by friendly “witches” and warlocks.

kf doreen peppers

Families were celebrated.

kf jenna rob noah

 

kf noah

kf ed grandaughter 2

 

kf michael beer 2

We even brewed beer!

kf michael beer

 

 

 

 

 

and BOWLED!

krautfest bowling

It was a day full of memories… and moments…

krautfest greenhouse

and people… and music…

kf bango

and love… to be cherished.

kf view of lake
Cheers & Hugs,
Jodi

Spooky, Screamy, Happy Halloweeny

/ Jodi / 27 Comments

pp265 halloween sheltering tree flower soft

This week’s theme for The Paper Players Challenge (PP265) is Halloween.

PP265 flat

I decided to break out the FlowerSoft for this week’s Design Team Inspiration card.  It makes such a fun textured Fall tree with lots of Halloweeny colors.

PP265 inside

Here is the fun sentiment on the inside.

My card isn’t very spooky or screamy, but hopefully it is happy halloweeny!

I gave a quick swoosh of green for the grass and blue for the sky in watercolor paint, then stamped the rest.

Here are the “ingredients” I used to make this card:

  • StampinUp (SU) Sheltering Tree Stamp Set
  • SU Holiday Home Stamp Set (Pumpkins and Ghosts and outside sentiment)
  • SU Mingle All the Way Stamp Set (Inside sentiment)
  • Inks:  SU Early Esperesso, Pumpkin, and Stazon Black
  • FlowerSoft Autumn Mix adhered with Tombow Mono Multi Glue
  • Early Espresso and Pumpkin SU Card Stock

Hope you are getting ready for a spooky, screamy, happy Halloweeny, and hope my paper crafting friends will join our challenge this week at The Paper Players!

Cheers & Hugs,

Jodi

Nothing is Ordinary

/ Jodi / 44 Comments

celebrate today and everyday watercolor leaf card nothing is ordinary

Celebrate Today….  and EVERYday!
Happy Friday my LifeinBetween Friends!

Last night, Hubby and I went to John’s Bar for our usual Thursday night date.  We had a couple drinks and dinner and were home in time to watch the Steelers football game.  After playing a little fetch with Mr. Charlie outside, I realized I didn’t have a post for today.  Of course I was looking forward to today being Friday (though this week sure did fly!), and I wondered what I wanted to say for a Happy Friday message…

While in the office for some meetings this morning, I noticed some beautiful new watercolor prints that were hanging on the wall that were added during a recent remodel, and I fell in love with them.  They were extremely simple, yet so mesmerizing and delicate and impactful.

I thought to myself, “I could do that!”

Well – it wasn’t as easy as I thought…..

As many of my fellow watercolor artist friends out there know, restraint is key, yet often oh-so-hard to achieve – especially for us beginners.

But I literally only spent about 10 minutes start to finish on this card, and I kinda like how it turned out.  I free formed the leaf with watercolor and brush, splattered a few fall-colored splashes, and then stamped the sentiment on top.

Nothing is ordinary.

Every leaf…
every watercolor painting…
every day….
every person….
has something special about it.
Embrace it, friends.
Cherish the moments!

Cheers & Hugs,
Jodi

Paper Smooches Pretty Phrases Stamp & Stazon Ink
M Graham Watercolors in Sap Green, Quinacridone Red, Nickel Quinacridone Gold
Arches 140lb Coldpress Watercolor Paper
StampinUp Very Vanilla Cardstock

Seasons of Change

/ Jodi / 40 Comments
wilting sunflower

Fading sunflower at daybreak – Conneaut Lake, PA

Night fades to day –
the moon retreats as the bright sun rises.

Summer beckons Autumn’s reprieve –
when green becomes yellow or orange or red.

Flowers shrivel and wilt –
creating seeds of new life before they fade.

People wrinkle and shrink and age –
transforming the definition of authentic beauty.

Eyes blur and squint and fade –
erasing the wrinkles but not the sweet memories.

Seasons of renewal,
Seasons of hope,
Seasons of growth,
Seasons of age –

All of these seasons
are seasons of change.

Cheers & Hugs,
Jodi

Autumn Leaf

/ Jodi / 44 Comments

leaf watercolor 1

One Autumn leaf inspired me to create a little painting that closely replicated it in watercolor.

But then I decided to go a little free form and make it whatever color I wanted.

leaf watercolor 2

And then another color.

leaf watercolor 3

And then a little different shape…


leaf watercolor 4

All from one Autumn leaf picked up on a walk back from the mailbox.

The simple, smallest things that can create such joy…

Cherish the moments!

Cheers & Hugs,

Jodi

Autumn Trees – to doodle or not to doodle

/ Jodi / 49 Comments

autumn trees watercolor doodle card

Happy First Day of Fall!

The other day – as I continue to convince myself how much I love Fall (and it really is happening!) I dabbled with a couple abstract watercolors of Autumn trees.  One I “doodled” up and the other I didn’t.

autumn trees watercolor card

Interesting what a different effect it gives.  And more interesting – I kind of like both.  (what do you think of that Charlie O and Laura!?!?)

So I asked my guys that evening, “Which do you like better?”

Hubby picked one… and my son, Nick, picked the other.

I knew that was going to happen!

Which one do you pick?

Cheers & Hugs,

Jodi

Covered Bridge Visiting & Doodlewashing

/ Jodi / 47 Comments

covered bridge watercolor doodlewash

This weekend, hubby and I went to a Covered Bridge Festival.  There were ten park festival locations centered around  ten different covered bridges where they had a variety of handmade arts and crafts booths, food, historic re-enactments, demonstrations and live bands.

It was fun to stroll around the festivities and capture some photos of the bridges.  We only made it to two, because we really didn’t decide to go or head out until mid-afternoon, but we enjoyed what we did see, and then ended the day with a nice dinner out.

The next day I decided to try to “doodlewash” one.  My blogging buddy, Charlie at Doodlewash.com has stirred my creative desire to play around with this whimsical art style combining doodling and watercoloring.

I struggle with the doodling/drawing part, and then I totally overworked the washing/watercoloring part of this piece, but since I spent an hour and a half doing it, I am sharing anyway.  (Chalk it up to one for the archives.  Hopefully one to look back on to gauge improvement!)

Here is the photo I took that I used for my reference.   It was such a sweet little bridge in a quaint community park.

covered bridge

And then, with some paint still in the palette and the urge to do something else, I decided to recreate a version of the DSP (designer series paper) I used in yesterday’s card post and made this piece below that I can use in a future card or project.  It was fun to mix and splash and see how the colors dried.   Loving the Autumn tones that remind me of the gorgeous weather we’ve been having these past few days!

color wash swash

Happy Monday all!  Hope you have a great week!

Cheers & Hugs,

Jodi