I just found this, I thought I'd put it up before. I saw this window while walking in Amsterdam last month and fell in love with the fun, eclectic assortment of globes and plants. I dream of a window like this, although you need a super cool house for it to go in... fingers crossed for one day...
(most of the supplies are Studio Calico Front Row kit)
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Still continuing on with my pile of pictures I need to scrapbook. Here's a quick page from an Amy Tangerine kit she gave me last summer when she was teaching a class here in Florida. It was great to see her again and have lunch and catch up, and of course take her class. I just opened the kit the other day and love all the bright colors and fun pieces! These are from our trip last summer in Portugal, these are from Lisbon, I have 2 other pages coming soon.
I love these pictures, it makes me smile at the memories associated with them. Tomorrow Dave and I leave for Europe for 2 weeks, 1 week in London, 1 week in Amsterdam. My mom came out and is staying here with the girls since it would be too much school for them to miss. Usually they travel with us, and I have never been away from them for so long, so I'm freaking out a little. I know it'll all be okay and they are super close with my mom, but I have to admit my heart feels a little sad to not have them going with me this time. But I look forward to seeing old friends, like Steph Baxter, and spending adult time with Dave (wink).
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Hi all! I know, it's been awhile, but a new face lift of this sad old blog and maybe some frequent blog posts and this baby might revive itself? I don't know about you all, I find it really hard with just all of life's things to keep up with blogging, or looking at others blogs, and there's so many good ones out there, too. For shame...
This is us today, and I have pages for later, too. Gulp, I may even have more later in the week, too. What??
Hello January...
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Living in south Florida in my opinion is not easy in the summer months. I do not love the heat and we're used to getting out and about and get to know our city or nature areas, however here, 7 months out of the year it is so freakin' hot unless you are submerged up to your eyeballs in water, it's just too stifling. Living here now a year and a half, I can see come October it does start to cool down just a bit. Last weekend we decided to see a nature area, little sis is 100% naturalist in spirit. She loved walking through the mangrove trees and acres of ferns, tiny creepy crabs scouring across the path, butterflies landing on delicate daisies, Secret Woods Nature Area beautiful place.
What a lovely place and a lovely day!
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Two years ago when we went to Paris we visited Notre Dame Cathedral and saw an older woman feeding the birds in the front courtyard. The girls naturally found it charming and much like the scene from Mary Poppins. The woman obviously spoke French, but we communicated through gestures and smiles and she shared her bird feed with the girls. She even poured some over little sis' head and the birds flew all around us and a few landed atop her head. Big sis and I laughed with delight, but Dave, always the germaphob, was worried that the birds would give little sis some weird bird flu. :)
After I was all done with these two layouts I realized I put pics of the Eiffel Tower... I should have put Notre Dame..duh. I made two almost identical layouts, one for big sis' and one for little sis' albums.
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A month or so before we moved from Mexico City we went up to Valle de Bravo which is about an hour and a half away in picturesque mountains, and there is something magical that happens once a year. Millions of monarch butterflies migrate thousands of miles from Canada to Mexico and we were so excited to see it. Dave and I hiked the steep path up the mountain and the girls rode horses until we reached the crest of the mountain where suddenly clouds of yellow-orange wings fluttered about. It truly was magical, butterflies landing all over your body, so many butterflies on branches of the trees overhead their weight actually made the branches bend.
I'm glad I finally got around to scrapbookiong these, I had forgotten what a fun day this was.
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(That's Portuguese for "it was beautiful!")
Finally I uploaded last month's trip to Portugal. This summer was wonderfully delicious with so many awesome travel experiences and seeing old family and friends and making new friends, I neglected crafting and blogging. But I felt as the days whipped by at light speed, each day was a joy.
First off, the Portuguese are lovely people, warm and friendly and the area we stayed was serene and smelled of the sea. Estoril is about 20 minutes from Lisbon and each day we walked along the cragly stone walkways that frame the coastline, past many shops and beaches, past cafes and kiosks selling local novelties. The last 3 days we rented a little Fiat and drove to Lisbon and other days up to Sintra where we hiked forever it seemed to reach an old Moorish castle and sat in the town center people watching and having a foamy cappuccino. Cascais by the sea is quaint with it's narrow streets, paved with bluish-grey and white tiles designed into waves that are lined with brightly painted storefronts and restaurants. And the countryside up towards Spain is something from a storybook with vineyards, small villages and orchards dotted along the skinny two-lane highways. I felt at times like Clark and Ellen Griswold from National Lampoons European Vacation when they rented the small car and drove through parts of Europe. Dave drove like he was on the Audubon, zipping past old men weathered from the sun selling fruit on the side of the road in huts or children playing soccer in an open field. Every once and awhile we'd climb over a small hill and get a glimpse of the sea below, then quickly turn away and headed north. We ate at smallish family owned restaurants with handmade rolls and garlicky shrimp and chicken. We ate two nights at a yummy Indian restaurant (Indian you say in Portugal? But I was smitten.), and there was the nightly espresso and lemon gelato...
Dave had 3 days of work and I met a couple of the other wives there with thier hubbies, lovely ladies who I can't wait to see again. Then the last 4 days was just Dave and me, it was our Luna de Miel... we got married when we were very young and nver had a real honeymoon, so we made this our luna de miel (honeymoon in Spanish). Foi bonito!!
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Hello there!! Are you still talking to me even though I have been absent? This past couple months have been awesome, full of loads of great adventures and travels, but I have neglected crafting, blogging and keeping up with regular life... But now back to reality, the girls are back in school and last weekend was our last summer hoorah in the beautiful Paradise Coast ( Naples and Bonita Springs, southern Gulf coast really). We went for the 3 day weekend to celebrate little sis' 9th birthday (today!! Happy birthday big girl!!) and enjoyed days at the beach, mini golfing, jet skiing, shelling and lots of yummy food.
It was a good weekend. Happy birthday my little one, I love you so much and am so proud of you. We wish you a year full of lots of love, safety and good times. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo
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Hey everyone, we've been traveling around the western US for 3 1/2 weeks enjoying seeing family and friends, being here makes me miss them all like crazy. Lake Tahoe beaches, rafting down the Truckee River, lots of meet-ups with old friends, a day trip to Virginia City, staying up late, sleeping in, walking around San Fransisco (de Young Art Museum one day, California Academy of Sciences another, Golden Gate park, clam chowder on the wharf), high school reunion, big sis' 12th birthday, water park, shopping in SF, Saturday morning farmer's markets, and much more... Soon we will return to Florida, but this has been a great summer vacay so far.
We have loved seeing old friends, visiting old stomping grounds, feeling the cool California and Tahoe breezes, and of course being with close friends and family. It had been too long.
Now, 3 days back in Florida before we're off to Portugal and Spain!
How has your summer been so far?
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Yesterday we spent the day in the everglades for Father's Day. The girls thought it would be a fun outing with their dad to do the whole airboat thing and see an alligator show. We've lived in south Florida for a year now and haven't ever been on an airboat or seen an alligator show, so it sounded like a good thing for dear ol' dad. The everglades are huge, and as beautiful as it is, it is also very dangerous.
The weather was beautiful, not as hot as it usually is in June, and the captain of our airboat gave us a great tour of the beautiful everglades. We saw 3 alligators and many different species of wildlife. He explained about the exotic vegetation that grows there (most of it is dangerous), the insects that live there (most of them are dangerous) and to never put any body parts over the edge of the boat or in the water (also extremely dangerous). The alligator show was interesting, although it's not a career I'd fancy,it was pretty cool. The show on Animal Planet Gator Boys is shot there and our gator show entertainer J-Mart is on the show. We held a small baby alligator, and while it used my hand as a diaper, the little gator dude was pretty neat, too. It's crazy to think all of this is literally in our backyard, like our house was the everglades at one day long ago. We often have gators found in residential areas, and it's not strange to hear about people finding gators in the small lakes behind their homes or even in their swimming pools. One thing is for sure, the everglades are beautiful, mysterious, and for sure someplace you do not want to get lost. (or run out of hand santizer).
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We went to a large Renaissance Festival this past weekend in Deerfield Beach. It was very well organized and had a ton of fun things to see, eat and do. Having lived the last couple years in Mexico City, where Renaissance Festivals and Faires are not popular, we missed these types of fun and quirky events.
and Kiss? Who knew they were around in the 1200's??? Well, whatev. ( P.S., look at the tongue on little sis, givin' Gene Simmons a run for his money...)
Turkey legs, henna tattoos, bountiful bodices, sword fighting soldiers, cackling wenches, throwing tomatoes, men in tights. It was a good day.
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We went for a little picnic on the beach today in Naples. Dave had to fly to London for work, feeling rather bummed we couldn't go with him this time, we decided a beach day was in need. On the way down we drove through Alligator Alley and I'm not joking that we easily saw 100 alligators on the side of the road in a canal and on the shores. Crazy!! Then we were star-stuck by wild dolphins swimming along the shore at the beach, it was lovely!
It was a good day.
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This time of year is my favorite time of year, I love fall!! This past week it cooled off considerably, and I felt renewed. South Florida summers are humid and hot, and I felt like I might just freak out as I don't really love the heat...but since this past week or so has been mild, I may just stick around...We went to the pumpkin patch with friends and got a couple pumpkins, walked through the butterfly garden and enjoyed some apple cider...
It was a good day.
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we left some love...
Love notes that is. Positive little messages that will hopefully brighten someone's day. In between the walking around and leaving of notes, the girls got feather-like hair extensions and little sis got a glittery tattoo from a street vendor.
and then we left one more note.
Keep an eye out.
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Big sis turns 11 this next Monday and she picked as part of her family celebration to go watch the sea turtles come in from the ocean, lay eggs and hopefully find some hatch-lings, too, making their way out to the big, bad ocean for their first time. We were blessed with both a couple nights ago. The Science and Discovery Museum has guided "Sea Turtle Walks" for a month each year here in south Florida. Since the sea turtles are all endangered, it is against the law to go searching for the turtles, especially at the egg laying and egg hatching time of year, unless with an organization with permits, such as a museum. We started the night off arriving at the museum early, which ended up being great because the guide gave us a private tour of the museum's animal section. He took us behind the tanks where they feed the animals, climbed inside a tank and got out a baby alligator we could pet (carefully!), a starfish and a cousin to the cockroach, a horseshoe crab (yuuuck...) The girls were so excited!
After a presentation on the Loggerhead turtles, we went down to the beach to wait, and wait.... we laid in beach chairs and hammocks listening to the oceans gentle lapping and far off into the distance the sounds of rumba-ing Latin beats... When we arrived some other turtle conservationist group was there helping release the newly hatching eggs into the sea, which was so cute and so sweet to see. The little turtle munchkins were like the size of a small pancake and had to paddle with all their baby might to make it over the waves and out into the sea. From about 10:30 until almost 1 am we laughed, talked with the guide in the pictures above about his work on a gator farm and fire spinning (the male version of fire hooping), traveling, etc. then suddenly another guide called in that he'd found a mama laying eggs about a half mile down the beach. We high-tailed it, quietly, yet quickly down to where the 300 pound mama sat in her egg-laying zone. The guides whispered for us to get low, get back as not to disturb her, and be careful and quiet. The group of 20 sat, open mouthed or slightly smiling, at the once in a lifetime sight of this huge prehistoric shell of a turtle plop egg after egg into her deeply dug pit. The girls were right up front, probably 2 feet from her, and were amazed. You could see the markings on her shell from propeller damage, a long piece of seaweed was stuck to her, and you'd hear a small grunt or snort every once and awhile.
( picture taken from the web as I was too in awe -- and it was pretty dark and flashes area no-no--to remember to get out my camera, but this is what she looked like. ) Then after she lays her eggs, she throws sand over the pit to cover up the many eggs, and then hauls herself back over the sand and out to the sea. It's an amazing sight. There are only a handful of places in the world where there are turtles, and they only do this a couple months out of the year, but if you ever have a chance to go walk along the ocean in the moonlight and see one of nature's wonders happen, I highly recommend it!
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