Michael's Birthday Weekend!

It was Michael's birthday this past weekend and it was jam packed with lots of activities! My in-laws came in from Las Vegas and helped us celebrate. Then, we had a little b-day gathering with some friends on Saturday night. We also lucked out with great California weather too!


It was also my Dad's birthday weekend too! My Dad and Mom got to celebrate in Alabama with my bro and his family. They got to check out Richard's brand new gym, Crossfit Birmingham, which had it's opening this week! I'm so proud of Richard and Carrie for all the work they've done in opening the gym. I'm sure it will be a big success! They are quite the gurus in their fitness expertise. I get to check it out first hand in a couple of weeks when I go out to visit. I'll definitely be posting pictures!

Making my watermark in Photoshop

So now that we have the Fios internet connection at home, it's opened up a whole new world to me on my computer! First of all, it always took forever to watch any sort of video on the internet, and it was choppy at best. Tonight, I watched a video to learn how to do a watermark on pictures, so I decided to create my own to put on the photos of my cards. Here's my finished product:

This is one of the card options that we'll be making on my World Card Making Day workshop on October 4th. (You can click on it to see a bigger version) You'll have to come by to see the other 2 cards!

Our trip to NY and Connecticut last weekend

Last weekend, we went to our dear friends' wedding in Connecticut. It was just beautiful! It was my first time to Connecticut and I was impressed by how green and picturesque everything looked. We flew into the Westchester county airport and got to spend our first night in Manhattan. That was a lot of fun for our brief stay there! We got to share a room with our good friends Jeff and Rachel (NY hotel prices are just ridiculous!) and then we all went out to dinner with our friends Jorge and Amy. The next day, after a quick tour of some NY sights, namely Rockefeller Center, Times Square, Central Park and 5th Avenue, off we went to Rye Brook, NY, which just borders Connecticut. The wedding was in Greenwich, CT and the setting was just awesome. It had rained the night before, though we lucked out with pretty nice weather the day of the wedding. A great time was had by all! The bride and groom looked fantastic and all the friends and family that attended kept the dance floor packed all night! Check out the pics below (click on a picture to view in a bigger window):

Stampin'Up! Online Ordering Now Available!

I am so excited that Stampin'Up! has now enabled Online ordering from demonstrator websites! WooHoo! You can check out my demo website here and feel free to place an order if you like :)

I'm offering a special to the first 10 people that place an order on my site...they get a spool of the new taffeta Riding Hood Red ribbon, which is just super cute. As you can tell, I've been really into my crafting lately. It's probably because I had done so little of it this past year! I have been playing with the Big Shot die cut machine as well. Working on a Halloween banner, but it's not quite done. I'll try and post a picture up tomorrow so you can check it out. Ciao for now!

Just want to share a few cards I've made..

Hi there! I can't believe it's September and I've been back from the Stampin'Up! convention for over a month now. Of course, I came back refreshed and renewed to stamp after my long stamping hiatus, so I thought I'd post a few thank you cards I've made recently. It just took me a little while to find the time to upload the pics. Enjoy!

This is a simple, sorta masculine thank you card.


I love this card - clean and simple.


This is a fun girly thank you card using the new Bella Rose paper.

Leaving for the Stampin'Up Convention tomorrow!

I can't believe the last time I posted was to upload the first batch of pictures from our vacation. Here it is over a month later, and I still have to upload the rest of the pics. I'll have to do that when I get back from Salt Lake City on Sunday. I leave for the Stampin'Up convention tomorrow morning! Woohoo! I am really looking forward to it because I haven't been able to stamp much these days. I may have more time to do that shortly though...more on that when I get back! I'll definitely post pictures and finish posting the vacation pics! In the meantime, I need to go pack and finish up my card swaps and roommate gifts. Before I go though..how about that earthquake today?! It was a 5.8 and centered in Chino Hills. Thankfully, no damages in our area. I don't think there was any major damage anywhere, but I'm sure it shook a little harder in some places than others. In any case, it was definitely a noticeable jolt here in Southern CA.

Back to the real world

Coming back to reality after vacation sure is tough when you don't have any days in between for buffer! We got back late Sunday night (the Super Shuttle dropped us off around 10 pm) and then both Michael and I were back at work on Monday morning. Lucky for me, I got to work from home, but still...there were a ton of emails to get through! And to top it off, this is the busiest part of the month for me. Thank goodness it's Friday and we survived the week!

There are some great take aways from our trip that I've been reflecting on:
1. Traveling to Eastern Europe for Michael is exactly like traveling to Hawaii for me. How is that? Well, in Eastern Europe, people would approach Michael speaking Czech or German or basically any Eastern European language, much like the folks in Hawaii come up to me and say "You local girl, yeah?"
2. Happy Cow cheese spread is delicious and we should incorporate it into our breakfast repertoire.
3. I've found that beer really can replace water during meals - especially when it's a fraction of the price!
4. It would be nice to earn my salary in Pounds! That way, I can go shopping without even thinking about it.
5. Walking 4 miles a day and using public transport would make everyone more fit. I've decided to make it a point to try and walk more when I can.

I do have a few more points but these are the main ones I thought I'd share.


I've started to upload our photos, but because we took so many, I'm gonna have to publish them in segments. Can you believe we took 741 photos? Lots of it is scenery, but I like that stuff. Don't worry though - I'll edit enough so you get the basic gist of our trip in a condensed version.

So here's the first part of our trip from London and Prague. Hope you enjoy! (Helpful hint - to see a bigger picture, click on the picture below and it will open in a new window where you can go thru the pics at your own pace!)