Stampin'Up!'s Weekly Deals {Feb 18}

Hi all!  I know it's been a little quiet on my end for a Tuesday.  Suffice it to say, I'm having technical difficulties and will need to resume my {Tech Tip Tuesday} segment next week.  Time just escaped me…even with the long President's day weekend! :(  Not to worry - I promise I'll make up for it next week. :)

I do have a quick update for this week's deals though…would you like to see?

There are a couple of crafting "must have's" for sale this week - namely, the 3/16th inch corner punch and the silver metallic encore pad.  Metallic is all the rage right now, so it's great to have silver or gold on hand to spruce up your crafting projects, don't you think?  Well, these products and more are available at my online store 24/7, so feel free to hop over there if you want to take a peek!

I just want to leave you with a few pics from this weekend - our little family went to visit the California Science Center to check out the Space Shuttle Endeavour…boy was it amazing!  The shuttle was so massive and to see it in person was awesome!  I'm glad we got to witness a little piece of history. The Endeavour's weathered exterior says a lot and tells a great story of its incredible journeys.  

We had a fun time at the science center and even got to make our way over to the Natural History Museum, which was so cool, too!  If you're in Southern CA, it's definitely worth the wile to check out these museums {especially if you've got little kiddies in tow!}

Thanks for coming by to visit.  I'm glad your journey brought you here today! Have a great one. :)

Happy Father's Day!

Hi there, blog friends!  How are you?  I know I've been MIA for quite a while.  Everything is all good though...just very busy!  Today, I've got a couple Father's Day cards to share - just in the nick of time!

Here's a closer view of the card with my hubby and son. This pic was actually taken on our vacation last week to Mammoth.  We had quite a blast!

I even made a quick 12x12 page in MDS2:

My goal is to make an album of the trip, so I'll keep you posted on how that goes. :)

I also wanted to share that the new catalog is out!  I know I'm a bit late, but here's the link for you to check it out.  You won't be disappointed!! I've also updated the left rail of my blog with the new catty, too!

Hope you have a great day and will try and post again, soon!

Do you know the way to San Jose?

Greetings, all! I wanted to pop in real quick to say hello. It's been a little quiet here on the blog, mostly because it's been a bit busy for me behind the scenes with my day job and of course, family stuff! As we speak I am in transit up the California coastline, headed to San Jose for the day for work. Below is a quick snap I took from the air!

So, I had the best intentions to get Valentines out and cards posted, but it's looking like I will need to send some virtual ones tomorrow. I have all the supplies, so maybe in my elvin craft room tonight, I'll be able to make a few. You'll have to check back tomorrow to see how I do! How about you guys? Did you make some fun Valentine craft ideas. Would love to hear!

I will chat with you guys soon. Have a great day!

Last and final Safari destination - Serengeti

Serengeti, a set on Flickr.

Hello there! Today I'm sharing the last segment of our safari trip to Tanzania, Africa. We went to the Serengeti and stayed at the beautiful Serengeti Migration Camp. The area is sooo vast with the terrain varying from a wooded region to an expanse of grassy plains as far as the eye can see. In addition to all the animals we had seen in the previous 3 locations, we were still introduced to a bunch more! And, we even got to witness the incredible wildabeest migration! It's nothing I've ever seen before....a sea of animals all heading North as part of their annual migration. You'll see these pics in the series. There's a picture that shows they fill the plains and extend to the horizon. It was incredible.

At the camp, we encountered an adorable animal called the Hyrax and I totally wanted to take one home with me. See if you can spot them in the series - it looks like a cross of a cat and squirrel with no tail and just the cutest round body.

Well, I hope you enjoy this last set! I can't say enough how much we enjoyed this trip and would highly recommend going on safari at some point in your life - truly amazing and inspiring to get a glimpse of nature's playground. I would also highly recommend our tour operator - Elewana Skysafari. Everyone and everything we encountered, from the staff and activities to all the properties we stayed at were amazing and absolutely fabulous! I really can't say enough.

Hope you all have a wonderful day!

Oh - one last thing on a completely different note - today is the last day to play in my May giveaway, so if you'd like to take a stab at winning the free stamp set, please go and leave a comment on the May Final Friday Giveaway post!

3rd Safari Stop - Ngorongoro Crater

Ngorongoro Crater, a set on Flickr.

Hi bloggie friends! How are you guys? Hope you're enjoying the pictures so far. This set is from our third destination at the Ngorongoro Crater. We stayed at the lovely Manor at Ngorongoro which was just so beautiful and unexpectedly decadent while on safari. We even had a little downtime to get massages in between our game drives. The Ngorongoro crater is actually a caldera, which is roughly 18 km in diameter. It's amazing that such a broad spectrum of animals found a way of life there in the bottom of the crater. We saw lions, buffalo, and rhinos here to round out our Big 5 sightings! I will have to caution you that viewer discretion is advised when viewing this set - there's a series of pictures of lions mating, and a few snaps of lionnesses guarding their kill. But, this is nature, so it was awesome to see live! The weather here was actually a little like home - overcast and misty in the morning and then it cleared up and warmed to mid to upper 70s. It even rained here during both nights we were there. The terrain actually reminded me a lot of Hawaii {probably because of its volcanic influences!}. Anyway, enjoy this set! Oh, and feel free to leave me a comment if you have any questions about any pictures, places or animals!! I'll be happy to comment in the string for everyone's benefit :)

One last thing - the first few photos of the pink dots and pink masses...can you guess what those are? I know it kinda looks like a petri dish of growth {at least, to me!} but they are actually masses of flamingos in Lake Manyara!! It was an incredible view from the plane.

I'll be posting our last and final stop tomorrow...the grand finale of our trip, the Serengeti.