Chicago CHA photos 38

Hi There! Arrived home last night from my adventure to Chicago. We had a great vacation :) I had the opportunity to catch up with a few friends as well as meet some "new" ones. It is quite fascinating to me to sit back & see so many people, predominantly women, brought together because of the love we share for papercrafting! Pretty unique in my opinion :) I wish I could have taken a photo of everyone I met but that is simply not possible :( In no particular order, here are a few snapshots of a few I (Scott) was lucky enough to capture:

This is the Rosemont Stephens Convention Center where "it" all took place:
To start off the first day after my arrival, I met Pam Imholz in real life for breakfast :) Pam & I were Design Team-mates for both Just Us Girls & My Time Made Easy. Look at ALL these Spellbinders™ die templates all in one spot! Aren't they to die for?! Have you heard the BIG news & have you had a chance to see all the newly released die templates? If not, please be sure to visit the Spellbinders Paper Arts blog for COMPLETE info - I think you will happy :)Heidi Blankenship, one of the talented Spellbinders Blog Designers, was working her magic at the Spellbinders booth :)Gina K. of Gina K. Designs was filming a session for Stamp TV at the Spellbinders™ booth:
In the center is Stamp Designer/Artist Nina Brackett. Click HERE so see some of her designs. Next to Nina is one of my Waltzingmouse Stamps Design Team-mates, Belinda Chang Langer.
Here are 2 of my former Design Team-mates from The Play Date Cafe: Julie Ranae (on your far left) & Lisa Somerville (center). Julie & I met through blogging early on & is the Owner/Administator of The Play Date Cafe.
I was fortunate enough to have a personal, one - on - one / spur of the moment tutorial of sorts by one of Ranger's Signature Artists, Suze Weinberg! Sue taught me how to get over my fear of working with wax - she made it look so easy & non-intimidating! sigh... :)
Another Ranger Signature Artist - THE Tim Holtz!
Downtown CHICAGO:

Spellbinders™ Design Team-mate, Owner of the on-line Embellish Magazine - Ashley Cannon Newell & I in front of "The Cloud Gate" aka "The Bean". (it's the metal statue behind us that looks like a big bean!) Ashley, her husband Mac, Scott & I spent an entire afternoon touring around Downtown Chicago. We had so much fun taking in the sights, eating some down home Chicago dogs & burgers along with an ice-cold beverage ;) at Portillo's, we barely made it to the train station to catch the Midnight train out of the city!

A closer view:

Sweet Scott :) on the Navy Pier with the cityscape in the background.

The Buckingham Fountain located in downtown Chicago on Lake Michigan's waterfront:

I hope you have enjoyed these photos as much as I enjoyed sharing them :) Thanks for looking!

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Happy 4th of July...Lantau Island 38

Hi Everyone! Happy Independence Day to all celebrating in the USA! My husband & I spent the day traveling to Beijing from Hong Kong. I wanted to share some photos from a day trip that we took to Lantau Island, Hong Kong. After taking about an hour bus ride to Lantau Island, we took a gondola lift ride up the mountain to where the Po Lin Monastery & the Tian Tan Buddha is located.This is a picture of the Tian Tan Buddha as seen from the gondola lift window. It is quite fascinating!Once you arrive, you can either take a tour bus which drives you to the base of the statue or you have to climb up the 268 steps. I have to admit, we were on a tour that took us to the top :) The Tian Tan bronze Buddha statue is enormous in size - 112 feet tall & weighs 280 short tons! The photo below is a temple located near the Buddha statue.The inside of the temple is quite ornate, colorful & full of the aroma of burning incense.
Located on Lantau Island is the 300 year old Chinese fishing town called Tai O.

Here you can find many homes built on stilts out in the water.

Here's a peek of a local fish market street - can you smell the aroma? We weren't brave enough to taste any local food but thoroughly enjoyed the experience of seeing all the kind & friendly people.

Thanks so much for sharing my trip photos :) It's been quite an interesting day & evening...Off to explore the 3,000 year old Forbidden City & Tiananmen Square here in Beijing tomorrow. Hope you have a great day! Be Sweet!

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Hong Kong photos 35

Hi Everyone! In my crafty world, I recently had the honor to be a Guest Designer on the awesome Scrapbook News & Review site. If you would like to see what I created exclusively for the feature, please feel free to click HERE :) On to share a few photos of my sight seeing around Hong Kong :) Here is a look at Hong Kong Island with the Financial District in the background. There are hundreds of massive skyscrapers along the northern border of the island; way too many for me to fit in one photo. It would take 3 or 4 photos may capture it all!This is what a glimpse of the skyline of Hong Kong Island looks like at night. Here is Scott & I on top what is known as the lookout on Victoria Peak on Hong Kong Island. The buildings immediately below are those in the Financial District & across the Victoria Harbor is Kowloon.The photo taken below is of the Financial District but was taken looking out of from a window on the 55th floor of a skyscraper. Try to imagine where 7 million people live in a 426 square mile area then you can get an idea of how many high rises there may be.
The photo below is a fisherman's house & fishing boat. There is a fishing village named Aberdeen located in an inlet of the South China Sea where the sprawling city remains in the backdrop!

We took a tour of Aberdeen on a little boat like the one in the photo below.

The photo below is a floating restaurant that seats up to 1200 people.

Here is a peek down a random street.

I don't want to bore you, so that is all I will share today :) I will be back in a day or two to show you some more of this amazing place! Hope you have a great day & thanks so much for looking :)

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Lil' Franky 25

Hi Everyone! This past weekend I was on Fall Break vacation in Southern California with my Dear Hubby & stepkids :) We went to Walt Disney Land for a day. I would like to share some of my favorite photos from our trip:

Here is me & my honey in front of the HUGE Mickey Jack-O-Lantern:

Me, Meredith & Connor (& Mickey):

This is a faux pumpkin carving of Mickey on top of the Railway House:

I loved this wagon full of fall foliage & pumpkins:

My inspiration for my Lil' Franky card came from my visit to Disney :) I squeezed 3 challenges in this card! 1. For Sketch inspiration, I used the fun Crazy 4 Challenges Sketch Challenge 7 C4C7, 2. Pile it on! Challenge #19 - Ready For Halloween & 3. Humble Pie Stamps, Buttons & Bling challenge. When my DH saw this card, he asked me why Frankenstein was coming out of a pumpkin?! He went on to say "You're not going to put that on your blog are you?" Sometimes, I wish he wasn't so brutally honest! I said "Why YES I am!" I'd love to know if you are ready for Halloween? Be Sweet!

Here is my Lil' Franky card:

I stamped the background paper with SU Lavender Lace ink & PTI Polka Dot Basics II. I have yet to master my lil' craft sewing machine, so I hand stitch on my cards LOL.

Using a SU oval punch, I punched 5 ovals, sponged the edges with SU Only Orange ink, then layered & adhered them together with a 2 way glue pen. The Scalloped circle was a lil' plain so I punched holes around the perimeter using the Crop-A-Dile II.

Ingredients Used: Stamps: PTI Polka Dot Basics II, Hero Arts Frankenstein, Studio G "Cute As A Pumpkin" $1 stamp Paper: My Mind's Eye DP, SU Lavender Lace, Only Orange, Green Galore, Whisper White Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, SU Only Orange, Lavender Lace, Copic Markers: Lime Green G21, Yellowish Green YG06, Colorless Blender 0, Sprinkles: Spellbinders Scalloped Circle & Circle, paper punch from stash, PTI ribbon, twine & button, Making Memories brads, Martha Stewart glitter, SU Heat & Stick powder, Oval paper punch, Sizzix jack-o-lantern die, Cuttlebug Swiss Dots EF

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Reality Check! 16

Reality Check!

Hi Girls! My DH & I took the "red-eye" flight home last night from Maui to Phoenix. :( I spent the day doing hum-drum chores - dragging my dear sister, Tina around town with me! One exciting thing on my to-do list was to replace my broken Sidekick, making good use of that 50% off coupon :) I was a happy lil' scrapper, skippin' out of Michael's with my new toy :) Life was good! I started to back out of the parking lot, to continue on with my endless list when my unfortunate event occurred! :( While in Reverse, my car just suddenly stopped. The engine continued to run, (Thank Goodness because it was a toasty 101 degrees outside). My car would not engage in Drive, Reverse or Neutral! The shifter was stuck in Park in the middle of the main entrance into the shopping plaza! While waiting over 1 hr for a tow truck, Tina & I visited with the A/C in overdrive :) My car has some fancy electrical work so when the tow truck driver arrived, he did not know how to release the gears! Ugh!!! I made several SOS phone calls to the dealership requesting help but noone seemed to know the magical trick! After another 1 hr of phone calls, Tina & I read the manual. Success!!! :) After dropping my car off at the dealer & picking up a loaner, our adventures continued :)

I wish I was back on that magical Hawaiian island with my DH, relaxing on a pool-side chair under an umbrella, sipping a phoo-phoo drink, with my biggest concern being making a choice on what restaurant to eat dinner at :) This has been my first Reality Check upon arrival from vacation!

Here are a few more vacation photos that I wanted to share with you girls... I hope you enjoy them!

These are the 7 Sacred Pools located in Hana. To see them you have to drive "The Road to Hana" which is a dangerous curvy drive with over 600 turns and 54 bridges. A must do once in a lifetime drive but BEWARE, motion sickness is quite common to say the least! :(

My DH & I at the point where the 7 Sacred Pools meet the ocean! AMAZING!

The two of us parasailing in Kaanapali! What a thrill ride & incredible view!

This is the 2 mile path that winds along the ocean starting at our resort that we ran everyday :) The shorter white buildings in the background is the resort we stayed at, The Fairmont Kea Lani. Extremely friendly staff, gorgeous grounds & views.

These are the lava fields on Maui. Makes me think of the moon's surface. Really cool!

This is The Hali'imailie General Store. One of our favorite restaurants located in Upcountry. They serve the BEST Mangoritas! :)

These two photos of the Hibiscus were taken with my DH's iPhone 3GS while on one of our strolls! It had just finished storming - check out the rain drops on the flowers :)

Gorgeous Maui sunset photos taken from our hotel. Wild color schemes!!!

Please share your thoughts with me & let me know what you think of these pics. Hope to hear from you. Be Sweet!

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