Hello!

Hello crafting friends. 

I'm back from a wonderful overseas vacation, spent with family and old friends.

Of course time flew by and I could have done with at least another couple of weeks, but I was missing the kids and grandkids, so I'm happy to be back!

I'd love to go back and catch up on everyone's beautiful projects and leave some bloggie love, for the month of August, but truth be told, I just don't have the time as I have a lot of catching up to do in the non crafting world.

So, please forgive me but I will do my very best to start afresh as from today :-)

 I hope everyone had a wonderful summer. I can't believe that it's almost September!  Time for Fall, Thanksgiving, Halloween and Christmas projects!!!  This is my favourite crafting time of the year.  

I have a lot of projects to share with you in September and have started the month off with a DT project for Christmas Crafts All Year 'Round, so please do come back for a visit.

Till next time, 

HIMCR Blogiversary Celebration ~ Challenge # 212a

Happy Saturday everyone and welcome back.  You're in for a treat today!

We are celebrating Hiding in My Craft Room's 6th Blog Anniversary!  So come celebrate with us and join in the fun.  We will have another 3 challenges for you - one per hour on the hour, so stay tuned and enjoy! :-)

Our first challenge for you is to  make a scrapbook page. It can be of anything you want, so now is the time to get out those scrapbooks and work on them :-)

Our wonderful sponsor for this challenge is Laurie from HIMCR.

The prize is a Space Party Cricut Cartridge. 

This is the first layout  I've done of our snorkeling adventure in Cozumel last month.

As you can see, I tend to keep my scrapbook pages very simple. This is mostly because I normally have a lot of pics.  I can never choose just one or two because they all seem equally important to me. So I just tend to use a bit of DP and a few embellishments and call it good.  Also, this is my son's scrapbook, so flowers, ribbons, bling and such would not be appreciated :-)

Supplies used:

Blue card stock ~ Ocean Wonders # 7 by Ella & Viv Paper Co.

Starfish card stock ~ Gathering Seashells by Graphic 45

Teal card stock ~ Paper Studio

Dies used ~ Spellbinders Circles (Large)

Title ~ Pooh Font Cartridge - cut with Cricut Explore

I printed my journaling on vellum, then fussy cut a few starfish to cover the glue dots I used to adhere the vellum to the page.  Also fussy cut another few starfish and used them as embellishments.

I hope you have enjoyed this first challenge and are gathering all your photos,etc. to join us.  You have till next Saturday, August 22 at 2:00 am CST to link your project to challenge #212a at Hiding in My Craft Room.

I will be back in an hour with another challenge.

Till then,

Happy Crafting!

We are Back!

Hello bloggie friends.  We are back from our vacation in Cozumel, Mexico.  We had a wonderful time. The island is beautiful and the reefs filled with gorgeous tropical fish. I can truly say that I had never seen such clear turquoise water before. The clarity, even with considerable depth, is amazing!

Here are a few pics that I would like to share with you ... :-)

At about 7 feet deep, we could still get pretty clear pictures.

A beautiful starfish about 20 ft deep.  My son enjoyed snorkeling and stayed within the top 10 ft of  water.  We could see the scuba divers about 100 ft below us.

Can you see the see the sea turtle?

These were some of our little swim buddies.  No matter where you go for a swim, there are always lots of fish swimming right along with you :-)

Towel origami left on bed :-)

The most southern point of the island is called Punta Sur and has a beautiful lighthouse.
That is my son waving from the top :-)

One of our stops was at the Mayan ruins.

Being in Mexico, we just had to tour a tequila factory and got to taste some too.

We took a Jeep tour around the island. These are the two men in my life, my hubby and my son :-)

While snorkeling, my son found a live conch shell.  I don't think it's little inhabitant was too happy to be taken out of the water for the photo :-)

Getting a little home sick for wings, we found a Hooters restaurant on the island. They have a home delivery service that we don't find here in Pearland.

Well, like I said this was a wonderful holiday but we are all glad to be back and I'm especially happy to be in my craft room once again.

Thank you for stopping by today.  I hope you come visit me on Saturday with another challenge at Hiding in My Craft Room.

Till then,

Crafty Hugs

Summer Fun at Crafty Gals Corner ~ Challenge # 22

Hi bloggie friends.  Welcome back to my blog.

It's Wednesday and that means that we have a new challenge for you at Crafty Gals Corner.  Our challenge this week is all about Summer Fun.  After the awful winter we had, I think that we are all ready for some summer fun.  I know I can't wait to hit the beach.  I'm one of those people that could quite happily make a career out of beach bumbing :-)

Our sponsor this week is Eureka Stamps.

The prize is 3 digital images.

For my project this week, I used of Eureka Stamps digital images called "Legend of the Sand Dollar".

When I saw this image, I knew that my project this week would be a scrapbook page.  Two years ago, we went to the Bahamas for our summer vacation and my son found a real live sand dollar while sitting at the seashore.

Supplies used to make this scrapbook page:

Background DP ~ Paper Boutique by Jane Shasky

Sand Dollars ~ Cottage Cutz Dies 

Seashore Title ~ Miss Kate Cuttables - cut using Silhouette

Beach Grass ~ ioDies

Burlap Flowers ~ Recollections

Burlap Rectangle and Crab Charm ~ from my stash

Journaling ~ Typed on computer and printed on vellum

Legend of the Sand Dollar ~ Digi - Eureka Stamps

Now remember that you have till noon, CST on Tuesday, 9 June 2015, to play along with us.  All you have to do is link your creation to our challenge # 22.

I will be back later on today to share a card with you that I made for my little granddaughter who is one year old today :-)

Till then,

Enjoy your day.

Hugs,

I'm Back!!!

Hi everyone.  I hope you are having a good summer.  We are back from a wonderful vacation in the Cayman Islands :-)  It's a beautiful place and if hubby could get a job there, I would be packed and ready to go before he could say "We're moving" :-)

 

Here are a few pics that I would like to share with you ...

 

 

The day we arrived - straight from the airport and onto the beach :-)

 

 

A visit to Georgetown.

 

 

 

My new background/wallpaper :-) This was taken whilst cruising through the island.

 

 

At the Turtle Farm.

 

 

Beautiful island trees called Flamboyants

 

 

At Stingray City.  This was an amazing experience.  The locals told us that if you kiss a stingray, it brings you 7 years good luck.  I'm counting on it ;-)

 

So now you know the reason I've been MIA and why I have not been commenting on your beautiful creations.  I will try to do my best to go visit your blogs as soon as I can.  When I look at my piles of laundry though, I think that I may never get there, but I will try my best.

 

I will be back early tomorrow morning with an exciting post from HIMCR.  There will be a surprise ...

 

Till then,

Happy Crafting!

 

Catching up ...

Hi everyone, just a quick hello to say that there is a very good reason I've been MIA - we went to the Bahamas for two weeks and frankly I wish I was still there.  It was a wonderful holiday - the weather was perfect, the sea beautiful, the food delicious (although pricey), the people friendly and the service great.  We had nothing to do and all day to do it in :-)  We spent most of our time at the beach and then visited the island in the evenings. It was absolutely wonderful and very relaxing.  I have a few photos to share with you ,...

 

This was the view from our balcony. It was wonderful to wake up to this view every morning ... beautiful blue skies and an ocean breeze.

 

Look at the colour of this water - true turquoise. My son enjoyed a few hours of kayaking - saw a few manta rays and sea turtles as well as a bunch of different fish.

 

While there, we met a couple from Indianapolis and decided to go to the Pool Deck for dinner.  OMG, barring the restaurant in Spain, this had to be the best paella I've ever eaten.  I definately had more than an elegant sufficiency :) (as in I totally pigged out lol)

 

We took a day off and went to visit the Atlantis resort.  It was absolutely beautiful but very busy so I was glad we didn't actually stay there.  There are on average about 4 to 5 cruise ships there every day and most of the passengers go to the Atlantis resort. We visited their beautiful aquariums while there.

 

My son and hubby walking through the tunnel in the shark tank.  It's quite a feeling to see sharks everywhere including above your head!

 

As typical tourists we bought the T-shirts to prove we were there :)  This one sums it all up -

 Life in the Bahamas!

 

Well, now it's back to reality and I'm looking forward to making more cards and maybe some scrapbooking layouts and sharing those projects with you in the near future.

 

Thanks for stopping by and remember ...

 

Smile mon!!!

 

Hugs,

Lena

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Unspoiled Coastline

I've been in an organizing frenzy so no crafting to post.  In an effort to keep up with my blog, though I wanted to share a few more adventures of our vacation.
On the way back from the Algarve to Lisbon, we decided to take the coastal route instead of the intercity highway.

We stopped here at this beautiful place after driving around in the mountains for about 17 minutes and came to this beautiful spot along the south western coast of Portugal. 

 The only man made thing is this boardwalk for which I was very grateful :)

 This is the Atlantic Ocean as its best just beating up against the sheer cliffs of the coast.

There are no words that can adequately describe this - the air is pure and crisp and lightly scented by the beautiful wildflowers, and the only noise is from the waves washing up against the cliffs and the birds.  It is so peaceful that I could quite happily pitch a tent and live there forever.  (Actually, a little cottage with all amenities - more my idea of camping :)

I hope you enjoyed this little piece of paradise with me.

Hugs,

Lena

Another Vacation Share

I feel so bad that I haven't really kept up with my blog, life took over and card making is on the back burner at the moment, so I thought I would share another part of my vacation with you ...
As I mentioned before Portugal has a stunning coastline with sheer cliffs and beautiful beaches.  Here are some of the different beaches we visited - can't remember the names of them all, but they were all beautiful!  Take a look and let me know what you think ...

 My son and hubby flying a kite ...

 Braving the cold Atlantic waters :)

 

 It's about 7:00 pm and as you can see the beach is deserted - do you know why? ...

Because everyone has gone to the restaurants, bars, clubs, etc to watch the Eurocup 2012 :) This is the view from the back of these beach restaurants.  It is taken from the top of the cliffs.  It was one of my most enjoyable moments to have really delicious food while watching the games on huge screen TV's right on the beach - soooo very relaxing!

A panoramic view of half of the Praia da Rocha which is one of the most well known resort beaches on the Algarve.  You won't believe how many people exercise by simply walking the length of this beach from one end to the other.  Apparently 20 minutes of walking on soft beach sand is equivalent to 2 hours walking on regular ground.  How wonderful to exercise and catch a tan at the same time and to be able to take a quick dip to cool off inbetween - I could see myself exercising this way ... then again maybe not lol

I have another gazillion photos I took but it would make this post even longer, so come back soon and don't give up on me.  I promise to start card making again soon.

Hugs,

Lena

 

Sevilla

During this last year, my son achieved many goals and one of them was being inducted into the Spanish Honor Society.  So, in his honor, while we were in Portugal we drove over to Spain and visited Sevilla.  What an amazing city full of history, wonderful architecture and culture.  We must have walked miles but enjoyed every minute of it.  We made him use his Spanish and when my mom needed a toothpick he did not know the name so he got creative and asked the waiter for the small thing that you use to clean your teeth with.  We all had such a good laugh about this but the very good natured waiter not only brought us the toothpicks but taught him how to say it in Spanish!
Let me share a few pics of our visit with you ... (remember that you can click on them to have a better view)

 One of the many rotundas in Sevilla.

 The entire bottom section of the Plaze de Espana is filled with these pictures which depict a special time in the history of each of Spain's provinces.

 A panaromic view of the Plaza.

 Lunch time - my son enjoyed a Paella de Marisco - Seafood Paella.

 We visited the palace - these are some of the grounds.

 They had beautiful gardens with beautiful blooming bushes, fountains, statues and mazes - very conducive for those trysts that you always read about in historical romance novels :-) 

The Hall of Tapestries - it is filled with absolutely beautiful tapestries depicting various battles, the world map, and balls of those days where the woman wore the most beautiful ball gowns!  You can judge their size by looking at the size of my husband who is 6'1" tall - he's the one in the red shirt.

Unfortunately we never made it to the Cathedral on time.  We forgot that as we crossed over into Spain that we were an hour ahead and by the time we got to the Cathedral, we would not have enough time to visit.  I guess we will leave that on our list of things to visit if we ever make it back to Spain.