Contest Card

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas.

I thought I would show you some of the latest cards.

This Birthday card is an entry in the Page Maps Blog card contest. Page Maps is a site full of card and scrapbook page ideas that I use quite often. 

I'm not sure if I posted this one before. It is Karen's Birthday Card. The picture isn't very good, but it is a tri-fold card.

Here are a couple of other cards from earlier in the month.

      

Oh the weather outside is frightful...

It must be pretty bad outside when I'm looking forward to it being 26 degrees tomorrow! I don't think that temperature today has been above zero. Add in the wind chill, and it's just to darn cold to go out, so we didn't (Melissa and I that is).

This is what I've spent the last three weeks doing. It is a baby blanket for one of Steve's coworkers. It was delivered at the shower last Thursday and the mom to be loved it. The colors look a little washed out in the picture.

Melissa and I also knit this cute hat for our niece, her cousin, Tiffanie. She will look so cute in it. Melissa knit the hat and some of the leaves while I was finishing up the baby blanket, and then I knit the flowers and the rest of the leaves and sewed them on. She won't get it in time for Christmas, but it will get there shortly after.

I did some scrapbooking too. These pictures are from our 2007 Thanksgiving trip to New York City. 

I've done some card too. I'll post them as soon as I find the pictures. :-)

That's all for now. I'm off to scrap the ice off of the bedroom windows!

More Cards

After looking through my pictures, I found some more cards to show you. These were inspired by Page Maps or the Hero Arts blog. I'm going to have to keep better track of where I get my ideas.

A thank you card with some little jewels. 

A hello card using my new favorite line of paper from October Afternoon.

Another hello card. 

A birthday card for one of Steve's co-workers. I've become the (un)official card maker for the office!

Marcia's birthday card. 

Two for the price of one

Wow two posts in one day. I have been making a lot of cards lately so I thought I would share some of them.

The first one is a birthday card I made for Paul. I used distress ink in two different colors and then stamped over it with a circle stamp. I like the way the colors kind of melt into each other. I had a great time playing with stamp pads and a water mister to get the effect.

The next one is Karen's birthday card. It is a tri-fold card, (thanks Nicole for the idea.) so it will stand up on its own.

This one is the November Christmas card. I was part of a year long Christmas card challenge. We had to create cards each month, so that by the end of November we would have all our cards finished. I did ten each month, so I have 100 cards (I missed October). Later this week I will post the others.

Finally here is some more of Melissa's knitting. She saw some knitted bracelets in a knitting magazine and wanted to try it for herself and this cabled bracelet is the result.

By Special Request

I was asked over the weekend when I was going to post about the rest of our trip to Disney World and the Disney Cruise. Ok Marcia here is the Magic Kingdom portion of the trip. Enjoy!

First off I must say that ever since I can remember, I have been a big fan of  Disneyland. My grandparent took us when we were young, and we were Annual Pass holders for a lot of years. So, I am a little biased. Walking into the Magic Kingdom at Disney World is kind of like walking into an alternate universe. It is kind of familiar, but just different enough to feel weird.

Once again the crowds were very light, which was nice. Since his meetings were over, Steve was able to join us. Our first stop was the bakery on Main Street for breakfast. After that, we headed over to Tomorrowland. Steve and Melissa rode Space Mountain, but were sad that there was no music. The next ride was the Tomorrowland Transit Authority, which I enjoyed since I loved the People Mover at Disneyland. The roller coaster fanatics in the family thought it was too tame for them. Next up was Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin. The astro blasters are much different here than they are at Disneyland, so it made the ride extra challenging. The next stop was the Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor which we loved. We saw it a couple of times in the morning and then Steve and Melissa saw it a couple more times in the afternoon.

We then moved on to Fantasyland to ride its a small world which is always fun. We then went to see Mickey's Philharmagic which we hadn't seen before.  

We then headed over to Liberty Square to ride the Haunted Mansion. The line wasn't very long so we were able to ride a couple of times. We decided to have lunch at Liberty Tree Tavern. The food was wonderful. 

After lunch we went over to Adventureland to ride the Jungle Cruise which is one of our favorite rides. A stop at the Tiki Room was next, gotta love the singing birds and flowers.

We watched the Dreams Come True parade from Frontierland and then wandered around the park for a bit. I was kind of tired and need to sit and rest my sore foot for awhile, so Steve and Melissa went back to Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor which they saw a couple of times. 

We decided it was time for a train ride so got on at the Main Street station and rode it around the park a couple of times.

By this time we were getting hungry so we stopped at Casey's Corner on Main Street for hot dogs. After dinner we did some shopping on Main Street and then hung around waiting for the fireworks. The park closed after the fireworks, so we headed to the monorail for our short trip back to the hotel.

Tomorrow's post the Disney Cruise.

Movie and Mraz

It was a very busy, very fun weekend. (and it took me a whole day to recover which is why this wasn't posted yesterday!)

It started out on Friday afternoon. Melissa and I went to see the movie Twilight which we both enjoyed. Melissa decided that it was the perfect day to wear her Bella and Edward socks for the first time. She is part of the Twilight sock club and each month she gets a skein of hand dyed sock yarn and a pattern that corresponds to one of the books. So of course the first one was red yarn and a heart patterned sock. Beautiful don't you think?

Friday night was the beginning of Jason Mraz weekend. We drove to Milwaukee to see the first of three shows. (Is there anyone in Milwaukee who doesn't smoke?) The venue was a little funky, but the show was awesome.

Saturday evenings show was in Chicago at the Aragon ballroom. It is a really pretty place and I was actually able to get a seat in the balcony so I didn't have to stand for the whole show which was good. Steve and Melissa ended up going downstairs to stand on the floor, which was packed and I joined them there for the encore. It was another wonderful show.

The crowd went wild when this came up on the screen during one of his songs. Before the show, there were pictures that people sent in displayed on the large squares of the screen. We sent one in, but forgot to bring a camera so we didn't get a picture of it. It was really cool to see ourselves up on the screen. In the little rectangles, they posted messages that people in the crowd sent in from their phones. After the show, they ran credits which was kind of funny.

Night three was at the Fabulous Fox in St. Louis (yes we are a little crazy). We had a really nice dinner at a restaurant across the street and then went in to see another amazing show. We spent the night and had a Waffle House pecan waffle before we left for home.

So we have had our Jason Mraz fix for a while (although Melissa was ready to go to Cleveland for the Monday night show). If you ever get the chance to see him, go. He is an amazing  musician and really funny too.

Have you voted yet?

It is a beautiful day for voting...mid 70's and sunny with a little breeze.

Our polling place is right across the street so it was really easy. Steve went over a little after 6:00 am and had to wait for an hour, which wasn't too bad. Melissa and I went over at 9:00 am and didn't have to wait at all. It was kind of neat to use the touch screen machines. We had never done that before. Melissa was excited because it was the first time she got to vote in person. She was away at school before so she always voted by absentee ballot.

Melissa and Steve considered going down to Grant Park this evening for the big rally but decided against it (I hate big crowds so I never considered it). They decided not to go, so we will stay home and watch the festivities on tv.

Here is my favorite Halloween treat, peanuts and candy corn. Yummy, tastes just like a PayDay candy bar.

Progress

Today I thought I would show you some of the things that I have been working on lately.

First up is some scrapbooking. I have been working on a gift album and this is one of the layouts from it. Hopefully some day soon it will be finished and on it's way to it's new home.

These pictures are from the Panama Canal cruise we took last November (has it been a year already, how time flies). We went to a turtle farm and released baby turtles into the ocean. It was a fun day.

(buddy decided he needed to hold the page down.)

Next up is a sock that has lovingly been referred to as the "sock from hell". The yarn and I have been fighting over what it would become for about a month now. It didn't want to be a pretty little sock with some lace on each side. Did I listen to what the yarn wanted, oh no, I knew best. After much grumbling on my part, not the yarns, it is now becoming a plain vanilla sock. Both the yarn and knitter are extremely happy now.

The Liesel scarf is progressing slowly. I really need to get it finished since it is getting colder. (This yarn didn't put up any fights, it wanted to be lacy.)

The Lady Eleanor is about half way done. I have about 2 1/2 skeins of yarn left. It is going to be so pretty when it is finished.

This is Karen's sock. It is growing slowly, it hasn't had much attention lately. Now that I'm done fighting with the other sock, I can get back to this one.

And last but not least, because there always has to be some Disney goodness going on, here is a dishcloth. Karen this one is going to be in your birthday package, so look for it soon.

Winter is Here

It just started snowing. Hopefully it won't last very long.

On a happier note - I know it isn't quite Halloween yet, but I thought I'd share a picture of Buddy in his Halloween costume.

More Disney World pictures tomorrow!

Animal Kingdom

Melissa and I had a great time at Disney's Animal Kingdom. It is one of the prettiest parks and again there wasn't much of a crowd. The day we were there it was cloudy and kind of misty, a perfect day to be in the jungle.

Our first ride was the Kilimanjaro Safari. We rode it twice, but the first time was the best because there were so many animals to see. There were these elephants, giraffe, lions, rhinos and many others.

Our next stop was a walk through the Pangani Forest trail. Lots of birds, fish gorillas and hippos on this tour.

Melissa rode Expedition Everest a couple of times and then we had a great lunch at Yak & Yeti.

After lunch we watched Finding Nemo-The Musical. It was lots of fun with the puppets.

Of course we had to watch Mickey's Jammin' Jungle Parade. There were lots of amazing animal floats that were really pretty. 

We also watched the Festival of the Lion King. The acrobats were amazing and the show it a lot of fun.

The park closed at 5:00 p.m. I wish we would have had more time to explore since there were a few things that we missed. Oh well, something for the next visit.

After we left the park, we headed over to Downtown Disney to meet Steve and Kristin (one of Steve's co-workers) for dinner.

Next - the Magic Kingdom.

Disney's Hollywood Studios

Day two of our trip was to Hollywood Studios. I think it was the best day ever, we had so much fun. Once again there wasn't much of a crowd. I think the longest we waited in line was 45 minutes, most of the rides had lines of 10 minutes or less.

Our favorite ride was Toy Story Midway Mania. We loved it so much that we ended up riding it six times. It wasn't the only ride of the day however. Melissa rode the Rock 'n' Roller Coaster twice, we also rode The Great Movie Ride and did the Studio Backlot Tour. We were going to see Fantazmic to see how different it was from the one at Disneyland, but Toy Story Midway Mania took over our lives and we missed it.

Melissa and her favorite little green men!

We also got to see our favorite parade, Block Party Bash. We were so sad when it moved from California Adventure to Florida. We even recognized one of the cast members who made the move with the parade. Shows you what kind of Disney geeks we really are. We were able to add another nerf ball to our collection too.

It was a very fun day.

Tomorrow: Animal Kingdom

Better Late than Never

I know we have been home for two weeks and I haven't posted anything about our trip to Disney World and the Disney Cruise. I got sick at the end of the trip and didn't feel like doing much of anything.

So here's the report. I'm going to break it down into several posts that way I can get more pictures in. Melissa ended up taking almost 300 pictures, and no I'm not going to show them all.

We arrived on Saturday afternoon and stayed at the Contemporary Resort. It was really nice and the monorail runs right through the building so that made getting around (at least to Epcot and the Magic Kingdom) really easy.

The soap in the bathroom make me happy. I tried several times to snitch another one to take home, but the maids kept their carts closed when they weren't around, darn it.

We had a room facing the lagoon and every night after the fireworks at the Magic Kingom, there was a lighted boat parade. You can see it here

On Sunday Melissa and I went to Epcot. The park wasn't very busy which was nice. We spent the morning in the Future World section of the park and rode the Test Track twice. Who knew I enjoyed speed so much! I would have done it a third time, but twice was enough for Melissa!

We also got to see the dolphin show which was fun. At the end, the pose for pictures. It was really funny to see them all pose and smile.

The rest of the time we ate our way around the World Showcase. The Food and Wine festival was in full swing. The theme was cities around the world and we tasted treats from several different cities, although we did skip the escargot from Paris. It was quite yummy. 

(Maple glazed salmon from Canada, quite tasty.)

After a trip on Spaceship Earth, it was time to catch the monorail back to the hotel.

Next post Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom.

I have been scrapbooking

I finally finished all my swap pages and got them in the mail this morning. I signed up for this swap at the beginning of the summer and of course I waited until the last minute to work on them. These are 8 x 8 pages and the designs came from the Page Maps website.

It was fun to do and I'm excited to see what I get in return.

Fun, Fun, Fun

I've started some fun new knitting projects.

The first one is a pair of socks for Karen.  The picture doesn't show the colors very well, but they are a very pretty teal and brown. These are the first lace socks that I've done. I think they will look really nice when they are finished.

The second project is more lace. This is a scarf for me. I'm using the same yarn that I used to knit my gloves. This is so fun to knit and it is going really fast. Once it is finished and blocked, you will be able to see the pretty lacy leaf pattern more clearly.

And finally this is the dish cloth that I did for the Dish Rag Tag. I got the box late in the afternoon and started knitting the dish cloth. It took me about three hours to knit (Melissa was afraid that she wasn't going to get any dinner that night) and I got it back in the mail the next morning. We still have five or six people on our team who are waiting for the box so I don't think we have any chance of winning, but it has been fun. The person before me sent me some cute heart shaped stitch markers, a tape measure and some handmade knitting needles. I sent off some handmade beaded stitch markers and an I Love Knitting pin to the next person on the list.

Steve had some fun this week too. When he was in California, he was able to be in the audience of the Bonnie Hunt Show. They got hot dogs (well some of the audience did anyway) and root beer before the show. He said it was a fun thing to do, and I'm sure it made up for the hour or so he spent at the Social Security office to get a replacement card.