Scrapz

Cute name for a scrapbook, isn't it? I used it for a recent project, an album about myself, so "Scrapz of Me." Here are some of the layouts in the album... and if you notice that some look familiar, there is a reason. These are layouts I did for my Outlaw cj group, but some were modified enough that I thought I'd put the new, not necessarily improved, version out for viewing.

fyi - the ribbon you're seeing along the top is from a layout inside. Nice that the colors just happened to match the front of the album too!

The right side explains about the album, and has a list of layouts.

I added crystal flourishes to the favorite jewelry layout, thinking it tied nicely to the diamonds in the ring.

This one I basically flipped upside down... instead of the arrow on bottom and items on top, I switched it, because I thought the original way looked kind of top heavy.

This one I didn't have the same paper for the background, so I used a similar color and added felt flowers.

And this one I don't see that I ever showed off on my blog!

I also put together a Book of Me from the layouts I did for the CKU-Chicago dorm cj group, and here are the "bones" of that album:

Cover - lovin' the bling and the glitter and the flourishes and the ribbon!

Explanation of the album.

List of layouts and dormie who requested each topic.

And last but not least, I thought I'd show off my studio, as it is currently. I've added a little storage, moved stuff around a little, since my last photos. And yes you see Henry (kitty) in the chair in this first photo, and Alex on the floor in the 2nd.

The drawer units closest to the window hold arrows, flourishes and flowers of all sorts. The little drawers in the shelf area under my stand-up counter hold embellishments sorted by color. That shelf also holds my floss boxes with lots and lots of fiber, metal alphas, inkpads, eyelets and brads, photos to work on. The big drawer units underneath hold themed embellies, mini albums, chipboard, Tim Holtz products, punches, acrylic stamps, adhesives, etc. Oh, and the rotating thing that Alex is in front of holds all my alpha stickers and rub-ons.

The closet holds lots of trip albums, finished and unfinished projects, some cd's, and my fave stuff: paper. Lots of paper!! Pretty paper!! lol I had the hardest time figuring out how to organize my patterned paper, and finally decided to do it by style (clean vs shabby), then by color combo within style. I want to do some cleaning in the closet - box up most of the stuff in the bins on the bottom and move it downstairs. That would give me room to just spread my stuff out, so it isn't so crowded together. All in all, I still LOVE my studio!

life is passing me by

Another year gone by. {sigh} But yes, it was a great year, a fun year. As has become tradition the past few years, we celebrated my bday weekend in WI Dells with folks from our bike club. And no, we don't go because it's my bday - our club has gone to the Dells that specific weekend since before we joined.

And, as usual, we went downhill skiing in northern WI / U.P. in mid-Feb. It was such great fun - I totally felt more confident on the slopes than I ever had. I did black diamond runs, moguls, tree skiing, and even did some tricks in the terrain park. Here are a couple quick photos from that trip:

the gang's all here (well mostly!)

yep, I did that black diamond!

one mogul run - not so bad...

oops, this mogul run wasn't so pretty. I didn't turn quick enuf, and ended up skiing partway UP that slope.

Vakay part V

On Wed Jan 30th, we were at the beautiful island of Barbados. We had been there at least twice before, so again we opted to do some things off the beaten track. We lucked out at our first 3 stops; there were no other tourists around when we were.

We went to a mahogany carving "factory." We had no idea what to expect... the factory was basically a large house with a few workers. The owner showed us how he (and his workers) carve the mahogany. Instead of using chisels, etc., like normal carvers do, they use power tools such as grinders and sanders. wow! He apparently figured out how to do to this, and has been so successful he has hired others to work with him. They create mostly basic pieces, such as fish and birds and vases, etc., but because the wood is so beautiful, each piece looks great! And they do make some more detailed pieces too. The owner uses the root of the mahogany to create amazing one-of-a-kind pieces.
We then headed to a pottery factory. Again, all work is done by hand. The pottery is made using forms, and then various people have their part of the job to finish off the work: cutting off the excess and final shaping, cleaning off the nobby and gritty yuck, painting, etc. The workers were very nice and helpful. We literally just wandered around, watched, asked questions... - very cool!

We talked about the firing process with one worker, who showed us this rack of pieces that had been taken out of the kiln the prior day - the pieces were still hot!

Then we walked over to a batik studio. Again, very cool! The artist was on break, but the worker who was there explained the process of creating these beautiful pieces of art, as well as the more well-known batik clothing.

The batik studio had this very helpful display that showed the steps of the process clearly.

We drove to an overlook that is apparently pretty well-known. There is a bar at the overlook; lots of folks were there, and there were a couple green monkeys on display.

We went to a place called Welchman's Gully. It sounds neat, and would be a nice place to visit if you stay at Barbados for a few days. The Gully is filled with non-native plants, and actually was rather interesting. But I don't think it was a great choice for a one day cruise stop, as it is time-consuming. The tree pictured below is one of the more intriguing specimens in the Gully - neither Greg nor I had seen a tree with needle-like spikes coming out the trunk like this.

We stopped at the Morgan Lewis Windmill briefly. If we had more time to explore, it may have been worth the admission price. Since we were running short on time, we opted to just stop for a quick picture. The Windmill is currently under renovation and not working.

Barbados is really a beautiful island. There is a great mix of tropical and arid, rocky and sandy shore, evergreens and palms, etc. It is definitely another great place to visit in the Southern Carib. The photo below is of Bathsheba.

This next photo was just a view along our drive, I asked our guide to stop so I could snap a picture.

Our tour this day was with Cameron Reid, website: http://www.scenicbarbados.com/ He was a great tour guide; we had a totally personalized tour, just Greg and I. We told him the places we really wanted to visit, and some that sounded good, and he worked the tour around that. He was very interesting to talk with, he talked about current events as well as historical and cultural.

Vakay parts III & IV

Our first port of call was St Thomas. We've been there several times, so we didn't "need" to tour the island. We considered taking the ferry over to St John, but decided to just wander around town instead. Charlotte Amalie is a sweet Caribbean town.

Charlotte Amalie as seen from the Destiny.

The open market in town - basically tourist goods.

Our 2nd port of call was Dominica. We had already been there twice, so we decided to do some things a little more off the beaten path. I hired a local guide per recommendations on my fave cruise board: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/. Two gals from the cc board even joined Greg and I on our tour - fun ladies. :-)

Levi Baron of Bumpiing Tours http://www.bumpiingtours.com was GREAT! He was very informative, giving us so much info it was hard to think of questions to even ask. He wanted to make sure that we did what we wanted to do, not just shuffle along mindlessly. He was very helpful and concerned about making sure we didn't get hurt on the slippery paths. He seems to love his country and be very proud of it - and he sees the importance of balancing tourism with eco-needs. I would highly recommend Levi to anyone going to Dominica. Bumpiing Tours provides a lot of dif tour options, with something for just about everyone, all dif levels of activity.

Our first stop was Milton Falls. The hike wasn't far or strenuous, but it was still challenging and fun. The path was often dirt and tree roots, and it crossed the river numerous times.

People are no longer allowed to swim in the pool at the base of Milton Falls - people downriver use the water for drinking, cooking, cleaning, etc. Levi warned us of this before we started our tour, and we opted to continue as planned anyway. There is a TALL fence to keep people out. But that was ok; it is a beautiful waterfall, and the walk/hike there was pretty and peaceful.

We then headed to the Indian River for a rowboat ride. Talk about peaceful... wow, that was great!

We talked about the vegetation and wildlife, saw fish, crabs and birds.

And we saw a couple places where parts of Pirates of the Caribbean 2 were filmed - including the place above where the danger sign remains!

Next we went to Cabrits Nat'l Park and Fort Shirley, an 18th century British garrison. There were lovely views of the bay and the island as well as the interesting ruins.

As before, I loved our day. Dominica is definitely one of my fave Carib islands, if not top dog. It is rugged, lush, hilly, beautiful, with lots of trees and waterfalls. The natural beauty of the island is amazing.

It is a very poor country tho, with high unemployment. Many folks who were born there move to other Carib islands to obtain jobs, which is sad. Dominica is sitting on the sharp blade of that double-edged sword - they are trying to attract more tourists, yet in order to do so they are considering actions that will decrease the beauty of the island. I sincerely hope that the Dominican government takes steps to protect the environment and thus the natural beauty they are so fortunate to live with.

Vakay part II

I love taking pics of the ship while on a cruise. Some folks look at me funny as I wander around, camera in hand. But they're the same folks who get home and try to explain something to friends or family, and can't. Or try to remember a specific room, and can't. There are so many fun, fantastic aspects of cruising, and the amazing ships are part of that experience. So here are pics of the Destiny:

It's hard to imagine the size of this baby from this picture, and no, she isn't even close to being the biggest at sea right now. One clue: there are 1,321 guest cabins, so double occupancy is 2,642, and if people have 3 or 4 in a cabin... she can easily hold 3,000. That's just guests. Staff is another 1,050 folks!

A couple shots of the lido deck: the top full deck where the main pools and hot tubs are, where most of the chaise lounges are, etc. Also where the lido buffet restaurant is (inside), as well as the New York deli, Asian eatery, 24/7 pizza, grille, etc. Oh, and several bars too, of course!

The atrium: the main area is 3 decks here, and it is where you'll find the info desk, tour info, shops, photo gallery, library, etc. Part of the atrium (behind the bar on the left side of this pic) extends up 9 decks, with cool glass elevators!

Destiny has two main dining rooms, each 2 levels. The picture above is the Galaxy Dining Room, which is the one we dined in. We, after working with the maitre d', had the 6:15 seating, which is perfect for us. We ended up at a table for 4, but the other couple never showed up. We had a great view of the sunsets out a floor to ceiling window.

This is the other dining room. Above this dining room was The Criterion Lounge, which was a small showroom.

There are MANY bars onboard. These pics just show a few. The above is the Point After Dance Club, aka the disco. Most nights they played 70s music for a couple hours - nice for the typical age guest onboard.

Then there is the piano bar. It's hard to tell from this pic, but what looks like the bar in this Greek-themed room actually surrounds a piano. And the circular counter looks like a piano from the top. So folks sit on their stools around the piano player, call out the songs they want (from his list) and then we all sing-a-long.

This bar had the coolest decor! Music, music everywhere! Above your heads: a huge trombone and french horn. On the walls: a trumpet and a sax. Columns along the walls: clarinet parts. Table legs: tubas. Barstool legs: clarinets or maybe oboes? Etc.... and music notes all around. Rockin' cool!!

Then the Onyx Bar... aka the cigar bar (note the humidor behind the bar). A jazz trio played here, mellow, but nice.

Our cabin. It's hard to see from one picture just how large our cabin really was. I had chosen this cabin in a not-so-premium area of the ship (high up, deck 9, and ALL the way forward!) because deck plans made it look larger than normal rooms. It was angled different because it was all the way forward. Well, it definitely was bigger than usual! This picture is taken from the couch, so add that much more space into the room... sweet!

quick pic

I just finished the layout for the last 2peas childfree circle journal I will be doing. woohoo!!

The theme on this one: Life Experiences. But she didn't want something big, like death, but rather something smaller... I did my layout about scrapbooking! This was a relatively quick layout for me. But I think it's cute!!

AThe journaling:

At a family holiday gathering, one of my sisters was looking through her adult daughter’s scrapbook. I thought it was really neat how my niece put all of the highlights of her year into one album, with pictures, journaling and memorabilia.

I have created many annual scrapbooks of my own, as well as other albums, room décor items, cards, gifts and other projects. I have a room dedicated to my craft. My artistic abilities have improved significantly from the many classes I have attended. Scrapping provides a creative outlet for me, balancing the analytical work side of me. Many people have appreciated the handmade items I have given to them. And most significantly, I have some fabulous friends that I met through scrapbooking – not just locally, but across the U.S.

One random moment, an apparently trivial experience, changed my life dramatically.

gotta love Wisconsin

Right now, at 10:45 am, it's still -4.5 degrees (yes, negative!). With steady winds of 20 mph that translates into a wind chill of 27 degrees below zero, and the wind gusts make it worse, down to 40 below!! Brief exposure can lead to frostbite and even death...

gotta love Wisconsin

Vacation, part 1

LOVED Vieques! (pronounced v-a'-kase)

Vieques is a small island off the big island of Puerto Rico. It is very laidback, casual. Not many people. There are beaches of all sorts, some rugged, some pristine pretty. We managed to get to 4 of the main ones; there are many more than that!

The 2 photos above are from Green Beach. It was not your typical "pretty" beach with huge expanses of sand. But privacy abounds! There were little alcoves of beach amongst the palms and undergrowth. You could just walk along until you found a little area where there were no other people. The road to Green Beach is rough, even by Vieques standards.


These next two pictures are of Playa Grande, which lives up to its name - it is really huge! We walked for a ways, and only passed two other people, so it is pretty deserted. The sand isn't the light fine sand most people prefer; it was darker, more coarse. You could see that the sand was pieces of shell broken up, and it could hurt your feet just a bit.

We enjoyed the typical beauty of Red Beach for a while. As you can see by the first picture, it is a busier beach, but it was easier to get to than the other ones, and obviously has the big expanse of fine sand that folks like.

My personal overall favorite: Orchid Beach. It is significantly tougher to get to than Red Beach, probably tougher even than getting to Green Beach. But wow! well worth the trouble! It is a long beach of beautiful sand with few people. I saw 4 other folks there... possibly 2 more WAY down the beach.

One sad thing about Vieques: the U.S. had a military post on the island for years and used it as a testing ground for bombs, missiles and other weapons. Altho they finally moved out in May 2003, and turned over "their" land to the U.S. National Fish and Wildlife Service, there are still reminders on both ends of the island, such as the bunker above.

We stayed at the Crow's Nest for both nights on Vieques. It is a cute little B&B, altho the breakfast part was negligible - bread and pastry and juices. The Crow's Nest is not on any beach, but it is well located, with a nice view, and very clean. Our cute suite, shown above, had two little covered patios, a bedroom, bathroom of course, and a combo kitchen/living room.

Something we've commented on to everyone we've talked with about Vieques - the bad roads! The first road picture shows the best road on the island - few potholes, but still not wide enough for two vehicles, one (or both) usually had to move a little off the road. The second photo shows a more typical paved road, broken, potholes, and not much wider than one vehicle. The bottom photo shows part of the unpaved road to Orchid Beach - and this wasn't even close to the worst we encountered! Let's just say that if we didn't have a jeep, we could not have even tried many of the roads.

As a sidenote, I'd have to say my fave meal on Vieques was from a stand/trailer at the beginning of the road to Red/Blue/Orchid beaches: Pasta Rasta. The owner is a fun guy, very congenial. The food is great, the main entrees are pasta dishes, basically spaghetti noodles with dif types of sauces. He had a few other appetizer type items.

The town of Esperanza is cute and seems to be where most of the tourists go. There is a Malecon (walkway along the waterfront), restaurants, stores, bars, etc. There were several stands that made food there too: baked potatoes with seafood and other goodies, seafood stew and other seafood items, artery-hardening burgers (two burgers, cheese, topped with a concoction of ham, Canadian bacon, onions, and who knows what else!), etc.

We overheard some folks at dinner one night: one lady has been coming to Vieques every year for over 20 years! And I can totally see why. I definitely wouldn't mind heading back there, just relaxing on the beaches. It is truly a little slice of paradise!

eta (edited to add): The reason we went to Vieques was for the bioluminescence bay. As many of my friends/family know, I do "something new" each year. I decided that I would swim in the bio bay as my something new for 2008. There is a bio bay in Fajardo on the main island of Puerto Rico, but it isn't as good as the one on Vieques, and visitors are no longer allowed to swim in the bay in Fajardo. Thus... Vieques!

Now, explanation of bio bay and the tour we took:

"Hidden along the Caribbean coast is one of the most spectacular Bioluminescent Bays in the world. The mysterious blue-green light is created by micro-organisms which thrive in an environment uniquely suited to their needs. A trip into the bay on a balmy night is a magical experience. Fish flash by in dark water, and a swim is like floating through stardust." - Captain Sharon Grasso

Why does the water glow? This unique bay contains up to 720,000 single-celled bioluminescent dinoflagellates per gallon of water. These half-plant, half-animal organisms emit a flash of bluish light when agitated at night. The high concentration of these creatures (Pyrodimium bahamense) can create enough light to read a book from.

Island Adventures Biobay Tours offers nightly excursions aboard our electrically powered double-pontoon boat through the amazing waters of Puerto Mosquito in Vieques Island. Our bilingual guides explain the fragile ecology of the plants and animals of the bay, give interpretive star lectures, and then park the boat in an area of high bioluminescent concentration, giving visitors the chance to swim with the millions of glowing creatures.

I totally loved the bio bay tour. It wasn't as spectacular as photos I've seen. The folks with Island Adventures claim that it's because there is becoming more air pollution, even on their tiny little island, that prevents the little dinos from "recharging" from the daylight. I've seen other suggestions that the dinos are dying because of water pollution. But it was still super cool. I was in the water, waving my arms and legs around, and yes, it glowed where I was moving. I thought the best part was when I raised my arm out of the water, and little dinos trickled down my arm glowing - you could see each little guy separately. VERY COOL!!!! I had hesitated to get into the bay, because temps were a little cool, but I am SO GLAD I did because it was amazing!