Home from Mexico

We arrived home from Mexico yesterday but it has taken me until now to catch up with the mail, the laundry, shopping for groceries and the banking. And there are still quite a few things for me to do but I am tired so am sitting down for alittle rest. I downloaded my pictures and there are quite afew of them but I thought I would post a couple that I took while fiddling with my camera one day by the pool. I had my instruction book with me as I find it difficult to just lay by the pool and do nothing. I was changing settings and taking pictures of the hibiscus flowers. I also figured out how to take photos with the timer on!! That actually took me awhile and that frustrated me because I could do it in a couple of seconds with my little point and shoot camera. But I am so determined to learn how to use this new camera and all it's settings. I have decided that it will be a long learning curve!!! So, these photos were taken one right after the other but on different exposures. The darker one is more the truer colors but I was experimenting. I wasn't going to take my new camera with me but then thought that I would have lots of time to take photos. I don't really know where the time went but I didn't have as much free time to waste as I thought! I ended up taking alot of photos on the auto settings because I didn't want to miss them and I would need too much time to try and figure out what settings I actually needed. I really need to practice. So, Julie, we will have to get together sometime and do a "walk about" but now that I have become conditioned to warm, sunny weather, guess we will have to wait for spring!!!! Our evenings clouded up regularly so I didn't get a chance to take alot of sunset pictures. I was really looking forward to that because there are some phenomenal sunsets in Puerto Vallarta over the ocean. We will have some beautiful sunsets right here in the prairies too so will have to catch some of those.

hola from mexico

I don't seem to have a lot of time to blog while here in sunny and warm mexico but thought that I would leave a photo with you that gives a statement I think of how relaxing the time here is.

I don't know what we do but the time sure passes quickly. We did do a tequilla tour yesterday and tasted some delicious flavoured tequilla, I really liked it and I don't normally like tequilla at all, tastes like gasoline smells or rubbing alcohol!! but this stuff was smooth and delicious. We have plans for a 2 day tour to guadalajara next week, but for now, will work on getting all my books read that I brought along!! Loving this relaxing time, see you all in a couple of weeks!! Oh yes, love the wonders of cyberspace, I was able to register for Leica Forrest's crop in march from here, don'tcha just love it!!!

more cards

Here is the quick and easy one that I made for Valentines Day. They were pretty simple to make. I stamped the background with 4 different heart stamps and then I stamped and colored the bear. I punched out the hearts and attached them with foam squares. The inside verse is a stamp from an old hostess Stampin Up set (retired now) I just went looking through the stamps that I have for an appropriate saying that would work for anyone.

Oops, some of the cards didn't make it into the last post, I am still learning about all this blogging stuff!!! Here are a few more that I made.

Some cards

Today I thought that I would share some of the cards that I have been making. Some are cards that I made on my own and some are copied from the Splitcoaststampers website. I included the ones that I made for Christmas cards that I sent out to family and friends. I had some left over (imagine that) that I will save for next year.

new pages, finally

This photo of my oldest daughter and her family was taken in the fall on a cool day. I think this one was toward the end of the shoot so Amanda is looking kind of chilly!! The paper is from a kit from Scrapdango as well as the letters and the felt flowers.

So, I finally got myself going on doing some scrapbooking again. I am finished reading the Twilight series, they are fairly good books. I don't think they are as well written as the Harry Potter series but they are pretty good considering they were written with teenagers in mind!!
I am getting excited about going on our trip now. I have been cleaning and sorting too as I take down the Christmas stuff. It is just too cold to go anywhere unless I absolutely have to, like work!!! I have been making some cards as well, as my little box of extras was getting low.
This photo of amanda and santa is on basic grey Wassail paper and the embelishments are from cloud9 design. I used a sketch challenge from 52 Sketches...52 Weeks site.

post Christmas news

I was reminded today that I haven't posted in a long while, so I thought that I would remedy that. I was busy getting ready for Christmas, I made all my cards to send, I tried to visit with my granddaughter as often as possible, I had to bake this year as we were hosting the family get together here at our house, I decorated alittle more than usual for that same reason, so blogging sort of fell to the wayside. I "stole" Amanda from daycare one afternoon and took her to see Santa, sad to say she wasn't too impressed and wouldn't let go of me to sit with him. I had phoned my other daughter Jenn to see if she was willing to come with me in case I had trouble, so she ended up sitting with Amanda by Santa. I saw so many photos of kids crying or screaming while sitting on Santa's lap and I just didn't want that kind of photo. So here is the photo that we got of our little sweetheart with Santa and her auntie.

I have been playing with my camera lot as well. I took pictures of my decorations one day just because I wanted to play with the settings on it. Here are some of the pictures I took

I have to scrapbook some of the many pics I took over the holidays. Amanda had fun opening presents both at Christmas and then again on her birthday. She had a chocolate cake in the shape of a bear for her birthday cake and we have some great pics of her eating it!! I will have to decide which picture is the best and post that one. Then the poor dear got sick with a cold and ear infection, her first one ever and she is just recovering from that now.

In about 10 days Les and I will be heading down to Mexico for our annual winter holiday. Too bad we weren't there already during this ugly cold snap but c'est la vie. We will still enjoy our time together there because it's WARM, warmer than here no matter what the temperature is!!! I can hardly wait. All my christmas decorations are put away, I have even done some purging in the ornament box. I have cleaned a couple of closets out, (I was on a roll) and so I am ready for a holiday. If I can I will try and do a couple of posts on this blog while we are there. I am not sure if I will be able but if I can I will.
Here we are, the proud grandparents with our little princess. It's going to be very difficult leaving her behind while we go away, but think of the welcome home we will get!!

Another sketch challenge

Well, I found another website called Sisterhood of Scrap and they have sketches there too. They had one this week that looked pretty easy and kind of fit in with my way of doing pages, so I thought that I would give it a try. So here is my take on their sketchhttp://www.sisterhoodofscrap.blogspot.com/

I did another page too that used some of the wild and colorful paper that I have received in my kits that I get from Scrapdango. As I said before, I have a difficult time doing pages with such vivid and bold colors, not to mention the big prints!! But this one was kind of fun, I suppose because it is of Amanda and her auntie and mommy being silly with her and her new baby bans sunglasses!!

This child already seems to have a great sense of humor and even though she isn't a year old yet, can ham it up for the camera when she wants to!!