Gettin' Ready

Editorial note: I really try to keep my posts short, but did not even come close to succeeding this time! Grab a favorite beverage, sit back and enjoy. If you want to see my creations, just skip to the bottom!

We may have 100 days or so until we leave for our FABULOUS cruise, but we are getting ready, NOW! Charlene and I started looking at excursions to see what we want to do in each of our ports. . .I am pretty easy to please (although my husband might disagree with that, lol) - my one big thing I want to do while on the cruise is have lobster somewhere. . .I mean if you are in Maine, you gotta have lobster at least once, right? Other than that I am willing to do just about anything. Charlene is the planner and is very organized about trips, so I sent her a list with 2 or 3 things that looked fun in each port and now it is in her hands. She also selected activities in each port and then compared the lists. She said they were very similar, so she is going to do some research and see if we book through the ship or find something independently. It's so much fun to imagine the possibilities!

When we get back from the cruise, my friend Chris is going to pick us up at the port and then we are heading up to Sleepy Hollow area and are going to the Blaze Saturday night! Charlene was there for the first year when they had 1,000 carved Jack O'Lanterns and said it was AWESOME!!! This year there will be 4,000 carved Jack O'Lanterns! Both Charlene & Chris love Halloween and decorating their houses! I am looking forward to the seeing the Blaze too!

What I am looking forward to at least as much as the cruise is seeing Mamma Mia on Broadway in NYC!!!! That is what we are going to do on Sunday evening! I bought our tickets on Thursday! If you heard a strange noise it was probably me cuz' I was super excited about getting the tickets! Our seats are FRONT & CENTER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! If you are planning on seeing a play in NYC I would suggest you check out Telecharge.com, prices there were almost half the price that I found at other ticket brokers.


I guess since we've been talking and planning about the cruise so much this past week, it put me in the ATC mode yesterday! The plan is to make 150 or so, we'll see how that goes. Last year I planned to make 160 for the Mexico cruise but only got around to making about 75 I think. It turned out a perfect number, I only brought home 2 or 3 of my own.

This one was the first. . .the background is one the "oops" from the water stamping experiment on Monday. I stamped a "tire track" (Art Impression) in frayed burlap, the sentiment (Hero Arts) was stamp and cut apart, the motorcycle is by Jolee's. (Unless otherwise noted, it is Tim Holtz stuff) The others are all "cheaters", the backgrounds were all leftover from last year and are alcohol inks. The butterfly ones have a 7 gypsy transparency over them. The "believe" stamp is Wendy Vechhi's. Even though you can tell in the pictures, the butterflies are both sprayed with Perfect Gold Perfect Pearls. I received the butterflies in a swap awhile back.

The butterfly on the red "Mona" is a small Sizzix flower with 2 petals cut out, don't ask what color because it was in my stash and I don't remember, but it is stamped in Rusty Hinge.  (While making roses on Scrappin' Saturday, as she cut the petals SJ said, "Hey, that looks like a butterfly!"  She's right, it does!  Thank you for the idea!!!)    FLY was stamped on some scraps of the water stamping pieces, cut out and covered with Glossy Accents.    The sentiment was stamped on yet more "oops" water stamping pieces, cut out and attached with glossy accent.  The dictionary piece  (under the "T" [misc. brad], above Mona's head) had been attached to "fragment"  I tried to put a hole in it with my crop-o-dile.  It didn't work so well, but when the fragment snapped into two pieces, it left the dictionary piece in tact with a covering of Glossy Accents, so I used it!

If you are going on the cruise and you see an ATC or two you love, let me know and I will set it aside. And if you love it as much in person, it's yours!  If you are not going on the cruise and see an ATC you love, let me know and I will send it to you!

Hope you are having a fabulous weekend!