I {heart} Mount Dora!

We had a wonderful weekend in Mount Dora... We got back at around 11 pm last night. I have LOTS of photos, but I am just going to show you a few. Just like last year, we stayed at the Mission Inn Resort & Club in the middle of a little old town called Howie-in-the-Hills. I really like this resort because it's nestled among picturesque golf courses and beautiful lakes. It's about a 30-minute drive from Mount Dora, where we spent much of our time.



On Saturday, we attended the Renninger's Antique Extravaganza. Then we took a stroll in historic downtown Mount Dora, had dinner at the best restaurant in town and watched the sunset over Lake Dora while listening to a guy playing bag pipes. We got some awesome sunset pictures! It was a perfect day!



On Sunday, we returned to Renninger's, then we went to the Antique Mall and drove through Mount Dora and Eustis before heading home.

I found a few goodies over the weekend and the best part is that I didn't pay full price for anything! I negotiated everything down in price and I got lots of bargains. :)



Look at that gorgeous green scallop trim! I also got a vintage frog flower holder, different types of milkcaps, lace trim, cute little fabric flowers, folding ruler and more.



I bought a few little Ziploc bags full of buttons in different colors and I put them inside a pretty milk glass candy jar.



Here's an old peanut butter jar with a handle, which by the way is rare, and another large jar. These jars are actually quite expensive, but I got them for more than half off. I have two others in my scrap room that my BFF got me on eBay. Love them!



And my favorite little milk glass bowl with really cool vintage buttons (don't they remind you of the new Jenni Bowlin buttons?). They make me happy!



I can't wait till next time! The cool thing is that most of the vendors set up their goods in the same place every time so once you get to know the sellers, it's easy to find the same vendor again.

Have a wonderful week!

Peace and happy scrapping!
Vanessa

More layouts :)

Wow, I'm on a roll!!! But with all this beautiful inspiration out there, who wouldn't be, right?

I have been playing with my Jenni Bowlin Homespun kit, which I absolutely LOVE. The bright, fun colors are perfect for just about anything. And the new embellies. Well, let's just say that they are amazing. The butterflies, the vintage buttons, the papers... Here's another layout that I scraplifted from Stephanie Howell, my fave scrapper who I have been stalking for 2+ years now. LOL! I love her style. And the truth is, well, why mess with a good thing?

For this layout, I used photos that we took one Sunday while walking in Coconut Grove.




I also played around a bit with my February Cocoa Daisy kit, which is full of pink, red and blue goodies. Great color combo. It's a little bit vintage, a little bit romantic, and quite versatile. I created this layout based on Aida's creation and I used a photo of us on Valentine's Day last Sunday. I just love this photo!




That's all for now. Thanks so much for visiting and I hope you take a moment to leave me comments. I love it when you leave me comments... hint, hint... :)

Tomorrow, I'm leaving town for the weekend. My honey bunny and I are heading to Mount Dora in Central Florida to go to Renninger's Antique Extravaganza. I don't usually buy a whole lot, but the experience is so fun! Richard introduced me to Mount Dora when we were dating, and it captured my heart. It's a little town full of historic charm and a personality all its own. Here you'll find beautiful homes, oak trees galore, old buildings and horse drawn carriage rides. It's perfect for a romantic post-Valentine's getaway. Be back soon!

Peace and happy scrapping,
Vanessa

Loving my Jenni Bowlin kit :)

Hello my friends,

My honey bunny and I had a great weekend together. On Sunday, we went out, spent the afternoon at the Coconut Grove Arts Festival, where he bought me a beautiful etching, and we finished off the evening with dinner at Perricone's. It was a perfect day. Even the weather was nice as the temperatures dipped down into the 60's.

Here we are in front of a painting by this year's selected artist. I really liked the artwork they chose for this year's poster.



I took out my new Jenny Bowlin Homespun kit and started playing... I scrap lifted this beautiful layout from Jenny Bowlin's blog. It was done by Stephanie, one of her designers, and I fell in love with it. Yes, I used an ENTIRE pack of butterflies and quite a few buttons, plus two journaling cards, etc. on this one layout, but it was so worth it! Note to self: Buy more red butterflies! LOL!



If you're interested in buying this kit, contact Damaris at Scrapbook Designs. I'm off to keep playing with my new kits before I get too sleepy!!!

Peace and happy scrapping!
Vanessa

Donna Downey Album Pages

Happy Valentine's Day weekend, my friends!

I meant to post this during the week, but I didn't get around to it. Here are my finished Donna Downey album pages. As I told you in my previous post, Ms. Downey was awesome! She was lots of fun and she taught us some really cool techniques. I really enjoyed working on this Pressed for Success project because I got to play with watercolor paint, distress inks, water, iron ons and more!

Everything in the album is from Donna's Prima collection of products, except for the two orange fabric butterflies that I added to my transparency pages.

I used some photos of our weekend trip to Naples, Florida a year ago. I wanted to use photos of us enjoying the everyday and our time together so they would go well with the sayings that Donna provided in our kit. Click on the photos for a larger view.
















I love the end result and I love my album! I hope it inspires you to take out your distress inks or watercolors and play. You just paint on canvas and spray water on it until the colors run together and it creates the cool washed out color effects. You can add as much color or as little color as you want.

I am working on some layouts now and a 7Gypsies Printer's Tray so I'll show you pics of those soon. Oooh! And I received Damaris' new kit today filled with ALL NEW CHA RELEASES. Yes, that's right! I got my hands on the new Jenny Bowlin Homespun collection that just came out.



It's gorgeous (I am in LOVE with those butterflies in all the colors!!!) and perfect for Spring and Summer... for anything really! I think she has a handful left so if you're interested (and who wouldn't be?), contact her.

Have a wonderful Valentine's Day! My hubby just got back last night after working all week in cold, SNOWY Philly. Yes, SNOWY. He got tons of snow. Lucky him. Anyway, I missed him and so we will be spending some quality time together this weekend.

Peace and happy scrapping!
Vanessa

Donna Downey

What a great weekend! The highlight was certainly my Friday night Pressed for Success class with Donna Downey. I must confess. I have a girl crush :) I even told my husband about it. LOL! She was amazing!!!



Donna was friendly, funny, creative, talented and cute as a button. I loved that the class was not too fast paced. I learned some cool techniques using iron ons, distress inks, watercolors and spray misting on canvas. She also showed us a resist treatment you can use with some of the Prima products like the adorable dress form. And I discovered Aleene's Tacky Glue, which I had never used (it's awesome!). We also got lots of cool products. I. LOVED. IT. I wouldn't hesitate to take another class with her if I had the chance. I learned a lot and she inspired me so much.




I was joined by Ady, Damaris and Esther, who also had a great time.


Here's a photo of the cover of my Pressed for Success album. I used Glimmer Mist to paint my little flowers yellow (an idea I got from Damaris who painted hers pink). Love the pop of color.

My inside pages are almost done, but I haven't added photos yet, so I will post it once it's all completed (hopefully, later this week).

Oh wait, one more thing! When Donna found out that I had created an album with her Prima fabric scrapbooking products, she asked me to come back on Saturday to show it to her. And so I did. How could I say no to Donna, right? Unfortunately, Ady's aunt passed away this weekend so she couldn't join us, but I put my plans on hold and headed to Scrapbooks 'n Stuff on Saturday with Damaris to see Donna. I got to show everyone in her class my fabric December Daily album. That was pretty cool.

Peace and happy scrapping,
Vanessa

A birthday and a layout

I've been meaning to post for a few days, but time escapes me. I've been busy working, spending time with family and friends, and even scrapping! There just aren't enough hours in the day for me to accomplish everything. I'm sure you all would agree!

I do have some great news! My step dad Jorge received some very positive feedback from his oncologist. It looks like he won't need any more chemo and his tests came back well enough where we feel the cancer is controlled. He will continue to see the doctor once a month and he will have some more tests done in 2-3 months so we'll keep praying for a full recovery. In the meantime, we cherish every moment and we celebrate. Jorge's 56th birthday was last Friday and we took him to CVI.CHE 105, a delicious Peruvian restaurant in Downtown Miami. He LOVED it! And so did we... we stuffed ourselves with mouthwatering dishes and we will surely be back for more.





I have a few new layouts to share, but I just haven't photographed them yet. So, here's one I did a couple of weeks ago -- it's a lift from the Two Peas gallery. I used the Cosmo Cricket Jolly by Golly paper and chipboard stickers, a Making Memories felt accent, and my apron lace border punch.



This coming weekend, I'm taking a class with DONNA DOWNEY at Scrapbooks 'n Stuff so I am looking forward to creating an adorable mini album and learning new techniques.

Be back soon...

Peace and happy scrapping,
Vanessa