My Week in Review

I spent last weekend by myself because Richard was in Ohio visiting his sister. As I mentioned in my previous post, her boyfriend/partner has brain cancer and it's pretty serious. It sounds like his prognosis is somewhat grim -- although every case is always different and with cancer you just never know. Please keep him in your thoughts and prayers.

Anyway, before heading to the airport to pick up my hubby, I picked up Jorge and took him to a nice Father's Day dinner at one of our "new" favorite restaurants, CVI.CHE 105 in Downtown Miami.



YUM! He and I had a great time together and we enjoyed talking and sharing some very good food. It was perfect. We had lots of Peruvian specialties and these two were our dessert plates... (note that if you haven't been there you must go! It's fresh, delicious food at reasonable prices!)




After a week filled with long workdays and the usual stress, this weekend started with us going bike shopping. Hubby wanted to upgrade my "cheap" Target bicycle since I complain that it's too uncomfortable to ever ride it :)

Of course, I saw this comfy baby right here and said, "I want that one!" LOL! To which my hubby replied, "I don't think so!" Teehee! Check out my iPhone pics...



I enjoyed playing, I mean, test riding a couple of bikes before giving in to my hubby's choice of best bike for the wife...



Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!



Here's Richard trying it out after I made the bike guy lower the seat and adjust the handle bars and everything else so that it was to my liking :) This is my new Trek bike! It's not a cool color but it will do. The seat is big and comfy though and that is what's important!



Then I was off to get a mani-pedi, followed by dinner and a movie at home with one of our friends...

Today we went on our usual Sunday exercise walk (which will soon incorporate bike riding!) in Key Biscayne... It was HOT, but it was nice :)



This afternoon we visited my sister-in-law at the convent where she lives... it was bittersweet as always. It's wonderful to see her, but so sad to see her in this order she has chosen where we can only visit her through bars and never ever spend "quality" time with her. I miss her vivacious, free spirit! And I just haven't been able to accept this lifestyle. I don't mind that she wants to be a nun because that is a Godly thing to do, but why a Carmelite nun? Another iPhone pic...



After a Puerto Rican dinner of mofongo with my in-laws, we headed home... Tired, but feeling blessed to have each other and to have our family and friends.

Tomorrow is the start of a new, stressful week at work... but next weekend is a nice looong weekend! I can't wait! :)

This week I'll be sharing some NEW layouts with the Jenni Bowlin PLAY DATE collection so stay tuned... I have 6 LO's done. I just haven't had a chance to take photos yet...

Peace and happy scrapping!
Vanessa

Have a "sunshine-y" weekend

I hope you are enjoying your weekend and that you are finding time to relax, unwind and to scrap (in the midst of your chores and other duties!)... I took care of all my stuff early today so I've spent the past few hours scrapping with the new Lily Bee collection, Hello Sunshine, which I absolutely love! It's such a happy line!

And I sure needed some happy scrappy paper in my life!!!

These first two layouts are some of my favorite EVER and they are scrap lifts but that's okay :) This one was inspired by Stephanie Howell and I used an old photo of my Mom that my step dad gave me for Christmas. I just adore this photo because she is laughing with so much delight. (I miss her so much!)



I cannot recall where this one came from, but I think it was posted on the Lily Bee blog... LOVE the use of all the paper, rub ons and chipboard flowers! I also used some red Glimmer Mist.



I've been wanting to scrap this photo for a while. This is my step dad and me in California... we spent some really nice quality time out there with family :)

(also inspired by Stephanie Howell)



The next two images are from Jungle Island. My honey and I went with my BFF and her cousins and we had a great time! I plan to scrap more of these pics... This is the "official" photo they take of you when you arrive -- complete with parrots and all!



My BFF shot this pic of us just before a bird show... I wanted to use the rub on lyrics to "You are my sunshine" because we always sing that song to each other... in fact, a couple of weeks ago when we drove down to the Keys, we sang it together! We are like kids sometimes! :)

(also inspired by Stephanie Howell)



This last one was inspired by a layout in the Lily Bee Ning gallery... My honey has sent me a few sweet poems via email and he always writes sweet sentiments in his greeting cards so I wanted to scrap that... I took a photo of an email he sent me, but I only focused on the poem by E.E. Cummings since the rest was a bit personal. I printed the entire email onto cardstock and adhered it to the back of this layout. :)



On a much more serious note, my sister-in-law's boyfriend/partner was recently diagnosed with brain cancer and it sounds quite serious... I hope you will join me in prayer and help me wish him and his family (including his kids) peace and many blessings. They need all the prayers they can get!

Thank you and enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Peace and happy scrapping,
Vanessa

Back from Mexico | Layouts to Share

Well, hello there! Where is everyone??? What are you all up to???

I just got back from Mexico on Friday evening. I was there for a couple of days to meet with a new client and start developing a concept for a new magazine. Needless to say, we'll be quite busy during the next few months, but it will be exciting as well when the publication finally launches later this year!

It was a hectic trip. I was up around 3:45 am on Thursday, headed straight to the airport to arrive in Mexico City by 10 am. We checked in to the hotel and headed straight to our meeting. It was a long day! On Friday, we got up at 5 am, went from Mexico City to Toluca and then on to Cancun as part of the work we had to do. Now you see why I was exhausted when we returned on Friday night? But it's all good!

I was catching up on blogs this morning and I came across this site on Caryl's blog. I was immediately interested. Neil Pasricha wrote a book called "The Book of Awesome" and he keeps a blog where he posts one awesome thing every day. It sounds like a great read to inspire you when you're feeling down and depressed. I will definitely be checking out the book!



Lastly, I want to share some more of my layouts with the May Studio Calico kit, Granny's Cupboard. I have had such a BLAST with this kit. Here are some more layouts (all inspired by the beautiful work in the DT gallery).






This one also uses the OA Thrift Shop line, but I found this layout while blogging and loved how it used up the shape stickers (wish I knew who inspired it so I could credit them here!)



And this one uses a mix of my April Cocoa Daisy kit and some extras. This layout is just like one that Davinie Fiero created, but I added a few of my own touches, including that fabric flower that I made. After all, you need a cute flower to round out a boyish layout! LOL



That's all for now! I'm off to go for a nice Sunday walk with my hubby (in this delightful HOT and HUMID weather! Eeek!)

Thanks for stopping by and leaving me a comment. You all are the best! :)

Peace and happy scrapping!
Vanessa

A Perfect Weekend :)

My honey and I were lucky enough to stay at a magical place here in the Florida Keys. It's a hidden gem, an idyllic paradise that I never even knew existed... My most recent press trip took us to The Moorings Village in Islamorada. And to my surprise we actually had a nice, relaxing weekend -- something we NEVER really get to do (we usually like adventures, not relaxing)! It was perfect. My only complaint was that it ended way too soon. Time flies when you're having fun!

We stayed at this oceanfront beach house... and the house came with a cat! Teehee! This cute kitty followed us around all weekend cuddling, purring and begging for food. I'm allergic to cats, but I gave in and pet her and she was so sweet!



And this was our "backyard"






This is the front of the house... beautiful!



We had a wrap-around veranda overlooking the ocean.



And a hammock tucked between coconut palms where we could relax...(and play with our weekend kitty)




The grounds were so lush and inviting... this used to be an old coconut plantation.



On Saturday night we had a delicious lobster dinner at Pierre's (YUM!) and watched the sunset.



This was the view out of our bedroom...



And this is the living room where Richard grabbed a book and sat down to read...



We fed kitty on Saturday night and then three cats showed up. LOL!




I just loved it here!!! (Did I say that already?!)



We also headed out and did some sightseeing on Saturday... (but not for long because I wanted to get back to the beach house)






I took LOTS of photos (what else is new?) and now I have lots more to scrap with my new Studio Calico kit, Partly Sunny. Yippee!

I really hope that we can return to this little hideaway one of these days :) It truly was a little slice of heaven on earth.

I'll leave you with a layout I lifted from Waleska Neris at Studio Calico... enjoy!



Peace and happy scrapping!
Vanessa