Happy Birthday to my honey bunny!

Today is my hubby's birthday! I cannot believe how quickly time has gone by. I met Richard in Jan. 2003. I had seen him on Match.com during the holidays and was immediately interested because of his beautiful smile and bright eyes (and those lashes, WOW!). We started dating and traveling together! We had a lot in common, but we were also very different. He was very religious and involved in the Catholic church; he was a missionary who traveled to the Dominican Republic to care for the poor and he loved working with children in rural areas who did not have much. He was a Republican with Cuban parents and he grew up with two sisters in a close knit family. His parents were still married. They had family dinners and get togethers every week and they were loud! Me? Well, I didn't really attend church regularly, I was a lifelong Democrat, Puerto Rican with a very "Americanized" family (all my aunts married gringos), raised by my grandparents since my parents separated before I was born, had no siblings and had pretty liberal views about life... BUT we still had similar values and we wanted the same things in life and that was what brought us together. We were married on Oct. 23, 2004.

Richard is not perfect, but then again, neither am I! In fact, he drives me crazy half of the time! LOL! But he has such an honest, tender heart and a giving soul and he is caring, hardworking and he loves me just the way I am. He will also be an excellent father to his little girl or boy one of these days. We can be silly together and we act just like kids in love sometimes. We often wonder what our children will think of our constant silliness. I love him to the moon and stars and back, with all the airplanes! :-) Happy birthday my love!

xoxo,
Vanessa

I've been in a rut...

I know that I have pretty much disappeared from the blog world this month, but it's been a crazy month in many ways and it's taken a toll on me. I'll save you the whole "I am a bad blogger" bit and I'll just say that I haven't really been inspired to post or to create this past month. And, for the record, that really sucks!

So, where do I begin? Well, let me just quickly review a few highlights for you...

1. I traveled to the Cayman Islands for work... our publisher and I made a presentation to a potential client! Very good trip overall. Here are a couple photos I shot with my iPhone of my hotel and seven mile beach.




2. Returned from this trip and learned that my employer was massively cutting jobs and implementing wage reductions... luckily, the departments that I oversee had no cuts and my entire company only lost one FTE (full-time employee). We were lucky. Unfortunately, we couldn't escape the wage reductions, as that impacted everyone at all levels. It was tough to look at all my employees who work so hard every day and tell them they were getting pay cuts -- especially since we have been doing fairly well and bringing in new business this past year! It's very disheartening, but I try to put on a brave face!

3. My Mami's 83rd birthday would have been March 20th. I have missed her so very much and I cannot get her out of my mind! I know she's with me every step of the way, but I so wish she was physically here with me, happy and healthy like in years past. It's been tough. I just cannot believe that I have lost my Mami and my Mom. And since I didn't grow up with siblings, I sometimes feel very alone in this world.

4. During this time, we celebrated Richard's grandma's 82nd birthday. Isn't she adorable? She's exactly one year and four days younger than my Mami.



5. And, as it turns out, my mother-in-law's birthday falls on March 20th -- Mami's exact birthday! I didn't feel like celebrating this year at all. But we took my in-laws out to dinner and we sure did have a nice time...



6. My cousin Martha, who lives in California, spent the entire month very ill. She finally had surgery this week and they removed a part of her intestine. Thank God she is recovering well...

7. Richard's best friend (and my best friend's husband), Jorge, won a prestigious award from the University of Florida Hispanic Alumni Association. We're really proud of him for all he's accomplished! CONGRATS!



8. My sister-in-law has decided (sort of out of the blue) to become a Carmelite nun after attending a retreat! YIKES! This has taken us all by surprise and the family is taking it really hard. You see, this type of nun has little to no contact with the outside world and they live in cloisters and you can only see them through a gate on a limited basis... etc... it's quite an extreme lifestyle and it's been very difficult and sad to accept...

9. My Godson, D', turned 10, but we didn't get to celebrate his birthday. Still, I bought him some HUGE Star Wars posters and frames for his newly redecorated bedroom and a Star Wars alarm clock! I love him so much! He calls me Madrina and my heart just melts :-)

10. Richard's cousin, Tommy, and his wife, Natalie (who sadly lost their twin boys last year when she was 7 months pregnant), just had a baby boy! They're doing great and I cannot wait to see Baby Iggy! Look at how gorgeous he is!



11. We're planning a long weekend in the Keys to celebrate Richard's birthday in April. Something to look forward to! :-)

12. And, finally, we just found out that we won the publishing contract that we pitched in the Cayman Islands! Great news for our company...

And there you have it... A month in the life of little 'ol me! Well, wait, the month is not over yet! I'll be back soon with more...

xoxo,
Vanessa

What a great weekend!

We spent the day on Saturday celebrating my wonderful friend's birthday and scrapping. What a great combination. LOL!

Here's Damaris opening presents and enjoying her birthday celebration... She received so many awesome gifts! I made her this card using some Heidi Swapp goodies in her favorite color combo: BRIGHT PINK, black and white. I also gave her a ceramic teapot with a silver chandelier on the front. So chic and so Damaris! And I created a round acrylic album for her to insert her birthday photos...





Here are some photos of the album I made for her...








I got to sit next to my buddy, Margie, who I always have such a great time hanging out with... she's so fun and fabulous! Thanks for all the laughs!



And finally a group picture of most of the girls (some had to leave early!).



Have a great week! Peace and happy scrapping!

xoxo,
Vanessa

I had a great weekend in Mount Dora!!! Richard and I drove there Friday night and we stayed at the Mission Inn Resort in this little town called Howey in the Hills, just a few miles from Mount Dora. If you don't know where this is, it's approx. 45 minutes north of Orlando. The weather was perfect, the hotel was fabulous, and the shopping experience was, well, a bit overwhelming to say the least! LOL! There was so much to see and there was a lot of walking, but we managed to see everything there was at the Renninger's Antique Extravaganza. They had about 1400 dealers set up in tents, makeshift buildings, outside and inside, from Utah, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, you name it (this event happens only two or three times a year; the next one is in November). I fell in love with quite a few pieces, but most things were beyond my self-imposed price limit and/or I just didn't have room in my house for it! Here are some photos of the things that caught my eye...

I just love this farmhouse table... wouldn't this look gorgeous in my dining room? But I already have a table... oh well! (Richard thought I wanted it to scrapbook... can you imagine? It's not a bad idea honey...)



Some budget-friendly and very cool bottles and window panes... oooh....aaahhh...



These drawers were so cool! Each one must have been at least 15x15 inches... But for $395? I don't think so!



I loved the wood cabinets, Indian statues and the bed at this one tent...



Richard browsing some cool metal work...



Um mm, yeah, this is actually a flashlight! Heeee!!!!



I love these oak trees!



After all that eye candy, can you believe that this is all I bought!? A tiny milk glass sugar and creamer set, some vintage lace, milk caps, a couple of frogs (to hold up my scrap pages), a replacement crystal for my chandelier, some children's blocks and this gorgeous yellow platter. We also bought a cool prayer bell (solid brass) for my sister-in-law as an early birthday present... But I forgot to photograph it! Oops.



And here are a couple of photos from our hotel...




I love Mount Dora. Richard first introduced me to this little town in 2003 when we were dating. We've been back once or twice since then, but I definitely want to keep coming back. Yes, it's small, in the middle of nowhere, and everything closes early... but it has this historic charm that keeps me wanting to go back for more...

Hope you enjoyed my photos!!! Peace and happy scrapping.

Vanessa

Be back soon

I am heading to Mt. Dora for the Antique Extravaganza this weekend. So exciting! I'll post photos when I come back. Hugs to all!

Vanessa

Happy Valentine's Day

I hope you have a beautiful weekend surrounded by loved ones. I will be having dinner with my honey and some friends tomorrow night. I even baked some Tahitian Coconut Bread tonight as my dinner party contribution. Yum! (Richard couldn't resist the smell so he already had some...)

Have you worked on Valentine's Day crafts or scrappy projects? I've had some fun this year creating a card, a little coupon book and one of my most favorite mini albums ever!

This is a little coupon book that I made for Richard. Cute and very simple. Just a little extra something that I think he will enjoy... (sorry for the really bad photos, but I was too tired to re-shoot these!)





I downloaded the free PDF from Shabby Chic Crafts to create the coupons, and the circle love accents were designed by Ali Edwards for Designer Digitals.

Have you ever visited The Black Apple blog? Such eye candy! I love her prints and other crafty creations. I found a download on her blog from 2008 with these cute little girl prints inside a heart... Love it! I printed it out, used spray adhesive to adhere it to one of my chartreuse square cards from Archiver's and voila! Easy and so cute.



I haven't taken photos of this year's mini album yet (made with cardboard covers!), so let me go ahead and share with you the album I created last year using a Melissa Frances heart album that I took apart and altered... I started with a dedication page and then I created a spread for every year we've been together (2003-2008).











Thanks for stopping by... Peace and happy scrapping...

xoxo,
Vanessa

Scrapbooking beach retreat, here I come!

Yesterday, I scrapped at Damaris' house and we had soooo much fun. I finished a Valentine's mini and a coupon book. Very cute! The only problem with spending the entire day scrapping is that the day flies by and the weekend is over way too quick. Oh well. Today, my hubby and I went walking in Key Biscayne and we climbed to the top of the Bill Baggs State Park lighthouse. What a view! It's the first time we've actually gone all the way up because it was always closed before when we visited.

And did you know that I am counting down the months, weeks, days to the much-anticipated Scrapbook Designs Beach Retreat in September? We are going to stay at Sanibel Harbour Resort & Spa, a fabulous resort here in Florida, and we're going to spend the entire weekend with dear friends, eating some delicious food, laughing our butts off, and working on some awesome scrappy projects! I can't wait! If you haven't signed up yet, hurry before it sells out! Click here for more information.

Oh yeah, before I forget, let me tell you that I caved and I ordered the Jenny Bowlin February kit filled with goodies from her new line... I just love the vintage feel and all the cool details it contains.



I hope you all had a great weekend. I'll post some Valentine project pics this week...

Peace and happy scrapping,
Vanessa