Mexico pics | Weekend with friends

Hi my friends!

How are those Christmas preparations going? I'm just about done with my Christmas shopping. Hooray! I only buy gifts for the people that I actually get to see on Christmas Day so that keeps my list pretty manageable. I do go to a few houses that day though, but I love house hopping. In fact, I look forward to it every year! :) We start at my family's home early in the morning, then we head to Richard's parents house around 1 pm, sometimes we visit his cousins next since the whole family ends up there in the evening (but we don't exchange gifts... we just eat! LOL!). At the end of the day, we head to our BFF's house. After all that, we're tired and we usually have a lot of presents to bring back with us. So the next day we rest and clean up the mess that's left behind...

Anyway, let me stop my rambling to show you some photos of my recent work trip to Playa del Carmen, Mexico. We were there to launch one of our newest publications, Experience Riviera Maya, an in-room destination guide for the hotel association.

The trip started with us getting pulled over by the national military. They looked a bit intimidating with big machine guns. They asked us to get out and searched the truck. After a few minutes we were on our way and, thankfully, everything was okay. We learned they usually pull over locals at these checkpoints to look for illegal weapons and such.




Later that day, we attended our event...



After the event, someone in the group got an urge for Häagen-Dazs so guess where we ended up after midnight?! I have never seen such a fancy Häagen-Dazs joint. We sat down, we were handed a huge menu with tons of ice cream, shakes and even fondue options, and a waiter came up and took our order. Pretty cool, huh?



And here are a couple of destination shots I took while on a fast-paced walking tour...




Overall, it was a successful and productive trip.

This past weekend, I spent the afternoon at Damaris' house. Her home is decorated so beautifully for the holidays. This is just one wall in her house!



I got to see some sweet friends, including Maritza. It was so much fun to meet her daughter and see her adorable grandson for the first time. He's such a good baby!




And this is the BEST belated birthday present I have ever received!!! Look at this beautiful throw pillow she made me with my initial on it! I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it! I showed it to Richard and he liked it, too. He said to me, "Where's my pillow? We need one with my initial on it to match!" LOL! He's too much!




I'm working on Days 11-13 of my December Daily album so I'll post pics of these pages soon. Also, I'm giving away a Jenny Bowlin 2009 Year in Review mini album. Check back soon to enter the giveaway!

Merry wishes and joyful dreams!
Vanessa

Weekend in Philly | December Daily: Days 8, 9 and 10

What a crazzyyyyyy (and fun) few days I've had! Richard was working in Philadelphia for the past two weeks (he came home the weekend before last and then he left again). On Thursday evening, I flew out to Philly and joined him for a cold, beautiful adventure-filled three days. I just wish I could have stayed longer!

Christ Church

At the very top of the City Hall Tower; you can see Pennsylvania, Delaware and New Jersey from this point

Festive decor inside a building

Love sculpture at JFK Park

Street scene near Christ Church

Princess Diana exhibit at the National Constitution Center

Valley Forge; there were so many deer in the park!



I was hoping for snow, but we didn't get any. Unfortunately, Miami has been HOT and HUMID and HOT and DISGUSTING. I'm talking record high 80-something temps! So I welcomed the 20 and 30-degree weather with open arms (and some long johns! LOL!) I love it when it's cold because I get to wear my scarves and my hat and coat... :) I lived in Colorado when I was in 3rd and 4th grade and I remember building tunnels through the snow and climbing out the windows in the winter... how fun!

Now comes the hard part: choosing which photos will go into my December Daily album! Speaking of which, I've completed up to Day 10 so here are some pics of my latest pages.

For Day 8, I used a holiday file folder (I think it's from K & Company) and I adhered a photo of the Christmas ornament I made for the Cocoa Daisy ornament swap (see previous blog post). Inside the file folder are photos of the ornament that I received.




For Day 9, I simply matted a photo on an Archiver's card and then on a Hambly overlay. I then placed a tag from Elle's Studio on the back side.

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Day 10 is just journaling. I lifted this idea from Ali Edwards. On this day, I went to work and then headed to Philly so I wanted to capture my thoughts and feelings about the trip.




I will continue with Day 11 on the back side of this page... I hope to work on more pages later this week, but right now I am packing for a work trip to Playa del Carmen, Mexico. I leave bright and early tomorrow. I'll be back Thursday night.

I hope you're enjoying your holidays! Check back soon for another RAK (Hint: if you want to do a "2009 Year in Review" mini album, you'll want to check this out!).

Merry wishes and joyful dreams,
Vanessa

Christmas Ornaments

This year, I made a Christmas ornament for a swap over at Cocoa Daisy. I had lots of fun putting together my ornament and I plan on creating a few more (if time permits). I just need a few more hours in my days! Teehee! Don't we all?

Here's a photo of my creation.



And this is the ornament that Kim from Eugene, Oregon made for me. She added lots of details to hers including lots of festive embellishments. How fun! Thanks, Kim! :)

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I'll post more of my Dec Daily album on Monday. Have a great weekend and happy scrapping!

Merry wishes and joyful dreams,
Vanessa

December Daily - Days 5, 6 and 7

Hi my friends!

Boy, I've sure been busy! It's been a crazy week at work trying to get a few books to the printer. Next week should be more manageable so I cannot wait for this madness to end.

I finished a few more pages for my December Daily album. Here's Day 5 (one of my favorite pages so far!). Of course, you'll notice a similarity between my page and one of Ali Edwards' pages. What can I say? She inspires me! I printed out a large photo with a hand drawn brush from Designer Digitals and some journaling right on the photo. Love it!

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Next is Day 6 with a cute photo of the "Three Amigas" (me, Ady and Damaris). LOL! This was a photo that Cheryl took of us at the Christmas Crop on Sunday. I folded and stapled my ribbon to create this cute ruffle effect (something I learned from Damaris). I actually messed up this page because I forgot to punch the holes on the side to insert the binder rings and then I realized that the holes fell where my journaling appeared. Therefore, after some brainstorming, I decided to adhere the page to a Clearly Heavy Hambly overlay so that I could have some room on the side to punch the holes.

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For Day 7 I used a Jenny Bowlin bingo card and adhered patterned paper to the back along with a self-portrait I took at the entrance to my home. Easy peasy!

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That's all for now. I hope you're enjoying this holiday season! I still need to finish decorating my home and do some Christmas shopping so I am way behind schedule. Yikes!

Merry wishes and joyful dreams!
Vanessa

Christmas crop and banner

Hi my friends!

I hope you had a happy Sunday... I spent the day scrapbooking with friends (old and new) at Damaris's Christmas Crop. I got to meet Marlene in person and we got lots of goodies from Ms. DUI (AKA Damaris), including the Cosmo Cricket and Webster's Pages holiday paper kits. Beautiful! I cannot wait to incorporate these collections into my December Daily album and on my layouts...

I haven't worked on Days 5 and 6 yet, but I hope to post those pages tomorrow evening so come back and check it out. In the meantime, I'll show you the awesome banner that I created today. It's from Work in Progress kits. Trish is the BEST, so if you haven't checked out her site, you must. Lots of inspiration over there!



As you can see, I've been keeping pretty busy this holiday season. Richard was out of town working and I have some upcoming business (and leisure) travel as well. Plus, I have been totally into my December Daily project. That has helped keep me distracted, which is a good thing for me during the holidays. Since my Mom and Mami (my grandma) passed away in 2005 and in 2008, the holidays haven't been the same. It's bittersweet because I usually LOVE this time of year. But I miss my loved ones so very much!

Merry wishes and joyful dreams,
Vanessa

Dec Daily: Days 2, 3 and 4

I hope you are having a terrific weekend! I just got home from Richard's company holiday event, which was held at the BankAtlantic Center. The company booked a club level suite during a Panthers hockey game. I wasn't too excited about this since I am not into hockey at all, but I must admit it was pretty nice. The suite was spacious, the food was good, we had good laughs and I actually sat and watched a little bit of the game.




Now to my December Daily album. You'll notice that I redid Day 2 (you can see the before picture on my previous post). I don't normally do this, but I wasn't thrilled with it and this week I started playing with Photoshop Elements and I bought some holiday brushes and overlays from Designer Digitals and voila. I loved the result so I changed the photo and redid the page. I am glad I did it because I love the new Day 2.



Day 3: Here I used a trading card binder page, cut it down to fit inside my page protector and inserted a small photo along with some embellies and a journaling card.

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Day 4: I painted a canvas page with green paint and used a photo I shot of my designers during our off-site planning meeting yesterday. The journaling is on a tag that's tucked behind the red cardstock.

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I used blue and green Glimmer Mist for the back side and I also used Glimmer Mist on the Prima flower (red and green) so it blends in with the holiday theme.



That's all for now! Thanks for stopping by... I hope you are documenting your December or just taking some time to enjoy the season and have some fun.

Merry wishes and joyful dreams,
Vanessa

December Daily and a Winner!

Hi my friends,

I am sitting in the midst of a very messy scrap room, but the good news is that it means I'm creating something! And that is a good feeling.

Here is Day 1 of my December Daily album. This is the Christmas tree that The Miami Herald puts up every year in the lobby. It's huge and oh-so-pretty! I left the back side blank because I love that snowman paper so much that I didn't want to cover it up...

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And this is Day 2. This morning, I was driving around and I came across this building that had a beautiful Santa Claus and some ornaments on it. So festive! I also got to finally play with Picnik a little and I added this text to the image. I love how it came out! The back side is quite simple, with just a tag from Elle's Studio.

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I want to thank EVERYONE that visited my blog these past couple of days to leave me comments and become a follower! :) I hope you will continue to visit my blog and share your scrappy projects with me. I picked a number and the winner that corresponded to that number is (drum roll, please!):

Anna Zuniga said...
I am so loving your Daily. Mine looking so plain now.. ha ha ha.. I signed up to be a follower. I love your blog and your travels. :0)

Anna Zuniga

CONGRATULATIONS ANNA! Please send your complete mailing address to mvmolina(at)aol(dot)com and I will mail you the RAK.

Merry wishes and joyful dreams!
Vanessa