A First for Me

Typically I am not someone who rants or raves unless I have a very good reason. I like to be a go with the flow kinda girl so when you hear me sing the praises of something (or launch in to a rant) it means that I feel VERY strongly about it. With that said I have to sing the praises of The Park Vista - Double Tree in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. Now, I have lived in East Tennessee my entire life and the Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge area does not typically draw me in simply because I've been there a million times and it is a tourist destination. However, hubs and I were in desperate need of some time away so off to Gatlinburg we went. We stayed at The Park Vista in May of 2008 and our experience was less than wonderful. The hotel showed serious signs of neglect and was in desperate need of renovating. Well, Double Tree purchased this property and sunk Millions of dollars into the renovations and it showed! The hotel is STUNNING! The rooms are beautiful, the food was fantastic and the service was out of this world (one night of our stay a huge thunderstorm came and I witnessed someone from the front desk leave their post to stand by the front door handing out towels to anyone who came through the door - now that is service!). I didn't get a lot of pictures but wanted to share the ones I did take. If you are looking for a place to get away to I highly recommend The Park Vista in Gatlinburg. It is off of the main strip so it's quiet but close enough that it is no problem to go and take part in all of the great activities in the area. They have a tremendous pool area with toddler pool, hot tub and slides for the kids, reasonable room service, great restaurant and a nice lounge.

 The view from my bed on Saturday Morning - They don't call them the Smoky Mountains for nothing!

 TV in the bedroom - I want this in my home!

 The sitting area - we had a King Suite but the other rooms looked just as wonderful.

 The other side of the sitting room looking into the bedroom - love that piece the TV is sitting on - the large door hides a mini fridge.

 The vanity area.

 I'm a true sucker for hotel toiletry items and The Park Vista won me over with an assortment of Neutrogena products (shampoo, conditioner, mouthwash, lotion, soap, body wash, face wash, facial moisturizer and more)!

 Another view from the bed room - each room has a balcony that looks out at the mountains or at the city (which is far below as the hotel sits up on the mountain).

And this is me getting my comfy on in the lounge while we watched the UT game. The hotel has a great sitting area in the lobby and tons of these snuggly Pottery Barn throws all around. I wish I had more time and a book - I totally would have curled up in one of the oversize chairs!

Graphic 45 Halloween in Wonderland Mini

This is mini album that I have been dying to make since the first time I laid eyes on this Graphic 45 paper! I love Alice in Wonderland and I love Halloween so Graphic 45 married the two just for me! Wasn't that nice of them? I made this album using toilet paper rolls, Graphic 45 Halloween in Wonderland theme paper and some DCWV cardstock I had on hand. Standard foam dots and adhesive and I used Color Box Pigment Brush Pad in Chestnut for the distressing. Again, pardon my poor pictures (and all of the glue all over my desk - ugh) because not only was I lazy this time but also in a hurry! Anyway, hope you like it!

Beach Layout Using Life's a Beach

First let me apologize for the pictures - I am truly too lazy for words!

This is a layout I just finished for our summer vacation. The kids had so much fun playing in the sand. We spend so much time at the beach and near the water that I knew Life's a Beach would be a great cartridge for me. I hope you like it!

Back to School Mini Album for Cricut Mini Album

So this weeks challenge for the Design Team over at Cricut Mini Albums was to design a mini album for Back to School. My daughter is too young to start school but my nephew just started Kindergarten so I made this album for my sister in law to record his first year. I used Plantin Schoolbook and Stretch Your Imagination to create this album. First I found a size for the album that I liked using Design Studio. This album is 5.5" by 11" using only card stock (I had planned on using a cardboard base between each page but I didn't have any card board that was long enough).

This is the back of the front cover. I gave my sister in law a little journaling prompt here to record some information about my nephew and his new school.

This is the second page. I gave her a place to put a picture of my nephew on his first day and the journaling prompt is to record memories from that first day. The "1st Day of School" piece is Plantin Schoolbook with the letters welded in Design Studio.

I wanted to be sure she had plenty of room for photos from that first day - his classroom, teacher, school etc.

I set up this page as a place for her to put his school picture and I thought the rest of the space and the back she could put pictures of his friends. You know how kids love to trade those wallet size pictures that come in school photo packages. The apple is Plantin Schoolbook - I cut it once in red and again in green then cut the stem and leaf from the red apple and layered it on the green cut to get this look.

This is the back page for more pictures from his friends. The ABC123 trim I created from Plantin Schoolbook by welding the letters and numbers together in Design Studio.

And this is the last page for putting a picture at the end of the year and recording memories from his first year in Kindergarten. I hope you liked this album - it was lots of fun to make and I can't wait to give it to my sister in law and my nephew.

So, Where I Have I Been You Ask?

I've been pulling my hair out! I decided that I would make these adorable letters for my daughter and gosh darnit they are so cute so why don't I make a set for my niece too? Well, here's the problem with my brilliant idea. I didn't do just letters, oh no, that would be too easy. I had to go and use Design Studio to weld Disney characters to each letter. So that required making the base (the black part) and then cutting a letter and then cutting all of the pieces that make up the character. Mind you, I used the American alphabet . . . that's 26 letters in case you were wondering. Each color you see is a different cut and required lining up and gluing. The other problem with this brilliant plan? Well, my daughter is 1 going on 2 and my niece is 2 going on 3 so they want to play with the letters. Paper doesn't hold up well in the hands of 2 and 3 year olds so I decided to laminate them which is hard enough with Contact paper but then I had to cut them out by hand! What was I thinking!? They're cute though, right? I hope they appreciate all of the work when they get older! Letters A-H put together, letters A-C laminated . . . . I may never recover from this project. Back to work  . . .

MemoryWorks Winter 2010 - 2011 Catalog!

I am so excited! The new MemoryWorks catalog is out, at least in PDF form! As usual, there are some fantastic items and so many cute holiday papers! You definitely have to check it out. If you see anything you just can't live without, send me an email and we'll get it ordered. Remember, we still have a lot of items on clearance and your first order through me is 10% off! To view the new catalog, click HERE and to view clearance items, click HERE.