v.2

We took a long overdue trip to Chicago, we haven’t been there since Rich and Theresa got married and Sienna was a baby. Airfare was outrageous so we decided to drive there. Sienna is a very good traveller (as evident from the Myrtle Beach drive) so we weren’t worried. Google maps said it would take 13.5 hours to get to Rich’s house so we decided to do it in 2 days. No documenting of the hotel but it was a Hampton Inn (our preferred hotel!) somewhere in PA. There was delays on the I80 due to road work so we didn’t get as far on the first day as we had hoped. On Friday (15th), the 2nd day was really long because we were making up time from the first day plus by the time we reached Chicago, it was rush hour. That was torture as it took 2 hours to get through it!! We finally made it! Yay! Our main goal was to just relax and hang out with Rich and Theresa. They got a new dog named Dexter and Sienna really enjoyed playing with him.

Saturday we had lunch at Superdawg, a place I wanted to check out. It’s one of those drive in places where you place your order through the intercom by your car and then they bring it out for you. Even though I ended up eating outside the car standing up because it was so hot, I enjoyed experiencing that concept.

you can’t even see my hot dog because of the pickle. It was very yummy!
We wanted to see Rich’s parents, Bob and Martha while we were there so they came over for dinner. Rich made pizzas on the grill. Last time Sienna saw Bob, she cracked up whenever he looked at her! He didn’t even do anything. I’m glad to say that he still makes her crack up. Sienna had a great time with him playing ball. He’s got great energy for someone in his 70’s! (BTW, last time Sienna saw Rich, she cried every time he tried to hold her. Glad to say that that did not hold up!)

Atta’ Boy! from Lisa on Vimeo.

One of the many grilled pizzas Rich made. Very delicious!

More Chicago to come!

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It’s been HOT here in New York and actually much of the midwest to northeast so have not been doing too much crafting lately. So I thought it would be a good time to update the craft posts from May! Soon to follow will be June.

Sienna’s really into super heroes so it has re-ignited my interest in them as well so I signed up for a Super Hero Softie swap. I even made a little comic book to go with it. I picked out a pattern from the Wild and Wonderful Fleece Animals book that I’ve had for awhile and been wanting to try. I’m so glad I finally tried one of the patterns because it was soo easy!! I reduced the pattern and used felt instead of fleece. I made the cape and mask myself. I think it came out really cool and became one of those swaps I almost did not want to send off!

Another theme I love is the Circus and these were made for the Theme in a Ziplock group. I made domino pins, tags, notecards, stickers and frames. My partner loved everything! (If I ever get around to posting what I received, I’ll be sure and show the 2 headed woman doll my partner sent me! LOVE it!)

Stickers made using hand carved stamps and die cut using my Silhouette machine. The batman logo, POW and flower were carved by me. The others were received in swaps.

Mother’s day card with a pop up rose. You can see Sienna’s writing on the inside for her grandma(s).

Birthday cards for twin boys that were in Sienna’s nursery class.Their party was at the Children’s Museum of Staten Island.

These were made for swaps. My partner loves daisies. The left one was made using rub ons and the right was using a die cut flower although it’s hard to tell from the photo.

Another swap also using die cut flower.

Felt flower brooches using one of my favorite Sizzix dies.

Made this shirt for Sienna for team day at her nursery school using glitter heat transfer vinyl. She’s only wore it once. I don’t know why Yves doesn’t push her to wear it more often! HA!

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As promised, the last installment of our Myrtle Beach vacation! We ventured away from the beach one day and went to check out one of the many shopping centers/entertainment places. We picked Broadway on the Beach. We really didn’t want to do much shopping so we went to a little tiny amusement park called Pavilion Nostalgia Park. You could really feel the heat when you are away from the nice ocean breeze so it was HOT!

Sienna really liked this ride because it whipped around the bend. She went on it at least 2 times.

She claims to have enjoyed the ride although her face doesn’t really tell it.

She rode several other rides as well as this train ride but I will spare you!

Yves being silly

Feeding the fish and boy the fish were hungry! See:


Did I mention that it was hot? So someone got grumpy!

I’m sure she is smiling under there!

The sun wore us out so we ordered delivery! It wasn’t bad!

The next morning we DID NOT GO TO WAFFLE HOUSE! Gasp! HA! You can’t find banana walnut pancakes at Waffle House!

Fried Green Tomatoes at Mr. Fish. We came here twice because the food was very delicious!

Shrimp Po Boy

I guess Sienna is really hungry!

Outside our hotel, there was a cute little area with tables and swinging chairs.

We checked out a playground a few blocks away.

Checking out another area of Myrtle Beach, by a pier.

Back to Mr. Fish on our last night. Soft Shell Crab and fish and chips.

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The long waited part 2 of vacation is finally up! I realized I do have a lot of photos from Myrtle Beach so part 2 will be divided into 2 parts. I promise not to wait as long to do part 2 of part 2 as I did to post part 2!

Our Room at Camelot by the Sea. We stayed in a 1 bedroom. Top left shows the bedroom with the front door. Top right shows the kitchen which leads into the living room (bathroom is opposite the frig). Bottom left is the living area with balcony. Bottom right is the couch in the living area.

The lazy river! Our first time experiencing a lazy river. This was the first and last time we tried it. I thought it was fun although I was giggling the whole time I was floating around it. I guess because I don’t know how to swim and I’m not familiar with that floating feeling is what was making me giggle. The water was pretty warm. I think Sienna rather be in the water than floating on it.

Pool! There was the lazy river and 2 pools and 2 jacuzzis (one of each partially inside and one of each fully outside), and a wading pool with a water sprinkler. This was the inside pool. I don’t have any action shots of us enjoying the jacuzzi because I was mostly in the jacuzzi enjoying it!

Here are views of the outside pools from our balcony. The blue awning was over the bar.

Beach time! A self portrait. LOL

View of the hotel from the beach

Food! A sampling of some of the food we ate.

Waffle from Waffle House. This is Yves’ waffle. I don’t put butter on mine. Actually, I don’t usually get a waffle at waffle house! HA! We only went 2 times.

Our thai dinner after our first full day.

Our 2nd time at the River Cafe. We came here the first night we got there. Sienna really liked this place because you can throw the peanut shells on the floor and she got doritos with her hot dog.

After a full day of fun, this is what we found on the sofa:

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Videos that Yves took!

Photos and another video in my previous post!

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My little girl “graduated” from Nursery school last Thursday (a lot earlier than I had thought!) Her celebration included her class marching in (to the tune of “When the Saints go marching in” LOL), singing and calling out their designated colors (hers was white), obtaining their “diploma” from the principal and then marching out (to the same tune.) So very cute! Then there was cake and refreshments afterwards. It happened to be one of the hottest and muggiest days (95 degrees!) of the year but the sweat factor wasn’t bad. My dad came but it was too early for my mother (9:30 am).

Sienna got to sing 2 songs (most of the kids sang 1)
Singing Twinkle twinkle little star with Megan, Natalie and Abby.
Singing Puff the Magic Dragon with William, Abby, Megan and Kosta.
Getting her diploma!

Walking over to Pre-K

The cake

Here is a video I took of them as they were walking off the stage. Hopefully Yves will post a video of Sienna singing her songs soon.

Sienna officially “graduates” from Lisa on Vimeo.

Sienna with Mrs. V, the assistant teacher

Sienna sitting on the lap of her teacher, Mrs. D and Mrs. V.

Sienna and Darany (her and Megan would fight over Sienna!)

Sienna and Lexi (I find out the scoop from Lexi!)

Sienna and Sarah. I don’t know Sarah too well since she is a full day student.

Sienna and Abby. I overheard Abby tell Sienna she likes her. Awww!

Sienna and Caius. Caius always gives Sienna gum after school.

Unfortunately, I was not able to get photos with the rest of her classmates! There is the last birthday party next week so she will get to see her old classmates another time. I’m happy to report that Sienna got into the public school that was our first choice. We registered earlier this week and met another little girl that will be in her class. Thankfully, they started playing with each other as me and her mom were filling out forms. I’m hoping that would get her excited about starting at a new school. Fingers crossed!

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I’m going to separate our vacation to Myrtle Beach into 3 parts. Part 1 will be the drive down, part 2 will be the actual Myrtle Beach vacation and part 3 will be the drive home. So here is part 1!

Yves’ plan was to leave at 8 am on Saturday and we actually left on time!!! Since the drive to Myrtle Beach is supposed to take 12 hours (and that’s without stops), we were going to stop somewhere past the 6 hour mark and stay in a hotel. I sat in the back with Sienna since this was going to be such a long trip. Things went pretty smoothly. We stopped at a rest stop after 2 hours and then for lunch after about 4 hours. We somehow ended up at Frank’s Diner in Jessup, MD. Pretty unassuming place and kinda happy we didn’t end up at a chain (we took care of that on the way home! LOL). It’s an old diner that smelled like old people when you walked in and even had mini jukeboxes at each table! There were only a few tables occupied but like 6 waitresses. Sienna got a grilled cheese and both me and Yves got patty melts with different bread and cheeses. Something must have happened in the kitchen because our food took awhile to come out. The waitress apologized to us and even when Sienna and Yves’ dish came out, mine took another 5 minutes to come out. I do have to say, tho, that it was pretty good!

With the help of our ipad2, we found a Hampton Inn in Colonial Heights, VA to stay in. Although it was not really super necessary to use the ipad to find a hotel, it sure helped us find one with free wifi (which most hotels offer), LCD tvs (which not every hotel offers), indoor pool and vacancies without getting out of the car! Come on, that’s cool, right? We almost picked a hotel with the tube tvs, which would not have worked with the apple tv we brought along, so quickly found one with the LCD. It ended up not working anyway because their wifi was not so high speed. We relaxed a bit in the pool and jacuzzi (woohoo!) before having dinner at Ruby Tuesdays. Yes, a chain but unfortunately, I did not have the energy to try and find a local place. Surprisingly, the food was pretty tasty! We even got dessert! They had one of 4 mini cupcakes (2 red velvet and 2 carrot cake), which was perfect for us!

The next morning we ate the breakfast the hotel offered and off we went! Sienna decided to take over my camera and wanted to take photos too, just like mommy and daddy! Here are her feet:

Find her set of photos on my flickr page here.

We had a planned stop at South of the Border, a place I really wanted to check out! We were going to even eat lunch there but after some investigating, decided we would rather stop somewhere before that to eat (reviews were pretty bad for the restaurants). I used my ipad to find a restaurant and found rave reviews at the restaurant we ended up at. Well, what a disappointment! It wasn’t horrible but wasn’t all that. I can’t even remember the name or where it was!

Anyway, we made it!

It was a pretty hot day so we didn’t stay that long here. If it wasn’t for Sienna, me and Yves probably could have spent a couple of hours walking around the place taking photos! But that’s ok, we got some nice photos.

and some ice cream!

(You can see more in my flickr set!)

Here’s another Shot by Sienna photo that I would like to end this post with. After South of the Border when we were back in the car. Cracks me up!

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I’ve been creating! I’ve been creating! I just haven’t been good about posting them up in a timely manner so while I am on vacation (Myrtle Beach, SC) I thought I would catch up a little. Here is what I have made in April!

These were for the altered bottlecap pendant. You were only required to make 1 but I was inspired and made my partner 2. The top one was used with some aluminum roses and an old finding from a grab bag of vintage items I got from a flea market ages ago. The bottom one I painted a blue flower white and used alcohol ink to color it but when I diamond glazed it, it lightened the color but it totally works! The L was made using faux enamel.

These items were made for a different kind of Easter basket for the Zombies, Aliens, Monsters, Vampires and Robots group. Bela and Frank are rubber stamps that I stamped on glitter and glued on a Tim Holtz fragment. The stuffie is obviously a vampire rabbit. I wanted to show the back because I also made the tail. I finally used my Clover pom pom maker!
I think these were made for an Easter lucky parcel, I can’t remember! I printed out the Easter vintage tags and used my Silhouette to cut them out. I made 2 magnets with a Tim Holtz fragment and a bottlecap.

These were made for part of a Mother’s Day mini lucky parcel. One of my partners favorites is the Addams Family. I saw Morticia and Gomez earrings on her Etsy favs so used that for inspiration for the top one (bad photo!). I bought the tv bezels a while ago and finally had an opportunity to use it!

I signed up for a swap NOT on swap-bot! {gasp!} It was a crafty peep swap on Strumpet’s craft blog. My partner likes flowers and bright colors so I ran with that! For the card, I used my Silhouette to cut out the flower. The felt flowers (Sizzix die that gets used a lot!) as magnets and an A heart pendant. I also made her these following 2 pendants but will talk about it below.

I discovered this new technique on Lisa Pavelka’s website and wanted to give it a go so these 2 were actually “testers” which turned out to be my favorites over the other ones below. I especially love how the glitter came out in the moon burst zipper pull probably because I was just being free with it.

The glitter really sparkles but I took a bad photo of this. This was the main pendant I made for my partner and funny enough, my least favorite. I had to put a lot of layers on this and I still wasn’t completely happy. Oh well, at least my partner got the other pendants and felt magnets.

Using the same technique, I made this for my MIL for Mother’s Day.

I made this one because I like the graphic. I still have it so may just keep it for myself.

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Easter turned out to be a beautiful day so we had our first BBQ and dyed eggs outside. It was a nice day!

Getting started with the dye kit. I know I could have made my own dyes but the kit was cheap and a no brainer.

That was the egg Sienna dyed in school and she was fake eating it because she doesn’t eat eggs.

I think the colors came out nice! Sienna’s playing with them here.

Skippy is saying “what’s going on up there?”

The chocolate lollipop was from school and the Godiva was from my Aunt Helen (they were super yummy!)

Wha?

Inside the Godiva

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I joined a stuffed mini book swap last month and it was so much fun! Basically, it’s a 3×3 book you make out of a 12×12 piece of scrapbook paper and makes 3 pockets to put things in. I really put a lot of work into it and I believe my partner enjoyed it. Her profile said she likes flowers so I kinda ran with that theme!

All Tied Up. I glittered a chipboard frame for the front

Pretty Thick book!

Front and Back covers with a made with love charm

White embossed the flowers and painted it with twinkling H20s (sadly the photo doesn’t really show the shimmer)

Used some glittery stickers and glued a fragment on top of a Georgia O’Keefe flower I printed and stamped cherish

My favorite spread! I used the nine fold explosion and used floral wire to put the flower in the middle. I really like how it came out! The flower was actually sent in my mini book from my partner!

I used copper embossing powder for this stamp and used distree stains to color in the flowers

Another flower pop up that was so fun and easy to make!

Final spread. Had to use my silhouette at some point! I used pop up dots for the flower.

The stuff I included in the pockets. Some paper flowers, metal flowers and the links on how to make the 2 pop ups.

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