Cruise Layout - Two Ports of Call

It's time for more cruising layouts!!  I have six more pages, or three double page layouts, to share with you today.  These pages are representative of what I did with the shore excursion pages.  The two pages above are of our Freeport visit.  We acted like goof-balls getting off of the ship, playing with the Captain's Wheel.  We then took a tour of the Island and visited some shopping areas.  After we completed our shopping adventure Doug and I enjoyed a local cafe/pub where we cooled off and mingled with locals. 

Above are the first two Key West pages.  I included out City Tour pamphlet as well as various photos from around town.  I wanted this page to be an overview of what we found special about Key West, and that is what I included in my journal block on the left hand page.

Below are our last two Key West pages, but ironically there are at least four more pages that will go between the pages above and those below.  I have yet to complete the pages of the Butterfly Conservatory and our other stops.

 As I said above, these two pages are the final Key West layouts.  These photos were taking at the port, except for the lower two pages on the right page, which were taken from the top of the ship.  The port was so pretty with cute shops, pubs, and a wonderful ice cream shop!  We both enjoyed cooling off in the ice cream shop and sharing out table with one of our fellow passengers.

I may not have a new post tomorrow.  We *just* received a call from Doug's uncle and aunt announcing that they are coming to town tomorrow for a visit!!!  Good thing I did so much house cleaning today!  Yikes.  I will be back by the end of the week.

At Long Last - A Few Cruise Layouts

At long last I am finally ready to begin sharing some of the layouts from my cruise scrapbook. I still have eight or ten pages more to scrap but I have 18 pages that are ready to share. I will share a few layouts today and then more next week.

I am not sharing the opening page as I did not use the Cricut on page one. I ordered a custom die-cut ship with custom wording from Scrap Your Trip for the first page. After page one, I tried to present an over view of each aspect of the cruise: The ship, our stateroom, activities on board, food, night life, and ports of call.

The photograph at the top of the post is pages two and three in the scrapbook.  I used gray-blue cardstock as a base.  I cut a postage stamp trimmed sheet of decorative cardstock in half and used it as base mats for my four photographs.  Each photo is double matted with a white matting in addition to the decorative layer. 

Pages three and four offer an overview of the ship and includes our sail and sign cards which we reserved to use as memorabilia.  These two pages began with printed cardstock.  I added lime green mats and navy blue border stamps to add to the page.  The Welcome Aboard die cut was ordered from Scrap Your Trip.  These two pages also feature border stamping.

Pages four and five are an overview of our cabin and includes photos of our towel animals.  I used blue and yellow mats, as well as fun trim at the top of the page.  I added the multi colored stripes and the yellow ribbon to finish the page.  As on previous pages, I printed my journaling on vellum and added it to the page.

Pages six and seven are the first of two double page spreads featuring on-board dining.  In the photo on the left page we are celebrating our anniversary.  The other photos were foods or beverages that we actually consumed.  Each of the other nights on the cruise we sat with other couples.  Each time I photographed one of our plates I had to explain that I am a major scrapbooker and that food photos were a must!  They seemed indulgently amused though I could tell that they did not get it.  However, I am equally sure that each of you understands my need to photograph everything.

I will be back on Monday with another BBTB2 project to share and next week I will share more of the cruise layouts.  I hope you each have a wonderful weekend.

Happy Anniversary to ME!

I must apologize for being away for so long!  I so enjoyed our 30th Anniversary cruise; neither Doug nor I wanted to exit the ship!  We are already talking about our next cruise. 

We arrived home last weekend and after unpacking and making my way through a mountain of laundry, I began to settle back into normal life.  Or so I thought. On Monday I came down with a virus - an unpleasant virus.  I am feeling totally, completely recovered today, which is wonderful as today is my actual anniversary! 

30 years ago today this cute little couple married:

I think we were 12.  Okay, maybe we just look 12!!!  We were 21 and 22!

I am going to share a few photos of the cruise with you and offer a promise that by cyber Monday I will be paper crafting again! 

View of the Lido deck from deck 12:

View of the Atlantic Ocean:

The Atlantic by night:

The food was AMAZING:

Loved the towel animals:

More dessert:

Key West:

First formal dinner:

 A tiny Key:

Goofing off in the Bahamas!!

I wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving and safe travels!

My Crazy Dog's Craziest Moment Yet....

I have mentioned my dog Duncan so often in the past that I could not pass up the opportunity to share his craziest moment ever... Or at least his craziest moment to date. 

You may recall that I told you how Duncan reacts when I receive a delivery, barking and whining, trying to get to the box and open it for himself.  Well today's delivery from UPS (my new Creative Memories Cartridge, by the way) arrived, Duncan immediately went into delivery dog mode! 

I took the package and put it on the kitchen counter, stupidly thinking that would discourage Duncan's crazy behavior.  In the meantime I went into the next room.  I heard Duncan made a couple of jumps and yelps at the box, but I thought he would realize that he could not get the box.  Then I heard a drawer open and Duncan gave a little bark.  The photo above is what I found when I went back into the kitchen to investigate. 

There he hung by his harness, looking pathetic.  After screatching OH MY GOSH, DUNCAN!  I ran to the other room and grabbed the camera to snap a couple of photos.  If I had taken the time to check I would have realized the camera was set on micro mode - so the photos were a bit grainy.  However, at least I captured the moment!

And here he is, Duncan the wonder dog, resting atop dad, getting his tummy petted. None the worse for wear, and still my crazy fur-boy!!

Royal Wedding Breakfast and Celebration

Good morning royal watchers and blog readers!  Today is the big day for Prince William and Catherine Middleton and here in Aiken, MFK (my friend Kathy) is hosting a Royal Wedding Breakfast event.  She has worked all week to be ready to host the Aiken location (Buckingham, Southeast??) of the Royal Wedding.  Rumor has it that we will be enjoying some of the same amenities as the wedding guests at Buckingham Palace - or "Buck House" as the late Queen Mum liked to refer to the palace.

My plan is to update this blog post all morning to ensure that you stay up to date on the Royal happens here in Aiken.  I am supposed to arrive at Kathy's house around 6:00 am.  I think Kathy thought if I could get up for the E2 launch, I should be able to get up for the Royal Wedding Breakfast and Celebration. 

  

I bet you are wondering what you might expect to see at Kathy's Royal Wedding Breakfast?? Well every woman attending a royal wedding needs head cover.  Of course royalty will be sporting diamond and other precious gemstone tiaras, but the vast majority of the female guests - friends, family, celebrities, dignitaries, etc will be wearing hats or facinators.  You can expect to see something appropriate in the way of head wear here in Aiken.

When attending a royal wedding you can also expect to see fine linens, china, silver and crystal.  The same hold true for our venue here in Buckingham, Southeast!  You can expect that Kathy will "put on the dog" for us and pull out her best silver, china, linens, etc.

When attending the royal breakfast, one would expect lovely food.  I am not going to reveal more right now, but I am going to tell you that you can expect to see some fun and surprising food items at Kathy's Royal Wedding Breakfast.

Drop back by regularly today for updates on Busy with the Cricky's and The Laker Scrapbook Guild's morning adventures at MFK's Royal Wedding Breakfast and Celebration.  I will be taking my laptop, camera and video camera to make sure that you feel like you were "almost" there with us!!!

For your copy of today's Royal Wedding Program click on the name to download a pdf copy.  

8:00 AM update:

Kathy had a breakfast buffet for us:  English muffins, jams, bacon, tomatoes, and strawberries and clotted cream. Our beverage choices included orange juice, champagne, mimosas, and coffee. 

Here were are, in our glory (and PJs), modeling our facinators that Kathy and her sister Kimberly made for us.

 Our happy hostesses and Minnie the poodle, all wearing their Royal Wedding facinators.

 Kathy found the recipe for Prince William's groom's cake from a link provided by The Today Show and made this for us.  We are currently all sugared up on this fabulous cake.  We all completely understand why this is William's favorite cake. The cake is like eating a large candy bar.  

Here in Aiken there we have a British store called The Curiosity Shop.  It is a wonderful store and I shop there for quilts, hats. scarves, Dr. Who toys (!), Beatles items, etc.  They also sell British foods and that is where Kathy found many of the ingredients for the cake.  The cake was completely worth the effort!