Gwen

Back in Utah

So I got back late last night from my work trip out to our San Fransisco office.  It was a pretty good week!  We got a lot done and my co-worker Sara and I even had some time to see the sites!

First, I was back at the Hotel Triton again which is a pretty cool place to stay.  I had a funky little room overlooking the entrance to China Town.  Here's a view:

Our first night we were both exhausted so we went to a really nice little Italian place on 2nd Street (Umbria) and had yummy homemade pasta and tiramisu.  Then we just went to our separate hotels and crashed!  Wednesday after work we had a bit more energy and decided to play tourist for the evening.  We went to China Town on our last trip out but Sara had still never been out to the wharf or to Ghiradelli, so that's where we went.  Soup in sourdough bowls at Boudin, of course!  I loved this awesome sourdough crocodile.

Then we wandered around Fisherman's Wharf where we both ended up buying sweatshirts because it was a bit chillier than we'd prepared for.

And then, of course...

After we wandered around the square, went through the store and got our sample Peanut Butter Square and then we went in for some ice cream... as delicious as ever. After that, though, we'd hit our limit for the evening.  It had been a pretty long day and we had an early morning coming up, so we went back to our hotels and crashed.

Yesterday morning I got up early and wandered around China Town with my camera before hitting Starbucks and going to work.

Then at the office my new boss asked if I could arrange to stay the rest of the day instead of leaving with Sara at one, so we changed my plane ticket and we got lots of work done before I headed off for the last flight out... I got home about 1am this morning and I'm bushed!  I've got my tickets to see Harry Potter this weekend, though, and hopefully I'll get back in the scraproom too :)

Weekend projects

I'm not entirely sure where the weekend went, but it was nice while it lasted!  lol.  I did do a little playing in the scrap room.  First was a card - just playing around with some of my American Crafts stamps and embossing powder. Sorry for the crooked scan... the downside of always working at night is that I never have good light to take pictures!

I also did a layout today... this is another from Disney, while we were in the Wild Animal Park.  We had some time before Finding Nemo the Musical so we hung out in the dinosaur area for a while... I'm just bummed we didn't have quite enough time for rides.  Those flying dinosaurs looked fun!

And lest you wonder what happened to my typical verbose journaling, here's a shot with the hidden journaling pulled part-way out :)

And now, off to relax and feed my Food Network addiction before bed... tomorrow is going to be busy getting my checklist knocked out at work and home to get ready to head out to the SF office.  Busy is good, though!  It helps keep me occupied instead of stressing until I find out if my student loan came through.  It's not like they're cutting it close or anything... I mean, school doesn't start until August 3rd!

Happy Friday!

Well, I finally did some more scrapping... I've been meaning to get the 4th of July photos off my camera all week!  I didn't really do a lot over the weekend, but it was still a fun little celebration just for me.  I made yummy gorgonzola burgers with watermelon, bomb pops and some seriously wicked cream cheese sugar cookies that I took in to work.  I love the American Crafts goodies here... I knew I had to use that watermelon paper on this page, it was just perfect!

So yesterday I mentioned I've been super busy at work and I wasn't kidding!  I've been putting in some long days but I think it will be worth it. We've got lots of great projects coming up and I'm really excited about the ones that I researched and proposed.  It's exciting to have a chance to work on something that could really make a difference!  Not only that, but they've been looking for a new person to bring on who will be my boss and they finally hired him... he starts Monday so I get to fly out to San Francisco next week to get to know him and start bringing him up to speed.  I'm pretty psyched, actually!

Bring on the weekend!

Farewell Joe

Just gotta post this... one of the greatest hockey players to take the ice retires.  I'm gonna miss watching #19 play for the Avs!

In other news, I've been working tons and when I get home all I can do is crash... hopefully more scrapping soon!

Birthday Mini-Album

It was inevitable that over the weekend there would be some kind of scrapbooking project using photos from Adorable-Niece-Eraleigh's birthday last Thursday, but when I saw all the great photos from Erin and Brian, I just couldn't stop myself from making it a whole mini album!  I had this fun pattern for a hand-made album from Club Scrap and used it with lots of American Crafts goodies to make the album.  Pretty much everything here is from my AC stash... here are a few shots of the cover including the fun beaded binding:

And, here are the inside pages:

This was such a fun weekend project!

Next I need to get my 4th of July photos off my camera for a layout... nothing much, just a few pictures of some fun traditions I did for myself this year.  I didn't get any fireworks shots since I just watched fireworks in the valley from my upstairs windows (I have a pretty great view) but it was still fun... I also watched several movies, went to the gym a few times and got a few massages.  Mmm... Now, though, it's time to get back to work!  Should be a busy week :)

Eraleigh is One!

Yup, today is Adorable-Niece-Eraleigh's first birthday.  I can't believe it's been a year!  I'm looking forward to hearing about her big day and seeing lots of pictures.  In the meantime, here's the birthday card I made her.  I had to use these cute stamps from Our Craft Lounge (and my Copics) because they totally reminded me of her... when we were at the aquarium at Epcot, there was a giant sea turtle that swam right up to her and she was captivated.  I know she's too young to enjoy the card, but it was sure fun to make!

In other news, I've been on a waiting list for a new laptop at work for almost 2 months now and yesterday I finally got it!  Good timing... my old one had decided to start shutting down randomly for no reason.  Fun!  I hadn't realized how slow my old one was until I started using the new one.  It's like the speed of light!

And now just a few more hours until my weekend starts... our office gets the 3rd of July off and I'm psyched for a 3-day weekend! I'm ready to bar-b-que, relax and maybe even scrapbook!

A taste of Morocco

I finally turned on the fans and braved the heat in the attic to do some more scrapbooking!  Another layout from our week in Disney last month... this is from a VERY rainy day at Epcot center.  Erin had decided that it would be fun to have something a little adventurous for lunch and we ended up at a cafe in Morocco.  To our surprise, Eraleigh LOVED the food!  She kept stealing the chicken off of Erin's plate and scarfed down hummus and tabbouleh like a pro.  It was a super proud auntie moment for me.

It's almost birthday time for this little cutie... if my present didn't get there yesterday it should be there today and I'm really excited to find out how she likes it!  Not to mention seeing pictures of the whole event... I just wish I could be there!  Oh well, maybe next year!

Time for the big reveal...

Okay, the deposit is paid and the next destination is...

I'm way psyched about this.  If you know me, you know that going to Peru and visiting Machu Picchu is one of the top 3 things on my list of stuff to do before I die and this tour combines that with tours of various cities in Peru as well as the Amazon region which I'm super excited about!  I did my tour to China last year with this company and they put together a really wonderful, first class experience so I thought I'd do it again.  Plus since it's with ScrapMap, it's a scrapbooking / photography tour and I get to meet Karen Russell in person!  We sort of know each other from a Chatterbox contest a few years ago but I can't wait to meet her and learn about photography since she's an amazing photographer and a super cool lady.  I also got to meet Jim on the China trip and he's a blast.  I can't wait! 

So there you go!  I always love having an awesome trip to look forward to... and it is, after all, a trip of a lifetime ;)

So what have I been up to?

This... work.  And an addiction.  I try not to post too much about my job lest it somehow get me in trouble, but this is kind of a special exception.  At work these last few months we've had the chance to work on filming the stories of some of our customers and they're being released as commercials today.  My part?  Helping to get the online component set up and it's been keeping me busy!  But these stories are amazing... as many times as I see them I still tear up when I watch them.  Here's one... check it out:

You can go to a page and watch all five stories here. Watching them has made me want to start working on my own family history more and in the last week I've had the thrill of finding a handwritten parish record for a great great grandparent from the 1750s as well as multiple photos of ancestors that lived in the early 1800s.  So that's what I've been doing instead of scrapbooking... spending HOURS on Ancestry.com (not counting the hours I spend working on the site as a job) becoming more and more addicted to family history and adding to some of the work that my grandpa passed on to me.  It's like a giant puzzle that I can't walk away from! 

So there you go... I should get back to the layouts this week, though.  I'm starting to get the itch for some scissors and a tape runner!

P.S.  I know some of you are curious about the mystery trip, but I'm still mulling it over... I'll post my next fabulous destination once I decide for sure and put down the deposit. :)

Just call me TOAL

So I had been thinking that I wouldn't do much traveling until after school but I should have known better than to think I could make it that long... lol.  This week I found another tour that just screamed, "Gwen... SIGN UP FOR ME!!!"  So I started to think about it and I couldn't get it out of my head.  When I realized I really wanted to go and the schedule wouldn't be too disruptive for school, I started crunching numbers and the price of the tour turned out to be the exact amount I could afford to spend.  So I started telling my mom about it and she started telling me I was crazy, but the more we emailed back and forth the more she started to want to come with me.  In one email I pulled out the phrase "it's the trip of a lifetime!" and then qualified it by saying it's a different trip of a lifetime from last time, of course, which made her just laugh at me.  She told me that I'm now going to be known as Gwen "Trip of a Lifetime" Lafleur. (Get it?  TOAL? heh.)

So where am I thinking / planning on going this time?  Two hints... it's on a continent I've never been to and it includes a visit to one of the top 3 places on my current list of "things I want to see during my life."  I haven't put down the deposit yet - I'm giving myself the next week to make sure I feel like I can afford it but since I get more excited pretty much every hour, I think there's a good chance I'm going to try and go.  Oh, and now Nicole is thinking SHE wants to come with me too.  lol.  If I'm addicted to traveling, at least I'm not alone!

So, speaking of traveling... I finally managed to get back to the scrapbook room and do another layout!  This is going back to South Africa again from 2 years ago.  While we were up near Hoedspruit on safari we were able to see lots of giraffes.  On our third game drive, we ran across this little family - they were so beautiful!  I'm really pleased with how the pictures turned out.

I love those little bamboo letters from Making Memories... they worked perfectly here!  And with that, it's time to go watch Chopped! on my tivo.  (I'm WAY too addicted to the Food Network right now.)