Lazy Days, No Worries

This is one of those layouts sitting in my "in basket" for some time, waiting for inspiration. Well that inspiration came from the new Scrapbook Trends "Vacations" magazine that arrived at JSI on Wednesday. I have finished two layouts up today because of inspiration from this little book and I have tabbed about six more. Just waiting for some time to complete them all and this coming week does not look promising.


So here is another Hawaii layout. I have used the new textured card stock, some paper tropical ocean paper from the vacation section, Prima flowers...and more Prima flowers - which are all in stock last time I looked. I used flowers from the 'painterly petals', 'Belle Fleur', and the 'artful collage' prima lines, with pebbles in the middle, and more pebbles. I also used the new Prima bling - "center kissed" ...very pretty. ohhhh these are 'pertiful', as Laura would say.


Rub ons came from a nifty little Tropical "Swatch BOOK" which is jammed packed with great tropical rub-ons - 137 designs and 250 letters...mmm I like this! Thank you Laura for talking me into this one! There is one left at JSI. And finally I used the new Heidi Swapp "clear extras" (overlays) from the "world traveler" and the "care free" line. Very subtle and very effective.


And here ya go!

Have a great week everyone - hope to see some of you at JSI or wherever our paths may cross.

Blessings!

Julie

PS - hello to Cheryl whom I finally met at the store today!

Hawaii

Kind of a busy page, but tropical. Here is the gang enjoying our very full day at the Polynesian Cultural Center. This is a very fun, informative and full day ending with a very professional show for the grand finale after a nice meal. We had a good time.

The paper I used is Creative Imaginations which I stamped with the new Bo Bunny Aloha stamps - hibiscus with aqua Staz on ink and other colours in cats eye ink 0 if gave it different depths in the colours. Then I added some Prima flowers - several that are sprayed with glimmer mist. Me and my Big Ideas rub-ons for the title and Cloud 9 Design stamps (travel) "What a Day" Some pebbles on the flowers and a piece of ribbon - and there you have it. I kind of like the tropical effect.

Have a great Saturday everyone!

Blessings!

Julie

Soothing

Got to love a Hawaii sunset.

I am Amazed by YOU!

This is a PRIMA page - yup all Prima - paper (Angelique Collection - Angel Kisses) - how appropriate along with the Artful Leaves, Belle Flowers and Painterly Petals. And then the icing - the new "Say it in studs". Prima - you make it so easy and fun.

Psalm 65 says "by his strength He established the mountains, being girded with might;
He stills the roaring of the seas, the roaring of their waves, so that those who dwell at the ends of the earth are in awe at your signs. You make the going out of the morning and the evening to shout for joy. You visit the earth and water it; you greatly enrich it..."

I look at these pictures and I am amazed by Him who is my Creator and perfecter. And in the same way I look at the pictures of my children and my loved ones and see into the eyes of their souls and again I am amazed by Him, my Saviour.

Hawaii

Another simplistic layout. Love these new Paper Loft paper flowers. The journalling reads "I love 'bumming' around Hawaii with you". Take a zoom look at the photo. Get it?

Turtle Bay

Here is a two page layout of the Turtle Bay resort on the north shore of Oahu, Hawaii taken to the South and then to the West. I took these pictures before I realized I do not do well in helicopters.

I love the colours - the rich greens and browns of the land, the brilliant turquoise water and the beige sand that separates the two. It sort of acts like a border to the land. God sure knew what He was doing when He created the heavens and the earth and separated the waters from the dry land. I see pictures like this and I am in awe of His incredible creation. I also become so very aware of my insignificance and my need of His all saving power!

Waikiki Beach

An aerial view of Waikiki that David took (and is very proud of). He took it while I was deep breathing and clinging to a paper bag, remember? I guess I can laugh about it now and I am quite happy to have the pictures, so in a way I can now say I am glad we did the helicopter tour; I just won't do it again. Or maybe it is like having children.....

I added some little pictures of our day on Waikiki beach - so I have our afternoon at Waikiki all on one page which I am fine with. The postcard in the top left corner I picked up a while ago and it fit perfectly on this page because it is a drawing of Waikiki back in the 1920's or so when only a couple of smaller hotels were there, one being the pink one you see in the large photo on the far left and also in the postcard. I love the contrast from the simple, peaceful days of the postcard to the massive 18 story hotels crowding the beaches. Perhaps the page next to this one should be of all the hundreds of people lining the beaches for a piece of sun and surf. Waikiki is not what it used to be; it is, however, still worth seeing.

Stay tuned for some real streamlined pages; I really am trying to stay simplistic and clean; uncluttered so to speak.

Blessings!

Julie

ps...don't you just LOVE that blogger now allows you to post date a posting? No more saving in draft on the weekend so I can post during my crazy week. haha! Love it!

Fire thrower

I do believe this is one of my most fav photos from our trip. When I had it blown up I was amazed at the detail - no flash photography and the guy was a ways away - so for a brief moment I guess I was very still and caught the moment. Double click on the layout and check out his hands. Love the motion - shutter speed was just right.

Anyways, used fancy pants paper (Vivid) Mambly overlays (corner flourishes) some very cool oh so Hawaiian ribbon, SEI epoxy stickers (Madera Island) ...I have used these on many pages, gold pebbles and the new...(oh wow these are sooo beautiful) Prima essentials 4 Angelique flowers. Yeah Prima!

Yeah 8X10's - so much fun!

Great Outdoors- more gecko's

My last gecko page seemed to be well liked so I will post another one. This is my favorite picture of the gecko's - he is looking right at me with those dark brown eyes.

If you double click on this layout you can see the detail in this gecko's skin. You can also see his brown eye looking right at the camera...wondering just what I was up to.

I used the new fancy pants line again here - very outdoor...love the colours and the distressed look.

Julie

U can't see me

Oh yes I can and I have captured you on my new macro lens - haha!
Isn't he just so cute?

Relax, enjoy, friends

I love this picture of the six of us preparing supper in Hawaii. We looked soooo relaxed! And we were. The colours were perfect for a new line that just came in to JSI from The Paper Loft - it is the most beautiful and classy line of paper I have seen. I love it all and I know I will be using every piece of this. It is so beautiful I just may plan an album around this line. It is perfect heritage with the browns, creams, greys and very soft teal - but it can be used for anything - including Hawaii vacations. A few prima flowers, some pebbles and the letters are just adhesive backed foam that I put through the die cuts at JSI and inked a little - then stuck them on.

Have a wonderful day everyone!

Julie

Gecko pictures

As promised, my Gecko pictures - now these should be a blast to scrapbook!! I just picked up my 8X10's at Dons (they have a BOGO sale on) and WOW - the detail is incredible - what to do with these photos.

These little friends were out sunning themselves every morning in Hawaii and if I stood really still and they didn't notice me I could get their photos. I made good use of my new macro lens. The detail in their scales is incredible. Try double clicking on the photos to see it. I tried to google and find the exact species, but all the pictures of geckos I found on line did not look like these ones so if any of my Hawaiian friends who frequent my site can help me out with the Hawaiian name of these geckos, that would be appreciated.

Aren't they cute? okay - interesting?
Blessings!

Julie

The Good Life? Another magazine overlay.

Another overlay - don't forget to check out the military overlay of Mark below.

Lots of journalling. Feeling verbose I guess (or perhaps this is pms or premenopause - yikes), but felt I needed to journal about what I was feeling is The Good Life lest anyone come to the conclusion that because this picture is from our recent trip, that the Good Life has to involve expensive trips. It doesn't. All the money in the world will not make you happy or give you The Good Life. The Good life is about hope and joy even when life throws you curve balls that are too hard to dodge. Everyone can have The Good Life - it has nothing to do with luck or money or things. It is more our attitude - how we see the things that happen in our lives - the good the bad and the ugly.

Right now is a good time in our lives - no question. And I am so enjoying it - every moment of it. It was a long time coming. The kids are grown - almost, although they still need us, and my going back to work has given us the opportunity to travel. I feel blessed! (two years ago when I was working full time plus and totally overwhelmed with the learning curve of returning to a professional job after 15 years away from it, I would have said THIS is the most stressful time in my life - but I hung in there - gained many grey hairs and got back in the swing of things). Now we are reaping the blessings from that.
The time of 24/7 investment in our children is winding down and we have time, finally, for each other. It almost feel like we are rediscovering each other after 25 years of working on everything but ourselves. Kids, David's careers, mortgage, food budgets, payments, school curriculums...all that stuff that felt like it would never end is easing - but it was still The Good Life! I wouldn't change a thing. And having Christ at the center of it all made it all very wonderful - He carried us through many trials.
So here we are today and as I type David is on a long telephone conversation with our son far away from us about significant career changes and another son just phoned earlier to say he would be on the highway at 3am heading to a new job in Wpg at 7am - and he hasn't packed. So the worries continue - they are different worries. You know there is something very satisfying about tucking your wee ones into bed at 8pm - safe and sound! Miss those days as tiring as they were. This is The Good Life too. And with Jesus, the BEST is yet to come!

Just my thoughts today as I contemplate what The Good Life really is. :) I used the new My Minds Eye paper 29th st Market - great colours, the BG archive line - Creative Imaginations overlays, some flowers and pebbles and ribbon. The journalling took twice as long as the page. I guess that now makes up for all the pages I never journal on!! haha - I am off the hook for at least three months!

One more overlay I am working on - my desk is a mess of all the new stuff from JSI - just spread it all out and I am oohing and awing over it - time to put it away so I have a place to work.

Blessings!

Julie
BTW - for those who didn't know. I sing in an adult choir and tonight we had our spring concert. It went very well although not a great turnout unfortunately....but after several rehearsals this week and singing for two hours tonight, I am very tired (no voice left) off to bed! I forgot my camera - so no photos of us. One day I will scrapbook some of my old photos from concerts years past. Life is busy but it really is The Good Life!

Hawaiian Sunset

Hey another page from my latest trip - another fast one done in the early morning again. 8x10 pages are like that - fast and easy. LOL Using the new stamps - yeah for me - cause I am not that into stamping. Stamp reads....The earth belongs to anyone who stops for a moment, gazes and goes on his way. I have to admit it was more than a moment that I stood and enjoyed the ever changing colours of this sunset. Used a real variety of flowers with pebbles - oh I do love using pebbles. Those are Me and My Big Ideas rub-ons "Coastal Flowers" and the Cloud 9 travel stamps. And the paper - Crafters Workshop - Moonlight Terracotta - very appropriate I think.


Thanks for looking - and leave a comment will ya? Just be anonymous if you like - but let me know you were here. :)

Hawaii Layout.

Blacks had a special on 8X10's this weekend. On the long flight over the Pacific ocean on Friday night, I used the time to go though all my pictures and decide which ones deserved to be an 8X10's. When I got home Sat, I opened the file, did a little editing and sent them all off to Blacks. Picked them up this morning on my way to JSI for the day. They all turned out sooo well!!

This photo is of the six of us all dressed up to go out for dinner to celebrate Jan and Larry's anniversary at Haleiwa Joes - it was very good, we sat on the deck and it was a special evening. More pages to come on that evening.

At 4pm today at JSI an order from Fancy Pants arrived. Beautiful! Janys is very busy tonight. This paper I used is called "confident" from the Papa line and it just screamed Hawaii at me. Brought it home and well doesn't this photo work nicely on it. Some flowers (assorted), bling, the new Cloud 9 vacation stamps and there you go.

A Vacation is having nothing to do and all day to do it in......and then go out for supper. YAH!! The perfect ending to the perfect day

Blessings to you all!

Julie

Helicopter Tour

We are home...haven't slept since Thursday night - other than 45 min here and there on a plane and in airports. Hawaii is a long way away and I miss the heat.

On Wednesday David and I took a helicopter tour of Oahu. The first 10 min were absolutely fabulous - the sights incredible and my wide angle lens capturing them all. And then I started to feel sick - really sick. I am prone to motion sickness big time, but I do fine on planes and I really wanted the photos from the air...but helicopters do this up and down, sideway swing thing that makes my head spinny just to think about it. So 10 minutes into the flight I handed my camera over to David and focused on the horizon, breathing in my nose out my mouth, bag in hand ready. No I didn't throw up, but it was a very miserable 50 minutes until we landed and a tortuous 45 min drive back to the beach house where I had to lay perfectly still for the next 14 hours as a bout of meniers set in. Those of you who suffer from this will know my misery. But time and gravol and I did recover and managed the long flight home a day later. Here are some of the pictures I managed in the first 10 min and David took after that.

Haunama Bay

Close up of Haunama Bay - best snorkling on Oahu.. That is coral - and lots of people.

Magnum PI was shot on the property below.

South East coast of Oahu

I am smiling but my legs are giving out about now. This is after the flight.

Diamond Head looking south.

Famous Waikiki Beach

Close up of the top of Diamond Head. We climbed to that peak last week - check out my photos from the peak in a previous post.

That white line is the trail heading up to the top of Diamond head. A fun and sweaty hike.

North Shore of Oahu

Leeward (east) side of Oahu

Turtle Bay resort - North Shore.

Northe Shore of Oahu

The North Shore

North Shore looking west.

The Dole plantation - worlds largest maze - nope didn't try it.

Pearl Harbour

It is good to be home and I am looking forward to my own bed tonight. Back to the day to day stuff - work - on Monday.

Blessings,

Julie

Waikiki Beach

More pictures from a day at Waikiki...