Caribbean Adventures

We look forward to getting away with all our Xango friends each year to far away places with warm beaches, exquisite accomodations and exciting places to explore.
This year was the breathtaking Fairmont Mayakoba, Riviera Maya resort. It sits on an amazing 45-acres alongside the Caribbean Sea in the heart of the Riviera Maya...This beautiful area is not to be confused with Cancun, close but the experience is not at all the same. It is just 15 minutes from Playa del Carmen, a charming town with lots of shopping of many and varied tastes.

While there we also were offered fun excursions like the Xcaret wildlife and nature reserve,Tulum Mayan ruins, Cozumel  and the famous Mayan pyramids of Chichén-Itzá to explore. 








As we explored the resort we experienced five different ecosystems... mangrove, tropical forest, lagoons, water canals and coastal dunes. Much of the property is navigable by lagoon and we took advantage of them several times.  We enjoyed riding in the  'lanchas', as our captain shared some great info about the history of the land as well as the creatures that live there. 

Bicycles, golf carts and trams transported us to the playa, the pools and any place we prefered to ride to.

The beach was crystal clear and the sand was one of the most beautiful I have walked on...it was truely magical.

 

Look! Tom picked a coconut!! Ha-Ha!

There was so-oooo much more but I'm guessing you can tell, we had a blast.

Yummy Ooooh-ahhhh!

Cleaning off my desktop today I found myself clicking through on links I had saved to investigate at a later date.  It's getting to that time of day...you know how it has been said don't go shopping hungry...well I'm not sure if it applies to looking at blogs with tantalizing recipes but I can tell you this site had me drooling, LOL! I was in search of strawberry grainola and I found this site. Aren't you just salivating over the Strawberry Tofu Icecream?

What happened to the Strawberry Grainola? I have no idea but I did find what I was looking for at this fabulous site.








I can't wait to try this grainola recipe.
Thinking of strawberries reminds me of an old Stampin Up stamp set I have with a cute basket, several fruits and a clever saying too. I have made a wonderful card from that set once upon a time...where oh where is that sample card I saved? Ok so here it is...Yummy Ooooh-ahhhh! It's strawberry season!!!

The strawberries have Crystal Effects on them for added dimension. The inside of the card is fairly simple. Wouldn't this design be cute on recipe cards. Hmmmm maybe we should do a recipe card swap :)

Challenges

Life has been full of challenges but ...hey what I really wanted to talk about though is a a specific challenge, a creative challenge. I found it here and  it inspired me to head down to my craft room. At Diva Coffee Break Designs Julie Semones posted a sketch to inspire us.

I came up with a playful card I named Calvin's Psychedelic Dream for its bright colors, Calvin character and floral design.

Thanks to Diva Coffe Break Designs for the fun challenge.

Create A Bloggger Header with My Digital Studio

My Dear friend Melanie D asked how she could use My Digital Studio to Personalize her Blog and I came acros a tutorial telling how to personalize the header so I wanted to share it. Thanks to Stephanie for this tutorial!


Find more videos like this on My Digital Studio

My Digital Studio Tutorial "Fluffy Clouds & Landscape"

Find more videos like this on My Digital Studio

Spring...Where Art Thou?

It's been eight days since the first day of Spring but from the snow predictions and cooler weather we might just wonder if Spring was ever to come!

This past week I've watched the snow come down in my town of Alpine, then I arrived  in Phoenix on Tuesday to temperatures in the high 50's...unseasonably cool for Phoenix! On Thursday as we loaded up the UHaul van with my sons familys belongings and headed on the road we discovered San Jose, our destination was also having unseasonably odd weather, it had been raining all week long. Oh my! We unpacked in the rain too. Finally we saw the sun, the furniture is beginning to find its way to its new spots, new paint for the kids rooms and curious kitty exploring the new cupboards...and everyone heaves a sigh of relief.
Nate has his first day of work today and Lauren will start her new position very soon.
It was time to say goodbye all too soon, Grandma and Grandpa kissed the family and off we headed. I am so-ooo looking forward to my bed at home but will miss the morning wake up call of our sweet granddaughters voice..."Are you awake Grandma?"

“Remember today, for it is the beginning of always. Today marks the start of a brave new future filled with all your dreams can hold. Think truly to the future and make those dreams come true.”

Spring is in the Air!

I love the advancing of SPRING! It is a whirlwind of changing weather, hopeful anticipation of warm sunny days and promises to allow us the utter joy of stomping in puddles.... well maybe... or at least our daring kids and grandkiddies!

Thinking of the delights of spring I enjoyed the words of this quote that aptly describe its joys...

"Can words describe the fragrance of the very breath of spring? " - Neltje Blanchan

 I've been down in my craftroom several times this week and all those floral designs beg to be played with. I've been going to town using my floral cricut die cuts, flower punches, floral embellies. I've also finallyused some of my bought flowers and combined them with rhinestones, border punched designs and all those wonderful stamps I've collected throughout my stamping career...yippee!

After playing awhile I realized I will need some verse for the interior of my cards so here are some ideas I came up with.

1. Spring has sprung!
2. It's Spring - Do you know where your bloomers are?
3. "Spring is nature's way of saying, "Let's party!"
4. "All the flowers of tomorrow are in the seeds of yesterday."

Then a poem....

It's almost here - It's safe to say,

I saw a Crocus yesterday

Its' colors bright - A lovely thing

My heart Rejoiced! 'Twil soon be Spring!