Scrapping Nook Ltd. - Updates

Things are well on their way to the opening of the Scrapping Nook Ltd.!   I have ordered TONS of new products and still have more on the way. 

The construction in the store will start next week and will hopefully be done before the New Year.   In the mean time, I'll be keeping Tara and Margo busy with scanning and pricing everything!  I'm sure they won't mind getting a chance to check out all the great stuff that is coming in.

We are also working on a Point of Sale system which will enhance your online experience.   You will be able to see right away if the item you are interested in is actually in stock.

The support I have been getting with this adventure is amazing!  I couldn't do this with all my wonderful friends cheering me on!  THANK YOU!!

Only 31 more sleeps until opening day!!! :-)    

I'll be announcing details of the Grand Opening soon!  Be sure to check back!

Some very exciting news!!!

Ever since I started scrapbooking, I’ve always had a dream of owning my own store. I would drive by store fronts that are for lease and imagine having a scrapbooking store there.


Well, my dream has now come true. I have recently purchased all the fixtures from The Scrapping Nook Inc and have opened a new store – Scrapping Nook Ltd.

Despite the minor name change, there will only be a few noticeable differences:

Location:

• 301 Thorold Rd., Unit 3A, Welland, Ontario 
• Located at the corner of Thorold Rd. and Prince Charles. It is in the same plaza as the new Shell gas station

Anticipated Opening Date:

•   January 9th, 2010
• If possible, we may open earlier
• Gift Certificates are available for purchase at any time.

 New hours:

•   Tues, Wed, Fri & Sat – 10am – 5pm
•  Thurs – 10 – 7pm
•  Closed: Sun & Mon
•  Online: 7/24/365

 Staff:

•  I am happy to announce that Tara Etling will be joining the Nook team to manage the store on my behalf
• Margo Shute will also be working part-time to assist Tara as well as back-fill when Tara is unavailable to work

 Online website/store (http://www.thescrappingnook.ca/): 

•  The online store and the existing website will remain in place
•  I am looking into an inventory control system so that your future online shopping experience will be an even more positive one

 Classes:

•   Tara’s Monthly Card and Layout classes will continue
•  The Copic Club will also continue

 To start off, our design team will be:

•  Jen Backler
• Karen Thompson
• Jillian Anger
• Heather Goodes (her focus will be on cards/copics)

 Be sure to stay tuned for some exiting ‘Grand Opening’ specials (Date TBD):

 • Online weekend crop with some fun challenges and games, as well as great prizes

 • Free Make & Takes in the store

 • In store draws and games

 I want to thank Patti and Elia for all that they did over the past 7 years to make the Scrapping Nook community what it is. They have put a lot of love and time into creating this wonderful community that I have been honoured to be a part of. I wouldn’t be taking on this exciting adventure if it wasn’t for them.

I hope that you will join us as we celebrate the opening of the Nook. We look forward to continuing to provide you with all your scrapbooking needs – or wants - in the coming years.

Pictures, pictures and more pictures...

I've uploaded a bunch of pictures from our cruise.  The slide shows are on the left by destination.  Click on them and it will open up a Photobucket window where you can view them in full size.

Now I just need to get busy and start scrapbooking some!

However, in just a few short days (3 sleeps!) I'll be heading out to Metamora, Indiana to meet up with some fabulous friends.

If you are interested in seeing a little of Metamora, check out this YouTube video:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4my_iG71FA

Now to do some laundry so I'll have some clean clothes to wear...

Home again!

We made it!!! Thankfully, the flight was uneventful -- a little delayed, but that was it.

The drive home was hard for me. I was concenred about Greg driving, since he took a sleeping pill when we got on the plane, but he didn't sleep, so I stayed awake to make sure he stayed awake.

We are both pretty exhausted. We've been up since about 1:30 am EST and although I did nap a little on the plane, it wasn't nearly enough after 3 nights of very little sleep. I hope to sleep better in my own bed tonite. I've already told Greg he can sleep in the other room so I can have a night of quiet... LOL

I'll attempt to post some pictures of our trip over the weekend. I don't remember how many pictures I've taken -- about 1500 or so (give or take). I won't post them all, but I'll pick out some key ones - with some notes.

If you followed this blog during our trip -- thank you! I'd hate to think I went to all that trouble for nothing! LOL Although it will help me with journaling my scrapbook pages when the time comes...

Anyways... it's 9:14 pm EST now and I really need to get some sleep!

Later!

Homeward bound...

We have reached our final destination -- Madrid. We won´t be seeing much of it tho --- only what we saw driving around to find our hotel -- another adventure if map reading!! But we made it.

Both Greg and I have come down with a cold or something and we feel lousy. Also, Greg´s gout is really bothering him. We have no energy, so were just going to relax in our room. We found a market near by and bought some bread, meat and cheese and we´ll eat in our room. I´m going to bed real early tonite.

I think we´ll have to be up early tomorrow to give us enough time to find our way to the airport, turn in the car and get checked in.

I don´t know what time we arrive home tomorrow, but I believe it´s mid afternoon. ´

So my next post will be from home.

PS - a couple of things I forgot to tell you about

- while driving around Spain, we´d see these woman on the lower highways standing around waiting for a bus. It didn´t take long before we realized they were not waiting for a bus -- they were waiting for ´work´ !!
- there was something else, but I´ve already forgotton. Maybe when I get home...

Until then -- take care!!

A Spanish Adventure...

Today was a day of learning.

We did manage to get out Valencia without any problems and we also made it to our hotel in Cartagena without issue. I can only hope that Madrid is as easy tomorrow!

The drive from Valencia and Cartagena was lovely. It was a little in the mountains (which Greg loved) and a little seaside. I loved all the terra cotta houses. I tried to get some pictures, but the are not very good.

By the way, I don´t think I mentioned what we´re driving in Spain. It´s a Citroen. I´m not sure what model, but it´s a good one -- fully loaded, leather seats and all. Greg preferred the Alfa we drove in Italy tho.

So anyways -- we arrived in Cartagena around 5:30 or so. We settled into our room and then headed out for dinner. We walked for about an hour, but could not find anything open. Went back to the hotel and asked. They told us about a place a few blocks away. Walked there -- not open unti 8pm. Walked back to the hotel and relaxed and went back just after 8. I guess the Spanish like to eat late. Also, there´s the ´siesta´ that they take in the afternoon. Everything is closed in the afternoon.

We didn´t experience this in Barcelona because where we were staying (Ramblas) is a big tourist attraction, so everything is open. By the time we got to Valencia and went for dinner it was after 8, so it never occured to us that nothing would be open at 6pm. Oh well. Now we know!

Anyways, we go to the restaurant. They pegged us as english speaking right away and brought both an english and spanish menu. There were no prices and the selections were -- interesting, to say the least. Beef, Ox, Duck, fish, and other stuff we weren´t sure of. So the waiter comes to take our order. I point to what I want -- asparagus salad and the beef. The waiter shuts the menu and starts to go, when Greg takes it from him and orders the pork. A few minutes later someone else comes to the table and asks if I ordered the Sea Bass. ????? No. So I open the menu and show him. He asks what kind of sauce... I pick one. A while later the asparagus salad comes -- which is white asparagus (never had that) with a red sauce. It was quite good. Then what we thought was my ´main course´comes out. They put down a plate with barely cooked slices of steak and then they put down a hot grill, sprinkled with sea salt. It´s a ´cook your own´meat deal. So I start to cook the beef, but nothing has been brought out for Greg. So we share the beef with the rockefort (sp?) sauce and an order of fries (I couldn´t understand anything else he said... LOL). Good thing we did share, because there was a LOT of meat and we were concerned that they would bring the pork out later -- but I guess they just ignored his order. So after some dessert (chocolate cake) and a shot of lemon snapps, we are now back at the hotel. Considering the language barrier, we managed ok... lol and we enjoyed the food!

As for Valencia and Cartegena, although I enjoyed the travelling between the two cities, the cities themselves are kind of boring. Not much to see. I have no pictures (except of the hotel) in Valencia and I have a picture of Greg in front of a fountain in Cartegena. Oh well. It was still a good journey.

Tomorrow I hope to get up early and head to straight to Madrid -- no scenic route. It´s 4.5 hours and I would like to do some touring around, since we won´t have any time on Friday. We have a 12:30ish flight back home.

Health wise -- my rash had pretty much gone away and the swelling is down -- but not gone. Greg´s gout is still here and really starting to both him. I think I may have a cold. My sinuses are bugging me and my throat is sore. It also might be because I didn´t sleep well last night. Hopefully tonite will be better and I´ll feel better in the morning.

Anyways -- just 2 more nights and then we are on our way home! I´m sad and glad at the same time. I would love to tour around some more, but I´m also looking forward to seeing my furbabies and sleeping in my own bed. Although knowing that Sweat Pea won´t be there will be sad... :-( Going back to work -- not looking forward to so much... lol

I´m sure I´m forgetting some other important piece of information that Greg wanted me to pass on. I´ll try to remember it and post tomorrow...

Well that´s it! Good night!

Valencia...

is quite nice. It is similar to Barcelona, but on a smaller scale.

Our drive to Valencia was uneventful - thankfully. We started with a smaller highway, but eventually moved to the main one. It was a nice drive. Spain is a beautiful country.

Once we got to Valencia, things were not so easy. I did have detailed instructions, but I cannot tell you how many times we went around the same traffic circle. We did eventually find our way tho. Then the trouble was parking. The parking for the hotel was full, so we ended up parking somewhere that was several blocks away. It was 8:30 by the time we got into our room. We then walked for 15 minutes to find a nice Italian restaurant for dinner. We just got back to our hotel.

Tomorrow I hope to see a little more of Valencia and then we will make our way to Cartagena, which is about 2.5 hours away.

It has been adventure.

I HEART Barcelona

i am going to apologize upfront for any typos... spanish keyboard -- things are not where you expect them to be...

anyways, we made it to Barcelona and I love it. I may wish that we had stayed a day longer...

We were up early -- had to be off the ship by 8:30. After collecting our luggage, we took a bus to Monserrat, which was very nice. The drive up there was incredible. Not one you would want to take being tired, drunk or talking on the cell phone. You need to be completely focused to drive that road, but there was some great scenery.

From there we went to the airport to get our car. It only took us 2 hours to find our hotel -- which was only 20 minutes away. We are getting better at finding our way.

Our hotel is in the Rambas (sp?) district which has lots of shops and food -- and a great market. We walked around and found some place to eat -- along with some Sangria. Greg went back to the room I wandered around some more. Did manage to get lost, but did ask someone and found my way back, but wow...what a wonderful city.

Tomorrow I hope to get to the Gothic district. Then we will make our way to Valencia -- about 3.5 hours away.

It is going on 9:30 pm and I'm heading back to the room for the night.

Have a great evening.

It's almost over...

It's our last day. It's been relaxing -- just hanging out -- doing a little bit of last minute shopping. I even played bingo today and won $108!!! Of course, I've already spent more then that at the casino... lol

I've already packed -- we have to have our bags out by 11pm tonite. We go for dinner at 9, so needed to get it all done beforehand.

Tomorrow we have our Montserat (sp?) excursion and then we'll get to explore Barcelona a little more. I believe our hotel is near the Gothic District, which is suppose to be really nice, so I'm looking forward to checking that out.

We are really going to miss our new friends from Brittan. We've really enjoyed spending time with them and hope that we'll stay in touch. I had suggested at dinner last night that we'll have to do dinner once a month via webcam or something... lol Time it so they are having a late dinner while we're having lunch or something.

Although the cruise is over, we still have a few days to explore Spain. We'll stay in Barcelona tomorrow night and then we're going to Valencia, which is about a 3.5 hour drive. We'll stay in Valencia and then we head to Cartagena for a night and then to Madrid.

Fortunatey, with the time difference, we leave on Friday afternoon, and arrive home on Friday afternoon! So we'll have a couple of days to recouperate before going back to work.

Anyways -- I'll update when I can over the next few days or I'll post when we get home.

Later!

France

Today we were in France. What a great day! It was an early one tho... 7:15! I'm surprised Greg was so easy to wake up! LOL

We dropped anchor in Cannes. We tendered to shore where we took a bus to Nice -- the 'old city' which was really nice. Somewhat similar to Venice and Rome, without as much history, but still beautiful architecture. From there we went to Eze -- which is nicknamed the Eagle's Nest. It's an old town built in the side of a mountain. It was really nice! And the scenery from there of the coast -- French Riviera was really nice.

From Eze we went to Monaco and Monte Carlo. Completely different from Nice and Eze, but still very nice --- and very rich!! Greg was drooling over the cars we saw in Monte Carlo. As someone said -- there were more Bentleys than there are cabs in Britain! LOL

We've just left Cannes and now we are on our way to Barcelona -- and the end of our cruise. We are at sea all day tomorrow -- which I'm looking forward to and then we arrive in Barcelona on Monday. We've booked an excursion to Montserat (sp?) and then they'll take us to the airport where we will pick up our rental car. We'll be staying in Barcelona on Monday night and then from there we'll be heading to Valencia. Hopefully we'll have better luck with driving and directions than we did in Italy!

Just wanted to drop a note to Patti, Elia, Barb and the rest of the Nook staff. I'm so glad to hear that nobody was hurt at the store when the electrical fire happened. My thoughts are with you all. Big hugs!!!

Probably won't post tomorrow -- but who knows. I will have to get online to print directions, etc. I don't know if any of the hotels I've booked in Spain have internet access, so I don't know how many updates I'll be able to give, but if I can, I will, so keep checking!!

Have a wonderful day. I'm off to meet our British friends before we head for dinner.

Pisa and Florence

Today I was on my own. Greg wasn't interested -- he was too tired from Rome yesterday and we've seen Florence, so he stayed on board. He and our British friends went into Liverno in the afternoon for a late lunch.

I did go on the excursion, since we did pay for it! First it was an hour ride to Pisa. We had an hour there. Took all the pictures (although none of me 'holding it up', which is obviously the most popular pose) and did a little wandering around. From there we were about another hour to Florence. We had about 3.5 hours there. I walked around and took some pictures, but was concerned about getting lost and not finding my way back... lol and they are very strict about you getting back to the meeting point on time, or you have to find your own way back to the ship. Taxi would have been over 300 Euros! So I did a little shopping, bought some post cards, had some lunch and then it was the 1.5 hour journey back to the ship.

Tonite is our last formal night. I bought a shawl today to go with the dress I bought in Santorini.

The cruise is slowly coming to an end... :-(

My feet are still quite swollen and the rash doesn't look a whole lot better. I'm going for a foot message in 45 minutes. Hopefully that will help. I'm sure my last day at sea will help too, if I just stay off my feet and keep them elevated.

Anyways...it's been another great day. Tomorrow we are in Cannes, France. We are doing Monaco and Eze. Looking forward to that. Then it's a day at sea and then finally Barcelona.

Have a great afternoon/evening!

Rome...

It wasn't built in a day -- and it's not visited in a day either!

What loooonnnnggg day today was. We docked at Civi---- somethingorother early this morning. We then took a 1.5 hour bus ride to Rome. We bought tickets for one of those double decker tour buses where you can get on and off whenever you want. We toured all the 'typical' places (St. Peter's Square, Trevi Fountain, Colleseum). We then just wandered -- stopped for a nice lunch where I wrote out some postcards and popped them in the mail. :-)

All the historic roman architecture in this city is amazing. And I certainly enjoyed it more with someone driving the bus then I did when we arrived in Rome and drove around for 5 hours trying to find our hotel... lol I didn't take a lot of pictures tho...really hard to do, so I bought postcards instead. Plus I have all the pictures from when we were here 11 years ago.

We've just pulled out of port. We have dinner at 9pm, but we'll be on our own. Our table companions have booked into a restaurant onboard.

Tomorrow we dock in Liverno (I think that's right). From there we go see the Leaning Tower of Pisa. After that -- I think we in Florence, but I'm not sure. May just be back on the ship.

Greg's foot is better, however my rash isn't. It's spreading. Plus my feet/lower leg are swollen quite bad. Almost 3 x their normal size. Greg says I have Homer Simpson feet... :-/ I went to the spa after we got back on board and then put some cooling lotion and told me to go put my feet up for 15 minutes, which I did. I go back just before dinner for them to do it again. I've booked a foot message for 7pm tomorrow, which I'm sure will feel great after another long day.

Anyways...that's all the news for today. No casino yesterday and probably not today either. I'll make up for it later tho... ;-)

Ciao!

Naples / Almafi Coast / Pompei

Not sure if I got Pompei spelled right...one P or two???? Anyways...

Today was another great day, but a bloody early start!!!

We started out on a bus to Solarno. From there we took a boat along that Almafi Coast to the town of Almafi where we had a little time for shoppping. Then back to Solarno. From there we went to Pompei, which was nice. The weather was very hot again.... about 32 degrees. After a couple of hours in Pompei, we went to a Cameo factory. Not big on Cameo's, so didn't buy anything there.

Got back to our cabin around 5:00. It's now going on 6pm. Going up on deck to take some pictures of Naples. Didn't see much of it at all today.

Didn't have much time for shopping, but I did manage to pick up a cute cotton dress that I'll wear for dinner tonite.

That's about it. We're meeting up with a dinner companions for before dinner drinks around 8:30.

Tomorrow we're in Rome. We'll be touring that on our own, since we've been there before. It should be a nice relaxing kind of day.

That's it for now. Have a great afternoon!!!

Oh yeah.... and Dann... you are my favorite... ;-) (that's for the others, assuming they read these blogs... lol)

Day At Sea...

It's a lazy day at sea today. Slept in after a late night. Just wandered around the ship, read for a while -- did some shopping. Bought a beautiful Italian silver watch.

It's formal dinner night tonight. Should be fun! Can't make it too late tho -- we have to be up and ready for 7:30 am tomorrow for our excursion in Naples. We are going to Pompeii.

Right now, as I'm sitting here, we are passing by or probably going around an island. I don't know what it is. I'm going to have to take a look at our map. It's too hazy for any decent photos tho. There are heavy clouds over the island. The sun is just setting (although not over the island....).

Speaking of sunset, I took some pictures yesterday as we were leaving Santorini. The sun did not set over the island of Santorini, but some of the other smaller ones. I did get some good pictures tho.

Well that's it for now. Not sure what time we get back tomorrow, but I may try and find some time to post before our dinner.

Have a great day!

Day 4, 5 & 6...

Wow...Lots to fill you in on!

Our day at sea on Saturday was uneventful. We used the time to kick back and relax. Stayed out of the sun on lounge chairs by the pool. They had plenty of activities (pool olympics) and different music. It was really nice.

The dinner at the diningroom was fabulous - as expected. The 2 couples we are sitting with are wonderful and we have a great time. After dinner we go find somewhere with them for an after dinner drink. Our sitting for dinner isn't until 9pm, so by the time we leave there, have a drink or two and get back to our room, it's well after 1am. That's ok when we have a day at sea the next day, but when you have to get up early for an excursion -- it's tiring, but I wouldn't change it for the world.

Greg is still struggling with his gout. I ended up doing Athens by myself as well. However he did come with me today to Santorini.

My heat rash is nasty. I did go to the infirmary, but the guy behind the desk knew right away what it was and sold me some anti-itch cream. No cost for consultation, thankfully! Our wonderful British tablemates refer to it as 'corned beef on the leg' -- or something like that. So I don't know what kind of image that conjurs up in your head, but it's probably not far from the truth. Maybe I'll have to take pictures... lol

Athens was great!!! The tour took us to the Acropolis and then to the shopping district. :-) It's interesting having some of these old old old remements of ancient Greece mixed in with all the current structures.

Today was Santorini. It is beautiful! All the light colored building (mostly white) against the dark volcanic rock that it sits on. We went to the city of Oai where we had some time to do a little shopping. The scenery all around the island is spectacular. From there we stopped a local winery for samples. Wine making in Santorini is coming to end. No money in it, I guess. The mountain sides have all these little caves that they built into them for storing the grapes, etc as part of the wine making process -- all back in the day. Now they use them for storage or for the donkeys... We then were taking to another small village where we took a cable car down to the tender to get to our ship.

I don't know if I'm taking enough pictures yet. I have about 45o -- but some people say they already have over a 1000.... I guess I better get 'clicking'...

Tomorrow we are at sea again. Tomorrow night is our second formal dinner. I feel so under dressed at these things. A lot of woman go all out on their outfits. I just couldn't justify spending money on something I will most likely only where once. I need that money for my scrapbooking supplies! ;-)

The weather has been fantastic! Clear blue skies pretty much every day and hot! hot! hot!!!

Next destination is Naples, Italy. Until then -- have a great day!

Day 3 - Dubrovnik, Croatia

So -- the day didn't start off the greatest. Greg woke up with a sore foot. He went to the infirmary ($120 US just for the checkup!). He has gout. He couldn't go on the excrusion, so I went on my own. It was walking the wall of the Old City, a tour the Martime Museum (snore) and then some free time to explore the Old City.

Speaking of feet, I have a rash of some sort on my legs - just above my feet. It doesn't itch or hurt, it's just really red. I think it might be a heat rash, but I'm not going to the infirmary unless it really starts to spread or hurt.

Dubrovnik is wonderful and the old city is amazing -- but my goodness, I feel like I should just be a shell of my old self with all that walking up and down stairs in this blistering heat! Thankfully they had provided us with water beforehand and when we got to the ship, we were given iced face cloths and a drink of water.

After cooling off in our cabin for a bit, I went hunting for Greg. Found him lounging poolside reading a book. The ship departed Dubrovnik at 5:00pm and we were invited to go to the Helipad to take pictures (front of the ship), so I did that. Was able to get some nice shots.

Tonite was also the first Formal Dinner night. We hadn't been to the diningroom yet, so I was looking forward to it (the food -- not dressing up! ). We are seated at a table with 2 other couples. They are related and are from England. We really enjoyed our dinner with them.

There was a theater performance going on after dinner, so I went and checked that out -- Greg had gone back to the cabin to rest his foot. Now I'm here... :-)

I'm going to hit the Casino shortly and then I need to go the onboard library and find a book to read.

Tomorrow we are at sea all day, so it will be nice and relaxing. Maybe it will help Greg's foot and my rash...

Next stop -- Athens Greece!

Until next time...

Happy Birthday, Greg!

I think I have him an awesome birthday present -- a Mediterranean Cruise! LOL Ok - so maybe not, but I DID reserve us a dinner in the 'fancy' restaurant on board. We had an awesome meal. Heck, I even took pictures of some of it! LOL I'm sure we seemed a little 'red neck' or something. You'd think we never go out much.

Anyways, as for the rest of the day, it was great. We took a boat to Murano -- where they make the Murano glass -- and to Burano -- where they make lace. Since the ship was departing Venice at 3:00 pm, we had to be back on board by 1:30, so it was a quick excursion. We only had an hour on each island. They are both quite nice and I did manage to pick up some Murano glass jewelry and Burano lace. Burano is beautiful with the all the colorful homes. Apparently back in the day, because of heavy fog in the fall/winter, the sailors needed to find their way home, so the solution was to paint all the houses a different color. This tradition still lives on. It's a very colorful island!

Again the weather was HOT! Greg and I both melted on the 1 hour trip back from Burano.

We are now on the Adriatic heading toward Croatia. I'm not sure what time we dock, but our excursion doesn't happen until 10:00 am, so we get a little bit of a sleep in.

Before we left Venice, we had to travel through the main canal. I was able to get some nice shots of Venice from the ship. I also made a 'didn't think before I bought' purchase of a scrapbook album. It is nice, but after thinking about it, it's not what I really wanted for this trip. I asked if I could return it, but no deal. Sucks. Not somethin I can even put up at a Nook garage sale, unless you've been in the Mediterranean. Oh well. Guess I'll have to change my plans! lol

We've met several Canadians now. A couple behind as at dinner are from Hamilton. We didn't really talk to them, but the server had asked them and then mentioned that we were also from Canada. We exchanged a few pleasantries and then went on with our dinner.

I've just come from dropping $20 in the casino. It actually lasted a lot longer then ever happens for me at Fallsview! LOL

Anyways, it's really nice to be on board the ship and not having to deal with traffic or getting lost. I'm hoping that the captain knows where he's going... ;-)

Well...gotta couple more stops to make and I'm running out of time fast. I may have shorting my stories... but probably not.

Although your work day isn't even yet finished, my day is almost over! I'm nackered and think I'll will go and read for a while.

Night!!

All Aboard!!!

Well we are now on the ship. It's a great ship, from what I've toured of it so far. Our room is nice. I've unpacked everything so we are settled in.

We're going to go for dinner in a little while and then we do an evening gondola serenade. I'm looking forward to that. We were suppose to do that 11 years ago when we were in Venice, but it was cancelled due to weather. It looks good out there so far, so hopefully it won't be cancelled again!

Greg paid for his parking ticket today. He thought I had mis-read the numbers and that maybe it was only 11.20 Euros. Yeah right! It seems he parked in some 'specialty' parking and that's why it was so high. We had no idea. Didn't really see any special signs around. Guess we were lucky tho... if they had come back again and the car was still there, they would have towed it away -- that would have been another 250 Euros! Did I mention that he was driving an Alpha Romeo? He was loving it. He's anxious to see what we'll get in Spain. I didn't do any driving in Italy, but I think I will in Spain... if he lets me... ;-)

We met 2 other couples at the airport today (that's where we had to drop the car off) from Ontario. One couple is from Cambridge, the other from the Distillery District in Toronto. We lost them as we went through all the boarding hoopla. Maybe we'll run into them again.

Anyways...it's been great so far. I've tried to take lots of pictures. Hard to get pictures of Greg and I together, but we'll have to work on that.

That's it for now. I've bought my 'package deal' for using the internet. May eat them up fast, the connection is so slow!!!

Until next time...

We made it to Venice!

The drive to Venice today was a breeze. I was able to print off a map from Google before I left our hotel in Ravenna, so that helped a big time.

Now comes the OUCH! We drove off from the hotel this morning and I noticed that there was something under the windshield wiper. I pulled it out when we got to the gas station. It was a parking ticket -- for 112 Euros!!!!! Nuts!!! We had no idea how to pay for it, so we will deal with it when we drop the car off tomorrow.

We enjoyed our stay in Venice so far. We walked from our hotel to St. Marks square today which was about 30 minutes through the maze of Venitian streets. I let Greg do the navigating. It was HOT, HOT, HOT!!! But we still enjoyed it. After we got back, Greg had a nap and I went wandering on my own. I was at the train station, on the front steps writing post cards when a lady sitting next to me started chatting. Turns out she live in California, but grew up in Uxbridge. She seems to love to travel. She travels alone, which seems a little sad, but she enjoys it.

We went for a nice dinner and now we are on our way back to the room for the night, but I
walked by the internet cafe, so I had to stop in.

I am sure I am missing details of our adventure so far, but I only bought 15 minutes and I want to get this posted before I run out of time.

Until next time...Ciao!!

Hello from Ravenna...

Well -- we made it! What a LONG 2 days it has been.

The flight to Rome was uneventful -- thankfully! Everything since then has been an adventure!

It took us FIVE hours to find our hotel in Rome!! The streets go in multiple directions and there are NO clear street signs -- and they change name constantly. Needless to say, we did not really get to see much of Rome at all.

I tried to go onto the net from our hotel there, but it did not work, even though I still had to pay for it. Oh well!!

We left Rome this morning around 10:30. We arrived at our hotel at around 10:30 pm! We had tried to take the scenic route, but that was taking forever and got a little dull after a while, so we got on the autostrada. Bad idea!! It was nuts! We were actually stopped for about 20 minutes at one point.

This adventure sounds vagues familiar to me... something to do with the 4 hour tour around Buffalo... :-)

Anyways, we here at the hotel. A little hungry, but too tired to care! No way are we taking the scenic route to Venice tomorrow. We are going straight there so we can enjoy some things instead of spending the entire day in the car! Although I did see a nice shopping area in Ravenna -- and Greg needs shoes since he forgot to pack his. Nice Italian shoes -- can't go wrong with that!

Only one more night and then we board the ship! :-)

I do not believe the hotel in Venice has internet, so I will post again when we are on the ship on Wednesday.

I do not know if they covered any of this on Canadian news, but Athens is having major fires. Not sure how this will impact our trip. I will keep you posted!

Good night all!! I'm tired from a full day of driving and trying to figure out how to use this Italian keyboard! That the tab broke off my pop, now I can't open it.

Definately time for bed!!

Only 5 more sleeps...

and Greg and I are off on our Mediterranean cruise!

We will be gone for 3 weeks! We're flying into Rome and then driving (via Ravenna) to Venice. We board the ship in Venice and then go to:

• Dubrovinik, Croatia
• Athens, Greece
• Santorini, Greece
• Naples, Italy
• Rome, Italy
• Florence, Italy
• Cannes, France
• Barcelona, Spain

We disembark from the ship in Barcelona. From there we are renting a car and driving to Valencia, Spain; Cartagena, Spain and then to Madrid, Spain. We fly home from Madrid.

My plan is to update my blog with our adventures, so if you want to follow us along, check back here often!

*Sniff* DC is done for another year...

Well Destination Create has come and gone. Thanks to Patti, Elia, Barb and team from the Scrapping Nook for another wonderful event! I had a blast catching up with people and meeting many new people as well.

Thank you to Caroline from Maya Road for teaching her 3 awesome classes. She also provided some ubber wonderful gifts for the gift bags and her classes had lots of 'extras' too. Caroline is such a lovely lady and I was glad to have had an opportunity to meet her in person.

Unfortunately, I ended off DC with a lousy cold, which I'm just starting to get over. But it was all worth it and I'd do it all again!!

Now I need to get busy and finish off the albums from Caroline's classes and get moving on some other projects.

DC 2010 -- here I come!!!

It's almost Destination Create Time!!!

By this time next week, I'll be hanging out with all my Nook friends at Destination Create. I'm super excited about it. I believe that there is still a spot or two available for a couple of the classes, so if you like Maya Road, Caroline will be there to teach some classes. I've seen the final products and they are AWESOME!

Also looking forward to spending some time with Pam who will be arriving on Wednesday night.

Now -- if you'd like a chance to win some ubber cool stuff, go check out Jennifer's Blog. She's giving away a magazine and some cool stamps. All you have to do is tell her what you would like to see her blog about! Easy Peasy! Jennifer is going to be at Destination Create too! Looking forward to seeing her there.

Off to do some work -- which pays the bills and my scrapbook supply shopping addiction... :-)

Almost ScrapFest time!

I'm going to be leaving this afternoon to head out to Kitchener to help Barb and Patti setup the Scrapping Nook's booth at ScrapFest! And then tomorrow the fun begins!!! It's going to be a great time! Looking forward to seeing lots of familiar faces!

Wishing everyone safe travels! See you Friday and/or Saturday!

We love you Sasha!!

Fab Weekend!

Poker Night on Friday was good -- although not so much for me as others! I lost $40, but had a good time! I guess I need to work on my 'poker face'...

The classes with Vicki and Layle at Scrapalicious was awesome!!! You can check out Layle blog to see the mini album we did. Vicki's layouts were awesome -- as usual and I believe can also be seen at her blog.

We topped the evening off with a yummy dinner at a Thai restaraunt in Burlington.

Tomorrow is going to be a sad day for Greg and I. Our beautiful dog Sasha will be crossing the Rainbow Bridge. She's a beautiful 12 year old St. Bernard/Husky cross and she will be greatly missed.

On a more postitive note, there are some upcoming events that I'm really looking forward to:

Scrapfest - April 17th & 18th
Destination Create May 1-3

A good time is guaranteed at both events! Hope to see you there!!

Woo Hoo!!! It's FRIDAY!!!

I'm so glad the weekend is almost here!!!

So..what's happened since February 11th...

Well, I turned a year older.

I spent 2 weeks at home alone while Greg was traveling the roads of Northern Ontario for work -- and I loved every minute of it!

Got a little scrapbooking done, but not much.

Aside from that, it's been pretty much the same ol, same ol...

Tonite I'm going to play Texas Hold'em Poker. Should be fun. Don't expect to win anything, but there will be good company.

Tomorrow I'm at a class at Scrapilicious in Mississauga all day. I'm really looking forward to that. Vicki Boutin and Layle Concar are teaching a couple classes. It's going to be a lot of fun.

I think on Sunday I'm just going to veg... Catch up on Coronation Street and some of my other favorite shows.

If anyone is reading this... have a great weekend!!!

I hab a code in my node...

and a cough in my chest!

I havn't had a cold in while, so I guess I was due!!! Hopefully it will be gone soon. I don't want my long weekend to be spoiled with a cold!

I had my annual physical yesterday. I swear, if I were a horse, they'd shoot me! Blood Pressure is a little high, cholesteral is high, I'm over weight, I'm borderline anemic (sp?). So, I have to start eating better, getting some excercise and take pills for the anemia. I guess it could be worse!!! Actually, I know it could be, so I'll stop complaining now.

I'm on a hunt for a new bed. I had been leaning towards a Temperpedic mattress, but my friend who came with me when I was mattress shopping, had me try out an 'air bed' -- a select comfort mattress. I liked it, so I think that's what I'm going to get. Hopefully I'll be able to get a good nights sleep! And if you're wondering why I didn't take Greg with me mattress shopping -- he could sleep on a cement slab, so it doesn't really matter to him what I pick.

The long weekend is here and Greg just called me to ask if I had plans. I don't, so he said good. I guess he has plans, but he's not sharing them with me... I guess I'll wait and see! 'Romance' isn't exactly his strong suit, so this should be interesting! :-)

How many more days until spring???? **sigh**

Hey!

Don't have much to say.

It's flippin' cold out there!! My outdoor Christmas lights are stil up because I'm not going to freeze my buns off taking them down. They can stay up until spring, as far as I'm concerned! I have a big chair out on the front porch too -- and some insulation. Just call me Redneck!

I took Vicki Boutin's mini album class at the Scrapping Nook on January 17th! It was great. Learned a few neat techniques that I hope to try out again soon!

Other then that...not much happening. Have a great week!

Happy New Year!!!

I hope that your Christmas was extra special and that Santa gave you everything you asked for. I asked for a Wii and Wii fit -- and that's what I got, so I'm a happy camper!

My mom and dad came to visit for the holidays so it was extra special.

Wishing everone all the best in 2009! May all your resolutions and/or wishes come true!