DIsney Part 2 - The hats of Disney

No one could ever say my boy is not a good sport. With all the different hats in all of the parks in Disney I wonder if we're the only family that had this much fun photographing them. There are a lot of photos here, but these are just some of them.

Goofy? Pluto? Jester?

Princess mouse ears...lol

too funny !!!

Yah man...we be jammin....

Pirate Pluto. (the expression on his face in this one is priceless)

Pirate mouse ears...

Argggghhhh......

Vrooooom....

We have lift off....

somehow the sunglasses with the flags of Norway on the lens just don't go with this hat...

I don't even know what to put for a caption for this one .....except....hahahahahaha !!!!!!

This one is a little blurry....but my boy makes a pretty handsome cowboy doesn't he?

tee hee !!!

This has to be one of the funniest ones don't you think?

And yes.....these definitely will end up on a scrapbook page one day soon.....

More doggie layouts to share...

I'm so glad baseball season has begun, the gardens are almost ready to bloom and I have 400 vacation photos to play with. Because I seem to be in a bit of a rut in doing all my pages of Tanner lately. You'll have to admit though...he is totally cute & a great photo subject. I did these pages a while ago but am just now getting around to sharing them.

This series of photos just makes me smile. Especially the last one where he looks like he has a clown nose with the ball caught in mid air right in front of him. I love this patterned paper from Basic Grey's Marrakesh line. It fit the title of the layout perfectly I thought.


This is my favorite photo of him. Its sits on my desk for me to look at every day at work but I also wanted to create a page with it. And really there is no more perfect title for this page than "Unconditional love"

The "unconditional" part of the title & the 2 hearts on the right side of the photo were cut with my Slice. The patterned paper is basic grey & the die cut papers are from K & Co.

Chef Jake does it again....

I came home from work tonight tired and just wanting to relax....But I also wanted to get out & begin digging up grass so I can get my veggie garden planted this weekend. I asked Jake " do you mind if we just have a bowl of cereal for dinner tonight so I don't have to cook?"

But my boy had other plans. He had been watching Challenge on the cooking channel...one of his favorite shows....and he was inspired to create a dish all his own. So while I dug in the dirt he got to work and made this yummy dish for dinner.

Pasta tossed with a olive oil that he had added a bit of fresh rosemary, dried basil, and crushed red pepper flakes to. Topped with fresh mozzarella...broiled till melted . And then topped with steak cutlets he had breaded with a new french onion coating mix I had purchased. Sauteed till done in a bit of olive oil (we use olive oil rather than canola or vegetable oil for everything except baking)

I've said it before but it bears repeating....this boy is going to make someone very happy one day with his love of cooking. And boy can this kid cook. Thanks Jake for a delicious dinner & for saving me from cooking. Love you sweetie !!!

Disney - Part 1

So I finished sorting my Disney photos into folders by where we stayed & the parks we enjoyed. And now that I have them in order I thought I'd share some of my favorites with you.

As I mentioned the other night we stayed here at Coronado Springs. Amazingly this beautiful hotel is one of Disney's lower priced resorts. It is huge with well over 1000 rooms that are placed all the way around the small lake it is located on. We really enjoyed our stay here so much.

The water on the lake was so calm that the resulting reflections just begged to be photographed...and I of course was happy to oblige.

again, and again...

This is the lobby of the resort....so pretty

And then there were the fountains in all the courtyards between the buildings....

This was without a doubt the prettiest hotel I have ever stayed in.

The pool was beautiful as well. These were taken at the large pool. There are also 3 smaller pools on the property. Bigger than my home...but they call them the small pools...lol

And Jake & I spent a lot of time in between parks & dinner reservations playing & cooling off in them. For us the weather in Florida felt sooo hot since we're used to much cooler weather here in New England.

Thankfully we weren't swimming in the lake since there were a few critters in there I wouldn't want to swim with. Like this little alligator....

And these 2 large turtles....

Then there were the critters that were a little too friendly. Like this guy. Thats part of my bagel in his mouth. This was the only time we ate at the lakeside tables...the birds were a little too agressive for my taste. It was a bit like the movie "the birds" with all the birds swooping down on us & almost flying right into us. Want to know someting else freaky about this photo? See that guy to the left of the bird? He looks exactly like my ex husband used to look back when we were married 16 years ago. Now he just looks old...but that person in the photo could have been his twin back then. I zoomed in on the picture & it still looked exactly like him...freaky !!!

Off to bed...I'm beat. I'll share a few photos from the different parks soon.

MIA

Sorry I've been MIA for so long. I was busy getting things in order here at home so I could take a long overdue vacation with my son.

We spent a week in this beautiful hotel enjoying the warm Florida sunshine. I wish I could say it was a relaxing vacation...but after arriving home a week later I'm totally exhausted. We did have an absolute blast though...

visiting here....

and here...

and here....

and here....

and when we weren't there we were swimming in the pool at our resort or eating in fabulous restaurants including a lovely dinner with my favorite cousins, their daughter (my second cousin???) & adorable grand-daughter.

I'm tired, my feet ache and it will feel soooo good to sleep in my own bed again, but looking back I wouldn't change one minute of this magical vacation (no pun intended). Now I have more than 400 photos to sort through & organize but after that I'll have more (better quality)photos to share & lots of new things to scrapbook. For now I'm off to bed as the dog will be up bright & early wanting his walk he's been missing out on this past week. Hope you all are well...have a great weekend.

A rude awakening

The dog woke me at his usual 6 am today & I was so excited it was Sunday so I could take him out to go potty and then get him to come back to bed so I could maybe sleep for another hour rather than head right out for our usual weekday early morning walk.

We went out the back door onto the deck and as Tanner runs off for the woods I imediately feel a stabbing pain in the side of my neck. OUCH !!! As I look down trying to figure out what bit me I see a wasp on the neckline of my pajama top. But when I tried to brush it away it clings and flips around to the inside edge of my neckline. You never saw anyone take off their shirt as fast as I did this morning.

So there I am naked from the waist up...shaking my shirt out to get rid of the darn thing when I realise.....I'm half naked standing in clear sight of my neighbors if they happen to be up early!!! Hopefully none of them have dogs that have them outside as early as me or they may have gotten quite a show.

So much for getting a little more sleep...I was wide awake after that...and my neck is stinging like crazy now. Anyone have any good remedies for stings? I tried baking soda, vinegar & now I sit here with a penny taped to my neck...and you know what...I think the penny is working. The tape doesn't feel too great on my sunburned neck though...lol

WOW !!!

It was in the 90's here today !!! Gorgeous weather. And it would have felt great if I hadn't spent the hottest hours of the day burning. Last weekend burning I said to my sister in law " this is fun...I'm going to do this every year" Today I was saying " I am NEVER going to do this again." It was miserable hot and I swear the smoke followed me everywhere I went. I was feeling so queasy and wasn't sure if it was from the heat, lack of food (because I couldn't leave the fire unattended) or smoke inhalation.....ugh....so glad thats over !!! After we finished I took Jake & the dog for a swim. Boy was that water icy cold !!

I managed to get some scrapping done this week & created the page below with a photo of my new favorite scrapbooking subject. Tanner.
Its been a long day & I'm beat. Heading to get some much needed sleep. Have a great weekend everyone.

Progress

Remember this photo from back in December? It still makes me so sad to look at this & see what that ice storm did to my back yard. So much damage....so much to clean up when spring arrived. And that's what has been consuming every free minute of my time these days. Hours & hours of cutting & dragging logs and branches around in an effort to uncover my yard again.

This is what it looked like a few days ago. You can't tell from this photo but that large pile of branches way back there is about 8' high x 20' wide in each direction. And that's not even all of the branches...you can see piles of them on the left & right leading down there. But my yard is begining to appear again so I'm making progress while getting ready to begin burning this past Sunday.
wow there's actually land under all that debris. Still a lot of logs to cut up for firewood...
but thanks to this...
and my awesome sister in law who spent her whole sunday helping me burn...that huge pile of branches is nothing but ash now. One more weekend to burn & get rid of the piles in the front & side yard and then I'm going to relax & enjoy spring & summer and just pick at the rest of the mess bit by bit. I'm just happy to have my yard back.
And you can't believe how good it felt to sit ours butts in these 2 chairs after hours of hauling & burning. My whole body aches today. oh yeah...and tick number 2 had to be yanked out of my other leg today at work.....yuck !!
Sadly my back yard won't look like this again...but I'm so glad I took and framed this photo before the ice storm arrived to give me a whole new view.

Macro magic

ugh....goosebumps....I just pulled a tick out of the back of my leg...yuck !!! I hate ticks....now I need to watch for signs of lyme disease since it was too small of a tick to know if it was a deer tick or not. Lovely !!! I'll need to check Jake & I closer after being out in the woods doing tree clean up.

Anyway...that's not why I started this post. Before I was interrupted by the itch on the back of my leg I was posting to share some pictures I took of the arrival of spring in my gardens. Plants are so fun to shoot in macro mode and I love how some of these came out...

The bulbs are all blooming now...isn't this little tulip pretty?
I don't even know what these next 2 are ...although I can remember planting them when I first moved here. Love the blue though...especially love the second photo.

Even the daffodils are blooming.Last year for some reason they never bloomed so I'm happy to see them this year.

The lilac bush is coming along nicely. Cant wait till this is in bloom. One of my favorite scents is a lilac bush in full bloom.

The azaleas (which are newly planted a couple of weeks ago) are covered in buds . It will be fun to see them bloom for the first time.

The perennials are beginning to grow too. This Johnsons blue geranium is looking very healthy..

Love this photo of one of the seedums in my sun garden

daylilies..

My beloved purple iris's are coming in beautifully. These are so gorgeous when they bloom.

And this one surprised me how quick it grew & is already in bloom. Pulmonaria is one of my favorite shade plants. Such an interesting pretty little plant.

that's all for now....I'm very tired so I'm off to read in my cozy bed for a bit. Enjoy your weekend everyone.

And if that made you smile....

This one may just bring a tear to your eyes. It did for me anyway. Enjoy.

need a smile?

If this doesn't make you smile I don't know what will. Enjoy !!

Just an ordinary day...

5:30 am - Woke up...needed to use the bathroom...but didn't want to wake the dog and have to take him out to go potty in the cold. Lay there without moving, trying (unsucessfully) to fall back to sleep.

6-6:15 am - Tanner is awake....snuggle time. Love this sweet lovable dog !!!!

6:15-7 am - two and a half mile walk with the dog.

7-8 am - shower and get ready for work

8-9 am - Drop Jake at school and then make my long ride to work

9:15 am - hot bowl of oatmeal with rasins, coconut & walnuts. Yum !!!

1-2 pm - lunch hour..off to my dog walking job

5-6 pm - another long commute home

6-8 pm - yardwork cleaning up tree damage

8-8:30 pm - cook Jake a quick (late) dinner

8:30-9 pm - quick phone call with my sister so she can give me the news she's going to be a grandma and then get Jake off to bed

9-9:20 pm - 4 miles on my bike (on the trainer)

9:30pm - pj's on and its finally time to relax.

Whew....no wonder I'm tired !! Off to bed so I can get up & do it all again tomorrow. Hope you're all having a great week.

Happy Easter !!!

Hi everyone....I hope you all had a great Easter. I treated myself to some time off from yard work & did a bit of scrapbooking this morning. This afternoon I had a nice dinner at my brothers house & then came home to do more tree work and get a few bushes I had purchased planted.

Its been very chilly & windy here today so I have had the woodstove going all day. Thats crazy isn't it? Almost halfway through April & still using the woodstove !!! Right now is is about 20 degrees out....brrrr. But this is spring right? All I can say is that's New England for you...

And I know it's spring because I took this photo a couple of weeks ago of the first purple & yellow crocus (spelling?) in my garden.

2 days later those same purple plowers had opened up to look like this. So pretty !!!

This last photo that I wanted to share is of a barn that I love. I walk by it every day on my walk with Tanner. Barns & stone walls are 2 of my favorite things about living in the country. I've always said I'd like to do a "coffee table" photo book on each subject. Would be fun to find barns to photograph on trips & collect photos of them. I thought the owners of this barn might like a photo of it so I left one in their mailbox this morning. They are a super nice family so I hope it put a smile on their face to find it in there.

I'm off to bed...have a great week.

apparently....

...I have no pride when it comes to walking the dog in torrential downpours. Tanner even looks like he's laughing at me...lol

although he doesn't look very amused here does he?