I know it’s a little bit early. But honestly? I freaking LOVE Christmas. It’s my absolute favorite holiday. I kind of wish it came later in the winter, though, so that the rest of winter didn’t suck so sucktastically once the awesomeness of the holiday season is over. But I will work with what’s been given.
Several weeks ago, Katie @ Loves of Life made the cutest fall bucket list. I was totally inspired by her but completely clueless as to how one would go about making such a thing. My Photoshop skills are limited to enhancing photos and using actions if I’m feeling patient enough to deal with them (I never am). I used to make graphics from scratch using Paint Shop Pro back in the day, but now that I’m a Mac user, that option is now dead to me. But then I won the My Memories digital scrapbooking software and thought “Hmm, maybe I can create something cool with this.”
And I did! Well, at least I think so. So, thanks to Katie’s inspiration, and Jill for hosting the giveaway, I came up with this!
Do you like it? I’m kinda proud of it. That MyMemories software is fantastic. Who knows what else I might come up with!
A few weeks ago, Jill at Jill Made It informed me that I won a giveaway for My Memories scrapbooking software.
Now, I love to scrapbook, but I get flustered when I do it. The scissors like to run away, the adhesive gets hidden under paper, brads and eyelets roll off the table and onto the floor, and I spend so much time looking for stuff that I lose all motivation to finish my page! So, this digital scrapbooking thing? Worth giving a shot.
This software is really cool. It’s pretty easy to figure out, and it has a ton of stuff to offer. Lots of options for decorating your pages. You can use the pre-made layouts, download packs from the My Memories site (they even have free ones), or make your own. There are paper packs, embellishments, text tools–the possibilities are endless!
Check out this simple page I threw together:
Not my most fancy or creative, but still, pretty cool, huh? I’m excited to explore this software’s potential. Who knows what I might come up with! 🙂
I haven’t won a blog or Web site award in years. But the awesome Priyanka at Girl on the Move was nice enough to award me the following, which I guess means I’m versatile. Or something. 🙂
YAY!!! So, now I get to pass it on! 🙂
1. Thank and link back to the person that gave it to you!
2. Share 7 things about yourself.
3. Send the Versatile Blogger Award on to 15 other bloggers and let them know you have awarded them!
OK, so 7 Things About Me:
1. I LOVE to read, and I read mostly YA novels.
2. Guilty pleasures of mine? Stupid Zynga games like Cafe World and FarmVille. I know, right?
3. I’m a night owl.
4. I don’t like the sound of footsteps, especially high heels.
5. I imagine what it’d be like to be a Time Lord.
6. I’m a nerd (see #5).
7. If I had more room in my apartment, I’d have an aquarium, a snake, some bearded dragons, and possibly a guinea pig, as well as my cats.
So, now I get to tell 15 bloggers that I love reading their blogs. I bet some of them have received this award before. Well, they’re getting it again, so there! 😀
Here are my 15. Some of these are blogs I’ve just discovered, and some of them are friends I’ve known for a long time. All of them have the effect of making me drop everything when I see a new entry from them in my RSS feeder. Please visit them and tell them I sent you. 🙂
Wow, it’s been a very long time since I’ve updated. I’ve just been busy working and relaxing and OH YEAH I WENT TO DISNEY WORLD AT THE BEGINNING OF THE MONTH I guess I forgot to mention that, huh?
Sorry about that. Seriously, this working full time (more than in most cases)–well, I’d put the deposit on the trip in September of 2010. Then fourth quarter started. Then there were the holidays. The days went by in a blur, and before I knew it, I had to rush around preparing for the trip. It was crazy–a Disney trip has NEVER snuck up on me like this. I’m usually on pins and needles counting the days for it to hurry up and get here!
So, Disney World came upon us FAST. We had a blast. 🙂 I spent most of that first day in denial and in a daze, but that might have been because I was so darn tired cause I couldn’t sleep the night before! I didn’t start to feel like it was real until after the Celebrate A Dream Come True Parade!
We stayed at Port Orleans French Quarter, which is one of the moderate resorts. (We usually stay at Pop Century, a value.) OK, I got spoiled. The bus stops were close to the parks, the resort was small and quiet, there was a hot tub, and it was just pretty! (Check in was super slow, but we ended up meeting some people from Columbus OH who just happen to be now living in the house that Chris grew up in. How is that for coincidence? Guess who was singing “it’s a small world” all afternoon after that?) Anyway, Adam and I decided that it’s worth the extra $$ a night for all the extras we got out of it. We’ll be staying there this June as well.
(God, imagine if I ever get to stay in the Polynesian! Talk about spoiled rotten, right? But that won’t happen for a long time, not with rooms starting at $400 a night. Yowsa!)
Almost every character I met hugged (or kissed) me, some more than once! I even got a hug from Tinkerbell. The hugs from Princess Tiana and Prince Naveen (the highlight of my trip) were the best, though.
Did I mention that Tiana is my favorite Disney princess? Oh well, now you know. 🙂 On Sunday, our first day there, we were going around Magic Kingdom, and I’d mentioned to Adam that meeting Tiana and Naveen would make my trip. It would make my YEAR. We couldn’t figure out where their meeting place was, but we’d been planning on hitting MK the next day, so we figured we’d look for them there. Well, Adam and I got to the park at Rope Drop (I highly recommend doing that–it’s awesome so early in the morning!), and we ended up RIGHT BEHIND THEM as they walked down Main Street. When we got to their meet and greet place, they let me take pictures with them and chatted with me and it was like, amazing. I was like this when it was all done:
Yea, that was a pretty awesome day in the Magic Kingdom, even if it did rain quite a lot. It was warm, and I rode Big Thunder Mountain Railroad twice (ended up riding it five times total during the trip), and it was the day of the Main Street Electrical Parade, where Adam and I were quite entertained by a total brat who was 11-years old and acting like a spoiled princess (she had visited the Bippity Boppity Boutique at some point during the day–she was ALL done up). Adam and I nicknamed her Veruca Salt. 😮
Although we had a great trip, I don’t know if I’ll go in January again. The crowd level was pretty great for the most part, and soaking in the hot tub in the evening was nice, also. But a couple of days, it got pretty cold, and that’s not what you want to have to deal with when on a vacation in FLORIDA. We only had one day of rain, though, and one day it was absolutely perfect out. So the weather is hit or miss, and a lot of things were being refurbished or fixed up. Tarpilicious! Not that I noticed…too much. I was too busy gawking over the fact that Christmas stuff was still up for the first few days of the trip. I was thrilled, to be honest, because dude, I might still have my Christmas decorations up, and I figured if DISNEY didn’t have theirs down, then I shouldn’t feel bad. (Of course, once I came to this conclusion, all the decorations were gone the next day. Even the poinsettias that had been planted were changed to purple and pink and yellow flowers.)
You know what this means right? I really have no excuse. I have to get the Christmas decorations down. And I will… sometime next week. Maybe.
ANYWAY.
Here are a few more picture highlights:
And you can see many more pictures here: Disney World 2011
(YOU KNOW YOU WANT TO LOOK AT THEM!)
It was nice seeing Adam’s family at various times throughout the trip as well. Eli ran the Goofy, Melissa ran the half-marathon, and Adam’s parents were there for cheers and support. Also, Cassidy brought little Lola which was awesome because she seemed to enjoy the park in the best way a little baby could:
We ate good food (Liberty Tree Tavern, Garden Grill, and Boma FTW), saw parades and shows, rode rides (yea Expedition Everest, Tower of Terror, Rock N Rollercoaster [twice], Space Mountain [twice], and of course, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad), and really had an amazing time. I cannot wait to take Aidan this summer. Because OH YEAH we are going again! Twice in one year for me, and Aidan too, because his father is taking him in August. ROCK.
Oh yeah, I have six words for you: GIANT CHOCOLATE AND M&M COVERED MARSHMALLOW.
So getting another one of those when I go in June. Mouth is watering just thinking about it.
OK, that’s enough for now. 🙂 Hope you enjoyed my short recap. Talk to you soon… but first, I leave you with some LOLz for days:
Okee dokee, artichokie. I’m gonna sign off before I get tempted to add more gifs. I am tired. I did four yoga sessions today and attended a kirtan. I should sign off. But I might play a game or ten of BeJeweled 3 before I actually turn in.
Byeeeeee!