More is More

Happy Sunday! I held my monthly stamp class yesterday and I still need to photograph those cards so I can share them with you.  In the meantime, I thought I’d pop in to share just a little bit about what we did last weekend.  We took a 3 night trip in the 5th wheel trailer up to a beautiful RV park called Ocen Mesa.  It’s just about 20 minutes north of Santa Barbara.  This was Roger’s first road trip and he did great!  Tessa already loves the trailer and we were hoping he would follow suit.

Despite taking 2 cameras and a video camera with us, the few photos we got were snapped with our phones.

On the road:

Tessa and Roger each have their own carseat and they love them.  Tessa’s seat attaches to the console between us and Roger’s hooks into the middle of the backseat.  They are each latched into the seats with a strap that hooks to their harnesses.  If you have a small dog, I highly recommend getting a carseat for their safety.  If the airbag were to go off with your pup in your lap, they wouldn’t survive.  Plus it’s not safe for the driver to have a dog running around loose in the car.  OK, getting off my soapbox now.  LOL!  The Rocket Scientist thought I was crazy when I first proposed getting a car seat for Tessa.  He thought she would hate it, but he has since admitted that they are great!  Both dogs will run straight to the car and hop in their seats waiting to be hooked in!

Here’s the trailer all set up:

We are so thankful to my parents for this incredibly generous gift.  It’s so awesome to be able to drive less than 3 hours (we have lots of options in that range) and totally veg out for a few days.  Those of you who know me, know that I am not a “camper”.  I have never been tent camping and never intend to try it.  In fact, I even told Curt that on our 2nd date in case it was a deal-breaker for him.  LOL!  But this is home away from home!  The internet is often sketchy at these RV parks, but sometimes that’s not a bad thing.  😉

The dogs got on board with the program pretty quickly:

Then, of course, Curt had to join them:

We’re fans of the tv show Fringe, but we started watching toward the end of the 2nd season.  We wanted to go back and catch up so we bought the first season on dvd (it was pretty cheap on ebay) and we bought a $25 dvd player for the trailer (needed that anyway.)  So this trip we watched a bunch of episodes of Fringe in the evenings.  Have I mentioned that I’m NOT an ourdoor girl…at all?  *snort*

Ocean Mesa has an awesome huge dog run where the pups can be off leash.

Pretty awesome view, huh?  Would have been perfect if we had that view from our trailer, but we enjoyed bringing the dogs over here to frolick.  Here they come…can you see them?

Just before we left to come home on Sunday, we took them for a romp to expend some energy before the long car ride.  While the dog run had been perfectly dry the day before, everything was totally wet and muddy on Sunday.  When we got back to the trailer we realized a simple paw-wiping with a towel was not going to do the trick.  Fortunately the shower in the trailer includes a small tub and sprayer, so we just threw them in there and washed them up before we headed out.  I so wish I had gotten a photo of them in the tub.

On our next trip maybe I’ll try to get some more “people pictures” too.  LOL!

Thanks for stopping by.  I hope you’re having a great weekend.  I’m off to church soon with a very full day ahead.  And tomorrow is the BIG DAY when I officially start my new job as Office Manager at Bethel Grace Baptist Church!  Say a prayer for me if you think of me tomorrow.  Thanks!

So…I typed up most of this post a week ago.  I was in the middle of editing it when SCS went down and took my blog with it.  UGH!  I haven’t been feeling well for the past week, so I never had the energy or the heart to come back and see if I had any part of it saved as a draft, until now.  Well fortunately, I did.  So when you read “last week” below, it’s really week before last…

Last week we spent Monday through Thursday in a beautiful Bed & Breakfast in Santa Barbara and we took Tessa with us.  This was our first time traveling with her (other than in the 5th wheel).  Santa Barbara is, hands down, our very favorite destination and we are so fortunate that it’s only a 2 hour drive away (barring any nasty traffic.)  We usually stay at Cheshire Cat which is a B&B we adore, but when we called for a reservation we discovered that they wouldn’t allow us to bring Tessa (although we had previously been told it would be ok.)  So we went searching for a pup-friendly B&B and we found the Old Yacht Club Inn.

On the way up, I told Curt that I wasn’t expecting much because I didn’t want to be disapointed.  But the low expectations were totally unneccessary.  The Old Yacht Club Inn was lovely!  We had a very large room with the most comfortable bed I’ve ever slept in away from home.  The bathroom was quite large and well-appointed.  Best of all we were just a short one block from the beach.

I have a few vacation pictures to share. (click on them to see them larger) They were all taken with my phone because, although we did take a camera it turned out to have a dead battery in it.  *sigh*

On the way to Santa Barbara we always like to stop at the Summerland Beach Cafe for lunch.  Fortunately they have an outdoor patio that allows for dogs.  Across the street is a lovely little park with a  beach view.

On Tuesday morning we took a long walk along the beach down to the pier.  In the afternoon we enjoyed an awesome Farmer’s Market on State Street.  In fact we got all kinds of yummy stuff (fresh bread, almond butter, pesto hummus, Gaviota strawberries, pluots, cheese, pistachios) and made a dinner out of it.  Here’s a photo of me and Tessa on our morning walk.

Did I mention that I lost a conatct lens the first night and had to wear my glasses the whole time?  No sunglasses – ugh!  My face hurt from squinting for 3 days!  But the weather was wonderful!  It was about 65 when that photo was taken and I think the warmest it got the whole time was maybe 75.  Love love that cool weather!

Here’s the front of the B&B.

And here’s the beach view we got when we walked about 50 yards.

I hadn’t wanted to take Tessa actually onto the beach because I didn’t want her to get all covered in sand when I had no way to bathe her.  Plus, although I LOVE to look at the beach, I’m not much of an actual sand and sea person.  But on our last morning we decided we should see how she would react to beach and sand.

Oh my goodness – she loved it!  She just wanted to run!  We kept her on leash because we really weren’t sure if dogs were allowed on the beach. You know it’s funny – I’ve never talked to so many people on a vacation.  People constantly stopped us to say cute Tessa is and to ask what kind of dog she is.  (Curt says he wants to get a sign made for around her neck that says “we don’t really know!”  LOL!)  We even took her in a store that had a “no pets” sign (Curt was holding her in his arms) and the owner walked right up to say how cute she is and ask about her.  It was quite an experience!

On the way home we stopped in Carpenteria to browse in a few shops.  I scored in an antique store that had a drawer full of all sorts of vintage trims.  These made me think of my friend Melissa Sauls.  Now if I can just channel some of her incredible talent!

Those tiny glittery jingle bells are sooooo CUTE!  Now I need to set aside some time to sit down and play!

Do you stamp as much during the Summer as the rest of the year?  I find that I’m just not motivated to create as much in the Summer.  I really have no idea why, since I’m not an outdoor girl.  Just wondering if other people feel the dame way?

Thanks for stopping by.  I hope you have a great week!  I had my monthly stamp class last Friday night and I have a couple of samples to share from that.  I hope to get back her in the next dew days with those.  For now, I’m off to work!

Last week we took the 5th wheel out for the first time.  We decided to stay close home and just go for 3 nights for the first shake-down trip.  Friends recommended Malibu Beach RV Park which is just 45 minutes away (or actually 90 minutes in SoCal traffic) and it was AWESOME!!!  We had a full ocean view and the weather couldn’t have been more perfect – especially considering the fact that it poured down rain the week before and rained some again a few days after we got home.  We wished we could have stayed at least one more night and we will definitley be going back.  I thought I would share a few photos.

On the road!  Here we are just pulling away from our house.  Tessa is all set in her car seat and is excited to go on vacation for the first time!

We’ve got our spot and the Rocket Scientist got it backed in just right after a few tries.  We’re going to be finding a big empty parking lot somewhere soon so we can get some practice.

We’re set up and the slide-outs are out.  The one closest in the photo is the bedroom, and the one further away is part of the living room and where my “coloring station” is set up!

Here it is from the other side.  The slide out over here has the sofa in it.

Here’s the view out the back windows.  If you’re sitting down, you just see straight out to the ocean.  We saw lots of dolphins frolicking and one evening just at dusk we saw whales!

There were trails for dog walking.  Tessa liked that the first day, but I think it might have been hard on her little princess paws because she did not care for it after that at all.  She loved being in the trailer with us though!

We took tons of food with us and one night we made pizza for dinner. There was a wonderful seafood market and cafe just down the hill and we splurged and had lunch there one day and dinner there the next night.  YUM!

Is this the BEST PART or what?  I set up a fabulous coloring station and brought all my copics and an Ott-Lite.  I spent hours sitting here coloring.  Aaahhhhhhhhhhh!  The image I used in the TESC this morning is one that I colored on the trip and so was my TE Day 1 sneak peek.  I have lots more done that need to be made into cards still.

I can’t belive I’m posting this pic – especially after telling Curt not to take it!  But it’s just so much of what the trip was about – sitting in my robe, dog in my lap, drinking in both the ocean view and the new Paper Crafts special edition gifts magazine.  Aaaahhhhhhhh…I wanna go back!

I just love this photo taken right outside our back window.

Tessa wants to go again!!!

I titled this post “Camping…sort of” because I know that many of you will tell me that this isn’t camping and I get it.  I do.  But in my book, this is the ONLY WAY to camp.  When I met the Rocket Scientist, he and his friends were really into super-rough-it camping in the middle of the desert with NOTHING.  I actually told him on our 2nd date that I would NEVER camp.  I wanted to be upfront about it.  I told him I wouldn’t stop him from going, but that if my not going was a deal-breaker to let me know!  And I was serious!  I’ve always said camping is a hotel with no room service!  So while I recognize that this is luxury camping for sure…it’s the only camping I ever want to do! 🙂

We’re already looking at places to book for our next trip.  Do you RV?  If so, I’d love to hear any tips you have and I’d especially love to hear of your favorite recipes to make for dinner in the RV.

I hope you have a great weekend.  I hope to get a little time to turn some of those images i colored into cards that I can share with you here next week!  Thanks for stopping by!

Oh my heavens!  I had so much FUN on my trip to Iowa!  Unfortunately I was having so much fun just living in the moment that I hardly took any photos!  Here we are in the entry to the Taylored Expressions Store.  Isn’t that mural so cool?  I’m with Sankari, Sharon, Taylor and Lori.  Talk about kids in a candy store – wow!  I got to stay with Taylor and Jon and they were such wonderful hosts – I felt truly spoiled.

And guess what people???  I am FINALLY Copic Certified!!  See the litte badge in my sidebar?  I have proof!  LOL!  Lori and Sharon team taught the class and it was great!  I’m looking forward to teaching more classes involving coloring with Copic markers.

On Friday afternoon, before Sankari or Sharon arrived, Lori and Taylor and I had a couple of hours to just hang out in Taylor’s stamp room.  We ended up all using the same paper line for our cards – Basic Grey Green at Heart – with three very different stamp sets.  I thought the results were so fun that I wanted for us to all post our creations today – a little Triple Take – so you can see how you can go in such different directions with one 6×6 pad of paper.  Green at Heart was my CHA favorite and I was so excited when I saw that Taylor had received it and had it available in the store along with some of the coordinating embellishments!

I made my card with the new set Favorite Peeps.  This is my very favorite image from the new release and I couldn’t wait to ink it up!  The image was cut and framed with Nesties Labels 11.  I used a Martha Steward fence border punch, some Tiny Twinkles and KaiserCraft pearls and check out that Basic Grey Bloomer that coordinates with the Green at Heart paper!  It is layered felt and a button and it’s self-adhesive!!

Here are all three cards:

Taylor used the bunny from Sweet Spring and Lori used the new Easter Blessings.  I apologize that the photo is not the best.  Taylor takes such amazing photos in her set up, but her camera battery was dead and we wanted this photo at the last minute so I used my camera and I obviously had no idea how to use her light box set up.  Be sure to hop over their blogs to see their individual photos.

Taylor at Taylored Expressions and Lori at Make a Difference.

Can you believe that I forgot to take any pictures of the snow?  D’oh!!!!  It was the first time I had ever seen in person lawns covered in snow.   i was just so happy to be with these sweet friends!  There’s nothing like *chick time*, kwim?  Thanks for stopping by.  I hope to get back to more regular creating and blogging soon.  I have a stamp class at my house this Friday evening and I currently have one spot open…wanna come?

Around Mid-day Saturday, Curt went outside and realized that it was such a nice day that we should go somewhere!  So he asked if I wanted to go to the Flower Fields in Carlsbad about an hour away.  I said “sure!”  We hadn’t been there in about 10 years because the bloom season only lasts a couple of months and we miss it every year!  It’s a commercial site and they mostly grow Ranunculus – such gorgeous flowers – in a whole bunch of different colors.  We were really surprised at how crowded it was and what a tourist attraction it has become.  If you decide to go, you’ll definitley want to buy your tickets on-line and print them out before you go.  That saved us from standing in a shockingly long line!  There’s a concession stand selling hot dogs and other lunch faire, but you can also bring food in and eat at picnic tables.  There are two stands in the parking lot selling super yummy and huge bowls of strawberry shortcake.  We split one.  Oh so good!

They have a playground for kids, a sweet-pea maze (I hate stuff like that and had to get out!), face painting and some other activities.  You can ride around on an antique tractor tour listening to a recorded message about the history of the site. 

For us SoCall city-folks, these beautiful flowers are quite a sight to behold!  Curt got some really pretty pictures and I thought I’d share a few of them with you.

We had such a lovely day!  Wouldn’t these make lovely stamp images?  (Funny how my mind works, huh?)  I hope this was a bright spot in your Monday.  C’mon back tomorrow when I’ll have a card to share.

-Jami

Yes, we actually went to Club 33 last night!  

We saw it as once in a lifetime opportunity.  We were invited by friends Dave and Dana who had a cancellation in a party of 10 they were going with.  One of the guys in the party had the tickets through a corporate membership and they had been to dinner there before.  Three of the couples (including us) were Club 33 newbies.  Boy were we wide eyed and in awe!

This door is next to the Blue Bayou Restaurant.  You put a key card in a slot and push an intercom button.  Once they confirmed our reservation a hostess came and escorted us in.  We then had the choice of walking up a staircase or going up the glass elevator two at a time.  Of course Curt and I wanted to go in the old elevator!  There are two dining rooms once you get upstairs – the main dining room and the trophy room where we sat.  The Trophy Room is smaller and was originally designed to be Walt Disney’s private entertaining space.  The Pirates of the Caribbean ride is just on the other side of the wall of this room and we got to peek through a door onto a balcony and into the ride.

I must say that the service at Club 33 was the best service I have ever had in any restaurant!  Our waiter Louis told us that he has worked at Disneyland for 17 years and over 15 of those years have been at Club 33 AND he’s low man in seniority on the wait staff there.  Wow!  We were able to get up and walk around to look at things any time throughout dinner which lasted about 3 1/2 hours.  The funny thing was that any time you left your seat, when you returned you would find your napkin re-folded and sitting on the table in a little tent fold shape.  One of the girls in our group mentioned that she felt really bad that she kept getting up and Louis had to keep re-folding her napkin, so the next time she left the table, he came and did a super fancy fold for her which totally cracked me up.

The food was certainly yummy.  I had a New York Strip and Curt had Duck.  Several people in our party had a 5 course pre-fixe menu with a wine pairing.  I don’t drink much and certainly couldn’t appreciate a wine pairing.  Instead I got a non-alcoholic Pirate Punch with light up Tink!  🙂 Oh and I wasn’t the only one at the table to get one of these.  You can’t tell in the photo, but Tink lit up a bright green!  For dessert we had a creme brulee (because all the chocolate options seemed to have fruit associated with them – blech!).

I have to share something funny – the bathroom freaked me out slightly.  It was beautiful, but when I went in the stall the toilet looked almost like a big wicker chair/throne type thing.  The first stall I went in had the lid down and it literally looked like a chair.  I was so confused!  I went to the next stall where the lid was up.  *phew*  I’ve never seen such a thing!  LOL!

There were several souvineers with the “33” logo available for purchase, but we decided we didn’t need any of those (espeically after we paid the dinner tab – yikes!).  We did get a few little freebies though.  Little matchbook like notepads came along with chocolates at the end of the meal.  And when the waiter brought the credit cards slips for everyone to sign he brought each couple a Club 33 pen for us to keep.  I’m a total pen freak so this would be my first choice souvineer anyway!  He told us that up until about 10 years ago the matchbooks would be embossed with each person’s name, but it was such a tedious task that they finally stopped doing it.  I asked if they still had the embosser because I’d be more than happy to do mine myself!  LOL!

  I also took a couple of logo paper hand towels from the bathroom.  We kept joking all night about the things we were going to take to sell on ebay so Louis told us the hot tip was to take the hand towels – that they sell well.  Too funny!

Here’s a picture of us with our friends Dave and Dana.  Curt has been friends with Dave since Jr. High and I’ve been friends with Dana since first grade.  We fixed them up on a blind date (a classic pay it forward if you know our story) about 8 years ago.  The funny thing is that it was my Mom’s idea. I don’t think it would have ever occured to me to put them together.

Speaking of blind dates – if you are following my Blind Date Saga from March 11 – 20 years ago today it is Tuesday – 10 days after our blind date – and HALLELUJAH Curt called!  Apparantly Bill waited till the very end of the work day and as he was leaving he threw out a casual “hey you should really call Jami”.  Curt hadn’t been at all sure that I liked him so he had been hesitant to call.  Not sure how that happened – I thought I was clear with my signals, but I guess not.  I worked evenings at Arthur Murray so he called me at work that evening and asked me out for the upcoming Saturday night.  Let me tell you, for this date I planned to get a new outfit and put in a little more effort!  WooHoo!!  So check back with me on the 25th for our Second First Date!

Hope you are having a great weekend.  We have another dinner out with friends tonight and poor Curt has an awful cold. I’ve got to run change my clothes and get going.  Thanks for stopping by!

-Jami

We arrived home last night from a wonderful trip up the coast to Santa Barbara – one of our all-time favorite vacation destinations.  On this trip we saw parrots, ostriches, emus, miniature horses, squirrels, dolphins, turtles and lots and lots of dogs!  And we never even made it over to the zoo!

We left home Tuesday morning and stayed three nights at the fabulous Cheshire Cat B&B.  This was our 5th or 6th time staying at the Cheshire Cat and our first opportunity to meet the gracious owners Jack and Christine.  I can’t recommend this B&B highly enough.  Whether you’re an avid B&B fan or have never given one a try, you’ll love the Cheshire Cat if you have a chance to stay there!  This trip we chose the Tweedledee room and I think it might just be my favorite yet.

On our way to SB we like to stop in Summerland for lunch at the Summerland Beach Cafe (and lucky us –   it was Burger Madness Tuesday!) and at The Menagerie (parrot store and sanctuary).  There are so many birds being cared for at The Menagerie and they do such a teriffic job.  One particular bird captured our hearts this time – a Moluccan Cockatoo named Doodles.  Doodles had been plucking his feathers to the point of mutilating his own chest (Cockatoos are known for doing this).  He was abandoned at the SB Zoo with a note on his cage that said “Please help me.  Doodles”  The staff at the Menagerie keeps him in a little kevlar lined t-shirt (peach to match his feathers) so he cannot continue to hurt himself and he is doing well.  We asked to take him out and hold him and we even went back on our way home to cuddle him some more. He’s such a sweetie!  You can see that he has torn holes in the t-shirt and is needing a new one, but he can’t get through the kevlar to his chest.  (click on any thumbnail below to see it larger.)

Somehow our intention of going wine tasting on Wednesday ended up being more of a zoological adventure – LOL – starting with Ostrich Land where we fed ostriches and emus.

They tell you to hold the feeding pan with both hands so the ostriches don’t take it away from you.  Ummm…yeah…those huge birds are kinda scary!  Oh and it was super windy too…I felt like I was getting beat up by the wind at that point.  From there we went to the miniature horse ranch.  We had been there before – such a beautiful place and so fun to see the amazing little horses.  There were LOTS of babies (foals?) this time.  Here’s one who was a little unhappy because they took his momma to be groomed, so Curt was trying to comfort her. 

We stopped along the highway at a Vista Point to take a few pictures of the coastline and we were very fortunate to see some dolphins frolicking.  Unfortunately I only had my small camera with me so we weren’t able to get any good pics of them.  It’s funny, although I’ve never really been a *beach person* I cannot imagine living anywhere where I didn’t have access to the coastline.  There’s just something so soothing about it….something comforting in the fact that I can get to the *edge* and look out.

The next day we had lunch right on the pier at The Harbor Restaurant.  I was brave and tried a Lobster Monte Cristo.  Oh my heavens was that ever yummy!  It was so wonderful to sit a table right by a window and look out at the ocean and the marina.

I also wanted to get up to the beautiful rose gardens situated right across the street from the old Santa Barbara Mission.

We packed a lot of stuff in this trip and believe it or not we actually spent a fair amount of time just relaxing with books and magazines too.  Although the Cheshire Cat does have free wi-fi, there was some unknown glitch and for most of the trip we had no internet connection or e-mail despite traveling with two laptops.  Honestly it was a blessing to be *unplugged* for awhile.  It may take me a couple of days to get back in the swing of things.

Thanks for stopping by!