Loving Kindness Every Morning

I've got a couple of layouts to share with my favorite peeps (that means YOU, if you are reading this!  :)

As most of you know, I'm taking a break from designing scrapbook kits so I can learn the Photoshop CS5 program that Michael gifted to me back in January.  I had been thinking of hanging up my designing hat off and on for awhile, but just couldn't do it!  I LOVE "creating" clipart to use in digital scrapbooking.  But, I just didn't have time to learn while designing. 

Several months ago, one of the designers at Digitals put up a CT (creative team) call.  For those of you who don't know what that is, the members of a CT get to play with a designer's digital kits for free in exchange for posting layouts to various online galleries as a way of advertising the kits for the designer.

Anyway, this designer, Cilenia Curtis, has a totally different style of designing than I have (or had, I should say).  Her style is "artsy" as they call it.  Well, I have ALWAYS loved art, even though creating it digitally scared me!  But it intrigued me so that I decided the only way to learn more about it was to join her CT.  Once I did that and began to work with that style I was hooked!  I didn't even like my own traditional style of digital creations anymore!

So, I began to try my hand at creating some "artsy" and incorporating it into my kits.  I didn't get rich quick, LOL, but I did sell more of that style than of my traditional style.  Cilenia, who is also my designing mentor, told me if I was really serious about designing, I needed to get away from Photoshop Elements and learn the "big boy," Photoshop CS (Creative Suite).  So, I made the HARD decision of hanging up the designing hat (I probably should say "selling" hat) while I take the time to LEARN the program.

But, in the meantime, I am still CTing for Cilenia and the other great, artsy designers at her new shop, Scrap Art Studio.

I said all of that to say that there is a guest designer at Scrap Art Studio through November, ValC Designs, and I got to play with one of her kits, Perfect or Not.  And here are those pages.  Hope you enjoy them!  You should be able to click on them to get a bigger picture if you want to read the journaling on the page.

If you want to visit my layout gallery at Scrap Art Studio, you can go HERE.  I think I have posted all of these on Facebook before, but not all of them here.

Day 8 Traveling

No pictures for you today.

We were up at 5 a.m. this morning and on the road by 7 a.m.  Tim was pleased as that was an hour before planned.  We drove and drove and drove and drove!  We stopped one time for gas, one time for potty, one time for lunch and one more time for gas.  I thought I was going to have to shove Tim's seat into the steering wheel to get him to stop for the night!  But were are here, fed and now in our jammies! 

We are hoping to be able to drop Tim's mom off tomorrow and then drive on to WV.  So, Liz, just be prepared, but I will call and let you know for sure when I know for sure!  It will be late when we get there, however, I am sure!

OK, nite!

Day 7

First of all, the flowers we have found all over Maine in a variety of colors are Beach Roses, so we were told.  And the berry on them is used in Rose Hips, etc.

We did not get to do the whale watch today due to high winds.  So, instead we did some other sight seeing this afternoon and spotted a couple of small lighthouses and just enjoyed the beautiful afternoon.

Tomorrow we begin our approx. 20-hour trip home.  We will travel 10 hours tomorrow and 10 hours on Tuesday.  Depending on how Tim feels at the end of the trip, we may travel to WV after we drop Tim's mom off.  If we do, we will spend the night with Liz before traveling on to NC on Wednesday.

I asked Tim's mom if she has enjoyed herself this week.  She said, "Oh, yes!  It has been a dream come true!"  So, that's all that matters!  :D

I've had a sinus headache all day, so I'm calling it a night!  Nite!

Today was a beautiful day.  Much cooler and breezier.  So, here is the view we missed from Cadillac Mountain because of the fog yesterday.  The white spot in the distance is a cruise ship.  And that is Bar Harbor to the left of the cruise ship.

Here's one of the small lighthouses we found today.  I uploaded the wrong picture, so it is hard to see the lighthouse on the left against the backdrop of trees. But I think you can tell that it is not as high as the 2nd story roof on the house.

LOVE capturing the power of the ocean and the beauty of the waves crashing onto the rocks.

It is amazing to find this scene among the rocks along the shore.  I bent down to take the picture of the flower and the bee zoomed right in there like he didn't want me taking the picture without him!

Here's the other lighthouse we found.  You can't tell it from this angle, and I zoomed in from across the bay to get this picture.  But when we drove around to get a closer look, it was a Naval lighthouse and you could not get to it for a fence that had barbed wire twisted all along the top of it.

Day 6

The only person who guessed where we went shopping yesterday was my sister, Kim.  She sent me an e-mail and said she also shops at lliwdoog.

Well, I've got so many pictures that I'm gonna tell you the story as I go and as you view!  :D

We are now in Bar Harbor, Maine.  (If you have ever looked at a map, you will see that this part of Maine is basically surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean and a little sliver of land attaches it to Maine.)  Anyway, just wanted to show you a little more of the tad bit of Autumn that is showing.  These bushes are right out the door here at our hotel, Acadia Inn.

First on today's agenda was to see some sights in the Acadia National Park, which we can enter just a couple of miles from the hotel.

First stop, the Visitor's Center.  I've never known of a Visitor's Center to be hidden in the woods before, LOL.  I hate climbing stairs!  So does Tim's mom!  Here she is taking a break, but at least she is still smiling.  She told us we were wearing her out before we even got started!  I told Tim we were going to have to take it easy on her or she would never want to go anywhere with us again!

Just another touch of Autumn as we traveled around Loop Road (the road around the park that leads upward to Cadillac Mountain, the final destination for this trip, LOL).

On the way up the mountain, we stopped at Sand Beach.  Believe it or not, this lady lives in NC and is here because she loves to paint!

And, here is the scene she was painting.....without the addition of Tim's mom, of course!

Any ideas what the name of this flower is?  I'll tell you after you try to guess.  They are all over the place here and come in purple, white, and pink.....so far!

We traveled on around the bend and spotted a gift shop.  Tim and his mom went to the gift shop while I took some pictures.  This is looking back on Sand Beach.....really zoomed in!

OK, as we travel on around and upward, this scene is not a good thing!  HEAVY fog!

Another beautiful scene out over the ocean.  See the white spot  \/ on the land directly below the V in this sentence?

This is what that white spot is!  WOW!  How would you like to live that close to the ocean?!

How about all the way out on the tip of that land mass?  Again, I say WOW!!

While I was viewing the houses above, Tim's mom was trying to dig up some greenery to take home!  She used fingernail clippers.....or should I say that she got Tim to clip it as she couldn't get it done.  Now, as I recall, when we were driving into Maine, there was a sign on the interstate that said, "Remove all plants from your car before entering Maine!"  Seems to me if "they" don't want you bringing plants into the state that "they" probably don't want you taking any out, either!  So, if we don't show up for church next Wednesday, start calling the State prison here in Maine to get us out!  :D

Maybe "they" will take our mountain in exchange for freedom!  :D  This is a sign in one of the gift shops.  Did you know we own a mountain?  Neither did we!

Well, unfortunately, the beautiful view we were looking forward to enjoying from the top of Cadillac Mountain didn't happen!  Here is Tim looking for the view.  Needless to say, he didn't find it!  By the time we got to the top of the mountain, the fog was more like a drizzle you could see blowing across the mountain!

So, we headed to Bar Harbor to do some shopping and find some lunch.  It was foggy and even drizzled a bit.  We did a little bit of shopping, ate lunch and headed back to the hotel where Tim and his mom took a nap.  Knowing I'd never sleep tonight if I slept then, I stayed awake and took care of my e-mail and uploaded a couple of layouts to facebook, etc.

By the time they woke up, the sun was out.  We decided to find another lighthouse, Bass Harbor Light.  We had to climb down some rocks to get a good picture of this one!

We then went back to Bar Harbor and ate at a great restaurant.  I think everyone in Bar Harbor had decided to eat there tonight as we had to wait about 20 minutes, which was no problem since there was a gift shop there, too!  :D  Well, it was so crowded that it took 2 hours total to get our food and eat.

Now, on tomorrow's agenda, our last day here, church and whale watching!  Nite!

Day 5 Already???

It is so hard to believe how fast this week is disappearing!  But, that is the way it is with vacations, isn't it?!

After walking all over Boston yesterday, we ALL slept in today.....til about 7 a.m.  Did I mention we were in bed by about 9:30 or 10 last night?  :D

So, after we got our showers and ate breakfast, we left Boston a few minutes after 9 a.m.  We took a different route out of the city to head north and we missed most of that horrendous Boston traffic!

As you can see from the pictures, it was another beautiful day for traveling!  Our first stop was the Nubble Light (aka Cape Neddick Light) in the bottom of Maine.  Some young man was kind enough to offer to take our picture when he saw me holding the camera at arms length.  Tim returned the favor to them.

Here's a nice picture of Tim's mom with the lighthouse in the background.  It was so beautiful and peaceful we could have stayed all day just listening to the seagulls.  She and I both bought a print for ourselves of this lighthouse.  The artist painted boats into his paintings and he was entering our name and date onto the boat today.  He was giving the money from these prints to a charity.

Our next stop was Kennebunkport where we drove down Ocean Avenue to take pictures of the Bush Compound out on Walker's Point.  Notice the flag at half staff for the Americans that were killed in Lybia.

Well, we are not seeing much fall color like Tim and I did the first time we came leaf peeping here back in 2006, but there is a bit of color!

And, our final stop for the day, Portland Head Lighthouse at Cape Elizabeth.  So pretty!

OK, here's a test for you.  Where did we go shopping today?  Here's your clue:

Nite!

Day 4

And the winner is...................Jessica Day, for giving me the name of the bread our chicken pesto sandwich was eaten on yesterday.......foccacia bread!  Thanks, Jessica!

We are all BEAT tonight!  We were picked up by the trolley company at 8 a.m. this morning and taken to Boston for our tour.  Seventeen stops plus a free harbor cruise.  The trolley shuttle dropped us off at stop #6 and that is where we bought our tickets.  Tim's mom was mostly interested in stop #2, Paul Revere, North Church which meant we were going to travel almost all the way around before we would get back to that stop since we started at stop #6.  But, somewhere along the way, they made a ticket check and also told us that the harbor cruise was getting ready to leave if we wanted to get off then.  I want to say it was stop #10, but I can't swear to it.  In any case, we did the harbor cruise and that took about 45 minutes.  Well, the cruise did not end at the same place it began.  It ended at stop #3, the USS Constitution museum.  So, we toured that.....in the hot sun!  Tim's mom was worn out!

After we went into the museum, we headed for the trolley stop.  Tim's mom was ready to hang it up.  Well, we really had no choice but to at least keep riding the trolley because we had no way back to the hotel except the trolley shuttle, which would not pick us up for the return trip until 5:15 p.m.

I believe we ate lunch before we got back on the trolley.  Since we got back on the trolley at stop #3, we rode all the way around until we could get off at stop #2.  That took about an hour.  By that time, Tim's mom had rested up so we could visit the North Church, the gift shop and see the Paul Revere statue.  Walking up the hill to get to the North Church was a killer for the both of us!  We had to stop and rest at the Copp's Hill Burial Ground, LOL!

Anyway, we finally had seen what we wanted to see and headed back to the trolley stop.  We rode the trolley to stop 6 where we began the day.  We were able to sit and relax until the shuttle arrived to bring us back to the hotel.

We got back to the hotel somewhere around 6 p.m.  Tim and his mom watched the news while I checked my e-mail, then we went to dinner up the street.  Now we are waiting to go to bed, LOL!  We are planning on sleeping in until we wake up tomorrow!  We will be heading to Maine tomorrow.

Let me just say that we are sooooooooooooooooo glad we did not drive into Boston!  Will you get a load of that traffic!  Coming and going.....it was a MESS!!  We are traveling in the HOV lane where you are supposed to have at least 2 people per vehicle and the lane moves along quicker.....most of the time!  You can see that even it was crowded this morning!

This is taken from the top deck of the boat we took the harbor cruise in.  As you can see it was another beautiful day.....it was actually HOT!

These are just some seagulls I zoomed in on during the cruise.  I did not try to capture anything but the one on the post.  But it is interesting how I caught 4 all in different "poses."

We are getting ready to get back off the boat to visit the USS Constitution.

Tim and his mom posing with the USS Constitution in the background.  Beautiful ship!

Tim's mom resting in one of the North Church pews.

And here is the statue of Paul Revere.

The only difference in the traffic going home vs the traffic coming into Boston in the morning is that the HOV lane was much more empty than this morning!  For this we were very thankful because we figured it would take us much longer to get home than it took us to get there.

The restaurant where we ate tonight had a sports bar, pool tables, and a racing pit.  I would have loved to try out the racing, but it was expensive!  So I settled for Hawaiian pizza in the restaurant!  :D

Just a picture of the restaurant sign.....Ascari (a racer from the 40's and 50's who was killed testing a car).

Nite!

Day 3

We finished our trip to Boston today.  We left the hotel in Sidney, NY at 8:30 a.m.  Our first stop was Stockbridge, MA to visit the Norman Rockwell Museum.

Don't miss driving in fog (which we left behind in WV).  Within half an hour we drove out of the fog, thankfully!

Here's Tim and his mom reading and studying one of the Norman Rockwell paintings.  They read and I took pictures!  :D  Pictures were allowed WITHOUT a flash being used.  You were not allowed to get any closer than 12" to any of the paintings.

After we looked at all the paintings and visited the gift shop, we came out to this tent to eat lunch.  Tim and I shared a chicken sandwich with pesto mayo and lettuce on a bread type that begins with an "f" but I forget the name.  I also got some potato salad.  Delicious lunch even if it was a bit expensive.

Here's Tim and his mom posing for a picture at the edge of the picnic tent before we walked over to the studio where Norman Rockwell did his painting.

Here's the plaque outside the studio which shows a picture of him at work in the studio.

This was a nice fall display that was set up for a nice photo op.  Tim told the husband of the woman standing off to the right that he would take their picture if he would take our in return.  Obviously he agreed!  :D

We drove the last leg of the trip for the day into Braintree (a suburb of Boston) which was 2 1/2 hours from Sidney, NY.  Very nice and spacious rooms.  We will hop on a van at 8 a.m. to be transported to Boston to begin the trolley touring.  It will be another long day!  We will need to rest at home after our vacation!  :D

Nite!

Day 2

LOOOOOOONG day of traveling!  We might as well have not gone to bed last night.  We all just tossed and turned!  Tim's mom was thinking about the trip.  I'm sure Tim and I didn't sleep well because we were not in our own bed.

Everyone was up at 5 and so we packed Tim's mom's things into the car, brushed our teeth, combed our hair, changed our clothes and hit the road by 5:30 a.m. or so.

We made pretty good time, even with the bits and pieces of traffic we hit and the road construction that was here and there.  We stopped for lunch around 11:00 at a Denny's and set out to travel to Binghamton, NY stop for the day and find a hotel.  We ended up traveling 39 miles further to a Super 8 hotel in Sidney, NY.  It was about 5:00.....almost 12 hours on the road!

We brought the bags into our hotel room and then headed out for dinner.  We ate at Roma, an Italian restaurant with delicious food!  HUGE servings!  We only ate about half of our meal!

Now we are relaxing, watching 9/11 stuff on TV and getting ready for bed!

Here's a few pictures I took today.  TONS of goldenrod everywhere you look.  We will be leaving the hotel around 8:30 tomorrow since we got further today than we really had planned to travel!  I hope we ALL sleep well tonight!
 
Beautiful sunrise as we drove Eastward.

Some of the goldenrod we saw along the highways and byways today.

We ended the day with this delicious meal from Ramo's.

NITE!

Day 1

Well, I noticed as I opened up to make a post here that the last one I did was July 21st!  WHAT?!  Did you think I was never coming back?  Sorry!  Life has a way of happening, doesn't it?

So, we are taking Tim's mom to Boston, MA then up to Portland and Bar Harbor, ME this week.  We left the house at 7 a.m. this morning and arrived at her house here in Covington, KY at 2:30 - 2:45 or there abouts.  Such a lovely day for traveling!  When we left the house this morning, it was approx. 52 degrees!  Yep!  I'd say Autumn is on the way, WOOHOO!  We ate lunch at Bob Evans in Teays Valley, WV around 11 a.m.

Tim's mom was sitting on the porch enjoying the beautiful day when we arrived.  We joined her and enjoyed watching the humming birds.  The feeder is empty and one hummer came very close to me and made a noise while it watched me as if to say, "Why don't you fill the feeder for me?"  Sure wish I could've had it land on my hand, but the picture below will have to suffice.

What amazing creatures they are!

For dinner, Tim's mom treated us at Bob Evans.

After we came back to the house, we went over the trip details with Tim's mom.  Then some computer work and we are wrapping things up before bed.  Tomorrow will be a long day of traveling, probably 10 hours beginning at 6 a.m.

Nite all!