Sandy Hook - New Jersey

Just a quick note to catch up. As you might of guessed, I am busy scrapping away and have been desperately trying to get caught up after taking a week off to spend in New York. I have a couple of really cute pages that I'll finish up in the morning and share with you tomorrow.

We've had good wind the past couple of days and Matt has sailed quite a bit. He went with friends yesterday to La Boca (where we wake board) and it was OK. No wind today so we've just hung out, cleaned the apartment and cooked a lot.

Speaking of New York I just realized that we've never shared any pics from there so I thought I'd take this opportunity to do so. Pay special attention to the clothing - Yes, it was cold as He... and of course living daily in bathing suits meant we had NO clothes to take with us!!! We bought some new flannel lined jeans (THANK HEAVEN for LL Bean) and had them shipped to Annie's in NY. We were never so thankful to have warm clothes as we were there. When I was taking a few pictures of the skyline I could only stay on the balcony for about 2 photos before the cold wind would drive me inside!!

Here are some photos from our first full day. Annie played tour guide (after our trip to Target for clothes and shoes for me since sandals weren't going to make it there). I do have to say that I've never been so happy to see a Target in my life!!! Its amazing what a little shopping can do.

As she drove us around the small towns on the Jersey shore, we started back to her home and she drove us out to Sandy Hook. Its a great little peninsula that we saw from their balcony. As we were driving onto the hook, we saw kites up so of course we had to go investigate. Keep in mind as you view these pictures that it is about 40 degrees out with the wind blowing at about 30 knots - COLD and WINDY as (well you know where). Can you believe there were kite-surfers out???? NOT ME!!! Give me warm Caribbean water and 85 degrees any day!!!

Here are the kiters and Annie and I huddled together against the wind. If you look in the background, the big tall building is where they live.

Heart Breakers...

I finished another layout of some older photos today. This layout is from Ted's trip to Colorado last January. We had a great time and took him one evening to a wonderful fondue restaurant in Keystone (One of our ski areas near where we had our condo last winter). It was quite chilly (well, negative on the thermometer anyway) and we had to take two gondolas to get to the top of the second ski mountain where the restaurant was (and two back down). We had him bundled up in our warmest down coat, hat, gloves and the ski resort provided blankets for the cold dark ride.

I absolutely love this iron paper that is in Kara's kit. I have another layout using it but I can't show it to you just yet!!!

Credits for Heart Breaker:Template by Micha for November Challenge @ KJoi http://kjoistudios.com/messages/index.php?topic=1159.0
Bad Boy kit by Kara Jones @ KJoi
http://kjoistudios.com/shop/index.phpmain_page=product_info&products_id=464
Font: Mesquite Std
Photo by Angela

Father of the Groom

Boy, am I on a roll or what... 3 wedding layouts in one night!!! I might actually get that wedding album done before we leave here after all!!

I wanted to share these great pages of Ted making the toast at the wedding. The expressions on our faces were just to great not to capture and Jason did a fantastic job at that!!

{Be sure to click to enlarge to see the detail}

Credits for Father of the Groom - 2 page layout:

"Here comes the bride" kit by Wenchd Grafix @ DSO

Red paper by Wenchd Grafix's "Art Class" kit @ DSO

Red & White floral sticker by Wenchd Grafix's "Happy Anniversary" kit @ DSO

Scalloped template by Scrapkut

Fonts: Pristina & PDRPT for DSO Font Challenge

Inspired by template by Chris Greiser

Photos by Jason Smith Photography

First Dance - Page 2

I wanted to share the newest scrapbook page from our wedding album. Jason caught this picture during our first dance - I thought it captured the moment and the beauty of Meadows perfectly.

Credits for First Dance - Page 2:
Making Music kit by Andrea Gold {http://www.godigitalscrapbooking.com/shop/index.php?main_page=product_dnld_info&products_id=507&zenid=c58c523b2a97b499a462416485475687}
First Dance wordart by cottagearts.net's wedding kit
Template 09B by Andrea Gold {http://scrapandrea.blogspot.com/}
Photo by Jason Smith Photography

Tiny Kite & Huge Waves

We made it back safe and sound on Saturday and have spent lots of time soaking up the sun and thawing out the soggy frozen bodies from New York.

We had a great time in New York as Annie was the perfect hostess and we really enjoyed our stay in their beautiful condo. Annie definitely fattened us up and you would not believe the chocolate that we came back to Dominican with. We had to use another suitcase (that weighed 32 pounds) to bring it all back. Boy are we in HEAVEN!!!!

We've spent the past couple of days either on the beach with Matt kiting and in the grocery stores stocking up on food since we emptied the refrigerator before we left.

I wanted to share just a few photos from today:

This is of Matt as he was going out to kite-board early this afternoon. The shore break was huge, you can just barely see his head sticking out of the pounding waves.


Matt actually took out my kite today because the wind was so strong. I had to take a picture of his 10 meter kite (the red one) and my little 8 meter kite (the yellow one, imagine that) laying next to each other on the beach - It looks so tiny!!!



Hope you had a great thanksgiving!!!

Happy Birthday to me!!!

Ok, so I'm a bit late... well, OK... Maybe a few months late... but I did just get my Birthday present.... so....

Happy birthday to me, Happy Birthday to me, Happy Birthday dear me..... Happy Birthday to me...

Since we can't get anything shipped down here (especially if we want it to actually get here without being stolen), I ordered my birthday present online and had it shipped to Annie's home in New York. I got to pick up and play with my new Wacom tablet!!!! WHAT FUN!!!!

Along the same theme, I wanted to share a scrapbook page that I did of my actual birthday here in Dominican. We took these pictures as we went to a little beach front restaurant called Marabu. It is a really cool white topped (imagine a small circus tent) with glass for windows right on the beach in front of our condos.

I used Kristine's great kit Art Class and a sketch by Lucy.



Credits for Birthday Dinner:
Art Class kit by Kristine (WenchdGrafix) at DSO {http://digital-scrapbooking.org/shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=1133&zenid=38cb6426cce73f03d9f057a2bad72fb4}

Art Class Blog Add-on Freebie by Kristine (WenchdGrafix) {http://kristinesplace.wordpress.com/}

Nov 27 sketch by Lucy Chesna {http://mysketchworld.blogspot.com/}

Doodle threads by Me!!
Font: dearJoe four
Photos by Matt & Angela

Thank you Kristine!!!!

I just had to share this wonderful gift that Kristine sent me... We've been watching the weather at home (Colorado that is) and we are missing the snow in the mountains... This is a great reminder from Kristine, THANKS SO MUCH!!!

Hope everyone had a great holiday and didn't eat too much turkey (as if there is such a thing as too much). We had a great visit with Matt's family and I'll be posting some pictures soon.

Well, we leave New York early in the morning to head back down South to Dominican so back to the beach and hot weather for us!!!

Hugs ~ Angela

New York... New York...

I wanted to do a quick post to let you know that we made it safely to New York. We had a great flight on Thursday and have enjoyed staying with Annie & Mike in their beautiful condo overlooking the ocean. We can see the Empire State building and the Statue of Liberty through their telescope.

Yesterday, we went for a scenic drive all around New Jersey and it was so beautiful with all the fall colors. We had not realized how much we missed the changing of the colors. I wanted to share this beautiful picture that Matt took of the Sandy Hook lighthouse.

Lets get caught up...

Wow, we've had a busy couple of days... Lets see if I can get caught up here...

Its been really slow in terms of wind for the past two weeks. In fact, since I bought my kite, I've flown it only one day (although I could have flown it today). Matt has kited 4 days out of the past 16 because we just haven't had wind.

Here is what we've been up to with no wind (Trying not to go stir crazy)

Sunday - November 11
We tried to go snorkeling in Sosua with Kim but the bay was stirred up with waves and the water was so cloudy we could not see the bottom. Matt would dive down about 10 feet and we could not see him. We swam out a bit and then swam back and hung out on the beach for a bit. Basically, we escaped from the house.

Monday – November 12

We went wakeboarding (for those who don’t know what this is, imagine strapping a VERY VERY large waterski (i.e. like a snowboard) on your feet and being pulled by a ski boat while trying not to crash and drink lots of water). Since I have NO experience whatsoever with boarding (snowboarding, water skiing, etc), we thought it was a good idea to get me some experience in dealing with a board in water before I tried to do it with the kite. We took my kite-board with us to go wakeboarding at LaBoca (one of the rivers here). I did pretty well and actually got fully upright on my third pull. I managed to have two good rides with my last one being quite good. It was a blast and of course Matt had to take pictures of all the crashes (payback is HELL). I see a BEST OF ANGELA’s CRASHES scrapbook page coming up (and boy are there some good ones as I drank a lot of dirty river water). It was a fun morning!!

In the evening we met our American friends and our European friends for “Burger Night – Dominican Style”. We Americans were craving burgers!!! Our European friends didn’t know quite what to expect so they offered their place for the BBQ and we supplied the burgers. Well, we can’t quite say that it was a truly American feast as our menu was quite varied… We had Burgers with all the trimmings, potato salad, Sangria (thank you Kim), & Tiramisu (did I mention that Stefano who made it is Italian, oh my goodness was it GREAT). I’ll take Burger night with a European flair ANYTIME!!! Click HERE for some photos from that night.

Tuesday – November 13

We both woke up a bit stiff and sore from wakeboarding so we took it easy. Matt did manage to go kiteboarding for a bit while I got caught up on some computer stuff.

Today:

We were both still a bit stiff and sore, but better than yesterday… We were supposed to go wakeboarding again but I wasn’t quite feeling up to it this morning. Matt kiteboarded for quite a while this afternoon as I rested up at the apartment.

Well, we are off to New York tomorrow morning. We are leaving from Santiago (a town in the mountains about 90 minutes from us here) so it should be interesting as we’ve never been there before. We had a friend arrange our taxi driver for us so we are hoping all goes smoothly. We will be met in New York by Matt’s sister, Annie and we will be staying with them through the Thanksgiving holiday and Ted & Beth will be joining us there on Tuesday. We planned this trip, booked the tickets and then realized that we had only bathing suits and shorts with us (Not exactly what you need to wear in New York at this time of the year). So we ordered some wonderful flannel lined jeans (Thank goodness for LLBean) and some shirts and had them shipped to Annie’s. Now I just have to buy shoes when we are there (sandals are not quite going to work).

Hopefully, we’ll have some good New York pictures to share soon!!

Little girls...

Laura has been uploading pictures of the little one for me to be able to download and see her. I can't believe how much she is growing up!!! She sent me this picture of the little one acting goofy and I could not resist making it into a scrapbook page.

I recently joined the team of Kristine Pocock of Wenchd Grafix. I love her blog, if you need a great laugh, you have to check it out here. She sells over at DSO and has some fantastic designs... Check out her wonderful kits here.

So why do we buy them toys when they love playing with the packing so much???

Credits for Little girls:
Font: Hobo Std
Photos by Laura
Based on a template by Teriann Hanks for the DSO November Template challenge {http://digital-scrapbooking.org/boards/viewtopic.php?t=1985}
All papers & Embellishments by Kristine Pocock of Wenchd Grafix's Art Class kit
{http://digital-scrapbooking.org/shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=1133&zenid=38cb6426cce73f03d9f057a2bad72fb4}

Check out all of the wonderful papers and elements in this kit:

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Well, it might be a bit early, but since we are headed out to New York tomorrow morning to spend the holidays with Matt's family, I wanted to wish everyone a very Happy Thanksgiving!!!

I just had to use Gina's adorable doodles again, I love them!!! I'm so jealous, I can't even begin to draw a straight line, let alone be this wonderfully creative.

Based on a Nov 14th card sketch by Lucy Chesna [http://mysketchworld.blogspot.com]

Autumn Bliss paper kit by Gina Arzaga [http://www.ndisb.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=1439&zenid=1df2822b3f86ee9ae961dc5ecdf4b14e]

Doodled flowers & tag by Gina Arzaga [http://www.ndisb.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=1437&zenid=1df2822b3f86ee9ae961dc5ecdf4b14e]

Font: Pristina

Cuddly Campers

I am finally getting to go through some pictures from past trips that we have taken and able to create scrapbook pages!!

I recently received an invitation to join Gina Arzaga's {cre8tvlyyrs} Creative team and I was so excited to work with her wonderful creations. Check out her blog here and her store here.




Matt took these pictures of us while we were on a camping trip in June of 2006 in Rocky Mountain National Park in Estes Park, Colorado. He loves night photography and had a great time playing with the fire.

Credits for Cuddly Campers:
Based on a Nov 12th sketch by Lucy Chesna [http://mysketchworld.blogspot.com]

Autumn Bliss paper kit by Gina Arzaga [http://www.ndisb.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=1439&zenid=1df2822b3f86ee9ae961dc5ecdf4b14e]

Doodled flowers & tag by Gina Arzaga [http://www.ndisb.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=1437&zenid=1df2822b3f86ee9ae961dc5ecdf4b14e]


Quote for Lisa Joy's DSO Quote challenage [http://digital-scrapbooking.org/boards/viewtopic.php?t=1984]

Down by the sea...

Sorry, I haven't put a lot of details about us in here lately, but I've been scrapping away as you can see. The weather here hasn't been all that great in terms of wind for the last couple of days so we're taking walks on the beach and hanging out. We're planning on some more snorkeling tomorrow to help keep our sanity.

We didn't realize it, but Dominican is known for its amber (See here for more info) and it washes up on the beach quite frequently. We've been going down to kite beach and searching through the masses of sea weed that washes up and collecting amber. We have lots of tiny pieces and several larger pieces. We're hoping to do some research on it to figure out how to polish it and make it into a necklace, earrings or bracelet. Matt tells me that I'm going Jewelry shopping each day when we go to the beach. Here's a pic that Matt took of me as I was returning from shopping (see all the sea weed all over the beach behind me).



In addition, I bought a kite!! Just need wind now to learn how to fly it. We'll have some pics soon!!

In addition, I've put up all our photos onto the Picasa site from our last time snorkeling (Nov 3). Go here to view them.

Hmmm... I think thats about it and we're all caught up!!!

Iraklion, Heraklion, Iraklio... Who knows!!!!

How many names can one place have??? Iraklion, Heraklion, Iraklio are all names given to the Capital city of the island of Crete, Greece. As we were making travel plans we were doing internet searches for hotels and things to do and the name kept changing. We never quite figured out why, but we did at least figure out what to search for.

I am a guest team member for Amy Watson this month and I've had so much fun using her templates & kit. I finished the following two pages from our afternoon at the Venetian Fortress in Iraklion.









































Credits for Venetian Fortress:
Jumpstarts #7 template by Amy Watson

http://digibydesign.com/cart/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=236&zenid=e462b7aca982c0f3c4396eaf53a9c60c

Perfectly Poppies kit by Amy Watson


http://digibydesign.com/cart/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=396&zenid=e462b7aca982c0f3c4396eaf53a9c60c
Photos by Matt & Angela

Girls rule!!

Just wanted to share the latest page I did of the little one today. This picture is actually from May of 2007 (not 2006 like I said in yesterday's posting, silly me). We had just arrived at the house after meeting Sis in KC to finish the drive down together so the little one was so excited to see her mommy (and maybe us). Mommy brought that adorable red pillow to her and she was bouncing all over the bed and posing for me to take photos! Too Cute!!!

I used Amy's wonderful template and Donna's Circus kit to create the page. I love how the shapes and colors really accent her and her red pillow. I changed the photo quite a bit because she was bouncing on her bed so the background was a bit distracting. I simply masked her to make her show though and applied a effect to the back part of the photo so it came out black.



Credits for Girls Rule:
Template by Amy Watson's Jumpstarts #7 collection {http://digibydesign.com/cart/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=236&zenid=e462b7aca982c0f3c4396eaf53a9c60c} {http://scrap-a-lot.blogspot.com/}
Day at the Circus kit by Chiggerlane Designs {http://chiggerlanedesigns.blogspot.com/2007/11/day-at-circus.html}
Font: Elephant
Photo by Angela

Clownin' Around

Whew... what a busy day... We worked this morning on our internet postings and then Matt headed out on the moto to teach at noon.

About 1 our rental agent knocked on the door to see if we could be ready to change apartments in 2 hours. Well, we weren't quite sure if the move would happen or not so we had not packed a thing! So I quickly packed up the entire apartment into suitcases and plastic baggies. Since Matt was working, our rental agent and the cleaner helped me cart everything 3 doors down to our new apartment WITH AIR CONDITIONING!!! I won't boar you with the whole saga of the old apartment's air conditioning other than what I've posted before, but it never worked and it was always warm!!! Our rental agent suggested the move into her old apartment where the air conditioner worked and we were also able to stay here until we leave at the end of January.

Yesterday, I finished a page of the darling little one with pictures that I took of her in May, 2006. I used an adorable kit by Donna @ Chiggerlane Designs called Day at the Circus. Be sure to check her blog here to purchase the kit.


Credits for Clownin' Around:
Based on Lucy Chesna's Nov 5 2007 sketch {http://mysketchworld.blogspot.com}
All papers, ribbons, clowns, trains, clip & journal paper from Chiggerlane Design's Circus kit {http://chiggerlanedesigns.blogspot.com}
Font: Snap ITC & Tinkertoy
Photos by Angela

Journaling reads:
Clowning around with the new pillow that mommy brought back from her travels while Auntie "G" chases me around with her camera.


This is such a huge kit that I can't get all the previews in, but here is a peak!!! You must buy this wonderful mega-kit that is fantastic for layouts of your little ones!!!

Beach Bums!!!

Today was a pretty quiet day. We worked in the morning and then headed down to the beach about 2 in the afternoon. We hung out on the beach and waited for the wind to get stronger but it never did. We took advantage of the light air and had me flying the trainer kite again to get more experience flying the kite. I plunked my butt down in the sand and flew for a bit.

I only crashed once and didn't put the kite down until the Dominican kid flew his kite into mine (well maybe I flew mine over a bit to get him to move and he didn't so both crashed to the ground). That is a big problem here as the locals either have no clue what they are doing or don't care (or more likely, both!!!). Its always interesting to see what stupid (and unsafe) moves they will make with kiting. I was trying to make a point today as I flew my kite in my "wind window" and the Dominican guy kept moving closer and closer to me and invading my window. Well, obviously it didn't work but at least his kite was the one broken and not mine, however, I don't think it was his kite and he was just borrowing so I doubt he learned anything.

Here are a couple pics from today...



{Click to enlarge}
Frame by Princess LaLa
Photos by Matt & Angela

Just catching up...

Sorry, I've missed a couple of days. We've been a bit busy as the weather has finally gotten better, in fact, its almost back to normal as we are waking up to clear blue skies and the wind is coming up in the afternoons.

Yesterday was quite a busy day. We went in the morning with friends to snorkel in Sosua and we actually remembered to take the little waterproof camera that we bought along with a banana to feed the fish. It worked pretty good as you can see from the photo below.

After we got home, we went down to the beach and I flew the 9 meter inflatable kite for a bit. It was really tough as the winds were very gusty. One minute the kite would be stalling and falling out of the sky and the next a gust of wind would come through and yank me around. Matt took me on a long drag again and the waves were huge. We did really well getting out through the surf, however when we were coming out we got attacked by a huge wave. It managed to crash right on top of us as we were coming up to the shore, thank goodness Matt had control of the kite and I only had to come out of the water.

Cabarete is having a Dominican Jazz festival so we went down for a couple of hours last night to listen to jazz bands under the stars on the beach.

Today, we spent the morning working and then headed to the beach. The air was light but consistent so Matt went out a couple times on his 14 meter kite. I watched from the beach and tried not to get taken out by the people flying kites on the beach that had no clue what they were doing.

Here is a picture of Matt and I snorkeling yesterday.

Frame by Durin Eberhart

Time for the real kite!!

Well, the weather has improved somewhat here today. We have at least seen the sun. The winds are up, but they are offshore so there is no kiting for me or Matt today.

I used Ruby's fantastic "Tropical Cocktail" kit to scrap some photos of my last kite-boarding lesson. I was flying Matt's old 9 meter North kite on the beach and it went well (only . I have loved using this great kit to add some color to our gray days here. Now, we need some good sun and good wind so I can get some more photos to use with it.




Credits for Time for the real kite!:
All papers, flowers, ribbons, buttons, brads & tags by Ruby Rynne's "Tropical Cocktail" kit {http://brazilianblend.net/zencart/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=251}
Template #12 from Theresa Borntreger
Font: Ravie & Tekton Pro
Photos by Matt

Journaling reads:
Day 1 of flying the 9m inflatible

Here are some previews of this great kit:

Samaria Gorge - June 20, 2007

Here are a couple of pages that I did from pictures of our Samaria Gorge hike in Crete (Greece).

Here is a bit more information on this beautiful gorge: (From http://www.west-crete.com/samaria-gorge.htm)

The gorge of Samaria is not 18 km long (the 18 km refers to the distance between the settlement of Omalos on the northern side of the plateau and the village of Agia Roumeli) but is 16 km long, starting at an altitude of 1250m and taking you all the way down to the shores of the Libyan sea in Agia Roumeli. The walk through the National Park of Samaria is 13 km but you will have to walk the extra 3 km to Agia Roumeli from the exit of the National Park making it 16 km.

The very narrow passage near the end of the gorge is often called the "Iron Gates". None of the former inhabitants of Samaria know why the place suddenly got this name. They were always known by the locals as "Portes" which means "doors" or "gates", but certainly no "Iron" anywhere!

Samaria is said to be the longest gorge in Europe. I am not sure about this. As far as I know the "gorges du Verdon" in South France are a little over 20 km in length. Similarly, the gorge of Tripiti which runs west of the gorge of Samaria is about as long, but almost nobody knows it.

The gorge of Samaria is situated in the National park of Samaria, in the White Mountains in West Crete.
The park is supervised by the Department of Forestry and the gorge is generally open only from the beginning of May to the end of October. In winter, high water makes the gorge dangerous and impassable. It will also be closed on rainy days (too dangerous because of rock falls)

You have to pay an entrance fee of Euro 5.00 to enter the park (free to children under 15, half price to students).

So what do you get for your 5 Euro? The path is maintained and is substantially better than "normal" paths in Crete. There are guards along the way (in radio contact with each other) who will help you in case of trouble or injury. There is also a doctor stationed in the abandoned village of Samaria. There are well-maintained springs on the way so that you do not have to carry much water. There are toilets in several places and plenty of rubbish bins. You find surprisingly little litter, considering the amount of people passing through every day.

You also get a set of rules, aimed at protecting the park and making the experience safe and pleasant for everyone.

The gorge is open only during the day time and if you want to start walking in the afternoon you will only be allowed in up to a certain point. The guards want to make sure that everybody who walks in also gets out before nightfall. This is the reason why they ask you to present your ticket on the way out as it (supposedly) enables them to know if there is anyone still in the park at night.

Credits for Samaria Gorge:
Template by Di Hickman for November {http://dihickman.blogspot.com}
All papers, ribbons, brads & alphabet from thedailyscrap's Ides of March kit
Green vellum by Digi Debz's Aubrey kit
Font: Book Antiqua with Satin effects
Photos by Angela, Matt & Kim