Just a quick post this morning to remind you of my challenge to find all the froggies in this picture I took at the Garden of the Sleeping Gods Orchid Garden in Fiji!
Comments here and likes on Facebook close on Sunday, May 12th. The winner will be announced on Monday, May 13th and will receive this:
©Stampin'Up!™1990-2013
Until tomorrow, have a Stampingrox! day!
Just a quick post this morning to remind you of my challenge to find all the froggies in this picture I took at the Garden of the Sleeping Gods Orchid Garden in Fiji!
Comments here and likes on Facebook close on Sunday, May 12th. The winner will be announced on Monday, May 13th and will receive this:
©Stampin'Up!™1990-2013
Until tomorrow, have a Stampingrox! day!
Happy Monday! A good nights' sleep in my own time zone goes a long way toward helping counteract the effects of two LOOOONNNGGG days of going-home travel! Fiji was awesome, the resort was luxurious and comfortable, but my own bed sure felt good!
Today has been a day of unpacking, laundry, and re-orienting myself with my "To Do List" and calendar. Since some of you have already been clamoring for Fiji pictures, I've put together a little overview of our activities and some of my Fiji impressions.
Troy & I waiting to board our first plane in St. Louis. We flew from St. Louis to Chicago, changed planes, then flew from Chicago to Los Angeles.
After about a 5 hour wait in LAX, we boarded this GIGANTIC plane to begin the 10.5 hour flight to Fiji! We flew at a 11 p.m. at night! See how small the trucks are compared to this plane? It was TOWED to the terminal like a cruise ship! Yikes! It was a double-decker plane with a second section of seats on top! Wow! About 400 Stampin' Up! Cruise Achievers & guests on this flight alone!
They served us a dinner and a breakfast during the flight. We slept (fitfully, but I did sleep) in between meals. We each had our own video screen installed in the seat-back in front of us with headphones. I read most of a book during this flight between naps (I read Call the Midwife-excellent read). This was the first hot meal I have ever been served on a plane -chicken & rice, green beans, grapes & crackers, a soft roll & butter, and ice tea!
My first impression upon landing in Fiji at 7 a.m. in the morning was HUMID!!! This picture is foggy because as soon as I took out my camera it immediately fogged up! They had been having more rain than normal for the past few days before our arrival, with a shower just before we landed, so the natural humidity of Fiji was increased! (in case you are wondering, Troy is holding MY pink-flowery carryon!)
After clearing customs, we were transported to the resort by bus to this! We had a comfortable balcony room looking out on the Pacific!
Not only were we off-the-grid technology-wise while in Fiji, we were also on Fiji-time, which is very laid-back and relaxed! I found these clocks for sale illustrating the Fiji attitude toward time perfectly:
Troy taking advantage of one of hammocks by the beach! He had fun learning how to sail a catamaran, and we also took a few spills in the Pacific on a "banana boat" ride!
Troy went deep-sea fishing one day,(yes, he caught 3 Yellow-Fin Tuna!) so I took a tour with some friends. Here we visited a Hindu Temple in Nadi, Fiji. Very beautifully decorated and painted. We had to take off our shoes, and they gave us scarves to wrap around our legs if our knees were showing and around our shoulders to keep us modest.
Our tour took us to an open-air farmers' market. Lots of variety, some familiar and some I'd never heard of before!
This is Kava roots. The natives dig this up, dry it out, then grind it into a powder which is put in a little muslin bag. They put the bag in water, then drink the water. Apparently Kava has some "dope-type" effects, the first of which is making your tongue numb. Yes, I tried it, but just a tiny taste. Some of my group drank a small bowl of it, but my impression was dirty sock water. WHY????
Very different way to present the fruits – $2 a "heap"!
We then visited the "Garden of the Sleeping Gods", a beautiful orchid-garden!
This is one of the two "sleeping gods", silhouetted in the Mountains around the garden. Can you see the face, hair, and body?
I will show you more of my Fiji trip soon, but thought you might like to see a card. This was one of the swaps on display, so I don't know who made it, but it is a vibrantly beautiful Secret Garden sample!
©Stampin'Up!™1990-2013
And lastly, I'm going to leave you with a little challenge! At the orchid garden I took this picture of a lily-pad pond. I know I have made cards in the past with frogs on lily-pads but had never actually SEEN a frog ON a lily pad! In the lily-pad picture below is at least one frog on a lily pad, but there are actually more!
My challenge to you is this:
Count how many frogs you see in the lily-pad picture. Leave a comment with the number of frogs you find here on my blog or LIKE this post if you are seeing it on Facebook and your name will be put in a drawing for this:
The Sent With Love Designer Paper Pack and stamp set, which was available in April 2013 but is now retired.
You will have until Sunday, May 12th to submit your comment or LIKE. I will announce the name drawn on Monday, May 13th, and will post this same picture with all the frogs highligted so you can see them too!
That's all for now. Until tomorrow, have a Stampingrox! day!
To order Stampin' Up! products, go HERE!
Happy Monday! A good nights' sleep in my own time zone goes a long way toward helping counteract the effects of two LOOOONNNGGG days of going-home travel! Fiji was awesome, the resort was luxurious and comfortable, but my own bed sure felt good!
Today has been a day of unpacking, laundry, and re-orienting myself with my "To Do List" and calendar. Since some of you have already been clamoring for Fiji pictures, I've put together a little overview of our activities and some of my Fiji impressions.
Troy & I waiting to board our first plane in St. Louis. We flew from St. Louis to Chicago, changed planes, then flew from Chicago to Los Angeles.
After about a 5 hour wait in LAX, we boarded this GIGANTIC plane to begin the 10.5 hour flight to Fiji! We flew at a 11 p.m. at night! See how small the trucks are compared to this plane? It was TOWED to the terminal like a cruise ship! Yikes! It was a double-decker plane with a second section of seats on top! Wow! About 400 Stampin' Up! Cruise Achievers & guests on this flight alone!
They served us a dinner and a breakfast during the flight. We slept (fitfully, but I did sleep) in between meals. We each had our own video screen installed in the seat-back in front of us with headphones. I read most of a book during this flight between naps (I read Call the Midwife-excellent read). This was the first hot meal I have ever been served on a plane -chicken & rice, green beans, grapes & crackers, a soft roll & butter, and ice tea!
My first impression upon landing in Fiji at 7 a.m. in the morning was HUMID!!! This picture is foggy because as soon as I took out my camera it immediately fogged up! They had been having more rain than normal for the past few days before our arrival, with a shower just before we landed, so the natural humidity of Fiji was increased! (in case you are wondering, Troy is holding MY pink-flowery carryon!)
After clearing customs, we were transported to the resort by bus to this! We had a comfortable balcony room looking out on the Pacific!
Not only were we off-the-grid technology-wise while in Fiji, we were also on Fiji-time, which is very laid-back and relaxed! I found these clocks for sale illustrating the Fiji attitude toward time perfectly:
Troy taking advantage of one of hammocks by the beach! He had fun learning how to sail a catamaran, and we also took a few spills in the Pacific on a "banana boat" ride!
Troy went deep-sea fishing one day,(yes, he caught 3 Yellow-Fin Tuna!) so I took a tour with some friends. Here we visited a Hindu Temple in Nadi, Fiji. Very beautifully decorated and painted. We had to take off our shoes, and they gave us scarves to wrap around our legs if our knees were showing and around our shoulders to keep us modest.
Our tour took us to an open-air farmers' market. Lots of variety, some familiar and some I'd never heard of before!
This is Kava roots. The natives dig this up, dry it out, then grind it into a powder which is put in a little muslin bag. They put the bag in water, then drink the water. Apparently Kava has some "dope-type" effects, the first of which is making your tongue numb. Yes, I tried it, but just a tiny taste. Some of my group drank a small bowl of it, but my impression was dirty sock water. WHY????
Very different way to present the fruits – $2 a "heap"!
We then visited the "Garden of the Sleeping Gods", a beautiful orchid-garden!
This is one of the two "sleeping gods", silhouetted in the Mountains around the garden. Can you see the face, hair, and body?
I will show you more of my Fiji trip soon, but thought you might like to see a card. This was one of the swaps on display, so I don't know who made it, but it is a vibrantly beautiful Secret Garden sample!
©Stampin'Up!™1990-2013
And lastly, I'm going to leave you with a little challenge! At the orchid garden I took this picture of a lily-pad pond. I know I have made cards in the past with frogs on lily-pads but had never actually SEEN a frog ON a lily pad! In the lily-pad picture below is at least one frog on a lily pad, but there are actually more!
My challenge to you is this:
Count how many frogs you see in the lily-pad picture. Leave a comment with the number of frogs you find here on my blog or LIKE this post if you are seeing it on Facebook and your name will be put in a drawing for this:
The Sent With Love Designer Paper Pack and stamp set, which was available in April 2013 but is now retired.
You will have until Sunday, May 12th to submit your comment or LIKE. I will announce the name drawn on Monday, May 13th, and will post this same picture with all the frogs highligted so you can see them too!
That's all for now. Until tomorrow, have a Stampingrox! day!
To order Stampin' Up! products, go HERE!
Founder's Circle always provides us with the cutest Make & Takes! I love to get a chance to work on them during my free time. What Stampin' Up! Demonstrator wouldn't love it when someone ELSE is prepping the fun?!
This banner uses some cool "sneak peek" products from the soon-to-be-released Occasions 2012 Mini Catalog! If you have ordered from me in the past year, you should be receiving one of these in the mail near the end of December. If you don't, and it can happen, as they are shipped out Bulk Mail, then contact or see me at one of my future Stampin' Events and I will make sure you get one!
This banner uses the new "Paper Doily" Large Sizzlet Die! All I can say is, "it's simply gorgeous"! The teacup in the center of the Daffodil Delight one is from a new stamp set, "Tea Shoppe"! So sweet!
©Stampin'Up!™1990-2011
Here's another section of the banner, this time using another "Tea Shoppe" stamp, a super-big teacup, scalloped circles, and one of the doilies cut from one of the laser-cut pages from the "Flirtatious" Specialty Designer Paper pack!
©Stampin'Up!™1990-2011
That's all for today, but I'll be back again tomorrow! Until then, hope your day "Stampingrox"!
Founder's Circle always provides us with the cutest Make & Takes! I love to get a chance to work on them during my free time. What Stampin' Up! Demonstrator wouldn't love it when someone ELSE is prepping the fun?!
This banner uses some cool "sneak peek" products from the soon-to-be-released Occasions 2012 Mini Catalog! If you have ordered from me in the past year, you should be receiving one of these in the mail near the end of December. If you don't, and it can happen, as they are shipped out Bulk Mail, then contact or see me at one of my future Stampin' Events and I will make sure you get one!
This banner uses the new "Paper Doily" Large Sizzlet Die! All I can say is, "it's simply gorgeous"! The teacup in the center of the Daffodil Delight one is from a new stamp set, "Tea Shoppe"! So sweet!
©Stampin'Up!™1990-2011
Here's another section of the banner, this time using another "Tea Shoppe" stamp, a super-big teacup, scalloped circles, and one of the doilies cut from one of the laser-cut pages from the "Flirtatious" Specialty Designer Paper pack!
©Stampin'Up!™1990-2011
That's all for today, but I'll be back again tomorrow! Until then, hope your day "Stampingrox"!
As much as I love spending time with old friends, I do enjoy making new ones! Our table at the 6 p.m. dining time this year turned out to be really fun new friends for Kimberly and I!
l to r: Deke & Meg Wheeler (old friends), me & Kimberly, Chris & Mandy Grant, and Pliny & Linda Hunt!
Meg is my coaching buddy and dear friend. Even though we live 6 hours apart, we talk every week, sometimes several times, and help each other out with our Stampin' Up! businesses.
Chris & Mandy are new friends. I'd visited Mandy's blog before and was impressed & inspired by her work. I am so glad I now can say she is my friend!
Pliny (pronounced PL-I-NY with the long "I") and Linda are new friends we instantly fell in love with. They are from Massachussets, but we would love to visit them sometime! We found we had loads to talk about, and not just stampin' stuff!
On the last night we all ate together, our waiter surprised our table with an extra dessert, chocolate souffle's! Chocolate souffle' had been a dessert choice earlier in the week, Kimberly loved it and had mentioned to our waiter how excellent it was. "Alit" took it upon himself to treat us to an extra chocolate souffle'. Even though we were all stuffed after the traditional "March of the Baked Alasksa" dessert, we ate our souffle' with gusto! Pliny is even trying to help himself to Kimberly's share!
I'm looking forward to seeing Meg, Mandy, and Linda in just a few short weeks at the Stampin' Up! Convention!
Well, I can't leave you today without showing you something fun and stamp-y, can I"
©Stampin'Up!™1990-2011
This is actually the #2 Box Die embellished by Shelli Gardner with the Hello Blossoms set! REALLY SUPER CUTE!!!!!!
Gotta go, Logan just called and asked me to make him some lunch in between his summer class and going to him summer intern job! Until tomorrow, have a "Stampingrox!" day!
As much as I love spending time with old friends, I do enjoy making new ones! Our table at the 6 p.m. dining time this year turned out to be really fun new friends for Kimberly and I!
l to r: Deke & Meg Wheeler (old friends), me & Kimberly, Chris & Mandy Grant, and Pliny & Linda Hunt!
Meg is my coaching buddy and dear friend. Even though we live 6 hours apart, we talk every week, sometimes several times, and help each other out with our Stampin' Up! businesses.
Chris & Mandy are new friends. I'd visited Mandy's blog before and was impressed & inspired by her work. I am so glad I now can say she is my friend!
Pliny (pronounced PL-I-NY with the long "I") and Linda are new friends we instantly fell in love with. They are from Massachussets, but we would love to visit them sometime! We found we had loads to talk about, and not just stampin' stuff!
On the last night we all ate together, our waiter surprised our table with an extra dessert, chocolate souffle's! Chocolate souffle' had been a dessert choice earlier in the week, Kimberly loved it and had mentioned to our waiter how excellent it was. "Alit" took it upon himself to treat us to an extra chocolate souffle'. Even though we were all stuffed after the traditional "March of the Baked Alasksa" dessert, we ate our souffle' with gusto! Pliny is even trying to help himself to Kimberly's share!
I'm looking forward to seeing Meg, Mandy, and Linda in just a few short weeks at the Stampin' Up! Convention!
Well, I can't leave you today without showing you something fun and stamp-y, can I"
©Stampin'Up!™1990-2011
This is actually the #2 Box Die embellished by Shelli Gardner with the Hello Blossoms set! REALLY SUPER CUTE!!!!!!
Gotta go, Logan just called and asked me to make him some lunch in between his summer class and going to him summer intern job! Until tomorrow, have a "Stampingrox!" day!
Another thing I love about the Stampin' Up! Cruise is meeting new people and making new friends! After 7 Incentive Trips, 7 Conventions, and two Founder's Circle Retreats, I have made alot of new friends! About a month before Alaska I received an invitation:
©Stampin'Up!™1990-2011
I was thrilled to receive such a gorgeous invite, and was even more thrilled to find out that I had been invited, along with two other fellow demos, to dine with Pam Morgan, Vice President of Demonstrator Training, and her husband, Chris! We had a wonderful meal, got to know everyone at the table a little bit, and even had our brains picked by Pam for ideas that have been working well in our business!
The invite was made using a little Sneak Peek from the upcoming 2011-2012 Idea Book & Catalog, 3/8" Ruffled Ribbon! Colors used are Old Olive, Pacific Point, and Whisper White!
Here we all are:
Thank you, Stampin' Up! for a wonderful trip and giving me the opportunity to spend an few hours with this fantastic group of people!
Now I must go get everything ready for my meeting tonight of my downline, the "Yes, Ma'am's!"
Hope you have a "Stampingrox!" day!
Another thing I love about the Stampin' Up! Cruise is meeting new people and making new friends! After 7 Incentive Trips, 7 Conventions, and two Founder's Circle Retreats, I have made alot of new friends! About a month before Alaska I received an invitation:
©Stampin'Up!™1990-2011
I was thrilled to receive such a gorgeous invite, and was even more thrilled to find out that I had been invited, along with two other fellow demos, to dine with Pam Morgan, Vice President of Demonstrator Training, and her husband, Chris! We had a wonderful meal, got to know everyone at the table a little bit, and even had our brains picked by Pam for ideas that have been working well in our business!
The invite was made using a little Sneak Peek from the upcoming 2011-2012 Idea Book & Catalog, 3/8" Ruffled Ribbon! Colors used are Old Olive, Pacific Point, and Whisper White!
Here we all are:
Thank you, Stampin' Up! for a wonderful trip and giving me the opportunity to spend an few hours with this fantastic group of people!
Now I must go get everything ready for my meeting tonight of my downline, the "Yes, Ma'am's!"
Hope you have a "Stampingrox!" day!