Japanese Visitors

Well, I call them Japanese visitors, they've lived in Japan for over 5 years. I am so happy that my beautiful niece and her wonderful hubby came over to the states for a visit. Neither of which are Japanese natives - she is from the USA (raised in Minnesota), he is from Matamata, New Zealand ( also home to Hobbiton - Yes, I can officially call my nephew a Hobbit)

I only had 1 full day with them and loved every minute of it. We took them on a tour of downtown and stopped at Centennial Olympic Park.We walked around there a bit, then decided to go to The World of Coke. I hadn't been to the new one since it moved next to the Georgia Aquarium in 2007 (gosh, has it been there that long?!). So I was glad to be able to go to it too. I am glad we got there early because when we left there was a HUGE line to get in, we didn't wait at all (aren't they cute?!)
They really seemed to have a good time
It was almost 2 pm by the time we finished there so we decided to take them to the local brewery - Gordon Biersch (which is also one of our fave places). They enjoyed the beer sampler
and I loved the fact that she takes after me in the fact that she takes pictures of their food.

We then road around town a bit more and ran into a Caribbean Music Festival and then headed to Little Five Points - we first went to Junkman's Daughter - Candace loved this place when she was younger so thought she might want to go there - well some things never change. She still loved it and ended up buying 2 new pairs of AWESOME shoes and a cute dress!

My sister-in-law made dinner reservations for us a The Commons, so after shopping, we headed back to Stone Mountain. We had a fabulous dinner and found out what Airline Chicken was (never heard of it before). After dinner, we headed to the Laser Show. I knew it would be packed since it was the opening summer weekend PLUS since it was Memorial Day weekend. But we found a great spot up near the top of the hill, sat back and enjoyed it. I loved that they had a Georgia Music Hall of Fame segment now (since Georgia Music is very near and dear to my heart and I used to do the accounting for the GMHoF)What a full day. We had breakfast this morning before they headed down to Florida to see mom and dad. I wish we had a couple of more days but I'm so grateful for getting to spend time with them. I miss them both and wish they would move to the US - seeing them every 2 years or so is just not enough.

Glee - Bad Romance

Have I said before that I love Glee? I'm sure I have.
I was looking for their version of Bad Romance on You Tube (which of course isn't out there - it is so hard to find videos from Glee - Fox is highly protective of them.

Anyway, I found this instead - it was made a few month's ago before the Lady Gaga episode appeared - maybe the creator of this video will change the music to the Glee Cast.

Graduation Card

One of my oldest friends, who've I've known for 25 years and who I tremendously respect, has a daughter graduating this week. I can't believe it! It doesn't seem like that long ago that his son was born and then 15 months later along came this beautiful girl. His children really are beautiful kids, inside and out - but they have great parents so it only makes sense that their kids turned out so well.

Anyway, I wanted to make her a card for graduation and decided to make one with Hello Kitty, but it just didn't feel right - so I pulled out my Cricut handbooks and started browsing. I really wanted to use my newest cartridge - Create a Critter, which is probably the best one they've come out yet for making cards - I could use this cartridge for days!

I found the cutest little owl and branch in there and thought it looked kind of scholarly so I made this card with it. All paper is Die Cuts with a View (DCWV) card stock.

I thought it needed some pattern paper in the background but it just looked too busy so I left it just plain - I'm happy with it and I am sure she will be too.

National Scrapbook Day

Today is National Scrapbook Day. Unless you are a scrapper, you probably are not aware of this wonderful day. I actually spent the day scrappin' ! Most the time I am out of town on this weekend so was glad to be here and actually have the time to participate in NSD.

Although I don't want to have extra competitors, I must share the love with my fellow scrappers and let you know about a FANASTIC give-away at Everyday Cricut - they are giving away a Cricut Expression. Wow !!!

Good luck to all who enter (including me!)