I'm back from my trip

Part 1 of Vacation to Washington D.C.

I'll skip Monday since that was completely traveling. Dan & I woke up insanely early on Tuesday 7:30am EST so we wouldn't miss breakfast or the hotel shuttle to the Metro. It was on the warmer side and the humidity surely added to that. I took lots of photos at the station and got beeped at by the train for apparently being "too close." This seems to be one of the sub-themes of the trip.


We got off the Metro and walked down the Mall to the reflection pool at the Capitol and took a few photos. It was pretty overcast the whole day, yet it was the best day to take outdoor photos during our visit. We saw a lot of the National Air & Space Smithsonian Museum. For more photos, you can check my Flickr account in the coming days. I didn't realize how small helicopters really are!


Everything is under construction in D.C. because the busy season is over. The National Museum of American History was completely closed. Luckily there were a few items on display in the National Air & Space museum. I have to say my favorite part was all of the Christmas shopping I got done while at the Smithsonian's!


Next we walked to the Hirshhorn Sculpture garden and then the Arts & Industry building. Sadly the latter was closed so I just took photos from the outside. The Smithsonian Castle was my favorite building that I saw on this vacation. We went inside briefly and saw the tomb of James Smithson, the man who founded the Smithsonian Museums. Every building has security with X-ray machines so we didn't go in to see much of the Castle.

My dad is a huge coin buff so I thought it would be really cool to go the Bureau of Engraving & Printing. Apparently in the off season, they close at 3:30pm. We happened to arrive at 4:05pm. Oh well! Continue on to the Washington Monument and had Dan take this photo. We didn't go up into it because it was later in the day and we still had lots to see.



Since we could see it from the Washington Monument and still had time to kill before meeting up with Jen & Bill, we decided to continue on to the amazing World War II Memorial that was just completed in 2004. I can't believe how long overdue it was!


We continued on to the Lincoln Memorial where I took lots of photos. I decided to challenge myself by capturing D.C. from a very different perspective. This caught my eye.




I wish I had a pedometer while in D.C. so I could tell you we walked something crazy like 9 miles per day! On the way back, we stopped at the heart wrenching Vietnam Memorial. I couldn't believe the amount of photos, patches, letters, and stories all over the place. It definitely touched me the most of all the memorials.


We walked back to the closest metro station and then met Jen & Bill in "Chinatown." I adore this incredible "I Love Hambly" heart that Jen made for me. We had a non-stop laughter filled dinner at Clyde's Restaurant. I love how great our waiter's personality was. Not one dull moment! Thanks for an amazing night Jen!



Dan and I got on the metro, then had to run to transfer to the next metro which doors were closing before we got there. Luckily, some guy let the doors close on him which made them reopen and allow us to enter. Once we got to our stop we had to run through the station to make it to the last hotel shuttle of the night at 10:45pm! I'm so happy I ran the whole way because the driver was about to leave without us. This is the beginning of the true theme of our vacation. I hope to make some sort of album, so maybe it will be called Just Keep Running! And until my next post, I leave you with a random texture picture that I took in D.C.

Some tourist photos from D.C.

I couldn't help but share a few photos while we're here. I'm quite happy with my cliche tourist photos. The Washington Monument:


Sunrise at Oakland airport (marsh):


Inside the beautifully lit metro station:


In front of the Air & Space Museum:


I met Jen! I am so lucky to have people to meet on the East Coast. The trip is going wonderfully. Learning and seeing lots!

Norweigan by association

What's your pirate name? Take the test here.

I got the name Captain Ethel Bonney!

Friday night was Scandinavian heritage night in Redwood City. Dan's grandfather was from Norway and the Scandinavian heritage it is very dear to his family. My favorite part was the dessert so I took a lot of photos. At this table is ebelskiver.


I've had this yummy dessert before, but I had never seen Lefse made so I was excited to watch.


These women are making Rosettes. Zena said she'd teach me how to make them for Christmas this year and I can't wait!


And last because its my favorite to eat and say ,Vafler a.k.a. heart shaped waffles. Mmm yummy !I can't say enough that I LOVE dessert! Here is Gerd making vafler.


We went to see our friend Anders and say goodbye since he got a job in Minnesota. He gave us all parting super names. Here is torso women flying with Minnesota man. The first time I might Anders we sat next to each other at a concert. He is 6'4" and I am 5'9". He is all legs and I have a longer torso then him so when I sit next to him he looks really short. I got teased about this for three years.


And I couldn't help but get Dan to take another photo of me acting as Torso Woman...


Dan & I are going to be in Washington D.C. Monday-Friday so look forward to lots of photos! I'm bringing my laptop in hopes of being able to do some research while we're their.

More Halloween pages

Since I got it started, I thought I might as well keep on working on this album. I've still got plenty photos so this is another installment of pages. I scrapped a lot faster last night and I'm really happy about it.




My "corrected" diploma arrived. This time it came with my middle name on it when I made an effort to make sure it wasn't going to be on it. That was the longest 10 days I ever waited for it. ;)


Another chipboard mini album I made for etsy. I am having so much fun with my bind it all! Its 3x3 and only $3!


I watched this really funny video on Emily Falconbridge's blog and just had to share it with you. Be sure to watch the whole thing because its so funny. I am not a rummager. I'm definitely an organizer!

Happy 32nd Anniversary!

My parents are celebrating 32 happy years of being married today. Happy Anniversary Mom & Dad!


My bio layout for the EBB Design Team page


Jenna had a visit at the dentist yesterday and found out she has a "highly evolved" tooth. The molar on the top left has an extra part to it. Can you see?

A few fun things

I've mentioned in the past that my mom is big on garage sales, especially ones with any garden related treasures.While she was looking, she came across these cool treasures. Jenna got the range finder by Minolta on the left. The large box-like camera on the right is a Graflex 4x5 press camera. These were used by the "paparazzi" of the 1930's-1950's. It is missing the grain glass so it isn't working properly.

The Creative Memories stuff was at a garage sale two houses down from us. When I saw the herma dotto adhesive runner I made my mom buy it. So glad I did because I broke my pretty purple one on Tuesday!

Since I was gone to my retreat during Zena's birthday, we celebrated this past Sunday at A.Sabella's in Fisherman's Wharf. It is closing on November 4th, so it was her last visit. Her mother took her there as a child. It was a beautiful restaurant with a delicious meal. This was our view from the table.
Helen (Zena's mom) and Zena with her birthday desserts. Dan and Linda were also there but I didn't get a chance to take lots of photos. My favorite was the Crème brûlée.
On a totally unrelated note, you know you have a Taco Bell fiend in your family when your sister returns home from class at 9:30am stating that Taco Bell didn't open at 9am like they were supposed to.

Tonight I had the wonderful opportunity to chat on EBB with Wendy Anderson of Making Memories. I had so much fun asking her lots of questions about getting into the industry.

What I've Been Up To

Where have I been? Working with a really cool kit from EBB. Here is the October Appetizer kit, and this is what I did with it.





I combined a few challenges together for this one. And those black photo corners are made by me!


I embroidered the felt skull myself.


Products used:

PP: Basic Grey Obscure deviant, Bazzil cardstock, Hambly black brick overlay
chipboard: Heidi Swapp Lemonade Stand alpha , American Crafts thickers, KI Memories Love Elsie Roxie button shapes
stickers: Mary Engelbreit Red alpha ,EK Success Sticko Black alpha
stamping: Hero Arts Lower Basic alpha ,Love Elsie Riley icons
Pens: Black Glaze Pen, Zig Millenium pen
Misc: Queen & Co Black Brads ,Red ric rak ,Office Depot Admit One tickets, Cat's Eye Charcoal chalk, Making Memories Black Acrylic paint, Embroidery Floss, Basic Grey Obscure buttons,
Transparency (hand drawn skull), Felt Skull embellishment, hand embroidered by yours truly, photo corners made by yours truly

I'm super excited that I just signed up for a class with Allison Kreft of Hambly! I'm going to be making a 4x6 mini album with their new clearly heavy overlays on November 6th!