ST Thomas - Dorothea Beach where we stayed

I know everyone has been wanting to see pictures from our trip. Sorry for the delay...the day after we got home I came down sick and am just now bouncing back.



Thursday - Arrival Day



Our flight was about 30 minutes late leaving ATL. Nothing like delaying paradise. The majority of the flight was bumpy. But we finally arrived. We had rented a condo on Dorothea Beach (a "rural" part of the island it said in the listing on Homeaway.com). Patty and Peter the owners of the condo where there to pick us up at the airport. It was nice to not have to deal with the rental car at the airport (bad experience last year).

Off to the condo we go. We drove through parts of the island that did not look familiar (not only to me, but to Troy too). And eventually Patty started pointing out a few landmarks as we approached the road to the condo. We turned on the "road"...it was bumpy, windy and steep. No wonder they said we'd need a jeep. But in the end it was totally worth it. Here are some pictures from the beach.

This is from the lawn outside the condo. Yes we were THAT close to the water.

PARADISE!!

And here I am so excited to be on the beach.

Troy hiked out to the end of the points on both sides of the bay during our trip and this is one of the pictures he took looking back towards the condos.

There are plenty more....we (well mostly Troy) took close to 2,000 this trip. Yes he's a bit obsessed. :)

Atlanta Botantical Garden

Trying to catch up on blogging. While mom was here visiting for the engagement party we took a trip to the Atlanta Botantical Garden. It was a beautiful day. Here are a few of my favorite pictures from our visit.

Mr. Frog enjoying a nice shady spot in the garden.

Not sure what these next plants are, but love the colors.

Mom in the Orchid House. As soon as you open the door the scent is amazing. I could have spent hours and hours just walking around enjoy the beautiful orchids and their scent.

The Blue Frogs

I'm going to have to take Troy down here one of these days. He'll be in picture taking heaven. :)

Engagement Party

As many of you know, my BFF Beth and her husband Mark were hosting an engagement party for us this past weekend. It was AWESOME!! The food was amazing, the decorations were perfect and we all had a grand time.

My mom, Troy's mom, brother and sister flew in for the party. As well as a high school friend of Troy's and his wife. We were surrounded by friends and family, and had a WONDERFUL time, and we truly appreciate everyone coming out to celebrate our love.

Here are a couple pictures from the evening.

The Happy Couple

Me helping with the prep work right before the party.

Maritza (Troy's mom), Troy, Me, and my mom, Judy

Troy and I with Beth and Mark, our awesome friends and hosts of the party.

The food table. Everything was so beautiful and delicious. Beth totally outdid herself.

So for those that know Troy - he LOVES Ketchup. And since we won't have enough people at the wedding to do a grooms cake I thought we'd do it at the engagement party. My mom has been decorating cakes for years and agreed to do the cake. A Heinz Ketchup bottle shaped one. :) Troy loved it!!! Thank you mom for helping me pull off such an awesome suprise for him. The cake was perfect!!

Troy with his cake!

Thanks to everyone that came out and celebrated with us. We are so blessed to have such amazing friends and family. XOXOXO

Just a quick post so you all don't think I dropped off the face of the earth. :) I'm still here. Things have just been a bit crazy around here the last two weeks, and it's only going to get worse.

The engagement party is less than a week away. And guess what that also means...the arrival of our families is only days away!! YIKES! My mom arrives Thursday night and Troy's Family on Friday morning. This will be the first time Troy's family has been up to visit since we started dating. So I've been CLEANING and organizing the house like you would not believe. I'm an organizational freak as it is, but add the future in-laws coming for their first visit....I'm over the top. LOL But it's all good. Just so much to get done.

On top of being the Queen of Clean I've also been helping on a new messageboard that a friend on the Cricut Messageboard created. Things are going well there. Lots of great people have joined - membership is at 700+ and we have over 8,000 posts already. If you haven't already joined, come check it out http://www.fromctoshiningc.com

Well that't the quick run down of what's been going on here the last two weeks. I'll get a few pictures posted next week after the engagement party.

Have an awesome week everyone! :-)

Party Dress

So our engagement party is THREE weeks from tonight. I realized the other day that I probably should start thinking about finding a new dress for the party. On Friday two friends from work and I went out shopping during lunch. I wasn't even thinking about the dress....but they had two racks of spring dresses. I remember touching one of the dresses that I liked the colors on, but it was some stiff material so I walked away. While Dominique made a 2nd trip into the dressing room I started to wander about the store again....and this dress just called out to me. I grabbed it and headed for the dressing room. The reaction of Dom and some stranger as I walked out of the dressing room was enough to seal the deal.

It's very light weight and comfortable. I LOVE IT!!

You'll have to check back after April 25th to see pictures of me in it! :-)

I'M IN LOVE

.....that's what I SHOUTED tonight when I stamped my first image with my Stampin' Up! Inspired By Nature set using the Stampin' Write Markers. I had played around with the markers the other night on the Pocket Silhouettes stamps. But OMG the look it gives on a bigger stamp like Inspired by Nature......AMAZING!!

Then......I SCREAMED (and I think I scared Beth) when I stamped my first image using the Watercolor Wonder Crayons. BEAUTIFUL!!!

I'm so in love!! Of course this means I now must have the other 3 sets that I don't own of the markers and crayons.

Here are the four cards I stamped tonight. This is all I got done because after the stamping I just sat and admired them for quite some time. :-)

I only put the bow on one - I thought the cards were so pretty they didn't need anything more. Plus no bow makes for easier mailing.


This one is the Markers. Chocolate Chip, Brocade Blue and Always Artichoke (grass is Mellow Moss - you can see it in the picture above)

This one was with the Crayons. Chocolate Chip, More Mustard and Old Olive.

If you would like to check out other Stampin' Up! products visit my website at http://snoopynut1972.stampinup.net

Thanks for stopping by!

Just a few cards

I haven't posted any cards lately so thought I'd get a few posted that I've done over the last few weeks. I'm finally starting to remember to take pictures before giving them to their recipients.

This first one is my all time favorite that I've made to this point. This is made with the Rose Rhapsody SU Set. LOVE IT!

Pocket Silhouettes is another of my favorites.

And this adorable little guy is a SCAL file I downloaded. He was too cute and my mom loves teddy bears so I had to have him.

Well it's bedtime, so I'll have to post more tomorrow. Not much scrapping tonight - just playing with my new SU Markers....I can already tell I'm going to have a lot of fun with those.