JAMSquared

Today is the release day for the new kit by Amy’s Designs. It is called Autumn Dream and can be purchased at Scraps-N-Pieces. It’s on sale right now as part of the grand opening festivities of store.

The pictures I decided to use to showcase this digikit are from my 2008 trip to Vermont. I blogged about that trip here.

The first layout uses pictures of the bed and breakfast where we stayed.

Digikit: Amy’s Designs – Autumn Dream
Font Used: Sandscript BTN

I was so pleased with how the first layout turned out, I made a second one using a similar blocking style. Journaling reads: “Friday morning, the weather was a little drizzly. Mom, Sarah and baby Cameron stayed inside, while the rest of us hiked the trail around the inn near the river. Then all of us drove to eat lunch at Maxwell’s Flat Road Grill where we had some tasty buffalo burgers. Afterward, we browsed some shops in Manchester.”

Digikit: Amy’s Designs – Autumn Dream
Font Used: Sandscript BTN

This next layout has some fabulous fall photos. It is a scraplift of this layout. Journaling reads: “Our vehicle arrived at The Cheese House first, so I organized a little photo shoot by the creek behind the store while we waited for the rest of the family to arrive. Arlington, Vermont”

Digikit: Amy’s Designs – Autumn Dream
Font Used: Boomerang

And the last layout I’m sharing today is of Chiselville, the covered bridge near the inn. Journaling reads: “Built in 1870, Chiselville is a 117-foot long covered bridge spanning Roaring Branch on Sunderland Hill Road.”

Digikit: Amy’s Designs – Autumn Dream
Fonts Used: Apple Boy BTN (title), Times New Roman (journaling)

The rest of the creative team came up with some fabulous layouts as well. They really showcase the versatility of the kit. Lisa scrapped two Easter layouts here and here. Stacy scrapped some Halloween photos here and here. Ann did a layout of her daughter. Kristal also scrapped her daughter. Amy did a wedding layout. Our fearless designer Amy did a layout with her daughter and one about herself.

Thanks for stopping by and have a fabulous day.

Almost two weeks ago, we had the annual Dzubinski family trip. This year we went to Kingsland and stayed at the Antlers Inn, right on Lake LBJ. I’m a slacker when it comes to blogging about trips, because I take so many pictures and I have a hard time choosing which ones to blog. My sister Sarah already blogged days 1, 2, and 3 and my sister-in-law Julia did a single blog post. I’m going to go a bit untraditional in terms of blogging about the trip. I’m going to share a few layouts I’ve made of day 3 today. We’ll see when/if/how I blog about the rest of the trip.

The first layout uses the current Sketchy Thursdays sketch. Journaling reads: Sunday morning, we loaded up on a rented pontoon boat to kick back and relax. July 31, 2011

Digikits Used: Dani Moy Designs – Sail With Me
Fonts Used: Smarty Pants BTN, Weathered SF

This next layout is purely of the action on the boat. I thought I was doing great to get at least one photo of everyone on the boat, but then I realized I didn’t include a picture of my brother Jason. I looked through mine and my sister’s photos and apparently no pictures of my brother were taken when he was on the boat.

Digikits Used: Dani Moy Designs – Sail With Me
Fonts Used: my font isn’t funky enough

It was almost as if he was never on the boat, which brings us to the third layout. Journaling reads: Jason and then Jason and Julia were the first to try out the jet ski. Of course Jason was also the first to try out the tube pulled behind the boat. It was almost as if Jason was never on the boat.

Digikits Used: Connie Prince – Whale of a Good Time
Fonts Used: my font isn’t funky enough

I have plans to do a similar page for each section of the family. What do you think?

Thanks for stopping by and have a fabulous day.

Last Friday, we drove up to DFW for my nephew’s 3rd birthday party. On the way, we decided to stop in Waco for lunch and a trip to the Cameron Park Zoo. Jessica has been to the Austin Zoo, but since it is more of a rescue zoo this was her first trip to a zoo with animals like elephants and giraffes. We’d never been to the Cameron Park Zoo before and I had heard really good things about it and they all proved true. The walkways have a lot of trees alongside so there was a fair amount of shade. The animal enclosures were fantastic, especially the giraffe and orangutan exhibits (too bad the orangutans were snoozing). My only complaint is it would have been nice if the exhibits were in a loop layout. As it was, we had to backtrack to leave the zoo. However, there were some walkways closed for construction, so maybe that will improve.

Our first stop at the zoo was the restroom to change Jessica. After washing her hands, she wouldn’t let go of the paper towel. Then we let her look at the second map while we decided what we were going to see first. She would not let go of the map. She spent almost the entire time at the zoo with the paper towel in one hand and the map in the other. She also wouldn’t sit in the stroller, so she walked a good portion of the zoo and then was carried by either James or me.  She’s in a phase where she doesn’t like to be strapped in unless it is her choice and then if it is her choice she usually doesn’t want to get unstrapped.

Unfortunately, we didn’t see the Gibbons and only saw one of the Ring Tailed Lemurs on their respective islands. But our visit was in the warmest part of the day (12:45-2:30) and it was a rather warm day for April, so they were probably taking a siesta. The turtles were enjoying the sun though.

 

Jessica loved watching the Koi near the orangutan habitat.

 

The two Sumatran Tigers were gorgeous.

 

 

All three of the lions were snoozing. It was rather funny how the male was lying.

 

The Meerkats were some of the most active animals we saw. Jessica thought they were pretty neat. One was even digging a hole.

 

Jessica loves it when her Daddy makes elephant noises when he reads her Inside Noah’s Ark. It is one of her favorite books, partly because of all the animal noises her Daddy makes (I so need to get a video). Jessica will even imitate her Daddy, especially with the elephants, so it was neat watching the two of them watch the elephants since James got her excited with the elephant noise as we approached them.

 

 

The Reticulated Giraffes have a super cool enclosure. You first see them at ground level. Then you walk up this treetop path where you get closer to their eye level. You can even view the inside of their barn, where one of the giraffes was resting.

 

 

 

 

 

By this point, I had gotten the paper towel away from Jessica, leaving her just holding the map. Near this bird exhibit, James put her on his shoulders and Jessica was kinda playing peekaboo with me using the map. She accidently let go and a breeze floated it away. I feel bad that we littered, but it flew past a barrier that we couldn’t go past.

 

At the River Otter exhibit, there is a clear tunnel slide that goes through their habitat. I’m not completely sure that Jessica grasped how cool this was. I wish I was a kid and could  go down that kind of slide.

 

 

 

 

 

Overall, we had a great time at the Cameron Park Zoo and I think we’ll try to go back sometime, but we’ll try to go earlier in the day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Warning: I’m sharing 49 of the 309 photos I snapped for the day. Make sure you click on a picture if you want to view it bigger.

California Academy of Sciences

We took the bus from our hotel to Golden Gate Park, home to among other things the California Academy of Sciences. As a large urban park, it is similar to NYC’s Central Park  although at 1,017 acres, it is 20% larger than Central Park. The area between the California Academy of Sciences and the de Young Musuem is called the Music Concourse. One of the first things that caught our eyes were these weird looking trees. I’ve since found out these are normal trees pruned in a method called pollarding, which promotes a dense head of foliage and branches. This practice is performed to maintain trees at a predetermined height. It would be interesting to see the trees in the summer with foliage. They probably don’t look so alien then.

The first exhibit we experienced was “Rainforests of the World.” This is the exhibit we probably spent the most time perusing. It was really neat.

The base of the rain forest dome was “flooded.” Some of the fish were quite large, perhaps as big as a human adult. After ascending the walkway that circled the dome, you took the elevator to the lower level of the museum. After exiting the elevator,  you could watch the fish swim over your head. Note the people seen in the left of the next photo. They weren’t swimming with the fish.

I really enjoyed taking photos of the butterflies, so you will see a number of the different types found in the dome. I’m not sure if there were more Isabella Longwings or if they were just camera hogs, but they were the subjects of probably half of my butterfly photos.

The aquarium filled the entire lower level of the museum.

James and I remember frequently seeing relatives of this little guy on our trip to Tahiti. Although our favorite on that trip was the Picasso Triggerfish.

We ate lunch in the museum cafeteria. The selection and quality was very good. Afterward, we went to the “Islands of Evolution” exhibit.

Then we wandered up to the observation deck of the living roof. They shaped the roof like San Francisco, with seven hills. I think a living roof is such a fabulous concept. Just think, if you have ancestors who lived in dugouts, they were early pioneers of living roofs.

Back inside, you can look up through the glass ceiling of the Piazza to see the living roof.

The museum also has a planetarium (passes are distributed on a first come first served basis), but we picked the one day it happened to be closed for maintenance. So we headed back downstairs to the aquarium for a chat with a diver in the Philippine Coral Reef.

After leaving the California Academy of Sciences, we strolled through a small portion of Golden Gate Park enjoying the scenery.

Golden Gate Bridge

From Fulton St., we hopped on a bus to drive up Park Presidio Blvd. to the Golden Gate Bridge.

Palace of Fine Arts

From the bridge, we took a short bus ride to the Palace of Fine Arts. This was even more amazing during the daytime.

You can really see how massive a structure it is, by this next picture of James relaxing on a bench in front of the domed part of the structure.

Evening

From the Palace of Fine Arts, we took another bus to Ghirardelli Square. We checked out the beach of Aquatic Park, a small lagoon located just north of Ghirardelli Square nearly encircled by two piers with a small opening out to the bay. Apparently, people swim here year-round since it is free from sea craft, but we didn’t see any swimmers while we were there and I don’t think I would want to swim there in February.

We then walked over to Scoma’s on Pier 47 for a delectable dinner. We didn’t order an appetizer, but the sourdough bread served prior to receiving our entrees was extremely tasty. James ate Seafood Canneloni and thought of it like Italian enchiladas. I ate Grilled Pacific Red Snapper with garlic lemon butter that James even said was good (and he’s not the biggest fish person). Afterward, we wandered the shops for a bit to work up an appetite for dessert. We headed back to Ghirardelli Square to share an ice cream sundae at the lower of the two Ghirardelli shops in the square. Did you know that Ghirardelli first opened shop in 1852?

If you missed Day 1 of our trip, go here and here for an Alcatraz cell door video. Stay tuned for days 3 and 4.

Yesterday, I promised a video from our visit to Alcatraz Island. Well, here it is.