Oympia, Greece

Here is the site for the first Olympic Games, Olympia, Greece. What a beautiful place to visit the first week of November. The wind fresh and cool, the air clean and crisp, the visitors at a low. What could be better than a walk through the place of the first olympic games. Remember the first Olympic games were not inaugurated until 776 BC. from then on, every four years, the peoples of Greece ceased hostilities,  spectators, as well as athletes ( all men only ) from all over the ancient world to compete.
Thank goodness times have changed. So happy now that we can see all compete! Back then, as today the winners received numerous gifts. The ancient winners would receive a palm of honor and perhaps a crown of olive leaves. The top gift would of course be that they would get a statue in their honour!
Anyway, this is only one stop that we have taken on our Anniversary trip. What a glorious time to travel and if you want to enjoy the sites, have great meals, and the advantages of a small ship. One should consider the beautiful ship by Seabourn, the Odyssey. I would most likely take this trip again or better yet recommend it to my friends. The service is great on the ship and it is very well maintained and not over decorated, simple yet elegant. Great ship, Great trip and of course Great Celebration with my wonderful husband of 30 years.

How to Make Creative Memories - Soft Book

1995  Grant - Age 4 on his first cruise

Grant - Age 5 on a commercial plane

2010 Grant - Age 19 in college now!

How do we make those memories? We travel, cook, work, read, argue, create, and love!  We do this all together as a family. So my way of remembering those special moments is to document them in some way. I noted in blogs past that I had taken a negative converter and added all negatives to my computer and wow was that worth it. The converter is by ION and it works wonderful. Now that the old pictures are right at hand I can start my creative memory soft book. I will post this as I work on the project. It will be a work in progress. My thoughts right now are to work in fabric and transfer the imagery on to a light muslin and add the pics to a stabilized silk back and create my book. I will then embellish the book with paint, fabric, lace, ribbon etc... always a work in progress with these ideas. I just wanted to show how the years have passed and I think it's time to finish his traditional school scrapbook, but also to select those pictures  I really treasure and create something that is out of the box. Do it my way the out of the box way! 

Ice Bar in Sweden

The group we were paired with at the Ice Bar in Sweden. I am still having fun with these old slides, this trip was in June of 2004. I did just find them and converted them using my new ion. I shouldn't have waited so long, they started getting alittle discolored. If you ever want to visit Russia, the Baltic Cruise on NCL is a great way to get there. Not only did we go to Sweden, Russia, Norway, we also went to Germany and a couple of other countries. I am drawing a blank right now, it's been awhile. But, nonetheless go if you get a chance. It's a great trip!

Here we are all dressed up for the freezer, what were we thinking. They did have all the gear for us to put on so we could sit relax and have a drink. I don't even like the cold, and to have a drink. I don't think so.

Lake Como in Italy

I wanted to share a couple of pics from my travels to Lake Como. It was truly a magical place, absolutely lovely. I went to Italy with my husband on business, by default. I really had to go and make an appearance. The reason I went with hesitation is because I had been to Florence, Venice and Rome a couple of years prior, and although it was a fantastic trip I did not want to go there again during summer months. It's too warm and in those cities that I have visited, they did not have a law in which they (the people) have to pick up after their dogs. Hence use their pooper scoopers! I have this thing about cleanliness, not to mention I don't want to smell and or walk around dog crap in the heat of the day. If the people in New York and Chicago or any other city in America, pick up the poop why can't they! So needless to say I had this awful vision in my head of me dodging crap on all the sidewalks and I wasn't looking forward to it. Upon arriving in Milan, we rented a car and made our way to a wonderful little city called Bergamo and then on to Lago de Maggiore, from there we went to Lake Como. A place where George Clooney calls home. This place was absolutely gorgeous and I couldn't say enough wonderful things about it. I am so glad I didn't let those Italian dogs change my mind on going, and I am so happy that we travelled by car. I loved northern Italy and look forward to going there again someday. I guess what I am trying to say is don't be afraid or don't let a weird experience stop  you from seeing the world. Every place under the sun has some flaw, but we can move past it and enjoy the view!