Washington DC - the history

the architecture, the monuments never fail to take my breath away. I got to play AT NIGHT. WITHOUT A FLASH. Go me! bwahahaha!So my DH, who loves to drive and knows his way around the entire country by-heart, took me on a ride last night and stopped so I could take my pix.
So I played. And had a great time. I'm pleased with the results.
I wrote the settings DOWN. Or rather iPhoto did. So I can take it from there. Maybe tonight. woo hooo!!
Its raining this a.m. I need to figure out how to get back down there and NOT get wet lol!!!
Because I'll melt. Snort. Anyway I'll get to play with my settings on a cloudy, rainy day. Playing is fun. Now to just have a good hair day. lol!

The days after Thanksgiving...

Grandpop hanging out the grandbaby and the granddog. We then ventured into Brooklyn to have dinner with son and dil. Fabulous dinner right in their neighborhood (can't remember the name of the restaurant). Tangreen? Mid Eastern cuisine. yum! This is the Verrazono bridge at night. No flash. From the car. Go me.
This is the Verrazano Bridge by day. In the car.
Tomorrow I'm headed to the Capitol.

Over at Siehled with a Kiss

Mary Pat bestowed this award to me. WOW! We've been following each others blog for some time now. Her's is very cool and you need to check it out. Thank you!!

And here are the rules:

1). Thank and link back to the person who awarded me
2). Share 8 things about myself
3). Pay it forward to 8 bloggers that I have recently discovered
4). Contact those bloggers and tell them about their awards

8 things hmmm....

1. I love to ride my bike around town.

2. I have 3 grandbabies - ALL boys.

3. I have a darling hubby that spoils me rotten.

4. I was born in PA.

5. I love cats - my hubby doesn't.

6. I have 2 boys.

7. I'm retired and love it.

8. I love traveling with the hubs.

NOW 8 blogs hmmm....I'm not sure I can do 8.

April

Beth

Monica

Tanya

Debbi

Ellen

Renee

Chris

We had a lovely evening yesterday, hanging out with the grandbaby and dining at Carrabba's. YUM!!! Owen is just so AMAZING (word of the day). He says it so cute with just the right inflection.

Thanksgiving with the Murphy's

Well as usual I got the whole photo thing backwards. This is the entire Murphy clan enjoying the Thanksgiving feast in the great hall of Amy and Manny's home.An aerial view. And yes it was a delicious as it looks.
The carver.
The carver and his helper.
And the imp that couldn't resist making faces.
I'm so thankful that once again we were able to spend the Thanksgiving holiday with the family.

The wedding album that sat on my desk

taunting and jeering me for MONTHS, is finally completed. Sheesh. I couldn't make any decisions. AND Of course I had to find the perfect paper. which is.............Bo Bunny. Love it. I hope she likes purple. LOL! Not that the entire wedding wasn't done in purple. whew *wiping brow*.
Then I couldn't decide on the adhesive, silly I know. Went with Cheetah 2 by Xyron and ran out in the middle of said project which was now on a deadline of course. 5 days before leaving for NJ for the Murphy Thanksgiving Extravaganza!! Luckily DH to the rescue driving me ALL the way to Sarasota because the local M's didn't have it in stock. Of course.
Then I couldn't decide black and white or color. Being the decisive person that I am I went with BOTH. bwahahaha!
THEN, since I only had a couple pictures I deemed WORTHY, I had to WAIT until I received the photos from the OTHER photographers.
Then I needed a theme. Then I couldn't FIND said theme. Then I went with fly by the seat of my pants and it'll come together. Oh and Lara dances professionally, so I found by CI a transparency (?) that had a dance quote on it. Perfect. And a thicker transparency with butterflies, swooning here.
Sighing happily.OH this is the Bo Bunny Acryllic Edgy and I added some chipboard pages in to accomodate some extras.
From this moment on....................I hope they like it.

New camera - my dh rocks.......................

So yesterday, DH gave me an early Christmas present. A Canon Rebel T2i. OMG! *swooning*

It is awesome. So we went to see the sand sculptors on the beach. And I played with the settings. And played. And really played. The fun was neverending.

The sand sculptures were amazing.

The first one is the grinch that stole Thanksgiving. It was a hoot. The detail is phenomenal. Truly.

This lady was huge, and her eyes, very eerie.

These are famous sculptures from all over the world.

I took about 200 pix. Low for me, but I turned on RAW (never did that before) and jpeg. Takes up a lot of space.

I went semi-manual. Gasp,faint,thud. I KNOW! Had mixed results which is okay = because it was all about the playing. And I played.

One problem I had was when I flipped it off and on. My fingernail hit the wheel and moved it from AV to M. Good thing I looked at LCD. Because whoa!!! Time to regroup. lol!!!!

This gent is detailing an outhouse. I hate outhouses. Really. eeeuuuu!!! However, this is soooooo cool. Ther eis a dragon hugging the castle. Again, the detail is awesome.

Take note HOW FAR the outhouse is from the castle. You'll be doing a lot of stepping down the staircase, unless you decide to just roll down the side, with hopefully enough momentum to fling yourself up the otherside. Just saying..........

100% Cute

and absolutely adorable are the kidlets in this mini album. Sadly I had this mini for so long I can't tell you the mfg.

You get 8 little cards and the hardest part for me, especially since I wanted it to go back in the box, NO POP DOTS ALLOWED. A challenge!

Well, after painting, the box adding some Tim Holtz' grungeboard, I know you'll be surprised to know I had cutting and measuring issues. So

after whacking them puppies down, I used more paint to ummm.....cover up the measurement issues accent the edges. Ahem.....I digress

Broke out stamps I haven't used in awhile and some punches. And used the KISS method (keep it simple stupid). Snort.

What happens in the Bahamas.....

There are several things I learned in the Bahamas and I'm sharing them with you....why? because its my blog. Snort.

1. There is Island time and Your time.

Island time ALWAYS wins.

My advice: patience grasshopper.

2. Straw markets are EVERYwhere and those ladies can teach sales 202.

They will take your money in no time flat you have a handful of stuff you'll never use again (unless you return), AND you'll be HAPPY to part with your money. AND they'll have YOUR life story, the name of all your kids and relatives down to the nth generation. Trust me.

My advice: gird your loins, guard your wallet.

3. The Bahamians are very open, fun, relaxed and funny and they love to engage. They love to talk, dance and did I mention dance and talk.

My advice: have a blast with them. It's not personal.

4. The Bahamians are VERY proud of their country and it doesn't matter where you are or what mode of transportation you take, you'll get a history of their country. Very cool. (And some earn their living on the tips you give them from said knowledge).

My advice: we need to bone up on American history, sheesh. And I'm just competitive that way, lol.

5. They LOVE food. Anything fried actually. AND its de-lish when you go local.

My advice: do NOT break out your WW point book, it'll break your heart. lmao....

Bahamas - On our own tour

Tom and I have a lot of fun adventuring on our own. This set of photos came out back-assward. So that's how we'll travel. We took a taxi over to Atlantis because we wanted to see the aquarium (or I did). Tom wanted to gamble. ON the way back we took the ferry. OMG! what a ride. I'm a sucker for old boats, tugs and shrimpers. Here is my souped up tug. YUM!And more and the awesome ocean liners behind them.
This quaint little home was on the water and the rustic-ness of it sang to me.
Here is the skyline view of the Atlantis and its HUGE and about to get BIGGER. Construction construction construction.
Taking shots in the tank was umm....a challenge. My SIL will be so proud of me - for the most part I went manual *GASP* I Know
Does the sting ray rock or what. I set my white balance, iso and the av. I'm just figuring this out so forgive me if I'm not quite on it.
Horse shoe crab on the bottom .
I flashed these poor babies becuase they came out like circles of light. Cool but I wanted to see jelly fish themselves.
Which is what happened to the Sea horses which are very cool BTW. Andy Warhol????
This was the start of the adventure.
Which OMG! was fun. We taxied over. As I mentioned the ferry back. The tide was out so getting on and off the boat - was um....well lets just say we had to be HAULED in and out. Sigh.

Bahamas - The TOUR

Last night, before today's tour LOL, we hopped aboard a boat, that took us to Stingray Island (I think) for dinner. The seas and boat rocked, just a bit. bwahaha!! The food was awesome. Found that calamari is good.
ARRGGGHHH matey. So the tour, we blew through Fish Fry town mainly because it wasn't open yet and had I KNOWN we wouldn't be back, I'd have taken pix through the window. So this is the Atlantis Hotel.
Marlin on the rooftop, seahorses and shells below.
I believe this winged horses are The FURIES, but I'm not sure. They're very cool and some do look a tad mad.
I played with the saturation on this. I LOVE the saturation button.
Christopher Columbus landed in the Bahamas and its believed there he made the wrong turn to disover America.
Fort Charlotte was fun. Named for a Queen. And its 4 forts combined. Really so glad I didn't live in the 1700's. Twas a harsh time.

The guns were on wheels, and I'm still trying to figure out how many men were needed to turn it.
And a lighthouse, gasp! And yes I have a bazillion shots.
Here we are in the town that has a ton of fancy smancy shops. I just love the fun colors.
Did you know pink was the national color "sortof." In the early days, the folks would take the conch shells and smash them to bits zeroing in on the PINK of the shell and then applying it to their buildings.