Spring Break, Part II

The reason my spring break plans fell through is because my parents who were going to go see ended up coming down to Birmingham, AL so my dad could work for Farmers Insurance.  Since they were there Jon and I figured what better time to have a date night!  We took the boys up and dropped them off at the motor home. It is always an adventure driving between Montgomery and Birmingham...1. people in the South consider the left lane, just another lane, its not the fast lane or the passing lane, just a lane.  This makes me cuss like a trucker, and gives me serious road rage:) 2.  If there is an accident or construction on the road a Southerner must know what it going on, this in turn backs up traffic for miles just so we can be well aware of the crew painting lines on the road!  By the time we arrived, and my kids had started fighting in the backseat...I was ready to dump them at the stop light and make a run for it!

Birmingham is a really nice little city, it has great shopping, restaurants, and lots of things to keep you busy.  We stayed at the Hotel Highland at the Five Points South.   It is a historic hotel, and was remodeled a few years ago.  We really enjoyed our stay and had a great time getting away!  Apologies for the pictures, they were all taken on my phone and some were off because of the lighting but looked way worse when the flash was used!

The best part about getting away from you children for the evening....ok, maybe the 2nd best thing;) is having a great meal without little people eating off of your plate, or taking someone to the restroom every ten minutes! In the Five Points South area, we chose Chez FonFon, it has been featured in Southern Living magazine a few times and is a Chef Frank Stitts restaurant.  Just a great restaurant, very busy on a weekend and they don't take reservations.  Their signature drink is the "Orange Thing", it was awesome....after one I could not feel the left side of my face:)  They offered lots of imported beer and the hubby chose an Old Speckled Hen.  Their wine choices were endless!

I snapped this shot of the bread, and on the right is the dessert!  A tasty chocolate mousse, desserts change nightly so you never know what you are in store for.

The meal was really a treat and so delicious.  The hubby ordered a Hamburger FonFon with comte and pommes frites, I ordered the Steak frites with pommes frites...it came with a small salad and was absolutely delightful! I did not realize that I put the bread picture in here twice, sorry about that:)

The next day we actually got back to pick up the boys fairly early....Andy really did not want to leave, this is what he did for most of the trip home because he missed grandma! and if you cannot tell...those are tears, good grief!

 Thanks for stopping by to take a look:)

Spring Break

The family and I took a super quick trip down to Orlando over spring break....we went because being the Harry Potter geek that I am, I wanted to see the Wizarding World of Harry Potter!  We actually had different plans for spring break, and when those fell through we decided on a Wednesday to go out of town on a Sunday.  Remember, and I know all of my readers are smart enough to know this but in Orlando.....Plan early, the earlier the better!!!!  Since we did not have that luxury we did luck out finding a room, considering MS, AL, GA, & KY were all on spring break.  The hubby went through Priceline and we got a great deal at Wyndham Orlando resort, $79 a night...so truly no complaints!  If you have ever been to Orlando, you know that you spend no time in the room anyway, and if you are in the room you are to exhausted to notice that they somehow all look alike!  The grounds of the Wyndham were beautiful and the pools were awesome and heated.

Before we left out for FL, I went and purchased our tickets from ITR(military speak for cheap tickets).  Universal Studios in Orlando has two parks, we purchased one day tickets for each park...so no hopping around.  Honestly, they could have combined both parks because I think they could both be done in one day.  We visited the Islands of Adventure first where the Harry Potter was located.

One of the best things that Universal offers is their express pass, if you stay in a universal resort they sometimes offer this as a perk to their guests.  It is probably worth the extra that you pay for the "average" room at their resort because for a one day, one park express pass for two adults it was $134....even this squirrel was laughing at the thought of paying this:) but if you want to ride, and that is what I came to do...suck it up and pay the price....so worth it!!!!  Keep in mind there are several rides in both parks that the express pass will not work....Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey is one of those rides.  The wait time never went below an hour and a half, my boys didn't want to wait, so it was the one ride we didn't go on. 

The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, WOW...if Harry Potter was real, this is exactly what it would look like!  They really did a great job...if you go just remember to bring your patience and a big huge bag of money:) Also, the excitement has not declined...it is just as popular now as it was this summer and it draws the crowd.  Even with all this excitement Universal does not seem to have it together.  You MUST go and wait in a line...well sort of a line, in that line you get a ticket with a time on it to come back.  Get there early!!!! and by early I mean get in line when the park opens and sprint to the ticket line!...no really, I am not kidding!  Come back with your ticket...and they will let you in at the entrance to Harry Potter.  Lose the ticket and you are out of luck....and the entrance times go quick.  Seriously....the earlier the better.

  Above is the Forbidden Journey Ride, it is modeled after Hogwarts.  All of the stores from the books are represented, and you can even buy butter beer and wands!

The wait time to get into the gift shops in HP were an hour and a half....yes, folks one hour and thirty minutes for one gift shop!  Then another hour or so for butter beer, my kids don't wait that long for anything so we did not visit a gift shop or get butter beer.  Apparently in the summer it is worse than that...plus you have people passing out and puking in line from the heat:)  That was word on the street anyway, but I believe it!!!! The best kept secret was the wand cart at the end of the HP area...it was only about fifteen minutes.  Here is where the big bag of money comes in....31.90 for a wand, you did NOT read that wrong 31.90.  But when you want one as bad as your children, you pay....dearly:)

Andy loved the Dr. Seuss area of the park, it was perfect for smaller children but the rides were big enough for the almost teenager Brett!

The Popeye and Bluto's Bilge Rat Barges were a favorite of kiddos, they rode it over and over!  They looked like drenched rats afterwards!


Ripsaw Falls, another water ride is another that you will get soaked on...but these people put their thinking caps on and built people dryers!  For $5 you can jump in and dry off after getting soaked:)

The next day after dragging myself out of bed we headed over to Universal Studios Park, I am fairly certain it is older,  definitely not as many rides  While we were there they were celebrating Mardi Gras, it was a theme that carried throughout the park and into the gift shops.

The rides in this park are definitely more dated.  ET and Jaws have seen better days, but still classics and we enjoyed them! Men in Black is an interactive ride and both boys thought that was the coolest.  The Revenge of the Mummy was one of my favorites but The Simpsons was the boys favorite!  A few years ago, they overhauled the Back to the Future ride and turned it into the Simpsons.

One of the best parts about going to an amusement park is the people watching you can do....had to snap a pix of this guy!

 The Universal Studios park closes at 7 p.m., and Islands of Adventure stays open till 9 p.m., the second night we got out earlier, went back to the hotel to rest up for the drive the next day.

Hope you all enjoyed this post!

Madisen

At the beginning of March I made my friend Lindsay a wood block with her new baby boys name, Levi!  Have not sent it yet Lindsay...spring break really took me by surprise this year:)  So, after making something for a little boy...I knew I had to make something for a girl as well!  Ms. Madisen is the daughter of my great friend Madeleine,who is already in Germany and I know she is anxiously awaiting my arrival:)))LOL!!!!!  It is going to be to much fun!!!!

If you have read my blog in the last couple of months, you know that I have gone a little crazy with the blocks of wood.  Won't say I get stuck in a rut but I get addicted to all the possibilities.....it is just a block of wood, but you can do so much with it!!!!!! With this block of wood, I could not find any printables that I absolutely loved or could just add to so I decided to make my own.  I used Photoshop, if you have considered purchasing any software such as photoshop CS5 or photoshop elements(cheaper)....just do it!  Such an awesome program...you will pay for it dearly but it is worth it! I found a free photoshop brush that I absolutely fell in love with and applied it to the program. 

The first block is a shabby chic green, the printable is plain with Madisen's name put across the front.  It is a dark pink....normally I go darker with all of my colors and the reason is because if you sand the paper and even when you use sealant it will appear lighter on the wood. After sanding the paint and applying Tim Holtz tea stain dye,  I applied the printable with Canvas Corp glue that is nearing the end of the bottle!  After drying spray glitter was applied and I used leftover ribbon from my tassel project and tied a bow to the top.  A small drop of glue was applied to the back and the actual bow to make the ribbon stay put. 

This block was done almost exactly the same except the printable is smaller and a tutu brush was added on photoshop.  The block was sanded, tea stained, printable was applied and spray glittered.  The bow is just larger ribbon and hot glue was used to make it stay put.

Thanks for stopping by to take a look!

Subway Art Printable

A few weeks ago I started putting all the great printables I have been finding on  blocks of wood.  I started with this Valentines Day printable...and it didn't stop there.   Are you interested in creating stuff out of blocks of wood?  Don't have a way to cut your wood down to the size that you want? head over to your local home depot, lowes, etc., and they will cut it for you!  Personally, I have every power tool known to man BUT let's face it....having someone else do it for you is always easier:)))  Plus, no mess in your garage and it is a service they provide...so don't let the obstacle of no power tools, messes, etc., get in the way of letting your creative juices flow!

This Subway Art printable is so cute, I found it over at Betty Crocker Wannabe.  If you have Photoshop, Gimp, or Paint.net, there are endless possibilities with this printable....personally, I thought is was absolutely awesome the way it looked!  I sized the printable two ways, the first I made very small to place on a block of wood but didn't really like it being so small.  I wanted my family to be able to read it!  So I made it into an 8 x 10 and placed on a .97 cent plaque that I found at Wal-Mart. 

The plaque needed primer so I applied it a spray paint primer, then painted white with craft paint.  After painting, the printable was applied with Canvas Corp glue.  I used a Tim Holtz sanding block(best invention, ever!), over the entire project....after sanding I used the Tim Holtz tea dye stain to age the plaque.  I sanded lightly one more time, and applied a spray sealant to the entire project.    To jazz up the entire plaque a little, I used the drill to put holes in the top of the plaque, after drilling you may have to sand the holes down...depending on how rough the wood looks.  Normally I would have done this in the beginning but the drilling and ribbon was an afterthought! After holes are complete thread ribbon through.  I tied the bow above the words, and used the ribbon as a hanger for the plaque.  

The first picture is after I placed the printable on the wood.

and below is the finished product!

 Thanks for stopping by to take a look!

Hopefully Lindsay doesn't read this:)

because it is one of the baby gifts that I will be sending her!  Her and I were txting back and forth the other day about mod podge, and I did not realize that she was going to be using a cowboy/western theme for her new little man they will be welcoming home soon.  After searching for printables online for what felt like forever....I just decided to make my own!

I used one of the blocks of wood that I already had...painted it red, then used sandpaper to rough it up.  The printable was antiqued with a stamp pad then glued on to the block of wood.....the sandpaper was used over the printable lightly.  After everything dried completely, I applied a couple of coats of sealant.  

The cording at the top is Canvas Corp., which was hot glued to stay in place, and attached to it is a tiny clothespin where a picture can be attached. 

So once I got started....I kept going!  The next block of wood was created the exact same way.

At the top of this wood block, I used the cording and attached a Tim Holtz charm that reads "cherish". 

Thanks for stopping by to take a look!

St. Patrick's Day Printables

I realize there has already been a posting on this subject but I have found a few more things to share with you!  How Does She? has posted some of the cutest printables around...you will WANT these printables.  To receive them, just sign up for their weekly emails....and they will instantly appear in your inbox:)


Over at Two Twenty-One is a Keep Calm and......well it is an Irish theme, and I won't spoil it for you.  It is free for the taking on her site.  I have plans for this one...not sure if it is going to be put on a block of wood or in a frame for the mantle?


Want simple?  Madigan Made, has it!  One word, and one picture makes this printable great....and being free really makes you feel like you are getting away with something!


As you all realize by now....I am obsessed with printables!  I hope you all enjoy them as much as I do!


Thanks for stopping by to take a look:)