Book wreath

I found this beautiful wreath online and thought it looked pretty cool.  I found some tutorials and off I went creating one of my own.

I took a used copy of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.  The entire book.  It always hurts me to defile a book but it was worth it for the end result.  Plus it was a homeless book at a library book sale.  It will just be enjoyed in a different way.

I bought a medium sized Styrofoam wreath and went to work with paper, hot glue and staples.

I started in the middle of wreath.  On all layers but the first I only used hot glue.  Once I got to the layer that would sit on the wall I added a staple for some extra substance.

Once I made it to a flat back I flipped it over and started working again.  As I went along I used different folding patterns for various pages.  Some in cones, S shapes, and hearts.

Once I got to the inside on of the wreath I again secured the inside most layer with staples.  I had a couple extra sheets of paper in the end which I placed in any place where ever I could see the white from the foam wreath.  

 And it's complete!  Not to shabby for about a $5 project.

Another project complete.  I just need to make a second one for my mom.  Another day and another craft project to add to my list.

Now off to something new Universal Studios Florida

When I visited Universal Studios Theme parks in Feburary 2012 I only had the chance to go to Islands of Adventure.  So this time I bought a three day pass to both parks.

The first day I went to the parks with my best Disney friend Rachel.  She and I conquered both parks in one day on a Sunday.  Like my last visit Sunday treated me very well.  Outside Rachel's bad luck with parking   the parks on Sunday are great.  

 My first real day in Orlando.  Ahh to be back so soon in the hot humid Florida air.  Well this day wasn't too bad.  We started our day not super early but early enough by heading down the road to Universal.  I told Rachel to get an annual pass for the parks since she was going to be visiting at least twice during the year, plus free parking!  We got the parking that we always do, at the end of the row, the furthest away from the entrance.  We walked the long distance to Universal Studios park and found that we had gotten there 10 minutes before the gates opened.  I guess I am too efficient in getting ready in the morning.  After our usual changing conversation the gates opened and off we went.

 Entering Universal Studios is a bit of a walk from the parking garage, through Universal City Walk, next the water way and finally to the entrance.  A wonderful entrance into a fun park.  

All around the entrance, and the entire park, were Halloween decorations for the Horror Nights.  They were cool looking and unobtrusive.  We passed the entrance store and went straight into the Despicable Me attraction.  It's a very simple and heartfelt motion simulator ride.  It had opened since I came in February so it was new to me.  But so was everything in the Universal Studios park since I had not visited there ever before.

We hit everything in the park.  

Shrek 4D Adventure.  I went on this many years ago in Hollywood and it is the same.  Set after the first Shrek film it is what happens after the movie ends.

Twister a movie effects show that made me keep exclaiming how young Bill Paxton was.

 The Revenge of the Mummy is a great indoor rollercoaster with a couple hot and cold surprises and a que plot that doesn't make sense unless  you are stuck in line for while. 

Disaster with Christopher Walken as a movie studio head who needs help casting extras for his new disaster pic.  Great for big groups of people when someone from their group gets selected.  Plus the actor who was Walken's assistant who selected people from our group was fantastic!  I couldn't stop talking about how awesome he was!
Men in Black is like steping back in time to the 1964 World's Fair.  But instead of going into a fair pavilion you are chosen by the MIB to train for service.  It's very similar to Buzz Lightyear but you can hit opponents vehicles and make them spin.  Or sometimes you just spin when no one is shooting at you.  

The Simpsons is in the building that formerly held the Back the Future Ride.  The vehicles were clearly Delorians in their past life but now they are cars that fly you into the world of the Simpsons.  Overall I was not impressed by the ride, mostly because it was done in computer animation rather than hand drawn.  The characters just didn't look right.

ET is a very strange ride.  You go onto a bicycle contraption that holds about 20 people and fly through the story of ET and more.  You end on ET's planet with creatures that seem like they would be comfortable in Labryth.  Don't need to do that one again.

And finally Terminator 2 3-D.  It's a very entertaining show with acting, action, 3-D film and motorcycles all combined.  

We finished all that (minus Shrek) by about 1pm after spending about 4 hours in the park.

I came back my following two days and revisited most of the park, took pictures with some characters and watching some shows.  

The Blues Brother's Show was good but I really hoped that they would come in with their car.  But alas they did not.

I was always impressed by themeing all around.  My favorite find was the cookies for Despicable Me.  Even you can buy coco nutties.

At the end of the day the lagoon in the center of the park fills with a 100th Anniversary Show.  The show is a combination of fountains, film, and fireworks.  There is a water screen in the middle of the lake that sometimes creates patterns with the water.  In the blue and red shots below the starburst and film reel were created by falling water.  Very cool.

 Again I was sad to report that I did not take enough photos.  I didn't get photos of anything on the back half the the park. We were too busy having fun and spending too much time in the Wizarding World.

Next time...

I will be coming back in 2 years or so when Diagon Alley opens.  What's not to love about more Harry Potter!

March Cross Stitch

Now to another monthly cross stitch.  It's almost the end of March but it is never too late to finish a project.

Compared to the first two months of the year which were finished a while ago this one was held up for many years.  Sometimes I didn't like the pattern exactly as it is.   So I create my own replacements.

This time I changed the background color on one panel.  It is all mine.

So here it is!

3/12

I'm back at the Islands of Adventure, Florida

This trip actually happened in September.  Wow, that was a while ago.  But I wanted to go through all of my travels from 2012 in the order that they actually happened.  So here we are in March recapping September. I'll get back to the actual date sooner or later!

The first day I was there was with Rachel.  After starting at Universal Studios park we ventured over to Islands of Adventure.  I had visited the park with my mom in February but only had a day.  This time I had a 3 day park hopper so I got on everything.
After entering the park the first land to the right is Seuss Landing.  All of the rides inside are geared towards children more than adults.   The Cat in the Hat is a classic dark ride with the addition of whiplash.  One Fish Two Fish is Dumbo with the threat of getting wet.  The strangest ride is the Seuss Trolley Train.  It looks like fun but the soundtrack is very disconnected from the themeing of the ride.  Should be fun but it really isn't.

Off to the next land of the Lost Continent.  No rides in this land but two shows.  Poseidon’s Fury is a special effects show that was good fun.  The first three scenes were great but the final one seems a bit dated.  The other attraction is Sinbad's stunt show.  Entertaining to see once, don't really need to see it again.

Ahhh Harry Potter, the real reason to visit.  I'll spend a couple more posts on this land so I'll pass for now.

It was a pretty nice day so Rachel and I hit all the water rides in one day.  We started with the one that we thought we would get the most wet on.  That totally didn't happen.  We got soaked more and more on each ride we went on.  Jurassic Park was the first.  We barely got wet.  I went again on another day and only got hit by one water droplet.

The other ride in Jurassic Park is one that you must be a child or be riding with a child so that one was a no go for us.  Pteranodon Flyers is for kids, but what about kids at heart!?

Toon Lagoon is aptly named.  It is home to the other two water rides.  Dudley Do-Right’s Ripsaw Falls is a log flume ride where it looks like you would get completely soaked.  We got moderately soaked.  I just wish I could remember more from the cartoons that I watched as a kid.
The other ride in the area is Popeye & Bluto’s Bilge-Rat Barges.  This was the last one we hit and it hit us with tons of water.  Wow we were soaked.  Now I know why Universal has people dryers.

We followed the circle around to Marvel Super Hero Island.  Now owned by Disney but featured in Universal.  Rachel and I went on everything in the area.  Spiderman is a fantastic 3-D motion simulator ride.  You take on a job at the Daily Beagle and run into Spiderman along the way with villains there to thwart him.  I've been told it's similar to Transformers in Universal Hollywood which is also being built in Orlando.  Very cool ride.

Dr. Doom is a detonator/maliboomer style ride which the only difference that you load underground.  The Hulk is a great roller coaster with a surprise start, and Storm Force Accelatron are the fastest tea cups known to man kind.  

I just happened to be there on another day when all of the meet and greet Super Heroes came out on motorcycles.  Of course I met all of them.  With the exception of Spiderman who I ran across at the top of a merchandise display in the entry shop.

I suspect that over the years the park will get even better.  Jurassic Park will have a smaller footprint in the future, Marvel will leave the park, Toon Lagoon gets news comics and rethemed rides?  Who knows what will happen next.

All and all I really enjoyed my adventures in Islands of Adventure.  Of course Harry Potter is the biggest draw but there is a lot to do in the parks.  

Simple online editing with Pixlr

With the start of the new year I vowed to work on my blog more.  So far almost a quarter of the year gone, I've done pretty well with that resolution.  I've been posting three times a week about my world travels and my craft projects.  Now that I'm blogging more I want to add some improved photography.  

I consider myself a pretty good photographer but I don't edit my photos at all.  Without a real photo editing software, like Photoshop, it's hard to do.

I found a couple online editors and found one I liked.  Which then closed down about a month after I found it.  So finally I found another one.  

Pixlr.com   A wonderful website.  It makes editing simple and creating a good looking collage is easy.

And if I really wanted to edit photos photoshop style I can.  It features everything you need to edit, especially the layers feature.

But if that is too much there is a quick editor too!

So far I've loved my outcomes.  

Look forward to sharing more photos in my posts with all of you!

Day 24 Back to the States

My final adventure was getting back home.  I got up early so I could say goodbye to the boys.  They seemed a bit tired that morning because they probably had too much fun over the weekend.  Plus going to bed immediately after eating dinner so late and going immediately after has gotta be a little strange on the system.  The three of us sat at the table eating breakfast before they left for school with their dad.  I got some kisses and hugs goodbye from the three of them and off they went to start their day.  

We said goodbye and off I went out of the apartment, said goodbye to the Seine and headed up to the T2 line.  I hopped off at La Defense, bought my ticket from the same girl who couldn't help me before (she was the only truly curt French person I encountered) and off I went to the center of Paris via the RER A line.  Once in the middle of downtown, not that I would know it because I never left the station I transferred over to the B line to the airport.  For the second time I needed to go to the end of the line.  All and all it took me a little over an hour to get to the end of the line.  The nice thing was I didn't have anyone else touching me while traveling in the middle of the day.  It was a nice way to conclude my metro experience. 

When I finally got into the airport it took a bit of time to get checked in.  They have 3 large terminals with the number 2 terminal having probably 8 arms on it.  I found 2G and walked almost the entire length of the check in desks.  I checked in in one area and was sent to another location further down to check my bag.  That might have been a mistake because I have to pick it up in New York after customs.  Finally I made it through the passport check and into the terminal.  They were very efficient getting everyone though bag checks and through the metal detectors and I didn't even have to take my shoes off!

Once I got in there were all the fancy shops and a couple Paris souvenir shops.  I stopped in the souvenir shop and bought a small travel wallet with the money that Alice would not take.  After I found the macroon shop that I was hoping was there.  I bought some of them to take home with me to share with the family since I knew they were good from the day before, in fact too good.  I swore to the money gods for buying the wallet and not finding the macroons first.  So I had a bit left to spent in Euros buying a soda and some Kinder bars.  

Finally it was time to board the biggest plane to date, the A380.  Two complete floors full of passengers.   The plane is huge!  We got off late due to baggage getting on board and then sat on the runway for a while.  Finally almost an hour late we were off for the States. Since I was an Air France flight it came with an aperitif of champagne before the meal.  The meal was actually pretty good and of course had a bit of cheese on the side.  I watched a couple movies and never got up from my seat for the entire 8 hour flight.  Wow!
I got into New York city around 2 in the afternoon.  I went through customs again very quickly.  The US residents line was practically nothing while the visiting passports and visas had at least an hour.  Good thing because I only had about an hour between my flights.
Per security requirements I had to claim my bag, only immediately to recheck it about 30 steps away so it could be checked by American security.  Right...
The next step was finding my terminal.  I had come into the international terminal and needed to find the domestic.  I looked on the map and it looked like it was next door.  So a wandering I went.  No there, not there.  Oh the terminals are not connected.  Go outside and walk to the terminal.  Ok...  We I finally made it there with about 30 minutes to spare.  I got on my flight to Kansas City which was a little commuter jet.  3 seats across with about half of the plane open.  My last flight had 11 across with no open seats.  A bit of a difference. 
I made it home by 7pm which was 3am in Paris.  I stayed up for a couple hours to try to get back to central time.  I had such a fantastic time on my entire trip.
London, Oxford, Stratford-Upon-Avon, York, Hardrian's Wall

Scottish Border, Edinburgh

Edinburgh Military Tattoo, Edinburgh

Glasgow, Loch Lommond, Belfast, Giant's Causeway, Aran Islands, Galway, Cliffs of Moher, Killarney, Blarney Castle, Rock at Cashel

Dublin, Llangollen, Cardiff, Bath

Bath, Stonehenge, London

London

London

Versailles

Disneyland Paris

Paris

Paris

I hope that I get to have an experience like this again in my lifetime.

St. Patrick's Day Cross Stitch

Happy St. Patrick's Day!  A day late or 364 days early!  Either one works for me.  

I often like to make projects at odd times of the year.  I made this cross stitch about 6 months ago.  Now that I forgot it, found it, and now am finishing it.  Gotta add it my list to finish so I can cross it off my list!

I started out with a black frame.  Bring out the spray paint.  I hadn't spray painted anything in the last couple years.  What have I been missing out on.  It's fun!  And once I got the hang of it again, very easy.

As usual the cross stitch was a too small to fit into the frame.  It's make it work time!  I created the border with some green batik fabric that I had in my stash.

 And it's done!  Framed and everything!

I've started a new job about 2 weeks ago.  As new jobs do, it's taken up a lot of my time so my posts may not be as timely as they have in the last couple months.  At least I'll have some money to buy more craft supplies.