Photoblog Wednesday

Norfolk Southern’s beautiful F-Units
on the business special in that warm,
end of day light I love so much last Saturday

How my plans for a two-day cyber-crop were thwarted!

David was going to be gone all weekend, but the weather where he was headed was supposed to be lousy. He stayed home. We had some sunny days here. He seduced me! He promised the business train on Saturday and a train by the Pioneer Sugar Canisters on Sunday - He knows my weaknesses too well!

Then both Friday and Saturday nights, he made me watch baseball...Okay, well he turned the game on. I was just going to have the pitch-by-pitch on mlb.com while I worked.

I got ONE, just one, page done ALL WEEKEND! YEESH!

But the Red Sox and The Dodgers are advancing and the train pictures were fabulous! I’m not really complaining! :)

Monday Mug Shot

Great Smoky Mountains National Park
Gatlinburg, Tennessee

This is such a fun mug to me. I like the shape and that it looks small, but holds a full regular size cup if coffee. Okay, sure, I usually drink my coffee in the bigger cups, but this one is still a full regulation size cup for socializing! I could drink coffee in it at breakfast if David and I are both having coffee.

As the seasons are changing and really meaning it now in Northwest Ohio, with warm oranges and yellows in the trees and a cool bite in the air, I look at this mug and feel happy memories flood my mind...and a craving for good Mexican food!

In 1993 when Mom and I went on vacation taking advantage of Thanksgiving weekend to extend our week’s trip, it was just a little cloudy on the second day. That was the day we were headed to Gatlinburg, Tennessee and through The Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

We got into Pigeon Forge right around lunchtime. The traffic in Pigeon Forge was PACKED! I’ll say two things that will explain it all - outlet mall shopping and the weekend after Thanksgiving! We did a little Christmas shopping on that trip, but not any shopping for things we could get in Michigan, so, after driving in and realizing that the road we needed to take to the park was right through outlet central, we were ready for lunch when we finally got into Gatlinburg.

Gatlinburg was a sweet town, all decked out for Christmas with the crisp late November mountain air and the smells of apple-cinnamon potpourri coming from the gift shop doorways and the welcoming aroma of restaurants at lunchtime in the air. Mom and I caught a whiff of a familiar smell, but here? Really? It was a smell of REAL Mexican food, not fast food garbage or homogenized Tex-Mex, but authentic South of the Border fare. We had a favorite restaurant in Walled Lake, Michigan, that served authentic Mexican that we just loved and this was a smell like that.

I suppose the first thing you want when you walk into any ethnic restaurant is to hear the cook using the native language as a first language. We were greeted by the host, who spoke accented English, a server who spoke slowly with an accent and a smile, and other members of the staff who seemed to understand a little English, but sure didn't seem to speak any. But they were all so courteous and proud of their food, and with reason! Mom and I agreed that it was even better than our favorite at home, although we agreed we could be eating a little atmosphere too. But there were tamales in real corn husks, flautas and rellenos stuffed with just perfectly spiced queso, my mouth is watering remembering it! We weren’t expecting authentic Mexican in Gatlinburg. We were thinking we’d be enjoying some local cuisine, but boy we were not at all disappointed!

After lunch and a little shopping in the shops on The Great Smoky Mountains Parkway, we got back in the car and went deeper into the park.

The plan was that we’d drive through the park and then take the Blue Ridge Parkway through into South Carolina. What a thrilling drive! It was the first time in my life I’d ever used low gear on my car, and I used it a LOT on those roads! In the National Park, there are some very steep grades, but guard rails all the way through and a lot of traffic but not too much. The scenery was just gorgeous! By the afternoon there was just a little bit of sun coming through the clouds and the tops of the trees. We stopped a few times to take it all in and get a couple of pictures.

The real thrill came on the Blue Ridge Parkway! (If David reads this, he’ll be amazed that I lived to blog about it one day!) The Blue Ridge Parkway is not a National Park. Much of the Parkway his no guard rails and the drops are, well, into the mountains. The drops are like jumping off a cliff! The grades were still steep in places and there were one lane tunnels, where the signs instruct you to turn on your headlights and honk your horn before proceeding! We hit a very dense patch of fog that I was VERY nervous driving through. I couldn’t see a thing and I knew the drop was a big one if I ran off the road. Needless to say it was a slow drive at that time. We continued up until the fog dissipated and we stopped at the next turn off to take a break. You know, pry my white-knuckled fingers off the steering wheel!

We got out of the car to stretch and just take a look. What a view at that turn off of the mountains and clouds below. CLOUDS BELOW? Mom and I just laughed at ourselves. It wasn’t dense fog, I’d driven through a cloud! WOW!

The rest of the drive on the Blue Ridge Parkway was a bit more routine. We got off the parkway in South Carolina, before dark. (I think we would have been sleeping in the car that night if it had gotten dark before we were off the mountain) and caught the freeway into Columbia where we stayed for the night. Sleep was pretty easy to fall into that night after our exciting adventure driving in the mountains with Jonathan, the Mountain Marauding Camaro!

Grand Finale

Yes, I said “grand!” It’s been a decent week. I’ve managed to punch out a scrapbook page every night this week. Considering that I don’t start until 5 PM, David’s not starving and I’m still catching a little playoff baseball, that’s not too shabby at all! I’m also organizing the designer cast-party after the SAS Contest and trying like anything to get a group to meet me for apple picking in the next couple weeks.

But fear not those who knew me when...I am NOT turning back into a “Type A” personality! I like me at a “Type B for balanced!” College actually did that for me. When I went back I was juggling a TON. I had to learn how to balance everything in my life to make it all work. I found out that I like me a lot better when I’m balanced than when I was a steam rolling stress ball! Balanced isn’t living without stress, it’s just being able to put stress into a manageable perspective. I’ve gotten pretty good at it most of the time. Hmm... I hope I’m not to close to Nirvana though, I like life too much to be done recycling! ;)


I don’t blush, not really. I generally don’t get embarrassed easy, even though I’m always worrying about embarrassing myself, when something embarrassing happens, it just doesn’t do the job of mortifying me that it’s supposed to. I also try to be humble, even though I don’t necessarily feel humble. When a fuss is made about me, I feel grateful, which is a nice way to feel, but if I said it made me blush, I’d be lying. So, I won’t say that I’m blushing about it or putting up a facade of being humble, but I’ll say that I’m truly grateful when I thank Edna for another blog award!


Edna said some very nice things about The Chronicles of Nani when she gave me the Gold Star Blog Award. I’m happy to share my mug stories and the little things that happen to me. It’s part of my Optimist’s Credo, to find the magic in everything around you so your world is a beautiful kingdom. I hope sharing the everyday miracles in my world make the miracles in all of your worlds a little brighter too!

The Gold Star blog award has some very simple rules:

**If you receive this award, you must pass it on to three other blogs. You then must post on the chosen winners' blogs to let them know about it.

**If you have already received this award, you do not have to pass it on.


Well, this is my first time putting this plaque on my wall, so this time I will pass it on! I’m choosing three of my fellow cast mates on the scrapping reality show at SAS who were very supportive of me when I made my decision to pull out of the race.

Yeah, I realize that the gold star award is supposed to be about the blogs, but how can they not be gold star blogs? They are done by Gold Star PEOPLE! Thanks for your support ladies!!

Sooze, Scrappin Stuff With Sooze
Amber, No Reimer Reason
Mitsybelle, mITSYBELLE
Tracy, Ambowife Designs
Christina, Wimpy Chompers Creations

Okay, and I can’t count either. But it’s a good thing when you count your blessings and run out of fingers! :)


And what would a grand finale be without getting something as you’re leaving?

This little freebie is my sharing a mistake! But it’s kinda like when you accidentally put too much frosting on a black forest cake, can’t throw it away, so you share it!

There was a recipe card swap at DSO last month. It was such a busy month that I really wasn’t doing any challenges, but I try to at least do Sherrie’s and Darlene’s challenges each month as part of the CT support role for my designers! Well, Sherrie was doing a recipe card swap. I figured that was something I could do sorta quickly and it would be a little promotion for the current bonus for showing me your layouts with my stuff! I missed the part that said the kits needed to be kits by a DSO designer! (not a CT member of a couple DSO designers!) So I redid cards for the challenge, one with a Darlene kit and one with a Sherrie kit, and sent them in. Now...well, I have too much frosting on my black forest cake! Want a piece??? :D

Sorry, this link is expired.

I SO appreciate your comments, preferably here at The Chronicles of Nani where I'm more likely to see them! And remember, show me a layout done with any parts of a Digitalegacies kit, and I'll send you the link for all of Indian Summer!

Winners

The grand scrapping news of the day, the winners have been announced at Stone Accents Studio! Congratulations to mITSYBELLE, Piggy Scraps and Monika Digital Designs! They are the last three standing in our month-long scrapping reality show! If you click their names, they'll take you to their blogs. Leave them some congratulatory love!

Congratulations to all of the designers who were in this competition! We started with 33 of us, 30 of us don’t have stores, but we produced some great free kits! And now, we have a little “freebiepalooza” of our own in the works for all for you that downloaded, voted and read incessant pleas for your support! You all really came through for us and kept spirits high when the stress demons came to haunt us as we worked on deadlines and awaited voting results. Give us a couple weeks to prepare and we’ll be inviting you to our cast-party!

Speaking of parties, have you visited the Blog Central for Fall Splendor? Even if you don’t scrap, it’ cool to look at all of the takes on the swatch and theme. Come on, you don’t have to celebrate Christmas to enjoy looking at the lights! All the kits work well together, yet they all have their individual flair. Fall Splendor was something that Kristine planned and put together far in advance. I had my mini kit done before the start of the SAS contest. Maybe that’s why I started craving Pumpkin Spice coffee early this year.

The Fall Splendor Blog Party page will be up through the whole month of October, but don’t put your visit off! There is a lot to download!!


Awards!

Now, I may not have endured all the challenges of the contest, but I’m proud to add to my awards wall in the right column twice this week!

First, Thanks to Darlene for adding another name plate on my I Heart Your Blog Award! I am now a FOUR-time recipient of that award!

Darlene is one of my designers for whom I do CT work and a designer I admire! She mentioned my “cheerleading” and presentation of the SAS finalists as some of the things that make The Chronicles of Nani “lovable!” Thanks, Darlene!


I also have a new plaque on the wall, courtesy of Edna, of Miss Edna’s Place.

It’s spanish. I do have a translation! (my spanish isn’t that good...yet!)

This is the translation that Edna was given for it: "To highlight blogs that are pleasing or special in some way, but also to extend the hand of friendship around the world." That’s not the direct translation, but the direct translation pretty much says the same thing. It says it’s a blog that makes the world closer. Thanks, Edna!!

I’m not so good with the choosing 8 people out of the continually growing list of blogs I read, but I think I’m going to create an award. I’ve always wanted to be the original creator of something that makes the rounds on the internet. My original memes somehow didn’t circulate as well an “bacon bits or croutons?” Well see if this works! Stay tuned for details.

Photoblog Wednesday

"Princess Alexis Kaline"

Kaline has decided to really embrace this being named after a Hall of Fame Tiger thing.

The Tigers blanket is the one David and I cuddled under in the snow on our first date. As soon as I pulled it out when the fall nights had gotten chilly, she assumed ownership of it! See the orange hairs all over it?? I wonder if we'll even be able to see the blue by spring!

(Happily, the acrylic Tigers throw is much more easily washable than my Great-great Grandma's quilt that she spit up on after eatng kibble too fast last week!)