an unfrozen dream

You know that proverbial "bucket" list...

well mine has a few items on it that are on the "one day when..." list too.

Then this year at church our minister Paul started a sermon series on Living Passionately.  One of the things he talked about was unfreezing your dreams.  Both Mom and I looked at each other and said this is the year to go up in a hot air balloon.

Well it came down to finding the time... as usual!  Until.... I got an email at the end of March about a special for the month of April.... hot air balloon trip PLUS overnight dinner, bed and breakfast... for LESS than a normal two person trip in the balloon.  Well I phoned Mom, she said "go for it" and I booked.

Today was the day we unfroze our dream.

and I can only say... IT WAS AWESOME and I WANT TO GO AGAIN!!!

Loved it.  The adventure was well worth getting up at 5 this morning for.  We were blessed with a perfect day....not cold, clear sky and only enough wind for the balloon to float.  The trip might only have been an hour long, but both Mom and I didn't notice the time.  Neither of us wanted it to end.  We could have spent all day up there. It was soooooooooooo peaceful and serene (except when the gas is on, then you can't hear yourself talk!).  A lot of the time I didn't even notice the movement of the balloon.  There is no sensation of going up or down or even floating.  It's only noticeable when you see the ground going past below you.

So my advice to you... if this is on your "bucket list", don't put it off. Don't worry about the cost.... just do it!  Well worth the money for the most awesome experience ever.

ps... I don't like heights and this didn't worry me in the least.  Now Mom's next dream is tandem parachute jump.... not for me thank you very much.  But it just might be a birthday treat for her if we can organise it! hint hint.

Scrapbook Challenges - Sketch 437

WOW today was fun.... Mom and I both got to do something we have always wanted to do.... go up in a hot air balloon.... more on that in another post though... I actually need to share today's layout with you based on the sketch.

I played a bit with ink and stensil on this one... and added some water which made things run a bit.... wasn't too sure on the outcome but actually it worked.  My title I took some glossy white stickers and coloured them with alcohol ink... all little bits that I've been learning how to do and can now eventually put onto a page by myself.

Check out the blog for more great ideas.

Scrapbook Challenges - April Trend Challenge

Last week Brynn posted the trend challenge but I never got to share my layout...

I did my page from a set of notes from Jowilna Nolte... used muted colours from botanical papers out of the Papercraft magazine and then also added inks in muted colours to the circle element at the top left and my ribbon.

Check out the blog for a few more ideas using watercolour technique.

Scrapbook Challenges - Sketch 435

I've had another productive weekend of scrapping... Aaron was at scout camp all weekend, so I had lots of free time to scrap, plan, print photos and scrap some more.  Today's layout is one of those that I did on Saturday.

These photos were taken at my best friend Theresa's daughters wedding.  Khan is Kelby's service dog and Aaron was getting a little acquainted with him while the photos were being taken.

Boy oh boy did I have a ton of sewing to do on this page... only when I was on the last block did it occur that I should have just hand drawn all the stitching or stamped it... hehee... next time!

Pop over to the blog and see some different pages done with this same sketch.

Easter Scrapping

I decided over this Easter weekend to do some of scrapping using some of the older notes that I have.  It's been fun doing some different pages and also working on other stuff not just DT work.

These first two pages are from notes from Michelle van Wyk

This next one is a kit I received on the scrap cruise last year

I also did two based on notes from Jowilna Nolte

Wow just added up.... along with the last SC layout, plus two Scrap4Jam pages and these four, I did seven pages over Easter... not bad going hey?

Scrap 4 Jam layouts

At the beginning of February I attended the Scrap 4 Jam charity event with Michelle van Wyk.... it was a really fun day... some of it way out of my scrapping comfort zone, but I was very happy to attend and learn new techniques.  We got to play with a set of watercolour paints and used it to create 5 different pages... three of which I did on the day and the others I have completed at home.  Here they are to feast your eyes on:

Scrapbook Challenges - Sketch 434

I hope you had a good Easter.  I managed to do quite a bit of scrapping over the weekend... expect a few more posts this week... but first up is the reveal for the latest sketch at Scrapbook Challenges.

Take a look at the blog for a few more ideas.