Costa Maya - Mexico

At Costa May in Mexico, Chris and I went ashore and explored the Mayan ruins of Chacchoben which is surrounded by jungle. We visited the sacred temples and almost died from heat exhaustion after climbing the steps of the Gran Basamento which was above tree level.

The next day we docked in Roatan, The Honduras and had my favourite excursion of the entire trip which was playing with the bottlenose dolphins.  

Who could resist this happy smile?? Margarita was a star, only 3 years old and considered an adolescent in dolphins terms... they don't reach maturity until they are 6 years old.

The Cruise

So on the Sunday we finished our quick trip around the French Quarter of New Orleans and then got ready to start our holiday proper... a quick taxi ride to the port and onto the cruise ship, the Norwegian Spirit.  Now, you will see from this photo that I was unaware of the fact that the cruise line takes every opportunity of snapping photos of you... for blatantly commercial purposes!!  This photographer stopped us, told us stand in a spot and snapped this... heck, if I had known I might I have brushed my hair and put some lippy on!! And yes, I am blonde and I also suffer from senior moments but I'm not completely daft and spent the rest of the cruise side stepping the camera at every opportunity!!

We were given out 'stateroom' keys and headed directly there... the ship was huge and I knew with my complete lack of any sense of direction the next couple of days were going to be 'interesting' to say the least.  Luckily, Chris does not suffer from this and had the place figured out pretty quick... well, the restaurants anyways!! LOL

The room was a good size and we had our own balcony with sliding patio doors onto it, a huge bonus and I really think if we did it again, the balcony would be a must have... I don't think a small room with a port hole would be much fun after a couple hours!!

So I sat on the balcony and watched New Orleans go by...

and a few paddle steamers!

the Mississippi was very high and there were flood warnings... you can see the trees on the waters edge... with no trunks... the water was a couple of feet from the top of the bayou and if I had one of the people in the beautiful homes the other side.... I would have been exceedingly worried!

Chris and I on deck of the Norwegian Spirit... trying to find our sea legs!

This was the pool and bar area in the evening...

Me in the moonlight on the top deck with the moon up in the background.

Our Holiday - New Orleans.

My desk is a mess of all the 'bits' from the cruise, postcards, leaflets and itineraries... which should in the next few days actually turn into a mini book of sorts so I will just do a quick run through of the trip!
We arrived in New Orleans on the Saturday afternoon which was warm and noisy... gosh yes, noisy!  People are permanently in party mode in this town!  We were told to eat at Deanies for the best sea food menu and turned up to find the huge restaurant filled to overflowing... undaunted we went to the front desk and waited for a free receptionist who promptly handed us this handheld device that flashed and vibrated when your table was ready... which meant we could go outside and snoop in the shop windows for a half block in any direction. We found lots of shops with the colourful Mardi Gras costumes in the windows and luckily for Chris they were closed at this time of night or I might now have a heap of those gorgeous masks that are all sparkly and pretty!!

We had a fabulous meal, the food was yummy and came in humungous portions which in normal circumstances would have fed a family of four!! In the following days I was going to understand that in the US portion size was akin to 'value for money' - whilst in my view, quality not quantity is probably the way to go... this is not to say that the quality was not there, as it was, just heaps of the stuff sitting on my plate tends to have me beat before I start eating, as I know I will be unable to do it justice.... and I did see lots of people taking their left overs home in bags.

The next morning we headed off into the French Quarter so that I could see all the beautiful iron railings on the buildings - the architecture is so French, it was fun to go along reading all the street signs.

The street performers were totally amazing...

This is me with a mime.... oh to be able to stay that still!!

Not sure what the other guy was.... but he scary!!

Chris insisted that he had to have his photo taken at this landmark.... we didn't go in for coffee because the queue was about 3 blocks long!!

I left my hat in Belize....

sung to the well known tune of I left my heart in San Fransisco.... LOL... serves me right for leaning off the balcony in a gale whilst wearing it... I quite liked that hat too!  It is now doing it's own little cruise around the Carribean...

This is Chris and I hugging Margarita the dolphin... this was our favourite thing this trip.... would go back to play with the dolphins again!

Chris getting a kiss from Margarita...

and me too!  

Having a great time... a bit sunburned and probably a few pounds heavier...

WOYWW 101

Another week disappears in a flash and its time to reveal the state of my desk.... which actually looks pretty similar to last weeks desk because I am still working on the book I am making using the Graphic45 Curtain Call papers...

I am at least on the home stretch and the fun bit of it now.  I'm not sure how other people make their albums but I do it in layers... pages, backgrounds papers, photo mats, ribbon, lace, chipboard all gets done in a sequence so all my pages tend to be in the same stage of progression... I am now at the 'add the fun bits and bling it' stage.

Now it is all bound and easier to work with...

I love the way that bird cage turned out... all glittery and golden!

I have a niece in Paris who went to drama school for about 7 years and I figure this would be a perfect way to display all the photos she has of different plays and shows she has been in.... so the call has gone out to email me the photos... hopefully she will manage to translate the email and actually send me the pics but I have learned through experience that I could be waiting a looooong time!! LOL

The papers are so beautiful it is hard to actually chop them up or cover them up so I have gone the route of using them as flaps and lift ups to reveal the photo mats and journalling spots.

Loads of space to add the pics and story...

Have used lots of pockets for tags and envelopes...

and another pocket pages with envelopes...

and I made this clapperboard to go with the movie theme...

which contains a pull out with extra pages and mats for pics and journalling.

Pop on over to Julia's for the linky list of desks to snoop about in!!

I won't be here for the next two Wednesdays as Chris is taking me on my very first cruise!!  Wooo Hooo!  We are off to New Orleans and then pick up the cruise ship which is going to take us to Costa Maya, Mexico, Belize, Roatan, Honduras, Cozumel and back to Mexico.... and we are going to swim with dolpins!! I will try and get online and blog some pics of the sunshine and stuff.... ;)

It's a BeauTEAful Tuesday!

Here comes the sun... da da da da..... hmmm, ok, I won't give up the day job ('what day job?' asks Chris) just yet because tone deaf and me have quite a lot in common!!  It's only 8 a.m. and its sunny and 16 degrees and sunny and I am having my tea on the deck.... and did I mention the sunny bit? ;)

Now, having morning tea on the deck sounds pretty hifalutin' doesn't it?  LOL  It is a very small deck... the type of deck you get up close and personal with your guests.... but when Chris was home last week we went to Ikea for the $1 breakfast and picked up this little table and two chairs so that when the sun finally decided to pop out in this neighbourhood I would be ready for it!!

Tom-Tom and Pandora watched me through the patio screen door... as you can see they are not terribly impressed that I am out and they are under house arrest!!

and yes.... it is 16 degrees!!  Wooo Hooo!  I always want to refer to this gadget as a thermometer but I know that's not correct (I certainly would not want this put where the sun don't shine if you get my meaning)!! I am not sure if barometer would be correct either.... so weather gadget thingy will have to do....

If you want to see what the other Tea on Tuesday ladies are up to, pop over to Kimmie's for the linky list.... I am going to pour myself another cup of tea and soak up the rays.... it's been a long cold lonely winter.... 

WOYWW 4th May 2011

One hundred WOYWW's!!!  That's a lot of Wednesdays.... and even more desks!! LOL  I had to turn my pc off because there was thunder and lightning (not to mention hail stones) so I'll be quick....

Not looking very tidy but that's because I am in the middle of making a mini book...

This is as far as I have got with it.... the covers!! Chris is home for 5 days and so I haven't spent as much time in the scrap room playing.

though I did manage to find this in the local dollar store.... LOL I have no idea what I will do with that humungous roll of tickets but it was cheaper than buying the die and making my own!!

If you want to see the very long list of What's on Your Work Desk participants go to Julia's and check it all out.