a special manatee release

Oh, how it makes my heart so happy to hear uplifting stories about animals!

You may be aware that SeaWorld in Orlando, Florida has a manatee rehabilitation program. They rescue injured and ill manatees in the wild, rehabilitate them and, if possible and safe for the manatees, return them to the wild. It's a fabulous program! When you visit SeaWorld's manatee exhibit, the manatees you see there are all in some phase of rehabilitation, so the exhibit is ever-changing.

And this week, there was quite a success story there! SeaWorld released Rita, a manatee rescued 26 years ago (!!!), back into the wild at Blue Springs State Park (north of Orlando), which is a haven for manatees during the winter ... at left, that's her being lowered into the water.

Rita was rescued after her right pectoral flipper was caught in a crab trap and, unfortunately, it needed to be amputated (look closely in the photo, you'll see that it's missing). Here's the press release with all the details, including how they had to use a crane to lift her because she's a whopping 3,000 pounds and 12 feet long! Whoa!

And what fun is this? SeaWorld has set up a website where you can follow Rita's movements, courtesy of the tracking device she's wearing. You'll see that she has already been on the move A LOT, wow! You go girl!

Now I'm off to a fun event at a scrapbook store ... more on that later! :-)

Enjoy the weekend,

it's Angela's special day!

Happy birthday today to my mother-in-law, Angela! She lives in Gulfport, Florida.

We wish you a day full of sunshine & smiles, Mom! :-)

Love,

Susan, Sal, Buddy & Aruba

Saturday scrapbooking

Hey everyone, hope you're enjoying the weekend...

In-between chores, I've indulged in some scrapbooking fun today. Sal's buried by work deadlines this whole entire weekend. {sigh} So I'm trying not to interrupt him. He should know better than to leave me unattended with my credit card. On a weekend. With scrapbook stores and Crate & Barrel nearby. {chuckle}

Anyway ... have you seen the just-released line by BasicGrey called Marrakech? Oh my! Gorgeous Moroccan-inspired patterns and bold colors. And with names like Vanilla Chai, Calming Moon, African Nectar, Green Tea ... how can I not love it all?!? Check out some of the sample layouts from the BG Design Team ... my favorites are "Chinese Dance" and "Taj Mahal". These papers make me want to book a trip to somewhere exotic, right now! And I'm thinking this collection would go wonderfully with BG's Lotus album, which seems like the perfect shape for this theme.

I've also signed-up for this unique scrapbooking class with Debby Schuh. She's super-creative! She's coming to teach a few classes at one of my local sb stores here in SoFla, but not until July. It may seem early to sign-up, but there are only 40 seats in this workshop and I don't want to miss out!

Later,

a sad day for SoFla scrapbookers

Last night, my fave scrapbook store, Scrapbook Your Art Out in Boca Raton, sent out an e-mail announcement that they would be closing their doors. Oh no! My heart sank. I'll miss the fun and friendship of that pleasant (and cute) shop.

The e-mail said that they were putting their entire inventory on sale at 75% off immediately, and ordinarily a sale like that would excite me. But, not under these circumstances. I'm saddened to lose this great place to shop, scrap, and socialize. Their bingo crops were especially fun.

I stopped by the store in the early afternoon today and already many of the shelves were emptied. I picked up a few ribbons and paints, but really wasn't in the mood to shop (that's saying something!). Instead, I sat in the store's cafe, sipping a Pepsi while visiting and reminiscing with my fellow scrappers and the SBYAO owners.

I left the store with a heavy heart. I'll miss it! :-(

that "other" Where In The World

Pretty soon Matt Lauer will be wandering the world again for his Where In The World is Matt Lauer? segment on The Today Show. I love it, it's such fun! (except that I get the WITW jingle stuck in my head for days!)

This year marks his 10th anniversary of globetrotting, and viewers are being given the chance to suggest destinations for Matt. You can click HERE to choose a place on the world map, and can tell them why you picked it. I chose Tahiti ... because I dream of going there, and I rarely see any travel shows about it. Why is that anyway? I'm curious where you'd like him to visit?

Matt's 5-locales-in-5-days trek usually begins sometime in April. Of course, I'll have all the updates right here. Stay tuned!

tropical punch

Hey everyone ... hope you enjoyed the weekend, and Valentine's Day too! Would love to hear how you celebrated.

Sal and I spent a quiet V-day together. He surprised me with some beautiful flowers on Friday night. We ate a Valentine dinner at home, some take-out from one of our fave restaurants, an Asian fusion bistro called PF Chang's. We LOVE their vegetarian lettuce wraps appetizer so much that we order three of them and split them as our entree! YUM.

And we did some landscaping in the front yard on Sunday. It was time to improve our curb appeal. After deliberating for quite some time about what to plant, I decided on a bougainvillea tree ... gosh, they have gorgeous blooms! And they love warmth and sun (just like me! *wink*). I wanted something that would add a punch of tropical color to our front yard. Ideally, I would've liked to get a larger tree, but geez bougainvilleas are pricey {gasp!} ... with every little bit taller they are, the cost goes up exponentially. But we found this nice purplish-pink (magenta perhaps?) tree at a nursery around the corner from us that just happens to specialize in bougainvilleas. I did a double-take as we entered the nursery and saw that the owner had the abbreviation "BS" on his sign ... huh? ... it later occurred to me that it stood for Bougainvillea Specialist! Oh, of course! Since he's not originally from the U.S., perhaps he didn't realize that the acronym has "another" meaning in our culture? I thought it was kind of cute. :-)

Around the base of the tree, you can see Sal beginning to plant Golden Mounds (sometimes also called Golden Dewdrops or Derantas). I love, love, love these bushes! The foliage has a lime green + yellow color combo, it's so fresh. They won't "compete" with all the bougainvillea color. They too thrive in the sub-tropical climate, need lots of sun, so it's a great spot for them. We finished off the circle with red mulch and it's looking a lot more spiffy out there now. Next project: trimming some of our palm trees ... yardwork has to be done year-round here in SoFla, but I love that!

Have a great week,

be mine.

Happy Valentine's Day! (or, in my case, I celebrate Salentine's Day)

So how about this for a romantic getaway? ... a heart-shaped island! (well, technically, it's a tiny islet) Yes, one does exist! Check out this Google Earth image of the island of Galešnjak in the Adriatic Sea, off the coast of Croatia:

It has become known as Lover's Island. Although it's uninhabited, the island's owner has been swamped with requests from couples who want to go there for a romantic getaway. A true deserted island ... sounds good to me!

Have a fun V-day,

look what I won!

A popular scrapbooking paper company, Die Cuts With A View (DCWV), was having a contest today. The first 1,000 people to watch an online video, premiering their new 2009 paper collections, would win a whole pack (known among DCWV fans as a "stack") of 8"x8" paper (48 sheets) from any of their new collections!

And I was viewer # 646 !!! So, I won ... and I chose the Tahiti Beach stack. It even has some glittered papers! Bling and the beach? I'm in!My other favorites among their new releases are the Taj Mahal and Safari Chic stacks, but I already bought those in the 12"x12" versions! And they're gorgeous ... Taj has lots of glitter and foiled papers, with intricate Middle Eastern patterns. The safari papers are all textured, with fun animal prints and tribal motifs. Makes me want to travel somewhere exotic! I also have DCWV's Glitter Cardstock stack, and I'm eyeing their Metallic stack.

P.S. ~ attn scrapbookers: Joann.com has all the new DCWV stacks on sale at 1/2 price right now!

What fun! :-)

animal love, down under

In the midst of the tragic wildfires in Australia, my heart was touched by this precious photo of a koala being rescued from her burning habitat:

She's expected to make a full recovery, and she'll be released back into the wild after her burned paws heal. You can read all the details of her rescue story here.

To my friends and fellow scrapbookers in Australia ... I'm thinking of you!

taxes = done!

Whew! I e-filed our tax return today. Love that feeling every year at this time!

It's great to get that task off my mind. I mean, I always think we're getting a refund, but until you go through all the forms, you're never 100% sure, right? It always nags at me that we might owe. EEEK! That fear might be based on another year, before we bought our home, when we got hit with a big tax bill, and it wiped out part of what we had saved for a down payment! Horrible! So, once bitten...

And don't forget about this fun little page on the IRS's website: Where's My Refund? In this economy, I'm sure it'll get lots of hits.

Have a great week ...

it's Deborah's special day!

Happy birthday today to my sister-in-law, Deborah! She lives in Gulfport, Florida.

We wish you a fun and fabulous day, Deborah! :-)

Love,

Susan, Sal, Buddy & Aruba

it's Sal's special day!

Happy birthday today to Sal, my sweetheart!

I hope you enjoy your day, and I look forward to celebrating with you! :-)

Love you,