Hellooo!
Let's do another flashback Friday shall we? Let's go to New York, New York! I went to New York about two years ago for about a week. It was my first time going, so of course I did all the tourist-y things: Statue of Liberty, The Met, Central Park, Times Square etc.
(Cue Theme from New York, New York By Frank Sinatra!)
We went to times square first of course since it was right around the corner from our hotel. I did some shopping and exploring the city that very first day.
Next we went to Central Park which is HUGE. I definitely wasn't able to experience every part of it (next time!) It was beautiful though. Weather was on point and it was nice to have a relaxing stroll through the park to escape the bustling of the city around it.
Not to mention, I loved seeing all the performers! One of my favorites: Tin Pan! They are so amazing! (Go Check them out on facebook!) Also, love this candid shot of them, it's not every day you see a sax player standing on a bass!
You can't go to New York without visiting The Met! I really enjoyed seeing all the exhibits.
We also took a ferry out to see the Statue of Liberty! Unfortunately, she was under construction so there was a lot going on. Also, it was an incredibly gloomy day but there was no way I couldn't go see her! I really wish I had been able to go inside her though (that's what she said? No? Not classy??).
On the way back from the Statue of Liberty we went through Grand Central Terminal. I was in New York for the first time, there was no way I wasn't going to hit all the tourist-y spots!
We also went to the 9/ll Memorial, which I highly recommend! I still remember that day clearly, although I was rather young. It's a nice way to have a time where you can reflect and pay your respects. I commend them for building such a beautiful place! I won't add any pictures but You have to go if you ever visit New York.
Lastly, we spent a day relaxing and enjoying nature's beauty at New York Botanical Gardens. This is place is underrated, I do not hear about it enough but it is GORGEOUS. The flowers are absolutely breath taking, they even have a Japanese rock garden! During the time that I visited they also had a special Monet's Garden. I loved that the more you walked through the gardens you would happen upon poems set up everywhere. I'm a huge lover of poetry and this just set the entire mood of the garden for me. As much as I enjoyed walking through the city it's always nice to have a little escape like this and central park. It's just so calming and relaxing. I hope you enjoy these flower pictures as much as I enjoyed taking them! Sorry I don't actually remember the names of the flowers :/ I like them but I'm not very educated about flowers.
We also walked the bridge! Which was long, but worth it. The view was amazing! This photo is one my father took of me taking a picture of the Brooklyn bridge.
And I end this post with a view of New York from above!
Sorry for the lack of words in this post but I hope the pictures made up for it!
Thanks for stopping by once again! :)
Adventure is always out there!
- Laura
It's been an incredibly rainy and gloomy day here in Houston, Texas today. I've been busy with appointments all day and just wanted a little sunshine, so today's post will be a "flash back Friday" or in other words "I don't want to do homework" post. Let's rewind and think back to the sunnier time, back to when I went to Yellowstone in Wyoming. . . where the buffalo roam, where the deer and the antelope play, where seldom is heard a discouraging word, and the skies are not cloudy all day! No, but seriously they sang this song at the Old Faithful inn and it was amazing. (Song: Home on the Range by John Denver)
My family and I travel pretty often and that's where my love for traveling came from. Yellowstone was one of those family trips. It was my very first time going to Wyoming and let me tell ya... it is absolutely BEAUTIFUL. Hold on, let me show ya. And let's just say pictures do not do this place justice!
Sorry for the blurriness and reflection from the window. This photo was taken while we were in the rental car.
My father did an amazing job planning out this entire trip. That first day we drove all the way up to the tip top and stayed at a cabin for a week (Mammoth Hot Springs Home & Cabins). The following week, we stayed in the middle section of Yellowstone (Old Faithful Inn) and the last week we spent half the time at the bottom part of Yellowstone and the other half in the small town of Jackson hole, Wyoming.
Now! Onto the highlights of this trip! Living in Houston, Texas I am not accustomed to seeing Mountains and there were SO many mountains! I loved it! People who see mountains everyday: Don't take it for granted! It's a sight I miss very much.
Speaking of things I don't see much here in Houston, the wildlife! It's amazing being able to see these animals just living in their natural habitat and not behind a cage or walls. I'm sad I wasn't able to observe wolves or bears but I very much enjoyed seeing the many.. and I mean MANY elk and buffaloes.
Another thing you absolutely should not miss when you're in Yellowstone, the bodies of water! Whether that is the lakes, rivers, waterfalls or hot springs and geysers, they're all worth the trip!
And then of course, there's the famous Old Faithful Geyser!
I highly recommend a trip to Yellowstone! Even if your aren't an outdoors type of person, I think you still would enjoy the trip! It is so beautiful there and the weather is amazing! We went in August and the weather was just right!
I hope you guys enjoyed the pictures as much as I enjoyed re-living the moments! Thanks for taking a quick trip down memory lane with me! Remember, Adventure is out there! ;)
- Laura
Hello Guys!
For the past 6 months, my boyfriend has been deployed and he finally made it home a week ago! I'm so grateful to have him home safe and sound! This week, one of my closest friends got deployed. I thought this would be a good opportunity to make a blog post about care packages! I may not be an expert on deployments or care packages, since this was the first time I have ever had to deal with one but I'm always looking for good care package ideas and thought I should share some of mine for others!
I never planned on making a blog post about the care packages I sent, therefore unfortunately I don't have many pictures. I really need to make it a habit of taking pictures of my crafts! I sent at least one every single month but I only have about 6 packages to share with you guys. :( Hopefully, these can help you come with ideas for your own care packages as well.
First things first (I'm the realest), the boring stuff! Like many others, I recommend getting the priority boxes from USPS. These are the best, because as long as you can fit everything in the box, it's one set price! Also, you can get these boxes sent straight to your house for free! They are also the perfect size for 12x12 scrap book paper! Secondly, you're going to need some custom forms and envelopes. The form I get are the: "PS Form 2976-A" and the envelopes are "PS Form 2976-E" It's so much easier to fill them at home because then you know exactly everything you have in your box, rather than wasting time at the post office.
As for the things to include within your package, that is totally up to your service member! I find that the lists I found online didn't really work for my boyfriend. This was his 9th deployment so he was pretty set on everything he needed. Also, times have changed and a lot of them receive things like cliff bars, granola bars, tuna packets, and beef jerky for free and can easily access them. It also depends on where they have been deployed. He's in the Air Force, and my friend is in the Navy, so while he was in a tent she's on a boat for most of her deployment. Just really get to know your service member to know what they want/need and what you can or cannot send.
Finally! Let's get to the fun part, the decorating! Like I mentioned earlier, I found the best and easiest way is to use 12x12 scrapbook paper and mod podge. I use 5 pages for each box, one for the very center and one for each side of the box. Many people glue these on before assembling the box, I just do it afterwords. I use a sponge brush and paint the mod podge onto the sides and just glue the paper on and that's it! Depending on the theme, I then type out a quote, print it out, cut it and glue it onto the sides. TA-DA! Simple! :)
Here are a couple of care packages I have made in the past!
This was the very first care package I sent my boyfriend when he was deployed. It's still probably one of my favorite ones as well! The quote reads: "Distance is just a test to see how far love can travel." I thought the quote was very appropriate for the very first package since it's such a sudden change. I used 3 different paper patterns from Hobby Lobby. Two were globe patters, and two were roads. The center one is just a colorful map of the United States. I loved the pop of color in the middle. Originally, my idea was to buy an actual map and to use that. You can still totally try that and I'm sure it would amazing! It does add an extra step of measuring it out to fit the box though.
The second one, is a winter care package I made before the Christmas ones! I didn't really think about how long the word snowflakes was, therefore it looks a little funky. haha The quote reads: "If Kisses were snowflakes I'd send you a blizzard". I love this quote and thought it was so cute and appropriate! You can definitely jazz this up with some pictures or cotton balls! I used two different patterns, snowflake ones and snowman ones, and I just alternated them.
This next care package, is the very last one I sent to my boyfriend. Yes that was a huge gap but I don't have any pictures of the others ones :/ Since we are long distance anyway when he's here in the US, I decided to do one about our home. Also, the quote is from one of my favorite songs: Home by Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros. By this time, I committed to buying a whole book of scrapbook paper, that explains the many different patterns. I usually stick to a pattern but I thought this still looked pretty nice. Sometimes, Hobby Lobby and Michaels have 50% off sales and you can get an entire book of 12x12 scrapbook paper with like 180 sheets for only 10 bucks! The only reason I never bought them before because I was always specific about my themes and those were usually a bit to generic, but I decided to make it work! haha
This next one is the first care package I sent to my sailor friend. Apologies for the quality of the picture. I wanted to do a little ocean/ship theme. Not my best work, but she loves it! I saw a ship survival kit idea on pinterest and just loved it! So I needed to find somewhere to include that in mine! haha This time I just used two different patterns.
And Last, this is the most recent care package that I just finished today actually! I have to say, this is probably my favorite one! Aside from the fact that my quote isn't centered! It drives me nuts! This one is specifically Disney's UP themed! I couldn't find any cute clouds scrapbook paper but I still love the blue sky! It includes the cute house with all the balloons floating up towards the sun, the famous: "Adventure is out there!" quote, as well as a ripped out picture of paradise falls that Ellie ripped out of a library book, and finally a quote from Russel himself: "The Wilderness must be explored!" It came out so much better than I could have ever expected!
This was quite a long post! Sorry for that, but hopefully you were able to find something helpful or just get some ideas for your own care packages! I love seeing all the different care packages so I hope you did as well! Thanks for stopping by! :)
-- Laura
