A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

Oscar and I purchased our first SLR camera, Nikon D3000.  Over the past few months we have attempted to learn how to use it properly, with little success. Our goal is to become masters of photography, okay I might be exaggerating.

We ordered a few cool gadgets for the camera that hopefully can help us, and make photography more fun, I don’t know how much more fun since I already love to take pictures of everything.

we've attempted to learn how to combine shutter speed along with aperture to achieve the picture we want. I'm always looking for opportunities to take pictures. I Love how a picture can freeze time, and anything that happened at that moment is captured in one frame.

Items Bought:  

Fish Eye Lens (did not like it as much as I thought I would)

Filter Kit - UV filter, CPL Filter, FL-D Filter

Close-Up Macro Lens Kit ( These are great for close-ups)

                     ^xo, Val

Summer Bloom

When Oscar and I first moved into our apartment, I decided to go ahead and plant some flowers. I love plants for the home, growing up my mom would always have flowers inside the house, and I loved how much it beautified the home. So, I bough a few plant pots some soil, and seeds. It all started out well, my plants grew, the flowers bloomed… but then I always end up killing them. The plants lasted about a month and then they just withered away and died, I tried this with 3 plants. After reading Daylins’ post Convolvuluses a few weeks ago I was really  motivated to plant some flowers again. About 3 weeks ago I bought some new seeds, and planted them. I’m happy to say that I already have flowers, I’m still waiting for the third plant to grow (this one was planted a week and a half after the others)

I hope that this time around I’m able to keep my plants alive for a long time. I can’t wait to have a house and fill my backyard with flowers. I love having them around!

Miami Heat

Basketball season is over, with the Mavericks winning the championship, and defeating my team, the Miami Heat. It was a great season, full of exciting and stressful moments. Needless to say the Heat was at the center of the media frenzy, unfortunately most of it was negative. The Heat going to the playoffs, and then the finals brought all our friends together, nearly every playoff game we watched with friends, which made it even better. Oscar and I also went to a few games; it was so much fun to be in the American Airlines Arena filled with energetic fans, and take part of what was a very crazy season. We hope that next season we will be able to attend more games.
A few pictures from the games we went to:

Family Times

Recently my 4 year old niece had a dance recital, so my family attended to see our little ballerina. I have to admit I was very surprised to see how much choreography the girls could remember, although there was someone on the side they could look for if they needed help.

I look forward to going to her next recitals! She’s such a precious little girl.

Here’s a pic of Lina  with my Sis & I

This is what I made for her, to pin on her dress!

There’s always an excuse to craft, I really liked it. I'll be doing more of these for different occasions. 

I can’t believe the first baby of the house Jeremy (my nephew) is so big, he just finished 4^th grade, at the end of the summer he will start his last year of elementary school. I could still remember when he was a baby. Okay, saying that makes me feel like I’m old. You know, reminiscing about when family member where babies, and saying how fast time is going by. 

Its been a very eventful month; recitals,  graduations and what not. we'll see what the summer has in store for us.

^xo, Val

See it, Love it, Pin It

I recently, and by recently I mean two days ago started using pinterest. It is agreat way to store and organize all those great things you see online. I started getting together the ideas for either food, crafts or cool stuff I find. I had always wanted a way to categorize things online, just like you would magazines. I love that I don't have to save every website or blog I like to my favorites, now i can just pin what i like anywhere I am. I look forward to going back to all those crafts I want to do and create a pinterest board for my future diy!

My Furry Friend

Say hello to my little furry friend…… Millie

Breed: Yorkshire terrier (Yorkie)

Age: 2

There's a reason why they say dogs are man’s best friend. I have always had a dog, as a matter fact growing up I had a one just like Millie (I guess I can’t get enough of them). I love having a dog. She is great company, especially when I’m home alone, which happens quite often considering the hubby and I work opposite schedules. I think she likes it when he's not home, because all my attention is for her. 

Millie is a great dog, she is so much fun. I love how excited she is to see us, whether we've been gone for hours or stepped outside to throw the trash away. I love that all she really ever wants is food, a walk, and our attention. Theres a million reasons why we love her, i could go on forever. I think we will always have a dog, an unconditional 4 legged friend!

Don’t go to a store to find your next best friend, Adopt!

PetFinder

^xo, Val

Crepe Wreath

This past weekend I decided to make a wreath. I was inspired by a coffee wreath  shown in one of the blogs I read Nesting Place. I had seen others made out of Crepe paper but in rose form, I didn't think Oscar would appreciate the roses much so i went with twisted crepe paper. What makes crepe paper really good for this project is that you can find it in nearly every color.

I added a special accent on mine "Families are Forever" and hung it in the entrance to our home.

To view the instructions click on the Link Crepe Wreath !

^xo, Val

No Negativity Allowed Here

Reading blogs has become one of my favorite past time. I recently stumbled across a post where the writer was tired of seeing blogs about happily married couples and about how great family life is. This post made me think of the pressure society puts on young people not to peruse a family, how society tells us that getting married is not the right decision, and turns such happy things to negative ones. The blogger was upset that people wouldn't write about the bad things that happen, the sour bites of life. I can only speak for myself, I think we see enough bad things every day, whether it be in the news or from people talking about it; to then go home and fill your free time with negativity. Sure life is not always laughs and giggles, bad things happen, people upset you. However, at the end of the day the happiness and the good things in my life always outweigh the bad ones. I like reading blogs that motivate me to do something, especially blogs about crafting. I also enjoy reading blogs about my friends, its fun to keep up with their lives. I like to use my blogging time to read uplifting things, blogs that are going to help me, not blogs whose theme is how awful the world is. Just a thought, I don’t think I’m the only one that feels this way, or am I?  Until next time!

COUNT YOUR BLESSINGS

         ^xo, Val

Friends on the High Seas

We recently found ourselves packing to go for what would later become our home away from home. Oscar & I along with our friends Jonathan & Kimberly, embarked the Carnival Glory on May 1^st, to cruise along the western Caribbean; stopping at Cozumel, Belize, Roatan, and Grand Cayman. This would be our second cruise, even though we had already been to the destinations, we did different excursions than on our previous cruise.

I have to admit that cruising is possibly the best option for a vacation. We had an amazing time, there we many memories made in this vacation, from the 6 o’clock call to go to dinner to a pancake/ syrup soup, or our late night card games, the friends we made onboard (whayu/Kadek) and how can I forget ordering room service after we’ve already had dinner.

Ports of Call:

Cozumel

We arrived at Cozumel on Tuesday; we took a short bus drive that would take us to Playa Mia. Here we enjoyed the beach life. We snorkeled, ate, jumped on water trampolines, and water bicycle. The snorkeling was especially fun because they placed man made ruins under water, which makes it a lot of fun to snorkel.

Belize

Wednesday we took an hour long drive to the Belizean rainforest where an exhilarating zip lining adventure awaited. We truly got the RAINforest experience, as we zip lined from one station to the other we had to break sooner because of how slick the cables were. I was the only one in the group who had previously done it so I knew what to expect. Everyone seemed to enjoy the freedom from zipping through the rainforest.

Roatan

We finally arrived at Roatan, port of call Oscar looked forward to the most. Half an hour away from the port we arrived at a scuba dive shop that looked over the beautiful blue ocean. Our dive instructor got our equipment together and proceeded with instruction. We then took a boat ride and got in the water. Oscar a natural, me ….. well….. not so much. Great experience, however.

Grand Cayman

On Friday we went to Grand Cayman, we had no real plans for this port of call. We walked around through the shops; it’s not a cheap island. We then took a tour of some of the land marks and ended up at the seven mile beach. We enjoyed the beach for a while then headed back home, I mean the ship.

This was an amazing and much needed vacation!

^xo, Val

Easter Tree

I’ve always loved arts & crafts; I think this can probably be attributed to my mom’s very crafty influence. I wish I was half as crafty and inventive as she is, maybe one day. Walking through stores I started seeing very cute Easter trees where you hang the Easter eggs from and fill them up with candy. They make a cute decorating piece.  I had seen a few, but never  seemed to like them fully, so I decided to make my own with all the different elements that I liked combined into one.

I didn’t want to spend much on this, so I decided to check out the dollar store first to see what supplies I could find there. Much to my surprise, I was able to find everything I needed there, for under $10.

Here is a picture of the materials before and the after Easter Tree.

It was really fun to do; doing crafts is a great way to unwind from a stressful day. 

Museums on us

Not many people are aware of the wonderful program Bank of America has for any card holder, whether it be credit or debit. The first weekend (Saturday & Sunday) of every month, you can go to museums, galleries, etc… for free. Here is the link the official website    http://museums.bankofamerica.com/ Click on the link, choose your state and city, and eligible museums are listed.  The first weekend of March Oscar and I went to The Museum of Discovery and Science in FT. Lauderdale.

I'm a bit of a nerd so I always enjoys visiting museums, although Oscar was a little skeptical about going I think he had the most fun out of the two. They had a great aviation exhibit which Oscar enjoyed very much. I just truly love when we can go on a date thats different, no movies or dinner (although I enjoy both). So, if you have Bank of America definitely worth a try, its free after all!

New Endeavour

I’ve always loved music, but to my misfortune I have never been very talented in the music department. I tried playing the guitar while I was in high school, Complete Failure.  After years of wishing I was one of those people who can just listen to a song and then play it right away without ever rehearsing it, I decided to stop dreaming.  No, I’m not giving up. On the contrary I’ve bought a keyboard, and will now attempt to learn to play it. How successful will I be? I can't answer that yet. Luckily the UPS guy showed up with a great surprised today…. My new Casio keyboard! =) I will try to keep the blog updated with my progress, maybe one day I'll even post a video. As for now, I’ll stop writing so I can get to learning!

Wish me luck...

Hello Blog World!

Welcome!

I was recently in quite a dilemma, so i decided to see what other people thought about my issue. I read endless blogs, but still I hadn't made a decision. A  few days later I asked a friend, and although I still came to no conclusion something even better emerged from the conversation. Blogging came up as a topic, she gave me a little motivation to start one, and here we are now. Thanks! I'm excited about being able to share everyday things about my life and family, but I'm more excited to be able to create a journal/ virtual-scrapbook for my future kids. I hope to get the hand of blogging quickly, until the next post Good Night!