Just of the cruise ship and I had an extra day booked to meet up with Brooke. We decided to go on a haunted tour of Seattle. I had been to Seattle in 2014 but, had not taken a tour. It was fascinating – Seattle has such an interesting history
Love the totem poles.
We stopped in Victoria today.
Had an English Breakfast for Lunch and then went on a bus tour
In Skagway I took the coach to the Train which went through the mountains. Stopped at the suspension bridge and had Bison Chili for Lunch. The views are just incredible.
Images of Skagway
Views from the coach
and from the train:
we even stopped to pick up hitch hikers who were on a hiking tour and two of them turned out to be Nicole and Bryan who were with our group.
Alaska is just so incredibly beautiful and the polar opposite of Florida. We have beautiful palm trees, ocean views and balmy breezes but it is very flat!
It was a rainy day in Juneau and I had tickets to the Rain Forest. After getting there we discovered the roads had been washed out so the tour was canceled. Called another Uber to go to the Medenhall Glacier. We were in the visitors center and the power went out. Just a crazy day!!
Here are the photos that I manged to get.
I can see how much the glacier has receded since my last visit.
Alaska – what can I say. Always so majestic and breath taking. We had an incredible room on the ship for classes and we were fortunate to see whales during and after classes.
Look at this view!
We are headed to Alaska again for another Royal Carribean cruise. I flew in a day early so that I could go and visit my friend Brookes store called Urban PaperCrafter in Edmonds Washington.
I only spent an hour here before Brooke whisked me away for a day of play 
We took the ferry
And had Crepes
Before driving to Port Angeles. I had a personal quest to search for Edward from the Twilight series. Did not find him but I did see the restaurant that Edward and Bella had dinner in !!
Here are some of the photos from our day
Time for the Summer Trade show and this year it was held in Vegas.
Not a favorite location of mine. I find there is too many people and it is hot. On the plus side I get to meet up with my colleagues and order tons of merchandise for the holiday season.
View of the hoover dam from the plane.
Vegas was hot, hot, hot and there was a swarm of grasshoppers. The grasshoppers were so dense that they could be seen from space!!
I found some very cool products for the store and had a great time with my colleagues. Time away from the store always gives my head time to think about new classes. This time I found a new book system and it gave me some fabulous ideas for 4 or 5 different art journaling classes.
Can’t wait to get some of the components I need to start designing.
Here is one of them.
Here is the outside of an English pub that I managed to eat at with my friend Brooke. I like to eat genuine English Sausages when I get a chance.
Genuine Sausages and Baked Beans. Strange to have the Baked Beans with Bangers and Mash tho.
I started with a magazine page and scraped gesso across the background using an old credit card. I used lots of different colors and then added some random stenciling to the paper using black and white paints. I punched circles and added them to my book. Now I just have to journal.
Dirty stencils can be a work of art. I don’t clean my stencils when I use them and they eventually turn into works of art.
January is always a busy time at the store, it is season here in South Florida – we have lots of snowbirds and visitors escaping from the frozen North. It is also the time of my annual trade show which is being held in Phoenix this year. I love going to the Trade show – I get to see and buy new products, discover new techniques and catch up with colleagues and friends. It is also a stressful time. I don’t like being away from the store during the busy times.
Flight to Phoenix. It looks so brown compared to Florida
This year I decided to try an AirBnB to stay at and it was great. This place had great reviews and was only about 15 minutes away.
The owner even left a huge bowl of fruit
I was impressed with my first AirBnB and will definitely do it again.
Phoenix Street Art
I love the rawness of street art
I had a little downtime during dinner and we went to a hotel that had some creepy dolls barricaded in the basement.
