New Zealand- Part 1

Hi Blogging Friends:

Ok, I fell off the map during my trip to New Zealand.  I had every intention of blogging every day but I could not get an internet connection from my room.  I was too exhausted to go to the internet cafe or to the hotel lobby, so, I took a week off.

I went to New Zealand knowing I would have fun, but with no other expectations. Wow... was I blown away!  This trip was truly a trip of a lifetime.  I can't begin to describe how beautiful it was.  My description would be Hawaii (the tropical flair), Alaska (with the mountains and glaciers) and Ireland (with the green) all rolled into one exotic location.  I can't believe that I was able to earn this trip for both Kent and myself.  I am so lucky to work for such an awesome company.

I am going to share my trip with you day by day!  Enjoy.

Day 1- San Francisco-

I met two of my downline and best friends, Casey and Chris in San Francisco.  We had a wonderful time, shopping and eating. 

Day 2- Christchurch
13 hour flight to New Zealand- then a flight from Auckland to Christchurch!  Thanks goodness for Simply Sleep!

Arrive Christchurch- Explore on our own.

Then a group tour, dinner and a show at Willowbank.  Check out our men doing the Hawka!

Check out Kent - isn't he fierce?

Day 3- Christchurch
Free time in Christchurch and then the Jet Boat Excursion.  I feel the need for speed!  SO FUN! (and beautiful)

After the ride- aren't we lovely?

Day 4- Christchurch

Off to the Sheep Farm!  This was one of my most memorable excursions.  I loved it!

After a day at the farm we were invited to a dinner for Executive Directors and above.  Close To My Heart treats us so good!

End of Part 1

I am out of town and working a 3 day crop this weekend.  I will finish the rest of my trip on Monday.  Stay tuned and thanks for reading!

If you are in Orange Beach this weekend, stop by Perdido Beach Resort and say Hello! I am working at Gigi's crop! You can even do some shopping if you like :)

Tina

Going to New Zealand... that was the plan!

BUSTED!  I am sure that I have confused all of my facebook friends with my previous posts.  They know part of this story if they were facebooking last night.

Before I tell my story, let me explain the previous post.  If you are not a blogger- you may not know this... but Blogger allows you to compose posts ahead of time and schedule them to go live at your convenience. I thought I was being smart, and composed the previous post a few days ago.  I was supposed to leave Pensacola at 5:20 this morning, that didn't happen.  Let me tell you my story...

Imagine this... it is Thursday afternoon, the afternoon before my trip to New Zealand.  I have piles of clothes, both Kent's and mine, all over the house.  5 suitcases (hey... 2 are carry on's) in the midle of the floor.  I just finished my Whataburger hamburger and  I decide to log onto Delta.com to check in.  Guess what... due to the snow storm, and the cold tempatures... my Friday morning flight was cancelled.  I call Delta.  It is too late to get  a flight out today.  There is nothing going out on Friday, so that leaves Saturday morning.  We are shceuled to leave San Franciso Saturday evening. Looking iffey (not sure if , ifey is a word, but just go with it).  I determined that I worked too hard this past year with CTMH, to chance missing my New Zealand Flight.

I call ed Kent at work, and ttold him to get home immediately.  (He works an hour away).  I throw  all the piles of clothes into  the closest of the 5 suitcases.  I call Avis.  I rent a car.  Kent gets home from work at around 3:30 p.m.  We put the suitcaes in the car and my dear friend Debbie drives us to Pensacola to get a rent a car.

We get the rent a car and start driving towards Atlanta, into the ice and snow.  It is now 5:30 p.m. 

I check my iphone and find out that Delta has rescheduled us once again, this time to leave out of Pensacola on Saturday morning.  We are about an hour into the drive.  I call Delta and am on hold.  We hit a no service part of the drive and the phone goes dead.  No service for an hour.  What to do... what to do...

Finally 2, hours into the drive, I get my cell signal back.  I call Delta.  The agent is not sure why they switched our flight without asking.  He puts us back on the Atlanta to San Francisco flight.  We keep driving.

At 11:30 p.m. we get to our hotel.  Since we have to be at the Atlanta airport at 6 a.m., Kent decides to return the rent a car Thrusay night.  The plan is for me  is to stay in the hotel and try to organize the items I threw in the suitcase. 

An hour later, Kent calls and the rent a car agency is closed.  20 minutes later he finds an after hour drop off  Whew!

He gets back to the hotel at 1:15. We fall into bed.  4 a.m. this morning our alarm goes off.  OMG!

We made it to the airport.  I found Casey, my superstar team member who also earned New Zealand.  For all my CTMH friends, we found Amy and Stan too!  They are on our flight.  Amy and I check out the Brigthon store at 7:30 a .m.  Life is good now. 

Kent and I were upgraded to first class.  Kent gave up his seat and Casey is sitting beside me as I blog.(gotta love wi fi in the sky)  Is it too early to have a glass of  wine?

Our next stop is San Francisco.  Oh I wonder what adventures await us there...

Time to take a nap....

Dreaming of New Zealand,

Tina

New Zealand here we come!

The day has finally arrived.  I have been pulling my hair out all week to get prepared for New Zealand.  The day is here and I am ready, excited and OUT THE DOOR.  My plane leaves at 5:20 a.m.!!!

New Zealand... here comes Close To My Heart.  Watch the blog for updates.

Thanks to all of my wonderful customers who have helped me achieve this goal! I appreciate you!

Simple but useful travel tool!

Have I mentioned lately that I am going to New Zealand tomorrow :).  I made this useful, and very simple travel too.  (this is a 5 minute project).  I went to Walmart and got a simple file folder.  I took 5 minutes and decorated the outside of the folder, using Rockstar paper and the New Zealand stamp set.

On the inside I stamped the names of the places that we will visit. 

Each town has it's own folder.  As I visit each town, I can collect memorbillia and put it in the appropriate pocket.  Then, when I get ready to scrapbook, everything is in one place.  Easy Peasy! 

Happy Mail! Thank you Close To My Heart!!!!

I am so excited.  Look what I got in the mail yesterday.. (actually I got it last week but didn't find it until last night, that will teach me to open ALL my boxes when they arrive!)

If you are wondering what all this stuff is, it is a care package from Close To My Heart (the best company in the WORLD!).  As many of you know I earned two incentive trips from Close To My Heart this year- New Zealand and a Caribbean Cruise.  New Zealand is NEXT WEEK!  Look at all the amazing items they sent me...

• an exclusive New Zealand Stamp Set
• a 12 x 12 album
• a prepared Create and Take project- accessories and paper included. (WOW)
• a make up bag with the CTMH logo on it.
• slippers (they are black, you can barely see them)
• an eye mask
• an E size Alphabet Stamp Set
• Shirts for both Kent and myself
• Custom Luggage Tags

Wow... do I feel spoiled.  Close To My Heart is such a generous company, I am so lucky to have such an awesome job.  Lucky, Lucky, Lucky Me!

Here is a close up of the stamp set.  Can't wait to create with it!  Stinkin' Cute!

I will be out of the office from January 7-18th.  So, if you need to place an order before I go, call me soon!  :)

I am getting so excited.  Doing The New Zealand Jitterbug...

Tina

Studio J - I am addicted.

I've been up all night creating.  I am addicted to Studio J and falling in love with scrapbooking all over again. 

Lorie Valley, France

I am a few days behind on blog posting.  We left Paris a couple of days ago to tour the Lorie Valley.  The Loire Valley is famous for it's French countryside;  It is Fall in France and the colors of the leaves are breathtaking.  In Florida, we don't have much of a fall, so I am very excited to see all the beautiful autumn colors.  Snap, snap, snap is the sound that you hear coming from my camera!  I can't seem to take enough photos.  

The Loire Valley has everything I could ever want.  Everywhere you look is a castle, a chateau, or a chocolate shop- all the things that make me happy.  I am trying to convenience Kent to move here, but I don't think that will happen.

We are staying at Chateau de Reginac.  The Chateu was built in the 15th century, and was fully renovated and restored in 2002.  The rooms are breathtaking and immaculate. And to even add more charm to this place iare the Chateau dogs. The owner has two beautiful, friendly beagles that I had the pleasure of meeting this morning.  It made me homesick for Dixie and Daisy.

I am going to post a few photos from the chateau.  If you have a minute, you should check out the Chateau de Reginac's webpage as my photos do not do this place justice!

The Chateu' De Reginac

The back of the chateau.  Our room is in the right tower!

The Chateau' Kitty!  Even the French Feline's appreciate fine furnishings!  Actually, I don't think she is supposed to be in the chateau, but she crept in when the door was open and made herself at home!  She loves the guests!

I am off to bed.  I have a busy day tomorrow.   We are touring chateaus all day tomorrow.   When I get home, I will post more photos of the Loire Valley.  I plan to do a slide show but am having difficulties with photobucket while traveling.

Au revoir,

Tina

Fountainbleu- Day 3

We got a late start today.  We slept in until around 10 a.m.  Once we got on the road, off to Fountainbleu!

The gardens and grounds are exquisite!  I have never seen such a beautiful, massive chateau!
  

Fountainblu is a huge  with 1900 rooms. Just about every inch of the place is adorned with ornate woodwork, marble, gold gilded carvings, tapestries, and paintings. Much of the furniture is original from the Renaissance period, though much of it had to be retrieved because the palace was sacked and looted during the Revolution and all the furniture stolen. 

We spent several hours exploring the grounds and the inside.  I think we walked until our feet ached and our stomachs growled!  We parked in the back of the chateau, behind the back gate. By the time we left the chateau and walked towards our car, we realized that we were locked in.  After about 30 minutes of walking in the rain, we found our way out!  

Our mishap of the day- I dropped and broke my new Cannon camera (the small one- not the Rebel).  It seems like something happens every day, but that is ok.  I am in France... what else could a girl ask for!

Belgium Chocolate, Belguim Waffles, Belgluim Beers... OH MY! Day 2

Day 2- We woke up at 4 a.m., got dressed, drove to the train station and jumped on a train to go to Belgium. First stop... Brugge.

Brugge, Belgium has to be one of my favorite places on earth.  It is so quaint and the people are lovely!  The town is filled with beauty and charm!

About 10 minutes into our trip,  I was in such awe of the city, that I wasn't paying attention to where I was walking. SPLAT... I fell off the curb and down I went.  I twisted my ankle.  But that didn't stop me, I waddled along the rest of the day!

The first stop we made was for Belgium Waffles and Hot Chocolate!  That will cure any injury AND Yes, I am officially eating my way through Europe.  After we got our tummies full, we headed to the canal for a boat ride.  The weather was perfect, a slight chill in the air and sunny skies.  The wind in our face felt so good!

We spent the rest of the afternoon, exploring Brugge.  We visited Chocolate shops, churches and museums.  There is so much to do and so much to see, that our afternoon just flew!  We stayed in Brugge until around 4:00 and then headed to Brussels.


Of course, we had worked up an appetite with all the walking so our first stop in Brussels. you guessed it... WAFFLES!

I have NEVER tasted waffles like you get in Belgium.  They are incredible and they melt in your mouth.  You see them everywhere, in restaurants, in train stations, on the street, and they call your name.  They are irresistible- definitely a red light food!

Next we headed to The Grand Place.  All I can say is SPECTACULAR!  Words just can't describe the beauty of this place.  I won't even try, I'll just post a photo!

We finished our day off with a Belgium Beer.  All I can say is Chocolate, Waffles and Beer... OH MY!

It was a PERFECT DAY!