More Pics of My Trip

Hello bloggers!  Today's pics are all from Japan.  I do have to apologize a bit though as my cell phone is very old and the camera on it isn't the best (and neither are my photography skills or lack thereof! LOL)  The first six pics are from a shore excursion we did,  The gardens were absolutely beautiful and well manicured. It wasn't a park, but rather it was the grounds around a kimono factory we visited.  We were not allowed to take any pics inside the factory though, but the grounds were the real surprise for me.

 

The next four pics were from the Arashiyama Bamboo Forest.  I have always wanted to visit it even though the pictures online are always so crowded with tourists.  We lucked out as it wasn't too bad the day we went there.  There were lots of young gals walking through the forest dressed in beautiful kimonos.  The day was incredibly hot too, but the shade in the forest really helped us beat the heat for awhile.  

Our next stop was in Nara.  I wanted to see the bowing deer and this place did not disappoint either.  This is a pic of the Todai-ji Buddhist temple.  You can see the large buddhas inside, they were huge.  There was an interesting statue on the grounds that was gold colored and a spiral effect to it.  The deer were everywhere and they would follow you if you had any food.  They were polite and always gave you a bow before taking the food.

This was the last excursion we took from the ship and we saw several waterfalls, but that was also the only day it was raining so I didn't take very many pics that day

We had one full day in Tokyo after the cruise and we decided to take the Shinkansen Bullet Train up to see Mt. Fuji.  We really enjoyed the trip up and back as the train goes 200 mph!  There were only a handful of people on the train with us too, surprisingly! Unfortunately, we never got to actually see Mt. Fuji from the train as it was steeped in cloud cover, but we did get to catch a glimpse of it from a beach on one of our previous tours.  Yes, that is Mt. Fuji in the final pic (I don't know who the people were in the pic though). It is still covered at the top in clouds, but at least we saw part of it that day!  

So we flew back from Japan via California and we had a nine hour layover there.  It wasn't an issue as that is where my daughter lives so she met us at LAX and we went out for a  lovely lunch together before heading back to the airport for our red eye flight back to Florida.  So we actually left from Florida and flew east all the way around the world before we returned home.  That is the first time I have ever done that!  The jet lag was real though as it took about two weeks to get past it fully!  Our trip really was spectacular, everything I had hoped it would be!  The cruise was with Celebrity and it was really lovely too, some of the best food we have ever had on a cruise too.  I hope you have enjoyed my pics!  Back to some cards tomorrow!   All for now, Sue x

Pics From My Trip

Hello crafters!  I said that I would be posting pics of Japan, but I thought I would try to do this over two days and show a bit of all the places we went.  As you know, I flew to the UK last September and did a couple of shows on Hobby Maker.  The next day we attended my step son's wedding, then the next day we flew to Qatar on the way to Japan.  We had one full day there before heading onto South Korea.  So today's post will start with some pics from Qatar then onto South Korea and Japan will be on Sunday.  These first two pics were of the airport in Qatar, it was really nicely decorated inside the terminal.

 

This is the Natural Museum of Qatar.  It has been designed to look like the Desert Rose mineral.  While the tour that I was on didn't go into the actual museum, we were allowed to wander around the lobby which was full of antique and unusual cars from a private collection.

We went to the souk on the tour and we saw all the falcons which is their national bird.  This one cost about $40,000 but some of the falcons were well over a million dollars!

Below, a statue of a giant thumb, I haven't a clue why, but I thought it was interesting!  I'm sure there is a story behind it but our guide did not know about it.

This was interesting.  They built these towers for the pigeons and they roost there and then their waste is collected and they use it for fertilizer.  It keeps the streets and sidewalks clean as the pigeons flock to this structure.

The remaining pics of Qatar were taken from the guide's vehicle as we drove by.  The nest two pics were of mosques and the spinneret. 

There was a pic of a lovely residential area on a waterway.  It had apartments and some shops too.

The last pic of Qatar is of an interesting hotel called the Fairmont Doha.  It is shaped like a giant U.

South Korea

One of the best tours we did was visiting the DMZ area between North and South Korea.  We were not allowed to take any photos of North Korea at all, but you could see it and even look through the high powered binoculars and could even see people working in the fields along with several guard booths along the border area.  We met with a North Korean defector and heard her story.  It was heartbreaking to listen to what she had to go through to get her husband and two children out of North Korea!

The fence with all the ribbons was from the South Korean people who had lost family members during the conflict.  They are prayer ribbons, carrying messages of hope, peace and reunification.

The rest of the pics are from Jeju Island.  We picked up a cruise that started from Seoul and the first stop was Jeju Island.  I have wanted to see this place since I saw pics of it on Instagram years ago.  It did not disappoint.  Similar to Irelands' Giants Causeway, but you could not walk down to it.  There were viewing platforms all around it.

I hope you have enjoyed the pics of Qatar (Doha) and South Korea.  On to Japan tomorrow!  All for now, Sue x

Happy Birthday

Hello crafters!  It looks like salmon season in today's card! LOL  I started by cutting a bunch of the fish from the Fishing Rod die set.  I cut all of them out of white card and used markers to colour all of them.  I selected a piece of card from my stash that I had made previously with Aqua Lagoon Pixie Powders.  I glued all the coloured fish to it in rows.  Next I used some rectangle dies to cut the piece into three sections.  I added each section to a piece of white card that I had cut with the Postage Stamp Rectangles.  For the two smaller sections, I added mounting foam to the backs of them to raise them.  I added each of the sections back into place, raising each section a little above the one below it.  I used the Happy Birthday from the Fishing Frame and cut it in black and added it to the lower right hand corner of the card.  The card was completed with white mats and layers.  The finished dimensions are 6 1/4"  x  8 1/4"  in size.

Now for the part you are all waiting for!  The winner of the January die release collection is..........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................        

                                                            Wakey L!!!

Congratulations!  Please contact me at americansue1@gmail.com to confirm your postal address and claim your winnings! 

Just a quick note, As I mentioned before, I don't have quite enough cards that I can post every day for a while, but I thought I would use this weekend to share some of my pics from my recent trip to Japan (yes, I finally made it there!)  So if you are interested to see them please stop by both Saturday and Sunday if you like.   All for now, Sue x

                                                                                  

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From Our Patch To Yours

 Hello crafters!  Today's card is this pretty slimline card using the Autumn Scene dies.  I started by cutting the Slimline Outer Scalloped Oval Aperture Trip in white.  I added mounting foam to the back of the die then attached a piece of white card as the backing.  Using the Stitched Rectangle Slimline Frames, I cut a frame using rust card.  I added it with mounting foam to the base piece.  next I cut the basket from the Autumn Scenes die set three times out of tan card.  I used some Gathered Twigs distress ink on the basket and added the handles to each of them.  For the bottom basket, I cut a load of mushrooms out of gray card.  To add the elements to the basket, I cut a small circle out of gray and glued all the mushrooms to the top of the circle, then glued the circle to the back of the basket, leaving the mushrooms to show.  I added it to the bottom aperture with mounting foam.  Next I cut the pumpkins in a variety of fall colours and did the same thing by adding them to a circle then gluing it to the back of the basket and adding it to the middle aperture with mounting foam.  For the top of aperture, I cut a bunch of acorns out of gray card and inked the tops with walnut stain distress ink.  I glued them to a gray circle then glued the circle to the back of the basket.  I added the basket to the top aperture. I stamped the sentiment on white card and cut it out with the Stitched Frames, then glued it across the card.  The card was completed with white mats and layers.  The finished dimensions are 4 3/4"  x  9"  in size.  All for now, Sue x

                                                                             

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