We visited Alfie and Margie for Memorial weekend. We had such a great time kayak fishing and hanging out with family. Bradenton area is really pretty and has great fishing areas! We can't wait to visit again.

After a few mornings of getting up before the sun rose, spending the day in the sun fishing, Charlie just passed out in the "sleeping" chair. Bella wasn't having any snoring tho and would wake paw him when he started making too much noise!

Fishing with the Moms!

Mom and Aunt Pat came to visit and of course, the first thing they want to do is go fishing! Although we got stuck in a rain storm, that didn't stop them. The fish turned on and we were in for the long haul.

Unfortunately, Aunt Pat's big fish slipped right through Charlie's fingers and got away before I could snap a picture. I'm sure he didn't do it on purpose Aunt Pat - LOL!

Garden Update

Mom and aunt pat hit my garden to harvest my beans and peppers. Unfortunately, I'm not sure the garden will make it with all the rain we've had in the past few weeks.

My First Kayak Fishing Tournament

On May 2, 2009, I entered my first kayak fishing tournament. A big feat considering it was only my 4th time in a kayak. I was confident all would be well, afterall, I was with Charlie, Daniel, Alfie, Britt, Armando and Ayden. The Drag-On fishing team in full-force!

We started the day at 6:00 a.m., launching before the sun rose. Within an hour, I had my first bite. I thought it was a decent Red only to be amazed when I netted my biggest trout ever -- a 23" trout! Yes, you can see the pure joy on my face. Thankfully, Charlie was close-by and could take the pictures for me -- it's a photo and release tournament. The rest of the day, I was skunked. I ended up placing 9th overall in the Trout Division. Not bad for 430 fisherman.

The big disappointment for the day was that I bought two raffle tickets to win a Wilderness Tarpon 140. The winning card was the Ace of Diamonds -- I had the Ace of Hearts!!! The good news is that I did win a pair of Costa del Mar sunglasses ($130 prize).

The GREATEST news of all is that Alfie won 2nd in the Red division and Armando placed 15th in the Flounder Division. This is the first time we've had multiple placements in the family team so we were all excited about it.



Huge thanks to Mike and Michelle who put on this event every year. It is the world's largest kayak tournament and they raised $40,000 for Daniel Memorial and the Guy Harvey Foundation.

I can't wait for next year!

Yak, yak, yak ...

LOL! So, Charlie got a new kayak for an early birthday present. He's IN LOVE with it! LOL!

Since we now have 3 yaks, we borrowed a 4th and the whole family went out today. It was mine and Maegan's first time. I loved it -- Maegan, not so much. We spent 4 hours paddling and fishing. We didn't catch anything and the wind was really kickin' so we called it a day. Here are some pics.

Scrap-Tastic's American Idol 2009 Contest

For the past several weeks, I have been participating in Scrap-Tastic's American Idol contest. I love this series of contest because they always challenge me to try things I may not normally do and to really stretch my creativity. Here are my submissions ... now cross your fingers and let's hope I win! Wahoo!

Beautiful was my first submission to qualify for the contest.

Without You was the 1st Challenge - This layout had to have 10 pp's and personify a song of your choice. I chose "My Life Would Suck Without You" by Kelly Clarkson. I used lots of flowers, hearts and swirls to give it a romantic feel.

Men was my 2nd Challenge layout - Unplugged! We could use no pp on the layout and we had to use stamps and we had to make our own embellishments. I printed my own patterned paper and use fun shapes and white pen for decoration. I also masked a frame around my cardstock using ink. All my buttons are made of hand-cut chipboard and corkboard. The title I drew and handcut from an office transparency. I then used alcohol inks to color it so it would stand out against the background papers.

Guilty was my 3rd Challenge layout - Karaoke! We had to scraplift a DT girlie and use 3 different embellishments. This one was easy for me. I have always admired Robin's work. I used buttons, stickers and chipboard as my embellishments.

Love was my 4th Challenge layout - Rock It Out! We had to use lots of shiny stuff -- glitter, rhinestones, etc. and we had to use stamps. I blinged this bad boy out!!! I used stickles all over the background paper. I glittered my title. I used glitter buttons and Say it in Crystals flourishes. I used journaling stamps to distress the pp a little and word stamps as part of my journaling. It's really spectacular in person (if I do say so myself - hee hee!)

Sunshine was my 5th Challenge layout - We Love the ... We had to pick a decade and make our layout reflect that decade. We had to choose a song from that decade and have the song represented on our layout. I chose "Walking on Sunshine" from the 80's. I chose neon colors that really popped against a white background. My film strip transparency and my sun both represented the title of my song.

Happy Go Lucky was my 6th Challenge layout - Composition! We had to explain how we compose our layout using picture area, depth, line, and value.

Birthday is my Final Challenge layout - We had to create a double page layout and use masking as our technique. We also had to make up lyrics to a song for our journaling. I chose Maegan's 21st birthday pictures and 50 Cent's "In da Club" for my song lyric inspiration. I created masks using my Cricut and used Glimmer Mist and ink on the background pp. I also used the negative of the mask to create a flocked swirl and butterfly and to emboss a gold swirl on the right side.

All in all, a great contest series. I love being pushed to create something new using techniques I may not have tried on my own. TFL!

Gardening

We usually plant a garden each year but that garden usually consists of a tomato plant and maybe cucumbers. This year, we planted multiple tomato plants, cucumbers, squash, zucchini, peppers, beans, and lots of herbs. Charlie even built a fence around the garden so the dogs wouldn't trample the plants. He did a great job. Here's the garden after just one month.