Back from Vacation--Lots of Pics

Kip and decided to head out on vacation last week. I didn't have time to schedule some posts to go live while I was gone because I was too busy getting everything packed. Since we were both going to be gone, I didn't announce it anywhere online that we wouldn't be at home this week. After talking about it a bit, we decided to head out to Savannah, GA for a week long vacation. It was heavenly. We were both in dire need of a vacation and this one was pretty great. We had a nice mix of seeing new things, visiting new places, eating incredible food and getting in some relaxing time as well. We started out last Saturday morning and since we were passing through Chattanooga we met my sister and her husband and son for lunch. After enjoying our lunch with them we drove the rest of the way to Savannah.

Here are some of the random photos I took. I will add a little explanation of what they are. They are a little jumbled up and not really in the order that our vacation went!

This is a photo looking at at the River Walk area in Savannah. I have a thing about taking photos of fences and trees! I loved that brick work against the cement of the sidewalk with the brick buildings in the background.

One of the things that we did was drive out to Tybee Island. On the way back we stopped at Uncle Bubba's for dessert. We were still full from lunch but wanted to eat there so we sampled the Strawberry Shortcake and the Key Lime Pie. Everything we ate on vacation was fantastic and this was no exception. This was a photo I took just behind and to the side of the restaurant.

This is a photo of my feet in the ocean at Tybee Island. The very, very cold ocean. I just had to get my feet in there though!

Another fence picture! This was also on Tybee Island. I just loved those little yellow flowers and the zig zag fence on the sand.

This was walking out onto the pier area on Tybee.

This is one of those photos that I just happened to have the camera ready as that little bird took a drink of water from that pipe. Normally when I try to capture something like that on film I wind up with a big blur. I am very happy with this photo.

One of the park areas in Savannah.

The Cotton Exchange building with the griffin fountain in front.

The famous Waving Girl statue in Savannah.

The port area.

We had a fabulous time. It rained and was overcast the first couple of days we were there but all in all it was a great trip. We took a trolley tour around Savannah on the first day and then later in the week we took The Movie Tour to see some of the sites where movies have been filmed in Savannah. In addition to touring Savannah and driving out to Tybee Island we also drove to Hilton Head. While in Savannah, I found a fabulous kitchen store called Kitchens on the Square that I ended up shopping in on two separate days. My love for kitchen gadgets even exceeds my love of stamps and markers, so I was really in heaven in that store. I also love hot teas, and we founds a couple of stores that had some amazing tea blends that I was able to purchase. We headed home yesterday morning and then as we passed through Chattanooga this time we met my parents for dinner. Today we are just vegging out and trying to catch up on the laundry!

Sassy Cheryl's PINK Challenge

Hello!! I am here today and playing along with the challenge on the Sassy Cheryl challenge blog. The challenge this week is PINK. I just love bunny images and use them all throughout the year, especially when I am making cards or anything else for my niece Zoie, she loves them as much as I do. Sassy Cheryl has some of my all time favorite bunnies too. I bought several new images a couple of weeks ago and have just now had time to sit down and color them. I love this one with the little ladybugs. After coloring everything with Copics, I went over the ladybugs with some Glossy Accents to make them really stand out and to give them a little dimension. Papers are DCWV, flowers and ribbon have been in the craft room for a while so I am not sure where they came from. Thanks for visiting me today!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I posted that I was going to try and take a Jeep full of water back home to Bradley County this weekend to donate to the homeowners and volunteers doing clean up from last week's tornado. I sent out the call and man did everyone respond. It was a last minute call too, so I wasn't sure how many people would see the email before I needed to head out. I was hoping for a full Jeep and that is what I got. One more case and I wouldn't have been able to see out of my rear view mirror. It was just amazing. Since people were bringing 2-4 cases at a time and loading them directly into the Jeep I didn't even realize how many there were until we unloaded it. I was also collecting quarters to be able to give people to use at the laundromat. Friends brought all the water that you see below,plus another dozen gallons of water that didn't make it into the picture, $125 in quarters and another $65.00 to use at my discretion. When I went to church with my parents on Sunday they announced that they were putting together baskets of personal care items to hand out. So I took the rest of the money and spent it buying razors, shaving cream and band-aids. I was also able to help assemble the baskets. Here is the water:

I have seen the destruction from tornados in person many, many times. I had been seeing the destruction online but I wasn't quite prepared for what I saw. It was so much worse. Both of the hardest hit areas there were in the school zones where I attended school. I grew up running around that neighborhood, playing with friends. There just aren't enough words. Thank you again for all the prayers and concern. Please keep praying for all the people that lost so much, including nine families that lost a loved one there and all the others that impacted throughout Alabama, Georgia and Tennessee.

No art today, flood pictures

I am sure most of you have heard about the flooding in the Nashville area. Here are some pictures I took within three miles of my house. We are all fine and safe but we did get a couple of inches of water inside the downstairs of our house. Our storage room, bathroom, bedroom and laundry area all have water in them. So does my craft room. My Copics are safe though. Kip went to Home Depot and bought the last shop vac that they had and we have been sucking up water since yesterday. My parents were here so I could celebrate Mother's Day early. They got stuck here. Fortunately we had their help though.

Here is the Kohl's parking lot.

This is the front entrance of Target. To get an idea of the depth, that is a cart return and the sides are barely sticking out above water. 

More of Target's parking lot.

This is the Buffalo Wild Wings. We live behind there and a little to the right.

This is Old Hickory Blvd. which is the main road that runs in front of our house. This is also the way I go to work!

Needless to say, it might be a few days before I have anything creative to post. 

On my way to work

No card tonight, but I had this photo that I wanted to share with you. I pass this tree on my way to work every day, and I just love these trees with the purple blossoms. Today, I decided to stop and take a picture of it. I don't know the name of these trees and when I talked to my friend Angela this afternoon I asked her what they were. She told me and now I can't remember what she said! Anyway I wanted to share the picture with you. 

i replaced the photo of my CAS card. Krysten is a member of one my blog groups and takes the most beautiful pictures of her cards. She was kind enough to answer a couple of questions for me and I think the new photo looks tons better. Thanks!