Jump on it July

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During the month of July, when you purchase $25 in current, retail priced stamps, you qualify to receive either the July Stamp of the Month, My Acrylix® Life Is Wonderful, FREE or any one of the Hostess Rewards stamp sets featured in Annual Inspirations 2014–2015 or Seasonal Expressions 2 for only $5! 

That is a savings of up to $17.95! The July Stamp of the Month is a lovely, versatile stamp set that is a great match for your cards and layouts that celebrate all the wonderful things—big and small—that life has to offer. 

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*Offer valid July 1, 2015 (9:00 am MDT)–July 31, 2015 (11:59 pm MDT). No tax will be charged on the free item(s). Shipping/handling is calculated based on the full retail price of the free or discounted item(s).

Receive this month’s Stamp of the Month FREE or any Hostess Rewards set for only $5! 

July Stamp of the Month

Available only July 1–31, 2015

Life Is Wonderful SET OF 8

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CTMH Convention 2015

There are only 14 days until 

I leave for Disneyland!

When can I pack?  

Who am I kidding, you know I have already started packing. 

 The convention supply list came out just before I left for Norway and I was able to get it packed and ready to go this week.  I love the hard side luggage that I bought earlier this year, it is going to be perfect to keep all of my scrapbooking supplies safe during travel. 

I normally do not have a room mate during convention because my family has always gone with me in the past.  They play in the parks during the day while I dream of all of the new products that we are going to be able to create with in the new catalog. 

 This year because the family is staying home I decided to open my room to one person as a roomie. One of the CTMH traditions with convention if you have a roomie is roomie gifts.  This is the first year I will be able to give someone a gift just for sharing a room with me.... 

Oh stop!

I will be on my best behavior while sharing this room - I promise!

  The gift is just a nice break the ice gesture and I hope she likes what I put together for her.

I will be taking my laptop and posting from convention the items that I am allowed to tell you about.  I will also be taking photos of the crop time that we have and I hope to grab pictures of some of the ladies that I only get to see once a year. 

Be one the lookout for firm crop and workshop dates because I will also be getting the info I need to put the finishing touches on those yearly plans.

It is going to be a jammed packed 3 days of classes, creative sessions and gab time. This year I will also receive my "10 year" charm during one of the general sessions.   Can you tell I am super excited?

Convention is truly the highlight of my year. 

 Thank you for being one of the reasons I love to go and learn.  Without you I would not be the scrapbooker I am today. 

***Reminder***

The last day to order out of the current catalog is August 31, 2015.  Many items are on the retired list and will go very quickly.   

Please take this time to make sure that none of your dream items are on that list and if they are please order them before they are gone.   

Here is the link.

Retiring Items 2015

While Supplies Last 2015

Thursday - Oslo, Norway

So sorry for the delay in getting back to the blog this week.  Sunday we were spending time with Mike's parents for Father's Day and Monday I was trying to navigate the DFW Airport to pick up Kaela.  She came home from Paris that day and I am so glad I left home 3 hours before her flight was due to land because traffic was horrible due to construction on the roads  and the airport is having major construction with parking and the terminals. I drove around for an hour just looking for parking.  I only had 20 minutes to spare before she landed... I am not joking! 

Where were we?  Oh It is now Thursday in Oslo and I have a pass to the conference to see Mike speak.  I have only been able to be in the audience one other time to hear his talks so we are very appreciative to the NDC organizers for letting me have access to a day pass.  

Mike found a central location that I could hang out and work on business  from home while he took the camera to document what was important to him.  A very excited Mike took these photos so some of them are not the best quality but we love him anyway.

As soon as it was time he took me to the room he was going to be speaking in.  I was trying to sneak the photos and not be disruptive to the process but I was about to burst my buttons I am so proud of him.

I have no idea what he is talking about but he is having a blast doing it!

Now a  little background...

Anytime I have trouble sleeping I ask Mike to "talk nerdy to me".  He will start telling me all about his day, or a bug that he was trying to fix in a program, or he will practice his next talk.  Knowing that his voice will put me right to sleep.  It is not that I am not interested in what he is saying but it is the cadence that he takes on when talking anything nerd that is just lights out for me.

So here we are during his talk and yep... I start yawning!

I cannot help it.  After 29 years together he has me trained to fall asleep when he starts talking like that. 

Honest!

I felt so bad, here he is giving it his all and his wife is in the front row yawning her butt off.  It was not one of my best moments.   I managed to not fall asleep but it was touch and go there for a bit.  

On the way out from the room the attendees get a chance to vote on the speaker.  There are boxes in the hall that look like stop lights (red, yellow, green) Red if they did not like the speaker or did not get anything out of the talk, Yellow if they thought it was ok, and Green if they like it.  

Mike had mostly all Green with his votes, a couple Yellows and no Red.  

Not bad for a first time NDC Oslo speaker! 

After his talk I went back to the room to get us packed since we were leaving very early the next morning.  I wanted us to be able to enjoy the evening together.  Mike popped into other sessions to learn from other peers and loved all of the different view points.

The conference ended for the day at 8:30pm and we decided that we wanted to go for a walk and find a sit down restaurant to eat.  Remember when we were on the shrimp dinner boat that we got lost because we could not find the street signs?  

Here are the street signs..

And remember they are not in the same location on the buildings so you still stand there like a goof if you do not know where you are going just trying to find a sign,

I was able to get better photos of the Palace this time then it was off to find some dinner.

I was so happy to see a menu in English!  And the variety of food was fantastic. 

So you seat yourself, look at the menu, then go to the bar to place your order and pay.  They bring the food to your table.  At first we thought this was weird but loved it once we were ready to go and the bill was already paid.

Mike was so tired but also very hungry.  His last meal was about 11 hours before so I needed to get some food into him.  

I had pasta - he had fish soup - 

He was a happy man!

After our dinner we realized that it was close to 11pm so we started our walk back to the hotel.

Then I found the Parliament Building...

Here is another view of the park we kept walking past.

And the other end of Karl Johans Gate.

We left Noway bright and early Friday morning with plans to try and come back next year.

We have our fingers crossed.

Downtown - Oslo, Norway

Have I mentioned that the sun never really goes down in Norway during the summer?  It becomes a little darker than twilight but not as dark as it does here at home.  The "sunrise" was at 3:30am and "sunset" at 10:30pm.

The Shrimp Dinner Boat tour ended close to 10:00pm and since it was still light outside Mike and I decided to walk around town and get photos of some of the sights.  As we were pulling back into the marina Mike took this photo of the Oslo City Hall.

 Here is another view as we were walking by:

Why is the Oslo City Hall in all of the guide books?  Because it is known for the Murals on the walls depicting life in Norway and it is where the Nobel Peace Prizes are awarded.  We did not get to go in because it was after business hours but it is still a beautiful building to see. 

Here some images I pulled from the web of the inside of Oslo City Hall

I regret not being able to go inside but we took so many turns that I did not know how to find my way back to City Hall.  It was not until the last night that we even found where the street signs were.  They are attached to the buildings and they are not in the same spot on the buildings.  So you are standing there like a goof trying to figure out what street you are on. 

Next up was a photo of the Royal Palace:

This is as close we were could get because my feet and legs were getting super tired and I did not want to push it to far (we still had to walk back to the hotel).  But I found a photo on the web of the entire palace for you.

So this palace sits at the end of the street and it is the residence of the Royal Family.  As you can see there are no gates - you can just walk right up to the door. 

On the way back from the palace we heard a clock ringing the hour and realized it was 11:00 pm.  We were standing next to this fountain at the time.

Yep that is what 11:00pm in Oslo looks like.

Oh you want to know about the fountain?  It was in a pretty little park not far from the palace.  The sculpture is by an artist that is featured all over Oslo.  I am not sure why the children are naked but it means something to the people of Norway.

The sculpture did remind me that there was a sculpture park I wanted to find that featured work form the same artist.  I never did find the park so I pulled photos from the web for you here too. Again I have no idea why everyone is naked ....

I told Mike that next time we go to Oslo (because I am sure there will be a next time) we will have to fly in a couple of days early so that we can do the sights together.  Mike was at the conference the whole trip so he missed out on the sights. 

We are making our way back to the hotel when we realized that we made a wrong turn somewhere, again no street signs to help us out.  We finally made it back to the hotel around midnight and our feet were so done with walking.  We were tired but I just could not settle so I pulled a coke out of the mini bar.

What do you notice about this Coke?  It is in a glass bottle!  I have not seen a coke in a glass bottle in years.  We all know what Mini Bar prices are like in most hotels so here is how my coke worked out money wise.

single coke 51.00 kon = 6.60 USD

Now before you ask why I paid that much for one bottle of coke, that was the same price as stores and restaurants so it was not any more expensive to just take it out of the room. Sometimes you have to have a coke....   Oh and the mini bar is on the honor system.  When we checked out they asked if I took anything out of the mini bar.  I said one coke and was charged for one coke. 

Stay tuned for my day at the NDC conference...

NDC - Shrimp Dinner Cruise Oslo, Norway

What do you get when you take two tour boats and close to 200 geeks out on a dinner cruise?  

Happy Geeks!

A little background....

Mike is on a speaking circuit of technology conferences.  He does not get paid in cash but in free conference tickets, sometimes hotel, sometimes air fare, and always FOOD.  At every conference there is a "speakers dinner" that the organizers host so that the speakers get a little time to pick each others brains about all things techo and geeky.  Most of the same guys go from conference to conference and become friends too. 

NDC is the first conference that I know of that includes spouses to join the dinner.  I heard rumors about the dinner cruise but I was not sure if it was the speakers dinner or just a tourist outing so I did not get too excited.  

It was a Speakers Dinner!

So after walking for what seemed like12 miles we saw the port.  We had the choice of boats we wanted to be on so we choose the one that was not filling up so fast.  These are double decker tour boats and I wanted to be top side to get the best photos.

(Above is a photos of the sister tour boat with many of Mikes friends onboard.)

 So we walk onboard and the first thing that is given to us is a glass of Champagne.  

It is going to be a good night.

(a boat full of men just waiting for the shrimp feast)

We sailed for about 45 minutes with free flowing drinks, blankets, and very excited men who know what is about to happen and are ready for all you can eat shrimp.  I was all for the shrimp tour because shrimp the only seafood I will touch. 

 I was excited until I saw the shrimp....

Here let me give you a closer look.

Um, those shrimp still look like shrimp.  

I like to pretend that my shrimp just come in the frozen section of the grocery store all ready for me to make.  But I was still game.

Dinner was served, here is the menu

Shrimp

pasta salad

olives

salad greens

lemons

shrimp

french bread

The way to eat is to take your bread and slice it in half.   Slather mayo on the bread.  Squeeze lemon on the bread / mayo.  Pile on the shrimp, add the salad greens and gorge.  A little olives and pasta salad on the side.

I had a feeling Mike already knew what I was going to do when I saw my plate.  

It was salad greens and french bread.  That is it!

Mike tried make the shrimp look more like a shrimp from home,

Removed head

Removed shell

Removed legs

Removed internal eggs

Removed tail

He handed me the naked shrimp for me to try. I did try it but as I was eating it my stomach said

"if you keep eating this shrimp I am going to make you very unhappy"

Then my tummy lurched.

I was done trying to eat the shrimp and my salad plate looked really good.

So I had to sit there for almost an hour while the entire boat made mounds of shrimp body parts and ate like there was no tomorrow.  They ate like they have never had shrimp before!  I am not kidding.

After the shrimp slaughter it was time to take photos of the beautiful Fjord. 

As the cruise went on and people started to settle down we noticed that it was getting really cold on the boat.  The sun was going down, it was after all about 10:30pm so Mike took our last drink tickets and came back with spiked coffee.

  I was in heaven!!! 

 I was warm!!!

Everyone else noticed what Mike did and made a bee line back to the bar.

It was a funny sight to see.

One of the organizers noticed that I was on board and asked if I wanted a guest conference badge for the next day.  I jumped on the chance - Now I will get do see Mike speak.

Stayed tuned to see photos of the Norway Royal Palace.

Can We Do Lunch? Oslo, Norway

I was excited to get out and have lunch on my own.  

I know it sounds weird but I am not one of those people that minds eating alone in public.  I love to people watch if in a new place or dig out a notebook and jot down thoughts for my next blog post or even plan scrapbooking events or layouts.  

Being in a new city I wanted to people watch and just get some thoughts down on paper before I forgot all of the little details that come in handy when scrapbooking any vacation.  Remember in the last post I said that many of the clerks and wait staff speak English in the tourist area's?  Well because of this I was not worried about venturing out.  

Until it was time to order lunch.....

I want to be brave, I want to eat somewhere local and experience things that I would not get at home BUT I was to hungry to risk another brown cheese incident or ordering fish on accident because it might look like chicken - so I went to the TGI Friday's that is attached to our hotel. 

I have not been to a Friday's in a long time because the one close to us kinda sucks but this place was packed at lunch so I took a chance.  

This is the order that I was trying to place:

Jack Daniels Chicken appetizer

side salad

drink

By my calculations lunch should have been about $20 USD.  More expensive than I am used to spending for lunch but doable.  

Do to a language barrier here is what I really ordered:

Jack Daniels Chicken appetizer

Chicken Caesar Salad

drink = coke

This was way more food than I was expecting but I did not want to protest the order since I did order it.  So lunch came out to:

   

309.00 kr  or $40.00 USD

For ONE person!

A little advice I need to take from myself next time we travel out of country.  Just point to what you want on the menu - do not worry about looking stupid or assume that because they speak English that they understand as well as you do. 

Now because I stuffed myself silly at lunch I needed a nap.  My grand idea was to go back to the room to get a little nap.  In reality Kaela started texting me from Paris so I talked to her some then crashed.  Mike woke me up at 5:30 to tell me it was time to get ready for dinner.

Stay tuned to the next blog post for the amazing Shrimp Boat dinner tour...