You Better Shop Around

After spending a good amount of time at the Alchemy bar and getting to know our mixologist on our past cruise, Chris and I were really looking forward to having a nice setup for our home bar.

Part of that set up included finding these glasses that held my favorite cocktail (raspberry infused vodka, muddled strawberries and peach puree).

When we got back to the states, I headed over to my go-to internet site Amazon and ordered 6 glasses for $38.68.  The first box came shattered, but Amazon was great about sending another box free of charge in less than 48 hours.

We were able to salvage 2 glasses from the broken box, so I was pretty happy about getting 8 for the price of 6.

As you might have guessed from the title, I was happy with my purchase until mom and I went shopping this past weekend.  I found myself walking around Ross looking for anything to jump out at me when I stumbled upon this.

Why yes, those are our glasses 4 for $5.99!  I even checked my old orders in my email to see if it was the same maker.  It was.  I could barely get any words out before mom had snapped them up and put them in her cart.  They only had one box, so we walked next door to Home Goods where she found another box (this time for 6.99).

Mom keeps calling it the deal of the weekend, all I can think is that I could have saved $24 if I had just shopped around.  You better believe I'll be checking out Ross and Home Goods before making any other home purchases!  Since our glasses are packed and in storage, we decided to break in mom's glasses with the wine smoothies that we picked up in San Antonio.   

Delicious!!

Have you ever purchased something only to find it later at a lower price?

Travelin' Tuesday: Roatan Island

Roatan is a little island off the coast of Honduras, and was the only port on our last cruise that was new to both Chris and I.  Carnival has invested in building up a pier area named Mahogany Bay which includes a beach just for cruisers.

There were no real plans for this spot other than enjoying the beach and picking up some souvenirs.  We walked through the brightly colored shops before making our way to the beach.

There was some sticking of our feet in the water before retiring to our chairs where I caught up on my reading.

We only stayed for about an hour and a half before heading back to the ship.  One of the attractions on the island is the "flying chair" which is a chair lift that will take passengers from the shops to the beach.  On the way back we spotted my aunt and cousin making their way to the beach in the flying chair.

Love, love, love that candid of my parents walking back to the boat!  Going on 35 years of marriage and still have little moments like that.

Roatan is known for it's wood work, so we picked up a couple of items including a vase, wine holder and an elephant (which surprisingly Chris picked up, not me).  We also picked up some liquor which was on average 10-25% cheaper than what it is in the states, and duty free.

I'm so glad that we made it back on the ship before the clouds opened up.

We try to mix it up on cruises with fun excursions and relaxing beach days.  Isla Roatan was a perfect, relaxing beach day!

30 Before 30: A New Computer Skill

A big thank you to my husband for helping me cross another item off of my list!  This one pretty much depended on him, but I'm still thankful that he took the time to teach me.

When we exchanged anniversary gifts, I took one look at his and knew which computer skill I wanted to learn: photo shop.  I loved the way he took wedding images and formed the letters, this was going to work so well with the shadow box of items we saved from our honeymoon.

I won't do a step by step because I am no photo shop expert (I don't even have it on my computer, we did it on his), but if you do have it below are some key strokes that helped me out.

We measured out the space in the shadow box and then created the canvas in PS with the correct dimensions.  After typing out the word I wanted to use, Chris taught me all about adding the layers for each of the letters.

Chris worked through the first letter, and then left it up to me to finish out the word.  Thankfully he left me with a little cheat sheet in case I forgot what step I was on.

- Drag in the image from my pictures

- Scale the image, then hit Enter

- Right click on the picture layer and select Rasterize layer

- Select the letter layer

- Click on the wand and select the letter

- Ctrl+Shift+I

- Hide the letter layer (by clicking on the eye)

- Select the picture layer

- Delete

- Ctrl+D (to deselect)

- Right click on the picture layer

- Paste Layer Style

It took a little playing around to find images that I liked that would fit in each of the letters shapes.  Once I was happy with the images, I printed it off and added it to a the shadow box that contained our room keys, airline ticket stubs and some Mexican pesos.

Hopefully I can learn some more photo shop before his summer classes begin!

Have you learned any skills from your friends or family?

Travelin' Tuesday: Nassau

Nassau, Bahamas was the final stop on our 2009 cruise and we were all set to check out the famed Atlantis hotel.

As we might have guessed, things at Atlantis were not on the cheap side.  Because of this, we spent most of our time doing free things like walking around the property and checking out all of the awesome sculptures.

Professional pictures were also taken on that Atlantis throne, but thankfully we traded off with another couple to take pictures with each others cameras.

After walking around inside and out, we spent a little time in the casino before heading back.  On the way back to the ship we made a stop by Hard Rock.  Normally we like to enjoy Hard Rock meals while on vacation, but since we were so close to the ship the enticement of a free meal outweighed our normal tradition.

We didn't get to see too much of Nassau, but I can cross off seeing Atlantis on my travel list.

Five For Friday

1. You listen to all of my random math lessons (you know how much I love to talk numbers).
2. You didn't mind explaining the different saws and uses for each while we were looking around.
3. You were sweet enough to offer up your wine collection (your's because I don't really like dry wines) to my aunt.
4. You waited for me to get back from my hair appointment to watch Community together (loved the video game episode!).
5. You crack me up when you mishear what I say.

At a wedding back in 2009

Guest Post on Married Up With Wine

Head on over to Married Up With Wine today to read up on what vacation means to me.  While you're there, check out the other guest posters while Mandy is away exploring South Africa!

Corinne & me playing in the sand during a family & friends trip to the Poconos 

Travelin' Tuesday: Costa Maya

Costa Maya was the third stop on our 2009 cruise and by this port we were ready to just relax on the beach.  A Mexican port close to some lesser known Mayan ruins (Chacchoben and Kohunlich), Costa Maya took a pretty bad hit from hurricane Dean in 2007.

The pier area is focused on the tourist business - with several nice shops, pools, a swim up bar area and stands for souvenirs.  Since we were the only ship docked there that day, the area was not as crowded as it could have been.

The weather wasn't really on our side as we stepped off of the boat, but thankfully the clouds and wind died down for a nice beach break that I booked.  For $35 each we secured some chairs under a palpa, chips and salsa and an open bar.

I did some research on Cruise Critic prior to the cruise and learned of some awesome hour massages on the beach for the low price of $20.  After sharing this information with the rest of my family it came as no surprised to see them head our way to cash in.

After a little more enjoyment of the view and a bite to eat, we made our way back to the ship.

It wasn't the most amazing beach I have ever seen, but it sure beat working in the office.