Archive for August, 2007
Maui Biz Trip Photos and Updates
Tuesday, August 28th, 2007Aloha again Scrapbook friend,
I’m a little late getting this out today, but the weather here in Maui has been sooooo very nice, it’s hard to get motivated to actually do anything that even resembles work.
Kathy and I are having a blast and taking lots of photos for scrapbook pages and scrapbook backgrounds. But, if you have any requests while we are still here (just two more days 
), just let us know and we’ll do our best to get them and pass them on to you.
I thought today that I would kind of sum up the trip to Maui so far for you and give you a few sneak peaks at things to come when we get home.
We arrived in Maui on the 23rd of Aug, 2007. After picking up the rental car (we highly recommend one as things are far apart and taxi’s are pricey), we drove a little over an hour from the airport to the other side of the island where we will be staying at the Ka’anapali Shores.Â
We of course stopped at Costco (a bulk food club here in the states) for a few amenities to stock the condo kitchen and of course the bar with. They also have a Wal-mart and K-Mart just down the road.
Once we unpacked, it was a great dinner at the Hardrock Cafe‚ (loud music, but great food) and we watched the Sunset there in Lahina just in front of the Hardrock.
Here’s one of the sunset images we took that night. You can see and download the full sized image by clicking on it or using the “Right Click” function to save it to your computer.
Should make a great scrapbook page background, don’t you think?
We spent the day of the 24th on the beach most of the day, then we got our bearings and had a sunset dinner at Bubba Gumps Shrimp Restaurant in Lahina.  I’m sure you remember the digital photo we posted the other day for that one. The Maui sunset from the window of the restaurant?
For the 25th, my sister Danette and I took scuba lessons in the pool here at the condo’s and scheduled our first dive for the 27th. More on that in a bit… You gotta see what we got to do!
That afternoon, we made the almost two hour drive from our condo to the top of Mt. Haliakala. That’s the 10,000 foot mountain on Maui.
My mom’s afraid of heights and we just about took her past her limits as we drove up the narrow (she thought) road through the clouds… Yes, I said “drove through the clouds” to the top.Â
We broke out of the clouds about 300 feet from the top is all. No one believed me when I told them that we would be above the clouds for the sunset.  Luckily, the mountain didn’t let me down and we had one spectacular sunset from above the clouds of the Maui rain forest. Here’s my mom silhouetted just before the sun went down.
She didn’t like the drive back down either, but it seemed to go a lot faster than the drive up. She says she’ll never go back up that narrow winding road again, but she’s very glad we took her to the top on this trip.
They say the sunrise is the most popular time to see the mountain, but getting up at 2 AM to be at the top by 4 AM isn’t my cup of tea and mornings are usually pretty clear so you don’t get all the different colors that you do for the sunset in the clouds. I personally like the sunset myself, but it’s probably a 30 percent chance of not clearing, so you will be taking your chances. I think it’s so worth it though.
On the 26th, we took a Molokini snorkel and turtle tour. Then, that evening, we had our rescheduled professional photo shoot with Steven and Shooting Stars Photography.
Kathy doesn’t get in the water, she’s afraid of fish, but she loves looking at them and being on boats. Here’s a shot another couple took for us of Kathy and I headed for Molokini Crator.
The glass bottom part of the boat was a real let down, but we had a great time in the water and Kathy got to see lots of turtles later on as they came up for air in the bay.
Here’s a shot of all of us (Wes, Kathy, Donna – my mom, Leo – my dad and Danette – my sister) that the onboard photographer took with our camera for us. We also picked up all of his photos above and below the water and a DVD of the video he took both onboard and under the water.Â
Here’s one of the photographers shots he took of an eel just behind and under our anchored catamaran.Â
As you can see, the photographer was quite a character and had lots of fun with all the passengers. This is one of the 12 shots he took of my sister Danette and I snorkeling.
While the shark was only plastic in this case, it didn’t stay that way.
Not more than 15 minutes after he took the fun shot above, here’s the 3 to 4 foot long reef shark that came to check out all the noise and this is one of 3 shots that the photographer swam down and took (in his scuba gear) as it swam directly under our boat and all the snorkelers in the water.
No one was ever in any danger and most of the snorkeler’s didn’t even know he had dropped by until they seen the photos on the monitor on the way back to port.Â
Once we got back to shore, we had time for a bit of shopping and time on the beach. Then, it was time to get cleaned up and head to Wi’ilea for our photo shoot.
What a sunset Stephen had ordered for us. This is what it looked like through our little amateur camera’s. I can’t wait to see the finished prints that Shooting Stars created for us.
Stephen is such a great guy and so very entertaining. We had a blast working with him and laughed our way right through the shoot. I know Stephen used to photograph all the big names in Rock-n-Roll out in California, but he also knows just how to make the everyday folk like you and me feel great and look our best.
Here’s my Sister Danette and her husband Chuck silhouetted in the sunset. Stephen was busy taking photos of all of us as the sun slowly settled into the sea.
I snapped this with no flash so that I wouldn’t mess up any of the real photos being taken. You can just imagine what Shooting Stars Photography was seeing in their pro lenses.
As a matter of fact, here’s one I took of Stephen working with my sister and her husband.
Stephen took us through two different locations and I lost count of all the images he took. Individual, group, couple, the girls, the guys? you name it, Stephen shot it.
That’s Stephen just above the green bush with his camera in hand…
Now we are just waiting for the processing and link to check out all the images.Â
And, all you scrapbookers will be happy to know that Stephen and Shooting Stars Photography allow you to use any of the images in your scrapbooks and even will sell you a CD of the shoot for you to create your own prints, cards or scrapbook pages from.
How many other professional photographers you know will do that?
Finally!
That brings me to what has been the highlight of my trip and probably will be in the top 10 of the rest of my life. While the professional photo shoot is an absolute must for any trip to Hawaii and especially Maui…
On the 27th, my sister and I went scuba diving for the first time in our lives. We couldn’t of asked for a better first dive. Get this…
WE GOT TO SWIM WITH THE SEA TURTLES!
They were in shallow that day in 25 to 30 foot of water and right where we were diving.   This first image is of the 2nd one we seen and that’s my sister Danette shooting a photo of me on the other side of it. As it turned out, there was that one beside me and another just under me. I can’t tell you how cool this was. No words to fully describe the experience.
There must have been 10 or more of them, both green sea turtles and hawk bills. We even found a couple of small ones, maybe a year old eating in the coral and rocks.
Here’s one for you to download and use for your computer scrapbook page backgrounds. This one was just sitting there watching us in about 25 feet of water.
Yes, I took the picture myself.
Just right click on the image and “Save Target As” or “Save Link as” to save the full size image to your computer. You can just click on the image to see the full size digital photo on your screen or to save it from other browsers.
We also got to see star fish, all kinds of coral fish and even a lobster under a ledge. Even the sea cucumber wanted to let us know where we were.
No, it wasn’t retouched, our dive instructor just used his finger to write the letters in the coating on it’s back.  It doesn’t harm the animal and goes away in just a few minutes afer we go. That’s Danette again holding the sea cucumber… if you could smile underwater while diving, she would have been grinning from ear to ear.
That’s the end of our photo tour for now. We’ll upload and share a lot more of the images once we get home and have all our systems again.
Just a couple more days to go here and then it’s back to Tacoma WA and all to soon it’ll be totally over and we’ll be back in good ol’ Colorado Springs.
Until next time…
Kathy n Wes
www.PrincessCrafts.com
www.MyPrincessCrafts.com
P.S. Make all your vacations a legal tax deduction. Enjoy the benefits that Uncle Sam has waiting for you as a small business owner. More details can be found at: http://www.referal.ws/
Working Hard in Maui…
Saturday, August 25th, 2007Aloha Scrapbook Friend,
As you can see here, Kathy and I are working extra hard for you here in Maui this week.
Our photo shoot at sunset was postponed till Sunday due to a small rain storm that came in right at sunset last night. The good news is that Stephen at Shooting Stars Photography is always prepared and ready with alternat locations and dates.
So, we’ll have to show you the photo’s early next week before we head back to Seattle on Thursday.
Don’t you just hate how fast time goes when you are some place you want to be and how slow it seems when you’re places you would rather not be?
Oh well, while the sunset at our shooting location was clouded out, the sunset here in Lahina from the window of Buba Gumps Shrimp was spectacular. I shot this one just as we were finishing up our great seafood dinner. I highly recomend the shrimp and mahi mahi… but skip the clam chowder. It’s OK, but is mostly just potato soup.
You can click on the image of the sunset and get the full size 1.44meg image or use the “Right Click” function and “Save Target As…” to save it directly to your computer. Then you are welcome to use it as a scrapbook background in your next travel or romantic scrap page.
More soon from the sunny beaches of Maui…
Kathy and Wes
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Aloha – Maui Hawaii Sunset Photo Shoot
Wednesday, August 22nd, 2007Aloha fellow scrapbooker:
Kathy and I head out to Maui Hawaii tomorrow morning.Â
With the hurricane scare last week everyone was wondering if it would all settle down before we got there. As it turned out the hurricane stayed well south and they had remarkable sunsets because of the sweep of Flossie.
One of the things we have pre-scheduled is a photo shoot at sunset with our friends at Shooting Star Photography. Stephen was kind enough to enclosed a little tease of what they have been “enduring” because of the hurricane.
As you can see, it’s been very painful for them lately…
Now, Kathy and I can’t wait to get there. Since it’s my parents 50th wedding cellabration, we have Stephen taking individuals, couples and group photo’s. We’ll show some of them off once we have them taken on Friday evening.
If you ever get a chance to make the trip to Maui, you have got to put a professional photo shoot on your list of must things to do while you are there. Stephen and Shooting Stars Photography have been great and even let us know where to go for dinner after the shoot is over. And… Stephen understands the needs of scrapbookers and has put together quite the package… including the digital images.Â
What a scrapbook this is going to be!
a hui hou (until next time),
Kathy and Wes
www.PrincessCrafts.com
www.MyPrincessCrafts.com
www.ScrapbookKitsnBits.com
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Kathy goes Drag Racing…
Tuesday, August 21st, 2007Hi Scrapbook Friend,
I know it’s been a few days since our last post. Kathy and I have been very busy working hard on our business trip. Yea right!
We have taken quite a few photo’s, but I don’t have them all off the camera yet. WiFi hasn’t been too good to us either, but that’s a whole other story. But, now that we are in Tacoma Washington and at my sisters, we have better internet for a couple of days before we fly out to Maui.
Thought you might like to see what Kathy was up to while we were in Spokane…
This is her brother’s dragster and as you can tell from the grin that she’s got from ear-to-ear, she loves the feel of power; yes it was running for this shot, but no… she won’t actually try driving it.
 You can click on the image to see the slightly larger image if you need to.
As you can see, we are having a great time and working oh so hard. We can’t wait to get back and start to work on some new racing scrapbook pages.
We’ll have more from Maui… very soon!
Kathy and Wes
P.S. If you want to be able to have your own home business and claim all your trips as deductions… then check out the info at: www.Referals.ws today.
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We Are in Spokane…
Saturday, August 11th, 2007Hi Scrapbook Friend,
We made it to Spokane Washington this afternoon for part one of our little business trip. No pictures yet, too many fires and lots of smoke in the scenic areas or our trip. We’ll be taking lots more pics starting tomorrow… so stay tuned.
Downtown Spokane is all wireless, so we are sitting in the shade near the park as I write and send this. It’s pretty cool that you can stop pretty much anywhere in the downtown area and send messages and browse the internet with high speed wireless.
Lots to do and see, so I’ll keep this one short. Just wanted to touch base so you all didn’t think we got lost.
More in the next day or two.
Enjoy your weekend,
Kathy & Wes
Digital Scrapbook News
Tuesday, August 7th, 2007Hi Scrapbook Friend,
Kathy and I are headed out the end of the week on a working vacation (business trip). We’ll be headed to Washington state to spend some time with Kathy’s family and then on to Maui for a week with my parents to celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary.
We’ll be sure and post some of the pics as we go on the BLOGÂ (right here), so watch for that.
We’ll be checking in on mail, just not as often as usual, so if you do need something, please be patient as we may take a little longer than normal sometimes. We do have someone helping out with the site, but you now how temp help can be sometimes. Just wanted to let you know.
In preparation, Kathy was making some modifications on the www.ScrapbookKitsnBits.com site and she unknowingly made a “little boo-boo” on the kits and bits site database. So, it shows a lot of new kits added this month that have really been there a while now.Â
Kathy wanted me to let you know that the only new recent kit additions for July and August are:
Masculine Category:
Denim Days
Old West
Old West Extras
Feminine Category:
Denim Daisy
Patriotic Category:
Old Glory
Patriotic Country
Stars ‘N Stripes
USA Pastel
Seasons – Summer:
Summer Roses
Marshmallow Roast
Marshmallow Roast Extras
New Heritage Category:
Smile
New Patchwork Category:
42 Mini-Kits in various colors
All that said, Kathy also had time to get some new elements onto the www.PC-ScrapbookElements.com Site:
She added new eyelets and Jewelry Chains for you this month.
Along with that, she also finished a lot of the 12×12 Baby Scrapbook sets and we’ll be enabling the 12×12 section for our Platinum and 12x members before the 15th. You’ll find the new menu Item on your left menu inside your Members Home page soon.
I’m also working to make it easier for our members to find the Recently added page from your Members Home page.
Whew… That was a long one this week. There’s a lot going on and we didn’t want you to think that we had fallen off the map.
I hope you’ll take a few minutes and check back here from time to time…
We’ve added more than a 100 new articles to our Scrapbook Training site. There’s even a whole new section on Digital Photography now.Â
Right here, this is where we’ll be posting the updates from our vacation… Er, I mean business trip. You may even find a few new FREE backgroun images to use in your scrapbook pages over the next few weeks, so check in often.
Again, we’ll be on the road most of the rest of this month, so if it takes a bit longer to respond to your requests, please be patient.Â
Until next time…
Kathy -n- Wes
www.PrincessCrafts.com
5505 Whipshaw Road
Peyton, CO 80831
1-877-751-6368
PS: Would you like all your vacations to be a business trip instead and, therefore, be fully and legally tax deductible? All you need is your own real international home biz and they could be. Check out our latest endevor at: www.Referals.ws and see how you can start your own today for pocket change.
P.P.S. Kathy just put a new mini-scrap page for you on the www.PrincessCrafts.com home page. It’s waiting for you now.
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