The One with Arcos de la Frontera, Spain

Thursday, March 5, 2015

Alrighty, so, after a.... thrilling?... day in Tangier, we stayed the night once more in wonderful Tarifa and then the next morning we headed off to a couple different places. We wanted to go explore the so-called "White Hill Towns." First stop: Arcos de la Frontera, Spain! As soon as we let Jane out of the car she ran off to explore. That girl is in her own little world sometimes!

Rick Steves says about all the history throughout this post, "Just as the American image of Germany is Bavaria (home sweet home!), the Yankee dream of Spain is Andalucia. This is the home of bull fights, flamenco, gazpacho, pristine whitewashed hill towns, and glamorous Mediterranean resorts. These white hill towns are Andalucia's charm bracelet of cute towns perched in the sierras, giving the visitor a wonderful glimpse at untouched Spanish culture. The queen of these towns is Arcos de la Frontera. Towns with "de la Frontera" in their names were established on the front line of the centuries long fight to recapture Spain from the Muslims who were slowly pushed back into Africa."

We parked just outside the center of town which was closed off to cars for a city fair, and the kids immediately found a playground. With a beautiful day like this we had to let them take advantage and stretch their legs.

I loved looking out over the valleys and fields from the hill that Arcos sits on. So gorgeous.

What an awesome setting for a town way up high on a hill!

After the kids had their fill of the playground we headed up into the core of the town. Arcos has two main parts: the fairy-tale old town on top of the hill and the fun-loving lower, or new, town. The old center is a labyrinthine wonderland, a photographer's feast.

The kids wanted to go on the train. Me too!

I love these white buildings.

As we were walking uphill Jane ran from door to door, stopped at each one, and said, "Cheese!" She's never asked me to take her picture before so this was a huge moment. And she hasn't asked since, ha.

Jay pushing Fox in the stroller. He prefers to sit. Jane likes to walk.

Teaser photos of Arcos from up on high and down below.

At the top we arrived at the center of town and the Church of Santa Maria.

After Arcos was retaken from the Moors in the 13th century this church was built atop a mosque. The church's fine bell tower appears chopped off. The old one fell in the earthquake of 1755 (famous for destroying Lisbon). The replacement was intended to be the tallest in Andalucia, after Sevilla's, but money ran out.

The view of the church from the Plaza del Cabildo.

This plaza has an incredible viewpoint opposite the church. Bellying up to the railing you look down and see why residents of Arcos boast that they see the backs of birds as they fly. Here we are about 330 feet above the Guadaltete river. The city has some serious erosion concerns. In fact, the restaurant along the cliff in this photo lost part of its lounge in the 1990s when it dropped right off. Scary.

On the lookout there was a man with a bunch of birds, from owls to hawks.

Every time we vacation with Jaylie we see bird men.

Jay holding a pair of owls and Fox caressing one. He said it was very soft.

This makes me feel bad though - how did the guy catch these beautiful birds? And owls are nocturnal, they should be sleeping during the day!

After enjoying the views and the birds we continued on. We left the plaza and wandered the maze of streets enjoying the charm of Arcos and the lovely weather of sunny southern Spain.

We eventually arrived at the Church of St. Peter. Until a few years ago this church also had a resident bellman - notice the cozy balcony halfway up. He was a basket maker and a colorful character, famous for bringing a donkey into his quarters which grew too big to get back out. Finally he had no choice but to kill and eat the donkey. So weird.

Aqua window? Yes please!

We kept walking across the hill to the opposite side of town to find the mirador and its commanding views.

Looking back up towards town from the viewpoint.

The Evans Family in Arcos de la Frontera on Sunday February 8th 2015.

How cute is this corner cafe?!

Walking back down, we stopped in the tourist office to use the facilities.

The view from the top floor where the bathrooms are located provided a magnificent whitewashed view!

After loading back up in our van we drove down along the river looking for the best views of this incredible town spilling down the hillside. Arcos smothers its long, narrow hilltop and cascades down the back of the ridge like the train of a wedding dress.

Fox and Jane were content in their car seats so Chris and I hopped out and got a photo of just the two of us in front of Arcos. We don't have too many shots like this anymore! Still just a couple of love-sick kids :)

Onto the next destination, similar to Arcos de la Frontera because it's a hill-top town, but worth every minute: Ronda, Spain!

The One with the Ali Edwards BFF Layout

Wednesday, March 4, 2015

Here's my latest Ali Edwards Digital Creative Team layout:

BFF by Paige Evans

Description: Loving the STORY FRAMES by Ali Edwards - circles, squares, and diamonds, oh my! I chose to focus on the diamonds and cut them out using a Silhouette CAMEO and traced the inside diamond onto papers from the September Skies collection by Heidi Swapp.

Journaling says: You two are my pride & joy and it is so fun to watch you grow up together and be best friends and do everything together. I'm so luck and blessed to be your mom!

How to: Turn the diamonds from the STORY FRAMES by Ali Edwards into a cut file then die cut the diamonds from white cardstock using a Silhouette CAMEO. Peel off the inside diamond pieces and use them to trace and cut out patterned paper diamonds and three photos. Layer the diamonds and photos across a black/white striped paper base. Stitch down the paper diamonds. Embellish with color-on-color bits and pieces from your scrap stash. Outline the photos with the diamond frames. Journal across the bottom edge of the layout with a black pen.

Supplies: Diamonds: Story Frames by Ali Edwards; Cardstock, adhesive, pen: American Crafts; Patterned paper: Heidi Swapp; Embellishments: American Crafts, BasicGrey, Crate Paper, Studio Calico, Teresa Collins Designs; Sewing machine Brother; Thread: Coats & Clark; Die cut machine: Silhouette CAMEO

See you next time!

The One with May's Guide: Vacation Scrapbooking Class Contributor!

Tuesday, March 3, 2015

Another slice of fun news to share - I'm a contributor in May Flaum's new epic class called VACATION SCRAPBOOKING! This class also features the work of Ashli Oliver, Jennifer Chapin, Janna Werner, Sian Fair, and Patricia Roebuck.

There are no requirements for this course nor do you need to focus on a vacation - the ideas shared will work for any big event or even creating a scrapbook for a specific period of time. My contribution is including ephemera (think tickets stubs, museum maps, Eiffel tower memorabilia, postcards, etc.) onto a layout. Paris is always a good idea :)

May's Guide: VACATION SCRAPBOOKING includes:

- Many hours of video lessons including layout tutorials and viewing past albums/layouts.

- Over 30 new (exclusive!) layouts created for this class.

- 6 guest instructors with projects ranging from mini books to pocket pages to traditional layouts and their top tips for vacation scrapbooking.

- PDF file for getting organized and started.

- Message board (March - July 2015) to interact with fellow students and instructor.

- Unlimited email access to instructor.

- This class runs March 1 - June 30, 2015 and will continue to be available afterwards as a self-paced course.

The video lessons and classroom pages will cover everything from sorting photos to ephemera, how to recall the details to journaling prompts, and so much more! This is going to be one huge class full of content - you won’t want to miss out!

Want a discount code? This link (http://craftwithmay.com/coupon/vacation5/) will give students $5 off the early registration price. The link is good for new purchases (of this vacation class only) and is good through March 31, 2015.

As always, hope to see you in the classroom!

The One with Crop Am Rhein 2015

Sunday, March 1, 2015

I had the fun opportunity to teach at Crop Am Rhein 2015! Last year was amazing and this year followed in its footsteps. I left home around lunch last Friday and arrived at 5pm. Driving through Germany is like driving through a fairytale: castles, rolling hills, tall-steeple churches, picturesque towns. Sigh. I heart Deutschland.

Passing through Remagen - the city where the crop took place. Cutest buildings.

Hallo Hotel Oberwinter! So nice to be back!

The event is called Crop Am Rhein because it's right on the Rhein River. All day, every day, large boats transporting who-knows-what float down the stream.

Checking in.

My comfy cozy li'l room.

We ate dinner at 7pm - meat, potatoes, the works, and then I headed to my room to catch up on my correspondence. The next morning I woke up at 5am, excited to start the day, and compose yesterday's blog post :) The view from the hotel is my favorite and I loved watching the colors and lighting change as the day progressed. Oh what a beautiful morning, oh what a beautiful day!

After breakfast I ran upstairs to set up for my first class.

Here are the two layouts I taught how to make:

HAPPY by Paige Evans

SO ADORABLE by Paige Evans

Thank you to docrafts, Elle's Studio, and Maya Road for the supplies - so so generous!

One of the fun traditions at CAR is to create "CMCs" - Car Memory Cards. Basically they're 3" square souped-up business cards. I planned to make some, then decided I didn't have enough time, then a few hours before I left I decided to make 'em. So mine are super simple compared to everyone else's, but hey, hopefully it's the thought that counts!

Let the fun begin!

Every year Barbara likes to do some kind of fun photoshoot. This year we used props and took instax pics. Good times :)

The sound of paper cutting, punches punching. adhesive rollers rolling, and all around merry-making is such a delight.

A few photos from instagram.

I love when people venture out and create their own thing.

From picking and choosing her own select colors, to changing the background paper, to dropping spray mist... it's fun to see the variations. Sometimes people create layouts that I like even more than mine! ;)