The story behind the layout

Too often in scrapbooking, we document only the good events. But how many of us have only good days? So today over on Better Living Through Scrapbooking, the design team girls (including yours truly) reveal some layouts about the things that didn't go as we had planned.

*One note about this layout. I know that most people see this picture and think, "What could be so terrible about going on a great vacation in the Caribbean? Are you that spoiled?" NO! As you see in my journaling, it was the fact that my plans were changed that led to this layout.

One of the elements that we were challenged to use this time was hidden journaling. The journaling on my layout is behind the picture so you have to lift the picture to see it. Since you can't do that on the site, you can read it here:

I admit it. I am a travel planning junkie. I plan every single little detail on every trip that we take. Where to stay, what to do, even where to eat are all things that figure out months in advance, and our cruise was no different. I had our entire day in Cozumel all taken care of. We had never been there before so I was kind of excited about it. I was even going to try helmet diving (a big deal for someone who is afraid of water)!

Then came the swine flu.

It hit Mexico first just a couple of weeks before our cruise. This was an illness of epic proportions and Cozumel was soon a hot-bed of disease. Of course, all of the cruise lines stopped going to Mexico and we were told (just days before the cruise) that we would be going to Nassau, Bahamas instead. All that planning down the toilet. All that work planning our trip was just wasted and I was completely thrown for a loop. Messing up my travel plans is guaranteed to totally ruin my day. I didn't want to go to the Bahamas. I had heard from many people that it wasn't that great. Boy, were they right. We were not impressed and I was still bitter about having my plans foiled. Oh well, at least we can say "Been there, done that". Maybe on our next cruise, it won't be during a flu epidemic!

So if you haven't seen the layouts from the other design team girls, go check them out. Maybe it will inspire you to scrap a not-so-perfect event!