Ok, I have to preference this blog post...

By saying that I've had MAYBE a total of 7 hours of sleep in two days, so - I'm going to blame delirium for this post. But, right now at 2:30 in the morning (Cincinnati time), it's pretty darn funny. We're here in Anaheim and working our tail ends off. BUT, on our way out tonight from booth set-up, we came across a sea of naked mannequins. Emily and I couldn't resist - we had to take some pictures.

I'm not kidding!


I couldn't believe what I saw!


Some photos are just NOT for public viewing...Oh - by the way - I asked him if he knew where Nick Lachey was.


Emily had to get in on the action.


Fortunately, in our booth, we will be fully clothed. So, no worries there! LOL! I'm sure these guys will be dressed tomorrow. I sure hope so because there is quite a draft in the convention center!

Finally, we get back to our room tonight and Emily lets down her hair. Or, should I say - mane of existence. I couldn't tell if I was with my friend Emily or in a White Snake video. This chick was MADE for the 80's. It's the end of the day, we've been working our tail ends off and Em's hair is well...I'll just leave it at that. (I can't think of a clever White Snake song right now or else I'd write the lyrics in here...)



(David Coverdale has a sister and her name is Emily...)

Getting ready for CHA...

I always start getting sad at about this time. I hate leaving my kids and Scott while I go out of town. It just makes me sad because I'm worried I'll miss something while I'm gone. This trip, I'm actually missing quite a bit. Maggie has an awards ceremony at school on Friday morning and she and Scott are both doing their belt testing on Saturday. I'm missing all of that.

So, I have to start getting ready. Tonight will be laundry and packing since we leave at about 6:00 am on Thursday. I'll pick up Laura at her apartment and we'll drive out to Indianapolis to catch our flight. We'll be flying into LAX - and the excitement for me is going to IKEA. I can't wait - have never been to one but we're supposed to get one in 2008. I'm still keeping my fingers crossed on that one!

Anyway - here's Addie on Sunday. She was sitting in her chair eating puff corn. (Her favorite thing in the world is cheese puff corn) Can't do a post without a photo! (Maggie was watching Happy Feet with her grandparents!)

Totally Dated - Are you?

Here's the last peek I have (unless I post more in-depth photos of some of the embellishments) but this is from the Project Essentials line that Emily and I collaborated on. I can't say this enough - our collaboration has been SUCH a joy for me. I've found someone that's the Yin to my Yang. Or, the yang to her yin. Whatever. But, we work well together.

This is Totally Dated. It's our Calendar sister line to the Office Supplied. I really think that the industry needed blank calendar pages - different sizes, as well as other date items to mark photos, etc.




The cardstock stickers have both full dates and then these cute little circular date markers - both quirky and traditional words. They're also great for cards and all sorts of things. Plus, the photo corners are perfect for dating your projects - I love to use photo corners and I realized that nobody has ever put dates or years on them. Why not? It's perfect for dating your layouts, etc. So often I look at an older layout and I can't remember when it was - I have to guess how old Maggie was. Well, I hope that products like this help eliminate that confusion.

When Em and I developed the entire Project Essentials line, what we wanted was for scrappers to get some fun product that's easy to use and is affordable. I hope that we have achieved our goal!

Here they are...

My CHA Releases. It's been a long three months - lots of things to do, lots of things going on and now - here they are! I have to say - I'm really excited about them. It's a different direction for me - one that I've been wanting to take for a while now. I wanted to do something a little more "froo-froo" and I also wanted to do some vintage stuff. I think I have the best of both worlds right now and it's nice - I'm getting to express myself a bit more.

As You Wish


Get Into My Car


I wanted to take a moment and tell you why I did what I did on some of these lines. With As You Wish -I had been wanting to play with a different direction for a while. I also (as I had mentioned in the IP Blog) wanted to do a line that was centered around a "Book of Me" approach. Something that would inspire a scrapper to fill things out about themselves. What's nice is that the embellishments can be used for other people too. (If you're scrapping your child, etc.) I think the labels are my favorite - probably because I love filling out questions.



The "Get Into My Car" (anyone know the movie by the way?) line was something that I had been wanting to do for a while. I wanted that vintage "Garage" looking car line but with more primary colors. For three shows now, I have been trying to figure out how to incorporate primary colors into a line and could never do it. Finally - it clicked. Or, at least in my mind I like to think that it clicked. I LOVE street signs - any way they come and the stickers in the line make me happy! LOVE these!



I'm also pretty excited about the coasters - it is sort of "me". Quirky and fun and a little out of the norm. I envisioned people being able to use these in a "tongue-in-cheek" sort of way. Besides, Old School is one of my favorite movies and I had to do a coaster with that in there!



Finally - I have to tell you about Project Essentials. Emily (Adams) and I collaborated on this effort. It was a meeting of the minds that has really opened me up artistically. I definitely am a more "straight-laced" person when it comes to fonts, etc. Emily likes stuff that's all over the place. What's funny is that we began to see traits of each other as this line was coming together. We thought about items that we would want to use when scrapbooking and that's how it all came to be. Each and every piece was carefully thought out - down to minute details. Here are some rough peeks of Office Supplied. It's a line that's full of fun products that resemble office supplies. After a particularly hectic day, Emily made me the sticker that said "Bang Head Here". I'm sure we've all had days like that. Might as well scrap them.




I'd love to hear your thoughts. Enjoy!

Maybe I'm Emerging...

First off...I want to thank EVERYONE who has been so sweet and sending me sweet thoughts, prayers, etc. I really didn't realize how many people care - and I thank you for letting me know that you care. It really means a lot and can really bring a girl out of her funk.

I think I'm starting to see a little bit of light emerge. Possibly. Seems like some of the weights are lifting up a bit. I sure hope so, because these shoulders can only hold so much. My mom always says "Don't pray for a lighter load, pray for a stronger back." I've been doing that - but the lighter load would help!

CHA is coming around the corner. In about 9 days I'm leaving for an 8 day stint in Anaheim. For some reason, I don't look forward to the travel like I used to. Oh well...some things I guess you just have to do. BUT, I am looking forward to seeing a lot of my friends. The Junkitz girls will be right next to us and of course all of our designers that are coming in. I just LOVE meeting up with those girls. And, I get to see Em again. I wish she lived here. She of course would disagree with me -she likes Dallas just fine. But, lately it's been warmer in Cincinnati than Dallas. So, I think she should move here! (Hear that Emily?)

Laura's going with us. I miss her terribly. They laugh and say that I'm in mourning here at the office. I am. It's sad. It's not a laughing matter. (Ok - maybe it is considering how pathetic I am) I miss Barb. At least I get to talk to her every morning. Thank God for Verizon mobile to mobile.

Things on the home front are good. Scott and Maggie are gearing up for their next belt testing, so it's a lot of Tae Kwon Do classes. We're finally working on reorganizing my scrap room. Little bits at a time. I didn't realize how much stuff I own! I really need to get to scrapping so that I can use a bunch of it.

Anyway- I hate to do blog posts without photos, so here are a few. My girls - aren't they just adorable? I'm having these photos blown up to 20x30 for posters above my mantle. For a year I've been debating what I want to put there. They shipped from Costco last Thursday so I'm hoping they'll be at the house today. I got the idea from a pottery barn catalog. Scott picked out the photos. They weren't ones I would have chosen, but I went with them anyway. (I wanted something more "artsy" but I think he did good.)

His picks: (Although - I gotta give my man credit - he did great because they both are wearing stripes)

Hoping for a light...

I know it's been a while since I posted on the blog. I've had a lot of things going on and unfortunately, few of them are great things to post about other than my kids and my husband. We had a nice Christmas. The girls are way too spoiled and they loved spending time with their family. Even Addison got into opening gifts, but I think it was just because she wanted to eat the wrapping paper. She's growing so fast - I keep telling her to slow down. She's moving all over these days and standing against furniture and her exersaucer. Her new favorite thing is pulling everything out of one of her toy baskets and putting it back in. Or, throwing it I should say. That kid has a thing about throwing her toys. She loves it. We laugh about it until one of her roly balls comes whizzing past our head, but it's still funny to watch this little tiny peanut throw her toys.

Maggie is back in school and has a new love of chewing gum. The kid has to chew gum 24/7. It's the first thing she does when she gets up in the morning and we make her spit it out before going to bed. I bought an entire case of sugar-free Trident yesterday at Costco and had to tell her to make it last - I bet she goes through the ten packs before the end of next week.

On the other fronts, I'm just getting ready for the show coming up and dealing with some other stuff. I don't do details, but if you are the praying sort, please add me to your list sometime. Nothing major, just pray that I find the light at the end of the tunnel.

Finally, a few pictures of my girls at Christmas. God I love them!