I spent my entire birthday running around town. It was exhausting and really not as much fun as I had hoped. We all went to Waterford Hills Raceway to watch some Corvettes race. That part was ok, but on a road track it really wasn’t all that exciting. Mostly watching Corvettes chase each other around because there isn’t enough room for them to really be all that aggressive. The kids got to see a Miata crash, and that apparently was the highlight. Everyone was ok, but they got to see the car towed off the track. Nothing like some damage to get a kid excited. Anyway, it wasn’t at all how I pictured the big 30 to go, lol. So Denny gave me a do over today. I’m not real sure why as I’ll I’ve done today is clean the house.

I ordered myself the Becky Fleck Scrapbook Page Maps book June 30th from Amazon. It still isn’t here. It says I should have it between now and August 5th. Let’s hope so as I wanted to be able to fumble through it while I spent time in bed recovering from my surgery. Not often I have an excuse to sit on my butt and read books without feeling guilty about it.

I have yet to see it in person, but lots of people went on about how great it was. I haven’t bought a scrapbook related book in a long time. I was a big BH Sketch Book fan and have those. I found that I mostly looked at them, picked on and then as I worked totally moved away from it and it ended up being nothing like the sketch in the end. Which I guess is a good thing, even if it is a somewhat expensive form of inspiration. In this case I had a $5.00 Amazon gift card I got for doing an online survey so I only paid $16.49.

The book comes with some nice little extra things and it is spiral bound. You can get more information on the Page Maps site.

Today we are having family over for Shelby’s birthday. We just do immediate family and have cake and ice cream. Shelby is taking her pre-celebration nap at the moment. It’s rare I get her to take one, but I told her if she wanted to party like a rock star, she was going to need a nap. That seemed to do it!

Happy Sunday!!

~j

Many of you may not know who Randy Pausch is, and for those that don’t you can get a overview here. He became fairly well known via a lecture he gave at Carnegie Mellon which I’ve seen several times. Each time I watch it I still take something away with me and also end up in tears.

Randy died today at the age of 47 and leaves behind his wife and three children. If you haven’t seen the lecture or read the book I encourage you to do so. I’ve embedded it here. It is over an hour long, but worth every minute!

July is super crazy around here, and there is one week in July that is really crazy. Usually I’m at CHA for Shelby’s birthday and my anniversary, but this year it worked out and I was home. I can’t believe Shelby is three. Where has the time gone. It seems like I just had her. Anyhooo, I took her to have her picture taken yesterday and she had a blast. That girl is such a ham and always so happy. Here are some of my favorites from the nearly 60 photos I had to pick from.

First the CHA show. I didn’t see much that really stuck out. Some new Tim Holtz stuff, which I’ll cover in a bit, but otherwise nothing really new. There was new papers obviously, and new lines, but there were a lot of people NOT at the show, and a lot of the same old stuff really. It seemed that was the general consensus on the show floor. Even in the parking garage elevator a complete stranger asked me if I saw anything cool, cuz she didn’t. I think just about everyone I talked to blamed the economy. (As a side note, I paid $4.40 something for gas in Chicago… it’s down to $3.85 around here today. Although I’m sure that is short lived.)

Anyway, here are some photos layout with some new stuff I liked…

The great part about CHA, and I’ve said this before, is that I get to catch up with people I don’t get to see all that often…

Now to what you’ve all been waiting for… the one and only Tim Holtz. Each and every single time I see him I learn something. Usually a lot of somethings honestly. This time was no different! If you aren’t a stamper or what I call the artsy fartsy type and thus have kinda stayed away from Ranger products, (besides Distress Ink, which everyone seems to have), then you need to think again! It is really very versatile and the uses outside of the stamping world are pretty vast.

Tim Holtz came out with a new line of masks. They are a lot like the Heidi Swapp masks with some improvements that make a big difference. First, they are CLEAR. Which at first I didn’t think was going to be all that big of a deal, but once I saw it in action, the concept really does make life a lot easier. Check it out.

Those are the masks on the tag and you can actually see what the masked area is gonna look like under all the inks and such Tim is adding.

The after!

Another tidbit is on the crackle paint. Apparently the paint is self-leveling. Meaning you put it on think and it will level itself out so you don’t have “piles” of it on the surface. Tim says it takes about 15 minutes to start to crackle and that you really should leave it to crack up on its own. Once the cracking starts, it is then safe to speed it up with a heat gun. That being said, the heat gun does make for fairly large cracks. So it depends what kind of look you are going for. Here is a photo of the application.

Thick application on Grungeboard.

Paint Dabbers - you can’t cross-contaminate them. Tim did this embossed Grungeboard bird with several different dabber colors and showed just how that works. I hadn’t ever really though about it, but being they only “put out” paint, they don’t take any up.

Ok embossed Grungeboard, then painted and wiped off to reveal the embossing. Then he started to ink.

I also learned a few other things and some Tims personal phobia, lol. I’ll share that tomorrow. Today is my wedding anniversary and Denny will be home soon so I need to get ready. I think we are going out for dinner and I need to stop at the jeweler as I see I’m missing a diamond in my bracelet. Poo!

Happy Anniversary to me… Now go play with all your Ranger stuff now that I’ve given you all this inspiration!

~j

I just got back to the hotel room a bit ago… finally got some food, and now I want to just sit and rest. Went to meet up with some gal pals after the show today, then off to Windy City for the Luxe class. Good thing I drove and not my mom… we had to parallel park. Lol, she is always amazed at my parallel parking skills.

Class was great, Emily and Jen did a great job, and I learned a new book binding technique. We got to play with lots of Luxe products including papers, stamps, rubons and more. They were also able to incorporate some Ranger products, which I love. Paint dabbers and Stickles… who doesn’t love them?? If you don’t, well then, you aren’t using them right! Later this week I’ll be posting some of the great ways to use your Ranger products so keep an eye out.

I ran into Cass, (Paper Tales), today on the show floor - again. She was however sitting down on the job today. There she sat, on the floor of the K&Co. booth pointing at this and that and calling out the quantity she wanted. The poor thing, I feel for her, I know that these shows sound like so much fun, but there is a lot to see and some serious planning when you are actually doing store orders. It may be hard to believe, but I’ve been there done that, and I can say it’s a lot of work. It takes a toll on the body AND the mind!!

Cass did want me to tell you all that since she has been gone, Michael has been at the store picking and choosing things to make down, lol. So stop by Paper Tales and check out whats on sale and go keep Michael company!!

I’m going to post my photos tomorrow. We did remember the camera today!! I’m just too darn tired to do the uploading. I’m not real sure when we are leaving tomorrow morning and I’m fairly certain I’m going to be the one driving so I need to rest up!

~j

It’s day one at CHA and as we were standing in line this morning to enter the show I turned to my mom and said, “You have your camera right?” Her reply, “Oh, no I forgot it, why didn’t you remind me. That was your job.” Well I don’t recall every being assigned that job, so needless to say all the photos that I could have had taken today, didn’t get taken at all. Better luck tomorrow I guess.

Ran into lots of people I don’t get to see all that often, so that makes me happy. Saw my girl Ginger, who has been on a weight loss mission, (I wish I had her willpower!), and she looks FANTASTIC. Pop over to her blog and tell her how great she looks… She is such a great, down to earth gal on top of it!!

We also got to see the Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L crew, whom I haven’t seen since last year I don’t think. Some of them come in from Denmark and obviously thats not a trip I’m making, lol, so here is basically the only meet up time.

Tomorrow I’m going to remind my mom to bring the camera as apparently that’s my JOB. So look out for some photos tomorrow!! As a side note on new product, I ran into the gals from Paper Tales here on the show floor. Seems we run into each other several times during the day. Anyway, Cass, Kate and Laura are here and I assure you if I know anything about Cass at all she is a fantastic order placer. She’s a woman on a mission really so keep your eyes focused on Paper Tales for all the new goodies that will be on their way in soon!

Now, my big news for the day… I submitted a layout for Michigan Scrapbooker Magazine and I just found out that I was chosen for the cover! I’m so excited it’s just silly. The cover, seriously, the freakin’ cover. The news was a great way to end day one and almost made me forget how tired my poor feet are.

Alright, mom just put the phone in the bag for tomorrow so we should be good to go, lol.

~j

We made it to Chicago in one piece, didn’t get lost and actually made it in what was really record time for us. Every year we come for CHA and then encounter so disaster on the road that makes every 15 minute last for eternity. The record is a total of 8 hours drive time I think. Argh.

Good news… I went to check out the website for Windy City Scrapbooking yesterday to see if they had any good events going on. They have a QuicKutz thing tomorrow and then Saturday Emily Adams will be teaching a LUXE Designs class. Anyway, I entered to win a free seat and actually won it. I’m geeked. I didn’t figure I’d win, but I brought some supplies just in case. Now I’m glad I did. Such luck!!

Tonight I’ll be preparing for the show floor tomorrow. Gotta plan the route so I can hit all the hot spots before everything hot is over, lol. Certain people are only in certain booths at certain times… blah blah blah. On top of that I have some clue as to who is giving out goodies so we need to hit that up too. *wink* See I DO have a plan.

Poor Sarah babysat for us today for the first time. I haven’t spoken with her yet so I don’t know how she survived. Hopefully Dilly went easy on her, shes a good catch. Shelby was soooo stinkin excited to have a girl come over to “play.” Too much boy time for Shelby I guess, I wouldn’t know, I don’t have any siblings at all, let alone two brothers! I can only imagine.

More tomorrow…

~j

After an evening with less that attentive Denny I’m sitting keeping my misery company by doing laundry. That being said, awhile ago I took an Ambien, and well, it feels as if it may have just kicked it. Considering I can’t even read what I’m typing and even the old no fail home row key logic is failing me. It’s a sign that I am past reasonable communication.

Even with my groggy state of mind I can tell you that my surgery is set for Aug 4th. So I guess my “normal” time is limited. At least that’s how it feels from where I sit right now. The thought that life as I know it is coming to an end has basically taken over my thoughts. And honestly they have COMPLETELY taken over. The surgery itself is one thing, the potential aftermath is something else entirely. It’s the aftermath that has be all wound up. I keep counting moments and days before D DAY and I want to make sure I fill them up. Denny and I are so happy, our marriage is fantastic really and I don’t want anything to change. I’m pretty darn comfortable in the place we are right now, and I fear I’ll lose some of that. I’m sure that makes little or no sense at all, but is the best way to explain it.

I leave for CHA on Thursday around 9am. I’m looking forward to the trip if for no other reason than to keep me distracted and focused on anything but my upcoming hospital stay. I’m desperate for that distraction and that might be what ends up holding me together. I’m looking forward to seeing some friends I haven’t seen in a long time, so that’s always nice. Seeing new product isn’t so bad either. I’ve had emails coming in over the last week or so giving little peeks here and there. Exciting to see what people come up with.

Well, I may be able to toss this load into the dryer and call it a night, err I guess it’s almost tomorrow by now, so I’m not sure what to call it! Regardless have a good one…

~j

As promised the other day here are a couple photos from the 4th. I finally got my ScribeFire working again the way it was supposed to. I upgraded and all seems to be well now. Weird.

I worked some more on that report card book, but I’m not all the way done yet, so no photos of that. I’ll do my best to get some posted before I leave for CHA on Thursday. WOO HOO for CHA.

In other news, I had to take one of my cats to be put down yesterday. Mopar, my fuzzy buddy, just hasn’t been able to get over the most recent bout with the crystals in his bladder. It’s been a very LONG battle and nothing was working anymore. I was crying so hard I think everyone in the place was near tears. He always slept right next to me at night… a real thrill when you’re allergic to cats… so I was even worse to lay there all night and know he wasn’t going to jump up on the bed to snuggle with me. Oddly enough the kids have yet to notice and we didn’t want to break it to them until later on today. Sarah was coming to meet the kids as she will be taking charge while I’m gone on Thursday, and I didn’t think telling them before she came was going to be a good idea. So after dinner it’s going to be a pretty somber place around here I suspect.

Ok, happier chat now… On Thursday Denny went in on a whim to get some stuff added to his tattoos. He’s too funny. Totally not in the plans for the day and just a spur of the moment thing. Goofy. Anyway, I wanted to go with him and oddly enough ended up helping the tattoo guy with his computer, lol. Yes, it seems the computer nerd in me just can’t help it, no matter how much I tell myself I’m not getting involved. That being said, can I just say that I dispise Windows Vista? Enough said on that. Denny is taking his “5 minute” nap at the moment so I can’t take a photo. I know Kristen wants to see, lol, so I’ll try to get one later. It’s important to note however that the “5 minute” nap really translates to around a 3 hour nap, so who know when I’ll get to take that photo.

The dryer is done… back to work I go.

~j

I hope everyone enjoyed the 4th of July holiday. We had an extended weekend of sorts here as Denny decided to only work a half day on Friday. Short Fridays always throw me for a loop… it just makes Saturday feel like Sunday. It’s aggravating and funny all at the same time.

As usual we celebrated with the Herbert family. Denny did his annual firework display and everyone seemed to enjoy it. As the kids get older they get more wound up about it and with the mass kid hysteria it is hard to catch photos. I did sneak some in of Shelby, but photo uploading seems to be giving me issues on this pc today, so I’ll update this post later on.

I’ve been working on a little book to hold the kids report cards in. I did one in a class at Paper Tales right after Shelby was born and I’ve been using it for Ethan’s stuff and it has worked out great. I think Andrea Corrvieau was the designer/instructor, but I’m not sure. That was almost three years ago, and frankly I have a hard time remembering what I did yesterday. Anyway, I hope to get it wrapped up today and then I’ll post a photo. The albums themselves are kinda hard to find, so if anyone wants one, drop me a line.

I only have a small list of things to do today - YIPEE! I need to get to FedEx or the post office to mail off my submission for the Michigan Scrapbooker cover. It has to be there by the 11th, and although they should get it over night, I don’t want to push it. I’d like to stop and pick up a couple rugs for the house. Seems they get pretty beat up around here. Especially the one at the door Denny uses when he comes in from the garage. Yuck.

As some of you know, I’m out of “card” commission until probably September. I’m going to schedule my Christmas card class as soon as I have a better idea of what my plans are. I’ll be setting up my upcoming surgery on Thursday. After that I should have a better idea. The Christmas Cards seem to be really popular, and I usually do several in September, but odds are this year they will be pushed to October. Like I said, it’s all up in the air as of right now.

Well I’m off. I’d like to get some more cleaning done before the kids get up, move onto my list and then finish up that book. After all, I need to be available to watch Deadliest Catch tonight. I’m all about the Cornelia Marie. They have gear available now on their website… might have to ask for some for my birthday!!

~j