Coupons and This & That

I have a big week coming up!  Wednesday is the first Scrapbook Buddies meetup of the season and Saturday is the Alzheimers crop in Warsaw, KY at which I'm vendoring!  Then the following week is all about getting the final things ready for the CKC Convention  in Cincinnati.

As you can see from the mess below the kits for the CKC Convention are already being worked on and what a mess I've made...again! For some reason creativity and making a mess seem to go hand in hand for me!  But at least things are starting to all be in a place where they both belong and can be found!  Yeah for organization! More on that in a separate post!

If you know me you know I hate throwing out scraps.  All the circles and ovals are what was left between cuts of the other elements. Anything that could be saved as a strip was, as you can see below! So this is what one might call the marriage between the cricut, the old style punch and the regular cutter!

I do want to post the very few coupons I've gotten for the week! What is up with that anyway??? Since I do a search, I'm pretty sure that I haven't received anything from Michaels and as far as Archivers goes, they are still working on the coupons they sent out in the mail last month! Hopefully something else will come out soon as I've used my coupons already!  Whah! Whah!  I want more coupons, LOL!

AC MOORE
Here is your AC Moore ad and the accompanying coupons are here!  You can choose to take 25% off your whole purchse today or 40% off any one regular priced item.  Of course exceptions are in place as usual. But the prices on the Cricut Cartridges look really good for those of you who are near an AC Moore store!

HOBBY LOBBY
What only 20% off a regular item? Very strange! I wanted the treat and I'm feeling a little tricked! Click here to get the coupon and here to see all their weekly specials!

More later~~~

Wooops! Catch Up Post!

Well here we are Monday evening, (well it was when I started this post, LOL) and I've got so much to talk to you about! First I need to get back to Saturday!  I decided Saturday morning that I just had to go take a peek at what was going on!  After all, in the Cincinnati area, Stampaway is very, very big!  Now bear in mind that I am not, not not a stamper.  Do I have stamps, yes! Why? Because they are pretty! Do I use them? Well once in a while I do, a little more since I've moved here! OK, bcak to Stampaway!  As soon as I decided to go, I called my friend Charlene and left a message!  I'm on my way!  Hope you're having a great day! She called me back!  OK, you talked me into it, I'll be there and call you when I get there!

Let's just say that I was very lucky. I found parking just steps away from the door! Someone pulled out just as I turned the corner, yeah! After buying my ticket, I decided to staret downstairs.  A zoo I tell you!  A human zoo of people milling around! No space to walk and little air to breathe! After a quick walk around, I'm out of there! Well as luck would have it, I bump into Misses Tina, Gina and Melissa as I'm walking up the stairs!  Just as I'm saying hello, the phone rings. it's Charlene, she just got there with her hubby! I;ve got to get to Charlene, so I quickly say hello and goodbye to the three A's and go catch up with Charlene.  I explain that with her walker, she might be better trying upstairs, cause downstairs is very, very chaotic! We start walking and then I see him.

The Tim. Mr Holtz. It isn't that I've never seen him before or talked to him, or even that I don't already have a picture of him!  It's that he is actually doing a demo! Somehow, Charlene and I end up sitting down right near him. I've never had a chance to watch Mr Tim in action and he is facinating!  It is obvious he loves what he's doing!  He keeps at it far longer than anyone expects and then he hangs around the Stamper Anonymous booth and is still helping people! Yes he is a good salesman, but it is his enthusiasm for crafting that makes him a good salesperson. If anything, he impressed me more in this setting than he had when I saw him those two previous times at CHA.

 I was hoping that I could get him to sign a book for my friend Kenda.  You see it's her birthday and I want to get her something special. She is a multimedia artist and I wanted to get her something special. And I did, and he, Mr Tim did sign her book and wish her a happy birthday! OK, well I confess, I did get one for myself but that honestly was a secondary consideration.

I was also finally able to lay my hands on one of the T.H. flower dies, which I've been drooling over for months but was sold out everywhere I went!  Even at CHA it didn't see it displayed at all this time and I feared that getting it was a lost cause! Now I just need to take some time to use it!

Before I Take Off to Stampaway...

I wanted to share the progress I've made in the craft storage area and in the craft room.  There is a lot more to do in the craft room and a sort of mini sort by type in the storage area, but we worked pretty hard on this!

First you need to know that it was almost impossible to walk in the storage area and it was becomming quite dangerous!

Now it's neat and tidy! 
Behind the rack in the back are all my racks etc for when I go and sell at crops etc. The shelves on the left hold all my "other" crafts, painting, bear making and knitting/crochet. The shelves on the right hold my scrapbook items, mainly stuff that I need to sell!

Thank goodness I only had to work one day alone, though I did accomplish a lot in that day, and then Evan came back and helped me finish it off! We even took three boxes of teddy bears (all of them in new condition) to the local women's crisis center! It felt great to know that they would be going to people who would hug them and hopefully feel a little better for having them to love! Thank you Evan for all your hard work, I am so relived to know that this part of the work is finished! He even changed the lightbulbs in the garage and on the front porch for me!

As for the craft room itself, its come a long way from this on Monday:

To this:

but it still has a long way to go to even get back to where it was pre-storage area cleanup! More on that later!  Now it's time to go and see what all the press about Stampaway is about! Have a great day and weekend, my friends!

Working on my Scraps

What?  Working on your scraps?  What does that mean!  I can see some of you really wondering what all that means! Well... it means that I finally took everything out of my very huge storage closet and am trying to put it back together! With my usual luck though, while I had excellent, and I do mean excellent help in the form of my friend Tina's son Evan yesterday, unfortunately I just heard that they have a family emergency and Evan has to go out of town! Evan, Tina and family, my thoughts and prayers are with you! I hope your trip ends in a positive!

So I am now going to tackle what I need to do down there a little at a time!  When I moved last year, with my shoulder injury and subsequent surgery,  I pretty much had to concentrate on the more vital things and while I did set up the actual scraproom, we just piled all the boxes in the storage area.  Over the last year, I just pulled what was urgently needed and the place became a worse and worse mess. So since I'm vendoring at a crop at the end of the month, and getting serious about selling off my inventory, I'm working as hard as I can on putting things right! Though I hesitate to do so, I guess I should show you what it looks like now, with all the boxes all over the place. I bought 8 additional shelf units and 30 bins or so to put things back together! Now that is what I call a big job!

Oh My Gosh!

Wouldn't you agree that this is just a little overwhelming!

One more thing, if you are reading this, have you entered to win the cricut cartride giveaway?  Even it you already have that one, think of a charity crop or a friend that you could gift it to! Even previous winners are allowed to enter!

It a Coupon Post!!!

Week of  August 8 to 15, 2010

This week's internet navigation tip: It is always a good idea to use your right mouse button on a link and open the link in a new tab or window.  That way you don't lose the page  where you came from.
AC MOORE
They have a new ad and coupons! (50% off one item August 8 to 14 + the standard 50% off framing).

ARCHIVERS
Like they say, the coupons are in the mail, literally. They are doing free make-n-takes of three projects, ending today (Sunday August 8th), so that's where I'm off to as soon as I post this!

HOBBY LOBBY
Here is HL's latest ad, which is about 30% of Wilton products. It is usually easy to find this weeks store ad in the email but not this week.  I finally dug it out here and here.

MICHAEL's
Here is a link to the contents of the latest Michael's email I got this past Thursday. View their latest ad! Didn't see any coupons from them yet!

Well folks, like most bloggers, I love comments so please feel free to leave one when you come and get your coupons!

A Totally Wonderful Day

Oh my gosh! Little did I know that I would have such a wonderful day today! First, I only learned about the class on Thursday and was happy to be able to attend two of the three classes Debby Schuh was giving at Simply Scrapbook in Kittering, Ohio (near Dayton) today. I was so pleased to see that two of the scrapbook friends I've made since moving to the area last year were waiting outside the store this morning!  Gina, second fron the left and Tina, second from the right are two great people that I've worked with before. We met when I helped Tina get ready for her last Alzheimer's Crop. These ladies are seriously fun and their friend, Mellisa is also a nice person to know!

As for Debby Schuh and the class itself, these were without doubt, absolutely the best taught scrapbook classes I've ever taken! That lady can teach and the projects we did were adorable. Looking at the things on her blog that caught her eye at CHA, I can see why I like her, she has highlighted basically everything I liked, lucky for her, her pictures turned out better!

Although I've never met Debby before, we actually have some friends in common!  It was nice to talk to someone who knows people that I know! She says hello to all her Florida friends, you guys know who you are! Here are copies of the "official pictures" of the classes I took! If you have a chance to take one of her classes, do yourself a favor, sign up and go!  You too can have one of your best days ever!

The first two pictures were the first class I took and the second were of the class Debby taught this afternoon.  As for the last two pictures, they are of the class she taught last night (Friday). Unfortunately I couldn't take that class so I just bought the kit and with the instructions that Debby is going to email me, I am sure that I'll have a great time putting it together. Had I known just how good her classes were and that Tina was also taking last night's class, I might have made it a point to attend that class too even if, gived the 90 minute drive, I'd have had to pay for a hotel!

Thanks, Debby for a great class

 and

thanks to Tina, Gina and Melissa

for sharing their day with me!

BLOG GIVEAWAY DATE EXTENSION

Phew, the laundry from the trip is all done, the suitcases are put away and I'm working on the orders for my mobile scrapbook store.  All that and tomorrow I'm driving up to Dayton to take two classes from Debbie Schuh! I do wish that one of the scrapbook stores closer to me would invite all these fine artists to their stores, but I guess since they mostly do mini-albums which I love, and the scrappers in this area are not big fans of mini-albums, it makes sense that no one gets invited to the greater Cincinnati area. 

However, I'm not a stamper, but a true scrapbooker and I'm starting to go through major mini-album class withdrawal, hence my trip to Dayton! I wish I had known ahead of time that Margie from the Girls Paperie was giving a class as I would have gone for that one too. 

One more thing, because of all the problems people had posting comments, the blog giveaway of the Home Accent cartridge has been extended till August 31st.  Please see the post below for all the details on how to enter to win. Good luck and have a great weekend!

Home Sweet Home

After most of the day spent travelling, it was really nivce to get home to Billy!  Our kitty was so happy to see us! He was all over us, me first and when I kicked him out of my room for the night, he was all over Hubby!

This morning, I'm unpacking, doing laundry and hubby is off to Chase to get things rolling for the new semester.  It would seem that my handyman is no longer available, so I'm going to look for a new one! Not one of my favorite things to do.  I like the old one a lot and wish he hadn't suddenly just stopped answering phone calls!  I keep on hoping that nothing bad has happened as he was a really nice man!

My CKC Cincinnati class has been approved and added to the Saturday calendar, Here are the details as they appear on the CKC website.
3:10 pm - 4:10 pm Sun Catcher Mini Album (250)


Sponsor: Cardstock Warehouse
Class Description Use layers of acrylic and beautiful sugared flowers to create a sun catcher mini album that could also be a card. You’ll learn how to create stunning 3-D flowers (with instructions on how to sugar them at home so they have plenty of time to dry), plus assemble pre-cut supplies to make this sunny creation. While creating your project, you’ll work with Diamond Glaze and products from The Girls Paperie as well as items cut using the Cricut and Creatopia. And best of all, you’ll leave with instructions on how everything was cut so you can replicate it for your personal use.

•Student supplies needed: Basic supplies, clear & quick drying liquid glue, detail scissors, stylus, small scissors, tape runner, crop-a-dile, piercing tool, ruler, bone folder, pop up dots, tissues/Kleenex

•Skill level: Intermediate
•Class length: 1.00 hours
•Class price: $22.00 PRE-REGISTRATION, $24.00 AT THE DOOR

My Last Full Vacation Day

I'm just enjoying being away from home and responsibilities and just being able to chill! This morning I went for a walk on the beach and saw some wonderful things, but the best without doubt was a small sea turtle, who had been caught up in the surf and was being washed ashore. After observing it for a while I put it back into deeper water pointing back out to sea.  I'm not a sea turtle expert, but I can easily imagine that it isn't meant to be ashore alone, in the sun with bunches of tourists ready to play or trample it. I hope it has a safe journey!

Yesterday was truly joyous!  I got to spend some quality time with Janie!  I miss her so much! It was almost as if I'd never left! We laughed, shared, shopped at AC Moore, ate, laughed some more.  We kept from crying when it was time to go our separate ways by making silly faces at each other from our cars! Whenever you think of me, Janie, just remember the silly face, that's what I plan to do when I'm missing you!

I do have more pictures to load up from CHA, I think my camera had slipped to the wrong setting as some pictures are just a little blurry! Still amongst my favorite items are:

Tim Hotz Memory Box system:

Best Creations' Papers:

The Flip-Pal Portable Scanner:

The Ranger Scrubbie, got to get it and test it, but for those of us who always have ink on our hands, sure sounds like a winner!

As always there is a lot more to show and tell, but it will have to wait for the next post! Have a great day!

Some Moments Are Truly Precious

I'm such a lucky mom! My son and I have a close loving relationship and every time I get to spend time with his long time girlfriend Ashley, I love her more.

We spent much of yesterday together, finishing the evening with dinner at a Greek restaurant, Hubby in tow and then enjoying some jazz and a nightcap at the hotel's bar. For the record, mine was a Perrier.

This morning, they stopped in at the Palm Beach Four Seasons and took me to lunch! Great food, great view, very relaxing, but more, much more than that, what mom doesn't revel in being treated to lunch by her son! It is proof on many levels, that you must have done something right to create this amazing person that you are so very proud of, and who is actually happy to spend some time with you! Like I said, lucky mom!

Once they left, i spent the rest of my day printing pictures, scrapping my trip and catching up on one of my guilty pleasures, the Bachelorette on Hulu .com!

As for tomorrow, I'm driving to the Gulf coast to catch up with my bud Janie! Yeah!!! Another magnificent day ahead!

On the Water

In Beverly Hills you tour the homes of the stars in a bus, in Palm Beach you tour the homes of the Fords and Khols and Fishers etc on a boat! That's Captain Kevin in the picture getting ready to take the boat out of the Shellfish Marina!

Lucky me to have spent a wonderful afternoon with Ashley and Shaun! Love those two! Again I apologize for the single huge picture! I'm still posting via my iPhone.

Breakfast on the Beach

What a beautiful morning! After spending time finishing my latest read of Fern Michael's sisterhood series on our balcony with a view of the Atlantic Ocean, I went for a walk on the beach. Sand, surf, quiet, heaven!

The picture above shows the view from where I sat eating breakfast! Not sure if you can see the ocean because of the lighting. The picture is big because I'm posting via the Blog Writer app on my iPhone. Tonight Shaun and Ashley are coming down from Orlando, to spend time with us. Yeah!!!

CHA Day 2

What a day! I finally got to meet Cathy R who has been an online friend for 8+ years. Hours later, Cathy won an e-Craft, that sexy new cutter that I've had my eye on for a year! I'm so happy that you won!

I forgot to take pictures with my iPhone today so you'll have to wait a day to see what caught my eye! With that I hop on a plane at 7am so that means catching the shuttle at 5! Oh I finally did bump into Lori, the owner of Scrap Paper Scissors shopping, shopping and Shopping some more! Lots of prettiest coming your way ladies!

Nite all!

CHA Summer 2010 - Day 1

Hello from CHA where they love bloggers and buyers all!  I had a packed day and haven't even done half of the show!  I did spend quite a bit of time at Best Creations, E-Craft where I met Suede from Project Runway!  He is such a sweet guy! We talked about his time on Project Runway and how many good things have happened since the project!  He created the dresses that you see in the picture using the e-craft.

I also got to spend some quality with the wonderful Nikki Sevils.  She is such a sweet lady!  I love all her new collections!  We talked about the very sweet Gerri-Ann and also about Linda of Hilltop fame! We spoke of Florida and how what scrapbookers want varies from state to state and region to region.

I also got to talk to Donna Salazar!  We did joke about her great genes!  You would never know from looking at that beautiful face that she is old enough to have grown children!  I enjoyed speaking to her about the pictures on her new Kiss the Cook Collection, that she took of her mothers vintage cooking utensils collection. It is always interesting where inspiration takes a person and comes from

I've got a lot more pictures to share, but right now I'm on a friend's computer (thanks Connie B.)and can't reduce them to upload more to the blog! More tomorrow!