I Wish I Could Keep Up

I wish that I could keep up with everything I've got going on, especially my friends, but I'm falling flat on my face these days! Way too much going on, LOL!

I can't believe that it's been since the 22nd of May since I've posted! It's not that I don't always start blog posts, but I don't always finish them. For example I wrote this last week...

Today, I spent the day with Janie and as usual, it was a calming and fun day! Spending a day with Janie is almost like taking a deep cleansing breath, I just feel so much better afterwards! Honestly, I really needed it! Thanks Janie!

So what have I been doing? Putting together the kits for my class at Scraptopia is taking quite a bit of time! I'm still not done. I love creating classes, cutting everything and getting ready, I must admit, not so much!

Sunday (May 25th) Janie and I went to a class at Scraptopia given by folks affiliated with My Mind's Eye. Janie and I both won awesome prizes. She won all the papers and embelishments in the latest Wild Aspergus line and I won all the papers in the 29th Street line as well as some embelishments from one of their other lines. We both also got a full set of titles. That's Keesha, Madison in the middle and Janie.

I thought I would also share two of the four pages that will be used in another class at Scraptopia, this one in July.

I've just got to share with you Scraptopia's announcement for one of my classes:

'Summertime' by Marie-Claire
This is an adorable, 6"x 6" colorful book with a tropical look! Learn how to play with acrylic pages and incorporate them into your mini projects.

M-C is a very talented designer and you will love this project at a great price - only $29! The date is Saturday, 7 June from 10 - 1 p.m. Don't wait - this class is limited and going fast! (There are so many talented people out there, it just blows me away that I even get to teach at the LSS)

Now back to today June 3rd. What has happened since last week? Plenty, but it would take a long time to write all about it so here are the highlights!

I spent the whole weekend in bed on pain meds trying to get rid of the sciatica that has been plaguing my life for 3+ weeks.

Janie and I spent Monday, that is yesterday, together. Thank goodness because she was the only highlight of the day. I got a notice from passport Canada saying they didn't like the 2nd set of pictures I sent, Rick had a bad day which always upsets me, and someone scrapped and dented my brand new SUV while I was in a store ordering glasses and contacts for Rick! On the positive side, the lady did stick around and said she would pay for everything rather than go through insurances.

Today Tuesday. I got all prettied up to have my passport pictures taken for the 3rd time. Before going for the picture at the mall, no Walgreens this time, but Ritz Camera, I dropped off the van at MAACO for the repairs and paint jobs. Was driven to Hertz to get a rental car and after that stopped at Scraptopia. As luck would have it, my email with the list of products required for the class somehow didn't get to the owner and the covers that she did order did not come in. So my class of the 7th is now postponed to sometime in July!

On a high note, a nice lady that I spoke with at Passport Canada last week called me to follow up. She had noticed that there were no updates on my file and said that the note was still in there that my passport needed to be printed by the 10th and that I should write a short letter to send in with the new pictures and then overnight everything and that just maybe, I might still get my passport in time to go to Nassau on the 15th! Let me just say that I will consider that to be a miracle and I guess I'd better start packing just in case!

I'm sitting here and realizing that I am so grateful for my friends! You guys rock, all of you! You are always there to raise me up and make me feel better! Thanks and now... for the May winner of my blog comments...

The winner is Crystal!!! I know that you are on a cross country treck, but as soon as you settle down and email me an address to send your prize, I'll get right on it! It might be fun to rak you as well at that time since I'm guessing that you haven't hauled too many scrapbook/card making supplies!!! Congrats Crystal!

What a Week!

Well when I left you I had great plans for the weekend and I was going to send Tabby her prize package. Well none of these have happened. Seems there is another bug going around and I was hit badly late Friday. What is it with all these bugs and viruses going around this year!

Anyhow, I will be going to Nassau, Keshia has already bought the ticket for later this month. I can only hope that passport Canada comes through, but after being told on Wednesday that the wait time had increased from under 4 weeks, to around 6weeksand that my information wasn't even in the computer yet I was really bummed! I magine my surprise when I got a DHL delivery today that required my signature and it was my passport application! They didn't like the picture, said there was a glare on my glasses, which honestly I don't see! I've had some new pictures taken and I will be overnighting the application tomorrow in the hopes that they get it by Monday or Tuesday at the latest. And Tabby, I will get your prize out and a special little something for your having to be so patient with me!

I guess if the passport doesn't get here in time, it might end up that I pay to have the ticket changed or if we can't do that, I'll just buy another one. I really do want to have fun with Keshia at her new scrapbooks store in Nassau and given that she has paid for a ticket, making good on it is the least I can do if things need to be changed around. Hopefully they will rush my passport through this time, but since I can't claim an emergency like a dying relative (I am actually glad that there isn't such an emergency) they really don't have to put me in front of the rest, but hey they are Canadians and maybe they will be nice to me if I beg! Oh the stress! I really don't want to disappoint Keshia, she has been so sweet!

I have finalized 6 kits of the little mailbox. Amazing what you can get done when you stay home for a few days. But I have to ask, did I really have to put all that stuff into such a small book? Everytime I thought I'd finished putting the kits together, I realized that I was still missing a couple of elements. I've also completed a project for the LSS. I's a summer vacation 6x6 mini album with an acrylic front and back and 18 double sided embellished sheets in between. I'm trying to keep it relatively inexpensive so that people can afford to take it and have fun. I can't show all of it, as it is now set for me to teach the class on June 7th, but here is the front and a peak at the first page.

Of course I've still got the baby boy scrapbook percolating and need to put some more work into it next week and get it done. I'd really like to go up to Atlanta to deliver it personally, so I'll have to see what I can do about that. Plus June is also CKC Fort Lauderdale and I do need to figure out what to do about it. I'd like to go but the booth is hugely expensive, I have to pay for a hotel for 3 or is it 4 nights plus meals, parking at the hotel and at the convention center. I'd have to sell a huge amount of paper to even come close to breaking even. Not sure about doing that yet, especially with the economy being what it is and TLC now being a buyer's club.