What are the Odds?

If you can't stand to hear more about my passport saga, it's time to click and go to another blog now! First let me just say that there is this awesome person called Thomas at Passport Canada that is trying really hard to make it all happen. He has been calling everyday for the last four days and is even checking the tracking of the pictures. Thank you so much Thomas, you make me believe in the goodness of Canadian civil servants!

As you may know, Passport Canada (PC) rejected the first two pictures I have sent them. Both were taken by Walgreens who need I say it takes thousands if not hundreds of thousands of passport pictures each year. Can you imagine that they messed mine up twice? OK, so Monday I get the letter from PC saying that the picture in't any good. Tuesday I get the new picture taken at Ritz Camera and yesterday by 9:30 am, they are in the hands of Fedex for an overnight trip to Gatineau, Quebec, just across the river from Ottawa. I am told that they will be delivered in the AM and I have no reason to believe they won't given that everything went exactly as planned the last time that I fedexed pictures to the same address.

Well rather than being in the hands of PC by 10am, today, the passport photos made it to Memphis, TN at sometime past 11am today. Unbelievable... is it that I am not supposed to go to Nassau? I am told that Fedex had problems flying into Memphis last night. Really? Must have been their plane! Do you know that it is cheaper to Fedex a letter in their envelope overnight than in something else using 2nd day delivery? Hmmm.... the things you learn!

Anyhow, the waiting continues. Fedex Memphis got a message from Fedex national asking to expedite. Memphis called to tell me that they would make sure that Fedex Ottawa knew to expedite the delivery in the morning and hopefully Thomas will be able to dig it out from the rest of the requests in pelenty of time to get me on a plane on the 15th.

What an unbelievable saga, wouldn't you say? Well tomorrow I get my van back and turn in the car and have my the crop at my house at 6pm. Saturday, since my class has been postponed, I am going to an all day crop and Sunday? I'm spending in bed, LOL!

Hope you all have a great day!

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 an Interesting Couple of Days!

As I write this Keshia is, I think, passed out from exhaustion! I've got to tell you that it's been an amazing couple of days! We've been going around not only to scrapbook stores, but also to an amazing home and crafts decorating warehouse, Home Goods, Pier 1 and I've probably driven a couple of hundred miles. We've found items that I had seen at the Doodle, that up to then I had no idea where to get, tracked down big and small wrought iron easels in a couple different sizes and just had a general great time.

Of course, I myself am about to go and crash. I've got tons of things to do, sorry to say still no passport, but who knows I may get a phone call from DHL telling me that they have a delivery that needs a signature tomorrow. No leaving of a passport at the front door or in the mailbox. Big no, no! The great thing about DSL is that the driver works around your schedule if at all possible and gives you a 30-60 minute window when he will come to deliver.

I'm glad to say that my buddy Janie got home safely a couple of days ago, but we've had no time to catch up yet! If you're reading this Janie, I hope we can catch up sometime tomorrow.

I completed a series of 4 layouts with the Basic Grey Sugared line and I will be teaching a class using those layouts at the end of month, so that is a total three classes plus Nassau in June! Of greater concern, I can't seem to get a human being at CK to return a call or answer an email, which really sucks because I absolutely need to cancel my two booths! Perhaps next year I'll come up with a new way to have a booth, but I need to regroup and figure out what I really need/want to do going forward. Of course if I don't get in touch with them soon, they will say that I didn't cancel and charge me anyhow. It would be nice to know how to get that one sorted out because if it's already too late to cancel, I need to figure out what I'll take to sell.

So there you go, live in the fast lane, M-C style, LOL! Hope everyone is making every moment special. Because as you know, each moment only comes "once"!

Ou I've Neglected my Friends

Speaking of friendship, below are my buddies, Marie Laurence and her grandaughter Chloe. We've been friends for quite a while now. She's been around to help me pack to leave Florida, helped me find a house when I moved back and I even taught her to scrapbook. She is a talented artist in so many medias that the truth is I basically just showed her the tools and the basics. ML is an awesome friend! If you want to practice your French, visit her blog!

I must say that it's been a little tough over the last few weeks keeping up with people and things and I can only hope that it will get better soon. I miss being in close tough with everyone.

On another front, my Canadian passport is being printed and I'm told it will be here by the second week in June. That means that I'll have to postpone my trip to Nassau and hope that Keshia will understand! What is really sad is that it would have been here in time if and it's a big if they had not sent everything back because they didn't like the picture, something about a glare in the glases that honestly I could not see!

I have been working on the kits for my class at Scraptopia, completed a four page layout yesterday that features the Basic Gray Sugared collection which I will bring by Scraptopia Thursay or Friday so that I can find out if Jackie wants to do a class with those. My mailbox class is set and people have started registering so I'm kind of happy about that!

Tomorrow I'm meeting Keshia from "The Scrapbook Cottage in Nassau, and we are going to three scrapbook stores, two for sure Violettes in Lakeland, and Whim-So-Doodle in St. Pete and if we have time the Scrapbook Shoppe in Tampa. I may have to stay away from that one since Senator Obama is holding a big rally at the St. Pete Times Forum (where the Lightning play)which means the traffic will no doubt be terrible. I'll have to check on the timing for that! Should be a lot of fun and there are a couple of things I really need to pick up if they are not out of them, particularly the Kaisercraft flowers. I use a LOT of them and I've started doing all sorts of things to them, LOL!

So tonight there is the finale of Dancing with the Stars and we get to see the battle of the David's on Idol. Yes I do watch TV... while I am either doing office work, answering emails or scrapbooking. Thank goodness I have a TIVO as it also means that I can replay something that catches my attention and that I actually want to look at! Oh, my picks, Kristy and David Cook should be the winners. But whatever happens, especially in Idol, David Cook is going to be a big star.

A Conversation about Cells

How is that for an intro to the subject of cell phone etiquette!

My wonderful son and I were just having a conversation about cell phones today. We pretty much agree that the rules of good etiquette and simple kindness to the people around you apply to cell phones just like they do to other situations. We were wondering why some people don't think that courtesy applies when they are on a cell.

One of my son's pet peeves is people who are walking along and have a blue tooth ear piece. Not only do they look a little foolish looking like they are talking to themselves, but they usually speak loudly, are unaware of their surroundings, and disturb the people around them. I remember at the Scrapbook Expo in Orlando, my buddy Janie and I were sitting at a table in one of the concourse hallways taking a break and having some refreshments. A woman came and stood by our table, put her stuff down, answered her cellphone and had a lengthy andloud conversation standing right there. Janie and I could not really have a conversation of our own as she was standing over us, facing the table and babbling on. I honestly thought she was being really rude and had to bite my tongue not to say something to her!

My pet peeve is people that have a lengthy cell phone conversation with someone else while they are somewhere with another person and I don't care if they are with their children when they do it either, in fact that is probably even worse. I'm sure you've seen them, sitting with someone in a restaurant and ignoring their table mate while having a vigorous and loud conversation on their cell. I remember feeling really sorry for this older man, he looked like the father of the person he was sharing the table with. His "son who was 30 something" was on the phone for a good 20 minutes while the poor man sat there not quite sure what to do with himself! I thought it was not only rude, but rather thoughtless!

I don't have a problem with a person answering their cell phone, even if they could ignore the call based on the caller ID, because I think they really should answer. But it would make sense that they inquire if it is an emergency and if not offer to call back either later or the next day. If it is not possible for them to talk later , then the person should excuse themselves to the person on the phone, explain the situation to the person they are eating/visiting with and then leave the table and go have their private chat away from everyone else. People on their Nextel wakie-talkie style cells are even worse, you get to have your eardrums assaulted by both the caller and the callee.

To get back to people ignoring a call they are receiving, here is why I think that is rather rude as well, especially if they explain themselves using an excuse that makes it sound like the person calling them isn't important. It's happened to me and I knew that the person calling was a close friend. From that day forward, when I called this person and the phone went unanswered, I wondered if I was suffering the same fate as that other friend!

Here are some other people's take on cell phone etiquette. This article sets out some cell phone rules. The actual rules are a towards the middle.

What do you think? Do you have any cellphone or other pet peeves?

About This and That

Today I spent the morning getting the passport application ready for the mail and running (OK I drove I didn't run) across town to Fedex so they could ship it out to get there on Monday! The cost of overnight shipping is costing me a bundle!

I also decided one of the other prize items that I would send to Tabitha. Given that they just bought their first house, I think she will be able to put this to good use!

Tomorrow I must, must work on Zachary's album and get the message out about the little mailbox class. If I can get the people together, maybe we'll do it this coming Saturday. I've also got to get started on cutting all the paper and pieces for the 6x6 album as I think that I will assemble the pages and bind it before the class and we can then just work on all the embelishments during the class. What do you guys think, is that a good idea?

I finally realized with the help of one of my very nice neighbors why my sprinkler system wasn't working. It was hard to really tell until about 4 days ago since all our lawns are looking so bad with this drought we are having right now. But 4 days ago mine started going really yellow and we all noticed! It turns out that the lawn guy whipper snippered the wires to the rain detector and so the sprinklers didn't go off at all because the system thought that it was raining! The clowns actually taped the above ground wires together. If they had taped the inground wires together, the sprinklers would have actually worked! Thank goodness that my neighbor Joe had had a similar thing happen to him at some point. We were just about to give up when he spotted the rain detector and it jogged his memory! Yeah Joe!!!

Rick took me out to dinner tonight and we had a great time. There is a new recreation center just down the street from us. We had a quick bite, some face time and played some air hockey! I found the whole evening very relaxing!

Well my friends, I hope you are all having as great a weekend as I am and that those of you that are moms are fussed over appropriately tomorrow! Happy Mothers' Day!

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.

April Winner Announced

Is there a better way to start the month of May than to announce the winner of the blog comments contest for April? Drum roll please... Tabitha, you are the winner! Yeah (drums beating, cymbals crashing, flag waving, WooHoo!!!) I will get your gift out Monday or Tuesday!

I'm planning a very interesting weekend. Saturday, I'm cropping and vendoring at an all day commercial crop. Then Sunday I am supposed to do a Home Based Business Fair from 2-5. There will be some 35 businesses represented so I may bow out at the last minute. Depends on how I feel. Monday I have my Scrapbook Buddies crop here at home.

As for today, I did scrap work on the 12x12 Baby book for my nephew Zachary and the 2 8x8s I am making for the grandmas. I also did one of those one picture "artistic" layouts, just for the fun of it! I took the picture at the San Francisco Zoo earlier this year. I'm not even sure what the name of this flower is. Maybe someone reading this knows!

Here it is:

April is National Organ Awareness

Did you know that April is National Organ Donor Month? I could not let this month pass without talking about my little friend. Savannah stole my heart nearly a year ago. At the time I met her and her mami Ana, Savvy was yellow, her tummy was swolen and her parents were besides themselves with worry that their little girl would not live to see her 1st birthday. But Savannah had other ideas and though she got sicker and sicker she hug on and celebrated her first birthday away from her home, in a Ronald McDonald house in NJ, not far from the only place that could give her a chance to see the New Year, The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. Savannah is one of the lucky ones, she got her liver transplant on December 29th 2007 and lived to see 2008. She was given the chance to learn to walk and to finally be allowed to interact with other children.

Her mami, Ana just posted a link to a new video montage she has done of Savannah post transplant! I wanted to share it with you and remind you of the wonderful gift of life that organ donation is. Please take a moment today to sign your organ donor card and to let your family know your wishes. There are close to 99,000 people, many of them children like Savannah waiting on the transplant list here in the US. Who knows how many more around the world.

So like they say, please don't take your organs to heaven, heaven KNOWS we need them here! Please, please sign your organ donor card today, and then go to Savannah's COTA site and put an entry in their guest book, to tell them that M-C sent you, and that you signed your donor card today in honor of Savannah. And if you are so motivated, the Anselmo family have not reached the $100,000.00 fund raising mark yet in their COTA for SavannahA fund and have many years still of anti-rejection drugs and post op and control visits to pay for. If you can, click on the donate tab and help this family. And do spread the world about organ donation, it is such a simple gift and we could so easily bring down that 99,000 to zero if we all signed our donor cards today!

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Peek at the New TLC Products

I thought that the peeks we got of the new TLC products were so outstanding that I decided to keep working with TLC despite all the changes and despite the fact that I can get so many things with a higher profit margin elsewhere. So I thought I'd share a slide presentation created by the "Ettes" the fabulous TLC designers.

The products won't be available to the general public until 15 June, so this isn't so much about selling right now but rather about admiring, LOL!

Also, if you go to TLC today, and click on the ideas link at the middle bottom of the page, there is still time for you to vote for my Amy and Eli album. To vote for each of the participants just click on one of the 5 stars under the information. Hopefully you will feel that I deserve 5 stars, LOL! The winner gets $75 in TLC products or is that $75 to buy what you "want" in TLC products!

April Winner Blog Posting Prize

In my post on April 1st, I spoke of two things, absentmindedness and the April comment challenge prize. This is not a big comment month so far, so I'll just show the one gift, who knows if there will be more... that really is up to all of you!




Oh, I thought I'd plug a new Scrapbook store opening in Nassau! The 1st scrapbook store to open in Nassau! Yup, now when you go on a cruise to the Bahamas, you can visit Keshia the owner and tell her that M-C says hi! Sounds like it will be a darling of a store when it opens at the end of May. I'm hoping to be there teaching a class prior to the opening as Keisha is planning on a big launch party with make and takes and a class that will be fun for beginners and more experienced scrappers alike. As soon as she can send me some photos, I'll share!


I need to get on the phone/email and see if I can round up 4 people for my little mailbox class and get that all sorted out. Here is a picture again of what it looks like!

Working on Cards

Well I'm thinking that the blog challenge is a little stalled. I guess that's my fault, I haven't blogged all that much! There are so many things that need doing that sometimes, I'm not sure at the end of the day that I've gotten anything much done.

In many ways I'm not really a girly girl. For example, getting my hair done at the salon or getting a pedicure or a manicure are not "fun" things for me. So when it's time to color my hair, I've learned to do it myself. It takes a lot less time and I can go for 6-8 months without setting foot in the salon or paying those outrageous prices. Coloring my hair was on yesterday's to do list as were making some cards. First these are hybrids. The portion with text was done digitally and printed out for each of the cards, while the rest is made with traditional scrapbook supplies. You can click on them to see a larger version.

I also completed a number of Christmas cards for the ongoing challenge on RCS.

You can see those in my online gallery. Here is one in case you don't want to go browing:

I also went over to Scraptopia and had a great time talking with Jackie. Made a couple of purchases and spoke of future plans.

Seeing Clearly

Well I finally took pictures of the clear cards I made. The blue one is the one I used for the make and take and the other is for my MIL. I hope you like them.

I've spent the last few days getting out wireless network to work. After spending at least 3 hours on the phone with 2 different Verizon guys and buying a new wireless router at the recommendation of the first guy they finally sent a tech out. Seems they had upgraded their equipment and the first guy I spoke to got it all wrong. I brought the router back to Comp USA and held my ground until they agreed to reimburse me the whole amount and not just the cost less a 15% restocking fee.

I hope to get some more scrapping done tomorrow, I've got quite a few projects underway and it would be nice to finishe some of them! I have a bout 20 pages to do on my soon to be born nephew's 12x12 book, a class with the little mailbox I showed you a few weeks ago to get scheduled and the final kit count done, my MIL's recipe scrapbook to work on and a photography album that I've started and want to work on. In addition I've also got to finish the class project for one of the LSS and put another together for the other LSS. In addition I have a business expo early May that I have a booth at and then I'll be getting ready for CKC Fort Lauderdale where I hope to introduce the new TLC line as well as some of the other items I plan on selling there. Somehow, I have a feeling I'm going to be rather busy!

Anyhow, I hope you're all having a great weekend and scrapping your hearts out!

Hugs,

M-C

A New Sense of Freedom

Well the taxes are done, the ones for 2007, the sales taxes for January till March for Florida and I've answered the IRS's questions on the 2006 questions. I feel so much better to have all of it out of my hair! Yippee! Life has not been all that easier, my computer is hiccupping, took 2 hours of playing with it to get to boot up the other day and yesterday our wireless router, courtesy of our ISP went on the fritz, but I'm still happy the taxes are done~!

It allows me to get back to talking papercrafts and particularly scrapbooking! So first, let me share a tag I made for the RCS tag swap. I'm going to warn my buddies not to come and look if they want to keep the surprise till they receive them in the mail. But I really wanted to share. We had to make them all identical and we had a choice of themes either summer or vacation. Until I added the little saying on the tiny piece of paper, I think it could have been either. But once it was added, it became more vacation since it says "Having a Great Time".

I also was at a crop this weekend where I vendored and did a make and take. The project I chose was a clear card so that I could show people some of the techniques to use when working with a clear/acylic album. We had a great time. I've included a picture of what my booth looked like. Click on it for a bigger view.

Don't forget to leave a comment. The comment contest is ongoing and the name of one person will be picked from all the entries and a prize awarded on May 1st! The more entries, the more chances you have to win! One comment only per day!