CKU-A San Jose Photos
I will try to not to bore you with too much detail but I'm posting a bunch of photos for you inquiring minds out there in the blog-o-sphere. Hopefully, you'll find them mildly entertaining and a little tease to some of the projects I completed. I will admit that I will not be posting all the pages of my album and projects because a - they're not all complete and b - it's not really fair to the designers who worked so hard in case someone would choose to completely scraplift their brilliance. I'd be happy to share privately if you need to see more. Oh, I'll keep the photos small (instead of medium) so that it's not an endless scroll just to get through this one post.
Here we go. Here's all of us in line for registration - (l to r) Yvonne, Yezenia, Jenn, Tashia, me and Ginger down front. The fun is about to begin.
Me and my secret pal Maria. What an awesome girl. I did my best to spoil her and it was easy to do. I'm so glad that we met and I know that we'll be friends for a very long time (inking our pages into our 90's). Thank goodness for Maria because the girl who gave to me had the personality of a stick. Her name is Lynn. Never actually got her last name. Ugh. Again, thank goodness for my friend Maria!!
Me and Ali Edwards. Okay, I'm wasn't on the celebrity sightings/must take photo campaign like I was last year. (Hey, I've got proof that we met Karen) But I figured I couldn't pass up an Ali moment. Of course, I was a dork and didn't take a picture with Cathy Z. Oh well. Please take a good look at who's in the background. That actually might be more entertaining than the photo.
Ginger with the first of her FIVE winning prizes. Man, that girl was lucky!
Me and my Junkitz girls. Stacey Panassidi, me, Janna Wilson and Teresa Collins. I've taken 5 or 6 Teresa classes in the past. Boy, is she awesome. But I'm a new groupie to Stacey and Janna. All three of them incredibly nice and amazing creativity that did nothing but inspire me and everyone else in the track.
Here I am, the graduate. It's been 20 years since college so it only makes sense that I'm a graduate again in June. Last year I received my "Masters in Scrapbooking Arts". This year, another "Bachelor in Scrapbooking Arts." I hope my family is proud.
The Vegas girls, 3 out of 4 in the photo anyway. They're friends with Ginger and go to her crops out there and they're fabulous girls. Can't wait to see them again. Hope to meet up with them when I'm in Vegas in August. (l to r) Debbie, Mollie, Danielle and Ginger.
Okay, the stuff you've been waiting for. My album cover.
Table of Contents page.
Love Style pages 1 & 2
Love Style pages 3 & 4
Album back cover. I liked how this came out. Again, we could do anything we wanted throughout but especially on the covers. Anything to bring out our own "style". That was the key to the whole album.
Rusty Pickle's "26 Things I Love About You". I've only gotten through the letter C so there's only 3 things to love at the moment. Cute album. Cutting out the letter stencils is a bit of a pain so I'm seeing some painting of many of the other letters in my future.
Sweetwater class #1 - All About Me. A really cute mini-album with photos and categories saying "statistics", "family", "surprising facts", "dreams" and I forget the last one since it's not in front of me. Perhaps, my new favorite paper line. Pretty pretty stuff. Photos are in. Needs journaling.
Sweetwater class #2 - A Day in My Life. Doesn't have photos yet but it's a super cute tag book with their yummy papers and the chipboards saying "An Ordinary Day", "A Special Day", stuff like that. I couldn't picture what they were going for photo wise so I didn't bring any but it makes sense now and it's stinkin' cute. And a great project for other gifts. Love this one.
Imagination Project - A Perfect Match. A cute matchbook style mini-album with their various lines of paper, cloth tapes and chipboards. Again, simple idea but really cute for future gift giving.
I'm not posting photos of IP's Doodlelicious class because it was pretty lame. A 5 page cardstock album, bound together with (not matching) Gin-X tape and then "go for it" doodling. No real instruction which was annoying since we wanted to learn something. I learned more doodling techniques in the Sweetwater tag class. But to her credit, the instructor heard our grumbling, read the evaluations and apparently revamped it for for future classes. So we're the ones that got screwed. Also not shown is Cactus Pink's Home "Chip and Flip" mini-album. A 6x6 square with 8 3x3 squares all around that "flip" and fold in. No photos on it yet, still needs embellishing and I have to replace the ribbon since it's too hard to actually flip. It'll be cute when it's done and won't take long to finish but not in any photographic shape for it to make sense to share.
Well, that's it for CKU-A in San Jose. I will ONLY do albums again although I hear that's all they're going to do in the future anyway. I love love loved this past weekend. Everything about it. No snafus, no mean people (except for the person that stole the sample album from Danelle Johnson's track. Shame on you), fun and lowkey all around. Awesome. I went to CKU-BABY.
Post CKU Quickie
I'm WAY too tired to give a nice, newsy, detailed post but CKU-A totally ROCKED!! I loved every minute of it. Great creativity, great projects, nice people. I finished my album (woo-hoo!) although I do have to finish putting in all the photos. I did the Junkitz track called "Elements of Style". The album shows off my "love style", "home style", "friend style", "creative style" and a 5th style that I'm too tired to remember at the moment. I think it's "life style" about me. Anyway, I completed the love style with journaling photos and everything. The rest just need the pics and journaling but I have them all printed and ready to be slapped together. The other class projects were also fantastic, weren't they Yez, Maria and Missy? Met some really terrific people including my new friend Maria. YAY! And I was pleased that I saw a bunch of people from last year in Anaheim including Jean and Alison (my secret pals last year) and Nichole who I met on the Yahoo board, was Jean's roomie and remembered me with a big hug when I saw her working at the Make & Take's on Thursday.
Did I mention how completely AWESOME the Junkitz girls are? OMG! Teresa Collins, Stacey Panassidi and Janna Wilson are incredible. Besides being beyond super creative, they're just super nice people. They made the whole album project and process beyond fun. Be bribed them with custom M&M's. They now all know Ginger (who's famous in her own right) and Ginger wore her "I'm a Stacey Stalker" t-shirt. Stacey was so proud. It was a fabulous time.
I didn't take a million photos like I did last year but I did take enough. I'll go through them when I'm more coherant and post away. I had a great time in Anaheim last year but this was SO much better. I'm now totally addicted to CKU-Albums. It's the only one I'm dying to do again. Can't wait for that 2007 calendar.
Nighty night!
ps. Karen, are you proud of me? No, emails or posting before I got home. hee hee.
Insanity is setting in
from lack of sleep. Once again, I'm up at all unG-dly hours of the night. I finally uploaded my photos (for better or for worse) to Costco for CKU. I'm leaving on Wednesday for San Jose and I'm so damn excited. We're going to have a blast!!
I went up to Big Bear with Lisa, Kari, Kari's sister Sue, Kirsten, Lisa M., Inken and 30+ other women for a scrapbooking weekend. It was so nice and relaxing and beautiful up there. And it was nice to get some focused scrapping done. It's been WAY too long since I've done scrapping for myself. Too many other projects of late. I finished up the Eeyore swap LO's for CKU so I was glad to get that off my plate. After that, I was able to complete 21 pages. Not as many as I would've liked but still a good amount. I'll scan and post a few when I get back next week.
I have to share 3 pics I took today of Carly and Gregg in the pool today. I just love Carly's face in each of these. You can tell she's so incredibly happy to be in the water. Loving my new camera even if I don't really know how to use it. But then again, that's the beauty of digital. You can just take a million shots and a few are bound to be good.
Now Serving...
Why does it feel like they've just called number 24 and I've got 79 in my hand? They'll never get to my number.
Let me give a warm blog-o-sphere welcome to my CKU secret sister Maria. I've finally revealed myself to her (so to speak) and given her the link to my little slice of blogdom. I hope you find this mildly entertaining and you can finally see my picture. I look forward to meeting you in person next week. Woo-Hoo! Only 6 more days until I leave for San Jose and CKU Albums! I suppose I should do some of my homework so that I can complete that promised album.
I'm off to Apples tomorrow. Another weekend of scrapping. YAY! I'm very excited. It's been a long time since I've done real scrapping for myself. I've pulled over 40 LO's worth of photos and papers. Of course, it's the rest of the scrap crap that's hard to pare down. I just hope I can get all my "must needed" supplies into the car with me, Kari and her sister. Oh, there's people too that have to fit in the car? Uh-oh, I might be in trouble.
Our flute choir concert was tonight. A celebration of Mozart's 250th Birthday. I actually was pleased with how I played for a change. Usually, I have mistakes (we all do) but overall I was happy with my performance. I guess practicing helps after all. I was really happy with how I played "Eine Kleine Nachtmusik". The music was poorly handwritten making it hard to read, then there were embellishments and tricky parts that I really tried to work on. But I pulled it off to the best of my ability. Even Patty said that Irene, Kileen and I played well together on the Flute 1 part (which we did). That made me happy because I don't always get to play Flute 1 and have it be a good, hard challenging part. Here are a few photos that Gregg took of me tonight. I like how they turned out.
And how cool are these dishes??? I saw them when I was looking through the "Big Brother 7" house last week at work. BTW, the house looks freaking awesome this year. I'll try to get some pics in the house when I go back in 2 weeks. Last year, Scott, Marie and I went through the house the night before they moved in and took a bunch of shots. Hopefully, we'll be able to do taht again this year. It's all-stars this summer doncha know. Be sure to watch on CBS on Wednesday the 21st and then vote for your favorites to maybe go back in the house. It's going to be a fun summer. Anywho, aren't these plates pretty? I was drooling over them and one of the executive producers told me that they weren't expensive because nothing is in the house (budget wise and who needs these people trashing good stuff?) Then one of the prop guys told me Bed and Bath. I ran out and bought 8 of the dessert/salad plates, a serving bowl and rectangle serving platter. I think they're so cool. Had to share.
Have a great weekend everyone! I'll post on Sunday how much I actually accomplished scrapwise this weekend. Wish me luck!
Busy busy week
Fighting day 2 of a migraine. Now that's fun stuff. Procrastinating at the moment, but I've got to finish up pulling papers for my scrappin' Apples weekend getaway. Woo-Hoo! I did about half last night so I want to finish up the rest tonight (if I get my sorry butt off the computer) Then I can pack all the considerable amount of supplies up tomorrow. I've got my flute concert on Thursday night (shameless plug. 8PM All Mozart concert celebrating his 250th birthday - Culver City Adult School 4501 Elenda Street Culver City) so that kills that time for organizing. And then I leave on Friday morning for 48 hours of scrapping! YAY! Oh, and had to go buy a new trimmer today since I stepped on my now old one and broke the swing out arm. DOH!
Still working on my CKU stuff but that's going on the back burner at this point until I get back into town on Sunday. Not enough hours in the day. Worked like a little crazy banshee to get the end of school year teacher's gifts and kids gifts ready. We got gift cards for the two main teachers and then, thanks to the idea in Scrapbook Answers, I made three of the teachers a little thank you on a candle. Candle, print on vellum, cover in wax paper, attach with heat gun. Came out really cute. I also did a candle and some coasters (thanks Lisa) for my CKU Secret Sister. Glad she's enjoying my stuff because I've heard squat from the girl giving to me. Don't even care if I meet her at this point. It's disappointing only because I'm still friends with both girls from last year's CKU.
Update on my friends that I mentioned in earlier posts. Paula's little boy is doing fantastic although she hasn't even had eaten any of her Dream Dinners yet. LOL. J is crawlng around and doing well. The swelling in his head looks like it's almost gone and the scar will be invisible in no time. Man oh man, kids are resilient. Elizabeth has had a rougher time. Two surgeries later, her thyroid was removed and it was malignant. I know she's home resting (or trying to rest) and she'll do some therapy in about 3 months but it's all so scary. I haven't spoken to her yet but left a ton of messages. I know she's doing well all things considered but still, alot to deal with. She needs some good, positive thoughts.
My sister's baby shower was on Sunday. It was very nice. Great food from Oliva (yummy yummy), good friends and more importantly, Alli got good pressies. She's pretty well set which is good. Considering she didn't want a shower (obviously a battle she lost), I think she's happy that she got most everything that she wanted and needed. The best part was the chocolate fountain for dessert (thank you Kari). Speaking of yummy decadence. Oh my! Bananas, strawberries, cantelope, marshmallows, pound cake all dipped fresh into the flowing fountain of fun. Of course, the person who had the most fun seemed to be Carly. After everyone left, she managed to dip another marshmallow in the chocolate soup and pretty soon, she was dipping her hands and playing with the gooey mess. Did I stop her? I'm a scrapbooker people. Of course not! I started snapping pictures, as did Uncle David.
That's my chocolate girl.
Gregg came home FINALLY yesterday after 2+ weeks in NY working on the Tony Awards. Hallelujah. It was a long time for him to be gone. We're all very happy to have him home. YAY!
Dream Dinners
Lisa, Kari and I went to Dream Dinners today to make a bunch of meals for Paula. After Jake's surgery a bunch of us decided to do this for her and Marc so that they could focus on Jake's recovery not "what are going to do for dinner". Well, many of the readers of this blog know of Dream Dinners.
For those of you who haven't experienced it, it's awesome and I haven't tasted any of the meals yet. It was so much fun and so darn easy to go from station to station to prepare the meals. And they all looked really yummy. Lisa swears by this. I signed up to do 6 meals at the end of the month and I'll probably do July to have the meals in the freezer for July and August since we're out of town most of August. But, the choices look so yummy. Our biggest problem will be making room in the freezer. Still, we had a great time and it was fun. Can't wait to do it for myself in a few weeks and then have some meals. Gregg and I are usually pretty horrible about planning ahead in terms of cooking. If this helps us eat better and do less take away, then it'll be a good thing.
Had to share. Check out
Dream Dinners.
What to say...
There's really nothing to say other than I'm very sad. I will admit that I wasn't optimistic at all but I was hopeful. No such luck. Clearly I'm on the wrong side of the statistics these days. It doesn't help that DH is 3,000 miles away for another week. I gave Carly a good squeeze tonight while I was sad and she just said to me "Hey Mom, what are you doing? You're being silly." At least she made me laugh. We'll try to figure out what happened and then try again. Of course, the schedule for the next 3 months is fairly insane. I'm old. I think that's the bottom line.
The fun part is that I figured out how to change the font color and do some formatting here on the ol' blog-o-rama. Color is a good thing. Small things to make me smile.
Thank you to my dear friends who emailed me such nice loving thoughts. (Karen B. and Elizabeth specifically) I can't tell you how much your kind words and love mean to me today. I'm truly lucky and very greatful to have such an amazing group of women that I call my friends. I love you all.
Chocolate Milk, Part Deux
Okay, so Friday night she wakes up again at 3AM and all whiney and half asleep insists that she wants her chocolate milk. Because we're too freaking tired when she gets up in the morning, we keep the box right next to the bed. So I tell her, all drowsy that it's the middle of the night and we have to wait until morning. No!! (in her best whiney voice). So I say, okay, if I give you the chocolate milk now, that means you won't get any when you wake up. Are you okay with that? Uh-huh. So I give her the milk. And sure enough, she didn't ask for the milk in the morning and didn't get any until right before bed last night. Maybe coincidence but I'd like to think my child is brilliant and knew exactly what I said to her at 3AM.
Now tonight, I gave in to her tired, crankiness and gave her another milk before bed. I told her that that means she wouldn't get one first thing in the morning. She said she understood that. We'll see. It's always a fun thing negotiating with a 3 year old (and a sucker mom)
Addicted to Chocolate Milk
The soy kind anyway. Okay, so it's 1:30AM, yes I'm up on the computer but that's a different story, and Carly starts crying in her sleep, clearly having a bad dream. I go rushing in there to wake her up to snap her out of it. She's literally crying andsaying "No, the chocolate milk is on the top of cabinet". I keep asking her why she's having a bad dream about chocolate milk but she's just sitting up with this really sad face. She says she wants chocolate milk. I tell her it's too late for chocolate milk and the sad face gets even sadder. (for those who don't know, TJ's has soy chocolate milk in a box and it's Carly's favorite. She has one first thing when she gets up and usually a 2nd one during the day. She'd have 12 if I'd let her, anyway...) I tell her to tell me what the bad dream is about. She says she wants a chocolate milk again and me, being the complete sucker Mom, say okay but tell me what she was dreaming about. She says "After". So I go get the milk box, stick the straw in. She sucks that thing down, didn't break the suction on that straw, in about 1 minute complete with drowsy eyes blinking slowly. But she then rolled right over and went back to sleep. She never asks for anything like that during the night and yes, I have "sucker mom" written across my forehead. But the fact that she was dreaming about chocolate milk and when I asked her what the dream was about she said "after" just cracked me up.
And not to worry, I'm sure you'll have plenty of other opportunities to comment on my parenting skills. Just keep checking the blog or read the archives, it's ripe with material.
"Sucker Mom", peace, out.
Feeling blah
I'm feeling really yucky today. Feeling sorry for myself for some reason. Feeling a little alone and like I'm the odd man out in my life. Not the first time I've felt like I don't fit in but it's an annoying and depressing feeling. Okay, I know part of it is because Gregg's in NY for the Tony Awards for another 10 days. I've got a lot on my plate with getting things done for CKU, my Apple's scrap weekend and Alli's shower. My good friend Elizabeth has to have thyroid surgery next Tuesday so I'm thinking about her. Feeling crampy. Oh and it's 1:30AM and I'm still awake and on the computer. Why am I not capable of going to sleep at a reasonable time? What's wrong with me? I think I need a vacation with a beach and umbrella drinks but that's not going to happen anytime soon.
So anyway, I've been very busy getting stuff done for CKU. I'm seeing a lot of progress there so that's one good thing. I signed up for a Disney page swap and signed up for Belle. I like how my LO came out and that's all done. Ginger signed me up for two other of the Disney swaps. So she was awesome and designed two fabulous LO's for "It's a Small World" and "Eeyore". I'm done with Small World and almost done with Eeyore, then I'll do the QuickKutz letter titles and that's done. I've been making some pressies for my Secret Sister who loves what I've given her. Of course, I haven't heard from the girl who's giving to me for at least 3 weeks. Definitely NOT the same as last year. Still, I'm looking forward to going in a few weeks.
Before CKU, I'm going to a scrapping weekend with Lisa, Kari, Kirsten and Lisa M. I've got to organize and pre-plan my photos and LO's, send the photos to Costco (for CKU too) and then I'll be good to go there. Figuring out how to get there will be the bigger challenge.
And then in 10 days I've got my sister's baby shower. I've got some party favors to play with tomorrow. Another thing to check off the list. Why are people so freaking rude and not RSVPing? They may be telling Alli but WTF? She's not throwing the party. RSVP to the hostess for goodness sake. They have until Monday or I'm assuming them as a no.
I start on "Big Brother" next week as well. Taping the wraparound show that will set up the internet vote for the all-stars. I had such a fantastic fun time last year, I'm really looking forward to getting back into it. And seeing who's coming back crew wise and also houseguest wise.
Another stupid thing. I have the original 5gig ipod. Still works great and I listen to it all the time at my scrap table. I tried to sync it up last night and I filled the thing up. I have 1260+ songs on it and I never thought I'd fill it up. I guess I better start selling more crap on ebay so I can buy a new 30 or 60 gig one and get my expanding music collection on there. Just had to share in the stupid things in my life.
Okay, I better get some sleep. 7:30A and Carly waking up will be coming soon enough. Better run downstairs to get her her chocolate soy milk so I can just roll over in bed when she comes in and asks for it first thing.
