Party Preparations!!!

I can't believe Allie will be turning 8 in just under a week. And I also can't believe I'm not ready for her birthday party. For you all that know me, you know I start planning her parties sometimes months (like 6) in advance. This year, we didn't come up with a theme until about a month ago. I must say, it is going to be fab though. Today I've spent much of the day getting ready. Her theme is "Salon Bop". We are having a salon birthday party. The invitations were mailed out as gift certificates to be redeemed only during the party time (hair, pedicures, before/after photos, etc.). Upon arrival the girls will check in. Once everybody has arrived the girls will be given a robe then head over to the photography studio for before pictures. There will be various sations set up around the house for glamour. At each of these stations, there will be some type of food (just like a regular pampering adult spa) such as sandwiches, fruit kabobs, veggies/dip, & cream puffs. One station will have frosted sugar cookie hands that the girls can decorate with frosting and candies. One station will have a word search puzzle made up by me (with attendee names and other party details). The last station will be to have your after photo taken. Then I will probably take a group photo. I will print off the photos and either send them home with the girls or with their thank you notes (depending on how much time I have).

The day will end with presents and cupcakes. It ought to be a swell time!

Today was a mad dash to get some of the details worked out. I made sugar cookies. 2 kinds of cupcakes. The menu. Word Search puzzle. The robes (which took me about 1 1/2 hours to complete). They are men's t-shirts, cut up the middle. The bottom is cut off for the tie. Then I made a logo and iron it on to every one of them. The thing that took so long was ironing all of them. Wow, I'd almost forgotten that an iron isn't only used for crafting!

I had a great class yesterday!

Well actually 2 classes. I sold 30 kits at Captured Memories. Then when I arrived I was asked to make up 2 more. So a total of 32 just thrills me.

After spending over 4 hours teaching the class, I really wanted to scrapbook the layouts. I left the originals with the store, so I purchased supplies to make my own. Once of the papers was sold out so I had to improvise, but I really like the "new" layout.

Now I just need to get working on future classes....

Getting ready for my BIG class

This is what it looks like getting ready for a scrapbook class of 30. Oh my, after doing this, I so appreciate the time other teachers have spent on me! The packets are nearly done. Kitting them up now. However, I have to go a little early tomorrow, because some of my paper didn't arrive at the store until after I left yesterday, and it's too far to make a special trip. The embellishment packs is where most of the time was devoted. I worked on it about 2 hours, Clay worked on it for about 2 1/2 hours and Allie helped for about an hour. So about 5 hours just in the embellishment baggie alone. I did a lot of the work for the students so they could finish their projects in class. Plus I only have 1 hour between classes, and I'm gonna need to eat (and shop....read on). The paper didn't take much more than an hour. I still need to pack up my supplies too. I'll be done in about another hour.

Captured Memories is having a garage sale tomorrow for people to sell old scrapbook supplies. They have 30 people (I think) that are selling items. And there is a TON of them! I saw what they already had yesterday and I was floored, and only about half the people had brought their stuff in. It would be a great way to score a tote on wheels for anybody who wants one. The stuff had awesome prices on it. Everybody local should go check it out!

By the way, don't look at my mess. I also have bags and stacks of stuff to get ready for Allie's 8th Birthday party later this month. She's gonna have a "Salon Party".

A New Look!

What do you think about the new look of my blog. Geez....it's taken me forever to figure out how to personalize it. I still need to tweek it, but it's much, much better.

For starters, I changed the template. I really liked my old one but for the life of me, but I couldn't figure out how to get these changes on that one. I added a banner at the top, and I also added a links section.

Now if I can only figure out how to get my posts to look good....**sigh**.

HEY LOOK AT THIS!!!!!!

The KI website has been updated with a list of finalists in their Celebrate Life in Color contest....and check out the last name on the list!

TS' Sponsor in September was WeRMemoryKeepers

And they gave us lots of cool WeRMemoryKeepers Product. I'm planning to make a chipboard album but haven't had time to yet. But I did get this little jar altered. This is my glue jar. I love using wet adhesive, but can't stand that every time I go to use it I have to wait for the glue to run to the tip. I found this jar (maybe a relish jar) and it holds the glue bottle perfectly. So when I'm using my wet adhesive, no more waiting for the glue to rise to the tip. I also made this thank you card to send to WeRMemoryKeepers thanking them for sponsoring the Treasured Scrapbooking Design Team.

Been creating items for our church auction

Our church auction is coming up in a couple of weeks and I spent the long weekend creating a couple of things to donate to it. First is a lunch box recipe tin. I still need to get some recipe cards for the inside, but it's nearly done. I also made 3 gift card holders. There is a whole table of silent auction items dedicated to gift cards and gift certificates. I think I will "encourage" them to put my cards on that table and label them gift card holders/card (or something like that). Lastly, I'm going in with a friend on the last auction item. It was her idea to do a cookie of the month club. One dozen fresh baked cookies delivered to the winning bidder's house once a month. We will take turns doing this. And if I have time, I will create more items. But right now, it doesn't look like I'm going to have the time. The theme is Christmas in September. I might part with one of my advent calendars I made last year.

My 3rd and BEST post of the day!!!!!

Today was the day that KI Memories was making calls for their Celebrate Color Contest. I knew I came up with a unique entry...but I also knew there would be a lot of people submitting entries.

I was gone much of the day today, but when I got home mid-afternoon, I decided to look around to see if any posts were made about the calls going out. 2 peas had several threads going on, one of which was from KI saying they were still deliberating and it would likely be this evening before the calls went out.

I couldn't remember what phone number I put on my entry. So I forwarded my cell phone to my home phone just to be sure. Around 6:00 Clay and Allison talked me into going to Louisburg for a tractor pull. I really wanted to stay home and scrap, and bite my nails, but I gave in and went.

I checked my phone numerous times and called home to check the answering machine several times. Finally, around 9:00 I gave up. When we got home around 10:00 the first place I went to was the answering machine. THERE WAS A NEW MESSAGE!!! I pushed the button and walked away. Clay went by the answering machine to listen. When I heard it was from KI I started jumping up and down and screaming. Clay kept trying to sush me so he could hear what was being said (I was waaaaaay to excited to listen at this point).

Can you believe it? This is probably the best phone call I've ever received in my life. And though I would have loved to talk to Kim and Ira in person, I'm so glad I have that precious recording of their message. You can bet I'll be saving that message...FOREVER!

September Treasured Scrapbooking Layout

Here is one of my layouts for Treasured Scrapbooking's September Kit. This month I got kit #2 and it is awesome. Both kits are very nice this month (again)!

This picture was taken of Allie when she was at a friend's birthday party (tea) about 1 1/2 years ago. I just love this picture....not sure why her lips looks so red though (they don't look that bright on the original layout).

Every month we also do one sketch of our layout (which is shown below), a second layout and a project of our choice. I've got my other project complete, and it sure is cute. Just can't post a picture of it until Mid-month. I still have one layout to complete.

Thanks for looking and have a great holiday weekend!

My Second Sell-Out!

A couple of weeks ago I learned that my September layout class at Captured Memories was a sell out. So we opened up another class. You can view the layouts here.

Well now the second class is a sell out! I couldn't be more excited. It'll be quite a task putting together 30 kits. Yikes...I better start on the class handouts! I just ordered 1,000 resealable clear bags from U-Line. I got them for just over $.07 each. The second best alternative was ordering 100 off of ebay for almost $.17 each. That's a big savings, however, I will never use 1,000. If you want to buy a few for a cheap price....let me know and I'll cut you a deal. Otherwise, I'll be unloading some of them on E-bay myself!

I also need to start working on my upcoming class projects. In October, I'm doing a holiday planner made out of envelopes. I'm planning to use Daisy D Holiday Paper, but I'm waiting on it to come in. In November I will be doing another layout class. In December I am making a cool 2007 Planner. I got some awesome books (with a lot of help of my sister Michele who helped me to create the vision). I got a variety of papers to go in these planners, but I'm really excited about the Rusty Pickle papers I got to put in there. I just hope that the vision I have in my mind comes out in the final product (that can be a problem sometimes).

Thanks for sharing in my excitement.