Not much to say… just busy as usual

• submitted my layout to MM Idol and there has been major problems with their site, which they appear to have fixed and voting will restart on Monday next week I’ve been told.
• crazy swamped at work
• packing orders from CHA for order fulfillment now that the NEW Poppet Stamps have arrived
• shipping stuff to customers
• organizing final details for ARTistry
• knitting when I can
• just being a busy busy girl

One good thing is the store move-in date has been set. We move-in to Ruby Dog’s Arthouse over Easter weekend from April 6-9 and will be open for business on Tuesday April 10! So cool… a big announcement and special event invitation to local buyers will be posted on the blog and through our email news group in a couple of weeks, once we know what we’re doing.

That’s it for now… as they say on American Idol, ‘Seacrest OUT!’

Okay, so I really struggled with the first challenge for the MM Idol contest.

I almost NEVER do work, scrapbooking or otherwise, about me. It’s just not something I’m interested in doing… I know who I am, I know what I do and know what I want from life, BUT this time I had to get some of it down on paper. Not easy, I’d rather blog about it  =)

So I took a different approach with this challenge than perhaps the traditional "all about me" page. I took a personal characteristic and let that evolve on the page. If you’ve read my blog before… you will know how addicted I’ve become to yarns and knitting, so the layout I submitted is perfectly in keeping with me and who I am, right now. Wish me luck!

I added the layout and details to the blog, down below for your reference and ridicule LOL! Let me know what you think and please go and vote for me at the Idol contest, if you like the layout I submitted. There are a ton of other great entries I’m sure, so there’s lots of eye candy for a Monday morning!

It’s true… I think I have a problem. A yarn/knitting problem.

I have a ’slightly’ obsessive nature and once I latch onto something new, particularly creatively, I’m like a dog with a really juicy, porterhouse steak bone - in other words, get between me and my new obsession and you’re dead meat! Well, my latest obsession was reignited during the sad time we had with Baby Mack in December. As I cuddled with her and kept her company on the couch, I decided to start knitting again… it was cold, windy and miserable, there was nothing on tv, I had no new books to read, so I dug out my old bag of knitting supplies and a yarn obsessed demon was reintroduced to the world.

Now… I’m obsessed with buying the most luscious yarns [thank god they aren’t THAT expensive!], cool knitting books [Stitch N Bitch books RULE!] and I have even started a ‘Chicks with Sticks’ lunchtime club at work. Six of us co-dependant, enabling knitters are going to have lunch together once a week and work them bamboo needles out baby! It seems I’ve developed quite the ‘habit’. It’s actually a little sad… BUT I could have far worse habits/obsessions… for example: I could be a sex-crazed nympho, a pot-smoking BC Budhead, an alcoholic booze hag or just plain lazy couch potato [I actually do have those days occasionally LOL!].

New in the obsession is my need to FELT [this will require a separate post LOL!]. Since you need wool to felt, I tried desperately to find a GOOD yarn alternative to Michaels here in Richmond yesterday and stumbled across a veritable jewel box of yarns, right in my own neighbourhood for pete’s sake! Wool and Wicker in Steveston Village. <GASP> Now I can shop like a crack-ho right in my own backyard - damn it! At least eBay was keeping my habit in check, since I always had to wait for the auctions to finish, then get shipped… at least I was pacing myself. Now, I’ll be running rampant, panting at the window of this very non-descript shop, breathlessly waiting for the next shipment of Noro and Rowan Chunky yarns to arrive! I told you… sad sad sad. <sigh>

The one bright spot about my latest obsession is that at least I know what everyone is getting for Christmas next year… gorgeous, handspun, handpainted, HANDKNIT scarves and felted bags! So I guess a little spending on yarn probably isn’t THAT bad LOL! I’ll just tell Terry I’m doing our Christmas shopping early. =)

Was having a crumby morning today… meeting after meeting after meeting. Then I took a break to check my home email and holy crap! I got the best email I’ve received in a loooooooooong time! I nearly fell off my chair!

First let me say that I do NOT enter contests [Hall of Fame, Design Teams, Scrapbooker of the Year, etc…], but for some weirdo reason, the notion of entering the Making Memories Idol 2007 contest popped into my head about 2 weeks ago. I was lurking on Keisha Campbell’s blog [LOVE her work! you go girl!] and she posted a reminder about the MM Idol 2007 contest starting up again. I looked at it and thought, ah what the hell, who knows…

Skip ahead two weeks, and today they announced the TOP 50 participants from the literally thousands of entries they received. Holy crap, I made the TOP 50!!! I’m so excited, a little freaked out and more than a little nervous LOL! It is such a cool contest, loads of great prizes and a chance to really push myself creatively.

The first challenge for me will be a struggle. An "all about me" layout. ACK!! I hate having MY picture taken [I’m usually the photog], so this will be interesting. I’m up for it though and will try to come up with something interesting.

I never plan my layouts… they just kinda ‘happen’. I call my style of design ‘fly by the seat of my pants’ scrapping. Never know what I’m going to use; never know what I’m going to scrap; never know how it will turn out… Whew! At least I have until SUNDAY to complete and upload my layout.

So peeps… wish me luck! Stop by to vote for me and your favorites on Monday February 26… I appreciate the support =)

Well, I’m ‘almost’ well from this nasty flu. I mean come on… a week of sore throat, coughing, runny nose, then stuffed up nose, then runny again is enough for anyone! Where does all the yucky stuff come from anyway [I should buy stock in PUFFS tissues with the amount I’ve used this past week]?!? The gross, miraculous thing we call and immune system I suppose LOL.

A few good things to report…

• The new Organic and Cellular paperWERX papers by Gen Simmonds are in da house and will begin shipping this week.
• NEW CHA products will be available through our online store in the next few days - just need time to update the store
• New Poppets(R) products including papers and clear stamps are due in this week too; which means shipping next week for the Poppet(R) goodies.
• CHA Order fulfillment should be complete within the next 10 days…

Next on the radar is the set-up and opening of our retail space at Ruby Dogs Arthouse…
Both Leanne [Ruby Dog store owner] and I have been sick for the last couple of weeks with overlapping flu bugs, so we’re probably about 3 weeks out from the opening of the storefront. But people… it’s coming! An announcement about the opening will be coming soon, once the official date is nailed down, but right now I’m thinking the weekend after ARTistry, March 30 for the official opening party. Watch for news on this blog…

New product for the store(s) has been ordered and it’s beginning to trickle in as I write this. Once inventory is taken, the online store will be updated with all our own new product PLUS the goodies from other mfgs that was ordered for both the online and brick/mortar store. YAY!

Lastly… I’m going to try and get back on track with posting to the blog more regularly. I noticed that I’ve slid down Carmi’s list of blogs <GASP!> and that is a sure sign that my posting has dropped off. Gotta move back up that list… but post CHA business combined with a major flu bug, can curtail any and all desire to blog, much less even look at a computer. So yup… I’m back and will be posting ad-nauseium about any and everything happening at home and with the biz. You’ve been warned!=)

Well… I may be alive, but I wish I were dead - just kidding… I have a nasty cold/flu and it’s finally started working its way up from my throat and chest into my head. YUCK! 
Anyways, thought I’d share some Lulu updates.

Kodiak and Lulu began the process of ‘getting to know you, getting to know all about you’ and working out the living arrangements at Chez Lazar-Schuler. Here is the breakdown of the progress thus far:

• we arrive home from CHA on Sunday Feb 4 - Lulu still in our room, separated from Kodi
• Monday night, introductions are made between the two - Kodi gets lots of fresh chicken when he doesn’t growl or hiss at Lulu… she putters about, checking out all the new space we’ve just given free reign to. There is alot of posturing and hissing/growling from Kodi [he’s establishing himself as the ‘boss’] and she seems to be ok with it and pretty much ignores him. We keep her out for about 1.5 hrs, then back into our bedroom.
• Tuesday night, Kodi is more relaxed [chicken must be working!] and only growls when she comes near him. Again… she pretty much ignores him, or puts on a brave kitten face. She’s out for 4 hours, then back in the bedroom.
• Wednesday night, we let Lulu out of the bedroom at 5:30pm. She’s out in the house all evening until we go to bed - 7 hours. Minimal growling from the Kodster, no aggressive stance and we think that he is finally accepting her - or a least TOLERATING her. She’s back in the bedroom at 12:30am for the night.
• Thursday night, same as Wednesday except NO GROWLING from Kodi. She’s been in his face in a playful way and he seems to be interested in playing with her - or at leasr playing CHASE. Very good sign! She’s out all night again and sleeps in the bedroom with us.
• Friday. Let’s be brave. It’s been going very well between the two of them now… let’s see what happens with us not at home. They are out together ALL day. We come home, no war wounds, blood-shed or fighting appears to have occured! Hurrah… we have reached the critical mass and it’s all been very good behaviour for both of them. YAY!

We are now officially back to a four-member family - two humanoid parents and two furbabies! Mackenzie would be happy - we miss her. Here are some new pics of the baby Lulu. We think she grew at least an inch while we were at CHA!

Lulu is also a lap cat. She’ll cuddle up with whoever is available, Me or Terry preferred; but, she even crawled into my brother’s lap this weekend. She a real cuddler this one =)  Tonight, this is how she fell asleep on Terry’s lap, back legs STRAIGHT UP and in the air… LOL! Absolutely hilarious!

This is Kodi and Lulu… Look at how HUGE he is compared to her. So funny that he was actually a little scared of her at first LOL!

Well… that’s it for now. I’m off to bed after I blow my now runny nose, again. <sigh> Where does all this bodily fluid come from anyway??

Don’t worry peeps… I’m alive and kicking. Just been super busy since we got back from CHA and I’m sick with a nasty flu/sore throat thing [I sound ridiculous - like a boy going through puberty!]

Just wanted to let you know that I’m alright.

So… where was I… Oh yeah, show over and on to a little Disney and visiting southern Cali.

On Thursday, Terry and I, along with Toronto friend Elizabeth, headed to Disneyland. We arrived at 11am and it was cool, partly cloudy and pretty darn QUIET for the Magic Kingdom. I mean seriously, it was DEAD! The most we waited was 5 minutes for any given ride… rode some of the rides multiple times in succession [Big Thunder and Pirates of the Caribeean] and got to take pics with some of the best Disney characters in the park [Winnie, Eeyore, Goofy and Mickey]. I think the combination of mid-week, off-season and cool [by Cali standards] weather was all workin’ in our Canadian favor. Afterall, 60-65F is balmy winter temperatures for us Canucks LOL! We were in t-shirts and sweatshirts, the California natives were practically in parkas =)

We watched the evening parade and were at the park until about 8:30pm.
Here are some pics from the big day:

So Friday comes, Elizabeth heads home to Toronto and Terry and I decide we are going to try to find West Coast Choppers. Well, after some not so great directions from Terry’s uncle Ron, we ended up doing circles in Long Beach for a bit, then drove down Ocean Blvd to PCH [Pacific Coast Highway] and did a scenic tour of coastal southern CA.We never did find the home of Monster Garage and Jesse James on Friday, but the weather was gorgeous; clear and sunny with a perfect breeze. Here are a few pics from our driving adventure:

One of the oddest things you see along the west coast of California is active, pumping oil rigs and wells. So strange… in the midst of wild, ocean beauty… the stark reality of fossil fuel, commerce and black gold. Very weird.

We had dinner at a famous diner in LA on Friday night called Phillippe’s [or Flippy’s] as the family calls it LOL! I’m absolutely positive I saw George Carlin in the parking lot and Jack Osbourne in the diner. Cool… a celebrity sighting at last, since we didn’t find Jesse James or WC Choppers LOL =)

Saturday brought a plethora of Walmart and Target shopping - all about Star Wars action figures for Terry. He is amassing quite a collection and we had to hunt down all the ‘hot spots’ for the little plastic dudes. He ended up with 30 new, nicely bubbled figs and being pretty darn happy about the whole hunting process.

The family spent the day with us and since Ron [T’s uncle was driving] we FINALLY got to the West Coast Choppers shop and showroom. Very COOL! The bikes are crazy expensive [$100K for a custom chopper] and the shop is a regular, full-time biz. Jesse James has done well for himself - he owns half the BLOCK where the shop is located [all his properties have huge iron cross logos on them], he opened his own diner 1 block from the main shop and he’s married to Sandra Bullock. Not to shabby for a dude who’s down some serious time for the crime of ‘chopping’.  So after abit of poking around in the WC Chopper headquarters, meeting [or should I say being barked at] by Jesse’s pitbull Cisco, we headed over to his diner Cisco [yep, named after the dog LOL!] for lunch.

As we pulled into the parking lot, I saw the man himself, Jesse James, sitting and having lunch in his own diner. I told everyone in the car I saw him and at first no one believed me, until they all got out of the car and saw him too. See! I’m not crazy or delusional LOL! I did, I did see Jesse James - and he’s right there. We entered the diner and Terry suggested that I get the t-shirt tag we just bought at his shop, autographed. So I politely, in an oh-so-Canadian way, waited until he got up from the booth he was in, had finished his lunch and asked him to autograph the tag. He was very nice, said it was cool to meet someone from ‘Canadia’ [I think he was teasing me?!?] and obligingly signed the t-shirt tag. Dillion, uncle Ron’s 10 year old son, also got an autograph at the same time. It was cool… and I’m kinda glad we got lost on Friday, otherwise we would have missed this fun opportunity. BTW… Cisco’s Diner [Jesse’s place] has wicked Kobe beef burgers and were pretty darn tasty. We’ll be going back next year, that’s for sure!

Went out for dinner to a great seafood restaurant in Newport later that night called the Crab Bucket. Very tasty. Then home for the night to pack the many SW figures and sort out the luggage.

Sunday brought 80F temps with a clear, cloudless blue sky. Heaven to a Vancouverite mired in winter rain and fog for weeks on end <sigh>…   We headed off to LAX at 2:30 that afternoon and then were off on the flight home at 6:15pm, arriving home just after 9pm.

All in all a great trip. Business and holiday all mixed up. Reaquainting ourselves with family and friends, making new friends and hanging out with close friends. What more could you ask for? Not much I’d say… 

We’re happy to be home, and now are integrating Lulu and Kodiak into living together peacefully. Wish us luck LOL!    

We arrived in Los Angeles at 10:00am on January 26. Luggage arrived almost immediately [color me impressed!] and then it was off to get the rental car.  Now, I’m a good [some say very good] driver but the traffic and WAY that Angelenos drive on their freeways is legendary.  I was a little nervous.

We got the car, a mini-Hummer like SUV the Jeep Commander [I think we were bullied into that SUV a bit LOL!] and headed off. The first 5 minutes of the drive was a bit nerve wracking - we made a wrong turn and started out heading NORTH instead of SOUTH - DOH! That was fixed relatively quickly and soon we were on our way to Bellflower, CA, a suburb of LA and about 10 minutes from Anaheim and the convention center.

In Bellflower, we arrived at my hubby Terry’s uncle’s place and were quickly welcomed into the family. We stayed in a large and very very comfortable 5-wheel motorhome, complete with bathroom, shower, kitchen, COFFEE maker, two tv’s and a queen sized bed. Perfecto for the two of us and the price for staying was definitely right - FREE! Gotta love that =) We dumped our stuff, took a deep breath and then headed off to the Convention Center to orient ourselves and make sure our booth arrived safely.

All was well, 10 boxes shipped - 10 boxes waiting patiently for us in booth number 3772. Whew!  We decided that since we were pretty much wiped from the crack of dawn travelling, a very very late night prior to our departure and just feeling a need to chill a bit, that we would do the booth set-up the next day. So we headed back to the homestead. 

The VOLUME, SPEED and RUDENESS at which Southern Cali drivers navigate their highways is unbelieveable. Now I’m used to traffic, it doesn’t scare me and I’m a good driver… BUT, on the California highways, it’s every man and woman for themselves! No signalled lane changes, everyone drives at about 120km/hour MINIMUM and you have to navigate your way through the intersecting, complicated 6 lane [in EACH direction!] highway network like a pro. Needless to say, we got very good with the navigation VERY fast LOL! It only took us a few hours to figure out our way around southern CA and quickly felt more and more comfortable on their crazy roadways. BUT… I wouldn’t want to drive it everyday for the rest of my life, that is for sure.

We were graciously taken out for dinner to Captain Jacks on Friday night by our hosts and family. The restaurant in Sunset Beach (10 minutes from famous Huntington Beach) is a tradition and very well-known local seafood restaurant. Excellent seafood and a huge meal later, we hung out with the fam. for the evening and took it easy before the reality of CHA really started.

Saturday morning, we headed over to the convention center and with the help of dear friend and scrapbook partner in crime Becky Olsen, set up the booth and booth display PDQ. We love Becky! She’s family… and an integral part in our ’show’ life. And Becky… ’cause I KNOW you’re reading this, you FINALLY got to see just what a truly goofy dude I married. Terry is hilarious… cracking jokes and pulling faces throughout our 4 day show to keep us entertained. I love you so much honey. Set-up was finished in about 5 hours and then it was onto showtime.

4 days of CHA can be daunting and is definitely tiring, but it’s always so good to catch up with friends and associates in the industry. We debuted Gen Simmonds’ two new paperWERX lines Cellular and Organic at the show. They were really well received by the people who stopped by to see them and I think Gen nearly fainted when she saw the printers proofs on the booth display wall. She got goosebumps up and down her arms, and looked a little teary when she finally got to see her work on display. So COOL and I’m so proud of her!

Also at the show we had a fun Poppet(R) carnival-style photo booth-thingy going on. Lots of peeps stopped by to become a life-sized Poppet(R)… Here are two of my favorite shots, Terry as ROCKER Poppet(R) and Becky as 50’s Stepford Wife Poppet(R):

So… the days came and went in a blur. I ordered some products for our online store and brick-mortar store [YEP! the brick and mortar is coming soon!] from some of my favorite peeps/mfgs Maya Road, Hambly Screen Prints and a few others. Additional rubberstamps from one or two other companies will be ordered soon to compliment our own cool line of rubber AND I’ve ordered some really wicked unmounted stamp adhesive that is just too easy to use! We’ll be demoing it in the store on the big opening weekend in early March [date and time to be announced].

Tear down from CHA took a staggeringly fast 2 hours, then it was on to the 2nd part of the trip. Disneyland!  Watch for Part 2…

Just a quick note to say ‘we’re home!’ and very very tired!
Will post a HUGE catch up tomorrow, complete with pics from CHA, Disney and our adventures driving in southern Cali. Fun trip, exhausting trip…

Glad to be home though, missed baby Lulu and our big boy Kodi. I’m off to spread the love =)