as per usual. nothing different there LOL!
i’m working on artwork, websites and other assorted biz related stuff like shipping and new product ideas.
so I’ll entertain you with a cool mosaic for my new Friday Fragments segment. Enjoy!

Quick update. Busy as all H-E-Double Hockey sticks!

Work has been a zoo… Shipping and packaging orders here has been a zoo… prepping and teaching a NEW 3 session workshop has been an interesting challenge. It’s been a crazy June!

Finished my Acrylic Alchemy workshop series tonight. I had great fun teaching it and think everyone walked away with new knowledge and that ‘ah ha’ moment at some point through out the evening.
Here is a shot of my painty hand after the monoprinting demo. So cool… I LOVE this shot.

Ok. Off to bed. I’m exhausted. Have had two incredibly busy, stressful weeks and I’m dying to get to the weekend and 3 days in Harrison Hot Springs.

Have a good Canada Day if I forget to post before we head out to Harrison on Saturday morning!

New products arriving in-store this week at studioWERX on Main include…

• Vintage Inspired Image Transfer inkjet transparencies.
  These gorgeous, vintage image filled, transferable images are printed in-house at 300dpi with an Epson Durabrite printer on my favorite, nearly fool-proof Apollo inkjet transparencies. Use these transparencies with acrylic matte and gel mediums for amazing, sheer image transfers on virtually any surface including paper, fabric, twill and unpolished stone tiles. So COOL!
• Versa Magic Dew Drop Inkpad sets in SouthWest, Fruit Cocktail, Pretty Pastel and Jewel Box
• Essential Glue Pad restocked - Make it shine people, make it shine!
• Black and Clear embossing powders
• new Maya Road chipboard
• Paper Bag Studios UM rubberstamps

COMING SOON…

• more Basic Grey rub-ons
• more Basic Grey 6×6 paper packs
• NEW Jenni Bowlin Studios mini-paper packs [great for card makers]
• NEW Jenni Bowlin Studios Journaling Cards
• more Catslife Press UM rubberstamps
• NEW studioWERX rubberstamps [about 2 weeks]

We hope to see you soon!

Well… I’ve been house bound and pretty damn sick since last Saturday night. Nearly 7 days. geez…

The latest is that apparently I don’t have Strep Throat - that’s a good thing. I went to the Doc on Wednesday after 4 days of seriously BAD throat pain and they swabbed me for the strep bacteria. He prescribed antibiotics just in case the results were positive and to get a jump start on the infection, but now since it isn’t Strep, I can stop the meds - YAY!

Crummy thing is I still feel crappy. I haven’t had any semblance of a voice since Tuesday night. Been whispering at Terry, on the phone to my office, and the cats [which means they basically ignore everyword their catmama says to them like get off the counter, stop drinking my water, stop licking my throat lozenges] for three days now. My vocal chords started working again a little bit this evening, but I really have to force the words at a louder volume than normal and I sound like a cross between a honking goose and a teenage boy going through puberty. NICE.

Fever is gone but a runny, stuffy nose and coughing has taken it’s place giving me headaches and backpain caused by the exertion of coughing. I’m exhausted and apparently this viral thing that I have can take 3-4 weeks to clear up completely. Nice.

So… this weekend looks like a very very quiet one with me resting as much as possible and ‘trying’ to catch up on my now delayed order processing and shipping schedule in between recouperative naps.

To all my customers patiently waiting for orders… thank you for your patience.
To all my family and friends… thank you for your care and concern.
To my hubby… thank you for taking care of me, making me tea, buying me cough syrup and lozenges, and rubbing my back. Make room in the bed honey… [I’ve been sleeping in the spare room for 6 days, to spare T of my hacking, coughing, sweaty, wheezing sleepless nights] I’m coming back to it once this coughing settles down a bit and I can sleep through the night. You’ll have to start sharing again!

Sorry folks… minimal posting in the last week or so due to wicked, wicked migraines [I’ve had a 5-day one and now a 1-day and counting one since April 19!] So here is a quick update from yesterday’s opening and what’s coming up in the next week or so…

Yesterday’s official opening of StudioWERX on Main was loads of fun! Lots of friends and previous customers popped by to check out the stuff. I demoed from 12:30-4:30pm and Gen did an adorable mini-card Make and Take from about 1-3:30pm. Fun stuff! We also gave away a bunch of tshirts, paper packs, Maya Road goodies and rub-ons as draws throughout the day. I think if was great fun for all as we really appreciate all of you coming out to check our new digs out.

We have some new stamp designs in the works and will be releasing these
locally in the next few weeks. Pop by the store to check them out =)

This week I’m going to be catching up on shipping as we have a few backorders to fill in the next week or so…

I hopefully will be getting my Botox injections [in my neck for my
headaches] sooner vs. later. It amazes me that when it’s working, it
works really really well and once it wears off [after 5-6 months] it
hits me like a ton of bricks. This is why the headaches have been
soooooo bad for the last two weeks. I should have gone back for shots
in mid-April, now I’m into May and the Botox has stopped working and
the nasty migraines are baaaaack. Ugh! I’ve been feeling crappy for
days on end and really can’t wait to go and get this taken care of.
It’s so $$$ but at least I’ll feel like ME soon and will continue
feeling better for about 5-6 months again. But enough whining…

I’m off to the couch, with my ice bag, neck wrap and Extra-strength Advils in hand. Sigh… Tomorrow’s Monday isn’t it? Shit - where did the weekend go?

Nothing too exciting happening around here. Just work and recovering from ARTistry 2007 at the end of March. Will have a big recap of the last week, later today. This is just a quick post to say "HI!"

C

Before we head off for the first day, here is the quick update on Kodiak…

NO CANCER!!! Whooooo hoooooo! The lump is a salivary gland inflammation that will be monitored, but the overwhelmingly great news is that my black lump, big boy Kodi is cancer free.

I’ll post again later today when I have a few more minutes.

So, in the words of Heidi Klum "I’m out!" … of the MM Idol contest that is.

I knew that this is what would happen, I’m generally ok with that.

The MM Idol is, at the end of the 1st, 2nd and probably 3rd round, is in addition to a scrapbooking contest, a popularity contest.  In the scrapbooking world, the more people you know, the more groups you belong to and the more you self-promote, the better you do in these contests. Just like the show the contest is modelled after, American Idol. Sometimes the better singers get voted off because the other ones have a larger fan base. I’m not saying that I deserve to be there more than someone else… but there is definitely potential for a really outstanding piece of work, from an unknown artist who could be overlooked simply because you cast a vote for your friend, sister, etc… 

For the most part I’m pretty cool with that.
I don’t frequent boards unless I’m lurking for a quick read when I have a few minutes to spare. I only post occasionally because I’m CRAZY busy most of the time and rarely get around to it. I don’t hang out at the Peas often, again… no time, since I basically work TWO full-time jobs. So I admit, I fly under the radar most of the time, coming up for air to occasionally say ‘hey, remember me?’, and to be honest… I’m really fine about it.

The ONLY suggestions I have to the above is that in order to make the contest really fair, and take the popularity out of it, have the Top 50 post their entries ANONYMOUSLY so that the notariety of the participants is a non-issue [or at least a smaller one]. The other suggestion I would have for the contest is to give people the opportunity to vote for more than ONE person - like 3 to 5 people. This way you could still choose the known person/popular scrapper, and then maybe, just maybe, give some of the other participants who aren’t as well known [if at all] a fighting chance. I know I personally would have chosen at least 3 layouts that were really outstanding [not my own] and in the judging scheme of things, I think it would make the whole contest a lot more interesting and challenging. Just a suggestion…

At the end of the day, I do have one thing to say about MM Idol and that is… I value and appreciate that they selected me to be part of the Top 50. It was encouraging and really validating to know that out of thousands of entries, one of mine stood out enough to be noticed and considered. For someone like me, who doesn’t enter contests, that felt really really good! I’m really very honored to have made it that far. So, THANK YOU MM Idol!

To the Next 30… good luck! and keep up the great work. I’ll be voting next week, and hope to see my favorite LAYOUT/PROJECT make it into the next round. You go girls!

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!