I am not dead..............feel like it might be a viable alternative somedays but I am here and still kicking. Things are a weeeeeeeeeeeeeee bit tough medically but I am so not ready to go coffin shopping yet.
So bare with me folks and I will post on my next good day.
Wishing you all the determination and desire to make each day a day to remember.
Monday, September 28, 2009
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Whoops we will have to try that again!
Sorry everyone!
I apologize for the break but regrettably treatments have me moving slower and thinking slower. But I haven't forgotten!
I apologize for the break but regrettably treatments have me moving slower and thinking slower. But I haven't forgotten!
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Chapter 3 - More Shopping and Starting the Weekend
So It is WEDNESDAY and BAZZILL Day!!!!!!!! Yahooo!!!!
This is the day that we get to see the factory and buy from the warehouse at severly reduced prices. Then continuing in the Bazzill theme we will head over to Scrapbooker's Etc. the retail division and the reason that Bazzill was created.
I have some fun and facts and I am going to bore you with them as I take you through my day LOL LOL
This is the day that we get to see the factory and buy from the warehouse at severly reduced prices. Then continuing in the Bazzill theme we will head over to Scrapbooker's Etc. the retail division and the reason that Bazzill was created.
I have some fun and facts and I am going to bore you with them as I take you through my day LOL LOL
Sunday, September 6, 2009
Creative Escape Chapter 2
The Shopping Spree
So bright and early Tuesday morning we all gathered in the lobby to go on the Lux shopping tour. We were to go to ten (yes 10) of the local area stores that were related to scrapping or papercrafting in some manner. The goal was to meet at 8 and return at 8:30 that night......snicker snicker well we did meet at 8 as you can see by the photo, but we did not get back until almost 10:30.
This is all of us except for four ladies that caught up with us at Melrose Vintage because their plane didn't get them here as early as they might have liked. It was funny because as all good scrapper we had a line up of cameras and so a bellman, and a non-shopping scrapper went through the line up twice and took pictures on each camera. I am sure it was not the last for that fella during the week.
Krista was the organizer and she did a fabulous job. From having coolers filled with water and softdrinks to bags of wonderful snacky goodness. Lunch was great and supper was tasty. She had us all covered and that in and of itself was the sort of thing that makes spending $85 for the tour worth it
So off we go into the wild warm (okay dang hot) blue yonder and after about a 30 minute drive we arrive at the very delightful store called Melrose Vintage. As you will see from the following photos that it is filled with Incredible Vintage Goodness for the home, office, and what you don't see is the scrappy stuff. While there is a little bit of something for every scrapper I have to tell you that if you like the look of Anna Griffin, Seven Gypsies, Prima etc. Your gonna love this little store. I did manage to empty my hands long enough to take a photo of what I thought was the coolest "ribbon" I didn't buy any because it was $10/yd. However, I am thinking that I can maybe make my own version..............
Now this has nothing to do with the scrappy fun of the store but outside was a wonderfully and beautifully bright tree with rich pink flowers. I loved taking the photos and was about to reach my hand into them to hold a flower closer, when I was stopped by Bill the bus driver. Who then warned me of the long inch to two inch thorns that were hidden within. Looks like the photography gods were on my side.
(This photo is from Leslie who was on our tour, probably the only photo that I appear in sort of LOL)
Next was the fabulous Mystic Paper - oh be still my beating pocket book.
This store is a bit deceiving when you first walk up........In no way does it elude to the wealth of scrappy and vintage goodness inside its doors. Nor does it prepare you for the wonderful and giving nature of the owners.
I walked in not expecting very much but my breath was taken away the moment I walked in the door and met with a display of vintage maps, drawings. The display cases are filled with the scrap talents of the store instructors and designers. It blew me away that they allowed us to photograph in detail the mini albums - and of course very thankful.
It was here that I first encountered the three new lines from Graphic 45 and I amongst others stood by snitching papers as they tried to put them on the rack. Not sure if much made it to the rack when we were done. We were also besieged with a plethora of ephemeria to make our mouths salivate. I am telling you this is a vintage, chabby chic designers heaven on earth. What I know for sure is that the next time I visit that place it will be with a large UPS box and fully charged credit card.
Featured below was the famed Rufflers Roost this was the one store that was mentioned to me as a must visit place for the avid Ribbon Collector (another name was used but....that is not suitable for a PG rated Blog.) I was told it was a ribbon lovers mecca and yes indeed there were many tasty ribbons availble. I was a bit disappointed because the few ribbons that had me drooling were well above what I was willing to pay. The rest were run of the mill and there weren't any that consituted a bargain compared to Canadian prices.
There were a few more stores but I must admit that while they were all nice and they all had there niche or they tended to cater to the non-vintage scrapper so that made a lot of my fellow shoppers happy and that is what this whole tour was about letting us see and feel the scrapping community in the Phoenix area.
The last store of the evening for me was Stamp Works, this is an absolutely fabulous little store that is filled with loads of stamping goodness. This is another store that I am returning to with a fully charged card and a big box............... Aside from incredible stamps, an amazing selection of accessories they have the one thing I was hoping to get.........Copic Markers. They had their Copic Marker certified instructor their and the things she should me...... ok us but I honestly feel that she was put there to show me what I was missing. So I may not have bought the most - come on cut me some slack.......9 stores before this and still two more stores for Wednesday - but I probably came out as one the ones the most passionate about them and the desire to play and incorporate them into my scrappy world. So I bought a parakeet green color and a more vintage green (darker) and the blender pen This blender pen is what sold me. I will acquire a few more and then do a write up on the virtues of Copic Markers.
So its been a really long day......we straggled into the hotel around 10:30 a couple of hours later than we expected to be but all still smiling and laughing even if it was not as energetic as we were at 8 in the morning. Krista should I be lucky and priviliaged enough to be able to attend next year I will be making sure that I am amongst the first to sign up for your full day tour. Your attention to detail, willingness to admit there were a couple of flaws that threw things off and that you would take those into consideration for next year won me over!
Well I will close this posting and get to work on Wednesday and maybe even Thursday of this fabulous trip.
So bright and early Tuesday morning we all gathered in the lobby to go on the Lux shopping tour. We were to go to ten (yes 10) of the local area stores that were related to scrapping or papercrafting in some manner. The goal was to meet at 8 and return at 8:30 that night......snicker snicker well we did meet at 8 as you can see by the photo, but we did not get back until almost 10:30.
This is all of us except for four ladies that caught up with us at Melrose Vintage because their plane didn't get them here as early as they might have liked. It was funny because as all good scrapper we had a line up of cameras and so a bellman, and a non-shopping scrapper went through the line up twice and took pictures on each camera. I am sure it was not the last for that fella during the week.
Krista was the organizer and she did a fabulous job. From having coolers filled with water and softdrinks to bags of wonderful snacky goodness. Lunch was great and supper was tasty. She had us all covered and that in and of itself was the sort of thing that makes spending $85 for the tour worth it
So off we go into the wild warm (okay dang hot) blue yonder and after about a 30 minute drive we arrive at the very delightful store called Melrose Vintage. As you will see from the following photos that it is filled with Incredible Vintage Goodness for the home, office, and what you don't see is the scrappy stuff. While there is a little bit of something for every scrapper I have to tell you that if you like the look of Anna Griffin, Seven Gypsies, Prima etc. Your gonna love this little store. I did manage to empty my hands long enough to take a photo of what I thought was the coolest "ribbon" I didn't buy any because it was $10/yd. However, I am thinking that I can maybe make my own version..............
Now this has nothing to do with the scrappy fun of the store but outside was a wonderfully and beautifully bright tree with rich pink flowers. I loved taking the photos and was about to reach my hand into them to hold a flower closer, when I was stopped by Bill the bus driver. Who then warned me of the long inch to two inch thorns that were hidden within. Looks like the photography gods were on my side.
(This photo is from Leslie who was on our tour, probably the only photo that I appear in sort of LOL)
Next was the fabulous Mystic Paper - oh be still my beating pocket book.
This store is a bit deceiving when you first walk up........In no way does it elude to the wealth of scrappy and vintage goodness inside its doors. Nor does it prepare you for the wonderful and giving nature of the owners.
I walked in not expecting very much but my breath was taken away the moment I walked in the door and met with a display of vintage maps, drawings. The display cases are filled with the scrap talents of the store instructors and designers. It blew me away that they allowed us to photograph in detail the mini albums - and of course very thankful.
It was here that I first encountered the three new lines from Graphic 45 and I amongst others stood by snitching papers as they tried to put them on the rack. Not sure if much made it to the rack when we were done. We were also besieged with a plethora of ephemeria to make our mouths salivate. I am telling you this is a vintage, chabby chic designers heaven on earth. What I know for sure is that the next time I visit that place it will be with a large UPS box and fully charged credit card.
Featured below was the famed Rufflers Roost this was the one store that was mentioned to me as a must visit place for the avid Ribbon Collector (another name was used but....that is not suitable for a PG rated Blog.) I was told it was a ribbon lovers mecca and yes indeed there were many tasty ribbons availble. I was a bit disappointed because the few ribbons that had me drooling were well above what I was willing to pay. The rest were run of the mill and there weren't any that consituted a bargain compared to Canadian prices.
There were a few more stores but I must admit that while they were all nice and they all had there niche or they tended to cater to the non-vintage scrapper so that made a lot of my fellow shoppers happy and that is what this whole tour was about letting us see and feel the scrapping community in the Phoenix area.
The last store of the evening for me was Stamp Works, this is an absolutely fabulous little store that is filled with loads of stamping goodness. This is another store that I am returning to with a fully charged card and a big box............... Aside from incredible stamps, an amazing selection of accessories they have the one thing I was hoping to get.........Copic Markers. They had their Copic Marker certified instructor their and the things she should me...... ok us but I honestly feel that she was put there to show me what I was missing. So I may not have bought the most - come on cut me some slack.......9 stores before this and still two more stores for Wednesday - but I probably came out as one the ones the most passionate about them and the desire to play and incorporate them into my scrappy world. So I bought a parakeet green color and a more vintage green (darker) and the blender pen This blender pen is what sold me. I will acquire a few more and then do a write up on the virtues of Copic Markers.
So its been a really long day......we straggled into the hotel around 10:30 a couple of hours later than we expected to be but all still smiling and laughing even if it was not as energetic as we were at 8 in the morning. Krista should I be lucky and priviliaged enough to be able to attend next year I will be making sure that I am amongst the first to sign up for your full day tour. Your attention to detail, willingness to admit there were a couple of flaws that threw things off and that you would take those into consideration for next year won me over!
Well I will close this posting and get to work on Wednesday and maybe even Thursday of this fabulous trip.
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Creative Escape Chapter 1
This was such a wonderful journey, yes there were some minor hiccups during the week but overall it was a jorney that every scrapper should experience. When my pal Corinne came back and told us about it last year I only heard about the trip to the Bazzill Warehouse with the terrific opportunity to buy cardstock for next to nothing. Then I remember thinking that the projects were the sort of thing I would like to make. I don't recall her telling us about much more. Not because she didn't tell us........just because I didn't understand and hear her. Well Corinne........I understand now.
I have to tell you that this journey started long before the day we boarded the plane. It started with my notification that I had been accepted and that I was able to bring someone with me. I chose this oppurtunity to take my good and close friend Janet. The excitement we shared was pale incomparrison to what we experienced later on.
I joined the Yahoo Group of women that formed the community to share in the wisdom of past attendees and to get to know people before arriving in Phoenix. There were more swaps to partake in than you could shake a stick at.....I chose to partake in two Charm swaps, the ATC and finally the Candy Swap. This group was invaluable to me. I learned alot about standard protocol for the event, I learned about Sprinkles Cupcakes, I learned that this group of women
was a sincere and caring group. I learned that they are amongst the most generous and genuine people I will have the privilage to meet.
I have a collection of memories that need to be scrapped but I don't want to wait to share them with you. The memories start with me moving my parents back to Calgary after almost 10 years. We were pulling back into Saskatoon late on Sunday night when I called Janet to make arrangements to meet only to discover that she had forgotten we were leaving on Monday and she thought we were leaving on Tuesday. I will chuckle over this moment for years to come imagining the look on her face on the other end of the phone as the realization sunk in.
I spent the entire remaining evening washing clothes and packing. Despite having been up in excess of 36 hours I am proud to say that the only thing that was forgotten was the autograph book that I had been building with the downloads from The House of 3. Our flight left at 5 in the morning whisking us off to Calgary where we cleared US customs and then from there we zipped down to Denver. Upon landing in Denver we HUSTLED our tail feathers from one end of the terminal to the other (for those of you that haven't been in Denver it makes anything in Canada look puny) and got there just in time to jump on the connecting flight to Phoenix.
We arrived on time and my luggage arrived on time but alas poor Janets luggage just didn't have the stamina to get to the connecting flight on time so about 10 hours later it was delivered to us.
We were met at the airport by the Lovely Veronica (from the Yahoo board) she lives in the Phoenix area and was gracious enough to pick up Janet and I, and my other new friend Debbie from Texas.
I was tickeled pink to discover that Veronica was taking us to our first Creative Escape (hereafter referred to as CE) photo oppurtunity. We were headed to the legendary Sprinkles Cupcakes. I don't know how to portray to you the excitement that was generated on Yahoo over these little tasty treats but they are indeed some of the best your tastebuds will encounter.
After we devoured our cupcake and took a few dozen photos of the Sprinkles store we were off to the hotel.
The Sheraton Wild Horse Pass (here after known as WHP) is an awesome 4 star resort that gives you the feeling of being out in the desert in with a Pima Indian band not to far off. Oh wait we were in the middle of the desert. For the first night there my excitement was to get set up in the room and then fall asleep and leave poor Janet to wander around on her own. It might have had something to do with me being up for almost 40 hours.
I have to tell you that this journey started long before the day we boarded the plane. It started with my notification that I had been accepted and that I was able to bring someone with me. I chose this oppurtunity to take my good and close friend Janet. The excitement we shared was pale incomparrison to what we experienced later on.
I joined the Yahoo Group of women that formed the community to share in the wisdom of past attendees and to get to know people before arriving in Phoenix. There were more swaps to partake in than you could shake a stick at.....I chose to partake in two Charm swaps, the ATC and finally the Candy Swap. This group was invaluable to me. I learned alot about standard protocol for the event, I learned about Sprinkles Cupcakes, I learned that this group of women
was a sincere and caring group. I learned that they are amongst the most generous and genuine people I will have the privilage to meet.
I have a collection of memories that need to be scrapped but I don't want to wait to share them with you. The memories start with me moving my parents back to Calgary after almost 10 years. We were pulling back into Saskatoon late on Sunday night when I called Janet to make arrangements to meet only to discover that she had forgotten we were leaving on Monday and she thought we were leaving on Tuesday. I will chuckle over this moment for years to come imagining the look on her face on the other end of the phone as the realization sunk in.
I spent the entire remaining evening washing clothes and packing. Despite having been up in excess of 36 hours I am proud to say that the only thing that was forgotten was the autograph book that I had been building with the downloads from The House of 3. Our flight left at 5 in the morning whisking us off to Calgary where we cleared US customs and then from there we zipped down to Denver. Upon landing in Denver we HUSTLED our tail feathers from one end of the terminal to the other (for those of you that haven't been in Denver it makes anything in Canada look puny) and got there just in time to jump on the connecting flight to Phoenix.
We arrived on time and my luggage arrived on time but alas poor Janets luggage just didn't have the stamina to get to the connecting flight on time so about 10 hours later it was delivered to us.
We were met at the airport by the Lovely Veronica (from the Yahoo board) she lives in the Phoenix area and was gracious enough to pick up Janet and I, and my other new friend Debbie from Texas.
I was tickeled pink to discover that Veronica was taking us to our first Creative Escape (hereafter referred to as CE) photo oppurtunity. We were headed to the legendary Sprinkles Cupcakes. I don't know how to portray to you the excitement that was generated on Yahoo over these little tasty treats but they are indeed some of the best your tastebuds will encounter.
After we devoured our cupcake and took a few dozen photos of the Sprinkles store we were off to the hotel.
The Sheraton Wild Horse Pass (here after known as WHP) is an awesome 4 star resort that gives you the feeling of being out in the desert in with a Pima Indian band not to far off. Oh wait we were in the middle of the desert. For the first night there my excitement was to get set up in the room and then fall asleep and leave poor Janet to wander around on her own. It might have had something to do with me being up for almost 40 hours.
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Back from Creative Escape 2009 and Life is never gonna be the same
Ohhhhhh my gosh Ladies and Gentlemen
I have just had the thrill of a lifetime............................... attending Creative Escape 2009. I have certainly attended my fair share of crop retreats and conventions. What I have to tell you is that never ever, have I had this sort of experience.
I am back now for two days and I remain speechless and just not where to start sharing this fabulous weekend.
I think I am going to start with sharing a few moments that will never ever leave my mind.
How about being like a giddy little tween and speechless with Tim when I gave him the journals for him and Mario. That's a whole story for another night.
How about the amazing woman that donated $29,000.00 USD for this lamp decorated by Tim. That WAS a tear jerk moment bar non during the weekend and trust me there were a ton of those moments.
Or the appreciation on Heidi Swapp's face when I gave her the journal I gave her.
I will return with more from Creative Escape
I have just had the thrill of a lifetime............................... attending Creative Escape 2009. I have certainly attended my fair share of crop retreats and conventions. What I have to tell you is that never ever, have I had this sort of experience.
I am back now for two days and I remain speechless and just not where to start sharing this fabulous weekend.
I think I am going to start with sharing a few moments that will never ever leave my mind.
How about being like a giddy little tween and speechless with Tim when I gave him the journals for him and Mario. That's a whole story for another night.
How about the amazing woman that donated $29,000.00 USD for this lamp decorated by Tim. That WAS a tear jerk moment bar non during the weekend and trust me there were a ton of those moments.
Or the appreciation on Heidi Swapp's face when I gave her the journal I gave her.
I will return with more from Creative Escape
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)