My Wolfcub and Off to Seattle

Last night Chet earned his Wolf badge in CubScouts. I brought my camera and forgot the memory stick in my card reader... agggh! I couldn't take pictures until we got home, but he shot the blowdart right into the nose on his wolf poster. Good job, Chet! He was so excited to get this rank!

Tonight I am flying out to Seattle to work the convention. I have to pack, finish some odds and ends around the house, and get the kids ready for their performance. They have a big Sign Design show tonight, and I am so sad to be missing it! They are taping it, though, so at least I can watch it when I get home.

I am looking forward to seeing some friends and meeting up with some of the ladies from the show last year. I am working in the booth this show and teaching people how to use the Pages Be Design system. If you are at the convention, stop by the Deluxe Designs booth and say hi to me!

Lunch and Fairies

Karen, Chris, Jessie, and I went to PF Changs to have lunch today. I had a very nice time, despite the headache that just won't go away.

My friend Katherine has been making some adorable fairy pieces out of her photos, and I have fallen in love with them. I was excited to try my hand at making some, so I started with this photo of the girls. This is a 16x20 canvas that I am going to hang in their room as soon as we have finished putting it together. I have mixed feelings about how it turned out (maybe if the headache goes away tomorrow I will figure out what I don't like about it and adapt it) but the girls like it so that is all that matters. Don't flame me, but I don't really consider my scrapbook pages art... they are my creative outlet, but I have never really considered myself an artist.I actually relate to them in a more journalistic sense. Today I felt like an artist as I painted my canvas and modpodged everything in sight... LOL. I need to get a photo of myself that will work for this kind of project and make one with my nickname (Lucky) and my lucky numbers to hang in my scraproom.

Now I am going to down a few more ibuprofen, watch Medium quietly, and go to bed. Night!

Home from Sacramento

I was checking mail last night, and discovered my blog was linked in an article. If you are here looking for my Memory Trends photos, click here. Thanks for stopping by!

I am home again, and have a lot of photos to share. I took a couple hundred, so I will only show some of the highlights. Sacramento is a history lover's delight... lots of places to see Old West memorabilia and plenty of things to learn about.

We couldn't start set-up until 1:00 on Thursday, so I got up early and went to see some of the places I had on my must-see list. The first one was the Wells Fargo Museum. This is Duli, the curator of this museum, and he is the one who put together all the exhibits here. We got to talking, and he showed me the different exhibits. I took several photos, and Duli asked for a copy of them. When I brought him a disk the next day, he gave me a book on the history of the Wells Fargo oompany, a stuffed stagecoach horse, and a handful of Wells Fargo coins to give the kids. They loved it all, and I had a wonderful time talking to somebody who loves history! Thank you, Duli!
This is an original Wells Fargo Concord Stagecoach that has been fully restored. Duli took the rope off the front of it for me, and then took my picture in front of it. The details of the stagecoach are incredible. As Duli pointed out, this stagecoach is literally an American icon, a symbol of progress in the Old West.
I thought Katherine might like this... :0) This was an original fire helmet. They made them out of leather, then painted them red. I almost didn't get to take this shot since the museum is in a bank, and this exhibit is right by a teller station, and banks don't allow photography in the banking area. They let me take it by shooting right down into the case, and I am grateful they did!
This was my most exciting find. The museum has a collection of orginal handstamps and postage stamps displayed. As I was reading through them, I found this letter from the 1800's addressed to one of my ancestors! I don't know if I can explain how cool it was to see a connection to my family history on display!

Next I headed to Old Sacramento, where I saw the BF Hastings building, which was the orginal office for Wells Fargo and the Pony Express.

I also toured the Military Musuem, which features displays on all American wars from the Spanish American War to today. This was one of the Harleys designed specifically for WWII. I don't have a photo of it here, but the Bosnian display really touched me. It gave the history of the Balkans from the medieval ages, and honored the men who have been serving there without any recognition. My brother was there for a year, and saw terrible things, but it never received the media attention that Iraq has received.
There is a Railroad Museum in Old Town that I explored for an hour or so. This summer I was able to see Reading Railroad, and this weekend I stood on the Pacific Railroad tracks. A couple more and I will have a monopoly... LOL
I loved the old Huntington, Hopkins, and Co Hardware store. Kyle would have loved it as well.



After my classes were over on Saturday, I went down the road to see Sutter's Mill, where gold was first discovered in California. I took the audio tour of the grounds, and someday I want to go back and see it with the living history actors.

I always fall in love with the old churches. This one is the Pioneer Congregational church, and it is right across the street from Sutter's Mill.
The Catholic Cathedral was stunning. I couldn't go inside because it was under some construction, but the outside was just gorgeous.
This is St. Paul's Episcopalian Church, established in the 1800s. I love Episcopalian churches. Even the newer ones I see around here look like castles.


The Governer's Mansion Museum was right next to our hotel, so I was able to admire it each morning as I walked to the show. The last governor to live there was Ronald Reagan, but he and Nancy moved out because of the fire hazards it posed. There is a part of me that simply wouldn't care... set me up in an old Victorian mansion, and I will stay put... LOL.
As I was walking back from the Catholic Cathedral, I found the Masonic Temple which was built in 1918. The tours were over, and a wedding was being prepared for, but one of the masons who was in the building brought me in and gave me a private tour. While it wasn't as stunning as the Philadelphia Masonic Temple (I don't know that any are) it was simply gorgeous. The architecture of the rooms, the old elevator, the marble walls and Spanish tiled floors... it all took my breath away!

I have to go get ready to have lunch with some pals today. Chat soon!

I'll Be Back

I am heading out to Sacramento today to teach at the Scrapbook Expo. I haven't even packed yet. In fact, I haven't even finished laundry yet. I will get it all together by this afternoon, though.

I finally placed an order to spend my Chatterbox gift certificate. I am hoping that by the time I get home, all those pretty embellishment kits will be here smiling at me!

I finally added some more blogs to my favorites list. I actually have a few more fto add as well, but I keep running out of time. Do you like my huge banner??? LOL.. I didn't mean for it to be so big, but I didn't want to cut off anybody's face either.

Have a great weekend! See ya when I get home!

Color Analysis

I just found this test online, and I thought my results were pretty accurate. Let me know if you blog about it on your blogs... I would love to read your results!

Follow Your True Colors

Here are my results. I am going to go back later and see what the other color values mean.

Green 10
blue 76
gold 6
orange 6

You are an exceptionally creative problem solver who brings your ability to think outside the box to the workplace. You are a conceptual, analytical, and logical thinker. To you knowledge is power and your insatiable thirst for understanding and information is what drives you. You are an incredible problem solver but once the goal is accomplished you lose interest and need to move on. The challenge is in the ideas and not the details or implementation of your creations. Leave those things to another type that enjoys doing these things.

You are an independent worker who detests routine and prefers to work alone on projects and you often gravitate toward leadership roles. You could be a good computer programmer, scientist or researcher. You usually find entrepreneur and independent contract work appealing, but see the book for a more thorough list.

(Copied from site, and this does describe me well)
Green is conceptual.

I am conceptual. I have an investigative mind, intrigued by questions like, "Which came first, the chicken or the egg?" I am an independent thinker, a natural nonconformist, and live life by my own standards.

I like to do things that require vision, problem solving, strategy, ingenuity, design, and change. Once I have perfected an idea, I prefer to move on to a new challenge.

I value knowledge, intelligence, insight, and justice. I enjoy relationships with shared interests. I prefer to let my head rule my heart. I am cool, calm, and collected. I do not express my emotions easily.

Memory Trends Collage

I felt like making a layout this morning, and all these little tidbits were still sitting on my scrap table from Memory Trends. Can you believe that between the two of us, Chris and I took a couple of hundred pictures, and only managed to get one of the two of us? We didn't even remember to take it until we were in the parking lot on our way out... LOL

The patterned papers are from Sandylion. The diecut frame is a Deluxe Designs diecut, and I used tape labels for a couple of title pieces. Our names are Doodlebug stickers, and I stamped the date on the ruler. Other than that, everything else is a mish-mash of little things I picked up while we were walking the floor. I cut my Memory Trends and Heidi Swapp lanyards into smaller pieces to use as accents.

Fun and Busy Weekend

Today was the first time Matt, Chet, and Faith performed with Sign Design, and they had a blast! I was so proud of them! This was the first time they had to do this without the mirrors to see the other kids, and they remembered most of the signs. The whole group looked great up there signing and dancing, and they got huge rounds of applause when they were done!

I must have been using the wrong f-stop on this shot, but I still like it enough to figure out a way to use it on a page. This is Faith's favorite song to sign and dance to... "Can You Shake It Like This?"


All of the boys sign the lyrics to "God Bless My Soldier Too", and it brought tears to the audience's eyes. I think it is a very emotional song to begin with, but to witness it being signed is heartstopping!

Afterwards, we had lunch together and rode some of the rides at the fall festival the performance was held at. Beth found herself a little friend... adorable, aren't they??

Last night we took the kids to the pumkin patch and took some photos and played on the rides there. The lighting was bad, and most of my shots came out blurry, but at least I caught one with most of them semi-looking at me... LOL


Chet wanted to ride the bungee trampoline, and started out just bouncing about four feet off the tramp. When I told him to jump really high so I could get a picture of him without all the twinkle lights behind him, the guy running Chet's bungee added some more cables to him. Then he grabbed Chet's feet, and sling-shotted him about twenty feet high. Chet yelled at him, but when he was done bouncing down he realized it was fun and couldn't wait to do it again.

Tomorrow is another busy day. Chet and Faith are performing in their vocal and chimes choirs at my mom's church, and then going to our church to practice their songs for the Primary program in a couple of weeks. I will post photos if I can get any good ones!

Now Accepting Applications .. Fashion File Challenge #7

LOL.. any takers????
I pulled colors from the sweater, all of which were in this KI paper. I was focusing more on the texture, though, so I filled the layout with little touches of texture: blue mesh, I made chipboard stencil letters with EZ Laser stencils, and used some paperclips and nailhead brads. (My brother is a helicopter/train mechanic, so the symbolism worked for me.) I went ahead and used a blocked look as well to sort of match the sweater. The title letters are K & Co, and even though they are technically definitions, it looked they were cut out of newsprint so I went with it... :0)

Sorry about the dirty scanner! Anybody have any tips on how to make the left side scan with the same color values as the right side??? This frustrates me so much!

this and that

My house smells so good right now. I have potato soup simmering on the stove. As soon as the veggies are cooked and the water boils down a bit I will add the cream and cheese. I am serving it with a freshly cut green salad. mmmmm.... soup and salad is my favorite! I am so glad it has cooled down... LOL... we are in the 80s this week.... nothing beats a warm meal on a cool night. LOL

Matt has choir tonight. I picked up the house today, and the kids started their new computer curriculum this morning. They LOVED it. They spent five hours straight working through it, and then wanted to get back on after lunch. The house was so quiet for much of that time because they all had earphones on to hear their computers without the other computers distracting them. It has been so long since the house was that quiet during waking hours!

A lot of you have asked where I got my Harley license plate album. It is made by a company called Shoestring Productions. They have lots of different designs... Nascar, Disney, football teams,. and states. So far I have collected the California, Pepsi, Harley, Route 66, Cowgirl Up, and Dallas Cowboys albums. As soon as I fill those babies up I will be displaying them. They are so cool! dKim told me she is working on making albums out of bigger metal signs, and that will be right on the top of my must have list! Here is their contact info if you want one for yourself!

Shoestring Productions

dkewhite@columbia-center.org

503-397-6376

Memory Trends Goodies

I will be back in just a little while to tell more about what these all are. I ran out of memory space on my camera, so check out Chris' blog after she gets her pics up to see even more of the great stuff we saw today!

The 7Gypsies booth always makes me happy. They make the coolest things with their products, and these bracelets just thrilled me to no end. I have to make something like these for myself!

Aren't these great? They are from Carolee's Creations.

These are new Carolee's Creation stickers. I thought they were fun.

Chatterbox has these new adorable matchbox albums to match the room sets.

Chatterbox has also released these big spools of their patterned papers for art projects such as covering lampshades, wallpapering shelves etc. Very cool! I can't wait to make a humongous canvas with one!

This was a new company called Collage Press. The XO paper really caught my eye.

EK Success has these really cool chalk Zigs. You write on the paper with them and it looks like nothing is there. A few seconds later the color shows up... very yummy!


This another new company called IMLW Publishers. The owner is a big train buff, so he has a huge link of train related products. I need some for my Reading Railroad during the summer! I also loved their license plate paper. It would look great on some masculine themed altered objects.


I got to see Teresa Collins' new line of paper (I personally loved the stripes and snowmen, and while I was there I snapped a shot of these new hangerz.. basically twill with little hanger tabs attached to them.

Look... somebody made a stamp jsut for me! LOL... she said her husband told her she spelled it wrong, but it looks perfect to me!

I LOVED the Maya Roads booth... probably my favorite there. These are really big bottlecaps.. 2.75 inches wide! She had an adorable album on her keychain that she made with them... fun!


Both of these are more Maya Road... (insert happy sighs) I adore their new ribbons, and the flower chipboard pieces are to die for. I know lots of companies have chipboard now, but they don't come in the perfect little tins like these do, and they don't have the detail!

The new Making Memories luggage in pink with black polkadot innards... be still my heart!

The new Queen and Co Christmas paper. Loved it!

Scrapworks new line of paper... I love pinks and reds and oranges!

Scrapworks also has new holiday tabs... they are awesome!

I htought this new carnival font from Technique Tuesday was very cool!

I also like the new Eiffel Tower Tech Tues font.. very similar to the MM font, but thicker.

This is a brand new company (Trace Industry) with some pretty cool canvas paper. I loved how they used their heritage photos to create the floor!


We R Memory Keepers has a ton of new wooden embellishments and tags... very cool!

Little acrylic pieces from Heidi Grace.

I love big brads and I cannot lie! Queen and Co

Bazzill has lots of big brads as well... my favorites are the ones with polka dots!
Bazzill's new flower chipboard pieces... very cool, but not as heart stopping as Maya Road's.

Bazzill Gallery letters in circles and squares... these would look so cool with some paint!

Sees.. aren't those Bazill dot brads so yummy!

I like these Bazill tees! They are pink, fitted, comfortable neckline, and so perfect!

Why don't more companies carry Beaux Regards ribbon? If you are a retailer with a wide line of their products, please email me... I will be your new best customer! (Anybody who has been in my scrap room knows I need more ribbon... LOL... cough cough cough)

Here is Margie demoing the really cool new tag maker tool from Making Memories. It smooshes (very technical, I know) the metal rims over paper or fabric tags... so cool!

You thought the pink MM luggage was hot, check out the green!

I loved these new SEI Christmas stickers.

Making Memories has a bunch of new Christmas stuff out as well.

This is jsut one of the fonts A-Z Scrapbooking has used to make big huge chipboard letters. I love how each bag has a bunch of different sizes... so perfect for an eclectic junque girl like me!

Heidi Swapp has lots of new stuff! Here are the new chipboard letters.

My Mind's Eye has a whole new Kaleidoscope line out with more paisleys... happy happy joy joy!

Here is Jenna demoing the new Brainiac scrapping book featuring top scrappers like Katherine Brooks, Lisa Bearnson, Angie Randall... and jsut for fun because I can, I think you all should know that yours truly has a couple of layouts in there as well! :0)

Heidi Swapp's booth was offering HS lipgloss, flowers, lanyards, and these really fun HS gumballs... LOL

All the HS gals were wearing these jeans that they had dolled up with rub-ons, stamps, and iron-ons... they all looked so good! I had to take this picture to make a banner with. (Do any of you do that... see things as potential banners now??? )

I missed tons of photo opps when my camera ran out of space, so make sure you check Chris's blog! She has a hundred or so up! I had a great time walking the floor with her and eating lunch! (Except for the shoes killing my feet, but I am all over that now... LOL)