SPRING in Salt Lake...

Aren't they beautiful!!?  In Pennsylvania, we call this bush Forsythia.  Apparently, in North Carolina, however, they're called yellow bell bushes.  At least according to Sharon and Karen...

Patti, Sharon, Karen and I attended the Regional in Salt Lake last weekend.  We got to see the new catalog AND purchase items from the Sneak Peek!

The Regional was great, as always - and was held in the picking area of Stampin' Up!s Distribution center - what fun!

We had Shelli all to ourselves!  All 375 of us...

And what are we celebrating thoughout 2013?

Yep, making a difference for 25 years!

I can vouch for Stampin' Up!'s having made a difference in MY life!  It's been a creative journey I would never have imagined for myself 23 years ago - but what FUN!

But I'm getting away from the title of today's blog entry - SPRING!

Most of the plants I took photos of do not do well in Southern California - but they are plants I grew up with in PA, so I had a blast taking pictures and trying to remember what their names are...

First of all - snow in the mountains!  It was beautiful all around us, since Salt Lake is in a valley between two mountain ranges...

Can't forget trees with blossoms - I THINK this is a flowering plum...

And tulips!

And LILACS! 

This is one of my favorite bushes and they just don't do well where I live in San Diego...  We had three or four lilacs in our yard when I grew up and I STILL love the smell of them...

The gals at the hotel told us this was a flowering plum.  Quite beautiful in person!

And I can't forget the fun we had while we ate and gabbed! 

The REQUIRED visit to Olive Garden!  Sharon and Patti here...

And our step out of our normal box - T G I Fridays...

We had a BLAST!  Thanks Stampin' Up! for giving us a "getaway weekend" to do something we love!

What?  OH - new product?  Yep, we got some...  New catalog?  Yep, we got one...

BUT - I can't show it to you just yet!  I know - what a tease, huh?

You're just going to have to be satisfied with SPRING in Salt Lake for this blog post...   I'm working on my This And That journal and making it "My Stampin' Up! Journey" - so next time, I'll show you some of what I've been doing with that...

Thanks for stopping by - come back soon!

My WORD!

Around the first of the year, I saw several people posting on Facebook that, instead of choosing to make a resolution this year, they were, instead, going to select a word for the year that meant something to them and which they could use all year.

The idea appealed to me!

I spent an hour or so talking to my friend Susan about what word to select...  I am, and always have been, a procrastinator.  There, I said it out loud!

Many of my friends will attest to this (yes, I know you're laughing!)... 

So, my thought was that I needed to tackle this habit and see what, if anything I could do to change it.

As Susan and I putzed around on the Internet, we found there really ISN'T an antonym for the word "procrastination".

So, what to do, what to do?

We ran across an article that, among other things, suggested the word ALACRITY.

OK, but what does it mean?  Well, here's the definition I found that was the most succinct:

ALACRITY:
liveliness; promptness
 
Synonyms: alertness, avidity, briskness, cheerfulness, dispatch, eagerness, enthusiasm, expedition, fervor, gaiety, hilarity, joyousness, promptitude, quickness, readiness, speed, sprightliness, willingness, zeal

So, I decided that will be my word for the year...

Now, remember, this is something I'm WORKING on, OK - not something I've yet accomplished!

So, I decided I needed to make a banner with this word on it and hang it in my Stampin' Garage as a reminder that I'm still a Work In Progress (WIP)...

I finally finished it about 2 weeks ago and hung it above the door going from the Stampin' Garage into the house.

Wanna see it?

Yeh, I know you can see all my laundry products as well, but, hey, they've been there for 25 years, so they must work there!

Here are individual pictures of each of the letters in the banner.  I spent a lot of time creating this, investing myself into it, in hopes some of its meaning would rub off on me!  And I'm very pleased with the outcome!

Something else we learned as we surfed the Web - (Susan and I are both very alike in our procrastination habit!) - some people, rather than being procrastinators are INCUBATORS...

Meaning, they THINK about what they want to do and how to do it, but never put "pen to paper" (if you will) until the last minute because they're creating it in their mind, first...  And, at the last minute, because they've created it in their mind, it's no big deal to finish and be very happy with the results!

We both decided we liked that word instead of procrastinator!  LOL 

So - are you a procrastinator?  Or are you one of those people who pack in January for a trip in July?  I have at least one friend who is like that (Hi Roxy!) and she just doesn't "get it" that Susan and I wait til the last minute to do things like pack bags and make swaps and make plane reservations...

But, even though we wait til the last minute, somehow we get 'er done!  And sometimes, because we've waited, we get better prices on things than if we'd done it several months before!

Taking a vote here - do you procrastinate?  Leave me a comment!

Thanks for stopping by - come back soon!

Mob Museum - Las Vegas!

When we went to St. George for my upline's event in March, Susan and I also took a day to visit the Mob Museum in downtown Las Vegas...

FASCINATING!

Here we are as we entered the museum...

Before you even start your "tour", you have to go through the line up.  We had a museum guard take our photo...

Book 'em, Danno!

And I just noticed we have the same number - maybe that's good?  They'll get confused as to which of us they really want?

Here are Susan and I in the "Hot Seat".  

Of course, it wasn't really hooked up to anything, but sitting in it was a little freaky...

There was SO MUCH INFORMATION in this place - interactive, hands-on, written, videos, lots of photos...

This is the most fascinating museum I've been to in a long time.  I LOVE museums!  So much to learn in each and every one of them!

It took us SIX HOURS to tour this museum - but worth every minute!  If you're ever in Las Vegas and want something to do other than casinos, gambling, shows, etc, check it out.  Senior rate was about $15 as I recall - and believe me, I can blow $15 on a slot machine (a penny one at that!) in about 5 minutes!  So, SO worth the money.

And the museum is about a block away from Fremont Street and the Fremont St. Experience.  By the time we'd finished, it was dark and the Experience was going full blast!  We saw some psychedelic music from the 70's and some Heart from the 80's while we hung out for a while.

A fun day in Vegas!

Thanks for stopping by - come back again soon!

It's Spring!

I've been a little under the weather for the past week...  Not sure if it's "the flu" or allergies, but whatever, I have spent almost NO time outside - and the weather has been beautiful!

The other day, I happened to go outside for some reason and look what I found!

Aren't they beautiful?  Cymbidium orchids! 

I have several - they tend to do really well on my patio, and if something does well (i.e. thrives from neglect!), then I tend to gather more of them.

And why not?  Why would I NOT have more of these if they're very little work for the beautiful output!

Here's another view:

This shows their colors a little better...

I also have a lot of California poppies blooming right now, along with some roses and some geraniums...  Those California poppies have planted themselves all through my "yard" (which is 99.9% WEEDS!) and I need to mow those weeds down - but in doing that, I'll also be mowing down the CA poppies - what a dilemma!

I have transplanted quite a few back into the flower bed, and I've given quite a few that I dug out of the yard away, but I've still got TONS of them!  I LOVE IT!

When I first planted that flower bed about 20 years ago, I struggled to get the CA poppies to grow - I laugh now when I think of that.  No problem these days!

Hope you've got spring where you live - has to be one of my favorite seasons!

I'm supposed to get my new This N That Smash book kit tomorrow - can't WAIT to play!  Once I get a little bit going in it, I'll post some pictures!

Have you thought about purchasing this kit?  It's a Sneak Peek from the new catalog, which will be released to you June 1st.  Want to get something from it sooner? 

Contact me if you do!  Maybe we can compare photos of the progress we've made with our This N That Smash book kits...

Thanks for stopping by - come back soon!

Jill's StampAThon

About a month ago 3 of my downline and myself made the trek up to St. George, UT to MY upline's annual stamping event.  It's always fun, and we always get so many great ideas to bring back and share with everyone.  We look forward to it every year as our "Girl's Weekend".

While we were there, I realized that we had SIX generations of Stampin' Up! demonstrators in attendance, so Jill had her daughter, Jenn, take a photo of all of us...

Here we are, from left to right:
Colleen, who is Roxy's DL,
Roxy, who is Susan's DL,
Susan, who is MY DL,
Me, who is Jill's DL,
Jill, who is my UPLINE, and
Janet, who is Jill's Upline!

It's a great picture of all six of us!

Before we left St. George, we HAD to go to the Cracker Barrel - not to eat, mind you, but to purchase SHIRTS!   They have the BEST shirts there, and I try to stock up when we're there.


And while we were there, I found these two old geezers playing checkers outside on the front porch!  They looked like they were really "into" the game!  Not sure who won...

Since Stampin' Up! announced the GREAT FABRIC SALE this week (just about ALL of our fabrics are on sale for 50%!!!!), I thought I'd share some of the projects made from fabric that Jill had on display. 

You may remember, she's a quilter and has been going crazy with SU fabric since it was introduced several years ago. 

A dish towel and some pot holders.  They would totally fit into my kitchen, which I decorated with cherries and roosters!  Should have tried to convince her I NEEDED them!  Ha ha

A onesie and several purses.  I did get one like the smaller one on the right.

Another set of dish towel and pot holder.  I'm not sure I'd have ever made either of these with this fabric, but they sure came out cute!

So - do you need some fabulous fabric - at 50% off?  Our fabric comes three designs to a package and all three designs are "fat quarters".  Haven't purchased one yet that I don't like.  AND, it's good quality fabric - straight bias, which, if you sew, you know is important.

Contact me before March 31, 2013 if you'd like to purchase some!  Sure can't beat the price!

Website: http://www.stampinup.com/ECWeb/default.aspx?categoryid=560

Phone: 858-271-1924

Thanks for stopping by - come back soon!

Here's what THEY did!

Ok - in the last post I showed you some of the dresses *I* made using the Dress Up framelits  - and I mentioned I had a BLAST playing with all the DSP.

So I decided I'd give my Stamp club ladies the opportunity to "play paper dolls" at their February meeting - and they LOVED it!

Some of them didn't leave until 4 PM - and we start club at 10 AM...

So...  wanna see what they did?

Here ya go...

This was clever - top from one DSP, bottom from another.

Scallop punch makes the apron for this one.

The heart is a piece of the Artisan's Embellishment Kit.

Another piece of DSP makes the apron on this one.

Bottle cap for a belt buckle!

Scallop punch again...

Lace and a button!

This was Linda's idea of Beaver Cleaver's mom's dress.

The "Little Black Dress"

All dressed up with glitz and glitter!

So, there are a few - everyone made 4 or 5, and I tried to photograph them, but obviously I didn't get them all.  And, a few of them took them home to play with there.

As you can see, we used a LOT of different embellishments to make these dresses - but we all had so much FUN!

Do you need to order the Dress Up framelit so YOU can play "paper dolls"?  Give me a holler to my email (stampinsamsgarage@gmail.com) or go to my website and place your on-line order. 

Thanks for stopping by!  Come back again, soon!

Say Yes to the Dress

I've been having an absolute BLAST playing paper dolls with the new dress form framelit!

I'd seen a couple of posts on others' blogs and got out my framelit and and a LOT of DSP and started cutting!

And then I started decorating!  It was so addicting!!!

Look!

Here's my first piece of art!  Found the frame at a big box store on sale for $5.  I didn't even take whatever was in it out - I just layered my art over top.  Guess I COULD have taken off the corner protectors before I snapped the photo, though, huh?

Here's a close up of several of the dresses.

Decorating them was SUCH FUN!  I used narrow ribbon, the new Delicate Details Lace Tape as an apron on one, and one of the doilies as an apron on another, added one of our wonderful new lace flowers on another, and a piece of the Embellishments kits to another.  There are just TONS of possibilities, once you get started with all of our embellishments!

I put these dresses up on a pedestal!  The holders were really easy to make - a spool, a small wooden block and a piece of CS cut using the dual square die.  Then I glued a skewer to the back of the decorated dress form, and VOILA!  We have a dress display!

Here's a close up of my pedestal.  It's really quite small, but I didn't think to put something into the picture to give you some sense of size.  Well, yes, I did - that square scallop is 2 inches square.

Next post I'll show you what my stamp club ladies did with the dress framelits - these ladies are AMAZING!







Thanks for stopping by - come back soon!