And fun was had by All !

I have been way late in posting this, silly me saved it as a draft instad of posting it!

I just want to say CKC Buffalo was one of the most memorable trips of my life. Seriously. I had one heck of a time. I could not have chosen better travelling companions, I mean really these women ROCK! I had so much fun chatting with them, cropping with them and laughing with them!

We found a cool bar in Buffalo that is called the Chocolate Bar... where they serve up.....Chocolate Martini's, and a slew of other yummy conconctions, like the swedish fish martini...another absolute must try! Lets just say we made this are official Haunt! picture this. After spending all day in scrapbooking classes and then at a night crop until 11pm we would head here and grab ourselves some sinful martini's....Ahhh Bliss right??? What could be better than that right?.... well..............

Mouthwatering chocolate fondue??? complete with an array of yummy dippers such as homemade pistachio cookies, strawberries, pineapple, marshmellows, pretzel sticks, chips, etc... YUMMY and oh so pretty how the waiter would come and sprinkle rose petals on the table before he would set up the fondue...details such as these really add to life don't cha think?

Chocolate shots anyone???

Now that I have you drooling with me...lets get to the nitty gritty....the classes!

I took so many but out of all of them two stand out to me...and both are by Stacy Julian. This woman is even more inspirational in real life, let me tell you! And I know why. She speaks from a place of truth. Authenticity has a way of touching people at their core and believe me she touched me. I really enjoyed listening to her and opening my mind and heart to her ideas...because really she was speaking about things I knew in my soul to be true, feelings I myself had thought about but not dared to delve into. Powerful stuff.

So without a doubt if you ever have the chance to meet her, grab a class by her...Do So, you will not for one second regret that you did. She is very very very good at what she does. VERY!

Here's Stacy and I posin' for the camera (that Cutie in the right is her son Taft...he was there with her and was so cute..he was helping give out prizes and even graced us with his super cool comedy routine and he's good!)

As far as the other classes go I was pretty happy with them...especially the Papecrafts card making class...so fun and the cards are so pretty! A bonus was the cool Technique Tuesday stamps we got...so cute!

The disappointments??? would have to be the Little Back Dress Designs Classes...of which I took three! The instructor and owner was great, she's really nice and very personable..plus she had great style! It's the projects that were...BLAH! In all three classes we worked on the same Tag albums and the finished result was...just well...boring. I expected more especially since these were 21$ classes, not the same material for all three very different classes....I will not be taking classes from them next year that is for sure. They may be better suited to a beginner scrapbooker...IMO

Yep you heard right...I'm gong again next year. I'm so making this a yearly thing as long as CK keeps bringing CKC/CKU to Buffalo you can count on me going! It was that Fun!

I went crazy with the shopping...absolutely nuts! I was just in heaven being surrounded by all this amazing product and the prices...oh my...the deals.....how could I resist? My favorite buys of all have to be the yummy kits I picked up by The Button Farm. These kits are so gorgeous and so generous and so easy to follow. I picked up 3! I was so inspired by their Motherhood Album I got to work on it right then and there at the Nightly Crops...with the intention of gifting it my Mother for her 50th Birthday...well she loves it!

Told you I went crazy ya'll!

and here's some of the free loot!

I have projects to finish and get posted and I finally got the wedding invites back so I will post them as soon as I get the chance!

I'm so excited....

Ok. I get super duper excited when I come across a cool and amazing Scrapbook product, seriously I get darn right giddy and simply must share the news with everyone I know. So what oh what has got me doin' the Happy Dance?

The Essential Glue Pad by Tsukineko. This little pad is amazing!!! I have been in "Wedding Invite Samples" hell and once I broke this baby out, my world brightened. I used it to stamp "Two become One" (used a Marcella by K & Co. clear stamp, another reason to be happy*) and then I quickly covered the stamped image with ultra fine silver glitter...The Results??? Clear, Defined and Bling'd out wordage...I almost swooned!

Now my mind is buzzing with the possibilities of this little wonder of a glue pad...oh I am going to have fun playing some more with it, I may need to ummmm...show some restraint or else Glitter will end up on even more pages than it already does....I am going to post some pics of the invites so you can see what I am talking about later tomorrow when the light is better.... or umm LOL, later today, I see it's 5:45am and I've been up ALL night!!! Funny how time flies when you are immersed in paper and glue.... That being said I suggest all of you run and go nab yourself one, seriously RUN, before I buy them all! LOL

*Now I couldn't sign off on this post without mentioning these stamps...I was wandering Winners (I *heart* that store) on Saturday and came across these clear Wedding stamps by Marcella by K (K& Co.) for get this....3.99!!! 11 clear stamps for about four dollars, an amazing find and most of all a well timed one!

I had been mulling over and over in mind ideas to decorate some of the Invites and was coming up with Nada. I went to the art store and saw a few stamps that looked interesting, yet they were going for $11-21 a piece and with a bride that is extremely vague on what she wants/likes I wasn't going to shell out the cash for something I wasn't sure absolutely positive I was going to use more than once! What's cool about this set of stamps is that it has awesome scrolls and words like Love that can be used for other themes so at that price it couldn't have been more perfect!

Don't you just love it when you come across a good bargain??? Especially when it's crafting related? I'd love to hear about your cool finds or any great reviews on some cool scrapbook products that have caused you to do "the Happy Dance" lately so feel free to leave me a post about it! Help feed my shopping addiction! ;)

I am inspired....

OK so in light everyone waiting for me to get my new projects up here....(I know I know I'm slow for real)... thought I'd at the very least provide y'all with some inspiration.

See my Gurl Karla has been up to some cool things....she, along with some really cool and talented ladies have gone and created a way cool challenge site called One Little Word. It's a spin-off of Ali E's (and we all LOVE her, right?) Words challenge from a while back. See the premise is that each week they will post a Word that will be the inspiration for a Layout, Card, Altered item..you name it...and get this...there is even an amazing knock your socks off prize for the first challenge...so ready, set, GO!!!

You can be sure I am. I'm really excited by the whole idea...I'm a strong believer in the power of words. BIG Believer. Word Up! (I couldn't resist that one...)So you can call me a Wordster too, LOVE that!

Another really cool and inspiration site is the new Scrap in Style TV...also known as SIS. With amazing features, a groovy message board, videos, interviews, awesome kits and get this it's FREE! It's totally revolutionary and innovative and I love the message behind it, that we are a community of "sisters" and that we should be nice and encouraging toward each other no matter are differences of artistic style and opinions.
That being said I do believe I need to pull myself away from these very sites and umm....actually get to finishing these darn Wedding Invites as I am supposed to be meeting with my client and friend on Friday...EEKS. I have no idea why these invites are proving to be the bane of my existence...don't you just hate it when you get blockage? I tend to get it when I feel overwhelmed with a looming deadline..which of course makes it a major problem...Ahhh well, I'm just going to roll with it and try to work through it.
talk to you

Happy Mother's Day!!!!

In commemoration to this special day here's some pictures of my Mom and I,
Happy Mother's Day, I love you Mom!!!

On that note I wish you all a Happy Mother's Day! Being a Mother is a life changing experience as I 'm sure "we" all know just like "we" all know that everday should be Mother's Day! Have a great one!

A little late posting this but it's important that ya'll know...

Ummmmm... I think a taxi driver tried to drug me the morning of NSD on my way to the Scrapbook Star NSD Crop....I know sounds crazy, right??? But I CAN"T shake the feeling that I am right. Here's my story.

I get a cabbie I recognize over the years (isn't it always someone you "feel" comfortable around) an elderly gentleman who is the VERY talkative type...he see's me and starts rambling on about how gorgeous I look today and oh how did I keep my figure after 2 kids, and how I look like a model, etc... OK nice but I mean he was really going on and on about it... so anyways we get on the highway and he turns around and quickly offers me a lifesavers (the peppermint kind) and rambles on about how it's refreshing etc... I'm a little tired at this point and take one and pop it into my mouth without really thinking...(DUH, NEVER TAKE STUFF FROM STRANGERS!!!) and within minutes as I am in a full out conversation with him I begin to feel WEIRD.

My mind begins to feel fuzzy, my chest starts pounding, I'm talking serious palpitations, my mouth feels like it is swelling up and as I am taking I begin to slur a few words...I mean I FELT a difference in my consciousness...I dabbled in extra-curricular's in my teens (plant and liquor related and underwent serious surgeries where morphine was involved).... so I know a high or a beginning of one when I feel it so I popped that candy out of my mouth, slipped it into my pocket and opened the window (he didn't see me do that). I then began to concentrate my mind on A) opening my cell phone and putting my DH's # at the ready, and opening my wallet to read him the exact address to show him I was still focused... and I breathed through it, rolled with it and sharpened my mind. (Sounds hokey but it got me through my last labour & delivery and kept me quiet and calm)...

He kept looking at me in the rearview mirror while he was talking a mile a minute about an increasing weird topic, prostitutes and how he could never "cheat" on his wife, and how he picked up a prostitute, and how what woman would be with him because he needs to sleep with an air machine, and oh have I been to this motel, etc... As we began to get closer to my destination he clearly became agitated and began to feverishly pop the lifesavers into his mouth for a few seconds and then spit them out his window...one after the other...(perhaps to check if he had made a mistake and not given me the right one???)

Ladies...I just thank God I took that candy out of my mouth and got where I was going safely. I kept thinking about it all day and finally I called the police that night and informed them of the situation...they came and took the candy to perform tests on it and told me they will get back to me....we'll see from there.

I didn't want to cause trouble, but what if I'm right and this kook really tried to drug me??? I mean I keep thinking about my kids and whether or not harm just barely grazed me, perhaps even death...Gosh I could have not come home that day...you dig?

All I can say as this really brought perspective home to me. Life is fragile, cherish it...all the more reason to scrapbook! (lol u know I had to bring it there!!!) It's also taught me a wonderful lesson that I would like to share with you in hopes that you do the same. Listen to your voice. The voice. God. Your Gut. Your Soul. However you want to call it. Do not for one second, doubt. Listen. I really believe that's what saved me.

I ended up researching "Date Rape" Drugs later on that night and my reactions were similar to those typically experienced by the drug Ketamine also known as Special K. here's a link http://http://www.4woman.gov/faq/rohypnol.htm if you want to get informed and perhaps prevent this from happening to you or any of your loved ones. It would seem that date rape drugs are no longer just used in bars and Nightclubs! Scary stuff!

That being said, stay safe.
Talk to you.