My Conventions

I have been putting on scrapbooking conventions for going on 9 years. They are not the BIG ones like Scrapbook Expo, GASC, Mega Meet or CKC nor are they the retreats with 30-40 people, but they are 'in between'. I kind of like to call them "miniventions" because I have some GREAT vendors, awesome classes and the best part....cropping almost around the clock. I have 162 cropping spots avaiable per show.

My registration goes up about 6 weeks prior to each convention. For the first 6 years, it generally took up to the week of convention to fill up...and I didn't always fill up. At that point I started thinking, well, maybe this won't be able to keep going because maybe people don't want to get together and scrapbook like this....WELL....I admit...I WAS WRONG...*grin. For the last few years, my conventions have been filling up quicker and quicker.

I bring this up, because I have just broken a record.......I AM FULL in less than a week for the first time. Now it is the crop portion that is full and there are classes that still have space, but I am so excited about this I just wanted to share.

If you haven't been to a convention, plan on joining us in the Fall or even next year as we CELEBRATE 10 YEARS.

2008----Progress

I know that many people have seen the idea from Ali Edwards about choosing a "word" for yourself for the year.

Well, Edie...one of my extremely talented friend challenged a group of us to do that to and then create a project for it.

I accepted the challenge and I chose the word PROGRESS. Why did I choose this word? Well, 2007 has been a great year and I have made alot of good starts for things I want to do for my life, but I needed to continue doing and adding to those things and after asking my friends for help, we came up with the word PROGRESS.

What I love about this word is that if I make goals and don't complete them, I won't feel like I have failed if I have even done ONE thing towards that goal. I am not going to spend my time beating myself up because I haven't reached my goals, instead I'm going to focus on the PROGRESS that I make in each area.

This works for me in every aspect of my life, I don't have to say, I'm going to lose 50 lbs this year, or I'm going to have a better relationship with my family. I just am going to say, I will make PROGRESS in all these areas, even if it just drinking a glass of water each day to start, or giving and extra hug or kiss each day....or heck even each week....each step is progress.

As I do make progress in different parts of my life, I will share and hopefully help you make progress in your life and I hope you will share your progress with me too.

Here is the project that I did. It isn't done yet, in fact it is just started. As the year goes on, I will add to it and eventually, it will be done, but for now....it is just making PROGRESS.

Nebraska Football

This says it all....
http://www.studio425.com/video.php?vid_id=24

Electricity does wierd stuff

Did you know that electricity has a 'vampire' in it? Even if something isn't turned on, as long as it is plugged in, it sucks electricity and can affect the way things run.

Why do I give you this odd little tidbit? Well, it affected my Pazzles machine yesterday and scared me. Fortunately, I had a wooden spike, a cross and some holy water, so the 'vampire' did not win.

What had happened, is a while back, I had accidentally knocked the 3-prong adapter out of my wall, causing a small separation in it, causing a short that I couldn't see and wouldn't show up until yesterday. What happened is, my pazzles would just quit working in the middle of a project and it was frustrating me, so I called Tatum at tech support and between her, Pete and I, we realized I was having an electrical problem. So I went and changed the adapter and now it is running perfectly again.

Interestingly enough, this did not affect just my pazzles, but it also affected my printer (which is now working right too). Soooooooooo, if your machines (any of them) all of sudden start acting weird when they were working before, unplug them and see if you need new plugs, surges, etc. And see if that doesn't help.

One more thing I'm going to start doing. When I shut down everything now in my office, I'm going to go ahead and unplug my 3 main chords, when not in use, and see if things don't just run better all the time...Plus, heck, it might save me some money on my electric bill, which means...more paper for me.

In the beginning....

Well, I just spent the weekend in Ontario, California at the Scrapbook Expo. I worked in the Pazzles Creative Cutter booth, teaching and demoing the Creative Cutter. I have been doing this all over the country this year and have been having a blast.

The one single request I get at these shows is, "Can I just take you home with me?" (And while it has been very tempting to be 'adopted' a number of times, I decided I probably should still go home to my family.) Of course, they don't really want me, they want my brain to teach them how to use the cutter step by step.............so that brings me to my blog. I'm going to attempt to 'share my brain' and make it easier to learn all the little fun things that you can do, beyond the basics of the cutter. Of course, I will also talk about the basics.

Be patient with me as I figure out the world of blogging, so I can share my passion and love of scrapbooking and cutting with you. Maybe we will be able to share with eachother and learn things that we never thought possible.