My room is a wreck!!!

My poor office is a wreck.  I have catalogs spread out all over the place.  My sister left this morning on a flight at 8:45 so my husband and I dropped her off at the airport at 7:00.  Once we got home, I started working up my orders from CHA.  Tomorrow I'll post some photos and clean this mess up. 

Hope everyone had a good Monday.

Exhausted!!!

What a fun and busy day!!!  I'll try to post pictures soon.

Fun Day!!!

Didn't get to post today because my sister came to town so she could go to CHA with Amy & I this weekend.  We've been shopping and then went to dinner with mom.  We had Oysters Rockefeller, Lobster Thermador and Chocolate Souffle to top it all off.  Can you say YUMMMYYY!!!  Now it's off toget a few things finished and then to bed so we can walk the whole show tomorrow.

I'll post some photos of the show later this weekend or first part of next week for sure.

Take Time to Remember and Say a Silent Prayer

January 27 marks the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest Nazi death camp. In 2005, the United Nations General Assembly designated this day as International Holocaust Remembrance Day (IHRD), an annual day of commemoration to honor the victims of the Nazi era.  Regardless of your religious preference, let's all say a prayer in remembrance for the victims and their families.

Cockroach Race Day????

Okay, I have to admit, when I saw this as a holiday my first thought was "Really????"  Well, seems like our Australian friends make it a great event.  Here's part of the article I found on google:
The Cocky races are a great fun day with plenty of atmosphere and entertainment. The event's layout is similar to the National Festival of Beers in that the hotel takes over and closes Rotherham St. for a day and utilises the restaurant car-park as well, with tiered seating and even corporate boxes, the stage is set for a great race day. The day opens at 11am. There is a street stage live bands performing throughout the day, a dunking machine on the street always provides great entertainment in the hot Queensland summer.
It is a busy day, you can expect to see up to 7000 other avid cockroach punters throughout the day enjoying the races and sunshine. There is a big race card on this day. Fourteen races with the first race at 12:00, flowing through the afternoon with the last race at 4:30. Contestants are encouraged to train and b.y.o roach but there is also a house stable with roaches available to be bought for $5.00. Also there is the best Stable Costume Competition for teams and the Miss Cocky Competition. The music and fun continues into the night.
"Contestants are encouraged to train and b.y.o. roach, but there is also a house stable with roaches available to be bought for $5.00".  Okay, pick me up off the floor right now.  I can't ever imagine training a cockroach, must less buying one for $5.  I'm seriously going to have to make a trip to see this one day.  It does sound like a lot of fun though.

It has been never been called 'the race that stops a nation' but, while the Melbourne Cup is a public holiday only in Melbourne and the ACT, the whole country has a day off for Queensland's annual cockroach races. This is because the races are held on Australia Day. The cockroach races take place at the Story Bridge Hotel, an ornate nineteenth-century pub set south of the Brisbane River in Kangaroo Point. As a sport, cockroach racing has a long and distinguished history. It was founded at the Story Bridge Hotel in 1981. According to the founding myth of cockroach racing, Daz from Hawthorne and Gor (short for Igor) from Kangaroo Point were arguing at the bar about which of their suburbs was home to the biggest cockroaches. To settle the dispute, each caught a cockroach at home and brought it to the pub. For reasons not entirely clear, they then decided to race them.
New Orleans should hold a challange race with them.  I saw huge ones there when I lived there during my college years.
So anyway, have a great cockroach race day, mate.

A Room of One's Own Day

I know that each and every one of us scrapbookers will truly appreciate this day.  We all want the room of our own for our scrapbooking - right?????

Have a great day!!!!

Today is Global Belly Laugh Day, so Laugh It UP

Monday, January 24, 2011 is the fifth anniversary of Global Belly Laugh Day.  Celebrate the Great Gift of Laughter.  At 1:24 p.m. today, smile, throw your arms in the air and laugh out loud.

And yesterday was National Pie Day!!!  How could I have let that slip by me?  I'll have to celebrate that as well today by having  a slice of pie.

ENJOY!!!

11th Featured Kit - Celebrate Summer

If you have summer photos on your desk or still on that memory card in your camera then this is the kit for you! The kit is stuffed with fun products including a Maya Road binder, a full pad of summer journaling cards to put in the envelops, a full set of Fancy Pants rub-ons, lots of patterned papers, fun die cuts and a full set of American Crafts Thickers letter stickers!  There are photos and written instructions.  And as always, everything is pre-cut and in order for ease of assembly.

The retail value of this kit is $40.  Our special clearance price is $30.  Contact me directly via email to place the order, mention you saw the kit on our blog and you will get an extra $5 off each kit (even those not yet featured). My email address is on the right. You can go to the store via the link in the top right corner of this blog to see each kit and the pricing. If you are local to the Long Beach, CA area, perhaps we can meet somewhere to save you the shipping costs. (If you will be attending the scrapbook yard sale at Memory Lane on January 23th, you can email me and I'll package the kits up and have them ready for you there.)

10th Featured Kit - Away We Go

We had previously sold out of this kit, but I found enough product during my inventory and reorganization to put together 1 more of these.  It isn't even on the store front, so if you want it, you'll have to email me.

This is a unique album, one like none other Amy has ever created and planned to teach. This past summer Amy had the privilege of visiting Spain for a nice long vacation. She came home with thousands of photos and a huge zip lock filled to the brim of memorabilia. She took her photos and treasures and combined them with Teresa Collin’s Travel line, American Crafts Thickers, Maya Road tickets, Little Yellow Bicycle Traveler Journaling Pad, and bling and made herself a treasured album full of memories.

Now it’s your turn…..whether it’s a trip already taken or one to come, you are going to make this album yours!

This kit is backbone, meant to help you house your memories and photos. It’s a simpler album than Amy is used to making, but she wanted her photos and memories to take center stage. Your album may be larger or smaller than hers, depending on your needs, but she encourages you to make it your own! When you are finished assembling the kit, you will have left over journaling cards and other pieces that you can add as you like. If you have more photos (like Amy did), just attach them back to back and add them into your album.

Remember, all our kits come with written and photo instructions.

The retail value of this kit is over $35, but our special clearance price is $25. Contact me directly to purchase this kit. My email address is on the right. If you are local to the Long Beach, CA area, perhaps we can meet somewhere to save you the shipping costs. (If you will be attending the scrapbook yard sale at Memory Lane on January 23th, you can email me and I'll package the kit up and have it ready for you there.)

Friendly Reminder

For those of you that are local to Los Alamitos, I'm just reminding you of the scrapbook yardsale this weekend.  Memory Lane Scrapbooking will be having a scrapbook yard sale on Sunday, January 23rd, from noon until 4:00 PM. They are located at 10690 Los Alamitos Blvd, Los Alamitos, CA 90720. (They are located where Scrapbook Depot used to be if you were familiar with them.) If you haven't been in to see the new store, you should. It is simply elegant. Their website is http://www.memorylnscrapbooking.com/.


I'll be there selling our kits, if anyone is local to the area and would like to purchase a kit. If there is one you really want, you can email me and I'll have it all bagged for you, just in case they sell out before you get there.

Hope to see you there.

Wedding Album Kit

Create a memory of your wedding or a loved one's wedding to give as a gift. You receive the Teresa Collins Mr. & Mrs. line including all the papers, transparencies, ribbon, flocked album, chipboard elements, cards & envelopes and alphabet stickers. You also get 2 sheets of black cardstock to create your photo mats and a full set of bling. We've included some die cuts in white for you to spray (using a mist of your choice) or ink (using an ink of your choice) to match your wedding colors.  There is only 1 remaining of this kit, so if you want it act fast.

Remember, all our kits come with written and photo instructions.
The retail value of this kit is $40, but our special clearance price is $30.  Contact me directly via email to place the order, mention you saw the kit on our blog and you will get an extra $5 off each kit (even those not yet featured on the blog). My email address is on the right. You can go to the store via the link in the top right corner of this blog to see each kit and the pricing. If you are local to the Long Beach, CA area, perhaps we can meet somewhere to save you the shipping costs. (If you will be attending the scrapbook yard sale at Memory Lane on January 23th, you can email me and I'll package the kits up and have them ready for you there.)

9th Featured Kit - Document Life

Create a wonderful album to document your life:  your loves, challenges,  hopes, dreams, past, present, everyday, today - your story.  This kit is packed with goodness starting with a Teresa Collins black scallop cover that has been etched exclusively for this kit using a CO2 laser.  You get 2 sets of bling, a pad of Pebbles share & tell journaling cards, Scenic Route rub-ons, Scenic Route alphabet stickers, 2 sets of Teresa Collins page protectors, a set of Teresa Collins die-cut charms,  some Maya Road journaling sheers, and some AccuCut die cuts.  You also get 17 sheets of Teresa Collins papers (some of which have been pre-cut for you) and 2 sheets of black cardstock to create your photo mats.  The album is already bound with a red wire binder for you, so it'll be easy for you to complete.  There is a CD that contains the written and photo instructions included as well.  This kit truly reflects our chunky style with a total of 50 pages. 

The retail value of this kit is over $50, but our special clearance price is $35.  Contact me directly via email to place the order, mention you saw the kit on our blog and you will get an extra $5 off each kit (even those not yet featured on the blog). My email address is on the right. You can go to the store via the link in the top right corner of this blog to see each kit and the pricing. If you are local to the Long Beach, CA area, perhaps we can meet somewhere to save you the shipping costs. (If you will be attending the scrapbook yard sale at Memory Lane on January 23th, you can email me and I'll package the kits up and have them ready for you there.)

Scrapbooking on HSN

For those of you that watch HSN, starting tonight at 9:00 PM PST there will be scrapbooking shoes.  Starting at 9:00PM - 10PM (CA time) - Anna Griffin Paper Crafting; 10PM - 11PM - Scrapbooking Anniversary Party, 11PM - midnight - Martha Stewart Crafts.  And then tomorrow starting bright and early from 4AM - 5AM (remember this is CA time I'm talking about) - Scrapbooking Anniversary, 5AM - 6AM -  Martha Stewart Crafts, 9AM - 10AM - Scrapbooking Anniversary Party, 10AM - 11 AM - Martha Stewart Crafts, 1PM - 2PM - Anna Griffin Paper Crafting, 2PM - 4PM - Scrapbooking Anniversary, and finally 7PM - 9PM - Scrapbooking Anniversary Party.  Don't spend too much.

Happy Tin Can Day

Today we celebrate the tin can.  Can you imagine where we'd be without them?  Cans used for food storage are usually made of tin coated steel or aluminium today.  However, some of the early cans were sealed with lead soldering, which resulted in lead poisoning.  Surprisingly enough, the first can opener wasn’t designed until 50 years after the first tin cans were manufactured! Back in the good old days you had to use knives, chisels or even rocks to puncture your tin and reach the delicious contents.  Production lines are manufacturing over one million cans per day.

So enjoy the tin cans and recycle.

Happy Winnie the Pooh Day

We're enjoying summertime like temperatures here in Long Beach.  I have to say that I'm loving it after all the rain and cooler weather that we had earlier.  Nickers and I have been working in the yard looking after my much neglected plants and enjoying all this fresh sunshine and air. 

Here's a little quote from the bear of the day:
Rivers know this: there is no hurry. We shall get there some day.
Winnie the Pooh
Pooh's Little Instruction Book

Have a great Winnie the Pooh Day!!!!

More new items added to the store

I've been inventorying and prepping for CHA shopping.  Who knew how long it would take me.  But boy does it feel good to have it all organized and actually know what I have on hand.

And as if that wasn't enough to keep me busy, I'm also trying to get my house organized as well.  I'll be throwing things out on eBay - such as Snowbabies, Boyd's Bears and Thomas Kinkade houses.  I'm determined to clean and purge this year; in order words to FINISH (which is my word for the year).  LOL.  I'm trying to be sensible about the process and work on 1 room per month.   How many of you are with me on this?

Win Free Product Before It's Even Available to Purchase

50 people will win a new unreleased assorted pack of Core Impressions pre-embossed paper that coordinates with designs from Basic Grey, Fancy Pants, Jenni Bowlin Studio and My Minds. Eye!!!!  Go here to enter: Link to Win 

8th Featured Kit - Good Times - Updated with Photo of Kit Contents

A fun mini to record your "Good Times"! This kit is packed FULL of product. 2 full alphabets, rub ons, American Craft stickers (a full set so you can change the year from '08 to 10 or 11), 3 colors of bling and lots of fun buttons and accents. Put together a book to record all those "Good Times" so they are never forgotten!  As always, there are photos and written instructions and everything is pre-cut and in order for easy assembly.

The retail value of this kit is $40.  Our special clearance price is $30. Contact me directly via email to place the order, mention you saw the kit on our blog and you will get an extra $5 off each kit (even those not yet featured). My email address is on the right. You can go to the store via the link in the top right corner of this blog to see each kit and the pricing. If you are local to the Long Beach, CA area, perhaps we can meet somewhere to save you the shipping costs. (If you will be attending the scrapbook yard sale at Memory Lane on January 23th, you can email me and I'll package the kits up and have them ready for you there.)

Photo of kit contents:

7th Featured Kit - Sweet Memories Kit - Updated with photo of kit contents

Create a fun album to give to someone sweet or keep to hold all your sweet memories! This kit features a Maya Road cupcake album, lots of colorful and fun patterned papers, bling rub-ons, letter stickers, chipboard letters (full set of Maya Road), chipboard cupcake shapes (one of each that comes in the set) and more! Tons of product are packed into this kit!! You can include photos, recipes, memories... The possibilities are endless for this album to really show all those sweet memories life has to offer! Full alphabets are provided so you can change the title if the album to fit your needs as well.  And as always there are photos and written instructions.

The retail value of this kit is $36.  Our special clearance price is $25.  Contact me directly via email to place the order, mention you saw the kit on our blog and you will get an extra $5 off each kit (even those not yet featured). My email address is on the right. You can go to the store via the link in the top right corner of this blog to see each kit and the pricing. If you are local to the Long Beach, CA area, perhaps we can meet somewhere to save you the shipping costs. (If you will be attending the scrapbook yard sale at Memory Lane on January 23th, you can email me and I'll package the kits up and have them ready for you there.)

Photo of kit contents:

6th Featured Kit - There is No Place Like Home - Updated to Add Photos of Kit Contents

This kit celebrates one of our favorite places.... HOME! Using Teresa Collin's classic black and white products, including her entire Home line (all the papers, transparencies, chipboard, letters, envelope and ribbon) along with bling, felt, stamping, distress stickles and more you will create an album that records an album that records your memories of home. You can customize it to tell your stories of home, record memories of entertaining at home, your childhood home memories, family times, and/or views of your home, etc.! You have two full sets of alphabet letters to record your memories any way you like! This book lives up to our classic style of class: chunky book, precut papers ready for assembly, new techniques (using distress stickles, glossy accents, pop dots for dimension and border punches).  And of course there are photos and written instructions.

The retail value of this kit is $42.  Our special clearance price is $30.  Contact me directly via email to place the order, mention you saw the kit on our blog and you will get an extra $5 off each kit (even those not yet featured). My email address is on the right. You can go to the store via the link in the top right corner of this blog to see each kit and the pricing. If you are local to the Long Beach, CA area, perhaps we can meet somewhere to save you the shipping costs. (If you will be attending the scrapbook yard sale at Memory Lane on January 23th, you can email me and I'll package the kits up and have them ready for you there.)

Photos of kit contents:

5th Featured Kit - Baby Boy Love - Updated with photo of contents

So our next featured kit is our Baby Love album.  We only have the blue baby boy one left.

Create a wonderful keepsake album full of precious baby photos! This album will house AT LEAST 40 photos including both 4x6 and 5x7! With two mini albums inside this album, there is plenty of room to place all your favorite photos of a precious little one. Using all of the Teresa Collins baby line including papers, album, transparencies, note cards, envelopes, chipboard and letter stickers, along with two sets of bling and lovely silhouette cut designs you will create a wonderful keepsake ready to house your memories and photos! Pre-cut papers are kitted in order for easy assembly.  As always, there are photos and written instructions.

The retail value of this kit is $42. Our special clearance price is $30.  Contact me directly via email to place the order, mention you saw the kit on our blog and you will get an extra $5 off each kit (even those not yet featured). My email address is on the right. You can go to the store via the link in the top right corner of this blog to see each kit and the pricing. If you are local to the Long Beach, CA area, perhaps we can meet somewhere to save you the shipping costs. (If you will be attending the scrapbook yard sale at Memory Lane on January 23th, you can email me and I'll package the kits up and have them ready for you there.)

Forgot to add photos of the contents to this kit:

New items added to DYSI store

We've added some new products to our store.  I have a limited supply of these items on hand, so if you are interested in any of them please order early.  There are some stamps, Thickers, stickers, and rub-ons.  There will be more to come since I am in the middle of an extensive inventory / reorganization project of all our items.

Hope everyone is enjoying their day.  I'm enjoying the sunshine here (even if it is a little cooler than I would like it to be), while my sister is enjoying the snow in Alabama.  We're keeping each other on track with our organizing projects, so thanks sis.

And HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my brother!!!!!

4th Featured Kit - Our Story Album

Our 4th featured kit is Our Story Album Kit. This would be a great Valentine's gift for someone.  The kit is packed full of fun love themed products! Teresa Collins outdid herself creating some great love themed papers and transparencies. American Crafts has some great rub-ons and details felt felt pieces and Thickers letters. Not to mention bling, tags, buttons .... it goes on and on. This album is a black chipboard gate album.  The retail value of this kit is $40.  Our special clearance price is $25.

Contact me directly via email to place the order, mention you saw the kit on our blog and you will get an extra $5 off each kit (even those not yet featured). My email address is on the right. You can go to the store via the link in the top right corner of this blog to see each kit and the pricing. If you are local to the Long Beach, CA area, perhaps we can meet somewhere to save you the shipping costs. (If you will be attending the scrapbook yard sale at Memory Lane on January 23th, you can email me and I'll package the kits up and have them ready for you there.)

3rd Featured Kit - Calendar Kit

Our 3rd featured kit is our 2010 Calendar Kit.  Create a "family" calendar you can scan and print for all your family members. Include a photo of each person for their birthday and anniversary months. Then use colored pencils - of which a set is included in the kit - to highlight the date on the date page. At the end of the year, cut the calendar apart and put the pages into your scrap book. This way you're not only creating a calendar, but a scrapbook. This is one chunky calendar that is made using the Making Memories 10x10 Artisan blank calendar (which is also included in the kit). NOTE *** Our example shows the year 2009 but the chipboard letters are cut out for the year 2011.  If you want to do this calendar for 2012, let me know and I'll cut the "2" for the kit.  Since everything is pre-cut and in order for you, you can put this together in no time.  The retail value of this kit is $35.  Our special clearance price is $25.

Contact me directly via email to place the order, mention you saw the kit on our blog and you will get an extra $5 off each kit (even those not yet featured). My email address is on the right. You can go to the store via the link in the top right corner of this blog to see each kit and the pricing. If you are local to the Long Beach, CA area, perhaps we can meet somewhere to save you the shipping costs. (If you will be attending the scrapbook yard sale at Memory Lane on January 23th, you can email me and I'll package the kits up and have them ready for you there.)

2nd Featured Kit - Christmas Advent Drawers

Our 2nd featured kit is our Christmas Advent Drawers Project Kit.  You will decorate a box that includes 25 small drawers (made by Karen Foster Designs). You get a Basic Grey Wassail 6x6 paper pad (of which we have pre-cut enough squares to cover the box drawers) , Quickutz die cuts, buttons and bling! You will be ready to load those drawers full of sweet treats or goodies next Christmas!  There will be remaining 6x6 sheets of paper to use for other projects.  Or you can save the Christmas papers and decorate it for another holiday.  The retail value of this kit is $35.  Our special reduced price is $25.

With every purchase of this kit, I'll throw in a make and take that we designed for Christmas - a little pocket notebook.  It has 18 pages.

Contact me directly via email to place the order, mention you saw the kit on our blog and you will get an extra $5 off each kit (even those not yet featured).  My email address is on the right.  You can go to the store via the link in the top right corner of this blog to see each kit and the pricing.  If you are local to the Long Beach, CA area, perhaps we can meet somewhere to save you the shipping costs.  (If you will be attending the scrapbook yard sale at Memory Lane on January 23th, you can email me and I'll package the kits up and have them ready for you there.)

Studio AE (Ali Edwards) stamps

I had the pleasure of taking a class from Ali Edwards while in Mykonos, Greece this past year.  She is one amazing person and really motivates me to journal more.  She has designed many wonderful stamps to help me with that process.  We have started carrying the Studio AE line (in a very limited quantity).  They are clear acrylic and produced by Technique Tuesday so they are very good quality stamps.

I have the July, October, November and December kits so far.  January should be here any day. 

July - Hello Life

October - No Day Like Today

November - The Journey That Matters

December - Life With You

You can purchase these in our store, or email me direct.