Nash Trash

On Thursday in Nashville, I had signed up for the Nash Trash Tour. First we had a little contest to see who could dress the trashiest. I did not win - shoot I did not even try - but it was fun to cheer. Then we boarded the big pink bus and proceeded to laugh our heads off - those girls are so funny and they had so many great one liners - when they hooted and hollered to the Firemen to show us their hoses, and their celebrity sightings. We also stopped off quickly at the Country Music Hall of Fame - as soon as I walked in I knew that I had to see the whole place.



After the tour, Mel and I hightailed it to one of the scrapbook stores to pick up some bags, stopped at Sonic for some drive in food - LOVE that place my stomach felt funny from sitting in the back of the bus so I just had a chili cheese dog.



And then, we went back to the motherland! The Country Music Hall of Fame was amazing - and I loved it. From Elvis solid gold cadillac to Hank Williams boots to dresses from Faith Hill ( I love the costumes and the embroidered boots) - I was mesmerized. I have not always been a country music fan - I was introduced to it in college. It was the summer that Garth Brooks had the song That Summer. Since 1992, I have seen loads of shows and I do have an appreciation for the oldies. Seeing all of the memorabilia and hearing great stories about country music simply renewed my love for it. I am now a member of the museum which means I can go all I want for free for a year!! and I bought a ton of souvenirs there!

Megan's Luxury Shopping Tour

26 of my closest friends and I boarded a luxury bus (It was a party on wheels) and drank and scrapbook shopped ourselves all over Nashville. We headed to two area stores, Scrapacino and Scrap N' Memories and had a special invite to the warehouse for Scrap In Style TV! The limo was from Signature Limo, our Cutie Pie Driver was Brian. I personaly had a blast!!!

Goody Bag Sponsored by: Inspire Company (Amy made the most adorable travel scrap tins fro everyone), Scrap In Style TV (Jeanette gave us huge goodie bags filled with yummy product), Little Miss Matched (They sent a pair of socks for everyone in the group - look how Catherine decided to wear hers!), By Design sent cute shopping bags for everyone

Door Prizes Sponsored By: Bazzill Basics Paper, SRM Stickers, Making Memories, Croppin Cutie, Treasury of Memories, Cosmo Cricket, Sakura, Glue Arts, Quick Quotes

We ended the day by having a delicious albeit quick dinner at Bound'ry.

Nashville Bound Dog

So I just got back from 10 days away in Nashville. I left out of DC Friday April 11th and drove about 3 hours (traffic 4 hours) south to Steeles Tavern VA to the most delightful bed and breakfast, Sugar Tree Inn. Ernie had arrived a few hours before me and had a fire going in our room when I got there. Within moments, I was changed and in the hot tub sipping on a sweet ice tea. IT WAS PERFECT. From the drive and the long week at work we were both beat and went to bed early. The sheets on the bed were the SOFTEST sheets I have ever felt in my life - I even dreamed that I tried to buy them. IT WAS PERFECT. We got up early and got some breakfast omelettes, baked oatmeal (ok, I'll just say it - neither of us liked that) and we were back on the road to Knoxville - he on the Harley and me in the truck! About two hours later we stopped at Cracker Barrel for lunch. We arrived in Knoxville about 2pm. After all that driving we took a walk along the Tennessee River and had yummy BBQ at Calhouns. Ernie decided we had had enough driving for one day and we checked into the Knoxville Marriott downtown where we were upgraded to a bigger room. We walked to the Mast General Store. On our walk, one crazy thing, we saw a huge cloud of smoke, Ernie ran down to see what it was - a car was on fire. Come to find out, it was a guy involved in a police chase and he crashed on one of the exits. It was all over the news the next morning. Sunday morning, we treated ourselves to breakfast in bed.

Then back on the road again. Through sleet and snow, we made it to Nashville. We arrived at the Hotel Preston 2:30 our time, delightfully 1:30 Nashville time. The Hotel Preston is awesome - we knicknamed it Swanky Town. First of all they let him park the harley up on the sidewalk under the entry canopy! We were again upgraded to a bigger room. We loved it! Oh and get this, it is cheap - like $119.00 a night cheap!

We went to Lane Car Museum, the Loveless Cafe for dinner (the biscuits and jam are every bit as good as they claim.) Then went downtown and hit some of the bars spending most of our time at Coyote Ugly. (Photo courtesy of Sandy Perry cause I did not think to snap one!)

Monday, we got up headed to the harley dealership, out to breakfast, ran a few errands and then went to Cooter's - as in the Dukes of Hazzard. We went over to Opry Mills and literally ran into Mel. We hung out for a little while, played glow golf - which on a Monday during the day was just a little strange. And Monday night, we went to the CMT Awards. It was definately an experience! We were down on the floor but you won't see us among the crowd. I loved the opportunity to see so many artists in one night BUT it was definately a lot of work. Oh and the presenters were bizarre - Tom Arnold and Jewel??

Valentine's Eve

Today 50 dozen roses were delivered to me. You read it correctly - 50! No my boy does not like me that much. Instead, I organized another fundraiser for my friend and coworker Brad Benefiel. I sold roses and bought them wholesale and will deliver them tomorrow. I even stamped up cute little tags to add to the roses. It was a win/win for the guys in my office cause they helped a great cause and scored points with their sweeties!

Are these not the cutest thing?

So Stacy shared LittleMissmatched on her blog and I loved them but I never really had the need for new socks. Well I showed my wonderful friend Jennifer and she loved them and told her boyfriend he could uy her anything from that website for Christmas and HE DID! So when she came back from Christmas break I was really jealous. About a week before her bithday, she decided that she needed some taller ones and I decided to treat her for her birthday and well it was high time to treat myself too!

Now I am just as cute as the next girl!

a new blog to check out or more appropriately - how I just wasted a lot of time.

Have you seen this blog? Pioneer woman is awesome - the pictures - oh my lord - I literally changed my background on my computer four times on the first page - THEN I saw the rainbow with the shadow and I scrolled through 15 pages of bloggin to find that photo. I LOVE IT. She is funny as all get out, her photos are amazing, and the cowboys definately improve my dull life. I really want her calendar and who knows maybe I'll even cook one of her recipes.

Thanks Peggy! You always know the best stuff!

All good things must come to an end!

Today January 23rd 2008, marks my 6 year anniversary with Stampin' Up! Sadly, at the end of this month I will no longer be an active demonstrator. I am emailing you today to thank you and to make sure that you get any last orders that you would like.

Thank you all for attending workshops and classes, for placing orders, for sending beautiful handmade cards and gifts. I was able to sell over $22,000 of stamps, paper and ink and I loved every minute of it. I made so many new friends through Stampin' Up! I attended 3 fantastic conventions, Kansas City, Las Vegas and Salt Lake City which were a blast and I learned so much.

If there is anything that you would like to order at this time, please let me know right away and I will get all orders placed and shipped out to you. I do not have any of the new catalogs but I will be happy to order one for you and ship to you. The cost for that is $12.75. You can access the online catalog at www.stampinup.com .

Why do I blog?

I know that sometimes it is monthly - but it is nice to just get your thoughts down every once in awhile.

Have you joined up at www.paperbackswap.com ?- I love it and it is not just paperbacks - it is kid's books and hardbacks and non fiction. It would be great to have more scrapbookers on there swappin books. For every person that joins and puts me as a referral, I will send a scrapbook RAK!

What else can I share today? I am really looking forward to going to New York for a crop the end of March and of course Nashville in April. Any Nashville travel advice would be so appreciated!!!

The ornament swap

The rest of the photos are forthcoming! Does this count as an update??

This year I decided to host an ornament swap with all my friends. I sent out an email and invited everyone to participate. It was a 5 for 5 swap - which means you send me 5 ornaments that you create and I send you back 5 different ornaments from other people (this math has confused a LOT of people don't ask me why it works it just does!) Luckily only 10 people said yes and this was a truly awesome swap - I loved each one and of course I adore everyone that participated. First was my girl Kristin from Staten Island - I love talkin' NY wit her. She made the 3D stars. SEE

Then my wonderful and talented friend Amy (you know she owns Inspireco) and we were so lucky to have her join the swap. Do you see how great the packaging is on those babies?

My dear friend Trish - she and I have been stampin and scrappin together for about 6-7 years - she joined us and made this lovely glittery angel.

Susan from NY sent this awesome ornament.

The sisters fabulous - Coree and Babs - sewed the cutest gingerbread man - love him with the quilted fabric - and this filled tussie mussie - is that thing gorgeous or what.

Becca dressed up some snowflakes with chenille and glitter.

Sunny - what a fantasic idea - made little mini books - I can't wait to put pictures in mine and put picttures in them.

Magnolias

I received this story in my email this morning and I love it! It has really made me think. How many times has God given me the opportunity to be someone else's angel? Am I using my abundances as an opportunity for my own ministry? A lot to think about on this snowy Friday.

MAGNOLIAS
By Edna Ellison
I spent the week before my daughter's June wedding running last-minute trips to the caterer, florist, tuxedo shop, and the church about forty miles away. As happy as I was that Patsy was marrying a good Christian young man, I felt laden with responsibilities as I watched my budget dwindle . . . so many details, so many bills, and so little time. My son Jack was away at college, but he said he would be there to walk his younger sister down the aisle, taking the place of his dad who had died a few years before. He teased Patsy, saying he'd wanted to give her away since she was about three years old!
To save money, I gathered blossoms from several friends who had large magnolia trees. Their luscious, creamy-white blooms and slick green leaves would make beautiful arrangements against th e rich dark wood inside the church.After the rehearsal dinner the night before the wedding, we banked the podium area and choir loft with magnolias. As we left just before midnight, I felt tired but satisfied this would be the best wedding any bride had ever had! The music, the ceremony, the reception - and especially the flowers - would be remembered for years.The big day arrived - the busiest day of my life - and while her bridesmaids helped Patsy to dress, her fiancee Tim, walked with me to the sanctuary to do a final check. When we opened the door and felt a rush of hot air, I almost fainted; and then I saw them - all the beautiful white flowers were black. Funeral black. An electrical stormduring the night had knocked out the air conditioning system, and on that hot summer day, the flowers had wilted and died.I panicked, knowing I didn't have time to drive back to our hometown, gather more flowers, and return in time for the wedding
Tim turned to me. "Edna, can you get more flowers? I'll throw away these dead ones and put fresh flowers in these arrangements."I mumbled, "Sure," as he be-bopped down the hall to put on his cuff links.Alone in the large sanctuary, I looked up at the dark wooden beams in the arched ceiling. "Lord," I prayed, "please help me. I don't know anyone in this town. Help me find someone willing to give me flowers - in a hurry!" I scurried out praying for four things: the blessing of white magnolias, courage to find them in an unfamiliar yard, safety from any dog that may bite my leg, and a nice person who would not get out a shotgun when I asked to cut his tree to shreds.As I left the church, I saw magnolia trees in the distance. I approached a house . . . no dog in sight. I knocked on the door and an older man answered. So far so good . . no shotgun. When I stated my plea the man beamed, "I'd be happy to!"
He climbed a stepladder and cut large boughs and handed them down to me. Minutes later, as I lifted the last armload into my car trunk, I said, "Sir, you've made the mother of a bride happy today.""No, Ma'am," he said. "You don't understand what's happening here.""What?" I asked."You see, my wife of sixty-seven years died on Monday. On Tuesday I received friends at the funeral home, and on Wednesday . . He paused. I saw tears welling up in his eyes. "On Wednesday I buried her." He looked away. "On Thursday most of my out-of-town relatives went back home, and on Friday - yesterday - my children left.I nodded."This morning," he continued, "I was sitting in my den crying out loud. I miss her so much. For the last sixteen years, as her health got worse, she needed me. But now nobody needs me. This morning I cried, 'Wh o needs an eighty-six-year-old wore-out man? Nobody!' I began to cry louder. 'Nobody needs me!' About that time, you knocked, and said, "Sir, I need you."
I stood with my mouth open. He asked, "Are you an angel? The way the light shone around your head into my dark living room . ."I assured him I was no angel.He smiled. "Do you know what I was thinking when I handed you those magnolias?""No.""
I decided I'm needed. My flowers are needed. Why, I might have a flower ministry! I could give them to everyone! Some caskets at the funeral home have no flowers. People need flowers at times like that and I have lots of them. They're all over the backyard! I can give them to hospitals, churches - all sorts of places. You know what I'm going to do? I'm going to serve the Lord until the day He calls me home!"I drove back to the church, filled with wonder. On Patsy's wedding day, if anyone had asked me to encourage someone who was hurting, would have said, "Forget it! It's my only daughter's wedding, for goodness' sake! There is no way I can minister to anyone today."
But God found a way. Through dead flowers.

Am I the last person in the craft world to see this?

So my friend Amy emails me and mentions this shopping site Bayberry Cove. So I check it out and fall madly in love with it and want to buy at least one of everything. Then while checking out blogs this week, EVERYONE mentions I bought this at Bayberry Cove and I bought this at Bayberry Cove and I have to think where on earth was I the day they announced that Bayberry Cove was the place to shop?!?!?! But now I know.

In other news, I now have wireless at my house. I know big deal so does everyone in the free world. But I am so happy to lie in bed and check emails and I am already thinking about laying out next summer and surfin the net.

Christmas shopping - tonight I am heading to The Mall in Columbia to get a few things crossed off my list. So excited for the Laurel House Tour with Natalie and Adam on Saturday. It is always so cool to see how real people decorate their homes for the holidays. I always get a cool new idea.

Stumbled upon...

This blog. And the insiration and etsy's links and just yummy goodness. I love it - now why didn't anyone tell me about it sooner.

Creative Escape

After planning for a year, Creative Escape was awesome!! We arrived in Phoenix on Saturday September 1 - almost 35 minutes early - thanks to Southwest Airlines which I personally think ROCKS! Saturday we hit costco, walmart etc planning for our week and stocking up on essentials like rum for mojitos! Sunday we went to the spa at Nordstrom Scottsdale. Erin did treatments for all of us including a vichy shower which was awesome.

Tuesday we did a luxury shopping tour (highly recommend Extreme Limousine ) have Lisa be your driver - she is awesome awesome! We visited Melrose Vintage (a super great store that I could have spent at least another day in), Diane's Ribbon and Notions, Scrap Happy Sisters, Scrapbooks ETC, Swoozies and finished off the day having dinner at Pink Taco. There was 20 of us in the group and it was so much fun!!

Wednesday, we were able to tour Bazzill paper company and stock up on paper and other fun stuff at bargain prices.

One of the biggest accomplishments of the trip was the charm swapp that I hosted. I will admit it was a ton of work - but the end result was phenomenal. Maybe you saw it on Heidi Swapp's blog - my arm is famous - hee hee.

Thursday was registration and the technique boutique. Friday and Saturday were classes all day - I was a rose along with Mel and well about all my other good friends too. My all time favorite class was Soldering with Chris Randall - I loved learning something new and relaly plan to make some Charms and Christmas ornaments with this awesome new tool. My all time favorite teacher was Leslie Safford, and her card class. Being a SU demonstrator for the last five years, I thought there is nothing that I could possibly learn about cards - nope Leslie had cool ideas and they were easy! And she and her hubby and her booth at the Trunk Show - all just delicious. Plus she is a riot - I really love the teachers that are part stand up commediene - they make the class so much easier to listen to. Her "jakie shut your pie hole story" is still funny a month later!

So yeah I have been home a month and just yesterday I finally finished up some of the projects. Still have about 6 out of 8 to complete. Sorry no pics - my camera broke about a week before CE so I just shared snapfish with all my friends.

A Whole Birthday Month

The whole month of July was one big birthday celebration for me! It started by having Fran put flowers on my desk on July 1st. The fourth was quiet - the 7th horrible but I have chosen not to dwell (I'll save it for another post) and then the 14th - my actual birthday was tons of fun! This is a shot of me at the shower, with one of the awesome presents that I received.

We threw a surprise baby shower for my wonderful friend Gaby, her hubby Greg and their new little buddle Samuel.

Then the end of the month, Mel came from Seattle for a visit and to attend CKC in Valley Forge. We managed to hook up with a bunch a friends from Jersey and Long Island and never laughed so hard. Barbie and Susan are hilarious. "Would you like a piece of gum? (for that dragon breath of yours?) We also managed to check out Sunday in the Country and promptly fell more in love with Trace Adkins. We both downloaded a bunch of his songs to our Ipods.

All in all, a great birthday month!!!!!!!!

Where have I been? Where have you been?

Really that is just my funny way of saying I have nothing interesting to report.

Have you seen this adorable button tree - I would love to credit the person - but honestly I have no idea where I found it. Probably one of the 15 blogs that I frequent every day. Really I just wanted to figure out how to add pics to my blog. So well now I can.

Now that I don't have cable at the house, I have been reading a lot. I just finished the Cape Ann by Faith Sullivan. I really liked it and I am usually not into anything historical but it was good, a quick read. Try it and tell me what you think.

Speaking of reading have you all checked out www.paperbackbookswap.com I love it - if you happen to sign up say I referred you - then I could win a big prize like money or a car or probably a book!

That all I can drum up for today.

Why am I glad?

I have so much to be glad for...

Glad I live in a time when a girl like me can have a career (can't spell it but I can have it)

and buy my own house and have good credit so I can have cute shoes and purses

and so glad that I work for a company where we treat people like family!

and so glad that I work with other girls who are nice, and care about each other

so glad that I have friends who make me laugh out loud, and surprise me with little gifts and read my blog and comment (shameless plug)

so glad that the internet and cell phones keep me in touch with people all over the world

and amazingly glad that my mom is my best friend.

and amazingly glad that there are people who get me and all my wackiness.

My heart is broken!

The CW has announced that gilmore girls will not return for a 8th season! My friend Natalie texted me last night to tell me the horrible news. Just because I was mad at them didn't mean I didn't want stolen peaks into their lives. Just because Chris and Lor broke up, and she was heading towards Luke and I didn't approve didn't mean just knowing they were out there was enough.

I'll never get to see Rory get married. I'll never get to see Steve and Kwan grow up. I was so sure that Zack would go on tour for two months and that would turn into something huge for him and Lane. What about Sookie's third child? All these things cannot be wrapped up in two one hour episodes. It worse than someone dying - a whole town is dying. (Again aware of the fact that these characters are fictional and that I could write out their life anyway I want!)

Please CW reconsider - throw some money at this situation - whatever it takes!

Of note!

So this you tube thing - it is great! Today I watched Tuesday nights gilmore girls episode. Now I know that I gave up cable because I did not like the direction that they were going with that show. But still I am drawn to those girls - they are like family to me. (I am very aware as to how pathetic this all sounds!) So back to the episode. LOGAN is going to ask RORY to marry him! And Loralei will always love Luke - wow who figured that out - NASA?

OK so I have some questions - 1. Whatever happened to Lane's dad? 2. What about Emily - was she hatched or something, where is her family, brothers, sisters, a mother?

Oh and another thing, the queen is visiting VA this week? so when someone asks you why you are doing something (special or crazy or whatever) tell them its cause the Queen is in town? How often can you say that?

Super fun shopping weekend!

This past weekend was so much shopping! We started Saturday morning by driving to Leesburg VA to the Paris Flea Market where I got to meet Amy , my creative super hero. OH my her booth had so much fun stuff that I had to have, a beautiful apron, some french rubber stamps, the roll of wishes (I really needed those, how many times have you just needed one wish), a magic wand cause sometimes wishes don't come true and then you need magic, a travel size of glitter, cause into each day a little glitter must fall, and one of the flower girls kits. What a great event! I loved everyone there! Then we hit some of the other stores in leesburg (lou lou,) where I got lucchese boots and they are so beautiful. Then went to Tusky's for dinner and mojitos (my favorite!) - delish!! Finished off the night at the super cool leesburg outlets.

Sunday was the Scrapbook Flea Market, got lots of goodies and then finished out the day by going to a Southern Living party.

Now I just got to work all week to pay for it!

Who cares?

Yes it has been 7 weeks since I last hit the publish button - so long that I had to reset my password because darn if I could remember it. But who really cares? If you do, post a comment and then maybe it will be incentive for me to post more.

Vancouver, Artistry and time with Mel was awesome! Mel's daughter Gracie is the most adorable child - she can seriously run with the big girls. She is always first one in the car because she does not want to miss a thing! We hit the hot tourist spots, the scrapbook stores and costco - all very important places. My class with Claudine was very outside my box but learning the new techniques was cool. Ali was amazing, I plan to add the pictures to her book this weekend and both of the projects with Donna were great!

Easter I am headed to my mom's in Jersey. Hopefully I'll get a peep. Hopefully you do too!