or at least back ;)
I finished and sent my Hall of Fame entry with nary a moment to spare. It arrived safe & well on Thursday at the CK offices. One less thing off my plate. Next was preparing for Atlanta. I got to break in Rick's new luggage set... and it worked perfectly!! The big rollie-bag for clothes & stuff, the medium rollie-bag for scrap supplies and the little shoulder bag for my carry-on stuff. I packed several books to read on my down-time and lots of cute & sassy clothes (many thanks to e-Lan).
My flight for Atlanta left on Thursday at noon-ish... we dropped off Violet at class & Riley at gymnastics (with Miss Valerie) while Mr. Jim drove me to the airport. I was so excited about the plane flight... direct to Atlanta... and it even was showing a MOVIE!!! "Ladder 49" - one I haven't seen yet! I rented the little cheap headphones for $2 so I could see it. On the flight I had an ENTIRE ROW OF SEATS ALL TO MYSELF!! It was AWESOME! By then I was exhausted and decided to stretch out... just for a minute.... and slept the entire way there. I woke up just before the plane made it to Atlanta.... oops! So much for the movie!
The temperature when the plane landed (at 8 p.m.) was 27 degrees....eeeeeeeeeeeee...... I was ffffffffreeeeeeeeezing!! At baggage claim, my bags were the *LAST* ones off the plane. Everyone had gotten their stuff and left and I was standing at an empty carousel, freaking out a little, when the bags popped up right over the side. WHEW!! Took the shuttle to the hotel to meet my roommate, Ursula, whom I have known online for a long time, and also designed for Michael Miller Memories.
The Hyatt was nice - not amazingly swanky, but not bad either. I think I was expecting nicer... but it was actually decent. All our food expenses, etc. were picked up by the company, so we enjoyed some decent meals at local restaurants. Friday we went to a place called "Ted's Montana Grill" which was excellent. Saturday was "Mary Mac's Tea Room" and lots of Southern comfort food. Sunday we attended an awards dinner and the food was awards-dinner-esque. Decent but obviously catered for the masses. Monday was our staff meeting and an EXCELLENT catered meal at the hotel. That one was awesome.
The week was nonstop. We'd get up at 6:30 a.m. and not go to bed till 1:00 a.m. every night! The show was usually 8-5 or 8-6 a.m., but there were all sorts of events after the show we were attending, from meetings to dinners to meeting friends... and, well, you can imagine, I never cracked open my books once. I had a great time getting to know the other Memory Makers Masters, as well as many other people I had never actually met in real life. At the booth I wore pink & green polka dotted jammies and did product demos and make & takes. It was all the talk of the show. :) Everyone wanted my jammies!
Monday I walked the show floor with a fellow Master, Samantha, and the two fo us made some connections. Sam was offered a product line deal from a MAJOR company. There are a couple of companies really interested in seeing what kinds of product line I can design for them (WOW!!) and then another company owner was discussing with us the pros and cons of designing for another company or owning your own and being in control. Either way it's a big decision to make. I wish I knew the right thing to do!! I have a lot of work ahead of me.. I need to get myself going to pitching my product ideas if that's the way I want to go. Otherwise I need to be developing my line and starting a company... lots to think about! aahhhhhhhhhhh
Even thoughI missed my family tons, the week went by tooo darn fast, and before I knew it I was heading on a plane back to Vegas. Once again I had a row all to myself and once again I fell asleep, missing the movie.. this time "Friday Night Lights."
It's good to be home... now will someone help me unpack??!
Thursday, February 17, 2005
Friday, February 04, 2005
everything & stuff
I know I am a procrastinator. Always have been. It's like a sickness. I swear the muse will never hit me before 10 p.m. So, naturally, because my trip to Atlanta for the CHA convention is less than a week away, I am faced with a MOUNTAIN of deadlines, projects, and just general *STUFF* that I reeeeeeally need to finish. Good news is that no matter how much I have to do, somehow I end up getting it done.
The problem?
Since having kids, my impeccably timed Muse/procrastination gene is now not allowing me enough time to get things done. At least that is how I feel. Don't get me wrong, it will still get done. But I am guaranteed to have some sort of meltdown between now & then. Oh wait... I think that's always happened too... *sigh*
So here I am, procrastinating again by blogging instead of doing my journaling on the computer. This is what I am supposed to do with my precious computer time that comes few & far between with the kids. I usually have about 15 minuted in the morning, another 30 minutes midday, and then after Rick gets home in the evening I can have a block of computer time while he entertains them for awhile.
My business cards arrived in the mail yesterday!! They are gorgeous. (I have blurred my address & phone number for security reasons)
I designed the background myself :)
I still need to create my portfolio & resume, work on a circle journal that I am exchanging with the other Memory Makers Masters, and decorate my name badge holder. Oh and I decided last week to officially enter the Creating Keepsakes Hall of Fame (HOF) contest... I have been toying with the idea but had decided not to enter because it's too much stress and too much headache... especially right before the show (entries are due in-house on Feb 11th). Then last week three awesome ideas came into my head and I figured out a really unique texture technique as well... and all of a sudden my hat is in the ring. What's a little more stress in my life? Somehow I think I subconsiously live for the pressure. Really I just can't let a big competition go by without entering. I can't win it if I'm not in it!!
For the next several days I will be surviving on Starbuck's coffee to keep me awake into the wee hours. Should be an interesting ride! I can't wait to see what happens at the end.... ;)
Oh and major thanks to my awesome husband Rick for getting me the amazing HP Photosmart 8450 printer. At least I won't have to worry about printing my photos & layouts at Sam's Club... I can do it all at home... at 3 a.m!
Update on the kids (since I guess you guys want to know about that too...) ~
Riley's talking in complete unintelligible (except by me) sentences. It's hysterical. He also repeats EVERYTHING his big sister is doing/saying. Gymnastics is sooo much fun. He can now do the "bear" and the "table" and all the stretching exercises. He's learned how to dismount off different apparatus with a "stick and finish" move that is soooo cute. Potty training is taking a back burner as yucky poopses the last couple of days has led to a mean case of diaper rash. Violet is really into "reading" things and has about 10 sight words that she can identify regularly (aside from hers and our names). It's so exciting. She'll be actually reading in no time, I am sure of it. I am most proud of this cause I haven't been pushing her to read... this is all on her own timetable.
Alright... computer time is nearly over and I *have* to get this journaling printed out for my HOF entry...
The problem?
Since having kids, my impeccably timed Muse/procrastination gene is now not allowing me enough time to get things done. At least that is how I feel. Don't get me wrong, it will still get done. But I am guaranteed to have some sort of meltdown between now & then. Oh wait... I think that's always happened too... *sigh*
So here I am, procrastinating again by blogging instead of doing my journaling on the computer. This is what I am supposed to do with my precious computer time that comes few & far between with the kids. I usually have about 15 minuted in the morning, another 30 minutes midday, and then after Rick gets home in the evening I can have a block of computer time while he entertains them for awhile.
My business cards arrived in the mail yesterday!! They are gorgeous. (I have blurred my address & phone number for security reasons)
I designed the background myself :)
I still need to create my portfolio & resume, work on a circle journal that I am exchanging with the other Memory Makers Masters, and decorate my name badge holder. Oh and I decided last week to officially enter the Creating Keepsakes Hall of Fame (HOF) contest... I have been toying with the idea but had decided not to enter because it's too much stress and too much headache... especially right before the show (entries are due in-house on Feb 11th). Then last week three awesome ideas came into my head and I figured out a really unique texture technique as well... and all of a sudden my hat is in the ring. What's a little more stress in my life? Somehow I think I subconsiously live for the pressure. Really I just can't let a big competition go by without entering. I can't win it if I'm not in it!!
For the next several days I will be surviving on Starbuck's coffee to keep me awake into the wee hours. Should be an interesting ride! I can't wait to see what happens at the end.... ;)
Oh and major thanks to my awesome husband Rick for getting me the amazing HP Photosmart 8450 printer. At least I won't have to worry about printing my photos & layouts at Sam's Club... I can do it all at home... at 3 a.m!
Update on the kids (since I guess you guys want to know about that too...) ~
Riley's talking in complete unintelligible (except by me) sentences. It's hysterical. He also repeats EVERYTHING his big sister is doing/saying. Gymnastics is sooo much fun. He can now do the "bear" and the "table" and all the stretching exercises. He's learned how to dismount off different apparatus with a "stick and finish" move that is soooo cute. Potty training is taking a back burner as yucky poopses the last couple of days has led to a mean case of diaper rash. Violet is really into "reading" things and has about 10 sight words that she can identify regularly (aside from hers and our names). It's so exciting. She'll be actually reading in no time, I am sure of it. I am most proud of this cause I haven't been pushing her to read... this is all on her own timetable.
Alright... computer time is nearly over and I *have* to get this journaling printed out for my HOF entry...
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