Is it April already?!?!

Yep, and that means new kits coming your way!

This month's Papercrafting Kit is full of bright colors, as you can see. With a mix of papers from Sassafrass Lass, Fancy Pants and Creative Imaginations there is definitely something for everybody. There are some really fun embellishments too - like that sweet metal flower brad with the single rhinestone in the center (I also found some other great brads that have a cut glass look to them). I plan to play a little tonight and post some samples tomorrow!

This month's Project Kit uses the "Top Ten" book from 7 gypsies. I actually used mine as "cards". I found these early 1900's huge dictionaries (3 of them) a while back and have been waiting to use them! I paired them with the Savannah stickers and AWESOME fabric brads from 7gypsies. My "top 10" ,as you can see, is ". . .places I'm usually dreaming of when I should be working". It's a great way to record places and people that are a big part of your life without saying "these are places I like to go and people I love", you know?!!?

This month's Add On really has some great accessories for the main kit (very usable items) as well as a few vintage surprises as usually. And. . . it's under $20!

We are in the process of finalizing some big changes for the website! We will begin teasing the changes soon (promise). I'm pretty excited as we are bringing in some new people, new features, new kits and a NEW NAME!! We love our members and its about time you get the community and incentives you deserve!!

"Violently Smitten"

Thomas Jefferson once said this upon returning from his first trip to France. I found it to be quite appropriate for how I felt after our return from Savannah and Charleston this past week. . .

We started our little road trip in Savannah. Funny thing. . . they apparently have the 2nd largest St. Patrick's Day celebration in the country. I believe there were more then 500,000 people flooding the city when we got into town Sunday before last! Of course we had no idea. We had to keep the kids in the hotel room beginning at around 8:00 at night, but other then that, things were manageable during the day and we got to hear alot of great bagpipe music. We left the day before St. Patrick's day and missed the big parade, but being that we aren't great "crowd" people, it was for the best! SCAD (Savannah College of Art and Design) is there and they own more then 60 of the old buildings in town. As you can imagine it was a very creative community and I was in heaven. This is what I saw on every turn. . .

We went on to Charleston from here and spent two days. The same, but different (hard to explain). I didn't think anything could be grander then the homes I saw in Savannah but Charleston topped it. Beautiful mansion after mansion - lined up side by side along the water. And the most beautiful colors. . .Oh to live in one!!

We toured this house below- 24,000 square feet and filled with museum quality art and collectibles (and they let my kids in there - who, by the way, have been trained well for these situations since birth and were very, very good)!

Ultimately we ended up in Maryland for my brother's 40th surprise birthday, but on the way home this weekend we stopped at Monticello (the home of Thomas Jefferson). Some amazing history there - if you ever have the opportunity you must go.

I'm still trying to get down out of the clouds, but there is work to be done (new kits coming on the first and new JBS products for early May)! Back to business as usual!!

As promised . . .

a few photos of my newly cleaned studio. Planning on having these and more added to the website by the end of the month in a "tour" format. Have a fabulous weekend!!

A Nice Surprise. . .

So as I mentioned, we were in Louisiana this past weekend for a special event with Treasured Memories. We had a great time and certainly packed alot in for one day! I taught Saturday morning and then we were taken to lunch by Matt and Stacy Landry and Amy Muffoletto (to the most wonderful little restaurant in the square at Breaux Bridge). It was really a treat! Before we headed that way however, I had discovered that Matt and Stacy are photographers (and very good ones as you will see!) and mentioned to Matt that I would LOVE if they could snap a few shots of Jared and I at lunch. Luckily they were game and here are some of the results:

As you can see, there were several great backdrops (lots of antique store signs, an old door "graveyard" and even a shoe shine seat where they shot some of Jared alone). I'm not sure there would have been a better place for me in the world! And considering we didn't leave our hotel room in the morning thinking we would do a photo shoot that day, we ended up coordinating well (although a cotton dress with lots of ruffles, albeit comfortable, is not the most thinning option for picture taking)! You also need to know that they did it all in 15 minutes!! Really- I had another class to get back for. Pretty impressive considering they had 50+ great shoots in that amount of time. We have to go back in October with our boys this time so I have already booked another shoot (right guys)?

So here is their website: http://www.stacylandryphotography.com/ and their blog: www.stacylandryphotography.com/blog . You MUST take a look. They are a very talented team (and they don't even know it)! And. . . they have the sweetest little baby girl, Emerson. She is the one in the hot pink tutu!!

Boy I was a lucky girl in the right place at the right time!!!

First Road Trip Destination!!!

I'm headed to Lafayette, LA this weekend to Treasured Memories! My first time to set foot in Louisiana!

While my first class is sold out, I did open up a second class this week where will be making these sweet Pom Pom dangles:

You can actually sign up here at the Treasured Memories website.

I am headed to Texas in April (will post about that next week), to Scrap Etc. and Inspired in May and to Southern CA in June (look for more info. on these events soon).

Speaking of Inspired, the mini workshop schedule opened yesterday. I just looked and my first class is sold out but there are currently (as of 4:00 central time) 10 spots available in the second class after dinner on Thursday evening. We are decorating these sweet little Dennison boxes and making tiny photo cards. It has taken me 4 years to collect enough of these empty boxes to do this class!

And if you are no where near either of these events, here is some inspiration just for hanging in there!

Flea Market treasures from my latest trip - I scored some GREAT photos for future kits!!