I am in love with this camera…I can’t believe how much better my pictures are.  I’m GOOOD….and I wasn’t getting to see how good with my point and shoot.  So, here’s to my amazing hubby and the people who made my Nikon D60. 

He just called to tell me that my Tracy Joy bag and Sugar Plum Baby camera strap came today! And……my www.minted.com design sample came too! They thought I’d want to see what my card looks like in print! I’ll have pics to show you of all of this goodness later on!

I have dabbled with MySpace and Facebook in the past, but they never really held my interest for long.  I usually only log in to my pages when I get a “so-and-so has added you” email.  That has all changed….I have recently reunited with several old friends that I haven’t spoken to or seen in years (some as long as 10 years!) and it is just stinkin’ amazing to me.  I love how Facebook does this “People You Might Know” thing and helps you see who matches up with several of your friends.  I know I’m not explaining it well…just go check it out yourself if you’re at all interested.  \

Ok, I know I had a reason for telling you this.  Ahhh, yes…Shauna Sever.  She also has a really cool recipe/food blog thingy called Piece of Cake.  At the risk of getting too nostaligic, let me fill you in on the story of how I know Shauna Sever.

As a college freshman, I lived in a co-ed dorm that divided the boys and girls by alternating floors.  At least I think it was alternating…hahaha! I know Joey, Doug & Duran, and Don lived on the basement floor.  I’m pretty sure a few other girls who were fellow special education majors lived on 1st floor.  Not sure about 2nd, and I know boys lived on the 4th floor.  So, that leaves 3rd floor.  3rd floor U-Hall was the scene…the friggin’ place to be, dudes.  Seriously.  We had such an odd mix of girls…preppy, grungy, studious, flunky, straight-laced, party animal, boy-crazy, rich, poor, athletic, lazy….you name it, U-Hall 3rd floor had it.  We even had a former Miss Illinois living on our floor (I think – maybe she lived on a different floor and just had friends on 3, but I’m pretty sure she lived down the hall around the corner). I will admit (with mixed emotions) that I probably fit in to almost every single one of those categories at some point during my freshman year.  Well, I fit into all of the categories except beauty pageant winner, rich, straight-laced, and flunky (that came later in junior year…ack!).  Shauna also fit into a lot of those categories. 

At first glance I never would have guessed that Shauna and her roomie, Linda, would have been people that I would have enjoyed hanging out with….and I’m pretty sure they probably thought the same thing about me.  Hahaha! But, that’s the cool thing about freshman year, I guess…you take chances and get to know people that you normally wouldn’t have had the chance to know.  Shauna and I weren’t those friends that did everything together or shared clothes….but she was one of those friends that I knew I could always hunt down for a late-night heart to heart or just a little silly goofing off if need be.  Linda and Shauna called me Jodeci – one nickname that has actually stayed with me in some of my college circles. 

So, see? Facebook isn’t just a silly way to send cupcake hugs and cyber-poking your friends in the chest….it’s a great way to reconnect with those friends that you might never have crossed paths with again.   So, Shauna, my homegirl…if you read this, congrats on the pregnancy and all of your MANY successes.  I always knew you’d be famous….ever since that big audition you left for and made me swear to GAWD that I wouldn’t tell anyone what it was for.  Peace out, homies….go check out her blog! She has some great recipes and is a great writer….you’ll be entertained even if you don’t like to cook.

I’ve been meaning to blog about new recipe ventures for a few weeks now…I even have pics saved and recipes ready to type out.  So, thanks for the inspiration, Shauna.

Oh, and mad props to 3rd Floor U-Hall.  

CHA Related Jibber-Jabber and Photos

Here is a great photo of the amazingly talented and all-around awesome Mark Montano! The picture I got of the two of us together is a terrible pic of me, so I’m not showing it.  It’s hard to look cute standing next to him, anyway…he is just adorable, isn’t he?  My cousin, Stephenie, wants to put him in her pocket.

One thing I totally forgot to mention about CHA was the fact that I also got to meet and chat with Jennifer Perkins! She is awesome in all of her vintagey, jewelry-making glory! I had a blast at her Make-n-Take and have really enjoyed reading her blog since I’ve been home! I’m also excited to start spending WAY too much money on her goodies…she sells really sweet vintage, revamped jewelry and accessories in the Naughty Secretary Club Store.  She also has a great new book out –  details on her blog!

Here she is with another designer at the make-n-take booth:

In addition to all of her crafty talents, she also has a lot of marketing and business smarts…and she shares some of that info on her blog.  Here’s a great post regarding Indie Businesses! Ok…obviously I think Jennifer rules.  On to other CHA schtuff…

Here are my pics of Heidi Grace doing personalized doodles at the Fiskars booth! She is such a wonderful designer and also a very sweet person!  It was an honor to meet her!

Here’s the really nice lady who helped me make Lily’s Hello Kitty necklace (her “most favorite soob-a-near” that I brought home from CHA)! I was such a pain while making this – I didn’t follow directions well (imagine that) and kept making mistakes…and she was so patient and helpful! The necklace turned out great – you can see it in the pic, too!

I also made my niece, Olivia, a onesie at the Pentel booth! That booth was another one of my favorites – tons of cool pens and markers to try out!

Ahhh, yes….Angela! She was the one and only person I met at CHA (other than my relatives) who had heard of Jodie McNally Designs! She is also a lead Fiskateer and a LOT of fun to hang out with! Her blog is over in my blogroll – it is highly entertaining, so check it out!

Speaking of Fiskars…I saw the Rock, Paper, Trimmer! It really is pretty cute and *insert subtle hint to my cousin* I can imagine myself using it a lot at school or for hybrid stuff and card-making. 

New Puppy!

Yep…you heard me! We got a puppy…a little terrier mix named Addy (short for Addison – GO CUBS!) that we adopted from Guardian Angels Animal Rescuers. Our older dog, Sierra, was not exactly thrilled with the idea of a tiny, playful pup…but after a few days, they have become best buddies! They can’t go outside without each other, they wrestle around and play together, and they love going on walks together.  The best part is, they match! Reddish-brown heads, black/white spotted bodies, and red-spotted feet.  Here are some pics of our furry family members:

Ok…I’m off to bathe my child and get her ready to go to Mimi’s house.  She is spending the night (possibly two nights) there, so she is excited to get a move on! I will be back tomorrow (maybe) with some pics of an awesome hybrid gift I made for my niece’s baptism yesterday! Have a great Monday!

Now, for those of you who don’t know who Stacy Julian is…crawl out from under your rock. JUST KIDDING! She is awesomely talented and super friendly! I am excited to see that she is interested in bringing the digital side of scrapping a little closer and making it not-so-scary to those who have yet to try it! To see what I mean, check out her post here.

So, now for the story:

There I was…working at the Cloud9 Make-n-Take station at CHA.  We were making adorable luggage tags and chatting away.  A very familiar lady walks up and asks me a question that I didn’t know the answer to (shocking, I know!).  So, I go over to my cousin, Stephanie, and get the answer.  She asks me who wanted to know and I tell her it is “someone over at the Make-n-Take” and that if I needed to know anything else I’d come back. Keep in mind – while I was gone talking to Stephenie, a few people had made a big deal about seeing Stacy Julian and getting photos with her….I didn’t see all of that, though.

Sooo, I come back, tell her the information, and then the rest of the convo goes something like this:

Me: You look sooo familiar to me! What’s your name?

Stacy Julian: I’m Stacy Julian.

Me: (red-faced and laughing nervously) Oh my gosh! I can’t believe I just asked you who you were. You’re Stacy Julian. (Or something close to that – whatever I said…you betta beleive it was nervous rambling!)

Stacy Julian: Don’t worry about it! You know what’s really great? You were so nice to me *before* you knew who I was…so that says a lot about you.

Ha! I didn’t feel so bad after that…thanks to Stacy for being cool about me not being cool. LOL!

Anyway, check out her blog and her work…she is a cool person! (And I got to meet her!) Now, if only I’d been calm, cool, and collected enough to think to get a pic with her! LOL!

Oh well…maybe next time!

I took her to Starbucks today for breakfast…she loves going through the drive-thru with me, but we’d never gone in for breakfast, so it was super exciting and fun! We even found a few bargain tumblers and I grabbed one of the insert tumblers – so I’m going to make mine tonight or tomorrow.  Sadly, it is going to be a S.O.S insert – Save Our Starbucks – because it is one of the stores on the chopping block.  Sad day.  There is a very large petition already, and I’ve offered my services to help make posters, postcards, or whatever they need.  I’m also going to make some extra copies of my insert and drop them off so they can give them out to people with the create-your-own tumblers! I know it probably won’t change anything, but it is at least worth a try, right? It hasn’t even been open a year and it is the only one for about 45 miles. What are they thinking???? Give us a chance, people.  Geesh!  My hubby wrote a great letter to the company…he is such a great writer! I’m taking a copy of it in so they can hang it up with the petition. Ok, I digress (for now)…on to the rest of the day.

I received my prize check from www.minted.com today! I’m official – my design was chosen as a runner-up in the Holiday Card Design Contest and it will be sold there this holiday season! Thanks to all who voted for me! I’m working on my next design submission for them now, so I’ll keep you posted.

Today, I bought my hubby a new grill.  He has wanted one for a long time and our old one was starting to look a little gross…LOL! He is so excited! We found a great one at Lowe’s and it was on sale.  After our great nap, we played some Elefun, dug through my goodies from CHA, and just chilled…which had to done inside because it was disgustingly hot and humid today.

I promised I’d talk a little bit about some more of the great stuff from CHA, so I’ll do a little of that now…I’m still kind of burned out and exhausted from the weekend, so I’ll make it quick.  Don’t get me wrong…I had an amazing weekend…it was just a little overwhelming!  Here are some of the awesome new things I had a chance to see:

Bo Bunny has some amazing products! I am sooo in love with their papers and they use a lot of my fave fonts for their stickers and word arty stuff.  I had the chance to talk with the owner and she was an awesome woman who was excited to hear about how we (meaning digi-scrappers) could use her products in hybrid projects.  That was pretty refreshing because I met several people at CHA didn’t really get that I didn’t have to be *just* a digi-scrapper or *just* a paper scrapper.  So, my chat with her was very encouraging! Some of my favorite Bo Bunny discoveries are: Splendor Collection, My Darling Collection, Beau Jardin Collection, and their Word Albums!

Another favorite was the My Mind’s Eye booth! The Laundry Line Collection (by Jen Wilson…is it the same one from digi-design??? IDK!) is just absolutely luscious! I simply could *not* stop touching the papers.

I also really loved some of the new Crate Paper Collections: Mia, Prudence, and Lemon Grass were my favorites! The colors were just perfect!  

The new stuff coming out from October Afternoon is sooo cool, too! The Fall and Holiday stuff is just adorable!

Ok, I’m exhausted and drooling now that I’ve revisited all of this CHA goodness….I just saw a Mojito commercial that reminded me of my new BFF, Jane Hasty (see my CHA post from July 19 for more info), so on that note, I’ll sign off for tonight. I’ll keep adding more CHA stories and goodness this week…and yes, pics will come soon!

Confessions of a Pioneer Woman is one of the most entertaining sites I’ve seen….like EVER.  I love the way she writes and the photos are amazing…not to mention the awesome contests she hosts.  I almost didn’t want to blog about it – it might make my chances of winning even lower than 1/6,000.  Bah!  I wish I had a tenth of her readers! I will admit that my blog isn’t quite as interesting OR as profitable as Pioneer Woman’s.  At least I have someone to look up to in the blog department.  Pioneer Woman, you’re my hero! 

Maybe I’ll do a Pioneer Woman themed word art pack! Oh my gosh…if she even reads this and wants a pack…I’ll croack! Soo, if you’re reading this and you happen to know Pioneer Woman – tell her I wanna make an “On the Ranch” Word Art Pack in honor of her greatness!!!

Peace out, yo…have a great Monday.