Tag Archives: Sparky

On Lake Time Canvas

Yikes, it’s almost Father’s Day! Here’s a 10 x 10 canvas I made, the tutorial on the Crafty Power Blog for Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L™. I used E-Z Dots® repositional adhesive to hold everything in place with I airbrushed.

Supplies used:

I won’t see my dad tomorrow because I’m taking Sparky to college orientation at

Seriously, when did he grow up?

Yes, we’ve been busy, with this:

Senior Prom

Graduation!

A much-needed vacation in San Francisco!

Happy Fathers Day Dad!

CHA and Catchin’ Up

The insanity of CHA is past, but I wanted to share a bit anyway, before it gets way too late

 (I’ve been swamped with a huge project, and hopefully life will calm down once that deadline has passed!)

It is definitely a lot of planning, work, sweat and even a few tears getting to this:

Bare bones, boxes and crates…

To artwork, product, and decor.  Everyone has a job and it goes fairly smoothly.

It takes a village, so beyond the efforts of the team on the show floor, we have a team at the office, as well as designers and bloggers.

But while we were working, this was going on at home (see the mailbox??)

And then a whole lotta this:

Cathy Chlebana, DT Coordinator, Kim Hupke, Education Director, Kimberly Crawford, DT Member and I were stuck in Los Angeles!  Cathy had the wisdom to book a hotel room by LAX  just in case , thank goodness!  

 Plan S: Shopping!

What’s a bunch of girls to do when we were just a few blocks from the garment district? (I apologize for the fuzzy cell phone pics)

 Beads and baubles and charms!

Boxes and boxes of Buttons!

Walls and walls of ribbon!

More fabric than you could  imagine!

And lots of laughs!

Plan B: The Beach!

The next day we decided to do the tourist thing and caught an inexpensive trolley to the charming little town of  Manhattan Beach. 

It was a beautiful day!

Plan C: Cupcakes!

First stop Cupcakes Couture for breakfast!  Seriously, how could we not?

And it was worth every calorie!  (I had red velvet, YUM!)

Next stop, the beach!

We all took off our shoes, rolled up our jeans and got our feet wet.  The sand was warm, the ocean, not so much!

Thanks Spellbinders, for taking care of us while we were suffering miserably!  The next day it was back to reality and Chicago weather.

 Mother Nature continued to punish us with a cold snap.  Yes, that’s -6  F at 8 am!

And we can’t forget Sparky’s birthday!  He turned 17 last week.  You can see that Cindy loves a good birthday too!

Thanks for stopping by!

Beth

News Updates

It’s been a busy month, that’s my excuse for not blogging.  Actually I do blog in my mind, but it never seems to get to the keyboard.  So pardon the jammies and the cold coffee, here’s the deal lately…

I am back from 10 days in Arizona.  It was a busy trip, which included the Spellbinders Design Team retreat.  We kept pretty busy and I didn’t get much time in the sun.  That bodes well for freckles and wrinkles, but not so much for relaxation and a “healthy” glow on my winter-white skin. 

Speaking of wrinkles {and my lack thereof}, (cue hair flip) I celebrated my 29th birthday {with experience} during the trip.  I still haven’t decided what I want for my birthday, but its been narrowed down to a Canon 50D, Nikon 300s, or keep the Rebel XT and keep thinking.  The teenagers at Best Buy have been, like, helpful. Dude.  As I was stroking the 50D one tried to talk me into a point and shoot.  Really?  So my next stop is the real camera store to see if I can rent one of each to play with them.

While I was gallivanting around Phoenix, little Evan was the jet-set junior himself.  That’s right, he got his ticket to fly and is officially a US Citizen, member of the family and still smiling.  They had a few speed bumps on the way out of China, and somewhat of a journey in health, language and culture, but I’m sure he’ll be just fine!  I will get to see him soon!

I have been pampered since I returned.  Don’t think that’s the norm.  However, I walked up to the front door to this:

I planted tons of bulbs last fall and was afraid I was going to miss the blooms. Spunky, my budding chef, had baked a birthday cake and decorated it.  Sparky came through and did some laundry (no? Yes!)  And Cindy was just plain old happy to have Momma home, as was Pizza Man.

A certain 16 year old is begging for a vehicle, and that has turned him into a very helpful fellow around the house.  A certain 15 year old is begging me to sign him up for driver’s ed, and that makes him a very helpful fellow around the house.  You should see how sparkling clean their bathroom is!  Or maybe not, because that was yesterday. 

Cindy has resumed her security service, protecting us from random bunnies and squirrels.  she’s just happy to go for walkies.

I’ve got a really big announcement coming up, and lots of art, I promise!

Beth