looking ahead...

... well i can't believe that CHA LV is only 1 month away! wowizers! it seems that for every step we take forward, i am still taking 2 steps back. we are still recovering from MT right now. i am thankful to all of the patient customers that we have... it was truly a challenge for us b/c of the sheer volume of orders we had at the last show - we are only now catching up. it has been hard - you plan for x number of orders and have product ready for x number of orders and BAM! you get 2 or 3 times that number - then you sit back and say "now what do we do???"

if you could only see us running around like hamsters on the wheel behind the scenes! LOL! deb and i are like non-stop hamsters but now i have to rest a bit with a baby hamster coming next year... and we are starting to learn to delegate. i can still remember when we used to get like 2 calls a week, and maybe 1 or 2 orders a week. well THAT has changed. so we have good friends who help us out now and make it easier. but as a company, the majority of the things we do ourselves - from meeting the suppliers to designing the products to ordering supplies to updating the website to deciding on catalogs and working on the trade shows. the sheer magnititude of all of that is tremendous.

but looking ahead, i will give you a sneak peek of some ribbons you might see in our near future. sorry the scan is poor but i only have some small samples before me before the final approvals are finished - so yes, you do see paisley here - look also at how delicate and intricate the patterns are! the good news is that some of our new ribbon line colors will be matching our old ones! we do see lots more paisley and other top secret designs in our future but this will have to hold you over for now...

have a great new year!

i must confess...

1. i eat cereal out of the box sometimes
2. i can drink pickle juice out of the jar sometimes
3. i don't make my bed every day
4. i don't comb my hair every day
5. i suddenly have developed a fascination with this memory game called sudoku (google it)
6. yes, i do retalitory christmas cards.
7. yes, i do throw away my SBing magazines when i am done reading them (except the $10.99 and up ones, those cost too much to throw away)
8. my house is not too often neat
9. i have 2 drawers of mail left to shred (unless my DH has hid some more which i need to find and then i probably have 4 drawers)
10. i rarely read books of fiction

...but you know what, all of that isn't important. it is being thankful for what i have and my blessings each and every day. my DH and i support a couple of causes that we believe in. that is important. we have been blessing with many things and we believe in sharing - the one thing that we support all year is samaritian's purse (http://www.samaritanspurse.org/). from packing some shoe boxes to a financial support, this is important to us. it is important for us to remember not to look at what those who have more things than us but remember those who do not have what we have.

it is often that sometimes items 1-10 on my list short circuits the other stuff - the important stuff- and i have to remember what is truly important in life.

decorating...

... david and i are not much for house decorating nor holiday decorating. you see, we come from a long line of pack rats of the worst kind - those that have know what it is like to be poor and do without and so they tend to keep things - old sauce jars are rewashed and used again- i can still remember having to use napkins that we might have gotten from burger king when we picked up something to go and we actualy halfed the napkins for use - even when we had company...

...so as we started our own family, we tried our hand at decorating our house and decorating for the holidays. i would say we have been about 60% successful. but a 60% success for a pack rat is a 100% effort. we know we can't keep up with our neighbors for lights and other outdoor effects but for the last 2 years, this snowman and bunny has been decorating our lawn for Christmas (notice the scarf i tore from a fabric swap for the bunny - he is quite the fashionista - last year he was wearing reindeer horns from the pet store).

... but to complete the look, we also have like this mega SPOTLIGHT that shines from across the lawn onto our snowman who is only like a foot tall (maybe 2.5 feet with the stake) and the bunny - all at night. i am sure our neighbors think we are crazy as they have the 9 foot tall blowup snowman or santa or sparkly deer but we rather like our simple decoration. it also doesn't take up much space in the attic so we have more places for the pack rats genes we still have left.

sacrifices...

... well i have about 6 months to go in my pregnancy. i am really surprised at how much i have given up and also how easy it has been to do so! i was thinking today about what i have given up - sushi (raw stuff), lunch meat, a lot of fish, diet cokes (instead of 5 a day, i am down to maybe 1 every 2-3 days), advil, pepto, good skin, running so that my heart rate is above 150 bpm, soccer, some tight fitting jeans and my waistline. oh well a lot of that will come back one day. one thing that is some what significant to me that i have given up is my belly ring. this is something i have had and not taken out for the last 10 years (except for an MRI). i can still remember being back in college after a particularly tough set of finals, my best friend and i deciding to get something pierced. i decided on a belly ring and he decided on a tongue ring. it is hard to believe that was 10 years ago! and i guess 10 years ago it was a big deal to me. but i took out the belly ring this week on the advice of my doctor.
... i definitely will be making a page of these sacrifices for my baby. she (or he) is worth it...

as promised, i have a RAK to give away! the first one will be of these beautiful ribbons PLUS a flower chipboard book. the book isn't pictured but trust me it is FABULOUS! all i want to see is something that you have done with a MR product. you don't have to post it here - you can send it to me at info@mayaroad.com . this isn't a "who-made-the-best-thing" - i just want to see what you have done. it can be as simple as a ribbon tied onto a page or a shrine of maya road products.

we will pick a winner on saturday 12 CENTRAL time - so post here your gallery or email me a small image! good luck!

congrats to pierides~

thanks to everyone who voted - my DH randomly picked a LUCKY WINNER of the photo contest (he had asked if he could pick it based on who had the sweetest comment on his photo but i nixed that idea) - the winner is pierides!

be sure to look at my blog tomorrow for another sweet new MR prize with a challenge for ya!

and the winner is....

...well i have counted and recounted the votes. this is a CLOSE one - possibly closer than the 2000 presidential elections but the winner by 2 votes is photo number 2

and who took this photo? well the braggin' rights go to my DH, david. we might have to have a rematch soon. i will post the winner of the RAK tomorrow...

... it was a lazy weekend for me. did some work and lots of sleeping and i even went to the spa today. i am not typically a spa kind of girl b/c i am so cheap but my DH knows that if he gets me a GC, i will use it esp. if it is set to expire. so i set off for a facial and pedicure. now i think that the last time i got a facial was like 2 years ago but man, i felt like a kid going to the dentist and the dentist asking if i brushed and flossed every day and the dentist chiding me for not flossing well enough. ok, so i know i need to exfoliate more than the 1x a week that i do. i guess i will try better next time - all for the good of my oily pores...

thanks again for all of those who voted. my DH wants to thank all of those who voted for him. he took this photo in the rose garden in portland with our canon powershot.

these sure are pretty...

...well unfortunately, the jeg lag is still kickin' my butt. sigh. good news is that i got to spend some more early morning time working and some late afternoon time sleeping. they say that for every hour of time change, expect 1 day to get back into gear. so that means i have like oh 9 more days before i get back to normal...
... speaking of normal, i REALLLY need to get back into a regular exercise schedule. i did go to the gym this week and have make plans with a running friend for tomorrow (so there is no backing out there) but with the pregnancy and short daylight hours, my body can feel it... so i need to get back into it soon.

... in the news of MR, the good news is that one of our large shipments arrived today! FINALLY (this was the 40, no make that 45 day) shipment that was supposed to take 21 days. all i can say is YAY! we will be inspecting everything tomorrow so keep your fingers crossed on that.

but some goodies i wanted to share are some of these CITY heart and round ribbon slides we have! i pulled these out today just to show you - aren't they just pretty? i can't decide which ones i like better - the lifesaver-ish ones or the heart ones. they come in 7 mono-chromatic color schemes to match all of our new CITY ribbons. sometimes i think they are too pretty to use! LOL! when we were in Hong Kong, i got to see my cuz, amanda, whom i haven't seen in about 2 years. amanda is a hip, young "uni" (australian word for college) student in Sydney. she had no clue as to all the goodies we make at maya road. so i showed her some of our ribbons and slides. amanda is not into scrapbooking but totally into jewelry making. but in the end, she told us she loved our stuff and we left her with yards and yards of ribbons and some blossom slides! we might make a convert out of her yet!

the upside to jet lag...

well i am sad to say that my time clock is still screwed up! argh. i think i slept from 11:30 pm to 3:30 am and then got up and did some work and at 6 am had a weird pregnant food craving - for banana peppers! so i popped a couple of those down and decided to make some christmas cards.

i have seen some very lovely ones posted on 2Ps, etc but i decided to go retro and old skool this year. i had bought like 6 packages of these christmas card bases after christmas one year at 75% off (that is me always the bargain shopper) - well this is the year gosh darn it that i was going to put them to use!

so here is one of my card creations. white sharpie, leftover brads, card base and jet lag induced! i managed to make 8 of them in 40 minutes - not too shabby and each one is different. some have snowflakes, some say "jolly", some have a snowman - all have the same brads (which seem to multiply in my drawer).

i figure 7 more nights of jet lag and i am done with my cards! might even get some valentine's day card done too!

thanks for everyone who has voted so far in the photo contest. i again heard my DH and SIL talking smack about each other last night and tallying votes to see who was ahead... LOL!

a confession....

... we got some of our first christmas cards today and i have a confession - i sometimes am a retaliatory christmas card sender - that means if i get one from someone who i didn't send it to, i will retaliate with a card. bad huh?

anyhow, this pic is a scan of the chipboard set i am giving away for those who are in the drawing for the RAK - this baby was hand carried all the way from asia - over 8000 miles so please excuse the bumps and bruises it might have gotten on the journey.

as i mentioned before we are shipping these out starting this week. and boy was it a journey to get them here. planning for orders is NEVER easy - for example, the estimated time for one of our shipments was 21 days to sail from asia. well it is over 40 days now and we are just getting it this week. sometimes it is hard to explain that to someone who is anxiously awaiting their items. we feel your pain.

same here with these chipboard. b/c of the timing of some other items, a lot of these are *just* starting their journey from asia. but b/c we are working hard to meet committements, we had a bunch of these air freighted here. that's right, we had them air freighted. now if you haven't priced air freighting these, let's just say we could fly a person first class to asia a couple of times for the cost of having them air freighted here. so it is all about give and take. but they are here! and happily we are shipping orders now...

brrr...

it is COLD here in TEXAS! moving to the south really softens you - i don't imagine i would do well in NYC weather in the winter anymore...

thanks to everyone who has voted in the contest so far. i did forget to put my email address so if you want to email me your snail mail (just in case you win), you can but if you have voted and haven't yet, i will still post the winner's "name" as it appears in the contest - so make sure you are on the lookout for that after the contest is over! email me at info@mayaroad.com

last night there was a lot of trash talkin' between my DH and his sis about their photos already so we will see what happens.

i will post a photo later today of the prize and tell you a story about planning for these chipboard sets...

a contest and a RAK!

i had meant to do this before i left for asia but time caught the better end of me. my DH and his sister patti took me up on a challenge when we were in portland - who can take the best picture. i told them both i would post on my blog a picture from the both of them and let you all help me out by voting. i won't tell you who took which picture or with what types of cameras...

here were the rules for them - 1 picture, no digital altering. and if you are so kind as to help me by voting on one, i have in my hand a set of our hot new chipboard which are shipping out this week to stores! i will RAK one of the ppl who participates in this voting. all you have to do is to post to my blog before THIS saturday at noon central time. and then email me to tell me you voted (so i can contact you if you are the winner of the RAK).

so without further adieu, here are the 2 photos.

photo 1:

photo 2:

PS - the winner of the photo contest will just win braggin' rights in the family.

can i just say...

JET LAG sucks! it is like 6 am in asia and i am pooped out of my mind and i even took a long nap already. need...to...make...it... to... midnight... and then plop into bed...

PS.... if you would like some new MR goodies (or a chance to win them) - check my blog tonight!

calamities of being pregnant...

i need to share a pic with you but i haven't had a chace to take a pic yet - during my trip to asia, i broke my favorite jeans. my baby gut popped the rivet where the jeans buttons together (insert sad face) and i ended up having to safety pin my jeans together throughout asia. i don't know how i am going to fix these jeans of mine...

well my tummy has gotten to the point where that is no longer an option - i have dunlap syndrome (my tummy "dun' lap" over my jeans)! so today was the day i FINALLY pulled out the maternity jeans i had been squirreling away for the last month and a week. WHY DID I WAIT?!? i should have taken these comfortable puppies out weeks ago!

ahhh, now my baby gut can hang freely in all its glory and i don't have to have dunlap syndrome. and the good news is that with the elastic in place, these will probably last me to month 8 of my pregnancy.

business with pleasure...

well we are back - all of us from MR - the partners. it was a good trip - we got to handle some business. my DH got a chance to visit the plant he works with at his full time job to handle some business and we got a chance to spend some time with my grandma and various relatives - some who live in hong kong, some who live in australia came too.

in a period of 11 days, we left texas, went to hong kong, left hong kong, went to singapore, left singapore went back to hong kong, left hong kong and went into china, left china and back to hong kong and came back home. in the meantime, we even made a thanksgiving dinner (complete with turkey!), ate some excellent food and got a chance to plan for next year.

and a side note on next year, i have to stay mum for a bit about what we are planning BUT i can can say that you will see some very very cool ribbons from us that is unlike anything we have done in the past - VERY COOL - also, we have some cool tins that we plan on having out that are both functional and very afforable (that's all i can say for now).

and i think that we are all very tired - from all of the visiting and planning. deb and i will get into it when we are both stressed out- no more knock down drag out fights but more yelling but again we get past it and we move on to better things. overall it was a very good trip.

but along with all of the good things, we had to reject a shipment of our foam stamps. we are having them ALL remade as deb and i were not happy with the quality of what we saw. so for you looking forward to the stamps, they won't be ready for another 6 weeks. we feel bad about that but we would rather do it right the first time than have to recall everything we had done. this is our name on the line.

so it is back to work - for those who have emailed or called, we haven't forgotten about you and will get back to you in the next two days.

with that i must call it a night!