FIVE...

well in about 1 week, my DH and i will have been married for 5 big years. so what do we graduate to on this annivesary? aluminum? crystal? i have to look it up. we aren't doing anything really special - my dream would be to go to bora bora but we will wait on that. we might take a trip later in the year. i can't believe it has been 5 already. i need to get started on our present.

the pics you see here are some of the presents from the last 5 years we have given each other "momento" wise. my DH made the hello kitty ones (well he has "branded" them hello schmitty and gave schmitty facial hair (with my GOOD CHALK) but it's all good! one year on my BD i even got a schmitty BD cake (chocolate sprinkles for the 5 o'clock shadow).

5 years seems like a long time but it really sometimes seems like only yesterday that we were saying our "i do"s... wow. just thinking about it takes my breath away. a long time but also a moment in time. we have had our good days and bad days. i have made my mistakes and so has he. but we are in this for the LONG haul...

so i need to get creating so i can get this done! and of course i want it to be better than the last four years as i am sure this year will be.

our new website

countdown to next week - we *think* we will have the NEW maya road website up next week! our DT has previewed it and it is AWESOME (as they would say on VH1's BEST WEEK EVER "UPGRADE"!)... so be sure to check it out.

also as i mentioned previously in my blog, i am holding a MR new website contest. winner of a random drawing of ppl who can answer 10-15 questions about our new website will win a $25 MR prize package (or do you want door number 1???)... contest will be for a week and you can just email me the answers.

questions will be easy like "how many CARRIEs do we have on our DT?"

(smile).

rumor has it...

that we are in the latest SB, ETC from BH&G! i haven't gotten my hands on the latest issue but i think our claps, ribbons are profiled in there! yay!

small steps but big rewards. can't wait to see it!

where you came from

this is my grandma. my sis and i don't get to see her very often b/c she literally lives half way around the world. i think she looks AWESOME for being close to 90 years of age (i can only hope to look like this when i am 70). she is a wonderful woman.

she only speaks chinese which at times has made for interesting conversations between her and my DH (his chinese knowledge is about 20 words which include "i will have pepsi"). but she was one of the first ones to accept my DH even though he isn't chinese. which isn't really a big deal anymore but from a culture where traditions, etc. are valued, i didn't know how it would go over.

i can remember as a child, my sister, mom and i would go over to see my grandma for 5-6 weeks at a time. it was my dream vacation then! where could i find all the cutest hello kitty stuff and eat all the chinese food i wanted? 5-6 week trips are out of the question now but we go back to visit when we can.

we were looking at some old photographs my grandma had the last time we were there. some of the photos were beginning to mold from the hot humid weather but she agreed to let us take them back to the US so we could begin the process of scanning them. i could see her eyes dance when she looked at the pictures of her 7 children and from when my grandfather was alive. so many memories...

for deb and i, she is a big part of our inspiration. so here's to grandma!

the little people...

my DH and i don't have kiddos of our own so this little gal you see here is one of the ones we SPOIL ROTTEN. she is our friends' little girl. she has a bit of competition now since she has a lil' sibling but i have to share a sweet story my DH called me about. she got to see my DH today at work (her momma works with my DH) and she saw a picture of all of us from hawaii and she tried to gesture to ask where i was and tried to say my name! what a sweetie!

i am amazed at how much she grows each time i see her even if it has only been a few days! but i am glad she loves to hang out with us.

yay! a GREAT hibiscus day!

it has been well over 100F for the last like 3-4 weeks here in dallas. needless to say my poor hibiscus tree has only managed to pucker out 1 or 2 flower blooms daily (they die at the end of the day bloom wise) well we had a fantabulous shower filled 80 F day yesterday! and i had *8* COUNT-THEM *8* blossoms!

i ran out and took pics already!

will post later.

oh yeah, if you are really interested in some more interesting reading about our business and business in general, check out Deb's blog here:

http://putintoperspective.blogspot.com/

Deb has lots of insight (with her Stanford MBA to top it off!) into this biz-ness stuff!

funky foods

ok i will admit it, i eat funky foods (some of it is cultural) but i like some wacky stuff. so here is a list of my top 10 wacky/weird/funky foods actually like.

1. fried dill pickles
2. grilled cheese and ketchup sandwiches
3. 100 year old eggs (just the sound of those 3 words makes my DH say "bleah"!)
4. jellyfish
5. chinese dried salted plums/prunes (i made my husband's family try this and they about hurt themselves)
6. "raw" straight from the package tofu
7. pickle juice (only a little swig here and there)
8. smelly cheese (the smelly-er the better!)
9. kim chi (not for everyone)
10. raw oysters

yum yum. i am gettin hungry!

match book album

created this today for my youngest still in college BIL to thank him for coming to CHA with us. i hope it is "kewl" enough for him... easy to make with 1 pc of patterned paper and 3 pieces of black cardstock (And lots of scraps!)

i challenge you to do something with your scraps! turn them into something interesting and fun. match books, mini accordian albums, mini keychain albums, mini book albums. think outside of your comfort zone as that is how you will grow as an artist. each time you try something different, it will turn into 10 new paths for you to choose to take so why not try it?

life interrupted...

...back to my post yesterday about life interrupted... it reminded me of the discussion at church this weekend about life and how NO ONE plans for interruptions. people can try but you can't predict the future. for example, i am someone who works out a lot and my health is fairly good but there are no promises that i won't get hit by a car tomorrow. i can't live life in fear like that. life is full of interruptions - the best question is what do you do with them? do you embrace them and challenge yourself and grow? or do you find yourself back in the same place over and over?

...i will be honest, working with MR full time was sort of an interruption. i was at a great job and was pulling somewhere near the 6 figure salary. i was headed somewhere to the top but then came MR and a sort of interruption. it wasn't easy to give up the status quo - to jump into something that while i know fulfills the heart, doesn't offer the safe space.

...but if i didn't do this, where would we be? we reached a point where deb and i couldn't handle this all part way, we had to start giving 120%. so here we are and on we go...

yay! we have outgrown our...

former booth size!

we are up to 2 booths now for Memory Trends! i can't believe we went from 1 small 6' table to 2 booths in the period of the last 18 months. wow. that is amazing... scary but amazing... but we are excited about this and MR has some interesting things coming up soon (*wink).

just wanted to share our joy.

PS we will be in booths 930-929 so stop by and let me know you read my crazy blog!

sadness...

... i just found out tonight that one of my co-workers from my first job as a engineer passed away yesterday... though we haven't been in touch in the last 3-4 years or so, i was filled with an emptiness to remember him. he was a wonderful engineer, joke-ster and cyclist. he was the one who told convinced me to ride my first MS 150 - i can still remember some rides we did together...

this news had me thinking about life interruptions but i don't have the words for that now...

small biz ain't easy

there are many challenges to running a small business - be it your own store, your own design company or your own wholesale company. this photo was from the first night at CHA - we were working on getting catalogs together (or my BIL is) and I am working on the computer. it is late. we are tired but there isn't some magic fairy who does this all for us - ok, not a totally true statement but there isn't one who does it for free.

and so the challenges go:
1. coming up with a product and marketing it - can you make something that ppl will love (not just yourself) and can you market it in a way that makes people buy your stuff? advertising and marketing is a big deal but how do you do it when you are the small fish in a very big pond? you are the first ones that people overlook b/c people love the brands that people know - that is human nature.

then of course how do you do that over and over again with each cycle the expectation set higher and higher for you?

2. growing from the small fish to the medium size fish - as with all small businesses (or most) - the goal is to get bigger. but that in itself is a challenge. the challenge of growing yet being in the black is hard. we can't go out and have 1 million of 1 product made b/c we can't afford it yet the ability to sustain steady growth yet still keep the cash flow going is a challenge.

3. big fish and beyond - how do you handle the 3,5,10 year plans? so many things to think about....

enough biz. off to create...

www.mayaroad.com - contest?

i was thinking today that i would start a contest AFTER our new website is up. deb has been working extra hard to get everything done and we hope hope hope to have it up by next week. and i am not going to post this anywhere else on the web but I AM FEELING LIKE A CONTEST.

so here are my thoughts - i will ask 10-15 questions about our new website after it is up (things like when was MR started, etc) - all the answers will be on the site and the questions will be here in my blog. all you have to do is email me the questions and the answers you find. the contest will last for 1 week. all the people who get the correct answer, will be entered in a drawing for $25 in maya road products (including some of our new stuff!). don't post the answers in the comments unless you want to easily decrease your chances of winning!

sound good? STAY TUNED!

PS FYI, i don't know how many people actually read my blog so this is a good way for me to find out. also, just think, if you are the only one, then you would be a shoe-in winner. also, sorry DT but you can't enter - ya'll get all the latest anyways (smile)

ihop at home

tonight i made "breakfast for dinner" for my DH and myself : pancakes, cinnamon apple chicken sausage and yogurt. what a way to start the evening!

love it.

state of creativity

this is proof i am not a neat creator - you can see my paints, glues, stamps, inks, cardstock, etc all here. this is the state which i choose to create. some might get lost in the chaos but i thrive in it! i don't really plan out pages before hand - i just see what i have laying around and i use those elements creatively in my page - this is not for everyone.

i do wish that i could create in that "pottery barn"-esque environment. but i can't. i do go through and clean up after each LO but i think this is an interesting snapshot into myself. how i thrive on stress on chaos and rise up from it all.

there is no one way to create. accept that and you have won half the battle. what works for someone famous or someone you know might not work for you. i spent many years trying to fit in but i finally GOT IT - it didn't matter. don't sweat the small stuff.

so ask yourself - what environment do i like to create in? standing up? sitting down? - how do i like to do my pages - looking at inspirations? sketching out? just jumping in? - how do i like to organize - neat fashion? semi neat? organizing - what is that?

i know my answer. (smile)

20 simple things in life i enjoy

1. Diet Coke - straight up no lemon, cherry or lime
2. A good sale (i am talking 50% off and higher)
3. Writing letters on my good stationery
4. Creating for others
5. Gum (chewed 3 pcs at a time)
6. Dark Chocolate
7. Groovin' to good music (like Gwen Stephani, Blur, Bad Boy Bill, etc)
8. PPL who "get" my sense of humor
9. Naps
10. A stack of clean paper
11. Sunshine
12. Flowers i have grown in my backyard (roses, hibiscus, etc)
13. Meeting interesting people
14. Running (can't forget that)
15. Thanking God for every blessing in life
16. Cardstock and other random scrapbook supplies
17. The smell of my clean quilt blanket
18. Vaccuming (this is a new one - i think my DH rubbed off on me)
19. Getting mail that isn't JUNK
20. A freshly washed face

DT

i love our DT-they have been part of our great success. so i wanted to introduce you to another one of them - heather b. - she was one of our first promoters even when we were tiny and at our first CHA show in Dallas....

here is a glimpse into her life:
http://www.princessdallas.typepad.com/

rock on.

submitting

you know, i will make a confession here, i used to secretly want to be on one of those big SB magazine "teams of the year"... but after seeing all the talent out there, i decided that that wasn't for me. i also in a small way feel in a funny position about it since i am associated with MR. i know one of those teams specifically says if you are a manufacturer, you can't enter.

but i have thought about it and i can say with clear conscience that i will submit where i feel my talents fit - i see my association with MR no different than someone who designs for a SB company papers, etc or are on their DT. and the fact is that 80-90% of my LOs are not MR - i love our stuff b/c you can DO so many different things with them and complement them to different companies.

what is it about seeing your name in print that is so exciting and enticing? ahhh, a human archetype i believe like traditions (smile)...

PS - the new chipboard shapes are IN ACTION in the LO above. hope you like 'em!

i am evolving....

... i was a big pokemon geek for a while (yes even in my 20s) i had the toys, the game on my gameboy (but no card game for me) i love loved loved it when pikachu evolved into a raichu! and i think that i am evolving into a RAICHU!

last night i attempted a LO - a traditional LO but in the 11" x 8.5" format- i haven't done a real LO in months probably years. but i was getting into an altering rut of sorts so to stretch my boundaries, i jumped in feet first and breath held and i did a LO. when i was done, though, i realized that i almost didn't recognize this style. this was something i hadn't done B4. simple yet funky - something i didn't plan out down to the last 1/16" of the page.

and i think i LIKE it... off to explore more of this evolution...

everything *IS* bigger in TX

and that is the truth. i have lived here for over 8 years and things are bigger here but i love love love it. deb and i were thinking about TX and mega sized when we designed our new bottle caps. they are over 2" in diameter which is twice the size of the caps you see elsewhere today - i put a 1" one next to the one i used to show you the relative size.

people at CHA were asking 3 things:

1. can you flatten them like other caps?
2. what can you make with them?
3. when can i get them?

well i hope to answer all 3 here.

1. can you flatten them?

we had a customer try with a sizzix at the show and they couldn't do it flat so i tried it when i got home. i used a rubber mallet and firmly pounded the bottle cap with equal force in the middle and it did flatten - since it is bigger, you just need to be more careful in how you flatten them. pressure needs to be applied equally according to the laws of physics! *wink*

2. what can you make with them?

as you can see here, i made an accent with them and with MR ribbon and MR chipboard. i also have plans for a crazy cool mini album but need to work on that this weekend. one customer also mentioned you could probably make peanut butter cups in there! very cool idea! i also envision magnets, jewelry and flower centers.

3. when can i get them?

we had an amazing show so most of these will ship late aug, early sept. orders now won't ship til mid-sept.

foam stampin' across the universe...

i don't know why but that wacky "star trekkin' across the universe... on the starship enterprise under captain kirk" song that is only for camp song just bombarded my mind... ahh the days of summer camp with the misquitoes, super skinny pencil legs, bad food, boy crushes...

anyhow, some people have wanted to see our foam stamps we released at CHA this summer so i got some of our samples together to show you what at least 1 set looks like. here is the blossom set (for ribbon/twill). you get 8 stamps that are 1" x 6" in length = perfect for borders and 1" ribbon or 1" twill (which MR just released BTW). you also get this cool kickin' phat tin. no more looking for target document boxes for your foam stamps (or at least the MR ones). all of our other stamps have the same concept for storage.

we have some round and square stamps coming out too. i will show some projects with those next week.

in the meantime, enjoy the pics.

side note - i am TERRIBLE at taking pictures. sorry about that! a weakness i am going to work on!

texas heat

100F temp + leather seats + no shade + shorts = burnt legs and buns in TX. ouch!

journaling...

i first starting keeping a journal in my junior year of HS - b/c i had to for a summer for a honors english class. at first i resented it. i thought it was stupid. but of course, i wanted an "a" in that course so i obliged. and the idea of the journal from the point of view of my HS english teacher (ms morris) was that it wasn't supposed to be one of those " today i ate lunch at wendy's. it was good. i also bought clothes that looked cute" (blah..blah...blah...) it had to be more than that. and it ultimately turned into more than that - it turned into my journal of dreams, fears, self-esteem issues, my "when will i be a butterfly and have boys notice me as more than the math whiz" place to jot down my thoughts... thinking back, some of my journal entries were more like scrapbook pages (we got points for creativity and i remember hot gluing tons of silk flowers to my journal entry)...i went back home a couple of years ago and looked at my journals before i threw them away. i kept thinking to myself "wow, those problems are so small now" and "how can you feel so insecure about yourself". but i am a butterfly now. butterflies still need a place to write notes and conquer bigger fears.

so i made this today - a $1.50 target journal with some of our new MR goodies - the chipboard flower, the flower stamp and our ribbons. simple yet stylin' - like me. easy to make and so nice to see how i can use our stuff to make cool new stuff!

so this is the project of the day - if you want directions, email me!

our website...

some have asked about our website and when we will have new stuff on it. SOON, I PROMISE! deb is working on it. we will be relaunching it with tons of new features. but just remember that most of the work on MR is just deb and me. so priorities come into play but we are happy with what we have.

i will keep you updated!

Constructive criticism...

one of the big draws for me coming to this industry is the upliftingness (is that a word i just invented?) of it all. i love seeing everyone encourage and support everyone else. i think it is awesome but i struggle with it at times. why?

for many reasons - some which i impose on myself and others by the nature of how my life/career has been shaped.

i had mentioned before and even in my profile that i am somewhat of a perfectionist and a "critical optimist" - and i wonder how much of it is part of my genes or the surroundings by which i grew up. even growing up as a child, my parents never had to tell me to go do my homework or study harder to get an "A" - those were things that i did because i wanted to. i wanted to be valedictorian (who can't spell) in my class. i wanted to go to georgia tech and be a chemical engineer. i wanted to be the best at anything i desired to do. i worked on self-improvement. but along the lines of me knowing what to do is the importance of having people who could honestly tell me what i needed to improve on.

that is something that i wish existed more for this industry. not criticism just for the sake of criticism but criticism to make me better- to make MR better- to make my projects better. self reflection can only take you so far as you look upon it with a subjective eye. but feedback from peers, even though it might be hard to hear, makes you 100x better.

in my past life/career, during our year end evaluations, everyone had to be evaluated on what you did well and what needed improvement - didn't matter if you were at the top or bottom, when evaluation time came, you got something (or somethings) that needed improvment. i resisted at first the needed improvement part for myself - part of that defensive perfectionist nature. but over time, that was important b/c it forced me to look at my weak parts and make it better. it is like working out - if you have good biceps but weak triceps and you only work out your biceps, then your triceps will hold you back from your full arm strength potential...

but that is some of the challenges for deb and i with MR. i don't need someone telling us "you suck" - that does us as a company no good. along with all the good praise, i cherish those comments like "i really wish you all could do x,y,z for the website" or "we had this problem with our order" - things that can make us better. many times, it is things that we know in the back of our minds but the absence of time makes it difficult to address but other times, when we want feedback on our products, it is important to hear both the good and the bad and what we can do to improve the bad...

so keep these things in mind - again not easy to hear the bad things but take those constructive bad things and make yourself, your style, your company grow.

Creativity....

i used to be overwhelmed by trying to do 12" x12" LOs. it got to the point where it was even stressful for me to sit down and do a LO... i have 3 albums of 12" x 12" pages but they took me a gut wrenching 2 years to finish! in the last year however, my take on creativity and creation has been different. my motto now is that i don't conform to the norm. i have come to realize that i can create my way. a different way. i tend to enjoy 3-4 projects at once but each one need not be a traditional LO. i love to alter, to make little things - things i can see the end of the road on - mini albums. etc...

so here is one of my latest and tiniest... a 1" spool album. easy to do - leftovers of a spool, hair elastic (laying all over my house from when i come home from running), a coin (glued to the base of the spool), some ribbon (Maya Road new stuff *wink*), a strip of scrap paper, contact photos and nimble fingers...

all this in 10 mins and you are done. yet it is so fulfilling to me - more so than a 12" x 12" LO. something i can look at as i work and know that i created it. that is what is important.

i salute and am awed by all of those that can make those awesome large LOs and i am relieved to finally be able to ACCEPT that i create my way and have my own sense of style.

sugary good to the last spoonful -cereal...

i love these two pics - at our hotel in Chicago, this tony the tiger truck was parked out in the lot. so after a long day, we decide to pose with the cereal celebrities (b/c i didn't get any scrapping celeb pics at CHA). they were gracious enough to oblige us! i think i have a striking resemblance to the dig em honey smacks frog, don't you?

this is making me hungry for some cereal.

more on the CHA show soon...

meeting ppl...

i will be the first to admit it - i am BAD at meeting ppl. i am a true engineer type when it comes to the myers briggs personality test- ISTJ (introvert, sensing, etc. etc.) - trade shows haven't been easy for me - i am terribly shy but with each trade show it gets better. and i am truly amazing at who KNOWS us...i met some very cool people at this show - truly beautiful people including all the gals at fontwerks like kah-mei, mary grace and melissa and the rest of the fontwerks gang (i don't remember everyone's names but i believe rachael and anne were two of them). but people like these kickin' women make trade shows so much easier.

i find that MR challenges me to improve on my weaknesses - speaking to new people - seeing the positives, not over analyzing, taking risks. this has been a blessing from God.

i am inspired once again. just got home at 6 am...

will post a couple more pics from the trip soon.

i heart ribbons ; ribbon hearts me

got ribbon? love it...

another day...

i want to thank everyone for stoppoing by our booth - we had an AMAZING show and we are grateful for how well everyone accepted all of our things. i don't have much to say - i am back to being tired, needing to run and being stinky again so enjoy the pics of our booths.

pic 1 - the "may" and "ya" behind maya.

pic 2 - vanna white impressions

pic 3 - downing escargot - FEAR FACTORR style

pic 4 - our main booth

he works HARD for his money...

small business is tough... here is my BIL helping us assemble our catalogs last night for CHA... the idea of small business is exciting yet lots of work but we have come a long way baby! i can still remember our first CHA show (Dallas 2004 Feb). we had a tiny table in the new exhibitors section. we weren't sure what to expect. so when we planned and were talking about catalogs, we didn't know how many to print... so we printed 100 - yes that is right - one hundred. well thankfully, after about 2 hours of people crowding around our table, we were out. we are better planned this time...

it isn't easy but with each round, it gets a bit easier. we remember to put our booth number on our order forms (otherwise we have to put them on each one). we remember to print out our show specials to enclose with our catalogs. little other things like candy for the booth or aprons with Maya Road on them (including pockets for catalogs and business cards)... so many things to remember - many mistakes to learn from...

it is tough and it has been a fab show. i think that a couple of ppl felt we weren't providing them the needed attention and i want to apologize for that. this show has been so much better than we could have imagined and when there are only 4 or 5 of us, we have a hard time helping 10-20 people. we love that everyone loves our stuff and we are learning so be patient with us!!!

thanks for making maya road a great journey...

hard work..

i don't mind hard work - be it running/ biking/soccer/Maya Road... in fact i relish it but it kicks butt even more when it all comes together! here are some photos from our booth.

pic 1 - me acting crazy after not much sleep...
pic 2 - mendy's dog collar on my panda with MR ribbons
pic 3 - our design team tree. AWESOME...

peace out.

Road Trippin'

... yes, we DROVE to Chicago from TX. not a short trip but a good trip. ppl say that if you take a road trip with someone you love and you make it w/o hurting each other, then you are good to go. well we made it. here is a pic from st. louis after driving all night.

checking in and checking out...

one last post before the journey to CHA - stop by and say hello if you get the chance!

our new alterable coasters. cool stuff for your cool drinks to go on... as always with their own MR tin...

Supersize Moi

too bad my running shoes didn't arrive today(the store was doing inventory and didn't ship out til today which means i will be new shoe-less in Chicago :sad face:) BUT the nice mail person did bring me these puppies (see below) - our new mega bottlecaps! These are 2" in diameter (so twice the regular size of the ones on actual bottles) and they come packaged as you see in our signature Maya Road tin! I can think of so many things to do with these... off to play!

bliss

We only have oh 4 days before the show begins and in this time of madness, I like to calm myself down and reflect on things of bliss. What is bliss? I remember reading a book about Joseph Campbell and bliss in High School - might have to dig it out again...

I took these pictures out today to look at them. These were of our last trip to Maui and my second surf lesson. My teacher looked like Sami Haggar (sp?) but I did get surf under his somewhat lax care. It was awesome - terror and bliss at the same time - juxaposition of opposites. But in the end, true happiness, bliss in my mind,(even with a little bit of a burnt bum!) and I kicked my BIL's butt b/c he didn't even get up on the board ;P

i feel stinky today...

... i need sleep... i need a run... i need a shower but not necessarily in that order.

can't talk much today but the ends are coming together... here is another peek for ya lurkers and plurkers - if you see this and you like, let us know - it makes it all worth while...

history...

my DH just found out tonight that his great grandparents came through ellis island in the 1800's! he is so excited as he found out why they came and what they changed their last name from! a true scrapbooking moment!

feeling HOT HOT HOT...

it is a hot one here in TX... 100F days, 80F nights... the best way to fight this is to grill. we had the BEST grilled nectarines tonight. just cut those babies into two, add some nonstick spray and roll them around in some brown sugar. then grill them till they SIZZLE!! the brown sugar will turn to a sweet nectar for this awesome treat...

but i know ya'll aren't reading the blog to hear me talk about food so here is another sneak peek! you have seen our awesome journey ribbons and here they are in all their glory with our new flower blossoms!!! these flower blossom slides match PERFECTLY with our new ribbon sets. deb and i are extremely excited about them. if you haven't picked up by now, flowers are our theme this summer. what a perfect way to celebrate the season...

enjoy!

... i am sleepy

it never fails after a big lunch of sushi, i feel the need to sleep... but i need to get my big pile of stuff ready for cha which includes some reading materials.

ok, i will admit it - i am a magazine JUNKIE. i used to read books but i find that magazines give me that little smidgen of reading - of beginnning and ending that i need. some of my interesting reads include:

runner's world
discover
national geographic
scientific american
auto week
road and track (these last two are b/c my DH gets them)
cooking light
vanity fair

then there is the total fashionista mags i also read:
marie clare
self
shape
etc etc

ONCE in a while, i will feel the need to get all my gossipy out in one big swoop and i will read
people
in style


then of course the SBing ones - almost all of them

people will often ask me how i come up with all my ideas - it is from the library of things i have read throughout the years. all of it adds up!

so this flip flop album - all these ideas plus looking for inspiration from other people's LO - all brought me to this! inspiration is really everywhere (just like those magazines were all saying!)

When it all comes together...

... as promised, here is another peek at some of our new things - new flower slides that will coordinate with our 6 ribbon color sets!!! when deb and i talked about designing these, it was a pen to paper then discussion then more pen to paper kind of deal... the process of design to production to consumer has been FASCINATING for me but at the same time nerve racking. but we believe in what we sell - these are things i use for my LOs and pages - things that i reach for...

i must give mucho credit to deb for taking this idea and making it a reality. i would still be in word trying to sketch this out if it were left up to me! LOL!

... i can already thing of 10 things i want to do with these slides! but first we need to tackle CHA!

stop by and say hello at our booth 8309 to check it all out!

got running?

i ran today which to most that know me is not a big deal. i have been running for about 10 years now seriously - the addiction started when i was an intern at a company in a small western town of texas. not much to do in the evenings so i took up running...

since then i have done a lot of running from races in santa fe, nm to a 5k in san fran to running in the snow in a small town in germany... but today was different for me. i haven't run this far (9.3 miles or a 15k) since the first week in nov. i had a severe hamstring injury that took me out of doing the dallas marathon. typically i am one to just grind through the pain but i decided to listen to my body and what it was saying. "take a break, c" it kept saying. so i did.

exercising is one of those things for me - once you get into a habit, you wonder how you ever lived without it BUT once you get out of it, you wonder how you ever did it. this 9.3 miles was a turning point for me. nothing much hurts now (except my feet b/c those sweet shoes i talked about earlier STILL aren't here).

i also am one of those run alone ppl. my DH joins me on the bike and we will meet up every couple of miles so i can get some H20 and snacks (thanks DH!) but i love to run alone. clears my head, starts the creative juices flowing. i don't mind running with friends but i prefer to run alone.

but the SWEETEST part was when i got back and deb sent me a pic of some of our FINAL CHA summer releases! and i do believe these are my favorite. i will post them later tonight. i am getting pumped for CHA - like running it is about getting into the groove again...

my favorite candies

ppl that know me know i eat a lot (probably i am getting 2500-3000 calories a day) and included in all the "good stuff" like veggies is a candy eating MACHINE. which is why i have like 5 cavities...

so here are my top 10 candies for the eating (not including chocolate).
1. hot tamales
2. fun dip
3. toostie rolls
4. sour patch kids
5. sprees (regular and chewy)
6. runts (reg and chewy)
7. nerds
8. altoids (yeah i know these are strange but i love the curiously strong mint-ness)
9. jolly ranchers
10. blow pops

there are a lot more - i don't discrimate - equal treatment for ALL candy!

speaking of, check out our ric rack in their CHA home (don't worry, we will have another one just for candy). looks like candy. just so yummy - that is the only way to describe it...

ps i am running 9.3 miles tomorrow so i am going to be eating lots more candy after that! ;)

sushi-o-rama...

now that my belly is full of sushi (hard core sushi that is), it is time for me to talk about our ribbons...

oh wait, SETH - keeps saying he didn't see me give him a shout out on my blog, so LOOK HERE!

back to our ribbons - when deb and i got the prototypes of these back from our plant, we gasped at how BEAUTIFUL they were. i think the plant gasped at how beautiful they were. the colors the shapes and the stitching - all perfect! can you tell we are on a flower kick right now?

i think with this release, we are getting MR on its groove. finding that groove can be hard and starting the cycle over again isn't easy either. but that is the thrill of it all - thrill of a small business, of design, of everything...

what is the state flower of hawaii?

the hibiscus (or pua aloalo) ! ok so TECHNICALLY this one isn't the state flower of hawaii b/c the official one is yellow (for the trivia buffs). my DH and i have this one in our backyard to remind us of hawaii and how much we love it there. i didn't realize until we bought this one that the flowers open one day and then they die off - i was getting worried there b/c i thought maybe we didn't have the green thumb for hibiscus plants! but we asked some friends about theirs and they agreed the blossoms only lasted 1 day...

speaking of the hibiscus, deb and i have a special hibiscus item planned for CHA! (hee hee). i won't divulge it right now but it is something that has hibiscus presence and is a limited edition one time thing...

stay tuned!

new shoes!

some girls love to buy jimmy choo shoes and other pedicure friendly shoes but not i. it is time to retire my old asics gel trainers. you can literally see the bottom of the shoe and i was feeling it during my run last night. i could feel every bit of concrete. it was time about 100 miles ago! so with my coupon in hand i went online and bought these two fab pairs. the first ones the asics gel foundations are supposed to be good for ppl with FLAT feet (or "low arches") that is me. i am nervous about buying w/o trying them on but decided to take a chance. the second pair are my good old gel trainers (model IX i believe)- those puppies are smooth like lotion and super light.

i should get these in about 3 days! i can't wait! i will be stylin' the streets during my runs in these! no excuse that my ankles, knees, hamstring hurts from bad shoes!

we LOVE our design team!

our design team is amazing! i absolutely love all of them and their work. each one is able to take our product and really turn it into something AMAZING!

so to cindy s., carrie z., mendy m., heather b., carrie h. and mc k.- THANK YOU! deb and i love all of your work.

speaking of , check out carrie z's blog - she is an amazing artist :

http://scrappingwithstyle.blogspot.com/

grey hairs....

saw a whole gaggle of them today - on my head - they seem to grow in crops and hang out together like the popular cool kids. sometimes they are quite striking against the stark sea of my black hair but i think i will keep them. even the wiry ones that once in a while just stick out at a 90 degree angle to my head...

so don't be afraid of grey hair. i will keep them all until they all fall out and if they fall out and the black ones too, i will get a tattoo on my head.

how many engineers does it take to run MR?

you know you have heard those jokes! care to guess? well if you count me and Deb there ar 2 engineers and one accounting persons (me - chemical engineering; Deb- civil engineering and MBA) and if you want to add our DHs who help out when needed then you add another chemical engineer, a political science major and one lawyer - so what are we missing - LOL! There are 3 ACC schools (Ga Tech, Duke and UNC) here along with UNM and two higher up schools (Harvard and Stanford) represented here.

We have experience in Supply Chain Planning, logistics, Project Management, Corporate Legal Stuff, Regular Old Engineering, Dot-com Start-ups, Raw Materials Planning among us - some would say we would be unlikely candidates for a company like Maya Road but we think of it as the base that gets us where we need to grow this business.

When Deb and I were little - we didn't really play with Barbies (first of all b/c we didn't have any for the first 8-9 years of our lives) and secondly, we were in pursuit of um , a different sort of playing. Here is one example - we used to play BANK. You heard that right - BANK. You might wonder how a bunch of 7-8 year olds play BANK (we dragged our neighbor into this too) -well the premise was that we each owned a bank and printed our own money and even made our own checks (with duplicates of course courtesy of carbon paper). We even devised faux ATM machines and we would take turn depositing money into each other's accounts. How is that for a game!? We also were inventive.

Remember those good old slip and slides - it was like a big piece of plastic and I think a banana squirted out water for you to slide about 15 feet on the plastic. Our parents wouldn't get us one. So we made one- out of tent stakes and 5 garbage back. Our secret ingredient for good slidin' was - DISHWASHING SOAP. That was so much fun and let me tell you that the soap make slidin' a whole lot easier (and foamier)...

BUT along with games like these - we did craft shows, juried craft shows a couple of times a year. We used paper clay WAY before it was popular here making jewelry. We sold origami crane earrings for $2.50 a pair. We sold polymer clay dolls at a boutique in downtown Charleston, SC on consignment. So to that, we were somewhat crafty.

So that is why MR is a great fit for us. We can create but we can also do the other stuff too. Everything in balance.

Hotter'N Hell...

This is a bike ride (not a similarly named KISS tribute band) near Dallas that consisted of riding 100 miles in the Texas heat in August. Some former colleagues had begged me to ride this with them about 6 years ago but I had to say no (this was after they were shocked that I could catch up with them on my $200 mountain bike in an MS 150 ride but I digress...)

http://www.hh100.org/

I have always said I would do this and I think I will - BUT not the FULL 100 miles. 50 miles is a nice easy ride (less than 3 hours, the sun won't quite be 100 F yet) but hey, I have a fully functioning 30 lbs mountain bike with slick tires, a cute bike outfit and new helmet, and I haven't trained. Haven't been on a bike in over a year.

But since I have blogged this, now I am publicly committed...

Stay tuned...

random thoughts...

enough about MR today. here are my random thoughts for the day:

1. why does chocolate have to taste so good?
2. why does dark chocolate have to taste even better?
3. on top of that , dark m&m's are the best - but where did they all go???

nite!

flowers make each day brighter.

before i starting talking excitedly about our new flowers, i just wanted to give a shout out to seth - a friend of mine from my previous work life - can you believe i am bloggin'?

... getting back to flowers - they are the universal language for a whole lot of things arent' they? from first dates to weddings to "i'm sorry" to graduations to proms to funerals - flowers add a touch of beauty in the happiness and sadness of it all...

which is why deb and i went a bit "flower crazy" this time around for CHA. for example - these wire flowers. i love, love, love them. from the fact that you can actually CLIP with them to the handformed quality to the "dipped to give them a gunmetal (matte) " look.

as always we try to offer some variety and these will come 6 in a signature tin with 3 styles (2 of each)

Circles

I have a love of circles. From my days in calculus 1,2,3,4&5 (yeah i did take that many calculus classes - ok, not calc 1 b/cof AP credit- the uniform nature and curvature to a circle is pleasing to my eye. so put a bunch of them together and smatter (is that a word?) a lot of colors together and i find these ribbons to be beautiful - deb did a great job with our ideas . i have actual samples in my hand today to feel, admire, critique and use - all for CHA next week. so i better get to work - i will post what i create...

color

i love lots and lots of different colors. take these mega Ric racks we will be releasing at CHA. Each one represents a mood, an emotion to me. when i see others design - be it a product line of papers or using those said papers to create page, i wonder "those COLORS look so great together - how did they think it up?". deb and i run into the same issues ourselves. there are literally millions of colors to pick and choose from - how do you come up what is best for you - when it is all said and done, you have to make a choice and go with it and embrace it; don't fret for the opportunities lost but believe in what you have and what you have to gain...

i have actual samples in my hand today to feel, admire, critique and use - all for CHA next week. so i better get to work - i will post what i create... but in the meantime, here is *project of the day* that i wanted to share - a project with some more circles as well as MR ribbons and our new wire flowers...

the mug was only $2.50 at my local hobby lobby. it stands a good 10" tall. it was in the kiddie section and came with 3 pictures for the kids to color. i just used one as a tracing sheet and traced it onto patterned paper. i added random bits of ribbon and our new wire flowers and a large monogram "j" cut out of cardstock - glue it all together and stick in your mug and you are done!

I {{heart}} RIBBON

These ribbons kick arse! My sister and I are kickin' it into high gear for CHA and these were some of the first pics she sent of our samples that came in. The colors are perfectly what we envisioned! It cannot be better. The key is can people envision what they can do with these beautiful "ingredients" in their recipes for their arts? I look at each and see 10,000 possibilities but that is only me...