what is your inspiration?

yes, people, it is sunday evening and i am working - with scrapfest coming up, a container arriving and getting the rub-ons ready, my weekends are filled with moments of work. i just do not like to be unprepared for things. tonight i was out buying glue guns and big bad rubber mallets for my classes next weekend. i am sure the x-ray people at the airport are going to wonder why i have 7 rubber mallets in my bag of clothing but i will cross that bridge when i get to it!!!

this will be my first weekend away from this little dude:

...and it is hard to explain but i am both ready and a bit sad. he is almost 4 months already and such a charmer (check out his georgia tech polo shirt BTW). i don't know how to explain my mix of emotions of not seeing his face for 4 days and also being able to get away to refresh myself for 4 days - will he miss me as much as i miss him? will he and my DH be surrounded by fast food wrappers when i get home ? (LOL) but i will be thinking of both of them - in 2 of my classes, my subject is the two boys so they will be close to me in my heart.

i wanted to make sure that i had a chance to answer some questions that had been posted in a couple of blog comments before i forgot! there are some that are from a couple of weeks back but i hope that i answer everything here:

1. why don't we make stuff in the US? this was asked a couple of posts ago when i was talking about our crazy container scheduling -

• well i am happy to say that we do make some things in the US - our rub-ons and fibers. one reason is b/c the quality of these totally are so important to me in terms of how they are applied and we wanted to find the best maker out there and based on my research, for rub-ons the best is a US factory to make our stuff. also though, some of our things are packaged in the US - ribbons, fibers and such. cost is a factor in the scheme of things for what we can offer and while the turn around time might be slightly faster, there is still a long lead time for some things made in the states.

2. when do our rub-ons come out?

• well i can tell you - soon, grasshopper, soon. we will probably begin shipping out rub-ons in the next week or so (or that is the goal) but b/c we are offering what we are offering (9 sheets, 1 tin, 1000 images) - all that packaging has to be done here in the US and honestly, i personally will be doing some of that. see that is one of the joys (and sorrows) of small business. i get to do those things myself sometimes. PST- the slides will be out in about 2 weeks too!

3. when will i post my projects on scrapologie?

• i just did last night! you can go to the scrapologie gallery and see my stuff here: http://www.scrapologie.com/gallery/index.php - my user name is what i always use for all the online sites i am on - txrunner

4. where do i personally teach classes?

• all you have to do is ask me! LOL! i will only at this point be teaching 2x this year in canada. but in the future, i do plan on doing some other teaching gigs (look out australia - you might see me and deb there next year (wink wink) ) - right now, i am limiting the amount i teach b/c i am so much in the day to day in the business and baby noah is still, well a baby. but if there are any retailers who would like to have me come and teach and talk about maya road, let me know. you might not be able to get me to SHUT UP about our stuff - LOL! - i am by no means the best teacher in the world and you won't see me jumping on tables but i know my maya road stuff. i know how to use it in 10 different ways and make each look different. i know why we make what we make. i want to teach others to see maya road products in the ways i can see them - with new eyes and limitless possibilities.

5. why do we not sell our stuff directly to the consumer?

• well to be honest one reason is that i like to get some sleep (LOL) - and that would be an enormous amount of work for us at this point. the warehouse cannot handle it. also, we want to be good at what we do which is trying to serve our retailers rather than compete with them - b/c that is what we see it as. yes, it would be great to to get all our goodies in one place for the end consumer but we think it is important to support those LSS (big and small) that carry our stuff.

OK, that is all i have for tonight. my parting thought for you tonight is to jot down what it is that inpires you and create something about that. oh yeah, i am about 30 pages into my 100 page LO challenge (my DH is watching my shopping like a hawk!)