pooped

well it has been a fast weekend, we had all the texas maya road gals here - jess was here to visit us and get her baby noah fix and in the last 3 days, i have done the following:

1. ate tex-mex 2x
2. gone to the warehouse
3. got kits packed for NSD (I am teaching at the scrapbook pad next weekend) - actually jess did most of the work
4. met up with aubrey, lisa, heather for a make and take crop
5. set up for a garage sale of dented MR stuff
6. went to ikea to get some great ideas for offices
7. did make and takes at the scrapbook pad
8. ate a lot of dark chocolate m&ms
9. dropped jess off at the airport
10. went to church
11. picked up some baby proofing stuff for tiny explorer noah
12. played a mean game of soccer (my knees are all grass burned but i did manage to stop an 18 year old boy from scoring a goal)

so more later this week. we have a busy week ahead for us!

RAK winner

thanks to everyone who participated in the challenge - the winner is :Tiffany congrats - please email me at info @ mayaroad.com ! thank you all so much for playing and sharing these awesome moments with me. i so enjoyed seeing all of the LOs!

more soon!

who i am today...

you know i was thinking about the fact that i haven't told you all a lot about how i was growing up. i look at who i am today and i am a totally different person than i was in high school and college.



deb and i had a fairly normal childhood growing up. i will say living in the south was a bit hard in the town we lived in as we were constantly asked if we were related to the 3 otherasian kids in school and of course everyone tried to "speak chinese" by making these stupid noises . i also got asked a lot if i knew karate (and thinking back, i should have taken karate so i could kick some people's butts so they would STOP ASKING).



but like many teenagers, i was looking for who i was meant to be- not quite comfortable in my skin and trying to navigate those dangerous teenage waters. school wasn't hard. i graduated at the top of my class but i would give myself a barely passing grade on the social aspect of my life which is hard when you are trying to fit in.



i found this photo in my stash the other day. it brought back a flood of memories about my those years (and i am sure for deb too but with a different perspective). this photo was taken in 1992 (with some of our childhood friends). i had just finished my first quarter in college.

one thing that stuck out in my mind is this story which i haven't thought about in a long time - when i was a senior in high school.

at our high school, they had these "pageants" - which was not supposed to be about how you looked - and how they sold it to us was it was supposed to be an overall who represents the school the best " in beauty, academics and extra curricular activities" . truthfully today i think they were just trying to get the gals to buy expenive dresses to compete and then sell tickets to this "pageant" at the school. the only thing you needed to do to apply was to be nominated. so one of the girls i was friendly with and i made a pact - i would nominate her and she would nominate me. so we did and that was cool. they were to pick 10 girls to "compete" in this.

i had done this so that i could "fit" in - so that i could at least show myself that in the scheme of things, i wasn't at all ugly and i could feel good about myself. here was the thing, i knew that i had a chance b/c the teachers were the ones who decided who got into this pageant - it wasn't a "popularity contest" with my peers. i stuck my neck out there b/c i felt in the hands of my teachers that i could at least get the chance to compete.

well we all know what happens next. i wasn't in the pagent. when the names were announced, i had to hold my breath not to be upset about it. i mean these were teachers that i had known - that had written recommendations for me - that i competed with on the academic team for.

and i could only attribute it to one thing - i was ugly. i mean i was competing to be the smartest nerd in the class (so it couldn't have been the grades) and i participated in like 5-8 activities since i was a freshman - so what else could it be? it was that i was a dog. and that just made everything even worse.

i did end up going to the pageant. i think i only stayed for about 30 mins b/c my heart couldn't take it.

it is funny but with the passage of time, i now realize that all of that stuff doesn't matter anymore. it seemed so important then and made me so sad then. i look at the photos of me NOW and even though i have gained like 20+ lbs since then (of SHEER MUSCLE of course - kidding) - my eyes now tell a different story of who i am and who i have become.

...but sometimes it is nice to visit those memories to remind myself that life isn't always as bad as it seems. and in the end - the nerds win (haha).

i will post the RAK winner tomorrow! thanks for all the great challenge participants and comments!

i have a complaint today...

you know usually i try to stay positive but nothing peeves me more than someone who has no need to be rude.

it can be a number of things from not saying thank you or my rude perons of they day : calling our 1-800 number every day and leaving us a nasty message about a damaged item (um hello, we can't replace it if you don't tell us what it is or where to send it and leaving nasty messages doesn't help). and don't hang up on us when we are trying to get you help.

in the end we are all human. we all get frustrated. packages get lost, things get damaged but really how is getting all pissy going to help us get to the resolution? it isn't. you know what? we are all human - we all make mistakes and we do work on trying to fix our mistakes the best way we can and the fastest way we can.

and if you are that angry about a damaged item, step back and really, just BREATHE. it will get better and i promise you if you at least tell me which item and what address, we will try our darnest to get it to you.

we went to the botanical gardens today...

to get some fresh air and not be stuck inside with me on the computer working. we also had some friends come along - the kiddos were unsure of the grass still:

but they got used to it and we had a great picnic lunch:

followed by a long stroll in the park:

and finally we all went home and both of the mommies went and played a 1.5 hour soccer game. i am tired so good night!

busy weekend.

it has been a busy weekend. i am trying to get some orders lined up and ready to go this week as i hate facing monday with the prospect of not having done anything. i got a great laugh today as we were filing a claim with a couple of boxes that UPS must have dropped kicked and then just proceeded to throw in a box without packing stuff and damaged over $1000 in items for us. when i looked at the form today, it said that they damaged some "tins of chipboard alphabets and a couple of squirrels". i cracked up. we didn't ship any squirrels but the dude must have heard "squirrels" when jess told them "scrolls".



but it has been a great weekend for us so far! baby noah and i went running this morning. david got some new limestone for getting the border of the landscaped area of our yard done.



we went to B&N last night and being the ambitious person i am, i bought a "how to make cool kid cakes" book so that noah will have a FABULOUS first birthday cake this year. i think that i must also watch too much ace of cakes as this will be a big task but i am up for it. i don't know if i told you all or not but as kids, deb and i had a business selling polymer and paper clay business. we would make all these pins, earring and sculptures and sell them at art shows. there was also a very cool and hip consignment store in downtown Charleston, SC that took our items and sold them for it. i can remember one month getting a $100 check and that was so cool - someone like our stuff! so now when i watch ace of cakes, i see them making sculptures much like we did as kids!



i also need to catch up on noah's monthly LOs. i am bad, i haven't done his 10th month one but here is his 9th:

soon he will have his first album that has 1 LO of each month of his life and what he was like that month! i am excited to be completing this soon!

and keep the RAK entries coming (see a couple of posts below for the challenge) - i am still filling the box and there is about $50 worth of stuff in there now to one lucky winner!

i will be back later in the week with some cool how tos teaching you all some techniques i came up with this weekend on making your own transparency stickers with our MR stamps! so watch for that!

long week.

it has been a long week... 40' container arriving. library time with noah. running finally today. people on vacation at the w/h. so not much to say tonight but wanted to share these

2 LOs i did this week.

yes, i do scrap my blurry pictures. and no i don't usually enlarge or change them in any way. have a great night!

RAK ...

so here is a small picture of a RAK i have put together (see my last post) for a challenge I created! there is about $35 worth of stuff - a lot of MR stuff in here including some of our new keys, velvet flowers and binder. i also included some MR ribbons and a snippet of some cool felt i found. i encourage you to try out the challenge below - even if you don't have time, at least post and win a chance at this box of goodies.

now that the taxes are done, i can breathe a little bit easier. it is always hard to have those hangning over your head. for the last month, whenever i wanted to do something fun, i had this little nag over my head reminding me that i needed to get stuff together for uncle sam... and that made life a little less fun. but that is done now for a while so i can enjoy everything a bit more.

you know, one of my favorite parts of being with MR is teaching. the not so fun parts include account, counting inventory and filling out a claim form for lost packages with US mail. can i let you in on a secret? i have always wanted to be a teacher. in HS, i was deciding between teaching elementary school and chemical engineering and quiet hontestly Chem E won out because at that point, i wanted an excellent salary. but back to teaching...

i have only started teaching with our MR stuff in the last year. i was a nervous nellie in my first class and i was worried sick that i would be bad at it but you know what? i LOVED it. i love the planning aspect, the presentation making but most of all i love to share and for people to learn.

and with that, i am teaching more than i did last year especially since baby noah is a bit bigger.

so i wanted to share where i will be in the next couple of months:

1. online - if you can't get to one of my other classes, check out my class online that i developed for Scrapbility - it is a great concept and i love love love our neighbors to the north but the aweseome thing is that you don't have to be from canada to sign up. they have some great classes here - stop by and check out one of the free ones Jen created!

2. May 5th - I will be at The Scrapbook Pad in Colleyville, teaching a mini album class. i am anxious to check out and go shop at the store as I haven't be in since they remodelled! i have heard great things about the store! some of the MR gals will also be there the weekend before (April 28th) - to do some make and takes.

3. June 8th - 10th - I will be at Paper Tales to hang out with Kate and Cass and teach some classes. They have been customers of ours since we had our tiny table at HIA- Dallas (our very first show) so I can't wait.

4. monthly kits - I am the guest designer this month from Concroption - Tricia has put together a super cute kit with lots of MR goodies so make sure you check back to see what I created!

and that's it for now. so be sure to sign up for the RAK!

my new challenge

well i am finally back! it has been a busy weekend here for us as we finish up our taxes, took time to go to church, played some soccer and chilled out this weekend. we have also started chasing mr noah around the house as he is a crawling machine (and a fast one too).

as i was saying in an earlier post, i was cleaning out some of my photos and i found that i had some from last year around this time when i was about 34 weeks pregnant. thinking back that was such an exciting and nervous time for us. we didn't know what to expect as new parents. i didn't know the love (nor the pain - LOL) that i know now.

when i found a second copy of this photo, i decided that this would be a perfect way to make a scrapbook journal of how my thoughts and feelings have changed in this last year. we have baby noah now and what a great year this has been. no more awaiting his arrival but marveling at how much we love being parents and how awesome it is that noah is perfect for david and i. and just as i imagined noah saying hello to the roses, that is TOTALLY how he is today - social and very outgoing to everyone and everything!

i like to think of this as not redoing a layout but rather doing a new layout of the same time with a new perspective.

and here is the LO

so here is my challenge to you this next 10 days - do a layout about a subject you have covered in your past. it doesn't have to be 1 year or 10 years but just look at it with different eyes. think what time has given you now when you look back. you don't have to use an exact same picture or even a photo but look at a moment in time with the gift of the time you have been given.

as i have done in the past, if you post here in the next 10 days, you will get 1 chance in this RAK. if you will post a Layout or Project you have done, you will get 10 chances in this RAK!

i have already started gathering some of the goodies for the RAK (and I will photograph later this week) - I found another Maya Roadie sticker to give to someone, also there are lots of ribbons, some of our new chipboard clocks and scrolls and more! enough for many creations!

all i ask is that you will post here for 1 chance (non anon) and create something for 10 chances.

have fun with this!

tomorrow i will post the pic of the RAK goodies and also, i will let you all in on where i will be teaching in the coming months.

challenge (will be posted tomorrow)

hey everyone, i didn't have a chance to scan and upload my LO yet as we are upgrading our home computer today so that has taken a lot of our time and tonight, david and i are going to chill with baby noah.

so more tomorrow after my soccer game on the challenge and RAK!

one year challenge...

i am about to actually go to a crop (more about that later) but to give you a teaser for a challenge think about how much changes in a year. i did this LO last year as i was 34 weeks pregnant (so right about the same time last year). i was about to topple over, my belly itched and we couldn't wait to meet our baby.

the other day i found i had an extra copy of this picture so i decided to do another layout using the same photo but from the perspective of 1 year later.

so much has changed in this year and no i am not 72 weeks pregnant now but i thought what an awesome way it would be to look back and from the gift of time see whay changes a year can bring. as i am typing this my sweet baby noah is sitting happily in my lap. i did a LO with this new perspective.

i will share my LO later today and my challenge too.

anatomy of cupcake eating

so i decided to pull a "martha" and actually made cupcakes for Easter. these though were from a box (and no i did not use eggs that my hens laid in the backyard barn).

anyhow, our friends thought it was time noah got a taste of the good life. he really hasn't eaten a lot of sweets til now. we have occasionally let him have a bite of our ice cream or a teddy graham but that is it. but you can see for yourself how he likes the cakes.

have a great wednesday! i will be back later in the week for a new challenge!

back to business...

so it has been a while since i blogged about the business - the nitty gritty stuff.

it is pretty interesting to me when people have such varied views of our products and what our philophsy is for selling our products.

- some think it is too plain, some love that it is plain
- some think that our price pointd are too high, some thing we are competitively priced
- some think that they don't like our tins, some love that our stuff comes in tins

and you know what, everyone is entitled to their opinion. that is cool. that is what makes free economy and freedom of speech great.

but, deb and i are going to keep doing what we think is best in terms of what we see for our business and what we think the market needs. we know that the end customers have a choice to purchase our items. and so far, based on our sales, i think most of you like what you see from us.

along those lines, we also do some market research on our price points and i have to say that our prices are very competitive. we work our asses off to get it done that way - and one reason we are able to do so is b/c we do all of our own design work, sourcing and take out a lot of the "middle man" costs.

as for those who choose to buy from someone who has copied our items. we aren't going to stop you. and if you feel that it is worth the cheaper price, then more power to you. so why do our products cost what they do? it is important to understand the economies of scale idea.

we have to charge what we do b/c we are not a big company. so if we could make something in 100,000 units, then yeah we would be able to charge less for the items we make (think like volume buying). and here is the truth - we aren't making 100,000 units of each of our items. we make less than that and i would venture to say for a company our size, you will be hard pressed to find price points as competitive as ours. just some food for thought.

and i just want to say thank you for all of the retailers and consumers that continue to help us grow. i know that a lot of you read this and don't post but i personally do want to thank you. we will continue to provide innovative products (and just wait til you see what CHA-S will bring) in the way we know how to do it best.

back in the game...

so um what did you do this weekend? besides celebrating Easter and spending some time with my family, i decided it was time to get back into the game. i ran a 5k this on saturday and did this LO about it tonight.

i had resisted running a road race b/c i seem to always "measure" myself against my best time ever (which was under 22 minutes for a 5k) and it was one of those things that i knew that i was no where near close to anymore since baby noah and when i stopped road racing about 2 years ago.

for me, running is like trying to fit into those size 4 jeans that fit so easily in high school. my personal best running time is like those size 4 jeans - elusive, a part of history, and a goal that haunts me.

but i decided i needed to take the plunge and get back into it. so i did it. i ran the race. i did things differently than i did in the past when i was super competitive. i ran without a watch so i wouldn't have to "measure" myself each mile and push myself too hard. i held back during until the last 100 yards and then i sprinted to the end. and when it was all said and done, i finished with a respectable time - 27 mins and 4 seconds.

and i am now back in the game. i am ready to race again and to get ready for my half marathon. this is my LO about it using my race number.

and to celebrate my race, here is the RAK winner from my last RAK posting:

BabeCaddy - email me at info @ mayaroad.com

poetry...

so as promised, here is the layout i did using a poem that i wrote in 1994. wow, that was a long time ago. i was so full of self-doubt and angst then - never really a smile on my face.

going off to find your way in the world is never easy. i can remember being a sophomore/junior in college and just how much i was ready to break out and show the world who i was. ah, it was the time of having my heart broken and breaking some hearts in return and just becoming who i was destined to be. life seemed so much more emotional then and the highs and lows seemed so much more intense.

and so i wrote many a letters and many a boxes of poetry. this is one of my favorites. i can remember writing it and emailing it to myself so i could print it out. i taped a copy to some old journal i had and that was what i found this week to complete this layout. this photo was from about the same time period. notice my lack of a smile.

the poem says everything that this picture reflects. i can look back on all of this and be grateful that i kept these mementos of that time past. it helps me to see just how far i have come in this life.

(PS, the RAK winner will be posted tomorrow evening!)

this month

did you know that this month is national poetry month? yeah, i didn't either til i was listening to NPR today. but it was a perfect day to be thinking about it. it has been WAY too long since i have read, wrote or recited poetry. why is that? everything seems so fast paced now that it has been a long time since i have to think about a poem.





i can still remember in 4th grade when i had to write a haiku, epitaph, free verse or sonnet. that was a long time ago and that was for a grade. the last time i remember writing poetry was in college - just a way to ease the pain of a first crush, unrequited love, etc. - oh.wait... i wrote a haiku about hello kitty like 2 years ago - so i am lying. here is that ode to kitty:

hello kitty why

do you hold such possession

over my fancy

in fact, i was thinking about a poem i wrote during college - this was in like 1993 - i found a book i had put it in the other day. i thought it would be perfect to do a LO about that. so before i share that poem, let me work on that LO.





but now you know what my challenge for you is going to be about - p0etry. so think about it for a bit before i post again. think about a poem you want to write. think about poem you want to read. and i want you to create about it. poetry can be beautiful journaling. poetry can change how you think and feel.





and thanks for sharing the LOs from the last challenge. i have LOVED to see what you all have done so far. it is awesome to see you stretch yourselves and i will post a winner of my last challenge this weekend!

more in a bit...

we are trying to plan our strategy for coping with crawling, inquisitive noah. he is into everything so some furniture rearranging is in order.

more tomorrow!

what an adventure!

it has been a great trip! look what fun noah and jonathan had with david (aka uncle or daddie) today while deb and i went to teach at my scrapbook nook. the students were awesome and it was so nice to spend some time with pam - the owner. she has a really cool store in a cute downtown called san bruno, near san francisco.

we promised david we would only be out for the classes, but we could not resist a trip to see suzy at her new location, picture me perfect. deb had done demos there a couple of weeks ago, and she wanted to show me what the 'garage' looked like in a store - it was so cute. we hung with suzy for a bit and then headed home. when we got back, there was david with one baby in his lap and another in the highchair being fed. lots of crying and screaming, and that was just david. the picture shows how tired out the two kiddos were after driving david crazy all day.

yesterday we also got a chance to hang out with christina from scraplovers and just enjoy the beautiful weather out here in the bay area. christina has a great online store with a sweet community.

it has been a great trip so far but we are all so tired like the boys so we must say goodnight for now.