happy wednesday

wow, i have a lot i want to say today. so let me get started!

i had posted a couple of weeks ago about using our stamps in cool ways - have you thought of making your own "labels" by stamping onto clear mailing labels or even self adhesive cardstock?

here is what i did the other day. i stamped one of our foundations journaling stamps onto a piece of DCWV adhesive cardstock. i used the ranger ink for crispness and voila this is what i got:

now when i need a label, i just cut out and stick and go! so easy. clear images are HOT right now so try using them on transparencies or even the self adhesive mailing labels and you are good to go!

next we are moving our w/h next week. the good news is the place is bigger but the bad news is that we have to move. and i think that i just might have to put noah to work - check out how he is doing with these sets of fibers i had brought home- he is bagging them like a PRO!

and today, jonathan (and his parents) stopped by on their way back to cali. they got to hang out with us for about 2 hours. it is funny b/c you can finally notice that the kiddos are deliberately trying to check each other out rather than have it be a random occurance. here jonathan inspects noah's toes:

and thanks to everyone for their questions. i don't think i will have time to answer them all in one post so i am going to start here and get through some of them and tackle some more each day til i am done. i will post the RAK winner on FRIDAY.

but here goes on the questions and answers:

• What/where do you turn to for inspiration when you are creating new products? deb and i look everywhere for inspiration - online, in magazine, in clothing, on bottles and even in our heads. in fact, i just handed deb a program from my church b/c i LOVED the colors that were on the bulletin! \
• I would love to know how you keep coming up with new ideas for new products - And are you going to expand your lines to make different things - eg: papers? there were a couple of questions on papers - at this time, we have no immediate plans for papers (so all you paper companies out there can rest easy - kidding) - seriously though, paper is not our core strength and we don't have plans for it to be. we do plan on doing some different things with our lines. sometimes it is a matter of the number of hours we have in a day and the cost to do things.
• My question: What is the crazierst idea you have had for MR that hasn't made it to production?? (ie when you guys were mucking around or being silly ;-) this one makes me laugh. b/c there are still some things on our list. i can't divluge all of our craziest things as one day they might make it to production with tweeking. we did have our hubbies offer to model underware woven from our fibers/ribbons at the tradeshow but i think that we want people to BUY our stuff not run from our booth in horror!
• Do you wish Noah will scrap when he grows up? if he wants to. david and i hope to cultivate in him a passion for what he wants to do. he does have TREMENDOUS interest in my supplies right now.
• do you listen to music when you run, and what would be/is on your iPod? actually this is an interesting question. i used to listen to my walkman when i ran (CDs tended to skip) since i ran outside a lot, david asked me to be more aware of my surroundings and NOT listen to music so i could pay attention to traffic, etc and i have not run with music since like 1999. also now noah and i tend to run together so i try to enjoy it with him. on my IPOD is a lot of different music from TECHNO (sasha and digweed) to R& B (mary J blige) to folk music (nancy griffith (sp")) to 80s music
• How long have you been scrapping for? i was talking to deb the other day, and she was at my parents house cleaning out some old stuff and she found a scrapbook i put together in 1986! so at least since then. but seriously scrapping not til about 2000.
• Now that you and D are mothers, are you going to have baby-inspired chipboard and ribbons? LOL - well we have some things that are suitable for babies but at this time no specific baby ribbons, etc!
• I live in Durban, South Africa where can I purchase your awesome MR product from in our country? we do have customers in South Africa. you can email us at info@mayaroad.com and we will try to find you one.
• my question is what do you do to unwind after a very stressful day or week? i run, watch some TV, chill out with david and baby noah and consume massive amounts of m&ms.
• what inspires you when you create your layouts? Do you read all the idea books or buy magazines? i buy a lot less magazines than i used to. i used to buy them all but now i find that i buy only the ones that are more my style. to be honest, one of the things that drives me to create is some challenges i issue myself. for example, i keep a stack of stickers, embellishments, rubons that i have started using but having finished using in a pile that i hold together with a clothespin. my challenge to myself often times it to work that pile down so i can start opening a new pack (yeah crazy i know). or i will try to pull out this crazy piece of patterned paper that would seem impossible to use but i make myself try different things with it to make a LO work (cut it down? add plain cardstock? try a B/W photo?)
• My daughters name is Maya which is why I started buying your products, but I want to know if you create your personal items with only MR products or are you an equal opportunity creative spirit? i have to say that i am an equal opportunity creative spirit. i would say if you too my stack of LOs, and you took an average of how many % is MR stuff used in there, it would be about 25% of each LO/project.
• Q: What got you started with all this running and do you think about when you run? you know sometimes i think about this and to be honest, there were 2 reasons that i started running. the first was to lose the 20 lbs i put on in college and get into shape and the second was that some boy broke my heart in college and rather than sit around and mope about it, i decided to show him (LOL). well that turned into me running b/c it made me feel better. and then i started getting fast and winning races and now i am back to the huffing and puffing with baby noah.

ok that is all i have for now so have a great night! i am off to do a LO using some of those labels i made with our stamps!