thank you!

thank you for the kind words on the last post. i am sure that our cousin would be so happy to see us where we are with MR. well noah's bag is packed. ours are not but i wanted to share that we try to have a good sense of humor about some stuff like this:

for our retailers we are sharing these stickers with them. if you wear it and one of the MR peeps catches you with one , we will be passing out MR goodies to someone we "catch"

side note, we thought about making some that said "i have maya road rage" b/c that is an inside joke in the MR family. some times maya road does give us rage and it isn't all sunshine and rainbows 24-7. but maybe next time.

thanks again for all of our supporters. this is why deb and i continue to do this.

making our dreams come true...

deb and i were talking tonight (as we do most nights) as we finish up final prep for the show - about when we were little. i have talked about in the past we used to help our cousin maisie out with her trade shows. i can remember we were probably 10 or 11 years old. maisie was an older cousin of ours. she had a fairly successful business importing traditional chinese art. and she would have my mom show her things at tradeshows. sometimes we would tag along and yes we broke the rules and snuck into the show to help.

sadly my cousin passed away a couple of years ago from cancer but each time we do a trade show, i do think of her from the catalog folding to the booth setting up to physically being at a trade show for hours.

but along with the tradeshows, she would subscribe to craft journals for us. i remember deb and i used to POUR over them of craft opportunities - some were simple - like making your own buttons and selling them for $1 a piece with that badge machine. but one of them caught our eye. it was a stamp making machine. and from what we could tell from the picture - you could make your OWN polymer (aka clear) -stamps. and the machine was from japan and cost like $169. we were SO EXCITED. we tried saving up our money to get one but we couldn't work out the logistics of a wholesale ID (LOL). issue after issue, we would eyeball this machine trying to figure out how to get it.

but it never happened.

so when i look at our stamps today,

it is really like a dream come true. except we don't have to be making our stamps on our kitchen table. and the scale is a bit bigger too! wow.

but what this reminds me is that it is never too early to DREAM BIG. even at the ages of 10 and 11. we had a vision. and it isn't just our stamps this time - it is everything else. someone mentioned to me that we are known for our ribbons and chipboard - true but as with all things, we don't adhere to the status quo. we want to try different things for our customers and ourselves. that is how you grow. that is how you learn.

so for that, i want to thank our cousin maisie for the inspiration - i only wish you could be here to see what we have done with MR. i think you would be proud.

another sneak...

so here is one more thing we are doing - velvet blossom trim. check it out here:

this is one of my faves this show i think - we took the flowers from blossoms III and II and created this lucious trim - the trim is 1" wide and it coordinates with the velvet blossoms we are coming out with!

ahhh, a dream. hey even though i have baby noah, i do plan on using this on his pages (hence the cream and brown).

enjoy!

another sneak (and RAK winner)

congrats to our RAK winner - audrey from the UK! - email me at info@mayaroad.com - please note that we will probably not be shipping stuff out til after CHA as we are headed into that chaos right now! but i will throw in a bit of our new ribbons and other CHA goodies for you! thanks for check out our DT blog!

in other news, i am ready for the show i think. i actually went to the gym this weekend and now everything hurts from doing some strength training. i am envisioning some sweet muscles in the coming months AFTER CHA.

and can i tell you i am in LOVE with our newest release coming at CHA? check them out here:

oh yes we are doing stamps - 8 sets of them in all and as always they come in our signature 4" x 6" flat tin for storage. we have sets that will match our new ribbon twills, 1 set that fit on our foundations chipboards, 1 set that is a compilation of a bunch of MR chipboard shapes and motifs and a couple more... well check them out on the MR design team blog. i love these stamps. and i hope you will too!

that's all i have for today but we still have some other things which we haven't shown you yet! you just wait!

creating...

things i love about tradeshows

1. meeting those friends i have met online
2. showing off our new things to people who "get it"
3. just doing what i love
4. actually creating stuff for the show (otherwise i don't really have a lot of time to scrap) including this:

things i don't like about tradeshows

1. the feeling that "what if people don't like our stuff"
2. the hours (8 am - 6 pm plus prep work for the next day plus set up and take down and oh yeah mr noah and mr jonathan need some TLC after that much time in the day away from their mommies)
3. the $3 waters they sell at the tradeshows
4. doing all of the accounting for the tradeshows - so for that, we are trying to train noah to be the next MR CFO / bean counter - check this out:

other things i hate are blatant copy cats but i am too mad about that right now to post a long post about it - don't worry i will post about that soon. for right now all i have to say is if yOu aren'T Creative enough to come up with your own books and have to copy our coffee break book down to the number of pages and the size - well what the heck are you doing in the sbing biz? and don't think i don't see the other stuff you have copied from us either.

(end negative mini rank)

but for those who support us, thank you - we appreciate it and will continue to make cool stuff! i will post the RAK winner tomorrow for visiting the DT blog.

stylin'

um yeah, i am not a stylish person - ask my DH - he spends more time in the primping area than i do. when i go for haircuts, i am honest with my stylist - fast and fun. i do not blow dry my hair. i do not style my hair. my hair cut needs to be so that if i pull it back to run, i need to have it so there isn't hair flying in my face.





and dressing up? well for me that is dressing down. i stopped wearing my 3 inch roach killer shoes (as the guys at work would call my shoes with the point in the heel and at the toe) when i hung up my belt in the corporate world. i am back to wearing my funky stuff.





and to carrying my funky bags.





so when i saw this the other day, i had to get it b/c i could put a Layout in it! i have had this picture of noah and i for about 3 months now. it is one of my faves. and it needed the perfect setting. and i found it with this bag.

i will have this bag at the show on display - does noah not have the BEST faces? and does MR not have the best chipboard and rubons - LOL!

this is totally cool and totally me.

so goodbye you pencil skirts, dry cleaned shirts and pantyhose - hello to me!

a year ago...

wow, has it already been a year? a year of happiness, heartburn, diaper changes and anticipation. it was a year ago (almost to today) that we found out that we were having a boy. i can remember that day like it was only yesterday. i was pretty sure we were having a boy and david was betting on a girl. and when the doc looked, she announced that we were having a boy. i did this LO a while agao to capture that day when we told our parents that they were having a grandson... and look at noah now!

how far we have come in a year. amazing to me that a year ago he was still a tiny 1-2 lb baby who was still developing all his features, etc. and now this tiny person has given us so much this year.

it takes my breath away.

and i was wrong. i thought i wanted only girls. but noah is exactly who we wanted and needed. i LOVE being the momma of a boy.

PSST - don't forget my post below about the RAK if you go to our DT blog to post a message!

pssttt... a RAK and inspiration...

i was just checking out what our DT was doing with our stuff and wow, i am amazed at what they can do with our stuff! things that deb and i NEVER thought of when we were working on making the products.

so if you are looking for inspiration, check out the Maya Road DT blog here:
http://www.mayaroaddesignteam.blogspot.com/

and if you post here to let me know you are going and you post there to let me know that you have been there, well then you might just win a RAK of some maya road lover's goodies!
ribbons, slides and more!

so check out their AMAZING creations. and post here and there between now and this saturday!

eye on the prize...

ok, for those who want to see some noah pics, check these two out...

noah has developed into such a character and he knows what he wants and will go after it (much like his momma is - LOL) - i can't believe how much he has changed in the last 7 months. i am so happy that MR has allowed me to spend so much time with noah the last 7 months. it has been nothing less than a joy for me. so many pictures still left to scrap. but that is the way i like it. it forces me to create and also challenges me to think about what products i would like to see out there that isn't there now.

on the sneaks front - check out this pic of our make and take we are planning for CHA (yes it is a tin and YES THAT IS OUR NEW RIBBON - well one of the 20+ possibilities)

we are doing something different than we have before as we like to challenge ourselves in terms of what we do.

if you want to see some chippie sneaks check out deb's post on her blog here:

http://putintoperspective.blogspot.com/

more sneaks soon!

brrrr....and a sneak...

it is freaking freezing here in dallas. funny how the weather here can go from 65 F one day to 32 the next... i am cold. noah is cold. david is cold. the good news is that david and i are just down to coughing now from the sickness(es) and noah is down to his fake coughing... what is up with fake coughing? noah seems to have acquired this in the last month when he wants attention - he coughs til we look at him and coo over him.

my friend jess bought me a crop-a-dile (CAD) for christmas but i hadn't taken it out to use it til now. i will admit it is very MONSTER-ISH looking in the box - i mean david asked if it was some type of "medieval dental device" when he saw it. and the long page of instructions in tiny print on the back seemed to say to me that i needed to spend a little time getting to know this machine. and i just didn't have the time yet or the need yet...

well last night i really wanted to get some sneaks up so i decided to break into the CAD and see what the fuss over it was all about - why did i wait so long? soon i was punching holes into anything i could get my hands on! and look out all you forgotten eyelets and snaps of yore - your days are numbered!

so here is a sneak peek at something else we are releasing at CHA! are you ready:

it is sheers in paisley (in black, white and clear!) . i took some white and black ones and layered the different shapes to build a paisley of very cool styles! see how i set the eyelets and punched the holes?

we have a couple of other sheers coming out too but i can't share everything yet!

i also did a LO with some of our new rubons and ribbons. but i will show you the ribbons later this week - for now, check out how i used the rubons:

hope you all are having a wonderful day and i hope that i am inspiring you to create. even if it is only 10 mins - try something. you never know what you will create. and also don't be afraid of new things and new change, once you get over the hump, everything becomes a piece of cake.

reflections...

... i am feeling slothful - not in the area of noah, travel, maya road but in other areas. there are areas in my life i need to improve - like my health and having more date nights with david and creating and cleaning...





they were wrong about a woman being able to do it all. it is a myth. a true myth. and in fact i don't think i even want to do it all. but i need to find balance.

i need to start going to the gym again (noah can go to the daycare with me). i used to be all about being thin but even now when i am at a weight that i haven't seen since the college years, i realize that i want my muscles and performance back!

and i miss those days when david and i would go to barnes and nobles and then off to the $1.00 movie. we need those nights back.

and i want to reorganize my scrap space, office and probably get new carpet this year.

and i want to take noah to my parents house. he has seen them here and in HK and at MT but i want him to see their house to see some of my things i had growing up.

that is why i am excited that we are only doing 2 shows this year. i have other goals in my life besides the MR ones. and i am ready to start accomplishing them.

for now though i am working on MR and getting better. then after the tradeshow, i am ready for a break - LOL!

so last night when i couldn't sleep due to the jet lag, i started creating again. and of course there is a sneak peek in here too!

more of our like butter rubons! but this time in brown and cream and black and white. the designs are fabulous! can you see the flourish i used on the noah at 7 months LO?

again, this will be some of the best value in the industry - where else can you get 9 sheets of like-butter rub-ons, in a GAGGLE of designs, in a signature storage MR tin for about $15.00 - $16.00? and you the answer is no where!

and of course the designs match our chipboard and ribbons and other things.

but we still have a couple of more things up our sleeves! we are introducing 2 new product lines which MR has NEVER done before but i think you will love what we do. we will continue with our awesome chippies and ribbons and velvet but just wait til you see what we have got (but no worries no paper here)!

have a great thursday!

my travel journal

here is a quick set of pics of my hong kong travel journal. more on it later. i created this with the MR journey album kit and some extra MR chippies and ribbons. enjoy!

how about a sneakie?

...argh i am sick, deb is sick and CHA is what like 3 weeks away?

oh well onward and upwards! anyhow i wanted to share a small peek at something we are releasing at CHA. this is our new velvet ribbons with a cool stitched edge! a nice twist to the stitched ribbon don't you think? it is pure LUSH ribbon heaven? sorry for the scan but it was the best i could do at like 3 am! (smile).

deb and i lost count last night at the number of products we will have. it will be upwards of about 75 we think. and this year is going to be an important year for us i think. i am hoping that deb will get to quit her full time job and join me on this MR thing full time. we have some goals that we have to meet first for that to happen but please be thinking about us. we would both want this very much for MR's sake and for our boys' sakes!

so be thinking of us as we buckle down for this next tradeshow.

more soon!

so very tired...

deb took this photo of us in HK at my grandma's birthday banquet - imagine eating for 3+ hours in a 10-12 course meal. of course noah was very tired by the end.

in fact at 3 am this morning we were both up and about b/c he hasn't quiet adjusted to the time change yet. but who can blame him? the 14 hour time difference is enough to screw all of up!

i was in fact VERY worried about our flights to and from hong kong mostly for noah's sake (and the passengers around us). the traveling time was horrible at 23 - 27 hours including layovers. i knew noah would be antsy sitting on our laps during the entire trip as he loves to roll around and such. and the fact is noah is a loud baby. if he is unhappy, all the rows around us would know instantly. i also didn't want his ear to hurt on the way up and down on the plane and i wasn't sure if he was prone to being air sick.

so before we left, i prayed to God that noah would have a good trip (and we would too). i also made a promise that if his traveling was good, that we would donate an extra percentage of our income to samaritian's purse. sorta of a deal that i struck with God.

so when the first half of our flights went well, we went ahead and on faith donated part of the money while we were in HK. and well i am happy to say that we are ready to complete our donation! noah had an awesome trip.

in fact i have to give extra thanks to God b/c i ended up having to go to the emergency room 2x to get checked out. it was nothing serious but with the whole 150 sq ft of living space with noah and david, i wanted to make sure i wasn't passing on something bad to them. in fact with all my fevers, headaches and horrible coughing, noah is fine. david appears to be too! tell me that isn't a miracle.

as we ended 2006, we realized how much we had to be thankful for. it is so easy to see what other people have and think, "why don't WE have that?". i will admit i can get that way sometimes. but then i remember how much we do have and it is MORE than enough. we have so many things and so many blessings. for us to be able to share what we have with others is more a gift to me than to who we give to in the end.

so looking forward to 2007!

together...

well we are going to be going home tomorrow. i am ready to be in the wide open spaces of texas again but i am not b/c i have seen what joy my grandma has with her greatgrandbabies.

and of course, who can resist these two boys together:

they have been such troopers here. but they both LOVE to be out and about and everyone loves to come up and rub their cheeks (who can blame them?)

we are ready for a new MR year and for CHA winter. more soon when we get back!