Everyday Life @ MR

moving blogs...

2007-06-12T00:37:00.001-04:00

we are moving! check me out here (including my archives)

http://mayaroad.typepad.com/mr/

we are back...

2007-06-11T23:38:00.000-04:00

ok, can i just say how awesome my trip to detroit was? truly, it was so much fun hanging out with cass, kate, debbie, laura (and mike, ken and erin). even though the trip was only 48 hours, i enjoyed every moment we spent at paper tales. the store that cass has put together is BEAUTIFUL. i actually found all these interesting papers and embellishments that i had not seen in other stores i had been to before so of course i shopped shopped shopped.

and it is hard for me to not get a smile on my face when i see an 8 ft wall of maya road stuff:

and noah loved the fact that he could roam around the store and check out the play area with erin:

and the students there were so awesome. i am so lucky i got to stop and chat and hang out with each of them:

i even picked up some new UTEE techniques from some of the teachers at paper tales! so cool.

and baby noah and david got to sightsee around detroit with ken and erin as their guides. check out noah and erin here. erin is such a cutie pie!

if you are in the detroit area, you need to head to paper tales. beautiful store. beautiful people. beautiful projects.

i am back at work now. project wise, i am working on a skulls onesie for baby noah. i am not one to fork over $24.99 for a cute designer onesie for noah so i whipped out my drawing pad, some felt and embroidery floss and buttons. i will have to take a photo of the onesie when i am done.

something to think about...

2007-06-07T22:58:00.000-04:00

thank you for everyone who posted on my last entry - it made me smile to know that all of you all have something to be thankful for!

i wanted to post this here just in case you want to do something nice for someone. we have donated a bunch of our maya road journey kits and some chipboards to a benefit for jen <-- click here to read about this.

jen isn't someone i know personally but i know her from some of her work as a scrapbooker and her posts on some message boards. her son passed away a little while ago form cancer but even in the darkness, i admired that she had such strength and hope for her child. i don't know if i would have the strength she did if i lost my baby noah and it makes me a bit emotional to think about it.

we usually don't talk a lot about things we donate to as a company but we did donate a number of our things for an auction with 100% of the proceeds benefiting jen's family

you can see the auctions here:

auction for jen

and if you can find it in your heart to bid on them, that would be awesome.

we are off to paper tales tomorrow for me to teach and hang out! 85% packed and 15% more to go! i have 20 planters i have to pack and get on the plane for my class and those things weigh a TON each!

a celebration RAK...

2007-06-07T00:38:00.000-04:00

... for 1 healthy year for baby noah and baby jonathan

... for moving almost everything into our new w/h

... for the tremendous growth we have this year

... for God's blessing upon our lives

... for getting back into the running game

... for me getting my @#$@# mouth back under control (most of the time - still working on it)

here is a small RAK i have to give away. lots of pretty ribbons, some items left over from some of my kits from last year. some chipboards. some maya road papers (yes the only ones we have ever made that is in our journey album kit). all in a cool storage box.

i have a couple more things not in the photos - some cool stamps and labels and such.

if you want to win this, please do the following:

1. post here

2. tell me what you have to celebrate today

RAK entries close on monday! so good luck!

one small peek at the w/h

2007-06-05T16:53:00.000-04:00

ok, here are 2 small peeks at the w/h. not everything is put away yet but it is looking very sweet. there is a photo of where we store the goodies:

(i wouldn't advise diving into this b/c it would HURT like the dickens).

and here is where we do the pick and pack and ship:

and remember this, just a couple of years ago, deb and i were packing orders out of our garages! even when i was 4 months pregnant, i was packing orders out of my garage. trust me, this wouldn't fit in our garages now - LOL.

so for that, thank you for your support of us. it means a lot. and we have lots more goodies planned!

you've come a long way baby.

2007-06-05T11:21:00.000-04:00

wow, talk about a trip down memory lane. i found this photo from over 10 years ago (back in my raver-ish days) and rather than banish it back to a pile in my desk i decided to scrap it. you can't see very well the photos but i did have a fire engine red streak of hair. this was after a late rave night of staying up til 4am then heading to class at 8 am. the boy in the photo is jeff. he was my best friend in college. jeff sat behind me in high school psychology class and that is how we met. we went to the prom together and suffered through 4 years of college together. we even did our last chemical engineering project together in school.

i can look back at this photo with such fond memories. jeff and i will reconnect once in a while and catch up. there was a point where we drifted apart. it bothered me so much. but now i realize we had to do that. i was moving on in my life and so was he but we were going in different directions.

things are different now. we don't talk and see each other daily like we used to but we are at points in our lives where the conversation, even after a long pause gets easy again. i hope to bring baby noah to meet jeff and his partner very soon. we talk about mortgages, bills, food and getting older (LOL).

but i wouldn't have traded the past me for anything b/c it made me who i am now. and i am so happy to see where jeff is now in his life!

so if you find some photos lying around in a drawer, don't leave them there! do a LO about it! it will look so much better sitting on a page rather than left back in the drawer to be forgotten.

it was 2 years ago...

2007-06-04T15:28:00.000-04:00

so it was over 2 years ago that i created this album. i just found these photos the other day as i was flipping through picasa at my stuff. who would have known transparencies would be so "in" 2 years later (LOL)

i still love these pages where i stamped and used rubons to create divider pages. in fact, for a class i am teaching this weekend, we will be sorta doing the same stuff but with some different supplies.

and you can see that i had created this album freehand and it was sort of the inspiration for some of our most popular albums to date!

it is time for me to "update" this album. i am going to be making one with some new photos of our home now that mr. noah has joined our family. lots more toys. a bit more messes but a whole lot more love!

we are off to swim lessons tonight with noah. swim trunks? check. swim diapers? check. towels. check. i think we are good to go!

in the meantime our new w/h looks so AWESOME! double the packing space.triple the storage. more than 4 docks for loading and unloading. and even toys for baby noah when he pops in for a visit! i should take some photos this week.

"you run fast for someone with flat feet"

2007-06-02T21:31:00.000-04:00

someone told me that once. i guess us flat fat feeters are supposed to go SLOW... just a quick note before i head off to B&N and then later tonight work on my summer CHA projects (with our new samples - and they kick butt let me tell you).

i got up at 6 am today and did my 6 mile run in a little over 54 minutes. so i am getting faster and i can't wait for the half marathon.

no i won't back down...

2007-06-01T02:02:00.000-04:00

well i did it, i signed up for the half marathon in september. after forking over my 75 buckaroos, there is no turning back now. i had to do this to make sure i was serious about my training. i have only 3.5 months til i have to run this 13.1 mile distance.

if you are into racing, you will know what this all means to me. i don't get nervous about lots of things but i get knots in my stomach before races like this. i get antsy and pissy. i want to just get started the day of the race.

sometimes people will ask me "well how long is this marathon" - and well i get taken aback b/c the length of a marathon never changes - it is always 26.2 miles. and the half is always 13.1 miles. you might not thing that 0.1 or 0.2 miles matters but it does especially if you are at the point when your body is about to give out. i have come close to passing out the last 0.1 miles.

but i am doing this for me. so that i can get back into some sort of shape. i miss the days i would go run 22 miles, shower, then play flag football for 2 hours and soccer for 1.5 hours the next day. those days are long behind me.

but during my runs, i have to be extra careful b/c of this:

i found this photo the other day while cleaning out a drawer. this was from 9 years ago (Feb to be exact) when i played a fateful soccer game and tore a bunch of ligaments in my ankle - was out of work and on crutches.

if i only knew then what i know now. my ankle haunts me. i was thinking about this the other day. i will never be 100% on that ankle. and i probably won't be even 80% ever. i think about my ankle each time i run b/c i have the tendency to twist my ankle if i don't watch how i land.

don't get me wrong, i have run my fastest times ever even with this ankle but i know and have been told that one day i might need to get that puppy fixed. i am cool with that. there is no need for me to live in fear. i am not one to live in fear. so til that day comes, i will make do with what i have. life is too short to sweat it.

and with that my goal for is set. i will get up that day. i will get antsy. i will be wearing my funny looking running shorts that have all the pockets in the butt side and they will be filled with runner's energy packs. and with God's grace, i will run my half marathon in a really slow time. and baby noah and david will be cheering me on. then i will finish and we will celebrate by going to the beach.

i am back

2007-05-30T11:44:00.000-04:00

well we made it home. i start officially the hard core work today while baby noah is off playing. also we need to get all of our suitcases emptied. david and i used to have this BAD habit of letting our suitcase stay unpacked for weeks and weeks but now we are trying to get everything unpacked in the 2 days after we are back. 3 suitcases down and 1 more to go. we also decided that we need to travel with less. it is amazing how a little dude can need so much stuff!

noah had a great time with his grandparents and uncles and aunt. they adore him so much. you can just tell by how their faces light up when they see him. it makes me happy that he brings so much joy to them. he is very outgoing and flirts with everyone he knows.

last night i decided i needed to do a LO so this is the one i created.

simple yet totally easy to create in less than 30 mins.

before i left i also decided to see if i could do a LO with more than 1 photo and i actually fit 4 photos on here! i usually don't crop my photos but this time i wanted to capture a specific feel:

someone asked me in an earlier post what i read for inspiration. to be honest, i read a lot of different things- business week, wall street journal, teen vogue (they have a cool DIY clothing item each issue), newsweek, runner's world, vanity fair, CRAFT, adorn, real simple and of course i partake of the usual scrapbooking magazines too. my feeling is that i am only on this earth for a short time, i need to feed my mind and explore my world to see what is out there.

ok i need to get back to work. my marathon training has been slacking so i need to get back on track with that too.

oh yeah, before i forget, we got some samples of our NEW stuff for CHA summer and i am so super excited about it. we will probably start showing you some goodies in about 1 month!

this kid knows how to party...

2007-05-27T13:52:00.000-04:00

just a few photos from noah's party yesterday.

we have been blessed with a kid who is so easy going and happy to be around people.

more soon! have a great day!

hard to believe...

2007-05-24T00:54:00.000-04:00

hard to believe that 1 year ago, i was waddling my way to my last week of pregnancy. hard to believe that i stopped running for a week because my doctor told me that baby noah would be here if i didn't slow down and i still had a list a mile long before he was due to arrive.

and it is hard to believe that noah will be one year old in a couple of days.

we are visiting his grandparents right now. on the plane ride our neighbor passenger asked if this was noah's first plane ride. and i was thinking about it, this kid has probably flown / drove (well he didn't drive but we did drive nonstop from dallas to chicago to CHA summer last year and back) - well noah should be hitting close to 30,000 miles now in travel. that is pretty amazing for being less than 1 year old. he is used to flying now. and after our monstrous 27 hour trip to asia, well these small state side ones are a breeze!

here he is visiting the dogs and his grandparents (he was ok with the dogs til one started licking him and then he was upset but after a couple of hours, he was ok with them and has started chasing them around the house).

i love these photos of him. if only i had his shiny hair and good skin - sigh.

and if you can believe it i snuck me some scrapbook supplies in my bag to work on a couple of things while we are here. i just need to pull everything out to get some LOs done!

and i found this photo that my MIL took at our last CHA - show - this is totally how we feel EVERY DAY after the show - even all the maya roadies get tired!

happy monday

2007-05-22T00:24:00.000-04:00

today was a good day - i started off this week on a good foot literally as i actually went for a run tonight. unfortunately about 10 mins into the run, a rainshower blew in but i still finished my run - i just looked like a sad wet dog when i was done. i haven't run in the rain for a long time but it felt really nice to do so!

remember a couple of posts back where i talked about making some stickers with your journaling stamps? here is the LO i used mine on:

a perfect splash of color for this LO to commemorate noah's first steps for me!

so a couple of weeks ago, i was talking about the importance of supply chain and i have a bit of time tonight to chat a little bit about it as it is a vast topic.

i was at IKEA a couple of weeks ago with some of the MR design team gals and we were just looking at all the great stuff you could do with like 371 sq ft of living space (and you start to think hey my family of 3 could live somewhere like that - LOL) anyhow i am getting off subject.

they had this piece of furniture - i think it was a book case or something and they were advertisting that they could lower the price to the consumer b/c they had found a way to have the pieces fit together so that the book case took up only half the space it needed to in order to be shipped here so they could pass the savings onto the consumer. half the space might not seem like that big a deal but it is!

think of it this way, let's say that ikea could only fit 100 (i am just picking a nice round number here) of these bookcases in a container before. so they have the 1 container that cost them say $1000 to ship and all the time, labor and money costs for the paperwork to get here. then they have to truck the 100 bookcases in the container to a store and warehouse the 100 bookcases. each of these steps cost money. NOW, with the redesign so that the bookcase can be packed flatter, they can fit 200 bookcases per container. THINK of how many steps in the process they have cut their costs on!

here is a scenario - say they used to have to ship 50 of these containers out, now it is only 25! they only have to do paperwork for 25! they only have to have half the storage and warehouse space for it. it is brillant! think of the costs they saved on that they can pass onto the consumer!

and in ways, this is sort of how we are running MR. we aren't making things flatter but you can bet your darnest we try to pack the container as full as we can. and to help us accomplish this, we often times will have a couple of dozen of our products in the container at a time.

here is the thing that we are always challenged with "net replenishment lead time". by definition, this is the amount of time that is needed to "refill" something once you place your order for that item. so say we figure that we need some of our 4" binders (as those are pretty popular lately) - and side note, the definition of "need" is challenging too and something i will discuss later as i talk about safety stocks, etc in a future entry. anyhow, i say we need to order 4" binders. well if you add up the time it takes for the factory to make it, package it, and get it on the container and it is shipped, through customs and in our w/h, we are talking about 8- 12 week cycles here.

then you need to take into account the other item we are trying to reorder at the same time to get on the container to get shipped here b/c we want to be like ikea and keep our costs down. but deb does a great job on it. she handles all of that. i just push the easy button (LOL).

that is one of the challenges. i don't think some people without an intimate knowledge of supply chain understand that. they just get mad that things aren't in stock. my philosophy is if we ALWAYS have everything in stock, we have too much inventory. that is a lot of cost to be carrying all the time in terms of stock.

so in this way we want to be like ikea b/c it helps us keep our cost down (Even though we don't have the ikea scale of volume on our side).

hope you all have a great week!

some scenes from today and a RAK winner...

2007-05-20T22:14:00.000-04:00

wow who knew that a party for a mere 1 year old boy could take so much out of me?

we had a beautiful day today for noah's party. here are a couple of photos of the fun:

i must say i am really proud of my cake! but we all had fun and that was the best part of it!

and we did pick a RAK winner from my last RAK giveaway. the winner is:

WendyGibson

and since i haven't gotten to her question yet, i thought i would answer it here.

Do you ever feel overwhelmed with all that you do? If so how do you deal with it?

wendy, this is a great question - yes i have days too. days that i feel like for every 2 steps forward i take, i take 10 steps back. days when it seems like all we have are people unhappy with x,y, and z or we have a deadline that is coming up.

on those days, i try to take a step back. say a prayer for what great blessings we have and go out for a run. life often times is about perspective and it is only i that can change my perspective. then i get back into it and tackle the issue at hand and everything is cool again.

so wendy, please email me at info at mayaroad.com!

i will try to answer my questions this week!

the day started off sucky.

2007-05-20T00:37:00.000-04:00

well i think we are pretty much set for noah's party tomorrow. i decided at the last moment to go ahead and purchase a cake at COSTCO and i decorated the cake with a race track made from crushed oreos. i then added a green infield and piped "greenery" around the track. i even included some lifesaver "bumpers" around the infield. and i am proud to say that i made the happy birthday sign with some scrapbook supplies i had for the cake too!

all i need to add tomorrow are the cars and the mr. potato head holding the checkered flag. i will be sure to get lots of pictures tomorrow.

so here is the part that sucked. i got up at 6:15 am. at precisely 7:03 am i started running 4 miles and it pained me so b/c this was the SLOWEST 4 miles i have ever logged. being somewhat of a type A personality, i am ultra competitive - lots of times with myself.

the 4 mile run today is to categorize us in the "group" you are supposed to run with for the marathon training program. and just so you know, when i was in my prime, i was in the second fastest group - green B1 (with blue A being the fastest group). and with my time today i will probably be in the yellow C3 which is right next to the red group which is slowest.

while the run was physically taxing, i think it was more taxing on my pride than anything. sigh. but you know what i have to start somewhere and at least i am getting back into this.

can't wait for tomorrow, i hope noah has a wonderful BD! will share lots of pictures when we are done!

happy friday to ya'll

2007-05-18T13:27:00.000-04:00

i hope everyone has had a great week. we are gearing up here for noah's first BD shindig so that has been keeping me sorta busy. i know in the past that people have asked me what i do with my mini albums and such. well i decided that i would display some of them for noah's party. this way people can see how he has grown in the last year. i mixed it up with photos and put them all on our mantle like this:

this is a wonderful way for people to share in what you do.

ok i will pick the RAK winner but i might have to wait til sunday after noah's big party. there is a lot for me to do as i am also now signed up for "early half marathon training" which means at 6 am tomorrow i will be heading out to do a 5k time trial. ugh. but i need to get back into it.

i do want to answer some more questions so let me continue down the list:

Which do you LOVE designing more - new goodies for Maya Road or layouts for your design team work? i think quite honestly i love the layouts the most. the new goodies are fun but really very stressful too. it isn't like deb and i have a slew of helpers that we just say "hey here is a concept of what we want in the colors we want" and volia we show up at the tradeshow and it is there. no, if only you all knew the gory details. it would make your toes curl a bit. but i love making and coming up with new goodies too but just not all the stuff that comes with it.
Question for you is your thoughts on the publishing end of the scrapbooking craft. In other words, do you think publishing is on the decline with the magazines in different states of flux? Do you think most magazines are disenchanted with some scrappers that have "attitude" and are sticking to layouts from Manufacturer Design Teams to fill content and correspond with ads? wow, this one i could write pages about. i mean there are arguments both ways about this.

1. the magazines are a business. they need to do stuff that makes sense as a business. that means making money

2. if they have their own inhouse design team with people that met their deadlines and produce quality work, then it only makes sense to go with that.

3. at the same time, you could be missing out on someone with mad crazy talent out there if you limit yourself.

4. some of it is luck and timing - i will sometimes see 2 galleries of 2 people that to me have equal amounts of talent - one will turn out to be a huge name but the other will not - is it for lack of submitting? is it for connections? i don't know but some of it DOES have to be being at the right place at the right time.

What is your secret to juggling baby, career, MR and also finding time to do things for yourself like run? you also forgot that i LOVE LOVE LOVE sleeping - i really don't function well without 8 hours a night! you know deb and i talked about this. and to be quite honest, we are both workaholics. i mean i LOVE my Maya Road job. that is fun to me. almost like not working. but you know what MR has also provided me? the ability to work on most days from home. that in turn means i get to see baby noah a lot. i am also blessed b/c God has worked everything out for me. my friend who lives down the street watches noah about 5 hours a day. then i get him and we hang out and then he goes down for a nap and i get to work again. then we hang out as a family most nights and when he goes to bed, i get back to work.

i don't run as much as i should but i am about to change that.

i am also blessed b/c the warehouse people LOVE noah. they ask for him to come visit.

Is Noah going to have a brother or sister anytime in the near future? L, you are funny! LOL. um not anytime soon. but david and i are going to start looking at our journey to adopting a baby girl from China seriously in the next 6 months or so.

Ok that is all I have time for today but have a wonderful weekend and I will be checking back in with a winner soon!

PS I still need the last RAK winner to email me; if I don't get an email back in the next couple of days, I will choose someone else to replace that winner.

happy wednesday

2007-05-16T01:21:00.000-04:00

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!

happy mother's day!

2007-05-14T01:34:00.000-04:00

i hope all the moms had a great day!

i got 4 great gifts today:

i played the best soccer today that i have in the entire season.
david made me a mother's day layout - i will have to post it this week.
david and i got to go on a date night date.

and the BIGGIE:

baby noah took his FIRST unassisted-non-couch-holding steps! we are so proud of him. what a great present for him to give me!

i also got the chance to create the following things for noah's BD party next week:

this is a quick and easy album i got ready for noah using some page protectors, 5 pieces of patterned paper, a sheet of stickers, some rubons and chipboard letters! this way when the party is in full swing, i can be busy taking photos and as quickly as the photos are developed, i can create him an album in less than 1/2 hour!

next, we have more pinwheels i made from left over paeprs i had that will either line the lawn or i will put as a centerpiece.

and finally what is a party without favors? noah has suddenly shown a SLIGHT interest in TV and the one show he will watch for more than 10 mins is The Backyardigans! david and i have become fans too of the cute music and the creativity of all the characters. so each kiddo will leave with some Backyardigan goodies tied to a canister of bubbles with a decorated tag.

i can't wait for the party! i am sure noah will have a blast and so will we!

thanks for all the great questions so far. i look forward to more of them! i love that they are thought provoking for me! just remember you have 48 more hours to enter for the RAK by asking me a question!

happy mother's day!

2007-05-12T23:24:00.000-04:00

wow, tomorrow will be my first mother's day! i am being swept up by what this year has brought me. last year this time, i was waddling around in the 100 F texas heat and so ready to meet our new baby. my feet hurt, baby noah was kicking up a storm and i was just frantically getting everything i could get done before he arrived!

and now here i am a year later with a baby that could be no more perfect for david and i than he already is (God knows what He is doing - LOL). even with the sleepless nights and all i wouldn't trade this year for anything else!

we are going to have a small celebration here for him next week with some friends. i hate waiting til the last minute so the little party favors have been finished already (can you believe i used some scrapbooking supplies to complete those - LOL). i just need to figure out what i want to do for his cake and work on the food this coming week.

last night i decided i needed to scrapbook - i had found this polaroid photo lying around the house and just as i was about to throw it away, i decided it would be perfect layout material.

i am about to sign up for my 7th half marathon. it will be coming up in september which seems so far away but also is a lot closer than i think. it did feel good to do a layout about me rather than baby noah (not that he isn't the perfect subject - LOL).

which brings me to my latest RAK:

lots of Maya Road yummies! so i will be sending this bag of eye candy to someone. here is what you need to do.

i want to see you post a question here for me. it has been a while since i have asked what you all like to read about. i know i still need to post on inventory and what that means to us but i want to hear what you all are interested in knowing about. i will try to answer some this week. post here in the next 3 days for a chance to win this stash but you have to ask me a question!

and i will leave you with this. CHA is around the corner so on friday i got a sample of one our new Maya Road tins (that MR goodies will be coming in). and all i have to say is i am in love....

what could be better than:

2007-05-10T23:45:00.000-04:00

bubbles:

and grass:

noah had a big day yesterday playing all day (even learned to climb the stairs).

and i can admit that i do use the flash indoors. i also use the automatic settings on my SLR and well i am just starting to remember what when to use what aperture (LOL) but it doesn't matter b/c to me the memories are still the same.

i will be posting another challenge this weekend for you all! so watch for it!

busy day...

2007-05-09T01:07:00.001-04:00

Ok, so i stayed up til about 2 am last night. But i got a lot done. It has been a busy day today. Let me share what we got to do today (besides shipping orders):

1. So Noah's first BD is coming up. And well I was inspired today to try and get all up in the crafty and create some things for Noah's birthday party. It must have been the Martha Stewart watching (I taped the show b/c Lisa was on today as one of the winners! Congrats Lisa for winning in Martha's SBing contest!)

I decided to make these pinwheels to see if I could do it with some patterned paper and some brads. I think it turned out pretty cool and I might make some to skewer fruit or put on Noah's BD straws.

I also sent out all the invites. They turned out pretty darn cute! I am proud to say that I created the invite in Adobe and well it turned out pretty darn awesome. So much so that I might have to venture out of my comfort zone and try HYBRID scrapbooking (including computer journaling - gasp).

2. David finally finished with his Chinese 101 class for this semster! YAY! He had an exam today so to celebrate, I bought him his favorite snacks. The grapefruit is a joke about being Chinese.

We sometimes watch King of the Hill . This is a hilarious show to us b/c we have lived in a town of less than 20,000 people in West Texas and a lot of the characters in the show remind us of the time we lived in that tiny town!

In one episode, Hank's Asian neighbor, Khan, told Hank that he disciplined his kid by not giving the child dessert. And Hank was like "so what, do you take away her orange after dinner?" Which is the joke between David and I as he makes fun of the fact that my family does in fact have oranges after dinner as dessert. Hey if you can't laugh at yourself, who can you laugh at?

3. And then I left my room for a minute and guess who I found in the blossom trim?

And the RAK winner. Thanks for sharing all the nice things you all have done for other ppl. It always makes me smile to see the comments there to know that there are kind, decent people out in the world. David picked this so if you didn't win, you can take it up with him:

Marilyn in TX - congrats you won! Email me at: info @ mayaroad.com to claim your prize!

I will post soon about supply chain - need to get some time to wrap my arms around the mega posting I would need to do!

creation

2007-05-07T21:26:00.000-04:00

well it has been what i consider a slow week this week (even though we are still shipping a lot of orders). so with that, i have been working on some classes. this is a peek at one that i created for paper tales when i go visit them in june.

a bunch of fresh flower pens in bring colors and lots of maya road goodies! i love this pen set and it will sit on my desk after i am done teaching the class.

you all still have a bit to sign up for the RAK below! so make sure you do so.

and coming up later this week, i will talk about the challenges of supply chain management for a business like ours. i had a nice conversation today with a customer as we chatted about safety stock inventory, committed inventory, order lead time, etc. these are all things that i am familiar with long before i came full time to Maya Road but it is important to understand for us as a manufacturer, retailers and end consumers. if you are ever thinking about starting your business and you carry any sort of item in inventory, it is important to know some basic concepts.

happy NSD (and cinco de mayo)

2007-05-05T23:26:00.000-04:00

man what a DAY!

noah and i started off our day with a run. i like to get out and just get my thoughts in order before i do classes and running helps me do that. we enjoyed a bit of dodging the rain by the time we got home.

i got the chance to teach a class of 40 wonderful ladies celebrating NSD at the Scrapbook Pad! that is a beautiful store and i got the chance to hang out and show them all some cool things to do with our journey tins! lisa was so kind to help me with my class. we had such a wonderful time.

halfway through my class, baby noah came by to say hello and he brought with him his cousin - jonathan - and deb and david! deb and her family are headed east to see all of jonathan's grandparents for a bit and take a bit of rest. they stopped in dallas to stretch their legs. jonathan had never been to our house before so guess what he and noah decided they wanted to play with:

i can already imagine in a couple of years they will replace the hangers with some trucks and cars and zoom them around the house - LOL!

and of course to celebrate this day, here is a RAK (with about $25 worth of goodies here) - from some of my favorite MR goodies (coaster albums, ribbons, rubons and sheers to some other cute things that always seem to find their way onto my LOs). how do you win?

easy - this one requires only 2 things -no layouts to do, no things to sort or purge. here are the 2 things i want to see (and you have til this TUESDAY to do so).

1. post here and tell me you want this stuff.

2. do something nice for someone - it can be as SIMPLE as emailing someone a thank you for something they did or paying the toll for the person behind you, sending out a RAK or just writing a letter to someone who means something to you. it is anything. just something. i will assume that if you post here that you want this stuff, you will be doing that nice something for someone.

and that is it!

have a great rest of the weekend and i will post again soon. i still need to nurse my soccer injury before my game tomorrow!

happy friday!

2007-05-04T11:55:00.000-04:00

noah and i are off to the w/h to get some orders completed then we are headed to a playgroup. i am not sure what to expect but i am giving it a try for noah!

be sure to check back tomorrow - i have put together a RAK in honor of NSD!

C

11 months

2007-05-02T18:11:00.000-04:00

when did this boy get so big (and CUTE)??? sigh...

2 of the craziest guys i know...

2007-05-01T13:51:00.000-04:00

so there are days i wonder where baby noah gets his craziness. david and i are rather chill people and noah at times gets all crazy and loud.

so there is one major source that i can think of - my dad - bong. this is a photo of bong and baby noah during one of their first meetings.

my dad has a funny sense of humor. lots of people don't realize that he has an english name but in the end, he decided he liked bong better.

for those of you who have never met bong, if you are a fan of the office - bong is like the asian version of dwight. he believes in conspiracy theories, lots of locks on doors (even the garage door) and doesn't believe in wasting good printer ink on photo paper (yeah i know). at one point, he and his brothers were obsessed about growing peonies in their gardens and would talk about it for hours each night.

when bong was introduced to jess' hubby at memory trends, bong said to him "hello, i am bong, james bong" - so it is that type of humor. and even though baby noah is only 11 months old and can't really say anything, i can see that sort of bong glimmer in his eyes sometimes.

deb and i have learned our lesson about calling our dad up to tell him that we are sending him something (say for example photos) of his grandsons. we just let it arrive as a surprise. why? because if we call the day we send something, he will call us and ask when it will arrive and if we have a tracking number and what if he has to go out in the afternoon when the mail arrives.

but it is all good - LOL. we just know where noah gets it from now.

pooped

2007-04-29T23:23:00.000-04:00

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

2007-04-26T22:54:00.000-04:00

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...

2007-04-25T23:10:00.000-04:00

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...

2007-04-24T10:43:00.000-04:00

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...

2007-04-23T00:25:00.001-04:00

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.

2007-04-22T00:03:00.000-04:00

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.

2007-04-20T01:45:00.000-04:00

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 ...

2007-04-17T16:56:00.000-04:00

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

2007-04-15T20:04:00.000-04:00

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)

2007-04-14T23:11:00.000-04:00

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...

2007-04-13T11:35:00.000-04:00

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

2007-04-11T12:59:00.000-04:00

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...

2007-04-09T23:03:00.000-04:00

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...

2007-04-09T02:21:00.000-04:00

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...

2007-04-07T22:46:00.000-04:00

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

2007-04-04T23:42:00.000-04:00

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...

2007-04-04T00:19:00.000-04:00

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!

2007-04-01T01:34:00.000-04:00

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.

today was special day

2007-03-28T01:48:00.000-04:00

i never thought i would be a mini van momma but i am now - david's parents graciously gave us their old 98 mini van about 2 months ago when they got a new car. i have to admit that it is so much more comfortable getting noah in and out with the mini van.

i have always joked with david and his parents that the gift of the mini van is really a conspiracy - the van has over 120,000 miles on it. so if anything happened to it, i would have to get another minivan to replace it.

well it seems that the mini van didn't like the dallas weather - it was used to the dry climate of NM and the DAY they brought us the mini van it started squeaky - horribly. to the point of being embarrassing to drive. david got it fixed (tensioner for the belt problem) and i thought we were good. but today as i was leaving the w/h to go get noah, the van started to squeak. LOUD.

and it got LOUDER. i was about a mile from noah and suddenly it sounded like there were RATS that were screaming for dear life in the A/C vents. so in a panic i turned off the A/C . well that didn't help. then i wondered if we really had RATS in the A/C (i had heard stories of that - my friend had to sell his car b/c a mouse died in the dashboard and he couldn't get the smell out).

well the mini van decided to tell me it wasn't that b/c i came to a stop sign and the power steering gave out. now for those of you who have not had this happen before, it is like trying to turn to open a jar of pickles that won't give so once you pick a lane stay in it.

great, so i am now about 1/4 mile from home, and of course i come to the school zone and i pray that the car doesn't just die there. luckily the "rats" have stopped screaming at this time and i decide i need to switch cars before heading off to get noah. so anyhow, i wrestle the mini van into the driveway but unfortunately it blocks the other car. as SOON as i turn into the driveway, the "overheat" light comes on and the temp gauge is at the HIGHEST point in the scale.

i jump out of the mini van and look around at it and underneath the van, all this liquid is spewing out. that is never good.

anyhow, it looks like a belt got shredded and we had to tow it to get it fixed.

but even with all the excitement, the reason today was and is a special day is because it is noah's 10 month with us! here is a LO i did of noah when he first met grandma and grandpa LAU.

he was so tiny then. and he is so big now! and so full of personality! we will see how he does with me on our trip out west alone. it could be a long 4 hours of yelling and squawking on the plane - and that is not just from baby noah!

and thanks for everyone sharing your LOs with me from my challenge below. i love to see them all. you all are doing awesome stuff! i check out each and every link and it really makes me smile!

still up

2007-03-27T02:57:00.000-04:00

yeah so i am feeling like this right now at 2 am CST. i am trying to get everything lined up before i head to cali but there just aren't enough hours in the day!

we have some exciting news as our w/h is moving to a new bigger location - this will help us with processing orders faster in the future. i got a chance to do a walk through today and it is going to be awesome! i can't wait to see how it will look when everything is complete!

ok lots more to still do, til later.

guess who is 32 today?

2007-03-25T20:10:00.000-04:00

that's right - my DH david. yes he married an older woman - LOL. he said he had one of the best years ever last year and hopes this year will top it! have a beautiful day, hon!

and here is baby noah who doesn't look so much like a baby any more!

where is all this time going? he is slowly starting to take some steps around the couch. and he does what one of our friends has deemed the "terminiator crawl" (apparently, the terminator in one movie when his leg was injured, dragged one leg along while crawling which is what baby noah does).

make sure you read my post below about the RAK! more to come but buckling down for the week as i am headed out to cali to teach and hang out with deb, david and baby jonathan.

my challenge (with RAK)

2007-03-24T01:02:00.000-04:00

are ya'll ready for another challenge with a chance for a RAK? so see my post below about my style. after looking at my last 10-20 layouts, i noticed that i tended to repeat the same "elements" over and over. so to get my creative juices flowing, i jotted down the top 5 things i saw which were repetitive in my LOs such as:

1. use only 1 photo
2. use noah as a subject
3. use stickers for the title
4. use the same journaling stamp
5. do my LOs in landscape mode

it was time to CHANGE IT UP! so what i did was to pick at least 3 of the elements and NOT do them in a layout. this was hard for me as it required me to truly *think* about what i was doing as a habit and NOT do them.

so here is what i decided to do:

1. NOT use ANY photos
2. no mr. noah in my LO
3. no stickers
4. no journaling stamps
5. no landscape mode

and want to see what i came up with?

a quick LO about my crocs! i just got my new pair of mary jane crocs. and so i saved the tag off of my latest pair to create this LO. the journaling is about how for the LONGEST time i resisted them b/c i thought they were sorta ugly but i am so beyond that b/c now i have 4 pairs of them.

so which of you out there are going to take this challenge to change up your style? list 5 things you seem to always do and pick 3 of them and consciously choose not to do them in your next LO

i have started putting together a box of goodies for the winner of this RAK (will post a picture this weekend)- here are the rules on how you can get a chance to win.

1. post here for a chance to win.

2. visit the MR design team blog and post a comment for a chance to win.

3. if you take my challenge, you will get 20 more chances to win. post me a link to your project!

4. you have until April 4th to post your project and post here for your chances!

the box will be full of ribbons, chipboard and lots of other goodies! i encourage you to take this challenge and do something which is totally outside of what you normally do. when you do things like this, you learn to challenge your mind to expand your boundaries and to grow.

when i see this LO i did, i can still see elements of my style but i now will try to do different things for the title and also try to scrapbook other cool things going on in my life (besides baby noah). it is a great exercise to get out of a rut!

looking forward to seeing everyone's posts!

ready for another RAK challenge?

2007-03-23T20:03:00.000-04:00

sounds like ya'll had fun with the challenge so I have one more for you coming this weekend!

for now, i want you to take out your last 10-20 layouts and a piece of paper - write down 5 things that you always seem to do in your LOs - here is a sample for mine.

1. use only 1 photo
2. use noah as a subject
3. use stickers for the title
4. use the same journaling stamp
5. do my LOs in landscape mode

so get a pen/pencil out and LOs and jot something down. i will be back soon with the challenge!

getting OFF the hamster wheel...

2007-03-21T22:21:00.000-04:00

... i admit it, i was in a BAD mood today - it was one of those #$%!#$ moods where it doesn't seem like i could catch up on all of our orders, emails and such. it was like no matter what i did, i couldn't shake it. i consumed a massive amount of chocolate, played with baby noah and even took a short nap but i couldn't shake that mood.

i think one of the reasons i was in a bad mood was b/c i hate the fact that we can't be perfect - or i can't be perfect in the MR sense. when you ship out hundreds of orders a week and thousands of products, there is bound to be one or two orders where things are missing or dented. and as much as i would love to hear that our products never have problems, they do sometimes. and deb was telling me when we see emails like that - it makes her cringe and her blood pressure rise - it does for me too.

you never want to hear that you have "disappointed" someone. did we mean to? no, we are human. and when we make mistakes we try to fix it. sometimes that means me making 3 trips to the post office and mailing something myself but we do it b/c we want to be honest suppliers. in the end, we are only human and i have to accept that.

so enough about the bad karma, i decided the only way to shake this was to go for a run and to pray. i didn't run long but i did do a series of 200 yard sprints up and down the sidewalk outside our house this evening. and i said a prayer and i wanted God to remind me that i have so much to be thankful for - b/c i do.

and here i am - i feel a lot better! and i am ready to start again. and i am happy to also say we found out that deb won HM in the HOF contest! yay!

BUT before i do, as promised, here is the RAK winner - s.patel ! congrats, please email me at info @ mayaroad.com

and also to celebrate the mood lift, i put together a smaller RAK and picked another winner:
Mel Nunn - congrats to you.

and finally if you would like to see some inspiration for some of our new products, check it out at our MR design team blog!

here is my 15 min LO

2007-03-20T17:43:00.000-04:00

this will be quick as i need to go pick up mr noah - i did this LO in less than 15 mins from start to finish. i sometimes will challenge myself this way to get the mojo flowing again.

i used a piece of beautiful FW paper that i had been saving, some stickers and maya road chipboard and stamp.

this LO was about my baby noah and uncle. my uncle was one of those that you knew loved you but would pinch your cheeks and stuff (and be loud) - while i was sorta scared of him as a kid, noah was not. my uncle LOVED it. he would hold a cold glass in front of noah and noah would rather be fearful grab it and try to drink it. when my uncle clapped and talked loud, noah didn't even blink - so you can see they got along splendidly!

wanna see what a 15 min layout looks like?

2007-03-20T17:25:00.001-04:00

well check back in 30 and see! i am about to go and attempt a 15 min LO!

getting back into the game

2007-03-20T01:10:00.000-04:00

wow was it really like 4 years ago that this photo was taken? i can still remember those days distinctly - i really didn't have a lot of responsibilities after work and i worked out A LOT. i had entered this race - a dualthon where you run 2 miles, bike 10 miles and run 2 more miles. um yeah - you did that all in a row. i was fairly competitive back then in the road race arena here in dallas - i usually would place in my age group at least and on the rare occasion i would place overall.

for this race, i can remember it distinctly - i had never done a dualthon before. i ran the first 2 miles fairly easily and was able to be the first gal on her bike. unfortunately, i don't own a road bike so i did the next part of the race on my mountain bike (LOL) and a couple of gals passed me. by the time the last leg of the race was here, i had made up some time and there was only 1 gal in front of me. and slowly and steadily, i made ground on her til the last 100 yards before the finish line, i kicked it up and beat her to take first place.

but that was A LONG time ago. i haven't done any competitive racing in about 2 years now b/c i was pregnant and now b/c i have sweet baby noah to occupy my time. but i think about it often. the only thing though is that i need to balance my life. and now, baby noah is so much more important than going to the gym for 2 hours a day.

but i can hear the calling of the race again. it is time for me to get back into shape. these 2 runs a week won't cut it for me anymore. even the addition of a 1.5 hour soccer game every weekend isn't enough. and to motivate me, i am committed to doing a half marathon in september.

i won't be in it to win the thing but this does mean more training and getting back into the game. i am ready. this time though, baby noah will be accompanying me on my runs (til it gets too hot).

it is amazing to me how my priorities have changed! but its cool - i can still look back at this LO and remember that "date stamp" on my life when i had other priorities. and i am glad that i got the chance to scrapbook this to remember.

a beautiful day...

2007-03-18T21:58:00.000-04:00

hoping ya'll had a beautiful sunday - this was from last sunday when baby noah, david, david's sis and i went to the dallas BLOOMS festival.

here mr noah is with momma on the grass - i haven't let him sit on grass before now so i am sure he was like "hmmm what is this?"

and here he is with daddy learning to stand/walk - check out the killer thighs!

we have signed noah up for swim lessons come june so he can be a water bug soon! he loves to splash in the tub and we figured this would be a good thing for him to get used to the water.

and thanks for everyone who has participated in the challenge so far! i LOVE LOVE LOVE seeing what ppl create. and i LOVE to see how people use up their stuff! i think like most of you i tend to hoard things that i might have 1 or 2 of, but what better way to show them off than to use them in a LO? there is no other way to do that piece of paper or embellishment justice!

i will pick the RAK winner on tuesday and post on wednesday (i have to get a spreadsheet out and tally the entries and the ppl with the extra chances and then i will use a random generator to choose a winner!)

good luck!

happy friday

2007-03-16T17:39:00.000-04:00

it was time for a new post! i wanted to share some things noah and i created this week:

here he is in his highchair with a flash card i made for him with leftover scraps:

and check out these kewl luggage tags we made with some self laminating tags, some photos, a crop-a-dile, eyelets and bits of MR ribbon! we will be traveling in style from now on!

i love love love all the challenge posts so far, keep them coming!

a RAK (with a twist).

2007-03-09T12:23:00.000-05:00

one final update before this weekend... i did one more LO today about baby noah - used up my old alphabet letters, rubons and more (sorry the scan is so bad - on my list of things to get is a new scanner)

looking forward to all the RAK challenge posts and tell you what, you have til SUNDAY evening to post here for the 10 chances if you did the challenge or plan on doing so. so have fun!

*******************************************************************************

*** another update - continued thanks to all participanting in the challenge - i have gone to peek at the links you have shared and they are very cool! i have seen some of the older papers in my stash too!

i found this photo while cleaning out my files last night. it is a picture i took in 1995 and it brought back a flood of memories for me. i was living in belgium and was about 20 years old. i was working there during a co-op assignment in college. my fave thing to do on weekends was to go to nearby cities and visit the museums.

i decided to create this LO to remind myself of how far i have come in the 12 years since then! i was an unsure, insecure 20 year old then (one of the reasons i decided i needed to live abroad a bit) and how time changes everything b/c i am so much older and wiser now!

again, i used some old goodies here - more chatterbox papers and SW rubons - notice i used almost the exact same brands and papers as the LO before and can still make the LO look totally different. i tend to leave supplies on my table and use them up on LO after LO.

so keep up the LOs for the challenge!

*********************************************************************************

*** one more ETA*** - well the box is still getting bigger and fuller and to show that i am game for this challenge too, i took one of my absolute fave pics of mr noah from this past fall and used some older chatterbox papers, scrapworks rubons and created this:

is that expression not priceless? i also added some new MR rubons and some HS letters and BG papers to round this LO out! keep sharing your LOs! i love seeing them!

*******************************************************************************

**another ETA** - i am so happy to see all the ppl who are going to try this challenge. just so you know, there is about 4+ lbs of stuff i have put together (and more to come) for the RAK winner!

and many of you are as busy as i am so to keep with the spirit of the challenge, i am going to complete another LO tonight! i found some older chatterbox papers and other goodies (including some twistel) that needs to get used. so get to it! i can't wait to see everyone's creations!

********************************************************************************

*edited to add* - thanks so far to everyone who is participating in this! the box is getting bigger! we added some vintage bottlecaps and cool stamps that are no longer sold and even some pieces of MR papers (which we only offer in a special kit).

there was a question about if someone could use a LO that they had previously done. personally i prefer that LOs be done as of this post i made yesterday b/c the spirit of the challenge is to use your old stuff (we all have it). so push yourself! that is how you grow as a scrapbooker and also you might just win this box of goodies we keep adding to!

looking forward to seeing more old stuff used!

*******************************************************************

TGIF! i am so excited to be spending the afternoon with my baby noah. here he is this morning getting ready to go to ms K's house:

but before he left, we decided that we needed to share the love and give away a RAK. now this isn't a typical RAK. i DID manage to find a "maya roadie" sticker after cleaning out a box from CHA-W. we also decided to make this a big box of stuff perfect for making some spring mini albums with. we added some MR rubons, chipboards (new ones), ribbons (old and new ones), tins and ribbon slides. To round it, out, we also put in some mini albums and notepads and stickers and other cool one of a kind things that are not MR. you see the bag of ribbons? there is like 30 different ones in there from 1" - 12" long in there but those are perfect for doing lots of cool things.

now are you in it to win it? if so, this one comes with a challenge issued by me and mr noah! here are the rules.

1. Post here (1x per person) for 1 chance at this box of goodies.

2. Want more chances? Then take our challenge - use something old to win something new! This morning, i did this LO:

i got to use up some beautiful papers from fontwerks, some chatterbox sticker letters, and some older rubons i had.

now if you do this, you will get 10 chances to win the box of MR stuff. i do plan on putting in some of our new crushed velvet in the box too!

all i need you to do is to post here again and put a link where you have the LO (or mini album or whatever you created). i want to see what you made. so in your comment section, share with us what you have done with at least 2 things old.

of course the question is "how old is old" - for this use your best judgement. i trust ya'll can decide that yourselves!

3. and so you aren't stressed about it, you have 1 whole week to do this challenge. so you can post here for a chance, go off and do your LO (or mini album) in the next 7 days and post to share what older stuff you used and you will get 10 more chances to win this RAK!

we hope you have fun with this RAK and challenge. think of it as a way to jump start your spring and creativity.

my joy

2007-03-08T23:07:00.000-05:00

well the good news is that when i was at the w/h on tuesday, i saw a pile of boxes 6 feet tall and about 15 feet long and 4 feet wide of orders that were going out. the bad news (and good news) is that that wasn't all of it. but the stuff is coming to your favorite LSS! so make sure you ask about it!

along with all of this shipping madness, i have been working on some new classes i will be teaching this year. my first foray into teaching this year will be 2 classes i am teaching out in san bruno, CA on march 31st at The ScrapBook Nook. So if you are in the area, make sure you call Pam up at The Scrapbook Nook and sign up for one of my classes! Here is a small peek at one of the classes I will be teaching using one of our new albums.

I have a definite philosophy to all of my classes - it is to learn how to use our product in amazing ways. I like to hand everyone all the materials and we learn to cut things for each and every step together. Why? B/c I feel that if I hand each person the papers in the class and SHOW them how to cut it and put it together, it then becomes part of their library of how they can springboard off of to apply in other areas of scrapbooking. The more you learn, the better off you are in developing your own style and way of scrapbooking

I am really excited about this trip as I will be visiting with Deb and her family with baby Noah! We have to start planning for CHA-S which seems so far away but there is lots to do. We have big plans for this summer and while I can't let the cat out of the bag right now, I think that both our retailers and end consumers will be very happy with a new program we are going to try to launch!

More tomorrow including a RAK!

production

2007-03-07T00:21:00.000-05:00

i created this LO in only 30 mins this past weekend. i have come to understand that my style is like the total opposite of deb's style. she is very meticulous in her LOs - her titles are handcut, the journaling is impeccable. the cardstock creations and manipulation is amazing. i am more about the fast and the furious. the faster the better.

but that is the beauty of this hobby, there is no right way to do things when it comes to creating your LOs.

and i guess it is sort of true too in the production and manufacturing of our products. or other ppl's products. remember when i told you about the retailer that told us it was not acceptable that our products weren't ready 2 weeks after the show? to me that doesn't MAKE SENSE. think about it. if everyone had everything ready 2 weeks after the show, that would be a lot of money for a retailer to fork over and pay for at one time. unless you are a retailer with deep pockets, that is very hard to do.

the question was asked how long it takes us to think of an item and actually have it made for a show. the honest answer is that it depends. we often have ideas anywhere from 6 months to a year before a show. it could be just something that triggers a brainstorm (like during a run). and so we jot it down. and we keep a running list. and we sort. and we rank and then we re-rank. that process is repeated each show for all of our products.

from there, we work with the factory to make a sample / prototype. some samples can be made in a week, some take 3-4 weeks. for example most of you have seen our ribbon slides that match our ribbons. those puppies are handpainted and the resin needs about 2 weeks to cure. so that is an example of a sample that takes WAY longer than say a ribbon that is printed.

then we have the samples air freighted over to us so we can look at it. if we have to make adjustments, the cycle is repeated again til we get it right. once we approve something then it can take another month to have the item made, packaged and labeled.

and then comes the part where we are trying to get the items on the container to ship here. i have spoken about this in the past. once you get it on the boat, the travel time is 3-4 weeks to the US (assuming no customs issues).

so when you add that all up, we are talking about a cycle time of 8-12 weeks from a ready to go idea to when it gets here. that is 2-3 months of time from a product we are ready to do for a show to when it is sampled, made and finally here.

that is just a glimpse of ONE of the items we release. now multiply that by the 80-100 we do a show and you can see how this supply chain can get complicated. you can also add into that anything we need to reorder.

reordering can be a tricky proposition too - we have had a retailer ask us why it seems that some of our items are out of stock a lot - there are 3 reasons.

1. um, they sell well (LOL). again, things that we might have had a 6 month restock cycle are now moving to a 2 month restock cycle b/c people are buying a lot of an item at a time.
2. for some reason, some people seem to call right as we are at the lowpoint of our restock cycle (if you called 2 months ago, we had a ton of that item in stock).
3. my philosophy is this - if we ALWAYS have inventory of every item that we have released always in stock, we would be in bad shape. that means we have too much inventory. too much inventory means your working capital numbers don't look good and in the end that is not good business.

i hope this helps those that read my blog to understand better how this business works. deb and i share a lot of the behind the scenes at MR b/c we feel that the more people understand what is behind what they ask for, the less questions there are and a better understanding there is of what it involved to get something out to market.

CHA-W release update - we are shipping our orders out as fast as we can get them out. *most* CHA orders placed at the show should be out by next week so look for them soon at your favorite LSS!

a day of firsts....

2007-03-04T00:23:00.000-05:00

i always thought that i would be giving noah his first haircut. my baby is 9 months old this week and time is flying. his hair was starting to fly a bit too. we had sat down earlier this week and i attempted to give him a trim. alas, he decided he would rather hold my cutterbees than let me cut his hair. so today, we decided to enjoy the process and have someone do it for him.

at first, noah wasn't quite sure that he wanted to be part of this:

notice the suspicion in his face. but then after seeing the cute fire truck chair he would sit in and baby einstein on the TV and momma standing beside him, he decided it wouldn't be TOO bad:

and finally he makes it to the home stretch without any tears:

with that we were done, mom and dad got some great photos, noah got a certificate and a baggie with his first hair cut trimmings!

it was a great day...

i have been buckling down getting all of our orders ready to ship as this will be a massive ship week! and i just want to thank ya'll for that! you (stores and consumers) are the reason we can do what we do. and i am happy to say that some of our chipboard is already on reorder from just the orders at the show. that is truly amazing to me. just 2 years ago, 1 order of chipboard from our factory would last us 9 months to 1 year and now it is selling out in 3 days at a show! that is tremendous!

i do have to admit that one benefit of Maya Road is that i have personally made it a policy that on friday afternoons after lunch, noah and i don't do any MR stuff. we play, we go outside, we run, we take a nap and hang out but we don't do Maya Road - by that time the orders for the week are out and Fedex has shipped that day so we can take a break. that to me is priceless. noah and i plan on making that our friday afternoon ritual!

ok it is back to work so that we can get our stuff out to ya'll asap but i just wanted to share a piece of our weekend with you!

PS, i have done almost 10 LOs this weekend and i will share those with you sometime soon!

my newest layout

2007-03-01T00:38:00.000-05:00

i was so honored when audrey from the asian dares, asked me to be a guest designer on their site! check out my LO here : the asian dares - that is where i used my white staz-on on a transparency technique.

so check it out. i will post some close ups of the LO in a bit.

working late

2007-02-28T00:01:00.000-05:00

yes i am working late again but i have some good reasons why.

1. i got really sick for about 4 days in the last week - like can't get out of bed, throw up flu sick. heck, i even missed my soccer game. that is sick. and when you have days like that, everything catches up with you.

2. the weather is beautiful so i have been trying to take noah on walks and runs (but yes, taking it easy as i transition back into health mode)

3. oh yeah remember the container? i saw it. it...is...full. like jammed pack full. so that has kept me busy (and you know the reason why)

but i am not too busy to do a LO here and there. i did this LO this weekend during some periods of when i got out of bed and wasn't too sick - it has been a while since i have done a layout of my grandma. and even thinking about it now makes me a bit sad.

my grandma is 91 years old this year. she lives in hong kong. she has been widowed for over 23 years now. she does not speak english. she had a stroke last year.

but when i think of my grandma, i don't see my grandma as she is now, i see her as being 65 years old. i see her talking to me. i see her spoiling me. i remember going to her place for 5- 6 weeks at a time some summers.

even just a year an a half ago, she was telling stories and cleaning oysters like in this picture. but after her stroke, she doesn't do these things anymore. it is so hard to see someone you love get old. i was so HAPPY to see her smile when we went to see her in december when she held noah, jonathan and sophia (her 3 great grandbabies). she is the only grandparent david and i have left.

my grandma knew that deb and i had a business but wasn't sure what we did with all the ribbons and things we had designed. so for her birthday i made her a mini scrapbook (which was REALLY HARD in the small space we were living in) - it was just of her and noah from the first day they met. i added some chipboard, stickers and rubons and she absolutely loved it. the day before i left hong kong, i saw that she had the album by her bedside.

for chinese new year, i also sent her a bigger album with photos of her and noah and the other babies. i didn't need to add words. she didn't need them. the pictures along with some of the simple embellishments are just enough.

so this LO is for my grandma and it reminds me why this hobby is so awesome - the things you can do with scrapbooking transcends even words, cultures and time.

mondays...

2007-02-27T00:18:00.000-05:00

... well i guess i LIED in my last post, i CAN lift a 50 box especially one that the US MAIL HAD TO RETURN TO ME B/C THEY LOST ALL THE FORMS ON THE BOX. ugh, sometimes shipping is the most irritating part of this business. anyhow, the box was on its way overseas but on the way to chicago, someone tried to take out one of the customs forms (there are 4 in all) and TORE the envelope and so ALL the forms were gone. thankfully the warehouse puts a copy of the invoice on the outside and that was the only way that they knew to return the box to us.

...anyhow, after arguing with the mail carrier, showing him the $225 we paid in shipping i drove to the post office and spoke to the post master. now that was an interesting conversation.

me: " we paid for this package to go EXPRESS and here it is and the documents are missing b/c the envelope was torn"

PM: " why did you use that envelope, it was bound to tear?"

me: "um BECAUSE THAT IS THE ENVELOPE THAT THE US MAIL ISSUED TO US FOR THE INTERNATIONAL FORMS" (hello?)

anyhow - like 1 hour later and i am finally out of the PO - after filling out all the customs forms by hand again. and the package was hopefully on its way AGAIN.

we are buckling down this week for the container arrival. the first set of stamps have been packed but they were so well received, we had to reorder (a couple of times over). the rubons will be done next week and 95% of our stuff will be here this week.

on the non - MR side, here is my sweet baby noah sitting in a bowl we bought the other day:

LOL - he is such a good sport for wacky photos!

so hang on tight, our products are coming. we are shipping them out as fast as we can as soon as we can get the items inventoried and ready to go!

i have a LO to share in a couple days for a website where i am a guest designer in march - i will link to that soon!

it is coming!

2007-02-22T23:28:00.000-05:00

ok, with God's grace, next week will be the arrival of our big container (one of them) all chock full of MR goodies! i am always in awe when i see a 40' container (think those big 18 wheelers you see on the road) full of our stuff. i can remember back to the very first time we had to receive a 20 ft container. it was me and 2 friends and we unloaded all 400 boxes by hand in the texas summer sun. that took us 2 hours to unload. some of those boxes weighed about 50 lbs.

gone are those days and i am thankful (well i am not thankful that i am probably not in shape to lift 50 lbs at this point) that the w/h takes care of it and i just have to check everything off and get those things shipping out the door. we are primed up to get all the CHA orders out as fast as we can but i will be honest, we are not a big enough operation to ship all the orders out at one time. i wish we were.

but since i couldn't wait in the meantime i wanted to make something. something simple so i created this LO

i used the following new MR stuff:

our new sheer flourishes (For the wings)
our new motifs rubons
our new foundations journal stamp

people have often asked what you can do with our sheers - well here is one option! just add some like butter rubons and you have the perfect wings! and i love our clear foundations journaling stamps that fit onto our foundations chipboard. or you can use them here like i did by stamping them onto a transparency (i used staz-on and yes it is ok to use staz-on with our stamps just clean them off as soon as you are done with using them! ) and it makes the perfect overlay.

(side note can i just say MAN ALIVE, i love white staz-on! i finally dug out my pad and used it with some of our stamps on transparencies and it is AWESOME!) - i will post a LO where i used this technique soon!

until then, i need to get read for the garage sale this saturday from 9 am - 2 pm at the old magic scraps location. lots of MR stuff to clear out (whatever i can fit into my minivan). this is stuff that will be 20-50% off our retail prices. there are some items where the tins are damaged but the chipboards inside are perfect good so if you are in town, stop by and say hello!

hello sunshine

2007-02-20T21:58:00.000-05:00

i have been an inconsistent blogger this week. lots of things going on - Chinese New Year (gung hay fat choi!) this past weekend, a soccer game, some new MR stuff coming in a week and FINALLY some SUNSHINE! noah and i (and david too) enjoyed some time outside:

noah and i even have done some runs this week and plan on doing some more with the nice weather!

baby noah keeps growing and growing. it is hard to believe he is almost 9 months old now. he seems to not be keen on the crawling phase and rolls around everywhere and he can stand up for about 10 mins if i prop him on the couch. he is getting to be a handful but i love it. he is inquisitive, talkative and LOUD. i am not sure where he got all these qualities from but i love him b/c in my eyes he is perfect for us.

i am also working on some classes that i will be teaching in the coming months. i have already secured a date at the end of march to teach at The Scrapbook Nook in California during a visit to Deb's place with baby noah. it will be fun. i have one class done and am working on the second class as we speak (some peeks on the classes later!)

with all of the classes i teach and tradeshows i attend, i do end up with a number of projects. i had someone in one of my classes ask me what i did with all my mini albums. well here is part of my mini album storage:

just some different jars, vases, etc holding a bunch of mini albums. i look through them from time to time to remind me of memories gone by. i hope to share them with noah one day so he can look at them (and hopefully not rip them with his bare hands). but a lot of my projects are best shared by giving them away. i really enjoy making mini albums for others rather than just for me. that is one of the great joys of this hobby - giving the projects away!

ok, i need to buckle down and finish up my sales orders and start working on my other class now. so more answers to the questions submitted soon!

a couple more questions down...

2007-02-16T23:32:00.000-05:00

and then i promise the winner at the end of this post!

1. remember when someone asked if i ever took a day off?

well today noah and i took a half a day off. he stayed with me all day (no going to ms K's house) and we hung out, went out to eat sushi with a friend (only cheerios for noah though) and made a stop at the warehouse so that the people there could get their noah fix (they love him there and hold him every chance they get) and then i have to admit i had these big plans to scrap while noah took an afternoon nap but that didn't happen. i ended up taking a nap with baby noah. that's ok b/c it won't be long til there are no naps and it won't be long til noah doesn't want to nap all snuggled up next to his momma so i didn't want to miss out today. i feel so much more refreshed now!

2. shirley asked " will we sell our stuff online?"

the answer is at this time no. sorry shirley (but if i am headed your way and you want something, you can email me!). the closest that we are going to come to selling directly to the consumer is that i agreed to have MR participate in a garage sale at the old Magic Scraps location next saturday. we have some older stuff and some tins of chipboard that didn't quiet make it intact on the trip from asia (like the tin was damaged but the chipboards are good) that we are going to sell anywhere from 20% - 40% off - there will be tins, tins with chipboard, some chipboard books, some ribbons and some acrylics and metal accents.

3. wbv1213 asked "when will our products be out?"

well assuming there are no customs issues (that is a post for another day) - we expect a big like 40 foot container of MR goodies to arrive in about 1.5 weeks or so. so let's say 2 weeks for good measure. then we will start shipping out 1 day after everything comes in so by early march!

and finally the winner: girlosun_9 congrats! email me at info @ mayaroad.com with your stuff and i will get your tins of goodies right out!

RAKS...

2007-02-16T16:56:00.000-05:00

ok i will pick the winner of the RAK later today but before i do, i want people to understand that this business is NOT EASY.

i have literally over 100 requests a week for donations for a crop, an event, etc. and honestly, as much as we would love to be able to fill all those requests, we cannot. that is the reality. we can't afford to.

now some might say "well how can you not, MR is so successful?" well i will let you in on a secret, this is the REALITY of this business as a small fish.

let's start with a hypothetical situation. let's say Maya Road had an excellent trade show and we sold a $100,000 worth of stuff at a show (now before you read anything into that this is a hypothetical and what maya road makes in a show is something that i am in reality not going to share with you).

so $100,000 - wow a great number! sounds like a lot of money right? well let's see what is left after:

1. $50,000 - cost of the actual product (what it cost us to have the items made)
2. $10,000 - cost of a trade show (that includes like a booth, chairs, drayage, shipping, airline tix, hotels, food, minivan)
3. $5,000 - cost of catalogs and mailings out for the trade show (orer forms, catalog requests, giveaways, promotional materials)
4. $20,000 - other costs (cost for DT payments, 1-800 phone line, 1-800 fax line, internet, computers, website, electricity, warehousing, shipping, boxes, bubble wrap)

ok so what does that leave?

$17,000 - wow a whole $17,000 and guess where this goes? to the next set of products. so here is the conundrum, $17,000 is what is left after all of that but the next set of products but if you are trying to hit a $100,000 show, you need to spend at LEAST $50,000 to make the products (probably more b/c not all of it will sell and you will have stuff sitting in inventory).

so where then does that leave us? close to zero. this is the reality of a small business. we go through it. others like us go through it (unless they have investors or venture capitalists go through it). this reality is magnified as you grow b/c then you release more stuff and you need to have the turn in inventory to make enough money to support the next show.

and we are not the only ones who go through this - your LSS has to worry about this too on a different scale.

i am writing this b/c i want people to understand. there are reasons we cannot support all the requests that come to us for donations. in the end, MR is a business and it has to make sound financial sense for us to. if i donated to everyone who requested something, well then we might as well pack up shop and go home.

i think about all the people that have come up to me and said "wow you had a good show" and i want them to see this and realize that even with good numbers - you need to THINK about all the costs behind it.

i hope this will help people understand a bit more about the nature of this business.

a RAK winner later today!

yo (i am chatting tonight)

2007-02-15T12:09:00.000-05:00

how can you not just want to hug and kiss these boys? yes, that is my hand helping mr noah sit up right. my dear friend melissa (http://www.melissadiekemaphotography.com/) took these of the boys at CHA-W. this is one great reason to have the kids travel with us to the shows! we can get cool photos of them taken! melissa is an awesome friend. i wished she lived closer but i see her at least 2x a year at the tradeshows!

oh yeah, if you want to find out more about us or have pending questions to ask, i will be chatting at scraplovers tonight (http://store.scraplovers.com/) click on the message board and i will be in there chatting with whoever shows up! christina (scraplovers owner) is the sweetest and has been a long time customer of ours.

Valentine's

2007-02-14T14:47:00.000-05:00

one more post for today - here is what you can do in 5 mins a piece - i made these for david. the one in the back is a "rah rah" post for him for his chinese test he was REALLY nervous about yesterday. i think it helped b/c he passed with a B he thinks! all it took was a Piggy Tales tag (Deb and Ryann are such nice people) and a photo of noah I had leftover.

the VD card, i made today. i freehand cut a photo(from a lovely photo session with my friend melissa d), and then slapped it onto a piece of patterned cardstock and took my trusty scallop scissors to town! then a hole punched and Maya Road velvet ribbon (crushed) and a note on the back.

enjoy and have a great day!

happy valentine's day!

2007-02-14T12:50:00.000-05:00

Just wanted to wish you all a very happy one.

Thanks for all the questions - I will post a RAK winner on Friday, in the mean time, I want to answer a couple of them today.

1. Mar asked "How frequently you play soccer and for which team? "

I play soccer 1x a week in the spring and fall league in a nearby town. It is a co-ed league which means 8 guys and 3 gals are on the field. It is a pretty intense workout (2 - 40 min halfs). My only practice is running (LOL). I play defense a lot and they know I will go after anyone be they a big guy 6 ft tall and 225 lbs or a girl like me. I have scored a couple of goals (penalty shots) and some small goals.

2. Anam asked "Is being family with your business partner tough?"

Good question. The answer is yes and no. Frankly probably it is tougher on our hubbies than us. Deb and I do have heated yelling discussions some time but that is the style which we operate at (you get that when you have 2 type A personalities together). But in the end we get through it and we are able to become closer as a family and also get our business where it needs to go. And it is easier probably to be "brutally honest" with each other b/c we can tell each other the world isn't made of marshmellows - LOL - and we still would spend holidays together.
It also works b/c Deb and I love to work but we also have strengths in different areas. I remember when Deb drew out this 5 year business plan for MR and I was more like "whoa, hold on there do you know how many orders we have to do to get to those NUMBERS?" So she is the vision and I am the ground in ways. But we are there now and probably 2 years ahead of schedule.
We also tote our kiddos to all the shows (noah has a whole 3 shows under his belt and jonathan has 2 shows) but we wouldn't have it any other way. There will be a day when they are in school when we can't do that but for now it works. It actually works out pretty well b/c the grandparents (some or all) come to the shows with us and get the boys for hours at a time - undivided grandparent spoiling for like 7 days in a row and we are left to unspoil them!

3. Dale Anne asked "it into production? For an example, the NEW FABULOUS stuff you had at CHA - when did you have to work on that? "

This is an excellent question - one that i am going to wax poetic about in a "dear retailer letter" soon. We had a retailer call me and tell me that it was unacceptable that everything wasn't ready 2 weeks after the tradeshow b/c that is the standard in the industry. Um ok, where have I been this entire time? They proceeded to cancel their order but I would rather they be educated in how the manufacturing side works. Deb is also going to blog about this so look for my "dear retailer letter" coming soon!

4. Laura Vigliarolo asked " What is the one thing you regret about Maya Road if anything????? "

That I didn't quit sooner and believe in MR as much as I should have in the beginning! Our first year we did this on the side. So everyone was working. We were packing our own orders and doing everything ourselves. I can remember we would send postcards out to scrapbook stores we saw in the back of scrapbooking magazines to come see us at CHA! But I didn't know if we would make it and I was on the fast track at work to be like a Director or VP one day. Deb kept trying to convince me to get on board. Well when you quit your job and you were the bread winner you start to have to believe - LOL!

quick post...

2007-02-13T00:51:00.000-05:00

thanks for all the awesome questions so far! i look forward to a couple more before i wake up in the morning.

and to answer a couple of them.

1. do i ever take a day off? i do take a day off here and there where i don't think about MR - when we were in asia, i actually didn't do MR for like a whole 4 days - LOL! but when you are running your own company and running pretty lean, you don't take a lot of days off. i think i took like 3 days off after noah was born before i had to get orders out again. but some of that is part of my personality. heck, in 2004, i was sitting on my favorite beach on maui negotiating a close to half million dollar contract for a project that i was working on in my former corporate life! i finally had to tell the dude i had to call him back b/c the waves were too loud so i went to the parking lot and finished the contract up in the mini van.

to be honest being with MR sometimes feels like i am taking every day off (almost every day). i see my baby noah a lot. i work on something i love so that makes this extra cool. but i wouldn't protest if we went to hawaii this year.

2. what do you not know about me? hmmm how about this - i am not a neat person. i try but darn it if it gets me all the time! trust me, if you saw my scrap table, you would run in horror. but it works for me. and i do try to keep some of it under control but i scrap messy.

ok, more later but thanks for all the great questions!

productivity and a RAK!

2007-02-10T17:43:00.000-05:00

one good thing about going to tradeshows is that i am often inspired to keep scrapbooking! to use up things that i have on hand so i can purchase more (haha!) and i hate to let even little bits of stuff go to waste. one thing i do have a lot of is the paper sticker tape. i was determined this weekend to use up an entire roll. heck, i probably have like 25 other rolls left but if i could use up a roll on a LO, that would be awesome. so this is what i did:

i love how it turned out and how the random pattern of the tape created a cool star that totally frames the picture! so simple but so effective at the same time. what do you have a lot of that you could turn into a pretty cool LO?

and being the thrift i am, i also don't tend to throw stuff away. donate yes. share yes but throw no. so i found this club scrap paper i think i bought like 4- 5 years ago and even though it was like "tuscany paper", i turned it into a great LO here:

i also got to use some of our new sealed with a kiss clear stamps on this LO and i love how it turned out!

and finally a RAK (as promised before). i couldn't find my stash of "maya roadie" stickers (some roadie must have stolen it - LOL but i did find a nice tin and filled it with some new MR goodies.

there are sheers, velvet ribbon, journey east ribbons and more! i will add more as i continue to unpack from the show.

if you want to win, you must post here under before tuesday morning AND you must do the following:

1. post a comment but not anon

2. and in this post , i want to hear some questions you might have of me about anything from MR to anything else. i want to answer your questions.

and that is it!

GOOD LUCK!

why i scrapbook

2007-02-07T22:47:00.000-05:00

i have been thinking a lot lately about why i scrapbook.

i mean would i scrapbook if i didn't own maya road? the answer is yes. i don't do it to get all the newest and coolest supplies (though that is a fringe benefit). i don't do it to try and get published in the magazines (though sometimes that is a benefit too). i don't do it to impress other people.

here is one of the reasons i do it.

this is my dad bong (yes as i have mentioned before my dad name is bong and no he was not named for the pipe). since his grandsons were born, the first words out of his mouth each time he calls are, "how is noah (or jonathan) doing?" you can see from these photos, how much he adores them.

i was talking to my mom a couple of months ago and she told me that my dad spends most nights up late at night looking over and over again at his photos of his grandsons. he says he just looks at them each night and smiles.i am sure his friends at the senior center are sick of him talking about his grandsons day in and day out.

so i decided to make this for my dad for his birthday - a photo album of noah and jonathan from our trip to asia:

it is a simple book but i know that my dad has already probably flipped through it like 100 times. i am sure he has shown his senior center friends 100 times. but that is why i scrapbook. to know that it brings joy to my dad when he sees this album with his grandbabies. and i am sure he doesn't know what products in there are the maya road ones (the book and the rubons) but that doesn't matter. it isn't the brand. it isn't the name. honestly my dad probably couldn't care less if the book was maya road or not because it is what is inside that really counts.

what we did today

2007-02-06T21:51:00.000-05:00

not much to say today. had to work. but the sunshine was calling us so we took a run today... here is what our runs look like:

the big cheese

2007-02-05T01:10:00.000-05:00

who can resist this smile - this is a new one from noah - before CHA-W he never scrunched up his nose to give us a grin...

amazing...

2007-02-02T19:29:00.000-05:00

that is the only word i know to describe how this CHA went. it is so hard to believe that only 9 shows ago, we started out with a tiny little 6 ft table and a peg board and here is where we are now:

now some might say "whoa it took you 9 shows to get here" well yeah. i am proud to say it did take 9 shows. slow and steady wins the race you know!

but i want to thank everyone who has asked/hounded/harassed their LSS to stock us b/c we were busy non-stop. even with 5-6 of us working on taking orders, sometimes, there were still people waiting to speak to us. i think part of the show, i counted like 40 people in our booth looking at all the beautiful projects (thank you design team) and the products. and for that i thank you all. it is b/c of you that we can continue to offer great products at great prices.

and i am glad to think that we didn't disappoint. you all have energized deb and i. that is the only way to say it. and you just wait - we are already planning for the summer show.

i also managed to snag a couple of the maya roadie stickers before we gave them all away and coupled with some of the finest crushed velvet in my hands - so i feel a RAK coming on! let me empty all of my suitcases first and get a couple more naps in and be sure to check back for a RAK.

oh yeah if you want to see the 93 products we did release at this show, check it out here:
http://www.mayaroad.com/newsletter/2007CHAWCatalog.htm and things start shipping at the end of feb.

i do have more comments about the industry (good and bad) but i will save those for another day. for now, i just want to say thank you for supporting the MR family. it means so much to us.

thank you!

2007-01-26T00:01:00.000-05:00

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...

2007-01-25T00:15:00.000-05:00

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...

2007-01-23T20:51:00.000-05:00

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)

2007-01-22T13:38:00.000-05:00

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...

2007-01-21T00:17:00.000-05:00

things i love about tradeshows

meeting those friends i have met online
showing off our new things to people who "get it"
just doing what i love
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

the feeling that "what if people don't like our stuff"
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)
the $3 waters they sell at the tradeshows
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'

2007-01-19T00:46:00.000-05:00

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...

2007-01-18T01:53:00.000-05:00

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...

2007-01-17T01:40:00.000-05:00

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...

2007-01-15T16:20:00.000-05:00

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...

2007-01-14T14:24:00.000-05:00

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...

2007-01-11T16:25:00.000-05:00

... 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

2007-01-10T10:27:00.000-05:00

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?

2007-01-09T01:14:00.000-05:00

...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...

2007-01-06T13:56:00.000-05:00

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...

2007-01-03T04:30:00.000-05:00

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!

merry christmas...

2006-12-24T03:41:00.000-05:00

this is what makes the trip worth it - my grandma with her great grandbaby noah:

traveling on the street (notice how relaxed noah is) - the strange thing is that strangers are coming up to rub noah on the cheek!

and at night when we are walking outside and it is cold and noah wears his toque (hat)

these are all priceless memories for us. it truly makes the 27 hours of travel time worth it.

we are here...

2006-12-23T16:57:00.000-05:00

after 27 hours door to door traveling time, 20+ hours on 2 planes, 10 dirty diapers, a barely sleeping noah, we arrived in hong kong. oy what a trip that was. but noah was a trooper. he probably wasn't happy sitting on our laps the entire time but we made it. all during the trip, noah decided that he wanted only to sleep when he was lying on top of his momma - he hasn't done that since he was 3 months old and i can honestly say i have missed that so much (so hey, i will take the baby hugging and sleeping whenever i can get it!)

we have taken a lot of pictures already. my grandma loves him and my cousin's baby girl too! she is really having a hard time getting her words out after her stroke earlier this year but the photos we took are priceless. you can see when she is holding her great grandbabies - her eyes light up and have a sparkle to them that transcends even the words.

my boys are asleep right now - it is too sweet - they are hugging each other and snoring together (it is 6 am here right now).

i even have had a chance to work on my traveling scrapbook journal - capturing what we have done each day (so far a lot of sleeping - LOL) but it will be something we can read and look back at together in coming years.

we want to wish you all a very happy holidays. more soon. if i can figure out this downloading thing for the laptop, we will post some pictures soon.

PS. i have seen our new ribbons in real life now and they are AWESOME! i might steal a couple of pieces to use in my journal!

time...

2006-12-19T01:15:00.000-05:00

wow, time flies. look at this picture of my baby noah:

can you believe he is holding a picture of himself from when he was less than 2 months old? (the frame is a $0.50 IKEA one that i painted and added some MR rubons). noah looks so much older in this picture - almost like a toddler. everyone is right, time does fly esp when you have a baby. thinking back to the first couple months of his life, i can remember so much but also some of it is a blur. like i remember the moment he popped into this world and but i can't remember him being small. i am sure some of it has to do with the sleep deprivation but i keep asking myself if 3 months from now if i will remember him at the size he is now?

but i guess that is the beauty of scrapbooking and photographs. to help you remember the little things that tend to slip your mind. and truly that is what is so great about this hobby!

and getting ready for the holidays is sorta something new for us. david and i (and our families) aren't big holiday decorators. but for noah's sake, we are making a effort. no, we don't have a 6 ft tree but i did manage to get some decorations up this year - i am not into heavy decorating b/c that also means heavy cleaning up. i did make noah a tree full of ornaments all with his photos.

i also made him this reindeer:

it is a tiny one but each year i hope to slowly add some decorations for him!

right now though we are working on planning our big trip to asia. it is AMAZING how much stuff a little dude NEEDS! his bag might be bigger than mine when it is all said and done. but i think i am going to bring an 8" binder album to use as a travel journal. i will be working on that in the next couple of days and will post here! i am also excited to be seeing family i haven't see in many years.

have a great holiday season!

PS, please offer david (my DH) some kudos - he has taken a big step and signed up to take chinese classes at a local college here! i am so proud of him. this will go far in our quest to make noah tri-lingual. and i know david stalks my blog and reads the comments to make sure you encourage him!

the birdhouse

2006-12-14T19:47:00.000-05:00

my DH got this birdhouse from his sister and brother - BC (before Caroline) - so a long time ago. they had gone to a specialty store in santa fe to pick this birdhouse out for him. we had kept it indoors until the day came when we bought our first house.

when we got our house, we put our birdhouse out in the front yard hanging in the big tree. day after day, month after month, season after season, this birdhouse hung in our tree. through the rains, the occasional snow and the 100 degree weather, this birdhouse hung faithfully in our tree.

but alas, last year, the jute holding the birdhouse up gave out. i remember b/c i was about 4 months preggo and i had gone out to get the mail. i remember thinking "oh i can use one of our MR ribbons to hang the birdhouse back up!" well shortly after that, the local elementary school let out. and when i went out to hang up the birdhouse again, it was gone. i looked all around the yard and the birdhouse just vanished.

later than evening, i had to break it to David that his birdhouse was gone. he was quite sad about it (and upset too). i figured some kid probably went by and saw it on the ground and said "finders keepers" and scooped it up to take home...

... well about 1.5 months after noah was born, i was going for a run on our street. as i headed up our hill, i saw that in the yard of a house under a big tree, there was something on the ground. i had seen it before but never paid much attention to it. but i think b/c i was running extra slow i saw that it was a birdhouse. and it was THIS birdhouse. or one that suspiciously looked like it. but what were the odds? i mean this wasn't a birdhouse you found at the local walmart - it had barb wire and a tin door... so i ran by it a couple more times and debated whether to tell david or not...and finally i did. david was not happy. not one bit.

and one day we took noah on a walk so he could see the birdhouse for himself. i told him i would take it right then and there but david said no. so finally in the dark of night i told david, " it is time!", we drove over to the house and i (in shorts and crocs) RAN over to the birdhouse and picked it up. david had the car running and the headlights off. and we drove home in the darkness. (oh yeah don't worry, a grandma was watching noah)... david was sweating before during and after this - he wasn't used to this type of stealth operation!

david took it to the backyard and inspected it under a flashlight. it was HIS birdhouse. and it was finally home.

RAK winner:

2006-12-13T21:31:00.000-05:00

the winner is: MichelleO! congrats! email me at info@mayaroad.com!!!

PSSSTTT - our new CHA WINTER chippies look awesome! that is all i can say right now (wink wink).

my layouts...

2006-12-12T11:24:00.000-05:00

I will post the RAK winner later tonight. Thank you for sharing all your JOYs with me! I got a smile reading each and every one of them!!!

So to tie you over til tonight, here is a quick photo of my stack of LOs that need a home - I did these (almost all of them) in the last 3 months. That Noah is going to have one SWEET album. But you can see, I don't do all my LOs about him - the top one is one about things I suck at - like laundry, tennis, sitting still, etc... but i am productive this year! i have made more mini albums, mega albums, altered items and LOs in the last 4 months than probably in a whole year span!

And Mr Noah wanted to say a quick hello wearing his new hat:

I can't believe how BIG he is (closing in on 20 lbs!) - my how time flies. The good thing is at this weight, he makes an excellent strength training partner for momma. I can do tricep excercises with him and build up my bicep guns by throwing him up and catching him!

a special RAK this weekend!

2006-12-09T01:15:00.000-05:00

as the year is quickly coming to an end, i am filled with a sense of reflection. i can SEE THE LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL - well until the next tradeshow that is.

this has been quite an *amazing* year for us here at maya road. we were blessed with 2 bundles of joy (noah and jonathan) and such growth for MR that i would have never imagined! seriously, when we set out on this adventure a couple of years ago, i would not have expected us to be where we are today. every time i think about it, it takes my breath away. (i do have to say the boys edge MR for the top events of 2006!)

i am excited for the upcoming weeks as we are taking our babies to china to see my grandma and there is a big family reunion happening on my mom's side of the family. we all have not been together in many many years (probably 10) and now there is another generation for everyone to meet and to love. i can't wait (i can wait on the 20 hour plane right with a 7 month old though). the thought of my grandmother seeing her 3 great grandbabies for the first time fills my eyes with tears. she isn't in the best of health after a stroke this year. even speaking to her on the phone, i can tell she has so much she WANTS to say but the stroke has slowed what she can get out...i can only hope that she will have many years to come to see her great grandbabies.

and so to celebrate this amazing year, i want to give out this RAK - this is a JOY album i made for scrapbook essentials NZ for their kit club debut. but rather than hoard this book for myself, i want to GIVE this to one lucky RAK winner. the book is filled with 3 tabbed pages that are decorated for you to record the memories of this season.

i created this book using our Maya Road 6" binder, ribbons and chipboards and some cool papers. and i want to give this to one lucky person and i hope that it fills them with joy this holiday season!

so to win, just post here and let me know what fills YOU with joy. post between now and monday and my boyz will pick a winner - please don't post anon or i can't find you!

good luck!

need some more blog-spiration?

2006-12-06T00:43:00.000-05:00

and another use for our bottlecaps? i had send some to Andrea who had won them in a RAK and she told me the first thing she thought of with the bottlecaps was a pie tin - how creative is that?

so andrea sent me this picture this week of the mini pie she created - is this awesome or what?

when i first saw this, i thought she might have made the pie crust out of clay but NO! andrea was creative enough to use the Maya Road cream rick rack to do the lattice. i would not have thought to do that in a million years (i would be using a very tiny rolling pin rolling away some clay lattice - LOL).

and andrea was kind enough to share how to make this:

supplies:
Maya Road cream velvet rick rack and bottlecap
red beads
glue dots
3D Crystal Laquer
Aleene's Quick Dry tacky glue

how to:
1. To form crust attach your glue dots on the edge of the bottlecap and press on the rick rack.
2. Fill the bottlecap with red beads and cover with Crysal Laquer. Let set for about 1/2 an hour.
3. Put a thin layer of the tacky glue over top of the crystal laquer. Lay down the rick rack to form the strips on the top of your pie. Gently press into place.
4. Once dry you can pin on your little message!

(you can also tack on a magnet to make this lovely pie for your fridge!)

thanks to andrea for this awesome idea!

RAK winner:

2006-12-04T23:13:00.000-05:00

thanks to everyone who visited the MR DT blog! the ladies have some great ideas for ornaments right now on the blog if you need some ideas!

and the winner of the RAK for visiting the blog is: scrapcat ! thank you and please email me at info@mayaroad.com

now for some instructions on how to make my coffee break book like this one here:

i won't have step by step photos right now but here are the step by step instructions:

Supply List

A chipboard book (I used a Maya Road Coffee Break Book)
About 20 photos (I used 4" x 6" b/w photos)
2 - 3 sheets of patterned papers (choose ones you like or if you just want photos, you don't have to have this
rubons, permanent pen, stickers
Brown acrylic paint or ink (optional if you want to just have the edges of the book chipboard color rather than painted)
Adhesive (double sided)
Fabric tape (for spine - option)

Step 1. - Making a template

The trick to this book is to use it as a template to create one out of paper. All you do is use the book and trace it onto a piece of scrap paper. Cut out. Now, make sure it fits on the cover and insides. If it does, that is the template you will want to use for cutting everything to fit the pages.

Step 2. - Ink the edges of the book

Some ppl like a "completed" look to the book so for that finished look, you can either use an ink pad that is brown and ink the edges or paint with acrylic paint (i used a ranger dabber that comes in a tube like a bingo marker - so easy to apply). So just in the spine and the edge of the pages. If you don't mind the raw look you can leave this step out!

Step 3. Use the template and cut out your photos.

The great thing about these coffee break books, is that one of the pages can be covered with an 4" x 6" photo that is trimmed (i didn't realize this before- LOL). so for each of the left side of the pages, i used a full photo trimmed to the template size. Then accent the photos with writing (permanent marker) and rubons. Ink edges and glue on.

Step 4. Use the template to cut out the paper and add photos.

For the right side of the pages, I just repeated step 3 but with papers and then i trimmed photos small enough to fit on to the paper and i added rubons and journaling. Ink edges and glue on.

Step 5. Repeat steps 3 and 4 for all the pages!

Step 6. Back cover

For this, I just used a full contact sheet and trimmed to fit the page. Again ink edges and glue on.

Step 7. For the spine

I added some fabric tape and some rubons and I was done!

If you want to see more picture of this album, check out my gallery here:

http://twopeasinabucket.kaboose.com/pg.asp?cmd=display&layout_id=1033716

Enjoy!

just another manic monday...

2006-12-03T23:15:00.000-05:00

i can't believe tomorrow is monday. bummer. for those of you who think that i am in my dream job, you are right but still there are times i too get the sunday afternoon blues. b/c you know what my REAL dream job would be sitting on a beach in maui catching some rays and learning how to surf.

BUT i guess maya road comes a close second. before going into small business, i didn't realize the amount of hours that owners put in. trust me it is a lot. more than i ever imagined doing. and there are times when i literally have to TEAR myself away from the computer or something else b/c there is ALWAYS something that needs to be done. and that is hard.

BUT this is in many ways a better life. I have not missed out on very much of baby noah's life. And who can resist missing out on this:

(taken during the 1 day dallas snow storm last week)... i never knew how much joy i could get from being a momma and seeing how my baby boy has changed in the last 6 months.

and even though tomorrow will be a manic monday, where else could i find a job where i GET to create this:

..using a ton of things that deb and i created? i mean how freaking cool is that?

oh yeah before i forget, tomorrow i will put a quick how-to together for my coffee break book from my last post for the person who asked how to create one for themself (or their nieces) - it is pretty easy to do and you don't need a lot of supplies (just a lot of pictures).

and finally, yes i DID get a picture of the RAK i am giving away for those who posted on the MR design team blog last week. so be ready tomorrow for one lucky girl or guy to win this:

have a great night!