Sneak Peak in My New Studio

Let the studio tour begin! There's lots to see and this will take several posts and will probably take awhile. Please be patient. It is really worth it. I will be telling you were I got all of my storage pieces from! I have lots of people ask me about this frequently. I love cheap storage pieces. Why? The more I spend on storage, the less I have for new scrapping, stamping, and art supplies. I can always jazz up a storage unit. I can't jazz up stamps. It's amazing what a little bit of paint and elbow grease can do!

This is the main area I work in. The table is from Ikea and it was less than $50. It is a wooden folding table. I have it propped up on bed risers which I bought from Wal-Mart for about $7. In a post last week, I talked about my table being covered in vinyl. It's clear vinyl from Wal-Mart, but you can purchase it from any fabric store. They have different thicknesses so be sure you get one that will hold up. Some are super thin and didn't seem like they'd hold up to my inky messes. I cover my area with newsprint which I buy at Lowe's. Wal-Mart also has a bundle in the office aisle where they have the shipping/moving stuffs. I go through a lot of newsprint. It saves me from having to clean up lots of inks especially when I get out the mists and alcohol inks.

I have a small basket that holds the tags I have inked up. There's a metal stand (from Hobby lobby) that has three buckets full of blank tags waiting to be used up. A couple more containers from Hobby Lobby that hold my Liquid Appliques, Pixie Sticks glitters from Pink Paislee, writing markers, gel pens, scissors, etc. There are two glass candy jars (from Wal-Mart). One holds ribbon scraps and the other holds random embellishments that don't have a collection or there are only one or two left.

The metal buckets (from Target's $1 bins) hold my buttons. Well, some of the buttons. I have more button collections. These are just random buttons I have purchased. Not ones that are part of a paper collection or that can be purchased by the bag full in their color.

It's not in any of the pics, but my cup holder/trash bag hanger from Creative Memories is hanging on the left side of the table. Every paper craft must have a cup holder! Don't ever put a beverage on your crafty space! It always leads to disaster. Trust me on this one. been there. Done that. Rejected the t-shirt.

This wasn't on my studio table in my old studio. This is my collection of Close To My Heart inks. I have five of the towers they sell. Sadly, their ink towers only hold their inks. I would love someone to come up with a good ink storage piece that doesn't cost a lot of money and holds ink pads from everybody. I know it's a lot to ask for.

The little black box in front of the ink towers is my photo box form Creative Memories. This box holds the photos, layout info tags, and post its for the crops I go to. Never leave home without it!

Under the left side of the table is this set of bins from Ikea. They are like $20 for the rack and the bins! The top is an extra $7. This set of bins holds the majority of my sticker collection. The stickers that are part of a paper collection aren't in here. They're with their paper collection.

Until next time *

Have you played in your crafty space lately? Make some time for yourself!

Ephemera from Etsy

Ephemera Part 1 of 248,983,049.  OK maybe not really that many, but I did buy a lot. I'm still waiting for stuffs. These are just the first round. I'll put more up next week. I am listing the store with each item so you can check them out if you're interested in getting the same or similar pieces for your ephemera collection. I have added all of my favorite shops to the Etsy list down on the right hand side. You won't have to hunt in the future as they will be staying there.

Here are treasures from Altered Paradise by Regina's Studio. She is fabulous with convo and she has included some freebies in my orders. Yup, I've shopped there a couple of times.

These are vintage canning labels. So perfect for all of the jams I make! 

These are milk to your door tickets from way back when milk was delivered to your home.  

Two different styles and sizes of library cards.

These are tags from the Boston Store which I had to Google. This is a chain of eight stores in Wisconsin.

These Queen Seals are from cigars. I am thinking about using them for some of my pics of Charlotte as she is the Queen City.

These are tags from a hardware store in Albemarle, NC which I have been to! Well, not the store, but the town. Albemarle is home to Kellie Pickler from American Idol. 

These are soda labels in a wine label style. They're from the 1930's from Rochester, NY. Yup, I've been to Rochester and plan to go back.  

Receipts from the Droste's Clover Farm Store in Mount Olive, IL. Perfect for my pics of country stores!

One of my fav pieces. I collect Coca~Cola pieces and have been to the World of Coca~Cola in Atlanta and the NASCAR Coca~Cola 600 races in Charlotte. I have so many uses for these!

Vintage inventory tags.

Coca~Cola needed some company from 7Up. Maybe one day I'll see a 7Up factory? There was a Coca~Cola bottling plant in the town I live in back in the 1970's. So maybe there's a little hope for 7Up?

A dozen old wooden spools. I love wrapping my twine on these. 

This is the collection of freebies Regina included in with these purchases. There some super cool things! An egg saver envelope. I ended up purchasing a set of those because I thought they were super interesting and I have tons of farm pics. There are grocery store stamps from when you collected them and got free stuffs. 

There are a lot more goodies to show you. I will be doing this over several posts. I don't want put them all in one post and have it 100 miles long. I know it can get overwhelming reading about a million things all in one post.

Until next time *

Have looked in your attic lately? Never know what cool things you may find!

Antique Shop Hopping

Last week, I dragged my husband along for a little road trip. We went to several antique shops and a flea market. I'm hunting for ephemera. You probably remembering mentioning that about a million times.

How did we all survive without Google? Google is your friend when you're looking for antique shops, flea markets, thrift stores, etc. Craig's List isn't a bad place to look for goodies either! I've found several thrift stores to check out on there.

I did find lots of nifty things at the shops I stopped at last week. Some things are seriously over priced. Judging by the layer of dust on some things like cigar boxes that are nine bucks a piece I am far from the only one who thinks so. I did, however, find one vendor who had very reasonable prices for cigar boxes. They were all $2, $2.50, or $3. There were only two that were $3. A few are even wooden boxes and not cardboard! I was super excited to see those. Yes, I hunted through Howie's both and took every cigar box he had.

Being a quilter, I am always on the lookout for something to decorate my quilting space besides fabric and half finished projects. I found a couple wooden industrial spools, an industrial wooden bobbin, and an industrial spool of thread. The spool of thread has a wooden cone in it that says Chattanooga, Tennessee. Maybe a piece of history from a mill? 

I also have a little thing for buttons. I was a good girl and only purchased one jar. The jar I picked out had some pretty unique buttons in it along with some wooden Bingo numbers. Score! I even got a seashell. How often do you find one of those in your jar of buttons?

I absolutely love old fashioned printing presses. For years, I've wanted a set of letters and a tray. I bought my first wooden letter a few months ago in Brevard, North Carolina. Cute town in the Great Smoky Mountains!

I scored a small printing press tray last week. I was so excited. When I paid for it, it was on sale! Talk about fate. A few hours later I stumbled upon two full size trays. Oh it was a tough choice picking out just one.

I ended up picking the black one with a metal pull handle. Why did I pick this one? Well, the other one was missing a piece of wood that is   one of the dividers. The other part that said pick me was the name of the company on the handle. It says Keystone and that is the name of the builder that built our home  in South Carolina. So to me that was fate.

Both trays have a neat slot where you'd slide a card down through the top of the tray with the name of the font in that draw.

The last piece of history I purchased was a frequent shoppers card to the Durham Mercantile Co store in Blackstock, South Carolina. I have no idea where Blackstock is, but Google is my friend. I only purchased three of these as they were kinda pricy. They were $4 each. I thought I was getting several of them for $4. There was a pile about an inch thick. At least I got those three!

Until next time *

Have you saved a piece of history?

Packing for a Crop

I've had several folks ask me about my cropping style. I frequently get asked at crops if that's all I brought. Yup, I only bring two bags. These pics are from a Friday night crop at Scrapbook Utopia in Lexington, South Carolina. They frequently have Friday night crops from 5 pm - Midnight. They also do a weekend crop (Friday 10 am - Midnight and Saturday 10 am - 11 pm) every other month.

Really this is all I brought. I did 30 layouts in those seven hours. I didn't really get started until 6:45. I had to get some dinner, do some shopping, and visit peoples. I haven't been to the shop in a few months. Lots to see and buy!

The two bags are from scrapbook companies. The bag that's open (black and purple with black scrolls) is from Close To My Heart. The bag that is all zipped up is from Storytellers Club.

What is hiding in that bag from CTMH? Lots of goodies! A full box of ATG adhesive. Yes, that would be 12 rolls. I hate running out and not every store carries it. I gotta order me more next month! I have less than a box left. And running out is not an option.

My ATG gun is also in there. Also hiding in there are my paper trimmer, glue dots, and pop dots (foam dots, 3D dots, whatever you call them). The ATG gun is the world's greatest gift to paper crafters! It's a very reasonably priced way of getting adhesive. The gun comes in red. There's a pink one for Breast Cancer at Michael's. And, yes, you can use a coupon on it! I get my refills from Framing Supplies. The more rolls you buy, the larger the discount! The rolls cost less than $3.50 a piece and they have 36 yards of adhesive. I only use the ATG Gold which is acid free.

Also in my bag of tricks, is my photo box from Creative Memories. Yup I keep that baby full of photos. I keep the thumbnail sheet that comes with my prints. I mark on that with a grease pencil what the pics are of and dates. Very important details! I also separate the pics with notepaper. I can't have my pics from leaf peeping in Vermont mixed with a NASCAR race in Charlotte. Now how would I scrap that? It'd be a big ole hot mess!

What else is hiding in there? Oh something extremely important. So important that every paper crafter needs this! NEVER EVER put a drink on your workspace! I have a cup holder/trash bag hanger from Creative Memories. There's another company that has them now. I am seriously considering purchasing another one so it will just stay in my bag. I won't have to take mine off my studio table anymore that way.

The Storytellers Club bag holds the secret to my cropping life. Now, when I go to weekend events I do bring my rolling tote. For a one day crop, I only bring this bag. Remember how I said I don't bring anything except for paper and cardstock? Those papers and cardstocks are in this bag. I got this bag when I became a member of their monthly club. Every month with your kit, you get a large zipper paper pocket that attaches to this bag. It's pretty neat and awesome free gift!

All of the papers and cardstocks I bring are in zipper bags. I store all of my paper collections in zipper bags in my paper bins [you'll see all of that soon.....maybe next week if the cleaning fairy comes to work this weekend :)]. I also keep my Versa Mat from Close To My Heart in here. I use that as my work surface.


I have one pocket that I keep all of my scraps of cardstock in and one for all of my scraps of paper when I run out of a paper collection. You know those 2" x 2" pieces that sit in a pile just waiting to be used? Yeah, those have their own pocket. I think they are pretty special. Some day I'm going to have a card making fest and use a bunch of those pieces up!

All of my completed layouts go in a pocket. Each pocket holds several layouts. I do have to use several pockets when I am doing large projects. This keeps them all in order so I don't have to play a guessing game later on.


I am a little nerdy about my organizing, too. Each set of layouts gets a colored piece of paper folded over the top with some info on it. I write down what the pics are of, how many layouts there are, and the date of the pics. Yup, nerdy. I know this. :) There's a reason for this! I swear it will all make sense in a bit.

Remember how I sad I don't complete my layouts 100% at crops and I bring home mountains of layouts to finish embellishing? Well, this is where they all go. Your eyes are working just fine. They are in a milk crate. Some of the layouts are done and just need to be put into albums. I need to make my pages that say what each event is. Those are pretty cool. I'll have to show you some of them. A girl and her Cricut can have a good time!

The pockets also hold my new paper and cardstock purchases. Sometimes some stickers will also fit. I don't put stamps or things like brads in there. I don't want dents in my new papers.

Until next time *

Print your photos and scrap them!

A Happy Note!

I don't know how I completely forgot to include this in my post about my acorn earrings from Mark Montano! He included a handwritten note to me. How many celebrity peoples take that kind of time? I just love how he creates jewelry and sells it for reasonable prices on Etsy to the little people. I'm sure he could make a ton selling it to the peeps in Hollywood, but it so nice that he does this! He's such a fun guy on Facebook. I've chatter with him on there. He's tons of fun!

Until next time *

Have you saved a letter so one day you have a reminder of what you have enjoyed in life?

Sad News

Sad news on the stamping paper front this week. The Angel Company (TAC) has shut down effective immediately. For anyone who hasn't heard of TAC, they were a home party stamp and paper company like Close To My Heart, Stampin' Up, and A Muse. There's been lots of chat on different forums about what happened and what wrong for the company. I haven't purchased from them in a while, but I do have a nice stash of stamps and papers from them. Sad to see them close especially so quickly! I'm sure I would have ordered a few last things.

Scrapbook Cupboard in East Bridgewater, MA announced this week that they will be closing in September. I haven't been able to visit their shop. I was planning on it in March when I go up to Cape Cod for Crop on the Cape. It's sad that I'll never get to see them.

Until next time *

Remember to support your LSS!

My First Etsy Purchases

Remember this post? Yeah, me too! :) I finally took some pics. Yup, I'm a tad slow these days. Having classes start this week has really thrown me completely out of whack. I'm having a good time though learning all kinds of fun things in the world of graphic design.

Last week I was a little addicted to Etsy. Lots of goodies have arrived and lots more are on the way. Come on USPS deliver the mail faster....pretty please. I'll be doing some blogging about those fabulous pieces later this week.

But for now. I'm going to share my pretty pieces from Bayscallop Fine Craft. These are my gorgeous handmade scallop adornments. They come eight to a box. Two come with real starfish attached. They have a small hole for a ribbon or whatever you wish to use to hang them up. I plan on putting them on my Christmas tree. My bedroom is all decorated in a beach theme. I am trying to come up with some for them to keep them out year round.

My second purchase was a gorgeous pair of brass and copper acorn earrings from the 1920's from Mark Montano. Now I wish I had taken photos of my package! Mark wraps beautifully! He should offer classes to husband's. Just saying. :)

Mark also has gorgeous hand writing! He even included some flowers for my ephemera collection. How'd he know?

The earrings came in a lovely turquoise fabric envelope. They really are gorgeous and rare. Not something you'll find in a Wal-Mart! I can't wait for autumn so I can wear them.

Until next time *

Have you supported a small business lately?

Seven Minute Layout

Remember how I promised you my seven - yup 7 - minute layout? Well, I didn't forget. I got a little distracted rearranging and moving my studio this week and dealing with my heartbreak of losing {Colorful Creations}. Hopefully, next week I'll have pics when it's all neat and tidy.

Without further ado....here we are....

The papers are from the Bohemia collection from My Mind's Eye. I believe I won this paper stack at my very first Scrap Pink at Colorful Creations. If I didn't win this, then I bought it at AC Moore on Cape Cod that weekend. Any who, I've had it for almost three years and have never used it. How sad is that?

As you can see, there's nothing bohemian about my photos. They are from a very brief trip to Folly Beach in South Carolina in 2009. The trip was literally about 10 minutes long. Yet somehow I still managed to take about 80 photos. Digital cameras are dangerous!

Dimensions for the Left Page:
The brown striped paper is 2 1/2" x 12".
The pink patterned paper is 9" x 9 1/2".
The green paisley paper is 6" x 3 5/8".
The 2 mats are 4 1/2" x 6 1/2" and the photos are     4" x 6".
The base is a 12" x 12" sheet of green cardstock.


Dimensions for the Right Page:

The brown striped paper is 9 1/2" x 12".
The pink patterned paper is 2 7/8" x 12".
The green paisley paper is 7 1/2" x 8 1/4".
The 2 mats are 4 1/2" x 6 1/2" and the photos are 4" x 6".
The base is a 12" x 12" sheet of blue cardstock.


I came up with this layout on the fly. I had less than 15 minutes left at a crop and was desperate to get as many photos scrapped as possible.

I do have a few rulers for my style. I always build on on sheet of cardstock. It's almost always a color also. I try to pull three or four colors for cardstocks from the three sheets of patterned paper that I chose for the layouts. And yes, I always use three different sheets of patterned paper for my layouts. I love color and paper!

Your eyes aren't playing tricks on you. The photos are from the beach. And no there's not a beach or water paper in sight! I have tons of photos from the coast from a few years ago and I am sick of scrapbooking all of my water photos on beach and water paper. So I went looking for some paper that I have had for awhile that needed to be used up. I had more than enough to do all 83 photos from Folly Beach. I still have a pile left. By using the Bohemian stack, I had tons of papers to choose from. They all coordinate with each other and there's embellishments that match as well.

As you've probably noticed, the layouts aren't embellished. Nope, they're not finished. This as far as I go at crops. I do all of my embellishing at home in my studio. There's just too much to bring with me at crops. So I focus on getting as many photos scrapped as possible. This is my secret to getting 70 plus pages done at a weekend crop.

Oh and if you click on the photo, it will open in another screen and be much larger.

Until next time *

Have you printed your digital photos lately?

A Gift

Remember how I said {Colorful Creations} had their own line of stamps? I have been collecting them. There were a few that were missing from my collection. Sadly, I'm still missing one or two and I can no longer get them.

Just before the store closed, I called and spoke with Jenn and was able to get a few. I left her my credit card info so they could ship the stamps to me. I got a phone call the next day from Jayne that something was wonky with my card. I was out of town and didn't get to call her until the next day. I am so thankful that I got to speak to Jenn and Jayne before the store closed. I talk to Jenn frequently through Facebook, but it's just not the same.

Jayne didn't want my credit card info again. She told me she sent the stamps to me as a gift. I was speechless. I got all teary eyed and everything.

I got them a few days later. And now it's like the nail is in the coffin and the store is officially gone. This just breaks my heart.

Thank you Jayne not for the stamps, but for being Jayne and having a fabulous place for us artsy fartsy types.

Sometimes it's the small things in life that mean so much! {Hugs to you Jayne}

Until next time *

Have a LSS? Treasure it. Many of us don't have one anymore. :(

A Few Mishaps

Sorry about some of the viewing mishaps that have been happening over the last few hours. I was working on restructuring my blog. And as progress was happening, I decided to make some big changes to layout and background. This missed up the viewing for a bit. I'm all done now.

Lots of new stuff coming this week!

Until next time *

Got ephemera?

Ephemera

So I'm on an ephemera kick this week. Why? I was sick in the middle of the night and I swear I've read everything interesting on the internet so I decided to do some window shopping on Etsy. Yeah, window shopping. The kind where you spend money.

What is ephemera? First time I heard the word was from Anna Griffin awhile ago. Tim Holtz likes to use it to. Here's what Merriam Webster - the dictionary people - have to say:
 "ephemera plural : paper items (as posters, broadsides, and tickets) that were originally meant to be discarded after use but have since become collectibles"

I have never spent much time checking out Etsy before. I know a few people with shops and was looking at their goodies. In the last few weeks, I have purchased some gorgeous hand made scallop shells that I will be making into ornaments for my Christmas tree. I purchased them from Bayscallop Fine Crafts. It turns out I know the owner! I took a class from her during Stampoberfest at Colorful Creations. Talk about a small world!

My second purchase came from Mark Montano. Yeah, the guy from HGTV and who wrote the Big Ass Book of Crafts. He made acorn earrings from the 1920's. They are gorgeous! The man knows how to wrap! My package looked like something from a Hollywood. He should hire himself out for gift wrapping workshops.

I should take come pics of my recent Etsy purchases. I think I will wait until this weeks purchases arrive in the mail. I purchased lots of goodies for my ephemera collection! Lots of vintage, Bingo cards, library cards, tags, wooden spools, wooden buttons, tickets, sheet music, all kinds of goodies! I even purchased some digital sheets of Victorian ATC's and tags.

I can't wait to play with all of the goodies. Please USPS get them all to my house quickly!

I will be opening my own Etsy shop in the next few weeks! I'll keep you posted on all of those happenings.

In the mean time, I'm on a mission. I need more ephemera! I am thinking about hitting up some flea markets and the Good Will this weekend! I'll let you know how this goes. I've never gone to a flea market before. Gotta remember to bring cash in small bills so I'm told.

Until next time *

How's your ephemera collection?

It's Gone

This pic belongs to Erin Horgan.  

I just saw that Erin posted a pic of {Colorful Creations} on their last day. All I can say is wow! Look back a few posts and you'll see all of the amazing things the store once had. This is what was left Saturday afternoon.

Talk about a sad, lonely photo! Even my husband was dumbfounded. He was shocked. He said, "It's gone. It's really gone."

It surprised me how he took the news. His first words were, "What happens to Jenn?"Then he said, "What will everyone do? You have friends there who go there all the time. What will you do when we go to Cape Cod?" I just had no words. I had no words when I saw this pic either.

There is some good news with the store closing. Crop on the Cape is still happening! {CC} hosts this event and I've never been able to attend it for whatever reason. Technically, I am not able to attend in 2012, but I'm going to skip a couple days of classes. It's for my art, right?

Until next time *

Seriously support your LSS even if it's only $5 a week. They need your help to stay alive and we need them as much as they need us!

The Ladies of {Colorful Creations}

I had a few people contact me who wondered if I had more photos of {Colorful Creations}. Of course, I do! I even have a few of the staff!

Instead of trying to get the text to go where I want because that never works for me, I am giving the photos captions. If you'd like to see the pics larger, click on them and they will open in another screen and be much larger.

Happy viewing!

The infamous teal sign.

The entrance. They always had such fun things in the windows! 

Need a place to rest? Waiting for someone to shop? These were so comfy and teal.

The Art Bar. Every month there were a few different inexpensive projects to make.

A beautiful paper apron made by Melissa O. This one of the amazing pieces of art we could have won from a Scrap Pink raffle.

The very first crop I went to at {CC} in 2008. It was an amazing weekend! And to think I didn't know a soul there when I got there. Now I live a thousand miles away and I have some great friends from there!

Gorgeous products! I loved their displays. Jayne and Jenn have such great taste in store fixtures!

More goodies! On the left way back you see someone's back. That's the beginning of the studio space!

The best in beach, ocean, travel and vacation you can find!

Oh yeah look at all these Quickutz dies! A few years back they had a Quickutz Club. I really wished I lived closer to the Cape then.

The wall of rubber stamps. That wasn't all of them either. Across from this was another display just as long filled with rubber stamps. At the end of them on the wall were the clear stamps. There were also rubber stamps dispersed throughout the store. 

Gorgeous ribbons! Books and magazines, too!

Got cardstock?

Now on to the artwork. This pics are of artwork made by ladies who worked there. They were used to decorate the store. Such a creative bunch they are!

They had tons of page kits you could purchase. I have this one. It is one of my favorites. I'm addicted to autumn!

Super cute card box!

Gorgeous shadow box with Erin and her brother.

Everyone needs at least one dream.

The perfect autumn art banner.

Melissa O and Erin the elves.  Santa has such great helpers!

Too cute! 

Beautiful lighthouse card. Several different stamps were used to make all of the images. Pretty cool, huh?

A mini book that was an Art Bar project.

Yes, this is round. Reminds me of an old fashioned mailbox or newspaper holder. It's just so darn cool.

Melissa O and Bob's beautiful wedding day. This is one of my all time favorite wedding layouts.

This shadow box I tried so darn hard to get! It was a raffle for Scrap Pink one year.  The box and papers are from Creative Imaginations. I never saw this paper until I walked in {CC} one year and fell in love. I won't tell you how much of this I have bought over the years. Anytime I find any of it, I buy it. 

Super cute box!

Cock-a-doodle-do! Super cute recipe box.

A Cape Cod layout kit that they sold. I have one of these! I should put it together.....or did I use it? Hmmmmm....

Another beachy Cape Cod layout. Remember yesterday when I said {CC} had their own die cut? I actually meant they had their very own "Cape Cod" die for their Accucut. I have lots of "Cape Cods" floating around. Good thing! I know I'll need a ton.

These were state tags that were changed up a bit. See that Clever Tip? Yup, Jenn and the ladies always had lots of clever tips to share. This one I thought was extra spiffy. I bought some tags from states I've never been to like New Mexico so I could change them up.

And now without further ado....the ladies of {Colorful Creations}.

This photo is from Jenn Shurkus. Steal it and she may hunt you down!
This is Jayne and Jenn.

Jayne was the fantastic owner. I'll never forget her "Man Vegas." It's what you get when you mix Manchester, NH with Jayne. And I just realized I don't have a pic of Jayne. Seriously?! How can that be? Well, I'm going to have to borrow one. I hope Jenn doesn't mind. :)


Jenn Shurkus was the manager of {CC}. She's a graphic designer and teaches classes all over the Northeast. I would say Massachusetts, but I have taken classes with her in New York. She went to Ohio last year and to Nova Scotia - up in Canada! - this year to teach. Have Jetta, stamps, and ink will travel I think should be her motto! She's also on Creative Imaginations design team. I mentioned yesterday that it's all her fault I got into Copics. She's a Certified Copic Instructor and a Certified Ranger Educator as well. She was on the A Muse design team also. Jenn is just amazing and
so inspiring!

This pic also belongs to Jenn Shurkus.

Melissa O is always there when you need a good laugh. She just has something about her that makes you happy just being around her. She has gorgeous little girls. Her husband, Bob, even made us a piece of our Advent Calendar one year. I'll have a pic of that soon. Waiting for my hubby to hang it up. Melissa is also on the Core'dinations design team. Lucky girl!

I just discovered I don't have a pic of Melissa that's not part of a project. Surely, I must have one somewhere! For the meantime, I have borrowed one from Jenn. Hopefully she doesn't mind. Don't steal it or I will send her after you. She could really ink you up. :)

This is Jenn and Erin. 

Erin, Erin, Erin. What can I say about Erin? She's a lifesaver. No really she is. Remember way back when I first posted about my favorite store closing and I told the story about locking my keys in my car? The person who came to my rescue even more than OnStar was Erin. It was her phone I borrowed.

Erin is just pure entertainment. From her Hanson stories to her cruises with John Mayer. Never a dull moment with her around.

Melissa cashing someone out.

Melissa M what can I say about her? She is very patient even when I know my 800 questions about a product have to be driving her up a wall. She gives really great advice. I always love watching her Facebook status about her kids, hockey, and all of her family time. She's a hands on mom and I admire that a lot about her.

Finally....I have a few pics of my favorite {CC} croppers. One has become a really great friend and I really miss her. I can't wait until I can go North next year and see her. I may have some Thickers I need to send to her before then.

Angela getting her creative juices flowing.

We'll have to do dinner again. Last year when I went up for a visit, I had a great night with Angela. I was so stressed after my GPS sent me through Washington, D.C. during rush hour that I just cried for like two hours. The next evening I got to {CC} and life was good. The girls calmed me down. How I don't know. Angela and I went to Uno's since i don't have one here where I live in South Carolina. We cropped together all weekend and have stayed friends even with my crazy move.

Hide EJ hide! 

EJ - aka England Jane - just cracks me up. She has no problem speaking her mind which is rather refreshing since so many people don't. I loved hearing her stories about England. And yes, she has the coolest accent!

I think that's all for now. Stayed tuned for my new studio and tons of pics!

Until next time *

Seriously, when was the last time you shopped your LSS? I don't mean window shopping. Support your local businesses!