Where do I start?

I have been pondering the question, "Where do I start with all of the pictures I have from our trip? How do I pick what I should tell everyone about? How did that avocado get that big?" More on that later.



I decided the best thing to do was begin at the beginning and give a small sampling of the 17 days that we were away. From my home. And my stamps! And the new catalog!!! But, I digress. It was all worth it and we made memories to last a lifetime, although I must admit there are a few that I wouldn't mind forgetting...lol! So here goes! This first picture is Little Miss A on the scrumptious bed at the Renaissance hotel in Orlando. I can't even begin to describe this bed's wonderful fluffiness and complete ability to suck you right into sleep. See all those pillows? There were about 4 more in the closest of our room. I will definitely try to stay there again the next time we go back to Florida. It was simply divine!



Next, this is the outside of our timeshare condo in Daytona Beach. Now, I can hear the snickering...the laughter of some of you. "She owns a timeshare?!?" Yes, I do. David and I bought one in Vegas years ago and end up swapping most
years so that we can stay on the beach in Daytona. I don't recommend it for everyone, and can't say I would ever buy another one, but we really like ours and use it almost every single year. Now, let me give you the caveat that this particular time share, in Daytona, not so nice. In fact, on a scale of 1 to 10, I give it a 3.2. Westgate doesn't own the entire property and so the rooms are, hmm, how do you say....not so hot. But it has a big comfy bed and a jacuzzi tub and a kitchen and a view of the beach, so that all works for me. Plus, it takes me like one minute to go from drinking a cup of coffee to lounging on the beach, so I can overlook a lot.
Like the fact that my daughter turned transparent! How this happened, we do not know. I mean, she has always been a bit of a night owl, but I never realized that she might actually be part vampire until she stopped fully showing up on film. CRAZY!!! I don't know what kind of glitch in my camera caused this, but I am blaming my camera. So if your name is Buffy and you like to slay vampires in your spare time, BACK OFF! She is my baby and I'll accept her no matter what her nocturnal habits are.

Can everyone say, BIG HONKIN' AVOCADO??? This is a comparison study of the Haas avocado, pictured already scooped out, and a Florida avocado that I had not
yet cut into. They are ginormously huge! The best part is that they have 35% less fat and 50% fewer calories than a Haas. So that means I ate the entire thing without a second thought. Because, you know, that is how I am. Health conscious. And the fact that I turned it into some seriously yummy guacamole and ate it on chips doesn't count. Because the core ingredient itself was healthy, that makes up for it. See, you learned something here today. You are welcome!

Finally, my baby and my baby at the mini-golf place. This is the first year that we have been able to play mini golf with Little Miss without a major meltdown. The first time we took her she melted down so badly I forgot to take pictures. Luckily, the hubby got some on film that are framed in my kitchen and I will gladly show to anyone that stops by. This time she not only played, but played with a pretty respectable score. And just like her daddy, she would throw in a "Darn it!" every now and then when she missed a putt. Isn't genetics fun?

Finally, some perspective. These are some pictures of my baby's first trip to the beach ever. She was 20 months old. The first one shows her in front of the a/c letting it give her that "beach girl", windblown look. The second one was taken one afternoon after a hard morning of riding mommy's hip in the Atlantic Ocean. Suddenly I felt her go limp and realized that she was sound asleep. We just plopped her on the beach towel under the umbrella and let her sleep it out while I had a slushy and read a magazine. Life's tough like that sometimes! Now...off to tuck in the little one and get back to the business of stamping. But I promise that I will be posting
more Florida stories (there are too many good ones not to) and some cards very, very soon. Thanks for reading, and until next time, Happy Stamping!


Kim

The Happiest Place on Earth...

...really, truly was! We made it home yesterday, getting out of Orlando before the airport was in danger of being shut down. David and I had a plan for what we would do if our flight didn't take off that involved him going to a luggage carousel to get our bags back while I ran like Flo-Jo (ok, I don't know the names of any of the current female track stars, so I'm going with what I can remember) to the airport Hyatt and getting a room. Fortunately, this did not happen.

Unfortunately, we took off from the Northwest corner of Tropical Storm Fay and got to experience the kind of turbulence that can best be described as, well, turbulent. For someone who doesn't know better (i.e., Little Miss A) this was great fun! For someone who is deathly afraid of flying (i.e. ME), not so much.

Anyway, I promise I will post a ton of stories and pictures (after all, we shot 3160 pictures). I am not kidding. 33 rolls of film, 2200 on the digital (David bought me an 8 GB chip), and 168 by the fine photographers at Disney. I spent 2 hours loading pictures into the computer today and am sure that this weekend I will spend many, many more hours going through them.

So, once I can find my picture gallery I will put up some great shots, I promise! And, as soon as I get caught up I will be back to stamping the days away! Hope everyone is having a great week, and I can't wait to see a bunch of you here this Friday for my open house. Until next time, Happy Stamping!

Kim




edit: I finally figured out how to find my pictures that I added today, so here are just a couple of my favorites:
Here is a supercell thunderstorm from our front walkway in Daytona Beach. Incredible to watch these bad boys pop up like that! Next you see Little Miss playing on the beach. (Don't worry, I kept her covered in 50 spf!! Besides, stinkin' little thing always gets a nice golden brown...unlike her mommy!)

Oh me, Oh my! As soon as we walked into the park, we spotted Chip and Dale! They were very kind, signing their names to Little Miss's autograph book and giving her lots of good hugs.

Here are the two of us in front of Uncle Walt's statue and castle. Hard to believe that this all started with a mouse, huh? And speaking of, here she is with Mickey and Minnie! I can tell you one thing that Disney does really well: you get to spend a good bit of time with the characters. We waited for about 45 minutes to see these two, but they let us take a ton of pictures, get her book signed, and get plenty of hugs to boot. When we walked out of this greeting area my baby had a smile on her face to beat the band and was saying, "Mommy, that was totally AWESOME! They are REAL and REALLY HERE!" Every single day she would tell us that it was her best day ever. And I'll let you in on a secret: every day there with her was my best day ever, too!

More to come...thanks for reading this one!

Kim

Catalog Spoiler....

...do not read this if you don't want to know some of the things that have made it to the new catalog!!!


OK, for those of you still with me, this information has been collected after blog-surfing off and on all day long (when I should have been doing a ton of other more useful things). Also, this information is straight off of Dannie Graves' blog...bless her for letting me know what I could pull out of my "retired" bins and put back into circulation! I will take credit for the side comments though...those are all me!

Here is a list of some of the things that you have seen before and will be seeing again in the new catalog:


Holy Triptych stamp set--I missed this the first time around...that won't happen again!
Tart and Tangy stamp set--WooHoo! WooHoo!
Bloomin' Beautiful stamp set--I'm so happy about this one I could cry.
Summer Picnic designer series paper--Matches so well with Tart and Tangy! I can see gifts for the preschool teachers already
A Perfect Day Rub-ons
Styled Silver Hodgepodge Hardware--This is so pretty---can't wait to get more!
Mini Library Clips
Chunky Sprinkles Glitter--Girls, this is the one we played with in my class on Tuesday! So you will have more color selections than just red, black, white, and silver!
Die Cut Blooms

Items we've seen before but small changes have been made:

An additional set of Die Cut blooms in baja breeze, very vanilla, close to cocoa, & kiwi kiss

Carousel Notes in ruby red, kiwi kiss & baja breeze. The envelopes are still Chocolate Chip

Scallop Notes in pink pirouette, baja breeze, & chocolate chip with very vanilla envelopes

Gift notes in kiwi kiss, riding hood red, & kraft

*Textured* love notes in tangerine tango, bashful blue & old olive

Green Tea designer series paper--same print as Ginger Blossom DSP except the colors are changed to old olive, certainly celery, & baja breeze (I loved, loved, loved Ginger Blossom the first time around...can't wait to see this color scheme with those designs!) (also...I have seen another "Eastern" set in the new catty...very pretty!)

Junior Varsity designer series paper--same print as East Coast Prep DSP except the colors are changed to rose red, old olive, bashful blue & so saffron

Pina Colada simply scrappin' kit--same print and design as the Summer Days simply scrappin kit except the colors are changed to riding hood red, tangerine tango, old olive & so saffron

Flower Fusion--we still have the first set, but they've added another set of flowers in pink pirouette, baja breeze, & chocolate chip (yeah!)

Styled Vanilla Hodgepodge Hardware--just like the silver styled hodgepodge hardware except with a vanilla colored finish

Ribbon--this deserves a whole section by itself! I'm only listing the new colors added to what we already have. We no longer sell any packs of ribbon origionals.
1/4 " grosgrain--added Rose Red, Sage Shadow, Old Olive, & Chocolate Chip (yeah, they brought it back!)

1 1/4" Pink Pirouette Grosgrain ribbon

7/8" So Saffron Poly-twill ribbon

3/8" Kiwi Kiss/Very Vanilla Satin ribbon--very vanilla on one side and kiwi kiss on the other

Riding Hood Red Taffeta ribbon

1" Double-stitched Grosgrain ribbon (this looks like the wide Rose Red grosgrain ribbon that is currently in the Fairy Tale ribbon originals)--Rose Red, Baja Breeze, Bashful Blue, Chocolate Chip. The stitching is white.

5/8" Striped Grosgrain ribbon (this looks just like the black ribbon with the two white strips going down the middle that's in the Jersey Ribbon Originals)--riding hood red, pink pirouette, baja breeze, pacific point, kiwi kiss, tangerine tango. The stripes are white.


New Punches
Scalloped Edge (if you have been to a class at my house...you have played with this punch)
1 3/4" Circle
Wide Oval
Scalloped Square
Curly Label Punch Box--the punch looks like this { } on all four sides. It comes with a set of four stamps.


OK, so that is all I know for now. I am still praying for some type of miracle that I will be looking at cases of catalogs on my doorstep tomorrow, since my flight leaves very early Saturday morning. My neighbor who is watching our house has been threatened with a horrible fate if he lets anything happen to my catalogs...lol! I'm thinking it will involve me filling his aquarium with pregnant guppies the next time they go on vacation and not saying anything until he has 400 fish in a 10 gallon tank.

Also, I have updated my SU! site with the August schedule (sorry it is so limited everyone....I promise there will be a full schedule coming in September and the rest of the year!) There are also pictures of the Christmas cards for August and one of the sneak peek cards that I posted on here awhile back.

I hope everyone has a great night! If some of you other blog surfers come upon any good sneak peeks, post a comment and let us all know where to go look to see some new stuff! I promise the release party on the 22nd at my house will be fun, so plan on coming by that evening for some snacks, a little stamping, and a new catalog.

If I don't get a chance to post tomorrow, I'll be thinking of y'all while we are in Florida! I promise to come home with many funny tales involving Little Miss (how could I not?). Until next time...Happy Stamping!

Kim

The STAMPeders...

...are up and running! Well, some of us will be walking, but you can run if you want to. You can dance if you want to. You can leave your friends behind. (Name that tune and I'll give you a lollipop!)

So, you know in my earlier post here I told you about Race for the Cure and what I would offer up to anyone who signs up to be a member of my team. Well, the team site is up, just click on STAMPeders and it will take you to the team's page. From there if you click on the "Join Kimberly's team" in the right upper corner right above the goal statistics you will be taken to the page where you can sign up to be a part of our team.

Now, a little reminder. You don't have to be Flo-Jo to participate. Come on! I do this. If you want to run, I promise I will cheer for you until you are out of sight and then I will put all of my energy back into walking. You get to decide how much effort you put into the actual race. For those of you that are in great shape and like to run, or if you hubby/boyfriend/significant other is a runner but wants to sign up under our team to help out, they can still participate in the CHIP timed run. Heck, you can even Sleep in for the Cure (although that costs a bit extra but you do still get the T-shirt).

The rest of us are going to walk and talk and laugh and take pictures. Well, I will take pictures, because that means that I don't have to be in them.

So, click on over, take a look around, and sign up! It is a great cause to support, and I promise, you will have fun! Plus, if we get 5 team members signed up by September 15th, we will get a priority packet pickup! This means that I can pick up the entire set of team packets a full week before the general population can, with my own set appointment. If we make this small first goal, we will be guaranteed the correct t-shirt sizes because they won't all be gone, plus I won't have to stand in a long line with a cranky 4-year old. And that is always a good thing.

Thanks again to everyone who has already said they are going to sign up. I can't wait to see you all on race day!

Until next time...Happy Stamping (and walking, too!)

Kim

Dream...

...a little dream of boxes and boxes of brand new catalogs arriving at my house any second now. Please dream this dream. Because I would (almost) auction off my hubby to the highest bidder to get my greedy hands on a catty before I leave for vacation on Saturday. Well, I guess I wouldn't really auction him off. After all, he is taking me to the happiest place on earth. No, not Sea World, that is the Happiest Place on Earth for Little Miss. We are going to Disney! But don't tell my darling little one if you see her, ok? If you do she will make a sound that only dogs and dolphins can hear and then all I will hear for the next week is, "Are we going today?".

So, let's look at a card instead, ok? How about this one?

I was strolling through Michaels the other day stocking up on stickers for the kiddo because I am out of rubber scraps for her to make art with, when I passed down the Martha Stewart aisle. I happened to see the ribbon that is on the left of my card, and after my friend Lydia used it so effectively, thereby enabling me, I had to try some out. Thanks, Lydia...for making such adorable creations that I feel the need to go in search of more ribbon, because that is what my stamping area needs, more ribbon!

But this ribbon is special, because it is self-adhesive ribbon. Do you know what that is like for a ribbon-challenged gal like myself? It is like figuring out how to use the Force, finding the One Ring, getting beamed out of the Borg ship just in the nick of....

....sorry, folks! Had a little sci-fi freaky teen flashback there. Hey, it's not like I ever actually went to a Star Trek convention and wore a Bajoran earring and stood in line to meet Michael Dorn and squealed like a school girl when he actually touched my arm or anything like that. And it's certainly not like I did that when I was, say, 23 years old or so. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

Back to the topic at hand...the ribbon. It is really pretty and so easy to work with, you will want to fly with me to Salt Lake City and beg Shelli Gardner to please, please use her powers for the good of all stampers and give us some SU ribbon like this. Anyway, I was drawn to the pretty orange toned ribbons in the pack (you get 4 designs...this pack had the two you see on the card, plus a wide orange print ribbon and another of the sand colored ones as well). Here are more details on the card:

Stamp set: Happiness Always (new Level 3 hostess set coming August 11)
Cardstock: River Rock (base), Tangerine Tango (new In Color), Cameo Coral, and Natural White
Ink: Cameo Coral, Tangerine Tango, and Ruby Red
Extras: Martha Stewart Self-Adhesive "tape" (that is her name for it, not mine)

Just goes to prove the theory, if you give me a lever long enough, I can move the world. But if you give me a stamp-a-ma-jig, I can move it to the exact spot I want it!

*****Susan G. Komen update*****

I am registering our team name as soon as I finish this post. Cecile, you clever girl! I asked for team name help and Cecile had her thinking cap on when she came up with the STAMPeders. LOVE IT!!! That will be the team name and I will put details on here about how to register so anyone that wants to come join us on November 2nd at a very early hour in the morning can! Or you can pay extra and sleep in for the cure if you want.

I hope everyone has a great day, and until next time...Happy Stamping!

Kim