Copics Class

Well yesterday Jen & I went to a Copics Class at a scrapbook store in Rhinelander. It was a fun class where we made a few cards using the Copics and got to take 5 home with us. I will post some pictures of the cards I made tho truthfully I'm not sure it is up my alley. I didn't feel that the point was fine enough to get into small spaces and felt like I was coloring out of the lines. I guess it will be something that I will have to play with more to see if it is worth the investment. I do like that they blend nicely and you don't see your lines and also that they are refillable. So what do you think?

I am starting to feel better so this morning I did a HUGE project. During the winter a fellow Fiskateer Betsy gave me a paper rack. So yesterday I washed it and spray painted it and today I loaded up all the Fiskar lines of paper & embellishments into it. I put them in some neat Heidi Grace file folders so that everything I had in that line would be together. Imagine my shock when I realized that I had 43 different lines! and that does not include the Christmas stuff which I put into a file box since I wouldn't be using it on a daily basis. Here's a picture of the finished project. I don't think I ever have to worry about a paper shortage at my house.

Anyone still looking for some Fiskar goodies?

Well I wish I could say I had a wonderful time out of town this past week-end but I actually wasn't feeling well and spent most of my time in bed. Thank goodness we had a really nice room at the Holiday Inn! I did go to the doctors today but they didn't offer any answers just a new med so we will see how I do over the next few days. I've slept so much in the past 3 days that I thought maybe I had mono.

I have all my boxes shipped out but I still have some really nice stuff left so if you are still thinking about it especially after seeing all the nice comments I got from people receiving theirs...........just drop me an email. Plus I think postage rates go up next month.

Tomorrow, my friend Jen & I are driving to Rhinelander and we are taking a Copics class. Doesn't that sound like fun? 3 hours of fun time learning how to color with them plus we get to take 5 of them home with us. What a great way to introduce people to something new! Will let you know how it goes!

busy packing boxes

Just wanted to let everyone know that I haven't disappeared just busy packing boxes of Fiskar goodies and running to the Post Office everyday. Some of the lines are depleted but I can actually see part of my table now which makes my dh very happy.

This morning we had a huge thunder storm complete with hail but believe it or not here it is at 2pm and the sun is shining and it is 75. So since the forecast for the next 5 days is 50's and 60's I am going to head outside and soak up some sunshine.

Tomorrow we head to Oshkosh for a Teamsters bowling tournament that we do every year. It's fun because the rest of the team comes up from Watertown where Kevin used to work. It's always great to catch up on the news back there.

Have a great week-end all!

Goodies Box Sale

Ok I have filled all my orders so far and I have lots of neat stuff left from the warehouse sale so this is how it will work. Right now the only way I know of an easy way to ship craft supplies (especially paper) is to use a flat rate box from the Post office for $10.35..........it fits allot and protects what is in there and no weight limits.

So right now I'm going to list what lines I do have and then if you are interested you can pick a price limit and which lines.
I have a few Heidi Grace flocked card sets
raindots.....all colors, letters, numbers, flowers, etc
flower packs, 80pc brads in a tin (assorted colors available), ribbon packs
Cloud 9 Cocoa Mint (paper only)
Max's backyard (embellishments only)
St. Valentime (paper & emb)
Be Loved (paper & emb)
Dee's Cottage (paper & emb)
Sunrise Smoothi (paper & Emb)
Kensington Gardens (paper & emb)

Heidi Grace It's my Party (paper & emb)
A Little Birds Tale (paper & emb)
Winter (paper & emb)
Reagans Closet (paper only)
We are Family (paper 7 emb)
Time (paper & emb) this line is really neat
Valentimes Day (paper & emb)

Kim Polosum Blooming Love (paper & emb)

You can really get allot for your money thru a sale like this. I'm hoping some of the people I have sold to in the past will put comments here on how much they loved what they got. I haven't taken pictures of any of it but you can check out the links on the Fiskars site to the sale they are running this week at 30%off just to get an ideal what the line looks like.......and the sale prices you see there .... well when you see what you get for your money you will know I shopped the warehouse and passed those prices on to you.

you can email me at wezekj@sbcglobal.net with questions and orders. First come first served as I do have a limited inventory of everything but want to share my luck with you all especially my Fiskateer friends! Sorry I can only ship in the states at these prices.

Raindot winner is...................

Drum roll please.............winner of all 24 packages of raindots would be Mary #5509.
Congrats Mary and send me an email with your snail address!

Keep watching as I will not only have more RAK's but will be putting together some goodie bags for sale as I have some awesome stuff left from the sale last week now that I have shipped off all the orders I had. There will be Heidi Grace, Kimberly Polsum, Cloud 9 and Litl Davis. Still have raindots available too!

Saturday's crop

What a busy week I've had after just coming back from vacation! Yesterday I ended the week by going to a Fiskars crop only a few miles from my house. 28 women came from all over and we had a fun day. In the morning we did a make n take that Lisa taught on embellishing a notebook. In the afternoon we did a make n take (sponsored by A Kiss On The Chic) taught by Melanie. Now this one was so much fun as we work with cardboard and distressing it with ink. I took a few pics of the class so take a look. You can see Melanie is holding the finished product.....a little notebook.
This is how the pieces looked before we put them together. Here you can see how we worked distressing the cardboard too. For some of the ladies it was their 1st time working with wood or cardboard as not everyone is into this type of crafting. But the finished project turned out so nice and everyone put their own little spin on theirs.

We had some very nice door prizes and I even won a rolling cropcase seat. I can stash all my stuff in it cuz it is like a mini suitcase even with the pull handle on wheels yet it has a frame around it that enables you to sit on it too. It was a great way to end the week............today I am going to RELAX and then tomorrow it's down to business with sorting all my Fiskar goodies, packing them and getting them ready to send out. Have a great day all!

Do you like RAINDOTS?

Well I am slowly recovering from my day of shopping yesterday at the Fiskars Warehouse. Actually I am sitting here with one of those pain patches on my back figuring I would take it very easy today so my back doesn't get any worse. Lower back pain can just stop you dead in your tracks and keep you from doing anything so instead I will entertain you with my shopping story.

Jen picked me up at 6:50a.m. and we headed up to Wausau. We weren't even first as there were 4 people ahead of us and 2 of them came at 5:30 in the morning YUK! We did bring lawn chairs to sit in as we knew we would have lots of time on our feet shopping. By the time the door opened at 9:00 the line was down the sidewalk and into the parking lot. Then the race is on to get a handcart or pushcart as they only have a few dozen.

The set up of the warehouse was a little different this time but we raced over to the far corner looking for the squeeze punches as those tend to go very fast. But alas there was none out this time. I raced back to the corner by the door and there were all kinds of Fiskar garden tools...........rakes, shovels, snippers, trimmers etc and I was lucky to get a lawn aerator for $10. There was a very limited supply of tools so it was first come first get!

Then it was up and down all the aisles grabbing papers, embellishments, flowers and ribbons etc. I actually had to go to an empty wall and unload my cart 3 times as it was totally overflowing.
After shopping the whole thing I went thru all my treasures and started boxing them up into boxes worth $50 or $25 just so I could get a close feel as to how much I was spending. After it got past $400 needless to say I stopped taking 2 of some things and actually put some back LOL! Then came the part of standing in line and it was like an amusement park where they funneled you up and down every aisle before you even got near the 5 checkouts that they had. We got in line near the bathroom at 10:45 and didn't get to the checkout until 12:45. Luckily Jen brought a truck along becuz I alone had 9 boxes and my huge bag. You need to checkout Jen's blog as she did some live videos of the whole trip that will give you a clue as to what we went thru yesterday plus she is having a great RAK with some gorgeous product from Heidi Grace Only Time line.............. here's a link to her.
http://www.willubmyhoneybee.blogspot.com/

So we get home at almost 2 pm and then comes the fun part of unloading it all. That would be the first picture of all the empty boxes. Now I will show you a picture of my dining room table (good thing we don't eat there often)










This next picture is one of so many different raindots that I didn't even know they made. There were letters, numbers, hearts, flowers, rain splots, multi colored dots and that was the small packages. Then there were big packages with words like Sprintime, Autumn fun, Snow fun, Family, Happy Birthday and Good Times. This whole box is full of raindots of every color imaginable so my RAK is going to be 24 packages of raindots.....all sizes and colors..........look at the picture and just drool! You can win this............send your friends over to my blog and make sure they mention you sent them and I will put your name in the drawing again. There are letters & numbers in this RAK plus 3 colors of flowers, hearts,orange & green BIG dots (go Fiskateers)and even the water splots. I will draw a winner on Tuesday night since it will be a busy week-end with a Fiskars crop tomorrow and a late Easter dinner at my in-laws on Sunday.

Don't forget to check out Jen's RAK too and watch our video of the sale!

Vegas Vegas Vegas

Downtown in Las Vegas is a section called Fremont Street. It's only about 4 blocks long filled with shops and some casino's including the famous Binion's casino but the big attraction is the canopy of lights that cover the street spanning about 4 football fields. It has 12 million LED synchronized lights and a sound system that will blow you away. Starting at 6pm until midnite there is a different 6 minute show above you and the best part is that it is FREE...............millions of people watch it everynight and here are a few pictures that I got. Notice they turn off all the street signs when the show starts so that only the canopy is illuminated.
















This show is so amazing.......imagine the train running up and down the street above you and then the planes came..............the sounds, the music and such detail. Don't miss it if you ever go.

Back to the strip there is a casino called The Venetian and it has to be one of the most intricate designed casinos including a canal where you can take your own romantic gondola ride in their canal. The guy even serenades you during your ride. You can choose indoor or outdoor too!



Well I'm going to start sorting thru the 10 boxes of goodies that I bought at Fiskars warehouse sale yesterday and then will be back with pictures of that to amaze you.

What a day!

I know I was gonna post more pics from Vegas today but the weather got to almost 70 today so I spent most of it outside in my sunny yard. Talk about pine cones this year.........I must have raked up 3 wheelbarrows full and there are still more out there! Leaves, leaves everywhere needing to be raked up and I'm seeing so many of my perennials starting to peak out of the ground that I just had to start uncovering them. Course after spending most of the day outside working in my gardens and yard you can imagine how my back is feeling right now (yes I do have a heated pad on it ). I love my flowers and I tend to overdue it (especially in the spring ) and lose track of time when I am out there. I even bought one of those little garden scooters you sit on instead of stooping over all the time but.....
Tomorrow is the big Fiskars warehouse sale in Wausau so my friend Jen & I will be heading over there early in the morning to see what kind of bargains we can find. I love shopping a sale like this and I love shopping for some of my friends who can't make it this far............guess you could say I was born to shop!
So gonna head off to watch American Idol and then early to bed. I promise tomorrow I will show some more pics of Vegas.

Las Vegas

I have been to Vegas before but I always find something new when I go there. This time we stayed at Harrah's which is right in the middle of the strip so you can walk either way and see so much. Our room was gorgeous and huge but lacking the little things we need like a coffee maker, mini fridg, microwave and internet connection ($12/day...I'm so

glad I carried my laptop all this way)!

Thanks to a blog comment I went to Bellagio to take pictures of the glass flowers that I did not know were there and we found the most wonderful conservatory full of flowers and butterflies. Take a look at some of these pictures!
Those are huge glass flowers that cover the ceiling in the lobby.















Those are actually beams of water going over Kevin's head...........how kewl is that? Same with those big round things that look like glass in the flower beds actually have water flowing all around them & then down into the flowers. And look at all the colors of the tulips and the huge watering can sprinkling on them and around them.













There was a butterfly house in the middle and Kevin got this awesome closeup of a butterfly!















I can almost smell the flowers looking at these pictures! Can't you?



I'm one of those people that approaches people taking pictures of each other and offer to take some of them together with their camera. It's kinda like my secret RAK and people are always happy to get a picture of them when they are on vacation. This time it paid off as those people turned around and offered to take some of Kevin & I so we now have some nice pictures of us on vacation!












This last picture is of the lobby.....looking at that while checking in would make anyone relax.

The one thing to remember if you ever go to Vegas is to check out all the lobbies and pools. The casino's are grand in themselves but the beauty usually shows up in other places. Stay tuned tomorrow for some more looks at Vegas.

The late arriving balls.

I guess I did forget to mention that Kevin's bowling balls did arrive on Thursday so he didn't miss out bowling in the Nationals but he did miss bowling in the 40frame game on Wednesday nite. If you are wondering how he did.............I would of course say Awesome but not as well as he usually bowls. Not only is it hard bowling with strangers but the lanes are always harder in a contest due to the oil on the lanes. So if a team works together you wear a path through the oil and make it easier to bowl strikes but in a situation like this where you have strangers all bowling their own way it just doesn't work. Plus you have to remember that Kevin just recovered from the torn cartilage in his ribs from that fall on the ice. He was not happy with his bowling and said "what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas" end of the story LOL! FYI this building was not a bowling alley....they actually build this all from scratch and you just can't imagine how big and impressive it is. I think there is like 70 lanes & they are all full. People come from everywhere to bowl and quite of few of the guys were from Canada.



Friday nite Kevin didn't bowl until 11:30pm and didn't get done until almost 2am. Last year I was lucky enuf to watch him from the comfort of our hotel on my computer since you can watch it live but this year that wasn't happening because in Vegas you pay $12/day to connect your computer in any hotel (guess they don't want you to stay in your room LOL). I also was actually able to take pictures on my computer too while he bowled so this year Kevin's dad did it for us as you can see from these 2 pictures.



Next year the competition will be in Reno which is actually one we went to once before. It's a gorgeous place so you never know we might be going back again! Last year it was in Albuquerque, New Mexico so that was someplace new for us and we enjoyed it immensely. Guess we will have to see if we have some "spare" time!

I'm back..................

Well I left Harrah's in Vegas yesterday morning at 8am and didn't arrive back here at home until 11pm. Talk about a long day traveling and not a great way to spend Easter either. I should have slept in this morning but I was up early and have already finished 3 loads of laundry and have everything unpacked and put away. Joys of vacation.........coming home and playing catch up around the house.

Speaking of vacation here's a few more pictures of Arizona. As you can see the temperature on Tuesday at 3pm was 95 which was the high for the week. Later it was in 80's & 70's which is just as nice. My mom & I did a ladies day and had our hair and nails done which was so much fun. I actually had acrylic nails put on for the 1st time and they look so pretty! I am having a hard time tho learning to put on jewelry and even typing here so will have to see how I adjust. It just makes you feel so feminine to have long painted nails and jewelry on.

It was great getting all that Vitamin D (sunshine) and a little hard re-adjusting to temps in the 40's. Needless to say I do have the fireplace going and haven't ventured outside yet for groceries!




On our way back to Vegas my brother took us on a "shortcut" called Christmas Tree pass and it was kinda like a road that had been traveled by covered wagons at one time........we even bottomed out at times trying to avoid potholes but the scenery was spectacular. Can you imagine flowers blooming bright yellow & red in the middle of the desert? Here's a few pictures from that side trip. Tomorrow I will do some pictures of Vegas as I am in the midst of downloading them all to Walgreens as they have their 10cents sale special & I will be able to pick them all up this afternoon.

Well back to work and stop by tomorrow for some fabulous pictures of Vegas!

Arizona pictures

Ok I forgot I had a memory card in my camera and all I had to do was unload those pics.......geez Louise.........so here are a few pics of some pretty flowers and cactus right around my moms place. So everything you heard about Arizona being dry and hot well that's still true but lots of pretty flowers everywhere right now. Mr. Brown (my husband) is golfing right now with my mom & Bob while I just chill out and relax here. Here's a picture of me & my mom last nite before we went across the river to have brunch at one of the casino's.

We leave for Vegas on Wednesday and keep your fingers crossed that Kevin's bowling balls get there in time for him to bowl. He shipped them UPS at the last moment on Friday & he thought they would be there in time for him to bowl in the 40frame game on Wednesday but after checking the online notice it sure isn't looking good. We did play bingo yesterday and we all got close with needing just 1 number but no winners!

Make sure that snow is all gone before I get back!!

I'm in Arizona and it's.........

Hot and sunny............yup around 80! I think I got my Vitamin D today and probably a week's worth extra! It feels so good to wake up and put on shorts and a pair of sandals and go for a walk and admire all the flowers that are blooming..............even the cactus have some gorgeous flowers blooming right now and the oleanders. I did take pictures but no cord to download them to my mom's computer so you will just have to take my word for it that it is pretty.

Funny thing on the plane I had a gal sit down next to me and we got to talking and by golly she was a scrapbooker.............course she was digital and I'm paper but neverless she got down her laptop and started showing me some of her scrapbook work. Those hours between Minneapolis and Las Vegas went so fast with the 2 of us chatting all about scrapbooking. My dh slept the whole way beside me but the two of us (Nancy was her name & she was from Minnesota) exchanged email addresses so I could hook her up with all the great sites that I frequent and she will do the same for the sites that she follows. And who knows maybe someday I will be a digital scrapper.

Well it is too nice to stay inside so will catch up with you soon!

I'm on a roll!

Well I hope to be on a roll............a lucky roll that is! I am just finishing up packing our bags as we leave for Vegas today so even tho we are taking our laptop with us not sure how much time I will have to blog! This will be the last one that has a picture for now as I don't want to take cords for downloading pics etc plus I'm hoping not to have time for that either.

So tonite my oldest brother Norm will be picking us up in Vegas and then we are going to Bull Head City, AZ to spend a few days with my mom who lives there. That's a pretty place to visit since it lies right on the river that separates Arizona from Nevada. We can cross the river to Laughlin (which is a mini Las Vegas) play bingo and the funny part is that they are different time zones so you always have to ask which time.We actually got married there on a riverboat cruise at twilight almost 10 years ago. But the weather is in the 80's there so some nice sun and some relaxation will be much appreciated. Mom & I are going to have a girls day and go get our hair and nails done too so that will be fun.

We head for Vegas on Wednesday and are thinking about doing the Hoover Dam tour on the way in. I did it like 20 years ago with 2 of my boys when they were small but I think Kevin would enjoy seeing it as it is spectacular. We are staying at Harrah's which is right on the strip and there are so many things you can walk to and see. We hope to take in a show but are playing everything by ear. Kevin bowls in the Nationals on Thursday and Friday but both times are in the evening so that leaves us plenty of time to make our "fortune" on the slots. OK maybe we won't but there are allot of fun penny slots out there that I can play. One of my favorites is called Wizard of Oz and you actually sit in a chair (not a stool) and it has surround sound so that when the wicked witch is flying in you actually think she is behind you...........hard to explain just something you have to try if you ever see it. There are also so many free things to see like the sinking of the ship or the water shows. The lights, the shops and even the restaurant's are all experiences in themselves. We have been there many times but always see something new when we go. We will be back late Sunday night so we will be spending Easter either on a plane or in an airport.

I did do one last layout a few days ago of the day my 1st grandchild was born so I will leave you with that...............and Wish me LUCK!!!!

It's April already?

Yes I know it's April Fools day but not really in a joking mood today. Weather is still gloomy, cold and there were even snow flakes this morning. The only thing I have accomplished today is that I did finish the other page of the 2page layout that I did of Allayah trying to golf so here it is.
With no sunshine the colors aren't the best but you can see when the 2 pages are together what it would look like.

Not sure how much scrapping I will be getting done for the next week or so. Tomorrow I need to start packing as we leave on Saturday for Vegas. We will spend 3 days with my mom in Arizona where I hear the temps are in the 80's and then we will spend the rest of our time in Vegas where Kevin will be bowling in the Nationals out there. I'm excited about going someplace where it is allot warmer then here but stressed a little as nuthing is figured out regarding transportation to and from the tournament etc. I've had the big details like plane tickets and hotel taken care of since Christmas but some things just aren't in my power to fix. But don't worry I am taking my laptop so I will keep in touch!