Random Thoughts & Tidbits

Family Treasures

A few weeks ago, we lost my Great Aunt Helen...she was 98 years old.  Several years ago when I was doing a lot of research on our family tree, I spent a lot of time on the phone with her.  She told me that she had a lot of old photos and papers that she would leave for me one day.  I also spent a great deal of time with my Grandmother before she passed away going through tons of old pictures and albums.  She told me all of the stories and who everyone was in each photo, so I have everything written down, labeled and can easily pick out everyone related to me through my great-great-great-grandparents. 

So last week we had to go to Aunt Helen's house to pick up some of the family heirlooms and go through the attic - I can't even begin to explain the family treasures I found in that attic!  

2 beautiful trunks that came over from England, lots of things from my great-uncle's time in WWII, a funny little scrapbook of little trinkets my Grandmother kept in high school completely labeled in her own handwriting....never knew my Grandmother was a scrapper!!

My Great Grandmother's sewing box, along with half finished crocheted projects, hundreds of postcards from their travels, letters from the war, tin photos along with full labeled albums in great condition, framed photos of my great-great grandparents, a family bible that came from England with everyone's names and birthdates handwritten in the front cover by my GGG-Grandmother...etc.  There is so much more and it was extremely overwhelming for someone so in to genealogy to say the least!

I spent days cleaning the dust off of everything, going through it all and organizing...and I still have 2 trunks to go through and clean up in my garage.  When I got to the last box I had to go through, I got goosebumps when I realized it was the one that my Aunt Helen had packed up for me.  At the top of the box was a big manila envelope and when I opened it, I burst in to tears...the first thing I discovered was my Great-Great Grandfather's wallet!  Still full of membership cards, id, his business cards - below that was 3 of his passports all full from his travels!  Next was his naturalization papers with his exact street address in England as well as his parents full names and birthdates!!!!

At this point I nearly fell right out of my chair and had to take a few deep breaths.  You see, when I was working for so long on the family tree - and when I say I was working on it, besides researching on-line, I was literally going to graveyards, going in to the county offices in Paterson doing research - I was REALLY in to it.  When I got as far as my Great-Great Grandfather, William J. Penney, I got a bit obsessed with him in particular because I couldn't figure out when he came here, what port he came in to or where he was from England.  My Grandmother told me stories about him and said I was a lot like him.  I was so curious about him and was so frustrated that I couldn't find anything, that I stopped working on it for a while.  So to find all of the information I had been searching for in this one envelope - well lets just say it took me almost an hour to see clearly through my tears.  

I am now a bit desperate to go visit my friend Tracie in England and take a drive to find their home if it's still there!

So that's what I've been up to lately...I'll take more pictures and fill you on on the rest of the treasures I come across when I get in to those trunks in the garage!

jen

Updates

I have a lot to catch up on and it's been crazy as usual, but thankfully starting to wind down for a few weeks until mid-January.  We've had 2 deaths in the family in the past few weeks and nearly lost Mike's Grandfather last week...thankfully he is like the Energizer Bunny and is still with us and doing much better.

Thanksgiving was wonderful and busy.  Mike's Aunt and all of his cousins + kids were up from Florida because of their Grandfather so it was the first time that just about the entire family was together for a holiday, the only one missing was our beautiful niece Skye from NC...wish you were there too sweety : )

We had an early dinner at Mike's Mom's house and then went for a second dinner at my Mom's house...we practically rolled in the door when we got home, LOL!

Going back a few weeks, I had an awesome 8 days in Florida teaching at Whim-So-Doodle in St. Petersburg and visiting with my Aunt in Plant City. Jill, the owner of Whim-So-Doodle has really done an awesome job at bringing in everything Ranger plus a huge selection of Tim's stamps from Stampers Anonymous!

While I was there, they were having a Fall Festival going on at the store and took over the sidewalk in front of the store as well, so my job was to do make & takes to promote Christmas stamps...we had a blast getting inky all day making card fronts.

Looking forward to going back again in February and then again in the beginning of May for National Scrapook Day!

In between classes, I stayed mostly with my Aunt Joan hanging out and relaxing : )

And...I can't forget to include a Halloween shot (yes, I realize it's December and I know I'm a slacker on the blogging sometimes, LOL)

Ryan was GI Joe and Maya was a "Glamorous Witch"!

We went trick-or-treating in the rain with my niece Juls and my nephew Jack...that's my little sister in the navy shirt...stopping at my Mom's first for the goody bags she makes up for them.

So that has been my recent few weeks in a nutshell...now to get the house ready for Christmas and prep for CHA!

jen

Just a quick post about a new class I'm teaching this Sunday at Scrapper's Cove in Milltown, NJ...The 12 Days of Christmas mini-book! Inspired by Tim Holtz's 12 tags of Christmas (with Tim's permission of course) with my own spin - scrappy style : ) Get ready for all those Christmas photos and join me for this fun technique class to get you in the spirit of the season!

New class pics

Well, I'm off to Florida in about 5 1/2 hours...7am flight (yikes!)

I just finished scanning the Completely Distressed class samples so I thought I'd post them quick before I hit the pillow.  If you're taking this class at Whim-So-Doodle or thinking about it...keep in mind you'll be able to choose your own color scheme for these layouts.  It's ALL about the TECHNIQUE and ideas for using Tim Holtz stamps in your layouts!

    

    

    

jen

Crazy Month...

Sorry I've been a bad blogger lately.  It's been kind of a teaching whirlwind the past month, so much going on.  This is always a busy time for classes and now the CHA booth sample assignments for Ranger are keeping me inspired, BUSY and my fingers all inky...just the way I like them!!! 

I had an awesome time teaching and demoing at Ink About It in Massachusetts during their bus tour a few weeks ago.  What an awesome store with lots of great inky ladies coming in all day long.  I enjoyed a little down time after class exploring Salem with my new friend Raine.  It was a fun day to get in the Halloween spirit!  Looking forward to scheduling some more classes there in the Spring.

The following weekend I was off to teach at Scrapbooks Plus in Chantilly, VA...more great groups of ladies who had a blast getting inky with me during all 3 classes. Debbie has a fabulous store with a huge teaching area - I had a great time!

You know when I travel, I like to try and make the most of whatever down time I get, so it was the perfect opportunity to meet up with my Uncle and cousins + kids who live in Virginia.  I rarely get to see them, so it was nice to sit and chat and giggle over dinner.  Miss you guys!! 

I'm booked to go back to Scrapbooks Plus January 9-10, so stay tuned for more details on those classes!

This past weekend I got to finally stay local to teach and had a day of classes at Scrapper's Cove in Milltown, NJ.  Love these ladies and we had a good brainstorming meeting after classes about our upcoming Bermuda Cruise in April.  Loads of fun ideas, early bird specials, sponsors, great giveaways...we had fun just talking about it all!  We'll all be posting more in the next few days about new cruise details - Can't wait for April!!

As many of you may have noticed, I've been working on a monthly featured project for the homepage of Ranger's webite.  I finished November's project last week and I was happy to be playing with one of my favorite lines - Claudine Hellmuth's Studio paints and Sticky Back Canvas.  I made some dimensional pointsettias on a card with the canvas - SO easy and fun.  If you didn't see last month's Perfect Pearl Layout, you can check it out here.

As for this week, well besides begging the mojo fairly to stick with me so I can finish all of my Ranger samples by tomorrow, I'll be heading off early Friday morning to Florida!  I'll be spending most of the week teaching at one of my all-time favorite stores, Whim-So-Doodle in St. Petersburg.  LOVE these ladies and I'm SO excited to be going back again!  I have 7 inky classes planned starting Friday night (11/6), Ranger demos during their Fall Festival on Saturday morning. 

Here's the schedule...

Friday Nov 6    6:30-9:30PM    Funky Flag Book

 

Saturday Nov 7    Ranger Demos during Fall Festival

then 2-5pm    Old Fashion Christmas Cards

 

Sunday Nov 8    12:30-4:30  Completely Distressed Layout Masterclass

This is a brand NEW class where you will complete 6 8x8 layouts focusing on Ranger's full Distress Line plus all Tim Holtz stamps!

Monday Nov 9    Alcohol Ink Techniques - Beyond the Basics

Complete TECHNIQUE based class - learn all you can do with these great inks!

Thursday Nov 12    6:30PM  Christmas Memories Canvas Book

This is the one and only time I will teach this class!

Friday Nov 13    6-10PM  Treasure Canvas Book

 

Saturday Nov 14    10am-1pm    Glimmer Mist Galore

4 12x12 pages while you learn all of the gorgeous effects you can get with Glimmer Mist!

It's going to be an INKY week full of fun classes and I'm looking forward to spending some time hanging out and visiting with my Aunt and cousins in Florida on my days off!  I might actually get out to see a real movie that isn't animated!  Yippee!!!

SPeaking of movies...anyone else DYING for the 20th when New Moon comes out???   The commercials are getting me all excited and I'm re-reading the first 2 books so it's all fresh in my mind...CAN'T WAIT!!!

jen

Happy Anniversary to us

My Mikie...

12 years ago today, I married my best friend and sweetest man alive.  We met through my cousin and when I was about 17 he told me he would marry me one day and I laughed in his face! Imagine that...hee hee.  It wasn't until I was 25 that I realized he was right.  It's been an amazing 12 years and I cherish our life together...Happy Anniversary Mike, I love you honey : )

New Canvas class next weekend

I'll be heading down to South Jersey next Saturday to teach 2 classes during Scrap That's All Day Crop. 
The crop is free and the classes are open to all even if you are not registered for the crop.  Just call the store to register in advance for the classes  (609) 386-0607

12-2 PM   NATURAL BEAUTY 2-page Layout

In this workshop you will learn fun ways to step up your scrapbooking a  notch by incorporating inks and stamps in unique ways.  Well be using Prima papers, flowers, crystal swirls and stamps then giving it all a twist with some of my favorite Ranger products like Stickles, Glossy Accents, Distress Embossing Powders and Alcohol Inks.

*Please bring 5 4x6" photos of your favorite "natural beauty", craft knife and cutting mat or fine tip scissors, paper trimmer and adhesive.



*This is a brand new class but the only time it will be taught in NJ*

 

3-5PM  SHABBY CHIC DOUBLE CANVAS 

Start thinking ahead to holiday gifts!! Natural canvas, oversized fabric flowers, frayed stone-washed denim, ink, paint, and other fun goodies combine to create this shabby chic wall hanging.  This class is loaded with distressed techniques and ideas to  that you'll be able to us in all of your paper crafting projects, plus you will be able to personalize the title as we'll be using alphabet stamps.  Canvas sizes are 6x12" and 8x12" and will be attached to hang together.  (This is the only time this class will be taught in NJ)

*Please bring 12" paper trimmer, pencil, variety of adhesives, scissors and 3 vertical photos cropped to 3.5x4.5" (black and white look best) or you can easily add the photos later.

Hope to see you there!!

jen

 

Holland (again) and Germany

From Belgium we were off again back up to Ede, Holland to teach at Joan Gevaert Scrapbooking and Rubber Stamp Art...LOVE to teach at Joan's!  This was my second time teaching at her shop and her workshop area is HUGE...very "chubby friendly" hee hee : )  Her shop has an awesome array of inky goodies and I always spend a small fortune while I'm there because I simply can't resist!
My best Dutch buddies, Lida and Hetty met us at Joan's house Thursday night for a BBQ in her beautiful garden.  It was a wondeful night  with friends...we ate, drank and giggled for hours.  Thank you, Joan for being such a gracious hostess and having us at your home : )

 

So here comes the funny part of our adventure...Friday night we started the final leg of our adventure in Germany.  Lida and Hetty came to class at Joan's and afterwards loaded ALL of our luggage in to Lida's car and off we went!  They were going to Stempel Mekka in Hagen, Germany, which was about an hour and 45 minutes from where we needed to be the next morning by 10am - yikes! My first class was sold out and we could not be late.  We got to the hotel, kissed and hugged Hetty and Lida goodnight and got about 3 hours of much needed sleep.  By 5am we were outside to catch a taxi to the train station...BUT we were SO tired, not to mention my back was killing me from lugging around all of the class supplies all week and Tracie was limping because a case of paper fell on her leg at Kars.  The Turkish taxi driver spoke NO English, but had an obvious little crush on Tracie...so we took full advantage of that (giggling) and using some sign language, sound effects and I think there was even a point that I put out my arms and flew like a plane to make him understand we needed to meet them at the airport, we bargained with him to take us all the way to Frankfurt to meet the store owners...we even threw in 2 stops for coffee to sweeten the deal.  We agreed on a price that was worth it for all of us and off we went again and it was beyond hysterical as he cracked up at our attempts to make him understand us. 

To give you an idea  of how much we laughed, here is how my favorite conversation went...
We were in a bakery having coffee.  Keep in mind we have had VERY little sleep.  The taxi driver turned to me and simply said "Turkey?"
Thinking that this was maybe one of the only English words he knew, I said, "You like turkey?  I like turkey too".  He had no idea what I said until Tracie nearly spit coffee out her nose and yelled, "NO, you silly ass, he's FROM Turkey!!!"  Then he got it and we all got hysterical again.  The country hadn't even crossed my mind...I guess I thought he figured I was the chubby American of the group and we could bond over food or something!  Duh : )  It makes me giggle every time I think about it though.

Finally we found Mireia, hugged the taxi driver good-bye and were off again to the shop.  Scrapbook Werkstatt is in a pictureque little town and I fell in love with it immediately.  The people there were very friendly and made us feel welcome as soon as we got there.  Although Tina and Mireia have had an on-line shop, the store is new, full of great new product and beautifully decorated.  Everything about our visit there was just so completely charming. 

We teamed up with my good friend and local German Primadonna Nat Kalbach and each of us taught 2 classes over 2 days to some talented and fantastic ladies.  It was so much fun to meet up with Nat on her "home turf" and Tracie and I even got to take one of her classes.  She's talented and fun - we had a complete ball! 

We stayed in an apartment in a residential neighborhood, which was nestled right in to the base of a mountain and had a beautiful view of the countryside.  The sunsets were breathtaking as we sat on our balcony listening to an owl in the forest behind us just taking it all in...

On our final night in Germany, we went back to Tina's home to meet her husband Peter (awesome guy) and then Tina took us for a quick drive to see the castle near her house - SO cool. 

Ooh, and I can't forget about my favorite find while I was there...my new bag that reminded me of the owl who hooted me to sleep at night - LOVE this!

and Tracie couldn't resist getting one too...

Thank you guys, we had an unbelievable adventure in Germany and we can't wait to come back!

jen

Holland and Belgium

The latest teaching tour in Europe was another wonderful adventure with my fabulous friend from across the pond, Tracie Hudson.  I hate that she lives so far away, but it makes the time that we do have together so much more fun and this trip was no exception.  We had a blast!

We started the weekend with a coffee together at the airport in Amsterdam.  We timed it so that we arrived only minutes apart so that I could pass off some supplies I brought over for her.  After about an hour of quick catching up we had to part ways for 2 days to work for different distributors, she was off to Kars for Prima and I was heading off to Scrapbook Mate to do Ranger demos and a workshop at their open house.  It was like old times as I've been working with Heidi at Scrapbook Mate for years and was happy to spend time with my friends and made a few new ones along the way!  Over the weekend, I met some lovely shop owners from Germany and I'm hoping to get some plans together to visit their stores next Spring : )

Tuesday morning I headed down to meet Tracie again at her hotel to begin the journey.  Our first stop was Venlo, in the south of Holland to teach at Special Memories.  Manita, the shop owner, had just combined with another shop that carries yars and all sorts of needlework goodies - we were in heaven and both left with yards and had a little lesson while the other was teaching...Tracie was knitting and I was attempting to crochet some very cool little flowers they had there.  I think I need a LOT more practice : )
The town was gorgeous with some great shopping and we had a fun day of classes with the ladies there.  I even came home with a fancy handmade hat that I just HAD to have!

The next morning we were on the road again heading to Belgium.  We were met near the border by Vicky and her Father Mark, who own Tiny's Hobby in Kortrijk.  We stopped for a beautiful, trypically Belgian lunch (YUM!). 

I have to digress for just a minute here to say the people in Belgium REALLY know how to eat!  The food there is just awesome and they are not afraid of big portions!  Wow! Even the pizza was good there, and being from NJ/NY you know I am a complete snob about pizza (and bagels, but that's a whole other conversation : )

 Tracie and I each taught a class at thier shop that night and I introduced a new class, The Funky Flag Book...

Vicky and her Dad have done a lot of work in the teaching area and the store since the last time I was there about 2 years ago.  It's bright and open with a great work space so it was really a pleasure to be there.  It's a great shop with lots of different types of crafts besides scrapbooking...lots of treasures!

The classes were full with students from Belgium, Holland and France...I don't usually have any issues with language barriers, but it was a bit of a challenge with 3 different languages (besides English) in the room, but we got along just fine and had a great time. 

We had a whole day off on Thursday and we took full advantage of the beautiful day!  Mark was a tour guide in Brugge at one time and offered to drive us there for a quick tour before heading back up to Holland.  I have to say, out of all the places I've been in Europe, Brugge is one of my absolute favorites.  I love the small town feel, the cobblestone streets, canals, the huge square with the clock tower, beautiful architecture, and oh my GOD - the Belgian chocolate!!! I have been to Brugge before and walked most of the city, but this time was so much better because Mark was able to tell us what we were looking at and give us the history I didn't know before.  We got in some shopping...oh, the shopping there is to DIE for! And of course, a Belgian Waffle!

Here's some of my favorite sights from Brugge...

That last one is ALL chocolate and I bought LOTS to bring home!

Work in progress

Forgot to mention...please excuse any weirdness in my blog's appearance over the next few days.  I've been working on some changes as you may have noticed.  I've got 3 photo albums up and working on getting my schedule on there.  The plan is to get it all in one place on the blog instead of having the website as well...it's a work in progress : )