Well, I just looked at my date book and realized that school is already starting in just 2 days! I have to admit I am really excited for both kids to be in school full days now so I will have the day to myself, I'm sad the summer has flown by so fast. Don't get me wrong, I've had a good summer and gotten around quite a bit (teaching of course). In the last few weeks I did demos and make & takes for Tattered Angels at CKC in Valley Forge, PA, I've been to Canada again and actually got in some "site-seeing"...meaning I set my GPS to take me over the rainbow bridge instead of going through the border at Buffalo. I stopped in the middle of the bridge when no one was coming and snapped a few shots of Niagra Falls : )
That counts, doesn't it? LOL
The kids and I plus my Mom spent a long weekend near Lake Seneca, NY visiting my Aunt. They live in a gorgeous old farm house that they have renovated in an Amish area. Complete with corn field next door, giant sunflower field up the street, chickens who lay fresh eggs daily, a tire swing in the back yard and a great-aunt who makes the world's best fresh blueberry muffins . My kids were in heaven!
I actually went to a weekend crop with my friend Sally Lynn MacDonald just for FUN (that hasn't happened in a few years)!! Then I taught for 2 days at the Scrapyard in Duncansville, PA where I debuted 2 brand new classes. This store is right in the middle of the most beautiful mountains. Such a gorgeous ride!
This past weekend I stayed fairly local and taught on Long Island, NY at the Scrapper's Playground...FUN ladies! I had a blast there and got the BEST NY pizza next door to their store for lunch - YUM : )
So I've been pretty productive this summer, but haven't had much time to relax. I was SO looking forward to spending Labor Day Weekend on Cape Cod this weekend. We were going to take the ferry over to nantucket Martha's vinyard, take the kids whale watching...sadly Hurricane Earl is pummeling straight up the coast towards the cape just in time to ruin my weekend plans. I'm completely bummed out since this was "MY" vacation weekend for the year. Yes, we did Disney this year, but to be honest, Disney makes me ugly (lol) that was for Mike and the kids. I know that sounds horrible, but a park (or 2) a day, waiting in huge lines in 90+ degree heat is not my idea of fun. It's exhausting and makes me totally crabby. Cape Cod is my happy place. It holds some of my most favorite memories from my childhood with my Dad...I just love everything about it. So I'm hoping to re-schedule it, but for now...I'm just bummed : (
On a happier topic...I'm heading off to teach at 3 awesome stores in Florida in about 2 weeks.
I'll be teaching 3 brand new classes while I'm there and 2 of the stores are new for me too.
Saturday, September 11th I'll be at She Scrapbooks in The Villages for 3 classes
Sunday, September 12th I'll be heading down to Bonita Springs to Scrapbooks, Etc for 2 fun Tattered Angels Classes
then back up to St. Petersburg to teach at Whim-So-Doodle on Monday and Tuesday ! (LOVE my friends at the Doodle)
(links to the stores and dates are in my right side bar in my class schedule)
I'll be doing my Glaze, Glimmer, Glam! Class at all 3 locations. This technique class is my current favorite to teach and features all of the new inky goodies from Tattered Angels including Glimmer Glam, Glimmer Glaze, Glimmer mist and the new Chalkboard mists. Loads of awesome techniques on a variety of surfaces with complete instructions for each technique you'll learn. If you love the look of the new Glam and Glaze but really have no idea what to do with it, this class is definitely for you...SO MANY POSSIBILITIES! (Between us, Glimmer GLAM is my new addiction!!)
I designed a new class specifically for Scrapbooks, Etc - a really fun memories of the beach gate book featuring tattered Angel's new Seaside collection with some unique elements to embellish!
The other 2 new ones are Ranger classes. I've had a HUGE amount of requests do teach a class that would focus on different inks. how they work, what they work on and how to choose the right ink for any project...I'm calling this INK Bookcamp! 4 hours of inky goodness and a massive amount of information. I've worked really hard to finally develop this class and I'm proud of how it went when i taught it last weekend in PA. It's a great mix of inks like pigments, dyes, alcohol inks, spray inks, watermarks and clear inks plus embossing techniques. If the vast array of inks out there confuse you, this is a great class to learn the differences and how to use each ink to their full potential.
The Altered Journey Mini-Book is just pure inky, "Tim Holtz style" fun. If you love Tim's products from Ranger, Sizzix and is Idea-ology embellishments with Advantus, then you'll love this one. Grungeboard, Chipboard, Texture fades, dye cut edges and elements, lots of distress ink (of course) with a choice of colors, paint, Distress Embossing powder, Sticky Back Canvas, metal embellishments, etc...I love how this one came out. I'll have an optional color choice/title up in a few days in blues/greens with Tim's stamp that says "memories" for the title instead. I like options since this is all about the technique of course!
jen
