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Catch Up Lists

Here are several lists to make up for those not posted while I was away. I hope someone out there is till using these!! LOL

1. List the activities you'd do if you weren't so afraid.

2.List the names of all your past bosses.

3. List the ways jealousy has ruined your life. (hmmm - heavy!)

4. Suddenly you are invisible. List where you'd go and what you'd do.

(Just discovered there is a group of Suddenly..... statements in the back of the book - very interesting.)

I actually scrapped on the weekend - first time in weeks. I will scan and post tonight.

I also had a very successful shopping weekend - Belinda and I went to IKEA on Saturday and I got lots of little goodies. I wanted two stools for my breakfast bar but they were out of stock .

On Sunday I went up to the Central Coast to visit a friend and we went to Erina Fair and Target was heaven - 20 -25% off cushions, throws, picture frames etc. I got new cushions and throws to try and make my old and stained lounge look better. I see no point in getting it re-covered while ever Miss Rebecca keeps putting lip gloss and texta stains on it! The cushions were $26 and 25% off - but when they were scanned they came up at $11.10 - what a bargain.

Then we went to Freedom and I got a matching Forest Green lamp shade - which again scanned much lower than the ticket price. My lucky day!!!!  I thought I had a lamp base at home but sadly I had thrown it out in one of my rare spring cleaning moments. I will now have to look for another.

All in all a great weekend.

Alison

( Edited to add:  The 'B' in my previous post is not Belinda. She is fine!!! Some of you were obviously concerned for her wellbeing which is lovely. This is a different, non-scrapping B who, BTW is also doing just fine.)

More Lyrics

These are for a friend of mine who is having a tough time at the moment. I don't think you even read this blog but the message is for you B - you are strong and will get through this and I will always be there for you no matter what.

Don't worry, you will find the answer if you let it go

Give yourself some time to falter

but don't forgo knowing that you're loved no matter what

and everything will come around in time

You need everybody with you on your side

Know that I am here for you

(courtesy of Sarah McLachlan again)

Sorry about the pause in the List challenge too. I have left the book at home but will post a new list (maybe even a few to catch up) when I get home tonight.

Alison

New Favourite Lyrics

Anyone who reads this blog knows that I get hooked on song lyrics - these are my current favourite. I know they're a bit trite and not in the Sarah McLachlan league of artistry but I like them regardless.

If everyone cared and nobody cried
If everyone loved and nobody lied
If everyone shared and swallowed their pride
We'd see the day when nobody died

from the pen of Chad Kroeger lead singer and chief lyricist for Nickelback . I bought their CD in the US and have played it non-stop ever since. I don't like every track but have about 4 favourites - Photograph, Savin' Me, Far Away and this one If Everyone Cared.

Great stuff.  Nothing like a good ole rock ballad.

Alison

What I loved about America

Just a quick post to add some more information that will help my journalling when I finally get around to scrapping about this amazing experience.

There are some things about America (or at least my experience of it) that I just had to capture before I forget:

• The toilets - I loved them - they have no lids (which Joan hated) but they flush like airline toilets, fast and efficient, some are even motion activated (excuse the pun LOL). When you get up they automatically flush which I think is great for public restrooms
• The handtowels are also issued using a motion sensor - you just place your hand in front of the sensor and voila - out comes the paper towel - no touching things with yucky wet hands!!!

(OK I am easily impressed! These things amused me no end)

• The expression restroom or bathroom - when I asked if they had a toilet at the hardware store I think he thought I wanted to buy one! I finally got used to this after the first week.
• The servings of everything are HUGE - when you order a drink you get a huge drink and a free refill - no measley glasses of diet Pepsi that cost $3.50.
• When you ask for meat to be very well done that's how you get it - no horrified expressions of "oh how can you do that to a perfectly good piece of meat!" (which I get a lot here.
• You can get Carmex lip balm (the best ever IMO) for a measley 96c at Wal Mart. I think it costs $6 0r $7 here.
• I personally thought the service I received everywhere I went was wonderful. Great hospitality. I know many people survive on the level of tips they get but gee it makes a difference.
• In Wal Mart you can buy mini versions of loads of things things like shampoo, deoderant, face cream etc - we normally only get these as samples but these are there all the time. Great for when you're travelling.
• In Vegas the shops don't open until 10am but they are open really late every night - being a serious shopaholic I loved that.

Ok that's it for now, although I'm sure there was more.

On Saturday night it was my fabulous friend Belinda's 30th Birthday (Happy Birthday you old bag LOLOLOL!!!).  We celebrated with an 80's themed night. Here is a pic of us.  I didn't have a lot of time to prepare after getting back from the US so I just made a WHAM inspired T-shirt (Choose Life) using foam stamps and Stazon ink, made my hair as big as it's 2 inches of length will allow, wore blue and pink eyeshadow and lots of badges.  Belinda looked wonderful in a multi coloured ra-ra skirt and leggings, with crimped hair, badges and of course blue eyeshadow. Gorgeous!

The Great, the Inspiring and The Disappointing

Dot point form is the easiest way to cover everything about Memory Trends I think.

The Preparation

• Memory Trends is massive - the venue was The Sands Convention Centre which is part of  The Venetian (the Casino/Hotel that has gondola rides and the streets and skies of Venice painted indoors!) and took up two Exhibition Halls.  It was amazing to watch the Show take form - set up took place from Saturday through to Monday. We started on Saturday and there really wasn't a lot of other activity that day - it went berserk on Sunday when the 'machine' that  sets up for companies like Making Memories, American Crafts, Xyron, Advantus etc moved into high gear. It was fascinating to watch how quickly a booth can take shape when a professional set up team is involved.
• Our booth (Rebekka Erickson Collection) was built from the ground up by us!!  Shipping a booth to the US is a very expensive exercise so we bought everything there and made the display ourselves.  Hard work and a lot of fun.  We wanted a shabby chic look and used doors as the foundation.  We made friends with a great  guy at Lowes Hardware (the US version of Bunnings) and after a little disbelief that we wanted to buy perfectly good doors and trash them we got lots of help. We bought paint, weathering medium, sandpaper, distressing tools etc.
• We also shopped up a storm at a range of stores I had only heard about on US scrappers blogs  - Michaels (like Lincraft), Joannes (Spotlight), Wal Mart (like K Mart on steroids LOL), Target (ditto the steroids!), Pottery Barn (which is as divine as everyone says it is) and Pottery Barn Kids which is even more gorgeous. We also found a great store called World Market and I  spent a great hour in Barnes and Noble the book store which was bliss.The challenge then was where/how to actually paint the doors.  After a lot of thinking and phone calls we found a handyman who lived in suburban Vegas and he agreed to paint the base layers of the doors. He was  bit nervous about all the crackling but we assured him the shabbier the better.

• We picked them up on Saturday on the way to the Convention Centre and although they looked very shabby there was a lot of the dark base coat still showing and areas where the crackle was there but nothing on top.  We bought antique white paint and a few sponges an I repainted sections - it was great as the crackle worked brilliantly after a few days drying time.
  
• Love the pic of Michael (Rebekka's husband) and Bob (her father) - I know what it look like but really they were attaching door handles LOLOLOL!!
• We then added all the great bits and pieces we had bought - frames, wall hangers, huge pegs from Pottery Barn, chicken wire, hemp etc etc.  We had bought a great shabby piece of furniture from the local antique market made from a piece of picket fence, table legs and a shelf.  (Getting it back to the store later was a whole other story).
• Everyone commented on how great the booth looked and we felt pleased that our hard work (carting 6 doors and bits and pieces from our apartment upstairs to the Convention Centre) was worth it.

The Show

• The doors opened at 9am on Tuesday 10 October and there was quite a queue outside.  It took a while for the people to filter to our area (aisle 1300 with the new Exhibitors) but once they started to arrive we had a great steady flow for the whole three days.
• We did a make and take which was very popular and Rebekka and I alternated making it. It was such a great way to meet people. We talked to people from Nevada, California, New Jersey, South Carolina, Hawaii, Illinois, Michigan, Arizona, Utah, Minnesota, England, Peru and Brazil - amazing. We thought they had such great accents and they loved ours. My favourite was the lovely lady from South Carolina - she sounded just like Rees Witherspoon in Sweet Home Alabama. We had lots of conversations about Steve Irwin - everyone was really sad and sympathetic.
• The interest in Rebekka's products was great - she had approaches from two international companies about doing work together including Advantus (who back Heidi Swapp) - far out - what a great opportunity for Rebekka.
• On Wednesday Rebekka ran two workshops -one in the morning and one in the evening. The second workshop was put on as the first one was booked out - the only other person that happened for was Heidi Swapp. Only about 20% of the workshops were sold out and both Rebekka's were so that was such a buzz.
• The first workshop was packed and went so well. We gave everyone a sample of our famous Tim Tams and they all loved them.
• The room wasn't being used for the rest of the day so we left everything in there it and it was locked up until our evening workshop at 7.00pm.
• This was the first Trade Show I had been to and it was very different to be there as an exhibitor rather than a consumer. You don't get a huge opportunity to look around as you are busy on your own booth plus there is an element of competition which means you are not really allowed to check out everyone4s work - I understand that but it was a bit odd being the first time for me.

The Disappointing

• When we went back downstairs for the second workshop disaster struck - Rebekka's camera was missing. We searched everywhere - the workshop room and the booth and everywhere else we'd been. It was gone - stolen - from a locked room with a security presence on the floor.  Rebekka's Canon 10D with two lenses and several memory cards - gone - along with all the photos of the booth and product and layouts she had taken that day.
• This was reported to the Police and the Convention Security. The reality is we will never see it again - unbelievable.

Favourite Things

• Being a scrapbooking groupie I loved seeing huge crates with names on them like L'il Davis, Basic Grey, Heidi Swapp, American Crafts etc.
• My favourite booth by a long shot (after ours of course) was 7 Gypsies - I just love their products and their designers are brilliant. I 'stalked' their booth as often as I could as there was so much to see and all their projects are so detailed and tactile with little envelopes, fold out flaps and hidden treasures.
• Heidi Swapp's booth was also beautiful - all white and black and pink. Heidi's layouts were everywhere and they are soooooo much more wonderful IRL than a one dimensional picture will ever show.  Heidi was there herself - she is small and beautiful - but I never got a picture as she was always surrounded by people.
• Some newer companies I loved were Sweet Bella who  make great tag chipboard letters, fabric knots and alterable coasters - gorgeous booth and really nice people too. Scissor Sisters also had a great display - with a beautiful shabby chic look including a little garden seat and their papers were beautiful.
• American Crafts have a HUGE display and are so professional - most of their staff are sales reps in suits not designers and scrapbookers.

(Edited: Here are all the photos in a block as I just can't get this aligning photos and text to work!!!)

All in all a wonderful experience that I am so lucky to have been able to have.
Congratulations if you've made it to the end of this epic post!

Alison

Pretty Vegas!!

I'm baaaaaaaaaaaaaack!

Back in the land of normal sleep patterns that is. Thanks to everyone who's said to me "When are you going to update that blog of yours about Vegas????? Huh????"

I will have to do this in several posts as there is a so much to say and so many pics to share.  I got back on Tuesday morning and I think it has taken me until now to get back into normal sleep type patterns - both because of the time differences plus the fact that in the whole 2 and a half weeks I was away I got a lot less sleep than normal. I think I've recovered now LOL.

What can I say about Vegas???  It is fabulous, weird, unreal, beautiful, HUGE, magnificent and tacky all at the same time.  It is not 'average America' that's for sure. Some of it I really loved and some I could only shake my head in amazement at.

Here is a pic of the bottom half of "The Strip" just to give you an idea of the size, scale and glitz.

Is that the Eiffel Tower in the distance???? You betcha!  Was I in Paris?  No way!

In the length of what is called "The Strip" - where all the casinos, hotels, resorts and Convention Centres are there are Vegas versions of Paris, Rome, Venice, Egypt . New York, the Middle East and Medieval Times.  The Luxor is the Egyptian masterpiece and has a full size Sphynx out the front. The Hotel is shaped like a pyramid and a laser beam shoots from the apex so powerful that it can be seen in outer space!!!
Here is a daytime pic of the Luxor

Here is the Eiffel Tower and a glimpse of the replica Arc De Triomphe which are part of the "Paris".

There is also a whole world dedicated to M&M's! Four floors of M&M memorabilia and a rainbow wall of chocolate - have a look.  Miss Rebecca did well out of M&M world - I got nearly a Kilo of M&M's in colours we don't have here - pastels and earthy colours - I would have bought more but this was at the end of my trip and I already knew my luggage was overweight! I also got her and M&M denim jacket which is adorable, a M&M pen and fridge magnet and Rebecca's favourite a M scrunchy pillow which hasn't left her side since I got back.     Sorry the pics are all out of order. I really must work out this text and photo sequencing thing.  Any tips would be welcome.

Memory Trends itself was amazing and I will post more about this tomorrow - but the scale of it is so much bigger than anything I've seen here. It was not as busy as I had imagined and the goss was that it was a quieter show than previous years but for  Rebekka Erickson it was a great show - we took heaps of orders and had interest from all over the place. Rebekka  was approached by several international companies who want to talk about working together - far out!!!  I will post pics tomorrow of the show itself and post all abou it - who was there, my favourite booth (apart from ours of course LOL) . I am all typed out and need to edit more pics. I think I'll create a photo gallery just for Vegas pics.  More soon....Alison