janis

One down, one to go

The Mesa show is now history and what a whirlwind weekend it was!  On Friday, Donna took over the demo duties while Cheri helped me with the classes.  Unfortunately, the show didn't seem to be quite as organized as in the past and I found myself without a teacher's assistant for 3 of my classes.  That, and the lack of a microphone, led to me running around the classroom a little more than usual and shouting the instructions so that 35 busy scrappers could hear what to do.  Not the way I like to teach, but you do what you have to do and the ladies in the classes were just great about it all.  On Saturday, Todd manned the demo stand during classes as Donna had other things to do like pack up her house for an out-of-state move...you know, trivial things.  :)   

The classes each used three of our templates, along with awesome paper from Lazar Studiowerx. Here's the beginner class project:

And the advanced class layout:

  Both were designed by one of our design team members, Sharon Margiotta.  We're doing the advanced layout at the Great Lakes Mega Meet in just a couple of weeks, only with different patterned paper (this time using products from Bisous) and different cardstock.  In addition, I'll be teaching a class introducing our new Stamp & Stitch product line which (sniff, sniff) is still in production. 

There's lots to do to prepare for Mega Meet so I'd best get back to work!

Miscellaneous Musings

Today is set-up day for the Arizona Scrapbook Convention in Mesa.  We still have much to do since "life" has gotten in the way of our preparations so today is going to be a bit of a scramble.  Among other things, I had to take Jake (the Lab, not the stuffed ducky) to the vet yesterday afternoon.  He has a massive ear infection in both ears and did *not* enjoy the ear flush procedure nor the drops that we have to give him for the next two weeks.  The vet also suspects he might have some other issues going on so he did a full work-up on him.  We'll be getting the results via cell phone while I'm at the show.  I feel horrible leaving him to go do the show, but Todd will be here in the evenings to console him. 

Over the last few months, my mother has been undergoing a series a tests to discern why she fell and has weakness in her leg.  This was finally diagnosed as a pinched nerve and she is now scheduled for a steriod injection in early May to help alleviate the pressure on the nerve.  She's getting up in years and much of her exposure to the world of "steroids" has been via the TV news.  It wasn't until her doctor appointment this week that I discovered she thought she was getting what those sneaky baseball players get!   Once that was pointed out, she relaxed considerably and ultimately agreed to the procedure. 

Yesterday was my birthday.  I won't say which one, but I will admit there have been quite a few now.  Birthdays in my family were always special days and I think there will always be a part of me that desires that "queen for a day" treatment.  However, the adult in me says that there is still work to do, orders to pack, product releases to plan, etc.  Todd did convince me to take time to go out for dinner last night and I got to pick the place (one of my favorites).  His birthday is Saturday and we are celebrating by working the Mesa show.  :)    (we'll figure something out, I'm sure!)   Yes, our birthdays are only 3 days apart, but I am actually a year older than Todd.  This is something I highly recommend for those who are still single:  marry a younger man who looks older than you.   It does wonders for the self-esteem!   

QUACK!

Ducks are such calm, subdued creatures, right?  Wrong!   Huey & Louie get quite verbal when they want something or when they're greeting us after an absence.  Dewey, on the other hand, is our little sweetie.  She's a very gentle spirit, prim & proper, ladylike, if you will, but even she can be a little chatterbox at times.   (In this first picture, the sun is shining on Louie just right so that you can see what we hope is the beginning of his white collar.)

Huey has been squawking lately.  ("quack" doesn't quite describe it)   We can't figure out if she's mad, hungry, or what, but she's been loud.  Then Louie chimes in, though his quack is much raspier (typical of a male duck) and takes over for Huey.  He gets quite agitated at times; I think he gets worked up because Huey instigates it all.

Here are a few pictures from the other day.  I'll set the scene for you:  I'd just walked into their outdoor pen to give them some lettuce & spinach treats (which they immediately pulled into their pond).  Louie decided to tell me a tale and I started snapping pictures in hopes of finally capturing him with his beak open.   I didn't know what I'd gotten until I came back to the computer and took a look.  This last picture really captures his personality and totally cracks me up every time I look at it! 

 

There's just something about ducks...it's very hard to take them seriously! 

More evidence of Spring

When we moved into this house, we had to start the landscaping from scratch.  We decided early on that we wanted unusual plants, trees that would flower, and shrubs that would attract the hummingbirds.  One of our first acquisitions was an orchid tree.  From the very first spring, we have been blessed with beautiful pink & purple orchids.  They start popping out around the 3^rd week of March and extend through April.  The tree isn’t very big yet, but it’s loaded with hundreds of orchids.  It’s one of my favorite parts of spring.

Inspiration

Every 3-5 weeks or so, I get together with a group of ladies to work on something creative.  It’s usually scrapbook or stamping related and we take turns teaching each other new techniques and projects.   We’ve been doing this for about 4 years now and they are a true source of inspiration to me.  Yesterday we worked on Easter cards using materials from Some Assembly Required. I’ve seen these cards at the local stamp shows and always thought they were pretty cool so I was excited to work on one.

Now that I’ve done one, I think the name is a little misleading.  It should be “Massive Patience Required”.   J   But Roxanne was not only a great teacher, she also had all the supplies ready for us and all we had to do was punch out the tiny pieces and put our egg together.  An hour later, this is what I ended up with.  (FYI:  it's only 1" high!)  So while I don’t anticipate doing more of these any time soon, it was fun to give it a try.   

And while I was there, my good friend, Cheri, gave me this: 

All Beanie Babies have names and this one is no exception.  He’s Jake the drake (ducky for “male”).  Jake just happens to be the name of our Labrador Retriever…no confusion there!   But this Jake is mighty cute and he has found a place of prominence on my desk already though he my migrate (get it?) into my scrap room before too long. 

The ducks are curious about the new kid, but only Huey is brave enough to check him out. 

Spring is here!

I know, I’m in Arizona and it’s pretty much spring-like for most of the winter.  But in my world, spring is when I can open the doors and windows without a chill or suffering from the heat.  For the last two weeks we’ve had highs in the upper 70s and that is just about perfection in my book.

So last weekend when Todd cleaned out the duck pond, he made a mud bog for them to play in.  This was real tough:  dig a shallow hole, dump in some water, and watch them play.  J   I couldn’t pass up the photo op…they were having so much fun stomping around in it, diving for bugs and worms, then cleaning off in the fresh water in their pond.  I wanted to include several pictures so I created a photo album.  I hope you’ll check it out.  This is totally what spring should be like:  carefree, getting messy, relaxing in the sun.

We have eggs!

As I mentioned in a previous entry, ducks don’t lay eggs during their molt. All of their energies are going into growing new feathers. The girls (Huey & Dewey) are done with their molt now and have started to supply us with cake ingredients again.  J   They also make great egg salad, by the way.  About 10 days ago, we noticed a very soft Dewey egg.  We think it was soft because she hadn’t had access to oyster shell which provides the necessary calcium to build the shell.  Within a couple of days, she was laying regularly and the shells were nice and firm again.  About that time, Huey started laying again and now we’re regularly getting two eggs each day. 

This picture shows the eggs they gave us on Saturday.  Huey’s is on the left (it has a greenish cast to it) and Dewey’s is on the right (more of a taupe color).  They have always been colored this way, making it very easy to know whose egg it is.  We have no idea why they’re colored differently.  Huey & Dewey are the same breed (Rouen) and eat the same food.  And how do we know for sure which is whose?   Because I saw one pop out of Huey one day last fall! 

As for their motherly instinct, well, each girl is different.  Dewey is very determined to build a nest, picking up pieces of straw with her beak and placing them just so.  Huey, on the other hand, will lay her egg anywhere and we never know where we might find them.  In fact, just the other day Todd was walking them out to their pen, Huey paused a second, out popped an egg, and on she went!  Either way, we have no intentions of birthing any babies anytime soon so we collect the eggs daily and thank the girls for their yummy gifts.

I couldn't resist

Here's our latest duck acquisition.  I saw it in the store and he was calling my name.  No, he's not a Rouen, he's a Pekin.  And I don't know if Pekins are ever crested, but this one is!  He's not anatomically correct...no, not that way!  I mean, really now, ducks have WINGS, not arms!  But he was cute and now he's mine.  J