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Japan

Okay so I've been gone for a while.  Life has been a little crazy.  But things are good!  I went up to Columbus to see my sister and her Husband Larry and to go to the pumpkin show which I will talk more about another day and then I went to Japan for CKU!  It was amazing.  And since I have so much to talk about I thought I'd do it one day at a time so today I'll show a few pictures from day one.  Don't worry I was really only there for three days so, it won't be to long.

  I got there the night before it began and after getting lost and then rescued by my Translator Kumi and Mr. Hanaoka and his assistant Sachi.  I got to the hotel and slept well the first night. Plus I totally have to admit that I loved the feeling of finding a place where my height is the norm.  I felt like I fit right in and all the sinks, counters, shower, and everything were my size.

Here is the view from my hotel room. Tokyo is a large, large city.

I have to admit I was a little nervous the first day of teaching but everything went so smoothly and the students were AMAZING.  So kind and very dedicated to following everything you said to a tee.  My Translator was so great.  And my T. A. was the best T. A. I have ever had.  I also have to say that I have never in my life been in so many pictures!  Here is a shot that Kumi took with my camera.  After class I was surrounded by students waiting to talk and take pictures and they were all so cool that I made everyone stop so that we could get a picture together!

We had three classes that day and then Imaginisce distributor Soh Hanaoka and Sachi took Nicole, Suki and Kumi out to dinner at a formal Japanese restaurant.  There was so much food.  It was just like you would imagine.  We sat in a small screened in room on the floor. The waitress was in a traditional outfit. The fun thing is that they bring in food and you cook it in a pot on your table.  Here are a few pictures.

The picture to the right is Puffer fish, which is a delicacy in Japan.  Because it is poisonous it has to be prepared by a registered chef. I actually tasted really good.  Then they brought out trays of meat and a bowl of vegetables that you cook to your liking. 

 

Boo at the zoo

In keeping with our theme of getting out and doing new things this month Mark and I took the boys to Boo at the Zoo this weekend.  It was so much fun!  They set up the whole zoo so that it has all different themes for each section so there was one for snow white. One for Charlie and the Chocolate factory ( I totally took that picture for stephanie and Larry since my brother-in-law is obsessed with that movie)  Let's just say Willy Wonka was a little to real.  Grant wouldn't even stand by him for a picture because of his freaky high voice and laugh.  There was also Wizard of oz, Peter pan, Jungle book and other stuff.  They got to go to each one and trick-or-treat.  The boys had such a good time we walked back through again after it got dark just so that they could see the lights.   

  I would totally recommend this to anyone.  Here are a few of my favorite pictures from the night. Look at my sweet Robin crashed out at the end of the night. 

I'm Back!

So, I'm back....so much to say.

First off, scrapbooker of the year!  I was a little afraid of what the girls would be like but, oh my gosh they were all amazing and so supportive of each other.  Any of those girls could have won and they would have been great!  But CD Muckosky won and she is a really fabulous girl and a truly talented scrapbooker.  I really enjoyed the time that I was able to spend with these girls and the CK editors that were able to attend the show.  I had a great time and I hope that my photographs work out for what they needed.

Secondly, the Memory Trends show it's self.  I didn't get to see to much of it because I was taking pictures, but there were a lot of really great things out there.  Of course I was excited that the line I helped with called "Go for Baroque" with Imaginisce  was doing really well and that people liked it.  The people at Imaginisce are really great and I am happy for any sucess that they find.

I also liked the new christmas line by Basic Grey and hello, the paper stars!  So very me.  I loved everything 7 gypsies as usual. Crate Paper also had a really pretty Christmas paper line. KI has these really cool felt albums that I love.  Senic Route I loved as usual also. Love the thickers by American crafts.  And of course I love the idea of all the glitter and rhinestones that were about at the show.  Love sparkle.

And I am so, so excited for this:

This is Renee from KI with Elsie!  So excited for Elsie and Ki and I can't wait to see your new line at CHA!

I got to spend a little time with my baby sister Marissa who lives near by too! I was so happy to see her even if it was only for a short time!

And this picture is for our other sister stephanie who is deathly afraid of ducks:

We just couldn't resist when we saw these giant flying ducks made out of leaves and flowers!

And lastly I got to see these girls for only a few seconds, in 2005 I won an honorable mention in Hall of fame and all the hm's started a little message board.  Two years, and hundreds of posts later I truly call them my friends.  I couldn't have asked for anything better.  I love these girls! Only a few were able to attend memory trends but I'm so glad that I got to see them.  Forgive the picture it was dark.

The good, the bad, and the ugly.

This week seemed to contain all three things.  First off the good.  Mark is in between shows and we are getting to see him quite a bit more which I love.  On Saturday he got off early and we all went to the St. James art festival to continue our goal of getting out with the family and doing stuff in the community.  It's a big flee market full of artsy people!  How could I not feel right at home!  It's held in old Louisville in the  tree lined streets surrounded by a mix of run down Victorian homes turned into apartments and million dollar restored Victorians.  I love that neighborhood.  Such a mix of cultures and class all coming together.  We ate lots of good fall carnival food.  Like apple cider and caramel apples. I wish I had a picture to show you but...

  That brings me to the very bad/ugly part of my week.  I was getting ready to go to Memory Trends ( a large trade show for scrapbooking) with creating keepsakes as their photographer. And I had my camera out on the table.  I was burning disks to clear them off when Cole grabbed the cord and pulled it off the table on to the floor!  I panicked. I called my Dad like 500 times trying to decide what to do.  It luckily isn't broken at least not to badly, but the focus is slightly off and I hate any photograph that isn't sharp.  So, I took it into a local repair shop where I begged them to look at it even though they had a eight week wait.  They are going to call me and tell me if they were able to fix it on Monday.  Otherwise I maybe buying a new one tomorrow because as I have realized these last few days  it's difficult to be a photographer when you don't have a camera.  I didn't realize how much I would miss it.  But I do.  I guess that, that is a sign that I chose the right major/career choice.

 

 

This week

Went by really quickly.  But here are a few highlights.  I had a really good birthday.  I got to go to lunch with Mark and then we went apple picking in an orchard near here.  Mark had to work that night though.  So he made it up to me on Thursday night.  He surprised me by having a bunch of apprentices over to watch Grey's and then one of them stayed to watch the boy's and we all went out to a karaoke place.  Let me say this if you are going to go to a karaoke bar go with theater people.  They were entertaining to say the least. 

  Meanwhile I have been working on layouts for Memory Trends for Imaginisce.  The two new lines are really beautiful. I was so happy to work with them!  I'll post a few of my layouts later this week.

  This weekend was one of our first weekends here that Mark has been around a lot more so we decided to try and be festive and get out and do something.  So we went to the Balloon Glow Festival Friday night. Hmm.....not so good.  It would have been super fun but it ended up raining instead.  So all the balloons let out the air and packed up right after we got there because of the storm conditions and then we got soaked running back to the car but it was still quite the adventure and we were glad that we actually got out and did something!  It felt very "Stephanie and Larry".  That's my sister and brother-in-law. They are always out doing something fun and crazy.  If there is an event in town they know about it.  Here is a link to her blog:  http://simplyradiant.blogspot.com/

  Well that's about it for now!  Here are a few photo's from the events:

  My Birthday lunch

Cole at the orchard. He is at such a hard age to photograph.  He hates having his picture taken so this is was a birthday miracle!

Love this picture!

These pictures look a little funny because they were taken at night with a long exposure so the colors are bluish I could have fixed that but it was night so I left it that way.  The sky was actually pretty dark but I blew it out exposing for the boys faces.  That is also why they are slightly blurry.  But sometimes bad pictures are better than no pictures and I really like these just for the fact that we got out and tried something new.