Instead of scrapbooking or getting caught up with email, I went camping with Scott and the kids in central Oregon.  This was my maiden voyage in the pop-up camper and it just reconfirmed my thoughts on camping — not my favorite thing.

Of course our usual travel luck found us. 

Originally we were going to camp at the coast but the weather changed last week from the gorgeous Oregon summers to the slow and stead beginning of  the rainy season and rain was forecasted for the beach.  At the last minute we decided to go to the Bend area instead as it was supposed to be nice. 

Wrong.  As we were setting up the camper on Friday the rain began and held steady until mid-morning. So much for escaping it.

At about 3 am the battery in the camper ran out and decided we needed to be notified by a loud persistant beeping.  Oh, and the rest of the campground as well!  Scott went out to try to stop it and then decided he should charge the battery with the car.  Only, there were no keys to be found.  We searched for about 15 minutes before falling back into bed with no keys. 

In the morning Scott got up to make his coffee and woke the kids up.   I let them get up as Scott said it was 8am.  Nope, the battery in his watch was dying and it was only a little after 6.  Grrrr…

We started looking for the keys again.  We searched for almost 30 minutes tearing the camper apart, pulling everything out of every bag and search everywhere we could think of.  No luck.  We were really starting to panic as we only have one set of keys for the car. 

But then finally, out of desperation, I went to see if maybe we had locked them in the car.  And it was then that I spied the keys next to the battery case on the camper!  Scott must have been so tired when he first went out that he forgot he had taken the keys with him!  Mystery solved.

There were definitely good parts to our trip — having solid uninterrupted time with Scott and the kids,  getting out of our box for a weekend, hiking, and seeing something different. 

Eating Jiffy Pop

Enjoying a moment on the trail (and ignoring the destruction from a recent forest fire).

Watching the kids commune with nature

But, I’ve come to the conclusion, I’m not a camping fan.  I don’t quite get all the effort to make life rough and dirty for a few days.  Once upon a time (my neighbor pointed out that this was before we married) I went with Scott on a 3 wk camping trip through Wyoming, Montana and the Canadian Rockies.  Most of that time we were doing some major back country camping.  I think I get backcountry camping more than camping in a campground — if you are going to rough it, then you should really rough it.  Even so, I don’t think I’ll be doing any back country camping anytime soon.  I think for now I prefer scrapbooking to getting back to nature.

Stacey Fike is …
30 something
wife to jeff
spoiled by jeff
blessed with the worlds best mother
an artist
a student
a very proud aunt to nik & karci
a server
obsessed with scrap booking
an old soul
proud to have been part of the hambly dt
and currently on the scrapinstyle and Scrapjacked design teams
a lover of music, new and old

Stacey
makes a mean batch of mashed potatoes
plays with paint almost everyday
dreams of a career involving travel
loves taking pictures
and scrapbooks whenever she can

(more…)

Do you also have the problem like me of having scraps that lie around??? Well I never know what to do with them other than making a ton of cards for my ever-patient friends & family. Not so long ago I discovered these cute door hangers… normally they are made from card stock & the likes but I thought using one of my piles of at least a thousand trashed CD’s might be the answer for the base.

Here are the instructions:

1)    Take a pile of coordinating items from your stash of scraps e.g. Lace, ribbon, flowers, decorative brads, alphas & a couple of pieces printed papers etc.

2)    Using a hand drill carefully make a hole in the middle @ the top of the CD for inserting your hang tie.

3)    Find a jumbo sized photograph suitable for trimming down.

4)    Carefully mark the photograph using the CD as a template & trim down to an appropriate size.

5)    I placed the photograph on the right hand side & kept all the decorative layering to the right but you can use whichever side you’d prefer.

6)    Layer bits ‘n bobs together making sure to keep the widest piece at the bottom & the narrowest like the lace at the top.

7)    For a neat finish at the bottom of the hanger, I cut a separate piece of paper & adhered it over all the loose ends of the lace & paper layering. It is onto this piece that the flourish cut from a piece of printed-paper & the layered blooms are stuck.

    The finishing touches to your nearly completed project, are alphas loosely

    attached to the edge of the inner edge of the photograph & a hand cut

    butterfly (I didn’t have a butterfly punch handy so it looks a bit like a fish~haha!)

    The ribbon for hanging is inserted into the pre-made hole in the CD & tied at the top with a bow.

9)    On the back I stuck a piece of journaling paper & customized a love note to my little girl.

10)     Voila! finished….a lovely gift for someone special.

Happy creating guys!

Chat soon.

Kim from the

Cocoa Daisy Divas

WOW!  It’s been a busy month sorry to have been so MIA!!

I wanted to update you on where we stand with the Ali Travel Stamp Set.  I got a call from Kah-Mei with Fontwerks late on Monday night.  She received the stamps that day from China and was supposed to overnight them to us.  Unfortunately the stamps just were not up to par.  Instead of being clear they had a frosted appearance and Kah-Mei said they were not saleable.  She immediately contacted the factory and told them they needed to be redone.  They are manufacturing a new batch today and those will ship to Kah-Mei tomorrow.    We should have them in our anxious hands on Tuesday.  Our plan is to have everyone’s orders packaged up and postage done so that all that will remain is to add the stamps and seal the packages.  By doing so, we hope to have everything set to ship on Wednesday. 

I am terribly sorry for the delay and I wish there was something I could do to speed up the process.  We’ve worked with Fontwerks several times on custom stamps and have never had a problem in the past.  I know that Kah-Mei is very upset over this situation and understands that we have a very large number of customers waiting on this product.  Please let us know if you have any questions about this situation.  You can reach us at mailbox@cocoadaisy.com

Ali and I leave tomorrow for CHA.  I’m excited to see all the new products, friends, and to just experience the hussle and bussle that is CHA.  I’ll definitely do a post from Chicago on my favorites!  And CHA is just one reason more why I wish the stamps weren’t delayed –  I hate to leave with something incomplete!   While I’m out of town, if there is anything you need addressed, please feel free to contact Krista at krista@cocoadaisy.com and she will be able to help you.