It’s a crazy week here!  We’ve been scrambling trying to get orders out, getting next month’s kit all set, getting ready for the show next weekend and the class last night.

The class last night was a blast!!  We had a great turnout and Ali, just for the class, created a fun project using the February kit.  Here’s the cover of it:

You can see the full instructions here.

And… did you happen to see the cute, cute layout that Becky Higgin’s did?  Her daughter is the adorable!

Other news…

My chairs for my living room came!  I LOVE them!!!  Now, I just need drapes, a side table, a big print I have framed and some throw pillows.  Maybe it’ll all be done in another two years or so!

Ok, finally going to go get in the shower so that I can get on the road to Portland before the evening rush hour begins — Off to IKEA to get stuff to make my booth look pretty!

If you’ve been noticing that the message board has been a bit screwy the last couple of days, that’s because we have a new one!  Here is a link to the new message board http://www.cocoadaisy.com/forum/.  And you can get to the gallery from here.  Be sure to change your bookmarks…

I’m so excited that we are going to have a new look, and more importantly, a more user friendly message board and gallery!   If you have any questions about any of this, please let me know!

And are you dying to see a little bit more of what CD has been busy creating?

Here’ a sweet little album she made her daughter for her birthday later this month.   She created using the tin from the Prima Emma flowers included in the kit.  ADORABLE!!

And there is still more to come!!

I just decided I like Thursdays — the week is almost over yet it’s still a solid day of work, the garbage man comes, and more importantly with all the cardboard we have to dispose of, the recycling truck comes and Scott takes the kids to swimming at night so I get an hr and 15 minutes to myself (which I generally squander on laundry and watching Entertainment Tonight or something else of equally low merit!).  I love the recycling part as that usually means I can now move around my work area again instead of tripping over huge piles of cardboard and I like an organized work area (although that may not always show!).

I am very happy to say, today was NOT a snow day.  We had a snow day last Friday, Monday and yesterday — a total of FIVE for the month.  It’s definitely hard to work with a 2 and 5 year old under foot!  We are back to our normal grey, rainy 40 degree weather and I think I like that very much!

So… the layouts and projects are starting to stream in from CD and they are of course amazing!!!  I thought I’d give you a little sneak here and we will have the rest up in the gallery tonight.  Here’s a little canvas that she created.  LOVE IT!!!

And here is a tiny peek at one of her layouts:

(The large pink flower is the Fancy Pants felt pieces from October.  I considered including them in an add-on but thought that many customers would already have them.  We do have some individual sheets available.  If you are interested in purchasing one, please send me an email.)

And you might notice something going on with the message board and the gallery this week.  YES — we are finally getting some movement going on the whole integration project.  I’ll definitely let you know when it’s complete.  I think we just might need a big contest as well to celebration it’s completion!

My rep sent me pdf’s of 7 Gypsies and the Chatterbox catalogs yesterday (CBX was bought by 7G in case you hadn’t heard that).  7 Gypsies was amazing, of course!  There’s so many new products that I want to incorporate into kits.  But what was so surprising was the Chatterbox catalog.  All I can say is WOW!!!!  They have completely reinvented themselves and all their new products are so yummy!  Have any of you seen any of it yet?  I was fully expecting not to like any of it and so it was even more of a shock when I wanted to order basically everything they have!  Can’t wait to hear what you think!  What companies’ products are you wild about (from the sneak peeks, that is)?

Well, there was no Weight Watchers weigh-in this week with the snow.  I’ll report in on that next week.  I did fairly well on my 15 workouts — just 2 to do today!  I’ve already got the kids scheduled for daycare at the gym this evening so that’s at least the guarantee of one more workout (I’ll count doing the weight class as one and then 30 minutes on the eliptical trainer as two.  Is that cheating?)  Hope at the end of the first month your New Year’s Resolutions have faired better than mine.

I really don’t like visiting my parents in Georgia say, in July, but I soooooo love that they are here when we come down for Christmas!  It’s so nice to leave damp, chilly, moss-covered Oregon to come to sunny, warm Georgia.  I don’t want to say “dry” because dry in Georgia isn’t a good thing at the moment.  Where my parents are, the drought isn’t as severe as it is in the Atlanta metro area but they could certainly stand for more moisture as well…  BUT it is so nice to be here!

My mother is off at her friend’s house with the kids.  They are over trying to cheer Marsha up, if only for a little while, while making gingerbread houses.  My mother also took the kids to get their hair cut.  She wanted to cut Alice’s but I at least want to commemorate the long hair in this year’s Christmas photo before I cut it off (the constant food in the hair is pushing me to want to chop it all off!).  Hopefully she didn’t get Jack a buzzcut before the photos!  But, while they are away I have a chance to work (ie put together the late newsletter!) and enjoy quiet…

The trip across country was ok.  When we showed up at the airport we were told that our flight to Chicago was delayed by 4 hrs so they were re-routing us through Denver, which then had a 3.5 hr mechanical delay.  Then they were getting us on the direct flight to Atlanta that left at 10pm (it was 11:30am).  Fortunately they switched us to another flight with Delta and we got to Atlanta an hr earlier than we were orignally scheduled.  Liked that part!  We were then all tagged for extra screening (didn’t like that part!) which meant that it took us probably an extra 20 minutes to get through security.  Per standard operating procedured, Alice and Jack both decided that they had to poop on the plane.  Warning to mothers of small children pooping on airplanes — if you have long hair put it up before trying to wipe them in that very small space or it might end up in the toilet!  Alice was in her normal hell child mode on the plane causing all eyes in the near vicinity to roll when looking at us (what I wouldn’t pay if someone could just invent something that would keep that child occupied on an airplane!).  Sat next to a woman named Trish (our flight attendant was Patricia) and Trish’s 3 yr old slept the entire leg (my children both lack the “sleep-in-moving-vehicles” gene although they more than make up for it when in a bed) and, as it turns out ,the 3 yr old goes to preschool with a couple of Scott’s classmates’ child in Park City, Utah (definitely a small world).  We landed at 11pm, made it to my parents’ at 1am, got the kids into bed and finally relaxed!

Sooo… on to scrapbooking news!  I just realized that I hadn’t let everyone in on who our FABULOUS guest designer is for January – Jill Hornby!!  I’m trying to think of the words to describe her work but I just can’t come up with anything that is even close to being adequate.  Her style is just amazing; it makes me so happy to just look at what she’s created!  And it’s official, February will be designed by CD Muckosky!  It is going to be so much fun!  Fonwerks has been working with CD and together they have created an alpha set (of CD’s own writing) as well as a set of the funnest (let’s just say it’s a word…) stamps called “Life Labelz” and both sets are just for us!  Those will go on sale with her kit on February 1st.  As soon as I see the finally version I’ll post it here.

Ok, time to get down to some real work.  We should have the newsletter out to you tonight, tomorrow night at the latest.

Hope everyone is having a good Tuesday!