Seeing spots

It's been crazy busy around our house. And by crazy busy, I mean deadlines, decorating, and lots of baby kisses. Penny spent some time with Aunty E, and was carefully observing and directing her drawing technique.

My cartridge came out! It's exclusive to Michaels, and you have to buy a whole new cricut to get it. Yep. A whole new one. And it's pink. I'm super excited to have my copy, and will have to post more pics of the images that are on it. I'm obviously a fan.

These are the spots I'm seeing. I spend a lot of time with them. They are probably burned into my retinas by now. The green one is murphy, and the red one I've dubbed bubba. The green one has to fit through all the black parts of a drawing, and the red has to fit through all the white. And you thought art was glamorous. I've spent days sitting here and moving those dots all around. I should make one yellow and look like pac man. Maybe it would be more fun that way.

more chic than shabby

I forgot the sneak peek of the playroom with one of the new garlands hanging up. It's coming along. I've still got a few things planned to paint and hang, and a super cute new pillow made with the cricut!

sweet dreams

Yay for finished bumpers! I finally got them done. Handstitching and all. I'm so glad I did. And they're even done before she outgrew the crib. Definite bonus.The dragon fly is just temporary for a Cricut photoshoot. I've been working on some new Cricut projects for Provo Craft.... It's all part of a Home Decor bundle that will be selling in Home Depot. I'm doing projects to show what you can do with the vinyl, stencils, and marker. Super fun. It's been a blast. And I've gotten lots of my "someday soon" projects finished up.Isn't the "penny" garland beautiful? My uber talented friend Becky made it for Penny out of the scraps I had left over from her play mat. And she even punched some pennies to attach to the chandelier crystals. It makes me smile every time I walk in. I rearranged the whole room just so I could see it more often.

I {heart} garlands

I love garlands. They're everywhere lately, and I do love making them. Here's a couple I made recently for my sister in law's baby shower. They were part of a project series that I was working on for the cricut by provo craft.

Don't you love the cupcakes?! These favors were inspired by the lovely ones from dear lizzie.
And this one I want to copy for our playroom. Our playroom is even blue already, and I have quite a few scraps that would be perfect for it. This one is available on etsy from seller sweet jessie. Boy do I love those scallops....

My new office.

Looks pretty cozy right?! Not nearly as exciting as the pics below of the major Ping Pong championship that won us the day off on Monday. I'm on bed rest again for the rest of my pregnancy. Apparently seeing spots is not something they take lightly over at labor and delivery. Good thing there are only 22 days left till my due date. I'd be counting the hours too if they included times with their dates or I was having a scheduled induction or c-section.

The best part? I have a Dr. note that says I can't cook. Who knew?!? Not that I have been anyway (thank you Dave for all the meals the past 8 months), so I guess it's nothing new. But I have an actual, official note that says I can't eat anything unless it's been "prepared for me." Talk about high maintenance.

Ping Pong Championships

We have a fun bunch of CEOs, CFOs, COOs, etc at my work and last Thursday the gloves came off and a challenge was issued from Senior Staff to the Warehouse. If Senior Staff was beaten in Ping Pong, we'd all get Monday off as paid vacation (Presidents Day; not a holiday for us). I always appreciate their effort to be creative and entertainers at the same time.

Excerpt from an "official" email from our CEO:

"The fate of a paid day off (which costs tens of thousands of dollars) can't be left to a ping pong game...at least if Dave and Brad are holding the paddles. They MIGHT be allowed to start the game but I will be there (with my professional grade paddle) to jump in if it gets out of hand.

Warehouse Team: As Dave said, bring your "A" game."

The Senior Staff team of Dave and Brad even dressed up:

Round One Senior staff:

Round Two:

Round Three:

The warehouse team was more conservative and concentrated in their approach:

The company even provided free lunch after the game.

And here's a really hot pregnant photographer ignoring rules from that morning's safety meeting and putting our safety buck record in jeopardy by carelessly standing on a table:
(36 weeks belly picture)

CHA fun-ness, and meeting Vanna White!

Cricut and I compared our bellies (mine was 34 weeks in this photo) in the Provo Craft booth. He's still got a couple weeks on me, but he looks more dazed and confused.Not to be outdone, Cuttle Bug wanted his (her?) pic as well. We didn't catch him at the most opportune moment.
The pcLayers girls! Yay! So fun to get to see them at the show, and do lunch. We had a blast. This picture is us pretending to be composed, but we're really a lot more fun than that (see completely non posed 100% candid photo below):
We have: Me! Kayla Lamoreaux, Aly Dosdall, Celeste Rockwood-Jones, Christine Ricks, (front row:) Rachel Carlson and Lori Gardner.

And ::drumroll please::, last but not least, my photo op with Vanna White! Wohoo. The scary manager guy was a little over protective, but thankfully I somehow was given a badge that said I was a distributor for Provo Craft (instead of an exhibitor) so I told him we needed a pic for the blog, and he grudgingly let me get one. I now feel famous by association. Thanks Kayla for the wonderful photo!

My big debut on a very large poster. Apparently now I have all the right tools. But they forgot to ever give me a machine..... False advertising!And all done at the show, and taking off for some shopping and hanging out with Lori and David. And of course a trip to paper-source. My very pregnant feet were very tired by this point. Two days of Disney and two days of tradeshow walking made them on the verge of mutiny.

busy, busy, busy!

This is my boss' cute daughter Lexi. I've had a few late nights this week helping prep a bunch of books for use in some upcoming infomercials (note to self; all-nighters do NOT work with a prego back). Then I went to the shoot to help show her how the books were made digitally so she could demo it for the taping.
It was fun, and the camera crew of Randy, Andy and Dave were pretty funny and entertaining. I kept busy by documenting everything with my new camera. It's nice to have people set up all the lighting for you. Makes taking pictures sooo much easier and fun.

Your Story - now in every WalMart

I now feel slightly like an official spokesperson for "Your Story" - a new product from Provo Craft. A guy at work came by yesterday and asked if I felt pretty. I said, "um.......{long pause}.......... I'm 6 months pregnant, but I guess. What do you want?"
Turns out they needed someone to be in the instructional video for the new website and it had to be filmed yesterday afternoon and edited and up on the web today. At the latest. This was at 1:30. I think we did ok for such a rush job. And also considering I had never actually used our machine yet. Click on the image above to be taken to the webpage to see my big debut.

This shows a pic of the box. David and I are on the front cover. We needed some photos asap one day, and I had some great wedding shots from our wedding that Bill Whitaker and Sarah Severson took, and they turned out great. I got to prop the cover shot. I went all around the building looking at people's desks trying to find the right things. You have no idea how long it takes to find a cute pencil cup (check it out in the very top photo in this post)!!! We never did find one; so we used a tooth brush holder instead. That can be our little secret.....