there are still good people in the world...

So I thought I would share my crazy serendipitous story with my few readers I have. Last weekend was the Great American Scrapbook Convention, I helped out at a booth and had a blast!! At the convention I knew Tim Holtz would be there.


He is by far my favorite paper crafter with amazing products and ideas. A few months ago I sent him an email asking about how he started in the industry and blah blah blah. He responded so quickly to me and it was really inspirational. I decided I would print said email and take it to the show and get him to sign it and hang it on my studio wall. So everything went great, I met him, he signed it and I stuck it under the cash register in a paper bag since I was busy. Fast forward about 8 hours, the email was gone. I quickly realized I had given it to one of the customers by mistake. I was distraught, so upset by my careless mistake. I held out faith that someone would find it in their bag and realize what it was and maybe send me an email since it was printed right off of my gmail account. A few days later I get an email from a sweet woman named Laurie who had found it in her bags and wanted my address so she could send it to me. Talk about kind! I wish I could reach through the computer screen and give her a huge hug. She emailed me again today and said she officially got it in the mail and to please email her so she knows it got here safe. I am just over the moon excited and so glad to know there are still wonderful people out there willing to go the extra mile for a complete stranger. So now I wait for my email to show up, signed by Tim Holtz! AWESOME!!

Happy Lil Shelf

So we're getting all settled in our new place. It's really coming together, yes we still need a few pieces but slowly we are getting there. Marcus and I decided instead of a big piece of artwork over the couch we would build a shelf. We only had to buy the piece of wood, everything else was here in our home.



I just love it, Marcus asked me what I was going to put on it so he could use the right hardware. I told him picture frames and a few other things. I thought that was a completely clear description. Though the look on his face as I put all kinds of things up there, take them down, rearrange, put more, take off something.... was priceless. He was concerned he didn't build it strong enough. I then proceed to pull off what he thinks are boulders I added to this shelf and make him hold the items and say "see it's not THAT heavy". Good times in the Banner house.

We also started on my desk. Holy moly, it's half way done. One last piece to install but it requires a cut and for the sake of our neighbors we did not cut it at 10:00 (though I really tried to talk him into it) I will post the pictures once the desk is all done. It's fabulous, its HUGE!! I can't wait to get back to creating... I have not really made anything in weeks. Very strange for me.

So yes I found the camera, the USB thing... I'm back in business!! More to come!

xoxo, Lindsey

Packing...

So I have been holding out on making posts for a few reasons. Mainly, the camera has sprouted legs and I can not find the darn thing. I have all these fun little projects to share but no way to share. Ugh, we have bitter sweet news. We are moving Tuesday, not to a house like we planned but an apartment. I'm just excited to finally have OUR space. With moving of course means packing. Oh my gosh, I was dreading packing up my studio area but it was not as bad as I thought. You could say I am 75% done with it. I did work all week on really organizing things out. All of my clear acrylic stamps got a new home. I used 12 CD cases and organized stamps out into like categories. Put them in the CD cases, labeled them, and VOILA! much easier to find stamps. I can't believe this took me so long to do.

I have been planning in my head my new studio, which will be MUCH larger thankfully. Husband is going to have a large honey do list for the first month. He claims he is looking forward to this but we'll see. The hard part will be setting everything back up and making my desk function well. I have bought all these random things to make my desk interesting and packed them away knowing we would move eventually. So now I get to pull all these things out and honestly I can't say I remember everything. It will be like Christmas!! So say a prayer, keep your fingers crossed for us, that we have a smooth and relatively easy move.

Who would have thought...

I have a huge respect for my professors. In my eyes they are just so talented and a wealth of knowledge. Yesterday one of my prof's asked for a custom card, I was shocked. Here I am learning an art from them and they are requesting a piece of my art! I was dumbfounded. So I make said card, which was a tricky one but turned out nice. Then this afternoon I get an email saying to bring my outside work into class for him to view and get ideas of what our styles are. Sweet, I can handle this one. It went over so well, another prof tells me to show another teacher- who has a masters in fine art and is just talented beyond words. She looks at my cards and bought one for her husband. I don't think I have ever gotten such a wonderful compliment. She gave me all this great feedback and advice on getting my cards to the next level. All the time I have feared this, she breaks it down so easily and speaks from experience. She worked for Hallmark for years and explained the process. I am so inspired and feel so lucky to have all these wonderful teachers rooting me on. I love school.

Justin and Rhiannon

WONDERFUL NEWS TO SHARE... JUSTIN AND RHIANNON AND ENGAGED!!





We proposed to her on top of the Rocky Mountains in Colorado. This is a relationship that I have totally watched bloom and the picture speaks volumes. This picture was taken Halloween 08, the night Marcus and I got engaged and this was there like third official date. Love it!! They have a sweet story, I will attempt to give the abridged version. Justin was my boss for some time at the jewelry store, we were really busy so he hired Rhiannon to come help too. This is the first time we all worked together and it was for about 6 months, boy was it laughs and jokes. Great times. Anyway, as Justins business is after the holidays we were slowing down so we had some time off. They both about a year later are both single, and one night as a group of friends we all went out to have some fun. To say sparks flew would be an understatement, soon after this little get together they were going on their first date. It was the beginning of October 2008, by December it was in full swing and they were head over heels. I loved going to work and seeing Justin smitten over my best friend, and hearing Rhiannon gush over this new love she has. It was a wonderful sight. They have done such wonderful things for each other in their lives and really grown and turned a friendship into a beautiful loving relationship. I am BEYOND thrilled for them!!

CONGRATULATIONS TO TWO OF MY BEST FRIENDS!!!!

ETSY!

So why is it that when school starts I finally get the fire lit underneath me to get all these things done. Start the blog, start an etsy store, full time in school. I guess they all go hand in hand, it's the fear of the unknown that gets me the most. Anyway, so I made these fun embellishments and was really bummed thinking they would only have "one life" so my brain started pondering what about magnets on them?! WOW, you have never seen such a huge light bulb. I have made about 25 magnets since starting them, lots of cards to make but I put a few online. Some of them are for family and friends and I can't bear to part with them but it's been so much fun. Check out the store...

http://www.etsy.com/shop/lindseybanner

I just love Valentines day and all the mushy-gushy stuff that comes with it.

Sad day for the Banners....

So we had been house hunting when we found the perfect little house for us. Unfortunately the bank did not think it was the perfect house for us. We put an offer on this house about 3 months ago, it was a short sale so the realtor explains all we can do is wait. So we did, waited and waited, and got the news last night by e-mail that they accepted another offer. It was really disappointing but there is another house out there for us. I am reminding myself of it's negatives, there was no fire place, the kitchen would have really needed some work, and the bathroom off of the master bedroom and the master bedroom were small. But, it still stings. So here we go again, starting from square one on our house hunt.

On the brighter side, should be an interesting day at work. I am leading a career day group of 1st graders through the store explaining the wide and fabulous world of scrapbooking. The way I understood it is they are to consider it a carrer choice, HA!! I think I am going to need a red bull for this one. Following the tour we will make book marks. Should be an interesting one.

Happy Friday everyone!