still me

what day is it?

the kids are out of school for the Chinese National Holiday…I have been trying to buckle down and get caught up on work, but there are lots of distractions. My dear friend Chanel is here visiting from Australia. Tomorrow makes a week since her arrival…and she has been going non-stop! She is quite adventurous, and game for anything. She is an awesome cook, and last night whipped up a noodle dish that I thought was absolutely TO DIE FOR! I am not a big noodle eater, and i think I had maybe 3 helpings of this! I am attaching the recipie, because it’s super easy, and quick and packed with veggies. So… today 2 of our friends here received their ‘surface shipments’ (that means the stuff they packed a million years ago and came ‘slow boat to china’). In Celebration, and because they are in the unpacking mode, I invited them over for Chanel to cook for them too! We did a repeat of these noodles, and it was a hit. TRY IT! so yummy! Chanel is off to bed, but i will edit this post to site the recipe in the morning. added: the recipe is by Kylie Kwong.

free!

check out this cute promo! (from studio calico)

too tired.

for a million reasons, i am just beyond tired. but i have to quickly share a couple funny shots of the day. today while eric was at the soccer fields for 5 hours straight w/ the four oldest kids, Connor and i climbed a portion of the Great Wall i had never seen. Today was the most amazing day i have seen at the wall. the visibility was amazing- you could see forever without a hint of muck or haze. it was a BLAST being on the wall for the first time with so many. it really is an awe-inspiring thing... going to bed.

2 posts in one day?

So just a few updates that I wanted to mention… the club heidi kit for September is UP on the site, and it’s a GOOD ONE! if you haven’t seen it, be sure to check it out here.  It’s all CLOCK stuff.. which I love and can never have enough of. I am not sure how many kits are left, but I know it’s not sold out.  I am gathering some stuff to share some of my most favorite uses for them, and maybe get you thinking, and in the creativity mode. I have not had a chance to sit and create for weeks. it is taking a toll on me. I am happiest when I get a chance to be creative. I am not really sure why that is… today I will not be touring with the group…I will be playing catch up with  my in-box and to do list… as well as playing on the floor with some demanding toddlers. It’s rainy out, and that always makes me happy to not get dressed all day, and eat chocolate. Smile.


i have been playing with the idea of a calendar magnet board for the family. i want something that i can change up, and also use as an operating calendar, but then transition into a scrapbook page, or a mini-book or something that will chronical the day to day goings on in our household. now that school is in full swing, soccer is starting saturday for us, along with scouts and quincy begging to take dance... i need a calendar up and in EVERYONE's view. i am sure that all mom's can relate. i have an entire wall in our eating area... that i want to be interactive, and photographic and creative since all the walls of my studio are windows and i can't really hang anything up. these are just me playing around... not really committing to anything yet. i never show stuff like this, that i am  just messing with.. that isn't complete, not really even a finalized concept, but they are kind of fun, and worth sharing. maybe you can relate with needing to find new ways of keeping your families in sync. i want fun magnets that i can change out.. with the months, days... maybe even 'birthday' and other holiday magnets that you add in. i even think that i could put magnets on the back of a stack of journaling spots, (or post it) and add magnets to pencils or pens.  i think that its going to be cool when i get it all to work!  (stay tuned)
i am working on a bunch of ideas that are more along the lines of 'functional' projects. not just stuff that sits on a shelf. specifically, educational stuff for the babies.. and even ideas that will keep them QUIET at church. i just want to be locked in my house for a week all by myself.. that is my idea of a VACATION! 
you have to check out janet's blog... she has been a blogging champ!! she has posted some really cool twists on her CE project... very cool. did you get the CE book? you will need it... it's fabulous... now, this year we made it even easier to re-create the CE projects. there are various templates and files available for download. For example, if you want to make my spinner calendar project... you can just download and print the templates and pieces onto Bazzill cardstock. the instructions are step by step in the CE book. it's available for purchase here: for $14.99.  speaking of CE, you can go ahead and sign up already for next years lottery registration on the Creative Escape website. there is all kinds of stuff updated.. photos, files and more information. we have already started work on next year's CE, and we haven't even recovered from this year!

day 2.

Every time we have guests come to see us in Beijing, we just love showing them around and playing ‘tour guide’, so this whole having the ‘china tour’ through SCRAPMAP has been such a blast. we had another FULL day, and I am exhausted, and trying to fight off a cold it feels like. Today we met at 9am for a little lecture from me, and then we had arranged to have a local artist come to show us some traditional Chinese watercolor painting. It was SO FUN to watch him paint, and have him tell us the history of the art. Right as he started painting, i whipped out my camera and found that i forgot to reload my CF card. (crap!) so i quickly borrowed an extra from Ross.. (thanks Ross) and went to snap away, and found that my BATTERY WAS DEAD!! i was so mad at myself. not to worry, Susie had an extra battery (thank heaven for prepared scrapbookers!!) i got a few shots, but not until he was all done. He brought a bunch of art that we could buy, and even painted some stuff ‘on demand’ or added to the pieces he had… (added Chinese words or more elements in the painting). This was something I was SO looking forward to. I love the ‘plum blossom’ imagery, and today I learned what it represents… our guide (Charlie) told us that the plum blossom is the very first fruit to flower, even before leaves have a chance to grow.  They are literally a winter flower… and so symbolically, the reminder of the plum blossom is to be a Strong Determined person, and blossom against all odds. I loved that. After lunch, we went to visit the National Performance Theatre. It’s such a spectacular building. I can’t wait until I can see a performance of some kind in there.  We did more shopping… this time for beautiful pearls and more purses etc. Of course all the ladies are LOVING the shopping! It’s so much fun, and totally a challenge to bargain down to the best price. You really have to work for your purchase!  For dinner, we were escorted to the oldest ‘Roast Duck’ restaurant in Beijing. I thought it was amazing. it has been re-done (for the Olympics) and it’s awesome. the whole area it’s in is being built up and it’s going to be a gorgeous shopping district with a great Chinese look and feel. Dinner was delish, and we had fun eating and laughing. Eric was able to meet up with us and it was so fun to have him around. there are 4 husbands on the tour, and Jim and Charlie... they are good sports, putting up with 28 scrapbookers! can you imagine? Good times…

right now...

I am feeling frustrated tonight as I just downloaded 233 photos from my camera to my computer, and realized that so much has been going on that I don’t have time to fill you in on. sigh. it’s Monday night, and over the weekend we went with our church group up to a portion of the wall about 2 hours away. We stayed in a really amazing, cute, quaint, fabulous, Chinese-y hotel right by the wall. The views and mountains around were just spectacular.
The resort accommodated our huge group that was more than half kids, and delivered comfortable rooms, great food, and above all fabulous memories. So fun! Saturday we hiked. Eric had gone up the night before with the 11-yr-old scouts to actually sleep in one of the guard towers on the wall. Then we met up on sat. Sunday morning we woke up and had our church service (sacrament meeting) right there. it was awesome, and inspiring. So thankful for those cool experiences, and cherished relationships with friends here..

Sunday night also marked the beginning of the Scrapmap ‘heidi swapp china tour 2008’. Everyone arrived in the afternoon, and I met with the group and had a kickoff dinner.
This morning, we started off with a trip to Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. Followed by an afternoon at the ‘silk market’… (or knock off market), where you bargain with people for the ‘best price’. It was really cute, as we were walking through and I was showing people where to find what, one of the ladies on the tour said “if you ask my husband, he would say this is the REAL forbidden city”… ha ha. Shopping was followed with a delicious dinner at a dumpling house. WOW good . at the moment, they are in the hotel lobby being measured, and picking out  fabrics for custom made jackets, suits and the like with the on-site tailor! 
The tour is full of such cool people from ALL OVER! what an absolute perfect week to come tour beijing!! the week in between the end of the paralympics and the beginning of the Chinese National holiday week. We are having a great time! spectacular. (and this was just day 1)

messy

So this is what I have to work with. Seriously.. this is a disaster. I pretty much just stashed all my scrapbook stuff in this sun room, and stacked everything up just so that I could have things arranged, and in their vicinity before I left for CE. Now, it’s time for facing reality. Sigh. Emily claims that she likes to organize this kind of thing… in fact she came last year right after our stuff arrived, and helped me put everything away, and get functional! And here she is again… facing this nightmare! Gotta love her. At the moment, as I type, we are just sitting here staring at the mess, wondering what the heck we are going to do about it. both babies are sleeping, and we should really be taking advantage of the lack of help from those little hands… it’s just that getting started is the hardest. Tick tock… ok… well, wish us luck!

busy today!

What a day! I have to tell you that I am feeling like I have totally kicked butt on the jet lag this go around. I have been trying to figure out what the difference is!  When I arrived in the states, i decided that I better get a hold of things quick, so I was very pro-active in getting myself on the US time. I took benedryl so I would go to sleep by 10 that first night (usually I can’t get myself to sleep before 3am the first day back) and then I took some excederine to keep myself going through that lull at 3-5pm! The flight back arrived in Beijing at 2:30pm, which turns out to be a great time to arrive, as you only have to keep yourself going until about 10pm, then if you crash… you can make it through the night. I have been feeling pretty good. Today was so full! No chance to have any jeg lag bogging me down. As I mentioned, Emily is here… and today we had stuff! This morning we were meeting with the tour organizers for the group that is coming here in a week and ½ w/ Jim West and Scrapmap. We went to the Crowne Plaza where we are staying and checked out all the rooms, the meeting rooms, the menus and stuff like that. it’s a really sweet hotel! It’s going to be awesome. I met Charlie who will be our tour guide… he has awesome English, and has been leading tours since ’81. He is very knowledgeable and we had a wonderful visit. I had to try to explain to them all what scrapbooking is! There is just nothing comparable here for them to relate. Chuckle. Then they wanted to take me to some fancy new restaurant that also has a Peking Opera show as well… so we drove to the place and they fed us lunch and it was a little more Chinese that I think that we really are going to want to eat. All kinds of VERY TRADITIONAL Beijing dishes that were …um-how can I explain? YUCKY!!!!!! Scary… so we are going to pass on that place, and I was glad that I got to have some input and remind them what kinds of things that we would and would not like to eat. It was funny! I also made sure they knew that we like ‘lots of ice’… ha ha. For those of you who are coming… the hotel is fabulous! And you will be very comfortable there! It’s in a great location… we are going to have such a wonderful time!

That meeting took up most the day, and we sped back here to get changed and pick up the kids to head to the Olympic Green for our Parolymipic events tonight. We had general admission tickets to the ‘athletic’ events that were being held I the birds nest. It was PACKED!!! it is so awesome to see it in real life.. it's so much more huge and awe-inspiring when you are right there by it!  We got there a little late, and I think that we got the last 5 seats in the whole place. It was amazing to see such crowds. The Parolympic tickets are much easier to get, and so the place was just full to the brim. It was so totally inspiring to watch these amazing athletes… now I am just totally blitzed!
Going to sleep good tonight!

sigh... it's over...

I am not even sure where to start. I have attempted to blog 4 times since my last post, and either I got distracted, or fell asleep while typing or just plain gave up because it feels almost impossible to report on the happenings!
Overall… my trip was fabulous! I mean, what is not to love about a trip to AZ (fabulous to be back home)…staying at a really cushy resort with amazing customer service! I think they made us all feel so welcome and absolutely tended to every need!  My mom and sister both came to CE to help and be volunteers… but mostly it was just awesome to hang out together. we would try to stay up and talk, but we were all so beyond exhausted by the end of the days, so mostly we would just crash.
Creative Escape was amazing. for the most part, everything went so smooth. The credit for that goes to the Bazzill team. They are SO organized, and this year we were all ready to go earlier than ever!  I seriously am amazed at what an awesome group of people get the job done there at Bazzill! We were all set up on Wednesday with kits all delivered to the classes, and the different areas set up for Thursday. Thurs is registration starting at noon, Technique Boutique that went until 5pm or so… (that is where you pick up a bunch of stuff needed for the classes, you get some hands on stuff, and it’s a place where we do some little projects and do some pre-work). This year… Terri Ouellette came and broadcasted her internet radio show from Technique Boutique… she interviewed me, tim holtz, jenni bowlin, kollette hall, janet Hopkins, doug jones… you can listen to it here on their website/blog. You have to check it out… kinda fun! I just got a chance to listen to it all and it’s just amazing!! makes you feel like you were there, and totally gives you the inside track from the teachers. I loved it. Terri O is super cool, and so down to earth and she LOVED CE! She took all the classes as was there with us all weekend. So awesome.

http://www.wsradio.com/internet-talk-radio.cfm/shows/Terri-O-Radio:-Empowering-Creativity.html

While ‘technique boutique’ is going on we do a thing called ‘Trunk Show’… this is when all the teachers grab up a bunch of pieces they have created over the years and set them up, and sort of stand by their tables and then participants can come through and see our stuff in real life, and we get to visit and meet one another before the class time starts. It’s kind of a ‘wedding reception’ format…lol. it’s one of my favorite parts of CE- so that was awesome. After the trunk show, we had our welcome… which was short and sweet, and ended early so that everyone could  have some time to relax and hang out and hopefully get some sleep to be ready to wake up bright and early and work all day taking classes etc.

I forced myself to get to bed early! *novel concept!  And was all ready for the first day of classes. The way that CE works, is that we divide all the 640 participants into 8 groups and each group rotates through all 8 classes/ and teachers. 4 classes Friday and 4 on Sat.
I did a lame job taking photos –as per usual…so I don’t have photos of all the teachers and their projects… so I will just give you a little overview!

I taught an interactive calendar/wall hanging project.

Kollette Hall taught a spiral bound book that is a year long journal that is designed to help you find the ‘good’ in your life..
Jenni Bowlin taught a really cute ‘Hodge Podge’ book… so cute. So jenni… she talked a lot about her process and how she finds stuff that she loves.
Janet Hopkins taught a really cool BRAND NEW book that she actually designed for my brand that will release for the general public at CHA winter. You have to see this one…
Tim Holtz taught an amazing mix of a ‘wearable’ and ‘home décor’… it’s the perfect gift!
Jessica Gutherie who was the ‘treasure hunt winner’… taught a cool acrylic book that is actually her own product and used the bind-it-all. This class was a power house…
Kelly Goree taught a bunch of 12x12 scrapbook pages using everyone’s favorite Basic Grey paper. I have always loved Kelly’s pages…
Laurie Stamas taught using the new ‘lickety slip’ album that is so cool.. you have to see this! And her concept revolved around making ‘lists’… I am totally a list maker, so I loved this… and it could be anything you wanted it to be. I loved the whole concept of it!

I think that it was such a unique and fabulous mix of teachers, personalities and projects. For CE, we create a full sized, full color, spiral bound-fabulous ‘project guide’ book…if you want to see these projects.. get the step-by-step instructions and information, photos and sponsor info- you can get the book. I think you can order it on the Ce  website www.creativeescapeaz.com . I think it will also be available online at scrapbook.com. it's  $14.99. it turned out great this year again! I love the silver cover (the printing was done by a company called O’neil printing, and they do just a beautiful job)… all these projects would make awesome gifts for the holidays and the instructions make them easy to replicate.

Emily Waters and my sister, Katie Hymas helped me to teach my class…and my sweet mom was my volunteer and had to hear my 'spiel' a million times!  the space that I had to teach my class was actually 3 smaller rooms. We had to split each group up in 3’s so there were only 20something people in each room. Emily, Katie and myself each had a section of the class to teach, and we all rotated through. So instead of teaching 8 times… we all taught 24 times. Smile… that was major!

Friday night we do a thing called ‘Friday night extravaganza’.. this year we invited back some of the teachers from previous years and invited them to create some thank you cards…8 of them. so again… we had this amazing, huge kit for 2 of each card, and the teachers rotated through and taught all the cards. it’s a die hard event! I have to thank Amy Totty, Kelli Collins, Pam Black, Jenny Packard, Heidi Lynn Schreiber, Tena Sprenger, Carol Wingert and Jennifer Wagner.. and of course ‘Imaginese’ for the fabulous black and white papers…

I have to say that the ending is the best- every year! we had the yummiest dinner planned… and of course… we stuck with our tradition of serving ‘dessert first’. I love that. that is the ‘ultimate indulgence’…we gave away 2 spots to one lucky winner for next year’s creative escape by having these cute little treasure chests on each plate. Everyone had to open their treasure chest with a cute little key, and the winner had 5 real gold dollar coins… While dinner was served we gave away about 50 or so raffle baskets that were so generous and gorgeous!  This year, we sold raffle tickets to win 2 spots on the “Ultimate Scrapbooking Cruise” donated by Scrapmap,  that I am teaching at in January. Each raffle ticket was $5 or 5 for $20 and all the proceeds were for donations to the American Cancer Society. We felt that so many people that we know and love in our personal lives, as well as friends in the industry have been effected by cancer…so this year we wanted to do something!  we sold tickets totaling about $6000 for the cruise! how awesome is that… so then.. mr tim holtz got in the spirit, and decided to donate this cool shirt that he had made and had been wearing as he was teaching- and Doug decided to do an open auction…I wasn’t really sure what that meant, or how it was going to work, cause it just happened on the fly. The bidding started and next thing I knew it was up to like $1200!! I was totally freaking out! it was amazing!! the bidding went up to about $2000 or just over and doug was like ‘going once…’and a girl in the back bid $6,000!!!!!
She decided to match what had been raised with the cruise raffle! Holy cow… it was such a shocker! That totally created such a buzz! (how much for the pants)…$12,000 for cancer… awesome.  on that high, Jason Hall was our keynote speaker! He was so awesome. he is the husband to Kollette Hall… the two of them were working together in her class, and he was able to carry her message on. it was so inspiring…
I would love to give you a run down on everything he said! But there is so much! I have been thinking about it non-stop.. certain things that he brought up. Emily traveled with me back here to Beijing, and she and I have quoted to each other from his talk several times. I find myself totally reflecting and altering my thought process based on some of his stories and examples. Reminds me that we NEED to be inspired and challenged on a regular basis to that we can grow and improve. We NEED to be reminded that there is more to look at in life, that it’s good to step back and evaluate and re-evaluate. I am going to be the first one signed up for the year long class that they are teaching together on Big Picture Scrapbooking. it’s exactly what I want for me. knowing me, and my life right now, I won’t be able to keep up with a rigorous creative class… but I think that I need the constant call-to-action- on improving my life, my approach, my outlook. I am just thoroughly impressed. I came away from Ce wanting to be a better person. Wanting and expecting more from myself… hoping that I can be better about utilizing my time and my resources. Being a better mom, and a better friend… evaluating what is my most critical priorities… and above all focusing on what I DO have, and what strengths and assets I possess… it was truly motivating and inspiring.  I did hear that we filmed and recorded Jason while he gave his talk…and it will be available on DVD soon… it’s worth hearing, having and being reminded! So I will let you know if, when and how it will be available.
I believe there is a bunch of CE stuff that will be available…we are working to update the CE website with the post-show information. This year, instead of printing out all the photos that we took of you that attended, we have posted them on the site and you can pull them off and print them out on your own. They turned out so cute… you can also see the a slide show of the event on the site at the moment. If you weren’t there with us… (we MISSED YOU!) but you can get a look inside! Everyone had the best time! (thanks to Shelby Stroud for the slide show!... do you dig all the pink hair!) ok… this is ridiculously long and I need to get it posted… I am adding a photo album as well if you want to check that out! I wish I took more photos… I wish I would every year!!it really is just impossible to capture it!

wild horse pass

There is nothing quite like that first blast of HOT Arizona heat the moment you step off the airplane in phoenix sky harbor airport! It felt so good! Home. Good to be here! it’s so great to see the bright, blue skies, family and friends. I think I slept about 11 hours of my 12 hour flight! I was tired. So… first order of business… got the haircut, hit Costco for instant oatmeal and peanut butter…and of course, target for the next size up of Sunday shoes for all the kids! I took benedryl to get some sleep last night, and woke up early for work this morning… I am determined to get on AZ time quick!  We got to the Wild Horse Pass Resort around 1pm, and checked in… this place is fabulous!
Seems that everything is in order…and we are ready for an amazing weekend for Creative Escape! The Bazzill team: Carol, Lisa, Frani and Mona and of course, Mr. Bazzill have done a spectacular job of having everything ready to go! We are all so excited.  when I came back up to my room, I found this cute little chocolate western scene…how cute is this? 

Update on the kids… day 4 of school… they are happy and doing great! I am thrilled and relieved… here is a couple shots of them in their cute uniforms and their bus.