Sweet 16!!!

Remember the Crop for the Walk we did here? "Our" Rachel turned 16 yesterday!!!



Her final total was $3,301.00!!!!!

I am so inspired by this young woman, that she could raise that much money for the National Walk for Epilepsy at the age of 15!!!

If you'd like to send her a belated birthday card, just send it to:

Rachel Chiecuto
% Scrapbook Your Life!
3655 Camino Del Rio West, Ste A
San Diego CA 92110

Rachel never liked scrapbooking, but on my last trip out, we got her to decorating the huge paper mache letters and working with clear acrylic albums. So if you're inclined, drop in a little something she could use to embellish an album! Her favorite color is pink and she loves anything princess! Here's the album I made for her and she just loved it!

Any young woman who has suffered as many seizures as Rachel has endured in her short lifetime deserves to be a princess!!!

Play hard....or hardly play?

Today is the National Epilepsy Foundation's walk on Washington DC, and my little Crop for the Walk. So today's blog is going to be a little different. I plan to post updates to the same blog all day long. So, if you get this on digest (in your email), then you may want to just log onto my blog's website to catch the updates throughout the day.

At first, I thought I was going to play hard today. But we had 5 overnight guests last night and we stayed up past midnight...and ate most of the chocolate.....which leads me to now believe that we may hardly play at all today....and just end up eating, sharing stories, eating, chatting about life, eating.....you get my drift? LOL!

My first photos are of the "quiet" studio.....before anyone arrives. Oh, it's so nice and clean it just scares me!!!



We've set up a full body massage chair...and it's heated!



So many make-n-takes planned that I think this little work station will be busy all day long!



I really do believe in total comfort, so another place to get your back massaged and your feet rubbed!



Loads of prizes to giveaway and a HUGE mystery prize for 9 pm!



Each person gets a bunch of tickets....and then they can pick which cup to put all of their tickets in. I'm going to put mine in for the stamp storage system by MSE!



And I believe in staying connected, so a desktop and 3 laptops....no one has an excuse to miss a single email today!



The diecut station is ready to go. 3 Wizards, a Big Kick, Cuttlebug, Sidekick and Bind-it-all. My goodness....do we have all the toys to play with or once again...will we hardly play?

3:17 pm. My gosh...the day is just flying by! So amazing!!! We learned how to do collage stamping and I have step shots and will blog that tomorrow:



So keep this page up and just hit your refresh button. I probably won't upload again until lunch or shortly after that. Just depends on how much we play....or if we just sit here and gab all day!



There's a quiet roar going on right now as we're doing a make-n-take using opals and more opals...this is Rose moving that hand fast and furious!



Peggy is hanging on to one of our guest puppies!



Shannon's first time here and she obviously fits in quite well!



Ginni hanging on to the other guest puppy! Now tell me they are not getting their fair share of attention today! LOL!



And Kathleen.....showing off the fun haircut her 11 year old granddaughter gave her.....we all thought it just fit her personality perfectly!!!



I am just not doing well posting today....I guess that means I'm playing hard!!!

7:24 pm and SIX whole pizza's, a crockpot of queso and 3 tubs of cookies and candy later......

Well, I think we are all stuffed. I can sense the mood is trying to slow down....but our minds just won't let us. The chatter is non-stop. My wonderful neighbor Bo, baked us brownies so in turn, a few of us made her some thank you cards (I have amazing neighbors who love it when I have play days.....especially when it's all for a charity!)

I showed the girls how to sponge-ink pewter using a Spellbinders edgeability die that I cut up. Then I turned that element into my card for Bo:



Shelly did a make-n-take using "thirds" and this is the card she made for Bo:



And Ginni made this card for her:



Here's Laura....I think she's having a bit too much fun!



And I just don't think Shelly is having any fun at all!



And that Kathy! Just having the worst time of her life! LOL!



And my sis, Colleen....doing some rather tedious paper cuts I'd say!



What a mess. Surely a bit different than when I took a photo this morning. We still have more make-n-takes, more raffles, and the big prize coming up at 9 pm! It's valued at $90.00.....I can hardly wait to see who wins! We still have a ton of fun coming up and I hope to blog one more time tonight!



Another thank you card:



The guest puppies sleeping on the steps.....so cute!



And then Kathy taught us how to do paper quilting cards....they are just lovely!



inked and stamped:



emobssed and inked:



And then Shelly showed us how to make "thirds" cards:



uninked, but still so cute!



Well, I think this is my last blog today. Oh....Rose won the big prize at 9 pm....it was a Cuttlebug system. That was a separate raffle and we raised over $100 more and this money went to Women's Breast Cancer. Another wonderful cause!!!

What an incredibly fun day....all for two fabulous causes....good food, good friends, good fun.

So, did I play hard....or did I hardly play? I think I truly played hard today!

Crop for the Walk

UPDATE!!! We will be having a second Crop for the Walk in my studio on March 29. Same details as the one below....except a whole new set of prizes to give away. My vendor pals and my art pals have just gone over the top with insanely generous donations for this crop...you will not be disappointed at all!

Register by emailing me, or signing up at meetup.com/1950. But most of all, be sure to give your $35 to Rachel! She's at 96% of her goal....just $144 more is needed!

***********


It was so much fun yesterday afternoon and evening to watch the thermometer on Rachel's site double!!! Thank you so much!!!

And I am sooooo excited!!!

I'm going to offer a 12 hour Crop for the Walk on March 8th. 11 am - 11 pm in my studio here in Lafayette CO.

A fundraiser for the National Epilepsy Foundation and Rachel.

Here's the deal. Just click on Rachel's photo at the top of this blog and donate at least $35.00. It's 100% tax deductible.

Then email me and let me know that you want to participate in the all day crop. It's free!

We'll have pizza for dinner....

And I'll offer you a one time discount of 40% off your entire order from my Product Performers catalog....

AND...Liz from Scrapbook Your Life! is going to donate goodie bags to everyone who attends. Trust me...I've been the recipient of her goodie bags....they are wonderful!!!

There will be hourly prizes and we will even have a few contests! I have contacted 21 of my favorite manufacturers and asked them to donate for the day. As the prizes come in...I will post more here! (Update...After Midnight Stamps is sending prizes!)

Scor-It just emailed that they want to donate a Scor-it Mini!!! And I didn't even ask! Gotta LOVE a company like that!!!

There will be at least 2 make and takes (I'm sure my local artist pals will step up and volunteer for this!)

Seating is going to be limited to 20.

If you want to fly in for the event, my guest bedroom is available....and I have 2 sofas and I'm sure we can find an air mattress somewhere! So lodging is free!

If we fill this one up, I'll have a second crop on March 29. But the one on the 8th has to fill up first!

So....a chance to play and create for a full 12 hours in my studio with access to all my diecut systems, dies, embossing plates, folders and more.....what fun!!!

And we will be calling Scrapbook Your Life! in San Diego to give a shout out to Rachel!!!

I am so excited...



Trust me, I have a repetoire of funny stories about Jeff and his seizures. Not so funny back then, but just hilarious now. We had a system set up...3x5 index cards in our house and at each neighbors. Back then, if you called 911, it locked your phone and we did not have cell phones (oh my, how on earth did we manage?). So when Jeff had a seizure, Jason (5 years older) ran next door to Linda's house and Linda would call my husband at work while I hit 911 from the home phone. Then Linda would call a block away to my kids godmother, Kay, and her daughter, Julie, would run over to babysit Jason while I rode in the ambulance with Jeff to the hospital.

All quite well organized.

Seizures are 100% unpredictable. They can happen at any time. Back in the mid 80s...I was into curly hair and gave myself home perms about every 3 months. So you can only imagine what I'm going to tell you next! Yes....I had started a perm. In fact...I was in that 20 minute waiting period before you put the neutralizer on. And Jeff had a grand mal seizure. Just about the second I needed to apply the neutralizer.

Towel over head, baby in arms, I reached for the phone to dial 911 as Jason ran out the door to go to Linda's house. All I could visualize was lime green hair broken off about 2" from my head. I just knew I was headed for a complete disaster!!!

The paramedics knew our situation and could arrive in less than 2 minutes. They rushed in with oxygen and grabbed Jeff from my arms as I collapsed onto the floor in tears. Linda had called Kay and she was at my house about the time the ambulance arrived. She picked me up and lead me back to the bathroom where she applied the neutralizer and in such a calming voice kept telling me that Jeff would be just fine.

He was. And my hair did not break off. Or turn green or any other odd color. But I have not had a permanent since that day!!! Sometimes, a mom has to give up her "beauty" for her kids! And yes, that's me in the photo above, about 3 months after Jeff was born in 1983. Now you see why I was worried about my hair??? LOL!!!

My prayer is that there will come a day when no one has to give up anything. So again, click on the photo above of Rachel and give to this most worthy cause. You never know who might be on the floor as I was all those years ago. Let's help those we can!

And then let me know that you want to join our Crop for the Walk on March 8th!!!