My ultra-fashionable Paper Crafts
friend and fellow blogger, Brandy, tagged me to a posting challenge. So, here
are my answers:
3 fears: Failure, losing someone I love, shots/needles/medical stuff
3 goals:
3 current obsessions: Project Runway, bangles, learning to sew
3 surprising facts about
me: I own my own drum set and am learning to play. I’ve never been to
Disney World. My room is always a mess (not sure if that’s really surprising or
not haha).
Kalyn
I've been up to it again ... making lots and lots of cards! Make sure to check out some new projects in the Cards album!
Here's a thank you card that I made using all American Crafts paper and embellishments. I stamped the sentiment and used heat embossing to give it some extra presence. I used some hand stitching (which I can't get enough of lately) and foam tape to make the butterflies pop!
<3,
Kalyn
The super fab Susan Opel from Paper Crafts gave me some serious inspiration a few weeks ago (I’ve been very behind on blogging lately. Oops!). Susan attended CHA (a tradeshow for the crafting industry that showcases brand new products from manufacturers) a few weeks ago and decided to blog about her experience in alphabet form. I had so much fun reading her blog about the trip and thought it would be a great way to blog about my Creating Keepsakes Convention experience! So thanks to the stylish Susan for her genius idea! So here it is! My CKC experience from A to Z:
B BasicGrey lines
– As soon as CHA kicked off in Chicago
C Classes – This
was only my 2nd year at CKC and my first time taking classes. I took
a Quickutz revolution class (mentioned in letter A), a hinged canvas class that
used glimmer mist and a mini album class using Scenic Route
D Dragonfly font – One thing on my wish list for CKC was a new font from Quickutz called Dragonfly. I had the pleasure of seeing it months ago at a Quickutz product preview at Paper Crafts.
E Eva line from BasicGrey – Eva was another one of the lines available at CKC. It looks great on the website, but gorgeous in person. What was really exciting for me was to be able to say that I actually know the creative genius who created Eva – Celeste!
F Funny t shirt – One of the specialty CKC t-shirts was just too cute and funny for words. It read: “It’s all fun and games until someone loses an eyelet.” It still makes me smile. I HAD to have it ... except that they didn’t have it in my size, or anywhere near my size. L
G Good times –
pretty much sums up the day. I have to keep some of these short right? Haha
H (my) Happy place – The night before CKC as Mom and I were getting ready to leave, she was listing things that had to be done upon our return and responsibilities that had to be taken care of, etc. I, of course, was in no mood to clutter my mind with such ideas and had already immersed myself in the “zone” of scrapbooking. I responded to Mom’s worries only with a song and dance routine to “Proud Mary” by Tina Turner, (see letter R for details) which of course she joined in on. I then explained that from that moment until the convention was over, I was officially in my “happy place” and couldn’t be reminded of anything un-fun. It worked out quite well and we allowed ourselves to let go and just think creatively all day. It was most definitely a very happy place.
I Imaginisce lines – I’m not normally a big fan of Halloween, but Imaginisce may have totally changed my mind with their adorable, funky-fresh new Halloween line “Hallowhimsy”. I got a little sneak peak at this line when Cath brought it in for a product update at one of our Rendezvous meetings, but I had forgotten about it and how adorable it was! I think the team favorite was the little skeleton girl stamp! Love her!
J “Jan Hagy!!!” Even though my mom goes by Janet (and never goes by Jan) her name was called out TWICE as “Jan Hagy” when she won TWO very large prizes in the classes we took. Of course, she didn’t care one bit that her name was shortened because she won a Quickutz Squeeze and a Quickutz Revolution! This was so exciting for her because she really never wins anything and the prizes she won were pretty much the largest prizes in the two classes we took. Even a few days after the convention we were still laughing and saying “I just can’t believe you won.” It made for quite an exciting and memorable day.
K Kraft cardstock.
I saw a lot more shabby chic styles at the convention this year with a lot of
kraft cardstock! Fine with me since I can’t get enough of the stuff. I love the
natural, earthy look it has to it. Just add some jute and voila!
L Laurie from Pages in Time – I got to see one of my favorite local scrapbooking store owners, Laurie from Pages in Time! It was so nice to see a familiar face in the midst of crowds and crowds of paper-crazed women. Not to say that I wasn’t one of those women or anything. I totally was.
M Marriott – What
would I do without my home away from home…the Marriott. Since the delightful
Marriot Residence Inn became my little luxury suite while I was in Utah US
N Next year I’m going to register earlier and take more classes!
O Obsessed. That pretty much sums up my feelings for scrapbooking, card-making, paper, glue, glitter, die cuts, chipboard, etc. The fact that I could keep going for quite some time says it all. Yep, I’m obsessed.
P Paper Place Paper Place
Q Quickutz – Need I say more? All of their new releases are adorable, but Nutmeg is definitely my favorite font (except for Dragonfly of course). I didn’t get this font at the convention because I’m being a good girl and patiently waiting until I have more money, but I’m loving it and so inspired by its whimsical curls.
R Rollin’ on the
River – As I mentioned earlier, I began singing “Proud Mary” by Tina Turner in
the middle of a conversation with my mom. I also incorporated some classic Tina
dance moves as well. So Mom and I were “rollin’ on the river” in the kitchen
for quite some time before we decided to pack up and head to Valley
Forge
S Stacy Croninger
– I can’t even put into words how happy it made me to see Stacy, one of my
amazing new Utah
T Toilets – You know you’re at a scrapbook convention if they change the men’s restrooms to women’s restrooms (via large signs on the doors) to accommodate all the extra female traffic.
U Utah
V Valley Forge Convention Center
W Wrist bands are what get you into the vendor fair and identify that you’ve paid your way to do some serious shopping. I wore mine all evening and when I was getting ready to meet up with a friend later that night, Mom said “Aren’t you going to take that wristband off?” My response: “Nope.”
X eXciting,
eXhilarating, eXtensive, eXhausting – all ways to describe the overall CKC
experience. X is a hard letter, so I have to cheat a little.
Y You know you’ve spent your day at a scrapbooking convention when you walk through the door with bags and bags of paper goodies!
Z Zen cooking
movie. Mom and I brought my laptop along to the Marriott to watch a documentary
I rented from Netflix for her. It’s called How to Cook Your Life and it’s about
this Zen priest / cook guy who teaches culinary workshops. We only got through
20 minutes of it because we were so tired and watching people knead bread has
quite a sleepy effect. So we turned off the movie and…Zzzzzzz.
Kalyn
Last Sunday was my 21st birthday. It's really only hitting me now how old that seems. Of course I realize that in the grand scheme of things, I'm still very very young. But, still. I know that a few years ago, 21 seemed so far ahead and so adult. And yet, here I am. I definitely don't feel like an adult, but maybe that's a feeling that never really hits a person. It's much more fun to not think of myself as an adult, but rather a kid who goes to school and has some growing responsibilities. And hopefully next year I'll be a kid with a job. :) We'll see. Anyway, there isn't another group of people on this earth who can bring out my inner kid like my best friends. So they helped me celebrate the big day at Olive Garden!
I really wanted a picture of the whole table together since there were 14 of us, but it didn't work out as well as planned. So, we then took pictures of both sides of the table.
L to R: Caleb, Steve, Sammy, Ryan, Rachel, Angela, Megan, Kelly
L to R: Gina, Laura, Ashley, Me, Amanda, Jenna, Caleb
With the exception of Laura (who I was so fortunate to meet in my first year of college), I've been friends with everyone else in this large group since high school (some from middle school!). Just sitting in the middle of a huge table of people who make me feel so loved and give me such joy is the best birthday present I could ask for. Even though we're all in college now and we're starting to go in our separate directions, we've managed to stay close. No matter what happens, they'll always be the friends who filled my school years with laughter, who filled my heart with warmth, and who continue to fill my scrapbook pages with their smiling faces!
Of course it wouldn't be a 21st birthday without my first legal alcoholic beverage! I ordered a Limoncello Lemonade and yum yum was it good! Over the years I've developed a very strong love for anything lemon and this drink just hit the spot!
Yum!
So even though I'm another year older and another year further from the freedom of childhood, I had a super fab birthday with friends that made me feel like I hadn't a care in the world! Here's to being 21! :)
<3,
Kalyn
Last week, my mom and I headed up to New England to visit her friend of over 30 years, Virginia. Every year we go to Ocean City, NJ with Virginia and her family, but this year she can't go because she just got both of her knees replaced. So, we went up to visit her and hopefully help to keep her spirits up.
There's Virginia, her adorable dog, Buffy, Mom and me. It's not the best picture of us because we had just woken up a few hours before, but we couldn't leave without taking at least one photo!
Even though our visit was definitely not as relaxing and beachy as our usual Ocean City get-together, it was nice just to be in Virginia's company and get a chance to help her out with some things around the house. I know it meant a lot to my mom to be able to help her friend, even if it was for a much shorter visit than she would have liked. On our ride home, Mom was talking about how Virginia is really the closest thing she has to a sister because they've been friends for so long and I just think that they're both very lucky to have each other. I always feel so blessed for the friendships that I have and I hope that 30 years from now some of those girls will still be a big part of my life.
Here's to girlfriends, lifelong friendships, and all the great memories that they bring!
<3,
Kalyn
Last Sunday, my mom and I went to New Jersey to visit with my Grandma. I haven't seen her since I got back from Utah and I missed her oh-so-much. The three of us had a great day together even though it was hot and humid. Mom and I admired Grandma's brand new furniture and living room carpet (some long-awaited additions) and then we went out to our favorite lunchtime restaurant, The Longhorn Steakhouse. The Longhorn (or Longshore as Grandma sometimes calls it) is right in the middle of a nice little shopping center, so we went to Pier 1 after lunch to admire some funky furniture. I hadn't been to Pier 1 in years and I was overwhelmed with all of the cute stuff in the store. As if I'm not antsy enough to move into my own place and decorate it to my heart's content, Pier 1 definitely made it worse. I fell in love...with a table.
How gorgeous is this? I love the French Country / Shabby Chic look it has, but then the yellow and green color combo is just soooo fresh and modern. It was love at first sight. For sure. I could go on and on about this piece of dream furniture, but really all there is to say is that this table and I are destined to be together. Haha. I could actually picture some mismatched and colorful chairs with this table, but just to satisfy your curiosity, here's a picture of the chairs that go with it:
Again, adorable. *Sigh* I wasn't sure if Pier 1 would have pictures of this heavenly furniture on their website (thank goodness they did), so I took some pictures with my cell phone in the store. Not sure if that's actually allowed or not, but oh well. :) Grandma saw me taking pictures and just had to pose for one.
This is the quintessential Marian picture. She can't just sit and smile. She must use props in her photos whenever possible. She's also the most stylish, spunky, and lovable 84-year-old woman this world has ever known. I love love love her.
So here's to a beautiful table, an even more beautiful Grandma and a fantastic girls' day out!
<3,
Kalyn
While I was in Utah, I didn't do any scrapbooking. I just focused on cards. So, now that I'm home, I'm finally getting to enjoy some scrapbooking again. Yesterday, I had the day off from work so I decided to get to work on some pages. I was trying to finish up a page from a piano recital that I thought was from my senior year. Turns out, I think it's from my junior year, but that's not really a huge deal. I was looking through my folders of memorabailia to see if I could find the recital program and confirm my suspicion when I found a bunch of old yearbook photos from high school. We always ordered way too many pictures in high school, so I've got 8x10s, 5x7s and tons of wallets that chronicle all those awkward stages in my life. Haha I decided to cut a strip of wallets from my junior year and do a layout with them. That year held a lot of big changes, transitions and realizations for me, so I thought it was layout-worthy. The pictures I took didn't turn out that well, but here they are:
Journaling
A close-up of the American Crafts Thickers I used for the numbers. Love love love them!
A close-up of some pink and brown stitching.
And to top off the layout, a little K&Company butterfly sticker!
Check out my Layouts album to see some other layouts that I have been working on. I made most of them over spring break this year. But keep your eye open for many more to come! I'm going to be really working on a mini album and my London scrapbook!!!
<3,
Kalyn
Saturday was my darling friend Laura's 21st birthday. I went to see her in York and we went out to lunch, played lasso golf in her backyard and ate some delicious ice cream cake (from DQ of course!) with Megan Neff :) We were all kind of sleepy and it was one of those wonderfully lazy days where you can literally lay around in your friend's bedroom and do absolutely nothing, but still enjoy each other's company.
The girls!
As the title of this blog mentions, I've discovered (yet another) new hobby that I am falling quickly in love with. Sewing!!! I'm not going to be the next Project Runway winner or anything (of course let's not rule any possibilities out right?), but I'm definitely having some fun learning how to use a sewing machine and getting the hang of some basic stitches. My first ever project was actually a gift for the lovely Laura. For those who don't know her she's serious about making a difference in the world by helping people in poverty. She's really passionate about ideas like peace and hope and she's such an inspiring gal to be around. So, naturally, she's loving that peace signs are popping up everywhere lately. I wanted to make her something special and unique that featured a peace sign so I decided to make a t-shirt with an applique. Picking out just the right fabric and t-shirt were so much fun. From there it was sketching, tracing, ironing, cutting and finally stitching! My mom taught me the basics of stitching and I practiced several times on scraps before going to the real thing. Even though I thought it looked great, the peace sign just looked like it needed a little something extra. Since I love hand-stitching on layouts and cards, I thought it would be a nice touch to the shirt, so I added a little "and love" to the design. I was really happy with how it turned out and couldn't get enough of the feeling of sewing. There's something about the power of the machine, the hum and the foot-hand-eye coordination that's just "wow" to me. If I was into cars, I'd probably feel the same way behind the wheel of a really fast sports car. Yeah, it's only a sewing machine, but to me it just feels so so cool. :) Enough gushing about how much fun I had...here are some pictures!
The finished shirt
Close up of the hand-stitching
Of course the shirt looks best on the beautiful Laura!
So here's to my new hobby and my fab friend's special day!
<3,
Kalyn
Kelly from Paper Crafts was kind enough to take me on a little trip to Park City after my last day at the PC office. Kelly, her friend, and I walked up and down Main Street (where all the stars go during the Sundance Film Festival every year) and browsed some cute shops. My favorite was probably the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory store. They're famous for their caramel apples and I was stupid not to get one. I've never had a caramel apple (and I think I had them mistaken for candied apples), so I went against Kelly's (expert) suggestion and got a chocolate covered pretzel stick. Kelly on the other hand got an apple pie caramel apple and was sweet enough to let me try a piece. Amazing. That's all I can say. And I could kick myself for not running back in the store and getting one. Haha Live and learn I guess.
I got this picture off of the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory website. The apple pie apples are on the far left I believe. Yummmmm!
Besides the delicious snacks, the best part of Park City is the gorgeous view and the quaint look of Main Street. Here are some pictures I took:
This photo doesn't showcase my best photography skills, but I wanted to show all of the different colored shops. I think they're so cheerful!
Kelly drove us up to a resort neighborhood higher up on the mountain. The houses in this "neighborhood" were multi-million dollar mansions. And they have this gorgeous view!
The "PC" stands for Park City! Just in case you were wondering :)
Kelly and her friend took me on a little driving tour through Heber City and Provo. We stopped along side of the road in Provo Canyon to get a picture of the waterfall. It flows all year round no matter how cold it gets! Fun fact thanks to tour guide Kelly! :)
I'm so glad that Kelly didn't let me leave Utah without seeing Park City. I had heard so much about it and I'm really glad I got to walk around Main Street. Next time, I'll make sure to trust Kelly's good judgment and get an apple pie caramel apple.
<3,
Kalyn
A little over a week ago, I left Utah, Paper Crafts, new friends, and one of the most clarifying and optimistic experiences of my life. It was a bittersweet feeling. I missed my family and friends, but I hated the idea of my dream internship being over. The really "bitter" part of it was saying goodbye to nine new friends. My last official day was Thursday, July 3rd, but the PC team had a fabulous going away party for me on Wednesday. We ordered take-out from Cafe Rio (a delicious Mexican restaurant) and brought it to Cath's house to eat in her garden. It was a little hot outside, so we brought the party inside after we finished eating.
There they are! My teachers, coworkers, mentors, and FRIENDS. I miss you all.
Not only did these sweet gals have a going away party for me, they gave me some FABulous gift, the sweetest being a little scrapbook of my life as a PC intern. They each signed it with a little message and it just meant the world to me. They even wrote a little blog about the party and about my leaving on the PC website.
Even though I've only been home for a week, I can say that I really miss them. I keep thinking of things I'd like to tell Cath or Susan or I'll see something that will remind me of Kelly (Coca Cola) or Brandy (cute home decor stuff) and I can easily laugh out loud remembering conversations with everyone at lunch. It's hard to have to say "see you later" to people who you really connect with, especially when you don't know when "later" will be.
All I can say is that I was lucky. I was lucky to have spent time working in an influential magazine in the paper crafting industry. I was lucky to have had a period of time to work on developing my own artwork and putting 100% of my energy into something I love. I was lucky to have lived in such a beautiful hotel where I felt safe and comfortable. But most of all I was lucky to get to know the PC team. They are smart, witty, creative, passionate and most of all kind, respectful and down right sweet. You don't meet people like that every day (or even every year) and I was lucky to be part of their world for two months.
So while I'm really disappointed that my long-awaited internship is over, I feel like I've learned so much and that it will have a huge impact on my future success. And I have some great memories and new friends to take away from it all.
<3,
Kalyn
