speaking of babies

Those of you with "baby on the brain" ... here are a couple things for you to check out.

Most of you know the name Karlee Fuchs if you've been reading my blog since at least December. If not, look to the right on this page, click on December 2007, and check out my 12.17 and 12.18 entries so you can know of this girl's talent. She makes the cutest bags & accessories. And I just noticed a limited edition (she's only making 5!) diaper bag that's SO adorable. Check it out in her Etsy shop. It's called "Diaper Bag Brown..."

I met another talented gal recently, who does precious baby hair accessories & bibs & nursing covers, etc. This is Taya Jones' Etsy shop. Her line is called Jonesy Baby. If you live in AZ and want to stop by her next boutique (I understand Karlee Fuchs will be there too, as well as some fun jewelry, etc.) ... it's coming up next Thursday (March 6) evening. You can e-mail Taya for directions. jonesybaby247@gmail.com

easter baskets

Today the snowflakes came down and these sweet Easter baskets are now the hanging above our bar in the kitchen.



I first hung ornaments for Christmastime (see 12.7.07 post) and then snowflakes for the remaining part of Winter (see 12.31.07 post). For some of you, especially in colder climates, it feels too early for Easter. But it's merely 25 days away. And besides - we're well into the 70s here in Arizona now and our kids have already busted out the sidewalk chalk. So we're all about closing out the Winter here.

Oh - and those baskets? Got them at Target ... in the "dollar spot". Can't beat that. : )

baby photo

Loved photographing this precious peanut over the weekend for some of our friends. I composed a few of the shots this way in case they wanted to add text in the white space and create a simple - but lovely - baby announcement.

today's winner

Ariana, who says she "always feels awkward writing a comment..." is the winner of Stacy's book! So Ariana - I guess it paid off. : ) E-mail me your shipping address and Photo Freedom is on its way to you this week.

bhiggins@ckmedia.com

playing with c.d.'s kit

My friend C.D. Muckowsky has put together a really fun kit for Cocoa Daisy Scrapbooking. Check it out here. She is their guest designer for February and put all of her favorites into one kit. I've been playing with the kit myself and thought I'd share what I've whipped up. C.D. and I have very different styles and I love that. Just goes to show ... you can make just about anything work with YOUR style. So great.



By the way, I cover this theme a lot in our scrapbooks. Summing up an entire summer on one layout, that is. I have found that I'm doing it every year in our family albums, as well as the kids' albums. It's sooo manageable. I don't feel the need to do a layout on every aspect of summer, so I get it all in on one layout ... for the most part. Last year we had a big family reunion. That gets its own layout (a few layouts in the family album) because of all those great, rare cousin pictures. Know what I mean? But the rest of the summer can be summed up on one layout. And that's what this layout is, for Claire's album.

win a free school kit

For the month of February if you shop in the CK online store you will be automatically entered to win 1 of 5 of my School Years kits. Find out more information here. Sounds good to me!

And speaking of winning something for free, I have an extra copy of Stacy Julian's new book, Photo Freedom (see my 1.28.08 post). I would love to give it to someone. Leave a comment with your first name, and I'll choose someone at random on Tuesday the 19th.

Oh! And if you've received the school kit, I'd LOVE to know what you think so far. Leave your comments here.

a simple valentine

The tradition of exchanging Valentines at school is one of my favorite childhood memories. I loved distributing them in everyone's brown paper sacks and couldn't wait to see all of the ones I received.

I loved the idea of Porter making each individual Valentine (he doesn't have that many classmates in his pre-school class) but I've been fighting a nasty cold for a while, and I'm all about simplifying right now.



So this is what we did. He colored a heart. I took a picture. (His rule was I was only allowed to take ONE picture, so lucky for me I got it in one shot! Sheesh!). Then I spent about two minutes with the image in Photoshop (a simple conversion to black & white and added a little text). And that's it! Printed a bunch and they're ready to go.

So if you need a last-minute Valentine idea, there you go. And Happy Valentines Day on Thursday, everyone!

school kit shipping

Great news! For those of you who were able to order my school years kit, I just got word that they have begun shipping from our warehouse in Utah. So watch for the big brown truck to pull up to your house sometime very soon! And ENJOY that kit. I know you will.

For those of you who are wondering about ordering the kit (to receive at a later time), we are working on that. As promised, I will let you know any information that we have as soon as we iron out a few details. Thank you for your patience. We have a lot of wonderful, hard-working folks behind this program and we all want the best for our customers (you).

And speaking of wonderful, hard-working folks, it's not very often that we think about those who work behind the scenes to ensure that we get what we order, right? I wanted to publicly say a big THANK YOU to our warehouse team, including those who pitched in who don't even work in the warehouse. In just a few hours, they got most of the school kits out the door!

Impressive. And appreciated. Agree?

a little more about the school kit

By Ali Edwards:



By Kade Bearnson:







By Natalie Graham:





By Kelmen Davenport:





By Sydney Grieser:

HAPPY news!

NEWSFLASH!

We hear you. We really, really do. And it brings me great joy to share this with you. Based on the overwhelming demand, we are bringing back my School Years kit! I WANT you to have this. I want your friends and sisters and in-laws and kids' teachers and neighbors to have this kit. I see it as a big, BIG solution in so many ways.

We anticipate the next shipment of the kits will be available before summer. Please stay tuned here on my blog (or the KOTM site) in the coming days for further announcements regarding this offering. We are working out the details and will release them as they become available.

I will soon be sharing completed pages & another video clip because I want to share more ideas about how to make this kit work for you when you get it.

Oh - and one more bit of happy news: I'm going to be doing more kits with the KOTM program, tentatively on a quarterly basis this year. I can't wait to share them with you!

cku in a box

First of all, I will come back to the school years kit soon. I will share completed pages and address your questions ... soon.

But for now ...

Tune into QVC TODAY. It's a big day, with lots of scrapbooking & paper crafting stuff you have to see. Are your pre-schoolers hogging the tv with Dora the Explorer? Are you at work with no TV accessible? No problem. This is my favorite part: You can watch QVC live ... right now. Just go to qvc.com. Click on the "watch live tv" button on the left.



Among lots of other fun things, Lisa Bearnson is selling a kit called "CKU in a Box". The kit includes everything you need for 3 different projects. I designed a card kit for this project. Lisa Bearnson and Tracy White were also involved. Definitely worth checking out. We worked together to create a 90-minute instructional DVD as well. We wanted to bring the CKU experience right to your living room. If you go to Lisa's site you can watch a short video right now.

I believe the CKU in a Box will air sometime between 10am - 2pm EST.

You can click here to see the kit on QVC's site and actually place an order any time. The item number is F03404. You can click here to see all the details of the kit on Lisa's site.

sold out & customer service info

Woah - lots of blog posting in one day, I know. Just want to stay in touch with you guys. Let's take care of some business first.

Should anyone experience customer service issues at any time, I wish I could help you individually, but I'm really useless. So e-mailing me will not get you very far. However, this is what you can do: If you have ordered the school kit and you need someone to look at your order, call 888.247.5282. If you have a general comment, question, or you're missing a piece or something, you can e-mail Vivian at the CK office: vgrothe@ckmedia.com

Now ... I know some of you missed the chance to buy the kit. Trust me when I say we honestly did not expect them to sell out so quickly. We're all surprised (and delighted, of course) but that doesn't help those of you who couldn't get it. Trust me - we all wish we could have been able to predict the demand for this product.

You know that my blog is the place to come for any & all updates on any projects I'm involved in. I WILL keep you posted.

Now go on. Get off your computer and have a GREAT weekend! : )

school kit answers

1. It's 2:30 pm MST and only 10% of the kits are left. Edited: We are now sold out. Wow - thank you! We ordered a lot of these kits, expecting that they would go quickly but these went way faster than we ever imagined!

2. There was a typo in the content list on the KOTM site earlier, so for those who might still be concerned, please note that the clear memorabilia pockets are PPC = polyproplyene, not PVC. It's the same material as Cropper Hopper and other similar products.

3. The pages and page protectors and memorabilia pockets are designed for the standard 12" x 12" size.

4. The page protectors are designed for 3-ring 12" x 12" binders.

5. The design is totally gender neutral. It's not "feminine" or "masculine". Just fun. :)

going fast

Just so you know ...

We are 3 hours into the launch of the school kit and 50% sold. Remember: When they're gone, they really are gone.

I know there are a few questions floating around and I will be posting again soon with answers.

Added note: There was a glitch on the kotm website. For those of you who recently went there to order and saw "sold out", that is NOT true. As of right now (12:40 pm MST), there are still 45% left.

school years kit

I am pleased to share with you a look at the contents of the brand-new kit of the month. It's available now! Click here for more information and ordering.