Cricut Expressions 2

Go enter the Cricut giveaway at http://www.favecrafts.com/sweeps/Cricut-Expression-2-Anniversary-Edition-Giveaway
or better yet, don't enter that way I have a better chance of winning!! LOL

Giveaway!!!!

I wanted to let you all know about a giveaway going on at one of my favorite blogs!! Head on over to www.luluanddaisy.blogspot.com and check out her fabulous Lilly P giveaway!! You have until midnight tonight to enter to win a monogrammed tray from The Mongram Merchant. Be sure to follow @LuluDaisy on twitter and facebook and do the same for The Monogram Merchant too in order to get some extra entries and if you have a blog go blog all about the giveaway too!!!

Good luck!! I'll have you all over and serve you off of my new Lilly P tray very soon!!!

Almost time...

Friday is the BIG DAY!! That is the day that Bamboopink launches and you will be able to start ordering jewelry directly from me!!! I am so excited to be able to get in on the ground floor of this awesome opportunity!!!

I am excited about the group of ladies who have signed up underneath me and I can tell you it is NOT TOO LATE to join us!! You can join on my website www.bamboopink.net/paisleymagnolia and be sure to go to my team's Facebook page "Bamboopink Team Paisley Magnolia" Here are some pics of the gorgeous, moderately priced jewelry!! Enjoy the sneak peek!!

Come Bamboo Pink with me!!

So all across the internet, mostly through blogs, you'll find a little button that may look similar to the photo above, saying Join My Team. First, I'm not really into network marketing. I like to tell people that because I really don't have the time between my family, work, crafts,and church activities. All of that said....I think this is a TREMENDOUS opportunity for a ground level entry into a network marketing jewelry company who has already made a name for themselves through Bloomingdales. Want to try it for FREE? You've got one more week to sign up. Here's the skinny:


Join what is expected to be the fastest growing women’s internet start-up company in history with Bamboopink.

Bamboopink is a new fashionable, yet affordable jewelry line made and designed by a famous, high-end designer whose current line is sold in upscale department stores, is all over the red carpet and worn by Oprah! This company is the first of its kind, an internet launched company with virtual trunk shows…there are no parties to host and no phone calls to make.


Sign-ups are free, with no risks or obligations. The free signing period is only through March 15, after that you will have to pay to be a consultant.
What sets this company apart from other direct sales companies:
• GROUND FLOOR opportunity (probably won’t ever happen to you again!)
• Strongest company plan in the industry
• We have a very successful designer, multi-million dollar jeweler making & backing this jewelry, so it's sure to be successful.
• Instead of growing one sales rep at a time, this business model using the free sign-up period – we can grow fifty sales reps at a time – but the time to do that is NOW!
This company is going to explode in a few weeks with a national press release and official launch in April. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. So be one of the first to sign up!


Then you can do the same as me and get credit for signing up your friends, which is what we are compensated for with jewelry, cash and/or an ipad. It is not about selling the jewelry at this point, but networking and creating interest. If you decide not to sell, you have lost nothing and your name is dropped from the list.


It’s simple to sign up, go to my site: www.bamboopink.net/paisleymagnolia


Copy this email (text and picture) into a new message and replace my webpage link with your webpage link and send it to your friends. You could win some awesome prizes and you could be building a fabulous network for yourself very quickly.


Disclaimer:
This page and its links are provided as an independent training resource for Consultants. The articles and resources provided at this site are for educational purposes. They may not have been evaluated by Bamboo Pink, Inc., and no endorsement or approval of the content is stated or implied.


THESE MATERIALS ARE NOT SPONSORED BY, ENDORSED BY OR AFFILIATED WITH BAMBOO PINK, INC.

Pics from commercial shoot

Lights, Camera, Action...

I have so much to catch up on here in Blogland but all of our Christmas fun will be in another post. This post is about the whirlwind week my kids and I have had.

Since moving to ATL last April the kids have been on several auditions and they have had their pictures and info submitted for several things that come up. Well, this week they were both asked to audition for a print shoot and a commercial that Children's Healthcare Center of ATL was filming for a campaign they have coming up. The audition was Tuesday and while we were there the casting people asked me to get up there and audition for the mom role with Camden. I was surprised on Wed when I got a call asking for Camden and I to do the print shoot and commercial on Thurs and Fri. By Wed night though the director and ad people decided to go a different route but to continue to hold Fri open for the commercial.

Thursday afternoon my phone rang and it was the casting people, the girl they decided to use freaked out in front of the camera and they wanted Grace as soon as we could get there. Off to school I went and got the kids and headed into ATL. Once there Grace did AWESOME, they loved her so much they decided to use her for the commercial, meaning Camden didn't get to do it :( He handled it pretty well, already trying to get a manager fee out of Grace.

Today for the commercial shoot she did AWESOME again, right up there in the camera and got her line done in basically 1 take...what a natural!!

This ad will only be shown in the south Georgia area so no one we know in ATL or in NC or FL will be able to see it and I believe the billboards and print ads will only be seen down there too. We will be able to get some pics from the photographer in a few weeks so we can start a portfolio for her. I am so proud of the DIVA!!

Remembering...

Mid-November has not been my favorite time of year for quite sometime, 13yrs to be exact. What should have been the best time of my life...3 weeks before my wedding was rocked with an unforeseen tragedy.

When I was in high school one of the first people I met in Wake Forest was E. E was a couple yrs younger than me but we clicked instantly. She never met a stranger and everyone in town knew her and her family. She was loved by all who met her.

A couple years later I graduated and went off to college, my parents moved to Greensboro and then back to Wake Forest and we continued to keep in touch through letters (this was before email existed) and phone calls and we would see each other whenever I came home on weekends at football games,etc... The church my dad pastored in WF at that time just happened to be the church that all her extended family attended. Once she graduated and went to college she got in touch with me and said that one of her suite mates was dating a guy that I had dated a couple years before, small world. (I knew the girl, we had all gone to church together and been in the youth group together years before)....during this time she had contracted severe mono and had to be hospitalized on a couple of occasions, it looked really bad for her but she pulled through and made a complete recovery.

My parents moved back to Florida for my dad to Pastor a church closer to our hometown and extended family,Chris and I got engaged and she was one of the first people I called, she was sooo excited and could not wait to attend and we made plans to get together one weekend. That weekend never came...I was busy with wedding planning, work and showers. She had school and exams.

My dad came into town for the ordination service for Chris' uncle in Nov 1997, this was 3 weeks before my wedding. I had just moved into a new townhouse and had not gotten the cable turned on yet so we did not have access to the news that weekend and no one had my new phone number since I had only been in the place a week at the most... That Sunday morning we arrived at church in Durham went through the customary introduction and then the Pastor got up to do morning announcements and prayer requests...he began by talking about praying for the ex-boyfriends girlfriend and classmates of hers at Meredith College...at this point I got a pit in my stomach, he continued that if anyone had seen the news about the car accident in Rolesville (this is right next to Wake Forest where I am from) that the girl killed in the accident was the suitemate to the girlfriend...I never heard E's name, although he did say it, but it was already obvious to me it was her and it was obvious to the pastor and those around us that something was wrong.

I don't remember much after that except that Chris and my dad had to take me out of the service...it was an out of body experience to say the least. I am soo glad my dad was there with me that morning because it took him and my dad to get me out of the sanctuary. We spent the afternoon with my dad calling E's extended family to find out what had happened,etc...

Apparently on Sat morning E's dad went hunting and she and her mom were going to the nursing home to visit a family member. They had just left their house not 5-10min before when a lady in a car coming toward them had a heart attack, lost control and hit her and her mom head on. E didn't make it and her mom was severely injured.

The next couple of days were a blur, my dad had to go back to Fl and Chris and I went to the visitation. We got there early and still had to stand in line outside and then wrap our way through the funeral home before getting in to see the family. As soon as I got in the room I lost it, her cousin's wife who is a good friend of mine came and got me and walked with me to see E. Her mom was there in a wheelchair, bandaged up. The funeral the next day was just as hard as it was at Meredith in their big chapel.

It has now been 13 yrs...her mom is still in WF, her dad passed in Nov 2008 from cancer, I attended that funeral as well, such loving tributes to E at his funeral as well. I pray for her mom often as she has lost 2 kids (E had an older bro that passed when he was very little) and her husband. Although I think of E often throughout the year, this time of year is when it really hits home...I know she is in Heaven with my daddy, her dad and brother and our dear former "coach"...they are the FAB 5 up there right now, E knows what that means ;)

Time keeps on slippin, slippin, slippin...

Goodness!! My last post was mid Sept, I honestly thought I had posted since then!! In that time fall baseball has come and gone, tennis lessons are still going strong thanks to the awesome weather we have been having and hopefully this weather will stick around b/c I am soooo not the cold weather type! I am working 3 mornings a week and then there are the church activities and my crafts (find me on FB at The Paisley Magnolia)...keeping busy helps me get over the fact that we have no family or friends here. Then we get one or two Saturdays with nothing to do except stay home and I start to miss my friends. Don't get me wrong, we have "met" people here and gotten to know some people a little but no one that we can just hang out with and I miss that terribly. Being lonely (hubby and kids don't count) just plain SUCKS!

Add to that that we are not going back home for Thanksgiving b/c even though the kids and I have the week off Chris only really gets Thurs and Fri so we wouldn't get to spend a lot of time with anyone in such a short amount of time. So that means for the first time ever I will be making dressing for our Thanksgiving dinner. I can make a mean turkey and everything that goes with it but for all my 36 yrs the dressing has been made by either my mom, my Granny or my Mother in Law but this year since we will be in Ga w/o family if we want dressing I have to make it! Fingers crossed it will turn out good, I had my mom give me her recipe, I will let you know what happens.

Christmas will be here before we know it, I am not ready for "Christmas" but I am ready for the break b/c we will be going home to NC for at least a week. I am ready to see friends, family-especially my Addy-O and new nephew James (I call him Jimbo much to my sisters chagrin), ready for some NC bbq, ready for my fave mexican restaurant, ready for the For Sale sign to go back in the yard of our house if our renters decide not to buy the house (they have til Dec 31 to make up their mind), just ready to get out of Ga for a bit and forget about all that we have had to deal with since moving here...I am sooo going to write a book oneday!!

Gotta get back to the craft table...currently taking orders, if you want something customized let me know. Get your orders in soon to guarantee arrival before your Christmas parties and get togethers!! Again, find me on Facebook at The Paisley Magnolia, there are pictures of some of my things.

If I were, I would be...

Cute questions I came across on Southern Belle Simple 's blog via her Facebok page, thought I would give it a whirl!!


If I were a month, I would be October because you get the late summer warmth with the crispness of the approaching fall.

If I were a day of the week, I would be Saturday cause in the South that equals cookouts, tailgates and College Football!

If I were a time of day, I would be late afternoon/early evening just as things are cooling off so you can enjoy a dinner on the patio.

If I were sea animal, I would be a clown fish because everyone needs to be silly every now and again!

If I were a direction, I would be South of course!!

If I were a piece of furniture, I would be a wicker rocker on a porch on a summer day!

If I were a gemstone, I would be a sapphire because everyone else will say diamonds!

If I were a tree, I would be a Magnolia of course, as Southern as Southern can be!

If I were a flower, I would be a blush colored rose because that is what I carried on my wedding day!

If I were a kind of weather, I would be a sunny day with low humidity and a gentle breeze.

If I were a car, I would be an old Jeep Grand Wagoneer w/wood paneling that I would use to get around my southern plantation.

If I were a place, I would be a big ole front porch attached to a true Southern Plantation mansion.

If I were a fabric, I would be a cool, crisp linen

If I were a scent, I would be gardenias and fresh cut grass

If I were a song, I would be Sweet Tea by Cravin Melon

If I were a pair of shoes, I would be a pair of blinged out sandals that match my linen fabric that I can enjoy on the front porch of my southern plantation while rocking in my wicker rocking chair on a crisp, warm sunny day drinking sweet tea of course!!

Now I am supposed to tag more of you to answer these cute questions. Instead of "tagging" you I will just say, if you come across this and read it, answer them and let me know where to find your answers!!

Tennis anyone?

Today was a bittersweet day. After 5 yrs of non stop dance lessons that included tap, ballet, hip-hop and jazz the DIVA has started a new venture. She started taking tennis lessons and I must say she did pretty darn good for never having played before!

As I watched her run her little heart out and hit the ball over the net I half expected her to get in the car afterwards and tell me she was done but she climbed in and talked about how much fun she had and how she can't wait to get back to practice next week!

I am sure we will hit our neighborhood courts for her to practice some before then, especially now that the evenings are cooling off a little. Like I said, it was bittersweet knowing that I won't be watching her dance this year and deal with hair and make-up and costumes and recitals but I am glad she is trying something new, the last 6 mths have been filled with new experiences so why should we stop now?

So...

you know that little audition I mentioned in my last post that Camden went on? Well, even though they said they would call with a "Yes" or "No" answer we were kind of thinking that since it had been 11days with no word that was a sign that he had not gotten the part. We were ok with that, just the fact that the director wanted to see him was enough for us.

Well, I got a phone call this afternoon that Camden GOT THE PART!!! The movie is going to start filming here in Atlanta within the next couple of weeks. I am not sure how many days he will shoot but more than likely it will be one or two days. Once we know when it will air I will post all the information.

He is sooo excited and we are sooo happy for him, even Grace, although a little miffed it isn't her in a movie, is happy for him. They are both ready to go to church Sunday and to school on Monday and tell everybody about Camden being in a movie. Hopefully his teachers will be understanding and willing to give me his school work to take with us so he can do it on-set and not miss anything.

If he enjoys this and wants to continue then I guess our next step will be finding him and Grace too, an agent. There are sooo many here in the ATL area that I don't know where to start, it makes my head spin!!

Go ahead and request your autographs now and put them away for safe keeping in case you want to Ebay it someday!!

Get your autographs while they're free...

If you know my kids then you know that the DIVA dreams of HOLLYWOOD and California and getting that Big Break! If you know Camden, he is all about the video games and sports. So you may be surprised when I tell you that today Camden had an audition for a movie that is being made here in ATL for Cartoon Network.

I saw a posting for 8-11 yr old boys last week and took his pic and sent it in not really expecting to hear back from them, but you never know unless you try, right? A couple of days went by and then I got a phone call from one of the casting directors who had shown Camdens pic to the films director and they liked his "look" and wanted to see him. Camden was super excited, the DIVA was super miffed to say the least. This was the first, real audition we had been to, Diva has tried out for The Nutcracker with the Carolina Ballet several times and then there was the fateful audition that was really a John Robert Powers sales pitch but this was a full fledged audition and he did great!! We are just waiting to hear back if he gets the part, I pray he does get it, it would do so much at building his confidence and I think he would have a lot of fun.

I'll keep you posted when we hear something!

Taking a swim...

Tonight we celebrated the DIVA's baptism at church!! She did so good, not one bit of nervousness came through tonight while she was up in front of the church with Dr Cox. We were so happy that my mom was able to come in for the weekend and celebrate with us, the only thing better would have been if my dad was still on this Earth and was able to preside over her baptism just like he did with Camden several years ago. Although he was not here on Earth with us I know he was looking down with a big smile on his face tonight.

The bottom pic was taken before church when I told her to do a cannonball into the baptism..sadly she did not do it :( LOL!! We are sooo proud of her!!

Childhood friends...

I am so excited! My childhood friend, Shannon Moon is coming through ATL next weekend so we are going to try and get together while she is here!!! I have not seen her since she was in my wedding almost 13yrs ago!!!!!!!!!!

We grew up in Lake Wales together, first starting out at First United Methodist Pre-school (who in LW didn't go there?) and then we went through the youth group at First Baptist LW and after my family moved to NC I would go back during the summer to visit family and friends and always end up at her house for a couple of days here and there. What fun memories!!

She now lives in Kentucky with her husband and kids so we keep up through letters, emails, Facebook, etc... Can't wait to see her, I am sure there will be kid pics to post!! This should help me get out of my funk for a little bit!

Working through my frustrations...

So,as I have said before, this move has not been the greatest! With this time that I have on my hands I came up with a way to vent my frustrations and pour out my feelings..a new blog! I have been working on it for a little over a week now, set up a new FB page for it and a Twitter acct. too. Because I want to remain somewhat anonymous I will not be publicly announcing the name of the new blog and if you come across it I would hope and pray that you not reveal the name to anyone if you figure out that it is me. (Chris doesn't even know the name of the site so don't try to get it out of him either) It is just a way for me to get out all these feelings that I have going on, so far I have been met with positive comments from people who have come across the blog and FB page. It has helped me deal with all the emotions better that a move like this brings,especially when you have no one around that you can talk to in person. Who knows, maybe one day I will turn that new blog and it's posts into a book!! LOL

Such a comedian...

One thing I hate during the breaks from school is when I have to go grocery shopping with kids. I end up so frustrated by the time I leave b/c they won't stop touching each other, picking things up, begging for this and that and just over all irritating one another that. I feel like all I do the whole time we are there is constantly stopping to get onto to them with stares from others shoppers.

This week was no different except that after I had had ENOUGH towards the end of the shopping trip Camden proceeds to say out loud for all to hear "It's so hard to get a good crowd thses days!"

UGH! Can't wait for Aug 9th to get here so I can shop in peace!

A Bit of "HOME"

I was soooo excited to get to spend just a little bit of time today with my friend Whitney and her momma from NC!! They have been here for the ATL Markets this week and we were supposed to get together last night but the DIVA had other ideas like "let me hurl all over the downstairs bathroom an hour before mom leaves and let mom spend the night up to her elbows in Lysol and PineSol cleaning it up"...so I spent the night cleaning a bathroom and watching Wife Swap...What...a way to spend a Friday night, a home and high on disinfectants!!

At least being on the N side of ATL Whitney had to come by my house on her way up 85 so we were able to grab a quick lunch and catch up! If anyone else from "home" wants to come down and visit my door is open!!

Bringin back my Wordless Wednesday

Do you ever wonder...

when you see the eHarmony or Match.com commercials on TV if you and your spouse were sign up for it would it match you with each other? Chris and I discussed that tonight...we have just enough differences and similarities that I will let you decide what the answer to that question would be. LOL

It would be a cool experiment to try sometime.

And the Winner is...

ME! I was able to snag tickets to the free preview screening of the movie "Despicable Me" from Entertainment Weekly magazine for last night. So, the kids and I headed out to Phipps Plaza in ATL and since it was not too far from Chris' office he was able to meet us there after work.

I don't tend to care too much for 3D movies, mostly because it gives me a nauseous headache but thanfully last night I was fine and the movie was REALLY cute!! There were lots of laughs throughout the movie and there were even several heart tugging moments but over all it was funny!! The kids loved it and were wanting to know when they could see it again, since we have still have free tickets to the new theater in Alpharetta that just opened we may just head out there this weekend!!

Thanks Entertainment Weekly!!