Maya Road and Me

this is why there aren't a lot of asian ppl on fear factor

so one of my big vices (besides diet coke) is snack food. sweet, savory whatever. i love it. i especially LOVE asian snack foods. they don't have a lot here in the part of dallas i live in (it is a 25 mile haul to get the good stuff from here) so while we were in ATL, we stopped by a chinese grocery store before we did our journey, i picked up some of these snacks.

for those of you who have not had the ones pictured, pocky is this brand of japanese cookie (our a buttery stick of a cookie) covered in chocolate. i bet they use 1/2 a stick of butter for each pack of those. the one on the right is more like a japanese milk cracker (sweet) targeted for kiddos. i used to love to nosh on these in college. i wanted to buy some so that noah could have a taste of the yummy cookie goodness.

and then we get to the more interesting stuff that is pictured on the left. the first bag is this type of dried salty prunes that all i can say is that my mouth waters when i see them. but it is definitely an acquired taste. every person that i have given similar ones to try has had to spit it out. i don't know exactly what the quality of it is. it is strange b/c it is saltier than salt (as one of my friends put it) with a slightly sweet taste from the fact it is a fruit.

and the second bag is one that i don't think i have eaten in a long long time. but yeah it is a bag of japanese snack mix with some happy cartoon beans and peas on there and dried anchovies. hey cultural differences is what makes the world go round right? i have eaten what some would consider worse but is a delicacy in other countries.

well it has been a great day here, i finished my 10 mile run this morning by 7:30 am and had a rather lovely day with DH and baby noah.

and if you have made it this far, i think ya'll deserve a sneak peak peek (i always have to remind myself of the right peek - a sneak peek is a look, not a stealthy mountian top) and techinically, it is july 1st somewhere off of the east coast right now so enjoy!

so would you all like to see another peek?

if so let me know...i might be able to get around the "official" july 1st MR peek release because i know some people who know some people. LOL.

it has been a great day today. noah and i stopped off at the w/h and then off to where david works to just pop in and say hello. i used to work at this same company also. it was good to see all the friends i hadn't seen in a long time. many asked how i was doing - it is hard to explain to some people who aren't into the world of scrapbooking what it is i do and how i am doing. how do i express that i am kickin; some ass and takin' some names where i am at? but in the end i smiled and said i am good! b/c i am.

i am getting excited about CHA summer. last year about this time, we had this little MR model showing off our blossoms III. i wonder if we should get noah to pose with some of our new products? we will need a new onesie as this one probably only goes past his armpits. i can't believe my baby is so big now.

i am also excited b/c we aren't going to DRIVE to CHA-S like we did last summer (1000 miles in the mini van, 20 hours NONSTOP each way with a 7 week old baby).

ok, off to see if baby noah will help me hold some samples without eating them.

i was meant to scrapbook i think...

so i found this "vintage" bottle of embossing powder while cleaning out stuff at my parents house (300 lbs of stuff down, 30,000 more lbs to go). anyhow, DH david was quick to point out to me "hey that is RANGER embossing powder and LOOKEE, it isn't even open yet" - LOL. yes, once a hoarder always a hoarder . i need to send this scan to my friends at ranger but i do believe this bottle might be from the 80s!

if you want to chat with me about CHA or whatever, check me out tonight at just cre8 at 9 pm EST. ask me a question. and i do believe i will be giving out a RAK during the chat!

and thanks for the kind words about the peeks - here is another photo from the album i made yesterday. some people wonder why a clear album? well why not?  i hope we have something that appeals to everyone's taste in terms of albums. don't worry, we have more chipboard albums coming out too but we like to spice things up every show and we thought these would be cute to work with. if you have never done a clear album, don't hesitate to try. i am working on my second one now. i will post after CHA with some tips on what i find works with clear albums (and amazingly a lot of our products go well with them - stamps, rubons, ribbons, sheer shapes, chipboard, etc)

and for those who had questions about the album - these will probably be ready in our september shipments. the size pictured is a 5" x 7" album - very cute huh?

ok, off to work!

 

noah um have you started your ark yet?

seriously, is the rain going to let up here in the dallas area? i think noah needs to start digging out the ark plans before we all wash away. i haven't run in a while but every time i want to head out, it starts pouring again. i feel like i am living in portland or seattle or something. but without the ocean. or the mountains. or the seafood.

we are all recovering from our trip. after 3 trips out of town in the last 6 weekends, we are so tired. i don't think i can do that again at that frenzied pace. i also am not used to having Dial Up like at my parents house and not being able to keep up with emails has me far behind. yeah. we are working on getting our parents upgraded soon.

i am also excited that one of my friends from my prior job is going to be moving with his family to dallas! and he has already told me to get him signed up for my soccer team! awesome. david and i aren't big social butterflies but we like my friend and his family a lot and they have 2 little boys for noah to chill with!

and i was reading deb's blog about kiva.org and i told david this is something i want us to participate in. (in case you missed it, you can read about it here or here . we are going to start a sponsorhip this month and each month add a person/family to the cause. it is a very interesting concept to me. i stayed up til like 2 am working and reading about it last night.

and finally, i know that the OFFICAL maya road sneak peeks won't begin til next week but i really must share what i created this weekend. or a little bit of it. i figured the rest of MR can't fire me b/c really they need me (haha) so here goes, this is something we have been planning for a while but to hold it and see it is TOTALLY awesome! and , well i hope that you can see sheerly what it is. so what do you think?

ok, off to dry off, work and maybe catch a run in!

"wow, wow, wow"

well baby noah has decided that he likes to speak now. he has learned to say "wow, wow, wow" and when we ask him what they cow says - he will say "MOOOOOO". it is truly amazing how much a kiddo learns in such a short period of time...

and with that, i have decided that i am no longer going to breast feed noah. i haven't ever really talked about BFing on my blog - perhaps i was raised to just not say much about it but really, it shouldn't be a taboo subject. there is a funny story that goes with this.

noah has now learned the sign language hand symbol for milk (which looks to me like the "milking the cow" sorta sign language.that was totally cool. at the same time he also picked up his first chinese word too "nai nai" which means milk in chinese. it has been so cool to see noah when he is hungry do the cow milking symbol and say "nai nai nai nai nai". and with that i have either BF him or given him a bottle.

well about 2 weeks ago, noah decided to add something to the mix. so now when he is hungry, he will do the sign for milk, say "nai nai nai" AND he comes to lift up mommy's shirt to get access to the milk. um yeah, that is cute for about 5 mins but when you are at an airport full of 1000s of people, that is something that isn't so funny.

so it is time for him to get weaned off of the breast milk. i will admit, i have so enjoyed the time that we spent together quietly with each other while he has been BFing this year. sometimes, he will just be nursing as he is sleeping and i will rock him in my rocking chair and i know i will miss those moments.

but now that noah has learned that he can step right up to the milk bar, is is time for us at least to move on to the next stage of his growth and development and as sad as i am and as much as i will miss it, i am excited to see what is next for him!

so um yeah...

it is close to 10 pm eastern time and we are in atlanta right now awaiting our flight home. we have been here for the last oh 6 hours since our flight home was cancelled. but noah has been quiet a trooper.

the good news is that we had a great visit with my friends and also noah's grandparents. i also got to create a mini album with one of our new albums and used the extra scraps to make about 15 cards for my mom to use in the future. i am really excited about the new album as it is one we have not done before. perhaps a small peek at the end of the week, what do ya'll think?

ok, off to count the number of diapers we have left before we get to panic mode...

a quick note

well noah and i are off to go see my parents this weekend (bong and audrey will be celebrating 40 years together!)

so inspire me with some links to what you have done while i am gone.

post here and i will give out a RAK on tuesday when we are back and settled.

here is my inspiration today:

oh yeah if you want to chat with me, check me out on the 28th at 9 EST at :

just cre8

i wonder...

wow, i can't believe noah is so big already! he already understands the concept of socks and shoes as he will bring them to his feet when he sees either one (though he can't put them on yet)...

sometimes i wonder what the future holds for him. and being his mom i worry about so many things. one thing that i have been thinking about lately is people making fun of him because of his race...

in the future, when noah goes to take those standardized tests, he will be checking the "other" box. he is a mix of at least 3 different cultures all blended into 1 cute package. but i want for him something which is different than what i experienced as a child. people in our school called us every derogatory name you could think of in the book growing up.

and well as a momma bear, i want NOTHING of the sort for my child. and if given the chance, i am ready for some arse kicking. i realize that discrimation can work many ways against noah - not being asian enough. not being hispanic enough. not being caucasian enough.

i would like to think the world has changed in the last 30 years and in ways it has but what will it be in 5 years for noah? or 10 years? or 30 years from now?

there is only so much i can do to protect him. my job is to also to raise him in a way so he knows how to spread his wings and fly and deal with circumstances as they arise.

i can only hope that things have changed for his generation.

teeth...

so why oh why does getting teeth have to be so hard? seriously. baby noah has been clinging to me like a koala bear baby and he has a fever and doesn't feel great today because his molars are coming in hard core. how long does this last - this pain and suffering. i want so badly to make him feel better but no can do. i can only hope that me just holding him as he cries a little bit does give him a little bit of comfort.

so what do ya'll think of all of our new blogs so far? mine? deb's? the design team's? moving blogs is a big task and learning the new functionalities and such is almost like learning a new language at times but when you stop learning and changing and growing you will never catch up!

i am excited about the DT blog especially b/c soon you will be able to look at albums and see all the beautiful man candy (er i mean eye candy- haha) archived and you can go back and continue to be inspired rather than digging through 100 posts to find the projects. ah the beauty of technology!

and to finish this post off, i realize i didn't answer all the questions in may so let me get back to those here. in the meantime, check out this LO i created with baby noah!

my question--what charities do you hold near and dear to your heart?

• charities i support, well david and i believe that in this life, we as a family have been given a lot. sometimes it is hard not to get the green envy monster of why-does-so-and-so-person-have-so-much-more-than-i-or-why-is-their-house-2x-bigger-than-ours. but we take a step back and look and realize how much MORE we have than a lot of people. seriously. so we support these charities on a yearly basis -  united way, salvation army, samartian's purse, our local church, world vision.

My questions are how did this business get started for you?How do you get your new product ideas?

• my sister and i started this business with our first show in Jan 2004. we were actually inspired by a visit to a local LSS where we found that there seemd to be missing a niche of products. so we did our homework, made some visits to china to see what we could have made and that is how we started. yes, we started out of our garages - first from deb's and then in mine and then i quit my job, we got our warehouse and the rest is history!
• new product ideas - we get them from everything. i got one the other day reading the wall street journal if you can believe that! the trick is to opening your mind to think of things in different ways and just to be inspired. one of our products was inspired by a children's toy! one i got as an idea during a run last year.

My question is how long does it take to develop a new product?

• the short answer is - a while - but deb blogged about this a couple of days ago so you can read the answer here: how long does it take to develop a product?

Do you prototype all your new products yourself? Do you have staff or assistants to help you use the product before going into full production?

• we do prototype all the products ourselves. deb and i will look at the concept on paper. if it is a go, it is made at the plant. then she or i or both inspect it and make sure we like it and then we send it to our DT. but the decision to go forward is deb and my decision.

more soon!

happy father's day!

ok all you dads out there, happy father's day!we have had a great day here so far even though it has rained like crazy the last 24 hours. but overall david gives this day a thumbs up! we got to go to church last night (and eat amazing lebanese food afterwards) so we all slept in today to the sound of the falling rain.

then when we got up today, david opened his father's day gift. well noah also tried to help him out here:

but anyhow, i finished up david's album just in time. it was titled "one year" and is a series of photos of baby noah and david over this last year. i added some simple embellishments and even got to use a REALLY old product i had. remember the Making Memories leather frames? i cut one of them to turn into arrows, letters and photo corners!

i didn't put all the pages here yet b/c there are some cool CHA-S products in here that i just can't show... yet.

this album was pretty easy to do and took me about 4 hours today to complete. i made it go a lot faster by doing the cover first and then covering the chipboard pages and then spent last night organizing the photos i wanted to use and the embellishments. once the structure was complete, the book came together quick and easy!

so here is a peek at the cover:

you can see a lot more of the photos in the photo album i put together here. you will have to excuse me as i learn all the crazy functionalities of typepad that i didn't have before. but i am happy with how this album turned out!

i hope you all have a great father's day!