Maya Road and Me

happy new year!

i have been very busy with lots of things for CHA- it is amazing how much work a tradeshow can be! and being a small business owner - pretty much all the responsiblity falls on 4 shoulders right now - me, deb, david 1 and david 2. deb and david won't be at the show since their little one will be arriving if not by show time, soon thereafter. i have given deb a hard time about not being at the show but we will be fine. just waiting anxiously for the arrival of our niece!

i want to share with you this simple project i did a while ago:

 

this was one page of our house coaster album which i turned into a little home decoration. i wanted you to see the flower close up - did you see that our brown pom pom trim is used to give the flwoer that last bit of dimension? and i used some magic mesh to give some interesting texture tot he flower and the page.

here is a photo of the house as it stands:

 

this is a very easy to do project. i will share with you the supply list and steps - you can do it in an evening!

supply list:

1. house coaster  (you only need 1 page)

2. patterned paper

3. mesh

4. pom pom trim (brown)

5. felt

6. metal flower blossom

7. borders chipboard

8. maya mist green

9 love and owl stamp

10 journey tin (this is optional but i used it so that this house can be free standing)

11. scissors, black ink pad, glue, scallop punch 2"

how to:

1. spray the vine border with the maya mist. allow to dry then ink the edges. you only need about 2" of the border so save the rest for another project.

2. create the flower - punch the flower out of the patterned paper. cut out felt piece and magic mesh piece to layer flower. add the pom pom trim behind the flower (sticking out a bit so you can see it). add the metal flower (bend up the edges to give it dimension) . layer everything together and glue and then add the bling brad to secure it.

3. cover the house with the patterned paper as shown. add the magic mesh.

4. stamp the owl and the love word on the patterned paper - cut out.

5. assemble it as shown.

6. to make a stand, glue the bottom of a journey tin to the bottom back of the house. you are done!

i really am a fair weather boy

check out noah's expression in the snow when we were visiting his grandparents' house

 

he liked to look at the snow but not have the stuff hit his face (and did you notice i got to use my boots?)

hope you all are having a beautiful new year's eve!

PS make sure you check out our DT blog to see what new Valentine's items we have and our giveaway!

what does noah + his dad's 30 year old outfit + wii + dancing =

noah get the chance to try out an outfit that probably last made its debut in the 70s by his dad (like the velour) - he decided to put some emotion as he tried out his grandparents' wii. though noah doesn't know how to play yet it is amazing to me he knows to put the strap for the controller on as he dances around the room. and can i say after doing the wii boxing, i now realize how little i use my upper body (i am happy to say i was able to KO the first guy in under 10 seconds).

hope you all are having a relaxing week!

A new day

i hope everyone has had a lovely Christmas together with those you love. it has been nice to have a nice relaxing one with noah this year. i have been working on carving out a period of time each week to try and do some creating. check out one of the albums i made for valentine's day (can you believe that is coming up soon?)

wow, time flies with our baby boy. and can you believe that heart there was made with maya mist and embossed? how cool looking is that?

even though we are just on the cusp of Christmas, we have been planning a valentine's release for a couple of weeks already. this will be the first valentine's release that we have ever done at maya road. with the timing of the CHA-W tradeshows (in jan or feb), we have never been able to plan a valentine's release until now. there are 5 new items we are adding to our line of valentine classics that you won't want to miss out on seeing!

we will share more soon but for now, enjoy your time with your family during the Holidays!

Merry Christmas

We wanted to wish everyone a very merry christmas and happy new year!

the littlest warehouse counter

last week, we had a bought lunch for everyone at the warehouse to celebrate the Holidays and noah came along to check things out. at his age, going to the w/h is a big treat - he loves to "pack" orders and check out all the new products. he loves pulling down rolls of ribbons and trying to match them back up to the right place to put them back.

i found him working on his stacking and counting skills with the maya mists here:

 

noah loved to stack all the mists, then count them and then knock a few down. he had a ton of fun with the mists!

hope you all are having as much fun this season as noah is this season!

knitting

so i have been busy "knitting" - i don't know if you have seen those round, long and square loom knitters at craft stores - i have had my eye on them for about a year now and finally over thanksgiving i broke down and bought a set.

check out this scarf i am making:

 

pretty cool huh? i have to say it is fairly easy to do this and when i am watching a 30 min TV show, i can get about 6" of scarf made. i am almost done now. just have to finish off the ends and add a big fringe or something to each end. i have already picked out the next yarns i will be working with! i can't wait!

good things

i wanted to share with you this photo from my co-ed soccer team's championship game a while back, i don't know if you can seem me in the far right but i am there.

anyhow this is a team that i have been with for the last 8 years now. i had joined with another friend because she knew someone who knew someone who needed some girls to play and before i knew it, this many years has passed already.

i have played with this team faithfully for the last 8 years and the only time i haven't played with them was the 1.5 seasons when i was pregnant with noah. i have to say that soccer is not without drama - LOL. we have seen a rival team spin off from our team (which caused tension for a couple of seasons between our team that remained and the other team). we have seen people move, retire and get injured. but at the end of the day, we are out there most sundays when we have games just getting some exercise and enjoying each other's company. i have seen refs and players threaten to "take it off the field" and duke it out.

i didn't get a chance to play a lot of the games this season from my traveling but i was able to be there for the championship. i ended up with 1 assist to a goal. i also was able to block a shot that gave me a nice bruise the next couple of days.

but in the end we won and our team name will be carved on the trophy before we try to defend out title the next season.

this is my other hobby outside of scrapbooking and crafts. as i mentioned before, soccer was something i always thought i could be decent and it took me a good number of years but i think i am not half bad. i also enjoy the thrill of competition which speaks to that side of me that needs it.

   

Moon Walking

I am so excited about my new shoes - those that know me know that I have a weakness for shoes. But it isn't the latest stilettos or roach killers that make my heart shiver, I love funky shoes. I used to run in neon yellow shoes. I have hot pink shoes. I have silver shoes. All are low heel and fit my lifestyle.

I found these on the Crocs website and for less than $15 I couldn't pass them up.

 

It is freezing here today in Texas and even if it snowed outside my feet would be super warm and cozy! I can't wait to take them out for a test drive!

And I want to share some ornanaments that Noah and I have been making (well it is more that I make and he supervises and adds the buttons)

Check out this robot one he named Plex (After the robot in yo gabba gabba)

 

I just had to add on the little moustache for this robot. It cracks me up. All of Noah's felt ornaments are hanging on a desk in the hallway. When he walks by, he names each of them " Plex!", "Moose!", " Snowman", "Tree", "Another Tree" and "Bird". Cracks me up. He cannot walk by without giving a shout out to each of them. He also told me that his favorite one is the Plex robot one. Here is the bird we made last night:

 

Hope you all are staying warm!

little bird

it is amazing what noah learns new each and every day. tonight, my DH asked noah to pick up his toys before bed and noah says "yes your majesty" - totally cracked me up but i tried to keep a straight face when he was saying it.

i wanted to share with you a project i worked on last week in between a lot of work, sleeping and getting over the sickies we had here at home.

i had been inspired by one of these after i saw this post on the scrapscene blog about an owl made by mmmcrafts (her post is here) . i modified my owl a bit. this was a frame i found at ikea. i first started off by misting the frame in green maya mist. i allowed it to dry then painted over it with cream acrylic paint. next i sanded the frame to let the green come through. next i freehand cut and glued the owl together (i was too lazy to dig out my sewing machine). and then i added some patterned paper for the wings, buttons for the eyes and some maya road goodies for the accents - do you see that his feet are really our brown pom pom trim and his head feather is a maya road metal flower? the vine is from the borders chipboard set.

so easy to do - it is a project you can do in an afternoon! he is sitting now in my living room overseeing the whole place!

one other thing to check out if you have time - i was driving home from the doctor last week and i saw this billboard that had this photo of a person's face in black and white and the words i am second - when i went to the website i wasn't sure what to expect. but it was very interesting to listen to some of these people's stories  (i haven't had a chance to see  all the videos) about their struggles in life - with different addictions, spirituality, etc. a lot of them are "famous" i believe(but i didn't recognize any of them except 1 person from the photos) and i hope when i have time to go back and watch the rest of the stories.

hope you all are having a great sunday!