Puyallup Fair

In August, at the urging of my scrapbooking students, I decided to submit an entry in the Puyallup Fair. It's the largest fair in the state and 8th largest in the world. I was very intimidated at the thought of it but decided, why not? So I entered the Army Strong layout and a card that I had made for my dad's 75th birthday in the cards division. And then promptly forgot about all of that. So a couple of weeks ago I get a call from my dear friend, Barb, and she asked if I was surprised? About what, I asked? She said, "You don't know?" "No, know about what?" She says to her husband, "She doesn't know!" "Know what?", I said...Then she told me that I got the biggest award, the Grand Champion in my category!! I could hardly believe it! So I called the Hobby Hall at the fairgrounds and they verified that and said that I also got an honorable mention for my card that I entered too! Not only did my layout get grand champion but it also includes $100 in prize money too! The nice ladies at the fair said that I need to use it to buy more scrapbooking supplies so that I can enter again next year. What a thrill to have such an award!

The Kindness of Friends

I work for Michaels when I'm not doing my Close to my Heart business. The location I've been working in for the last 2 and 1/2 years is in Federal Way, Washington. A spot has opened up in my city, Tacoma, and Debbie ( the manager there) said she'd love to have me. (Sweet lady.) So even tho' I will miss my Federal Way co-workers, I will still see them once or twice a week since I will still teach SDU (Scrapbook Design University) at Federal Way as well as Tacoma. Two of my favorite people showed up to wish me well as I did my demo at work today. Keiko and Catherine. They are ever so sweet and brought me a present. Catherine is Keiko's 8 year old daughter. She is smart, funny and loves to craft with me and her mom. I have loved getting to know them during our craft times each month. Here are pictures of the gift that they brought to me.