Hereafter a brunette

Yesterday was a blissful and quiet day off. Chris stayed home with the kids, and even ventured off to the duck pond for some stale tortilla-feeding and giddy amuck-running. I, on the other hand, had a relaxing afternoon at the salon where, true to my word and in response to my husband's deepest wishes I transformed into a BRUNETTE! Then Michal and I went to the Conference Center in Salt Lake City where we were priviledged enough to attend the Relief Society General Meeting. It was so great to be in the presence of the Prophet and his apostles and the messages were truly inspiring. Plus, the company was great.

So....what do you think of my hair?

Another shameless plug

Here is my latest project. I got a 15" square magnet board at the craft store. In less than 2 hours, I painted and distressed the frame. Then I took about 1 hour to center and align this vinyl decor greeting, one item from the newest product line from Stampin' Up!: Decor Elements. Each vinyl adhesive element comes in several sizes and colors, and can be applied to walls, frames, glass, metal, and other surfaces. They make an elegant addition to any home. In this case, since I adhered it to a frame, I can use it as a seasonal decoration that I can put up and take down. Other images are versatile enough to be placed on your walls to enjoy the whole year.

Check out all the awesome greetings and images available to decorate your home! Click here to go to my website, then click on "SHOP NOW" in the upper right corner where you will be able to view this new product line. The greeting pictured above, as well as many other new images will be available starting October 1.

Heartfelt Thanks stationary set

In a determined effort to keep my Stampin' Up! business from dying a slow and painful (and expensive) death, I've revamped my efforts, getting on board with the new catalog, updating my website, scheduling events, and so forth. I got a box of fancy new business cards this week in addition to making this little stationary set which was included in the Wasatch Elementary Fall Festival last night. I donated three stationary sets like the one shown below, each with 6 cards and envelopes and a coordinating memo book. When I left at 6:30, the bidding was at $10, so hooray! Hopefully, they will stick that fancy business card magnet right onto their fridge and give me a call or check out my website.

I'm excited that with a little bit of guts, I've stepped out of my comfort zone in the past few weeks to hand out brochures and invite people to events, and in the process got a workshop for September 30! I am so excited to finally have a hostess again, and I can't wait for my next order to come so I can start preparing my workshop designs. Woot!

Hey--don't you think this stationary set would make a great gift? Give me a call if you want me to custom make you something, or I could even help you get all the supplies so that you can make this yourself!

Ingredients:

Stamps: Heartfelt Thanks, Watercolor Joy wheel
Colors: Mellow Moss, Very Vanilla, Rose Red, Chocolate Chip
Accessories: 1 3/8" and 1 1/4" Circle punches, spiral punch, metal eylets, jumbo eylets, crop-a-dile, Very Vanilla 5/8" grosgrain and chocolate chip 1/4" grosgrain ribbon, silver elastic cord, stamp-a-ma-jig

Stamped images (c) Stampin' Up! 1991-2008

Picture a September

Pioneer Dress

A couple weeks ago I decided to make Leah another dress. I had a box full of fabric at my disposal and I already had a pattern. So I set to work-this time I decided to make the sleeveless one for her to wear as a jumper.

Total cost: $1.38 (all I needed was a zipper!)

Total time: probably about 12-15 hours, but I wasn't counting

Total lifeline calls: 1

Trips to the fabric store: 1

Here she is. Isn't she beatiful?

Another use for a screwdriver

Trying to teach a two year old that sometimes "I'm sorry" isn't quite enough, and that you have to fix what you did wrong.

Mom: I broke that other man's car. Should I say I'm sorry?

Leah: yeah

Mom: I think that won't be enough. Do you think we should also fix his car for him?

Leah: yeah. with tools.

Mom: what kind of a tool should we use to fix his car?

Leah: a screwdriver

Mom: Should we fix our car, too?

Leah: Yeah, with a screwdriver.

Halloween: Past and Future

Ok. I have made my daughter a Halloween costume two years in a row now, and I personally think my pregnant mummy costume was pretty darn good last year, not to mention "punny". Chris was a super awesome Jack Sparrow two years in a row. I'm hanging up the Supergirl costume for good(wearing it six times, and then pregnant, was just going too far). But this has to be the year that all my hard work is recognized. One of us has just got to get a best costume award.

I want to get a head start on this so I'm not waiting in line at the fabric store or scouring DI on October 30. Here are the ideas I've had for costumes for the family:

Wizard of Oz theme--I'd love to be Galinda (have you seen Wicked?). I would have a shimmery outfit with sequins, and could even tweak a couple hula-hoops so that I could actually travel by "bubble." And I'm sure I could figure out how to act ditzy. I could make Leah a really cute Dorothy costume (just picture the braids!), complete with sparkly red shoes, Samuel could be Toto, and Chris?

Toy Story theme--Leah would love to play Jesse, since she actually knows who Jesse is. Again, the braids...and with a cowboy hat? So cute! Samuel could be a little baby Buzz Lightyear, and I could be Bo Peep. Chris volunteered to be Bullseye for at least the ward Halloween party, but I'm certainly not making him two costumes if he's something else at work.

Other non-themed ideas

I have a great dress that would work really well for Cruella DeVil--and it would be so much fun to wear a feather boa and die my hair half black and half white.

Samuel has the hair for Elvis. We also thought he could be a rapper or sugar daddy or something--with a big silver "S" necklace, a black pleather jacket and shades, and a pink feather boa--how awesome would that be? Of course, I also have a perfectly sized monkey costume he could wear...

Chris acknowledges that he looks good with eye makeup-only on Halloween, of course. But we've been thinking for years now about making him a Pharaoh or "The Mummy" (like the movie) or something--he's got the bald head for it, and with the dark eye and face makeup it could look pretty cool.

Leah, of course, would be super cute as just about anything. I mean, she's got the hair... The same pattern I used for Leah's monkey and fairy also has a silly frog and a lion pattern. Those are options, too.

So....Any ideas? What do you vote for?

(I promise to share our costume contest winnings with you!)

Visit my Stampin' Up! Demonstrator Website

Visit me Online!

www.stampinjenny.stampinup.net

I am so excited to announce that you can now order Stampin' Up! products online from my website anytime day or night!

Ordering online is easy and convenient, and you still get the same great Stampin' benefits, not to mention your order will be shipped right to your door wherever you live!

Plus, I can now accept credit cards online or in person on all customer orders!

Visit my Demonstrator Website to:

• Find products and promotions
• View my calendar of events
• View project samples
• Place an order
• Sign up as a Demonstrator

Once you’ve seen the exciting promotions and new products available, you’ll want to book a workshop right away and get your hands on the new catalog. Hostesses receive a free catalog, or receive a free catalog with an order of $50 or more.

Upcoming Events
2 for $2 Cards
Thursday, September 18, 7pm

World Card-Making Day
Saturday, October 4, 6pm
$1 per card, limit 10

Scrapbook A La Carte
Friday, September 19, 2pm-4pm & Saturday, September 27, 9am-noon
You provide your own paper and I’ll provide the stamps, ink, punches, and tools. I’ll also help you with layout and color-scheme ideas. Hardware can be provided on a pay-per-use basis.

Why I love Stampin' Up!

1. I love the opportunity to be creative, the associations, and of course, the products!

2. Stampin' Up! is progressive--as evidenced by the new online options for ordering and recruiting, Stampin' Up! is reaching more people online.

3. Also, Stampin' Up! is staying on top of the crafting industry--they won't be left behind! Here are a few new product lines that Stampin' Up! is now carrying, reaching a wider audience of crafters and broadening horizons:

Celebrando Creatividad, a new line of stamps and accessories in Spanish. Business supplies are also availalbe in Spanish for Spanish-speaking demonstrators.

Décor Elements, A new line of adhesive vinyl wall art.

Big Shot Die Cutter, Stampin' Up! has now partnered with Sizzix to carry the Big Shot Die cutter, with exclusive new dies.

Plus, Stampin' Up! is always offering terrific promotions! Visit my Demonstrator Website and click "Stampin' Up! Products" to see the current promotions.

There’s never been a better time to stamp!

Jenny Fosdick
Independent Demonstrator
jennyfosdickATgmailDOTcom

A Fair amount of Fun

Hmmm. How to sum up the Utah State Fair? Good food, (chocolate covered strawberries--yum!), fun family activity, spent a lot of money(and tried to spend more but the ATM was broken--probably a good thing), and was really tired by the end of the day.

I wish we could have seen more animals (where were they all?) and gotten a face painting. And I really wanted my $5 foot long hot dog to have chili and cheese on it instead of just ketchup, and to throw darts at balloons to win a prize instead of handing over a five and getting a stuffed animal, but it was still a fun family activity. There were mostly businesses and vendor stands more than anything else.

We did get to see this tiger, who paced anxiously around the edge of his cage constantly.

Here are some highlights:

Leah is still too small for the Ferris Wheel, but she loved the Carousel.

We all took a turn jumping--Leah in a big inflatable box, and Chris and I on the bungee trampoline thing. He did it once before(I was pregnant at the time, so opted out), but this time he did even more tricks and double flips. It was so awesome--he made it look so fun and easy! Then I got up there and couldn't do a single flip--that takes ab muscles, and apparently I don't have them. Chris is afraid of heights, so he said that he just kept doing flips so he wouldn't have to look at the ground--I think he's crazy! That was so high up there that I was afraid of heights! Oh, and he'll never forgive me for getting still shots instead of a video of his impressive acrobatics. Sorry!

Leah got to ride on a dragon roller coaster and a "helicopter" ride. I think she really enjoyed all the excitement, but whenever it was the parents' turn to do something fun, she didn't like waiting.

Where was Samuel this whole time, you ask? Smiling happily in the stroller! What a trooper!

Here is a family picture at the end of the day. You can tell we'd missed nap time and it was time to go home. I think the exasperation on my face explains it all.

Wordle

Here is a wordle I just made using the text from The Family: A Proclamation to the World.

The Relief Society Declaration:

When I went to BYU, Part II

As a continuation to a previous post about what has changed at BYU in the past few years, it keeps changing!

Yesterday Chris took Leah on an outing on the BYU campus. She loves seeing all the buildings and statues, playing in the fountains, feeding the ducks, etc. And Chris loves showing her around our alma-mater and indoctrinating her at a young age to grow up to be a Cougar. He took a quick look at the newly built Commons at the Cannon Center. It is a brand new building, and apparently pretty impressive--I simply assumed it was an addition to the original Cannon Center where I literally flipped burgers and pizza dough at Cosmo's and Tomassito's, and where Chris served up food for hungry freshman and was a late-night janitor.

Today I drove past and saw that the original Cannon center was demolished...today! I could see in through its wounded walls at the chandeliers still hanging from the ceiling in the dining room! No doubt, Cosmo's is gone. This makes me just a little bit sad. I mean, how can I look from where I've been to how far I've come if where I've been isn't there anymore?

Other things that have changed in the past few months:

They finally tore down the KMB. This was the dance studio/History faculty building and home of the Smith Institute for LDS History. You had to leave the building and walk around the outside and up the steps to get to the other half of the building, and it was always way too hot in half of the rooms. It was about time. I guess if I'd spent a lot of time there, I would be sad to see it go, too, but I always just thought it was a really annoying building to try to find anything in. Apparently, they expanded the Richards Building (one of the athletic buildings) to make room for the offices that would be displaced by the KMB demolition, another change that has happened since I went to BYU.

The Tanner building is huge! It was just a square box with window stripes when I went there, and now there is a huge addition on the west side, plus a fancy underground parking garage to the north and new entrance from Bulldog. Wow. Here's a live feed with a view of the new addition.

B-77 was condemned many years ago and is finally being demolished in three stages. Lately, both side arms of the U-shaped building have been removed, the ground has been leveled, and a steel frame of a new building is under construction in their place. Does anybody know what they are building? My prediction would be that they are making a new home for IT services--a prediction based on my main project as a staff-member for OIT in 2006. They'd have to make a new building to move all the offices to before they could tear down all of B77, which would explain why some of it is still intact. Just a prediction. (The other uses for B77--early childhood education and the cooking and sewing labs were relocated when the JFSB was completed, which by the way was just in time for me to graduate). I wonder why I don't feel sad about losing B77 like I do about the Cannon Center? I probably spent just as much time there...

LDS Philanthropies has a fancy new building next to the B77 project. (Seen under construction in the above picture). Oh, and most of Deseret Towers have been demolished, but I don't think I ever set foot in one of them more than once. I think the Faculty Office Building is being torn down too.

What else has changed?

I have to admit that BYU's use of space is pretty impressive. They don't bother keeping old run-down buildings, and they consider the cost-effectiveness of new buildings versus maintaining really old buildings. And no department ever becomes homeless in the process. You gotta hand it to BYU for continuing to move forward--even though it means that I get left behind!