Movin' and a groovin'....

Yes, we're movin' and a groovin' all the way from Nashville to Clovis, California. So, here we go with a new adventure!



Scott makes everything fun, and the ABF Dude was happy to get in the moment when we told him that he was going to be on camera for a video. Scott made a great barter deal with the ABF company and has been doing a time lapse on the whole thing!



Purge, baby purge! That's my motto... I am going through every single craft bin and re-organizing everything.



Does anybody remember the Favor Maker? I love this little machine! Now, all I need is a party....



Wow! An old craft book from my childhood. It's GIANT! Love it... have to craft something from it. Maybe the hair curlers keeper made out of a bleach bottle???



Random crafting....Robyn came to the rescue and picked up tons of fabric and craft tools. We couldn't resist a crafty moment on the driveway when she needed to know how to work the die cutting machine.



Jammie lightened our load by taking away extra photography equipment. Thank goodnes for her roomy car.

I did it! All my crafty stuff is snug as a bug and ready to rock-n-roll.



Finally, five re-lo-cubes are full and we shut the doors, and began our journey across America to our new home and new jobs with Duncan Enterprises....

Before we left Nashville, the gang from work gave us a going away party in downtown Nashville. I rode a mechanical bull, and of course, had to tell Elvis goodbye...


Of course we had to make a stop at a Cracker Barrel for some snacks. Scott got the extra large
size of Smarties...they were about the size of a nickel.



We stopped in Oklahoma to visit family, and found the coolest t-shirts that were tie-dyed at our fave pizza joint in Norman. Mine's purple and pink!




We stopped at the Cadillac Ranch and had a blast with a video we did for www.IloveToCreate.com in graffiti on one of the cars with Tulip paints.


The view from our balcony in Sedona was absolutely incredible. We got to meet up with some Arizona friends, and had an amazing dinner by a babbling brook filled with ducks.


We were both mesmerized by these windmills in Tehachepi, CA. There were too many to count!



The crazy octagon-dome house near Yucca, CA. Octa-home...not to be confused with Octa-Mom.
Sorry.


We made it! The cubes are unpacked, and we are settling into our cute little house at Harlan Ranch in Clovis.


We decided to take time out from unpacking to check out the Clovis farmers market tonight. Yeahhh!!! The band was decent, it wasn't toooo hot, and it was fun to check out our new neighbors.



I loved these jugs of fresh flowers. Scott loves, loves, loves sunflowers.



And I love Austin Powers. How funny is this? He was in front of a darling tea room and I couldn't resist the kodak moment. Grooooovy baby...



Snagged some organic garlic.



Scarfed down some yummmmy corn on the cob. Woohooo!



And the trees in the parking lot were amazing.

Now, back to the unpacking and getting ready for our new jobs on Monday. I'll keep you posted!

BIG ANNOUNCEMENT!

Woohoo! I’m ready for my big announcement, and I hope you’re as excited as I am. Are you ready? Is your seatbelt fastened? Okay, here goes….

Scott and I have both accepted positions for dream jobs at one of the most respected, highly motivated and successful companies in the crafts and hobbies industries…

Duncan Enterprises!

My new position is Lead Craft Designer/Spokesperson and Scott is their new Photographer/Videographer. Yeah!! What we bring to them is a media team that produces dynamic craft/textile project designs, photography and videos for marketing Duncan products.

If you have followed my career through the years, you know that I have been associated with Duncan and their products for over 15 years. Their Tulip 3-D Fashion Paints were the beginnings of my history as a fashion art designer. In the early 90’s I had my own cottage industry selling "Glad Rags" appliqué patterns I designed and sold to Hobby Lobby Stores, which consumers painted around the edges with 3-D paint. I don’t know just how may sweatshirt models I painted for the Hobby Lobby Stores, but my partner Lisa Selvey and I filled up our trunks over and over again to deliver them.

My big adventure with Duncan and their products really took my life by storm when my friend Darsee called and said that a producer from the Aleene’s Creative Living television show had called the Hobby Lobby corporate offices and wanted someone to come be a guest on the show, and the projects had to feature Duncan/Aleene’s products. So, off we went to Buellton, California to show how to paint on shirts, glue everything in sight, and decoupage anything that wasn’t moving! Soon, Darsee and I were on the show twice a week and co-authored over a dozen books featuring Duncan products for several years. We had a ball!

Before I knew what was happening, I had an offer from Tiffany Windsor to be one of the Hosts of Aleene’s Creative Living, and I took the challenge, moved to California and became part of the family. Being with Aleene Jackson as a mentor was a life-changing experience.

That’s where I met Scott, as he was a free-lance camera operator on the show periodically. Yeah, yea, this is an old photo from way back then when Scott had more than a soul patch. (tee hee! He's gonna hate this.) After the show was canceled, Scott and I continued to produce instructional videos for the crafts and hobbies industry and we have done several projects for Duncan through design work, magazine ads, and videos.

And my love for glue products has not waned through the years. As you can tell by one of my latest books, “The Crafter’s Guide to Glue,” I reeeeally LOVE GLUE!

It has been so refreshing to work with a company that has a soul as great as their reputation. It’s amazing to be greeted with hugs and genuine smiles and kind hearts every time we are with the Duncan family, including Larry. We appreciate the hard work this company has put into the over 60 years of dedication to the consumers and employees and stockholders of this dynamic company. We are very proud to represent them. That's me with my new partner in all things crafts at the top of the blog; Alyson Dias, who is our Director of Marketing Communications.

And yes! They DO know how wild and crazy I am…(giggle) I just hope they know what they’re getting into by me being a spokesperson for them. (more giggles) Plus, just think about this…they’ve got crazy crafty chicks like Cheryl Ball, Kathy Murillo, Traci Bautista and other fabulous Designers on their team, so they can handle ME! (even more giggles)

So! It just feels like homecoming for us! We are thrilled and happy to be joining the Duncan Enterprise team for the next chapter in this crazy crafty ride for our next big adventure!

Now, the packing begins…. Stay tuned!

Big NEWS is coming....

I have BIG NEWS COMING SOON!
Look for an announcement to tell you the amazing things happening in my life. I'm so excited, and hope I don't explode!!

Call or Listen on Sunday!

Guests on Sunday include me and Phyllis Dobbs, so listen in, call in, or chat with us live. Just go to the Inspired at Home Radio page and follow the easy instructions to join this creative mix of crafty gals!

Tune In to "INSPIRED AT HOME"

On Sunday, May 24th, tune in to "Inspired at Home" radio and listen to me being interviewed by Tiffany Windsor as we discuss the latest book that I created designs for entitled, "Cookbooking" by Barbara Winkler, a former executive editor of Family Circle magazine.

If you are like most people, you have a ton of loose magazine clippings and hand scribbled recipes, or cards that people have given you over the years, that are thrown into boxes and notebooks. Mine were the same way, but not any more. I figured out that I could design all kinds of creative ways to categorize my recipes and be able to find my favorite Stuffed Shrooms recipe when I need it.

One of my favorite scrapbooks I designed was for my Mom’s 70th birthday. My entire family participate by writing about their favorite moments with my mom’s cooking or their favorite dish. Then I made a notebook with retro fabric, tons of ribbon, grommets, and 3 binder rings. You’ll love it! Best part? Some of my mom’s recipes are in there! There are ways to give recipes as a gift, and how to create an heirloom cookbook, and even a kid’s lunchbox recipe organizer.

I'm looking forward to the show, as this is quite a homecoming for me, with Tiffany being the mainstay of the "Aleene's Creative Living" television show when I was one of the hosts. She is the daughter of Aleene Jackson, the queen of Tacky Glue, and part of an extremely creative family including her sister Heidi Borchers. Julianna Hudgins is a co-host of this creative lifestyle program that treats listeners to this lively duo's ideas including creative tips, project ideas, product reviews and creative lifestyle interviews.

I can't wait! Join me, and call in to: (646) 929-2406 with your crafty questions and comments.

Paducah Quilt Show or BUST!

My trip to Paducah, Kentucky for the 25th Annual American Quilt Society Show was jam-packed with inspiration from the plethora of quilts, people and products. After driving for over 2 hours from Nashville, and across the state line into Kentucky, my parking karma paid off as my itty bitty Yaris snuggled into a spot amidst dozens of buses, up close to the Expo Center.

Paducah is a mecca for quilters and quilt enthusiasts from all over the world. Last year I came away with bags of fabric, patterns, tools, pages of sketches, and inspiration for new products. And this year proved to be even better!

Equipped with my camera phone, shoulder bag, a banana, and list of events, I paid my admission, got my hand stamped, and quickly made my way to the Simplicity/Wrights booth to check out the crowd. It was so crazy, I couldn’t even get close enough to see our new machines being demonstrated! I could only see the tops of the heads of Mimi and Michele and Darlene and the other gals working the booth. No wonder, with the show attracting between 30,000 to 35,000 consumers with an addiction to quilts!

So, I headed to the quilt displays and became enthralled with the creativity and amazing art represented in every quilt flown in from all over the world. These quilt artists compete for over $127,000 in prizes for hand sewn and machine sewn quilts. Bonnie Browning, executive show director, said that 388 quilts from 47 states and 15 different countries competed in the 25th annual show this year with the Best in Show winner this year coming from Australia.


I picked up this funny quilt block to make a pillow for my mom. She has enough fabric to make a quilt for everyone in her county!


One of these days I'm gonna save my money for one of the antiques sewing machines like my great gramma used to piece quilts back in the day.

Okay, I'm not sure what I'm going to do with this block of sayings, but I'll think of something.

And this block is going to become a cute flag for my mom to fly outside her little hand-quided machine quilting shop, Pearl's Quilts!

There are over 400 Vendors vying for the attention and over $20 Million dollars that will be spent by consumers at this show. And I was there to spend money as I started the hunt for the coolest products I could find.

Also on my to do list was a birthday gift for my mom. She was complaining to me recently about her dull scissors, so I was on the hunt! Well, come to find out, the AQS (American Quilt Society) had these beautiful scissors for a fund raiser, and they even came in a gold box! I will add them to a bounty of quilting goodies for her birthday and enjoy her squeals when she opens the package!



Of course, I had to have my daily coffee fix, so I found the local hang at Kirchhoff's Bakery in an old building with the bakery on one side and the deli on another. Mmmmm. I also had a little personal coconut cream pie that would bring a tear to your eye it was so good. (Almost as good as my mom’s.)

High on the top of my list was to visit the Paducah Quilt Museum. And I was enthralled with the beauty, the colors, craftsmanship, and art that I experienced in viewing the quilts. My quiet enjoyment was slightly squelched by a very obnoxious curator who went on and on about their rules of not touching the quilts. But, I will never forget how much appreciation I had for the quilt artists and how much love they incorporated in the works of art in textiles.









The cute boutiques and gift shops in Paducah, Kentucky are one of a kind. The artists are diverse and their creativity captured me. There were steel sculptures, broom makers, glass blowers, and jewelry makers, just to name a few. I peered through the window and watched a man make these amazing pecan pies that made my mouth water.




I had a 15 mile drive to get to my hotel at Harrah’s in Metropolis, Illinois and this ginormous blue bridge I had to drive over was insane! It was crazy cool and scary at the same time. The room was wonderful, the food was excellent and the bath was divine at the end of the day. I would definitely stay there again.

Friday was fabulous at the show, as I met Robyn at the coffee shop and we made our way through all 400 of the vendor’s booths. I saw my mom’s quilting idol, Kaye Wood, who has the Kaye’s Quilting Friends award-winning television program. She was busy at a booth demonstrating and signing autographs.

Some of the quilts took my breath away with the details, like this one of a kitchen scene. Absolutely unbelievable.

Robyn and I walked down to the historic district and became absorbed with one of the local antique shops.



For some reason the groups of collectibles caught my eye. Robyn, who is an amazing photographer, was in heaven.








At the end of the day I headed back to Nashville, but I had ONE more stop…..the giant, uber-famous Hancock’s of Paducah. I have never seen anything quite like it. It was a fabric feeding frenzy. Women were everywhere, with carts full of fabric. I had to pick up some Michael Miller trims that match some projects I’m working on.

Well, that’s it. My trip to was good, and I picked up some good ideas as the Research & Design Manager for the Simplicity Creative Group. Now, it’s back to work, write the reports, and look forward to next year!