Ali Edwards' Book

We will be offering autographed copies of Ali's latest book, Life Artist:Scrapbooking Life's Journey. We will try to have that posted tonight.
If you are a subscriber and would like to add a copy of the book to your order, please feel free to send us an email to that effect. Otherwise, the book will be on sale with the October kit, Tara Whitney's Favorite Products on Oct 1st at 12am Central Standard Time.

We will be offering autographed copies of Ali's latest book, Life Artist:Scrapbooking Life's Journey. We will try to have that posted tonight.

If you are a subscriber and would like to add a copy of the book to your order, please feel free to send us an email to that effect. Otherwise, the book will be on sale with the October kit, Tara Whitney's Favorite Products on Oct 1st at 12am Central Standard Time.

A somewhat photo and heading east

This was the one photo we got with my cellphone of Alice with Meredit Brooks. Pretty worthless really. If you look very carefully you can see Meredith kneeling down in the front of the stage. The little girl with her is Alice. Yeah, pretty lame. I just bought a new phone (I definitely am not one for the lastest and greatest in technology but when your phone won't hold a charge for more than 5 minutes and they no longer make a battery for that model, it's time to cave.) so hopefully the camera on it will be better. I'm also excited because it has a PDA on it that will sync up with my computer so I will now always have my calendar with me and won't have to worry about forgetting something between where I am at the moment and when I get home.

I wanted to let everyone know that we are heading out of town on Saturday. We are off to New York and New Jersey for 10 days. We usually head east during the summer to visit family but we held off this year until now so that we could go to Scott's 20th reunion at West Point.
Our absence will not affect the site in anyway. I'll still be available to answer emails and Wendy, Trish and Pam will be here getting all the orders out. If you have a question about your kit or anything along those line, it would probably be best to email either Wendy at wendy@cocoadaisy.com or mailbox@cocoadaisy.com. That way we can be sure to meet your needs as quickly as possible.

I'm very excited for our trip other than the trying to get everything squared away and everything packed in the next 36 hours. Actually I guess I'm excited to just be there. Traveling with Alice is always an adventure. Jack was always so good every time we flew. He is literally a world traveler so he has been on many a plane in his short lifetime. When he was small, other passengers and the crew always commented on how good he was.

Alice. A whole different story. In March I took the kids to Georgia and she was so awful that the woman across the aisle started screaming "SHUT UP!!!" at her. (I figure karma will catch up with that woman...). There were also many a flight that involved countless blowout diapers, vomit and baby wrestling. Oh, and she will NOT sleep no matter how long the flight. I will be very glad to be in Newark airport even if it will be after midnight.

My parents are coming up from Georgia and we will be staying with my sister and her family. Then we take off on Thursday and the kids stay with Marmee (that would be grandma) and my sister. I'm going to go play with Kristina in the city on Thursday and then Scott will meet me and we'll stay with some friends there.
The next day it's off to West Point. Oddly enough I went to high school there (and 1st, 2nd and 3rd grades) at the same time Scott was a cadet. My dad was actually in charge of his regiment. BUT, I didn't meet Scott until we were both in Georgia 5 years later. My parents were married there and we were married in the same chapel as them. For Army brats, that's serious tradition! For me, even though we no longer know anyone there, it's like going home. It's hard to believe we haven't been there in 10 years...

I'll be sure to tell you all about it!

Could this scare you?

I just got in and noticed that there was a sign up about 20 feet to the left of our house where a future bike path will run. It will cross thorough the green space behind our house.
This is what it said:

CAUTION: There has been a recent cougar sighting in this area. Do not let small children and pets out of your sight.

WHAT!?!?!!? So I called my next door neighbor who is on the city council and yep, last night a man who lives on the other side of the green space just below our house saw a cougar in the woods. I guess there will be no more playing outside for Jack and Alice for a while....

Definitely freaky...

A mini from Tara's kit

I hope everyone had a fun weekend. Ours was busy (nothing different there!). I thought that maybe we would actually get out into our neglected yard, but alas, it continues to be hopelessly neglected. I did at least remember to water the front garden but then forgot to turn the sprinkler off until 7 hours later (luckily Scott didn't notice). I guess there will be no bulb planting again this year. Maybe next year...

I did make it to a crop this weekend! I had to miss the first 6 and a half hours but I made it all the same! And, I was on a creative tear. Let me preface this by saying I definitely fall into the slow scrapbooker category and I have created ONE layout (yes, that was the correct number) in the past 3 months. Somehow scrapbooking business does not translate into much scrapbooking as had been my thought prior to starting Cocoa Daisy.

But... I was so inspired by what Tara brought together in her kit that I created not just two layouts but also an entire mini-album!

And let me just say at this point, that if I had tried out for the Daisy Divas, I probably wouldn't have picked me. Just something to keep in mind while scrutinizing my mini. I wanted to post it to give you more of a feel for the kit.

The good news is that I think you can probably expect to see some amazing designs from not only Tara Whitney but from some of your other favorite names as well!
Stay tuned....

Oh, and the other really pathetic thing is that I had no recent photos with me (I guess I would have had to print some out at some point in the past few months for that to have happened) so the mini is filled with photos of Alice from last September.

Well, we were going to take photos tonight, but the product that we were missing was supposed to be here. But, it's still missing. Sigh...
Hopefully tomorrow it will be the mail gods will shine on us, or we'll just have to figure something else out! I guess this is what can happen when everything is brand spanking new.

So tonight the little girl next door asked Jack if he knew what puke meant. He said, "Yeah, it's what Alice does whenever DADDY drives to the coast." Too funny...

Karen Russell and the November kit

I was on the phone today with Karen and we were doing a final review of the November kit. We were both so excited by the time we hung up the phone about everything that's going to be in it! It's going to be a really fun kit. I love all the products Karen picked out, but then again, I always love love love everything she does! This kit will have a very elegant, classic look to it which is about as opposite as you can get to Tara's kit. And somehow I think they will balance each other out perfectly! Look for lots of Karen's new products to be in the kit. I've heard from many people that they love the Narratives line but have a very difficult time finding it. Well look no further! And... as the Daisy Divas will be working with prototypes (the products haven't been released yet) we will probably be one of the very first to be offering the new line.

Today when I picked Alice up from school her teacher told me she spent all morning asking everyone if they liked her new outfit. Already a clothes horse at 2!
And this is what Alice said to me when I picked her up
.
"I probably need a new pull-up..."

I think if a sentence like that is coming out of her mouth, she probably should not be wearing a pull-up!

We had her about 90% potty trained until she went to Utah on the 1st and it's been downhill since then. We leave for NY and NJ in a week and a half so I'm going to try my best to not stress about it until we get home. Or, better yet, see if my mother can work her magic while we are out there! If anyone has any sure proof ways to potty train, I'm all ears! Before becoming a parent I always figured that potty-training and teenage years would be the most challenging events of parenthood. So far potty-training is not disappointing.
I fear those teenage years.

New Hats

My friend Wendy had gone to Portland earlier this week and I had asked her to pick up new winter hats at Hannah Anderson (love that store!) and this is what she came back with.
They were both very pleased with their hats. Jack, however, was willing to put his hat and mittens away after trying the try-on. Alice was a bit more taken with hers.
This is Alice later that night playing outside. Note: hat has never come off her head. The next morning we went to Portland and the tuque was still on her head and remained there the rest of the day. As I didn't want to deal with a screaming fit, I never even brushed her hair yesterday(I'm sure my mother is loving reading that as my own hair could not be brushed unless is was with my Snoopy brush and then there were hairclips to match my vitamins!). On our way home last night at 10 o'clock, I looked back at her and there she was, sound asleep with the hat still on.

And this was this morning. Making pancakes in the hat!

After her bath this morning the hat mysteriously disappeared and will now not materialize until the weather is actually below 60 degrees.

Casey came through

Can you tell I'm obsessing about the whole photo thing? But... I just checked and the paper's photographer just posted the cutest photo of Alice!!! No Meredith Brooks in the photo, but it is a great picture!
http://gazettetimes.mycapture.com/mycapture/enlarge.asp?userphoto=0&image=16111000&event=329187

Newspaper policies

So yesterday my mother suggested I call the paper to see if they had any photos of Alice. I just got off the phone with the photographer and turns out he did! That's the good news... And they would have run with one of those except they can't publish a photo without getting the names of those in it (and he couldn't find us that night). And... if they don't publish them they won't allow them to be sold! AAARRGGHHH!

I did do quite a bit of cajoling on the phone and got him to promise to look through his photos to see if he had any of Alice that he hadn't yet deleted. IF he does, he said he'd post them on the web and that way I can purchase them. Keep your fingers crossed!

In the meantime, here's a link to the photo that did run. If you look wwwwaaaayyyy to the lower right you can see Alice's torso and legs in a little striped dress. Oh well...

http://gazettetimes.mycapture.com/mycapture/enlarge.asp?userphoto=0&theway=next&picnum=6&image=16089007&thispage2=&return=#show

This was the caption:
Meredith Brooks plays for the crowd and the children on the stage at Corvallis' 150th Birthday Celebration at Riverfront Park on Tuesday. In the middle of Brooks' set, a little girl ran up on stage to dance which prompted Brooks to invite all the children in the audience to join her on stage as she sang.

First Day of School and my little groupie

Yesterday was the first day of school for both Jack and Alice. I now have them both going to preschool 5 days a week. I was really apprehensive about making the switch from having someone in the house caring for them while I work to having them both gone every morning. They are both loving it but it's another step towards growing up and no longer needing their mommy.

Everything went great as far as Jack was concerned. And I'm just going to think that it was a false start with Alice yesterday. She just turned 2 and a half last week and they had her in with 3 and 4 year olds. She can totally hold her own but that's sort of besides the point. Then they put her in with 4 & 5 year olds for the T-Th session while all her little buddies were in the class for the little ones. I went in this morning thinking I was going to have to yank her. Luckily it turned out that the director had somehow thought her birthday was 03/04 instead of 03/05. She switched her to the other class and Alice and her buddies were all very happy with the change. WHEW!!!

Tonight our little town of Corvallis held a celebration for its 150th birthday. They had bouncy houses for kids, birthday cake, wine, beer, gelato and munchies. We thought the kids might enjoy it so we headed down. As you can imagine, with anything free, the lines were horrendous. We did the bouncy houses, stood in line for cake and then found seats on the grass in basically the second row. Then the mayor got up and spoke, then the President of Oregon State, then the Oregon State baseball coach and by then I was ready to pack it in. Alice had decided that the best way to make it through the "entertainment" was by launching herself into my lap and pummeling my stomach with her sandaled feet. NICE... After about 75 rounds of that I really didn't think my stomach could take much more. But then the real entertainment began. I had no idea, but apparently Meredith Brooks (http://www.meredithbrooks.com/) is from Corvallis and came home just for this. During her second number (I'm a Bitch) her 3 year old son got up and was dancing on the stage with her. Next thing I know, Alice was taking off for the stage. I started going off after her and Meredith said to let her go and then invited her up onstage! So there is my 2 year old up on stage dancing with a multi-platinum artist!!! Oh, and are you wondering where the pictures are of it? Yeah, as we were getting ready to go, I went back into the house to get the camera and promptly forgot what I went in for.

No photos.

Oh, and would I be in the scrapbook business? Can't tell you how badly I was kicking myself, because... it gets even better!

Meredith is releasing a kids album later this month (we bought it and I would highly recommend it) so after her Bitch number she launched into kiddie tunes (a slightly ironic turn). She then invited all of the children up onto the stage. One of her songs was "What's Your Name." She had the kids all say their names into the microphone. When it was Alice's turn she said her name so faintly that no one could hear it. So Meredith stopped everything, brought Alice to the front of the stage, knelt down beside her and had the crowd quiet down so we could hear Alice. And then Alice shouted out her name. The crowd was clapping and laughing. It was just great. And there was no camera in my hand.... Bad, mommy, bad!

I'm hoping when I open the local paper tomorrow she'll be on the cover or when I turn on the news tonight she'll be there. Fingers are crossed...

I still can't believe it. My 2 year old is a groupie!!!

Weekend fun and finally starting a blog!

Well... I'm finally going to dive into the world of blogs! I think I've avoided starting this for a while because I decided that my first entry had to be something profound. Now I've decided that my first entry should just be...
We had a fun weekend around here. Work Friday night, but that's the norm. Saturday morning I actually made it out of the house without two small children in tow, got my high maintenance coffee drink (what's wrong with a half-caf, skinny, sugar-free vanilla latte, aka, the "akward bitch drink" according to my British sister-in-law), and headed to the farmer's market. The market is definitely one of my highlights of Oregon summers. There is nothing like coming home with a half flat of fresh berries. I basically go into mourning when they are no longer available.
Then it was back to work for the rest of the day. In the late afternoon we headed downtown for the twice yearly wine walk. All the stores have wineries in and do tastings. It's a big social event and so fun just to be out walking around, running into friends and discovering new wines. We met us with some friends and then had sushi afterwards. It was a perfect evening (followed by a few hours of work!).

The next morning I was up bright and early, and on the road by 6 am (ouch!). But... to be greeted by a view of the sun rising over Mt Jefferson with a sliver of moon above it and the morning star above that, definitely made the 5:30 alarm worth it.

So what was I doing up so early on a Sunday morning? Antiquing of course! I met up with the Edwards, Emily, Jill and Paolo to head to the Coburg Antiques Fair. I was in search of chairs to reupholster and instead I found the coolest turquoise buffet that is going to look great in our living room that we are just beginning the process of redecorating. And... I found some really fun ephemera for kits! We had a really fun day; so nice to get together with friends.

Hope your weekend was a good one too!