road trip

back in may, christy & i took a little road trip, thru corn fields & cattle and found a couple cool stores to visit and learn. We met two great ladies along the way and ate some yummy ribs.

here is susie kreais

she owns SCRAP HAPPY in New Riegel, Ohio.

Isnt this just the cutest building ever? Susie has the cutest store, jam packed full of the latest & greatest paper goodies and tools. She showed us her big accu-cut and while we drooled over the crown books she was making, she filled us in a lots of little tips and was generous with advice and even hooked us up with Debbie Zegarra...Debbie came to visit us a couple weeks ago all the way from Kentucky and helped us get some great product for the store.

Debbie knows Yvonne. Who is my Worldwin Papers Design Team Manager - what a small world!

This is where we ate ribs - the New Riegel Cafe - its right across the street from Susie. She's Lucky!

After lunch, we're off to Columbus...

but not before we passed thru SOUTH PARK---LOL

this is Tonya - and she owns RED LETTER JOURNALS. Tonya is a CRICUT expert and we may just have to have her visit for a workshop! Thanks Tonya, for sharing your awesome store with us! What an inspiring place to hang out.

Red Letter Journals is located in trendy GROVE CITY, OHIO.

And guess what Steph / Angela / Yvonne...THERE IS A TIM HORTONS THERE!

family photos

i'm the picture taker in house. i rarely ever jump in and try to be in the picture. i hate that i often dont photograph as well i used to. but it really sucks that down the road, in the future, my kids and their kids and their kids, are not going to have many pictures of me to look at.

I hate that thought.

that they wont know who i am.

pictures tell stories. everyday moments.

as i look through the pictures of my youth, my parents and my ancestors, even without any scrapbooks around, i am able to put myself inside the photograph and imagine what was happening at that single moment when the flash blub went off.

so - lesson for the day.

dont be a camera hog.

let someone else take the pictures. do it often. even if you arent at your best. even if you are feeling ugly.

thanks denise. for taking my camera away from me. for this picture. i love this.

well shut my mouth!

i go from saying N O T H I N G to saying all kinds of stuff...but let me tell you this week was interesting...here are some pics of it so far :-)


matt gets into his first scrap. with another kid. his age. who has a stick



yesterday & the day before. hail storms - wicked!


yesterday. at dusk. after hail storm move on.

visions for tomorrow

you all know i'm a sci-fi buff

sci-fi channel recently started airing commercial for http://www.visionsfortomorrow.net/

so i clicked.

new arrivals daily!

yum - i forgot how much i loved getting new shipments - its like christmas here e v e r y d a y!

just an up date on what's arrived:

artsy.licious/unity stamp/tinkering ink/melissa frances/tim holtz/teresa collins/pinecone press/crate paper/art institute/ranger/tsukineko/zsiage/tonic/clearsnap/judikins/kokuyo/zettiology/paper artsy/

oh i'm sorry christy! lying around on some beach = you get to miss out on all this fun...

the artsy.licious line by Melody Ross is T.O. D.I.E. F.O.R. love it so much we ordered more of it today. this stuff is so hot.

we have a few plans in the works: like happy hours, treasure hunts and more contests.

If you are local to the wooster area - keep an eye out for coupon savings in flyers & publications around town...there is a 25% to be had if you can find one!

See you REAL soon!

calling all crafters! contest! contest! contest!

ok- so we're having a little contest of our own.

1. make a project ... anything goes! mix it up - be creative!
2. using any one (or more) of the manufacturers listed over there at the sidebar
(please use currently available product, old product that is hard to find will be automatic disqualification)
3. send a good nice bright photo of it (outdoors if you can-best light) to:
create@thepinktomato.com
4. see if you can win!

25 prize boxes of crafty goodness will be given away :
20 - $20.00 retail value goodie boxes for top 20 projects.
5 - $50.00 retail value for the top 5 projects that we use for feature workshops!

DEADLINES: email your submission by 7/4/08
CONTEST RESULTS will be posted on 7/25/08 here on the PT blog and on the PT website, http://www.thepinktomato.com/

winners will be notified by email with further instructions on how to send in your original projects.

please note, however, by sending your winning submission to us, means you understand that the projects become the property of Crafty Girls LLC for its use in store displays, advertising and/or workshops. Full credit for your design will be given to you on all in-store & print & web advertising.

Paper Crazy Summer Challenge #1

dont be lame.

enter the challenge!

Next Blog >>

you see the little next blog link up there? have you ever clicked it?

i did

nice to know who your neighbors are.

pretty interesting :0)

learning to fly...

i rescued a baby woodpecker from the drooling jaws of my big red dog today.

ok. so that was rather dramatic ...

the real story is that this little guy was seeing stars after he flew into my big sliding glass door at the back yard, of which, lying on the deck was my big red dog, jack.

i heard the thump. i got up and looked. and there was this little guy trying to get his wits about him again. and there lay jack. just looking at him. too dang lazy to get up and even sniff it.

So I opened the door --- yelled at jack - even though he didnt do anything. he knew i was yelling at him in case he even thought about anything evil. I went back into the laundry room, grabbed a towel, went back & picked up the little guy and moved him to my front porch.

(shut it! i know!! it needs painted!)

It took him a little while to start moving around and then he hopped over and took ahold of one of the porch spindles, you know, how woodpeckers do. i went back to check on him about half hr later and he was still there - another half hour - he was gone.

I just hope he got up and boogied on his own --- and not in the drooling jaws of some fat country cat

HI!

I'm Jodi Kennedy and this is Christy Hoffman

and we are

THE CRAFTY GIRLS!!!

(in unison while the crowd roars)

thats what was running thru my head yesterday afternoon when we had to stand before the design board for the City of Wooster to present our signage designs.

they looked at us like we were about to break out in some high powered rock concert!

But in reality we felt the scrutiny of their eyeballs peering at our design like they were LOOKING for something to be wrong with it!

But we got approval - no questions asked.

CHECK!

what was lost is found...

here is a small sample of what i thought i lost...if i seem like a ridiculously overly proud mom...that cuz I AM! this is thoms 4th soccer season - he is 2 year younger than his team mates yet he rules the field.

I photoshopped these by making a duplicate layer, taking the bottom layer and doing a zoom blur on it at 22. then i took the top layer - made it b&w, and set transparency to about 80ish - the two here are at different settings - i like the 2nd better...

anyway - many more where these came from and I am so thankful to DISKINTERNALS who made the software to UNERASE my flash drive! I love you.

WWP/TPMS Summer contest

go here for the details

C O N T E S T

awesome prize packages and a good excuse to get some summer projects done!

leave me a comment and let me know if you are going to enter - I'm curious!!

Good luck!

you know that sinking feeling you get...

when you JUST DELETED 4 GB's worth of pictures from your flash drive after you thought you had successfully transfered them to your 500 gb hard drive?

oh

well I DO!!

I've been sick to my stomach for the past 3 days. I filled up my 4 gb flash (yeah can you believe that?) with all those soccer & baseball action shots. I got some really amazing shots of thom in action - just amazing.

Well i got a new external hd to hold all my pics - i thought I had dumped the card on it so i hit the DELETE button.

I went back to the HD a day or 2 later and N O T H I N G
i wanted to die.

I, in my tech junkie fashion, decided to look for a flash recovery program and i found it here - it is scanning my drive as we speak and I am seeing all those pictures come back

I swear. everyone should have this. it is the best 40.00 I am about to spend. (i'm on the free version right now to see if it actually works. it does.)

HERE: http://www.diskinternals.com/order.shtml

testing 123 - is this thing working?

oh. hello!

i'm looking around and thinking this place looks oddly familiar!

its blogdom, i know this place!

I canNOT believe its been so long since I was here last. Things have been crazy - obviously...

soccer & baseball season started again. and we have 2 leagues of soccer and 3 leagues of baseball - peewee is half over and they had all-star tryouts last night for a traveling team - thom made it - but i had no doubt he would. he's an amazing ball player for a 9 yr old. then we'll be in little league last half of the summer. AND fall soccer.

with baby in tow, i'm forging ahead full force with Pink Tomato...time is drawing near and I'm beginning to get nervous and all. wondering if i can handle the added obligation to my long list. We turned our store signage in for approval and we have that meeting on the 10th - but let me just say - the HCIC (Head Chick In Charge) said it was BEAUTIFUL!
we're ordering product and this coming week will be checking in merchandise and loading up the computer.

we're also thinking of opening a second location of Expert T's. o.m.g. our shop is non stop hustle. I forced joe into finding himself a good assistant, so I called my friend CHRISTY at SNELLING STAFFING (who just so happens to be my PT pardner) and she's working to find him another "joe".

I wish we could clone ourselves - we'd accomplish so much more!

These next few months will really test my will - I am sure its going to be rough but I work much better under pressure ;-)

anyway - hope you all havent given up on me.