Just a little hello . . .

Hi!  I have been the absolute worst blogger of late.  Not a lot has happened.  The kids started school.  Faith in 1st grade, Drew in 3 day a week, 1/2 day preschool.  Faith is loving school and doing fabulous.  Drew is doing much better this year.  Only major mishaps have been Drew broke his nose this past week.  Poor kid was running, tripped over his own feet and landed face first on the playhouse.  😦  But he doing great. 

The retreat is coming up next weekend.  I have a few spots left if anyone is interested!  It is Thursday, Sept. 23-Sunday, Sept. 26. If you are interested, email me!  mandiedillard at yahoo dot com

Happy Scrappy,
Mandie

Retreat. . . .

Ok, so I have been out of town so much I let the deadline slip by me.  So I am extending it through Sunday at midnight!  Come scrap your pants off, eat lots of food, chocolate, candy, whatever, and generally have a fabulous time for only $125!  Check out more details in the post below.  Email me if you have any more questions! 

There is only TEN spots left!

Happy Scrappy,
Mandie

It’s Retreat Time!

Good morning.  I know.  I’m a bad blogger.  So much has happened since I last really blogged!  Not only have I been traveling a lot, but my baby turned 4! FOUR!  Scott says I can’t call him a baby anymore.  Boo!  But isn’t he precious!   Such a water baby!

Alright I’m done gushing!  On to the retreat!  The retreat date is set for Thursday, September 23-Sunday, September 26 in Temple, GA!  (located about 1 hour east from Atlanta!)

My retreats are all-inclusive! 
That means:
• 9 meals! Lunch and Dinner Thursday , Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner Friday & Saturday and Brunch on Sunday.
• 3 nights of lodging! 2600 sq ft. split level home fully renovated for complete scrapbook fun. Every person gets their own bed!!!!
• Goodies Bag! More goodies than you could hope and chances to win lots more!
• Classes! I do not want to overwhelm you with lots of classes since we came to crop our pants off, so I’m only offering two classes, but they are great classes! These classes can be paid for when you pay the remainder of your trip.
• Non-stop cropping! You will get 4 feet of cropping space along with a black leather-rolling chair and Tag Along drink holder/trash bag.
• Games and Contests! Come prepared for bingo, scramble words and much more on Saturday night!!!!
• Chocolate, Candy & oh did I mention Chocolate?!! Unlimited chocolate and candy all weekend.

Does all of this sound fabulous?  I know, it does!!!  I am offering a discount if you pay your $50 deposit by August 8!  So that means if you pay by August 8th then you can come for $125!!!!!  After August 8th, the retreat is back up to $150!  There are only 14 spot available so you better hurry!  Now I’m sure you are asking yourself, How do I pay for this?  I’ve made it very simple!  There are paypal buttons up at the top, left of my blog!  I will send a confirmation once I receive the deposit or entire amount!  If you have any questions, please feel free to email me!!!

I’ve been everywhere man!

You know the song?  Well I have been.  Yikes.  And my camera battery charger was stolen at the airport so I can’t upload photos which is why I haven’t posted in a while.  (insert sad face!)

So since my last post (which I didn’t get the graphic for mother’s day posted.  sorry!) I have been to Donna Downey’s Inspired, then my last show with Rusty Pickle in Buffalo NY, then Orlando with Tattered Angels, then Arlington TX with Melissa Frances, then off for two weeks (Praise God!) then to Chantilly, VA with Melissa Frances, off a week (but was at VBS with my church), then to Atlanta with Melissa Frances!

Wheew!  Only wish I got to scrap during that time.  Sometimes I feel like I’ve lost the love of this industry and its just become a job.  Then I do a layout and remember why I love it!  OOOh I do have a layout to show you!  I did this one for Scrapbook Chicks and they featured it on the Finished in Fifteen!  Take a look:

That used the My Mind’s Eye Jack and Jill line!  I love it!  I love getting that box from Scrapbook Chicks.  It’s like Christmas!  Yay!

Tonight on Scrapbook Chicks blog they are doing a Finished in Fifteen!  It will be great!

So what am I working on now?  Let’s see. . . just booked the fall retreat (more about that in a couple of days), just got my box from Scrapbook Chicks (yay!), oh!, and I am working on Back to School gifts for teachers.  Any fabulous ideas?  I want to do a hybrid card, so I’ll share the art I do for that.  Other than that, I’m golden for another two and a half weeks.  Maybe I can clean my house in that time. Yeah right!

Talk to you soon!  (Maybe tomorrow!)

Happy Scrappy,
Mandie

Just wanted to say Hi!

So. . . .HI!!!!!

I have not been working on anything crafty. Well, I take that back. I participated in Ali Edward’s A Week in the Life. That was a blast. Not just for the preservation of my family’s week but also because I spent a week immersed in photography. I spent the week in full manual mode. I shoot a lot in manual but not ALL the time. It was a true learning experience. I redid some a maternity shoot for a friend. I had shot them about 4 months ago, and had did all the post-production work. But then I lost them. They were eaten by the laptop. Finally found the cd I backed them up onto, but of course it was just the raw images. So I fixed them all and send the cd along. I love photography. This is my favorite photo. It is a technique that at the time I had no idea how to reproduce. But thanks to a friend, now I do! Yay! Sunburst here I come!  So although this isn’t anywhere near perfect, I love it.

Today I am starting Mother’s Day Gifts and end of the year Teacher Gifts. For the both I am going to give y’all my first ever digital download! EEEK! So excited and nervous too! I really hope everyone likes it! Check back tomorrow and it should be live!

If you haven’t yet, check over at the Chick’N Coop blog for some great videos from this past weekend!

I’ve also been working on a few blogs!  Check out my friend Tessa’s blog!  I love the color combo she asked me to use!  While there, click over to her etsy site!  Her flowers rock!

Happy Scrappy,
Mandie

On the Air

I can’t believe I haven’t blogged about this yet! But the new fabulous design team I am on for Two Chicks is going LIVE tonight with a show on Ustream! Check out the wonderfully cute blog with all the details!

If you miss it, you can check it out on the blog tomorrow!

Happy Scrappy,
Mandie

Where have I been?

Oh my I have been busy. And very little of it had to do with scrapping. Let’s see I’ve traveled for Rusty Pickle and met some fabulous friends in Kentucky. Got to hang out with one of my favorite people, Kim. Then I had the retreat. I met some totally fabulous new friends, heard the word vagina about 1000 times thanks to my favorite labor & delivery nurse, learned a great photo trick from my new favorite photographer friend Amy, ate like a rock star and generally had the best weekend in a long time!

Then my beautiful Faith was in Future Little Miss Hartford. She won best dressed, best on-stage answer, and 1st runner up. She had a blast. It was like her entire life was training for this! Fab! (pics to come!)

Oh, designed a new website’s logo! If you are looking for scrappy goodness this is a great site! And designed a friends new blog design. It will be up and running soon!

I spilt coffee on my laptop and was out of touch for a week. That was torture. I am ready to be back to normal! Tomorrow I am going to post a tutorial on paper flowers and Faith’s pictures. So, check back with me! Until then,

Happy Scrappy,
Mandie

Two Chicks March Kit Projects!

Hi all!!!! I still have a few spots left for the Spring Retreat! Check out all the details here!

Today I was finally able to work on the Two Chicks March Kit which shipped last Friday, but still available!!!

For my first project, you need a little back story. Faith was born on Feb 3. On her first Valentine’s Day, at barely 2 weeks old, Scott got her one pink rose! So the tradition continued each year with this year her receiving 6 pink roses for Valentine’s Day! After the roses died, she was upset! I decided to make her something that would use the same vase but wouldn’t die! Finally a reason to use the paper globe tutorial I got a Michaels over a year ago! LOL! I went a step further, documented my steps and put it in my tutorial section!

Here it is! The Paper Globe Topiary using the March Kit, lots of buttons (and a left over tag from the February kit!)

I also did a couple of layouts and these too have a back story! In looking through my scrapbook pages for the past year I noticed one person is missing. ME! LOL. I set out to photograph myself with the kids. I made myself a promise, no matter how awful I think I look, no matter how horrible my face is broken out or if I have on no makeup I will use the photos! So with one eye closed here are my latest layouts using the March kit!

Happy Scrappy,
Mandie

Scrapbook Retreat, Georgia, April 8-11 2010

Are you going to be there????  I am!  I am stocked that the retreat is right around the corner!  I have 3 (maybe 4) spots left open!  There are details in the blog post below, so be sure to check it out!  You would have a blast!!!

Happy Scrappy,
Mandie

Blog Candy from Two Chicks and Retreat!!!

Hello!  I still have a few retreat spots left (7 to be exact, seems Spring Break is that week in GA).  Look here for retreat info!  I would love to have you!!!

And last week I was proud to included as a new design team member for Two Chicks Designs.  The Chick-a-dee blog (dt) is up and going today and chief chick Christie is giving away prizes!  Check out the blog! And while there take a look around! There are some fabulous ideas and a place to sign up for the kit club right there on the blog!

Happy Scrappy,
Mandie