walk with ME...

Summer is HERE!

 

I apologize for the lack of updates here on my blog. I have been working hard to stay motivated and come up with new ideas to push my business forward in this economy. I have also been trying to get back out in the workforce to see what is available in the corporate world, and honestly it is not what it used to be (no surprise there).  We've all heard about it on the news day after day, but to actually put myself out there, sending out resumes, calling around for job openings, finding babysitters, keeping up with the household chores, etc. has just left me with no time to keep up with my blog. And whatever time I do have left, I try to make the most with my husband and kids. Despite the changes in our economy and the impact it has made on our income, I try to not let it get me down.  We've had to make some changes the past few months, but the most important thing is to keep my family intact. We struggle, along with many Americans to make ends meet and at times it can be stressful. But at the end of the day, when it's just me and my family, I feel like I'm the richest person in the world.  And that is what keeps me pushing forward.

I hope to get back into the blogging groove.  I've got some exciting things in the hopper that I want to share.  If any of you are on Facebook or Twitter, you can get more up-to-the minute status updates of "What's on my mind..." or "What am I doing..." there.

Enjoy your day, and here's to SUMMER!

PGA Tour Player: Brian Gay

If you follow my blog, or my facebook, or my twitter, you've noticed a lot of talk about golf and Brian Gay lately.  And many people often wonder what the connection is between myself and the golf industry.  So a little bit of history...  I graduated college with a bachelor's degree in accounting.  One day, while visiting my husband (fiance at the time) I received a call for a job opportunity.  My husband happened to answer the call and they had left a message with him about an accounting position with Arnold Palmer Golf Management.  He basically accepted the position for me.  He was (and still is) an avid golfer and thought it would be the perfect opportunity for him me to be in the industry.  Anyways, I took the position and I slowly grew to love the game.  Honestly, I never understood what the big whoop was about people spending 4 hours on a golf course hacking away at a tiny little golf ball, but when I experienced it for the first time, I actually enjoyed it.  Something about being out on a course that is well manicured and quiet and peaceful struck a chord with me.  While I didn't get to actually play much golf during my career with Palmer Golf, my husband was able to enjoy the perks.  He would get to play at several golf courses around the country while I audited the books.  And of course the discount on merchandise was also a plus! 

Anyways, one of my co-workers happened to be Brian Gay's mother.  I remember her telling us all about his journey to be on the PGA Tour, through qualifying school and playing on various Tours.  When he began his career on the PGA Tour, I ended up leaving Palmer Golf when I got married and relocated to the Florida Panhandle to be with my husband who was a U.S. Navy Pilot at the time.  When he resigned his commission, we found ourselves back in Central Florida and I was able to get my job back with Palmer Golf.  After the second go-round with Palmer, I eventually got pregnant with my first child.  I was able to work from home for several months but they decided to no longer offer the option of tele-commuting and that's when I made the decision to become a stay-at-home mom. 

During this time, I was drawn into photography and scrapbooking.  I took literally hundreds of pictures of my daughter than I could handle.  When I bought my first digital SLR in 2001, the number of photos increased exponentially.  I hated seeing all these photos sitting in shoeboxes or on my hard drive.  I tried traditional scrapbooking, but found it extremely overwhelming to even complete a one-page layout.  And since I was editing photos on the computer, it only made sense to me to create the entire layout at once.  That is when I got hooked on digital scrapbooking. 

With the ease of recreating digital layouts at the click of a button, I found that more of my friends and family wanted me to do similar layouts for them.  They didn't think they could do it themselves either because of time or talent and started hiring me to do it for them.  And that is when I started my business, Nueva Designs.

Back to the connection with Brian Gay.  He had his best year ever on Tour in 2008 and won his first tournament in Mexico.  I happened to email a newsletter last summer to all my contacts (old and new) about some new services I had to offer.  Low and behold, Brian's mother happened to receive my email and had been thinking about personal publishing.  She contacted me after several years of losing touch and had told Brian's wife about my services.  Brian's wife, Kimberly came over to one of my Open House events displaying all my products and she wanted me to create an album about Brian's victory in Mexico.  She was excited and pleased with my work and I have been doing projects for them ever since.  He recently won his second tournament at the Verizon Heritage in Hilton Head, SC.  and I am in the works for his 2nd album!  They also hired me to take photos of a victory party held at the Blue Martini last week.  Here's a peek...

 

Until next time...

Golf Anyone?

Hello blog readers!  Just wanted to send you a special preview invitation for the exclusive Bella Collina Golf Club.  My good friend and former colleague from Arnold Palmer Golf Management is the Controller and has given me a few of these special invitations.  Each invitation is good for a foursome at the special price of $85 per person (includes greens fees and cart fees).  The clubhouse itself is worth seeing... absolutely BREATHTAKING!

If you'd like an invitation, contact me!  Offer is good through the end of the month.

A quick hello and thank you's...

Just wanted to post a SUPER QUICK HELLO to those of you who may have found yourselves here from the Bay Hill Invitational.  I had a great time and I look forward to keeping in touch with everyone.  If you are a Tour Wife or family member, 10% of your order will be donated to the Tour Wives Association.  If you are thinking of creating a custom album, such as the Year in Review albums, please contact me as soon as possible.  We'll need to get started compiling photos and information, which can sometimes take anywhere from a few weeks to a few months.   

I also want to thank my dear hubby for being "Mr. MOM" for the past few days.  HE IS THE BEST... and is always supportive of all my ventures.  (Especially when GOLF is involved).  Thanks babe and you know you always get the perks of me working at the golf courses! :) LOVE YOU!

Lastly I want to thank Kimberly Gay and Margaret Gay for giving me the opportunity to experience a little piece of their PGA Tour life... the victories and the defeats. The life of being on Tour is quite an adventure. 

I will try my best to post a full recap of my weekend, but have to finish up a few things before the kids are out for Spring Break in about 2 weeks.  I'm working hard to get it all done so I can play with them in the sun and the surf!

Laters!

Project Sharing

I've been working hard in my studio creating FUN projects for both clients and myself.  And to prove it, here are some of my latest creations...

A few weeks ago, we took a weekend road trip to Atlanta for a Heritage Makers conference, Noah's 5th birthday, and Snow Mountain.  It was defintiely a jam-packed weekend of fun.  I was inspired by some of the leaders of Heritage Makers, who reminded me of the reasons I joined this company, both personally and financially.  It truly is an amazing company focused on strengthening families, which is something we should make a priority during these tough economic times. 

Noah also turned 5 a few weeks ago.  I cannot believe how fast he is growing up.  He is such an awesome kid and my most responsible child out of the 3.  I can always depend on him to do what I say (most of the time).  He is always concerned for his brother and sister and always reminds us of "little things" that are important like buckling our seat belts when we get in the car.  He is also learning so much at school and is actually reading more and more everyday. 

For his birthday, we went to Snow Mountain.  Unfortunately he wasn't feeling too well all weekend, but he did manage to help make a snowman.  I have posted a few of our pictures in our Family Fun album to the left.  And I also completed several projects using those pictures. 

Click here to view my Snow Mountain Album.

I also created a 5-panel thank you card for my sister-in-law, for letting us crash at her place.  I created this card in less than an hour using one of the templates in the Template Gallery and modifying it to make it my own.

 

And a 3 panel mini album.

 

And finally, 2 client albums.

   

 

I get just as much satisfaction creating albums for other people as I do my own.  The best part is always getting their reactions when they receive the final product. 

Lastly, just wanted to let you know that I've posted new specials on my right sidebar.  Club Premier is BACK FOR A LIMITED TIME and we also have some great Mother's and Father's Day specials available.  I'm planning to create some templates of my own to offer my clients so stay tuned!  If you're thinking of something special for MOM on Mother's Day, start gathering up your photos NOW.  And if you need some help getting your projects done, feel free to contact me.

Happy Monday, everyone!

Get Cookin', Good Lookin'!

The NEW Heritage Makers Cookbook is here.  And to celebrate, we are having a big preview sale.  For four days only (Monday, Feb. 23 - Thursday, Feb. 26) you can get 4 cookbooks for $59.95.  That's only $15 for each Cookbook!  Retail price will be $24.95.

 

I had the opportunity to see this cookbook firsthand at our Regional Conference in Atlanta last weekend and it is FABULOUS!  Click here to view a flyer about our new cookbook!

Cookbook features:

-21 pages and can go up to 50 pages ($1/page for extra pages).

-Spiral bound and the front cover is a trifold that folds out!

-Size is about 7.5"x9.5"(portrait style)

-There will be some great templates in the Heritage Makers template gallery starting March 3rd (these templates are 100% editable so you an put as many recipes or pictures as you want on a page)- or you can completely design your own! You can even enter your design into our cookbook design contest and win free books!

This offer is ONLY available through ME and for FOUR days only! This is a GREAT time to buy for MOTHER'S DAY gifts or to plan for FAMILY REUNION COOKBOOKS this summer!

This design was intended for cookbooks but you could use it for so much more! Not only a cookbook but a . . . journal, day planner, address book, a class year book-which is a great ideas since the front cover opens up triple the normal size and it provides blank space for yearbook signings!

The ideas are endless, please send me yours!

EVERYONE will love them and they are SOOOOOO affordable! ORDER NOW! Contact me today and I'll help you get started.  Creating a cookbook is perfect for families, clubs, or any other group with favorite recipes.

Hello facebook... testing 1-2-3

Just trying to figure out why my blog posts haven't been interacting with my Facebook.  I think I've figured it out.  Apparently you have to keep the Posting Status as "Publish Now" and it won't do it if you save it as a draft first and decide to edit later and then publish now... blah, blah, blah.  So I'm testing to see if my theory is correct with this blog entry.  And while I'm at it, I may as well share some photos from our Valentine's Day dinner with the kids. 

 

My kids LOVE Japanese food, and I am more than obliged to bring them any chance I get because they will eat like they haven't eaten in days!  Their favorite is miso soup with just tofu and a bowl of rice.  I fed it to all of them since they were infants and they seem to love it like it was their first time.  Another one of their favorites is seaweed salad.  Jaida also likes to order Hibachi salmon, and today she tried some tuna sashimi.  She said it was good and when we asked her what it tasted like, she simply replied "like nothing"... LOL!  Hello, that "nothing" is not cheap! =)

We never made it to the crepery place like we had planned, because the kids wanted to go to the bookstore instead.  They all love to read.  Noah is finally getting the hang of it and can read the Level 1 books.  He is so proud of himself.  Jaida set a high standard for the boys, as she was reading by age 2.  Enzo exhibits the same reading characteristics as Jaida did at a young age, so I wouldn't be surprised that he'll be reading to us once he starts talking.

 

And lastly, a photo of my FAVORITE people in the whole entire world. 

 

HAPPY LOVE DAY EVERYONE!

Valentine's Day Projects...

Finally getting around to sharing the Valentine's Day project we did for Noah's class.  After seeing so many great projects, I finally ended up with these...

   

I found several ideas incorporating your child's artwork into cards, including one from my cyber friend Ronalyn.  I have been diligent about scanning Noah's schoolwork and artwork over the last few months and have found it rewarding to free my home from another box full of their art projects and school work that I just can't help but keep.  I am one of those moms who want to keep every little thing that my kids create, but now having 3 kids, it is just not practical to keep up with it all.  So instead of boxes of papers and projects, I now have a nice little folder on my computer that houses a scan of all of his artwork.  And at the end of the school year, I plan to create a 12x12 album to showcase it all.  Personally, I find that nicer than sifting through a box of loose paper.  I am all about purging unnecessary paper around here and am making it an effort to go somewhat paperless.

Anyways, back to the Valentine's project.  In reading through Ronalyn's post of her daughter's Valentine's cards, she mentions teaching her little girl how to "color" in Photoshop.  I thought that was a briliant idea!  So I had Noah draw a picture with a black sharpie and told him NOT to color it this time, which he kept wanting to do so bad.  But once I showed him how to "color" his own artwork on Mommy's computer, he was super excited!  The hardest part was deciding on what color to use because he had so much fun experimenting with my color palette. 

Here is the finished page. Nothing fancy:

 

Then of course I had to incorporate a little sample of my scrapbooking skills to the back.  Everyone always says I should do this as a business and YES, I DO FOLKS!  I am a scrapper-for hire!

 

I then created a little matchbook style cover and stapled a little pack of Fun Dip to the inside. 

 

Here's a picture of my little guy with the finished product.  Unfortunately I didn't get to school in time to snap a photo of him passing it out to all his little friends.

 

Jaida opted for store-bought cards this year.  I guess Hannah Montana is more cool than my homemade creations in 2nd Grade.  Sigh. 

 

Hope everyone has a chocolate-filled Valentine's Day.  We're headed for some sushi and crepes for dessert... YUM!

To infinity and beyond...

A cute project to share today.  I have been doing birthday invitations for my friend's son since he turned ONE!  This year he wanted a Buzz Lightyear theme.  Unfortunately we are not big Buzz Lightyear fans around here, so it was a bit of a challenge for me to come up with something.  After some research, I came up with this:

 

His mom also likes to incorporate a few of her favorite photos from the prior year and so I did a simple collage on the back.

 

He is such a cutey and now he has a little brother that I'm hoping to create special projects for him as well!  I'll be posting more samples of invitations and greeting cards I've created over the years as well as my design prices over the next few days, so check back.

Is your home a Heritage Home?

What does it take to make a home?  Special traditions, family games, smiles, laughter, love.  These are the moments that define heritage.  See the Heritage Home special for February under my current specials.  Valentine's Day special ends on February 14.