The Tricyclist of the Apocalypse

We saw him. There are fires, dust storms, crazy high winds and people riding around on crazy contraptions. I am NOT making this up - I have witnesses and some pics.

But here are a few downloads of adorableness from today. Don't forget to enter my contest in the previous post. My eyes are burning from the fires. Gotta go.PS Twitter on my phone is still broken :( So if I'm not at my laptop, I'm incommunicado! EEK. No likey.

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Hula Bear from the boards!

And we better have a contest, yes????

I will let the winner of this challenge PICK whether they want a punch Template or the new paper sampler!! Yeehaw!!

You ready??

What is my favorite set from the new catalog and WHY? You must answer both in a comment on this post (no emails, tweets or FB) by 7PM mountain time Friday!

Good luck - loveyameanitbye!!
Lydia B. Fiedler
lbfiedler@gmail.com

Twitter Blackout on Day One!

Really world?? A Twitter blackout on the first day of convention? The HUMANITY!! So I'm sorry for the electronic darkness today! But we are back!

I'll just do my random notes as per usual... Here are the cool lights over Mainstage - yes, blue.
One of the demonstrations used the balsa wood sheets in the Big Shot - look how cool it looks with just the edges sponged!!
Here's Emily putting together her stamps at lunch at Takashi. The waiter said - "are you ready to order or do you just want to do crafts?" Tee hee...
Look at their beautiful menu board.
Lookie! A scrapbook page I sent in got posted on the boards!!!
Here are the samples they made with the Build a Bear dies. Custom cutting the clothing made some really fun outfits!!
Look at the little suit!! She striped the tie with the Razzleberry marker.
For this project, she die cut fabric with Wonder Under on the back and appliqued it to a little canvas bag from the dollar store.
Inside, she stamped matching bears for a little coloring book to go. Adorable!This was a swap Emily got with a little cardinal made with punches. SOOO cute.
And then last night, we had my blog gathering. I was so touched by all the nice girls that came, they brought gifts, they made me laugh - it was such a special night. I can't thank all of you enough for that. XOXO. It's so cool to know that when you leave me comments now I can really say I know you!

Look - there were even blue lights in the trees outside!

Here is the world's most wonderful, sweet, kind, beautiful and light filled woman - Linda Hansen - who was gracious enough not only to come by, but she brought the most wonderful little box that SHE made, filled with her favorite delicious saltwater taffy. (Pic on Twitter) I love you Linda.

She is hugging someone else I love - Dana Keith, whose bubbly happy self I am going to miss the second this week is over.
Linda might have bruises all over her from the squeezing and I'm fairly certain she's blind from the flashes popping in her eyes.
Here's a shot of part of this wonderful group.
And here are some more...
YAY!
And here are Dana and I. Dana and I share the trait of laughing to the point where people kick us out of places. Neither of us care :)
I have more pics I will post later, but the ones of these great ladies are my favorites. I feel so fortunate to be able to spend time with such joyful fun and talented creatures!!

I'm gonna go have some more fun with them now and then I'll share board pics tomorrow!!


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Super Swapper

She has a mobile swap STORE!
Lydia B. Fiedler
lbfiedler@gmail.com

Adorable idea from general session

I will post photos tonight, but I can't resist telling you this.

They took a framed magnetic bulletin board, that was decorated with punched cardstock in the shape of a tree.

Then they cut Build a Bear nekkid (hee hee) girl and boy bears from cardstock and adhered them to the scene. Then, they cut the little outfits from DSP that was already adhered to those thin magnet sheets and voila - magnetic paper doll bears for a child's room!

There are such great patterns in that coordinating DSP - that little floral and gingham and the herringbone - so adorable for clothes!

Right now we are in a class with the insanely hilarious Brian Pilling.

More later.

I miss Twitter so much!! Email me if you find out its up and don't see me posting there!

Xoxo

Lydia B. Fiedler
lbfiedler@gmail.com

Awww

How can you not love that face?

Lydia B. Fiedler
lbfiedler@gmail.com

Secret Memento Mall Bear

He's a real SU build a bear! :)
Lydia B. Fiedler
lbfiedler@gmail.com

My Digital Studio

Watching Brent demo this. Amazing! Add stamps, with special effects like drop shadows, mirror images, punch shapes, and a zillion other things.

You can make greeting cards and calendars as well as scrapbook pages.

They have a contract with a printer that you can use to print your pages, and it will be high res, calibrated to match our colors so if you add embellishments it will be perfectly matched!

OMG it gets bound into a hardback book if you want!!! You have a choice of bindings. The books are BEAUTIFUL!!!

You can adjust your photos inside the program, including effects like sepia, black and white and torn edges as well as adding textures like in Photoshop.

Full 20 percent commission on software and all digital content customers buy..

September will be the month they announce when we can preorder it.

they're giving away free ones now!!! Congrats orange stripes!!! :)

Lydia B. Fiedler
lbfiedler@gmail.com

It's Wednesday, do you know where your SASS is?

Well if you were here with me you would. It's inside these mysterious gifts I made to the ladies coming to my bloggy happy hour right as this post is publishing!


Inside each custom blue matchbook is one of these Sassy Maddie buttons! With a secret message underneath. Hope they like em. You can get these buttons too - here.
Wish you were here! I'll share pics of the event tonight and hopefully of our celebrity guest! :)

Oh, and BTW - I'm pretty sure Splotchy is a Lemur.

Watch this and see. If you don't see a video player, click here.


Have you signed up for the UBlue Cyber Club? Attended one of my Webinars?? Come on - get your geek on! :)

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Check In, and CHECK IT OUT!

Yay! Memento Mall and check in craziness today!!!

First - the good stuff! The green funky fun bag is our convention bag. It has straps with a razzleberry pattern on them.

The orange and white bags are the little shopping bags we could buy - they are awesome because they are SOOO light and so sassy!

The canvas bag with the Bermuda Bay embroidery is a cosmetic bag.

The circular Bermuda Bay compact is a double mirror - this is my fave! I used my business card case for a mirror right now - so ghetto!!


On the left is a silver Christmas Ornament. Next to that, the ribbon sampler, Next to that - a canvas manicure kit that matches the cosmetic bag. Behind that - OMGOSH IT'S TODD AND DON - HOW DID THEY GET THERE??

In front of T&D is the mirror, and three colors of patterned emery boards. Then the AMAZING hoodie, which I have a closeup of.

Cool eh? Look at the lining!

Here are the stamp sets we got plus the one I got for recruiting this year - thanks Downline! yay!!!

And I've never gotten a wheel before here so that rocks.

Here's this year's pin, which rocks is uber fabby because it has a really strong magnet, not a pin! Love it!
And then some pics of our beautiful surroundings.Last night's happy hour guilty pleasure list - click to read them. I put "Twitter". Who knows what I'll write tonight! I love the person whose guilty pleasure is Hot Tamales!Here's the lovely couch we sat on for our guilty pleasureThe view from the line.Thanks for following my updates - I have another post coming up at 5 PM Central time.

Up to the minute updates are on @understandblue on Twitter, which you can also read in my sidebar.

Oh yeah - did I mention PRIZES?? I have ribbon and paper samplers and bags and all sorts of fun stuff to give away! So stay tuned!

Have you signed up for the UBlue Cyber Club? Attended one of my Webinars?? Come on - get your geek on! :)

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A dedicated little stamper...

Adorable - not just stamping her swaps in line for Memento Mall but using the Stampamajig!! I just saw a peek of the bag - its a funky green and canvas number with an awesome long handle - the cutest one YET! Very 60s style!
L.
Understand Blue

The First Full Day in Salt Lake

Immediately this morning I see a security breach. Who forgot to tell this man he's NOT SAFE HERE!!! UPS man - RUN! There are stamping ladies coming!!


Then - I stomped all the way up to the University at the top of the hill and all the way back down. I was starving after that, so I had to find some bacon. I walked all the way to the mall at the other end of town in search of something good, but nothing was open. HOWEVER, Providence plopped me down into an unassuming little shop where I was looking for water. As I searched the coolers, I noticed that at the back of the store they had this crazy little walk up window where the world's cutest and sweetest little girl was cooking. She knew everyone who walked up (except me) by name. Very cool. I thought I would see if I could get a bagel, and then I saw....
Next to the window - proof that God had delivered me into the house of the world's best bacon. And oh my - was it. I survived the crisis, and walked on to see some of my favorite arty SLC sights.

The big yoyo handsThe shiny metal bird
The gorgeous, typically western and vintage Peery Hotel, that I stayed in once and loved.
The world's cutest fence.And this what the heck moment behind this building... What were all these doors and windows FOR? And bars ON TOP of the plywood? After a minute or two I wondered if there weren't treasure in them there hills, I did..
Oh, but I saved the best for last. Yes, I know you come here for the kitties and the sushi. I'm no dummy :)

This is called the Snow White. It has WHITE SALMON! I can't stand regular salmon - it's so strong. This is delicate, not fishy, crazy yummy. It's topped with coconut. It tasted even better than it looked
And my one true sushi love, the Strawberry Fields. Chili, Strawberries, Escolar, almonds, and a sweet sauce that is smack your momma delicious.

Love you Takashi, and Derek - thanks for making SLC such a tasty place.

And the hotel Monaco is my favorite hotel on earth.

Look what awaited me.
What girl isn't lightened in spirit after a long journey by a Hershey bar and a handwritten note? Made me smile. Especially after a descent so scary I actually grabbed the guy sitting next to me. But I survived nicely :)

And please meet Fizzy, my new friend.

Hi Fizzy. I know they will fishnap you and replace you with another friend, but I want you to know that I love you like you are my own pet goldfish. You are cute and sassy. Thanks for keeping me company.

Tomorrow - you better stay tuned - Memento Mall opens at 9 Mountain Time, and when I'm done there -guess what? PRIZES!! I WILL be buying extra stuff for you gals who aren't here with me! :)

Don't forget to check Twitter and Facebook too. Oh, on Twitter, my posts are tagged with #ubluescoop if you want to search. If you're not on Twitter, you can read the up to the minute feed in my sidebar.

Loveyameanitbye.

Gotta fade :)

Have you signed up for the UBlue Cyber Club? Attended one of my Webinars?? Come on - get your geek on! :)

Want to see my other blog?

I'm Hopelessly Uncool

I keep trying to tell you this.

If I were cool, I'd have a MacBook. A sleek, thin, white hunk of technology that would make a grown man cry.

But I'm hopelessly un.

So I have a small, beat up, mostly unreliable Dell "compact" laptop. Not a mini, because that would be cool. My laptop weighs more than a jet engine and requires a team of miniature ponies to carry through the airport on a sled.

And yet, here I am, at the airport. With my lead Dell. Say hello.


The motto of the University of Rochester, where I went to college, is Meliora. "Better."

That means you can have a 40 year old hunk of tech, and you can make it better.

So, not being a Decor Elements on the wall type of girl, I took one of the white medallion Decor Elements and I set about turning my brick into a hunk of Stampin' Up! cuteness for convention.

First, I cut the medallion apart, because the center wasn't quite large enough to accommodate that decidedly ungorgeous logo in the center of the lid.

You need to use the little rubbing tool to go over the rubons before you remove the grid side, because this makes sure they are stuck to the backing. Then peel off the grid side, and carefully place them on your un-Mac.
Rub em again with the rubbing tool (or if you lost yours, like me, the Pampered Chef scraper works great) to make sure they are adhered and then peel the backing off slowly from one edge. Mine worked great - no mistakes!

So here is my ameliorated laptop, sitting next to me, waiting for takeoff. What do you think? Convention worthy? It might not be cool, but it's.... better :)
Talk to you again in Salt Lake!

Have you signed up for the UBlue Cyber Club? Attended one of my Webinars?? Come on - get your geek on! :)

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What Makes Us Humans

Man is the only animal that laughs and weeps, for he is the only animal that is struck with the difference between what things are and what they ought to be. - William Hazlitt

Got that quote today.

And while wishing I had gills to survive the humidity on my walk today, I had been thinking about something that this quote wrapped up just perfectly.

Have you ever noticed that there are whole professions that suck the life out of people and make them snarky? And how there are professions that infuse joy into their workers?

If I gave you a sec, we'd come up with the same ones. Let's just say that no one has ever come back after a trip to get their driver's license or a roll of stamps all filled with giddiness about the possibilities life holds based on their encounter at the window. Most of these despair filled outlets are run by the government, however, not all are. Some just play the government on TV. But it's worth noting. Especially if you're an Orwell fan. But I digress.

Likewise, there are places that you love because the people are joyful and fun and you and the worker aren't both fighting "the place" and wishing you were elsewhere. For me, these places include Starbucks and other coffeeshops, the Apple store, Amy's Ice Cream, Whole Foods, and some small bookstores.

What if every one of us could delete the space between what things are and what they ought to be, and only met people who were joyful in what they were doing? How different a trip for postage and your driver's license would be for all involved.

We can wish, right?

Stamps: Define Your Life Ink: Ballet Blue, Tempting Turquoise, Soft Suede Paper: Soft Suede, Old Dictionary Page Accessories: Soft Suede Ribbon, Stampin' Sponge, White gel pen, Soft Suede marker, butterfly Big Shot die

Or, we could start, by being that joyful person people enjoy being around. Regardless of place.

I say that knowing that I am going to head out tomorrow to hang out with thousands of joyful people all focused on art. The energy in that crowd is game changing. Why can't "real life" be like that? Maybe we should just do it. Start screaming and clapping when things go right like all of us will be doing on Wednesday morning. Try it. Lemme know how it goes. If they lock you up, call me - I'll bail you out. ;)

In the meantime, check here, Facebook and Twitter for your up to the minute Convention 2009 news! Kickoff is tomorrow for your girl on the street!!

Pray for safe travels for me and my 4000 friends, won't you? And pray for little Maddie and Splotchy who won't be NEARLY as spoiled when I return :(

Loveyameanitbye.


Have you signed up for the UBlue Cyber Club? Attended one of my Webinars?? Come on - get your geek on! :)

Want to see my other blog?