This is the time of year where I seem to be running hurdles, jumping from one big event to the next. We just finished our 17th consecutive National Stationery Show in New York and tomorrow the International Quilt Market opens in Minneapolis.

The Stationery Show was fantastic…full of long time friends and customers. The show energy was positive and our 100 new products met with rave reviews!

Our newest line features handmade all occasion greeting cards – soooo pretty!

There was work and then there was play… creativity was all around us. These are pictures from my Saturday stroll down Madison Avenue.

The windows were as incredible as the merchandise inside. This one, the back drop is made out of candy. No doubt inspired by the movie “Up.”

At Henri Bendel the dresses were made out of hair rollers, rock candy, cupcake wrappers and even feathers!

At Bergdorf’s they must have known all the paper people were in town because all of the dresses were made of paper.

Fantastic paper folding! A crafters dream…

I sure love my iphone camera! Next up, Quilt Market…

I’ve been cleaning out over the last few months and asked myself how on earth did I collect so much stuff?! I came by it honestly, growing up in a family of collectors… there were antique furniture collections, car collections, Victorian Valentine collections, perfume bottles and the list goes on! Lucky for me, my Mom collected “me” too. She saved every creative piece of my childhood. When I tell people that I have been crafting since I was 7 years old, Mom saved the cross stitch sampler to prove it. A couple of months ago, I went home to North Carolina and was cleaning out a closet in my old room. Low and behold, I found the treasure of all treasures…my first scrapbook!

What a blast from the past! 12 x 14.5 must have been the scrapbook size in 1978. Imagine my surprise when I looked in the back for who made it…CR Gibson…the logo stamp says Norwalk, Connecticut. This design should be resurrected from their archives. Funny that I would be licensing design to them 32 years later.

Here are some things that you didn’t know about me and I have not thought of in years…I was quite the photographer with my Polaroid camera…I learned to sew in 4-H (you have to be from a small town to know what that is!)

I was an avid roller skater with many certificates to prove it…I had red and blue tennis shoe roller skates, I had white leather ones with pink and gold pom poms and spent nearly every Sunday afternoon “shooting the duck.”

Once upon a time there were airlines called Eastern and TWA that I flew to Egypt with my Grandparents. Notice that I threw in my roller skating medal with my travel memorabilia…

I remember riding a camel and seeing the pyramids, taking a cruise to the Greek isles and mostly I remember not liking the food. Glad that changed!

The photo in the top right is of my Grand Dad and I sitting on the edge of the Parthenon…can you still do that?

Cheerleading and dance classes occupied my after school hours…

Would you look at all that hair!

I must have been quite the certificate collector. I even had one for my braces…smile!

And finally…the pageant…all southern girls must partake in at least one pageant in their lifetime. I, however did as many as I could! Note the journaling, you have a former Miss Congeniality on your hands!