Thursday, September 30, 2010

Hambly Spooktacular event!!!

Come join us for a Spooktacular event at
HAMBLY Studios!!!!!

Where: Hambly Studios
941 George Street
Santa Clara, Ca 95054
When: Thursday, October 21, 2010
Time: 5pm-8pm
Who: Everyone all ages are welcome. Come in costume!
What: Hambly is opening their doors to EVERYONE on this wonderful night!!

--Make n' takes for the kids (free)
--Tour of the warehouse
--come take pictures and get them printed for FREE by Gina our Canon rep.
--shop at RIDICULOUS low prices
plus MORE fun!!

This will be an awesome event that you don't want to miss!!!
You don't have to rsvp but please leave me a comment here if you are in the area
and want to come!!!

Price teasers (selected items):
Silk Screen Papers
normally: $1.69--$1.99
(ONLY $.75 each)

overlays
normally $3.00
(only $1.00 each)

Rub-on's
normally $4.00-$5.00
(only $1.50 each)

Plus more ridiculous awesome crazy deals!!!

Hope to see you there!!!
Hugs, Suzy West

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Happy Holidays

Believe it or not, the holidays are approaching!
Most years I'm scared of even thinking of Christmas coming up so soon. This year I decided to embrace the idea by creating a fun holiday project!!

This is a book I made using my Punky Sprouts album with the new CRATE PAPER holiday line!
I used Helmar to adhere all the different embellishments!!
It's such a fun collection. Loved all the fun colors, stickers, and chipboard.

I'll be teaching this class at different stores!! Hopefully it will be at one near you!!!





I made a fun book within the book.




These are some of the pages that I created!!! I still need to add some journaling but it's almost done!!! Thanks for looking.
Hugs,
Suzy West

Monday, September 27, 2010

Treasure the moments project

As I've mentioned lately, I've been creating like crazy!!!!

This is my newest Punky Sprouts project that I made using my Junk In My Punk album with brand new Crate Paper. I love this line!!!!

I also used Shimmerz, Studio Calico, and Epiphany Crafts!



I love the Punky Sprout canvas flowers, they add so much to my book



This is my favorite picture of my beautiful niece and daughter together!

Check out that fun photo. It was made with the newest Canon printer!!!




Thanks for looking everyone!!!! I'll be teaching this one at different stores through out the country!!

Hugs,

Suzy West



ps. thanks for the sweet words on my previous post!! You guys rock!!!

Sunday, September 26, 2010

This is me...

This is me...RAW!
I think everybody knows that I am an open book.
I am ME here, there, everywhere.
It's pretty scary but it's true.

I love these pictures of me...not because I'm hot or sexy...because really truly..
reality is...I'm getting old! LOL

Exhibit #1--the wrinkles
Check out all those wrinkles! You know what? I'm okay with them
The ones around my eyes just mean that I smile a lot!!
If that causes me to have even more wrinkles? So be it! LOL

I'm okay with having one of those "funny" faces. I have crazy features but it's okay.
I'm just me and there is no one else like me.


The real me is as clueless as can be! I say things that even make me wondering what the freak is going on in my head. LOL

The real me behaves like a child! I still watch cartoons with the kids and
could watch I-Carly all day long! My idea of a great trip is going to Disneyland!!

The real me LOVES to wear headbands! I wear one almost everyday!!
Secret: I even buy them at Gymboree and other fun kid places to find some that represent ME!

The real me is full of love for my friends and family.
I love knowing that they know that I would do anything for them.
You can call me or text me at ANY time of the day and night and I'll always answer for you!


The real me is full of flaws but I know I'm only human!
The people that are my REAL friends know that they could come and talk to me if they had a problem with them and we can just fix it and then it's all forgotten.


So yes...this is me. Take me or leave me.
YOU can always send me a text, email, or call me and it doesn't matter if we haven't talked in a day, week, year, or long. Either way...I'll always be here.

Hugs, Suzy West
Leave me a reply. I'd love to hear from ya!

Friday, September 17, 2010

and the winners are...

Hi there gals!!! I am excited to announce that the winners of the kits are:
Christine
Hi Suzy! I come to your blog to bread about what you are doing and see what classes you teach. I love your classes. Hope to take another one soon. I told Claudette about your blog.
and her friend
Claudette
Hi Suzy - I come to your blog to read your stories, learn about new products and to check out your classes. Please enter me in your giveaway :)
Christine Rossi sent me to your blog.
Claudette Clements
Granite Bay, CA

Email me at psajfamily@aol.com with your addresses so I can send you your prizes!!!
Hugs
Suzy West

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Scrapbooker's Bliss ROCKED!!

I just got back from a wonderful weekend filled with teaching, laughter, and just pure bliss...Scrapbooker's Bliss that is!
I would like to thank Joanne and Tracy for all their wonderful hospitality!!!
I would like to thank my partner in crime, Gina Lideros. Gina and I are two peas in a pod and I am so grateful to have her in my life!!! We had a blast!!!
Last, I would like to thank everyone that came to all my different classes!! I had so much fun with you!! I didn't get a chance to take a lot of pictures but the rest of the gals did and I'll try to collect some to post!
In the meantime, check out this funny video I made.
Will be posting the winners of my class kits tomorrow!! So check back again!! :)
hugs,
Suzy West
ps. click the X where you see the "pets" so you can read the little comments

Thursday, September 09, 2010

I'm off to Canada....and guess what I'm giving away....

I am so excited about teaching in Canada this weekend!!! I've invited my friend Gina to come with me and to show everyone how to use the Cannon Printers and cameras!! We are going to have a blast!!! I'll be at Scrapbooker's Bliss!!!

So I'm in an EXTRA good mood!! I told you guys I would be doing a give-away this week! I was thinking of what I could give one of you lucky scrappers...and I think I came up with the perfect thing!
These are the two classes I will be teaching this weekend...How would you like to win one of these? Well here's how!!!

Post why you come and visit this blog.
Add your name and where you are from.
Here's the next thing...
have your friends come here and post their name and state and WHO sent them here(this is important). Whoever has the MOST people come will get to pick the kit of their choice. I will then pick someone that you sent over and that person will win the second class kit!!

Sound fun????? You have from NOW until Sunday night to have as many friends come over and post away!!!!! Good luck!!!!
Hugs,
Suzy West

Tuesday, September 07, 2010

where have ((I)) been? (winner announced) (challenge update)

This past week was a busy one for me!! I didn't even blog!! SAY WHAT? :)
Last week I was creating projects for some upcoming classes that I'll be teaching soon. I was really excited to play with some new Crate Paper! The products are absolutely delish! I'm almost done with my samples! Can't wait for you to see it!

So I wanted to catch up with everyone about the challenge I set on August 30th.
It was the SMILE challenge. I know some of you took me up on this offer.
Please let me know who you are!!!
How was it? Did anything change or did you have any nice experiences this past week?

I'm so excited that so many of you LOVE the Shimmerz products!!!
I played with them over the weekend and lots of friends wanted to play with them.
So we have a winner for the give-away.
The winner is:

lisa (aka Leezy) said...

I really like- RAZZLEDAZZLE BERRY..
Thanks for the chance to win.

Congratulations!!! Please email me at psajfamily@aol.com. Include your name and address.

Have a wonderful day everyone!!!

I will be giving away some fun stuff this week...all you need to do...is post on my blog posts this week! I'll choose someone to send something to!!

Have a great day!

Suzy West



Tuesday, August 31, 2010

There's a first time for everything

Today we had some firsts!

My son Jeremy woke up, got ready, and headed out for his first day as a JR. in high school!
I, for the first time...didn't make a HUGE deal and take a thousand pictures of him and
treat him like a little boy.
I let him enjoy the morning and took only a couple pictures and sent him on his way.
My little Sierra woke up, got ready, and started her first day of school as a 4th grader.
Last night she told me she wanted to try on all of her new outfits and decided on her favorite. I love that she felt so good about herself. She was so sweet looking at herself in the mirror.
Today I am at home by myself...for the first time in a long time.
So I'm going to clean my scrap area. clean the kitchen. vacuum. take the dogs out.
I will thank my Heavenly Father for giving me my children.
I will thank him for letting me have the opportunity to experience these firsts with them and for letting me be their mother.
I hope that today you will experience a first and that it will make you happy!!
Have a wonderful day!!!
SMILES
Suzy West

we knew the day would come...

I can tell you everything about the day Sierra was born. It was more than NINE years ago and I still remember what I was wearing, what I did that morning, and the look on the face of the dr. that I had met with and told me I was giving birth...THAT DAY!
It was two months BEFORE Sierra was due and even though I wasn't ready...she needed to be born. I could barely move. My blood pressure was way high and I had Toxemia and preeclampsia. I got in the car with Angel who had gone to my appointment with me and called Paul to tell them that I was going straight to the hospital to be induced.
There was ONE fear....that her lungs wouldn't be fully developed.

The NIGHT Sierra was born, we were grateful that she was fine and that her lungs were fully developed. There were fireworks in the sky because it was the 4th of July. I was holding her and she was awake looking up at me. Even though I knew she probably couldn't see me clearly I honestly felt as if she was scoping me out.

That same night we saw that she was a little yellow. The nurses took her from me to check her out. They put her under the lights because they said she was jaundice. When she was in the bili machine her biliruben levels would go down. When they took her out they would change and go way up high.
She stayed in the hospital for problem for two weeks. The day before she went home a new dr. came in and asked me if anyone in my family had blood issues. I immediately thought of my family and said no. Then DUH...my dh helped make her...I told the dr. that he had a condition called Hereditary Spherocytosis.
I remember her saying, "that's exactly what I thought you would say".
Through out her life she's been in and out of dr. visits over this very condition. One thing we knew would probably happen one day was that they would need to take out her spleen.

well...we think the time has come to consider taking it out.
We know that our blood dies every 120 days. For people with HS it's different. Their blood dies faster...they say about every 50-90 days (everyone is different). The HS specialists today said they think that Sierra's blood is dying about every 15 days!! She does make new blood very quickly but what they have also found is that her body is working to fix things about 15% MORE the normal rate it should be working. She should be exhausted!
They also worry about her getting gallstones. People with HS get this.
If we take out the spleen it will help her a lot. It will probably take away the jaundice. (She may still have some symptoms because she also has Gilberts disease)
her red blood cells won't be killed off so fast like they do now.
She won't have to worry about anemia, gallstones, and other symptoms.
They say that it may even give her more energy and she'll feel a lot better.

The dr. has NOT decided what to do yet. He wants to think about it because even though she has these issues...she's actually quite healthy. Even though she is jaundice she's full of energy. She has not had to get a blood trasfusion yet.
So he says we have time to think about it and he wants to talk to us as a family. We are meeting back with him next month.
Sierra was a little scared but he made her feel a lot better and she told me that she thinks it might help her.
She was so cute. She took on the challenge I gave out today to smile more. I looked at her from the rear view mirror and saw that she looked a little sad. When she looked at me she flashed me a HUGE smile. She then said..."you remember the challenge". It made me smile.
We joked around and sang the rest of the way home.
We are going to pray about what decision we should make.
If you read this whole thing..thanks for "listening".
Hugs,
Suzy West


Monday, August 30, 2010

Life is too short...smile

I was driving home today from running an errand. I had the music booming to my GLEE soundtrack and was thinking about how lucky I was to have such a beautiful family. Even though I probably looked like a dork, I knew I had a huge smile on my face.
I looked to my left and noticed the driving had a huge frown on his face. I looked to my right and that driver looked more upset than the one to my left.
It made me sad to think that we have only one life to live...and it's a pretty short so,
why waste it frowning?
while I'm on this beautiful earth, I want to try to be as happy as possible.
At church Sunday, one of the speakers spoke about smiling. He was saying how much he loved to smile and that he tried to give a smile to everyone. I thought that was awesome!!!
Thinking of that...I turned to the my left again...and the driver looked at me...I smiled at him...and even though he had been frowning...he smiled back at me. I then turned to my right and smiled at the lady...she looked a little confused...and probably thought I was on something...but she gave me a smile.
It made me feel good to see those people smile. I am sure I will probably never see them again...I probably didn't make what was bugging them a whole lot better...but for a brief second, they smiled and that made me happy!!

I'd like to give you a challenge...and I hope you take me up on this.
this week...smile more...smile even more than you normally smile.
I bet that if you take this challenge...your days will be brighter and that you'll notice more people smiling around you!!

Have a wonderful day!!!!
Hugs
Suzy West

Shimmerz....and a give away!!!

Love great mail days!!!
I had one the other day. I opened up a package to find these little beauties by
I'm up to something and I can't wait to show you!!!!

Do you LOVE Shimmerz as much as I do? If so, you might want to go to their site...pick your favorite product and color...and then leave me a comment as to which one it is...
and Stacey will send you your favorite!

You have from now until Friday to leave me a comment and Saturday we'll pick a winner.

Stacey knows this is my favorite color by them!
Fiery Fiesta!
I don't know if you can see this but...my nail polish matches!!! I love this color and can't wait to start playing with my shimmerz!
Can't wait to hear what your favorite color is!!
Hugs, Suzy West

Thursday, August 26, 2010

I spy with my little eye (CONTEST!!!)

update: Monday, August 30th
WE HAVE A WINNER!!!!

OMG! These tools are adorable!. I Love the Heart button punch. I would use this tool to add some serious cuteness to my new baby book I am working on for my baby girl who will be here in Nov. Thanks for the chance to win. I miss seeing you at your store but LOVE to see how your doing through your blog.
~Monica


Congratulations Monica!!!! Email me your address and Tricia will get your prize out to you. psajfamily@aol.com

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
I am so excited!!! Look at what the post office dude brought me!!
Do you see what I see?
I spy some awesome little tools from Epiphany Crafts!!!!
Do you spy one that YOU WANT??
Well YOU may be the lucky winner of one of YOUR CHOICE!!!
Here's what you do:

1. Go to their site(just click on their name above)
2. check out the tool that YOU want. Look at the samples while your there!! Rockin!
3. Post HERE the following: what creative thing would you do with one of these tools?

Tricia, owner of Epiphany Crafts will randomly pick a winner and YOU WILL GET
the one you want!!!

by the way...go to their HOW TO page to see how simple and easy these are!!!
I'm excited!!! I'll be teaching a class this Sunday that is going to have some of these fun little goodies in it!!! Here is the cover...do you see the epoxies? Super cute!!!
Here are the buttons!!
Here's a layout I did using them!!!
You have until SATURDAY night, midnight to post!!!!!
Good luck!!
Hugs, Suzy West

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

reality hits

This morning it hit me at how the kids are really truly getting older.
There's no more words like "potty" or baby talking. LOL

Sierra will be going into the fourth grade in just another week and I still can't believe it.
She doesn't want pig tails anymore and gets embarrassed now if I say "daddY" or "mommY" in front of people. I also have been asked to not dance, sing, and act too silly in front of her friends.

This one scares me more! Not because he does bad things...because honestly, he's been my easiest kid. He's not a trouble maker. He calls me for everything and I have to tell HIM to get out of the house sometimes to hang out with friends.
He's going to be an "adult" in less than 2 years and still says he's not ready to date.
This last sentence scares me the most...not the dating part...but the fact that he's going to be an adult. I told him that I wanted to have another one of our talks...(those scares him). LOL
(picture he took of himself for facebook. LOL)
I know I'm not alone on this. I know there are some of you out there freaking at the fact that your kids are getting older. The thought of having another adult in less than 2 years is scarier to me than the fact that I'll be turning 35! (coughcoughFORTYcoughcough)
So what are your thoughts? Who's going through the same thing?
Who has kids starting kindergarten and can't believe it?
who has someone starting high school or college?
Who's kid is engaged?

Can you believe it? Our kids are getting big and there's no way of stopping this.
YIKES!!!!


Monday, August 23, 2010

When Heavenly Father is by your side

I'm back from our vacation... scratch that... our adventure....scratch that....I'm going to call it our trip of miracles with the beautiful little soul on this planet.

I'd like to say that our cruise was 100% amazing but as you read on...it might not sound like that. In the end you will know why I call it a trip full of miracles and why I say that my Heavenly Father has been by my side.

Sierra and I got to Long beach a "little" late but safe! We boarded the plane and it was taking a LONG time to take off. Why? Because the pilot "felt" like there was a problem, went down to look at the wheels, and saw that there was a huge nail in one of them. So while we were on the plane they came and completely changed the tire. Thank goodness he looked because our wheel could have been flat by the time we landed and it could have caused an accident.

It was a beautiful day in Long Beach and Sierra immediately jumped into the pool and played on the waterslide.
On our day in Mexico, Sierra was excited about ONE thing...riding the horses.
I had booked us an excursion to ride horses on a beautiful trail over looking the ocean. The scene was breath taking! She was thrilled when they told her she was going to be riding one named, Chihuahua. Everything was great!
After the ride we ate tacos and everyone went over to take pictures with the horses that they had tied up.


Here's where it goes bad. My stomach aches just thinking about it.
Everyone was taking turns taking pictures with the horses.
Notice the horse that Sierra is standing next too? Most people took pictures with him. Soon after, everyone starting taking pictures with the horse next to him. We'll just call him horse B.
We were getting ready to leave and started walking away. People were still around the horses. All of a sudden horse B kicked his leg back and even though Sierra wasn't very close. He got her right in the stomach. It immediately dropped her and knocked the wind out of her.
I was standing pretty close to her and yanked her away.
One of the helpers got her and picked her up. Sierra was still not able to breath. It seemed like forever but really it was just a few moments.
We ran over to the bus and rushed back to take her to the hospital.
They were really good with her and stayed with us until we left the hospital.
Here's where I KNOW that Heavenly Father is by our side and miracles happen.
The horse kicked her on right side and just a hair underneath her rib cage. If he had kicked her there it would have caused serious damage.
They were awesome with her in the hospital. They did an ultrasound to see that there was no damage and that there was no internal bleeding.
About an hour at the hospital she was actually feeling a ton better and was smiling when I would talk to her. I asked her if she was okay and what she was thinking and her eyes filled with tears, "mommy, my feelings are hurt because the horse kicked me and he's probably going to get in trouble and I really loved him!" It was nothing about pain, it was all emotional.
I told her she was lucky he didn't get her even harder and on her rib cage. She said, "Mommy it's because Heavenly father is by my side". He really was.

So I'd like to say that the story ends there, but it doesn't. As many of you know, Sierra was a condition called, Hereditary Spherocytosis. She has abnormal red blood cells and the white ones don't recognize them and kill them. The spleen also has a lot to do with this condition and if it's enlarged it can cause more problems and may have to be removed.
The technician came in and should have only checked the side that she was hurt but started checking everything. I noticed that he started spending more time on the opposite side...the side that her spleen in on. I asked him what was going on and he told me that he noticed her spleen was large. He said it was due to her HS and to take her in when we got back home.
This is another miracle. Even though it's not what I wanted to hear, it's good that we found out. In June they had checked her and her spleen was fine. Now just two months later, her spleen has grown and it could mean surgery for her. Not detected? It could mean a lot worse.

We left there with Sierra feeling soooo much better and back to herself. I was SHOCKED!
She wanted to go shopping and play.
I was worried but she promised me that she was okay.
So off we went. I told her we'd hang out for a bit and then we'd go back to the ship.
Sierra had the time of her life! That day she played, swam, went on a scavenger hunt with a group of kids, ate, etc. That night she Karaoke'd! She received an award! LOL
She was spoiled by the Carnival cruise dr.'s who called to check on her everyday. She came home with shirts, back packs, stuffed animals, and more!
So that's the story. My little Sierra is running around right now playing with her dogs and has told everyone how Heavenly Father is by her side and how much fun she had. Best part? When she put her forehead next to mine so she was looking at me eye to eye and said, "mommy, I love you. I had the best time of my life".
Thanks for letting me share my trip of miracles with you!!
Hugs,
Suzy West