Monday, December 17, 2007

Fun at Mambi




















Last week Linda and I were able to teach an awesome class to some of our Mambi employees. It was a birthday calendar book.
Since we only had a limited amount of kits it was whoever signed up first was able to come. We had a sold out class. We had 30 people sign up. Every one from the graphics department, accounting department and even the warehouse department signed up for the fun.
Linda taught the class since she had taught it before. I was not working there when the class was originally taught. She did a great job. We made water bottles and wrapped candy bars for each guest. It looked like an actual class when they walked in. Fun for them to see what we actually do when we do teach at the trade shows.














Doesn't it look like they are having fun??!!! I was quite impressed with everyone. They all did really well for most of them not being of the "crafty" type. We did not have one major faux pas. Not one...which is unusual. They all made great students.

Here they are with their finished products!








Such a great group of people!! I am telling you I have the BEST job!!!
On another note,
Christmas is fast approaching. Started baking. Here are some of the yummy goodies i have made thus far! Thought I had a picture but I don't. hmnmm...
Have most of the shopping done...do you? Wrapping to do, cleaning to do, more baking, and i have to finish up the kids shopping. Are they getting more expensive these days?
Here are some pics of our first Christmas celebration. We celebrate early with my Dad and Step Mom.

Let the festivities begin...








singing Christmas Carols together "FIVE GOLDEN RINGS!!" Santa is here...Santa is here!!

I am going to leave you with the best picture i have taken this season so far.
Is that classic or what!! Love that dog.

Well, i better get, got lots to do and not alot of time to accomlish it in!! Remember to take time to look at the decorations and not to forget why we celebrate this time of year. As they say.."jesus is the reason for the season!"

Monday, December 10, 2007

too long gone and a long post because of it

Wow...


How time flies during this time of year! I wanted to post so many times last week and I just couldn't get to it.
I am probably going to ramble on so if you are in a hurry come back another day and visit.
My dear friend Monica and I had our annual cookie exchange party this past Saturday.


We both look forward to it every year.She was most excited because she moved down to Carlsbad into a beautiful home and she was introducing her new Carlsbad friends to her dear Trabuco Canyon friends. She said she felt like it was Christmas when she was a kid! This is one of the many reasons I love her!
Here are some pictures of the grand event!


dear sweet friends <3

the new Carlsbad friends

I hope they know how blessed they are to get the most awesome family in the neighborhood









The whole crowd. Still missing a few of us. We actually had a good part of us driving from up north so some of us were late. You know how it is trying to get out of the house and by 9:00a.m.no less.

the pile of ornaments. it is amazing how we get when it is time to go around to pick our ornament. There is no love lost if you have an ornament that someone else wants. It is all fair in love and ornament exchange time!




i forgot to flip the picture. here is the table of cookies waiting to be taken home and eaten! We actually had a good group of cookies this year. This year we gave away prizes for the most original etc.
That was a big hit this year!it is funny some years we have lots of pregnant Moms and this year we had lots of babies.
Such a great morning to spend with dear friends to connect with each other during what can be a very hectic month for us Moms. I love these women and am so blessed to have them in my life. They have made my life SO RICH!

We definitely had a fabulous time and Monica out did herself this year! Another party under our belts! Can't wait until next year.
Still trying to not get too crazy during these last few weeks before the "BIG" day. I am starting to feel the crunch time...are you??
I also have been working on some projects and would love to show you but I can't just yet. Bummer!
Made some cute teacher gifts. I will post those later. Oh and some really cute stuff for some gifts and I would post those but then certain ones would see what they are getting. And that is no fun!
Well, I am off and running. need to get stuff done here at work!
I am praying for the Christmas season to fill all of you out there and for some what we say in our family "Elvis" parking spots! I know here is a good way to spread some Christmas cheer give up your "Elvis" parking spot to someone else! Wouldn't that make someones day!!
Ciao

Friday, November 30, 2007

The BIG Game and the fun we had

RUIN THE BRUINS!
For those of you that are into college football i am sure you are excited for the big game...USCvs.UCLA!

Here at the Gurzi household we can't wait to beat the pants off of the Bruins. So in honor of this weekend Dave at mambi and myself a couple of weeks ago put into play "Operation Trojan"!



We decided we needed to decorate Stephanie's office becuase she is now a Bruins fan. Why you ask? Her son Tyler just signed with UCLA for baseball. He is a talented ball player and I have seen this young man grow from an adorable baby into a very strong character, handsome young man. I am one of many that are very proud of him but...UCLA...Tyler you are killing me!!

Onto "Operation Trojan". Last night Dave and I gathered our supplies and this is what came about.























Is that great or what!!!!! I can't wait to see her face and her reaction. Dave did mention that paybacks are a b----! I really think that it will be worth it though.

We did manage to recruit some helpers and they will remain nameless. They are innocent players in this scenario and only out of the goodness of their hearts did they help us.

Can't wait for the game tomorrow.

FIGHT ON TROJANS!

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Busy Busy!

Not sure what happened but I am sure it is not me the computer genius that I am!! :)
Have been trying to post for the third time.

I am going to try and post pictures of an advent calendar that I just finished. Love it! I have wanted to make one for a couple of years and just never had the patience to get it together. Since I work at a place where my job is to create and i have all the resources at my fingertips i thought I would give it a whirl!! The one I really want to do is from Teresa McFayden and if I knew how to get the link on her name i would but you can look to the left sidebar and get the link there.





Here is the finished project. I used only mambi product (meandmybigideas) except for the numbers and the chipboard stars which i covered with mambi paperand the little turn mounts. If you want a tutorial on it email me and I will send you one.
Here are close up pictures of the header and the numbers










This advent calendar is a RAK calendar. Under the numbers are little reminders or kind gestures if you will to persue on others. Like, bake cookies for your neighbor or pay the toll for the car behind you. Get it?? We often get so busy during this time of year and I figured why not spread goodwill towards men..women.
I also want to make one with empty matchboxes and fill them with goodies for the kids. We will just have to see if I get that one done. I might be biting off more than I should right now.


I also made this blessings journal. Again with all mambi product. Super simple. Covered a journal with paper and added some of our softspoken. Love our soft spoken. It really does all the work for you and makes your projects look beautiful without alot of work or money for that matter!My idea for this book was for everyone on Thanksgiving to write something they were thankful for in 2007. I forgot!!! With all the hustle and bustle in the kitchen it slipped my mind. Oh well, maybe next year.
I am off to get things done for tomorrow. I have bible study here at the house and I need to clean up not to mention doing the bible study!
Ciao!

Monday, November 26, 2007

catching my breath

Wow!!! Thanksgiving has come and gone!! Wanted to post and tell you all the things I am thankful for and I missed that! With our computer still MIA it is hard to post.
Thanksgiving was awesome!! the turkey was the best! My brother Don said it was the best turkey he has EVER had...so moist! Two years ago I lused martha Stewart's recipe with the brinig and all and it was horrible. Dry and a pain in the butt. This year I just rubbed it with herbs and butter on top and under the skin and put apples, lemons, celery, carrots, and onions in the cavity and it was FANTABULOUS!
We had 2 of my brothers and their families over and as always we had a superb time. My Grandma from Florida is here visiting for the holidays. It is always a blast to have her around. She is a kick in the pants. So thankful for so many things. So blessed!!
I hope that all of your holiday celebrations were wonderful and you all were able to take some time to enjoy the moments.
Christmas is up and going. Makenna and I got up early and were off by 7:00 a.m. to get to the great deals out there. We did manage to pick up some good stuff at Kohl's and at the mall. We made it to our annual Cheesecake Factory lunch. Yummy! So fun to spend some time with her just the two of us. Wish i could post some pictures but I don't have my camera with me her at work.
I still need to post some pictures of the projects that I am working on. I will bring my camera tomorrow and get those up.

I am trying not to get to crazy this year and bogged down with all the details of Christmas this year. I know that I keep saying that...I am hoping that reminding all of you will then in turn remind me. You can definitely tell that the Christmas season is here with the extra traffic and packed parking lots. My goal is to smile at least twice a day at some random person. You never know, it may just bring a smile back at someone somewhere down the line. I don't know I am such a dork!
I better get back to work..get those projects done so that I can post them! You are going to LOVE one of them.
ciao!

Monday, November 19, 2007

the most wonderful time of the year...bah humbug!

Okay I am usually the one that is an early bird when it comes to decorating and everything else that involves Christmas. This year...Not So Much!

I don't know what it is but this early decorating is getting on my nerves.The lights on all the trees around town,the garland everywhere I look, I even was switching radio stations around on Friday and one of our local radio stations is already playing Christmas songs
24/7!?@#*&

Now let me tell you this someone put me in my place this weekend... BUT GOOD!

I was complaining and basically being a very big bah humbug and was telling Ed that I wish this year we could just skip right over December and make our way into January. Well, Jaxon my 10 year old in all his wisdom says Mommy, " we then won't be able to celebrate Jesus' birthday and isn't that what Christmas is all about?" Not just Santa but the reason we are here?" Ugh! Now did i feel like the biggest failure of a mother. Isn't it I that tells him all Christmas season long that the presents are great, Santa is awesome, the parites even better but we must not forget to celebrate with JOY the Birth of Our Lord and Savior? Yes it is. How did I get so callous? So early?

Soooooooo, I am going to fake it until I make it as the saying goes. I will put on that radio station with the Christmas songs, I am bringing out the decorations on Friday and I am going to bake with zealous this weekend. I also am going to try and not let all the preparations bog me down and take a few minutes every day to remember WHY we celebrate this beautiful Christmas season.

I am putting it out there to all of you. Remember why we celebrate. Take some time to remember and to take off your bah humbug hat and put on your beautiful Christmas hat!


Here is the "wise one" Jaxon last year when we went to Balboa Island.
Thanksgiving is this Thursday, so take a moment to Thank someone that you usually don't think of. Could be your barista at Starbucks or the car wash guy or maybe the bank teller. Let them know you appreciate them. Just a little kindness goes along way.
I will post pictures of 2 projects I am working on this week. One is just fabulous if I say so myself!
Ciao!

the most wonderful time of the year...bah humbug!

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

yeah pictures!

i finally am able to post some pictures.



these are some of the projects that have kept me busy at work. Everything I used is from mambi's new Christmas line. Love it! Both of these projects took no time at all. Also, very inexpensive. t
The JOY banner would make a great teacher gift.




here are a couple of layouts using my favorite bling bird. I loved him from the beginning. One layout is of Makenna and one is of Stephanie's daughter, Kayla. I can't believe that they are 14 years old. They both are beautiful girls if i do say so myself!


These pages were done with our newest collection...Sanctuary! Beautiful colors, great soft spoken, and rhinestones that are incredible!

Lots of exciting stuff going on at work. Wish I could divulge but then you know what they say... I would have to kill ya! Hopefully will be able to let you in on some cool stuff soon.
On the home front busy as all get out. another crazy week. Jaxon's football team is in the playoffs. And Mak has her last competition. Kinda nice that we are winding down. Just in time for the holidays! Yippee!
Have a mahvelous day my friends!
Ciao!

Monday, November 12, 2007

lots of curve balls this last week

Haven't posted in awhile and that is because our computer which is only a year old has died! To throw salt in our wounds on top of that the store in which we bought it from has gone out of business in Orange County. They now only have stores up north...which means we have to wait until they ship us a box ship it back to them and then figure the problem out and fix it. We were told a "few weeks". If any of you are like me when it comes to computers I know just enough to be dangerous! Ed and I are crippled without it. You don't realize how much you depend on it. Luckily Jaxon's basketball coach is a computer wiz and is downloading our hard drive for us. Because, yes, we did not back anything up...NOTHING! You'd think we would have learned our lesson that first time with our last computer...NOPE. Hard learners I guess. Which means I can't post pictures until I bring my card reader to work.
The same day our computer broke my car had some issues nothing too serious but enough to stress you out. That was also my birthday gift...a lovely water pump! Don't even know what it looks like but I guess I should be grateful. My car won't overheat and I can now tell how fast I am going be it that my speedometer is fixed too.

Well, on the football front, Mission lost to Tesoro in a very good game but very disappointing game. What is about referees???? I swear somebody from Tesoro paid them off. There was something like 7 personal foul calls one of which cost us our touchdown that we scored. Enough of that. Makenna's team looked fabulous. They performed at the Band of Americas on Saturday and took 6th out of 20. Not bad. She is winding down her season and it has been quite an experience for all of us.

Another crazy week for us. I will hopefully have some pictures of some of the projects I have been working on at work. We have some great Christmas paper and embellishments. Trying to get in the spirit. I have to be honest not really into it this year. Maybe I should put on some Christmas music. That might help. What do you do when the bah hum bug feeling is taking over. what puts you in the Christmas spirit?

Ciao

Sunday, November 4, 2007

The Love of Football continues



GO TROJANS!




Okay, for my birthday... which is 4 days...and just so you know I love to celebrate all month. So never worry if you have forgotten because really you have all month!
Okay, back to the love of football. Ed got me tickets to the USC game this weekend. We went with my brother Chuck and SIL Trina.
We had great seats but never saw them. We were in the Health Net hospitality tent courtesy of our friend Mike Sigal and his wife Lisa. We were able to eat and drink and the best part of all go down on the field for the pregame.
did you get that GO DOWN ON THE FIELD! I am going to tell you it was almost too much too handle. I will put it into a scrappers perspective. When you go into a scarpbooking store you have never been into or maybe a tour of a sticker manufacturer and you heart is pumping and you think you have died and gone into scrapper's heaven that is what it was like for us. Maybe not so much for Trina. :) Definitely for Chuck, Ed and I. maybe not even Ed. I don't know. I am going to say the pictures don't even describe the colors, the excitement, the energy, the spirit. It just gives you glimmer of the experience. The word that comes to mind for me is dedication. Dedication of men, women, young men and women, older men and women. Another words...EVERYONE that loves their teams. the bodies of the players are unreal! they are GINOURMOUS! Toned, Sculpted. The spirit of the fans is AWESOME! Let me say this some of them are truly hurting today and nursing some pretty big hangovers...but they love their team! The coliseum is huge. I will never know what it is like to have 80,000 people cheering and rooting for you. Again...Dedication!

Here are some pictures. I hope you can get just a little bit of what we felt!




the students















my crazy brother Chuck playing with the yell leaders signs.









the band coming on the field. can you feel it?







the team getting fired up! Chuck and i wanted to join them. wonder if they would have noticed?





the band performing. does anyone know the name of their hats?there is a certain name. leave a comment with your answer and there might be a little prize for you.


the man of the hour..Pete Carroll. Love him.

well that's it.

what are you dedicated to? Dedication can be anything. To your family, to your hobby, to your team. What is is that makes you want to do better, do more, be the best? think about it? you might be surprised!

Ciao!

Wednesday, October 31, 2007

A Favorite Pastime




























Monday night we spent our evening doing something that I LOVE!! Football!!! Now for those of you who know me this is no surprise. For those of you that don't...I love everything about football. The game, the spirit, the food, the people. I really wish that I could have played when I was younger. I always wanted to take someone out and then get pumped up about it. I know a little twisted. I just love that sound it makes when the pads hit! AWESOME!













My daughter Makenna is a freshman this year and she made the color guard team at her school. I don't know who was more excited about her making the team me or her. You see this meant that the Gurzi's were now going to be spending our Friday nights out at the lights...Football Games!!!













Here are a few pictures of the game on Monday.






the captains go out for the coin toss. love the holding of hands. when will you ever see teenage boys holding hands???













the drumline bringing out the team.





































this guy makes Ed and I laugh everytime he runs by and barefoot no less. Really fast!!!! The crowd goes wild for him and his flag!













a great play!


and then of course why we go to the game in the first place. Our beauties as we Moms call them. Makenna would kill me if she knew I used this picture but it is not that easy to get a good picture when you want to watch the whole show. So this will have to do. She is lucky enough to be on an award winning team. They travel everywhere. It has been such a blessing to watch her grow in the sport yes i said sport. They are at the school almost more than the football team! It has been quite and experience for her and us. Ed and I miss her tons. She is never home and when she is she is planning something or going somewhere.

Enjoy those little ones. They grow up so very fast and you will be surprised how soon you will start talking about driving tests, colleges, dances, etc. It is almost too much to handle.

Well, we are off to celebrate Halloween. Be safe out there!

Here is a little craft that I made a couple of weeks ago because I was tired of my same old Halloween decorations.
Ciao!

Monday, October 29, 2007

The first post

Well I finally bit the bullet and I am starting a blog. Not sure why I want a blog but after months of reading others thought I would give it a try.

I hopefully will be able to inspire others as others have inspired me!

I will say this I have tried 3 times now to post this and for some reason every time I save it I can't figure out how to get it from there to my blog. So needless to say this will definitely be an adventure for me!

For those of you that do not know me I am a Mom and Wife and I get to work for an amazing company by the name of meandmyBIGideas. We are a sticker manufacturer in the scrapbook industry. I am Director of Education. I love my job and all the wonderful people I work with as well have met through this job!

I am hoping that I can spot what I do at mambi as well as at home. We will just have to see.


My family and I live in Trabuco Canyon and unfortunately this last week was a very trying week in that we were very close to the fires that practically took over California. I know kinda of an exaggeration but really....

A shout out to all of our brave and fearless firefighters! Those firefighters ROCK! My brother Chuck being one of them. They go out and fight these fires and get no sleep for days. Unbelieveable! Thank You just doesn't seem big enough. Speaking of does anyone know where we can donate clothes for the fire victims?? If so leave me a comment.

I will leave you with a picture of what we were looking at last week from our front yard.

Crazy isn't it??!!!
Okay all of you go out and do a good deed for someone! See how it will make your heart SOAR!
Ciao