Cath, etc.

I'm In My Element

 
Is there nothing so wonderful as catching up on your Google Reader in the hotel room the night before a trade show with a cuppa decaf non-fat mocha by your side, knowing that the happy reunion with your bestie is just minutes away?

I'm in my element, and ever grateful for the opportunity once again.

Celebrating a Milestone

I've been at Paper Crafts magazine for five years now. Help me celebrate by clicking here.

Immersed

Like a believer on Sundays, I have been immersed. Baptized by the church of man-oh-man-but-I-love-my-job, I've been putting vast amounts of energy towards the production of magazines, the shaping of features, the moulding of columns, the creation of online promotional campaigns, and the delightfully bippy task of inspiring paper crafters all over the world to move from their coffee tables to their craft rooms to create a handmade card.

All more fun than I could ever describe, really. But amazingly, it's so much more than just that.

Because while I was not writing here in Cath, etc. I was doing all that AND attending the paper crafting industry's semi-annual tradeshow, CHA, in Anaheim. We left on a Friday and came back on a Wednesday--inspired, connected, rejuvinated, exhausted, and truly joyful. And while I could wax poetic about my experiences, I think the pictures say it best.

Me, Jennifer, and Kelly during our flight's delay:

A photo op on a different kind of runway:

Some Paper Crafts peeps, most of whom I hadn't met before the consumer portion of the show. So nice to put faces with names:

After learning that my dear and moxie fab friend, Kim Kesti, will be a mom for the ninth time in July:

Me and Kelly with some of our favorite people in the industry, Teri Anderson and Lisa Johnson:

Running into my old pals from Simple Scrapbooks, Wendy Smedley and Angie Lucas, whom I miss so much:

Reconnecting with Melody:

Margie:

Melissa:

...and Diane:

 Meeting Anna Griffin! *swoon*:

Catching up with dear friends Bev and Eileen:

 ...and Julie and Eric:

Laughing 'til it hurts with the Paper Crafts Go-to Gals:

...and generally being surrounded with a kind of love and mutual respect that validates, gives, and grows:

 

This industry--these women--rock my world:

...and I'm so grateful to be so blissfully immersed.

They Used to Be Called Pompons

Blue Tissue Flower Pom-Poms from Martha Stewart Crafts

I don't know about you, but I'm fascinated by the evolution of language. I mean at what point did we stop speaking Middle English and exchange it for words like postsantum depression in the Urban Dictionary? Hilarious I might add.

I mean, I had to memorize the General Prologue from the Canterbury Tales  by Geoffery Chaucer and recite it in front of my AP English class when I was a senior in high school. In fact, I can still remember the first two lines (OK, I had to look up the spellings):

Whan that Aprill, with his shoures soote The droghte of March hath perced to the roote We read as many "tales" as we could take, I'm sure, and all in this ancient rhyme. On to the language of Shakespeare, Jane Austen, even Mark Twain, and we could barely figure out what everyone was talking about  at any given time. So today, when I had to write the word "pompon" in a blog post I was writing for work, I said to myself No one in their right mind calls them pompons anymore. What kind of a git will I be if I spell it correctly? Then I remembered that we had even changed the antiquated pompon to pom-pom in the Paper Crafts style guide recently. As it so happens, paper crafters use a lot of bitty pom-poms in their projects, so this has been a troublesome issue when writing supply lists and instructions for the magazine. So I thought, OK, if Paper Crafts  can say pom-pom, and even the venerable Martha Stewart is using pom-pom, then surely I can too? I know, right? But it made me wonder--where am I getting the sense that pompon is outdated and pom-pom is its more contemporary independent liberal sister? In other words, how does language change and why? And who gets to decide what changes are OK? As in, why did it used to be one pair for the singular, and two pairs for the plural and now it's just peachy keeno fine to say two pair? It's even listed in the dictionary as correct. It's the second option, but it's correct. Drives me batty, I tell ya. Or when did that rule about never ending a sentence with a prepostion get tossed out? I can't stand to end sentences with a preposition. I'm still writing sentences like this: I am amazed at the state in which we have found ourselves. No way I could ever say I am amazed at the state we have found ourselves in. Yuck! I get heebie jeebies all over my body. And yet, when I write or talk that way, I feel and sound so formal. So git-ish. I could go on and on, and I'm sure at various points I will. But really the amazing thing is the debate we can have over one little letter variation (plus a hyphen) in a word. Pompon. Seriously?

It's a Blogiversary Party in the Moxie Fab World--and You're Invited!

Thursday of this week will mark the blogiversary of the Moxie Fab World, the blog I host for Paper Crafts magazine.

It's been one of the most fun projects I've ever worked on and I've made a ton of new friends in the journey. Maybe you're one of them. :)

I'm still pinching myself when I think that I actually get paid to find trendy inspiration and write bippy posts for my readers.

And while I know that you, dear blogfriend, might not be a paper crafter, I did want to let you know that as part of our blogiversary celebration, I'm giving away 12 b-e-a-u-t-i-f-u-l holiday projects created by some of the most talented paper crafters in the industry today.

And I'm talking b-e-a-u-t-i-f-u-l.

All you have to do is hop on over and leave a comment in order to be eligible to win.

So drop on by! I'll be the one with the funny hat on. I hope to see you there!

And For That, I Am Truly Grateful

By morning, it had already been a lovely day.

I woke to a cheerful daybreak, the moon floating high above the roof of the garage, smiling at us as the coffee was poured.

At Mark's departure, his daily dismissal at precisely 7:12, I fired up my laptop, checked my personal email, today's Moxie Fab World blog post, my work email, and Facebook, engaging myself in the calm, sweet solace of routine.

I proceeded to fix some glitches in the blog post, noodled around a little on Etsy, decided not to update my Facebook status because I didn't have anything particularly interesting to say, and answered a few work emails mostly involving change approvals for projects that will be appearing in an upcoming special issue.

It made for the beginnings of a perfectly regular day.

I made some oatmeal with a tablespoon of ground flax seed, sugar, and skim  milk and waited patiently for some material to arrive in my work inbox, without which I could not begin.

At which point Beccah came downstairs, coiffed and spiffed, ready to take on the world--25 minutes early.

It was then that my morning began to shine.

For Beccah is a new girl now that she's single again. She broke up with her boyfriend of 2 1/2 years over three weeks ago, the official discussion in which both mutually and respectfully agreed that the relationship could never work has taken place, and she is moving on.

And by new girl, I mean empowered, in charge, focused, and happy.

As I drove her to the Trax train that will take her to the bus that will get her to class (breaking up with a boyfriend who also has a car changes everybody's lives), I suddenly felt so grateful.

• Grateful to have the opportunity to help her out in her time of need.
• Grateful that she has taken control of her life, knowing how difficult it was for her to let go of someone she loved so deeply.
• Grateful that she has come back to us with such enthusiasm after having spent so much time with someone who didn't love us as much as she.
• Grateful to have shared the epiphanal Saturday in which she cried with joy as she enumerated all the deep discoveries she had made about herself in yoga class that morning.

Grateful that my Beccah is back.

Upon my return, I acknowledged my gratitude with a walk around the neighborhood--the crisp, electric air glowing in the morning light. Each step felt lighter than the last as I passed familiar houses and timeless landmarks. Strangers waved, dogs barked, and resting fields wished me well.

Perhaps they could sense my appreciation. Perhaps they could see the bouyant spirit that was born in me from the ride I gave my daughter that morning to the train. Perhaps they could feel the happiness that surely must have been beaming from my every extremity as I passed. 

For I am grateful. There's nothing like watching your child make strong, solid decisions for herself, knowing that she is embracing what she needs to be truly happy.

As a parent, it just doesn't get a whole lot better than this.

And for that, I am truly grateful.

Happy Haunting!

Have I mentioned recently how much I love my job?

Oh, I have? Well, bear with me, because I'm going to say it again.

I love my job.

Here's one of the many reasons why:

The 9 Brides of Frankenstein

My take on the theme

Each year we dress in a team Halloween costume. Last year, we were hippies, though I spent Halloween in New Hampshire and missed out on the fun:

Kelly, Jennifer, Susan, Brandy, and Stace

Although, Mark and I did channel our inner hippies at a party Susan and Beth had hosted the week before:

The year before that the Paper Crafts team was a girl-band; the year before that, pirates; and the year before that we were a motorcycle gang.

And yeah, I'm kicking myself because I don't have any photos of those great costumes for you.

But this year, with the addition of Matt, our token man to the team, we enjoyed being the 9 brides of Frankenstein. Which could only happen in Utah, of course!

Jennifer, Susan, Matt, me, Brandy, Holly, Brenda, Kelly, Melinda, and Sarie

It's one of the ways I get my Halloween jollies every year, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

Here's the other:

This year marks the 15th year of putting the "eyes" in the upstairs windows for all our neighbors.

And here's another:

 Our kitchen bay window. Click here for the full treatment.

What are your favorite ways to celebrate Halloween? With our kiddos all grown, I will admit, it's fun to have a couple of pieces in place to make sure that I still celebrate. I hope that no matter what your age, you still get into the Halloween "spirit"!

Happy haunting!

Happy World Card Making Day

Happy World Card Making Day, friends! I'm so glad you stopped by to say "hello!"

I'm whipping up some of these babies today. My "I Thee Wed" card is a top-seller from my old Cards by Cath days, and I'm running out. But I love it so much, I've got to have  a stash waiting in the wings, knowwhaddamean?

To thank you for paying me a visit, I'd love to send one random winner 6 of my Cards by Cath creations. Just leave me a comment by Sunday, October 4 at midnight MDT!

What do I love most about World Card Making Day? The knowledge that I am creating cards with the rest of the paper crafting world at the same time. I feel connected to all y'all in a special way, and I hope you feel the same way, too.

Even if you aren't making cards today, I hope you are doing something that you love, because that's what makes the world a brighter place.

Enjoy your day!

~Cath

PS Stop by Paper Crafts Connection today for a chance to win a killer prize package! You won't want to miss this opportunity, I promise!

Ugh.

My computer has another virus. Oh wait, you didn't know about the first virus, or maybe you did because I got it by clicking on something stupid on Facebook that sent all my FB friends porn. That's a whole other story which has another story attached to it as well. And the fact that you don't know about said story(ies) means that I've been a bad blogger.

Which is part of my *ugh*.

So I've been stuck upstairs in my incredibly neglected office amongst the sad and cluttered relics of my card business on my dinosaur of a computer realizing that it has none of the stuff I'm used to working with/on since I got my laptop almost two years ago and being frustrated because I can't adjust my chair right so I don't get shoulder cramps from using the mouse and I have to wait for-absolute-ever just to wait for it to accomplish the simplest of tasks not to mention the mass amounts of time it needs just to become functional after I boot it up every morning. I haven't had time to clean off the virus because

I've been c-r-a-z-y busy at work, working overtime full-time not part-time at all which makes me wonder if this whole voluntary simplicity thing is for me whatsoever. And while I have had a lot more than usual to do at work--OK, to be fair, a WHOLE LOT more than usual to do at work--I seem to gravitate towards that whole perfectionist, push everything to its limits, and let everything else slip aside kinda mode.

I swear that's where I feel most comfortable. And I hate it when that realization rears its ugly head every so often. Because ultimately it's completely unmanageable and leads me to burn-out.

Ugh.

I had two book club meetings in one week, both of which I put the reading of the book off until the last minute so I was reading non-stop for about 5 days the second week in September. Largely due to the *ugh* that pertains to work.

My father-in-law had surgery and then an emergency rush to the hospital a few days later and I've been worried and concerned about him and my mother-in-law all while having to stay focused with my nose to the grindstone. He's doing better now, thank goodness, but it sure has been hard being so far away, especially when they are having such a difficult time.

I haven't been working out regularly, just about one or two times a week which makes me feel like a slug.

As a result, in spite of losing 14 pounds, it's now only a 12-pound deficit and I'm at a plateau that my body hasn't wanted to bust through in, oh, say, a decade or so.

And every time I write in this blog I feel like I'm just so negative, but I guess anything would feel negative compared to the "bippy" girl I become when I write in the Moxie Fab World.

So I'm just stopping by to say *ugh.* It's been a long month, I couldn't even really tell you where it's gone, because I woke up one day and realized it was fall and I wasn't much aware that summer had come and gone. But then, when I really think about it, September has belonged to my beloved Paper Crafts, where I've been enjoying myself immensely, like when I found this poem in my morning cereal, and developed another Big Idea somewhere as I was walking between Fort and Relation Streets which will reveal itself in the Moxie Fab World beginning tomorrow, and a lovely editorial board meeting with our new Go-to Gals just a couple of days ago.

None of which are *ugh*s whatsoever.

But I didn't include a picture in this blog post. 'Cause my camera batteries all need charging and everything else is on my laptop. Which, as I mentioned, has a virus.

Ugh.

A Chance to Give Back

I found an easy way to help a school in Morocco.

Not that I was looking for it. It kind of fell into my lap as I was doing some research for my day job.

It's so stinkin' easy, and you get something amazing out of it, so I thought I'd pass it along to you.

It's never too early to shop for Christmas presents, handmade no less, and 100% of the profits from now until October 18 will go to a school like this:

 to help kids like this:

For more details and links, go to today's Moxie Fab World blog post.

And join me in supporting a friend, a cause, and a community.