Cath, etc.

Ready? Break!

Tomorrow I'll be here.

I'm packed, psyched, and rarin' to go.

Starting Sunday I'll be at CHA hangin' with all my industry peeps, being inspired by some amazing new scrapbooking product, and rubbing elbows with my favie friends from all over the world at two Paper Crafts events--our 5th birthday bash on Monday at 2:00 and the World Card Making Day 2009 Kick-Off Party on Tuesday at 2:00. If you're going to be in the neighborhood, be sure and stop by booth #3153.

I'll be back in a few days. In the meantime, you can see what I'm up to by clicking here.

(...and remind me not to scream on Space Mountain. Last time I did that I lost my voice for the show--just like I did when I screamed myself mute at the U2 concert at Rice Eccles Stadium--except then I had to teach school. Created a few problems.  Bad Cath. Bad, bad, Cath.)

Let Us Gather Together

...to celebrate World Card Making Day on Saturday, October 4!

I don't know about you, but I get the card making bug big time this time of year. And I'll let you in on a little secret. Since taking the job as creative editor at Paper Crafts magazine nearly 3 1/2 years ago, I haven't made a whole lot of handmade cards. Isn't that just the saddest thing? If you didn't know, I used to have a little handmade card business called Cards by Cath--and that's how I was "discovered" by Jennafer Martin and Stacy Croninger lo these many years ago. I answered a local call for resumes for the job and the rest, they say, is history.

But being responsible for the content of the magazine means that I use up an awful lot of creative energy in any given day, and I find that I just don't have a lot left at the end of said day--for cards that is. And oh how I miss it!  The joy of putting together colors that work and a design that wows all for someone you care about a lot. It's a very satisfying feeling.

That's the heart behind World Card Making Day in a nutshell. It's a day set aside for card makers all over the world to celebrate the gift of giving a handmade card. 

Which is why, this Saturday, I'm planning on dusting off the trimmer, inking up the stamps, and whipping up some cards. Wouldn't you just love to join me?

Get in on the action by visiting the World Card Making Day website for all kinds of ideas on how to celebrate including

• Creating your own handmade cards from the dozens of sponsored ideas in the Inspiration Avenue section
• Sharing your unique designs with the world in the Creation Corner Gallery

• Finding and visiting an Official World Card Making Day Retailer for classes and activities that will help you connect with fellow card makers

• Planning your own fun activities with friends and family with ideas from the Celebrate section

I'm so excited about this that I'm prepared to give two lucky commenters a copy of this moxie fab special issue from Paper Crafts magazine:
 

 

Let me know what you love about making handmade cards, what you love about receiving handmade cards, or how you're planning on spending World Card Making Day (even if it's not making cards!) by no later than midnight MST on Friday, October 3, and I'll announce the winners AND post the cards I made on World Card Making Day on the Big Day itself!

Happy card making! I simply can't wait!

Welcome to Blogland

Blogland is absolutely great, I'm sure we would all agree.

I'd like to welcome 3 close friends and 1 daughter to our planet, Blogworld. Yes, they've taken the plunge and committed themselves to this interest-obsession-dashofinsanity that we all call fun.

Take my friend Megan, for example. Her blog launched just about two weeks ago and she's already a self-confessed addict who says, "It starts with a few posts and turns into seeing potential posts in everything you experience." If you're looking for some true character with some humor and attitude mixed in, I suggest you hurry on over to I Don't Know Yet... and subscribe to her RSS feed immediately.

Another one of my friends and fellow Paper Crafts editors, P. Kelly Smith, has dived in with both feet. She's been thinking about it for weeks. She's a very gifted writer who has a lot to say and is one of the best story-tellers I know, but she wavered back and forth because she was worried about the commitment, not wanting it to feel like a "job." I certainly haven't wanted to put any pressure on her, so I merely encouraged her, but I'll tell you, when she announced earlier this week that she had started a blog, I yelped a little yelp. Take a peek at what's going on at PK's Parlor, and you'll see immediately why.

Another Paper Crafts peep, Susan Neal, also has a relatively new blog. She talks about paper crafting, her teaching experiences at Creating Keepsakes Conventions around the country, and also offers a recipe for Zucchini Cheese Quiche. I'm super excited to learn about Sue's blog because she is one of the most talented paper crafters I know, so go on over to MyEyeQ and see what this Paper Crafts Pro--and really good friend--is all about.

And last, but certainly not least, my daughter Nicole launched her own blog just a couple of days ago. She set up the blog at her work and found that she had so much more to say that she needed one of her own. It's called Eco-Logical Adventures: Musings and More from an Ecologically Minded Girl. Fits her to a "t."

So in the spirit of blogland friendship, give these gals a look-see. Since we bloggers live and die by the number of comments and pages viewed, let's give these worthy newbies a shot in the arm as they begin their journey towards building their communities for the benefit of us all.

My 100th Post: Let's Celebrate with a Prize!

Yep. 100 of these babies. 100 little morsels from my brain. Thanks for tuning in. I've enjoyed myself immensely. Hope you've been mildly entertained as well. Been thinking about this whole blogging thing and how much I freakin' enjoy it am obsessed with it. How I never watch TV anymore except for one show on Monday nights and it's going away maybe I'll have to give its replacement a shot we'll see.

How I seem to need to write a blog every day like it's a drug in my veins this inkling to blog coming on around 7:30 PM when the day is settling down and the work noise is finally silencing and the house is growing quiet and I get to plug in and put it down, entering a zone that nourishes me in ways I never even hoped it would.

As in how much I love hearing from you, my blogfriends. How I learn from your insight, gain validation from your support, laugh out loud at your humor, delight in your charm. How much your comments uplift me just knowing that you're there. How many friends I have gained, some I know some I don't but I thank you all just the same.

So to thank you blogfriend, I think it appropriate that I offer a prize that comes straight from my heart. How 'bout six cards from my old handmade card business, Cards by Cath? Leave a comment saying what it is you like the most about this whole blog reading business (or just say hello) by midnight MST on Monday, September 8, and these cards will be yours:

 

Here's to 100! May the next 100 be as fun as the first! Thanks again for being my blogfriend!

Facebook Frenzy

Do you Facebook?

Are you resisting the latest wave of social networking? Are you thinking about joining, but biding your time, waiting in the wings, hesitant to wrap your brain around something that takes you away from actually interacting with real, flesh and blood people? Or are you obsessed with flinging flair, showering flowers, messaging with muppets, or issuing invitations with names like Packrat, Buy Your Friends, and Are You a Moron?

I would be the first to admit that I have been all three of the above. Against. Resistant. Obsessed.

Well, maybe not quite obsessed. I think my friends Brandy, Beth, Susan, and Ana might fall under that category.

Brandy  joined just a couple of nights ago and stayed up until one in the morning making Flair, all after a simple conversation with

 Beth and Susan who had just joined the week before. And

 Ana, well Ana does this kind of thing for a living, so it's OK.

It's all OK, really, I've decided. It's actually quite a lot of fun. Tonight I IM'd on Facebook with a dear, dear friend from college whom I haven't seen in years. I never would have picked up the phone this evening to talk with her--but there she was, in the little window that tells me which of my friends are currently online so I pinged her, chatting for over an hour! So good to talk with you Miss Pat! While we were catching up I also requested to be friends with her daughters and I can't wait to keep in touch with them as well. I also requested to be friends with a guy from high school I haven't seen since our ten-year reunion and even though I'm a little chapped that he didn't request a friendship with me first, I will, in the spirit of true Facebook fellowship, offer the first entreaty.

I found another friend from high school and we're working out a lunch together.

I don't have the most "friends" in the world, and most of the "friends" I do have are work-related--people I see every day. Or industry-related, which is fun. But it's a great way to touch bases with my daughters, their friends who are making their way into the world, and hopefully I'll start connecting with more and more of my own friends from way back when. 

I am, after all, still interacting with real, flesh and blood, live, warm bodies--I'm just doing it through a computer screen and loving every minute of it. (Especially when Nicole and I are sitting not two feet from one another and IM-ing each other on Facebook! Loads o' silly fun!)

What do you think of social networking? Against? Resistant? Obsessed?

If you're in, I'd love to be your "friend," and if you're a Facebook member, there's a new Paper Crafts Facebook Group, which my buddy Ana created herself just today.