My New Venture-Wickless Candles!

     I just had to share my new business venture: Scentsy. I had such great luck with my Velata business that I decided to jump into their fragrance line as well! I thought I'd explain a bit as well as share with you the pleasures and "opening" day.

     In case you haven't heard about Scentsy let me enlighten you somewhat. This company has a direct sales concept which means, you order directly from a consultant (that's me, lol) and they ship directly to you as the host of a party. They sell a wickless wax "candle" and warmers that are melted with the aid of a light bulb.You read that correctly, with a light bulb, not a flame candle. This makes them safe for use in college dorms, nursing homes etc. While the light bulb melts the wax it does not get overly hot so you don't have to worry about getting burned on hot wax.

     Above is an example of just one of the full size warmers. There are so many different styles to choose from to fit any decor.

     There are even smaller ones that are perfect for the bedroom or bath. Again there are many styles to chose from. Below is what the fragrance pack looks like:

     This happens to be one of my favorites! The wax cubes come 9 to a block. One block /cube lasts for up to 8 hours. Unlike regular candles, with these you have the same great scent every time you add or replace a cube. How cool is that. I hate when I burn a candle and it starts out smelling super but the scent doesn't last to the end of the jar. Another plus is that I am not stuck with the same scent until the candle is gone but can change it up depending on my mood.

  

     Another great thing about this company is the promotions they have. Each month they have a charity cause warmer. They have had them for Special Olympics, Breast Cancer, Autism etc. They do have one coming out for Alzheimer's as well so you will want to pay close attention when I post the cause of the month. We also carry warmers for various colleges. Want to see if yours is among them? You can check it out HERE .

     I thought I'd let you share in my enthusiasm on the day my kit arrived. It happened to be a day when my grandchildren were here. (Their mother also sells Scentsy). Here we go.....

The enthusiasm is contagious!!!

I see a warmer!

Yeah, a Scentsy Buddie for baby. How cool is this?

Catalogs, order forms, extra light bulbs, scent pack, fragrance bars....

Sample scents, all 87 of them!

CeCe's turn to hold the Scentsy Buddie, lol. They were so excited it was the Penny The Pig!

     So there you have it my starter kit! If you don't have a consultant yet or would like to learn more, just leave me your email or you can order directly from my open party HERE.

     Best of all there is a special this month where if you book and close a party of $150.00 or more before Jan. 31st you can purchase double the rewards for half off. That means you can buy warmers for more rooms in your house, yeah!!!!  Do you know who deserves this for V-Day?

     Thanks for stopping by today. I'm giving my craft room a make over. Wish me luck!!!!

Cricut VS Silhouette

     This is an exciting giveaway Erica has for you this week. Why not head over to her blog and take a look at all the wonderful prizes she is giving away. Can we just say Thank you Erica. She is always having great prizes over there. You can find out all about the prizes Here
      Today I am going to do something I don't usually do but here goes anyways. It has come to my attention that a group on facebook has posted a survey of sorts to ask you your opinion on the Cricut vs Silhouette die cut machines. The problem is that the question was posed to Silhouette uses and not Cricut uses. In fact, many of those commenting don't even own a Cricut machine!
     I will tell you up front that I have been hunting around for a sale on the Cameo Silhouette and really haven't found any. Then I was researching this machine and found it is a completely different type of machine in the mechanics of how the machine works.
     The one thing I did like about it is that you can print an image from your computer by way of your printer and in their software place registration marks and then cut with your Cameo.Sounds good right?
     Well when I really rationalized it, I realized several things:
1.I need a computer plus access to my printer
2.I need to research my images on line if I don't find what I want in their software
3. I need to have my computer plugged into the Cameo
4. I have to make sure I have enough supplies (extra blades, mats etc) because there are no stores near me that carry these supplies let alone the machine.
5. My craft room is in one end of the house while the computer is in another.
6. I don't always have use of the computer in the evening when my husband is doing his business on our shared computer.
     Why did I spend so much time looking for that pot of gold when I have it right here already, lol. I have the following Cricuts: the baby bug, Expression, the E2,Cricut Cake,gypsy and the Imagine. I don't even want to tell you how many carts I have! The ones I use constantly are my Gypsy and I just love my Imagine. If I think I am losing my Mojo all I have to do is go to a booklet and the creativity begins to flow. I can design where ever I am and then just go home, plug in my gypsy and Voila my project is done. If I need extra PC supplies, they are easily available to me @ Michaels, Jo Ann's and ACMoore. I also can find great prices on line @ stores like Erica's from My Cricut Craft Room or Cricut.com 
     My feeling is that competition is always good however it is better to promote the qualities of your product without bashing another brand particularly if they are completely different machines. For me, I am not the most technically expert person so the simplicity and ease of use makes me a devoted Cricut fan .Plus I have my craft room to work in without disrupting the house to use the computer when I want to craft.
     Thanks for listening to my feelings on the subject. Please feel free to add your own 2 cents on the matter. I'd love to hear what your feelings are.

Best Camera Ever!

     I usually am a very spontaneous and impulsive person. If I like it, I buy it. However, that being said, when my husband told me I could finally get a new camera for Mothers' Day I was stumped. I like the looks of the SLR's but my brain can only learn so much at once. The idea of changing lenses and switching settings was more than I could handle. (For now anyways, lol).
     We went to Best Buy, Walmart (I heard they have good prices) and then I searched the internet. I am so glad I did. Two of the cameras I was trying to decide between got terrible reviews. The batteries wear out fast, not great pics, awful on action shots. One was a Canon 130 IS and the other a Nikon. Both were point and shoots.
     I finally contacted a friend who is a photographer and she recommended the Canon G12. I searched the reviews on line and found them very favorable (easy to use, different settings to play with if you want to without being too complicated). The only draw back was for rapid action photos but that can be remedied with a separate flash attachment so it does not pull from camera body. You can even get an optional lens for greater zoom.
     Ok so now I have to try this camera. No one close buy has it in stock or even one to try! Guess what, the canon factory was located in the area of the Japanese earthquake so stock is difficult to find. Great! I went back to the internet and thought I hate to buy it without even trying it first but a girls gotta do what a girls gotta do right? You'll never guess. I went to the Best Buy website and saw it was on sale, $100.00 off! What is even better is I called the store located about 40 minutes from us and they had 3 in stock. How sweet is that? Needless to say we got back in the car and, after a quick lesson on how to use this, we came home with the G12! I love this camera. Check out these pics.

Mia's dance class. This was taken thru the glass!

If the weather doesn't warm up soon this is as close as the kids will get to swimming this year!

My favorite page in the class I just took. Love embossing!!!

Little Miss Cecilia and her first ever pig tails.

Thoughts On The Academy Awards

     What happened to the good old days?  Years ago this was to the girls what the Super Bowl is to guys. The glitz, the glamor, the nervous anticipation among the nominees,  who shows up with whom, who will make the most heartfelt acceptance speech. That's not what happened last night.
     First there was all the buzz about the young hosts to attract a more youthful audience. Why? If you like movies, you're going to watch the Oscars to see if your favorite film won. Young, old, it doesn't matter. You'll watch if you like movies period. The young hosts spent more time whooping like at a sporting event than showing some respect to the winners. There were too many comments how the young ones are taking over. I believe one of the classiest actresses to appear last night was Natalie Portman. She appeared totally humbled by this honor and truly works hard at her craft. ( this was the only movie I saw "Black Swan").  Melissa Leo who dropped the "F" bomb almost seemed proud that it "slipped" out. Come on, she had already won at all the other major awards. You mean she had nothing prepared in case she won the most prestigious award of all?
     There also was some hype as to the direction some of the dresses the stars were going to wear  : vintage. Yes they talked about vintage, a throw back to the glamorous days of the golden age of Hollywood. Okay so I'm no spring chicken but I'm not an old prude either. Please tell me, except for a select few (including Anne Hathaway wearing Valentino) where were the vintage gowns? Any knock off vintage? All I saw were some fabulous fabrics with a futuristic, uniform type style. I love to look at the fashions. I love the sweeping flowing gowns that move with such flair, grace and that scream femininity. I love all the bling, sparkles and glitz. Speaking of glitz, where was Winston jewelers? The actresses are usually dripping in diamonds. Scarlett Johansen had a beautiful dress but could have used some help with the hair!
    I wish they had Michael Douglas accompany his dad Kirk Douglas to present the Best Supporting Actress Award. I love to see the two of them interact and think that would have been a great and touching duo. Kirk who is still recovering from his stroke and Michael who has just completed treatment for throat cancer. Now that would have created a memorable moment!
     Yes give me the not so long ago Academy Awards. When Billy Crystal emceed. When Sally Fields cried "You love me, you really really love me", when Hallie Berry gave a gut wrenching acceptance speech being the first African American Woman to win  Best Actress. Yes there had been black woman who had won best supporting actress: Whoopi Goldberg in Ghost and Oprah was nominated in 1985 for The Color Purple but Hallie was the First for Best Actress.   Give me a one hand push up like Jack Palance or who ever the actor was who climbed over the seats to get to the stage to accept his award. Who can forget how Hollywood behaved  with such dignity with the awards show post 9/11?
     There is always next year. Let's hope we learn how to define class, vintage, humor and acceptable behavior before then.

Happy Valentines' Day!

     Just a quick post and a few thoughts on this Valentines' Day. This winter has been a rough one but also a devastating one for the local florists. All the recent snow storms have forced many shops to close in order to clear parking areas. Floral deliveries have been delayed by the wholesalers and shop owners have also endured rising costs on supplies not to mention additional costs on show/ice removal.
     One well known floral clearinghouse has been running ads saying "why use your local florist when we can ship directly from the growers to your home? We will even include a free vase!" Let's think about this for a minute. I live in New England, the land of snow, ice and below freezing temperatures. Who is my local grower? What the ad does not say is that many times these flowers are shipped directly to you from the fields located in South America!!! They are packaged and put on a plane, then a Fed Ex truck where they are delivered right to your door. However if you are at work and don't get home until 5-6pm and your flowers were delivered at 8-9a.m., That means your poor flowers have been sitting in a box, possibly on a snow bank, waiting for you to get home!
     I have been a floral designer for over 10 years now and I have a few insights I would like to share with you. First when we get our flowers in from the wholesaler they are immediately processed. What that means is that they are inspected, given a fresh cut and then placed in a floral food solution with lukewarm water. Once they are hydrated they are again inspected to make sure they are up to our freshness standards. We then begin to design our arrangements. Before the customer walks out of the door the item is again given a fresh cut and water if necessary.
     The drivers call the customer before they take the arrangement out of the cooler and arrange a delivery time. If customer cannot be reached or does not answer the phone the arrangement does not leave the shop. (You won't come home to a bouquet that is frozen!) Occasionally things happen that are beyond our control, ie, a particular variety of flower that does not last as long as it should. In that case all you have to do is call the florist to voice your dissatisfaction. Usually we will send a replacement but we also take back the one that was rejected. The reason a florist will do this is so we can monitor if there is a problem with the flower, the wholesaler that sold it to us or is it that particular grower. If you go through an online clearing house how will you get your replacement and when will that be? Do you really want to come home from work and arrange your own flowers?
     We all could use some bright flowers to cheer us up and get us through the rest of this winter whether it's Valentines' Day or not. I am just so fed up with this ad (ProFlowers, there I said it!) it appears so negative against the local florists that I felt a little prospective on what a florist job entails was in order.

     I sincerely hope you all have a wonderful Valentines' Day and spread the love out there!