lucky dodo

Monday...working from home today

Seeking inspiration. I have adjusted my summer schedule to include a day {Mondays} at home working from the office I have there. I am seeking inspiration and I need to be away from the  busyness of the office to find some time to think creatively. So, what better place that the "villa" the affectionate
 name that my kids call our home. Today is my first Monday home and I am already feeling inspired by my surroundings here. This is my garden area on the side of the house right off the master bedroom...one of my favorite places.
These are my favorite chairs....don't look too comfortable but once you get seated....they are the best!
I spend alot of time here just thinking and working on ideas for up-coming projects....great spot.
Ofcourse, another of my favorite spots...however, more for the weekends really, not for Monday work-from-home days. Always, calling me however....maybe tonight.
Just a general overview of the feeling here at home. My office is on the right through the double french doors there. As a matter of fact, I am sitting there as we speak....working on this blog.

Have a grea day and remember to surround yourself with a peaceful and inspiring environment whenever possible.

these are a few of my favorite things!

Stephen Farrington antique bottles.....my new addiction. I'm not much of a collector in general, but these unique bottles were first introduced to me about two years ago and I have not stopped loving them since.
Inspired by his love of nature, Seven creates unique bottle art with antique and unusual bottles of all types. Each bottle has it's own history and many were buried for hundreds of years. Stephen creates a unique sculpture for each bottle top including reclaimed chandelier parts, crystals, semi-precious stones, glass beads, beveled glass, copper wire, crucifixes, religious ornaments and rosaries.
I have my little "collection" in my office where I can look at them daily.

Check out how the crystals create a prism effect in the sunlight.

this was my very first bottle.....very tiny with a crucifix on the top....only about 4" tall.
I love this one.

Did I mention that my granddaughter, Kayla took all the photos for me today for this post? We spent a great day together today getting her hair cut, having lunch, playing video games and watching her brother play baseball. I love spending time with my little "Buggy"....she makes me laugh and she is always so sweet. I am a lucky, lucky Dodo! She is a creative photographer with an amazing eye for composition. Oh, btw she kicked my behind at our video game competition.....a game that I have been playing for weeks, she beat me at in one hour!!!

I'm so annoyed!!!!!!!

I just spent the last 45 minutes downloading photos and posting and when I went to save it....I got an error message and lost everything I just wrote. I'm not sure I have the patience for this blogging. Sorry, I have not written in a few day and I was so happy to get something interesting for you all to see. My hubby is wondering where I am....so, I will try again in the morning. Good night!

Father's Day Photos

I'm home from Minneapolis and tonight I just realized that I never shared the photos from Fathers Day with you. We spend the evening with Jeff & Kim {above} and Julie & Ryan.  It is so nice when your kids actually entertain you. We had a great  time and love spending time with all of our family.

Ryan BBQ'd chicken...it was yummy.

Thanks guys for the great father's day dinner....we enjoyed it. I spent the next few nights reading the book that Julie gave Bob. We are planning a trip to Europe and Julie & Ryan just got back...so they bought Bob the book that they used as a travel guide.

this is Nya {hope I spelled it right}. She is Julie & Ryan's daughter doggie and a real sweetheart. She is a part of the family and was right in the action all evening. Baxter the Boxer {Jeff & Kims dog} was not there this evening....but our entire family is pretty focused on their pets.

He can't find his keys!

Dave is always fun to travel with. We had a small issue today when our rental car key
dropped and fell under the car parked next to us. As you can see, Dave was successful
retrieving the key from beneath the car and we were off. We did get a good laugh though.
Okay, key safely tucked in the pocket of his jeans.

We are in Minneapolis for a mambi mission of sorts. We walked around today at the Mall of America and I felt like I had spent the day at Disneyland, complete with roller coaster running right in the center of the mall and sore feet. Definately, unlike anything we have at home. We visited an Archiever's scrapbook store and as always, I was impressed with the amount of prouduct they have.....their stores always look so nice. If you are ever in this neck of the woods take some time to check this out...it's shoppers paradise and a perfect way to get in some pretty significant "retail therapy" when you feel the need for it.

my friend K A Y

This is my friend Kay McConnaughey.....she is for-sure my "oldest" friend in the world. We have known each other and worked together for 25 years. She is a gifted artist and a true woman of character and she is a blast.  I love her. Kay is here at mambi working with us this week....cranking out new art for the BIG presentations we are working on. We have been working really long hours during her visit and with Stephanie out of the office, Kay has literally moved into her office for the week.  Actually, our entire art department is putting in lots of hours these days.

Kay was on the original mambi team when we started the company ten years ago. She did all the stick kids back then, but you may know her better {more recently} from her Modern Milan line. She is versatile and so much fun to work with. We laugh alot when we are together and talk about some pretty random subjects.
I feel really blessed to know her and very grateful that she works for mambi.

So, I had my annual mamogram yesterday and I wanted to remind all of you to do the same....don't let it go.
It is something that you should do for yourself every year after you are forty. Kay is a breast cancer survivor....she was diagnosed two years ago. She has had a long journey of surgery, chemo, radiation and reconstruction. Early detection is key to survival ladies!

Check out the Soft Spoken we have for survivors....cute, huh?

Hopefully, I won't have to learn about this first-hand, but if I were ever to face this myself, Kay has been a courageous example of how to deal with cancer.

Okay, we gotta get back to work tonight.

Have a good one.

I had to share this photo

Two....too CUTE!
I got this photo from my son, Brian and I thought it was "blog-worthy".
He is the big boy on the right....and little Marlon is really caught up in the moment.
What a happy face.
They were in Solano Beach (CA) for a festival/carnival/concert.....aren't they cute?

I have been MIA...sorry for no new blogs....but I have been helping Stephanie and the kids during her recovery. She is doing well...feeling better every day. I'm juggling but happy to help.....days are full.

Take care.

good morning sunshine!

1. 

Just a really quick good morning. It's going to be a long day today. As you can see from my lovely photo above, I am still sleepy-eyed and loving my coffee. Recognize the old "mambi" mug? I loved those.....maybe we should sell them again. We have three major presenations we are working on at mambi... one today {so Lauren and Dave are gone from the office} and two more in the next week. Renee and her team are totally swamped, Steph is in the hospital still {update to follow}, we have an artist coming in for a week to work in-house with us {that will mean working nights to take advantage of her time here}......it's just pretty crazy! We will be working all weekend. My poor and patient husband.

Stephanie got moved to a private room last night.  She did not get much sleep the first night because her roomate was very vocal and uncomfortable. It was pretty awful. So hopefully, today she can rest and SLEEP. She missed Tylers baseball banquet but I'm sure will share the highlights of the video that she had the pleasure of watching in her hospital bed! Thanks to everyone who has sent prayers and thoughts to her through me....she is getting them.

I'm off to take Kayla to school and stop by to see "our patient" before work.

Have a great day.

It's a thank you God day!

Today was one of those days when you pray several times, "Please keep your arms around my loved one, God  & make sure everything turns out okay." In my case that was my daughter, Stephanie and I prayed that many times today.  Routine surgeries like a hysterectomy {when they happen to other people} really don't seem like much of a crisis, but when it's somebody you love having general anesthesia, surgery and everything that goes along with that....it seems like a really BIG deal and your mind takes you to extreme places. Thankfully, God was with us today as Stephanie had her surgery....everything went well and tonight when I called to check on her....she was resting comfortably...with a morphine drip, I might add....but comfortably just the same.

Thanks to Mary & Joel, her brother and sister-in-law....we were able to be with her in the pre-op and right after surgery....it's great to know the right people in the right places. Look how "official" they look with their badges and all. Thanks guys.

Knowing she was okay, I left the hospital and drove up to Anaheim Glover Stadium, to watch Tyler play in the County All Star Baseball Game. North All Stars vs South All Stars. He was the short stop for the South and after the game {he hit a stand-up triple} there was an awards ceremony honoring two players. Tyler got "player with the most hustle" award, big trophy and total recognition among All Star players, fans and MLB scouts. It was a great honor. This was the only game I can remember that I was the only Rahmatulla fan in the stands. I got a photo of Tyler with his trophy...he was happy but worried about his mom and was on his way to the hospital to see her at 10:30 tonight after the game.

Again, thank you God for all the blessings in my life!

still celebrating graduation!

 I know....I know. This is old news to some who have been hearing about graduation for over a week now. BUT, we are still celebrating Tyler's graduation from Mater Dei high school. That's him....the handsome strapping lad in the photo on the left. Stephanie had all of us over yesterday for food, swimming & ping pong {a family favorite as many of you know}.  It was the official "family graduation party" for Tyler...her son, Bob & my grandson...the "family hero" if you will. He is on his way to either UCLA to play baseball or the draft to play MLB baseball. If you follow her blog...again, this is old news...but it's my news so here it is. I think Tyler is the first kid in our family to actually attend a major University....so it's a BIG deal to us.

I finished my mini-album that I made for him and I could not believe how long it took me to wrap it up. I  worked on it all last week when I was home sick. Recall, I had pneumonia last week? It was a nostalgic walk down memory lane for me, searching through all the photos and remembering all the great times we spent together through the years. I loved doing it...but it was my FIRST attempt at this type of album.


I really think he liked it! Thats my other grandson, Marlon sitting on my lap.
Can you believe how adorable both of my grandsons are? I know I'm a bit prejudiced.



I love the "sealing wax" on the front...like using that. Just covered a chipboard "t" with coordinating paper.
I also gave him a letter that I've been writing over the years...for this occasion. I'm thinking it was more for me than for him....but, it is my hope that years from now, he will look at this again and remember some fun memories from his young years with me. What a gift a grandson is!!!!! I hope you all have one some day.


I used the MAMBI Costal Collection papers....they are so well coordinated and easy to work with. Also, some alphabet stamps that I bought at a stationery store while in NY. I got a bit carried away with the stamping.....should have used more MAMBI Soft Spoken, but I was home with limited supplies...had to make due with what I had at the house....I always do my creative work at the office.



For the tabs, I cut a piece of 12" x 12" scalloped paper, covered it with Coastal paper and inserted it between the chipboard and stripe paper. I am going to add an eyelet there to strengthen it.

My album was 14 pages and I used three sizes of chipboard just to make it funky....8"x8", 6"x6" and 5"x8". I just learned how to use photoshop to add text to my photos....so I also went crazy with that.

Pounded lots of holes and connected the finished pages with rings.

The nice thing about the Costal Paper collection is that the papers all are weathered and textured to look old....and that worked well with my theme.
Several of the papers are flocked, some have metallic foil {like the silver stars on the cover} and some have speciality UV coated designs too. 




There you have it! That's what I have been working on for the past week.

Tonight I'm working on a new line for a presentation we are making next week in Minneapolis.
Tomorrow Stephanie has surgery and ofcourse, I will be there. There is an all-star baseball game tomorrow night and a year-end baseball awards banquet on Wednesday night....it will be a busy week for me!

So check back with me to keep up with the "highlights". I will be posting tomorrow night when Stephanie gets out of surgery just to let you know she is okay. I will leave the details to her.

See ya