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Jessica Acs. Crazy Happy Chaos

Jessica Acs. Crazy Happy Chaos

A little bit of everything. Life, animals, family, crafts, recipes.

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Travel

Had a blast in California!

January 29, 2009 by Jess Leave a Comment

Just a warning: this post is going to be full of photos!

I got back from California last night and was so exhausted that I pretty much went right to bed and fell asleep almost immeadiately! So today I’m trying to catch up on emails, unpack, and work on some upcoming classes. The dogs are still at my parents so I’m feeling rather lost being at home without them! I’m heading over to the island tomorrow though for the weekend so I’ll see them then! Can’t wait!

So now onto my trip! FABULOUS!!! I had such a great time!! CHA was amazing (but not as busy as it was the last time I was there). I ran into so many people that I knew so that was lots of fun.  The release date for my book is February 12th but apparantly it’s already out there in some stores! A retailer told me she already has it displayed in her store and I got emails from a couple people who bought it on Amazon and they already got it. So cool!

I got to meet 3 of the contributing designers for my book too: Andrea Deer, Michelle van Etten and Julie Overby – all incredible and talented ladies!!

But of course being in Anaheim and being the Disney lover that I am, I couldn’t be right across the street from the happiest place on earth and not venture inside…. I was so lucky to have my good friend Adam drive up from Laguna Beach to accompany me to Disney, and he also took me to the San Diego Wild Animal Park!  Fun times!! Thanks so much Adam, you’re the best!!

 

Michelle van Etten
Michelle van Etten

 

 

Getting ready for my workshop at CHA
Getting ready for my workshop at CHA

 

Everyone who took my class got a book! So cool to see so many of them all stacked up!
Everyone who took my class got a book! So cool to see so many of them all stacked up!

 

One of the class projects
One of the class projects

 

mmmm....love it here
mmmm….love it here
The new Toy Story ride was really cool!
The new Toy Story ride was really cool!

 

guess which one was my score? haha
guess which one was my score? haha

 

How lucky is this guy? In with the cheetahs!! How awesome that would be.
How lucky is this guy? In with the cheetahs!! How awesome that would be.

 

Isn't this lion adorable? He's only a year old!
Isn’t this lion adorable? He’s only a year old!
The lion is right behind us!
The lion is right behind us!

Filed Under: Animal/ Zoo stuff, Daily Life, Scrapbooking/ Mini Albums, Travel

30 Christmases

December 25, 2008 by Jess Leave a Comment

Merry Christmas!

I am in Indianapolis with my parents at my sisters house. It was quite the ordeal getting here on Tuesday due to the bad weather conditions everywhere. I was lucky to make it out of the Vancouver airport as they had reopened the 2nd runway which was closed for over a day. Tons of people had been stranded. The problems started when I arrived in Chicago at O’hare. I checked to see what gate my next flight was at and it said that it was cancelled!! I then had to wait in the customer service line up to talk to a United Airlines representative for 2 and a half hours, there were so many people who’s flights had been cancelled. While I was in line, someone suggested calling United Airlines 1-800 number and trying to rebook there. When I finally got past all the automated menus and got to talk to a real person, she booked me on a flight leaving later that night at 8:30 but she suggested I continue to wait in the line to ask about my luggage and stuff. I was in the line for another 30 minutes and in that time my flight had already been cancelled! There was only one more flight to Indianapolis that night and it was full so they put me on standby.

I could not believe how many people were at this airport, there had been 500 flights cancelled that day just at O’Hare alone! After waiting for another long while at the gate where the next flight was leaving from, they finally started boarding and informed all of us standby’s that there weren’t many seats left but they would call us by name if we got a seat. Tons of people were on standby. They stopped adding people to the list at 80 people and informed the huge line waiting to get on the list that they would have to now wait until the next day. I was number 27 on the list and really I thought I’d be spending the night in Chicago. A few names got called for standby and those people ran to the desk and thrust their standby tickets at the agent. Surprisingly, I suddenly heard my name! Yay! I got the very last seat on the plane, right at the back of course, but I would have sat on the floor if I had to just to make this flight. We waited over an hour while they de-iced the plane, and then it was a very bumpy flight to Indy. My parents had arrived in Indy just over an hour before me, so they and my brother in law were waiting at the airport for me. Also, my luggage was there waiting! Wow, I totally expected it to be delayed so that was a nice surprise.

I have been having a great time with my family, but of course miss my dogs. My nieces are so adorable and its been awesome seeing Christmas through their eyes, really takes me back to my own childhood and the excitement of the holidays.

 

 

This is our first Christmas without my Grandma (my mum’s mum) as she passed away last summer. While I was doing Christmas shopping the last couple weeks, I saw many things in the mall that I know my Grandma would have loved and even caught myself thinking I should get it for her, then was like “oh yeah…”  A few days ago my sister told me about a sweet question my oldest neice (6 years old) asked her,  she was totally serious and asked if she could send my Grandma a card in heaven to tell her she missed her and loves her.  I miss my Grandma lots but I am thankful I got to spend 30 Christmases with her. I have so many happy memories of our time together.

 

With Grandma last year
With Grandma last year

Filed Under: Daily Life, Travel

Back from CK Seattle

November 16, 2008 by Jess Leave a Comment

It was a quick but fun trip to Seattle for the Creating Keepsakes Convention. I taught 2 classes, both on mini books, and as promised, here are some photos of the finished Maze book for those who took the class. I learned the hard way that one bind it all machine is NOT enough for 40 people in a one hour class, so a big thank you to everyone for being so patient! I am going to invest in at least one more BIA for when I’m teaching away from a store.

My mum came with me for the trip and I’m really glad she was able to come! Even though we were exhausted from all the driving (and getting lost a couple times along the way!), we still had a fun time! Thanks for coming Mum!

A short post for tonight, but I’ve gotta go study for an exam that I have tomorrow morning. Only 3 weeks left of school! Woohoo!!


Filed Under: Scrapbooking/ Mini Albums, Travel Tagged With: ckc, classes, mini albums, seattle

what an experience…

October 8, 2008 by Jess Leave a Comment

Ranger U was awesome!!!! Such a fantastic experience.  Tim, Claudine and Suze were fabulous instructors, and they were a ton of fun too 🙂

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We learned over 75 techniques in 3 days – I feel so inspired now and just want to play around with all these cool prodcuts – some that I have used before and some that were completely new to me.

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Thursday was spent mostly traveling. I arrived at Newark airport around 6:30 and I met up with Colleen MacDonald at the rental car area. Her plane arrived just before mine did, so we previously planned to meet up so we could drive together to Tinton Falls, we were also rooming together. Coincidentally we were the only 2 Canadians at Ranger U. (Colleen is originally from Australia but has lived in Alberta for several years. I just love her accent!). We picked up the rental car and headed on our way – thank goodness for Colleen bringing her GPS with her! So funny cause it was Austin Powers voice telling us which way to go! The toll booths really confused us and we ended up going through the wrong lane the first ones we went through. We were in the EZ pass lane and we couldn’t get over to the cash only lane cause so many cars were whizzing by and honking at us. I will now be expecting a ticket in the mail….We found our way to the hotel quite easily though and Ranger was literally next door.

We were up early the next morning and met up with several more ranger attendees in the restaurant while we ate breakfast, everyone was so friendly and so excited!We spent the first part of the day with Suze Weinberg learning all about melt art – which I LOVED!! I am embarrassed to say that I have owned a melting pot for about 5 years and its still brand new. However now I know how to use it and how many cool things I can do with it! We also got a tour of the Ranger facility – a real working factory. The stickles machine was my favorite – they produce thousands and thousands of stickles per day. We each got to take one of the stickles off the conveyor belt and take it with us 🙂

The last half of the day Claudine Hellmuth taught us all about her new line: “Claudine Hellmuth Studio” – awesome stuff!! I love using paints and these ones are different than the acrylics I’m used to working with. They can be thick for lots of color or you can thin them out and they can be almost translucent  for a completely different look. I love them!

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Saturday and Sunday we spent with Tim – he taught us 51 techniques!  Such cool stuff, I am so excited to incorporate these techniques into my projects. It was sad when it was all over – the 24 of us had spent 3 solid days together and it really was an awesome group of people.

We were seated in groups of 4, at my table there was Janet Hopkins ( Education Coordinator for the Heidi Swapp line), Jayne Irving (Owns a Scrapbooking store in Cape Code), and Jenn Shurkus (manages Jayne’s store and also teaches for A muse art stamps). We called our table the “J” table since all our names began with J. hehe

These girls were so much fun, I had a blast sitting with them.

jtable.jpg hats1.jpg

Colleen and I left Sunday night after we got our diplomas and we said our goodbyes. We were both flying out of Newark the next day and we had booked a hotel room at one of the airport hotels, also we had to return the rental car that night. We dropped the car off and made our way through the airport to where the hotel shuttles are, waited for quite awhile for our shuttle then headed to the hotel. We hadn’t eaten yet and were starving but according to the girl at the front desk, there was no restaurants around within walking distance. She did give us a map that showed there was a ton of resturants in this area that wasn’t far from the hotel and she said she could call a cab for us. So that’s what we did, and we decided we wanted to go to a good mexican restaurant. The cab driver dropped us off in this really sketchy part of town in front of a hole in the wall looking mexican restaurant. Totally not what we had in mind. It was about an 8 minute cab ride and it cost $25!!! Also not what we had in mind!!! We hurried into the restuarant though as we didn’t want to be out on the dark street. There were 4 staff members inside, only 1 of whom could understand any English. I ordered a chalupa even though I wasn’t sure what to expect as the only chalupa I ever had was at Taco Bell. Of course, this being authentic Mexican food, it was completely different from Taco Bell, but I really enjoyed it, it was very good. During the half hour we were in the restaurant, we had 2 different girls come in trying to sell us pirated DVD’s!!

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Here’s my roomie Colleen 🙂

The next morning my flight left at 6:25am so I had to be up by 3:45 so I could be down in the lobby just after 4 to wait for the shuttle. I got to the airport at 4:30 and was waiting in line at the Air Canada departure. Nobody even showed up until almost 5am and when she did show up, she announced to all of us that the flight to Toronto was cancelled due to mechanical problems. um….ok….. so someone asks if they are going to put us on the next flight and she says probably not as its full. lovely. There are several of us starting to panic a bit. I had to be in Toronto to catch my connecting flight to Vancouver at 9:30. She told me if I could get to JFK airport that she could get me on a direct flight to Vancouver, but I had to find my own way there and it was over an hours drive. Then she said she could book me on a flight with Continental to Toronto but I’d still miss my connecting plane and I’d have to go check in with Air Canada in Toronto. So then I had to lug all my luggage (I had a carry on bag, my backback with my laptop (which was really heavy cause I crammed a whole lot of extra stuff into it), and my suitcase which weighed 45 pounds. ) over to a whole other terminal to check in with Continental. That meant 2 escalators over to the air tram station and more waiting. It was there that I met up with the 4 other people who I had been waiting with initially. We had all been moved to the Continental flight. We all stayed together and made our way to the Continental desk where we found out the Air Canada agent hadn’t actually booked us on the flight. So they had to book us all on it, more waiting.  Next was security and here it got even better…. Because our flight had been cancelled and we were put on another flight within an hour of it leaving (and this is good to know if you travel in the states a lot), we were automatically flagged for additional screening. It said SSSS all over our tickets, which we guessed meant Special Security Secondary Screening. Either that or Special Security Strip Search, lol. Security guards saw our tickets and were calling out “Secondary Female!!!!” “Secondary Male!!!!” the guy in front of me and I were both like “what does that mean?” feeling like criminals or something. We were told we had been flagged and they explained why. Great. So I was put into this odd pressure air blowing machine, which I’ve never seen before. It startled me a bit when the air came puffing out in my face. Next through another machine then I had to wait in a clear glass box until the searching guard was waiting for me. As I stood there I waitched a couple people in front of me in the searching station getting almost completely searched – including the all over body pat down. Then he was ready for me. He let me out of the display box and I had to go sit on a chair while he searched my bags and my laptop. He did give me my shoes, belt and sweatshirt back though and told me I could put them on. Luckily he was nice and he didn’t give me the pat down search, I got off easy compared to what the others went through.

The flight to Toronto was full and there was no room in the overhead storage for my laptop bag. I told the flight attendant (who was not very friendly I might add) and she told me they’d have to check it and it would have to go down to baggage. I was like “my computer is in there!” and she said “too bad”. !!!!!! The guy beside me said “it will get trashed it goes down there” so the flight attendant told me I could take my laptop out and hold it. So I did. Just as my bag was about to get whisked off to baggage, another flight attendant (a nice one) came by and said “its ok, we have room for it up in first class”. So my backpack got to ride in first class, and I didn’t.Getting off the plane was awkward as I was holding my laptop (which is a very heavy one) under my arm, carrying my bag in one hand and trying to get my backpack down from the overhead bin as I was exiting the plane. ugh, it was not a good day.

Of course, now it was time to go get my suitcase and go through customs which was just a hassel cause of the lineups. Since I was at the Continental gate area, Air Canada was at another terminal (of course) that I had to go up more escalators, to another air tram station and make my way to the ticket desk. My orginal 9:30 flight was just about to leave, so obviously I missed it. The 10 was full so they had to put me on the 11:15. *sigh* then as I was walking away I looked down at my ticket only to see that I had been put in a MIDDLE seat. Just keeps getting better.The plane was full as well so I was not able to change my seat. I was seated between 2 guys, one of whom was very large so I couldn’t even use the arm rests, I had to sit all scrunched into my seat. The only good thing about this flight was they had the little tv’s in the back of the seats so we each got our own and we could watch an assortment of movies. I watched “The Happening” and it was actually pretty good. I really detest flying now though, just on flights over 2 hours, as my legs get all crampy and I start to feel very clausterphobic.  We landed around 1:30 and waited for half an hour for my luggage.

Brent was there to pick me up and he brought the dogs with him so I was so happy to see all of them! We went home, dropped my luggage off, then I had to rush off to school. (I am taking a couple classes at college right now until December- such as Public Speaking). I couldn’t miss my class so I had to go sit through it from 3-5:30. I stopped off for groceries on the way home (Brent was working all night), and when I got home I cooked some meat loaf for the dogs for dinner. Yes I am home cooking for the dogs now. Angus has allergies and so far this seems to be working, he hasn’t been scratching like he used to. We have tried everything!! This is a lot more work, but I know exactly what goes into their food, and they love it. We go back and forth between meatloaf and baked salmon. Yes they are spoiled dogs.

*if you want the recipe for this dog friendly meatloaf, I can pretty much guarantee your pooches will love it:Ground beef (about 2-4 pounds), 2 eggs, 1 cup of rice, and 3/4 cup pureed veggies (I mix carrots, kale, and spinach in the food processor). Bake at 375 for an hour.

Anyway, that was an incredibly long day, it took me around 14 hours to get home from New Jersey which is ridiculous. Not surprisingly, I have come down with a bad cold. Oh well, its nice to be home anyway, and I had a great time at Ranger U!

Filed Under: Crafts, Daily Life, Scrapbooking/ Mini Albums, Travel

Ranger U – Day 1

October 3, 2008 by Jess Leave a Comment

I’m here in Tinton Falls, New Jersey for Ranger U – today was the first day and it was awesome!!!! Better then I ever imagined!

We spent over half the day learning from the fabulous Suze Weinberg – all techniques using the melting pot and I think I now have a new addiciton! (several actually, lol).  The last part of the day was learning from Claudine Hellmuth and we got to use her new line of products – so cool!!!!!

It’s such a great class too – with people from all over the world.
Suze wrote more about the class on her blog with some photos: http://suzeweinberg.typepad.com/suzeblogz/

Tomorrow we’ll be spending the whole day learning from Tim Holtz! Can’t wait 🙂

rangeru.jpg meltart.jpgsuze1.jpg  paints1.jpg

Filed Under: Crafts, Daily Life, Travel

New classes, Toronto, a monkey and more!

August 19, 2008 by Jess Leave a Comment

A monkey? Nope we did not get another pet, lol. (Although I have always wanted a monkey…..). Last week Brent got to do something VERY cool- he got to go spend the day working on a movie set with the ambulance (just in case someone got hurt doing stunts). It was the filming of Night at the Museum 2 (staring Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson). While he was there he got to hang out with a couple monkeys that were also staring in the movie – this one capuchin monkey named Crystal has stared in many movies including the first Night at the Museum, both Dr Doolittle movies, Indian Jones and others.

monkey3.jpg

monkey2.jpg
Crystal talking into the ambulance mic (it’s official, even a monkey can do Brent’s job! lol! j/k)

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Crystal giving Brent a kiss. I am so jealous!! I wish it was me who got to hang out with the monkey all day!!

Alright moving on….. here are a couple new classes I will be teaching at Precious Memories:

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wallhangingclass.jpg

wallhangingclass1.jpg

I got some awesome news today….. I will be attending Ranger U in October! Yay! My first time in New Jersey too!

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Here is a quick recap of my Toronto trip last week with Nicole. We went to exhibit (Tilano) at the Toronto Gift Show. The show was ginormous – we didn’t even see a quarter of it! I think the funniest thing that happened was our elevator story. Our first day there, we were just coming back to the hotel and walking towards the elevator when I asked Nicole what time the show went until the following day. She answers me just as we enter the elevator “seven” but she said it in a tone that was like ‘ugh, seven…’ cause it meant it would be a long day. So we’re standing in there and a couple other people were there as well. As the elevator starts to go up, I was like “oh we forgot to push our button” and I reach over and press the 4. The man who was standing right beside the buttons says “oh I thought I heard you say seven so I pushed that one for you”. Nicole and I both looked at each other totally confused and when we got out of the elevator and were walking towards our room, we suddenly realized he heard Nicole answer me “seven” and thought she was telling him to push seven!! Of course we laughed hysterically but also felt really bad cause now that poor guy must think we are total snobs!!! The next morning when we got to the show – guess whose booth was right beside ours? Yep – the elevator man!!! lol!! Too funny but at least we were able to apologize to him and assure him we were not snobs! He and his wife were really cool and we got to know them quite well over the duration of the show.

tilanobooth.jpg
I love love love this chalkboard paint!! And yes that is my beautiful chalk artwork on the right there, hehe

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Randy and Nicole finishing the set up

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Here’s Randy (founder of Tilano) – he had just met Debbie Travis and got his picture with her and her autograph 🙂

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Nicole outside the hospital with this odd moose statue (…it’s a long story)

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At Jack Aster’s Restaurant – such a cool place!!

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Chandeliers made of Tabasco bottles

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There were various pictures like this all over the restaurant – all different but pretty funny

Filed Under: Crafts, Daily Life, Scrapbooking/ Mini Albums, Travel

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