Simple Scrapbooks

How About a Funny Story?

To make up for weeks of minimal, mostly contest-related posts that have, frankly, gotten disappointing numbers of comments (I blame myself...), I shall now share one of the more embarrassing stories of my Simple Scrapbooks editing career.

First off, raise your hand if you know about the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator test. (Keep your hands up until I'm done counting!) It's an extremely insightful personality test, and we've had some training sessions on it at work.

Well, I happen to be an E-N-F-J, which will mean little to you unless you've taken the test yourself. But each of those little letters has an opposite (the opposite of "E" is "I" and the opposite of "J" is "P"). Well, when I took the test, I was borderline "J" and "P"...kinda right in the middle. This means that I while I value some structure and order (J), I also enjoy flexibility and doing things at the last minute (P).

So, in a meeting with the rest of my team, I was talking to Megan (a "P") about Rachel (a "J"), and here is what I said:
"Oh, don't worry Megan, Rachel handles my P-ness just fine."

(You may have to read that line out loud to get the full effect, but make sure you're alone.)

Embarrassed laughter ensued, and Jennafer said: "You know, any other verb besides 'handles' would have been so much better...like 'deals with' for example."

True story. You can't make up stuff like that.

Yay for Jelly Beans!

Yay for Jelly Beans!

Our beloved Stacy Julian has vowed to keep us eternally stocked up with Jelly Belly jelly beans! She sent each of us a cute little tube of jelly beans with a personalized note, plus this HUGE teacup and plenty of backup beans. Isn't she SO sweet (no pun intended)?

We've got a flavor key hanging on the wall by the teacup now. So help us out, do you have any favorite Jelly Belly "recipes" that we should be aware of? I'm not adventurous enough to combine them, myself. I just eat one at a time. My favorites? PEAR (all the way), peanut butter, and buttered popcorn. What's your favorite? And please, do share "recipes"!

 

There, NOW you can see how big that teacup is!

comments:

Sorry I don't know any jellybelly recipes, but I have to say that those look yummy! How nice of STacy!

Posted by: thedudesmom (May 15, 2008)

 

Great timing, Angie! My friend just got back from the US and brought a big bag of Jelly Belly Beans round an hour ago! I'm experimenting as I type and I have to say that orange are by far my fave, but orange, lemon and pineapple make a tasty combo :)

Posted by: Scarlett79 (May 15, 2008)

 

sorry, angie no recipes...i'm a one-at-a-timer, too.  my favorite is absolutely butter flavored popcorn!

Posted by: scrappinaly (May 15, 2008)

 

Hmmm, I'm not sure there's much work going on at that office! All this grocery store visiting and jelly belly combining and general partying - so can I come work there? :)

Posted by: autumnb (May 15, 2008)

 

Oh - just kidding, I know you work very hard in between all the fun stuff. Thanks for the fun posts!

Posted by: autumnb (May 15, 2008)

 

marshmallow and cherry.

Posted by: mlepitts (May 15, 2008)

 

I'll arm wrestle you for the pear ones... ~T.

Posted by: bcre8uv (May 15, 2008)

 

that's a great photo of jennafer! i love buttered popcorn.

Posted by: *Celeste* (May 16, 2008)

Marnie & Margaret Were Here

Yes, board members Margaret Scarbrough (from California) and Marnie Flores (from Ohio) were here for a 3-day visit last week! We had a blast. We invited the three local board members  to join us (Elisha Snow, Karen Glenn, and Candice Palmer) plus local Simple Gal Mi'Chelle Larsen. It was SO fun (and kind of exhausting)!

We went on field trips to nearby scrapbook stores (Archiver's, Pebbles in My Pocket, Heartland Paper, Paper Creations), to local manufacturers (Making Memories, Scenic Route, Doodlebug, Stampin' Up!, My Mind's Eye), and to fun local shopping and eating spots (Thanksgiving Point, Gardner Village, Cafe Rio, Sugarhouse).

 

 

I of course had my camera with me, but didn't take nearly enough photos.  I'll refer you to Elisha's blog for some great photos, and so you'll understand why there's a picture of a little stick person above.

(Photo courtesy of Elisha...little stick man courtesy of Angie Lucas. I spotted him on the ground at Gardner Village and stopped to stare. "Ooh look, a little man!" I exclaimed while peering at the ground. Everyone thought I was crazy, imagining a "Honey I Shrunk the Kids" person hiking through the grass...until they saw him, that is. Then they didn't think I was so crazy. Check him out: arms, legs, belly-button, belly shirt, he's got the works! And let me be the first to apologize for the grody fingernail. Perhaps I scraped up some dirt while picking the little man up.

When Ants Attack

So, in between all the intensive editing I'm doing for our upcoming Mini Albums in an Evening special issue (on sale in June!) I need to take a quick moment to complain that there are ants in my office, and that I accidentally gave the ants away as gifts just hours ago.

You see, illustrious board members Marnie Flores and Margaret Scarbrough are here for a visit. My job was to put together little "Utah" gift baskets for them. I gathered honey (we're in the "Beehive state"), muffin mixes from the local Lehi Roller Mills (where the movie "Footloose" was filmed), Loganberry jam, french fry sauce (a Utah invention that maybe hasn't traveled far outside our borders), green Jell-O (Utah consumes more Jell-O per capita than any other state), and some yummy pumpkin-chocolate-chip bread from a local bakery. It was the bread that did us in. The gift baskets were sitting in a corner of my office for less than 36 hours, and yet the ants found time to attack. I didn't notice them crawling all over the bread and in the trailmix until AFTER I smilingly handed over the gift bags.

Nothing says "Welcome to Utah" like a bag full of ants.

Da Bomb?

Apparently I am "da bomb." TWO different people told me that today. Two! And I don't know if I've ever been called "da bomb" in my whole life before this. Coincidence? Maybe. Maybe not. Maybe I'm entering into a whole new hipster phase of my life. So, thanks Kyla Hunziger for telling me I'm da bomb via email, and thanks Linda Barber for saying it in a card.

 

Oh, one more thing. I was interviewed on Diva Craft Lounge yesterday...Danielle and Rayme are so fun to talk to! Check out the interview here. Hopefully I don't sound TOO much like a dork. I don't dare listen to it yet. :-)

Two of the FUNNEST People We Know (as proven by a recent contest)

originally posted March 14, 2008

You know, people who win Funnest Scrapbooker Ever contests, believe it or not, have a tendency to be FUN. Check out these pictures I received from our lovely runners-up, Andrea Friebus and Susan Opel (who actually wore hers to a work meeting). How cute of them to both think of sending us pics of them in their sashes! And ironically, both pics arrived on the same day. Every day is more fun if you're wearing a sash, right ladies?

 

Amazing!

Simply amazing. You all are way too creative. I had so much fun reading through all your ideas! I'll certainly never look at pre-made titles the same way again. And those of us who haven't had children yet (or plan to have more) should keep this in mind when picking names!

I just had to list some of my favorites that I wish I had thought of myself:
Nevada = Eva or Ada
(My grandmother is named "Neva" so this also works for her! I could almost get my other grandmother's name, "Mona," from "Montana." In fact, lots of the state suggestions were pure genius.)
North Carolina = Carol
Anniversary = Ann
America = Erica
Christian = Ian
Cherish = Cheri
Totally = Ally
Thanksgiving = Hank

Okay, now for the randomly drawn winners of the cutie-patootie Doodlebug bag:
MargieJ (aka Margaret in Redondo Beach, CA)
SimplyCrafty (aka C.M. in Randolph, NJ)
scrap4fun (aka Lynda in Apple Valley, CA)

Congrats ladies! Bags 'o goodies are on the way. By the way, has anyone ever noticed that a disproportionate number of Californians win our blog contests? Maybe that's because a disproportionate number of Californians read this blog. Or perhaps because there's a disproportionate number of Californians in the world (hahaha).

p.s. RebeccaB, that state song was awesome! Thanks for posting. I'm sending you a prize just for that cool comment. (Just tell me WHICH RebeccaB you are! We have five: one in Utah, one in Idaho, two in Tennessee, and one in Calgary! Why, why, do we allow duplicate usernames on our site?)

It Seemed Like a Good Idea At The Time

While walking the CHA floor for 10 hours a day, I definitely enter "visual overload." I just see so much, try to absorb so much, try to remember so many people's names, that I sometimes feel like I'm in a bit of a fog. And THAT, dear ladies, is when I came up with the following idea for a feature:

Finding Loved Ones' Names in Premade Word Accents!

You see, I'm married to a man named Travis, and I often call him "Trav" for short. Well, I saw an adorable layered title sticker while touring the MAMBI booth that spelled "Travel," and I thought to myself..."I could just trim off the 'e' and 'l,' and I'd have myself a nice little title for a page!" And then the other ideas just kept coming...

Travel... got a husband named Trav? I do!
Christmas... you must know a Chris or two
Halloween... maybe there are a couple of people out there named Hal? And you can almost get Owen.
Vacation... gettin' creative here with Cati
Forever... Eve is such a lovely name, and you only have to cut off four letters to get to it!

Okay, only five ideas flowed. That where I reached the outer limits of this strange and useless idea. There aren't that many words that you commonly see in premade titles: "Easter," "Friends," "Love," also come to mind. And I don't see any human names in any of those. Do you have any to add to the list? I'd love to hear 'em. :-)

In fact, just leave me a comment (with an lame name idea or without...your choice!), and I'll pick three random winners who will get these lovely Doodlebug tote bags that we picked up at the CHA show. And no, they will not arrive empty!

editorial note: we had 127 awesome comments to this post, when it originally appeared in February of 2007, and here are just a few of them!

Our last name is Wheeler and a few years ago while I was in a LSS, I saw a laser diecut that said "18Wheeler"! I was quick to grab it up. The plan was to cut the 18 off to use our name on a page. As luck would have it (ok...I finally talked him into it!), the next baseball season, my son used the number 18! I haven't seen another "18Wheeler" accent since! Amy Wheeler/AmyInKy

Posted by: AmyInKY (February 21, 2008)

Oh, hot dang, I want one of those bags!!!! My daughter's name is Grace, so I find things for her all the time, Especially around Easter. DS's name Alex is a toughie, but DS(other)'s name Eric could be in.....um.....AMERICA!!!

Posted by: Kris in TX (February 20, 2008)

 

What about just some premade titles like Hope (it's already a name), May (the month) also a name...same with June, April, and I even know someone named September, then you could use March to spell Marc (also know someone who spells it that way), January to spell Jan, Jay, and Ray...ok my brain's on overload. Thanks for the FUN!

Posted by: RunningMom (February 20, 2008)

Delight = Del; Beautiful = Beau; Enjoy = Joy; Destination = Tina; Journey = Jo. And you would have more than enough letters left over to spell U R Nuts. Not playing for the prize, but couldn't resist. :P

Posted by: bcre8uv (February 20, 2008)

Ok, I didn't read all the comments, so sorry if this one came up: How about Dora in aDORAble? It could happen. Someone out there probably named their child that before the little Spanish speaking cartoon came along? Or maybe even on a layout about a kid's love for DORA?

Posted by: ettal (February 20, 2008)

How about "Aby" from "Baby?" As in Aby Garvey... good one, huh? Or "Ali" from California (hi Ali Monson!!). And how funny that my husband is also named Wallace/Wally, as in the 2nd post above, and it's such an uncommon name. But there's a Disney/Pixar movie coming out this year called Wall-e so maybe that will work. That is an ADORABLE tote, by the way!

Posted by: RebeccaB (February 20, 2008)

Believe to "Eli" (I actually have a neighbor with this name.) Valentine to "Val" An easy one, is "Joy" for a "Joy" Love the pink bag and think I could love the contents even more.

Posted by: CantScrapEnuf (February 21, 2008)

how about Ang from Angel?  :P  you are funny and after three days at cha - the visual overload will do that to you!

Posted by: *Celeste* (February 21, 2008)

How about hank from Thanksgiving? (maybe someone already thought of that) Lots of cute ideas!

Posted by:   (February 21, 2008)

Premade state stickers offer some possibilites.......(FLO)rida, Penn(SYLV)an(IA), (KEN)tucky, (ARI)zona, (IDA)ho, (LOUIS)iana, (CAROL)ina, (MO)ntana [that one's for Scrappin'MO who posted a comment!] Now I am going to be looking for names everywhere!! LOL!

Posted by: Reel Girl (February 21, 2008)

 

The comments with the states reminded me of this song that my husband told me about. I just looked up the lyrics and thought you might enjoy them, if you've never heard it before: Why did Cali phone ya (California) She called to say ha why ya (Hawaii) How did Wiscon sin (Wisconsin) He stole a new brass key (Nebraska) What did Ida hoe (Idaho) He hoed his merry land (Maryland) What did Missus sip (Mississippi) She sipped her many sodas (Minnesota) What did Della wear (Delaware) She wore a new jersey (New Jersey) What did Ohi owe (Ohio) He owed his many taxes (Texas) What did Io weigh (Iowa) He weighed a washing ton (Washington) How did Flori die (Florida) She died in misery (Missouri) Where has Ora gone (Oregon) He’s walking Okla home (Oklahoma) What did Tennis see (Tennesee) He saw what Arkan saw (Arkansas) What did Massi shoot (Massachusetts) He shot a nasty varmint (Vermont) What did Connie cut (Conneticutt) I don’t know a’ll ask er (Alaska)

Posted by: RebeccaB (February 21, 2008)

Okay, last time, I promise.

This surely goes in the category of "things that are funny to no one but Angie." But I'm still very amused by the fact that NO ONE can get the name of the FSE(2007) contest correct (i.e., FunnEST Scrapbooker Ever for 2007). Maybe we should have resorted to the acronym MONTHS ago. Check out how it appears on our issue map.

 

This is the map that tells our production team where to place individual ads and articles in the book. On page 61 of your May/June issue, you will find our print announcement of the FunnEST Scrapbooker Ever. Not the "FunnIest Scrapbooker Event," as shown here. Although, I admit that's an event I'd be interested in attending. Maybe we should consider it...

Now THAT'S Funny (again)

As you know, we already had to order new sashes once (they said "FunnIest ScrapBOOK Ever" instead of "Funnest Scrapbooker Ever." But it gets funnier. The new sashes, which arrived the very day Rachel was leaving for the show, were also spelled wrong. They got the "scrapbooker" part right, but they still say "funnIest." Oh well. Perhaps the editors over at the sash company are so meticulous that they're unwilling to print a word that isn't really a word on a sash. (But no worries, Tamara just created a crease in her sash to hide the "I" and turn it into "Funnest" after all.)

But wait, there's more. So Lain called in an order to Baskin Robbins for an ice cream cake, spelling everything very carefully over the phone. And HERE is the cake I picked up:

 

My favorite thing about Tamara is that she was actually willing to wear the tiara and sash while walking the show floor for three days. (Plus she brought us homemade brownies.) What a great sport.