Where in the world is Rory?

We just finished up a whirl-wind weekend here in San Antonio. I had a booth at the Junior League's biggest fund raiser of the year - Ole Marketplace. They had about 90 vendors from across the country bring all their wares. You could find everything from bedazzled necklaces and little kids clothes to spinach dip mix and to-die-for pralines.

Here's a quick look at my booth:

I even had a very special guest, Joe O'Connell. I just finished up his biography back in July. He and his daughter and son-in-law came to help me tell the world about my company.


It was a long but really good weekend. I couldn't have done it without my good friend Katie, who came in all the way from Houston!

Speaking of Houston, that is where I'm headed next. This Wednesday I am putting on a very special event at a great little wine bar called "The Vineyard on the Square." Click here for the invitation. It's in Sugarland, this Wednesday the 29th from 6-8pm - so if you live in the vicinity please come by for some wine tasting and bring your friends! It looks like a very nice place:


More news later, but here's my schedule coming up in the next few weeks:
- October 29-30th - Sugarland, wine and biography party
- November 6-7th - Austin, coffee and biography party
- November 12-15th - San Diego, biography party
- November 17-23rd - Dallas and Austin gift shows. Come see us at the Austin Christmas Affair and the Dallas Chi Omega Christmas gift fair!

So more fun news to come!

The good and the bad...

So the good news is that I FINALLY got the chance to check out the brand new HEB grocery store/Central Market-type store that just opened. Let's just say that I was more than a little excited about going...and even made Jeremy go straight there after getting home from work last night. What can I say, it was the grand opening day?

So here's the bad part... I brought along my camera, because I wanted to fully document this exciting event. Jeremy was more than embarrassed to be taking a picture of me in front of a grocery store. So just as I was telling him to toughen up, and handing off my camera... in slow motion it fell from my fingers and then crashed against the concrete parking lot ground...ouuucch! So, yes, this is what it looks like now:


Let's just say the lens will never again retract to normal....bummer! Anyone know a good repair place? =)

We finally did get inside the store and it was pretty cool. Highlights included:

• The freezer section lights go on as you walk by, to help reduce unnecessary use of electricity... yes, Jeremy tested out the accuracy of the sensors a couple times.
• The "Food on the Run" section has some awesome pizza kits with dough, shredded mozzarella, pepperonis, and sauce, all ready to go. We're trying one out this weekend - I'll let you know how we succeed.

The place was humongous:

So I promised a good part too, right? That would be the very pretty dessert that I talked Jeremy into getting! I never try those things.

All in all, we have some fun foods to try out this weekend, but I still will mourn the loss of my little PowerShot! Have a great weekend!

The Ultimate Holiday Gift...add family memories

So it's getting to be that time again.... Christmas... no, I'm not counting down (69 days, 10 hours, 34 minutes).

I recently shared a holiday gift idea with a friend of mine, and it was so successful that I thought it was worth a blog entry... the ultimate holiday DIY gift... framing family history.

When it comes to gifts, I've found that if you can infuse sentimentality, they become priceless. I've learned this more and more throughout the years as a family biographer. So this holiday season, here's a great way to give a priceless gift to your loved ones. Create a framed masterpiece, like this...


I presented this framed family history gift to my mom last Christmas and inside it had:

• A special picture of her parents
• A pair of their hankies (that were bought on a special trip to Ireland together)
• A love note my grandpa wrote to my grandmother "My Wife, Since I have been able to say that, life has never been so pleasant."

It was truly one of the best gifts ever, because now my mom has the chance to enjoy that memory every day.

Here's how it unfolded last year:

(Can't miss the tears in Mom's eyes in this one!)

So if you are already trying to come up with the ultimate Christmas gifts for your loved ones - follow these steps to make your framed family history gift, or just buy a custom family biography from me!

Step 1: Choose the mementos, which might include: photos, newspaper articles, letters, pictures of family heirlooms, certificates, etc.

Step 2: Go buy a frame from a local craft store (you can always get them 50% off). Make sure the frame will be large enough for your mementos to fit!

Step 3: Find a framing store and bring along your mementos and frame. In San Antonio I really like working with Kurt Youngblood's. A good framer will help you pick the right color mattes and cut them to size. To save some extra money you can buy the custom matte through them and assemble it yourself!

That's it! Then wrap it up and present your priceless gift! I promise there won't be a dry eye in the house!

Here's a picture of my friend Kristen's final piece - she said it was a great success! Let me know if I can help you all in any way!

Feeling like fall!

Well, it is technically Fall here in South Texas, although it doesn't always feel that way. I went out shopping yesterday and of course was suckered in by the Williams Sonoma pumpkin bread that they were sampling. So I decided to buy a package and make it this morning for us.

It was awesome - I'd definitely recommend making the cream cheese icing to go along with it! Kind of a fun way to start getting in the mood for fall... now if I can only get Jeremy to go a local pumpkin patch with me! Yes, I am that dorky!

Here's a few of the leftovers - let me know if you're interested! =)

Stubb's Concert in Austin

So last night we headed up to Stubbs in Austin to catch a concert with Chris Collingwood and Calhoun. Jeremy has been wanting to see both of these bands for a while, so it was worth the trek up IH35. We got there by 8:00pm and then tried out some of the bar-b-que for dinner.

I loved the opener, Calhoun. Jer actually bought their CD afterwards. The way Stubbs is set up, you can watch from up above too - so I thought it was cool to actually be able to see everyone play...from the crazy keyboardist to the drums.

I think he's been trying to get the CD since March - so I of course had to commemorate this event with a photo - even if Jeremy didn't want one! =)

Chris came on next and played an acoustic set of songs... he was really funny and quipped that by the size of the crowd he should know all our names by the end of the night. Only one crazy drunk girl in the group, trying to get him to come home and sleep on her couch!

Overall, it was a fun adventure... even trying to make earplugs out of napkins... which sorta actually worked...but made us look really funny! But, hey I can still hear today - so it was worth it!

Molly and Kevin's Wedding

This weekend I had the chance to go up to Austin to be in one of my very best friend's wedding... Molly & Kevin. It was so much fun, so I thought I'd share some of the photos from the highlights...

Here's the rehearsal at the Umlauf sculpture garden - their good friend Carmen officiated the wedding and just knocked it out of the park - her sermon was so touching and there wasn't a dry eye in the house!

Kevin's mom hosted a great rehersal dinner at the Brick Oven -
complete with an armadillo grooms cake.
Kevin decided to start cutting from the back end.... =)

Here we are waking up on Molly's wedding day - we had a great balcony room on the top floor of the Hyatt - and we were both so excited that we got out of bed early and watched the sun rise!

Even though Molly's dress looked like it was pretty simple... I don't even think there were buttons... it took one mom, one sister, and one aunt to get her all zipped up!

We headed down to the Hyatt bar and Molly kicked off the afternoon with a shot of tequila!

Kevin's sister Jenny is a great photographer, so we took some shots of Molly before heading over to the ceremony!

Here comes Molly - she's going to surprise Kevin.
This is the first time they saw each other!
Such a wonderfully happy couple to take pictures of!


The unveiling - Molly was just stunning and I loved the flowers in her hair!

Here's the wedding cake, and in the background the crowd is beginning to fill in for the ceremony...

There is a slight gap in photos, since I was actually in the wedding...but here is the happy couple on their way out of the reception!

Just gives you warm fuzzies, doesn't it!

So everyone is talking about the economy, cutting back, spending less, and saving more. Well, I'm doing my part by cutting back my $4.5o/a latte Starbucks intake. I'm pretty sure the amount of money I've spent at our neighborhood Starbucks has put a couple of those baristas through college or at least paid for those fancy smanschy coffee machines they have.

So, I would like to introduce you to my personal barista that I now have in my own apartment. ...And you thought I wouldn't have room for a barista after having the two kayaks in my living room!

So here is what I like to call my big warm fuzzy. I am the owner of one of those really fun "single cup coffee makers" by Keurig. Each morning I get to turn it on and pick my brew, I get a warm-fuzzy! So come by any time and I'll make you one too... (my friend Molly likes to come over to visit just so she can press the little brew button - so I have to hold her back from giving cups of coffee out to the whole neighborhood!)

Since Jeremy dislikes coffee soooo much, even just the smell of it makes him gag - I decided to use one of my birthday gift certificates to Amazon and purchase this little beauty above!

It's great - I just wake up, turn it on, pop in one of the pods, (depending on if I want tea, coffee, decaf, regular, etc,) press brew, and voila, I have my own cup of coffee. Then all I do is pop out the pod and I'm done! (Yes, I was dorky enough to by the little spinning carousel thing that holds the coffee pods).

So I just wanted to share with you my warm fuzzy of the day - though, watch out, that Rain Forest Nut one was STRONG - I am typing faster than I have in my entire life - crrrazzzyyyyy!