Edie's Crop!

Edie Francoeur participated in our email survey and won a free crop. Today she and her friends are enjoying our Creative Studio. They are really taking advantage of the space, bringing home-made goodies to complement the snacks from Momento, and even setting up a tag sale table!

CHA Day 3: Pictures of Ellen and......

Hi.
Sally Lynn here. And you probably guessed it. These are pictures Ellen and EVERYBODY. I've been taking her photo with every notable designer and company owner we meet. Too fun! So sit back and let's play - who's Ellen with now??

Ellen and Lance Anderson of Rusty Pickle, who's coming to the store on 2/21:


Ellen and Carol Wingert, who is coming for our National Scrapbook weekend in May:


Ellen and Elsie Flanigan:


Ellen and Ali Edwards of 'Life Artist':


Ellen with Elizabeth Kartchner (CK's Scrapbooker of the Year) and Jessica Sprague, the fabulous digital scrapbooking instructor/columnist for CK:


Ellen with Marah Johnson of Creative Imaginations:


Ellen with Teresa Collins:


Ellen with...Renee Pearson, the digital scrapbooking 'brush queen':


We had such a fun time going around the floor. And it was a marvelous bonus to, in many cases meet the artists behind the brand. We had great conversations with everybody. With some fun things developing from those as well *hint!* and Elsie was sweet and gave us a soda from her little kitchen refrigerator. Even for the girl behind the camera...

Some sneak peeks at what is coming to the store will be next.

Stay warm!

CHA Day 1:Glitter, Bling and exciting things!

Hello! We're here in Anaheim, California at the Craft and Hobby Association's (CHA) winter trade show!

We spent the morning taking classes so that we can make the most of the wonderful things we have at momento and learning new techniques to teach as well.

I attended a class with Art Glitter, using their regular and glass glitter, fantasy film and foil to make samples for the store. I am 'absolutely sparkling' (aka covered with the glitter) with excitement to show these samples to you. Here is a picture for a preview. They are so much more in person. And the elemental embellishments smell like tea, jasmine, lavender - can you imagine? It's like aromatherapy sent along with your greeting card... Sorry the blog is not 'scratch and sniff' - enabled. LOL!

Sally Lynn took a class with Ranger, making jewelry that is going to make your spirits soar. With no knowledge of jewelry-making at all, you can make personalized bracelets, pendants, mem-wearables (with photographs) so-to-speak, and more! Expect an immediate make and take featuring these cool techniques when we return home. These techniques are HOT! And we have everything you need to make it in store NOW.

Otherwise we have attended a couple of seminars on business topics, digital photography and scrapbooking and a demonstration by Copic Marker. Our order from them will be arriving in just about 10 days. And now that Sally Lynn is a Certified Copic Designer - the demonstrations at the store will be starting soon too! Keep an eye on the calendar for her Friday demonstration schedule.

We are attending an evening soiree with SEI tonight. We haven't carried them in the store before, but it will be interesting to see what they have. And of course we'll be gathering lots of goodies for samples, make n takes and of course GIVEAWAYS as we go.

Thanks for reading, and stay tuned for more blogging from the show!

Better Than Roses

Someone left an umbrella in my car today. Thanks, Sweetie!

Digital Layouts

I recently tried some digital scrapbooking. The first layout is a 2 page spread. The photo is of my oldest son's room after he moved out. When I took the photo, my 12yo looked at the display and said "it looks scary." I thought it was cool that he got the emotion behind the photo.

On the left I included the words to Billy Ray Cyrus' song, Ready, Set, Don't Go. I get a little teary every time I hear it. The journaling says:

Just after Alex moved out, Billy Ray Cyrus released this song as a duet with his daughter, Miley. It sums up so perfectly how I felt. So proud that he's taking charge of his life, but missing him so. I know my job was to make him ready for the world, but he's still my baby.

The second is my attempt at a "warhol" layout using my favorite photo of my 11 year old. The last is my first attempt at sketching over a photo - after you're done with the sketch, you hide the layer with the photo. Now it looks like I can actually draw!

Floods of Various Kinds

The main floor is dried out (although the carpet padding is still out) and the garage repairs are being painted as we speak. Pretty soon we'll be back to normal!

At the store, we're up to our knees in inventory. We're trying to get the hand scanners to work, and nearly everything is counted. We hope to open again on Friday.

Back to work for me!

Still Damp

The subfloor under the bathroom and the bathroom walls were still damp, so we're just waiting at this point. Dehumidifiers, fans and heaters are still going.

More on the Flood...

The toilet tank overflowed. Monday night, the contractor who built my addition, my plumber and the insurance adjuster all met me at the house. And when I opened my garage - yup, it was happening again. The good news is that the plumber and contractor were able to determine the cause right away. The toilet tank was overflowing, and they were each glad to have a witness because they both said that unless they had seen it, the wouldn't have believed it. See, toilets are designed with an overflow pipe to make sure this very thing doesn't happen, but apparently the pipe was overwhelmed by the volume of water coming into the tank.

The plumber fixed the toilet and the insurance guy called in a cleanup crew who immediately started drying things out (huge dehumidifiers and fans shaped like snails) and pulling up carpets. They took out some of the padding in the bedroom itself and set up a fan to blow under the carpet (it's kind of like walking on the moon). The drywall and insulation have been torn out and they are waiting for the subfloor to dry before replacing it. My garage is cleaner than it's ever been and they've sheeted off the back part and are heating it so the pipes that are now exposed don't freeze. The guy from the cleanup company thinks they can start drywalling tomorrow or Friday.

Wet & Wild

Nope, not what you think! I pulled into my driveway last night and hit the garage door opener. The sight that greeted my eyes was far from merry - cascades of water were puring from the light fixtures in the ceiling, gouts of water were running down the back wall and lakes of water filled the back half of the garage. I was stunned. And I had no idea where the shutoff for the house was.

My hubby came home soon afterward and shut off the water to the house. A little while later we could hear the sump pump working (phew! I was afraid it was dead!) There was a lake in our bathroom and the carpet in the nearby closet is damp. The water is cleaned up now, and we were able to turn the water back on and everything looks OK. Best news of all, the contractor who built our addition, our plumber and the insurance adjuster can all meet me at the house this afternoon - at the same time!

Back from My Trip

We're back from our trip to California to see relatives. We had a lovely time and even had a chance to tour around gorgeous Santa Barbara. While we were at Stearns Wharf, we bought a CD with photos from all around the region. We figured the photos would be better than those we could take and it freed us to concentrate on seeing the sights. At one stop we had the tour driver in training take a photo of the three of us in front of the mission. Later I joked to the guys that I should crop out the background and paste the three of us into the photos in the CD! I was kidding, but they loved the idea. I guess I'll be playing with Photoshop. Here's the three of us in front of the mission...here we are on the wharf...here we are at the museum...

What Are We Listening To?

I have XM Radio in my home and car and love it, so I was very excited to hear that they had a package for businesses. Being in the intellectual property business myself (paper designs etc, are the intellectual property of the designer and/or manufacturer,) I wanted to make sure that we were respecting the rules associated with playing music in public.

We have several favorite channels and change what we listen do nearly every day.

Sundays, Lisa and I listen to American Top 40 on the 80's on 8.
We have Country Western Wednesdays where we listen to Highway 16.
Thursdays are Blues Days with Bluesville on XM 74.

Other days we like to listen to Classic Album Rock with Top Tracks on XM 46, and Flight 26 for today's hits.

Recent Layouts

We've been scrapping.

Some of these layouts are using the latest papers and embellishments fromt he store and some are from my stash.

"with this ring" uses paper and stickers from Reminisce. The "Wedded Bliss" line has gorgeous pearlescent papers in paper and cardstock weights. Included in the line are envelopes, rubons and stickers for invitation making. The silk ribbon is from May Arts.

"Big Boy Bed" uses older K&Co paper.

"Fifth Grade" was made with Scrappin' Sports & More's new Academics line. With papers, cardstock stickers and rubons from Pre-school to Graduation, this line is perfect for a shool years album.

"Strength" celebrates the inspiration we got from meeting Cheryl Mazzetti at our Scrap Pink festivities. Creative Imaginations' "Awareness" line was the perfect way to express how we felt after spending time with this amazing woman.

Everything old is new again! I decided to try paper piecing again and I love the way "Blue" turned out. Expect to see her soon, adorning a layout celebrating a little boy's obsession with a blue puppy.

Speaking of puppies, "best friend" celebrates Dumbledore, our friendly mascot. Using SEI's "Park Buddies" line of lively papers and embellishments, combined with a sketch, made putting this layout together a snap.

The rest of the layouts were made from my stash.