I don’t know how well this will go over, but we’re having a neighborhood rummage sale this weekend and I’m going to try and sell some scrappy stuff. Just tools I bought and never used, paper and embellies I don’t need, and all that non-Bazzill cardstock LOL! {I’ve told you I’m a Bazzill Snob now, right?}.
I’m going to sell other items too, so I’m roaming the entire house and cleaning out closets – clothes, toys, books, home deco, that kind of stuff. Out of one bedroom alone, I got 1 garbage sack of clothes to toss and 3 sacks of clothes to try and sell. No big items to sell except we have a set of French doors we bought and never installed (then we got a new slider to match the other new slider, and well, you know…). Um, we’re just going to print out a flyer and take it to the rummage sale…I ain’t lugging those thangs all the way there, LOL!
If I have time, I’d like to batch up my scrapbook stuff into larger ‘kits’ or ‘lots,’ price it really well, and just get rid of it all. Whatever of the household stuff/clothing that doesn’t sell, I will load it back into the car and take it straight to AmVets for donation. But the scrappy stuff, I just can’t do that, LOL. Will have to find a way to work it back into my stash (NNNNNOOOOOOOOO!!!), or find a worthy local cause to donate it to.
Have you ever tried to sell scrapbook stuff at a regular ol’ rummage sale? How’d it go?
Read all about it HERE. I heard this first from A POST on 2peas, then I posted it at AMR.
*Photo and story are from www.CELEBITCHY.com…cool gossip site…
If it’s true, I think it’s pretty cool. I would really envy her. She doesn’t seem to be working much these days so time is plentiful. She has unlimited money and, apparently, a fancy scrapbook room. She has a gorgeous family and fabulous trips and famous friends to scrapbook about. I’d say she has the ideal life for a scrapper! You GO, Katie!
I’m the first to admit my scrapping area is a full-on disaster. I’ve never had enough storage so, even when the rare mood strikes when I want to organize it all, there is just nowhere to put all my crap…er, um, scrap stash. My main pieces are: a large L-shaped office desk with minimal drawers (I even hide some things underneath, using those wire cubes from Target/Walmart)…
…2 of the 5 bookshelves that line the main wall of the room I share with my kids’ TV/play room…kinda like these….
and some Store in Style cubes like these…
I have 7.5 all together ~ 5 open cubes, 1 file drawer cube, 1 cube w/a door, and a 1-drawer cube (which is 1/2 the height of a regular SIS cube). I used to buy these one at a time when Michaels sold them…with a 50% coupon, of course…but they don’t sell this brand anymore. They totally harshed my mellow, man…
I won’t go into detail about all my various storage systems but I largely make use of the Vertical Paper Holders by Crop in Style….
Please, don’t make me tell you how many I have. It would embarrass both you and me….well, okay, mostly me, but you would be embarrassed FOR me and I wouldn’t want to put you through that. So don’t go there…
I will tell you that I have more than this…
But less than this…
I also have a ScrapRack….
NOTE: THIS IS NOT MY PERSONAL SCRAPRACK. I GOT THIS PICTURE FROM THE SCRAPRACK WEBSITE. MATTERUHFACK, NONE OF THESE PHOTOS ARE FROM MY OWN SPACE…YEP, ALL FROM OTHER WEBSITES. THANK YOU.
….which takes up most of one of my desk extensions, and I adore that contraption more than any other piece I have. But it is full. Organized and lovely, but full.
The end of the room I’m in has 2 large windows, which makes it impossible to add a desk hutch or more tall shelves or even the much-dreamed-about Expedit shelf from Ikea…
I actually want to buy 10 of these in various colors and put one in every room in the house. I know, I know, not everyone’s taste, I’m sure. But I never told you I was freakin’ normal, did I???
So I’ve come to the decision that I will buy a bunch more Store In Style cubes. I’m going to take the ones I already have, add some more, get some doors and drawers, and make a ton of new storage on one of the window-walls. I love their versatility, in that you can stack them 1, 2, 3 or even 4 high to fit your particular space. Looking ahead, this will be a helpful thing if we ever move to another home, or I have to move my scrap area within this house (which could happen someday if any of the kids decide they want their own room….then again, we could always just put Greg in the attic or in Mike’s den…*).
*Did you catch the Brady Bunch reference?? Good girl…
Now that The Decision has been made, I’ll be shopping for a great deal on some cubes. Maybe I can find some on Craigslist or I’ve heard of some good online sources. Here’s to hoping the shipping charges don’t kill me. Even so, a bunch of cubes will still be cheaper than the other things I was considering, like the Expedit, or the Mini Scrap Box…
If I ever get them ordered, put together, and get my scrap area reorganized, I’ll be sure to post photos so you can praise me…
So I guess, so far, the rumors of CK relocating to HSN are not true. They do indeed have a QVC day coming up. Above is the TSV (Today’s Special Value) and it comes in 2 color ways (color ways…impressive huh?…I picked that up from watching QVC…). You can order it now if you don’t want to miss out, or can’t watch when it airs. Lisa Bearnson shows this and other QVC items on her BLOG, and HERE is the link to the TSV on the Creating Keepsakes site.
Tim Holtz will also be THERE. I know several ladies who are already dreaming about seeing their Timmy, LOL. I liked the advice on the AMR message board…watch Timmy on QVC and see what he does with the stuff, then order all your Timmy products from Stacey at AMR.
Stephanie Barnard from Inque Boutique will also be on QVC…here is where she BLOGS about it. They will offer 2 sets of stamps (with 90 stamps in the main set!). One will be on-air and one will be off-air (you can order from the website) and she says quantities are limited. Ya might wanna pre-order if you’re interested. Thanks ANNE MARIE for the heads up!
So, about the TSV…I love SEI but I’m not a hybrid/digital girl, so I’ll be passing on this one. Will you be snatching it up??
You’ve probably heard me say a million or so times how much I love BASIC GREY. And I recently did THIS POST about their Granola and Urban Prairie paper pads being carried exclusively at Michaels. Well, after reading THIS post at 2peas and other MB posts, I caved and bought them both. I’ve actually been scrapping a lot lately (vs. my usual ‘scrapbook supply collecting,’ an activity I’ve perfected), so I didn’t feel too awful guilty about buying yet more patterned paper. Yeah, that’s me, the PAPER SLUT…
So, I bought the BG paper pads the other day and love them both; one has such a pretty color combo (pink, black, white, yellow and teal) and the other will be great for men/boy layouts (blues and browns). They retail for $20; I used my 50% off coupon for one and paid full price for the other (gawd, when was the last time I paid full price for a big ticket item….nopers, can’t remember! but there were only 3 of each and I couldn’t bear to miss out). Of course, this week all Mike’s paper pads went on sale for 40% off. I heard through the scrapvine that you could take your receipt in and get reimbursed for the difference. That’s like, what?, 8 bucks. Yep, worth it. I went in to Mike’s tonight with THIS WEEK’s 50% off coupon, browsed the store, and ended up with some Archival Mist. You know, one of those “you need it and it’s very expensive, so a coupon is great, but you’d rather spend it on something more sexy” kind of item. I also got some ‘sexy’ ceramic glue to repair my little green ceramic cross that broke (that’s some kinda really bad sign, right?). I looked at the Cricut cartridges that are on such a great sale this week, but didn’t want any of them badly enough to justify the bucks.
At the register, I asked about the refund and the manager told me, yes, they would refund the difference but I needed to bring the item in with me. Which I hadn’t. She was very apologetic and said she was sorry I had to come all the way back, and I’m like, “Oh yeah, I really hate coming here, it’s my least favorite store in the whole world. Oh…No….Please don’t make me come back again!” and she and checker boy (yes, a boy!) laughed at me. Just another positive customer service exchange for me…or turning lemons into lemonade, however you wanna look at it.
One last story before I go….I delivered a couple orders tonight after work (I’m a consultant for MEMORY WORKS). One delivery entailed dropping something at the office of my friend *J*, who happens to be a doctor. She had ordered a Basic Grey MAGNETIC MAT.
Her office was just closing as I arrived…I assume it was one of her nurses that was putting down the window blinds, etc. So I start handing her this kinda large, black item with a metal ruler, all encased in hard plastic and she kind of backs up and is hesitant to grab it. Then she slowly reached for it, turned it all around and studying it like I had just handed her an instrument of medieval torture or something. I said, “This is for *J*. She ordered it from me,” and she goes, “Uhhhhh…..okaaayyyy.” Gosh I wish I knew what verbage was running through her mind! Suffice to say, she couldn’t have been a scrapbooker and I’m sure she thought I was some crazy lady. It all made me wonder if *J* has not come out of he closet and told her employees that she’s a {GASP!} scrapbooker? I just thought that was a funny little moment. I live in this scrapper vacuum and think everyone ‘gets’ it, because I spend most of my online and IRL time with friends who are scrappers (um, yeah, sad but true). Sometimes I need to be reminded that the entire cotton pickin’ world is not inhabited with scrapbookers; instead, most have no idea what in the heck we are doing…
We have a winner!!
*********************************************
13 | Gina O
September 8th, 2008 at 6:32 pm | edit
My relaxation favs are
Taking a walk on a secluded beach
curling up on a rainy day with my pups, a cup of cocoa and a good book
playin bingo with my gals (even better if I win! lol!)
locking myself in my scrap space and getting creative!
Thanks for the opportunity! The book sounds great!
*********************************************
Congratulations Gina! You win the free copy of Joanna Campbell Slan’s new scrapbooking mystery, Paper Scissors Death. OMG, you are going to LOVE it! I’m about halfway through, and mad that I have to go to work because I want to read, LOL.
Gina, I e-mailed you for your address and posted on your BLOG…and I’ll get the book mailed out to you this weekend. Thanks for playing everyone!
Okay, I admit it, I’m an old-fashioned girl. I still take my digi card to the drugstore and use the photo machine to print my photos. There’s a drugstore here that really takes their time with color adjustment, etc. and my photos are never so beautiful as when they develop them. Bright colors, gorgeous shading, they lighten anything that’s too dark, etc. They never have that “digital” look which is my biggest pet peeve.
So I hadn’t developed any photos since Jan. or Feb. of this year and I had a ton to do. The first night after work, I went in and downloaded about half of my digi card. Now this is the pain part…you have to touch screen each photo you want, hit it twice for two copies, skip over the ones you don’t want, etc. It took me about 15-20 mins and when I thought I was done, I pulled my digi card out so I wouldn’t forget it. Well, whammo, the machine goes blank and I say to the cutie guy behind the counter, “OH NO! Do I have to start all over??” and he’s like, “Yeah, sorry, you do.”
The next night I go by to pick up my first set of photos and download the second set. He hands me the first set and says, “All your CD’s are in there but the day crew left me a note and it says an error code came up. I’m not sure if all your photos made it onto the CD so please check them before you delete your card.” Which I thought was nice of him to tell me….how many places would’ve dropped the ball on that one? Then he gave me 25% off my entire order *in case* the CD’s had to be re-done.
The third night, I go in to pick up my second set. It’s a long story but there was another photo customer there who was VERY unhappy and yelling at this poor manager guy. Another employee had supposedly told her a coupon would apply to her order and it didn’t. He explained to her calmly that there was no discount code he could use in the computer to cover her, and he’d get in trouble if he did. She demanded he write down HIS manager’s name and really made a scene. “I’ve been a customer here for TWELVE YEARS but I will NEVER come back into this place AGAIN!!” Don’t get me wrong, if I’m getting screwed over I’ll be the first to speak up. But this was an honest mistake and no way to fix it…what is yelling and name calling and making a scene going to gain you?” (Later, the manager told me that he was going to offer her some other kind of compensation but once she started calling him names and demanding things, he changed his mind). Me and the lady at the other photo kiosk were just rolling our eyes about her and the other lady says to me, “You know, yesterday was 9/11 and she’s gonna yell at some poor guy about saving 20 bucks?” Later, with a straight face, she says to one of the photo girls, “You know, I’m going to need some kind of discount.” And the girl goes, “(sigh) How much?” And me and the other lady start busting up! She was totally kidding but the girl didn’t get it at first.
Okay, so the guy brings me photos and said, “I thought you had a really large order? There’s only 40 pictures here.” Oh no! He brought me behind the counter and showed me the computer where it had my order and only Quantity 40, even though my receipt showed MANY more photos than that. So, yeah, there I go back to the photo machine AGAIN. Now, I could’ve been irate and made a scene, I guess. But he showed me the computer, it wasn’t human error (that I could tell) and they couldn’t magically make the photos appear, so I just shrugged and re-loaded my photos. I mean, pick your battles in life, right?
When I’m checking out, the guy asks what kind of digi photo card I use and I tell him a 1 gig SD card. He goes over, grabs one off the shelf and puts it in my bag for free. Which you know, those aren’t cheap. He thanked me for my patience and understanding. Considering he just got screamed at in front of the whole store, I was impressed with his calmness. They don’t pay retail managers enough!
Anyway, I’ll keep going there. No one develops photos like they do so it’s all worth it to me cuz I’m picky on how my photos look. The bad news is he’s getting married in a month and moving to AZ for nursing school. Darn! Hope the next manager is just as cool.
WordPress is offering a new theme called Albeo and I had to grab it! I hope you love it as much as I do. That black and white was a bit BO-RING for moi. I’ve had so much trouble in the past with themes I love but they cut off my photos on the right side edge. But I scrolled down through a lot of entries with photos and *fingers crossed* this new theme seems to keep the photos intact. The photos are a bit smaller because the right column is wider than my old theme, but I hope it keeps everything large enough for ya’ll to see and read. I have a widescreen laptop, so it’s hard for me to judge what YOU see vs. what I see.
So please leave me a vote in Comments: You like? You no like-y? Grazi, bellas!
WordPress also added a new feature called a Sticky Post, which operates similar to a Sticky on a message board. It’s a post you can designate to stay at the top of your blog for as long as you want. When you’re done, you uncheck a box and it falls back into chronological order on your blog. How kewl is that??
Oh! I got my book in the mail today from Joanna…can’t wait to sink my teeth into her scrapbooking mystery….if you don’t hear from me for a couple days, it’s cuz I’ve got my nose glued to the book, LOL! I’ll post reviews along the way, and announce the lucky girl who also gets a copy….soon…
Stacey at AMR was nice enough to host JOANNA CAMPBELL SLAN tonight for Scrap Chat Hour…read it all HERE. I don’t know about everyone else, but I had a blast! What a treat to be able to pick the brain of someone who is not only a scrapbooker but a hugely successful writer. She was as nice as can be, to boot. She even has her own Wiki….CHECK IT OUT!
The contest to win a free copy of her book is still going…see my last post below and leave a comment!
Remember back in April when I told you about THIS. Well, it’s finally my lucky turn to host Miss Slan, as she gets word out on her new book.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
What Is a Scrapbooking Mystery?
By Joanna Campbell Slan
If you love scrapbooking and papercrafting and if you enjoy a good book, you’ll probably like Paper, Scissors, Death: A Kiki Lowenstein Scrap-N-Craft Mystery. It’s my newest book and it’s a scrapbooking mystery, although you don’t have to be a scrapbooker to enjoy it.
Paper, Scissors, Death tells the story of mousy housewife Kiki Lowenstein. She has two great loves in her life: scrapbooking and her eleven-year-old daughter Anya. When her husband George turns up dead in a hotel room, Kiki refuses to accept his death was an accident. To make ends meet, Kiki must get a job at Time in a Bottle, St. Louis’s premier scrapbook store. She figures it’s the perfect place to snoop around. After all, she’s a mom, and moms are invisible, right? Kiki vows to track down her husband’s killer—and along the way, she uncovers George’s sordid secret life. Worse yet, the murderer is wise to Kiki. Finding out who caused George’s death might cost Kiki her daughter and her life.
Sprinkled throughout the book are scrapbooking tips. Since I’ve been scrapbooking since 1998, I trotted out many of my best ideas!
As a special bonus, at the end of the book there’s a coupon for 50 free digital prints from Snapfish. And if you buy it from Amazon, it’s a super bargain. Okay, 50 prints at 30¢ each is $15, and Amazon has priced the book at $10.17, so you can put that extra savings into…MORE PAPER!
Remember those Calgon commercials? “Calgon, take me away?” Books have always been more effective than bubble baths for me. Each day as I sat down to write about Kiki, I forgot about all my own troubles. My dog, Rafferty, would tug on my sleeve around 5 o’clock to tell me it was quitting time.
I hope Paper, Scissors, Death does the same for you! To order your copy, go HERE. To read a preview of the book, with recipes and a “how to” for making a small album, go to www.joannaslan.com.
Now tell me. What do you do to “get away”? Do bubble baths work for you?
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Okay, I’m back. I hope you enjoyed Joanna’s article; I sure did. To answer her question, for me it’s:
~ bubble baths with an icy cold glass of white wine on the rim of the tub
~ scrapbooking in an empty house with no laundry pending
~ sneaking off to the movies by myself or with a good friend…can you say Chick Flick??
I would really appreciate any comments you would leave for her ON THIS POST. If you do, you will be entered in a drawing for a FREE copy of her book. DEADLINE TO ENTER IS SEPTEMBER 15, 2008 AT MIDNIGHT PST. If you don’t want to take any chances, just go order it now!
I love this new line and, lucky for me, Memory Works carries it HERE.
“Designed to coordinate with the theme set, these printed chipboard accents are perfect to place on any project, and they are SELF ADHESIVE! The printed chipboard is also packaged in a reusable chipboard box with pull out drawer!
Price: $13.00”
Here is a link just to the chipboard ALPHA. I think I will use this a LOT! I restrained myself and just ordered the alpha….for now, LOL! I cashed in some product credits I had for referring new consultants to Memory Works, and I still have the profits from the two crops I held in July and August. I also stocked up on Prism cardstock packs in white and kraft, which is my new favorite color. I seem to use it as the base of every other layout :) But there’s still some money in the kitty…I don’t know what else I want…yet…
HERE’s a link to What’s New at Michaels (DCWV Paper Stacks!), and a coupon.
Remember how I told you that HSN Scrapbooking is worth watching now? Well, it’s coming up again so try to watch and tell me what you think…September 9 at 6am, 2pm, and 6pm. These times are EST, so please adjust for your time zone.
So, I went to Michaels lastnight…just HAD to see if they had the BASIC GREY paper pads yet. The answer is a big fat NO. But they did have all paper pads on sale for 25% off, and an endcap full of other cool new paper pads. There was the glitter Christmas stack by Die Cuts with a View and matching mat stacks. Then a mess of new sets by Me and My Big Ideas (MAMBI). Only one of those tempted me, but I was able to restrain myself. All punches were 40% off so I did get THIS ribbon slot punch by Fiskars that I’ve been eyeing for a month or so.
Because I want to weave ribbon through it on cards and layouts. You can also weave paper through it…a very cool look. I couldn’t find any layout samples to show you…if anyone has used their Leave It To Weaver punch on a layout or card, please give me a linkee!
ETA 9-8-08: I put the call out to AMR girlz for photos of their projects using this punch and two of them came through! Here are some cards from mystery woman ~Q~:
And Jessica aka jessicamae shared this layout:
{Okay, back to the original post….}
I’ve never been a big ‘punch’ girl, but all these new border punches are sucking me into Punch Land. What else did I get? OH! Finally found the BAZZILL at my Mike’s and I felt kinda stupid because it could’ve been there for a while and I never noticed it. It was just in the regular cardstock paper rack area where they’ve had the Paper Outlet stuff forevah! But it finally dawned on to me to check there and, sho nuff, Bazzill!! I wasn’t crazy about the 79 cents per sheet price tag, but when I saw that Bazzill Bling was the same price as the regular I got mostly Bling, as my LSS sells it for $1/sheet.
At checkout, I noticed the employees were wearing their stunning new UNIFORMS. I said to the checker, “I see you’re wearing the new uniforms.” {Dead silence}. So I added in my best sarcastic tone, “You must be thrilled” and she said, “Yeah.” Again with the crickets. And that was that. I did notice that everyone was wearing their own version of black top, khaki-colored pants (or beige or brown or olive, whatever they were in the mood for that day apparently) but not the required official black polo and khakis that I’d heard it would be. Reminded me of Target, where yes, the employees wear a red top and beige pants…but they personalize it with a blue mohawk, a pierced cheek, and a raging right arm sleeve (tattoo). Which to me defeats the purpose of the whole ‘corporate unity’ look they were even going for…but that’s just me. Oh, how I long for the days when I could shop without having to stare at holes in people’s faces, discs in their stretched out earlobes, and other things that make me hurt just to look at. I know, I know…I’m old fashioned and need to get a grip, right? Bah!
First BAZZILL, and now this! Yep, I heard from my ever-reliable 2Peas girlz that Michaels is now carrying a limited stock of the new Basic Grey. You can read about it HERE. Apparently, they will carry paper pads of Urban Prairie and Granola. I’d say the majority of the gals who posted, especially those who love to support their LSS’s, were a bit dismayed at this development. Like, why should Michaels get the new BG before the LSS’s even have it? Why were LSS owners apparently NOT told at CHA that Michaels would have these 2 lines? Kelly Goree from Basic Grey responded like this:
“…I was just writing to let you know that out of our recent release, M’s is only going to be carrying the UP and Granola and only in paper packs. This is an exclusive to them item and can only be found in that format there. However, they will NOT be getting any of the collection packs, chipboard, brads, etc. that coordinate with these lines.
Please know that UP and Granola are both slated to ship very soon so all the goodies, complete with all the extras should be showing up in your LSS very soon.”
I’m not sure how I feel about it. I’ve always been a huge LSS supporter, but I shop at Mike’s a lot merely because that’s all I have access to where I live. We have no Joann’s or Archivers or Hobby Lobby. All my close-by LSS’s have closed; the remaining one is 45 minutes away and it’s hard to get there much. But when I do, I fully support them, LOL! So I’m torn. I’m excited that ANY Basic Grey is at Michaels {!!!!!!}. But I’m sad that LSS’s are getting it AFTER Michaels did and that they apparently weren’t told this would happen when they placed their CHA orders. Was the info purposely withheld? I dunno. But as you can read in the 2Peas post, it sure puts the LSS owners in an awkward and probably costly position. If “one of our own” (i.e. Basic Grey) can’t support our LSS’s, who will? Maybe big companies like BG see the writing on the wall…the demise of most LSS’s and only selling to BBS’s and online stores? I guess I’d rather have some BG somewhere, than have them go out of business because the few LSS’s that are left aren’t buying enough product to keep them afloat. Not blaming the LSS’s in ANY way…it’s just the economy, the downward trend, and what THEY can afford to stock right now.
So, Basic Grey at Mike’s…it’s a bittersweet thang, ain’t it? What are your thoughts on the issue?
)
