Wednesday, January 31, 2007

Cosmo is here!

I just finished entering the new products from Cosmo Cricket. Wow! What a challenge to find images for the products this time around. Halfway Cafe and Dutch Girl are both amazing collections. There are 6 double sided papers for each line. Along with die cut sheets and alphabet die cuts. We are so excited to have these available to you. So come check out Cosmo at Scraploft!

We will be getting new products in over the next few weeks. We have ordered Basic Grey, 7 Gypsies, and Sassafraslass so far! So go ahead and come back soon...

~Jenn

Sunday, January 28, 2007

Blog Challenge!

So I was reading Bonnie's blog - which I try to do at least every other day. It's hard to keep up - but with her's I usually do.

She had a unique challenge. Realizing your dreams. The challenge was blog about the obstacles that are keeping you from realizing your dreams....

This is two fold for me. I'm living my dream. I own a scrapbook store. Yikes - did I say that out loud? I own a scrapbook store (okay it's a "we", but you know what I mean)- it's an online store, we have a tight budget, we have to "pick" what we buy new. We have a basic printer, and a Sam's club shipping table - there are always more that we want.

With all the struggles - no capital, losing a partner, no sales, lot's of sales, marketing, graphics, learning how to maintain a website - everything - it's been worth it. Totally and completely worth it.

I own a scrapbook store! It still seems unreal - but alas it is. I'm living my dream.

Okay - so onto my obstacles that prevent me from making my dream a huge success. As many other say.. the obstacle is me.

  1. Find more time. I know this seems strange, but I need to stop saying "I don't have time" I have time - I just need to use it more wisely.
  2. Be strategic. Plan the business and work the plan. It's so easy to plan, so hard to execute. I will come to all meetings with my fair share of work done.
  3. Market Scraploft. I have such a hard time with this. I feel like I am wrapped up so much with the day to day shipping and a never ending to do list, that I don't have time to market the business. How am I going to get more business if I don't market myself?

Okay those are the obstacles that are keeping me from continuing to live my dream. As Bonnie said "Dreams just don't happen. It takes committment to the dream" Well I'm committed.

Thanks Bonnie for such a great quote!

Friday, January 26, 2007

Scraploft SALE!

In order to make room for new stuff coming soon to Scraploft, we are having a sale. 25% off everything, yes EVERYTHING! The sale runs through Sunday, Jan. 28th at midnight. Just type ILoveCHA in the coupon code box on the view cart screen. Buy all you want for 25% off!

Have fun!

~Jenn
Scraploft.com

Wednesday, January 24, 2007

Guess what will be here on Monday?

The newest Cosmo Cricket lines. I received the UPS tracking number today. We pre-ordered before the show - you have to see this beautiful stuff. Here's a sneak peak...




If you woud like to see the whole line check it out here: Cosmo Cricket.(Thanks Mitch!) I can't wait to get this. This will be the first of a bunch of new stuff that we are getting - and Bonnie - I'm working on those stamps right now!

Also - tomorrow you will be receiving a coupon for a "I love CHA" sale. Enjoy!!

Monday, January 22, 2007

the weekend and CHA

Sarah and I were both at a scrapbooking retreat this weekend at Birchpark Retreat. It was a lot of fun! I got a few projects and some 12x12 layouts of the boys done. Great food, great friends, lots of laughs! Time went way to fast though...

Well, the weekend was also full of good stuff for Scraploft. We met some new people and spread the word about our business. Scraploft provided prizes for some drawings. Congratulations to the winners! :)

We had a little sit down meeting with our friend Bonnie and got some pointers, suggestions, advice from her. So that was good. Some things we can work on and improve. Some ways to the Scraploft name out there. Thank you, Bonnie.

We also got some requests for products! It's fun to see what other scrapbookers are looking for when they shop. It's just good for us to know because then we can get more of a variety for our store too. So we will be ordering some new stuff soon. Yeah!!!

Speaking of new stuff. We saw some sneak peaks for CHA on a fellow scrapper's website. Thank you, Mitch! Check out his blog at http://web.mac.com/mitchellkraft

Watch for new product coming to Scraploft within the next month or two! Thanks again to Mitch for the links and to all of our fellow scrapbookers this past weekend. I had a fabulous time!

Until next time,

Jenn

Tuesday, January 16, 2007

SNOW!




Snow...I missed it the first time around...getting pictures that is. But we have some! I can hardly believe it. I was watching the news last night and they said we "on average" would have 27 inches of snow by this time of year. Well we have only had 8 inches or so this winter. Kind of crazy!!


The snow looks so pretty, but brrr it's freakin' cold outside! That is one thing I hate about winter. The other thing is driving in the icky weather. I drove home on Sunday night during the storm. I caught the end of it, but the roads stunk! It usually takes me 40 minutes to get home and it took over an hour that night. I realized at one point I was driving on the edge of the road too. I didn't even know because of the snow on the road. Oh well, I made it home safe. That's all that matters.


So, the snow is here and it's cold...which means this time around the pretty white stuff will be around for a while longer! oh, how I love Minnesota in the winter!!!


Peace


~Jenn

my space friend...

ok. So we have created a myspace account. Actually Sarah created it...thanks Sarah! I got a request to be a friend from this awesome coworker of mine. She is such a sweet, easy-going lady. So here's to yet another possible internet concept that I may POSSIBLY understand how to use. Did that last sentence make sense? Um, I am not very computer savvy. So if I can successfully get a reply back from this myspace friend of mine, that will be a miracle. Funny how a few months ago I was a little hesitant about this whole blogging thing...

I get it now....

~Jenn

Gettin' down to the wire...

Hey all out there in bloggin' world! Thursday Sarah and I are heading to a 4 day scrapbooking getaway at Birchpark! I am super, duper excited to get there and do some scrapping. But, I am not looking forward to packing up my stuff to bring along. I have my SB stuff all over my basement right now.

My goal was to get all of it in one little area, go through it, and decide what I could bring and what I could leave home. Um, not so much. I spent two hours last night winding ribbon around ribbon cards. I could have gone longer (much longer, that's how much I have!), but I ran out of ribbon cards. So yet another trip to Joann's. My third one in just a few days. Oh, and I can't find some pictures that I got printed a couple weeks ago! So I almost had a mental breakdown last night looking at the disaster of a basement!

So can't wait to do some scrappin' this weekend. I will be working on finishing up an album for a special little someone in our family. :) I will try to finish my Bahama's trip album. It's officially been a year now, so I NEED to finish that up. I have a planner to finish up. And maybe try to fit some layouts of my little guys in there somewhere!

I will probably need a nap on Thursday because sleep will be low on the priority list the next few days! Have a great rest of the weekend and a fantabulous weekend!

~Jenn

Wednesday, January 10, 2007

1st Meeting of the Year...

So we just finished up the first meeting of the year. It was a good one. We have a bunch of things in the works.

We talked about finishing up our books for 06. Not a fun conversation - it's not like we don't like to talk about money, its that we hate doing the accounting part of the business. Lucky for us we have an accountant and if we've done everything right - she will take over the rest after we've entered everything.

The funniest part was talking about the product. We are "saving" for CHA at the end of Jan. So be on the lookout - because we want to get lot's of new stuff at the end of Jan.

So my question I pose to you... If you could buy any line - what would YOU buy? Both Jenn and I love Scenic, so we will probably get some of the new Scenic - but what else would you want to get?

Be sure to be on the lookout for new posts regarding new CHA stuff. We would love to get your opinion!

~Sarah

Sunday, January 07, 2007

Back to work...

Sarah and I took some time away from meetings and hard core energy over the holidays. It was great to spend quality time with our family and friends. So many memories will be close to my heart for a very long time.

On Wednesday we are getting back into the weekly meetings. It's been over a month, so it will be interesting to see how productive we are. The monthly newsletters will be back up starting this month too. We are hoping to work more on advertising and marketing starting in February. The funds will be going towards driving people to our site. I'm curious to see which advertising realm works for us.

So...hi ho, hi ho, off to work I go!

~Jenny

Monday, January 01, 2007

Happy New Year


Happy New Year!!!! Here's to you and yours in 2007. May the memories of 2006 be in your minds forever. As the new year begins the tradition of new year's resolutions is present. Mine are simple, yet difficult.


1) Make better decisions financially. Save more, spend less.

2) Exercise my body more. Brain and muscles alike.

3) Lose weight. I now have even more motivation because I am going to be in my really good friend's wedding. Thank you Pieps for asking me! I am so excited!

4) Say more I love you's. To everyone that I care about.

5) Call my friends and family more.

6) Be more organized.

7) Be successful with this small business venture.


Lucky number 7...that should be enough to try and achieve for the year!


What are your resolutions for the coming year?


~Jenn