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

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!

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

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!!

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

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

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

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

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

Christmas Celebrations have ended... until next year!

Saturday night we had my family's Christmas celebration. It was at my sister's house. There were 20 people there and it was a good time. As always... I enjoy spending time with my family. My uncle and aunt come in from Wisconsin too. It's nice to see everyone together during the holidays. The boys got more toys to play with. Transformers were the thing this year. Kind of funny, huh? I remember when Transformers were popular when I was a child. It's amazing how things come back on to the scene.

I hope everyone's christmas was wonderful! I can't believe it's over already...there will be more next year.

Crazy, but it's raining here. The end of January and it's 40 degrees during the day! Minnesota for ya'...

Have a safe night and Happy New Year!

~Jenn

P.S. I just noticed, after I added the pictures to the blog, that it looks like Tyler has a really big arm! How funny. It's actually my husband's arm... I left the picture because I just love it!

Lovin' this music...

I am so lovin' this album by Chris Daughtry. Remember him...from American Idol. I was so bummed when he had to go from Idol, but I knew there would be an album in his future. The album is awesome. I listened to the whole thing once all the way through. I usually can't do that with new CDs because I don't have the patience to listen to songs I don't know. Well this one is a good one, the entire thing. Someday when I actually have an office, I will have a radio too. I will be playing this one for sure while I scrap. The eye candy isn't too bad either. Love you, hubby...

Thank you to Sarah and Todd for getting this CD for me for Christmas. I almost bought it ahead of time but I held out because I knew I asked for it from them! Thank you...

Have safe and happy New Year celebrations this weekend!

~Jenn

The perfect day...

I just want to let you know that I think my Christmas day was almost perfect. To me it felt almost story book.

First - The Weierke's came over and we had brunch. We ate like kings, we had eggs, english muffins, sausage, bacon, waffles, along with tons of snacks.

We then opened gifts. It was so nice to see Matt and Ty open their presents - thanks Jen for sharing your kids with me.

The only drawback to Christmas, was that Jen had to work :-( She left our house a little after 2 - the boys settled down and played with their toys and we watched a few tv shows.

Believe it or not Ty, Joe and I took a short Christmas nap. I woke up to hearing Todd say to Matt - I think they are all sleeping - what should we do? So - they started playing X-box - it was perfect.

Both of these boys starting playing X-box - it was so cute. See the pics below. Joe and Ty continued to sleep and Matt showed me all the new tricks that he could do on his new skateboarding game. Can you believe that this 4 year old totally could kick butt at skateboarding?

To make it even better - Todd and I actually got the house decorated and cleaned for Christmas Eve - we even have pictures of us in front of the tree.

I hope you and your family had as good of a Christmas as I did! Wishing you and your family a great New Year!

a GREAT quote...

This quote is SO perfect for the holiday season. Rember it while eating all you can eat during your gatherings with friends and families....

"Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways,chocolate in one hand, body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming"WOO HOO what a ride!"

Happy Holidays to EVERYONE!

your Scraploft team,

Jenny and Sarah

I just need more time...

I need more time in every day. I can't get all I want to get done in a day...done in a day! Hmmm...if only there were 27 hours in a day. That would be a little bit of help to me. I did some christmas shopping today. For some reason I'm finding it hard to shop for people this year. I shopped for 6 hours and only officially finished one person. I bought more gifts for my boys, of course, but other than that I checked one other person off the buying list.

So, only two more days for us to finish up our shopping. Unfortunately, I have to work on Thursday and Friday. I was suppose to work the entire Christmas weekend, but I got the 23rd and 24th off. Anyway...I will be spending the next two days finishing up the shopping. A family trip down to Medford for the outlet mall is in store tomorrow evening. Then wrap, wrap, wrap away on Wednesday. Sarah and I will talk shop while I'm wrapping presents. We've been on a hiatus from meetings. Busy last couple of weeks.

Speaking of working Christmas. I do have to work Christmas day, but hey, it's triple pay! I will make over $700 for one day. More mula for scrapbook shopping after Christmas time! yes...
We will do Santa gifts and brunch with Sarah and Todd before I have to head off to work.

Enjoy your week! Take it easy if you are able to. Before the bustle of Christmas weekend is upon us...

Happy Holidays,
Jenny

A Time to Party

Okay - so I went and saw Bonnie's beautiful scrap mecca last night. Oh my gosh, this room is beautiful! Seriously - this room isn't your run of the mill GREAT scrap room - it's a sanctuary for anyone who loves to be inspired.

Oh and the ambience of the whole house - it was warm and cozy and I had a great time laughing and crying (from laughing so hard) with the girls.

[Nicole - not sure why I didn't get a pic of you, but superimpose your pic right next to Bonnie]

Some of these girls I only see a few times a year. Note to self - hang out with these two more frequently - always good for a fun time.

And finally the loot!! Holy Cow!! I won the grand prize! Since I don't usually win jack - this was such a pleasant surprise. I ripped this basket open as soon as I got home - it was full of such great goodies. See pics below. (And this is just SOME of the stuff)

a fun weekend...

I had a pretty fantastic time this weekend. Friday, Sarah and I went scrapbooking. I worked on some layouts for a planner. I got 5 layouts done! Yes, they were small-6x8, but still 5 layouts! I was happy...

Saturday I slept in...needed that desperately. Last week was a tough, long one. The boys were driving me crazy. It didn't help that I only got 4-5 hours of sleep for three days! Anyways...finally broke down crying with my friend Janel stuck on the phone. Thanks Janel for listening to my sap! So I needed some sleep. Finally crawled out of bed at noon on Saturday. Did some shopping because I realized I didn't have a gift for my Tyler's party!

Tyler will be three on the 16th. Look at this baby picture of him...so sweet. It seems like yesterday I was behind the camera trying to get that smile! We had his birthday party Sunday because next weekend is work weekend for me. We had our families over to celebrate. Boy...does my house seem small when there is that many bodies around. Matthew wanted to "help" open presents. Let's just say present opening was done in 5 minutes! Between Tyler, Matthew, and cousin Steven, there was no time for monkey business. The pictures I did manage to get will be fun to scrap. Less photos to narrow down that way.

Just thought I would blog a bit since we haven't for awhile. We've been taking it easy the last couple of weeks. We have a lot going on with other parts of our lives, so we decided to hang low for a while. Refresh with the new year. Scraploft is still up and running, don't worry! But the weekly meetings were put on hold. More time for family that way...which is great.

~Jenn

baby...it's cold outside!

Hello to all the people in warm weather out there! I wish I was with you right now! Yes, it is officially freakin' cold here! Currently 1 degree with a windchill of -10! Perfect weather for doing a little scrapbooking. Which, hmmm, Sarah and I will be doing tomorrow! I'm SO excited.

Before our lives got even busier with Scraploft's launch, we would try and scrap once a month. My main concern with starting a business in the industry is that I would stop scrapbooking. What you say?...yes STOP scrapping! I think since we went live (not counting the long retreat weekend in August...which rocked!) I have scrapped maybe 3 times. Sad, but true. That means 3 pages because I don't ever get more than one page done when I scrap with others. I like to talk, what can I say! So last meeting Sarah and I decided that we are going to try and get back into scrapbooking once a month. I'm pumped for that. I need to use all of this paper we keep getting into our office!

So, bundle up and get together this weekend with your scrapping posse. Talk, laugh, scrap, talk some more, laugh some more, and hey maybe scrap again!

Stay warm all you people in the chilly weather! Wear your hats and gloves. Yes, I even bought a hat this year! I haven't warn a hat for years! Starting to not care about the hair as much I guess. If you are in warm weather...be thankful and send a little our way.

~Jenn

P.S. I am just sick over the tragedy in Oregon. I can only imagine what that man went through in the cold weather. My prayers and blessings go out to those families who knew Mr. Kim.

ugh...I hate pictures!

I hate pictures of myself lately! I will chalk the picture from a previous post up to the fact it was taken after a long day of walking and shopping! I wasn't paying attention when she took the phto either! I will catch Sarah in action one of these days. It's kind of hard when I don't bring my camera along to meeting I guess, huh? LOL! Good times, good times. But the pictures do show what we do for this business of ours. That was a good shipping day!

~Jenny