Opening Tomorrow!

Guest Blogger Laura here again. I promised I would return today with more store info, so here I am. The big news is we are opening tomorrow! Our special hours for Thursday, January 1st are 12pm-5pm. Please note that these are not our normal Thursday hours, and we will not be open in the evening. Also, we won't have our normal Thursday Make and Take card tomorrow. The make and takes will resume next week on the 8th. We will resume with our normal hours starting Friday, January 2nd.

If you get a chance to stop in tomorrow, be sure to check out the Christmas merchandise which is now 50% off as well as our 50% off basket which had new items added as we renovated. You have to love a sale!

We haven't finished all of our renovations, but we have at least completed all the big tasks. Displays are moved, the floor is painted, and the lighting is installed. Most of the inventory is moved, but we are still figuring out where to place a few of the stamp sections. I imagine there will be some minor readjusting in the next few weeks as we get comfortable in our "new" home.

I thought you guys would like to see a few more photos of the store. As you can see, we got a LOT done since my last set of pictures. In the picture above, you can see all the way down to the classroom. Since the time this picture was taken, the round table and ladder were moved so that you can actually walk down the aisle. The fixture with the inkpads also has more on it now, but it still is a work in progress. The new fixture is larger than our old one, and you can really see the ink pads better as well a items such as paints and Stickles. Look at how easy it is to see all the colors of StazOn on the endcap!

In the second picture, you can see part of the new Copic area as well as the other side of the ink pad fixture. We moved the baskets on the floor and will eventually move the paper rack that is between the Copics and the embellishment fixture. Again, it is all about the minor adjustments.

If you have the day off tomorrow and can't stand the thought of a day of football, we hope you can stop by. Besides the Christmas sale, there is a brand new Great Impressions stamp of the month and sample board as well as the new Basic Grey Bittersweet line of products and Amuse's new Valentine images. Nice!

So Much Happening!

Guest blogger Laura here. I thought you guys would like an update on the store. As you can see from the picts, there is a LOT happening "behind the scenes." I know you guys are dying to check out the renovations and spend your gift certificates, but please be patient with us. We still don't know if we can open on Jan 1st, or if it will be Jan 2nd. It all depends on how smoothly things run tomorrow. I will update the blog tomorrow night with our reopening date.

The first picture is one I lovingly call, "hey, where did the classroom go?" I promise you, it is in there somewhere. We had to move everything to paint the floors and are still in the process of putting it all back.


This is another picture of the classroom taken from the vantage point of the Accu-Cut machine. I was imprisoned here this morning and released once I had put the Accu-Cut area back together. Those dies are heavy! I hurt in places I didn't even know were on my body.






Yet another picture of the classroom. You can see some of the shelving that was added to the walls.







This is Marilynn after a donut and coffee. I said, "look happy," and this is what I got. That saying about being careful what you ask for is so true. Notice that we can now hang merchandise in the area between the bathroom and the office. Marilynn worked very hard today to move all the punches there.







I think the register is behind all this stuff. I am not sure.











Angela and her dad working to assemble the new Copic area. It is fabulous!







All of the blue displays had to be emptied before they were moved. These are two I worked on today. The bad thing about moving so much inventory is that I kept finding things I need to have. Notice Angela's brother in the background (or at least his legs). You wouldn't believe how many things we made Steve move, assemble, or fix today.




I know it all looks like a mess for now, but these pictures were taken early today and the store already looks much, much better. There is still a lot to do tomorrow though. Wish us luck finishing it all!

Renovations begin!

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday! My entire family was under my roof - the first time we were all together in a really, really long time - maybe ever with this configuration of people :-) After a relaxing Christmas eve and Christmas morning, it was off to work later Christmas day. My brother (shown here) removed the sink that was on the "paper room" wall. We're planning to put grid wall here so we can put more product up!





My sister's husband and my dad (behind him) put up 6 new lights in the classroom, and boy is it bright now! I was teasing that it was good we didn't have windows in the classroom or airplanes might be trying to land in there! You will be stunned and amazed how much brighter it is and how much easier the detail work will be back there!







We've started painting the floor, too. We're doing it in sections and kind of working around it. Craziness! We chose a pretty terra cotta color, hoping that it would hide ink, glitter and other stamping hazzards a little better. I'm going to miss those little blue swirls, but I don't think I can convince Marilynn to do that again - now that she knows better :-)

I'm still not sure exactly when we'll reopen. We're shooting for January 1st, and hoping for no glitches. Stay tuned for more details!

Last Make and Take of 2008

I'm hoping to take some time over the break to go back and look at all of the Thursday make and takes we've done since the blog started in March. That should be a fun trip down memory lane. It just might inspire me to get a head start on birthday and thank you cards for next year, too! This is our last Thursday make-and-take of the year as next Thursday is Christmas Day! YIKES! So, please stop in if you can - we're playing with stamps from Impression Obsession and Lockhart - two of our favorites. And, mark your calendars for January 8, our first Thursday make-and-take of 2009! Happy New Year, everyone!

Congratulations!

Barbara Papile was our lucky tote bag winner! She took the Intro to Stamping class just a few months ago and has been a very happy stamper ever since! We plan to offer similar promotions in the months ahead: another pink tote (a different brand and with different goodies) in February for Valentine's day and a green tote in March for St. Patrick's! Stay tuned for the details on those. Again, congratulations Barbara!

Hero Arts is Here!

Hero Arts has done it again. We are always very excited to see Rory, the UPS man, arrive at the store, but today he delivered 9 boxes of ALL NEW Hero Arts products. I don't know if Hero has added some new designers in the last couple of years, but I am totally loving both last year's and this year's selection! We received more than 30 new clear sets and 9 long border sets. Plus tons of design blocks, shadow stamps and other wood-mounted sets. Keep in mind that this is a sneak peek - we ordered it sight-unseen. So, there are even more great new finds to explore in the 2009 catalog! Pick one up and let me know what you'd like me to order for you.

Remember that your purchases of $40 or more through 4 PM Saturday, December 13, will qualify you for a ticket into our terrific tote bag drawing!

This week's Make and Take

....(sung to the tune of the 12 days of Christmas) "Three rolling hills, two evergreens and a deer full of holiday cheer."

Clearly I've been listening to the All-Christmas-radio-station just a bit too much! I love to give Marilynn credit for the amazing cards she creates for our Thursday make-and-takes, but this week, credit goes to Dave Brethauer - owner of Memory Box. He designed this stunner using his paper and stamps.

Remember, you can still acrue tickets for our tote bag drawing (see an earlier post for details and a picture) so your visit can be twice as nice! Hope to see you!

Still feeling thankful!

A great big "thank you" to everyone who stopped by the shop on Saturday to celebrate the holiday season with us! We had a great time getting to see you all, Harriett's food was phenominal as usual, Laura's air brush demo was awesome and the stamp swaps were rowdy! That's my kind of fun. But I was particularly touched by how generous you all were with your food donations! It's hard to tell from this picture, but we had to put down one of the MIDDLE seats of the SUV (not just the back) to get it all in there. The folks at the pantry were stunned by the amount. I've always thought paper crafters were the nicest people on earth - now I know you are also the most generous! Thank you again!