Archive for November, 2008
How many times a day do you laugh? Probably not enough. Do you know that the average child laughs between 300-400 times a day? Do you know how many times the average adult laughs? 15-25. Isn’t that sad? I found out this info this week when I took a "Laughter Yoga" class. Actually, my husband Tony came along too (his idea, believe it or not). There is an Indian doctor, Dr. Kataria, who "While researching the benefits of laughter, …was amazed by the number of studies showing profound physiological and psychological benefits of laughter. He decided to find a way to deliver these benefits to his patients and other people." So, Laughter Yoga was born. There are now over 6,000 laughter clubs in over 60 countries.
Basically, we did all these silly exercises and laughed for 45 minutes. You know how laughter is contagious…well I started out "fake" laughing, but it didn’t take long before it was real. Every time I would look over at Tony with this "what the heck did I get myself into" look on his face, I would bust a gut laughing. By the time it was over, I needed a nap! Laughter yoga may not be your thing (Tony said he’s not going back – big surprise), but try to find something to laugh at today. It really made me feel better!
My son Logan’s Kindergarten class had their Thanksgiving play yesterday. I just love little kids dressed up in paper bag Indian costumes! There were about 40 kids all dressed up as pilgrims and Indians. They each had a line to memorize to tell the story of Thanksgiving and they passed the microphone from one to another. After they told the story, they passed the microphone again and each child said what they were thankful for. Logan was thankful for water. 
Of course, at this time of year, everyone starts thinking of what they are grateful for, and I am no exception. But besides the obvious things like my family and my health, listening to the kids tell the story of the pilgrims yesterday made me thing of another thing I am incredibly grateful for.
I come from a collective group of women who got on a boat and spent months at sea, on their way to a brand new country, all to make a better life for themselves and their families. They ran out of food and water…many of them died. When they got to Plymouth Rock, they had to survive through a harsh winter, in shelter made with the help of their bare hands.
I come from a collective group of women who got on a boat and spent months at sea, on their way to a brand new country, all to make a better life for themselves and their families. When they got to Ellis Island, they didn’t speak the language and had to start life all over again.
I come from a collective group of women who got in wagons and headed west.
I come from a collective group of women who fought to own property (instead of being property), who fought for the right to work and the right to vote.
So, this Thanksgiving, I am incredibly grateful for the grit and determination I have inherited from the collective group of women who have lived before me. Yes, the world we live in is in a state of uncertainty. Yes, the "economic downturn" we are currently facing is scary. But I come from a collective group of women who have faced things in their lives that I cannot begin to understand, living in my house with heat and running water and a grocery store 5 minutes away, and I know that their spirit is alive and well inside of me and "this too shall pass". (I’m also grateful for Dove Promises Dark Chocolate with Almonds – I’m sure if the women in the wagons had chocolate – it would have helped!)
We have 137 new items this week, including the Thankful Collection from Creative Imaginations to help you scrapbook your Thanksgiving memories. CI also has a new kit available called the "Be Creative Winter Memories Ornament Box Kit". It has all the pieces to make an ornament box with four photo ornaments decorated with Swarovski® crystals. It even includes 2 pages of step-by-step instructions. It would make a beautiful gift. We also have new kits from Applegate Productions, including Dreamland Mickey and Minnie. We have the Cut ‘n Paste collection from K&Co, the Glitzmas collection from SEI and ribbon from Bazzill. From the SYT designers, we have our own Christmas line and die cuts, cruise and lots of general travel. We even have die cuts to scrapbook your Black Friday shopping! (You won’t catch me within a 10 mile radius of a store on Friday. I do all my shopping tonight. Target is open late and is fully stocked and ready for the Friday rush). Click here to see all the items: http://www.scrapyourtrip.com/112608.html.
Speaking of Black Friday, we couldn’t let it pass without our own Black Friday Special! We’ve marked down over 500 items on overstock at 25% off and we have over 400 colors of Bazzill marked down 40%! The 40% on Bazzill is only valid through Monday – then it will go up to 25% off. Click here to see all the items on sale: http://www.scrapyourtrip.com/clearance.html.
From the bottom of my heart, I wish you a wonderful Thanksgiving. I am also incredibly grateful for you and the opportunity you have given me to live the "American Dream" of owning my own business.
As always, thanks for your business!
Julie Swatek, President
Scrap Your Trip®
www.ScrapYourTrip.com
‘cuz life is a trip worth scrappin’®
November 26th, 2008
I received an e-mail this week that really got me thinking about something. AOL Pictures is closing down and any pictures saved there will not be accessible after 12/31/2008. Thankfully, they gave their customers plenty of notice and even partnered with American Greetings® PhotoWorks® to make sure their subscribers had another choice. But what if they hadn’t? Based on the current wacko state of our economy, who knows who will still be around a year from now? Is any online storage of our most precious memories safe?
According to the Photo Marketing Association, all of us shutterbugs took 23 billion digital pictures last year (but probably only 15 billion are good ones – the rest are blurry, have red-eye, and have at least one person with their eyes closed or looking away from the camera. We keep meaning to go through and delete the bad ones, but who has the time?) Of those 23 billion memories, about 13 billion of them are still sitting on our hard drives or our memory cards.
It wasn’t that long ago that our memories were a lot safer. We printed our pictures and filed the negative strips away in shoeboxes. In that scenario, you had two "backups". But now, negatives have all but disappeared and over 60% of our memories never see photo paper.
What’s the answer? We need to print our pictures. Not just at home, either. A lot of times, they are not printed at a high enough resolution and they can never be scanned to get a second generation print. We need to think of photo lab prints just like we used to think of negatives.
My pictures are backed up, but I have done a lousy job of printing them. I’m the perfect example of someone who takes digital pictures until my memory card is full, downloads them to my hard drive with the best of intentions to delete the bad ones and print the good ones. But before you know it months have gone by. I’m not willing to have ANY of my memories be only a 1 or a 0 on a piece of metal or plastic.
So, I’m on a mission to print all my pictures. A couple of years ago we ran a comparison test of all the major photo labs and I think it’s time to do it again. Are there any you want us to test? I’ll send the same 10 pictures to all the labs and give you the scoop on who did the best job.
We have 261 new items this week. Creative Imaginations released a ton of new collections for November! We have collections for Paris, New York City, Washington DC, wine tasting, music and cooking. The have the official Lego® collection and two looks for the Christmas holidays – one is a retro look with flocked paper and the others, Hollyberry & Mistletoe, coordinate so you can mix and match. Tiffany used them for a Shop by Layout look (see below for pictures). We also have the Mr. Campy collection from Cosmo Cricket (Mr. Campy is an adorable little marshmallow guy), a Thanksgiving collection from Karen Foster and new Glitter Dots from James Buttons.
From the SYT designers, we have 2 new custom papers (one is skywriting and one is graffiti for your dog) and 2 custom die cuts (a customized license plate and a customized camping sign). We are proud to show off our first paper collection, called "Globe Trotting" (see layout below). We have die cuts for all 50 states and the beginnings of our holiday die cuts (wait until you see the lamp post and the front door). I certainly hope you enjoy looking at them as much as we enjoy making them for you! Click here to see them all:
http://www.scrapyourtrip.com/111908.html.
Lastly, I goofed last week. We put together our first video on the "semi-scrapbooked" products and I thought the link was in the e-mail. It wasn’t. So, I put it on our website this time. I really think you’ll like these products. Here’s the link to the video:
http://www.scrapyourtrip.com/thanksvideo.html
As always, thanks for your business!
Julie Swatek, President
Scrap Your Trip®
www.ScrapYourTrip.com
‘cuz life is a trip worth scrappin’®
November 19th, 2008
Last week when I was going through my daughter Lauren’s backpack, I came across an essay she had written in class for the Veteran’s Day celebration they were having at school. I am so proud of her that she understands the sacrifices that our veterans have made on her behalf. Below is an 8-year old’s salute to our Veterans (thoughts also shared by her Mommy).
I’m so proud to be her Mom.
Wow, do we have a lot of new products this week! The Wassail Christmas collection from Basic Grey is here. We also ordered the collection packs from last year’s collections, Figgy Pudding and Fruitcake, along with the matching fibers. We have three new collections from K&Co – Fall Harvest, Ancestry (including a storage folder, record book kit and organizing system for all of your genealogy needs) and Life’s Journey. We have two new collections from Reminisce – Real Magic (think Disney) and Enchanted Autumn (yeah – owls!). We have three collections from Spanish Memories to help with your Latin scrapbooking needs – Mexico, Puerto Rico and Cumpleaños. Scrapbooking Trends has a new idea book "Celebrate the Holidays" filled with inspiration for your holiday season.
The Scrap Your Trip designers have been busy too! We have 3 new custom papers this week – one with diagonal text, one airplane that we can customize for you and your photo turned into 12×12 paper! We’ve gotten lots of requests from you to offer this service and we’re happy to be able to oblige.
Of course we have lots of gorgeous papers from destinations near and far. We also created several papers to scrapbook the recent historic election. We have die cuts for Disney, Veteran’s Day, baby, baseball, Thanksgiving (including a customized decorative plate) and scrapbooking (with a customized nametag that says "Hi My Name is … and I’m a Scrapaholic!".) Click here to see all the items:
http://www.scrapyourtrip.com/111208.html.
Lastly, we have some great "semi-scrapbooked" products – something new for us. I thought it would best be explained in a video. Hope you like them as much as I do.
As always, thanks for your business!
November 12th, 2008
Apparently, I am a "helicopter parent" – one of those moms who "hovers" over their children. I know I am very overprotective. I’m convinced that a pedophile or serial killer is lurking around every corner, ready to steal my children if I let them out of my sight for even a second. The 24-hour media culture we live in doesn’t help matters any. Intellectually, I know being so protective of my kids isn’t helping them learn how to live in the world, but sometimes I can’t help myself. I’m afraid to let them take risks, because they might get hurt.
I recently read a great book that a friend recommended called A Nation of Wimps: The High Cost of Invasive Parenting
. What an eye opener! Here’s a quote from the jacket: "Parents are going to ludicrous lengths to take the lumps and bumps out of life for their children, but the net effect of parental hyper-concern and scrutiny is to make kids more fragile. When the real world isn’t the discomfort-free zone kids are accustomed to, they break down in a myriad of ways. Why is it that those who want only the best for their kids wind up bringing out the worst in them?"
Lauren went to a birthday party on Sunday held at Fun Spot. They have go-karts, bumper cars, etc. She’s only been on go-karts a couple of times and the last time someone bumped her kart and she bit her lip and there was blood everywhere. When we got there, all her friends were on the go-karts. Driving the go-karts. By themselves. She said she didn’t want to go by herself and she wanted me to buy a wristband so I could drive her. I took a really deep breath and told her she was tall enough to go by herself. "I don’t want to go by myself! I don’t know how to drive!" We stood there for a minute watching all her friends racing by and laughing. I recognized the look on her face. "Lauren, you can do this. The gas pedal is on the right and the brake is on the left. All you have to do is push the pedals and steer the steering wheel. You can do this!"
She sat down with such a mixture of trepidation and excitement. She got all buckled in and off she went. She was driving! I was laughing and crying at the same time. As she went around the track (very slowly), all the things that could go wrong kept popping into my head. Was she going to crash? Should I have made her wear the helmet? She’s completely out of my sight now – what if something happens and I’m not there to help. Am I going to have to run out on the track to pull her from a fiery wreck?!? And then she came around the corner, both hands gripping the wheel, very intent on driving. As soon as she saw me, she broke out in an ear-to-ear grin. They went around the track for a few more minutes. When she got out, she came running over to me and said "That was TOTALLY COOL!!!!!" Yes, it was. I let go just a little bit and nothing bad happened.
On our way to the car after the party was over, she turned to me and asked "Can I drive?" Oh please, honey! Mommy needs to take this in baby steps!
Today is the beginning of our 5th Annual "Turkey Sale". What’s a turkey sale? Well, I wish every product we picked was a winner, but some of them are turkeys. And there is no room for turkeys in the Scrap Your Trip warehouse! So, there are over 1,300 "turkeys" marked down to 40% off. But…1,100 of them we have 25 or less on hand. On the first day of last year’s turkey sale, we sold out of more than 75% of the items. Don’t put them in your wish list or your registry – chances are they will be gone by the time you get back. We will be removing things from the site as quickly as we can, so if something was in your shopping cart and then it’s not, it’s because we sold the last one. If two orders come in for something and we only have one – the item will stay on the first order in and we will issue a credit to the second person. I’m looking forward to getting these "turkeys" out of the warehouse. Our holiday products are starting to arrive (Basic Grey Wassail came in yesterday) and they need a shelf to call home. Click here to get started:
http://www.scrapyourtrip.com/clearance.html.
As always, thanks for your business!
Julie Swatek, President
Scrap Your Trip®
www.ScrapYourTrip.com
‘cuz life is a trip worth scrappin’®
November 5th, 2008
TA DA! Announcing the really cool and different project we’ve been working on – personalized photo ornaments! It’s been really tricky getting it just right, but our designer Jill kept at it and at it and at it until she got it (Some of our early attempts were really awful)
. This is a whole new way to preserve your special memories. My kids were so excited to see themselves in acrylic. I brought Logan home one of the samples and when he thought he left it somewhere he yelled "STOP" from the backseat. By the tone in his voice, I thought something was really wrong. "What’s wrong?" I asked. "I left my ornament!"
I am thrilled to have something so permanent so that I can always remember the year Lauren was a "dangel" – half devil/half angel and the year Logan was so obsessed with Indiana Jones. I put the ornaments we made next to the original photo so you can see how close they are (that’s Jill and her dog Mickey in the bottom picture).
We have more designs in the works, but I wanted to show you these first since Halloween is such prime picture taking time. You can e-mail your photos, but if you have older photos that are not digital, you can mail them to us and we will scan them for you at no charge. It’s really easy to send us your pictures – all the instructions are on the individual ornament pages. We’ve been so excited to bring you this new way of preserving your special memories – I hope they bring you many years of joy! Click here to see:
http://www.scrapyourtrip.com/110308.html
As always, thanks for your business!
Julie Swatek, President
Scrap Your Trip®
‘cuz life is a trip worth scrappin’®
P.S. Stay tuned for tomorrow’s normal weekly e-mail. It’s about "helicopter parenting".
November 4th, 2008
