Did you know elves use "Inspector Numbers"? Neither did we. One of Logan’s packages from Santa came wrapped in brown paper with "Inspected by Elf #2143" (see pictures below) written on the package. Now what’s interesting about this is that prior to this, unbeknownst to us, Logan though that there was no Santa and his presents came from Mom and Dad. Apparently, Santa uses the same Avery address labels on his packages as we have in the office and Logan was sure that meant that his Santa presents came from Mom and Dad. But Elf #2143 has changed all that and Logan once again believes in Santa.
It was a very good Christmas in the Swatek house. We did our annual "Feast of the Seven Fishes" for Christmas Eve. It’s an Italian tradition we borrowed from some old neighbors, even though we’re not Italian. We only had four different kinds of seafood this year, but it was still yummy.
I am amazed that today is the last day of 2008. It doesn’t seem that long ago that it was 1999 and we were all waiting for the world to go awry for Y2K. Just like everyone else, I find myself looking back on the year. However, unlike prior years, I don’t look back on this year with any regrets. I have learned to appreciate what I have and focus on all that is good and abundant in my life. I have a healthy family, thriving children, a successful business, food, shelter, clothing and a whole building of scrapbook supplies. What more could a girl possibly want?
Oh…about those scrapbook supplies…I just added another 300 or so to our end-of-the-year clearance. There are still close to 300 items marked down 40% and over 1,000 items marked down 25%. Click here to see all the items on sale: http://www.scrapyourtrip.com/clearance.html
As always, thanks for your business. Talk to you next year!
Julie Swatek, President
Scrap Your Trip® www.ScrapYourTrip.com
‘cuz life is a trip worth scrappin’®
I love it when people are fully in the holiday spirit! Everyone seems a bit happier. Store clerks smile at you and tell you “Happy Holidays.” Complete strangers will smile at you at the gas station. It’s a time of togetherness and good cheer and cookies!
That’s what we had in the Scrap Your Trip office yesterday. We had our annual pot luck lunch. It’s grown quite a bit from last year – there were 23 people (including my kids) around a really long table this year.
We usually have a “Dirty Santa” gift exchange, where you can steal your neighbor’s gift, but we decided to do something a little different this year. We pooled the money we would have spent on gifts and adopted a family from the local domestic violence shelter. It’s been a tough year and we didn’t want any little kids going without presents.
So instead, we exchanged “Niceties!” Everyone filled out a sheet of paper with something nice to say about each one of their co-workers. My new assistant, Jaime, typed them all up in a pretty red and green font and printed them on Bazzill white cardstock (for an instant scrapbook page). Before I passed them out, I read the nicest thing for each person out loud for everyone to hear. For me, at least, it was a very heartwarming gift.
So what’s the nicest thing I have to say about you? I appreciate the time you take to read my weekly e-mails. I really enjoy writing them each week and sharing my life with you. Thank you for the most precious gift you could give me – the gift of your time.
We will be closed starting at 2:00 Eastern today through January 1st. We will return on the 2nd, ready to get your scrapbook supplies to you so that you can continue to “Scrap Your Trip” through life.
I hope that you have the most joyous of holidays!
As always, thanks for your business!
Julie Swatek, President
Scrap Your Trip®
www.ScrapYourTrip.com
‘cuz life is a trip worth scrappin’®
[Please excuse the 24 hour delay for this e-mail. We've been closed for the last 2 days to take physical inventory, counting and recounting almost 200,000 items]
This is about the time of year when I start wishing I was more like my Aunt Roberta. When I was a kid, every Christmas Eve was a huge get together at her house, with all the extended family. There were all sorts of goodies, like that green colored punch you make with ginger ale and lime sherbet. And eggnog, with a whole nutmeg and a little grater to grate fresh nutmeg in your cup (it was the grown-up kind – I never got any). I remember picking the cashews out of the bowl of nuts and sugar frosted grapes. My aunt was Martha Stewart before Martha Stewart was Martha Stewart. There were cute little decorations everywhere…even place cards on the table.
In my mind, that’s what I always think I’m going to do at the holidays. I envision baking cookies with the kids and decorating gingerbread houses and the perfectly decorated home. I will give thoughtful gifts to everyone who means something to me, expertly wrapped with homemade bows. I will send homemade Christmas cards, all with handwritten notes about why I am grateful the person is in my life.
And then there is reality. I was at Target until they closed at 11:00 last night, getting the last of the teacher gifts before school is out on Friday. My tree is still in its protective bag in the garage, along with all the boxes of decorations. Family Christmas portrait? Nope. Christmas cards? Nope. Gifts? At least the mailman comes to the office and I won’t have to stand in line at the post office with the other people who have waited until the last minute.
Every year about this time, we tell ourselves that next year we’re going to get started on the weekend after Thanksgiving, but then Thanksgiving weekend comes and we usually end up just relaxing and enjoying a long weekend. "We’ll get started next weekend." And then somehow, there is a time warp and weeks disappear and it’s the week before Christmas. I think the holiday season is a lot like childbirth. It can be painful while you’re in the middle of it, but then you forget the bad parts, have really great memories of the good parts and decide to do it all over again.
Okay, next year, I am REALLY not waiting until the last minute!
Speaking of last minute, do you know that Saturday, December 20th is the last shipping day that the Post Office will guarantee domestic delivery by Christmas Eve? If you’re still looking for gifts, we are here to help you out. We are participating in "National Free Shipping Day" today, December 18th for all orders totaling $49 or more. There are over 250 online retailers participating, including Target, Macy’s, JC Penney’s, Kohl’s and us. It’s the last chance for all the other procrastinators like me to make sure that our order will arrive just in the nick of time. Please enter coupon code "freeshipping" at checkout. It expires promptly at 11:59 PM Pacific Time tonight, Thursday, 12/18. In order to ensure that we can get your order processed in time and to the Post Office by Saturday, we will be sending all in-stock items and canceling any backorders. (Fine print – offer is not valid on prior orders, nor will it be extended past 11:59 PM on 12/18. Offer is only valid on USPS Priority Mail – Domestic shipping. A $49 minimum purchase is required.)
What sorts of scrapbooking supplies could you give as gifts? Well, we have 183 new items for you to choose from! We have a gorgeous red Christmas Cheer 12×12 album from K& Co, along with other pieces from the Christmas Cheer collection and the Holiday Cheer collection from Creative Imaginations. Creative Imaginations also brings us the beautiful Radiance collection of foiled and glittered snowflakes and the Lego City Transportation collection. We have two new collections from SEI; Oasis and Black Orchid (along with matching Bazzill pack).
We’ve also been designing more exclusive SYT products, with themes such as Baking Cookies, Pet Christmas, more Star Wars, Spanish Christmas, Military Christmas and of course, lots of travel. We have four custom die cuts for you this week; a custom Christmas teddy bear, a custom Christmas stocking, a custom dog Christmas stocking and a custom snow globe 12×12 picture frame laser die cut (it was our customer Norma’s idea and it was a great one!). Click here to see everything: http://www.scrapyourtrip.com/121708.html.
As always, thanks for your business!
Julie Swatek, President
Scrap Your Trip® www.ScrapYourTrip.com
‘cuz life is a trip worth scrappin’®
Last week I turned one of Lauren’s (my 8-year old daughter) drawings into a scrapbook paper ("Owl by Lauren S."). When I showed her on the website that night after work, she was so excited I thought she was going to burst! Thank you to the three people who bought a sheet. Immediately, my 5-year old son Logan said "I want to draw scrapbook paper too!" He went right to work with his crayons. So, this week, I give you ("Darth Vader by Logan S." ) (that’s the dead good guy laying on the ground next to him). If any of you have more than one child or grandchild, you are well aware of the rule that says what you do for one you must do for the other or hear about it forever.
What’s been so cute about this is that every day when I get home, Logan asks me if his paper sold. I explained to him that we only put new stuff on the website on Wednesday and it wasn’t Wednesday yet. Every morning for the last week he has asked me what day it is. It took me a day or so to realize why he was asking. Then he started asking "Is it Wednesday yet?" Last night, I showed him his paper on the website. I videotaped him with my Flip Video Camcorder that I told you about earlier in the year. It’s really shaky, so forgive my videographer skills
I definitely won a "Mommy of the Year" award for this!
Besides Logan’s artistic interpretation of Darth Vader, we have another 146 products for you to choose from this week. We have a beautiful heritage collection from SEI called the Windsor Collection. We also have the Lego City Construction collection from Creative Imaginations. We have lots of holiday, including stickers from EK Success and Mazel Tov and Hanukkah paper.
We also have a large selection of Scrap Your Trip exclusive designs. We have lots of Christmas-y papers, along with general travel, Japan, Cruise and Disney. We even have papers for rock climbing and darts! We have four holiday die cut borders…toy soldier, toy train, gingerbread boy and girl. We even have a customized Santa hat! We can customize with your name or your pet’s. Click here to see everything: http://www.scrapyourtrip.com/121008.html.
We are also having a Scrap Your Trip paper sale on our previously released designs. For one week only, our papers are 25% off. Click here to see all the designs on sale: http://www.scrapyourtrip.com/syt-paper-sale.html.
Hope you are enjoying the holidays. Lauren and I are going to our annual mother-daughter Nutcracker Ballet this weekend. We’ve been going since she was 2 years old. She’s still at the age when she’s excited about going to the ballet with Mommy. :-)
As always, thanks for your business!
Julie Swatek, President
Scrap Your Trip® www.ScrapYourTrip.com
‘cuz life is a trip worth scrappin’®
As an employer, one of the most rewarding things about having employees is watching them grow. Sometimes, it’s literally, like Maddison (our custom die cut employee) who is due to give birth to baby girl Alexis tomorrow. Or "Eric the Scrappin’ Rapper", who started as a young man and is now married (his wife, Jessica, is our new smiling voice of customer service). I’ve watched Tiffany and Jill, our die cut designers, grow their "creative muscle" over the last few years and their die cut designs just keep getting better and better.
I’ve always know I had a bunch of creative employees, but a few more have really surprised me lately.
One day in our morning staff meeting, we were discussing our exclusive SYT paper designs. Cindy, our Office Manager (and soon-to-be grandmother of new baby Alexis mentioned above), said "Does our paper have to be photographs?" Could I draw something?" Apparently, Cindy has been hiding her artistic talent! And so, we debut "Christmas Magic", a collection of four papers, hand drawn and colored by Cindy. She is also our resident Disney fanatic. She also drew Monorail Right and Monorail Left. I know she is working on a bunch more Disney drawings (she needs no excuse to spend more time at Disney World!).
Nicole, our Web Designer, and the one responsible for getting all the new goodies on the site for you every week, is incredibly talented as well. We have a whole "owl theme" going on this week, with three of Nicole’s drawings turned into owl paper (Tiffany made an owl die cut too).
Not to be outdone, when my daughter Lauren (who always refers to herself as my youngest employee) found out that people in the office were drawing scrapbook paper, she wanted to draw something too. "Owl by Lauren S." is her artistic interpretation. Do you have any of your child’s artwork that you’d like to turn into scrapbook paper? Anything that you can scan, we can turn into custom paper for you. Click here for details: http://www.scrapyourtrip.com/syt-cp-1015.html.
It has been an absolute blast seeing everyone get so excited about creating new products for you. We’ve had a lot of fun coming up with ideas, so if you’d like to see more, just let us know!
We have over 140 additional brand new products this week. We have the Christmas Basics collection from Reminisce, the Alpine Frost collection from SEI and the Pet Christmas collection from Adornit. We have cute new Christmas dimensional stickers from Jolee’s by You and lots of travel (Germany, Italy, China, Japan, Australia, Alaska and more), hockey and wrestling. We have two custom die cuts this week – one is a custom kitchen die cut and one is a custom Christmas present. Our custom paper is your very own star on the "Walk of Fame." My favorite die cut this week is our snow globe. We used the Transparent Plastic by Bazzill to cut the actual "globe" part, so the snowman looks like he’s really in a globe! Jill did a great job with that one. . Click here to see them all: http://www.scrapyourtrip.com/120308.html
As always, thanks for your business!
Julie Swatek, President
Scrap Your Trip® www.ScrapYourTrip.com
‘cuz life is a trip worth scrappin’®
that I told you about earlier in the year. It’s really shaky, so forgive my videographer skills 