Archive for April, 2009
Minutes or Moments? This was the theme of a Hallmark card I saw in the pharmacy while I was waiting for my latest prescription (an asthma inhaler to try to calm the inflammation in my lungs – I can’t go more than two minutes without coughing, but at least I don’t have pneumonia!). I’ve really been thinking about this ever since.
Minutes? These are the things of work and to-do lists…laundry, dishes, groceries, paying bills, making sure the kids brush their teeth before bed. Life is full of minutes…after all, these things have to get done, right?
But Moments? This is where the joy of life occurs. A moment of connection…of love…a memory made that makes that day worth all the minutes you had to put into it.
Maybe it’s a longer than usual embrace from your spouse…a moment that you realize how much they mean to you. Maybe it’s a phone call or an email from a friend, or something funny your kids did or said, or a moment when you realize how fast they are growing up. Maybe it’s even a moment at work, where you know you did something to help someone.
But these moments, they’re fleeting. We think we’re always going to remember them. But those minutes, they just keep coming and the laundry piles up and the dishes have to get put away and the moment fades away into the distant past.
This is why scrapbooking is such an incredible gift. It allows us a way to capture those moments and record them so we don’t forget. It can be in a 12×12 layout, or in a homemade card to someone you love. It can be on paper or in your computer. It can even be on a calendar. It just needs to be something. Otherwise, the moments of your life…the ones that made life meaningful when they occurred… are lost in the recesses of your mind.
This Saturday, May 2, is National Scrapbook Day. How will you be celebrating? Attending an all-day crop? Trying to squeeze in a few pages? Spending some time organizing your stuff? Sharing the scrapbooking gift with a non-scrapper? Journaling some moments you don’t want to forget?
However you choose to celebrate National Scrapbook Day, we have products to help make your memories of your moments shine. To help you celebrate, we offering a coupon for 20% off your entire order! Just enter coupon code NSD2009 at checkout. The super duper Creative Imaginations sale of 50% off select products is still going on – click here to check out all the items:
www.scrapyourtrip.com/creativeimaginations50.html
(These items are already at a great price, so they are not included in the 20% sale.)
We currently have two coupon promotions going on: FREESHIPPING, the coupon code for free shipping on orders over $59 (a $8.10 value) and NSD2009, the coupon code for 20% off your order – pick whichever one is a better deal for you! (Cannot be used on previous orders. Only one coupon per order. Coupons cannot be combined. )
And remember, if you can’t find what you’re looking for, we can always make it custom just for you! Click here to see all our custom options:
http://www.scrapyourtrip.com/custom.html.
As always, thanks for your business. I hope you have a weekend full of moments.
Julie Swatek, President
Scrap Your Trip®
www.ScrapYourTrip.com
‘cuz life is a trip worth scrappin’®
April 29th, 2009
The "ick" is still in full swing in my house. My daughter Lauren and I sound like a coughing orchestra…first her, then me, then her, then me. She stayed home sick from school on Wednesday, but halfway through the day she announced "I’m bored! I should have sucked it up and went to school."
She is finally starting to feel better, but not me. I am currently awaiting the results of my blood test and chest x-ray to see if I have pnuemonia. How lovely!
However, this morning, I found myself so grateful. Grateful for physician assistants, so that you don’t have to wait a week to get an appointment. Grateful that the X-ray place was in the same building and let me walk-in with no appointment. And incredibly grateful for health insurance so I don’t have to pay the $500+ it would have cost me without it.
I may feel icky, but life is good!
Enter coupon code CIHALFOFF at checkout to take advantage! (Coupon cannot be used on prior orders and cannot be combined with any other coupon code. One coupon code per order, please.)
Have a great weekend.
As always, thanks for your business!
April 24th, 2009
City girl or country girl? I’m sure you’ve heard this question before, but this past weekend, I realized that there is a third part to this question. City girl, country girl or suburb girl? I am definitely a suburb girl!
I just got back from Philadelphia. There was a user group meeting for the software we use to keep track of all your orders and I brought one of my employees Nicole (the one who keeps our website running and looking so great!).
Now first, let me say that although Philly is known as the "City of Brotherly Love", I didn’t notice any love going on there. Lots of horn beeping, yelling out car windows, cussing and finger-waving, but not a lot of love. (Of course, I’m sure none of them were scrapbookers!) :-)
Neither of us had ever been to Philly before, so we took an early flight so we’d have a few hours to see the sites. We had a Philly cheesesteak taste-off between rival restaurants Geno’s and Pat’s (I liked Pat’s – Nicole liked Geno’s) and I can now say with personal experience that it is my opinion that Cheese Whiz does not belong on a sandwich.
We visited the Liberty Bell, Independence Hall and Chinatown. We saw the house where Betsy Ross sewed the first American flag and took the bridge to New Jersey. It was just across the river and neither one of us had either been there either.
Driving inside the city nearly gave me a heart attack. Narrow roads…people walking everywhere…cab drivers honking and cutting people off…people on bicycles coming out of nowhere. It was driving overload!
Saturday night, a friend of mine from the conference, Steve from
www.AmericanMuscle.com invited us out to Malvern (45 minutes NW of Philly) to visit his warehouse. I always like to see how other people do things so I can figure out how to do what we do better.
As we were driving out there, I started noticing things around me. A grocery store…a chain restaurant…a strip mall! Finally, I felt like I was home! At that moment, I knew it…I am a suburb girl. Give me a Walgreen’s every mile, a TGI Friday’s and a strip mall with the same stores no matter where in the country you are and I feel a sense of peace.
However, this has been my third trip in three weeks and it finally caught up with me. I spent all day Monday home in bed (but the strep throat culture came back negative). I never thought I’d say this, but I’m tired of traveling for awhile. No more business trips until June, so I can unpack my suitcase now.
Wherever you’ve been traveling, we have the scrapbook supplies for you to make your pages shine! We have a new travel collection from American Crafts and two new collections from BasicGrey are here! Lime Rickey and Wisteria (don’t you just love the name Lime Rickey?). We also have three collections from Carolee’s Creations: Easter, Aunt Mame (cooking) and Dance, along with two collections from Reminisce: Graduation and Good Dog. A second round of Painted Pages from Jennan, Fairytale Princesses from Creative Imaginations and stickers from EK Success are also available in our new items this week. Layouts for the graduation and travel collections are in the
Shop By Layout section.
The SYT designers were working on the following themes this week: Beach, Wine, Cruise, Youth Group, Kids, General Travel, Puerto Rico, Greece, China, Belize, Antigua, Mythology, Scrapbooking, Construction, Dogs, Prom, Spring, Dance, Drama, Baseball, Music, Baton Twirling, BMX, Cycling, Illinois, Texas, New Jersey, Maine, Anniversary and Engagement. Wow! When you list them all out, they’ve been really busy!
We have a four custom options this week: Many of you asked for the writing in the sand without the hearts…it’s here! We have a Custom Words in Sand Border, customizable with your favorite beach, along with a Custom Spotlight paper, a Custom Baseball Page Frame Laser Die Cut and a Custom Dog Bome Laser Die Cut.
Creative Imaginations is one of my absolute favorite vendors and boy oh boy have they got a special! All products released prior to CHA2009 are 50% off! Of course, we are passing the savings on to you. There are over 350 products at 50% off! Wanna take advantage? All the products are listed here:
http://www.scrapyourtrip.com/creativeimaginations50.html Enter coupon code CIHALFOFF (Cannot be used on previous orders. Only one coupon per order. Coupons cannot be combined. )
As always, thanks for your business.
Philadelphia’s Chinatown
Liberty Bell
Cheeesesteak tasting…Geno’s
Cheeesesteak tasting…Pat’s
Yummy! (Better with provolone than Cheese Whiz)
Me driving over the Walt Whitman Bridge
Me and Nicole
April 22nd, 2009
Happy Friday to You! Happy Friday To You! I’m so glad it’s Friday! Happy Friday to You!
I’m also glad the results of our photo processing evaluation were helpful to you! (If you missed it, click here:
http://www.scrapyourtrip.com/photoeval.html). If there are other evalutions you’d like to see, just let us know!
Our Tax Day deal is almost over…15% off on all Scrap Your Trip branded products (all the ones that start with SYT). Enter coupon code TAXDAY at checkout. It’s good until midnight tonite, 4/17/09, cannot be used on prior orders and cannot be combined with any other offer.
Have a great weekend.
As always, thanks for your business!
April 17th, 2009
Happy Tax Day! I don’t mind paying taxes…it means I made money! However, I much prefer getting a refund than having to write a check to the IRS. Did you file yet? There are some people who file as soon as they get their information and then there are some people who file on the last day. Guess which one I am? I’ll give you a hint…I put my Christmas tree up on Christmas Eve last year. At least the mailman will come pick it up and I won’t be one of those people standing in line at the post office!
A while ago, I wrote an e-mail about how we need to think of getting our digital pictures printed like the new negative (remember, those funny little strips!) Did you know that only 40% of digital photographs are ever printed? We tested 22 different photo labs are the results are in! We did this evaluation several years ago and I have to say, there have been a lot of changes. Actually, the results really surprised me.
Our ranking is based on the quality of the printed picture. After all, it may have been cheap and a great website to use, but if the picture is horrible, who really cares? We sent the same 10 images to each place and ranked them in order of quality. We chose a variety of images (indoor, outdoor, people, scenery) so that we had a good sampling. Each photo was given a point value from 1 to 22, with 22 being the highest and 1 being the lowest. So, the maximum number of points in our evaluation was 220. I can tell you that the difference between the winners and losers was astounding. Also, the winners were consistently good and the losers…well, I’ll let you finish that sentence.
1. Costco (189 out of 220)
2. Walgreens (165 out of 220)
3. Creative Memories (151 out of 220)
4. Wal-Mart (145 out of 220)
5. Snapfish (142 out of 220)
6. York Photo (138 out of 220)
7. Winkflash (138 out of 220)
8. CVS (129 out of 220)
9. Kodak Gallery (125 out of 220)
10. Artscow (114 out of 220)
11. Sam’s Club (102 out of 220)
12. RitzPix (102 out of 220)
13. Cord Camera (99 out of 220)
14. Scrapbook Pictures (85 out of 220)
15. Photoworks (79 out of 220)
16. ABC Photo Lab (78 out of 220)
17. Shutterfly (77 out of 220)
18. Photobucket (70 out of 220)
19. Adoramapix (58 out of 220)
20. Mpix (49 out of 220)
21. Seehere (42 out of 220)
22. Scan My Photos (36 out of 220)
I can tell you based on these results, I’m going to switch labs for printing my pictures. The one I have been using came in near the bottom and the quality of the top 3-4 labs far surpassed the others. I knew I loved Costco!
Lots of great new collections are here this week! We have added a new supplier: American Crafts. They have really cute and colorful papers with some really funky names. My favorite is the owl paper named "Lucy Hootski"! We have the Destination and Rock Diva collections from Moxxie, South Seas and Piece of Cake from Creative Imaginations, Easter and Prom from Karen Foster, Alaska papers, page headers and kits from Alaskan Journey and lots of great new vibrant designs from Painted Pages by Jennan. There are lots of new layouts for these collections in the
Shop By Layout section.
The SYT designers were working on the following themes this week: Spring, Travel, Egypt, Mexico, Pennsylvania, Volleyball, Racing, Baseball, Pets, Indianan, National Parks, Florida, Disney, Party Time, Baby and more. We even have a Tax Day paper!
We have a four custom paper options: Film Cells, School Border and Stripe and Flourish. We also have custom die cuts for birth announcements and volleyball jerseys.
However, the product that I’m the most excited about is the Sounds Easy Voice Recorder. Remember those little buttons you could record on and put in your scrapbook? Well, this takes that concept to a whole new level. You can record up to 30 different messages that are up to 30 seconds. I have a certain way I say goodnight to each of the kids (and them back to me). I can’t wait to get it recorded!
Celebrate putting another Tax Day behind you with our Tax Day sale! All SYT brand products are 15% off. Just enter Coupon Code "TAXDAY" at checkout. (Offer is only valid for SYT skus beginning with SYT-. Offer ends Friday, April 17, 2009, at Midnight EST. Cannot be used on previous orders. Cannot be used towards future orders after April 17, 2009. Only one coupon per order. Coupons cannot be combined. )
As always, thanks for your business.
April 15th, 2009
Thank you so much for all your comments and encouragement about my skiing experience. I’ve already been able to use the "don’t give up" lesson with my daughter, Lauren. She was struggling this week writing an essay about her trip to St. Augustine. The tears were flowing (I’m sure that’s never happened to you when you’re trying to help with homework)!
She didn’t want to write the essay and was sure she wouldn’t write a good one because she said she didn’t like the trip that much (that’s not how I remember it). I told her sometimes we have to try things we don’t think we’re going to be good at…just like Mommy skiing, remember? Well, after our conversation, she squared her shoulders, went back to her homework spot and whipped out a 2-page essay in under 30 minutes.
This is the second time where I’ve had a very grown-up mother-to-daughter talk with her and it makes me feel so much better that I can make her feel better. I hope I can keep it up as she gets older!
Need to replenish your cardstock stash? We have all our Bazzill at a 50% discount with a $75 purchase. Just enter coupon code BAZZILL at checkout. It’s good until midnight tonite, 4/10/09, cannot be used on prior orders and cannot be combined with any other offer.
Speaking of offers, what others would you like to see? So far we’ve done a free Amanda Blu album, $15 of free SYT products, $10/$20 free gift certificates, the Goody Basket, and this week the Bazzill stock up sale. Post your ideas on the blog and we’ll check them all out. (Now, don’t ask me for a 50% off sale or anything!)
I hope you have a wonderful Easter weekend!
As always, thanks for your business!
April 10th, 2009
Greetings from Orlando! I’d say "sunny Orlando", but it’s not warm and sunny here! First I was in Chicago and it was cold and snowed. Then I was in Colorado and it was really cold and snowed everyday. So, I can’t wait to get back to where it’s warm, right? It was 49 degrees yesterday morning when I got in the car! I don’t know how all you northern people do it!
I am both disappointed and relieved that our spring break vacation to Colorado is over. How did my ski lesson go, you want to know? Well, it started off good, quickly moved to awful and ended up great.
I started off Friday morning by going up the lift to ski down the Kokomo run (the same one the kids were on). Of course I fell off the chair lift when I got off (and let me tell you, getting up from falling with skis on is NO easy task. I have to take one of the skis off to get up), but then we took off down the mountain. After two times of going down this run, I was kind of getting the hang of it. I saw my kids skiing both times and they were doing great.
Tony joined me and my ski instructor, Jeanette, for lunch. I was kind of excited that I was doing pretty well, so he decided to ski with us. Well, that’s where it started going downhill (no pun intended).
Jeanette decided since I was doing so well, we’d go up the next lift to a little steeper run. BIG mistake! It had snowed quite a bit that day and the Lumberjack run was covered in 3+ inches of snow. I don’t even know how many times I fell down- -I just stopped counting. Tony had skied ahead and was going to come up the lift again and meet up with us. After falling, again, flat on my face, I told Jeanette I had enough.
She asked me if I wanted to walk a bit (since I couldn’t go more than 50 feet without falling). She took my skis and skied ahead. So here I am, WALKING in ski boots down a mountain. Not fun, to say the least. When I finally got down to where she was, she said "I have a surprise for you. I called the ski patrol." So, a few minutes later the snowmobile showed up to take me down the mountain. That was way more fun than walking!
By that time, the kids ski lessons were over, so we all decided to go up the smaller run again. I managed to not fall getting off the lift, but I kept falling while I was with Tony and the kids. "Can we just ski ahead?" "Keep trying Mommy. You can do it!"
I was just devastated and embarrassed that I was failing in front of my kids. So when I got to the bottom, I decided to give it one more try. I got on the lift by myself, right before it closed and I was the last one on the mountain.
Well, that was the trick. No one was watching me. I didn’t have to worry about anyone skiing around me. I made it all the way to the bottom and didn’t fall once!
We were going to all ski again together on Saturday, but a major snow storm was coming and we didn’t want to get snowed in and not be able to get to the airport. So, we spent the day at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. It was a fantastic museum, if you ever get a chance to go.
I am still suffering effects from skiing however. From the pressure of the ski boots (probably from walking down the mountain), my ankles are swollen like I’m nine months pregnant!
I had my little camera with me, so I was able to take a few pictures (see below).
Congratulations to Jana Nelson from Washington! You are the winner of our Surprise Goody Basket! (picture below) We said it was going to be a $200 value, but I think we got carried away. We have so many items lying around the office (samples, only one left), that we kind of got carried away. We still have a bunch more stuff, so we’ll have another drawing coming up soon.
We have some really wonderful new collections this week! We have the Citronella collection (very fun and warm) from K&Co, Our Roots, Tennis and Karate from Moxxie, Baby’s First (boy and girl) and A Kite Day from Best Creations, Old Guys Cruise from Creative Imaginations, Latte from Die Cuts with a View and an adorable Easter collection from Reminisce. There are lots of new layouts for these collections in the
Shop By Layout section.
The SYT designers were working on the following themes this week: Easter, Travel, Diving, Germany, Scotland, Austria, Washington DC, North Carolina, Southwest, Theme Park, Zoo, Spring, Basketball, Baseball, Soccer, Swimming, Rugby and more!
We have a custom paper this week that I think you’re really going to love. We’ve been trying to figure it out for a while and Nicole finally got it. It’s our Hearts in the Sand paper, but you can customize the names in the hearts and it looks just like you wrote in the sand! We also have several custom die cuts for sports. We’ve also added lots more colors to our custom die cut titles. Click here to see all the new items:
http://www.scrapyourtrip.com/40809.html.
We also have 272 items on sale this week. Click here to see all the bargains:
http://www.scrapyourtrip.com/clearance.html.
Need cardstock? We are having a Bazzill sale this week! Spend $75 and you can buy all the colors your heart desires for 50% off. Just enter Coupon Code "BAZZILL" at checkout. ($75 must be made up of non-Bazzill products. Offer ends Friday, April 10, 2009, at Midnight EST. Cannot be used on previous orders. Cannot be used towards future orders after April 10, 2009. Only one coupon per order. Coupons cannot be combined. )
And remember, if you can’t find what you’re looking for, we can always make it custom just for you! Click here to see all our custom options:
http://www.scrapyourtrip.com/custom.html.
As always, thanks for your business.
Julie Swatek, President
Scrap Your Trip®
www.ScrapYourTrip.com
‘cuz life is a trip worth scrappin’®
Jana’s Goody Basket
I’m smiling because I don’t know yet how many times I’m going to fall down!
Lauren tubing (much more fun than skiing)
Logan making a snow angel
The family on a sleigh ride
Logan in the lift line
Lauren "apres-ski"
April 8th, 2009
Hello from Copper Mountain, Colorado! It is snowing again today. It has snowed everyday since we arrived…7" in total. Several times it has been snowing so hard that you can’t see the mountains out the window! The elevation here is 9600 feet and let me tell you, it’s kicking me in the butt! I can barely breathe. My son, Logan, got sick the first day we were here too, so we ended up postponing our ski lessons.
Yesterday’s lessons went great for my daughter Lauren, okay for Logan and not so good for me. Lauren was doing so well that she bumped up two levels and went up the lift twice. I saw her come down the second time and I was so proud of her! Since Logan is younger, he doesn’t have as much control of his fine motor skills, but his instructor said he should make it to the lift today.
Me? That’s a whole different story. As we were getting ready to go to the lift yesterday, my instructor came over and said she was really worried about my breathing and that I shouldn’t go to a higher elevation. I’m going to try again today, but I have to tell you, on a scale of 1 to 10, my excitement level is about 1. I don’t like to be cold and I also don’t like to do things I’m not good at, so skiing is not exactly at the top of my list.
But, I’m also not a quitter, so I’m going to give it another whirl today.
I don’t think I’ll be Olympic material after one day, but hopefully I can do as well as my 9 year old!
Want a chance to win a surprise goody basket filled with over $200 worth of scrapbook supplies? Every $75 spent between Wednesday and today (April 3) means you get one chance in the drawing. The winner will be announced next Wednesday.
Hope you have a great weekend. I’m looking forward to coming home to Florida where it’s warm!
As always, thanks for your business!
April 3rd, 2009
Today’s email was going to be about my nervousness about my first ski lesson today (my kids are on spring break we’re in Colorado for our first ski trip). However, I had a rather eventful flight that has been a lesson in human behavior, both good and bad.
When the flight attendant came over the loudspeaker and asked if there was a doctor, nurse, EMT or medical professional on the plane, it got everyone’s attention. There was a lot of commotion at the front of the plane and when I saw them hang an IV bag from the overhead compartment, I knew someone was in trouble.
It soon became obvious we were descending and then the captain announced that someone onboard needed serious medical attention and we would be making an emergency landing in Oklahoma City.
When the plane landed, the passengers gave the flight attendants and the woman with a stethoscope a round of applause.
As soon as we landed, the paramedics boarded the plane and carried the passenger into a waiting ambulance.
People started turning on their cell phones and calling people to let them know we were delayed. I heard all the conversations around me, but I didn’t hear one single complaint. I just heard everyone say, “I hope the person’s okay!”
It is events like this that strengthen my faith in humankind. So often, people are made out to be selfish, caring only about themselves and “What’s in it for me?” The people on my flight certainly didn’t act this way.
When bad things happen, people come together. For me, it made me think about how we’re all connected and when push comes to shove, we act nobly and with honor.
Then there was the bad.
We had been sitting at the gate in Oklahoma City for 20 minutes or so and Logan had been telling me he had to go to the bathroom since we had started our descent. I kept telling him to hold it, but he turned to me with the “I’m not gonna make it!” look on his face and said “Mommy, I have to go BAD!”
Well, any mom can tell you that six year old boys don’t have very big bladders and when they say they have to go BAD, it means you have seconds before an accident happens.
So, we got up to go to the back of the plane. The flight attendant (who had already been rude to the girl sitting next to me), tells me that the seat belt light is on and we have to go back to our seats. I tell her he has to go NOW and can’t wait another minute. I won’t repeat our entire exchange, but basically she told me I was in direct violation of FAA regulations by disobeying a flight attendant and I told her I didn’t care. Either he went into the bathroom or he was going to have an accident right there.
She kept yelling at me, but I ignored her and told Logan to go into the bathroom. I just stood their ignoring her until he was done. As he was coming out, she called up to the front and asked “Are we going to keep the fasten seat belt sign on? Otherwise, I’m going to have a line to the bathroom halfway up the cabin!”
Now, I know we weren’t supposed to get up, but when your child’s got to go, they’ve got to go. Besides, we were sitting at the gate and not in any danger of turbulence.
So, to Casie, the flight attendant…I have flown on Southwest Airlines over 50 times. You have the distinguished honor of being the un-friendliest Southwest employee I’ve ever encountered. But don’t worry Southwest, I still “luv” you!
Customer service is very to important to everyone at Scrap Your Trip. We know you have a choice when you shop and we appreciate that you choose us. We will always try our hardest to make sure you are glad to be a Scrap Your Trip customer!
Besides great customer service, we also try to bring you great new products every week and this week is no exception. As a matter of fact, one of our customers, “ScrappyLady” posted the following on the forum:
“Julie, I am amazed at how well you do with travel items…didn’t see anything new at all at all those stores in travel! Great job!” She and some of the others on the forum have struck up a pretty good friendship…the even all got together for a CK Convention…I’m sure they’d welcome some newcomers!
We have 248 great new products to choose from this week. K& Co just released a fantastic new travel line called "Happy Trails". We have a really fun Easter collection from Best Creations, along with some glittered cardstock. There are lots of new outdoors papers from Sugartree and "Dance Fever" from Moxxie.
We’ve have new layouts for the Moxxie and Best Creations collections- click here to see:
Shop By Layout.
The SYT designers were working on the following themes this week: Easter, Road Trip, Hawaii, Utah, navy, Tenness, California, Hunting, Fishing, Track , Space and Elvis!
We also have two custom die cuts: a beach scene that you can customize with the name of your favorite beach and a workd border that you can customize to say anything, and a custom school border paper: Click here to see everything new:
http://www.scrapyourtrip.com/4012009.html.
As a special promotion this week, we are going to give away a surprise basket full of scrapbooking goodies valued at $200! For every $75 that you spend, your name will be entered into a drawing to win. Orders placed between 4/1 and 4/3 are eligible (no, this isn’t an April Fools joke!)
The winner will be announced in next week’s e-mail.
As always, thanks for your business.
April 1st, 2009
