It’s hard to believe, but it’s almost time to go to the tradeshow again. The Craft & Hobby Association (CHA) show is in Anaheim in a little over a month and we’re starting all our preparations. This is the largest tradeshow of the year and it’s always a lot of fun (also a lot of hard work and a LOT of walking). To make room in the warehouse, we are having a 2-week BLOWOUT sale. We have over 130 items at 75% off (paper for $.17 per sheet!), over 140 items at 50% off and over 530 items at 25% off. Click here to see them all: http://www.scrapyourtrip.com/clearance.html Whatever is left from the 25% clearance will drop to 50% off next week, but we have less than 12 of each item on 25% clearance, so they are going to go quick! We also have an additional 600+ items to add to 25% clearance next week, so take inventory of your scrapbook stash, figure out what’s missing and get ready!
What would you like us to look for at the show? New items… new categories… new vendors…Let us know! Please leave a comment on this post on the blog – we’ll print it out and take it with us. Click here and scroll down to the bottom to leave your requests: “http://site.scrapyourtrip.com/blog2/2008/01/09/scrap-your-trip-blowout-part-1/”
Last, but certainly not least, I am proud to say that Scrap Your Trip is becoming a wholesaler! Click here: http://www.scrapyourtrip-wholesale.com to visit our wholesale site. Just provide us with a sales tax exemption certificate and we’ll send your login information right away.
As always, thanks for your business!
Julie Swatek, President
Scrap Your Trip®
www.ScrapYourTrip.com
‘cuz life is a trip worth scrappin’®
January 9th, 2008
I know it doesn’t compare to what the rest of you are going through, but this is how cold it was in my neighborhood this morning. It actually snowed near Daytona Beach!
Julie Swatek, President
Scrap Your Trip®
www.ScrapYourTrip.com
‘cuz life is a trip worth scrappin’®
January 3rd, 2008
I wanted to like it, I really did! Based on how many of you absolutely loved it, I envisioned myself going on cruise after cruise. However, until we go on an Alaskan cruise, I will not be on another cruise ship. I might consider it again if we were on a bigger ship without the kids.
Let me tell you how it started. The night before we left, Logan comes in while I’m packing (I’m a late packer!) and tells me his thumb hurts. It looked like it had a mark on his nail from a green marker. However, he was really whining about how much it hurt. He took me to the playroom to show me what he had done to hurt himself. Well…he had gone to a birthday party on Saturday and got a really cheap race car in the goody bag. He decided that he wanted to take out the windshield and was picking at the metal with his thumb. You guessed it – green metal race car. A piece of the metal broke off and jammed underneath his thumbnail. It was so far under there I couldn’t even tell at first glance that was what it was. So, at 9:00 the night before we left, I was in the after hours pediatric place with him getting his thumb x-rayed (because of course the car was made in China and we’re thinking he probably now has a chip of lead paint under his thumb). They told me to just leave it and it would grow out on it’s own (it had grown out enough by yesterday that I was able to get it out). We were off with a bang!
Now before I tell you about the cruise, understand that we’ve always said we weren’t cruising people. It seems to be a type of vacation that people either love or hate and we didn’t think we would love it. But when this one popped up as a special deal on TravelZoo, we thought it would be the perfect “test cruise” to see how we felt about it. It was cheap and short so it was a good trial run.
We got on the ship Monday and we were all excited. We checked into our postage stamp sized cabin, set down our stuff, had our “Muster Drill” and then explored the ship deck by deck. We found a little cafe and got some pasta as a snack for the kids. We didn’t sit outside because it was absolutely freezing! We were all wearing long sleeves and jackets. We went to a “First-Time Cruisers” gathering which was basically someone telling us where everything on the ship was and to explore for ourselves. Then we went to the orientation for the kids “Adventure Ocean” program, signed them in and went to dinner by ourselves (thank goodness for the earlier pasta snack – turned into dinner!). We had the second seating and the food the first night was really good. Then it was pick up the kids and time for bed. The kids thought the berth beds coming out of the ceiling were really cool. I didn’t like it because I could barely get out of bed without climbing around the ladder. We filled out our room service breakfast order, hung it on the door and went to sleep.
Let me tell you, when you put four chronically sleep deprived people in an interior cabin with no sunlight, there is not a chance in the world of getting up before 11:00 
We were relying on room service to wake us up, but they never came (we heard later that the college kids on board had removed all the room service orders hanging on doors as a prank). So, we woke up around 11:00 and everyone was starving. We then had the pleasure of trying to get ready in the smallest bathroom I have ever been in (thanks for the clothespin on the shower curtain advice – that worked wonders)! The room was so small that we couldn’t walk past each other without turning sideways. It takes about 1 1/2 hours to get us all showered, dressed and ready and the kids were on top of each other and ready to kill each other by the time we left for lunch. We walked around a bit after lunch and played a game of putt-putt golf. The kids really wanted to go swimming (even though it was only about 70 degrees), so Tony watched them in the pool while I took a yoga class. We didn’t have much else to do until dinner time, so the kids played a few games of shuffleboard. The kids had a special dinner night at the kids club and Tony and I went to Portofino – one of the specialty restaurants – for dinner.
We were in Key West the next morning. We had planned on getting up early, but there was that no sun thing again (and it just seems wrong to set the alarm clock on vacation), so by the time we got off the boat, we only had time to have lunch and walk around for awhile before we had to get back on the boat. I had forgotten what “colorful characters” are walking around Key West and thankfully I didn’t have to explain anything to the kids I wasnt’ ready to explain yet! This night was “Pirate Night” for the kids and they had a lot of fun “taking over the ship”. They came through the dining room and did a little song and dance which was really cute! Here are my pirates, Lauren and Logan:
At dinner, our table mates were telling us that you could order room service through the TV and get a late-night snack. We thought that would be fun for the kids, especially since they had eaten so early before the Pirate Night. We picked them up from the Ocean Adventure Kids Club and headed back to the room. We ordered hot chocolate and chips and dip and got ready for bed. After 1 1/2 hours of waiting, Tony was just getting ready to call room service to tell them never mind (I had already fallen asleep) when they called to say they had run out of hot chocolate. He told them not to bother since it was so late, but they said she was already on her way. When she got there, the dip was ice cold and the chips consisted of a handful of what looked like all the broken pieces from the bottom of the bag. The kids had fallen asleep by that time too, so we just left it sitting there.
We had also placed a room service order for breakfast the next morning. Since we had slept so late and missed most of our time on Key West, we had room service scheduled for 9:30. In the morning, Lauren calls down “Mommy, I can’t fall asleep. What time is it?” Tony looked at the clock and it was 10:57. We tell her it’s almost 11:00 and she says “But I can’t fall asleep”. Then we told her it was 10:57 in the morning! So much for our room service breakfast wake-up call at 9:30. They didn’t show up until 11:30. Everything that was supposed to be hot was cold and vice-versa. So, we headed off the ship to Coco Cay for lunch.
The kids had a lot of fun playing in the water and collecting shells. Tony enjoyed the breeze, but I was freezing! It’s too cold to have a bathing suit on when it’s only 70 degrees! We went back to the boat so the kids could go in the swimming pool and let Tony have an hour to himself enjoying the ocean breezes.
The kids wanted to have dinner with us in the main dining room for the last night, so they got to eat with the grown-ups. Lauren thought it was cool that she got to order whatever she wanted from the menu – she had them bring her two shrimp cocktails! (She has good taste in food) 
Since we were on Deck 2, we were going to be the last ones off in the morning, so we decided to do the Express Walk-Off, where you carry your own luggage off the ship. We had to be out of our stateroom and in line to disembark by 6:30 am, which we actually accomplished. However, the majority of the ship seemed to have the same idea. There were so many people in line waiting to get off that the line wrapped all the way around the lobby. They started calling groups to get off, but no one from the Express line had really moved yet. So, people started arguing about where the end of the line were and people started getting upset about other people cutting in line and it was right then and there that I said “Okay, this experience ENSURES that I will NEVER step foot on another cruise ship again!”
The ironic part is that several people who had been on cruises told us when we got back that they didn’t think we would like it. So, now I can say “Been there, done that”, but give us a rental car with unlimited miles, a map and a state to explore and we’ll be a lot happier!
January 2nd, 2008
I got the very sad news today that my Uncle lost his battle with cancer. I learned a very important lesson from this that I wanted to share in hopes I can save even one person from making the same mistake.
Probably about two months ago my Mom forwarded me an e-mail from my aunt telling me that his cancer had returned and they were trying a different kind of chemo but he wasn’t responding very well. Tony and I talked about making a trip to Chicago so that we could see him. But, first it was Thanksgiving and then Christmas and we were so busy and wrapped up in our own holidays that we decided to wait until after the first of the year. I would mean to call, but then I would get busy with work and home and forget and when I would remember, it would be late and I would think, “okay, I have to get to that this weekend”.
On Christmas Eve, I was thinking of him and decided I would call on Christmas Day to say hi and see how things were. I felt like I needed a reason, instead of just “oh, heard you’re dying so I thought I would call”. But by the time we got through with the presents and dinner and everything else, it was late again, so I thought, “okay, I have to call this weekend”.
Then my Mom called me today to tell me he took a turn for the worse on Christmas night and he died this morning. Now it’s too late. I’m so bothered with myself that I am so wrapped up in my own life I couldn’t make 30 minutes to call my Uncle and talk when I knew he was so sick. Please forgive me, Uncle Chuck, and know that I have been thinking of you even though you didn’t know it. I will miss you.
Love,
Julie
Uncle Chuck and Me – 1968
Uncle Chuck and Me at the Lake – 1968
May 2001
December 28th, 2007
Wow! I am amazed and grateful that so many of you took the time to give me such great advice. I believe I am ready to go and am so much better prepared thanks to all of you. Some of the things you mentioned I would have never thought of! The kids know we are going to have a “muster drill”. I’m glad to know this. Logan would have been fine – I’m the one who would have been freaked out! I have my water, cash, clothes pins, disposable cameras, sea-bands, hair dryer, nightlight, LOTS of hand sanitizer, an extension cord, a highlighter, a 12 x 12 container and I have unpacked half of my suitcase Based on all your enthusiam and the number of cruises many of you have been on, I have a feeling this will not the last one. I’ll let you know how it goes!
Also, thank you again for all your wonderful comments on my Entreprenuer of the Year nomination. I posted them on the website here.
I didn’t win, but the guy who did, Elon Musk, was the co-founder of PayPal and one of his three companies is the leader in private space exploration. He is well deserving of the honor. Of course, I still think scrapbooking and memory preservation is more important, but that’s just me
Julie Swatek, President
Scrap Your Trip®
December 17th, 2007
