Catching Up
I admit it: I've been a bad blogger. I recently heard from some cousins who gently (?) chastised me for not updating my blog (I believe the word "slacker" was used). I could hardly believe that it's been three months since my last update but it's true. Shame on me! Where has the time gone? I will try to catch you up on the happenings around here, both with the business and our personal lives.
April was an incredibly busy month. Having received our initial supply of the Stamp & Stitch line, time was taken for final assembly and shipping. We also spent several hectic days exhibiting at the scrapbook convention in Mesa, AZ. Shortly after that, I was off to Michigan for nearly a week where I shared a booth with some of my fellow scrapbook manufacturer buddies at the Great Lakes Mega Meet. It was a 3-day show during which I taught 2 classes each day along with working in the booth and helping out on the make & take table. Fortunately, my good friend, Cheri, was along and she basically ran the make & takes. I couldn't have done it without her; the table was pretty much mobbed during the entire show. And, much to my surprise, I was interviewed by a local newscaster for a feature about the show. My mug was on the noon news and, for awhile, on their website. I suppose that was my proverbial 15 minutes of fame!
Three short days after retuning from Michigan, we were off to Kansas for a couple of graduations. We drove straight through both to and from (about 20 hours in the car each way) which was a painful reminder to me that I'm no longer the spry young thing I was when we did it back in college days. And at about 1:00 in the morning, as we were driving through rural Kansas, we saw flashing lights. ugh. As he pulled over, Todd insisted (to me) that he wasn't speeding. The (very nice) Kansas Highway Patrolman simply said, "Been on the road awhile?" It turns out that fatigue was affecting Todd and he'd been drifting over the center line a bit. So, when we hit the next town, we pulled into a quiet parking lot and took a 2-hour nap. That was our excitement for the trip.
When we returned, we jumped right into packing up my mother's house for her big move. Fortunately, my brother and sister-in-law came back with us and were the primary packers. If they hadn't been here, I don't know what we would have done. It was a big job, followed immediately then by unpacking Mom in her new apartment. She's nearly completely settled now and seems to be pretty happy with her new abode.
And June...June has been spent trying to catch up on everything that was put aside during April & May. And a couple of weeks ago we did a trunk show at Stamp Works in Chandler, AZ. We did a make & take for the customers and had a great time getting to know them. If you have a chance, check out the store. It was my first time there and I sure wish it were a little closer to home. (But that would be dangerous to my pocketbook!)
So that's it in a nutshell. It doesn't sound like much, but in the midst of it all, it felt a little overwhelming. I'm just now starting to feel like we're getting back on top of things again.
In business news, we are still waiting for our full shipment of new products to arrive and expect them in a few weeks. They're "on the water", quite literally, and are to arrive mid-to-late July. We had received a small shipment air-freight in hopes that it would tide us over, but it wasn't enough so I'm afraid that we still have outstanding orders to fill. I know it's been a long wait. We had some issues with a few of the templates and they had to be redone, delaying the arrival of the entire product release. They'll ship soon, though, I assure you!
I'll be heading to Chicago in July for the CHA Summer trade show. We won't be exhibiting ourselves, but I'll be helping out my friend, Amy, in the Memories in Uniform booth.
You may remember that we sponsored a 'webisode' at Craft TV Weekly last winter. I'm very pleased to announce that in August, our products will be featured on another webisode! You'll be hearing more info about this in weeks to come, but trust me, you won't want to miss it! I just love Craft TV Weekly. Each webisode is packed full of great ideas and techniques, you can download a design guide to help you do the projects, and it's all free! A new webisode comes out every Friday (but are archived forever) and I do watch every one of them myself. Yet another reason to look forward to Friday!
My nephew is coming next week to stay with us for awhile. He's a graphic design major in college and will be doing an internship with us this summer. We'll put him to work on product development, website updates, ad copy, and all sorts of things. We're hoping to get the bulk of our 2008 product release designed while he's here. Nothing like having lofty goals, right?
In ducky news, Daisy molted a few weeks ago and her new feathers came in so much softer than before. We are patting ourselves on the back about this, crediting her good diet since she's lived with us. Sadly, her coloring has changed rather significantly and she lost all of her striking silver/white feathers (they came in light brown). We're hoping this is a temporary thing and that she'll get her beautiful silvery feathers back with the next molt. And now Dewey is molting. Every flap of her wings produces more loose feathers and she's starting to look a little scraggly. During their molt, ducks get very skittish and insecure so she's a little grumpy these days. Daisy has siezed the opportunity to be "top duck" during this time and it's really quite fun to watch. Daisy has really been warming up to us lately and has been showing us quite a bit of affection. It's been a long time coming and is a big step for her. If there's anything we've learned about ducks it's that every step is a baby step. Celebrate the journey!
There are even more things happening later this summer but I'll save those for another post. In the meantime, we'll just try to stay cool! (It's 111 degrees today...)
