shop hopping, days 5 & 6

Has it really been a week since I wrapped up ShopHop? Well the calendar doesn't lie so it must be so. Last Friday was my solo day, no one in the car but me and my shadow (do I have a shadow when I'm in a car? Hmmm... I don't know.)

I was really hopeful of finishing the last six stores, and in a "perfect" world it was do-able, but once freeway construction, traffic and delays were factored in, I just couldn't make it to the last store and be confident of being back in time to pick up DD from school.

My day started at Collective Journey in Redlands. I was hopeful of a very early start because their website stated that they opened at 9:30, but not so --they opened at 10am so I had some time to twiddle my thumbs in the parking lot. I spent the time chatting with others waiting for the store to open and even put one of these nice ladies to work snapping my pic for the ShopHop pic contest at the Scrapbooking Roads message boards. Here I am:


Collective Journey is a fun, large store with lots of great products and cute samples. I visited it for the first time last fall on the way back from Oak Glen. I'd definitely like to get back to this store some time when I'm not pressed for time. Picked up just a couple of things:


Next stop was Scrapbook Corner in Hemet. Love this store! They have the coolest crop tables and once again, lots of the latest and greatest products. Plus I ran into Kat! I knew she was managing a store in that general area, but it never occurred to me that this was the place. Funny thing was she wouldn't have ordinarily have been at the store, but she had just popped in to open the store for someone who was running a little late. What a happy coincidence! She also directed me to new Prima papers they had just gotten in. Here is what I left with:


Next stop Auntie Amy's in Riverside. I *loved* this store. Both Amy and Jennifer were warm, friendly and helpful. They ushered me into a private area just for Shop Hoppers where there was bottles of water and snacks and special deals just for us. How cool is that I ask you?! I really appreciated the water and goodies since I was in such a rush and wasn't sure if I'd be able to stop for lunch. Amy's is primarily a stamping store but it was just jammed with goodies that were just my style. I found some more Scrapbour paper. There was a nice clearance section (one of my favorite spots to scope out). Many of their stamps were very unique too, which was good to note. And I mustn't forgot to mention the yummy caramel corn I picked up here. It was to DELICIOUS! I will definitely go back to Auntie Amy's!



I had two stores to catch in Corona. First, Once Upon a Time Scrapbooking then Kandy Scrappers. Both cute stores. I think it's great that both of these and Auntie Amy's are in near vicinity to each other. Not sure how good it is for their business, but it makes for very convenient shop hopping (not just now but for future visits too!)

This first pic is the stuff from Once Upon a Time --some Autumn Leaves Mod and those cute rubons are from Sonburn. I was kind of excited to find these because I had visited their booth at Winter CHA (and done a mk-n-tk) and really liked their products.


This second pic is stuff I snatched up at Kandy Scrappers. On the right mostly Li'l Davis, on the left some Tinkering Ink, SEI, CI rubons.


Last but not least was my Sunday journey to Scrapbook Boulevard in Victorville. It's another lovely store and the staff was extremely friendly and helpful (thank you Vesta for the refresher/tutorial on foaming Cookie Cutter dies!) Here are the fun things I found:


This was my final passport stop. From here I went straight to my home store Scrappin' Good Times. I did not pass go. I did not collect $200 (though that would have been a very nice rebate if I coulda found it somewhere!) Dropped that passport coupon off before anything at all could happen to it!

DONE!!!