day 3 - socal shophop '09

My third day out hopping was Sunday 8/16 - it was a very short little jaunt, just two local stores.

First we headed out to Stamp Your Heart Out in Claremont. The store was jam-packed with customers. Forgot to take any photos, and didn't do much shopping, but I did pick up their cute mk-n-tk and some flair for a "d-i-y" lanyard I was planning to make for my daughter (our official Shop Hop journaler).

Flair and a cute mk-n-tk found at Stampin' From the Heart

After ran to the market with my dad (a new Sunday ritual). And then on to Scrapbook Cafe in La Puente. This store is open afternoons & evenings during the week because the owner holds down a full time job earlier in the day. Not an extremely huge store, but lots of cute stuff (and cute samples, too!)

My goodies from Scrapbook Cafe

Short, but sweet!

this just in

I'm interrupting my Shop Hop playback to share a layout I did using some of the stuff I got while hopping (click for enlarged view). Used the "Abbey Road" line by My Mind's Eye for this page about my son & nephew back in 1994 when they first met. Oh those cute boys --so sweet and soft and adorable. That was then, but my oh my how times have changed - now they are both big, tall, hairy MEN! Ah well, there is no stopping the passing of time. (And they are both still adorable.)

day 2 - socal shophop '09

I had hoped to post my shop hopping adventures before now, but this is my first chance to sit down and compose. I wasn't sure how many days it would take to get to all the stores, but in the end I did my stops over the course of 6 days of varying lengths.

Our first "big" day was on Saturday, August 8 - we did 13 stores that day (applause, please!)

First was Scrapbooking Heaven in Westminster. The mk-n-take was ocean/beach themed (using the same paper line I used in my By the Sea class - cool!) Also grabbed a sheet of some distressed grid Hambly transparency and blk & beige flocked paper. The store was offering a 6x6 calendar for ShopHoppers to incorporate some of the S.H. make-n-takes into - great idea!



Next we headed for A to Z Scrapbooking in Torrance. It looked so different from the last time I was there - they'd done some painting and re-done the floor too.

My findings (above) and me hamming it up again (below)

After that we were back in Huntington Beach for three stores...

At The Scrapbook Garden I found some lovely Rouge de Garance papers (not carried too many places, so this made me happy). I also picked up my very first bottle of Maya Rd. Mist and a big ole refill bottle of Un-du. I don't really go thru Un-du that often, but I'm a big old refill bottle kind of gal so there ya go. (We had an Elvis sighting outside the store, too --my second one of the summer 'cause you just *know* I saw him in Vegas.)

Goodies from the Scrapbook Garden (above) and me outside the store (below)

At Perfect Day Scrapbooking, I found some Elvis paper (now how convenient was that?). I also picked up a little metal notepad/pen holder so that I will *always* have paper in my bag on which to jot whatever. Found some "Paris" themed paper by g.c.d. studios --perfect for a class I have in mind.

Outside of Perfect Day Scrapbooking (above) and my purchases (below)

Our last Huntington Beach Store was Once Upon a Memory (where we ran into a trio of SGT gals - Sharon W, Irene B, and Stephanie Z). This was a big store - easy to lose track of time in the larger stores, let me tell you.

Mind you, I was trying to stay away from paper at all the stores
but so many of them had lovely specialty papers like the transparencies
and flocked paper I found here (grabbed some G45 cherries, too).

Next we were off to Oh Scrap in Costa Mesa, a very cute store. Here I am with my mom and my friend Allison:

It's funny how I almost always seem to end up with color coordinated
purchases - it's not planned (must be subliminal)

From there it was Timeless Treasures in Rancho Santa Margarita. It's quite a trek out to this store, but the highway (a toll road) was wide open which is a nice change from the freeway traffic I'm used to. Found me some cute stuff:

Headed back west to Scrappin' in the Hills in Anaheim Hills. They get bonus points for giving us cupcakes!

Goodies above and below!

We were way off schedule by the time we were ready to head up to The Scrappin' Table in Placentia. We had about 30 minutes until closing and called ready to beg Michelle to wait for us, but she's a sweetie and we didn't have to grovel or anything. She had the new G45 in so I was able to stock up on all the gorgeous new papers.

Our expedition team (minus my daughter who is taking the pic)

Look at all that yummy cardstock! And my new G45 below...

We made a quick stop at the Metropolitan Scrapbook Co. in Chino. Some VERY cool Prima product here --not too surprising since MSC and Prima are practically neighbors! The clerk got swarmed with ShopHoppers while we were there, but was a sweetie despite being there by herself and having a bunch of crazy scrappers to wait on.

Allison and I get our "passport-and-sign" pic just as the sun sets above and my goodies below

Followed by another stop, this time at The Scrapping Lounge in Montclair. There was a celebration going on at the Lounge - it's the store's anniversary and they were having a safari crop. We were surprised & delighted to find lead Fiskateer Cheryl Waters there, We knew the Lounge was on her schedule of the 15th, but because we were so off our schedule we thought we'd missed her. So nice to finally meet her. I also met another of my FB scrapping friends that I hadn't met in person, Toni Burks-Grijalva. We "monkeyed" around for a bit but then had to move on.

Rina, me and Debbie

Love the safari spread that Debbie laid out for her croppers

The goods

Our last stop of the day (night) was Scrap n Yap in Monrovia. We were pretty tired by this time (see it in my face?) but being inside the store perked us right up. Lots of cool vintagey & retro delights such as 7 Gypsies, Jenni Bowlin and Melissa Frances. Yum!

A worn-out tour tour bus driver

Allison & Lisa

My findings (store owner Elizabeth told us the white Primas
are so popular they just cannot keep them in stock)

Whew! Long, tiring but super FUN day!

day 1 - socal shophop '09

Photo Opp Stop at Scrappin' Good Times

**ETA: I just posted at the SGT blog inviting other Shop-Hoppers to share their S.H. stories - and I'll be doing a prize drawing from the posts once the ShopHop is over!

Even though I got my first stamp on Friday 8/7, I it didn't quite feel like a *real* day of ShopHopping because I did not "hop" to any other stores. No, in fact, I was already going to be at my home store, Scrappin' Good Times because it was time for our bi-monthly Class Kickoff.

It was, however, the night before our first and longest hopping day so there was that anticipation building up and seeing all my fellow 'hoppers' coming through the store was lots of fun. Here are some pics from the night.

The SGT make-n-take "Wild Things" designed by Lizett - isn't it adorable?

One of my classes "What a Zoo" (October 10th)

My purchases for the night - new Abbey Road by MME!

mk-n-tks

doing the shop hop-hop-hop

I've been hopping for a week now and boy are my legs sore!

(If you're not familiar with what I'm talking about, you can read up on the SoCal Shop Hop here.)

The first SoCal Shop Hop was two years ago and I had so much fun touring the SoCal landscape visiting lots of scrapbooking and craft stores I'd never been to before. It was a challenge to cover lots of ground while staying within the confines of the varying store hours. It was also challenging for this native Californian to navigate the many unfamiliar terrains that fell outside my regular stomping grounds. But the excitement of racing around the countryside was pretty thrilling - it reminded me of that tv show "The Amazing Race" but without having to eat weird stuff or go bungee jumping or slog through mud or whatever. (Click here to see all my Shop Hop posts - you'll need to scroll down past the new posts to see original 2007 Shop Hop posts.)

This year, I'm older, wiser and more experienced. So what does that mean? Simply that we are getting lost less, covering more ground (& more quickly) and having a rocking time!

30 stores down! Only seven more to catch on our San Diego run this coming week. I can't wait to start on my store-by-store blog posts (including pics of the good stuff I've found!) So, stay tuned!

fantastic friday: class kickoff AND shophop!

I'm pretty excited to get back home on Friday because not only will we be hosting another mah-velous Class Kickoff at Scrappin' Good Times, but it is ALSO the kickoff day for SoCal ShopHop. I expect things will be pretty hoppin' at the store (word to the wise: if you're thinking of signing up for a class and can make it to kickoff - DO!)

Pics for the SGT classes are starting to pop up on the website, but here are some "extra" sneaky peeks of my classes:

This is the Intro to Scrapbooking class layout

And a close-up of the title

Here is the cover of "You Are My Sunshine

And a sort of interior view (a tease, if you will!)

A cute little birdie

"What a Zoo!" chipboard mini book

...and a close up

A couple of interior pages...

One of two "Fast & Fab" layouts entitled "Fall"

...and some close-ups

The second "Fast & Fab" layout: "Wish Upon a Star"

So, I hope I'll see you on Friday for the Big Night! Be sure and tell me hi if you do stop by. Until then!

viva las vegas

The landscape is always changing here in Vegas

Here we are again having another Vegas vacation. See, the thing is DH has to come anyway since this is part of his sales territory. He's usually here for 2-3 days every month. And well... we just can't resist tagging along during summer. Something we just can't resist about a stay in a nice hotel with maid service, a/c, cable, a spectacular pool, etc. etc.

We're at the MGM Signature Suites again and would you believe we are in the same exact room as last year? This place is a trio of towers each with over 30 floors and who knows how many rooms on each floor so what are the odds we'd end up in the exact room we occupied last August? (I'm inclined to believe they put us here intentionally.) Anyway, it has made us feel quite "at home".

DH is working today, so the kids and I are kicking back until it gets cool enough to go down to the pool. Might go see a movie today too if there is anything appealing. Yesterday we made our obligatory trek to the Peppermill Restaurant (it's a must-stop for us --we might even have to go again once more before we leave). We kicked around town for awhile before coming back to float around the MGM's lazy river.

Summertime and the living is easy!