day 5 - socal shophop '09

So...  on to the memories of Day 5 of ShopHop. For our little group this was Saturday, August 15th. We didn't have as many stores to get to as we'd had on other days (only 7), but we did have a lot of ground to cover geographically.

Our first stop was Pages From the Heart in Monrovia. There was a class in progress at this store (I think it was a Pinecone Press class being taught by Lorene Yost, but not sure -- in any case it looked like a fun one).

 

Next, we went to Karen's Hallmark in Alta Dena. Great photo opp with Mr. Elephant here.

A few goodies for the road...

From there, we headed out to points west, stopping at Once Upon a Page in Burbank, the deceptively small-looking store, but wow when you get inside it goes on and on. Evidently, this is the store where I had the brilliant idea to start picking up some animal print papers to scrap the ShopHop photos with.


Here's me:

Here's my stuff:

Then on to Sandpaper Kisses in Tujunga. The girl at the register had made herself a really cute safari hat* just for ShopHop. (*Pith helmut, is that they're called evidently. Learned that from my mom ... thanks, Mom!)

From there it was Treasured Memories in Oak Park, where we ran into Lead Fiskateer Cheryl Waters again. She is such a sweetie!

What I got:

By now we were starting to fall off our time schedule, tho and so we clambered back into the van and raced out to Stamping From the Heart in Los Angeles. We made it before closing and the owner was kind enough to keep the door open a bit past closing so we could finish up our shopping.

Mom was so done with this store:

Here are my goodies:

 

The last stop for the day was Sonja's Scrap Spot in Los Angeles, and it was a great spot to end the day.

Here's my "take":

All in all another great day of Shop Hopping adventure never mind that my safari tour abandoned me at the elevator! Good-bye, peeps, but don't forget who has the car keys -lol!

The elevator door closes as I snap a pic...

But they didn't get far since no one pushed any buttons. I could hear them laughing inside the elevator car until the door re-opened.

Mom is cracking up here. A funny end to a great day.

PS. Only one more Shop Hopping day to share after this.

day 4 - socal shophop '09

*ETA: yes, this is *old* news. You can read this post for the whiney, excuse-making post, if you like.

Our 4th day on the Shop Hop started at Collective Journey in Redlands. They always have such cute displays!

What I got:


From there we headed a little south and a little west to Corona where we stopped at Scrapper's Cafe. Sadly, I recently heard that this is another sb store that is closing its doors.

Next, we went to Chino Hills destination "This N That Scrapbooking". Turns out that the "this-n-that" is because this is a multi-purpose store. Not only are there lots of SB supplies, there is also a dry cleaner on site along with a variety of other services.

Here are my findings:

Somewhere in the mess of Corona/Chino freeways we had a near accident when a young female driver in front of us decided to come to a full stop on the freeway (yes, you read that right). Evidently, she had missed her offramp, so she just came to a stop and waited for traffic to clear then swept two lanes to get to the offramp. Crazy!

Our last store for the day was Scraparazzi in Whittier. They were getting ready for move to a new (adjacent) location, so I'd like to go back sometime soon and check out their new digs.

What I left with:

After our ShopHopping, we had a nice relaxing lunch at Penn Park in Whittier. It's a gorgeous place.




End of Day 4, 22 stores down, 17 stores to go!

blog interrupted

Once again, there was a little bit of that stuff known as life getting in the way of my blogging. It wasn't so much that I was incredibly busy (tho I was *very* busy), but it was more of me being detached from the computer. Hey, what can I say? It happens.

So, where was I....? Oh, yes! I was posting my Shop Hop adventures. And in painstaking detail which is why I wasn't done. You'll have to indulge me because I have the need to finish what I started.

And speaking of Shop Hop, there was some late-breaking prize news in the Scrapbooking Roads newsletter last Friday. Was I ever surprised to find out that I'd won a prize in the Make-n-take contest. Woo hoo! I love prizes - especially scrappy ones.

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!

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!