HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!!

In honor of all the flowers raised and grown and lovingly purchased and given this day...here are some of the things I've found about flowers and what they mean:

You want to give your sweetie a bouquet of flowers on Valentine's Day. That's a classy move. Think twice, though, before plucking any random bunch of blooms. If your special someone is among the thousands of searchers hitting the Web for "meaning of flowers," he or she may have a funny reaction to that clutch of striped carnations. (What you just said: "Sorry I can't be with you.")

To save you the horror of broadcasting the wrong message with yellow chrysanthemums ("slighted love"), yellow hyacinths ("jealousy"), or bright and shiny marigolds ("cruelty, grief, and jealousy," oh my!), we've paired the week's most searched-on flowers with their generally accepted meanings. Select with confidence... Roses - Love
Orchids - A belle
Iris - My compliments
Daisies - Innocence
Tulips - Declaration of love
Calla Lily - Beauty
Amaryllis - Splendid beauty
Hydrangea - Heartfelt
Anthurium - Hospitality
Daffodils - Chivalry
Chrysanthemums - Fidelity
Carnations - Pride and beauty
Lilacs - Youthful innocence
Birds of Paradise - Joyfulness
Tiger Lily - Wealth, pride
Peony - Bashful
Anemone - Anticipation
Sunflowers - Pure thoughts
Aster - Patience
Gladiolus - Strength of character



When it comes to sheer flower power, the rose is the "American Idol," the Michael Jordan, and the Beatles of botany, all rolled into one sweet-smelling, thorny cache. No flower comes close to its popularity. It draws its own "meaning" searches ("rose color meaning"), cooks up its own candy queries ("chocolate roses"),and sprinkles the Search box with its velvety parts ("rose petals").

If you're thinking of a dozen long-stemmed messages de amor for February 14, here are the week's most searched-on types of roses and their secret meanings...

Red Roses - Love and romance
Black Roses - Vengeance
Blue Roses - Mystery and intrigue
Pink Roses - Gratitude and appreciation
Purple Roses - Love at first sight
White Roses - Innocence and purity
Green Roses - Fertility
Yellow Roses - Joy and friendship
Lavender Roses - Enchantment
Orange Roses - Enthusiasm, passion

Pink, Love, Valentines and Exactly How Creative Are You

Pink has always been up at the top of my color favorites. As the trends come and go I find myself moving towards different colors, but I always come back to pink. So naturally I love February. I love when the Valentine papers and embellishments start showing up in the store. This year is no exception. We have really darling embellishments made for us by one of our private vendors. These designs are unique and cannot be found in other scrapbook stores. We have new chipboard word books just in time for all those pictures of you and your favorite loves. And we have some awesome papers from our favorite paper manufacturers. If the scrumptions colors of red, pink and browns sing to you, check out the new release from Scribble Scrabble. Or if you like the timeless designs of days gone by, Daisy D might be the February must haves. More papers are on the way. We hope to see Moxxie's new release for the Valentine holiday here soon.


Now....just how creative do you think you are?
Take this test and lets share....I'm not sure I like my 82%...but the little blurb was kinda nice.

You Are 82% Creative

You are an incredibly creative person. For you, there are no bounds or limits to your creativity. Your next creation could be something very great... Or at least very cool!

How Creative Are You?

Crop-A-Dile II Big Bite - Pre-Order Offer!

We will be taking pre-orders for this new tool to be release at CHA-
W. This is the big sister to our favorite crop-a-dile. This tool
has a 6" reach and will punch to the center of a 12x12 layout. The
MSRP is $39.99. We will be offering a show special on this tool (to
be announced in a week when we send in our order and get in the
shipping queue). A case is also available for $12.99. New 'grom-
lets' will be release with this debut.

Fair warning -- a HSN release of this tool will begin on January 10.
There is no specified ship time on this from HSN. However, this tool
will be different (vary in features) from the tool that is released
to the srapbook community via retailers.

We hope you will continue to support your local scrapbook retailers.
We are the pulse of the scrapping communities across the world. Big
Box retailers can always price cut us, and while we understand
limited budgets, etc. We are the ones who are around to teach and
help you when you need training on your new tools and products. We
offer the one on one and provide the cheering section for you for all
your accomlishments.

Please e-mail us at shop.scraptoit@yahoo.com to pre-order or for more
information. We hope to have an image on the website soon. You can
see the tool on the different community boards.

Happy Scrappin!

The To-It! Team
Scrap-To-It!

Something Fun for Today!

Your Scent is Pumpkin Pie

Warm, comforting, and a bit old fashioned You've got what men want - believe it or not!

What's Your Girl Smell?

Post and tell me who you are!

Inventory Time!

I'm sitting in the store this afternoon looking at my little Scrap-To-It! Christmas tree (image pending) and reading all the 'year-end-blow-out sale' e-mail from all the vendor and retailer lists I'm on and realizing it is that time of year again.

Oh what to do.....?????

We need to have more sales and move out some product and thin out what needs to be counted before tax time.

Everybody loves sales, but there sure is a technique to it to move out the ending seasonal items so that next year you can collect what is current and not have old stuff sticking around. Scrappers are picky about the perceived 'old lines.'

This year I had some awesome holiday papers in the store. I'm hoping they will still be awesome when I put them up for 'Inventory Blow Out.' I have some awesome chipboard word books too. So if these are items you are looking for, be sure to watch the website and the newsletter for the sales and promotions on these products.

If you are looking for something else ----ummmmmmmmmm e-mail me to see if I'm in a bartering mode..ya never know!!

Besides all the inventory sale e-mail I've already (since before Christmas even) been receiving all the new Valentine release e-mail. I'm totally in love with some of the new lines and can't wait to get my orders placed. I wish I had room for more lines than I do. I love paper (of course, thats why I'm a scrapper!) But here are some questions I want to throw out to all of you (and please feel free to e-mail me your answers. I'd love to send some thank you gifts for the responses -- hint hint).

1. If there is a manufacturer you like, do you want ALL the papers in that line? Or would you pick and choose patterns that you are attracted to?

2. Do you want all the embellies and fibers and do-dah's that compliment the line?

3. How often do you by-pass the coordinating elements?

4. What about the alphas that go with the paper? Do you buy them? What do you do with the extras? What do you do when you don't have enough of one particular letter?

5. Do you like to combine paper lines from different manufacturers and if so, what manufacteres are your favorite to combine (ones you know work best together)?

6. Do you like the paper pads or 6x6 or 8x8 stacks or would you rather just buy open stock/by the sheet?

E-mail me, or post your comments here. I really want to know what you like and what things go through your mind as you are looking for papers and embellishments for your layouts and paper projects.

Get ready for a big sale.....I want to move product this year!

Snowing On My Party!!!

Does it rain on your parade when the weather is bad? It does on mine...cuz I'm a bit of a baby when it comes to going out in the muck and the slush. Slipping and sliding to work never excited me. But I am always fascinated with the snow. In fact I've hated to let my kids go out and ruin the beauty of the clean white blanket covering the yard. Especially here in Missouri, where we back up to the woods. It is so beautiful and mystical that I can just sit and look out my window in awe! Eventually I give in though, bundle them up and send them out. Before long there's a good snowball fight (and a good photo op) happening!

Its not really raining on my parade, but it is snowing and slowing me down a bit and causing me to have to choose between closing for a snow day and playing with my kids, or....

You see, today is my birthday and I was planning on having a private sale at the store today. You know, one of those kind where I put a bunch of things up for sale or for FREE!!! and let shoppers draw from the bowl or spin for their sale.

Pausing to get the day going....will be back in a while with updates to the day and more details for the store!

Living the Dream - revisited

They don't tell you when they call it 'living the dream' that the inception period of this dream phase is very tiring. Many hours are spent trying to figure it all out. I don't want to re-invent the wheel, but some things for sure aren't working or scrapbook stores would not be closing all around me. The industry is in a flux and the economy is an issue too. These two factors are the reason my store has been set up the way it has. My plan, may be visually a bit different, but I think it will keep me in business longer. (Now let's hope my DH doesn't get wild ideas of looking for work out of the state....I had one of those scares last month...but it passed...phewwww!!!)

If you happen upon my store and are looking for a great big new place to come scrapbook, you may be a little disheartened. However, if you are looking for a place local to our community, where you can find better service (than the "A" store or the big boxes) you might enjoy coming in and plopping down on the floor and going through the buckets on the grid wall. (A lot of ladies seem to get in to this! And the guys who used to be in the office across the hall thought it was HILARIOUS!!!!)

We do plan to have some classes... eventually !!!...I have a couple crops planned for the new year. If you are looking for a place to crop where the kids won't interrupt or drop off the grans...give us a call or e-mail me at shop.scraptoit@yahoo.com.

Also, I been collecting some fun things for a card class that I'd like to start. If you are a card maker and would like to be put on the wait-list for the classes shoot me an e-mail with "card class wait list" in the subjust line.

Check out the website front page and here for more details. I'm determined this year to get more into my blogs.

For now...its time to close up shop and head home and check on some homework assignments I left with the kiddos.

Hope you are all warm and the lights are on and the holidays are trimming up nicely.

Till next time....

Joi -- AKA the 'to-it hunter' (always and forever trying to get around to it!)

Living the dream...

On September 4, 2007 we opened the doors to our retail store front. Scrap-To-It! has been an online and event store for the past 5 years. In August we took the big jump and opened the doors to a small retail outlet for our online store. We began spreading the word that we were planning to become the #1 Scrapbook Resource Center in Wentzville. It's a big goal and objective. Some have been a little surprized at our size (or lack thereof), but most, have come finding a homey and welcoming little shop where they can visit, shop, share, and be number 1 for that moment. While our space my be meak, we do have hopes and plans to grow and expand. In the meantime we bring to the table years of vending experience and a good solid retail background. It has been a delightful couple of months meeting new friends and having wonderful experiences with people. We look forward to many more rewarding friendships as we continue to grow and share this wonderful experience of scrapbooking.

June 19, 2007

To day is a day to find my 'to-it' again. I hope! Wrapping up the school year took a bit longer this year than usual. (see my blog at http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/tendertutor/). Adding to that an upgrade to our business plan and some changes at STI.

Last year, as many know, we did a total re-mod on the storefront. Adding in a forum. It was a fun and involved project. I loved the forum, but soon it found its way to the spammers. I was spending more time deleting offensive posts than being able to post or enter our new products into the store. I sat on what to do for a while. Spent even more hours looking over various forum options. Sat on it again. Until this past week when I set up a new yahoo group for the store.

You can find this group at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/scrap_to_it/
For an invitation, email us at scrap_to_it@yahoo.com

We will be opening this group up to other vendors each friday as a way to offer all our members sales and specials from other sources besides STI. If you are a vendor and want to be able to post you sales and specials, please contact us.

A recruiting special will be starting this weekend. We have already begun cherry picking some awesome gifts for the winner and runners up. We hope its you!!!

A paper sale is in play at the store www.scraptoit.com
Come check it out. CHA is around the corner and we have already started to get our orders in the queue for the fall line up. We are soooo excited. But we need room and we hope the sales and savings will be beneficial to you too!!!

Sneak peak -- Christmas in July -- A continuation of our paper sale. All available papers for all the fall holidays will be listed at a ridiculously low price. Check the store (and here) for details.

Please feel free to contact us with any of your scrapbook needs.

Most scrapfully!

Joi
and the To-It! Team
www.scraptoit.com

Growing and falling behind

If it is possible to continue to progress and still fall behind then that is me. I'm happy to say that since my last post the store and its revisions have done very well. Keeping up to date on all the new inventory as well as all our crops and events has made me fall way behind on any blog sites or newsletter dreams I once held.

If you haven't been to see the store lately, check it out. I just love the changes there and still have much more to come. All a work in progress....(me as much as the stores).

It's all exciting and continues to make me wish I could be in two places at once!

We have a new look!!!

The last time I posted I stated that my blog and my store were lacking in attention. Well....I'm excited to report that at least one of these attention-needing items has been addressed.

www.scraptoit.com --- It's new, It's fresh, It's amazingly loaded with fun new products. And holds the promise of more to come.

If you've not been to the store for a while, come check us out.

Come play in our forum, where we offer a lot of great give-aways to members.

Sign up for our newsletter where we give you the latest on our store and some scrappy good ideas to help you preserve your memories and get your 'to-it's' together too!

As for this blog -- welll......since we re-did the store, I'm now mired in a ton of new technology I didn't have a clue about before. Talk about living under a rock! How long haven't I known about Technorati (did I even spell this right) or Squidoo let a lone at least half a dozen other things that I hadn't picked up on.

So I don't end up like my parents (sorry mom and dad -- but ya just aren't so hot with the gadgets at your house! kiss kiss) and my ds doesn't look at me and roll his eyes -- I'm on the pursuit of educating myself to the current trends.

Wish me luck!

Oh! and if you have an offer of help, explanation (spelling correction) or whatever -- have at me! I'm sure I need it!


Till next time -- back to-it!

Where oh Where are you Scrap-To-It!

My blogs and e-store are sorely in need of attention. I have a very sick mom who lives about 1300 miles from me. If you've ever had an aging parent, you know some of what I'm writing about. My dad isn't in his top form either. Every so often we shut down our world and pack up the car to make the voyage down the very long road from my home to theirs. It's a worthwhile and needful venture, but also very hard on the other aspects of life.

As I said, one of my goals has been to open a store in the community where I live. We're working on the business plan now trying to get the initial steps formed. I'm not sure if/when we'll actually pull it off. I still have the worries of elderly parents, and the big issue of my homeschoolers, especially the one I will just be starting this year.

My big problem is I want to do both (homeschool and own a business). I'm not sure if it is do-able for me (being an obsessive perfectionist). With one of my homeschooler almost done and another one just starting, their two curriculum and instruction needs take a lot of time. However, putting off the dream doesn't seem the right consideration either. What I hope to do is find a way to work with what I have to make the dream happen.

Wish me luck!

In the meantime...come visit the online store. We've been adding in more products daily and also working on another site altogether that we hope is better both for us and for all our wonderful customers.

If you do visit the store and wish to make a purchase..mention this blog and receive an additional 20% off. This is a one time use coupon and we are tracking these.

Scrap-To-It! www.scraptoit.com

Visit our other ventures at www.memorybuildersinc.com

Off to find my to-it for the day........

Inventory Reduction at www.scraptoit.com

As January becomes February we are successfully re-working our webstore with the help of some very good sales.

Are you trying to find your 'to-it' to get caught up on your scrap projects?

Cruise on over to www.scraptoit.com and see some of our great specials.

Are you scrapping your homeschool portfolio? Send me some details and I'll send you a coupon for some great discounts to help get those projects completed.


Scrap-To-It! before your last week's memories are last year's memories. It is easier to keep up than catch up!

Round and Round the Holiday Season

The snow finally fell here in the midwest where normally we live hail and hardy year round, however, today my little one fights the flu. In between holding and comforting her, I am trying to get my 'to-it' together to start to scrap a few holiday projects.

I'm struggling this year with getting to my projects. Is it the cold that keeps me from getting to it? Or something else this year?

I've been reading holiday stories the past couple of days -- you know, the kind you need a tissue box for. I've been reading all the little sweet ones I used to read to my first and second graders too. I love stories about Christmas and giving and I was hoping the stories would take me to the mental space I need to get to but haven't yet.

I've had my tree up since the day after Thanksgiving. Usually that is a dedicated shopping day -- breakfast, lunch and shop 'till you drop. Not so much for the sales, but for the fun of opening up the holiday season out amongst the holiday-goers. Instead we put on Christmas CDs and made cocoa and tried to get into the spirit of things while decorating our home. It looks wonderful, but not.

I couldn't find the right lights for my yard this year. Last year I used some spiral trees and garland. While the lights work fine I didn't have the patience this year to untangle the ridiculously thin strings so the spirial could hang in its proper tree shape. I hate that it is dark in front of my house this year. There is something for me about the eery winter haze about the air and teeny lights about the neighborhood. I've never been able to describe the feeling that seems to draw me someplace unknown, yet familiar, as I look about between the cold air at the lights on the homes near mine. I want mine to have that same feel. I need to try a few other stores and see if there are some options I haven't considered yet.

Today is December 7th, the flu will pass before long and when it does I'll turn up the heat and get to work. A few good ol' Christmas stand-bys from the video cabinet and some hot Vanilla Creme and I'll be good to go for a long night of playing with my favorite stash of paper and embellishments. I hope!

I hope the holidays are full and enriching for those of you reading along here. I hope you return here again, and comment too, when your feel inclined. My goal is to make more posts in '06. Possibly even use this forum for some specials and a gallery from my scrap store.

Holiday wishes & blessings!

Joi/AKA Scrap-To-It!

New to blogging

Since I am new to this whole blog deal I don't come here often to update. Also, as you can see from my tag-line that I don't often have my 'To-It!" therefore it is a hit and miss sort of thing. However, I wanted to put a few words here to cyber-paper or as I saw on another blog one day, 'talk more to myself.' LOL!!!

Summer is over and school is back in session. Home-school that is. I am schooling my 15 yo DS in the principal approach from the FACE curriculum. I love this. It gives me a chance to really effect an individual's point of view, teaching him to be truth based, to think deeper, to feel more intently, and all the while to become the scholar he wants to become. It is a process, not an event. I also home school my almost 4 yo dd. For sure this is miss more than hit. I'm fine with that. I don't force it on her as I have many opportunities during the day to work instruction in to our normal living.

Aside from school starting, so is the business back up after our summer break. I kind of closed my doors for a time while I went home to help family. Mom had surgery and I went home to be sure all was well and help with the recovery. It feels good to get back to scrapping and get Scrap-To-It! back on track again. It is for sure, my therapy in a life where it is mom and school, and then mom and kids, 7 days a week.

I love being a mom, don't get me wrong, however, I am not foolish enough to belive it is enough. When we are enriched, we can enrich others. I find that my work helps my children as well. Teaching my DS to work/run a business, teaching my DD to find her creative place. My DD loves to scrap, btw!

So Septermber is upon us, school and preparpations for events. Colors turn in the woods behind the house and colors turn here on the kitchen table as portfolios come to life.

What does September do for you?

About Me

About Me -

Joi AKA Scrap-To-It!

Thanks for visiting my blog, "Round and Round With Scrap-To-It!." I am a home schooling mom/scrapbook business owner. My dream is to own retail storefront. For now I'm content to play school with my litle ones while I build my business at my local crops and events. Visit the store -- visit the blog and maybe we'll find our 'to-it's' together!