The Good, The Bad & The Ugly…

Yesterday started out to be a great day until I got to work….

The Bad…
I get an email from my friend Cheryle saying that I have links to porn sights on my bulletin board. What The…??!!

The Ugly…
So I go on my bulletin board to not only discover links to porn sights on my bulletin board but very very graphic pictures too! AAAHHH! Holy COW!! (I could use different words but I will refrain!) I was soooo mad! How can these creepazoids do that! Dirt bags they are!

The Good…
I immediately deleted all the posts, deleted the user names from 5, YES 5!, unauthorized usernames, from Greece, The Bahamas, etc and tightened up my registration process. Some good came out of all this since now I have learned how to make it harder for these scum bags to post on my site! So I spent yesterday reading user manuals for my bulletin board to help keep it safer. I want our bulletin board to be a place we can share ideas, chat and have fun. Not worry about garbage like that! So I am fairly confident this should not happen again.

When you register on our bulletin board you will be sent an email. Then you will be sent an email to confirm it is valid. Once you click the link in that email your confirmation and registration will be complete. It’s an extra step for everyone, but it will help keep the nasties out!

On another good note! I told Morgan I loved her this morning and in her little mumbly way she said “I Love You Too”. Now that just melted my heart! What a great way to start the day!

Retreat Registration Is Now Open!

We opened up our retreat registration this morning! So you may now sign up for our retreat! Check out all the details at:

http://www.scrapbookparadise.net/scrapbookretreat.html

We already have 8 seats taken!

What A Big Day!

I hope everyone had a great Mother’s Day! We certainly did. We did meet my mother in law Mary and my sister in law Karen at Oakledge park in Burlington. Karen won an auction for the benefit of public television last year. She won a 6 foot sub from Kountry Kart Deli in Burlington. It feeds 40 people!! It was made up of 3 sandwiches. Karen’s certificate for the sandwich was about to expire at the end of this month so she decided to use it for our picnic. Brad is holding one of them in the picture below. We enjoyed the sandwiches for our picnic, needless to say, we had tons of leftovers. We hardly put a dent in the sandwiches. To end our day we went to Friendly’s and had a 12 scoop ice cream sundae. That is also in the pictures below. It seemed to be a day for big things! We had fun in either case and were definately stuffed by the end of the day!

Happy Mother’s Day!

It is a beautiful day out today. I hope all my customers, friends and family have a great day today! Morgan will be turning 2 years old on 6/7/08! Here is a picture of her the day she was born! I thought it would be fun to look back so many of you can see how much she has changed!

Looong Weeek!

Well it has truly been a busy week as I have prepared for our 1st Annual Retreat in November! All the details have been worked out and we are finally ready to go live! I sent out an email today with all the juicy details. Registration starts on May 15th and we hope to fill the crop fast! We only have 40 seats in the crop room so if you are interested! Sign up early!!

We have great rates for our retreat and chose the Ramada Inn of Queensbury, NY (Glens Falls Area). We are going to have a blast, I can’t wait!! What could be better then spending a weekend paper crafting.

Anyway, I hope to post more this week. All is well with the family.We are going to Burlington tomorrow to meet my mother in law and sister in law for a picnic in the park. It should be fun. Maybe I will post a pic or two from that.

I hope everyone has a great Mother’s Day. Talk to you soon!

Blanca

Planning a retreat is fun…really…it is…no really

Planning a scrapbooking retreat should be fun but there are some not so fun tasks that have to be done. Such as finding out the location you wanted isn’t available. I spent all day on the phone today calling hotel after hotel to find a great place for our retreat! I wanted it to be a perfect location that could accomodate us with a well lit facility, good food, clean nice rooms, a good price and a few extras such as a pool and jacuzzi for those moments we need a break from scrapbooking.

Well we found a brand new Best Western in Ticonderoga that meets all my criteria. It’s a brand new Best Western less then a week old! I know Ticonderoga may not seem like much of a tourist spot but let’s face it. We are here to enjoy our favorite paper crafts not go site seeing. I think being further away from Middlebury will also make it feel more like a wonderful getaway just minutes away from the Adirondacks! We are also considering the Brandon Inn or Lilac Inn in Brandon but there is no extras such as a pool or jacuzzi. So now I just need to figure out which will work best. If anyone has an opinion let me know!

In either case, the plans for our retreat are moving right along and I hope to have a decision made on location no later then Monday!

Not much else going on this week. Looking forward to National Scrapbook Day on Saturday! We’re having a big sale and more! Check us out!

Some Pictures To Enjoy

Good Morning All,

Well, it is going to be yet another beautiful day in Vermont today! Of course it is supposed to turn cold this weekend. But I have to say, I don’t mind the break. I’d like to see a little spring weather before summer arrives to fast!

On the store front - We have lots of great new Hero Art stamps I just put out last week. Also we just got in a bunch of new brads and eyelets from the Eyelet Outlet! Some of them are pretty cute! We’ve added a bunch of new candies in the candy store. If you can, be sure to check those out!

On the family front - all is well. My sister in law and nephews came for a visit for a few days. We all had a great time. Morgan really enjoyed playing with her cousins. We played a game of spongebob monopoly and I won! It was fun!

Well, I better get back to work, Here is a great collage of pictures of our family taken just recently!

A Good Day For A Drive!

I am just loving the weather we are having!! I’ve been able to wear shorts 5 days in a row!! Love it! I went on a big adventure this morning. Brad, myself and my sister in law Pam got up at 4:30am this morning and drove to Chicopee, MA to pick up 3 Uhaul trucks. We went there and back and actually got back by 2pm today! Needless to say we are pooped. But it was nice to drive and have quiet time.

We’ve gotten more responses to our retreat survey! I hope to start planning the retreat in May! Stay tuned!

Well, I just wanted to check in. I hope everyone is getting out to enjoy this great weather! Talk to you soon!

Blanca

Welcome To The Launch Of My Blog!

Hello,

I just sent out a mass email today letting everyone know that I now have a blog! This blog thing is kind of a crazy phenominon (I’m warning you now, I’m a bad speller!) going on these days! So I figured, heck, why not! I like techy stuff like this. So here I am.

What’s new? Well we started Morgan on potty training day before yesterday. She was excited about using her new potty so that helped things the first day. Now that the excitement has passed, she gets friendly reminders now and then as the training continues. All in all, potty training is going well!!

We are getting surveys back on our retreat idea. There appears to be enough interest to go ahead with the plans to have a retreat in November. I hope to hear from more people through the survey and then sit down with the inn in May to do further planning and come up with a great weekend agenda!! I will keep you all posted!

Well, I better get back to work! Enjoy the beautiful day outside! It’s going to be a warm one!!

Blanca

Hello world!

Well, I finally decided to take the plunge and start my own blog. You can come back often to read posts about what’s going on in my life and at my store. I hope to be able to post at least a couple times a week. I guess the first very important thing I want to say is “Welcome!” I hope you enjoy reading my babbles on my blog!