Addition to the Road Show . . .

I usually know most of the conventions we will be attending for the year by August or September of the year before.  But I always leave a “stay tuned for additions or corrections” note on the Convention Schedule on our website, just in case something comes along that is too good to pass up.

Like this . . .

We are going back to Stamping by the Sea this year on Saturday, April 18.  This used to be the Ocean City, Maryland show – it moved to Cambridge a year ago.  When it was held in May, the dates were tough for me – and last year I didn’t find out about the new dates until it was too late.

I have been working with my niece Alex (some of you may remember her as the Queen of the Bubble Wrap Stomp a couple of years ago in Novi, Michigan – I know Picasso Gaglione from Stampland does) to see if her schedule would allow her to work the show with me – Alex and her family live only a couple of hours from Cambridge.  Alas, Alex made the varsity softball team at her high school this year and has a game that weekend – but her sister Mary, who is the “artsy” one in the family, is available and will join me to make her convention debut at our demo table.

So for those of you in the Chesapeake Bay and surrounding areas, make plans to join us!

There’s a New Sheriff in Town . . .

At the first show I ever did, StampFest Orlando in 1997, about ten minutes before the show began Gene from Stamp Cabana came across the aisle to me and gave me a piece of advice that I have carried to this day – “Stampers are basically an honest lot.”  And he was right – almost without exception, if I have chosen to just trust someone or give the benefit of the doubt, I have not been disappointed.

Almost . . .

Ellen from Tessler Stamps/Stencils caught a shoplifter in her booth yesterday.  The woman had about $650 worth of Ellen’s merchandise stuffed into unimaginable places.  Ellen even gave her a chance to get out with her dignity – she saw what was happening and took a basket to the woman and asked if she needed something to carry her purchases in.  And still this woman chose to shake our faith in our customers.

And Ellen’s husband snapped a picture of her as she was carted off to jail.

The worst part of this is that Ellen was feeling guilty later on.  Maybe I would as well if I had been in Ellen’s shoes – but in my eyes, Ellen is a heroine for protecting all of us (and all of you) from people like this.  I put Ellen’s picture and a quick line about what had happened on the Marco’s Paper Facebook Page about half an hour before the show ended, and when we finished tearing down our booth I went to Ellen and showed her that over 800 people had seen it (it’s way over 1,000 now), and there were over 100 “likes” and 25 “Way to go, Ellen!” comments.

To quote the song that played at the end of the old Michael J. Fox movie, The Secret of My Success – “Sometimes the good guys finish first.” 

Way to go, Ellen!

Raising Our Kids . . .

From a vendor perspective, we have raised our kids on the show circuit.  Some kids were like mine, and actually know a little about life before conventions – Ryan was eight when we hit the road.  But others know nothing else . . .

Alana and Noelle Lindeman (their parents are Steve and Michelle from Toomuchfun Rubber Stamps) have literally been on the road since before they were born.  Their nursery was under a table in the booth – and the other vendors have become their aunts and uncles.

Except for Keia Arnold – every time she works for us, Keia also becomes Noelle and Alana’s personal jungle gym . . .

I snapped these as fast as I could and knew I would catch nothing more than blurs as Keia spun Alana around and around.

 

Meanwhile, local legends Judy Davidson and Judy Kennard made the road trip and worked for Lisa Yang of Local King Rubber Stamps.

And I have to mention Suetta Bartley’s entry in the ATC Contest (Suetta is another of Zoe’s favorite aunts who brings treats to shows).  She got at least two votes from the vendors – mine because she used a scrap from one of our old Paper Samplers, and Chuck from Grey Wolf Graphics because she used his stamp!

We Interrupt This Travelogue . . .

While I suspect that many of you expected my next post to be a continuation of our Arizona journey, new product info comes first.  Friday while I was setting up the booth for the Indianapolis show this weekend, the March Distress Color of the Month was announced . . .

I guessed it would be either blue or purple – then put a purple banner on the blog a day before the release (so I guess that makes me wrong).  As with the other two monthly releases, order the set of all six pieces at 20% Off the MSRP and it ships free in the Continental U.S.  Based on the response to the others, you’ll want to get your order in early so it can ship from the first batch we receive from Ranger – the color was posted at noon, and our order was in before 12:05 . . .

And if you’re waiting for the March Sizzix and Idea-ology releases, we got word that they should be arriving next week along with the straggler items from January and February.  Sounds like we’ll be in heavy shipping mode from midweek on!

Just in case you think our evenings are filled with fun and frivolity when we're at shows ... these boxes are filled with new arrivals that need to be priced!  Add computer work that needs to be done, and it's quite easy to stay out of trouble...

I have a thing for babbling brooks – the sound just soothes me.  Had a creek running through our lot when I was growing up, but not since we moved up the hill when I was 19.  And I have always missed it.  This pic was taken about three hours before Blake and I left for the airport on Tuesday.  That little waterfall beside me, and the guy sitting on the rock above me, make me smile.

Arizona 2015 (Part 1) . . .

My brother Blake and I have been visiting Mom and Dad in Tucson since Wednesday.  We have been looking forward to escaping the Ohio Winter for quite a while, but it went right down to the last minute – we had to change planes in Dallas-Fort Worth on the way, and there was a Winter Storm Warning there for an amount that northerners would just laugh at.  Thankfully, it stayed warm enough that they received only rain and we blew right through – though DFW cancelled hundreds of flights over the weekend when the Texas Winter finally did arrive.

Lots of images to share – most are hiking related and others are just cute . . .

 

Living proof that life goes on while vacationing in the 21st Century – Blake and I both brought laptops along and set up shop on the dining room table.  This was the view as we dropped everything to go across the park to play Pickleball with Dad.

 

Dad took us on a “warmup hike” the day after we arrived (Dad’s warmup hikes only last about six hours).  We went up to “The Dome” in Saguaro National Park, east of Tucson.  I find it fascinating that we can take strenuous hikes way up into the mountains and still see the city in the distance most of the time.  Every now and then, a hiker will encounter strands of fencing from the days when ranchers used this land – couldn’t resist taking a pic that I described as “Manmade Thorns and God-made Thorns”.

 

While we were on the dome, we visited with a man from Quebec who mentioned that he had always wanted to know the elevation there.  Being that close to town, I immediately whipped out my phone, went to the Google Play Store, put “altimeter” in the search box, and within seconds had one on my phone.  We have used it constantly ever since and it’s great when we’re dealing with the relentless climbs Dad takes us on (“relentless” has become a bit of a family joke over the past few days).  The altitude at The Dome was about 4,500 feet – the readout on this pic was taken at Mount Kimball the next day.

Afterward, Mom and Dad took us to The Gaslight Theatre – where Blake took his very first “selfie” on his birthday.  Because of the timing of Blake’s birthday and our parents’ winter escapes to Tucson, this was the first time they had seen Blake on his birthday since his youngest son Tyler was born 21 years ago.

 

On Friday morning, we set out at dawn on the Finger Rock Trail on the way to Mount Kimball – Dad said this was the most strenuous and most scenic hike in the mountains around Tuscon.  And he was right on both counts.

 

I took pictures of Finger Rock (it’s just to the left of the tallest peak on the right) at various points as we climbed the trail.

 

Eventually we couldn’t see it anymore, and finally the whole range was blocked by another peak as we continued to climb.

 

The trail looked like this all the way to the top.

 

There were lots of Saguaro Cactus along the trail at the lower elevations.  Dad had just explained how a hard freeze that lasts several days can cause the moisture inside a cactus to freeze, expand, and literally kill it from the inside.  And then we encountered these two fellows – I called the one on the left “The Scarecrow” and the one on the right “I Am Groot”.

 

At a “saddle” where the trail forked as we headed toward Mount Kimball, this camera was mounted in a secluded spot under a shade tree.  We found two more just like it a couple of days later.  I assume we were on Candid Camera, but we never heard the shutter click.

 

The scenery changes with the elevation – by 5,000 feet, the Saguaros were gone and were replaced first by scrub trees, and eventually by pine trees that brought the sights and scents of home.  I was amazed by these two stacks of enormous rocks in the middle of nothing else.

 

We finally reached Mount Kimball – six hours and 4,000 feet in elevation from where we started at the trailhead.  There were a couple of other hikers there when we arrived, so we took each others’ pictures at the summit.

 

The view from Mount Kimball is spectacular in all directions.  These are two views in the same direction – the one on the right is a closeup so you can see the little white specs just above the middle of the picture.  That’s Biosphere 2 about 40 miles in the distance . . .

The trip back down the mountain took 4½ hours and was every bit as grueling.  Blake and I were both really sore the next day, so we played a little Pickleball with Dad, caught up on our work, watched the Dayton/VCU basketball game, and observed life in the park where our parents live.  And that observation led Blake to take one of the most endearing photos I have ever seen . . .

Almost 58 years of marriage, and our parents have still got it . . .

New Stuff on the Horizon . . .

Greetings from the Winter Wonderland – 6” more inches of winter got blown off my driveway this morning.  But not before I put this on my Facebook page . . .

“Ah, the thrill of the Saturday morning scavenger hunt ... wandering out onto a driveway covered with a blanket of new snow ... looking for that one tiny blemish where the snow looks just a bit deeper ... dipping my hand into that blemish ... and pulling out my newspaper”

And this . . .

“Perhaps our southern brethren would like to go out and sweep the palm fronds off their driveways in an act of solidarity. . .”

Yes, I was in a mood this morning.  But now to subjects more fitting for our business . . .

Nothing like putting them all in one graphic – these are the 32 new Spellbinders dies that released yesterday.  Click on this link or on the graphic to see all of them!

And this is something we hadn’t decided for sure that we were going to carry, until we started getting requests for them.  These are the some of the new Tim Holtz Kraft-Core Collections – the Metallics look especially interesting, and there are three sets of A2 cards and envelopes!

And now it’s time to go back out into the weather – I have video duty at church this afternoon and a cards/board games/snacks evening with some high school friends this evening.  Have a great weekend!

In Bitter Cold, It Takes So Little to Make Me Happy . . .

The farther south you go, the less winter weather it takes to make everyone go directly to Defcon 5.  I have friends in Florida griping about temps in the 40s – friends in Tennessee with ice bringing down tree limbs – friends in Kentucky who got a foot of snow on Monday.  And here it was five below this morning (with –25 windchill) and expected to be ten below tonight.  So we take our enjoyment where we can get it . . .

Since I gripe at Ranger (and other suppliers) when new releases come late, it seems only fair to note that two boxes of the new February Distress Color arrived this morning – a day earlier than we expected.  So the first 100 or so of you who ordered these are going to start getting happy e-mails from our system.

And this one is personal – but fun.  In December 1975, American Legion Post 615 in my hometown sponsored a Citizenship Test for the seniors at our high school.  I don't remember much about the test -- except that we got out of class to take it -- but I got the highest score and was awarded a $50 U.S. Savings Bond.  I put it in a safe deposit box and have rarely thought about it for years.  But a couple of nights ago, I ran that bond and several others through the Savings Bond Calculator to see what they're worth today.  That $50 bond stopped earning interest nine years ago -- and now it's worth $269.50.  Ah, the power of compound interest.   The Legion is responsible for lots of good deeds in our town – this is just one of them.

I put this on my Facebook page yesterday – most reacted like I did, but one wet blanket started lecturing me about inflation and taxes and how in the long run I will have actually lost money.  His comment started with “I hate to burst your bubble . . .”

But my bubble is still intact – I didn’t spend a dime to get the bond, and it brings back a lot of fond memories.  Anything monetary that comes with it is just a bonus . . .