Travelin' Fool

One of the drawbacks of spending so much time "on the road" is that I feel like I lost some steam in the scraping department. I shot many photos and read many blogs (which my ipod would NOT let me comment on!) and unfortunately (for my budget)... I bought more product than I will ever use as I skulked the aisles of Salt Lake City scrap stores.

Warning- this is a looong post about shopping in the scrap book capital of the universe- Salt Lake City.

As I look at my desk, I wonder, will I be a headline in the NY Post? "Brooklyn Woman Suffocates Under Fallen Scrap Paper Pile". Hmmm... that's probably too long for a headline.
CRISIS!!!!
I spent most of the day trying to make something and unpacking the 3 shopping bags of scrap crap I brought home. Yes 3 bags. I can't believe how heavy a shoulder bag can get when filled with 12 by 12 paper (the paper pile was 4 inches thick)... (!!!).
Thankfully JetBlue let me carry my 2000 pound bag onto the plane as I was too paranoid to pack it in with the checked luggage. It was vitally important I got my new stash home. Included is new Amy Tangerine for American Crafts, new Bo Bunny Ect. line and most importantly- vintage Crate and Sassafrass Lass collections I have lusted over but never bought since they are hard to find.
I hit up some FANTASTIC stores

• Joann's had 40% off on EK Success tools so I finally got the slim line binding edge punch and the new dimensional flower Dahlia punch plus an insane amount of alpha stickers at 50 cents a sheet. 

• I hit up 3 Hobby Lobby stores (there are none in NY state). It was wonderful to walk the HUGE store in Sandy Utah with perfectly clean floors and full aisles- the slow check out (no bar code scanners!!!) did not dispel my gleeful kid in the candy store feelings.

• On our way to the Overstock.com outlet store (I KNOW!!! That's not something you find in NYC) I found a store called Tuesday Morning (chorus- THAT'S NOT FOUND IN NYC)- where I scored HUGE on Girl's Paperie collection packs for 20 bucks. I got the entire Christmas 2010 collection and some random Halloween stamps someone probably switched for the Christmas ones. The check out lady told me Utah is the scrapbook capital of the US- more product is made and sold there than anywhere else. This is highly apparent as I sought American Crafts Thickers from the Sunrise and Campy Trails collections which were- alas- sold out everywhere. As were all October Afternoon Mini Market stickers. 

Bad photo of the AWESOME Amy Tan collections over at Archivers

• Then I found a store I would literally move into if it came to NYC- Archivers- over in Orem, Utah. Archivers had everything. EVERYTHING. New Crate. New American Crafts. New and Vintage Pink Paislee. New and Vintage Sassy. The entire Smash collection (SQUEAL!!!). Plus all the Mini Market OA stickers I wanted. WOOOOOOO HOOOOO! The young and cheerful sales girl yammered on and on about how much she wanted to move to NYC so I told her I would GLADLY change places with her and take her job. I love Utah. LOVE IT!!!!

I also hit up some fantastic independent stores. I fully support these hardy folks- it's HARD to make it in the mall sprawl of Utah so you have to be great and choose your merchandise carefully.

• Heartfelt Creations was wonderfully full of all kinds of cool new stuff. I got entirely too much My Mind's Eye candy and finally saw the Authetique lines in person.  I liked how the store was organized by theme so you could walk right on up to the Back To School aisle and scoop up all the Reminescence, Echo Park and Fancy Pants Summer 2011 CHA loveliness. The other half of the store is devoted to Quilting but I had to leave as David was freaking out- the store sits right next to a highway so there was nothing for him to do but chase Lola away from the brad bins.

• At Paper Creations I met the owner who- GASP!- let me into the back of the store where they had the new Crate lines which had just been unpacked. I swooned- literally. My hands shook. That's when you know you are AN ADDICT. I bough 2 of everything. I even found the die cut cloud paper from the Weather line!! WOO HOO! The staff is highly knowledgeable and did not blink when I made following crazed request: Give me 1 each of all your graph print paper. With over 200 hundred distinct paper brands in the store the sweet sales person cheerfully flitted down the aisles and loaded me up with vintage Dream Street, Scenic Route, Making Memories, Pink Paislee and dozens more- I was IMPRESSED. But no Campy Trails Thickers- sold out- sorry. :)

Stamps over at Heartfelt

Crate Paper at Paper Creations

By the time I hit Mommy and Me Scrapbooking I was feeling distinctly evil for making David drive me around and chase Lola away from the shelves for an entire week. Mommy and Me had lots of kits which didn't interest me as everything is pre-cut and designed. I later realized this is great as a starter pack (gateway drug) for a family member you want to introduce (induct into the cult) to scrapbooking. Can I just say I have a great husband? Yes he complained, scowled and wondered just WHO IS GOING TO PAY FOR THIS? (YOU KNOW WHO!!!! Stop playin'!!!) but he was willing to drive me everywhere and I didn't have to worry he would loose Lola- David is by far the more protective parent. I am more let's wait and see what she does NOW which is usually:
1. fall
2. freak out in frustration
3. break anything within a 4 foot radius
or
4. all of the above.

So that's it- my entire 3 weeks in Salt Lake City. Yes we went to plenty of parks and pools and wonderfully family friendly restaurants- over all- it was the most family and budget friendly (paper frenzy not included) fun I've had in years.

MuChOs SmOoChEs!
Michelle