Please read- May kit information

As you know (if you read this blog regularly) we have hired a new web team to re-vamp our site. Most of it is behind the scences stuff that will make our life easier- and yours! Unfortunately, the developers have been a little delayed, and in order not to rush things, we are moving the sale date back a couple of days for the new May kits. So, DO NOT STAY UP UNTIL MIDNIGHT ON THE 1ST!! The new May kits will not be available for sale on the website until 12:00 a.m. May 4th. This will not affect the billing of current (or pre-signed up) members, or the shipping date (kits will still ship out on the 10th). This information is up at the website as well.

We plan to send out an e-mail in the next couple of days to members informing everyone of some exciting changes this month! I will post here as well.

We are in Atlanta today visiting my brother who just moved his family here. I have a handsome new nephew, Alex Jacob that I got to meet for the first time today. He is such a cutie - with red hair just like I had! I took some sweet photos this morning of him and Noah, who just loves babies!

Have a great weekend!

Promised Preview

I have been so swamped with getting the website ready for May, but I took this photo today of the MAY PROJECT KIT and wanted to show you! You will receive all of the supplies to make these sweet chipboard flowers as well as a small accordion book. I picked up this vase at the antique mall the other day and thought it would be great to hold pens, but it turned out to be PERFECT for this display. Paid $13 for it but would have paid $100!! I may have to make some of these in colors to match my studio. Jared says I kill anything green, so maybe these are more suited for me?

I have some things to share with you about the website this month, but I am waiting for some clear answers from my webteam. Keep checking back as I will post about some changes in the next couple of days!

This is what we did this weekend . . .

It was such a nice weekend! The boys both had games again on Saturday (Jared and I have matching sunburns) and then they played out back all day Sunday. Noah was pretty proud of his be be gun shooting (I know I didn't spell that right) and our neighbor Emily enjoyed the tire swing! I got my camera back and it is actually working better than before. I was suspicious that there was something wrong with the automatic focus and now I know for sure. It works like a charm now!

So I wanted to tell you about a great fundraiser that Karen Russell is putting together (how the girl found time to do this with a new baby I don't know)!! Below are some links with more information:

http://www.womenforwomen.org/wWIIndex.do;jsessionid=avMkZubUmulh?g11n.enc=ISO-8859-1

www.karenrussell.typepad.com

The fundraiser starts today and runs through May 8th I believe. You basically buy tickets that enter you in drawings for tons of great prizes. You could also win a layout (using your photos) by one of several people in the industry (including myself)! The Studio is also giving away a free month of both kits to one lucky winner! Check it out - it is a great cause and I'm so thankful that Karen felt led to organize this.

Speaking of feeling "led", Jared and I have several ideas in the future for ways to give back some of the kit proceeds each month to organizations we feel strongly about. I will keep you posted on those things in the near future. Our first goal is to raise the money to build a well in Africa. This is such a fantastic mission and I can't wait to tell you more about it.

Have a great Monday!

Feb. Subscribers whose membership is up. . .

We have been busy making changes with our new webteam for the site (you are going to LOVE these changes!!). In the meantime, we have tried to come up with a temporary way this month to renew our Feb. subscribers and this is what we have come up with.

If your membership was up with the April kit and you would like to continue for another 3 months, please go to the website and click on the link under the "sold out" button on the Papercrafting Kit page (or click here- http://www.jennibowlin.com/content.aspx?type=thismonthspaperkit ) This will take you to a sign up page where you will enter all of your shipping/billing information to start a subscription again with the May kit. This will essentially start you over (and give you a chance to make sure we have the most updated information in the database). You do have to fill in all of the information again and submit it. Unfortunately, our current system will not send you a confirmation (this is changing soon!) but you will get a "success" type screen that lets you know if came through. If you do not sign up again using this link, we will just assume you would not like to continue your membership at this time. We will be sending out an e-mail to those people this specifically applies to in the next 2 days, but most of you know who you are and can go ahead and sign up whenever you would like.

I will post about the changes coming to the site in May tomorrow or Sat. (I don't want to confuse the above right now). All I can say is the future will be effortless! I'm so excited!

I REALLY need to get my house under control next week (before we start packing May kits). I spent this afternoon going through the boys clothes and organizing everything (transitioning into summer). Got 4 loads of laundry done too so that was an accomplishment!

Jared was in Charleston the past two days for a convention. He called me many times telling me how much I would love it so we are planning a trip! He went into a shop near his hotel full of seashells but told me he didn't know what I would like (I really need to train him better). Didn't he know I would like ANYTHING from there? He came home with some sugar coated pralines instead.

I'd better get off now - I am being called to watch "Transporter 2". (I really think I had my fill with Transporter 1).

Quick Post

I wish I had more time in the day (don't we all)! I plan out my week (in my head) and it NEVER seems to go as planned. Friday comes and I didn't make it to half the things on my list.

We had a meeting last Friday with our new webteam. They are working now to rebuild our database and website. You won't notice many changes at first to the site, although we do have plans next month to do some refining to most of the pages. Most of the changes affect us and what we do behind the scenes. I will post more about the changes (you will appreciate all of them!) this week as I learn more about when they will be implemented.

I will post in the next two days about continuing a membership for those who's membership ended with the April kit. We will be sending out an e-mail as well to those people.

I don't know about where you are, but here in Nashville we seemed to have missed Spring again. It has been in the upper 70's even 80's for days now. We probably only had about 7 days in the 60's this year. I'm not complaining though - either way I'm glad to see the cold weather go away. I am a major flip flop girl!! I would wear them all year round if I wouldn't get strange looks.

More to come this week - I will tease the May kit some more! We will have quite a bit more of these kits to sell on the website at the first of the month and don't anticipate to sell out quite as fast as we did last month!

Have a great night. . .

What a good sport he is!

He makes the cutest little flower don't you think? Check out his latest scrape on his right arm - surprised there isn't a spongebob bandaid over it!

So Christian is giving you the first tease about the May kit! I had these exclusive chipboard frames made in two sizes. Isn't it the cutest thing you have ever seen! My mind keeps racing with ideas. You get one of these large ones and two smaller ones in your kit (including the chipboard circle centers). And here is one more hint in case that isn't enough:

These paper flowers are to die for! I only wish I could put this much in each kit but there was a supply issue so I took what I could! Each kit will get 3 I think. This gives you an idea of the theme and the color scheme! More to come. . .

We are headed out to my in-laws tomorrow for Easter. I finally got caught up on most of my e-mails, but will be unable to get to the new ones until we get back. We will most likely have a few kits left after April billing and they will go to the first people signed up to start with the May kit. We will contact you if you are one of those people next week.

We are meeting with our new webteam tomorrow. I'm excited to implement some changes and refine some things. They have already done most of the building, but we are beginning the process of moving over the database information. Once I get through this I will be able to tell you about some great enhancements we have coming and when they will be in effect.

For those of you whose membership obligation ended with April but would like to renew. . . After my meeting tomorrow we will know how we are going to go about the renewal process so, we will be contacting those members in the next week to 10 days about it. In the meantime, we have reserved a kit for every single one of you so there are no worries about being left out! We will just offer the kits of those who choose not to continue to the general sales on the 1st of the month.

Have a great Easter weekend!

I'm back . . .

barely, but I'm finally posting! So sorry, but things have been hectic. I've had alot of things going on with my family (and a few boxes to pack and ship)!

I got notes from many of you about the weather here on Friday. It was very scary, but we are all okay. When our sirens went off and the hail started falling, we took cover in a closet in the middle of the house. It didn't last for very long though. We were out of power for most of the afternoon, but this was a small inconvenience compared to what our neighbors were going through.

I couldn't believe the damage I saw - and literally only a few miles away from us. I always thought that having an all brick home was an advantage in this type of weather, but one neighborhood where 8 people were killed was filled with large, all brick homes, many of which had NOTHING left. It has been very humbling.

Both of the boys ended up in our bed that night. Noah did not actually go to sleep until about 3a.m. He really has a hard time with those things.

I want to give you a sneak peak of the May kit, but I am waiting to make sure I am definitely going to have something before I show it. I will be sure to post this week!

Also have an exciting preview to share about June!!

More very soon!!

ramblings. . .

So it's been a few days! I am feeling hopelessly behind. Some days I get overwhelmed and feel it is impossible to keep up. I'm looking forward to a time when all of the kinks are worked out, the new areas are implemented, and my focus can change a little. We are working on some things with our new webteam (which will take over after this billing) that will make my, and more importantly, your life a little easier at the site.

I appreciate all of the posts/e-mails I got about the weather here. We somehow escaped with barely a storm ourselves but some of our TN and KY neighbors were not as lucky. I was working at the ad agency in downtown Nashville in 1998 when the tornado came through there (very unusual) and vividly remember seeing the funnel cloud forming outside of my window. I was almost 8 months pregnant with Noah. Its not something I'd like to be that close to again!

We went out looking for cars this weekend. We have about decided not to go the SUV route again (I doubt gas prices will ever come back down). We know we need at least one vehicle that we can haul things in (antiques for me, mulch for him)! So, I think we are going to get a truck. I guess that means I can upgrade to some larger pieces now!

We will be doing all of the billing tomorrow for our members (was supposed to be today but my current webguy is having some type of connection problem tonight) and then shipping on the 10th. After the 10th we will be contacting all of the original Feb. subscribers about continuing their membership. And, speaking of the 10th, that's when the new monthly inspiration goes live. Here is a sneak peak at this month's highlighted technique!

Meeting the demand . . .

Boy, we have been trying to do this! Let me see if I can explain some of the reasoning behind this:

This has certainly been bigger then we ever imagined (thank you, thank you, thank you)! Although we use many tools to help us predict what to order each month, there is just so much that goes into it that can't be predicted. We base the bulk of our order quantity decisions on our Membership sign up. That is why I encourage everyone to sign up for membership at the site and have mentioned it here (and also why I keep it to only a 3 month commitment at one time). Now that the April kit is sold out, you are able to sign up to reserve a membership to begin with May. This will guarantee you a membership to begin with that kit (and guarantee that you won't have to ever stay up late again)! Having said that . . .

we did have to shut down this pre-sign up last month. Because of the amount of product we order, we have to place orders several weeks in advance. After two weeks of sign up, the numbers were getting high enough that we were almost sold out of the product quantities we had ordered (and I re-ordered twice)! So, I shut it down so that we would at least have some to sell last night.

What that means is this: if you have been trying to purchase each month unsuccessfully, you have the option at this moment (and at least for the next 10 days) to sign up to begin with May. We had this option available last month for almost two weeks. If you are one of the first people to sign up on this list, there is a good chance that you might actually still start with the April kit as we always end up with extra kits after we complete billing.

Hopefully that is helpful to some of you that are feeling frustrated. All I can tell you is that we are trying our best to include as many people as we can and will continue to make improvements each month.

Now. . . for those members that wanted to add a Project Kit to their subscription shipment, there is a button that you will see at checkout under the cart that asks you if you are a member and would like to receive reduced shipping. I received about 10 e-mails overnight that some of you didn't see this, so I am not 100% sure that it was there at first. I do see several receipts with the $1.75 add on now, so I know it is up and running currently. I will refund the extra shipping to those of you who didn't see this at first.

Also, it appears that the cart still said "March kit" instead of April at checkout (and on your receipts). No worries, you are getting the April kit. It was just something that my webguy missed.

And finally, if you are an original subsciber from Feb. (as your 3 month commitment is up after April) and would like to continue your subscription, we will be contacting you (and I will post about here on the blog) after the 10th of April. We have basically already counted you in the number for May so there will of course be a kit for any of you that want to continue.

I always get loads of e-mails the first of the month, so it may take me a couple of days to get back to everyone, okay?

Have a great Saturday! It is in the 70's here - so looking forward to that!