New October Kits - 8:00 central time tonight!!!

New kits will go on sale tonight at 8:00 - see some sneak peeks below for those who can't handle the suspense! My girls who were here packing the other night agreed this could be their most favorite kit yet! Not only will this kit have the exclusive Journaling Cards, but I have also brought back the exclusive scalloped cards from August - this time in red and black, and just the large ovals (you get 6)!

And the Project Kit this month is to "die" for (ha)!

Please Remember: EVERYONE who would like either/both kits must go directly to the site and purchase it. We will not be billing anyone this month and are unable to honor any current memberships, even those that were just re-upped last month. You will also be unable to purchase a new membership currently. We are sorry for the inconvenience. I have lowered the price of the one-time purchase of the Papercrafting Kit temporarily for this reason.

Now on to the "peeks". . .

Crumbling under the pressure- here's a sneak peak!

These sweet little journaling cards have been in my "head" for a while! You get these 6 in this month's kit:

And guess what? You get another set of 6 in the November kit!! I can't tell you how happy these make me! And they are currently only available in the kits. . .

More hints to come this week. . .

If you are still wanting to purchase any of the back kits, we still have all that were listed in the post (just scroll down to see).

Have a great night!

The Present and The Future - Please Read!

Okay, so I know that I may get long winded (at least I can admit it!) so I have bolded the text in the post that is most important if you would like to skip to it!

A lot of you, if not most of you, have watched the evolution of our site over the past 8 months. Actually, as I type this I realize that evolution is kind of an ironic word to choose. There really has been a lack of evolution. Where I wanted to be at this point is so far from where I actually am. Many things, some that have been out of my control, have stifled my progression into what I wanted this to be. However, it is said that experience is the best teacher. I wonder if you can hear me shout "Amen"!?!? I wholeheartedly believe that my experiences have prepared me for the future and given me a clearer idea of what I want to do with this site and how I want to do it. So on to the future. . .

I am so excited about the vision in my head and what the site will become. And it will be soon (as in before the end of the year)! My goal has never been to just throw together some paper and stickers, shove it in a bag, and add a price tag. It has been far more than that. I wanted to create projects and kits and classes that stimulate the creative mind. I wanted to build a community (i.e. the "site") that promotes and fosters this spirit. A place to come for inspiration and to share inspiration. It has always been part of the "big picture" and it is finally going to come to fruition. I plan to share sneak peaks and updates as we go along. We are going to totally revolutionize the way we do memberships. It will be painless, easy and accurate and we will be overcoming some of the challenges we have had with safari and other browsers (yeah for Mac users)! I am very excited about what we are going to offer. . . but, in the interim, it means some temporary changes to the way we currently do business so read on!

Beginning on October 1st, the kits will all be sold as one time purchases through the cart at the site. We will not be able to honor current memberships nor begin new ones and will not be doing any automated billing. So, just to put it in simple terms, whether you are in the middle of a membership, just re-upped last month, etc., you will have to go to the website on October the 1st or later and actually purchase the kit(s) for that month. I understand that many of you enjoy your membership because you don't want to have to worry about buying the kit online - and chance it being sold out. While I understand that in the beginning the Papercrafting Kits were selling out in the middle of the night, this has not happened in months. In fact, I can guarantee you that we will not sell out overnight, if even during the entire month. There will be Papercrafting Kits for anyone who wants one. The Project Kits have been a little more unpredictable, but we have upped our quantities of these for the coming months as well. Other than the inconvenience of actually having to go to the site and make a purchase, the kits will come to you after the 10th just as you have enjoyed each month. We are hoping to only have to do it this way for one month, but we will obviously keep everyone posted on that.

You will most likely still see your membership information in "My Account" come the 1st, but you should also see a red note there at that time that tells you that that information is void and you must purchase a kit(s) through the secure check out.

We will be sending out this same information in a newsletter tomorrow as well (as many members are not blog readers). I will also post a reminder (and send a reminder e-mail) just before the first in order to hopefully reach everyone.

I appreciate so much the support I have received since I started this. I have many mailed letters and printed e-mails posted in my office and on my fridge that remind why I do this and who I do it for. I promise you- if it was just for the money I would have given it up a long time ago. It is not my motivation. It has really become much more than that. . .

I hope everyone has had a wonderful weekend. We have spent much time with the kids this weekend- school festivals, parks and the "Jumpy Place"! They even experienced their first Hibachi grill dinner last night and loved the "Volcano". Wish I took my camera. Seems I have been forgetting that a lot lately (sigh). . .

Past Kits For Sale Here!!!!

If you found the site later than sooner or just wanted to grab an extra of your favorite kit, I have some available for different months. My plan was to have this up at the site long ago, but plans don't work out always and I'm tired of waiting. So. . .

I will list below the different months that are available. If you go to the site (link to the right) and click on Monthly Inspiration you will see the archives for the past month's listed. You can view the contents here to get a good idea of what you will get. The Project Kits are shown as the last gallery on the bottom right of the page. Use the contact link at the site to send an e-mail with your order. Please include exactly what you would like in the e-mail and include your shipping address. Ruth will send you out a Paypal invoice (you can still pay by credit card this way without setting up an account though). So here are the "rules" (for lack of a better term):

1. - we are only accepting Paypal payments for these (as I mentioned, you can use your credit card to pay the invoice though). Ruth will send an invoice to you that includes actual shipping.

2. - we cannot hold these kits to ship with your October kit(s). These must be packed and shipped separately before the 1st.

3.- we will ship out your order within 1 -2 business days after receiving payment.

4. first come, first serve. I will post here if/when something sells out.

Okay- so here are the kits available:

- June 2006 Papercrafting Kit -$28.00 (reduced rate - this was the one with the exclusive JBS rubber stamp)!

- July 2006 Papercrafting Kit - $28.00 (reduced rate)

- March 2006 Project Kit - $16 (house accordion book)

- April 2006 Project Kit - $16 (star coasters)

July 2006 Project Kit - $18 (seashell book- previously sold out, I ordered a few more)

Many of you have e-mailed us over the past month about this. Sorry for the delay.

I have some exciting news to share about the future in the next couple of days. . .!

Enough's enough. . .

I just breezed through Tara Whitney's blog and I am bound and determined to get my camera out today (and sad that I haven't made it to CA for pictures). It seems I have only used it lately to take photos of layouts and that is making me very sad. Which brings me to this. . .

Had to laugh (and cringe) when I saw the latest comment on my last post! I wish it was as simple as getting a new programmer (which we are working on). I will post more about this in a couple of days and the evolution JBS will be going through. . . and I will leave you with this:

Does anyone else find their children asleep in mysterious places (and positions) in their house??

The story of my life. . .

The gallery is a mess. I have let my programmer know. Hopefully everything will look correctly again and all the new will be up by tomorrow night. In the meantime, here is a little something to hold you over!

Slight Delay. . .

Seems to be the story of my life this month. A slight delay in billing (the membership re-up portion of my automated billing took much longer than expected) and now a slight delay in shipping. Because the 10th falls on a Sunday this month, we of course planned to ship on Monday. However, kits will be going out on Tuesday instead. I still do not have my notebooks for the kit. The binding machine broke last week apparently and you know the rest of the story. Anyhow, if I wasn't promised them on Monday I would ship them out separate, but I'm hoping everyone will be understanding about 1 day. Honestly, the only people that would even notice would be the local girls who get their kits the next day! But I didn't want anyone to see the post date and think I was trying to slip one by them. . .

Also, to 75% of you, your accounts will look correct at the site. To the other 25%, it will not. I had to do alot of manual processing this month which is not reflected in the accounts yet, nor is it if I had to make a change to your order. At this point, everyone has been billed and we are set to go.

I am utterly exhausted. I have to come up with a better plan. I'm working on it.

So sorry I haven't posted lately. We finally finished our patio and had our first smore's roast last weekend with the neighbors (hubby built a fire pit). Here are a few photos:

That is Emily and Andrew with Christian at the top (they belong to Ruth and Rich). Rich wanted to make it on my blog but I couldn't get rid of the red eye in the photo I had of him and Emily! Noah dug out these goggles to keep the smoke out of his eyes. He has never been too concerned about his looks, which is highly evident here!

Oh - and here is a hint about this month's guest designer. You may know her as "Mary Grace", "Maria Grace", or just "Grace". Her style is truly one of a kind and she gives the best hugs!

Have a good weekend! Jenni

Kits are back up for sale!

So sorry about that. . .

Kits are NOT sold out!!

Give me a little while to get a hold of my programmers. I will post here when they are back up. For some reason they are showing as sold out at the site and the photos are missing. We will get them back up ASAP! Have I mentioned that my nice thick hair is slowly but surely thinning out?? I really have a love/hate relationship with computers!

Just as I predicted. . .

My programmer had the site working within 10 minutes when I posted- oh well!! Everything is cool now, as most of you already know!

I am actually hoping to get a newsletter out today -completely missed last month!

Thanks for the comments on the kit!! I can't wait to play with it myself.

The stencils I used to cut out the word "September" are from the C-Thru Ruler Company. It is the Helvetica 2.5" size. You can find these at Hobby Lobby and most major office supply stores. If you want to get it on the internet, try Dick Blick (or another fine arts supply store). I have had mine from back in the day when all we did was cut out letters!!! I have been using them again to trace titles directly on my background. . . hmm, maybe that would make a good technique for the month!