Loads of inspiration this week

Hello Everbody!

I wanted to stop in to let you know that this week (and next) will be loaded with inspiration for your crafty little brains.  Why? Two things, actually. First off, the annual Summer Craft & Hobby Assoc. show will be happening very soon in Chicago and that means Sneak Peeks from all the vendors. Secondly, we will be celebrating Christmas in July at the Station.

I am not sure, really, which Holiday is Donna's favorite; Halloween or Christmas.  But every year at this time she gets completely out of control with ideas, makes my head spin, and then runs off on vacation to Ocean City. It's that time again....  I am trying really hard to keep her in line, but seriously, it is a losing battle.  I think she scares Terry too because she just left on vacation!  So, forgive me if I am a little more distracted as usual but it really is a full time job to keep up with her!

Before she runs away she will be teaching a ton of fabulous classes- and I even have pictures of some of them!  So, in order of appearance, here they are:

Card Club July 10th & 17th

Beach Tray July 12th

Christmas cards  July 15  11 am  & July 19

Christmas Cards July 15 2pm

There will also be a third set of Christmas Cards on July 26th but I don't have those samples yet.

I will also be teaching a Christmas in July Layout (2 page Scrapbook Page) on Saturday, July 21st.  It is almost done and I will post a photo soon.


Now- for the new CHA releases....

There are so many!  They are being posted daily, in fact in some cases every few hours.  There is no way I can keep up with all of them but as something really strikes me I do link to it on the Facebook Page.  Please check there daily and comment on the things you like.  The more comments I get the easier it is for me to decide what to order.

I will be working on the newsletter tomorrow so until then; Happy Crafting!

Christmas In July - Part 1

This is set 1 of the Christmas In July cards. This class will be Sunday, July 15th at 11am

This one is sure to sell out so call today to register!

Amazing Artwork

I would like to share with you something that makes me very happy.


A local artist, who is also a customer and friend of The Inspiration Station has given me permission to share a piece of her artwork with you. She is the ring-leader of a small group of artists whom she has named the Creative Journalist Society and inspires us every month with her amazing talent. Below is her creation for our June meeting; the theme was "The Inspiration Station".

Artwork by Jill Mordasky - All Rights Reserved.

This gorgeous watercolor sketch was created by the amazing and multi-talented, Jill Mordasky. Look closely at how she incorporated so many small details that she found in and around our store.  The first thing that caught my eye was our little squirrel out back (yes, you know how I see squirrels) with the caption "Come gather lots of ideas". I love all of the colors she used and how she added pieces of the store facade, the flower boxes and even the granite steps on the side of the building. But then look what she did. She sketched the padlock on one of our doors out back and wrote "Come inside to unlock your creativity and bring joy to your life..."  I love it!


Thank you, Jill, for allowing me to share this with my friends. I am so honored that you chose to be inspired by my little happy place!


To see more of Jill's work you can follow the link under the photo.  Her work is often on display at the Stafford Public Library and in various exhibits in the area.

Summer Camp Bus Tour 2012

Summer Camp Bus Tour Announcement...

Take a break this summer and join Right at Home Scrapbooking, The Inspiration Station and Papercraft Clubhouse on our Summer Camp 2012 Bus Tour. 

On Sunday, August 19th the Camp Bus will pull up at each of these three fabulous stores, do a roll call, then you and your camp counselor will begin your adventure packed journey!  This is a unique trip since you will be able to travel to both MA and CT stores on the same Camp Bus.  You will not want to be left behind. 

You will start your journey with a continental breakfast at your Home store, some quick shopping, and chatting with friends, board the Camp Bus and begin your papercrafting journey to the next Camp.  Games (and did we mention prizes) will keep you busy while in transit. 

At each store you will receive a free gift, discounted shopping, lunch (at one store), and special demos prepared especially for you.  You will have ample time to find out what makes each of these unique stores so special, make some new friends, and, of course, do some shopping before boarding the Camp Bus and heading to your next stop. 

A limited number of seats are available at each location.  Tickets must be purchased in advance from your host store (this is the store where you will start and end your journey). The cost of this fun day is $65.00 payable at time of your registration.  This fee is non-refundable unless the store has a wait list.  

Registration Begins Tuesday, June 26^th at 10:00am with a special gift for those who register before July 15^th. 

Check out our Blog and Facebook Page for more peeks of what fun we have planned! 

Busy time of year

Whoever said, "Summer time and the livin' is easy", must have lived in a different world! 

There is nothing "easy" about this summer for me anyway.  Life is incredibly crazy at the Riendeau household (as it usually is) and summer time means added craziness at the store as my ladies all take vacations.  Below is a rundown of some of the things happening at the store, but first a few updates on my personal craziness.  Feel free to scroll down if you are not interested, you won't hurt my feelings!

First off, a huge relief and sense of pride this week as my youngest son, Adam, graduated from high school.  For those of you who know a bit about my son, and the struggles he has had over the years battling a disabling combination of Asperger's syndrome and mental illness, you know that we weren't sure we would ever see this day. As difficult as the last few years have been, the really hard work now begins as he tries to find his place in this world. If you believe in prayer, I ask that you keep him in your prayers.  He has a very hard road ahead of him, but today we celebrate this achievement.

A peek into our new living room

Now onto my house...  We are moving along much quicker on the construction than I was anticipating!  That is a good thing, especially after the nightmare we dealt with while building the barn/garage last year.  However, now is the time that I am required to be more involved in the day to day of the construction and decision making.  The electrical and plumbing passed inspections this week and insulation and drywall are set to begin as soon as the temperature drops below 90-- insulation is bad enough on a cool day but in this heat and humidity it is downright torture!






Of course, moving along quickly means I have to sell my current house...  See my previous post for my lament about that.  If you know anyone looking for a great property for horses, equipment storage, or just an enormous amount of space, the house is listed with Coldwell Banker and our agent is Pam Moriarty.  She's awesome.

Here's a look at some of the shopping I've been doing!

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So, now that you have seen some of my crazy life out side the store I suppose you want to know what's happening IN the store.  Well, we are joining forces with 7 other stores in Mass and CT for a Summer Stroll from July 1 through Sept. 8th.  More details can be found in my previous post.  It's a great way to spend a couple of days with your girlfriends taking road trips!


Speaking if road trips, how would you like to take a road trip but leave the driving to someone else?    Take a break this summer and join Right at Home Scrapbooking, The Inspiration Station and Papercraft Clubhouse on our Summer Camp Bus Tour.  On Sunday, August 19th the Camp Bus will pull up at each of these three fabulous stores, do a roll call and then you and your camp counselor will begin your adventure packed journey!  This is a unique trip since you will be able to travel to both MA and CT stores on the same Camp Bus.  You will not want to be left behind.   More information will be posted tomorrow.


We also will be running a Kid's Kamp for children ages 8 and older.  See details here.


Of course, summer time also means Christmas in July and this year the classes will fall on Sunday, July 15th .  Donna has all sorts of fabulous ideas but as always, they are still in her head so I have nothing to show you!  I will keep on her though and hopefully will have some samples for next week's newsletter.


Now, to clear up something we have been getting a lot of calls about.  No, we will NOT be doing a Customer Tag Sale this year.  The tag sale is an enormous amount of work for us and we just cannot do it at this time (read the above!)  I know many people look forward to it, but with all of the other things we have going on (me in particular) it just is not a good use of our time and resources.  Will we ever do it again?  Probably.  But when we do we will be doing it differently.  It will need more vendor involvement in the way of set up and take down to free up our staff.  I am still trying to find a happy medium between having it and doing away with it completely.  When things settle down I can give it more thought.


I'm sure there is more to catch up on but I need to get to the store to take over while Donna teaches her Tim Inspired Tags class so it will have to wait for the next post.  If you want more frequent updates please go to our Facebook page and "like us".  That is much easier for me to update ( I can do it from my phone!).  Also, when you are in the store, be sure to "Check In" on your smartphone.  That helps keep us showing up in your news feed.

Kids Kamp with Kristen

Summer Stroll 2012

Please join us this year for our Summer Stroll 2012.  We promise you a summer full of fun as you visit all of the Crafter's Home stores in Massachusetts and Connecticut.

Stop in to the Station beginning June 15th and before July 15th, and purchase a Summer Stroll Passport for $10.00.  Our summer stroll passports will be valid July 1 through September 8th, 2012.  In addition to your passport you'll also be receiving a fabulous shopping bag from us in July.  This bag will be perfect to bring with you on your stroll and elsewhere.

What do you get with your summer stroll Passport-You will get to visit each of the participating stores and receive a one-time 20% discount off your product purchase (some exclusions may apply, please check with each store).  That store will then validate that you have visited them, and then you'll be off to your next store.  This is such a great way to visit all your favorites and even check out a few you have always wanted to see. 

All completed passports should be returned to your home store (the one you purchased the passport from) by the week of September 8th, so that you will be entered into the drawing.   We will be having a drawing for a prize valued at $100.00 - That's right you just might win $100.00 worth of goodies.  There will be a winner announced at each store the week of September 10th. 

Passports are available for purchase from June 15th through July 15th, after July 15th they will no longer be available. 

 Here's a list of the fabulous participating Summer Stroll 2012 stores:

Absolutely Everything

Ink About It

New England Scrapbook Company

Papercraft Clubhouse
Right at Home Scrapbooking

The Crop Shop

The Inspiration Station

Wiggles & Giggles

Please check with each store’s website for their summer hours.

For links to all participating stores websites please visit:

http://www.rightathome.typepad.com/summer_stroll_2012/

We look forward to strolling with you this Summer!

Something NEW!

Open Crop Days
Sundays this summer
June 3, 17, & 24
July 1, 8, 22, & 29
August 5, 12, 19, & 26

Bring everything you need to crop/craft in our classroom
Noon - 4pm
$5 registration fee payable at sign up will be applied to your $20 purchase during the crop. So it’s like cropping for FREE!
Please pre-register to reserve your seat.

Long time, no see...

Yes, I have been MIA from the Blog-o-sphere.
Life is just so busy and there is so much time involved in keeping up with all the different media outlets; website, blog, newsletter, Facebook, etc.  I really need to clone myself so I can keep up with everything!

As most of you know, I am in the process of building a new home so that is where the majority of my attention has been for the past two months.  The process is going along quite quickly (now that we have a reliable contractor) and there are decisions that have to be made everyday.  You could say I'm a bit overwhelmed by it all. The plan is to be moved in by Labor Day but really it looks like we may get in earlier.  The bigger issue is selling our current house. This is a very spacious house with a lot of unique features that make it impossible to compare to other properties in the area, so the real estate agents are at a loss of how to price it. It is going to be a great value to the right buyer, but finding that right person could be another story. 
Here's the situation:
The house itself is nothing special; just a 4 bedroom ranch with a finished basement.  However, it sits on 14 acres of land with a 6,000 square foot heated Garage/Barn.  It also has an enclosed in-ground swimming pool just off the master bedroom.  In reality, it should be valued at about $500,000.  The problem is, in this rural town, nothing has sold above $300,000 for several years.  There are two lakes in town and the majority of houses that have sold are lake cottages well under the $200,000 mark.  Bottom line- people who can afford this house are not looking to move into this town.  It's a shame really because it's a great little town.  We need to find someone who has horses or lots of equipment (like a landscaper) who wants to buy the property for the massive barn.  If you know anybody let me know!

In other news:  Next weekend we will welcome Marah Johnson to The Inspiration Station for her first visit.  She will be teaching three classes here on Friday, May 25th.  The ATC class in the morning is almost full but there is room in the Whimsical Drawing and Doodling class and the Altered Niche Book class so call us to sign up.

Loads of new goodies have arrived in the past week too including the Mixaparts necklaces and Simple Stories Summer Fresh line.

A fun and fabulous weekend

This past weekend was a blur of activity, but we also had a ton of fun.

On Saturday, we had the always entertaining, Ken Oliver from Unibind in to teach his Steampunk style mini book.  I have heard nothing but rave reviews of his class and everyone left smiling. On Sunday, he came back bright and early to help us set up for the bus tour. He was so sweet and even helped the girls carry tables out to the back lot to set up for lunch.  I bet he didn't know we were going to put him to work! At the end of the day he was even breaking down boxes and taking out the trash.  I can't even get my husband to do that! 

The Bus Tour was a great success once again.  This time, all of our mishaps occurred prior to the day of the trip, so we were in pretty good shape.  No snow, no plumbing issues, no stuck or broken down buses; just a minor glitch with a receipt printer-which seems to happen on a regular basis.  The refrigerator died on Thursday night but we were able to get someone in to fix it immediately so no harm done.

Our favorite bus Driver, Phil, came back again this year- I think he likes us as much as we like him.  The ladies even got him to do a couple of make & takes at the other stores!  He's such a good guy; we ask for him every year.



So what's next on the agenda?  Well... On Friday, May 25th Marah Johnson from Creative Imaginations and Luminarte is coming in to teach THREE classes at The Inspiration Station!  In June, we have the amazing, Suzanne Dean, returning to share her Copic magic.  To register for Suzanne's classes please visit her website at www.cmcroad.com- These classes fill quickly so don't wait!

Here is the class info:
June 9th & 10th

Stafford Springs, CT

at 
Inspiration Station

13 Furnace Ave.
Stafford Springs, CT 06076
(860) 684-2641

 

Saturday Classes:
Beg/Intermediate Class starts at 9 am - 2:30 pm $90
Advanced Class starts 3:10 pm - 6:50 pm $80


Sunday Class:

All About Hair (3 hours) starts at 10 am - 1:15 pm $60
(covering all kinds of hair styles & colors)
**if Beg Class fills up may add 2nd class to Sunday**

New Low Everyday Prices on Sizzix

New Lower Pricing
We have been working with Sizzix to get a better deal on their popular machines and are now pleased to announce new lower everyday prices on the Sizzix Big Shot and Vagabond machines!  Effective immediately the  Big Shot will now sell for $69.99 and the Vagabond for $199.99.  These are super low prices so no other discounts or sales apply. If you've been on the fence about either of these machines, now is a great time to grab them. Don't worry if they sell out; we'll order more!

A little March Madness

The month of March has flown by at supersonic speed; I have not had a chance to catch my breath.  I really think I need a few more days in each week because I just can't seem to get everything done that I want to.
Things are only going to get more hectic from here on out since my husband and I signed a contract with a builder to get started on our new house!  Thankfully, I have great staff at the store who can pretty much run the show when I am not around.


It's hard to believe that the 2012 Bus Tour is only 2 weeks away! I have been so busy planning guest instructors, taking classes, planning classes, updating inventory, trying to keep up with posting new product, and on and on and on; I haven't even had time to think about the bus tour.  Fortunately, I had ordered the page kits weeks ago and they are already here so that's one thing down.  My mom is taking charge of ordering the food for lunch, Donna and Terry are working on name tags and prize baskets so that leaves me with shopping for all of the breakfast and snack foods along with paper goods and such.

This past week we have seen a lot of new merchandise arriving including....Ta Da!!!  The Distress Markers!  We also got in the amazing Dylusions spray inks, however, we have already sold out of several colors.  Reorders have already been placed.  The new 6 x 8 Documented line from Simple Stories has arrived and is also flying out the door.  New stamps from Penny Black arrived today, although I haven't seen them yet.  Two new board programs from Inky Antics and Darcie's came in on Tuesday too so there are plenty of new stamps to choose from.
Special Guests:


I spoke with Ken Oliver this morning to finalize the plans for his visit on April 14th & 15th.  I am so excited to have him back.  Last weekend I also touched based with Marah Johnson from Creative Imaginations who will be visiting us in May.  Suzanne Dean is planning to come back to teach the weekend of June 9th.  Cheryl Mezzetti is going to come back during the summer although we haven't set a firm date yet, it will be shortly after CHA Summer.  (And I am supposed to be building a house during all this??)  Oh, and I almost forgot; my youngest son will be graduating from high school!  So needless to say, folks probably won't be seeing much of me over the next few months.  But don't worry.  You're in good hands with the girls.

Special Events Reminder

Just a quick reminder of our special events this week.
Tomorrow Nathalie from Magenta Rubber Stamps will be here to teach two classes. 

Even if you are not able to come to class, you can still come by between classes to meet Nathalie and see her beautiful artwork.  She will be bringing a "Trunk Show" of stamps with her that will be available for purchase and will also have a catalog available to allow you to special order anything that she does not have on hand. Nathalie is charming woman I think you will enjoy meeting her and learning more about Magenta.

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Are you interested in learning more about the Sizzix eClips machine?  Cheri and Jill from Sizzix will be here on Tuesday, March 27th at 11:00am for a FREE demonstration of the eClips, eCal software and the Stamp And Cut Software from Tim Holtz. I've also heard they may be bringing some prizes...

Upcoming steampunk album class

Crazy busy, new products, bus tour etc.

This has been a crazy, busy week here at The Inspiration Station!
Remember all of that stuff I said I bought at the CHA Winter show?  Well, I think all of the vendors decided to send it this week!  We have been getting shipments in everyday loaded with papercraft goodness. I think just about every display in the scrapbook section of the store has been changed out this week and a whole mess of papers have been moved to clearance. *Hint* Today would be a great day to shop!

In addition, we have completely filled our bus for the bus tour and I have been working with Ken Oliver of Unibind to plan for his upcoming visit. He is coming up to demo for the bus tour but will be coming a day early to teach a class. Did you know Ken is also a member of the Spellbinders design team?  Of course, that means he will be using the dies in his class as well.