Just write, already...

I've been sitting here at this screen avoiding doing the second entry to this new blog. I can't really even articulate why I started it. Unlike a lot of other bloggers that I've been reading, I'm not a member of a design team, I'm not starting my own new line of the most to-die-for embellishments or rubber stamps, etc. I know a lot of demonstrators have blogs in addition to their Stampin' Up! demonstrator business website as a savvy business tool. Right now, I don't have any plans to share this with my few occasional customers, and it certainly right now isn't being planned as a business tool. I am not even sure if I will share my blog in my Splitcoast signature. I can't guarantee that it will even be about stamping, despite the title that I chose for it. Right now, I've been so unproductive, stampingwise, that at least initially I won't be pressuring myself to post my stamping. I hope that eventually I will find it inspiring to me to go stamp something so I can share it, but I'm not ready yet. So, for now, I guess it will be about whatever I want it to be.

Yesterday I started a story about how I started stamping. To be honest, my story is not unique. I would imagine that a lot of stampers and scrappers did not expect to gain a new hobby when attending the first workshop/crop/class/event. As I said before, when I went to Wendy's workshop, I had no intention of buying a thing.

I could stop right now and go find my old catalogs and probably come up with the names of the sets that Nicki (the demonstrator, and now my upline) used, but I don't want to pretend that I have total recall. I remember we used an autumn set to do one of the make and takes. I seem to remember Nicki using the SU! chalks and a blender pen to color in an image. I vividly recall the flyer that she handed out, about the stamp that Stampin' Up! had designed to donate to the 9/11 fund. I still have that stamp.

It was funny, really. I don't know what I expected when I got there, but I don't think I ever expected that I would get to stamp. Once I became a demonstrator myself, I could look back on that first workshop I attended and realized that Nicki had followed an established (and VERY smart) workshop outline. The projects and demonstration were designed to display a variety of stamping products and styles. When doing the coloring that I already mentioned, Nicki handed around the coloring duties so we all got a chance. I have always loved coloring in coloring books (within the lines, thank you very much LOL) and so I know that I enjoyed that. But what sold me, absolutely sold me... I have to be honest here. This is not my analogy. I was at a Stampin' Up! convention a few years ago and someone completely encapsulated what happened when I got to stamp that make and take. "When I put that stamp onto the inkpad, it was like a first kiss, and I was in love."

I was a demonstrator's dream customer - I bought as much of the items that she'd just demonstrated as I could. My first order totalled over $165. I had to buy that 9/11 stamp. I bought a red and blue marker to color in the stamp (she'd shown us how to huff on the stamp after coloring). I'm sure I bought a black stamp pad. I remember buying a single stamp with a birdhouse on it, darn I can't remember the name and it's killing me not to go look up in an old catalog! I'm pretty sure that I bought blender pens, the chalks, and a Nativity stamp set called Greatest Gift. I am trying like crazy to remember what else I bought but I just don't. I only remember the total was over $150, and my husband's comment when I got home. He didn't care that I'd spent that much. Though we couldn't spend recklessly then or now, we could afford the purchase or I wouldn't have made it. Dean's comment to me still makes me laugh. He said, "Great, more crap you won't use!" After all, he knew that I'd bought that stuff from Creative Memories and not done a thing with it. There was no reason to assume that stamping would be any different.

The rest of the journey to Stampingkelly will have to wait for another day. I need to do some laundry and plan what I'm going to make for lunch tomorrow since we're having company. I invited our former pastor and his wife to come for lunch after church. He's serving as a guest preacher for the next few weeks and they have a 30-40 minute drive home after church. I thought it might be a long ride home with no lunch, and who wants to plan on going to a fast food place for lunch every Sunday for the next several weeks?

Until then, cheers!

I guess I'm a blogger, now...

So, welcome to my blog. Do I really have a blog? If a blogger rambles on and no one is there to "hear" it, did it really happen? For now, I'll just pretend that I'm alone in this forest and no one will hear me. LOL


My journey from Just Plain Kelly to Just Plain Stampingkelly began in September of 2001. I received a last minute invite from my younger son's former teacher to a Stampin' Up! workshop. Having been to a few of her home parties in the past, I knew I could count on a fun time, laughter, and good food. But one thing I knew for sure... I wasn't going to spend a bit. You see, I'd been to a Creative Memories party a few years before, spent quite a bit of money, and proceeded to not use even a sticker in all that time. The concept of scrapping appealed to me - besides reading any book that I could get my hands on, one of my other favorite activities was looking at the photo albums that my mom had made and listening to her "behind the photo" stories. However, though I'd bought some stuff, I'd convinced myself that I had no time and no talent - two fears I still battle for what it's worth.


So, "knowing" that I didn't have a creative bone in my body, I went to Wendy's party intending just to be a warm body there.


It seems like just yesterday, really, but it was just about 6 years ago exactly because I remember that it was late September. The nation was still reeling from the horrific events of 9/11/01. A little community, a little diversion, seemed like a good thing to pursue.


Off to Wendy's apartment I went, not knowing that the events there would change me for the better, provide me with a much-needed outlet, and enrich me with dear friends and a renewed connection with family, my church, and my God.


I think I'll leave the "rest of the story" for tomorrow. I have to finish up preparing for the women's Bible study tomorrow morning. Also, since DH and older DS are out (working, and "at Nick's", respectively), younger DS has chosen a movie and put it into the DVD for our enjoyment. Now playing? Monty Python and the Holy Grail.


Until then, cheers!