It’s coming. 

*What’s* coming? 

EVERYTHING, it seems! 

The County Fair (our booth setup began today & will continue tomorrow), son David’s wedding (only 10 more days, and I’m still stamping for it), and daughter Kim and her husband are arriving, too (via train from So. California). 

So everything’s coming – and everything’s got a deadline.  But I *shall* keep my cool…… 

Ribbons.  I love ’em.  And have a lot of ’em.  But for years, there’s always been this dilemma about how to store them?  Oh, I’ve read and heard about all kinds of ideas, but none ever seemed the perfect solution…

Suspend a dowel from under a shelf and string your ribbon spools on the dowel.  Are you KIDDING me?!?  And remove every single spool from the dowel when you need to take out the one in the middle?!?  Or how ’bout the "PVC pipe cut in half the long way" solution.  Well, perhaps – if only I had any more room on my walls to mount such a cumbersome thing. 

A couple years ago I bought a white wire 3-shelf gizmo that worked for a while – until I eventually acquired more ribbons than it could hold and went searching for another rack just like it (or even *close* to it).  But of course no such thing could be found *anywhere* at that point – not even on the ‘net. 

But today I think I’ve found what I’ve been searching for all these years – and wouldn’t you know it would be Stampin’ Up!(r) that finally came to the rescue!  The new Ribbon Keeper system will be available beginning in September, in the upcoming Holiday Mini Catalog.  But one of the perks of being a demonstrator is the privilege of preordering Mini Catalog merchandise, so I got my hands on a couple-a sets early, and just put them together today.  And by George, I think the system’s gonna work!  Obviously I’ll still be needing a few more pieces in order to corral all my stuff, but that’s ok.  The point is, it’s gonna work!  And that makes me happy. 

This is what I have so far – one set of medium (the top 2 racks), and one set of large (the bottom 2 racks).  (Each set consists of 2 racks of the same size.)  I don’t have the small ones yet, but they will eventually fit on top to create a 3rd level.  (I believe they will accomodate my metallic cord spools – of which I have many more than show in this picture, lol.)  I chose to assemble my units this way (graduated sizes from bottom to top), but I see no reason why units of the same size couldn’t be stacked together, too.  They’re designed to sit on a shelf or table, but I’m sure it won’t be long before someone figures out a way to mount ’em to a wall. (If there’s anything I’ve learned while being associated with all these creative people, it’s that "sooner or later someone will figure out a way…..!"

So if you’ll excuse me, I think I’ll go admire my pretty ribbon for a while….

Many of you know my son is getting married.  Real soon, too.  And when the mother of one of the "to be married’s" is a stamper, somehow she ends up with a significant "job" in all this preparation stuff.

So it was in our case.  Now, I KNOW I was never exactly asked, and I KNOW I never volunteered, but somehow it came to pass that I was put in charge of the save-the-date cards…

and the wedding invitations…

…and just when I thought I was all done except for a handful of announcements (many thanks to the help of family and friends and the hours they contributed, too!!!), well, my assignments grew.  So now there were programs (well, sort of) to mount onto fan handles for the ceremony, and favors to create for reception guests. 

So this week I’ve been working on preparing the favors to a point where I could send them on to the bride and her friends for final assembly (and the addition of the proper candies).  And thanks once again to my wonderful family (particularly my Mom & Dad who I’m sure became far more familiar with a paper crimper than they ever imagined they would!), that portion of the project is now complete.

(On to the fans for the ceremony next…)

But that brings me to a project idea I thought I’d share:  Did you know you can make your own packaging shreddie – in colors that coordinate with your projects and cost oodles less than the store-bought variety?  Just cut off roughly 1/8" slivers of cardstock from the long end of your paper (I found that Stampin’ Up!(r)’s brand-new table-top cutter was perfect for that), and then send the strips through the paper crimper!  Now you’ve got custom shreddie stuff in the exact colors that match the rest of your project. 

Two years of curiousity, and I finally took the plunge tonight.  I started a blog.  Not sure where this adventure will lead me, but blogs are all the rage, and by golly I’m not gonna be left behind!