The Last Song

When I was preparing for my trip to England with my dad in April, I bought 4 books to read while we were overseas.  One of those books was Nicholas Sparks, The Last Song.  I knew that the movie was coming out soon and I typically prefer to read any book that is becoming a movie prior to seeing it.  It was a book that once I started it, I could not put down...  My dad was sleeping while I was up until about 3 in the morning bawling my eyes out because it was your classic Nicholas Sparks tragedy.  I don't consider myself to be one of those people aptly affected by movies and books, but it was so beautifully written and could pull at every one of your heartstrings that I could not help myself.  When I got home, I gave it to mom to read on the trip down to Arizona for Brandon's graduation.  She promptly read it on the airplane and then told me she felt like an idiot because she was crying like a buffoon on the flight.  After all that emotion, I did not even see the movie in theaters...  Not because I didn't want to...  I just never made it!

On that note, Mom and I went to Wal-Mart on Wednesday night and I talked her into buying the DVD.  (It really didn't take much to "talk" her into it, though!)  Oddly enough, when we got home, it was kinda late so we didn't want to start it then.  But while channel surfing, we caught a commercial for the movie and it told you to go to a website to get a $10 off coupon for the Blu-Ray/DVD Combo pack!!!  Sooooo, since we hadn't opened the DVD yet, I went and printed the coupon and took our copy back and got the combo pack for $5 less than the original DVD copy!!! 

So last night, mom and I watched the movie and we both were crying our eyes out...  I know that it got absolutely horrible reviews because of Miley Cyrus, but I don't think she did that bad!...  It was a reduced screenplay compared to the book, but I think they did it just right.  I thoroughly enjoyed it despite the waterworks it incurred.  I would highly recommend it if you're looking for a really emotional night!!! HAHA!

It's been a while...

Sooooo, it's been a few weeks since my last post.  But, lets just say I've been readjusting to life without the huge responsibility of designing classes every time I turn around and not having to get to the Island to check in the new batch of product that just arrived...  I can hardly believe that it's already been almost a month since we closed the store.  It still seems surreal because we honestly thought we would be in business for at least another 2 years!!! 

Our garage (two-car) has been taken over by the Island monster and who knows how long it will take us to actually go through all of it...  The basement is finally starting to take shape as a space that Mom and I can actually work in!  The prospect of being able to crop simply for pleasure is absolutely intoxicating. 

It is fantastic to have the energy to come home from work (most nights) and want to cook!  I love trying new things, maybe not as much as my dad does, but at least with ingredients that are familiar and 'sound' good together.  This recipe for a Grilled Red Potato Salad with Bacon and Ranch is one that Dad discovered on his "Grill It" app on the iTouch.  That's our new favorite way to find recipes on the fly!  It's pretty easy and DELICIOUS!!!  Trust me.... TRY IT!!!

Ingredients:

1 bag of Red potatoes (about 3 pounds)

1 package of bacon (you’ll only need about 8 strips)

1 bottle of Ranch dressing

1 bunch of green onions, diced

Olive Oil

Fresh Ground Black Pepper



1.What goes better with potatoes and Ranch than bacon? Not many things. Start by cooking about 8 strips of bacon using your favorite method. We want them to be crisp since we are going to crumble the bacon into our salad.


2.While the bacon is cooking, wash and then cut the potatoes into even quarters. When I say even quarters, I mean you want all of the pieces to be about the same size so that they all cook evenly. Don’t make them too small thought because they will be a pain to handle on the grill!


3.Boil the potatoes in a pot of water until just about cooked. You don’t want them too mushy, but you want them just about cooked all the way through.


4.At this point, go ahead and light the grill and preheat to medium-high.


5.Remove the potatoes from the water and drain.


6.Toss the red potatoes in some olive oil and fresh ground black pepper.


7.Pour the potatoes right onto the now hot grate of the grill. The point here is to mark or char the potatoes so that we get that great grill taste.


8.Using tongs, a spoon or a spatula (bring them all out, one might work better than others depending on the size of your red potatoes) turn the potatoes every few minutes to create char marks on all sides. Keeping the grill closed will speed up this process and keep the grill hot.


9.Once all sides of the potatoes are marked with grill marks, transfer the potatoes to a large bowl.


10.Add about 1/4 cup of the Ranch dressing (add more if you like), crumbled bacon and chopped green onions.


11.Stir well to combine.


That’s all there is to a great last minute grilled potato salad! The grilled bits from the potatoes adds a great flavor to this recipe. The Ranch dressing makes it easy to throw together at the last minute. The hardest part to this recipe, in my opinion, is cooking the bacon. I’d say try bacon bits, but I’ve got to draw the line somewhere. Bacon bits to me aren’t nearly the same as real bacon. Not saying I wouldn’t try it if I were in a pinch though…

Dinner was AWEsome and Mom took the day off!!!

Soooo, yeah, as many of you know, this past Saturday was the last day EVER for customers to shop the remaining products at Scrapbook Island...  It's hard to believe that the day came and went and here we are the Tuesday after, and what does my mom do?  She takes the day off!!!  Her first day off in 5 years that wasn't scheduled, a holiday, or a sick day!!!  Not two months ago, we were still imagining that the store closing was still years away...  It just shows how quickly things can change as a result of this economy.  And by the way, can I just say that I "HATE" that phrase, now?  "This economy" has become as annoying to me as a driver that doesn't use their blinker when they change lanes or make a turn. 

But anyway, let me tell you how freeing it feels to be released of the responsibility of the store!!!  Last night I got home and mom was there shortly after and I made some DELICIOUS new dinner recipes that I picked out online from AllRecipes.com.  I'm going to be slightly obsessed now that I've found I can make such deliciousness!  I made a Grilled Brown Sugar Pork Chop recipe for the meat and here is what it looked like:

I didn't take the picture, but our pork looked just like this!  It was a wonderful flavor and here's the recipe:

Ingredients:

1/2 cup brown sugar, firmly packed

1/2 cup apple juice

4 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 tablespoon soy sauce

1/2 teaspoon garlic salt

salt and pepper to taste

2 teaspoons cornstarch
1/2 cup water

6 boneless pork chops

Directions

1.Preheat an outdoor grill for high heat.

2.In a small saucepan, combine brown sugar, apple juice, oil, soy sauce, ginger, salt , and pepper. Bring to boil. Combine water and cornstarch in small bowl, and whisk into brown sugar mixture. Stir until thick.

3.Brush grate lightly with oil before placing pork chops on the grill. Cook over hot coals for 10 to 12 minutes, turning once. Brush with sauce just before removing chops from grill. Serve with remaining sauce.

 

The other two recipes were a Garlic Corn on the Cob and a Watermelon Cooler Slushy, check them out!!!

 

I'm excited for the summer to begin to feel like a real summer that my family can enjoy like every other average American!!!

OMG!!! I can't believe it's coming!!!

I am SOOOOOOO excited!!!  Officially licensed scrapbook products for Harry Potter... about time!

Creative Imaginations will be printing new products for Harry Potter fans due to arrive in late October before the next movie is released.

Check out a few of the images for the paper and embellishments.

This is utterly incredible... Why does it have to happen AFTER I don't have first access through the Island???

Boo-hoo...

Anyway, my weekend was rather productive!  Mom and I worked our way through even more of the scrap crap we brought home from the store and now my 'desk' is starting to resemble that name.  I can't wait until we're settled in and are able to go down to the basement and crop in a comfortable style.  I'm "hoping" that without the pre-occupation of the store I'll have time to be more studious about my personal scrapping... can't wait!!!

Coming down to it.

So last night, after work, I went to the Island for one last night of cropping with some of our Cabana buddies.  It was nice to just be around these friends and think about the future and how our friendships will survive!  As happy as I am to be rid of the constant responsibility of Scrapbook Island, I am going to miss seeing certain friends on a regular basis...  I can't wait to get back out into the world to take classes at other stores and experience crops there, too!  Some of the stores I can't wait to visit are:

Absolutely Everything in Topsfield, MA
http://www.absolutelyeverythingblog.blogspot.com/

and

Stamped Designs in Dover, NH
http://www.stampeddesignsblog.blogspot.com/

I love Stamped Designs because she carries the full assortment of Copic Markers at verrry reasonable prices and the adorable Magnolia line of stamps and sooo much more that we never carried!  Absolutely Everything carries enough Tim Holtz products to even satisfy my need of his stuff and more!  Plus... he comes to teach there about once a year!!!!  I'm really excited to get to be a customer again...  As silly as it seems!

Eventually I'll actually be scrapping again and then I'll be posting the stuff that I do on here and I can hardly wait to share everything...  I have so many ideas swimming around in my head that I can barely focus on one long enough to incorporate it into a current project, as many of you know!

18 Days and counting...

Well, according to the "Days Until" application on my iPod, there are only 18 days left until Scrapbook Island closes its doors forever. I can hardly believe that it has been 5 1/2 years since that day that my mom told me that she was buying the dinky little store that I worked for in high school. All throughout college, my friends thought I was crazy for going home every weekend to work at a store for a hobby they had almost never heard of! I was always the weird one because for the longest time, I was the youngest person I knew that took scrapbooking so seriously. No one else was nutty enough to spend the kind of money and time that I did on such a hobby.


It seems like I've been destined to work in the scrapbook industry since I was a kid. My mom took me to a Creative Memories party when I was about 11 and its been downhill ever since! After that, it was just something that Mom and I did together. But then when I was 15, new scrapbook stores opened up, about a mile from our house, and not even a block away from my high school. They didn't hire me right away, but Mom started teaching beginners' classes (and pop-ups, too) for them and they watched me as I assisted her. And by Mid-Winter Break (February vacation) 2001, I was their part-time shop girl! The store was called Simple Pleasures Scrapbook Treasures. It was owned by a mother and her two daughters, Sharon, Denise, and Tammy. They taught Mom and me sooooo much about the industry. I worked for them until we moved to New Hampshire in the fall of 2002.

Once we moved to NH... I was going through slight withdrawals of not seeing the new products that were introduced, firsthand! Sooooo after being in NH for 2 months, I went into the local scrapbook store, Scrapbooks, Stamps, & Stickers and sought a new job! Annnnnd I was hired, because, honestly... how many teenagers would have already had the experience I did and want to work at a dinky little place like that was, unless they were already obsessed with the hobby like I was? Funny side story... my aunt had been buying me presents from that store for years when she lived in Londonderry! And I'd actually shopped there a couple times when I was younger because we would come up to NH to visit when we lived in Rhode Island. It's really wild when you think about the history we had in this area before actually becoming embedded in it... Welll, back to the story, I actually quit working there 5 or so months later because I was becoming really involved at school and the hours that SSS were so limited that it became impossible to do both. Besides, for the most part, it was such a small store, with very little traffic, that I spent the majority of my time there chatting on AIM... shhhhh.... don't tell!!!

However, it seems like it was just meant to be, because after I was at Plymouth State for about a year and working at Charlotte Russe in the Mall of NH… my Mom calls to tell me that SSS was for sale… and she was in there (just by coincidence) when Marge was talking about needing a buyer… and she so eagerly raised her hand and said, “I’ll buy it!” With barely a moment’s hesitation, our family’s lives were to be changed drastically for the next 5 years...

And so the story begins where many of you know it…. I quit my job at Charlotte Russe, and on December 1st, 2004, Scrapbook Island was born… After many trials and tests, we made it through to our official opening day, January 5th, 2005 and we’ve been forever changed since. We have been beyond blessed to meet many wonderful people who have become part of our lives and will be there with no end in sight, despite the fact that the Island will be no more.

A Fabulous Pig Roast!

Wellllll, this is what my Saturday consisted of... yummy yummy PIG!!! There is nothing that compares to what "fresh" pork tastes like.  It was so much fun to spend the day with some of my favorite people in the world, with barely a care in the world for those precious hours.  Despite the fact that it rained on and off all day, we still managed to have a memorable day!  Aside from eating copious amounts of food, we spent the majority of the day in the pool, it was even better because there was barely even a threat of getting a sunburn!  After the pig came the ADORABLE cake that I ordered from one of the best independent cake designers I have ever seen!  She's out of Hudson, NH and her name is Suzanne Roark and I'll have to get her email address from my mom because EVERYONE should be on her email list to see the amazing cakes she does and the most reasonable prices in the world!!!

All I told her is that I wanted an apron and for it to say "Cartwright Pig Roast 2010" and this is what she came up with!!  Absolutely adorable... and delicious!  She makes everything from scratch... it doesn't get much better than that! 

It was so relaxing to spend Sunday as just a chill day and then go home.to do a bit of laundry... and then my mom and I totally had an Aladdin marathon... we watched all three of the classics!  So fun to remember all the lyrics to those classic songs...

Now to the start of a new work week at my awesome job!  I've really been enjoying my new position as an office manager to a small computing firm that has clients all over the world...  Such a blessing to finally have a steady income!