New today! Five great idea books from Creating Keepsakes, including About a Girl, Donna Downey's A Photo-First Approach to Designing Layouts, Paper Crafting with Photos, Paper Crafts 101, and Home & Heart: Celebrations Made Easy.

Just a quick note to let you know that we're down to the last 10 spots in Scrapbook Generation's Allison Davis sketch sessions this Saturday, in celebration of National Scrapbooking Day! We have 90, (yes 90!) people signed up for the sessions, and as I said in an earlier post, we have several suprises for the sessions that we think you will love! To sign up, call us at 417-886-0440. If you are attending, remember to bring the tools you normally use to work on a page. Each group will have about an hour and a half to re-create the page that Allison has designed specially for this event!

Also, if you need a great handmade gift for Mothers Day, go to scrapbookgeneration.com and check out the classes this week. Both Laura Parks and Sarah Gillespie have projects that would make wonderful, heartfelt gifts.

-- Laura's project starts with a Maya Road scalloped mini-album that fits in a matching box, and then she adds "Two Scoops" papers by BasicGrey, pink foam letter stickers by American Crafts, and other soft touches.
-- Sarah's project begins as a 7gypsies board book, and she adds beautiful papers and embellishments from My Mind's Eye's 29th Street Market. The ribbon-bound accordion book also comes with a matching card!

New goodies at Scrapbook Generation that arrived yesterday include themed self-adhesive die-cut shapes by Queen & Company, as well as more "felt fusion" self-adhesive die-cut borders. New ones include basketballs, footballs, Easter eggs, bats, and other themed sets! We also received several new sets of foam "Thickers" alphabet sets by American Crafts. The new sets are larger letter sizes than previous sets, and new colors. We re-stocked the Bazzill chipboard shape sets, and got tons of new birthday paper and embellishments!

Daughter Allison news: no baby arrivals this weekend (yet), and I've told her she is forbidden to have him next Saturday, on National Scrapbooking Day, when we have way too much stuff going on!

Daughter Stacey news: no longer single...she and Jeremy had a quiet wedding ceremony a couple of weekends ago! I'm truly excited about the whole thing. His area of expertise is construction and landscaping, and I think I can keep him busy for many, many weekends, now that he's officially part of the family! Karin, however, beat me to it, because they're re-doing her yard THIS weekend.

I wanted to update you on new products arriving at Scrapbook Generation. Yesterday, we received a shipment of over 100 papers from Masterpiece Studios/Stemma, with some general papers, but mainly different holidays and seasons, wedding, sports, school, and baby.

Many products will be arriving this week and next week, in anticipation of National Scrapbooking Day on May 3!
-- Autumn Leaves: new paper collections and new clear stamp sets;
-- Prima: gorgeous new flower assortments;
-- Sassafrass Lass: new paper collections;
-- Queen & Company: new felt sets, and new styles of adhesive felt borders;
-- Pioneer: over 80 albums, including baby, wedding, and general;
-- Sonburn: themed paper collections;
-- SEI: paper collections and lots of new album kits;
-- Fancy Pants: tons of new items, including papers, acrylic stamps, chipboard, and their new glitter transparencies!

We also have a large shipment of Creating Keepsakes idea books arriving soon. The most anticipated one for us is Lisa Bearnson's 50 Moments: Scrapbook The Pages That Matter Most, because Allison has two layouts included in the book. She tells me that they are ones that I haven't seen yet, and one is about me! We have ordered a larger quantity of this book than the others, and if you would like for us to hold one for you, just call or email. The other books include Paper Crafting with Photos, Paper Crafts 101, Home and Heart: Celebrations, Gifts From the Heart, About a Girl, Photo Freedom, and Designing Layouts.

Also, a reminder about the Allison Davis sketch sessions on Saturday, May 3. Because of the interest, we added a 4 pm session, so now there will be five sessions. We already have over 80 people signed up, and have room for about 20 more. Because of the high level of interest, we will be using both seating areas at SG, and I'll make duplicate layouts for both areas so that everyone can have their "visual aid," as some of you call them! As a thank-you to our loyal customers/friends, we also have some extras and surprises planned for people attending the sketch sessions that day, and I think you'll like them!

If you happened to watch Tom's Ozark Marketplace this morning on KOLR-10, I guess you saw Karin and I talking about Scrapbook Generation. I was deeply upset to discover that I don't look like I'm 20 anymore! Other than that, I was happy with what Karin and I said, and the show seemed like a neat way to reach a larger audience for our popular album clubs, Remember Me and Remember Them.

I have to apologize for not much blogging lately. I haven't been at the store much in the last couple of weeks, because I'm trying to take it easy and get rid of the painful effects of a pinched nerve in my neck, which makes my right arm hurt in about a zillion places. So far, I can't tell that there is much improvement.

However, new things continue to roll in the door at Scrapbook Generation! We have two new sets of 12x12 chipboard by Fancy Pants, over 20 new styles of 12x12 and 8x8 albums by Colorbok (some of the neatest ones we've ever had), new binding rings in several colors by 7gypsies, over 50 styles of hunting, fishing, zoo, family, and travel papers by SugarTree, and much more. We also received a new supply of the flat acrylic storage cases by Art Bin which are so popular.

Arriving soon: over 50 sets of themed embellishments by Meri Meri.

Thanks to all of you who have called or asked about Drew. He's home after three days in the hospital, and seems to be doing great. He did have a rough time doing the breathing treaments -- didn't like having the litte mask over his nose, and he let everyone know it! Ali can give better details, but I think he has to take some medicine for the next few months.

I had a flashback on one of the visits to the hospital. Drew was running around the playroom having a big time, and Allison and Mike were each slumped in separate corners, not looking too perky! When Stacey was about the same age, we had a cancer scare with her. She had a tumor that had eaten through the bone in her arm, and spent a week in the hospital before the biopsy. Visitors said pretty much the same thing about her dad and I -- that she looked great and we were the ones who looked as if we needed medical attention!

So much has changed about hospitals since then, both positive and negative. The decor is a huge positive! If you haven't been there and seen for yourself, every inch of the pediatric ward at Cox is covered in bright murals, there are child size cars and wagons in the halls, and there is a wonderful playroom. When Stacey was in the hospital, I slept on the hard tile floor each night. There was no accommodation for parents who would stay overnight. Now there are recliners with extra length so that moms and dads can stay in relative comfort. The negative? It's really a statement about the change in our society. The ward is on 24-hour lockdown. You have to tell the name of the child and the room number before the entry doors are unlocked, and you also have to stop at the nurse's station for the doors to be unlocked so you can leave. It's wonderful that you know your child is safe, but so sad that it has to be this way.

Drew's hospital stay was actually a timely eye-opener for me, because I was able to see first-hand some of the wonderful things that are being accomplished by the Children's Miracle Network. I knew some of the bigger things that the organization does, but I saw some of the smaller things that are done to brighten everyone's stay in the hospital. Shortly after he arrived, Drew was given a teddy bear, compliments of Children's Miracle Network, and I saw from a sign on the wall that CMN also provides a free adult meal for parents during their child's stay. I'm sure that there are many other services provided daily that don't fall into the life and death category, and that is a wonderful service.

Long before Drew was in the hospital, Scrapbook Generation had already pledged to participate in "Scrapbooking For Miracles," a day-long crop here in Springfield that benefits the Children's Miracle Network. Now, that seems even more important to me, having experienced some of the benefits that are taking place every day of the year, in a quiet and behind-the-scenes way. Although it's impossible for us to attend the crop personally because of activities here at the store, we will have an information table set up, and we'll have some free sketches there for those attending to pick up. We also will be contributing several door prizes, including page kits. If you aren't already signed up, I'd recommend that you consider attending this worthwhile and fun event.

It's been quite a day! Karin and I started off the morning at the KOLR-10 television station. With Tom Trtan as the interviewer, we taped a four-minute segment for the show "Tom's Ozark Marketplace." We're right after the fly-fisherman!

The program will air Thursday, April 17 at 9 a.m. Karin and I talked about what Scrapbook Generation has to offer people, and we also had a chance to explain the "Remember Me" and "Remember Them" album clubs. The funniest part of the whole experience was that Karin somehow believed that I was going to do all the talking. However, the crew talked her into putting on a mike, and then Tom asked her a specific question! She HAD to talk! It made my day!

Next, we headed for the hospital, because Drew is there. Ali called me last night and said he had to stay overnight, and it looks like he'll have to stay a second night as well. He's having some trouble breathing and coughing, so it may be pneumonia, or something similar. He was feeling good enough to visit the playroom while we were there, then we went back to his room and tried to read a few books. I promised him I would bring him cookies later this afternoon!

Back to the store, we've had several shipments of new items come in that I haven't had a chance to photograph, so I'll just tell you quickly that we have Bazzill's new scalloped board book kits in a variety of colors, and a new supply of the In Stitchz templates. So many of you have loved the Bo-Bunny "My Word" chipboard albums, and we have the newest of the series: Travel, Grade, Happy, I love you, Team, and Beach. These make the greatest gifts! Thursday, we'll be getting a new supply of Glimmer Mist -- over 60 colors!

All five of the new BasicGrey collections have arrived, and are out on the shelves ready for purchase! Each group has 18 papers, plus three styles and sizes of cardstock sticker letters, rub-on booklets, rub-on sheets, glazed brads, regular brads, and the cutest decorated chipboard accents I've ever seen!

Later this week, we'll be gearing up for our Glimmer Mist free classes this Saturday with a shipment of over 60 colors! We'll be using this cool metallic liquid on chipboard, grungeboard, Prima flowers, and possibly a few other surprise products. If you want to attend one of the free sessions and make a 6x6 double-page spread, give us a call!

The wait is over! All of Crate Paper's spring collections arrived at Scrapbook Generation Tuesday. The groups include papers, die-cuts, rub-ons, and lots more.

And the other wait is also nearly over! BasicGrey (all five new collections) will arrive on Monday! The UPS guy usually gets here about 2 pm.

I'll have to catch up with photos for you on Monday. We've been really busy around here, and today I'm trying to shop for myself for the retreat my friend and I attend each spring. We're kind of sad -- just found out it's the last one!