Today is the day...

In a few minutes I head out to work for the final day as a retail store owner. I have experienced mix of emotions about all this, but mostly I am so excited to move forward to grow Daisy Bucket Designs.

I look back to that first open house in my home November 2004. I released a few sets of custom products. Following shortly was the relase of popular kits where we added many custom creations, we learned alot those 2 years as kit owners, I remember helping Angela with her scrapbook studio and putting away all the products and realizing that 90% of what she owned was from our kits. It was an amazing journey through the history of our kits.

Since the beginning of this jouney we knew that manufacturing is always where we wanted to be someday. I knew that a time would come where Daisy Bucket creations would be in stores. Not sure if I realized really what that would take and how amazing it would be now that we are there and in so many stores.

In the mix of this growth, Melinda and I opened the store just over 3 years ago. The store and customers were an amazing source of inspiration as we grew our wholesale business. We know that it was an important step of our journey.

Today as we close that store and lock that door for the last time as a retail store owner I know that it will be the beginning of another incredible chapter of our lives and our business.

Thanks to family, friends and our {BUCKET} family for being a part of it.
See you at the store today!

Thanks MOM & DAD!

It is the first time in years that I had a birthday party thrown by my parents. They made an scrumptious dinner. But most amazing was the cake that Mom had decorated. I don't know how she did it but she made a cake that looked like one of our all time best selling papers named Cass Street!


As a child I remember for weeks before our birthday's searching through all of my Mom's cake decorating books dreaming of the perfect birthday cake. It was always a big deal to have your cake that Mom made. And it was no exception to this grown up daughter to have a cake made by Mom!
A few years ago my sister Tanya started a tradition with her family that the birthday child could cut the cake any way they wanted (one that would be fun to add to your own family traditions)... . So we sometimes get some wacky shaped pieces. I took full advantage of this tradition and cut my cake into daisies, a house, golf clubs, a heart, a piano, fish and more for each person.

Me and my 2 kiddos on my birthday... notice the straight hair.. Not permanent, once washed it is curly again. But it was fun to have done when I had my hair colored that morning. Thanks to everyone for a great birthday and I had fun scrapping and hanging out with my friends on Saturday too.

Come Play if you can...

A bit of an informal LAST crop and my birthday celebration at the official {BUCKET} store this Saturday. We are going to order pizza and play, even if you can't come, stop by and say Hi!... we will be there till midnight.

and if you haven't heard yet....the rumors are true...

It is bittersweet that we announce the closure of Daisy Bucket Designs retail store.

4 years ago I made a life changing decision to start my own company. With the help of an amazing family and my {Bucket} family & friends it has grown beyond what we could have imagined. Two years ago we launched our wholesale division and couldn’t have foreseen the amazing response by thousands of stores. It is exciting to know that our products can be found in over 30 countries in the hands of papercrafters worldwide.

The time has come now for us to turn our consistent focus and efforts on continued creative endeavors of developing, designing and manufacturing Daisy Bucket Designs products.

Details are coming this next week as to the exact date we will be closing, but it will most likely be the 22nd of this month. The new owner is estimating to be open on October 1st in a new location. We will be staying in our building and it will become a warehouse and design center. Although I know I will shed lots of tears....I really can't wait for the new direction we are taking

9.1.08

Kenzi is the only 1 in our house that started school so far.... Here is a peek at our youngest freshman. Can you believe how grown up she is getting?

Lots of skinny jeans this year, some new jewelry and a hip new haircut. She even found a few school spirit purple pieces! She was so excited to start High School, kept telling us she wasn't nervous, and really had lots of confidence. She LOVES school and hope that she will for a few more years although I am sure it is social perks she looks forward to most. As long as she keeps up the school work first! She already has a bet with Dad that she will be getting a 4.0... he is crazy, because he will be losing this one (but that is ok)... she has yet to get a bad grade!!! Keep up the great work Kenz we LOVE YOU!!!!

Update on Mike coming.... it was a weekend of lots of chores and one was starting to clean out his room.... not quite ready for all that yet....Can't believe in less than 3 weeks he will be headed to college.

Where does the time go.....

So much is going on that I am just not sure where my emotions are....

I am struggling with decisions of huge change and I know that what I am doing is best for our family and the future, but it is sooo hard to make it all come to reality. I think my biggest struggle is feeling like I am losing a part of my identity and want a piece of it to continue and that may not be the case. It is totally out of of my hands right now and things are in limbo still....

Crazy.... I really have great things to share, but felt I needed that. Thanks

Jason and I celebrated our 18th anniversay on the 18th of August this year... he met me in Vancouver WA and we stayed at the Heathman Lodge. Beautiful setting and was a pretty good stay. We went shopping, and Jason got a great looking blazer! I found a dress to wear to the phantom of the opera. We FAILED to get photos since it was pouring rain and we were running a bit late to the show. But it was an amazing show, we so enjoyed it and look forward to attending another broadway sometime in the future. LOVED IT!

The next day we to Astoria OR. An adorable little town that I want to spend way more time in, but again it was POURING RAIN... we visited the Maritime Museum indoors and then stopped at one of the scrapbook stores that carries Daisy Bucket nearby. We had a great visit and it is nice to meet up with our customers. Next was a trip over the Columbia River on the longest bridge 4+ miles over to Long Beach WA. The sun decided to peek out just a bit and we walked along the beach a bit and watched some of the kits from the kite festival that had been braving the weather. Some of them were as big as cars! Wish we could have seen it in full glory on a bright sunny day.

A FUN trip away, it was nice to take a break.

A big project finally launched....

We launched a new blog at the {BUCKET} with great tutorials and designs from our amazing team. Some of you may recoginize the incredible local talent of Katie on there.

http://www.daisybucket.com/blog/

Just wanted to share... ENJOY!

My littlest Freshman, Creating Time

Just registerd my baby as a Freshman in High School today. What crazy emotions for Mom & Daughter. I actually handled it fine.... but she got her schedule and was in tears since her bestest friend only has 1 class with with her. They ran out of lockers for the freshman and she is on a waiting list to get one. Friends and Lockers and what to wear have been the topic of many text messages and phone calls this week.

Had some time to create this weekend. This is a sample for a tradeshow we are going to this weekend. Fun little addition to my house someday too! Got to use our new rubon's, some stamps and of course the yummy paper.

Getting Ready to Go: I always hate the stress of getting ready to go to tradeshows, but I also somehow thrive on it. I really do have a huge list of things to do and manage for others to do to get ready by Friday! I also am adding 2 extra days off for our anniversary after the tradeshow, so that means a few extra things to do to take time off. But it will be so worth it.

What fun to see Daisy Bucket featured all over the world... here is a online store in Australia that has featured us as the manufacturer of the month. Scraptherapy. I will be heading over to answer some questions in their forum later this month and choosing a layout to feature on our blog from their gallery. Looking forward to focusing on the wholesale growth of our business more!

Chat soon!