Hi. GinaMarie and I arrived safely in Anaheim yesterday, and it was invigorating to feel spring-like breezes and see bright green grass. Ahhh! We rode to the hotel with the window down, basking in the breeze and sunshine. Just a bit of a change from our cold, bleary Cincinnati weather.

It's now Sunday, 6 a.m. in Anaheim, and I'm excitedly looking forward to CHA "kickoff" at 9 a.m. I can't believe I'm actually here; one year ago, I began the interview process for this most amazing of jobs, and I remember wishing I was already on the Memory Makers team so I could attend CHA. It's the SuperBowl of the scrapbooking industry, and I can't believe I'm now actually here. (Guess I already said that, but it's true! I feel like a kid in a candy store, or Eli Manning after his SuperBowl win.)

Well, I guess I better go "suit up" and get ready for the big game!

GinaMarie will be blogging later today/tonight to share some of the product and trends she's observed on the showroom floor, and I hope to pop back in too.

Have a great day!

Best,
Beth

As Beth and GinaMarie prepare to fly to CHA, here's a news release I received that made my world-peace lovin' heart happy. Wishing you peace & love. Patty

Piggy Tales’ entire collection now made entirely of recycled paper

Piggy Tales, a family-owned and operated international scrapbooking company, is the first major scrapbooking manufacturer to print its entire collection of scrapbook paper on certified recycled paper.  The company will roll out its new product at the upcoming Craft & Hobby Association’s Winter Convention and Trade Show in Anaheim, CA on February 10-13.

“For an industry that is made up of more than 70 percent paper products, going ‘green’ with our paper seemed like a logical and responsible step,” said Debbie Juden, CEO of Piggy Tales.  “We want to do our part to preserve our natural resources, and we want to be able to give scrapbookers the means to do the same. Scrapbookers are naturally passionate about saving memories; now we are giving them the chance to save the environment as well. It’s just one more reason to feel good about scrapbooking.”

Many paper companies shy away from recycled paper because it can be difficult to maintain the vibrant colors and creative designs that are trademarks of popular scrapbook paper collections, but owners of Piggy Tales say it’s worth the challenge.

“In our industry, changing the paper can be a risky proposition because it’s not just an office supply staple for us,” said Debbie Juden, “it represents the majority of our annual sales. We wouldn’t have taken this step toward recycled materials if we weren’t 100 percent confident that our paper would still have the sharp designs and great color collections that our customers have come to expect from Piggy Tales.”   

In addition to using recycled paper, Piggy Tales’ paper is lignen and acid free and is printed with soy ink rather than the standard petroleum-based inks. Soy ink contains non-toxic soybean oil and is not only more environmentally friendly, but also makes it easier to recycle the paper.  

“We estimate that converting our entire paper supply to recycled paper will save more than 100 trees in a year,” said Ryann Juden.  “There are more than 25 million people in the US alone that call themselves scrapbookers; if we can encourage even a fraction of them to use recycled products, we can all make a huge impact on the total number of trees used in paper production.”

                 For more information on Piggy Tales, visit piggytales.com.

Your MM team met this morning to do what some editorial teams call a postmortem on the March/April issue (which goes on sale 2/19, subscribers will be receiving soon). We don't like that word because we're not trying to discover why the issue failed or died, but rather to acknowledge what we felt we did well and to look for ways to improve the next issue.


March/April 2008             February 2008

I love this process of flipping through the magazine as a team and just saying what worked and what could have been better. Not everyone on the team gets to see all the articles before an issue goes to print, as some editors only work on certain columns. It's rewarding to take the time to look at the finished product together and to realize how getting that issue to print is a joint effort among us and so many others: YOU (our readers and contributors), photographers, production specialists, printers, the post office.

When you get your March/April issue (or if you want to talk about the February issue), email me at editorial@memorymakersmagazine.com. Include the word Feedback in your subject line, and then tell me what you thought we did well AND/OR what we could improve upon next time.

We also talked about what we do as writers and designers to keep our creative juices flowing. Here are the responses from the team. Can you guess who said what? Come to the forum and post your guesses. I'll check back into the forum on Friday to reveal who said what!
            Beth, executive editor
                Patty, managing editor
                    Christy, art director
                        Katie, associate editor
                            GinaMarie, assistant editor

a) bought new music from iTunes including artists Yael Naïm and Deb Talan
b) went shopping at Jungle Jim's international food section for ingredients to make sushi at home
c) wrote for her personal blog with creative abandon
d) bought a book at Half Price Books called Cath Kidston's Brilliant Ideas for Using Vintage Fabrics in Your Home
e) subscribed to Real Simple

Wishing you and yours peace and love, Patty

Greetings from the home office, and happy Friday!

Earlier this week we asked you if you felt your interests were being served in the pages of MM and online. We got some great responses in the forum and I want to share a couple here.

submitted by kelleyisland: After reading Patty's post, it got me to thinking about my own situation...active grandmother with three grandchildren. Most of my scrapbooking focuses on my grandchildren, which gives me infinite pleasure, and MM is full of inspiration in that category, but I think I'm going to start doing more about myself and my husband. So, MM, here's another demographic you might want to think about...Empty Nesters.

submitted by coffeeaddict: There is a slowly-growing trend towards encouraging scrapbookers to do LO's of themselves and I think it's refreshing! We all wear so many hats in our lives, and every one is worthy of some attention in our layouts. Whether spouses or children ever come into the equation, someone, someday will be intrigued by how we lived and what we were like. I'd hate for my children or grandchildren to look back at my work and not see what a full, fun, challenging and satisfying life I really had, beyond being a mom.

We'd still like to hear from more of you. Come to the forum and tell us what you love about the magazine, or what's missing that would make your scrapbooking time more meaningful.

Peace and love,
 Patty