I have some exciting news!! (And no, don't even ask, it's not that!) It's stamping and scrapping news! Let me give you some background before I share, and let me tell you now, be sure to read to the end of this post, there's a very funny story at the bottom...
When I first started with Stampin' Up!, I had slightly more disposable income. If I wanted something, I bought it. However, with the change in the economy and the increase in the cost of everything else over the past two years, I've had to be very, very careful with my Stampin' Up! money and make sure that my business not only pays for itself, but contributes as much as possible to our family's budget.
Therefore, if I want something now, I have to earn it for free, or else use class fee payments from class participants to purchase it as part of a class project that they're making. It's been almost two full years of my business operating on such strict terms, and it's been hard, but I've been doing it. I try to choose my hostess benefits wisely, getting more of what I need, and less of what I want. In fact, there was a whole class on this subject at Convention last summer, and it hit home that week because, what I really really wanted, was Stampin' Up!'s new Sizzix Big Shot machine that came out last summer. And I really really wanted a bunch of SU dies to go with it! But, the machine was very expensive. And, I already had a Sizzix machine from the Christmas before, with Sizzix dies to go with that. So, even though I wanted it so badly, I had to wait.
This summer though, when the Build A Bear products came out in the Holiday Mini (which you don't have yet, but I do!) and they were stamps and Sizzix products, now I really really REALLY wanted that machine. I decided to use all of my hostess benefits for it from my Open House in July, if I had enough sales to get to $95 in free merchandise. I knew I had a children's stamp camp coming up in August and could use the Build A Bear sets for the camp as well.
Here it is: my lovely Sizzix Big Shot machine from Stampin' Up! It took me a year to earn it, but I earned it!! I love it!
Even though I did not yet own the machine over the past year, I did something that I think was pretty smart. Any time I did have some little bit of extra hostess benefits, I would order an inexpensive die from the catalog that would eventually go with my machine. It kept me motivated to buy the machine and it allowed me to get a small stockpile of dies ready to go. I'm glad that I did this because now, besides having the Build A Bear dies from the upcoming Holiday mini, I have several others that I can use for future workshops and stampers' clubs. I do try to think ahead of what I have got coming up that I need to buy supplies for. Now I know we can play with the Big Shot for several upcoming events because I have the machine and the dies. And now, I can continue to slowly build my collection over the coming year(s) because I finally have the machine. HOORAY!!
Before I end, here's a funny story (I can laugh now) about my Big Shot's arrival for you:
My Open House order arrived late Friday afternoon as we were coming home ourselves. It was three huge boxes and very heavy, so I asked my UPS guy to just leave the order at the bottom of the stairs for me. I went about my business for the rest of the day and into the evening, forgetting the boxes had arrived. Around 11pm my husband returned from a baseball game and he and I were chatting when I suddenly realized I'd forgotten to open my order, and my Big Shot was in there! By now, it was midnight, but my husband, patient man that he is, carried the order up the stairs for me and into the living room where I tore them open and found my machine. I opened the box and saw that the handle does not come attached to the machine itself and had to be put together. There was a little screw, a little washer and a little screwdriver all in a bag together.
I said to my husband, "Ugh! I have to put this together! Can you please help me?" He said he would, and to bring it over to him where he was sitting on the couch. He put out his hand, I handed him the tiny pieces and one of them proceeded to roll right out of his hand and into the crack of the couch.
"Now that can't be good," my husband said.
He put his hand into the side of the couch and said, "Huh. That screw must've gone into the lining of the couch. It's not here."
I wanted to die. I now was the one trying to be patient, trying to be calm. I knew that nothing would be accomplished by me losing my mind, which was what I really wanted to do.
It was now 12:30 am.
My husband goes down to his workroom and comes up with two empty milk crates. He lifts the couch up and I prop the milk crates underneath the end the screw had fallen into. He gets a pair of pliers and begins slowly taking out the dozen or so staples that are keeping the lining attached to the couch.
It was a slow, painful process, literally, because at one point he bopped himself in the face with the pliers as he laid under the couch pulling out the staples. I asked him if he wanted to stop, but he said no, he'd keep going, but "boy that's going to hurt tomorrow," he said.
Finally, all of the staples were out, he reached in, found the teeny, tiny screw, and went downstairs to get the staple gun to re-staple the lining to the couch. First though, he went over to the dining room table where my handle-less Sizzix sat waiting, and he sat and put the handle on for me.
It was now 1:00 am and I could play with my Sizzix, while he re-stapled the couch.
The moral of the story is this:
1) Put your handle on your machine yourself
2) Do it on a table
3) Don't wait til the middle of the night to get started, just in case. You just never know what can happen...