Optimism

A new year always makes me feel optimistic. I am by nature an optimistic person. This has come in quite handy over the course of my life. It is coming in particularly handy now with the economic turndown. I have always felt that just around the next corner there is something good. And you know what? There usually is. Sometimes that something good around the next corner is reading a great book. Sometimes it is meeting a new friend. Sometimes it is taking a great picture and building a scrapbook around that photograph.

I think that scrapbooking is an optimistic hobby. You start doing it knowing that there are an unlimited number of possibilities for pages or albums but you plunge in. It is kind of like not being afraid of the unknown. You don't necessarily know where it is all leading you but ultimately it tells you alot about yourself. Sometimes you discover that you are more creative that you thought you were. Sometimes you find out that you are more generous than you thought you were. And sometimes it helps you to understand just how much you love your family and how precious they are. It is amazing how a photo can make you stop to take a look at life. Maybe because it is time that has been frozen and it forces you to stop too.

I am optimistic about 2009. Even though business is rough, I have confidence in scrapbookers taking comfort in their craft and continuing to make their precious pages. I have confidence that many of us will turn to paper crafts as a way to make gifs from the heart for our friends and family.

Sometimes it takes a bad time to make us stop and see how good life is.

I Love A Parade!

On New Year's Day I got up at 5:30 a.m. and headed off to Pasadena to see the Rose Parade. I have done this about 10 times in my life and I am never disappointed. I never regret the decision to skip the New Year's Eve celebration. My husband and I drive to the bottom of Pasadena and walk about 1/2 hour up to the parade route. On the way you get to see the floats and SMELL them. They smell fantastic! On every side street there is a segment of the parade that is waiting to be fed in. First you see the extra floats. On the next street you see the horses. We went right up to the Clydsdales and watched them being groomed for their national TV appearance. What beautiful horses. You can't believe how large they are. Then the last group that is fed into the parade is the marching bands. These bands have come from all over the country and they are bursting with excitement to perform.

And the colors. You can't believe the colors.
And Cloris Leachman as Grand Marshall. She was adorablable, as usual.
And the Stealth Bomber. Have you ever seen it fly over at 1000 feet above your head? It gives you chills.

These are all memories that I won't forget. I love looking at the photos and re-living the excitement of the day.

Women in Business

I've been thinking about women in business. I have been in business for 30 years. The stores I work with are mostly owned by women. And their customers are also mostly women. So as I see it, there is a lot of "women power" in the scrapbooking business all the way through the chain of command. I think that is quite a unique situation.

My hope for the new year is that all of these women can work together to strengthen our industry. We need to keep the independent stores strong. We need to keep the small manufacturers strong. I feel that most of the creative energy in this industry comes mostly from the independent stores and the small businesses that supply them. Consider the alternative: scrapbooking supplies available from large discounters being supplied by companies that produce everything in China. We can do better than that.

Women helping women sounds good to me!