A Birthday recap, Zombies, and a Giveaway!

This year, as luck would have it, my birthday fell on a Saturday! If you've been a follower of my blog or know me...you know that our "crew"...meaning my siblings and Aaron...have made it a tradition to spend each other's FULL birthdays together...to do whatever the birthday boy or girl desires. We started this tradition many years ago and it really has enriched our relationships with one another and it has shone a special light on each of our big days. Because lets face it, when you're a girl getting on in years, you have to invent all sorts of stuff to make your b-day a day that you look forward to...ya know?!

So, we make it an all day affair...and my b-day happens to be during my favorite time of year (but that could be a "chicken or the egg" type thing)...and I usually pick a daytime destination like Lambertville / New Hope...these are fantastically old antiquing towns and you stroll the leaf strewn streets...maybe sip some cocoa...maybe find a cornfield maze. Or maybe if the weather isn't agreeable we'll hit a gigantic mall like Palisades Center, and just shop all day and eat all night. But this year my brother Jay was working and we wanted to stick kinda close to home so that he could join us for dinner when he got off work in the evening. Sticking close to home turned out to be an amazing idea.

Don't ask me how I have managed to overlook this wonderland of a place for so long! It is so so fitting that this was my chosen birthday destination...for the trip there, and the discovery of this treasure that was right under my nose, truly was a GIFT! If you're not already familiar...please allow me to introduce you to Scrappers Cove! It's located in a small New Jersey town named Milltown and even though you could say it's in the middle of nowhere, it's really like a half hour away from my home and it's super easy to get to...very close to Rutgers University. The pictures I've posted here are just the itty bitty tip of the iceberg. They have everything the scrapper/art journalist could ever want! The full line of Smash...GORGEOUS ribbons...Copics galore...and all the boutique lines that we drool over online are right there for you to see and touch. Papers that you have never before laid eyes on...unlike your visits to AC Moore and Michaels...those two places have had the same exact papers for about five years now!

On our maiden voyage to Scrappers Cove this past Saturday, we had the pleasure of meeting Pat...she was running the place that day...and she's the mom of the gals that are behind the shop's perfection. Those two...the daughters...were off vending at some fab scrappy event. I would say it was a shame that we didn't get a chance to meet them...but we're gonna go back there so often that it doesn't really matter! ;) We'll be old friends before we know it!
And like any excellent scrappy shop...they host in-shop classes. Yup, classes taught by the likes of Tim Holtz, Claudine Hellmuth, and more! A class had just wrapped up when we arrived on Saturday...and wouldn't you know it...the class was taught by a friend that we met at Art Opera last year...Peggy! Super Sweet! We were immediately reminiscing and talking shop...favorite bloggers, scrappers, companies, art retreats. We got to talking about the possibility of us teaching some classes there...it would be great! So close to home...and teaching in a place that has that much amazing product would be so inspiring. I've always loved PRODUCTS...and lots of them. The more I have around me, the better my creative brain works. It's just the possibility of possibilities that opens my artistic floodgates up. Aaron was never this way. He's always been the kind of artist who just resigns himself to work with what's on hand...even if his supply pantry is nearly bare. Well, I've managed to infect him with the PRODUCT bug. Now he LOVES "stuff" and understands the importance of surrounding himself with as much "stuff" as possible when it's time to create. It's all about open doors and endless possibilities...having lots of products on hand will do this for you.