Spring is finally here, at least in Wisconsin. It seemed to take forever to get here with a lot of late winter snow storms. You always know that spring is officially rolling in when we get huge thunderstorms. My flowers are starting to pop up and bloom, the grass is getting green and it makes me want to get outside and sit in my hammock and read. I am torn---do I scrapbook; do I read; do I work; do I play? Too many choices! Each day is a new decision and a new adventure in how to enjoy the wonderful spring weather.

How can I even question whether I should scrapbook or not, when there is new products stacked up all over the place? if that doesn't inspire one to dive in and create new pages, I don't know what will!! We have gotten in so many new things in the last month. I love it. I love having all the new products to touch and feel. Love feeling the weight of new papers fresh from the pack. Be sure to check out the New section in the shopping area---we have a bunch of great new collections you have to check out! We also have the 4 newest sets from the Ki Memories Collection 5 on preorder right now. I have always been a huge fan of KI, they know how much I love them and the great products they create. And all of their new products are no exception. Love the new patterns, color combinations and accessories. I am in love with the Unconditional set---no pun intended. And who doesn't love a good Garden? (I am partial to that set with my own wonderful Creating Garden blooming each month with my ultra talented design team's work. )

The new Chatterbox Trunks are in the new section and for preorder only. These are a limited offering from Chatterbox. We are excited to be offering them to our customers, with a discount and an exclusive Two Peas in a Bucket trunk travel sticker with each purchase. Love it!

In the last couple of weeks, I have been blogging the daily happenings at Two Peas. http://twopeas.blogs.com It is something that I think was a long time in the coming, something I wish I had done a long time ago. I don't get the chance to be on the boards anymore, there are too many threads for me to even follow and answer in my short time online each day. I am so immersed in my work at Two Peas, that I just don't get that opportunity to connect with everyone as I used to. I am hoping that this will help with that gap, and perhaps bring the more personal side of me and Two Peas to your attention. I am a pretty honest and candid person, and you will get nothing but the facts and truth when you read my blog. I know there are often times questions about what is going on, why we do the things we do, or what we are doing. All of this is addressed in my daily blog. I have this great quote from a business magazine, I ripped it out sometime last fall, and I wish I had written down who it was that said it. But here it is regardless: "In business, much of what you do isn't public. But people require strong, sound leaders who tell them what is going on". (from Fast Company, Oct 2004) This really struck me, like hitting my hand to my forehead. It isn't something I already didn't know, it just was like a reminder. I am glad I read it. I even more glad that I took it to heart and started this blog to do what I can to be that strong leader. Check it out!

Over the course of the last few weeks, our servers have been really struggling along. Jeff has been spending hours each day, attached to them, rewriting almost our entire site’s code to improve it, and monitoring it 24/7. We are really sorry for all the roller coaster Ups and Downs during this process. We're very happy that the servers are working correctly again now!

Autumn Leaves collections: FoofaLa, MOD, and Rhonna Farrer collection. These are all really wonderful collections, if you have yet to check out all of this newly released products, you really need to. It is awesome.

We now have *Exclusive* Ali Edwards Fonts!!! Ali has joined our font team, with her first Two Peas fonts being available April 1^st. They are uniquely Ali--- you all love her Garden work, her AWESOME book and the wonderful things she does for Creating Keepsakes. You must check out Ali’s new Two Peas Fonts. We are super excited to have her creating fonts for us!

• New Ki Memories Pieces of Me Collection. (love love love this!)
• Ki Memories Collection 5 ----on preorder and shipping soon!
• Doodlebug Fall 2004 and Winter 2005 Collections now up for Preorder! Should be shipping in about 2 weeks!
• Fontwerks Stamps and Papers ----some of these sold out super fast! I am working on getting more in as soon as possible.
• Technique Tuesday Stamps
• Making Memories Alpha Rub ons
• Chatterbox Trunks
• Chatterbox papers, stickers, accessories. New Dorm room too.
• American Crafts Chic papers, stickers, and ribbons. The metal embellishments should be coming along soon as well.
• Scrapworks new papers, stickers, rub ons, Tailored embellishments and more.
• Die Cuts with a View card sets and Stacks
• Making Memories Paper Cachet book
• Designing with Stamping book
• Carolee’s Creations papers and twill
• New May Arts ribbons
• Daisy D’s papers and accessories
• New Anna Griffin papers, stacks and stickers.

• Making Memories Ribbons
• 7Gypsies
• Heidi Swapp collection

Deja Views Butcher Block and Fresh Prints 1 collections

Kopp Design papers, rub on transfers, etc

Deluxe Design papers

Autumn Leaves Papers and vellums

Select pieces of the Autumn Leaves Office Collection

Autumn Leaves Foldables

I guess it is going to be ME (Pea1)!

When did you start scrapbooking? How were you introduced to it?
I started scrapbooking in 1997, after my first daughter was born. My husband’s sisters bought me a scrapbook kit as a shower gift, and I will admit that at first I was reluctant and didn’t know what to make of it. (They always make me feel really bad about this now, looking at me pointedly about what it got started for me!) But after I got started with it, I remembered how much I loved to do this when I was in high school and I started to really get into it. After my first scrapbook store visit , Catch a Falling Star in Minneapolis, I was hooked forever. I was so taken by all that paper!

What are your sources for inspiration?
I am not sure that I can pinpoint any one source, or even think of a very adequate list. I think everyone and everything inspires me. I get inspired every day that I am in the warehouse---pulling orders, seeing what people order, seeing combinations of things I may not have thought of myself. My kids and my husband, my parents, and my dogs. My friends and co workers inspire me. The Garden Girls inspire me greatly. Magazines and the Two Peas Gallery are full of works that inspire me.

How do you get started on projects (layouts, etc)?
My process starts with my photos. And then I amass this great stack of papers, unless I already know what papers I want to use, even still, I start with all the papers I might want to use all in a random stack that I just lay out on my work table. Trying to find the right colors and combination that I want to use. Sometimes this takes me a long time, and sometimes I know right what I want to do. Since I am an 8.5x11 scrapper, I have to begin each layout by cutting my papers down to size. I have a lot of 1 inch scraps in my bin!

What things do you like to communicate through your work?
I think that most of my scrapbook work is incredibly personal. I am always thinking about who might be reading it down the road. I am always trying to record the truth in the moment, the reality of our lives and our personalities. I want to capture and represent the relationships in my life, the love that I have for the people around me and the way we work as a family. I guess my main thing that I want to communicate is Love and Honesty.

What have been your biggest achievements or greatest layouts or moments with this hobby?
Since I am deeply entrenched in this hobby with Two Peas in a Bucket, this is hard for me. With the absence of Two Peas and its accolades, I would have to say that being asked to work on the “Designing with” series of books has been a surreal thing for me. I am not very confident in myself and my work, and since I am always second guessing my layouts and projects, and being a part of that team humbles me. I am proud to be asked to work with that team of amazing scrapbookers.

I think I would also have to say that letting it all go was also a huge achievement for me----and I mean the desire to be published, to get recognized. That was something I always wanted, as I think a lot of scrapbookers do. and the moment I let that go, decided it was no longer as important to me, I was so much more happy with my work. It was like a new door opened for me, a new light on my own design and style. I stopped worrying about what others wanted and really did things as I wanted to do them. I just really started to feel more comfortable in my own skin, doing my own thing and not second guessing myself all the time. I think I also went through my own private stash of products and decided what was really ME and things that I realized really didn’t fit into my own personal style. With the absence of all that product around me, I was able to stay more focused and true to what I wanted to be.

What kind of goals do you have with your scrapbooking?
For my family, and the ones I love to be able to feel and recognize how much I love them through this way of expressing myself.

Where do you scrap? do you attend crops or conventions?
I never scrap with someone else. I scrap alone. I can’t scrap with others around me. I have in the past, perhaps once or twice, and find it very difficult to do. I prefer to be alone in my scrapspace---sometimes my husband is in there with me working on his computer, or the kids watch a movie near me. To have them around me is comforting and a great reminder of what I am doing. I enjoy having Jeff there to talk to at times, and bounce ideas off of. He is great at listening to me talk it out, without actually thinking I am talking to him. He just nods his head and goes along with me until I turn back to my work.

Where does scrapbooking fit into your life? do you scrap in the morning, evening, late night? when do you do your greatest work?
I scrapbook on the weekends, the afternoons and evenings. I am not a late night person. You will NEVER find me out of bed past 10 pm on a weekday night. And usually not on weekend nights either. I am a total morning person.

What does your family think of your scrapbooking?
They are all very encouraging. It took my grandparents and other family members a long time to understand just what I did, and what my business does, but I think most of them get it now. My mother and I are very close, and we have always been into crafts and art in one form or another, so she is very supportive. Jeff and my girls love it. Obviously, otherwise we wouldn’t have Two Peas.

Do you have a favorite product line, paper, sticker, or cardstock color?
I don’t know how much I can say here without making any of my manufacturers mad at me…… I love the KI Memories paper collections. I always have. Love the colors. The patterns. It’s totally me. There is something about it. I think I have the largest stack of KI paper outside of Texas in my scrap space.

I am also super fond of the Sonnets collection. Not only because Sharon is one of my closest friends, but because of her awesome designs. Love the look of her papers. The washes, the colors. I love the way they go so well with my Italy photos. I LOVE her label stickers.

I use a lot of different products otherwise----with new additions all the time with all the new companies and collections in the industry. And I think I like them all for different reasons or different products. I love the American Crafts letter stickers. I love the Making Memories brads and tags. I love the 7gypsies papers and photo turns. Chatterbox stripes, love the new Dorm collection for my boy pages. love the letter stickers (sonnets, chatterbox, mustard moon, doodlebug, etc etc, and papers. Love how it all coordinates together. I am a sucker for cardstock stickers, anything with WORDS on it. Letter stickers. And most of all PAPER. I love paper. Oh, how I love paper. I am partial to stripes, florals and polka dots. Love the new MOD Wink collection---love that pink flower paper. Love the new FoofaLa papers and tabs. I love the Anna Griffin papers. I guess I love to mix and match different companys’ papers as much as possible. I love to mix the bright fresh colors and prints of KI, Paper Fever, Doodlebug with things like 7Gypsies, Foofala etc. I loved the Daisy D’s Autumn papers, particularly the square one.

What do you want the peas to know about you?
I have my weird ways----I don’t use cardstock, unless I have to. Its just not me. I don’t use fonts, I do all of my journaling by hand. If I can’t do my title with letter stickers or rub ons, I just don’t do it. I am a huge advocate of hand journaling. I want my kids to always know my handwriting, and to know that when I made a layout that I journaled on, that I did it for them with my own hand. Handwriting is so personal, it’s like a fingerprint. No one out there has the exact same handwriting. I love that.

I am a messy scrapbooker. Always have been messy when I am creating. Just the way I am. There are stickers stuck all over my table. Little scraps of papers all over the place. Products stacked up all over the floor.

I love to listen to music while I scrap. Or listen to the TV behind me.

I usually create 2 page layouts and rarely do I do a 1 page layout. I will never go to a 12x12 album size. It doesn’t feel compositional correct to me. I can’t work with that square space. I love to create mini books.

I am a collector. Of lots of different things. One of the top ones is books. I love to collect books. I read constantly. I love to learn about new things. I love to look at art books. I LOVE fine art. Art History. Especially ancient art. Anything from Greek or Roman culture. And the Renaissance. I love sculpture.

I also love Mickey Mouse. I am a Mickey Freak. I have a huge collection of Mickey Mouse dishes in all sorts of shapes and colors. Books. Prints. Anything, I have it.

I am a pretty private person, very guarded, very closed up. So being the head of Two Peas has been a struggle for me. I don’t trust easily. I have surrounded myself with a great group in my warehouse, who I love like a family. I am super close to my best friend, who is the warehouse manager. We have been best friends for 11 years. I adore her more than anything else. We see each other every day, talk everyday, and I don’t think I could live without her. I have also surrounded myself with a great number of talented artists in my Garden Girl Team. I am so lucky to have them working on my site. They are not only designers for me, but also confidants, friends and advisors. I am terrible at letting myself open up and let people see the real me----I have a hard time in groups and have a super hard time when I am at trade shows for Two Peas. I am terrified of not being what people want me to be. Which is why I have retreated so far back and out of sight on Two Peas. I am very emotionally attached to my scrapbooking and my business.