End of an Era...

So sorry I haven't been around - yet again - but as usual there has been a lot of bed-time/kid-time/parent-time involved.  I have had moments of scrappiness, but alas getting photos of these layouts is actually harder than creating them.
I hope everyone has received their cards by now (and thanks so much Cynthia for the lovely thank you).  So sorry (yet again) for the delay as there was a total breakdown around our household that involved my having to come home quickly one day and relying on someone else to get the job done. (thank you Ruth for the heads up that prompted my going out to mom's car (which I am never ever in) to find the forgotten packages).
So on to it.  There will be no layouts today as this is a little heads up for those of you who haven't heard the big news... TwoPeasinaBucket is closing.  Now to tell you honestly, I have one and a half regrets about this:
1/2 regret is that I was all pumped to purchase some of the exclusive embellishments come first of the month.
One very BIG regret is that our girl Shimelle works for 2Ps - and they are the sponsor/venue for Glitter Girl.  I am so hoping that Shimelle is okay through all of this, especially with the new little one on board.  I am happy that she has found a designing home with American Crafts (can't wait for that line to come out next month!!!!), but also hope that she maintains control of Glitter Girl so that we may continue to reference past installments as well as continues to bring us more of our sparkly friend in the future.  In the meantime, I really wish she would update her class access so that I can figure out if there's anything I missed and didn't mean to - namely, the one in January!

TwoPeas has been around 15 years and it was the first place I went when I was able to make a major scrapping purchase again after the dark days.  It is also the only place my mom knows to shop for my gifts.  But I must admit that I definitely saw this coming after the first of this year.  It was around February I think that my orders started to take over a week to ship vs the usual 3-day turnaround from order placement to receipt.  Then the customer service 'ticket' was abandoned in lieu of sending emails (and Matt was sooooo awesome about answering any and every question!!!).  Then when I emailed for 3-months straight about a defective Dear Lizzy wood piece that I had received and never ever even once heard back from them - nothing.  (Interjection:  Please see * below) And then just to top all my hate off, no warning... no warning whatsoever.  I was on the site a few days ago looking up if they had those SC hearts back in yet and not a signal.  Then today an email with the news arrives (stamped June 25, 2014 at 1:09 pm) and, whoa!!! the Message Boards are missing.  (Guess they didn't want to see all that booing and hissing!.. or maybe let anyone know what the future held for our video series that we watch every.single.day. on YouTube!) Oh, Oh, Oh... and those 'exclusive' embellies that I had in my cart a week ago - gone!!!!!!!!!!!!! Every lousy flair and coffee cup wood veneer... gone!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So, though my heart is heavy for our girl Shimelle, it is with a big "GOOD RIDDANCE!" that I say goodbye to Two Peas in a Bucket.  Makes me proud to be a "Cherry".

Now... after I've gotten all that off my chest, let me just say that at the same time I am very sad to see 2Ps leave.  After Archives and Creative Memories, it's just frightening that another one has bitten the dust.  I want to think that the reason is because of divorce or some other more personal reason rather than just low sales in which case I am sorry for those involved.  However, the facts of our poor customer service and the way in which they have 'closed the doors' may say a lot about why sales had diminished if that were the case.  I hope so.  I am terrified that the days may come when I still have an overpowering urge to cut up pretty paper and glue down darling diecuts just to find that there are no more available.

*Oh and as for that interjection:  One more reason that American Crafts remains my favorite all-around company.  They have the most awesome customer service ever.  And while they couldn't fix my bad piece of wood, they made up for my total headache with an entire set of wood veneers from the line of my choice - promptly.  God love Jenna with whom I carried on an email conversation at least 1-2 times per day for over a week and was uber sweet all the time!

Okay, now that I've spouted off, I'll bid you goodbye for today. Let me know if you didn't receive the cards yet as that would just be crazy at this point.  I will be back later showing off some scrappiness as I went to doctor yesterday and received another injection that seems to be allowing me to sit up for a couple of hours a day and I have the best help in with my folks.

I hope everyone is oh so well and scrappy and having a beautiful (and cool if possible) summer.

Stay Safe and Scrap On!

“The inner fire is the most important thing mankind possesses.” - Edith Sodergan