Sad Goodbyes

Recently I found out that Scrapbooks Plus, the local scrapbook store, is going to be closing.  It has been open for 14 or 15 years, and it has been a part of our family.  That may sound really weird, but Marc & Debbie Chabot (the owners) are our neighbors.  Our daughter was one of their first employees.  I was one of their first teachers, and over the years I taught many different classes.  I was also an employee at different times.  Not a sales clerk, but I did other jobs.  I was the class supervisor for a time.  I designed Make & Takes and did up the kits.  I did the set up for the Christmas Photoshoot with Santa (played by Marc), and I took the pictures.  I also spent many hours in the crop room with my scrapping buddies.  I made friends there.  The store's slogan from the very beginning was "Your scrapbook home away from home," and they really tried to live up to that.  They started liquidating last week.  Soon their house will be put on the market so they can move to another state to be close to Debbie's aging parents.  It's understandable, but it still hurts.

Two Peas in a Bucket, an online store and message board suddenly announced that they will be closing, too.  I have been a member of that message board for a lot of years, longer actually than it would appear.  I started under my real name for my username (not the smartest thing to do online), but I got fed up with some posters who got rather ugly.  I stayed away for a very long time.  When I eventually decided to give the message board there another try, I couldn't remember my password, and I couldn't recover it, either.  So I joined as a new member.  Even under my new Pea name, which is also the name I use for this blog, I have been there a long time.

Scrapn Nana
PEAring through my camera lens

PeaNut 272,954

August 2006

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The above photo was my avatar.  The number under the green pea shows how many years Scrapn Nana was there.  Once I got beyond 5,000 posts, I got to choose what phrase went under my name, instead of something chosen for me by the Two Peas owners (usually based on post count).  Obviously I spent way too much time there for me to have such a high post count.

I learned Friday that Debbie will continue her store online.  I also learned that a new brick & mortar scrapbook or paper crafting store has just opened in Clifton. I haven't been there yet. It's farther away, and it won't be a place to go crop, but they sell lots of stamps, and I love stamps.  It won't be home like Scrapbooks Plus has been, but it will be in the area, and I can still purchase scrapping goodies from Debbie through her online store, too.

I also learned this weekend that there is a new message board for the former Peas, too.

Someday I hope to be the one to pull up my roots and move to another state, where I have family.  My children are grown and gone.  All of them live far away, and all of them want us to move near them.  My siblings and my in-laws all live far away, too.  Scrapbooking all these years has helped me bear the separation, but the time is coming to go home, wherever home ends up. Then it will be sad goodbyes all over again.

But it will also be a new beginning.