I wanted to give you an update on our plans for 2006. Although we had planned to release the inaugural bit of information right after CHA, there have been a few unavoidable delays and it may be a couple more weeks.
Over the years Jeffrey and I have realized that we are too small, and incapable of doing this all by ourselves. We made mistakes, tried to rectify them and have not always been as successful as we expected to be. But Two Peas in a Bucket is a great site, its growth has been tremendous and can be something really successful given the right circumstances. We have been trying to make that happen. For all purposes, it appeared that we were at that point, where we could announce the new plans for Two Peas before the end of January. We were not expecting there to be delays and other problems. I guess in some ways, we are dreamers more than realists.
So, our plans have had to change, and our announcement and site changes have had to be set back slightly.

We had been waiting to release CHA preorders. First, we had wanted to make our announcement in sync with releasing the preorders, and second, we had wanted to finish clearing up a couple embarrassing delays with delayed orders from the end of last year. We realize that while we have been trying to fix the company, there have been issues with the store. It is incredibly frustrating for us and we know it has been frustrating for you. We understand that because of this, there have been issues regarding our service. We apologize for all of those problems.
We know that you have a choice in where you shop, where you frequent, and we understand that without us providing for you in an improved manner, it won’t always be Two Peas. This is a fiercely competitive industry, and really, all that Jeffrey and I have ever wanted was to provide a place for people who love scrapbooking as much I do.

However, we’ve realized that we can’t wait too long to release the preorders, so we’re going to start releasing the preorders for the new products. We’ll start things off with American Crafts, then move on to Autumn Leaves, Doodlebug and Basic Grey. There are more to come after that. We’ve set our anticipated delivery date of these preorders a little further out than normal so we can avoid any problems with possible delays. We just want to be as honest with you as we can. We are very dedicated to our customers and users and will do our best to provide the best service that we can.


You’ll also notice that we have released the first of several stages of an improved shopping interface designed from the ground up to be a more enjoyable experience. A few of the initial changes you’ll notice:

1. A return to a frame-based shopping environment to speed browsing.
2. “Shopping Methods” allowing you to shop by category, brand, product type or by latest products added.
3. A shopping interface selector -- lets you choose whether to add products to your bucket one product at a time (Select Standard), or enter quantities for multiple products and add them to your bucket all at once (Select Multiple).
4. Other improvements that ultimately speed the browsing process.

This is just the beginning of programming changes we have planned. We will be releasing a lot of changes to our already successful sections, and brand new sections to bring Two Peas up to speed. We have always been innovative, and we hope that we can continue to be so. Behind all of this, is my intense love for Scrapbooking. Regardless of what is happening on the site, the boards, or the lack of store, I am always committed to Scrapbooking and this industry.

Thank you for your time and support.

Kristina
Pea1
Founder & CEO
Two Peas, Inc
Twopeasinabucket.com

Designing a scrapbook page takes lots of planning and time, right? Wrong!

Not with the new Layout Blueprints Idea Book!

Layout Blueprints offers sound layout design concepts for your scrapbook pages, with over 175 full-color samples. Choose from over 50 page designs to create your scrapbook pages on a strong foundation. Then just add photos and embellishments! It really is that easy! You'll be amazed at how easily your scrapbook pages come together.

Visit our website to see a few of the Blueprints with full-color samples made by talented scrapbookers just like you. You can pre-order your copy of Layout Blueprints through our website at www.layoutblueprints.com today!

Autumn Leaves Products:
Scribbles by Rhonna Farrer
Foof-a-la-la-la Collection
Foof-a-la Happily Ever After Collection
MOD Handsome Collection
MOD Sparkles Collection

Preorders on New CHA Winter Collections:
American Crafts Bookshelf and The Goods Paper Collections
American Crafts Remarks Stickers and Trademarks Rub Ons
American Crafts Seasons Ribbons
Doodlebug Paper, stickers, Florals, Buttons, Jellishments, Cute Clips and More
Autumn Leaves Splendor, Bohemian Rhapsody, Foofala Going Places & Dad's Ties, MOD Red Gerbera and Kaleidoscope collections and Rhonna Farrer Clear Stamps.
Basic Grey Hang 10, Color Me Silly,Oh Baby Boy & Oh Baby Girl, Urban Couture, ribbons and more.

Hopefully we can get some other preorders up shortly. And other great new products. these are some of the things I have plans to bring in as soon as possible.

Ki Memories Choices Collection
Fontwerks new papers, stamps, and more
and more!!

I wrote an informal CHA report and posted it on my blog this week. In which, I reviewed a lot of the new products, a good chunk of which I have hopes of ordering for the store.

This months Creating Garden theme is Done By Hand. With the huge success of such artists as Elsie Flannigan, the doodle and pen craze has increased in popularity again. It is everywhere, on papers, stamps, fonts, stickers. When I assigned this theme, I was hoping to get the non-hand done designers to give it a try and show the scrapbookers who have not done things by hand, that they too can try it. Each person interprets the theme in a different way, which I always find interesting.... and this theme was no exception. Many of the girls took the Done by Hand to a different level of handwriting, or doodling..... they took products that were hand done such as papers and stamps and fonts that were obviously hand drawn. or they used drawings or other pieces of artwork from friends and family, and used those as their Done By Hand assignment. No matter how the theme is or was interpreted, all of the designs and projects are super inspiring! We have these new ones to inspire you further.

Being the ever-so-lucky gal that I am, Vic recently designed a new
studio for me. We had a 10x12 sitting room off our bedroom that
basically served no purpose, but had lovely windows. Voila!

He closed off the room with French Doors, added another single
French door out to the hallway, put in hardwoods, moulding, a
ceiling fan and recessed lighting. Yum. I've always worked out of a
bedroom, this was the first time I'd had a room of my own to design
from the bottom up.

Anyway - let's get to the good stuff, right?!?

1. This is a closeup of the view looking in from our bedroom. You can
see the rolling worktable, the armoire in the corner and the desk
behind. The door to the hallway is just inside the room to the left,
and my paper cabinet is just inside the door to the right.

2. A closer look at the worktable. To save time, Vic made it using
unfinished oak base cabinets. He stained them black, custom-made
the mahogany top, and added heavy-duty casters to the bottom. I
LOVE the height and being able to roll it around wherever I like. Perfect.

3. and 4. DRAWERS!! I LOVE drawers!! The key to good organization is
to keep the things you use most near at hand. With that in mind, my
top right drawer is all adhesives. The top left is my most frequently-
used tools.

5. The center drawers are all my loose embellishments. I used to
organize everything out to the Nth degree, but no longer. Inspired
by Ms. Shelley Sullivan, I decided to group smaller things by type to
encourage me to dig thru them (and hopefully use them). So far, it's
working well!

You can probably identify what's in there (brad fetish ya think?).
The drawer organizers are from The Container Store - Deep clear
acrylic with rubber feet. Before shopping, I made a list of
everything I had to organize and what size containers I'd need.

6. Second drawer. Mostly metals.

7. Third drawer. Tags, tags, tags! (organized by Aidan. :)

8. Bottom drawer - extra stuff. And mostly empty (love empty drawers, so much potential!).

The open cabinets on either side store my sewing machine,
embossing gun, books, scraps, etc.

9. The desk. Made the same way as the worktable - unfinished oak
cabinets with a mahogany top. Drawers and cabinets store basic
office stuff. Notebooks, pens, paper, stapler, etc. etc. Vic made the
bulletin board a couple of years ago.

10. Our old TV armoire, which Vic hates (he made it during his 'country'
phase and wishes it would disappear - heh). I love it. He painted it
black for me, but insists he's going to make another piece to match
the desk and worktable so he can dump this...but I think not.

Behind the doors on the top are two six-drawer plastic Iris carts.
They store all the product I divide by manufacturer (there's a KI
drawer, a CBX drawer, a few AL drawers, etc.). There's also a
drawer for rub-ons, one for stickers, etc.

11. Directly under that are 4 open cubbies (there were doors, but I took
them off). I measured the space and picked up wire drawers at the
Container Store that fit perfectly. The top two drawers are all
stamps (Hero Arts on the left, Misc. on the right). The bottom two
are larger office supplies.

12. The bottom drawer, which was initally meant for VCR tapes is now
where my stamping inks and supplies live (I took the pic before the
drawer front was on - Vic would want me to mention that). It's
deep and perfect. Everything fits. Aaaah....

13. My paper cabinet. Pretty self-explanatory. Vic is going to make a
replacement for this. Open shelving, I think.

14. Another view from my bedroom.

Being the organizational freak that I am...here are some things I've
learned (tips, if you will...)

• STAND! Seriously. I was a sitting scrapper for 5 years. Not only
didn't it help my large butt, but my scrapping as well. I only used
what I could reach. Standing? I move around, I look, I dig. And I use
things I'd forgotten I had.

• Mix stuff up. Some things should be broken out by manufacturer,
but do you really NEED to have your brads and snaps organized
out by color, size, and shape (who, me??). Turns out the answer is no.

• If you're designing a room from scratch, or just reorganizing the
one you want, MEASURE AND LIST. Don't just go to Target and
say "Hey, that's a pretty box." Take an inventory of what you have
and how you want to store it. Then measure and go to the store
with that list in-hand.

Thanks for looking!