A Muse News

Going Green (ver 1.0)

Only 17 more days until St. Patrick' Day!!  My husband and I spent 6 months in Ireland a few years back and loved it!  We met some wonderful people and became known throughout the parish as the people with the purple buggy (our purple baby jogger)!   We were in Cork for St. Patrick's Day and it is interesting to see how they celebrate - quite different from here in North America! Much quieter and no green beer... at least we didn't have any!

This card is for my friend, Nuala, in Rosscarbery.  You may recall that I did a similar card for valentine's day.  Fast & easy... gotta love it!  The shamrocks are made from an EK Success Paper Shaper punch.  The notecard & stamp are both from A Muse.

More cards to share tomorrow!

Packaging help!

We have a plethora of products that need to be packaged! (say that 3x quickly! LOL!)

If you live in the Seattle-area and are interested in helping us with packaging product, I would love to hear from you.  Pay can be either cash or product - your choice.  Hourly rate is $8.00/hour or $20/hour in product.  We are looking for 2 or 3 detail-oriented people that are able to work a few hours/day over the next few weeks at our Greenwood location (North Seattle). 

Please send a copy of your resume with references asap to linda@amuseartstamps.com. 
Please do not call, we will contact you if you are shortlisted.

Thanks!

Like to read?

My daughter, Hailey, and I are in a mother-daughter book club.  It is a lot of fun and a great way to be introduced to some fabulous new books!  The bookclub is hosted by our wonderful school librarian, Mrs. Grandorf.

Last month, our book club read this book which is sure to become a classic: The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Katie DiCamillo (author of Because of Winn Dixie).  Edward is a china rabbit and this book chronicles his adventures.

Hailey (who just turned 9) read this book in just under 2 hours.  I have been reading a few chapters each night to my younger two girls and each night they can't wait to jump in bed to hear what happens next to Edward.   

It's not yet available in a soft cover but you will most likely want the hardcover for your library anyways.  Also makes a great gift! 

What are your favorite children's books/authors?

Punch update

As many of you are painfully aware, Marvy-Uchida has an extreme stock shortage of our favorite punches.  We managed to find a supply of mostly mega shapes and just received them.  The Mega scallop oval is my all-time favorite punch.

Here is what we have in stock as of today.  Check it out in My Favorite Things album (scroll down, it's on the left).  If you'd like to order any of these beauties, email us at orders@amuseartstamps.com or call toll free 1-877-783-4882.

Have a beautiful day!

Funny bunny rocks Greenwood!

The Funny Bunny is one of my favorite A Muse stamps.  So, when we were chatting about what to do for our Spring/Easter window display, I immediately though of him! 

We are so lucky to have Nina make our stamp designs into life-size creations for our window displays!  These pieces are truly amazing... and they are double-sided to boot!  Can you see all the detail in the fence?  How does she do it?!  The photo below shows our window display from inside the shop.

I just love to see the smiles on the kids' faces as they walk by our store front.  The days we change out our display have become quite an event for the neighborhood.

Can't wait to see what comes after Mr. Funny Bunny!

Drum roll, please!

I must say we have been overwhelmed by the number of "entries" to our quiz. I posted yesterday morning and have not been back online until just a few minutes ago. 300 comments plus quite a few email entries as well! Wowie! Thank you everyone for taking the time to post. We do have a winner...

Congratulations to Julia Stainton!!

Julia was the first person to correctly guessed that the most popular letter is M and the least popular letter is X (according to my model).

Julia, please email me your postal address and we will get your prize in the mail to you!

Thanks everyone for playing along. It was fun to see your answers!! Now it will be fun to see how my predictions hold up!

A Quiz for you...

I put a lot of thought into the production of our clear polka dot monogram stamps.  Not about whether or not to do them - that was an easy decision!  No, the hours I spent on this project were used to determine what the most popular monogram letters would be.  You see, if I could "predict" the popularity of the letters somehow, it would make them *much* cheaper to produce.  Without any sales history - I was going to have to put on my thinking cap about how to do this.

The internet is an amazing resource!  I was able to find letter frequency rates for the English language, Social Securtiy data for the past century and more!  With a little manipulation in Excel, I was able to build a model that I **hope** will help us maintain the low prices on our fun new monogram stamps!

Allrighty - now that I've told you how I did this.  What is your guess?  Which letter (according to my model) should be the most popular?  What about the least popular?  Post a comment here with your guess!  (Remember you should have two letters in your guess - most and least popular)

If you are the first person to guess them both correctly, you will win a COMPLETE set of these new monograms - 26 lovelies & a jumbo clear block as well.

Let the guessing begin!

Here they are

... a few of them anyways!  We have been very busy with the packaging of our new clear lowercase polka dot monogram stamps.  They will be ready to ship later this week.  So, if you place an order that includes these, your order will most likely ship on Friday (2/23).   

the deets: The "x" height on the letters is 2".  The tallest letter is 'j' and it measures 4" in height. 

The retail price is $5.00 per letter.

 

Out with Valentine's...

in with Easter! 

We spent the better part of today taking down Valentine's day displays and putting up our fabulous new Easter display.  I'm glad we only do this every few months... it is a BIG job! 

I am feeling a little out of sync with the rest of the world. We are working 9-10 months out on our future releases so Easter feels like it should also be over and done with!

Nina did an oustanding job yet again and our new window display is *the* BEST!  You really must come on by to see it in person.  For those of you that can't - I will try to get a picture posted here tomorrow for you.

Spring 2007 release: just a few more things to add to the website tomorrow.  And, to answer a very popular question, our new clear polka dot monograms are $4.99!  Such a deal!  Each letter measures approximately 2" to 4" high.

Still more...

We were not able to load images of all our new products onto the A Muse site yesterday - very slow internet connection at A Muse HQ.  Still to come:

• Pretty Little Papers
• Argyle band notecards
• Barney alpha
• polka dot monograms

We will do our best to get them uploaded today... stay tuned.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Look at this sweet Valentine I received from Makenna today.  Her preschool class made the paper to make the heart.  Isn't it precious?!  I love her handwriting on the accompanying note... a most definite keeper!

We're working on the website right now... be sure to check back soon to see our new Spring images.

Here's a preview of our new Pretty Little Papers.  We have re-packaged our gift tags to give you more fun papers to play with. 

Pretty Little Papers (PLP) are designed to coordinate with our line of notecards.  Each package contains 28 Pretty Little Papers, 7 of each color in the same pattern.  Each PLP measures 2" x 4" and are printed on the same cardstock as our notecards.  Fun, fun, fun!

$3.00/package

Happy Valentine's day!!

New Spring images...

Will be added to the A Muse website tomorrow - 2/14

Happy Valentine's Day!

Punch madness!

Wowie - everyone went *mad* for the Marvy punches we had in stock.  Our reserves are rather depleted. I will post an update on what we have in stock tomorrow.  Stay tuned.

Unfortunately if you did not get the ones you wanted when we had them in stock, Marvy called us to say that they are backordered on most every punch through the end of March!  Yikes! 

Last minute Valentines

Seems to me that all my valentine cards are made at the last minute! LOL! 

My girls and I were busy over the weekend creating their Valentines cards for classmates.  We had only a limited supply of stamps & stuff with us as we were out of town.  Here's what we brought:

• assortment of pink & red A Muse notecards
• A Muse Dino clear set & acrylic block
• black, red and pink ink
• pink & white satin ribbon
• my new mini guillotine trimmer &scissors
• Colored pencils (my daughter assures me it is *correct* to call them colored pencisl and NOT pencil crayons!)

This girls had a blast and came up with a design that is unique and fun!  Hailey wanted to include a treat in each card.  They decided some of the lollipops we have at the shop would work well.  Hailey created a 2.5"W x 4.25"H card by trimming down an A Muse notecard.  Then they stamped, colored and addressed each valentine.  It took about 2 hours to do all their valentines but they stuck with it and got the job done!  I am so proud of them.  Last night we simply added the lollipops with a Pop up glue dot (love those things!) and a heart sticker to seal them. 

While they were stamping, I created these (all stamps & papers by A Muse):

I hope you like these cards.  It was challenging to work with such a limited amount of supplies but I'm really pleased with the results!

Have a *lovely* day!

New Copic in store!

As promised, here is a photo of the new Copic marker colors we just got in at the shop.  These are some of my favorite colors - especially all the skin tones. 

Yes, they are expensive but oh so worth it!  Have your bought yourself a valentine's day treat yet?

For those of you that are new to the amusenews blog, the items that are found in My Favorite Things photo album are items that we carry in the A Muse Shop.  These items can be added to your next A Muse order.  The details on placing an order with A Muse are found here on our website. 

Glitter bugs

I have had these glittery bug stickers for a few months now.  I do that sometimes - do you?  I bought them to go with some of our word stamps to make fast and beautiful cards.

The stickers are made by a company called Petaloo.  The bumblebees come 6 in a package, the lady bugs come with 8.  They are a little on the pricey side ($4.69/each) but they are really fun. 

These cards both use our *new* Argyle Band notecards that are part of our 2007 Spring release. I *heart* these notecards!

Do you like my new lamp? No electricity required... just a tealight!  My husband found this for me at the "rack" (Nordstrom Rack) that is.  It will be perfect for our cottage because we have no electricity.  In the meantime, I think I will keep it in my office.

Have a bee-utiful day!

Swan Lake

Hailey and I went to see the Pacific Northwest Ballet's Swan Lake tonight.  Lucien Postelwaite was magnificent as Prince Siegfried.  There were 6 little girls that we know from the PNB school in this performance and they did such a great job!

There is one more chance to see this ballet - 1:00 matinee today (Feb 11th). 

punches update

We now have most Marvy punches in stock.

new banner!

Yay!  I hope you like our new blog banner.  Does it look OK on your screen?  Do you know the "proper" pixel width for a blog banner?

Just 5 more days until Valentine's Day.  Have you made your sweetie a card?  We will be busting out kids valentine's this weekend... lots of glitter is in my future! LOL!

Stay tuned for this week's fabulous COTW (card of the week) in our weekly a-muse-letter.  We have made some changes to our Email software and are keeping our fingers crossed  that things will go smoother from now on!  We are still working on even more enhancements for this so stay tuned.

Not receiving our weekly a-muse-letters?!  Sign up by clicking the link on the left. J

A Sweet party!

*All* the girls from my daughter's first grade class are coming over to play on Monday.  We're going to make valentines, bracelets, decorate cupcakes, play games and eat spaghetti!

Here's the invite I whipped up... and some sprinkles I coudn't resist!  What a fun excuse to buy pretty pink party cups, plates, napkins and cutlery!

All stamps & papers by A Muse. 

Sneak Peak

Early signs of spring are popping up here in Seattle.  While out for my morning run, I spotted a red-breasted robin catching a worm and the daffodils are beginning to sprout.  I also spotted a bunny down by Green Lake.

Here is a sneak peak of one of our new Spring 2007 images - Little bunny.  Our new images are en route to stores as I write and will be posted to the A Muse site on 2/14.

I stamped our 'Field' stamp with VersaMark and then used my Pebbles shimmer chalks (available in our retail shop - click the link to learn more!) to color the image green.  It is so soft and shiny in real life - photo doesn't really show it.

The Heart flowers stamp is one of the stamps that my daughter, Hailey, designed last year.  The proceeds from the sales of Hailey's stamps support Scleroderma Research.  Hailey's grandma has Scleroderma.

This auto-immune disease affects more than 300,000 people in the US alone - 80% are women and it typically strikes during child-bearing years.  There is no cure.  Your support is greatly appreciated. 

Thank you!

Conversation - FBI

I had an enlightening conversation with some gals from the FBI today.  {hi gals - if you're reading this!} 

Some folks would consider me naive - we don't have a TV so I don't hear a lot about the "bad" things that are happening all around us - like that crazy astronaut story!  Wow!  I think we can all use a refresher on some personal safety issues - especially if you have children at home.  Here are some takeaways from my enjoyable conversation this afternoon.

• Always make sure that all first floor windows are closed  *locked* when you go to bed as well as any 2nd floor windows that have easy access.  Make sure you don't have a ladder within easy access.
• NEVER use online banking - too easy for someone to steal your identity (and your moulah!)
• Never let your kids onto the internet without parental supervision (we have strict guidelines for my eldest daughter who is the only one with limited access)
• Get a dog - one with a loud bark (and in my case is hypoallergenic)
• Know if there are any registered sex-offenders in your neighborhood - here is one site I found that you can use to look up this information.  According to this site, 1 in 5 girls will be molested before their 18th birthday!

I'm sure there are things I've forgotten... if I remember them I will add to this list.  What are your personal safety rules/tips?  Comment if you wish.

six and stamping!

Our new Spring 2007 stamps are sitting in a basket on my counter begging to be stamped with. Annabelle (my 6yo daughter) asked if she could make a few cards and I naturally assumed she would want to use these brand new stamps.  Of course, she decides to use our dot bl, big dot bl & Super dot instead. 

Aren't they fun?!
{she's 6 --> we are forbidden to call her creations cute!  LOL}

pc problems make play time!

The one good thing about spending hours (& hours!) troubleshooting computer problems is that it allowed me some time to put together a fun keepsake for my girls.

We just got these adorable Mini Square Boxes in at the shop. While I was waiting for my computer to perform some maintenance tasks, I zapped together this mini-album using the Holiday photos we received this year. I never know what to do with all of the photo-cards we get - it's kind of a dilemma for me every year! I am lovin' this idea!

This is the outside of the box:
(there's a sneak peak of a new Spring 2007 stamp - A true friend MA)

Here's one view of the inside:

And here's a small section of the photos - bad lighting, eh?
(the acordian pages are included with the box.)

If you "need" one of these boxes, you can add one (or two!) onto your next order.  Here's the deets:

• Outer dimension = 3.5" square, inner pages = 3" square
• Acordian pages included
• 5 colors to choose from (black polka dot, cream, pink, chartreuse, light blue)
• $2.75 each

Again, big smooches to everyone that had suggestions for me on how to fix my Outlook problems.  I am SUPER happy that things are working better now.

Linda

outlook problems

help!

I am having serious problems with MS Outlook.  There is a 47MB message (I sent by mistake!) stuck in my outbox and I cannot get rid of it.  I have googled this problem, searched Microsoft's Knowledge Base server for info but can't find anything helpful.  I have run the Outlook repair tool but that didn't help either. 

If you have any suggestions, I'll be eagerly waiting to hear from you.

Thanks!

**02/05 9:40 p.m.  I was finally able to delete the offending message - yippee!  Thanks for all of the suggestions.  The "trick" was to cut off network access and then move the message to a different folder.  This enabled me to delete it.  Yay!  I am so happy and expect tomorrow to be a productive day.  Smooches everyone!

we're back!

Did ya miss me? LOL!

While everyone was heading to California for CHA, my husband and I were on a plane heading in the opposite direction.  We've just returned from a whirlwind trip to New York.  Man was it COLD!  I was sooo happy to get back to Seattle for the warmer weather. 

One of my favorite things to do in NYC is scour the fabric stores for "must have" fabrics.  I picked up only 3 tiny bits this trip... just didn't see anything I couldn't live without. I did manage to find some yummy vintage ribbon though.  Isn't it gorgeous?!!

While I was away, we received lots of new product in at the shop.  More fabulous Copic marker colors (will photograph and add to my Favorites album), restocking of all our Marvy punches (will update the info on my Favorites album on the left shortly), Clear Stardust gelly roll pens (love these!!) and more!

We also received the last shipment of our NEW Spring 2007 stamps that we were waiting for.  These will begin shipping to stores next Monday.  If you are in Seattle, you can get an early preview by stopping by the A Muse Shop.  We will post the new images on our website on February 14th.  For some sneak previews online, check out our Designers' & Instructors' blogs (on the left).

Stay tuned for a fun blog giveaway in the next couple of days. 

Linda