Sunday, July 27, 2008

Rainy Days and Sundays...

I've got a two-fer here - rainy Sunday. Since we've been home, we've had several really severe thunderstorms. Quite impressive, actually. There's a part of me that likes thunderstorms - as long as I'm not forced to go out IN the rain, they are pretty exciting.

So we are back into what passes for normal routine for summertime. JC and Rachel are off at the local gaming store playing role-playing games. Yes, I'm encouraging my children to be nerds, you got a problem with that? John and William are channel-surfing, I think they've found a wake-boarding show, and now possibly a NASCAR race. 57 channels and nothing on...

Guess it's a song-quoting kind of day.

I am blogging rather than playing with my new toy. Yes, I unexpectedly have a new toy. It comes with a story. Ready?

Five or six years ago a scrapbooking store opened in the town next to ours. It was right downtown, had a decent location but only street parking, and offered crops and classes along with a huge amount of product (mostly paper). I was a sometimes customer, took a few classes, but showed up often enough that most of the staff at least recognized me even if they didn't know my name. Not really a regular, but semi-regular. Then, about 2 years ago, their town got severely flooded. I don't really remember all the circumstances, but it wasn't the first time. The store owner was able to save a good percentage of her stock, but not all, and the store itself was TRASHED. Ah, but she was wise enough that she had flood insurance! Nevertheless, she decided it was stupid to rebuild in a location that had been flooded twice in about 8 years, so she moved the store. Of course, finding and fitting out the space took longer than expected so they were closed for quite a while. But they re-opened about a year ago, nice clean space, with a parking lot! I was hoping to go more often, especially with a built-in babysitter and three kids in full-time school.

At the beginning of July, they sent out an email. They are closing. In fact, as of yesterday, they are closed. I went on Friday, to say good bye and of course take advantage of the closeout sales. The owner explained that they decided to close rather than go deeper into debt, and they will be around as an eBay store and running local crops. So she was selling everything, inventory, furniture, fixtures. Everything. Including an AccuCut Mark IV. For those of you who are not crafting nerds, it's a die cut machine. A big one - about 12" wide. The kind you see in a school or a store. And of course, it's no good without dies. The dies got flooded - they're a little rusty in spots, and the wood is stained by mildew. But they work, and really don't seem to leave rust spots on the paper. So I now am the proud owner of an AccuCut, 13 large dies, 6 small ones, and an entire alphabet, all for less than the cost of a new machine. Used, of course, but still good!

Do I need it? No, of course not. Could I let the opportunity pass me by? Obviously not. I may actually try selling some die-cuts on eBay, yes, people do sell packages of die-cuts. I have a large pile of old stamps I need to unload as well, so perhaps between those things, I'll make back the money.

It's just such a COOL machine. Anybody need some die cuts? Felt, foam, paper, chipboard? I can cut anything! Bwahahaha..... (evil laugh). I actually passed on the chance to buy the bigger one....

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