The New Office

This is the office "The Crop" built.

Well, "The Crop", and the Mother's Day Walk, and a lot of really hard work!
Julie and Alane have plenty of space to work in this place, and let me tell you, it's in a great location! Right on East Superior Street in Duluth, across the street from Pizza Luce. What could be better than that? There's plenty of storage room for any incoming crop donations, *wink*wink*...but you'll have to wait a while before we give any sneak peeks!

Now for the story of Pineapple, the little pink bear in our previous post.

Alane says Pineapple came from one of their group members who is from the south. She says pineapples traditionally mean "welcome", so Pineapple was the name given to the bear. Whenever the YSC holds a group meeting, Pineapple is passed around, and whoever has the bear has the floor.

We'll have more information on the Crop in the coming days! Stay tuned!

Take a Look At This

Many of you have already seen and heard this news, but for those of you have not, our friend and fellow crop organizer Julie Bates (pictured left in our header photo) was diagnosed with breast cancer a few months ago. This is her second battle with "b-c" so, unfortunately, Julie knows the drill.

Last month, when Julie's first round of chemo started causing her hair to fall out, she made a few phone calls and we headed to her house for a head shaving party. Julie allowed me to take pictures, and she put together this slideshow. Take a look, and please, leave some encouraging words for Julie in her "album comments" section at the bottom of the slideshow! I know she'd appreciate them!

Julie's chemo treatments should be wrapped up by Christmas time, in the meantime, she is working with the rest of us on putting together one heckuva crop!

Coming up in a future post...I'll tell you more about this photo with Julie & Alane, and the little pink bear named Pineapple! Stay tuned!

Alane's Surprise

So, many of you know Alane rode in this years' Young Survival Coalition Tour De Pink, a 226 mile bike ride from Hershey, PA, to Manhattan. But how many of you saw her on the National News this morning?

Click here to see Alane's Surprise!

Get Ready for the "Non-Stop Survivor Crop"!

Mark your calendars everyone! We have a date for our next event!

SATURDAY, JANUARY 23, 2010

9:00am - 12:00am (yes, that's 15 hours of scrapping time!)

Marshall School, Duluth, MN

We'll be at Marshall School again, because we just love the natural light, the view, and the amount of room we have to spread out!

Alane, Julie and Kim are getting all the details worked out...but we thought you'd at least like to know we're ready to get our crop on! ;D

We'll post registration information as soon as we can! Thanks for checking in with the blog!

Planning for 2010 Event Underway!!!!!

It's hard to believe that a whole year has passed and we are already at work planning for this year's scrapbooking event to raise funds for the Young Survival Coalition Duluth Affiliate. Here's a spoiler for you: we cannot unfortunately call our event the "Crop for a Cure" any longer. We are going to have to change the name so we do not upset the people at Susan G. Komen for a Cure who use "the Cure" in the name of all their events. But don't worry, we're using this as an opportunity to get creative with our planning and we will be unveiling the new moniker soon.

You can help us out by completing a short (only 10 question) survey about what you liked, hated, or just can't live without from our previous events. We want your input so we can tailor the event to meet everyone's scrapbooking dreams (okay we may not be able to get that far) but we want to make you happy!!!! So, please follow the link to our survey here and fill it out. We really appreciate it and we will be updating you as the plans progress.

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=nQc6EwvSpiNKFMV6y6KAUQ_3d_3d

In the meantime, happy scrapping!

-Alane

Where has the time gone? And something pretty sweet is in the works!!!

Hello everyone! Yes, it's been FOREVER since we last posted on the Crop for a Cure blog, but time got away from us, the Holidays arrived and, well, we've just been plain old busy! But, enough with the excuses already!!! I am posting today to remind you all of the fabulous, fantastic, one of a kind, most awesome sale in the history of Duluth! (Okay, that could be stretching things a bit, but trust me, it's gonna be great!!!!)

On February 7th we will be having "A Sweet Sale" of scrapbooking and crafting items of all kinds! We have loads of brand new products from dozens of scrapbooking companies! We have kids craft items! We have yarn! We have quilt fabric! We have retired new and gently used Stampin' Up stamp sets for sale! Seriously, it is going to be great! Some of these items you may have seen, used or coveted at the last two Crops, but some of it is brand spankin' new! And the best part is that we are selling it all waaaay below retail price! 50 percent below at least! AND since all of the proceeds will be going to our non-profit organization, the Young Survival Coalition Duluth, all of your purchases are considered a tax deductible donation!

So here's the scoop:

What: A Sweet Sale

When: Saturday, February 7th

Time: 9:00 AM until 1:00 PM

Where: The First United Methodist Church, Duluth (The Coppertop!)

Why: To raise money for the Young Survival coalition Duluth and to have FUN!

*BONUS*: Kathryn Stewart, Creative Memories Consultant Extraordinaire is having a 12-hour scrapping event on the same day at the Lakeside-Lester Park Community Club. Your $20 registration fee includes a pot-luck lunch, beverages and dinner and a gift for attending. So you can buy some awesome goodies at our sale and then scrap the night away! Plus, she's offering a Sweet Deal! Bring the receipts from our sale along with you to her Crop and she will give you credit on your Memory Keepers Club Card! For more information you can contact Kathy at by email at kmstewcm@msn.com or on her Creative Memories site.

So, make sure and put our "Sweet sale" on your calendar and tell al your crafty friends! (After all, you know you can't count on the men in your life to get you what you really want for Valentine's Day!

Where did the time go?

OK-Could someone please tell me where Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday went?

FINALLY --- Let's take a look at our Queens!

To the left, is Connie Adamec.  Connie is our Queen of Crafts - by proxy. Her sister-in-law in the STATE of Virginia (not the city in Minnesota) is our real Queen of Crafts.  She sent in beautiful handmade sweaters, minibooks and more.

All tolled, her items brought in more than 170 dollars for the Young Survival Coalition!

Next, is our Queen of A Lot.  Queen Stephanie Evans brought in a number of new and gently used items for this category, a category new to our event this year!

Queen Stephanie also gave us a fabulous presentation on digital scrapbooking!  Thanks, Queen Stephanie!

And finally, meet Queen Wendy King!  Wendy was our Queen of Sweets this year with her Terrific Trifle!  You might remember, Queen Wendy won in this category last year, as well!  Way to go, Wendy!

Keep checking back, we'll be posting more pictures from the event, and more news about something you won't want to miss in February!  Stay tuned!  -Kim

Crop for a Cure Resounding Success!

Well, it's over, and we had a great time with the 2008 Crop for a Cure!  We're all still recovering from yesterday's marathon event (and all the planning leading up to it) but I thought you ought to have a few of the highlights today.  We'll post more details later in the week so be sure to check back!

First things first...(drumroll please)...our event yesterday brought in more than 

TEN THOUSAND DOLLARS! 

 We'd like to give a huge round of applause to our event participants who were SO generous to our cause, 

The Young Survival Coalition.

Thank You!  Thank You!  Thank You!

And now, a look at our  Crop Queens!  We all remember our reigning Queen of Philanthropy, Karin Johnson. Here she is, the self-named "poster girl" for the Crop for a Cure 2007.

Here she is, one year later, thankful she won't have her picture plastered all over the blog anymore!  (Thanks for being such a good sport!  All in good fun!)

So, now we have a NEW Queen of Philanthropy for 2008.

Meet Rosie Wood!

Rosie brought in more than $700 in donations for the YSC!  She says she sent out a letter and included self-addressed stamped envelopes for friends to return to her.  Just a little extra effort earned her the big prize of the day...a Making Memories Runway Tote packed full of goodies!

And now, for our Queen of Silent Auctions:

Look familiar?  Why, yes!  It's Rosie Wood!  Not only did Rosie manage to bring in the most money...she also managed to SPEND the most money on silent auction purchases!  Way to go Rosie!  More scrap-goodies to take home with you!

Now, I was hoping to post the remaining Queens, however, after battling my computer for more than an HOUR...(no, I'm not exaggerating)...I am unable to get the remaining Queen pictures to post!

I'm technology challenged anyway...add to that a bit crabby and a bit tired, and things are not looking good.

I think I'll go take a nap and either post those remaining Queens later today or tomorrow!  It will give us all something to look forward to, won't it?  ---G'nite, Kim

Told ya I'd forget something!

OK - One additional reminder.

If you have raised $250 or more for the YSC, e-mail Alane (bradnalane@charter.net)  to let

us know!  This helps us get everything ready for you and will make things run much more smoothly on Saturday morning!

Thanks - Kim

Please read below for the other reminders!

Reminders to Crop Participants

Are you ready for the Crop for a Cure?

Just a few housekeeping issues:

1.  You may start arriving at Marshall school at 8am.  When you enter the parking lot, take the route to the right, closest to the school.  Signs will direct you to the "valet" service, where you can unload your car.  You will then need to move your car to the lower lot.

2.  If you have items for the Queen of Crafts, Queen of A Lot, or even items you've acquired for us for the "regular" auction, PLEASE contact Alane (bradnalane@charter.net) by tomorrow. We will need an item description from you so that we can make up bid sheets.

3.  If you are bringing a baked good for Queen of Sweets, please cut it into bite sized pieces! If you'd like, bring a few copies of the recipe along.  We had lots of requests for those last year, and hey, we could post them on the blog!

4.  We will be running a tab throughout the day for your silent auction purchases.  Don't forget your checkbooks! 

I'm sure I'm forgetting something (I tend to do that), so please check back later in the week to make sure!  Start packing up your stuff and get ready for a great time! -Kim

We'll miss you Paula!!!

Paula is our friend, and at CHA she was our prime navigator and partner in procurement!  She's helped from start to finish with all the preparations for this years' Crop for a Cure, making several trips to Duluth from her home in the Twin Cities.  Well, Paula won't be at the Crop for a Cure this year, she'll be traveling in Europe with her mom.  So, Paula, have a great time overseas!  Thanks for all your great advice & guidance.  We'll see you when you get back! 

-Julie, Alane & Kim

This is what it is all about!

October is breast cancer awareness month, and the Young Survival Coalition just wrapped up their signature fundraiser: the Tour de Pink. The Hershey candy company is a major sponsor of the YSC (please buy the pink Hershey candy for sale during the month of October!). The Tour de Pink is a 220 mile bike ride over 3 days from Hershey, PA to downtown New York City. Scroll down to watch the video and hear from the creators of the event, but more importantly, the amazing survivors who made that ride to help other young women just like themselves. THESE are the people YOU are helping by participating in the Crop For A Cure, and we couldn't be prouder or more grateful. Thank you!

We want to recognize some of our wonderful local businesses!

I wanted to take a second to give a huge THANK YOU to the local restaurants that are supporting our event. They are donating all of the delicious food and drink that you will be enjoying throughout the day! Caribou Coffee, Great Harvest Bread Company, Famous Dave's and the Olive Garden have all agreed to support us again this year! (And if you participated last year, you will remember that you had PLENTY to eat, and it was DELICIOUS!)

Remember, like we said in the previous post, you need to HURRY and register NOW!!! If you aren't registered by Midnight THIS Sunday, you will not be gauranteed a seat in the classes. Let me tell you, you do not want to miss out! Lisa, Heather, and Marni are going to be doing some wonderful things. We're all in for a real treat!

-Alane

Have you registered yet? How about your friends?

Why do we ask?  Well, ladies, we're approaching "crunch" time!  We have THREE fabulous teachers lined up and they need to order & prepare their class materials for you.  They need a final count so they know just how many kits to bring with them.  We don't want to put too much pressure on you, but if you know you're going to register, you need to do it by

Midnight on Sunday, October 12th!

What are you waiting for?

After Sunday, you will not be GUARANTEED a spot in any of the classes. 

And let me just say, these classes are going to be GREAT!

Our third teacher has confirmed for the event.  

Marni Steltz is the owner of the Pine City Scrapbooking Co. & Retreat Center.  She hasn't given away all her secrets, but did mention we'll be using Tim Holtz Grungeboard for her project! 

If you haven't been to Marni's store, check out her website at http://www.thepinecityscrapbookingco.com

And here's the good news.  She's bringing some extra supplies to sell at our event, so bring your checkbooks!

Of course, you were planning on bringing those checkbooks anyway, right?

That's good!  This year, we'll have lots of free goodies just like last year, plus we're bringing along some extra items for purchase.

And now for some reminders:

Don't forget the $250 Club!

If you have raised $250 or more for the YSC, please e-mail us by 10-20-08 so we can prepare your special prize.

Don't forget Tea Time!

Bring your favorite baked good for our Tea Time (cut into bite sized pieces).  We'll all sample, and vote.  The winner of Tea Time gets a fabulous prize!

Don't forget your HomeMade Craft for the Silent Auction!

The person whose craft raises the most at auction wins a prize.  Please e-mail to "register" your item by 10-20-08 so we can prepare a bid sheet for it!

For Other Silent Auction Items:

Some of you have acquired items (not homemade) to enter into the auction.  Please submit item descriptions & estimated values so that we can prepare bid sheets for those as well.

That's all for now...(really, don't you think this is enough?).

Check back!  We're sure to have more before the big day!

Spotlight: Lisa Zappa

It's definitely time I introduced all of you to one of our fabulous celebrity teachers for this year's Crop. Lisa Zappa is a design team member for Crafty Secrets (of vintagey shabby chic goodness) and a former team member for Hanna Stamps. She is also an Archiver's instructor and former Stampin' Up demonstrator. Lisa is incredibly talented, fun, and you all are absolutely going to LOVE her! Not only is Lisa an amazing artist, but she is also a young survivor! We met Lisa at CHA 2007 and hooked up with her at Scrapfest last year too. She is a bundle of energy and an absolute hoot!

But one of the MOST EXCITING things I can share with you about Lisa is that she is featured in the Autumn edition of the Take Ten issue of Stamper's Sampler magazine! If you aren't familiar with the magazine, it is one of the gorgeous magazines created by Stampington (the Somerset Life brand of mags.) Take Ten is a great issue because it features cards that can be made in ten minutes or less. (Although when I look at how g-o-r-g-e-o-u-s Lisa's cards are, I don't believe it!) She has a two page spread in the magazine. I'm posting a couple of photos here.

This is what the cover looks like!

This is a picture of all of the cards Lisa made for the magazine.

This is an image of the magazine open to Lisa's spread.

The best part of all is that Lisa's directions on how to make all of these beautiful cards are given in the magazine. I urge you to visit her blog, Shabbychick Junk, where you can see more of her incredible creations, get some tips, and be inspired by her talent and infectious personality. I am so excited to see what she is cooking up for us and the class she will be teaching. I only have a hint so I'm almost as in the dark as the rest of you, but I know we are in for an awesome surprise!!!! We are so lucky to have her.

Congratulations, Lisa!!!!!!!!!!!

Julie's search for a little photographic respect...

This may be a tad bit off the topic of the Crop, but it is definitely something that needs to be addressed. One of the hazards of working on an event such as this is that you will do just about anything to make it be successful. That means: allowing your friend and co-organizer to slap photos of you all over the worldwide web. For those of you who have visited our humble little blog more than once, you may have noted an often changing header photo. Let me point out that we are charity minded. That extends to the way we treat our friends. Poor Julie. If you have been paying attention, you will have seen that Julie has suffered mightily for our cause. The header photo has been changed frequently in an attempt to capture a photo that represents us and the Crop, but also that represented Julie in a state much closer to the real thing. That means: not looking like one or all of the following: very angry, very "challenged", or like a stalker (as in the last header photo where we are posed with the giant Cricut cricket at CHA Chicago). Like I said: poor, poor Julie. She suffers from a complete inability to be photographed in her natural state. Seriously. And now she is getting a complex. The whole time we were at CHA, Kim (who is a bit of a photography nut) kept snapping pictures all over the place. Everytime she took one of Julie she would look at the resulting photo on the screen and go "Nope." or "Yeah, that's not good." So, you can see why this has become a bit of a hurdle for Julie. Now whenever anyone goes to take a picture, she freezes like a deer in the headlights. She reminds me of my kids. If they know I am going to take a picture, they suddenly lose all natural control of their facial muscles and they come off looking like a jack o' lantern with one eye shut and a stiff, cheesy grin on their face. Now, before you think I am being unkind to Julie, you have to know that I am changing these photos per her request. The first step towards healing is always acceptance. And Julie has definitely come to accept that she has a slight "photographic problem". So, please, tell her how nice she looks in the new photo. We will be doing an intervention soon where I'll tie her to a chair and we'll snap flashbulbs in her face until she relaxes out of sheer exhaustion. I'll keep you up to date with her progress. So, I think it is only fair that I give you the following photos for your consideration. Kim, who is undeniably the most photogenic of the group, did a little posing in our hotel room as "Super Scrapper"! Enjoy!

Well, I'll be seeing you. At least I hope so...I'm gong into hiding. Because Kim's going to kill me!!!!

-Alane

One woman, one journey... making one big difference.

Writing this blog and planning the Crop for a Cure is a lot of fun, as I'm sure you can tell. It's also a lot of work. But fun, or work, nothing can compare with the real reason we do it all....the "moments". Some of you may know what I mean, and some of you may not. But I will do my best to explain. Putting on an event like this, you have to ask a lot of strangers for some pretty big things. I don't just mean asking a total stranger for a donation. Yes, that's part of it, but what I really mean is: we ask total strangers to become a part of our story. We ask them to stop, in the middle of some pretty busy moments, and allow themselves to be drawn into what, for some, may seem like too emotional a trip to take. At first it's awfully hard to walk up to someone and say, "Hi, I had cancer. I want to help others. Please help me." It's hard because: 1. You're interrupting someone in the middle of their day and asking them to help you. (And often you're asking them to give you something for free that they're charging everyone else for.) 2. You could be totally making your story up. 3. If you're not making your story up, you are telling them something terribly personal and asking them to take it personally, too. I can tell you that more often than not, people say "Sorry, I can't help you." But almost as often, people say, "Here. Take this." before you can even finish telling them your story. I suppose it's easier for them that way. Sometimes it's just too hard to listen. But once in a while, someone actually stops what they're doing, looks you straight in the eye, and waits patiently, often expressionless, as you tell them your story. Now, you never know how this is going to end, but from experience I can tell you if they're looking you in the eye, it's coming...one of those "moments". Hopefully over time we will get the chance to tell you about a lot of the moments like those that we have had over the last two times we've prepared for this event. Moments full of tears (ours and theirs), moments ended with hugs, moments that put a knot in your throat and leave you standing in a sea of people wishing that everyone could notice the wonderful, human miracle that just happened there. But today, I want to focus on one particular moment that Julie and I had during our trip to Chicago. I have to back track a little and tell you that before we made the trip, we did our research. We emailed people we had met last year to tell them we'd be coming, we checked out the list of the vendors that would be there, and tried to find some way we could "get" to them. Well, during one of these research efforts, Julie found out that a woman, named Melissa Frances, had been diagnosed with breast cancer. If you are not familiar with the name, Melissa Frances is a brand of home decor and scrapbooking supplies made in Canada. And it turns out, it's not just the name of the company: there really is a Melissa Frances. So, Julie found out that Melissa was diagnosed and we speculated that perhaps we could talk to her, survivor to survivor, about what we're trying to do. Well, it's not like there's a survivor handshake or anything. And there's something a little icky about approaching someone and leveraging their illness for your own benefit. Of course, we tried not to look at it that way, but let's just say that the situation was a very delicate one indeed. So, while we were in Chicago, Julie and I finally decided it was time to visit the Melissa Frances booth. Now, these booths are bustling with people who are there to do business: selling and buying products. We had no idea if Melissa Frances would even be there. Well, of course, we rounded the corner and there she was: talking to a buyer, with what was clear (to us) was a freshly sprouted crop of short chemo-comeback hair. (Cue the knot in our throats.) Julie and I perused the booth waiting for the right time. Melissa has a whole line of products related to breast cancer: papers, albums, stickers, and more. We nervously oohed and aahed over the samples. Soon, Melissa was free and we made our uncomfortable approach. Needless to say, it was one of those "moments". Soon after we had told her why we were there, we were talking with Melissa about our treatments and recovery and sharing experiences like soldiers swapping war stories. Despite her own struggles, Melissa was eager to help and absolutely did not disappoint us. She promised that even though a portion of the proceeds from the sale of her items goes to a wonderful charity, she would still have some items for us if we came back at the end of the show. We had no idea what she would give us, and I certainly do not want to give away any surprises, but she was unbelievably generous. In fact, she apologized for not having more to give! The only request that Melissa had for donating to the Crop was that we would blog about her and her cancer experience. She wanted to help other women who share her diagnosis as well as inform women about their risk. She is a brave, generous, talented woman. We are so grateful to have met her, and feel truly blessed to have shared some time with such a special lady. If you are interested in seeing the breast cancer themed products she offers as well as all of her other beautiful items, visit her website at http://www.melissafrances.com/ThankFul.asp . Once you're there, be sure to check out the gallery to see some of the beautiful creations her designers and fans have made. It will absolutely knock your socks off!

Thanks for reading. I hope you have some special "moments" of your own, too.

Alane

Addendum: Okay, I am NOT that insane!!! I just noticed that at the end of my post it puts the time that I wrote it...it is SO NOT 5:54 AM right now! I do NOT need an intervention! It is currently 8:09. I have to fix that....Julie, Kim, don't get the straight jacket and hand cuffs yet!

Just a quickie!!!

Good morning, scrappers!!!

I thought I would pop on in and write a quick post while I have my first cup of coffee! (It's a miracle that I'm chipper and I haven't had my first cup!) You may have noticed that there is a little stat counter thingie on the page that is counting how many visitors we get to our little blog site. Well, I got an email this morning saying we have had 50 individual, first time visitors over the weekend!!! Woohoo!!! That makes the countdown until our registrations are all filled up pretty exciting indeed! I don't have a head count at the moment... (since our Royal headcounter lives on the other side of the United States and is most likely snoring away right now!!!) ...BUT I am excited to see the numbers!!! You ladies in Duluth need to know that you have some competition for your spots! We have had a lot of interest from some very enthusiastic scrappers in Wisconsin as well as farther south! I suppose I should warn you that I have posted our event on lots if internet message boards. (The kind for scrapbookers, not people looking for a date!)
Sorry, but I needed to spread the excitement. So come on in and register!

I also thought I would give you a little update on some recent deliveries that the UPS man has made to my door. A few of the companies are:

Hero Arts
Unity Stamp Co. (Check them out: they're from Spicer, MN and they rock!!!)
Big Picture Scrapbooking (If you haven't checked the classes out at www.bigpicturescrapbooking.com you are missing out!)
Lion Brand Yarn
Wright's Manufacturing
Zutter
and Fiskars
just to name a few!!!

In fact, I have so much stuff in my craft room that it's hard to tell what's mine. I'll try not to dip in to the Crop stash, I promise!

-Alane

WOW!!!! The scrappers of Northern Minnesota and Wisconsin do not disappoint!!!!

Wowie Zowie is all I can say!!!

Registration for this year's Crop for a Cure has only been open for four days and we are already closing in on the half way mark!!! That's right, we are capping the number of registrations for this year's event and we are almost half full! We are so grateful for all of the enthusiasm we have received! Keep it up, ladies! With this kind of excitement we are sure to exceed the amount in donations we raised last year. Thank you so much, we are really looking forward to the Crop and can't tell you how grateful we are to have such generous, enthusiastic participants! You make all of our hard work a joy!!!

I will post again with more sneak peaks, but here's one that I think you'll get a kick out of...I know I do!

-Alane


Seriously....have you ever seen so many flowers? The picture doesn't really do this justice...the bag is the size of a large grocery bag!!! I wonder what we'll be doing with them...hmmmm!