Join in the FUN! Come to a SOHOTT event! *Find time to forge new friendships! *Find time to be creative! *Find time to do something for yourself! *In home Parties. *TIPS - Techniques <> Inspiration <> Projects <> Shortcuts *Ladies Who Lunch - get together over lunch! Great for those gals with super busy schedules. *Classes on specific products or projects, usually seasonal. *Scrapscapes - come escape with us and scrapbook for an afternoon or evening. *Handcrafted items - available for purchase. *Kids events - all types *24/7 online ordering. *Stamp-A-Stack of cards (SAS). *Monthly Scrap Heap Newsletter *Gals Get Out - I bring the project, you bring dessert! We are done in an hour! *Clubs - tech club is by far the most popular club. Meets every other month.

Lament of the Stamper's Husband A Poem for the Stamper's Spouse She learned to stamp on Monday. Her embossing was quite fine, She forgot to thaw out dinner, So we all went out to dine. She brayed background Tuesday, She says they are a MUST, They really were quite lovely, But she forgot to dust. Wednesday it was birthday cards, She says they are such fun, Shading, blending, watercolors, But the laundry wasn't done. Her card swap was on Thursday, Using green and blue and red, I guess she was engrossed, For she never made the bed. It was shaker cards on Friday, Using techniques she adores, But she never seems to notice, The crumbs on all the floors. I found a maid on Saturday, My life is now complete. My wife can stamp the days away, The house will STILL be neat. Well, now it's come to Sunday, And my forehead's feeling damp, I screamed! I raved! I ranted! THE MAID HAS LEARNED TO STAMP!!! --Author Unknown-

Many have wondered over the years how the name SOHOTT was chosen as my biz name. It started as Small Office/Home Office Technology Team back when the .com boom was beginning (mid-1990's). My hubbie and I started, as the name somewhat implies, a small computer consulting business outside of our careers. As the saying goes - Life is What Happens! Many things in our personal lives changed (kids, moves, careers, health) and the desire to continue said business became less important, and the need for such services fell away with the .com bust. But during the time from then to now, I continued crafting, mostly sewn items - princess wands, heart shaped foot stools, halos, and pretty much all things girly. My wish was to sell such wares at local craft fairs. Some health problems really slowed down the idea of starting a home-based business from scratch. I still needed a name for the business and still had a sweet spot for the SOHOTT acronym. My husband is the one who helped carry it from t

$5, 5 cards in one hour! Tuesday, August 11, 11-12 or 12-1 or 1-2 Thursday, August 13, 5-6 or 6-7 or 7-8 Choose one, two or all sessions! Class does not include envelopes or adhesives. Please RSVP by August 10 for Tuesday's class or August 12 for Thursday's class.

Reviews just in - the new Stampin' Up! catalog is a resounding smash hit! Larger selection of affordable stamp sets! Great new InColors! Fabulous Accessories! New - party kits for kids! Blazing Stars for all the Big Shot Accessories! Ooh there is just so much more to share. If you have not gotten your hands on the catalog yet, I urge you to do so soon. Did you know that you can download a .PDF of the catalog from my website www.sohott.stampinup.net ? I refer to mine frequently. Another tip: I print out my most referred to pages and make a custom mini catalog all just for me. I print out the stamp list from the back, the punch pages, the inks and paper pages, and the DSP pages, and tote it with me. Much more portable and I can write on it and fold it and so on and don't care if it gets lost. Get your download today and call me tomorrow for the real deal!

Now that "the stupid" is over, some of the camps are done, and some of the other busyness that has kept me away from the business of blogging are behind me. I am hoping that I can finally catch up so many things that I have been wanting to post. Keeping fingers crossed.

Saturday, June 6th, 10-3 pm Hopkins Pavillian, 1100 Excelsior Blvd, Hopkins, MN 100 Women owned businesses! Goodie bags for the first 150 visitors! Bring a donation for the local food shelf for a chance to win a door prize! visit www.weneverstandalone.com for more information.

Friday, June 5, 6-10 pm Majestic Oaks Golf Course Ham Lake, MN Enjoy a night with the girls! FREE admission! FREE appetizers! FREE door prizes from many vendors! Cash bar. We are proud to support our local food shelf. Bring in a donation and receive 10% a purchase at our event. One discount ticket per customer. Sorry - could not upload flyer. Stop by my booth for a FREE goodie from me, my customers.

Take 3 June A Scrapbook, a card, a gift June 9, 11-1 or June 12, 6-8 All for the low, low price of $5. Prepaid registration by June 7. Registration is non-refundable. If you need to cancel, you will receive your class materials.

So, for those of you who have followed the sordid and sad tale of Sandy's fancy camera. I hate to tell you but I am writing to close this tale, write the last chapter, as it were. After many, many months (9 to be exact) I gave birth to a new camera tonight. Well, HA, my previously sick Canon Rebel XT has been rehabed!!! Yes, it has been fixed, cleaned, shined, and whatnot. Four weeks ago I spent several days (this was probably my fourth time doing this) purusing Canon's cludgy website. I could find no help whatsoever for my issue (no flash). I finally used their web help form and submitted my problem. I heard back right away to send my camera in. Being cautious and nervous to do so, I called them the next day, wanting to make sure that this was for real. The rep emailed me some forms and information, and definitely said this was not a repair I could make. I sat on this for a week. Here is why - The camera, brand new today is about $325, originally $1000 when it first came on th

Wednesday, April 29, 1-3 Friday, May 1, 6-8 Sunday, May 3, 3-5 Are you stuck for a card for one of those special occasions? Then this is the class for you. For a mere $17 we will make 12 cards, 2 of each of five cards, and one blue, one pink of the baby cards. Class price includes envelopes. Contact me by April 28th if you are interested in attending one of these class sessions. Deal breaker, bring a friend and save $2, attend more than one session, save another $2 off one of the classes. Register by April 28th!

Decor Element: WELCOME Chocolate Large 114745 May 28, 6-8, My House Everyone should have a great Welcoming to their house. I think this sign says Welcome, nice, crafty people live here! On May 28 I am offering this Welcome sign as a class. Registration is $20 prepaid by May 14. After class I will post instructions (if I remember to :-). Honestly, this is a great value for the money class. You would pay significantly more for a sign like this in the store, and not be able to customize it to your decor or outside of your house.

Decor Element: Happiness, small, chocolate 114120 Other: Vase from Michael's, M & M's (gotta get your own...) Happiness can be found in the littlest of things! Take chocolate...I am not normal (no comments please :-) in that I am not a chocohollic. But an occasional M&M does a body good. I had this happiness Decor Element laying and was just about one of the first ones that I ordered. I had looked for many months for some way to use it other than the wall or picture frame, meaning something not two dimensional. Shopping at the "M" store recently, looking for a frame for another project (to post later), I spotted this funky shaped vase. I actually had brought my Decor Element catalog into the store with me so that I had all the dimensions for all the items I was looking to use. This turned out to be a very smart move. Turns out happiness would fit. Home I drove, and quickly. Truth be told, I stopped at Target to find something to put in my new creation and emp

Who can it be now publishing post after post? Is it a ghost of someone lost? Nah! If you read my post on the bed you will understand some of where I have been. We started having internet delays last Fall. By February 2009 we could only get on for maybe 5 minutes a day, and that was very slow. Hubby had to work using dialup - and was a real bear for having to do so. It took three weeks of tech support and being bounced around the globe to find the problem. Our DSL modem went bad. Very bad. We had replaced, tested, teched and more, and that was the only constant, so that had to be the problem. It was. Works great now! Between my health, the modem, and... Camera woes. My fancy Canon is ill. Terribly ill. The flash quit working at a wedding, and this was after airport security dropped my fancy lens going through security to convention in July. That ended up to be the least of my worries. The flash is still a problem. If there is a camera expert reading this, email me. I have had four expe

OK so most of my friends, family, and customers have heard this story, but it bears repeating, for many reasons. Our lumpy bumpy semi old Stearns & Foster mattress desparately needed replacing. It sagged, it had broken springs, broken box spring, and Lord knows how many dust mites living in it. Ew! I know...I slept on it every night for 11 years. It had been replace three times in its first two years. That should have been a sign! I got to try a Select Comfort Sleep Number bed staying at the Radisson in Salty last summer for Convention. It was pretty darn good. Not that I got a lot of mattress time that week. Both of us were tired of spring mattress, not sure about the memory foam ones, that left air beds to think about for our next purchase. We had used our Aerobed quite a bit when we had company, traveling, camping and such, and it was not that bad. We would just plop it on top of our box spring, and set up the mattress on a platform for company. It worked. So into Select Comfort

Decor Element: Season of Thanks, small chocolate 114883 Paper: Good Morning Sunshine 113966 Accesories: 1" double stitched ribbon in chocolate chip 111849 Other: picture frame, not pictured - silk forsythia branch I just love my Season of Thanks DE. Even though I ordered it back early last fall, and got the frame right away, life happens. I never got around to putting the darn thing together, until a few days ago. It now hangs in our front entryway. I plan on changing the paper and inserts (flowers, etc) seasonally. I can't wait for Fourth of July. We will see if I get that one posted to the ol' blog. I adhered the DE to the outside front of the glass. I put the paper on the back wall of the 1" approx. depth picture frame. Since the frame is just slightly larger than 12" I added the ribbon borders to the top and bottom. I added the flower branch, not pictured, a day later. I can think of leaves in the fall. Flat stuffed snowmen in the winter, or foam snowflakes.

Decor Elements: Long-stem Silhouette, large, chocolate 114124, Inspiration, medium, Kraft 116190 Having just painted our bedroom a month ago, I knew just what I wanted and where I wanted my Decor Elements. When they say the silhouette is large, they mean it! Added the height for the baseboard the top if it comes to almost 5 feet off the floor! My 11 year old daughter came home from school yesterday (when I put this on the wall) and stood next to it and said (loudly) Mom, it's almost as tall as me. I am not sure if that is a good thing, bad thing, or just a thing. To put this large of DE on the wall requires 2 people. It took a half hour, and that includes waiting for my hubbie. He kept yelling, I am on my way, I will be there in a minute and such. I am not sure how long I sat on the floor waiting for him, but there I sat - waiting... He held the top pushing firmly against the wall. The DE was already gently taped to the wall. I had already prepped the DE, rubbing the adhesive i