The Sad News

Did you hear the sad news? Archivers stores announced that they are closing all of their stores by mid-February. Though I no longer have an Archivers store nearby, I will still miss them!

My first experience with the store was their location at the Chesterfield Mall in west county St. Louis. My son, Sam, was little at the time, and I would bribe him with promises of Sam time at the play place if he would let me have Mommy time at the Archivers store. Good times!

Later, when we moved to Indiana, the Castleton Mall location was nearly thirty minutes from home, but definitely worth the drive. I never connected with other crafters in Indiana, so this was my little home away from home.

I confess that I do order a lot from online stores these days, but I do still enjoy the brick and mortar stores, though they are few and far between.

Let's face it. The economy still stinks. 2013 was not a good year for the crafting community. Memory Works made the announcement last fall that they were shutting down their operation. Creative Memories was another casualty. Paper Crafts and Creating Keepsakes magazinesbecame thinner and thinner, until you didn't even need a binding, just a staple to keep the few pages together. Then they made the announcement that they would be a digital only magazine, combining the two publications into one, and oh, by the way, Cath at Moxie Fab World was out.

You needed a score card just to keep up with all the changes.

I wonder what the future will look like for papercrafting. If my holiday experience was any indication, most folks just do not send out Christmas cards anymore. Snail Mail is becoming a lost art.I worry that the artifical world of the internet is quickly usurping real honest communication (my family is entirely guilty of this!) and genuine face time relationship building experiences.

I think I will take a long, hard look at the current state of things and try to make some positive changes in 2014.

For starters, I will visit my brick and mortar store next week, just to let those sweet ladies know how much I appreciate them.

I will send a card to my sweet Stampin' Up demonstrator to thank her for creating a fun environment of sharing and caring.

I will get back to letter writing and sending cards the old fashioned way.

I will read more books and spend less time on the internet (yeah, right!). Seriously.

I will force my family members to unplug and reconnect more often.

So tell me, what do you think the future holds for the crafting community?