ALOHA from SCRAPBOOKS HAWAII

It is with great sadness that Scrapbooks Hawaii must say "ALOHA" to our dear friends in the Philippines. Sadly, the last SCRAPPER'S JAM in Oct 2009 was the last, too. I want to thank you beautiful ladies for your business, support, and friendships. One of the many blessings I count having Scrapbooks Hawaii in the Philippines is the wonderful friendships I made with each and everyone of you. I thoroughly enjoyed working with you for the past 4 years.

I want to especially mention the tremendous support and patience of Nenette of My Little Attic. Our friendship started in 2006 with a weird overseas phone call Nette received from an unheard-of-scrap-crazy woman from Hawaii who randomly found her through the internet. Tons of phone calls, emails, bboxes, and several ScrapJams later, forged a friendship and trust like no other. Nette, your friendship is one I truly treasure. Without you, Scrapbooks Hawaii wouldn't have happened in the Philippines. You helped open doors to friendships (all with their own crazy stories) and adventures (pati na rin misadventures--hehehe) I wouldn't have dreamt of. Again, maraming, maraming salamat to you and your entire family. :)

To all the Scrapbooks Hawaii DTs, Cabbie, Donna, Cookie, Issa, and Yoyin, you ladies are the best! Thank you very much for sharing your talents not only to the ladies in the Philippines, but to the ladies in Hawaii and mainland USA. Your works of art are inspiring! I want to also thank you for your warm friendships. Please continue to share your talents in your blogs or facebook so I can easily find them to scraplift. hehehe :)

No, I'm not going away. I will still be in the community as I continue my journey as a scrapper and a paper crafter. I am only an email, facebook post, blog, and/or even phone call away from you. I do hope that whenever I'll be able to come back to the Philippines to visit that we could all get together, crop and laugh the day away.

As I leave the business arena, my only request is to please continue to support your local scrapbook stores in the Philippines especially My Little Attic. You have such a wonderful bunch of scrapbook store owners, event planners, and teachers in the Philippines who truly care for this industry and hobby. Of course, we also have all the Pinay Scrapper Design Team members of various stores and manufacturers both in the Philippines and abroad. Your talents and achievements in this craft industry make me proud!

P.S. After I posted the above announcement, someone emailed me to ask for the reason sa closure. So, I figurued I'd share with everyone this late addition sa announcement post. Here's what I wrote back to her... :)

"hmmm...reason sa closure? mostly because pagod na ako and my doctor is getting really worried about my health kasi it's turning for the worst due to stress and lack of sleep. both of which get my blood pressure and my diabetes/sugar levels dangerously high. my kidneys, eyes and pancreas are also on constant watch sa lab work, etc. nakakapagod na rin ang magturok nang insulin sa tyan every night ano! i really think kasi i need to pay attendtion to my body for a change kasi i'm not getting any younger and i would love to see my grandchildren kay jian and alex kahit na that's another 20-30 years to go. hehehe

hindi na rin ako nakakapag-tinda dito kasi bihira lang ang opportunities to do so kaya yeah medyo may economic reason rin but obviously not the number 1 reason, though. mostly i want to give up the business side and just enjoy the process of creating. i don't want to give up my love for the habit...este hobby kasi of the variables i mentioned earlier. yun lang. :) "