Now we're in business!

Besides the arrival of each of our children, I would say the proudest day in Eric's life was the arrival of his fork lift. According to Eric, "you're not really a company until you own a forklift."

There is this weird thing that happens when men and forklifts come together. They get this little twinkle in their eye and a mischievous grin on their face. Then, they revert to their 14 year old selves and start doing...... should we say....... not the smartest things. There are forklift races, hey-look-at-me-stunts, and other crazy ideas.

These photos are of Joey, one of our warehouse guys. If you look closely at the top photo you'll notice he is holding his tongue just right. This is very important as it cuts down on forklift expenses. And did you know that forklifts are very expensive? They cost around $15,000 unless you get the used, economy model, moderately priced at $5000. Then, after you get one you will have to pay to repair your overhead door that somehow became dented and won't open anymore.

Buck Naked Sneak Peek (now there's a title for you)

We never get tired of Buck Naked jokes, so here goes.

Buck Naked etiquette for the holiday season:
Be thoughtful of others and ask your friends if they would like to get Buck Naked for the holidays.
Being discrete drop hints letting your husband know you would really like him to get Buck Naked for you.
When your family drops by, ask politely if they got Buck Naked and how they liked it.
Be good and maybe Santa will get Buck Naked for you.
If someone does get Buck Naked for you, remember to say thank you.

One final tip, once you get Buck Naked, cover them quick with our die-cut fashions so that they won't catch a chill.

The First Shipment Has Arrived

Last Friday at 4:00 in the afternoon we received our first shipment of actual Biography 101 Albums.

This is a major milestone as we have been working on these albums for the last year. In fact we had the idea more than a year and half ago. When we started Cosmo we asked Lindsay what he thought about the concept, well, he was less than enthusiastic. But, Eric and I thought it could be great so we went ahead with the first prototype.

It was horrible. When Eric got it, he brought it into show me and all I could say was, "but I don't have any Indiana Jones memorabilia to scrapbook." It was very "manly" looking on the outside and the inside was worse with this black industrial velcro that held the window in place and actually wrapped around to the front side of the frame, apparently for a decorative accent.

Eric and I thought that Lindsay was right and that we should stop the project immediately. I thought we would actually have to tell him that he was right, and for any of you that know me, you know I would rather have died! Well, we took it to show him. And somehow he caught the vision that we had lost. I mean he REALLY caught it. He was like a little boy on Christmas morning. He was literally dancing in our warehouse hugging the album. He talked us into continuing with the project (he is, you know, a great sales guy) and two prototypes later, here it is. Needless to say, Lindsay was right in the end. But you didn't hear that from me!

Biography 101 Albums

Not all memories fit nicely between page protectors.

With the Biography 101, you can scrapbook all your photos, postcards, letters, etc into the 8” album, and then use the shadow box for keeping all your cute, but dimensional, memorabilia. Even better, it’s designed to stand opened up on a shelf letting you and your friends admire your creativity. If you don’t want to share, the album is very attractive closed and stacked. So, this time when you tell the story, don’t leave out any details. a Album comes with ten standard page protectors and buckles snugly into the case. Three inch window in Album front lets you highlight your favorite photo. Shadow box has a hinging door with ribbon closure. Acid Free. Lignin Free. Let the story begin.

Biography 101 Papers

I saw our Biography 101 papers on two peas and so I thought I would put I would put a Cosmo Cricket sneak peek up here (although they look so much nicer in real life). We are releasing these two new lines at CHA summer along with two other new lines that are still top secret. Little Boys and Little Girls were specifically designed to coordinate with our new Biography 101 albums.

These fabulous lines were designed by Lynette Anderson, the newest employee of Cosmo Cricket. Lynette use to work for SEI until last July when she left to do some work for K and Company. Then, we got her and boy were we lucky because she is amazingly talented, fun to work with and puts up with all our craziness.

FYI: Incase you don't know, if you click on the images, they will open a little larger for you in a new window.

1 Business 4 Children

Things to be prepared for when starting a business while raising four children:

Daughter yelling, "I pooped on the potty" in the middle of a conference call.
Peanut butter stains on the proof sheets the printer is coming to pick up.
Sales Manager's white board "to do list" being replaced with sunshine and butterfly doodles.
Only having two productive hours of the day....... naptime. Then, working all night.
Warehouse doubling as a skating rink.
Learning to type with a two year old sitting on your lap, randomly clicking the mouse.
Missing a deadline because your fourth grader forgot to tell you that he had a county-report-shoe-box-float due the next day.
Second grader telling the class that her dad doesn't have a job anymore, now he gets to stay home and do scrapbooking.

I am not making these things up. They actually happened, many of them more than once. But, there is one more thing you should prepare for.......... having a blast watching your kids and company grow and do amazing things.

Album Envy

Like many of you I'm sure, I saw Martha's new 18" album. And let's just say, I kind of had this Gertrude McFuzz moment (if you haven't read Gertrude McFuzz by Dr. Suess I highly recommend it. It's especially useful when deciding how many embellishments to add to a layout). I'm standing there in the store and I'm thinking, "Wow, that's a REALLY big album, how can li'l, ol' Cosmo compete with an album of that stature? Anything bigger and you wouldn't be able to lift it, and smaller has already been done."

This is where the miracle happened. Just a couple days after I saw the 18 incher, I was sent an email and in it was this photo. It's my little girl from an ad campaign Eric worked on before we started Cosmo Cricket. "So," I told myself, "Forget Martha's 18" album, I scrap my kids on 48 foot billboards." Now I just need to figure out how to attach some die-cuts and chipboard to it.

Album Envy

Like many of you I'm sure, I saw Martha's new 18" album. And let's just say, I kind of had this Gertrude McFuzz moment (if you haven't read Gertrude McFuzz by Dr. Suess I highly recommend it. It's especially useful when deciding how many embellishments to add to a layout). I'm standing there in the store and I'm thinking, "Wow, that's a REALLY big album, how can li'l, ol' Cosmo compete with an album of that stature? Anything bigger and you wouldn't be able to lift it, and smaller has already been done."
This is where the miracle happened. Just a couple days after I saw the 18 incher, I was sent an email and in it was this photo. It's my little girl from an ad campaign Eric worked on before we started Cosmo Cricket. So I told myself, "Forget Martha's 18' album, I scrap my kids on 24 foot billboards." Now I just need to figure out how to attach some die-cuts and chipboard to it.

The Cosmo Sign Off

You might have noticed that at Cosmo Cricket we don't take ourselves too seriously. Besides Buck Naked products and the Dear Hubby Panic Button we have what we call the Cosmo sign off. It all started one fine day when Lindsay Moore (our sales director and partner) sent me an email signed, "Cosmolicious." I took the bait and replied with the signature "Cosmonopoly." This has now gone on for several months and we have gone from the obvious "Cosmopolitan" to the risque "CosmOBGYN" and "Cosmo Libido" to the nostalgic "Cosmo ari gotto Mr. Roboto........ Cosmo.................... Cosmo" which was replied back with "Cosmo Cosmo Cosmo Cosmo Cosmo Chameleon."