12 days til Swiss Days!

Did the math. There really are only 12 days until the highlight of our year, Swiss Days. Thought we'd better crawl out of our holes to show you some of the things that have kept us so very quiet. Check back over the next week and a half and we'll try to unveil a new creation every day.

Of course, we hope that you'll want to check them out in person on September 2&3 in Midway, Utah! Look for us in booth B44 this year...
Suni has been busy sewing. These are her creations. She received the Family Tree pillow as a Christmas gift from her sister and of course, I had to have one! The 'Nest' definition pillows that she made for her own Christmas gifts were such a hit that we decided to expand the list and created designs for 'Family' and 'Love.' If our printer gets them done in time, we also hope to have a couple of other designs that include Sister and Friend.

Be sure to read the 'Family' definition carefully. We thought the dictionary definition didn't quite do the word justice.

Remember Me Bingo

Wow. Where does the time go? I can't believe it's nearly been a month since our last posting. It's not that we have nothing to talk about. We're just running too fast to share what we've been working on.

Last week we attended the South Davis Family History Fair. We enjoyed sharing our ideas for telling family stories and LOVED hearing all of your great ideas. One idea that we've just gotta try is the family calendar challenge:
Every year there's a family out there that creates a new and unique family calendar. One year they challenged extended family members to submit pictures of where (or what) they want to be 10 years from that date. Kids shared photos of career dreams. Adult shared visions of exotic trips. The family patriarch wanted to share his picture pushing daisy at the local cemetery. His wife overturned that idea! What a great way to share family pictures and preserve history and capture future dreams!

We were excited to share our newest project. It was received with lots and LOTS of positive comments.

Remember Me Bingo

We partnered with Lasting Impressions to create another Quick Mix to be used with Memory Mixer.

For six big ones...yep, that's right (Six bucks will buy you the Quick Mix to make 1 or 100 of these bingo games. (Remember, you need the Memory Mixer software in addition to this Quick Mix.)

It's as easy as dragging pictures on to the page and typing up a short story for each picture.

If you set up your pictures ahead of time you won't need to make any alterations.

The Quick Mix will even add a name (just follow the instructions that are included).


The project comes with 4 different background designs. Make 4 boards or 40 boards. It's a perfect project for an upcoming family reunion, school party or special birthday party.

You'll make one call-out card for every featured picture. Here are a few of my stories:

Remember, you won't find the software on our website. You've gotta go to Memory Mixer to check it out. Just be sure to come back and tell us what you think!

For those of you who came to the Bountiful event: If you want the same professional print job as our sample set, send your final file to Tueller's Press. You know we can't say enough good things about Tueller's Press!

Top Ten Reasons I Love You!

Looking for a Valentine's gift from the heart? We'll be sharing this project at the Ft. Union Deseret Book store, Saturday, February 12 from 1:30 - 3:30. Be sure to sign up because space is limited. Cost is only $2.00 AND you'll go home with a complete gift!

Don't live locally? Or maybe you can't possibly squeeze one more thing into a crazy Saturday. Check back in the next day or two and we'll post instructions here!

Meet us Ft. Union!

There's a party going on this Saturday and YOU are invited! We'll be at the Ft. Union Deseret Book store sharing how easy it is to make these block ornaments.

You really should stop by and check it out!

We bring the supplies and you leave with a finished ornament. All you need is about 15 minutes and $1.00 (to cover supplies!)

Not only do you go home with a beautiful ornament, but you leave with the knowledge that these little beauties are SUPER EASY to make. Before you know it, you'll be cranking them out for everyone on your 'Nice' list!


Contact the store for more details (You can also just stop by between 10:30 and noon!)

And the WINNER IS...

Wow! Saturday night was amazing!! Jen (recent addition to the Stories by Me team) and I spent the evening with several hundred women at the Ft. Union Deseret Book Ladies Night. There was live music, local authors and artists, yummy food, discounts galore and the main draw... lots and lots of prizes!

As promised, here are the winners of the Stories by Me drawing:

Drum Roll Please.........................

Personal History Publisher by MemoryMixer: Carole Inglish

MemoryMixer Software: Lisa Tucker

Wire Tree Kit: Anna Layton

Didn't win today? You still have a chance to pickup the Personal History Publisher FOR FREE! Lane, over at MemoryMixer, has been very generous by giving us another copy of this software package that will help you write your Personal History. We will give it away in the next couple of weeks on this blog. All you have to do is take the Stories by Me October Challenge. Find ONE Family History project that you can complete in the month of October. We'll be offering inspiration on our blog. Share your success (or let us learn with you from your less successful efforts). More prizes coming!!

For those of you who won the MemoryMixer software package (either at the event or in this giveaway) be sure to check out the MemoryMixer blog. It shares all sorts of amazing things that powerful little box can do for you!

Also, for those of you who asked... Here's the link to our Generations Pocket Book.

Cool Stuff Found at National Genealogy Conference

I am sitting at my computer staring at a big 'ol pile of literature that we collected at the recent NGS Conference in Salt Lake City. Where have the last two weeks gone? We felt like little kids in a candy shop. Only problem is that we were supposed to be 'working' the event. We felt darn lucky to even be there. Lucky because 'she who shall remain nameless' forgot to sign us up for the event!) Thanks Bev at Fun Stuff for Genealogists for taking us in under your wing. If you came to the event on Wednesday, we were in the booth that had the line of people snaking half way through the conference hall. Bev has it all! Maybe I should say Bev had it all. By day four she had run out of many items. Looking for wall charts, clipart, or specialty rubber stamps? If it's related to Genealogy, Fun Stuff's probably got it!

Branches - Genealogy Software for the 21st Century
Ok, this one has me captivated. This new software is amazingly easy to use (you can zoom all over the map using your mouse's track wheel). You can see ALL of your genealogy on one screen. Want to see the children of your great-great grandparents? Just twirl the mouse wheel to zoom in on a detail. It shows you everything that you've collected on a person; pictures, documents, you name it. If it's connected to a family member, you'll see it here. It really is quite amazing. And you can own it for under $40 bucks. WOW! Branches "Put the Fun Back in Genealogy!"

Artist Valerie Atkisson - Valerie is a visual artist whose career has been profoundly influenced by her family history. Her work has been on display in museums throughout the United States. The picture below shows the senior portraits of three generations of women in one family. If you look carefully, you'll see clues to the lives of these women. Can you guess which one was a seamstress? A secretary? Loved city life?

Valerie also created a three-dimensional map of her ancestry. It's hard to visual the magnitude of the piece, but try imagine a tree that hangs from ceiling to floor. Each generation's vital data has been preserved on triangles of rice paper. 72 generations are preserved in this piece of art. (Anyone know how many people that represents? I can't wrap my mind around those kind of numbers!) I think Valerie said that this piece is currently on display in the Museum of Art at Brigham Young University. Definitely worth the drive to see this in person!
Hi-Lite.org

Here's something that needs to be checked out. Hi-Lite.org provides all of the power of an ordinary highlighter pen (you know...the ones that got you through school reading assignments) but now you can highlight the universe! It's perfect for bookmarking favorite websites, and researching your digital family records. Did I mention that it's FREE?

Well, that's all for today. Still more 'candy' to share, but it'll have to wait for another day!

Have much to share, just can't squeeze two minutes together to collect our thoughts, let alone put a complete sentence together....on paper (even the digital type).

We have a huge pile of ideas, products and projects that were gathered at the National Genealogy Society (NGS) Conference (was it really two weeks ago?) that we're dying to share! We were so grateful to be guests at Fun Stuff for Genealogist's booth. It made it really easy to sneak away from time to time to see what else was at the conference. Personally, I felt like a kid in a candy shop. There were so many yummy distractions!

We've missed sharing some of our projects and ideas these last couple of weeks. That doesn't mean that the gears aren't turning (WAIT until you see what Suni did with her grandmother's tea cups!). It just means that we can't possibly add another thing to our overflowing plates right now. A couple of week's ago we received a phone call from a TV station wanting to interview little ol' us! Imagine our excitement! Excitement turned to disappointment when we learned that the station was in Baltimore and we'd need to get there on our own dime. Ah, but wait... I just happened to have a trip planned to Washington DC...and isn't DC a hop, skip and a jump to the Baltimore area? So this coming Friday, Megan Gilliland of WBFF Fox45 will be learning the Stories by Me way of preserving stories. AND...we will share with her our newest project (drum roll please...) oh uh, gotta wait til Friday!

So while you wait (we hope with bated breath) we share with you a sliver of Utah history. It's a big day here in Utah...actually it was a big day (back on May 10, 1869). This was the day that Union Pacific tracks connected with the Central Pacific railroad. It was a big enough deal to call for major celebrations on both sides of the continent. My heart goes out to all the pioneer women who made the 13 week trip by wagon. I can go insane with only a three hour car ride when my kids incessantly ask "Are we there yet?"

Crazy is now the norm

What a crazy week...but hey, it goes with the crazy month, so it's all normal here. Can't believe that it's April. Of course, March and February also came as shocks.

This Saturday night will find us at the Fort Union Deseret Book's Ladies Night. We LOVE participating at this event and are amazed that this will be our third year there. I'll never forget the first time we showed up having no idea what to expect. Suni and I were blown away by how many women could cram into one store. The energy level is at about ceiling level. We can't wait to be part of it again!
We'll be sharing our two newest projects. We just shipped the Family Charts and Mom Letter Blocks. These blocks are the same concept as the Family blocks that we shared in March. Go here for instructions to make your own. We designed some MOM papers for anyone who doesn't want to print their own. We might be a bit partial, but we LOVE how they turned out. This set features my hubby's sweet cousin and family. She is an amazing photographer. Of course, it doesn't hurt to have six gorgeous kids!
Did we mention that everything is 20% off during Ladies Night? If all the giveaways and entertainment isn't enough to get you into the store...surely saving 20% off EVERYTHING will make it worth the trip!

Mark your Calendars, 1-19-2010!

Out of the blue, we received a phone call from one of the producers at Studio 5, KSL inviting us to come on their show to share a project. Imagine our excitement! We've been trying to make the connection for over a year...and they call us! We figured that it's the perfect time to share our fun and easy block ornaments. (We didn't quite get time to share these when we were on Good Things Utah last month.)

We've heard from many of you that really, really wanted display a Family Christmas tree during the holiday season, but never found the time to get these made. Well, we're going to inspire you! Our dear friend Erica spent most of her day yesterday coming up with unique ways that we can display these ornaments 11 months of the year. THANK YOU Erica!!

Check back in the next couple of days. We plan to share our instructions for making the ornaments here on the blog, along with Erica's wonderful ideas for displaying them. Then tune in next Tuesday to Channel 5 at 11:00am. (We'll provide a link for those outside of our viewing area.) Our challenge is to NOT call these cute ornaments, ornaments. The producer thought that sounded too Christmas'y'. We're trying to train our brains to call them Family Face Blocks! Count how many times we mess us!!

Thanks & Stay Tuned!

We had so much fun at the Salt Lake Family Christmas Gift Show this past weekend. A great big thank you to ABC4 and Good Things Utah for sharing our Memory Tree Kit. Even though we didn't have a chance give a Stories by Me shout-out or mention our exact show location, we were BLOWN away at how many of you found our booth because of that TV spot. The event was an excellent way to get into the Christmas spirit and it didn't hurt that we got some of our own shopping done while we were there!

This week our products will be in the spotlight again! As we've mentioned, our Memory Puzzle kits are now available at all Roberts Crafts locations. Well, our new friends over at Roberts love our puzzles so much that they are highlighting them on KUTV 2 News at Noon on Wednesday, November 18th. On Friday, Nov. 20th, Lisa will be featuring our puzzles on Good Things Utah at 10am. (channel 4)

We are thrilled to have so many people share the excitement that we have for these fabulous products. Be sure to tune in!

Shameless Self-Promotion

Exciting things are happening here at Stories by Me!

We've just been featured in the Nov/Dec issue of LDS Living. If you get the magazine, look for us on page 76. They selected our puzzle kits for their 2009 Holiday Gift Guide. These are our new kits...the ones with the cool metal tray. Check 'em out on our website. We're thrilled to report that the kits are now in ALL 40 Deseret Book stores. We loved seeing them sit on the shelf at our local store. (Of course, we'd also love seeing them in your hot little hands on their way to the checkout counter!) The Roberts Craft order is shipping now. They should have their kits within the week.

On November 20th, Roberts Crafts stores is going to be featuring our puzzles on ABC's 4 Good Things Utah. And...if that's not enough, we're getting our own spot on GTU December 3rd!

Who doesn't LOVE a sale?

Today it was almost 90 degrees. The weatherman just said that we should expect snow tomorrow. By the sound of the wind outside, something sinister is blowing in. It has taken me nearly 10 years of Utah living to get used to the abrupt changes to the weather. The local LDS Church holds two big annual conferences every year in Salt Lake City. For our out-of-town friends, you can pretty much count on wet, cold weather the first weekend of April and October! While you might want to stay home because of the weather...there are some great deals to be found in the Salt Lake area because of the event (some might even say holiday!).

1. Our favorite ladies at the Church History Museum store run a big sale two times a year. Everything in the store is 20% off! And yes, they have a nice variety of Stories by Me products right now. The deal is even sweeter because they don't charge sales tax! The sale runs tomorrow, Wednesday, September 30 to Tuesday, October 6. If they run out of any of our products, just ask them to call us and we'll make a special run to get them back in stock. Did I mention how much we LOVE this store?!!

2. We hope that if you live near a Deseret Book...(and you're a lady) that you've had a chance to experience Ladies Night Out. These events are hosted at every Deseret Book store the Saturday night of Conference weekend. According to the Deseret Book website...most regularly priced items will be discounted 20%. I know that I've always found plenty of things to spend my money on, and for a couple of magical hours, it was ALL on sale! We are still trying to get our products in ALL the Deseret Book stores (we hope to share exciting news soon!), but for now, look for our products in the Mormon Handicraft section. We shipped orders to all the stores so we know they have plenty of inventory to get them through the weekend!

As for us, we hope to finish filling our TOFW (Time Out For Women) orders by the weekend. You'll find us with our feet up, relaxed and enjoying a little family time. Who knows, maybe we'll get enough snow to head out for the first snowball fight of the season!

Fabric Frame Winner...and pictures from TOFW

Louisa... you are the happy winner of our Fabric Frame contest! We'll connect with you directly to see where to send the frame.

Thanks to everyone who shared their comments and a special thanks to EVERYONE who sent happy thoughts as we shared our passion for preserving family stories at Time Out For Women. What an AMAZING event!! Have you heard of it? We hadn't, but give a huge thanks to Marissa in Pleasanton, CA for getting us connected. There were nearly two thousand women at each of the events that we attended. Imagine, two thousand girlfriends with nothing on their agenda but to sit back, relax, and be uplifted through inspirational talk and music. Not a bad way to spend a weekend.

Here's a few pictures of the Logan event. They don't capture the positive energy that was there, but it will at least let you sneak a peek of a wonderful weekend. Give serious consideration to putting yourself in Time Out!

And last, but not not least...how cool is it to travel more than an hour from home just to run into good friends from the neighborhood? I LOVE how our paths always cross in the most unique ways.

Memory Tree Frame & Family Button Box How To's

We're still trying to plant our feet after an amazing weekend at Swiss Days. We are madly filling orders, replenishing inventory and preparing for several other events in the coming weeks. On Friday, we'll be at Touchpoint's annual event for Women Entrepreneurs. Next Friday and Saturday will find us at Time Out for Women. Suni will be in Pleasanton, CA enjoying gorgeous weather, family and friends and an amazing lineup of music and speakers. Lauri is heading to Logan, UT where there is an equally amazing list of activities and topics of discussion. While our main focus will be sharing our passion for preserving life's many stories we are confident that this 'Time Out' will be beneficial for body and soul, and we will come home both relaxed and invigorated!

September also starts our fall class schedule. We're excited to get out and about. You inspire us with your many ideas and stories and we can't wait to share our new projects with you.

We promised to share instructions on some of our projects displayed in our Swiss Days booth. We're working on getting pictures of the vintage fabric frame and new ornament projects posted. Here's the links to the Memory Tree frame and Family Button box instructions that were previously posted.

Click here for easy-to-follow instructions for making the Memory Tree Frame!

Click here for easy-to-follow instructions for making the Family Button Box!

As always, let us know if you have any questions!!

And the Winner Is....

We are excited to announce the winner of our Family Tree 3-Dimensional Tree Giveaway! Thanks to ALL the people who made their way to our Swiss Days booth and showed their support and excitement for our products. You made the hard work leading up to this event well worth it!

TRACY LASSCHE will receive the box filled with everything needed to create her own fabulous tree. Watch for an email Tracy so we can get your kit on its way to you!

For those who ordered their own tree kit; start gathering pictures! Your kits will arrive in the next couple of weeks. Check back as we'll share how we made our ornaments later this week. Right now we're enjoying a few minutes of well-deserved R&R with our families!!

Swiss Days Countdown

Is it possible that Swiss Days is exactly one week from today? Where has the summer gone? For that matter, where has the last year gone? We are looking forward to September 4-5 and have been working hard getting ready for this amazing event. We can't wait to hear what you think of our new projects. We have just about put all of the finishing touches on the many one-of-a-kind, just-for-Swiss Days products that we're also excited to share.

As an extra enticement, we're giving away one of these brand-spanking new Wire Tree Kits. This beauty retails for over $100, but one lucky visitor will take it home for FREE! The 3-dimensional ornament holder is over two-feet in height. We'll set you up with enough wood blocks and needed supplies to comfortably fill your tree. Our tree currently holds twenty block ornaments... each ornament displays four pictures. That's 80 stories begging to be told! It makes a POWERFUL statement!!

We know that it has been a tough year for many! Everyone has their own opinion of how to get the economy back on track. While we can't offer any Cash for Clunkers or other trade-in deals, we can provide a discount coupon that will let you pick up one item in our booth for a 30% savings. Christmas is right around the corner and we think this is a perfect way to put you in the gift-giving mood!

Find us at Swiss Days, 2009!

Don't want there to be any doubt of where to find us next week at Swiss Days...

Think C7. Sing C7. Dream C7. Just don't forget C7!


We've even marked the map with last year's spot (B50) to give you a visual of this year's location. Don't hold our shameless promotion of our business against us. We've worked very, very hard and we can't wait to share our efforts with you!

Swiss Days, 2009 ALMOST HERE!

It's been quiet on the blog front. No, we're not out relaxing by the pool. We're not out filling our shopping carts at the local store. We're madly putting the finishing touches on our many products for the upcoming Swiss Days.

Wanna sneak a peek at another new project that will be available first to our Swiss Day friends?

We're calling this one Say It with Blocks...
It's probably not a big surprise that we've used tw0-inch blocks for this project. (We happened to have a few laying around!) Put eight together and you've got four different holiday-themed sentiments to enjoy throughout the year. Make it even more meaningful by adding a few extra faces to the display.

This project is super simple. Plan about an hour to finish your set...a little more time if you're personalizing it with family faces.

We'll share some more display ideas in the coming days for these face blocks.