Scrapbooking Discovery!

Today was a great day.

The sun was actually shining, the temperature was above 3 degrees, and I managed to get a full night's rest. With the cleaning ladies coming in this morning, I thought I would head out into town and pick up a few things. As I searched from store to store for birthday wrapping paper and Valentijnsdag cards, I decided to go over to Paper & Cards, a little shop near the train station. Paper & Cards is a wonderful little scrapbooking shop, and one which I had frequented many times during my previous stays in Hilversum. Only this time.....TE HUUR (for rent) was posted all over the front windows. Nooo! Unwilling to get a store-bought Valentine card, I wracked my mind for other possible places to go. I vaguely remembered seeing a scrapbooking store during my first week in Hilversum. I knew it was in the Hilvertshof Shopping Center somewhere, but after 5 minutes of scouring the mall map I could not find it. I did, however, find a small hobby shop which sold some scrapbooking items. I asked the woman at the counter if there was another store like it in the mall. She was hesitant, and tried to push some ugly looking embroidered hearts my way. Then she pointed down the hall, to the store Pipoos.

Pipoos!!! My favourite discovery in Hilversum thus far. I can't believe I hadn't seen it since my first trip to the mall back in May. Pipoos is a chain of "hobby" (mostly scrapbooking) stores in the Netherlands. They offer "Cropavonds" (Crop-evenings) and weekly card-making demonstrations. Pipoos is like a scrapbooker's heaven! Being on a budget, I couldn't possibly buy everything I wanted. So many rub-ons, papers, and tools that we don't have in Canada! The most unique items were punched/decorative papers with intricately detailed borders.

Anyone who knows me, knows that I love to scrapbook, and have been doing so since the age of 13. It's one of my favourite hobbies, and melds well with the whole travelling/photography world that I love. When it came time to pack up my two 23kg suitcases to come to the Netherlands, I was upset at not having the space to bring any scrapbooking items! How would I survive without them?!?!

My Valentines Day gift to myself :)

So today I bought just enough tools to be able to scrapbook somewhat well in the Netherlands: a glue stick, thin black marker, small paper padbook, blank cards/envelopes, and a 12x12 paper trimmer. I see these items as an investment, considering I will be in the Netherlands for a while, and scrapbooking gives me such joy :)

Maybe your Valentijn will be in the mail soon?