Janice Daquila-Pardo

Susan and Kimberly met me for our last Archiver's crop together in January.

About four years ago I decided I wanted to meet some people who shared my love of scrapbooking, so I signed up for a crop at the nearby Archiver’s store. Yes, it felt a little weird to go alone to a crop. But the point was that I didn’t have any local scrappy friends, so I had to go it alone. There was a table with three friends and one open seat, to which I was assigned. Well, that worked out pretty well!

Four years later we’re still friends. We’ve met at Archiver’s to crop together (some would just call it telling stories and snacking with our scrap supplies out on the table), not every month, but often throughout the year ever since that first night. So once Archiver’s announced that it was closing, we decided we had to do one last crop together. We met at the store on a Friday night and “scrapped” as usual. But the shelves were mostly empty, and in fact many of the shelves were already gone.

I’m quite sad to see Archiver’s go. Over the years I got to know most of the people who worked there, so there were times that I would just stop in to “talk shop” rather than to shop shop. When the news was first released about their closing, I was not at all surprised. The signs had all been there, so I just accepted it as inevitable. But the next day I was much more upset about it! I said to Matt, “I’m just so angry that Archiver’s didn’t make it. Now there aren’t any scrapbook stores in the area.” Matt said, “Honey, it makes sense that you’re angry. You’re grieving. That was more that just a store to you. You were friends with many of the employees and could always go there to talk about the hobby you love.”

He was absolutely right. We all need a place we can go to be around people who share our interests, “where everybody knows your name,” so to speak. So I am grieving the loss of that in my life. But, while I’m sad that Archiver’s is now history, I’m grateful that it was part of my history. I have befriended some wonderful people because of the chance I took that night. Scrappy trails, Archiver’s.

Product/technique notes

I followed the sketch below for my layout and will be entering it into the PageMaps’ Gossamer Blue February kit sketch contest. The background paper is by Pebbles; the stripes and butterfly papers are by My Mind’s Eye; and the purple paper is by K&Company.