When I was a kid, I collected rocks and stamps. I even collected bugs for a few days until I realized that I had a collection of bugs. I had amassed a pretty large pile of gravel before I realized that gravel wasn’t exactly rose quartz and I got the feeling that I was somehow missing the point. A friend of our family kindly donated some cool rocks to my collection that were actually worth collecting. I had some very cool amethysts, geodes, pyrites and mica rocks. However, once you thoroughly examine the rocks with a not-at-all-dorky magnifying glass and make notes in a not-very-nerdy notebook there isn’t much to do with them and my interest faded.

Rocks and stamps are fascinating, well, sort of, but as I grew up my collections grew up too. Thankfully. I now think of my collections as obsessions because it is more entertaining to think of them that way. I am currently obsessed with cookie recipes, shoes and scrapbooking supplies.

I have piles and piles of cookie recipes. It is getting a little ridiculous. I am considering buying a cow because I think it would be less expensive than all the money that I spend on butter. Plus, the effort of milking a cow might burn all of the calories that I am consuming while conducting “quality control” of the dozens and dozens of cookies that I make. I don’t know how Brad would feel about clean-up duty though if I let the cow live in the garage.

I also collect shoes. I can’t compete with Carolyn, who is the queen of shoes, but I definitely have my fair share. I have going out shoes, staying in shoes, rainy day shoes, too hot for socks shoes, painted toenails shoes, scary hide my feet shoes, tall shoes, short shoes and these really cool blue vinyl-y shoes that I bought in Germany. I think that about covers it. Every new shirt that I buy requires a brand new pair of shoes to expertly coordinate. Heaven forbid that I don’t match. My dream house would have a special room just for my shoes. They would be so happy there.

And then there is the scrapbooking supplies. I could wallpaper my entire house, inside and out, with patterned paper. It would be amazing, but Brad says no. I just can’t resist the colors, the patterns and the textures of all of the supplies out there. The new Doodlebug velvet flocking stuff looks amazing! The 7 Gypsies Naked Buttons are definitely something that I need to have. And how could I possibly not need absolutely everything Sassafras Lass? Sigh. It’s an obsession and I probably need therapy… retail therapy.

Since I know that I am not the only one who is obsessed with all things new and amazing, I am so very excited to introduce a new CONTEST at Scrapbook.com! We want to see you use these new and exciting products that are out there! Want to see what’s new? Just go to the Superstore and click on New Products. What could possibly be easier than that? Upload as many layouts as you want to the gallery that showcase something (or many things) new in the Superstore. Make sure that when you upload your layouts that you link the products that you used in the Superstore. It’s easy to do. When you are uploading, you will see a tab that says, “Click here to search and select products.” You can upload as many layouts as you would like, but you can only win once.

Here are the rules:

1. This contest runs for 4 weeks, from June 2nd - June 30th. Layouts must be uploaded within this time frame. Each week I will randomly choose three winners.

2. You can enter as many layouts as you wish, but you can only win once within the 4 weeks.

3. Your layouts must showcase and be linked to a brand new product in the Superstore.

4. Each person who wins will receive a $30.00 prize pack from Scrapbook.com.

That’s my take this week! Have a question? Want to tell me all about your latest obsession, in scrapbooking or otherwise, let’s hear it! Just leave me a comment/question and I will answer. Have a great week!