VERY Nice, Christy! I
reading reports from other participants in the same event!
JAckie and I didn't arrive until noon on Friday, because she has 5 kids, a dog, a demanding full time job and just can't be gone that long. We left at 7 am for the 4 hour drive.
It was pretty overwhelming the day we got there, very crowded and the wrong end of the day for me, so I only bought stuff at the Carolina Crafters (just rite stamps and nesties) when I caught their booth empty. Likety split class Disney Magic (loved it) and skipped my second class (birthday cards) in order to do dinner with the girls on Friday.
Dinner was good and took about 1.5 hours for everybody to get fed and out of there.
Then my last class was the Button farm recipe book class - LOVED IT! so much that I went to their booth on Saturday and dropped another $100 on two of their kits. Jackie loved their stuff too, but said she already had the materials for xyz (I forget) so she went back and talked to the lady about selling the instructions seperately, as a download. Wouldn't that be cool! I would buy instructions for everything she sold, if the price was right!
Dimples went to the room party at Christy's on Friday night and there was a VERY incriminating photo when she and Suzanne's little pal got into the root beer.
They all looked like they were having a great time, but I was so done (even ready for bed in the photo - I had awakened at 1:30 AM and that was the last sleep - you KNow I just died when I hit the bed Friday night.
Saturday, I skipped my 8:30 class (sei's envelope album) in favor of shopping. I was the second one in the door, and went directly to Embellish-it, for my Basic Grey. Got card kits and a collection pack and a few coordiating stuff. Then, more nesties and just rite stamps, some water color "brushes"? and glue, a couple books. Went to Boxer Palooza which, the instructor said was, although she couldn't say it in the brochure, a "give away" class. We didn't have to DO anything, which is great in those tiny spaces, but we got so much stuff, you wouldn't believe. 11 sheets of paper, a blank 8x8 calendar, bottle of buttons, clear stamp, giant clothes pin, cd tin and pages to go in it, 4 yards of ribbon, a printed transparency, die cut dog house, some hardware, and I forget what else - then the door prizes were gift certificates to their booth. It was FUN.
Jackie took the digital class and liked it, and the piggy tales class and didn't like it. But she loved the whole event and meeting you guys so much that now she wants to go to Valley Forge in July, and has committed to go to Manchester again next year.
We were supposed to get to gether for lunch Saturday before hitting the road, but what a disaster that was!
Anyway, the restaurant couldn't accommodate us all, together, so the crew that arrived early and was dickering with the restaurant decided we should go across the street to a greek restaurant, then the later arrivals were "don't like Greek" "don't feel like walking across the street" or whatever, so they stayed there and ate salads in the vendor faire. Your choice, gang, I needed to EAT before we hit the road. "The early contingent" went over to the Greek place and sat in quiet air conditioned comfort with white linens and wonderful food. If there's another CK in NH, I *WILL* be eating there again. As much as possible. (I had lamb on a skewer and salad with a chaser of baklava to go for dh)
I wasn't all that sorry to miss JRs - some people had gotten food poisoning the night before on the clam chowder - but what I DID miss was spending time with the day trippers - I didn't even get to hug Denise and Diana there was so much confusion and people milling about. which made me sad.
The girls who have been to CK Manchester before said the vendor faire was smaller than before, but I thought it was quite wonderful and managed to drop the equivelent of a flat panel tv, on the stuff on my list. I got everything but a heat gun, which I didn't see any.
I bought Basic Grey paper pack, card kits, embellis, and "basics", 2 more Button Farm kits, 5 sets of nesties, a huge pile of "just rite" stamps from Carolina Stampers, stuff from Boxer, and a Theresa Collins travel journal (I forget who from).
It would all be put away except that I decided to reconfigure my entire storage, which entailed moving my good dishes out of the hall closet shelves to the kitchen, lugging 3 boxes full to the cellar, cleaning the floor in the closet, etc. BEFORE I tacked all those darn plastic packaging - even using industrial strength scissors it took a couple hours to liberate the stuff and two trips to the recyle bin.
Someone had a great idea for storing nesties - the printable magnet sheets aren't really strong enough, but the magnetic heat vent covers ARE, and I just happened to have an extra one, stuck to my dryer. Sure enough, it WORKS! Now, all I have to do is figure out what to do with that sheet of nesties. Right now, it's stuck to my fridge.
Can't WAIT for next year!