stamplajolla

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2010-09-24T14:16:00.003-04:00

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Winston-Salem, NC - July 17 & 18, 2010

2010-07-27T21:04:00.003-04:00

Winston-Salem was so much fun! We had a new demo artist helping in our booth this year.

Adri

Adri is Wendy's (Repeat Impressions) niece, but she was having a lot of fun showing customers fun things to do with our glitter. She did a fantastic job and the customers loved her. She made the show a lot of fun for us and everyone she talked to.

Monroeville, PA - July 10 & 11, 2010

2010-07-27T20:55:00.004-04:00

We really enjoyed being back in Monroeville for the Pittsburgh area show this year. We were in a new convention center and had a wonderful time.

Jeannine did our demo for us again this year and we were so happy to have her there both Saturday and Sunday. She was playing with our glitter and showing how to make our stained glass cards.

West Springfield, MA - June 5 & 6, 2010

2010-07-27T20:48:00.002-04:00

West Springfield, MA seemed to be a very quick trip for us this year. It must have gone by fast...I didn't even get any pictures!!!

Southfield, MI - May 15 & 16, 2010 NEW GLITTER 6 PACKS

2010-05-22T11:23:00.016-04:00

We had a great time in Southfield, MI last weekend where we introduced our twelve new Glitter 6 Packs. They were a hit! They are a great way to add lots of different colors of glitter to your supplies. The jars are 5 gram jars and are clear with clear lids, so it's easy to see the colors. There are twelve different 6 packs and they are are available on our website by going here.

Cards in the mail!

2010-05-14T09:26:00.004-04:00

I love getting cards from our customers and last week I got a great e-mail from Abbey97. She used our Hula Bunny stamps in some very unique ways. She has allowed me to post her artwork here.

Bunny Don't Burn Goes to the Beach
Bunny Don't Burn

Hula Bunny Saves the World!
Just Do It!

Peeping Tom #1
Shave, No Haircut
Bathtime Bunny

Peeping Tom #2
Shave, No Haircut
Bathtime Bunny

I haven't decided which one is my favorite, but I love them all. Great work Abbey97!!! And thank you again for sending them.

Akron, OH - April 24 & 25, 2010

2010-05-13T07:59:00.003-04:00

We had another great weekend in the heart of Akron. Donna came to help us with our glitter demo and we tried our best to cover Akron in glitter!

Rockford, IL - April 17 & 18, 2010

2010-05-12T08:51:00.004-04:00

We had a great weekend in Rockford, IL. The weather was beautiful
with sure signs that "spring has sprung."

The drive to Northern Illinois was filled with colorful new growth.

Rhonda presented our glitter demo and the customers loved her (and the glitter!) We always appreciate having her help. Saturday was lots of fun!

After we packed up the booth Sunday afternoon, we headed home
going straight through the heart of Chicago on our way.

Oaks, PA - March 27 & 28, 2010

2010-04-05T08:18:00.003-04:00

We had such a great time in Oaks, PA! It was great to see our friends we have made in the Philadelphia area over the last decade.

Renee demoed our glitter and stained glass technique.

We're looking forward to our show in Rockford, IL in a couple of weeks. We'll be there on April 17 and 18. For info on that show go to SSAT. We hope to see all of our Wisconsin and Chicago area friends there.

FREE shipping weekend

2010-03-19T10:01:00.003-04:00

We are offering FREE shipping on all orders placed through our website this weekend (Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday). Orders must be placed by midnight Monday, March 22, 2010.

This free shipping offer is to US addresses only.

Have fun shopping from home!

Columbia, SC - February 13 & 14, 2010

2010-02-19T08:29:00.003-05:00

We went to Columbia for the third year and we had a great surprise. On Friday afternoon it started snowing and continued until around midnight. When we woke up on Saturday we learned they had received 8.6 inches! Snow in Columbia, SC??? I guess you would have to see it to believe it, so here are some pictures we took:

Mesquite, TX - January 16 & 17, 2010

2010-02-17T17:54:00.005-05:00

We had a great time at the Mesquite, TX show.

Stacy showed different techniques using our beautiful glitter.

One of the favorite techniques was using our "Stained Glass" stamps.

The Stained Glass Kits make it really easy.

Some of the vendors were joining JP as he
was watching the football playoff game.

Grapevine, TX - January 9 & 10, 2010

2010-02-17T17:30:00.003-05:00

We love doing the shows in Texas and I think one of the reasons these shows are such a favorite is because we have Stacy helping us in our booth. We have so much fun when she's there.

Stacy helping the ladies do our make and take project.

Stacy made these great ATC cards using the Eco-Art Board ATCs:

She used the butterfly quilt block stamp for the background
and glittered the small butterfly and attached it to the front.

Stacy used the mini Hula Bunny stamps
(sized to fit on a domino) to make this fun ATC.

Great job Stacy!

The Last Four Shows of 2009

2010-02-17T16:18:00.006-05:00

I have been such a bad blogger! I'll try to stay caught up in 2010...as soon as I get caught up!

We finished out 2009 with four repeat shows:

On August 29 & 30 we went to Hamburg, NY. I really like this show and one of the reasons is because we have a great helper who does our demo/make and takes there.

Becky helping at Hamburg, NY

September 12 & 13 we were in Westminster, MD. We had a new person helping us there and we were so happy to have her.

Ellen did a great job at our make and take in Westminster.

September 19 & 20 we returned to Rhinebeck, NY and on October 24 & 25 we went to Hampton, VA for our last show of the year. Jennifer helped us in Hampton again and did a wonderful job as always but I didn't get a picture of her this year.

Cincinnati, OH - August 7 & 8, 2009

2009-08-10T09:48:00.006-04:00

Stampaway, USA XVII was fun as always. The theme for the Friday night party was "Wear Your Art Out" and many of the vendors and customers did. The party on Friday night is from 7:45 to 11pm and it's always great to see the costumes. We caught some of the stampers for a picture.

Dah Daubers girls were definitely a favorite.
This was the back of their shirts.

Diane, Leeanna, Christy & Linda

Dah Daubers...Aren't they GREAT?

Cynthia wore her art on her shirt.

This is Kelley, wings and all, still smiling at 11pm.

Some of the vendors dressed up, wearing their art:

Ron & Sarah from The Paper Cut

Karen and Greg (yes, Greg is in the pink) from Marco's Paper

Jim & Janelle from PK Glitz

Pam from MorningStar

Mary Jo McGraw demos for Carmen's Veranda

Now we are at home for a couple of weeks as we prepare for our fall line-up to NY, PA and VA. Be sure to check our convention schedule on our website: www.stamplajolla.com and watch for our new stamps which will be posted soon.

Novi, MI - August 1 & 2, 2009

2009-08-10T08:00:00.003-04:00

The Novi show was fun and exciting. Karen joined us for the fifth year and we always have so much fun with her at our demo table. We were happy to see many friends we've made in previous years in Michigan.

Karen glittered all day.

Winston-Salem, NC - July 25 & 26, 2009

2009-08-10T07:51:00.002-04:00

We had a great time at the Winston-Salem show. It was held at the Dixie Classic Fairgrounds and we met so many happy stampers who were thrilled to have a show in their area. We are looking forward to returning to this show in 2010.

Robin did a wonderful demo using the Stamp La Jolla glitter.

Winston-Salem...here we come!

2009-07-16T10:43:00.002-04:00

We are excited about the new show next weekend (July 25 & 26) in Winston-Salem, NC. We have never done a show in NC...close, but not actually in NC and we've had lots of people contacting us about this show.

For more information regarding this show, go to the Stamp Scrap Art Tour's website at www.stampscraparttour.com Also check out their blog at SSAT Blog Jackie just did an e-interview about Stamp La Jolla and we have a coupon on the blog that you can use at our booth at the NC show.

We hope to see many of you there.

Pittsburgh, PA - July 11 & 12, 2009

2009-07-16T10:35:00.003-04:00

Last weekend we were in Pittsburgh for the Stamp Scrap Art Tour Rubber Stamp Convention. We we fortunate to find one of our friends from the RSC board who agreed to help us in our booth. Jeannine stepped right in on Saturday to do our make and take and then came back on Sunday to demo our glitter and stained glass technique all day. I was so excited, I forgot to take a picture, but another vendor snapped this one.

Jeannine was fantastic!

West Springfield, MA - June 6 & 7, 2009

2009-06-27T17:24:00.004-04:00

We traveled to West Springfield, MA for the fourth year. We always enjoy visiting this area of the country.

Suzie helped us in our booth again this year.
It's great having her at our make and take table.

The drive home was uneventful until we got to this section of I-80 in PA where they had removed the top surface of the road. We were only on it for a couple of miles when we lost the tread from one of our rear tires.

It's very loud and scary when a tire comes apart on the freeway! This one was no exception and it dented the van and bent the exhaust system.

We had an interesting experience with the repairman our roadside service sent to change the tire...and it was NOT a good one! After about a three hour delay, we were back on the road and made it home safely.

This tire still had almost 20,000 miles under warranty! It sure doesn't look like it here! We were very thankful that we were safe throughout the ordeal. We have four new tires now and we'll be ready to hit the road for Pittsburgh, PA right after the 4th of July.

Southfield, MI - May 30 & 31, 2009

2009-06-27T17:03:00.004-04:00

It was fun to return to Michigan for the show in Southfield this year.

Awna traveled to do our make and take project and play in the glitter.
She did it all this weekend and we really appreciated having her help.

MaryAnn & Awna

Akron, OH - April 25 & 26, 2009

2009-06-27T16:52:00.003-04:00

The Akron show was double our usual fun, because we had two of our friends helping us with the make and take projects and the glitter demo on Saturday.

Donna and Awna helping and explaining it all.

Donna was helping customers with their make and take project
using the Sugar Dust or Sugar Beads and the Beadable Tape.

Awna was sparkling by the end of the day filled with glitter projects.

Allentown, PA - April 4 & 5, 2009

2009-05-02T10:26:00.003-04:00

We had not been to the Allentown show for a couple of years and it was great to be back.

JP manned the make and take table.

We met these happy stampers who were laughing and having a great time at the show. I love their matching sweatshirts.

Marge, Holly, Diane & Michele

On Sunday we had our adorable granddaughters with us. They spent spring break week visiting and they were very helpful on Sunday at the show.

Painting a rose with the Twinkling H2Os.

Painting the Gerber Daisy.

Learning to make change at the register.

Oaks, PA - March 28 & 29, 2009

2009-04-21T19:29:00.009-04:00

At the end of March we took a trip over to Eastern Pennsylvania for a couple of shows. The first one was in Oaks, a suburb of Philadelphia. It was the first time for a show there and it was great.

Our friend, Jackie Lewis, came by our booth on Sunday to take some pictures to post on the Stamp Scrap Art Tour blog and she did a great job showing our make and take project in pictures. I thought I'd share them with you here:

Usually JP does our make and take project, but it was my turn to sit down for awhile. I'm not sure what I'm doing here, but possibly pointing out the different images to choose from.

We start by using our Square Frame stamp H602 and stamping a smaller stamp inside the frame. Our Spiral Dragonfly D633 is one of our favorite stamps to use in the frame but as you can see, almost any stamp will work great.

The Open Rose and the Gathered Flowers stamps are also very popular. We start by stamping the square frame on our Smooth Finish Watercolor Paper using Stazon Ink. Choose the stamp you want to use in the square and mask it if necessary so that it isn't outside the frame. Then cut the paper just a little larger than the frame.

We like to use the Twinkling H2O paints and the waterbrush to color the image. You can use nearly anything to color, but we like these paints with the mica in them to add that little extra shimmer to the project.

Once the image is dry, we cover it with a piece of Beadable Tape that is cut the same size as the Square Frame stamp. We also carry the tape in 9 x 9 inch squares that you can cut to any size or shape you need.

Once the tape is down, we press out all of the air bubbles and make sure it's down tight and then pull the blue liner up off of the tape.

We offer a choice of either Sugar Dust or Sugar Beads to pour onto the sticky tape. These are both very tiny clear glass beads. The Sugar Dust is incredibly fine and smaller than the Sugar Beads.

We shake off the extra beads and put them back in the container for our next project. This project is complete as it is, or you can attach it to the front of a card, add a word stamp and you have a finished project.

We'll be offering this make and take at most of the shows we do this year, so be sure to check our show schedule for one near you and please stop by to try our make and take project.

Rockford, IL - March 14 & 15, 2009

2009-04-20T22:58:00.002-04:00

In March we went to Rockford for one of our favorite shows. We missed having Rhonda working with us in our booth, but it was great seeing other friends we've made in the area. It's always great getting a Chicago style deep-dish pizza when we're in Rockford.

Columbia, SC February 21 & 22, 2009

2009-04-16T22:25:00.003-04:00

In February we traveled down to South Carolina for a show in Columbia. JP was busy working at our make and take table here.

Mesquite, Texas Show - January 17, 2009

2009-01-28T10:39:00.002-05:00

We stayed in Grapevine and did some resting and shopping during the week between the Grapevine and Mesquite shows. Grapevine Mills is the largest outlet mall I've ever been to. They claim to have over 1.6 million square feet of shopping, entertainment and restaurants with over 180 stores! Well...it is in Texas...everything is bigger in Texas!

The show in Mesquite was so much fun! Stacy came back to work our make and take table again. (We love Stacy!) We were able to see many of the people we've come to know from our last ten years of Texas shows and we almost met someone from our very small village in Ohio where we live. It's a long story.....

We had another ice storm on Tuesday in Memphis, TN. There was very little snow, but the roads were covered with ice and there was a roll-over, spin-out or collision at nearly every bridge and overpass. It was terrifying, but we made it through without any problems.

At least the traffic going east was moving. We were very happy we were not in this major backup of the westbound lanes. Once we made it through TN we had dry weather the rest of the way home. Very cold, but thankfully dry!

Grapevine, Texas - January 10, 2009

2009-01-28T10:25:00.003-05:00

We left for Texas on January 6th in the middle of an ice storm. It was treacherous driving until we crossed the Ohio River and then it just rained the rest of the day. We enjoyed the rest of our trip and were so happy to see our Texas friends. One of our friends we were happiest to see was Stacy.

Stacy had fun doing our make and take at Grapevine.

Here's what Riley does all day long while we're busy at the shows. She is a great traveler and waits patiently for us to get back to her.

An Early Snowfall - October 28, 2008

2008-12-20T09:24:00.002-05:00

What a beautiful surprise on our trip home! The snow covered the autumn colors and just looked amazing. Fortunately, the roads were clear so driving wasn't a problem.

Hampton, VA Show - October 26, 2008

2008-12-20T09:13:00.002-05:00

Our last show of 2008 was in Hampton, VA.

Jennifer helped us again working at our make and take table.
Great job, Jennifer!

What a beautiful drive home through north-western Virginia and West Virginia!

Appomattox Court House - October 22, 2008

2008-12-20T09:03:00.002-05:00

As we continued on Route 460 in Virginia we passed Appomattox Court House and stopped for a couple of hours. The weather was perfect.

National D-Day Memorial - October 21, 2008

2008-12-20T08:43:00.006-05:00

We were traveling on Route 460 from Chattanooga to Hampton, VA and as we passed through Bedford, VA we saw the signs for the National D-Day Memorial. It is very impressive. If you ever get close to the memorial, be sure to stop and spend some time there.

Cleveland, OH Show - October 11, 2008

2008-11-01T20:34:00.002-04:00

On October 11, we had a show in Cleveland, OH. Donna has helped us at the Akron and Cleveland shows for several years and we really appreciate her.

Donna was busy helping people with their make and take projects and answering questions.

Rhinebeck, NY and Westmister, MD - September 2008

2008-11-01T12:17:00.025-04:00

I see I'm very far behind in posting to this blog again. We've had five shows in the last six weeks, so actually I'm pretty far behind in everything!

On September 20 and 21 we were in Rhinebeck, NY for a show at the fairgrounds. Suzie worked with us at our make and take table and we had a great time with our NY friends and customers.

Suzie was helping the stampers with their make and take projects.

We left Rhinebeck on Monday and traveled to Lancaster County, PA to spend a few days between the shows. I love Lancaster County and the:

Quilt Shops...

Awesome, beautiful quilts...

I love this heart rag quilt!

The covered bridges...

The Amish buggies...

Oh, yeah...did I mention the quilt shops?

This is my favorite fabric shop. It's very large with tons of fabric!

The Quilt & Fabric Shack in Bird-in-Hand, PA on Old Philadelphia Pike.

The train rides through the countryside are very relaxing.

After a few days of resting and shopping in the country, we headed down to Westminster, MD for our show on September 27 and 28.

JP did our make and take in Westminster.

After the show, we headed home. The leaves were just starting to turn in Southern Pennsylvania and were beautiful.

Hamburg, NY...August 23 & 24

2008-09-02T12:05:00.003-04:00

After the Novi show we traveled to Hamburg, NY which is about 30 miles south of Buffalo, so we took a little side trip to Niagara Falls. We hadn't been to the falls for almost twenty years and it was wonderful to go again. It was a beautiful day and we had a great time.

Niagara Falls
August 21, 2008

The show was at the fairgrounds in Hamburg and was really fun. We had only been there once before, but we'll be back. We love the area and the people are very friendly.

Becky did a fantastic job at our make and take table.

Novi, MI Convention

2008-09-02T11:53:00.003-04:00

We traveled to Novi, Michigan for the rubber stamp convention on August 16th and 17th. We had a great time and were so happy to have Karen back at our make and take table again for the third year.

The customers have such a great time with Karen
showing them how to use our Sugar Dust and Sugar Beads.

Stampaway USA...August 8, 2008

2008-09-02T10:15:00.007-04:00

Wow...how did it get to be September already? August just seemed to fly by, but maybe that's because we had three shows in a row and were gone more than we were home.

We started the August line-up with the Stampaway, USA convention in Cincinnati, OH. On Friday night there is always a theme and this year it was a pajama party. Many of the vendors and some of the customers dress up for three hours of fun, shopping and eating from 8-11pm.

I thought I'd share some of the pictures I snapped.

Lisa, a customer, who wore crossword puzzle pjs.
She had the name of every vendor written on her puzzle.

Stamp La Jolla was on her right leg.

Don and Susan from Rubber Stamp Tapestry

Greg and the gang from Marco's Paper

Greg and Don...what a pair!

Sarah and Ron from The Paper Cut

Judi, Mary Jo McGraw and Rob from Judi-Kins

Joyce and Kat from A Stamp in the Hand
surround Aiko from JudiKinsDeon and Al from G-Rated Rubber Stamps

Ted from Art Gone Wild at the mashed potato bar

This show was lots of fun. We even saw our friend Martha from San Diego who had traveled to Ohio for the show. She had been one of our first customers when we opened Stamp La Jolla and has become a friend over the years. I didn't get her picture this year, but here's one from last year's Stampaway.

Martha and her sister, Helen, from San Diego

Pittsburgh Show

2008-07-17T08:51:00.004-04:00

Our "newest" Maryann did a super job at our "make-n-take" table.

The show in Pittsburgh was lots of fun and we met some stampers that we only knew as "on-line buddies" before the show. It's so great to actually meet people in person who I already consider friends just by knowing them from the internet. We have three weekends at home now but much to do since we will then have three weekends of shows.

Celebrating Freedom

2008-07-08T09:45:00.002-04:00

We took a few days off to go camping in the local state park.

This frog jumped through our campsite one evening as we sat around the campfire.
It hopped right over my sister's feet and nearly scared her to death.

We saw many deer as we hiked and biked around the park.

We hope your celebration of our Independence was great. We are preparing for our trip to the Pittsburgh, PA area for a show this weekend. It is in Monroeville on the 12th and 13th. The details are on our website.

Rockford, IL

2008-06-27T09:00:00.003-04:00

Last weekend we were in Rockford, IL for the second time this year. The show was north of Rockford near the speedway in a new location.

We love having Rhonda helping us in the booth.

Rock Cut State Park in Rockford is one of our favorite campgrounds. It is so peaceful and quiet there and the weather was perfect. This was our campsite.

Riley loves camping and exploring new places.

We don't fish, but plenty of people were enjoying the lake.

West Springfield, MA

2008-06-14T21:38:00.006-04:00

Last weekend we were in West Springfield and had a great time. We were able to see lots of our friends we haven't seen for awhile...both vendors and customers.

Suzie did a great job at our make and take table on Saturday.

It's a long drive from Ohio to MA, but the scenery is absolutely beautiful. This is some fog in the mountains going through PA. On our trip home, we saw a black bear cross I-80 not too far in front of us. I tried to get to the camera, but by the time I got it and turned it on, the bear was out of sight.
We took our RV on this trip and this is the view from our campsite in PA. We saw deer in the evening, but it was too dark to get a good picture.

Michigan Stampers

2008-06-12T22:12:00.002-04:00

I met these happy stampers in Southfield, MI and I loved their matching shirts and bags. Well, actually I had met Jannae before at Novi and Cincinnati. Her sister, Donna, is our "Ohio convention helper." They were having so much fun and I had to take their picture.

Sarah, Jannae and Thea

After taking this picture they told me they were waiting for one more friend who hadn't arrived yet so we got together for another picture after Ann got to the show.

Sarah, Jannae, Thea and Ann

Southfield, Michigan

2008-06-11T22:03:00.003-04:00

Sorry, it has been a long time since I posted. We did the Akron show, and I forgot to take any pictures. Donna did our make and take table again and we love having her help us.

We flew to CA to visit with our kids and grandkids for ten days in May and had a great time, but like most vacations, we had to work like crazy to catch up once we returned home.

The Southfield, MI show was May 31-June 1 and we had a great time.

Ann did a great job doing our Make and Take table on Saturday.

It was the third year Karen has helped us in Michigan and we always enjoy having her at the Make and Take table. The show was a lot of fun and we'll be back in Michigan for the Novi show in August.

Akron Bound

2008-04-24T08:46:00.003-04:00

We are excited about the Akron, OH show this weekend. It's always a great show with lots of enthusiastic stampers. You can get all of the information at Adventures in Stamping. Hope to see you there!

Pennsauken, NJ Show April 5 &6

2008-03-31T10:18:00.008-04:00

We have enjoyed being home for two weekends and now we're looking forward to the show this weekend in Pennsauken, NJ. You can get the details about this show on our website www.stamplajolla.com. We will have some new stamps at this show that we haven't added to our website yet. They are literally "hot off the press!" If you live in the area, we hope to see you. Please stop by our booth and say hi..we'd love to meet you.

And now the Rain...

2008-03-20T20:53:00.005-04:00

March has definitely been the month for weather in central Ohio. I loved the snowstorm and we were thankful that the weather cleared up for our trip to Rockford, IL last weekend, but once we got home on Monday, it started raining and it rained buckets until early this morning. Lots of rain! Way too much rain!

There is a very large farm field behind our house and beyond the field there is a creek about 1/2 mile away from us. We have never seen the creek from our house before, but you can see how far out of its banks it is and we can see it from our house, even though we're still pretty far away from it, and we are not in any danger of it rising to the level of our house. There are many people in evacuation centers who have lost everything or nearly everything. It's just hard to explain how much water there is everywhere.

Today, we had to run some errands and we took some pictures while we were out. This is the same creek that runs behind us...usually it is a small creek and flows between the tree lines. It has gone way past its banks and has flooded everything around it. Fortunately, we didn't see any homes in immediate danger.

This water is moving rapidly, too.

Many streets around us are closed, because the water is flowing right over them.

This farm is just down the road from us.
It is right beside the creek.
I guess they're not getting out and nobody's getting in.

You can really tell how high the water is from the pictures of their fence.

Today the sun was out but the water continued to rise because there is just so much of it. The forecast for tomorrow evening is rain and it is supposed to rain all night and into Saturday. Easter Sunday the high will be 39 with some snow possible. It will be colder on Easter than it was for Christmas. Strange!

Home from Rockford, IL

2008-03-17T18:10:00.012-04:00

We had a great time in Rockford, IL at the Stamp Scrap Art Tour show this weekend.

Rhonda did our Make and Take table on Saturday.
The Twinkling H2Os and the Sugar Dust are so much fun to play with.

This was the beautiful sunrise we saw from our motel room in Rockford.

When we were driving through Chicago on I-90
Sunday afternoon we saw this incredible church.
It has angels along the roof line all the way around the building.
I want to stop and take lots of pictures next time we go that way.

The Chicago skyline.

Our favorite sign!
It means we're almost home.

New Display Cards from Awna

2008-03-13T21:34:00.006-04:00

Awna Stark sent me these great cards she made using our stamps. She is an incredible artist and I love her work. Can you tell she loves the Hula Bunnies? You can find all of these stamps on our website www.stamplajolla.com

You can click on any of these images to see them larger.

Shave, No Haircut

Accent Flower
You Can Never be Late

No Bow Manifesto
What? When?
Exquisite

Bad Bunny Day
What? When?

Wet Hare
Danger! Wet Hare!

Convention, I am Done
Don't Even Think About It!

The Morning After the Storm

2008-03-09T10:35:00.006-04:00

Today all is calm, quiet and beautiful. The sun is out and the snow is glistening. It looks like a postcard. Nearly all of the churches in the Columbus area have canceled services and no one is out and about. It's a great day to stay inside and sit in front of the fireplace.
It's probably the deepest snow I'll ever see, since the record that was broken was from 1910, and we had 33% more snow than they did then. I love the snow. Maybe again next year...

The Blizzard of '08

2008-03-08T18:50:00.009-05:00

On the news they're calling it "The Blizzard of '08" and what a wild couple of days it has been. Columbus officially received 20.4 inches of snow and we got very close to that amount. It just snowed and snowed and the wind was strong. It broke the old record from 1978 of 15.3 inches. The airports have been closed today in Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati.

We've lived here for three years and haven't had a real snowstorm until this one. We were fortunate to be able to stay inside and not have to go anywhere, so we loved it.

I guess it wouldn't be a great day for a bar-b-que.

The table and chairs may have cooled everything too quickly.

This picture just looks cold to me.
.I went out on the deck to get a picture of Riley in the snow and found out just how deep the snow was.

Riley does love the snow.

JP's like a kid when it snows. He can't wait to get on his "Deere" and move the snow around.

We have been gone for the last three weekends at different shows, and we were so happy that we were home and didn't miss the blizzard this weekend.

Home for Ten Days!

2008-03-05T20:23:00.002-05:00

Riley, our lovable dog, is happy to have us home again. She didn't get to go to Indianapolis with us since we didn't take the RV. It was a short trip...over on Friday for set-up and back home Sunday after the show. She was happy to see us, but she always has a great time when we leave her at my sister's house. Her dog is Riley's best buddy.

It was 70 degrees here on Monday and this is what we awoke to today. I love the snow. It is beautiful. Great day for soup and a fire in the fireplace.

From Savannah to Indianapolis

2008-02-29T19:32:00.003-05:00

This was the bridge leaving Savannah. It was beautiful, but you'd have to know how much I don't like bridges to appreciate the picture. Ask me sometime about our near death trip over the Hudson River on the
Tappan Zee Bridge.

The people in Columbia, SC were great and we had a lot of fun at the show. When we left on Monday morning the fog had rolled in, but it didn't last long. We knew we needed to drive all the way home, because they were predicting a nasty snow and ice storm overnight Monday into Tuesday morning. We made it home safely, and sure enough, it started raining about an hour later and soon turned to snow.

This morning we left for Indianapolis and it was snowing and sleeting most of the way. It was cold and windy, but we made it without any problems. It's supposed to be in the 40's and 50's for the weekend, so we shouldn't have any problem getting home on Sunday night.

Savannah

2008-02-21T08:47:00.006-05:00

After rushing so to leave home for these two shows, it was great having a few days between them to relax and visit Savannah, GA. Savannah is beautiful.

The Riverwalk is a fun tourist location...lots of shops...

but walking on these stones is a challenge.

The churches and houses are just gorgeous.

We're off to Columbia, SC today for our convention there this weekend.

A Very Busy Month

2008-02-13T16:57:00.003-05:00

After arriving home from Texas, we were really busy preparing for our February shows. We left on January 31 for Lawrenceville, GA (Atlanta suburb) and returned home on Monday, February 4th. It was a quick trip down and back with no time for fun, so not much to write about.

It was a frenzy getting ready for our next trip to Clearwater, FL and Columbia, SC. We were planning to leave on Tuesday, the 12th, but the weather forecasters were predicting 3-5 inches of snow and then freezing rain and ice (and we were planning to take our RV), so they scared us into leaving on Monday. Ohio did get some nasty weather overnight on Monday and we had great driving weather, so we were glad we left when we did.

The mountains through West Virginia.

It wasn't very clear, but you can still see the layers of the mountains.

Tunnels through the mountains still seem strange to us after so many years in CA. Out west you have to go over the mountains...here you tunnel through them.

Our trip is going well and we should be in Clearwater, FL tomorrow so we can set up for the show on Friday.

Home from Mesquite, TX

2008-01-25T19:13:00.000-05:00

I guess 2008 is officially under way, since we've been to our first convention of the year. That's one down and twenty to go.

We had a great trip to Mesquite, TX. We left Ohio and drove to Missouri to spend a couple of days with our dear friends, Mary Ann (aka MAC) and Dennis. Mary Ann did conventions with us for years when we lived in CA and she really wanted to go with us. We were happy to have her join us. It made the work much more fun with a dear friend along.

MAC and JP busy working.

We were so happy to have Stampin' Stacy doing our make 'n' takes. She always does such a great job and we have lots of fun in the booth.

Stampin' Stacy hard at work.

We also met some of our friends from the rubber stamping board www.rubberstampchat.net

Joan, Stacy, MaryAnn & Karlene

It was cold in Texas, but we had great driving weather for this trip and after spending another day with our friends in Missouri, we made it home on Wednesday. Now to get ready for our next trip...to Lawrenceville, GA.