Sunday, April 26, 2009

A Busy Day in Akron and Cleveland

Saturday was a busy day -- before, during, and after Adventures in Stamping in Akron. I love to go out and greet the folks standing in line before the show opens -- I offer each of them one of our flyers and thank them for coming. And this was a long line -- I took about 300 flyers with me and ran out, so I ran back to the booth and got the other 200 and gave all of them out, too!

Big crowds and happy people all day . . .



Susan Pickering Rothamel from USArtQuest held court all day long in our booth and enchanted the customers.



And Connie Vogt came up from Cincinnati to demo Copic Markers for an attentive crowd. Connie had a full day -- more on that later.



I got an unexpected surprise -- this is the gang from Christy's Main St. Memories in New Concord, Ohio (Christy is on the right). The nice lady on the left made my mom's Sour Cream Drop recipe (I posted it a couple of weeks ago -- look in the April archives for "A Look Behind the Curtain at the Wonderful Wizard of Oz"). I got to sample the wares (who am I kidding -- I got three of them), and they tasted just like my mom's!



A lot of people asked about my Grand Canyon trip, so I dug a couple of pictures out of my computer bag and taped them above my cash register.



A couple of shots from my perspective up on the ladder of customers waiting for our giveaway an hour before the show ended. My new camera has a panorama setting -- I need to learn how to use that so I can take one wide shot to show how many people stick around for the drawing!

After the show, we went to a little restaurant that Connie Williams from Stamp Your Art Out! in Cincinnati had recommended, and then headed for Gary Burlin's party at his warehouse in Cleveland. That trip took a lot longer than planned, when Connie Vogt's minivan blew a tire on I-77. I must have checked my rearview mirror to make sure she was following me just before it happened -- I didn't know what had happened until my cell phone rang. Got off the next exit and backtracked. I am not the most mechanical person alive, but in the middle of a busy interstate with five other women, I tackled the job of going after the spare. Had the spare in hand and I was just about ready to start positioning the jack when a tow truck arrived and an expert took over. All of the tire stores were closed, so Connie and Denise spent another night in Akron (they were planning on going home after the party) and will go tire hunting on Sunday.



This is Connie's car with the little donut tire on the back and a picture of the gashed tired that Connie sent after she got home. It's probably a good thing that I didn't even think about taking a picture for the blog until after everything was done.

So we finally got to Gary Burlin's about 9:00 (instead of 7:00 as planned).



The most amazing thing about Gary's warehouse is his office, and the stained glass windows he rescued from old churches.



Gary has loooooooooooong aisles full of every craft supply imaginable. My wife went with me once and I think she considered taking up residence. And there is a second level -- that's Sue Rothamel walking above me on the second floor.



And Gary loves to visit with his customers . . .

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