Two Floors of Fun at Stampaway . . .

If you have never made the pilgrimage to Stampaway USA in Cincinnati, you really should. There was a time back in the 90s when this was the only rubber stamp convention within 300-400 miles in any direction. Even now, if you combine venue, vendor list, and promoter, this is as good as it gets. 50+ vendors on two floors in a nice convention center surrounded by hotels and food -- and it's only 40 minutes from our store! Plan ahead -- next year the show will be on Saturday, August 14, with a Preview Party the evening before. You'll want to get tickets in advance, especially if you're coming to the preview party -- go to http://www.stampawayusa.com/ for more information.

The Preview Party ran from 8:00 to 11:00 on Friday (see yesterday's post for pictures), so it's a short night for the vendors and customers. But there were already people in line when I pulled into the parking lot at 7:45 on Saturday morning.



By 8:30, the main parking lot was full and the lines were stretching around the building on both sides.



Connie opened the doors a few minutes before 9:00 and let early arrivals stake out spots at the top and bottom of the stairs to lead the charge as the show opened.



Connie would have made a great traffic cop . . .



This was the view at the top of the stairs just a minute before the show opened. Time to retreat to the booth . . .



Sue Rothamel and Mary Jo McGraw were getting in a last-minute visit as I walked into the hall. You'd be amazed (maybe not) -- we spend a lot of time together, but since we're always setting up or tearing down our booths or helping customers, we rarely get a chance to catch up!



Once the show got started, I rarely had a chance to step back and take a picture. So this is the best shot I got of the area around our booth.



Sue Rothamel from USArtQuest was with us again, and her friend Frankie Fioretti wore herself out helping customers find ArtQuest products after Sue dazzled them.



I cheated and took this picture and the two below on Friday night -- I would never have gotten close enough on Saturday to get a decent shot . . .



Libby Friel and Donna Weibel both teach in our store. Libby loves to emboss on vellum and metal -- she does amazing things with Ten Seconds' tools that Cheryl Darrow doesn't even attempt. Donna has been hooked on Tim Holtz' tag art lately -- she went to his workshop in Phoenix last fall and has sold out several classes in the store recently.



Every show brings something unexpected. This balloon was attached to the lady in the brown blouse at left, and floated with her through the building all day. I told her it would be ironic if it wasn't really her birthday (but it was).



And the nice ladies from Christy's Main Street Memories have been back in the kitchen again! This time, they made my Chocolate Mint Cookies and brought along samples to share. Karen and I made quick work of them and they were great!

Tomorrow, come along for the ride as Zoe makes a trip to the store during the Summer Stamping Gala!

Friday Night Costumes at Stampaway . . .

I have collected A LOT of pictures and info over the past week from the Summer Stamping Gala at our store and Stampaway USA in Cincinnati. Considered putting it all together into one very lengthy post, but instead will divide it into three sections over three days. So today will be costumes, tomorrow will be convention, and the next day will be store . . .

The theme for the Friday Night Preview Party at Stampaway this year was "Wear Your Art Out". That left a lot of options, and no obvious costume choice. Some years are easier . . .



Left to right:
2001 "Pajama Party" -- nightshirts and caps
2002 "Dress to the Decade" -- three versions of Elvis on the 25th anniversary of his death
2003 "Wild Midwest" -- riverboat gamblers and a barroom floozie

A note about my 2003 costume -- I was going to be the riverboat gambler, and Karen and Melinda were going to be barroom floozies. But when we got to the costume shop, the women's costumes had no bustlines, so we had to improvise. I was terrified coming out of the motel next door, but once the customers started howling in the parking lot, it got easier.



2004 "Freaky Friday" -- my son Ryan designed my costume (and the fake lip ring was painful)
2005 "Hawaiian Luau" -- I loved the Magnum idea, but the customers expected a grass skirt and coconuts
2006 "M*A*S*H -- Karen as Radar was classic, especially the teddy bear. I loved the Mud Hens jersey, but the customers expected Klinger in drag



So we gave up and gave you what you asked for . . .

2007 "Wizard of Oz" -- the ruby slippers made the Wall of Fame in the store
2008 "Pajama Party" -- you can't see it, but the toenail polish didn't come off for weeks

And that brings us to 2009 . . .



Karen's hair is real -- she let it grow out this year and it looks great! With all the tags hanging from my hat, I felt like Minnie Pearl. I sent a copy of the pictures and a close up of my wrist to Suze Weinberg, since my "bracelet" was a roll of Wonder Tape!

We owe some thank yous -- to Ginger Deaton, who designed and painted the scrubs we wore; to Lisa Budenz, who did our makeup; to Bama Glenn, who loaned me a wig for the past two years; and to everyone in the store who pitched in to add the charms and embellishments.

There were a few other interesting costumes . . .



At left is Gary Ihle, the president of Marco's (don't you just love his costume?). He is more than a little claustrophobic and quite camera shy, so he is rarely seen at shows and this was the best shot I could get of him. At right is Nora Bussell, the second person to come to Stampaway wearing our logo.



Several of the customers dressed, too. These four ladies were dressed as green, blue, yellow and red daubers. I never saw them together until they got to our booth -- and even then it took me a few minutes to realize these were the ladies from Christy's Main Street Memories in New Concord, Ohio (Christy, Diane, Linda, and Leeanna) who made my mom's Sour Cream Drops and brought them to Adventures in Stamping in Akron back in April! They had another surprise treat for me -- more on that tomorrow.

During the show, the customers voted for the vendor with the best costumes, and the winner was announced at a vendor party on Saturday evening. We won (!) for the fifth time, and we appreciate your support.

But I would also like to recognize our friends Ron & Sarah Justison from The Paper Cut, who dressed as their logo . . .



Their costumes had special meaning -- Sarah has been wearing a lot of ballcaps and bandanas lately. She had breast cancer surgery in January and was off the show circuit for seven months -- last week in Novi was her first time back. She has finished chemo and is in the middle of radiation, so her hair is just starting to come back. It's great to have her back with the "family" again.

Thanks to Novi for an Amazing Weekend . . .

It would be an understatement to say we had a busy weekend in Novi (25 miles northwest of Detroit). Thanks to all who came -- you might even see yourself in the photos that follow . . .



This was the line, just as it started to move inside the hall at 10:00 on Saturday morning. You can't see the end of the line -- it was all the way down, hang a right, and a whole lot farther.



Then I ran inside and got a quick shot as the excited crowd started to pour into the hall. Everyone was moving -- the only person in focus is Nikki from Heirloom Productions (green blouse with her back to the camera) because she was standing still!



This was our booth about 10:02 -- Karen is in the foreground, already running to answer a question . . .



And this was the booth three minutes later! And that was what it looked like most of the day. I never left the booth the rest of the day (neither did Karen), and rarely stepped away from my cash register. Had to send someone to get drinks for us about 1:00 when I started losing my voice. We were running three cash registers and the lines were eight to ten deep at all three. Sound awful? It wasn't -- these days are the best. We don't eat, we don't drink, we don't even get to the bathroom. The customers are in great spirits. And we're all having FUN! If you have never experienced a convention, you just have to do it sometime.

In fact, I referred to our booth in Novi as "50 feet of fun". We had three demos going all weekend -- one at each end and one in the middle . . .



Susan Pickering Rothamel from USArtQuest was holding court to my left, and was surrounded by onlookers and shoppers all day long. She brought her friend Frankie Fioretti along to help answer questions and give directions (that's the top of Frankie's head sitting at the table in the picture at right).



Tim Hammonds from Scor-It was at the other end of the booth introducing customers to the Scor-It Scoring Board. He also offered a free make it/take it project involving the Scor-It and Bind-It-All -- our friends Robin and Keia Arnold helped with the project all weekend long! Tim said he has never had so many folks go through one of his make it/take its!



And this was as close as I got to Sue Nelson from Heartprints.net -- she's from Michigan, and it seemed like everyone who came through our booth knew her. If you go to her site, you'll find that she loves Beckett Expression Radiance -- we sold ten times what we do at a "normal" show.



When giveaway time came, the first thing I noticed was a lady at the back of the crowd taking a picture of ME! So I shot one of her . . .



And shots of the giveaway crowd from left to right . . .



It took four shots to get them all in . . .



After the show ended, we were invited to the Rothamel plantation (they live about 45 minutes away) for a barbeque. Sue and Dave designed the house and it is simply amazing. This is the view from the end of their driveway (I had to leave the truck there to avoid low-hanging trees).



My folks taught me that it's always polite to offer to bring something -- I made homemade ice cream . . .



And a good time was had by all. Then we got up Sunday morning and did it all over again (except for the barbeque). Then we tore down the booth and headed home and right back to work on Monday -- this week is the Summer Stamping Gala in our store, leading up to the Cincinnati convention this weekend!

Zoe Saves the Day . . .

I am in Detroit for a show this weekend (I'll post pictures from that when I get back to work on Monday -- thanks to all of you who came). But this is how my Saturday started . . .

We were putting the finishing touches on our booth about an hour before the show started when my cell phone rattled on my hip. It was my wife, with a story to tell. Zoe sleeps in the living room, and Carla had left the bedroom door open just enough that Zoe could get in if necessary. About 1:30 in the morning, Zoe decided it was necessary -- ran into the bedroom, jumped on the bed, woke up Carla, and then ran to the sunroom door. Then (probably because it was 1:30) she had to repeat the process. Zoe doesn't do this unless something unusual is going on outside, so Carla got a flashlight and they both went outside the investigate.

What they found was our 14-year-old tomcat, on the wrong side of our invisible fence. Apparently, Tom had a confrontation with another cat strolling through our neighborhood and decided to hop to the other side of the field. Once he got there, he had no idea how to get back -- Carla and Zoe found him in the yard across the street. I have no idea how Zoe knew -- our house fan runs all the time to circulate air upstairs, so even a good catfight would have been hard to hear.

So Zoe gets all the credit. Carla called this morning and told me that she locked both cats in the garage last night . . .

This is Tom -- his momma adopted us 14 years ago in the spring and three days later had five kittens under our front porch. We kept two and gave the others (and Momma) away. Tom has ruled the yard ever since. He is the greeter -- his sister was always skittish and would run away if someone new came around. Tom just ambles up (he is never in a hurry) to see what's going on.

When I went to the local pound two years ago and picked out Zoe, I went home and got Carla, then went home again and got Ryan and Tom. Wife, son and cat all had to sign off before Zoe could join the family. With Zoe's energy, sometimes I wonder if Tom regrets his decision . . .