50 Feet of Fun in York, Pennsylvania

It's the morning after a very busy Saturday in York, Pennsylvania, and I'm still overwhelmed by the excited crowd. They came, they saw, and they stayed all day!

Nikki Webb and Sheila Carlson from Heirloom Productions were greeting the shoppers at the front door. I was trying to get a good shot for them to put on their Stamping Shenanigans blog, but the closeups were out of focus. I have to learn how to use this camera -- it takes great candids but I have trouble when I'm shooting a pose.

The first few people that come into our booth usually head straight for the Cuttlebug folders and the Nestabilities. The York crowd was no different.

We had the same setup we have used in Novi, Michigan and Springfield, Massachusetts this year -- our usual 30 foot booth and two 10 foot demo spaces on either end. I like to refer to it as "50 feet of fun" -- I'm always amused when people ask "How much farther does your booth go?"

Susan Pickering Rothamel from USArtQuest was on my end of the booth. That picture at left could have been taken at 11:00 a.m. or 3:00 p.m. -- it was standing room only around her table all day long. And she has great penmanship . . .

Sue's friend Frankie Fioretti was on hand to help customers select USArtQuest products. Frankie had just spent a week with Sue in Michigan, then went home to Long Island and spent all day Thursday hauling bricks in her backyard to earn enough "honeydew" points to justify another weekend away from home!

The nice lady at left with the white turtleneck and necklace is Sara Wagner. She doesn't look a bit tired, does she? She should -- she spent ALL DAY Friday helping me set up the booth. Just Sara and me -- we often have one or two more (sometimes more than that), but Sara is a setup veteran and she was absolutely great.

Tim Hammonds from Scor-It was on the other end of the booth. He was demoing his boards and had a free make it and take it that was busy all day. Tim grew up in Central Pennsylvania so he had extra incentive to come to York -- his brother lives in Harrisburg so he got to visit for the weekend. And he loves baseball as much as I do, so we have great conversations.

See that guy watching Tim's demo in the right picture? You're gonna see more of him as you read on -- I did!

Mary Garvey was at the middle demo table again -- she came up with a great new demo using the new Big Shot Express from Sizzix, with Cuttlebug folders and metal. She was using two folders on the same piece of metal -- it's called "double bugging". And it works -- the metal tower was stripped bare by the end of the day.

There's that guy again . . .

I will get in trouble for this shot -- Polly's Pals was next to us, and Polly Weed wandered over late in the afternoon to see what Sue was doing. She looks disgusted, doesn't she? She wasn't -- she and Sue were having a ball. Just shows what can happen when you push the shutter on your camera at the wrong time. But I couldn't resist once I saw it . . .

DRS Designs was across the aisle from us (you can barely see Sue next to the cup the guy with the suspenders is holding). Sue has one of the best display tools I have ever seen -- she puts her unmounted stamps in an inflatable pool!

This kid found a great spot to plop down and play with his Game Boy. Reminds me a lot of my son Ryan when he was that age.

This is my buddy Kathy Henning. I have known Kathy for years -- she lives in Maryland, but has been in our store many times. She and her husband pull their trailer out to Idaho to see the grandkids and Marco's is a good stopping point along the way (we have "trailer parking"). Kathy is usually the first person I hear from when I post something to this blog, but not today -- she has Washington Redskins season tickets and will be at FedEx Field when the posting e-mail goes out this afternoon.

Finally got a face shot while he was sitting at the USArtQuest demo. But somehow I missed him when I shot the photos during the giveaway . . .

As usual, they were all waiting for me when I came around the booth a couple of minutes before 4:00.

And I got a major kick out of the lady who was holding up her ticket so I could see her number before I started the drawing . . .

The Easiest Cheeseball You'll Ever Love . . .

Some of the best recipes I have are for things I do not eat -- this is one of them. It gets more demand than anything I make, regardless of the occasion. If we're having a pot luck at the store, Karen wants my cheeseball. Family gatherings -- Mom wants the cheeseball. My friends Tom & Carol have a group over for New Year's Eve every year -- they want TWO cheeseballs (one for the party and one to eat the next day).



The amazing thing about it is it's EASY -- there are only four ingredients. But it still takes 45 minutes or so to make because of the time it takes to cut everything into little pieces. And that's the secret -- you have to take a knife and CUT everything. I have tried chopping tools and processors and such, and they just don't work as well.

Here's what you'll need:

4 Bricks of Philadelphia Cream Cheese (not reduced fat or 1/3 less fat -- it doesn't set up)
2 Bunches of Green Onions
1/2 Red Onion
1 lb. Buddig Beef
A Sharp Knife and a Cutting Board

And here we go . . .



Take four bricks of Philadelphia Cream Cheese and set them on the counter to warm up a little while you're working on the other ingredients (you'll appreciate this later).



Trim the green onions on both ends (cut off all of the white stuff on one end and an inch or so of the green stuff on the other -- how was that for a male description?) and rinse. Then slice the long way into thin strips. Depending on how the green onions look, you may only have to slice them once or you may have to slice three or more times into thinner strips.



Then crosscut the strips into little tiny pieces, the smaller the better. I usually grab a handful of the strips and hold them together at the end and try hard to miss my fingers as I cut over and over.



Red onion is next. Cut several slices, and then cut the slices in half and again cut more of those little bitty pieces.



Scrape everything off the cutting board into a mixing bowl as you go.



Next up is the Buddig Beef. Sometimes you can get it in one big package, but you may have to get eight of the little 2 oz. packages. Put everything together into a couple of half pound stacks, and then cut each stack into 16 squares.



Again, everything goes into the bowl. It helps if you try to separate the little pieces of beef as you go.



The cream cheese goes in next. Now comes the messy part -- if you wear rings, you might want to take them off first. And put a couple of pieces of aluminum foil on the counter next to you so you have someplace to put the cheeseballs when you're done.



Dig in and combine the ingredients. Squish it between your fingers over and over. Turn it upside down to get the onions off the bottom of the bowl and squish some more. By the time you're finished, it should be tough to recognize those little squares of beef anymore.



You've got enough here for two nice cheeseballs -- one to serve and one to keep. Form two nice balls and put each on a separate piece of aluminum foil (or two crossed pieces as I did above).



Then wrap your cheeseballs in aluminum foil, flatten the bottom so they will sit well on cheeseball trays, and put them into the refrigerator for at least two or three hours.



And you'll need a box of your favorite crackers. My wife likes Keebler Toasteds Onion Crackers, but you can't find them everywhere.



Enjoy -- I'm off to load the truck for the show in York, Pennsylvania this weekend . . .

Sights from a Weekend in New York

I am running a few days behind in posting the pictures and witty narrative from last weekend's show in Rhinebeck, New York. I have been test driving a cold and sore throat and have decided to hold onto them both for a few more days . . .

When I told people that I was going on a business trip to New York, reactions usually ranged from "Oh, that's way too crowded for me" to "Are you going to see a Broadway show while you're there?" Rhinebeck is not THAT kind of New York -- this is about 90 miles up the Hudson River, with rolling hills, lots of trees, and a much slower pace.

The show was at the Dutchess County Fairgrounds, which was a pretty busy place compared to other weekends I have been here. In addition to our show, there was a gem and mineral show next door, a flea market indoors and outdoors all over the place, and a Rotary Club pig roast.

I was one of the few vendors who had been here before (different promoter this time). When I pulled in for setup, several vendors came up to me with a very important question -- "Is it true there are no restrooms in our building?" Quite true -- the photo at left was taken at the entrance to our show, and the one at right zoomed in toward that little building in the background, across the parking lot. That's where the restrooms were . . .

There were other little inconveniences that had to be dealt with along the way. The loudspeaker system was in the fairgrounds office, and any announcements made there were heard all over the fairgrounds. So Ted Cutts came up with a bullhorn and wandered around our room from time to time calling out prize numbers and such. Everyone knows (and likes) Ted -- he owns Art Gone Wild, Inky Antics, Stampers Anonymous, and Darcie's Country Folk. He also kept me alert Saturday night -- some of his people were in the room next to me in the hotel, and Ted opened up their half of the double door between rooms about 10:30 p.m. and banged the tar out of my half, just as I was walking past it!

It was one of the few good-weather weekends these folks had seen in a long time, but that didn't stop them from coming out early on Saturday morning. Donna Brunell made sure I knew that in all of the giveaway pictures I took in Springfield in June, somehow I missed her. Not this time . . .

The customers were resourceful as well. The boot at left belonged to a teenaged girl who was using it as her camera pouch (and her cell phone was farther down the same boot), and the gentleman at right found a unique spot for his wristband.

Our friend Mary Garvey works with us at several shows in the northeast and was demoing this weekend. This is Mary's "home show" -- she only lives 15-20 minutes from the fairgrounds. Her sister was coming to the show on Saturday, so Mary and I made a deal so she could spend a little time with her . . .

You may remember the picture at left -- it's the one I took of the new Core'dinations display at the Greenville show the weekend before Rhinebeck. I replenished as much as I could, but the picture at right that I took on Sunday morning at Rhinebeck shows just how popular Core'dinations is -- look at those empty holes!

And this is Joey Henderson. I brought along a package she had ordered (her friend checked on Saturday to make sure I had it) so I saw her early on Sunday. Found out later that when she walked in the door, she saw the $500 basket of stamps the promoters were raffling off for charity and announced that she was going to win it. Five hours later, she did . . .