Winter to Summer in Less Than a Week . . .

Spent last weekend in Akron for Adventures in Stamping – it’s always one of the biggest shows of the year, and at the end of April the weather there could be anything from coveralls to shorts (and anything in-between).  What we got was dreary and damp, with two days of frost . . .

  

But it was bright, cheery and warm inside the Knight Center, where Christopher Alan from Brutus Monroe, Anthony Gilbert from Anthony’s Paper Craft, and Lisa Nelson from our store were doing demos for the happy crowd.  Apologies to Donna Sheetz from our store, who was also there demoing and running a cash register on Saturday – I forgot to take her picture!

Christopher had company – Cathy and Heather from Brutus Monroe also made the trip from Pittsburgh and spent the day shopping and visiting with us on Saturday.

 

It took me a minute to remember why I could hear every word Debby Drabik from Just for Fun was saying from where I was standing – she uses a microphone and speaker to make it easier on her voice.

 

A couple of views of Christopher’s visit to our store the day after the Akron show.  I’m told that he had an enthusiastic audience all day.

 

“I’m told” . . . because I wasn’t there – my friend Tom and I left on Monday morning for a golf trip in McRae, Georgia (about an hour SE of Macon).  Tom’s six-month-old grandson Edison makes the trip with him everywhere.  We stopped in Adairsville, GA to have dinner at Cracker Barrel with our friend Barry (who I stopped to see in Florida back in February).

Tom retired in January and is learning to cook and bake – he made brownies to bring along on the trip, which went nicely with my snickerdoodles and soft molasses cookies.

 

The fellowship in the evenings after we finish the golf for the day is always the highlight of my trip – but the shot that I holed from 130 yards on the first day (my first eagle in more than 20 years) was a close second.  And temps in the high 80s without a hint of clouds or wind added to the fun.

 

I thought this was really cool – the morning sunlight shining through the mist from the sprinklers on the course.  Had to get underneath a walkway to shoot the pictures without too much glare – then cropped them as best I could.

 

Got home about midnight Thursday night, so the sight of my dogwood near the back door caught me by surprise this morning.  I had said before I left that it would probably bloom by the time I returned – but of course, I forgot.  The dogwoods are at least a couple of weeks late here this year – and the temperature today is in the 80s.  I think once again we have skipped Spring and gone directly to Summer . . .

Join “The Creative Crew” . . .

I have been hearing about this for a while . . . Lisa and Chris from our store have wanted to start a blog devoted primarily to the store, with make and takes and projects and tips and news and such.  Found out yesterday that it has finally happened . . .

And you are invited to join “The Creative Crew” – from the “Designers” tab on their blog, at this point the crew appears to consist of Lisa, Chris, Donna and Corinne (left to right below).  Go to https://marcospapercreativecrew.blogspot.com/ and you can take the journey with them . . .

   

Traveling Between the Snowfalls . . .

For those of us in the Midwest and Northeast, it has been a lousy Winter.  Here in Southwestern Ohio, we haven’t had nearly the amount of snow that folks along the Great Lakes or the Atlantic Coast have had.  But it has been cold, dreary and disgusting all through March and April – and I really thought that Winter had ended when we had an 80 degree day in February.  Silly me . . .

  

The view out my back door about 11:00 p.m. on Easter evening, and the smaller trees in my backyard the next morning.  Yes, they are very pretty – in December or January.  Not in April.  But as we often say in Ohio – “If you don’t like the weather today, wait until tomorrow – it’ll change.”

And so it did – by Tuesday, the temps were in the upper 60s and there were tornado warnings and 60 mph winds.  Those winds blew the truck and me all the way across Pennsylvania on Wednesday and stuck around through setup in Allentown on Thursday.

  

New items in our booth for the first time – Texture Printing from Carabelle Studio (in conjunction with Gel Press), and a big display of goodies from Brutus Monroe.  Which reminds me . . .

  

For those of you planning to join us at Adventures in Stamping in Akron, OH (April 28 & 29) and the Great Lakes Mega Meet in Novi/Detroit, MI (May 10, 11 & 12), Christopher Alan from Brutus Monroe and Anthony Gilbert from Anthony’s Paper Craft will be demoing in our booth all weekend long at both shows!

 

In Allentown, it was Sally Lynn MacDonald from Gel Press who was wowing the assembled masses.  Sally Lynn is like me – we don’t sit still well – so when the line to get to my cash register got longer, she came out from behind the demo table and worked the crowd.

I titled this picture “Sally Lynn . . . meets Sally Lynn” – someone yelled “Sally!” and both of them looked up, then followed with “Sally Lynn!” and they both looked up again!

This little fellow was checking out every colorful thing in our booth . . .

 

Phil Rapezzi from My Craft Room – had to get a shot of his shirt to send to my cousin back home who is permanently anchored to his smoker.

Nancy Knies always represents for Picasso and Darlene (and Fred, of course) – so I took this shot to send to them at their retirement castle in Tennessee . . .

My backyard, the morning after I got home – Enough, already!

Get Ready Allentown, New Items, and an Arizona Tease . . .

After recovering from the 50-mile ribbon of winter that was the Indiana Snowstorm, we will be spending the next few days getting ready to head to our annual stop in Allentown, Pennsylvania – just got off the phone with my friend Dee Ruger (that’s not strong enough – Dee is family) and we are already drooling over the Farmers’ Market at the Allentown Fairgrounds (just across the parking lot from the show).  If you’re in the northeast, you really should join us – just remember to bring your appetite for good food and crafting supplies.

Remember that the show is Friday and Saturday, April 6 & 7 – 10:00-5:00 each day!

Just finished adding a whole new line to our website – Nuvo from Tonic Studios has been the hot item in our retail store for a couple of months, and I finally took the time to add most of what they offer.  If you have time this weekend, you might enjoy looking through it . . .

Here’s another new item that caught a lot of eyes at the Indiana show last weekend – Mirricard Holographic comes in seven different patterns and they will really add to pizzazz to your cards!

 

And this is just a tease – Blake and I have been back from Arizona for 3 1/2 weeks, but I have been way too busy to go through all of the pictures we took while visiting Mom and Dad.  I plan to get to it early next week – suffice to say that we had a great time and the sky was bluer than anything we ever see in Ohio (the wispy clouds in that pic at right were the only ones I saw in six days)  Stay tuned . . .

Lisa & Donna’s Excellent Adventure (and More Snowy Stories) . . .

We spent the weekend at the Hendricks County 4-H Fairgrounds in Danville, Indiana – this was a new location for a show that has been held since 2004 at the Indiana State Fairgrounds in Indianapolis.  My opinion?  Better location, better logistics, better food close by – but the weather left a little to be desired.  More about that later . . .

This post should be mostly about Donna Sheetz (foreground) and Lisa Nelson (background) from our retail store – they spent the weekend at our demo table just dazzling customers with Nuvo products. 

 

Donna has helped out at a couple of Akron shows in the past, but this was Lisa’s first experience on the road.  By the time we were finished, both were eager to do it again.

More things that I saw over the weekend – this is Sam & Deb’s new “Stamp on It” rig.  They spent a year on the Dark Side doing mostly scrapbook shows, with their booth on pods transported from show to show in a semi trailer.  But now they are back to hauling their own booth behind a motorhome that looks a lot like Rick & Kelley’s (Our Daily Bread Designs).

Underneath the Toomuchfun booth on Saturday afternoon – this brought back a lot of memories, because Noelle is almost 14 but I remember when she was sleeping underneath Steve and Michelle’s booth when she was a newborn.  Now she is an “I can sleep anywhere, anytime” teenager . . .

By contrast, Noelle’s constant-bundle-of-energy sister Alana turned eight on Friday.  I couldn’t stand the thought of her being on the road without a proper birthday celebration, so I picked up a cake for her on Thursday evening.  Alana was thrilled – she had told her parents that she wanted a white birthday cake.  I couldn’t decide, so picked the right one based on what I would enjoy most.

On our demo table on Saturday morning – and several others around the hall – compliments of Barb Boso and welcoming us to Danville.  Really nice . . .

 

New in the booth (and on our site) – Mirricard Holographic Cardstock – really cool and comes in seven patterns and an assortment . . .

Always love it when customers get into the spirit and come to the show dressed alike . . .

Seven weeks old – probably not the youngest we have ever had in our booth, but the youngest in a long time . . .

This one slept most of Saturday, but I finally did see her wide awake later in the day . . .

Ah yes – Saturday.  We had been watching the forecasts all week, predicting snow for Saturday with wildly fluctuating depths about every three hours.  By Thursday afternoon, the predictions were for 8-12” – then it dropped to 5-8” – then it dropped more to 1-3” – then back to 5-8” (you get the idea).  This was the view out the side door when we arrived on Saturday – the roads were already getting slippery.  But we had a lot more customers than I expected.

Steve Lindeman from Toomuchfun was our first hero of the day.  As the snow kept falling sideways, the food truck that was parked outside the building the day before decided it was too treacherous to venture out and bailed on us for Saturday.  So we were left starving – until Steve got the bright idea to poll the vendors and order Pizza Hut for everyone who wanted lunch.  When he was told it would take 2-3 hours for delivery, he drove over and picked up 16 pizzas.  I didn’t get my cell phone out in time to catch him carrying all of them into the building, but I did catch his delivery to Ron Justison at The Paper Cut.

 

By the time to tear down our booths, we had about 8” of snow on the ground and it was still blowing sideways.  The only vendor prepared enough to bring along a shovel was Hero #2 – Cayne from Heartfelt Creations – and this was his first show!  He went out and cleared off the driveways in front of both loading doors – and then that shovel got a workout during teardown as the snow continued to pile up.

 

A couple more views from atop my liftgate during teardown.  I was fortunate – I carry an old LL Bean bag filled with winter gear during the season, but almost pulled it out last week.  After all – Spring began last Tuesday.  Thankfully, I decided to leave it in place for one more show – too bad I didn’t get a picture of me in my coveralls, snow boots, and hoodie – topped with an old toboggan cap (complete with topknot) that I got when I was in junior high school 47 or so years ago.

They Grow Up (and Lose Teeth) So Fast . . .

We have been traveling and doing shows for a long time – and it seems even longer when the time is measured in “kid years” . . . the following pictures and narrative appeared on this blog in July 2011 after our annual summer visit to Grapevine, Texas . . .

I have seen Lucia and her family a lot since then – they live two or three miles from our mail center.  So when I go to Grapevine, Lucia and her brothers can’t wait for me to get back – because I almost always come back with boxes of goodies from their grandparents (Jane McLaughlin has helped us in Grapevine for more than 20 years).  But Grandma and Grandpa (Jane and Weldon) are visiting this week to help out while Natalie is on a mission trip – and that prompted a visit to the mail center this morning . . .

Where Zoe got to make a new friend – she has seen Lucia before, but not since she was little.  And Lucia is now seven – and missing her two front teeth.  I asked her how much front teeth are going for these days – and she told me she didn’t know, because she hasn’t put them under her pillow yet!  She also made sure that I understood that the Tooth Fairy and Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny weren’t real, and that her parents handle those duties.

I was crushed . . . I still believe.