The Unfamous

It was another great time at Creative Escape in Arizona this year. I feel a bit jaded because I don't share the new love enthusiasm that I keep reading about. Instead its kind of like old married love - sure and steady and warm. That's good too. It was great to see my friends - it is so easy to be with them and laugh. We had dinner Thursday night at Macaroni Grill and laughed. Gosh, did we laugh. Wednesday we shopped like raving maniacs at Melrose Vintage, Creative Quest, then Mystic Paper (my new favorite), then SAS Fabrics. The ribbon is like $0.25 a yard at SAS... just unbelievable. I spent $11. We also went to Scrapbooks etc. - the flagship store for the event. On Thursday morning we went to ANOTHER SAS and Scrap Happy Sisters... Am I forgetting anything? No, I don't think so. I didn't really buy that much. Really, I didn't. It felt good too - to be choosy.

Thursday afternoon was the trunk show and technique boutique. It was alot simpler this year, thank heavens. I was intrigued with the chipboard number that we painted black and sanded, for Paula & Deb's 7 Gypsies class. With the 4 brads added and the swatch of _____ behind it (I can't think of the stuff - nubby heavy fabric) - anyway - it looks way cool. That wall art project turned out to be my fav. But not by much because Lynette Carroll's wall art was just my style. Loved it too.

Sorry for the interruption but I realized, before the night got any later, I needed to pick my classes for Mary Engelbreit's Home Companion workshop. Registration is tomorrow at lunch, so I wanted to have that all figured out. Looks so interesting - artist of fabulous caliber and different ranges. It will be quite nice to attend. It's going to be an expensive day tomorrow... Donna Downey's Inspired also registers... AND we were able to register for 2010 Creative Escape after the event closed on Saturday night. Whew. That's alot of workshops all at once!

Okay - back to the event at hand. Friday we started off with the 7 Gypsies wall art project and like I said - loved it. I really sucked at taking photos and I'm having a hard time finding photos from others so just bear with me. Our second class was a bird book with Heather Bailey. I was disappointed that she didn't do a fabric project. I think she really missed the mark here - but what can you do? After that we had Tim Holtz and of course, it was genius and fun and we learned something about Ranger products. And our last class for the day was Carol Wingert. Picture is blurry - my bad. I loved her explanation of how on Christmas morning her daughter made tea for her - the tea bag was this shape and she had just a couple of days to design her project and poof - there it was. I also liked the other ideas for the project - with feet or Christmas tree inside. I could definitely make another one - and will, once I finish these 8! I was kicking myself when I saw kits of hers that I haven't bought. Book of Lists. Oh, too cute. I wish there was a black market for Carol Wingert kits... ha. There was a nice sit down dinner Friday night and Tanya and I slipped off to the pool and jacuzzi for a relaxing bit.

Back at it again on Saturday with Lynette Carroll's black wall art, that I just loved. Loved her style and her teaching and the project. Nice surprise, because I knew nothing about her before the event. She's an Aussie living in Boston (where I'm going in two weeks!). Our next project was a cute CE book with lots of Debby in it. I made an Anthropologie album for my friend, Heather who celebrated a birthday a few days before mine. Fun stuff! In the afternoon we had Marah and even with her drill sargent manners, I liked her - she was take charge and bossy but charming. I slipped out of class to get some class kits that went on sale at 2:45. And I scored 5 Tim Holtz! Yikers... The Chicago girls needed them and I didn't want them to be disappointed. We missed you, Jeanne! Our final class was Heidi and it was cute and fun to make - easy too. I don't know if I'll make it but it was definitely cute!

And then it was time for dinner. With dessert first of course. And lots of free gifties - of which, my roomie, Ronda won one! Very nice scrapbook frame box - forgot who makes it but it was very cool and I thought about sneaking it into my suitcase, but didn't. I bought several raffle tickets for the lamps, especially Pam Blacks. Oh man oh man, did I want to win that lamp. Our new friend, Shelly Berg did, so I can't be too sad. I also bid on Tena Springers and Heather Bailey's - but no such luck. The auction for Heidi Swapp's lamp yieled $8200. Our gang thought for sure it would all be under $4,000 - what with the economy and all. Ha! fooled us! Tracy Keith from By Design was bidding heavily for it - I really wish she could have brought it to Houston. But it wasn't meant to be. The bidding for Tim Holtz's lamp started fast and furious and ended at $29,000. Wowza. I think the word was vahklemped - he was teary eyed and speechless. It was really magical to be in the room and witness it. Just like last year. A girl from SF Bay area bid it, Nicole, who we met Thursday morning during breakfast. There were 6 girls in their group, first timers - outgoing and friendly. So that's $45,000 for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. And as a person who lost a brother to Hodgkin's disease, I was glad for this! Sorry but I don't remember the Key Note speaker's name. She was pretty and funny and interesting but ... well, I just wasn't in the mood much. So, I'm glad she got off the couch and ran a 1/2 marathon for her friend and we'll leave it at that.

It was another great event, I'm glad I went, I'm glad I spent the bucks and I signed up for 2010. I feel lucky being a 5 timer! And now I'm a sleeping girl because I'm off to bed. Nighty night.