A bit of a long post but I've included a giveaway. :)
Just wanted to share my adventures with Scrapfest 2010! This was my first year going to Scrapfest and I sure hope it won't be my last. :) Thanks to my wonderful hubby for allowing me to go and my parents for making it possible too. (Steve said I could only go if I had someone to go with to share hotel costs, etc. and my Dad encouraged my Mom to join me). :) My Mom and I shared a room with Natasha and we had such a great time with her, getting to know her. Miss you Natasha!
Well, I think I'm getting ahead of myself here. Our adventure began with my Mom and I driving from my place in London, Ontario to Detroit, Michigan. We left around 5pm Wednesday evening and arrived in Windsor (just across the border from Detroit) at about 7. My Mom asked me to get her passport out of her purse and after doing so I took mine out too... only to realize I had my EXPIRED passport with me. :( We turned around and made our way back to London for my current passport, adding an extra 4 hours to our trip. I'm SO glad we decided to drive up the night before our flight. If we'd left my place in the morning we would have missed our flight Thursday morning and I would have been one sad little crafter. The rest of our trip went smoothly with only a slight delay with our first flight to Chicago. Once we arrived in Minneapolis we dropped our things off at the hotel and headed out to the Mall of America to check things out, do some shopping at Archivers, and register for Scrapfest.
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| Mom and I |
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We then met up with Linda and Liz at Starbucks for quick hello before heading back to our hotel room. We were so tired and I had such a headache that we turned in early. Natasha showed up and we chatted for quite a bit before calling it a night.
Friday was blast! I had all 3 of my classes that morning...
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| Tim Holtz was a great teacher and SO funny! |
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| Latrice, Anne, Barb, and Anita at one of the Hero Arts classes. We all sat in the front row. :) | | |
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| Shari and Jennifer teaching away. They were wonderful! Such a fast-paced class. | | | |
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I was thrilled to finally meet Jennifer and Shari. Jen and I have gotten to know each other a little bit through email the past 2 1/2 years and meeting her in person was my biggest motivation for going to Scrapfest. :) Shari and I shared a day on the Hero Arts blog almost 2 years ago and so I was excited to meet her too. My two favourite card artists... and they are both as nice as can be. :)
After class some of us at at Chipotle. I had researched restaurant menus quite a bit before the trip because my Celiac and the only thing I couldn't eat there was the flour tortillas. The food was SO yummy! We ate there 3 times during Scrapfest and were more than satisfied! Yum!
After lunch we hit some make and takes and hung out with some of the Hero Arts flickr girls...
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| Anne, Me, Barb |
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| Jenn and I |
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| Anita, Me, Jenn | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
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Once we hit all the make and takes we wanted to do for the day we headed over the Cold Stone Creamery. I LOVE their ice cream and my favourite is chocolate ice cream with peanut butter. Absolutely DELICIOUS!
Saturday we took it pretty easy... did a couple of make and takes and some shopping. I had to hit the Lego store for the kiddos and the M & M's store for the hubby. :) My Mom and I spent some time in the afternoon relaxing at the hotel and watched a movie before the Hero Arts flickr group and Hero Arts ladies met up at Twin City Grill for dinner. Latrice organized the dinner and a card swap and we all had a wonderful time. Latrice was also so thoughtful and brought me some gluten free goodies from Trader Joe's. How sweet is she!?!? The staff at Twin City Grill were SO good at accommodating my gluten free diet. I had more food than I could eat! :)
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| Deb, Liz, my Mom |
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| Anne & Brita |
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| The whole group of us!!! |
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| Me, Natasha, Mom |
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| Jennifer, Me, Shari |
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I know it was a working weekend for Jennifer and Shari and so I made sure to keep my expectations in check. I wasn't really expecting to spend a great deal of time with either of them but did secretly hope to at least sit at the same table as them during the dinner. Alas, it wasn't meant to be...
...BUT I was thrilled when Jennifer asked about getting together Sunday morning for breakfest with her and Shari. Natasha, my Mom and I met up with them at IHOP and it was so nice to get a chance to talk with them and get to know them both better. Thanks so much ladies!
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| Mom, Natasha, Me, Shari, Jennifer |
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| Me and Jennifer |
It really was a wonderful weekend! My Mom and I had such a great time together and Natasha was a great roomie. It was so nice to get to know her and some of the other Hero Arts flickr members and Hero Arts ladies better. Our flights back went well... no delays! We did show up at the hotel/ flight parking to a dead battery but the parking lot had a vehicle there specifically designated to give cars a boost! Yay! Only cost us 5 minutes of our time. :)
Thanks to everyone who had a hand in making this past weekend such a memorable one! I miss you all!
AND.... thanks to everyone who made it through this long post. :) I feel so spoiled to have been able to attend Scrapfest, for all the goodies we received there, for
Latrice's generosity with the gluten-free treats as well as
Nancy's generosity in the past week or two when I received tons of gluten-free black licorice in the mail, etc. etc. etc. I'm feeling very blessed and want to pay it forward.
So...I will draw one random commenter on this post to send these goodies to. You have until next week September 27th (my twins' 4th birthday!) at midnight. I will post the winner next Tuesday the 28th during my final pairing up challenge with Tanya.
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| Hero Arts Jingle all the Way catalogue, Happy Holiday Tags, Gift for You, Merry Always, Red Christmas Felt, Spring Mixed Gemstones, Clear Mixed Gemstones |
