Three, Four, Cha, Cha, Cha...

On my first full day I spent most of the time in the far right corner of the auditorium. To try and give you an idea of how big this place was try and imagine four football fields side by side. labelled A, B, C, and D. Basic Grey was in the far right field- D, back right hand corner. Dream Street, Tracy's booth was in the far left field, A. So it wasn't as easy as it sounds to go from one booth to another. You had to go around walls with concession stands and bathrooms, etc.


I was determined to see Tracy so I started working my way over around to Dream Street around 2:00-3:00 in the afternoon. Again, you'd walk one booth and see four, five, six different places you wanted to stop at! Do a make and take and you'd be there for 15-30 minutes. Finally around 4:00 p.m. I'm at Creative Imaginations doing a M&T . I looked to my left and there was Dream Street! When I finally finished my M&T (and they had some really cute ones at their Cafe Press booth) I walked into Dream Street and saw Tracy. We didn't start talking for two minutes and they started to flicker the lights! "The Convention Floor is closing for the day. Please make your way to the exits!"








Wait a minute! I've barely talked to my friend - all the way from Rochester, NY and I have a ton more to see! Thank goodness there were two and half more days! Here are some more photos including my first effort at stitching a 12x12 layout. Story to follow!



Sharon wanted to look at 12x12 printer, scanners for the store. I decided to check out HP and Epson as they had booths. HP had a very nice M&T, but their 12x12 didn't copy and scan. I knew Epson was there as there were icecream cone photos on the floor directing you to their booth to get the 'scoop' on Epson copiers! Ice cream and scrapbooking, yum! Well it turned out Epson's printer didn't copy or scan either, only print but, they had a M&T where you could create a digital layout and they would print it out. Epson partnered with three or four paper lines, 7 gypsies and Heidi Swapp were two with pre-set layouts and all you had to do was plug in your pictures. So I sat down, gave them my SD card and TA-DA!! my layout! They let you do the moving and helped with directions. Then they printed out your layout on 12x12 and if you took it to the paper booth, in my case 7 gypsies, 7 gypsies would give you an embellishment package. to finish off your layout. Off course I chose me and Tracy and here is the finished project.









Tracy sent me stitching links and directions and this is my first effort so forgive the uneveness of the seam, but not to bad for a techno challenged old broad!






For dinner two of our nights we went to a restaurant right in the parking lot of our hotel complex, Bucca di Beppo - or Joe's basement!



Wonderful food! Family style and very cute. They take you through the kitchen first and they tell you there are no windows because you're in Joe's basement, duh! They also have a Sophia Loren room, dedicated to the most famous Italian face since the Mona Lisa and if you have a big group you can eat with the Pope, honest...



Well, it's a smaller room with a large round table and a plaster bust of the Pope under glass in the center of the table and pictures of the current Pope and former Popes all over the walls! The food was wonderful! Best chicken parmaiagna (sp) I've ever had and meatballs the size of baseballs. Occular proof below!














One night we had dinner with friends of Sharon who both own stores in New Jersey. Jane on the left and Dawn on the right were so fun! We had a great dinner and a really fun time.



LtoR: Me, Elisabeth, Mark, Jane, Dawn and Sharon



That's a some'a meatball!!







Tomorrow (if I get the chance) Friends I met, from home, blogs and friends of friends!