Croptoberfest!

I'm not going to

write this whole post in haiku.

It would take too long.

So, I'm back from Croptoberfest, and what a fun time it was! It took less than two hours to drive to Fort Wayne (hint: do not take SR 32 to exit 19, even if it looks like it is more direct)

so I was only a little late. We had the whole day to crop at the huge tables in the back of Luv2Scrapbook, plus tons of food, free goodies, and more! I got a lot done - 2 double-page spreads and 4 or 5 single-page layouts - but I probably would have gotten MORE done if I wasn't having such a good time chatting!

I finally got to see some of the ladies I've known on the message boards for almost 2 years. I'm thrilled that they came into the store because they knew I'd be there! This adorable lady is Sue, a.k.a. Tinkie - I recognized her right away by her Tinkerbell hat and jacket! Her very patient husband entertained himself while we discussed the merits of DCWV cardstock. Gotta love the white core!

And here you see me displaying my usual sense of dignity, along with Mary, one of the ladies who was at my table. We got prizes by completing various challenges, some of which were scrap related, some weren't. This one obviously wasn't.

Since it was a Western theme, one of the challenges was to ride a stick horse around the entire store. It's a lot less embarrassing if you have someone else to do it with you!

Carrie from the Luv2 message came into the store and I got
to meet her too. Dang it! I totally forgot to get a picture! But I did get to see her adorable KI tin calendar project before practically everyone else in the world, and it is adorable!

The fabulous chick in the orange turtleneck is OrangeKrsssh, aka. Susan. I've been dying to meet Susan at least since the Meijer layout, if not longer. We chatted about photos - I got to see themiraculously returned camera - and scrapbooking in general and Hall of Fame and Vegas and sparkly shoes. Took some pictures which she has already scrapbooked (I know, I'm impressed, too).

The last picture is me and Kristy - you can tell it was late in the evening, since I'd pulled my hair back - my friend from the Scrapbook Corner design team. Kristy moved to Ft. Wayne recently (but she still drives down for classes and design team meetings, which is truly impressive) so after joining in the second half of the crop, she not only graciously let me crash at her place, she even shipped her kids off to the grandparents! Kristy showed me all her stuff for the Crop for the Cure garage sale; she made up over a hundred little kits out of her scraps and I feel better now about the amount of paper I have! I got to sleep on Batman sheets, which I'm hoping will give me superhero-like scrapping ability (hey, I'm just covering all my bases here!) It was really nice to sleep over and not have to drive home that night.

But, it felt really good to come home this morning. I swear, the kids have actually gotten cuter.

And, by the way, the shirt? I've had a lot of people ask where I got it. Actually, I bought the T-shirt at Kohls and some iron-on letters at Hobby Lobby, and I did the rest myself. And if you know how much I hate ironing, you know that's a major sacrifice!