Home Sweet Home - Back from Milwaukee

I am really writing this on June 19, 2008 - But I started the post on the 12th..

I am finally getting back into the swing of things. I returned home from Milwaukee Tuesday 4am - we drove straight through - didn't want to stay another day away from home. Bead and Button Show was fabulous. I made the trip in 2 days - the first 9 hours I drove and then met up with Joan Miller (Miller Porcelain) and Yvonne Irwin (My Elements) for a stay in Ohio before hitting the road again headed for Milwaukee. I was amazed when I arrived at how large the venue was. The Midwest Airlines Center, Cellular Center, whatever they call it - it has a bunch of different names, was really big! I unloaded my things, parked my car and thought to myself "Boy, am I in over my head". I believe I called everyone in my recent call log to tell them the same. My grandmother said everything would be just fine & that she was not worried at all - but I know I could hear her chipping the paint off her Rosary Beads as we spoke..

I began to unload all of my things, slowly, without anxiety until I realized that I was up to my ears in inventory and had gotten an artisan table (an artisan table is code for small table) My 10" X 5" was not going to do. After a Pep talk from Joan who just happened upon my aisle- she convinced me that I did not have to put out every bit of inventory and to replace as things sold. I followed her advice, still unsure, but it ended up working perfectly in the end. Linda (Textured Turtle) called later on that evening to say she had arrived safely from the airport and after getting almost 90% of the work done we headed off to the hotel for a terrible dinner and to prepare for Thursday's big day.

Thursday's preview and opening of the show was great! Everyone was so enthusiastic after taking classes all week - they were inspired and ready to create - I am glad they found my things interesting enough to use in their projects.. Friday was great! Hank arrived late afternoon with the Tornado. I had no idea how many Tornado's there were going to be beforehand and that's a really good thing! That night we had some so-so Thai Food a few drinks and went back and crashed (Linda was all ready "crashed" as well) Saturday also turned out to be a great day sales-wise though I am not sure about the weather! If Memory serves Saturday was the Tornado day 2 or was it 3? We said so-long to Linda whose flight was leaving at 11:30am and Hank did his best to be my assistant. Bless His Heart. That evening we had a really, really, really great Hamburger ( we don't usually eat hamburgers) and some drinks out as guests of Kevin O'Grady ( Glass Artist) with our new friends Nancy & RoAnne (both fabulous glass artists as well) We arrived Sunday am, a little head-achy but ready to work - and work we did! Sunday was slower than the other days but nothing to complain about -- Hank and RoAnne decided to go shopping and at closing so I could have "quiet time" packing everything back up! It worked out great and When I get some photo's of Hank in his new clothes I will be sure to post them as this is something you would not want to miss!

Sunday night we all said our G-Bye's at Rock Bottom during another awful storm at the Riverwalk in Milwaukee. I have to say I do believe I had the best spinach dip I have ever had in my life there..was it the cheese? Do they use WI Cheddar in the Franchise Restaurants? (Here I am blogging about Bead and Button Show.. the biggest venue I have ever been an exhibitor at and I am commenting about the cheese in the spinach dip at Rock Bottom Restaurant) Any-who we slept well that night, tired & tipsy and in anticipation of the LONG ride home to Jersey.

We left at 9am and of course made one stop for Cheese, Cheese and More Cheese (dessert wine, Pabst Blue Ribbon - SALAMI? and oh, MORE Cheese) $200 worth to be exact at the Milwaukee Cheese Mart. I guess when in Rome....so I bought some 5,12, and I think one 19 yr old cheddar? Could that be right? I have to check. We ate the 5 year old one - ya know, its some pretty darn good cheese. We also bought cheese curds. We tried a fried cheese curd (if Hank's clients could read this!) because we didn't know what they were when we were out to dinner Saturday night..it didn't kill us. The cheese curds are in my freezer..they will remain there until I figure out what to do with them. Maybe Macaroni & Cheese? I can feel my Butt getting fatter just thinking about it! :) LOL

Anyway, 15 hours later we made it home...One funny story: I was reading (or napping) and Hank said "how cool" a little green SUV with the words "My Elements" on the window just passed us by..the ladies inside looked like bead ladies (he say's he can spot a bead lady from a mile away) and I started to laugh because it was Yvonne & Joan making their way home as well - AND that was NOT planned. We also stopped at all the same rest area's without planning it either! Which was kinda funny.

So, 2 days later we left for the Lake..we needed a rest which turned out to be all work (battling bugs that seemed to have moved in while we were away) and returned home to a flooded basement (we had storms here while we were away)

SO.. if you don't hear from me in a while. I am tearing up carpet and laying tile. It never ends.

There are some show photo's on Flickr..check' em out!

BTW - 5 Acres Lake Front Property for SALE on Lake Ontario! Pt Penninsula, NY. Email me if you are interested!