Friday, February 23, 2018

Drama Free Day 2 at Stitches...

Hi folks, after a yummy breakfast at the luxurious Hotel En and Mike, the intrepid travellers set off again to spend another day at Stitches, making sure that the car was parked where the owner could find it and we just happened to bump into our lovely friend Tania from WOW on the way in so it followed that our first stop of the day would be to say hello to my favourite crazy and always fun nutcases, the lovely Marion, Steve and Richard on the WOW stand...

and how delighted I was to meet up with one of the nicest people in the craft industry, my lovely friend Els from Elizabeth Craft Designs and be able to congratulate her personally on winning the Best American Brand category in the UK Craft Business Awards...well done Els...huge congratulations to you and your team.
and a big shout out to my buddies at Fiskars who also won an award for the Rotating Cutting Mat.
And wow, you could have blown me over with a feather when I spotted my "cyber twin/two peas in a pod/we go back a long way" lovely friend DawnyP. We haven't seen each other for ages and it was lovely to catch up and get a special DawnyP hug.
After a return visit to Stix 2 for another coffee and strawberry/cream scone, we headed off to the Powertex workshop and wow I found myself sitting next to my lovely Scottish chum Ann. I had no idea she was coming to the show so that was a lovely surprise. Then it was time to say goodbye to my lovely buddies Enfys and Anne and head to the airport. A drama free day or so I thought until I popped my toiletries and PaperArtsy paints (in the required regulation zip lock bags) into the tray at security and watched them sail down the "been pulled aside for checking" section.
"These are not toiletries" said the security man when he lifted up the paints. "No...but they are liquids and it does say that all liquids, gels and pastes need to be declared and presented in these bags...I wasn't aware that this rule only applied to toiletries" was my reply. Let me tell you he and I were not going to be friends if he decided to confiscate them...I felt a Victor Meldrew moment coming on but after a few agonising minutes of eye rolling and sighing on his part, he handed them back to me and said OK...you're good to go. And I hightailed it out of there as quick as I could without looking guilty because I suddenly remembered that my tube of toothpaste was snuggled up in my make up bag in my carry on bag and had obviously sailed through the bag scanner undetected. Surely it would come under the category of a gel or a paste and the mind boggles...did they spot it and let it go or did they miss seeing it completely...it makes you wonder if airport security does what it's supposed to do or it's just in place to irritate the life out of us travellers.
And last but not least, a huge huge thank you to my sweet friend Anne for the gorgeous Ranger Bag and woohoo, Eileen Hull Wrap Around Journal die-cuts which I can't wait to decorate.
I'll be spending my weekend in the cubbyhole nailing my DT project for Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge and playing with the Happy Mail parcels that arrived in my absence.
You still have plenty of time to enter this week's Grunge It Up Challenge with the chance to win a $50 spending spree in the Simon Says Stamp online store.  Have a great weekend whatever you have planned and I'll see you all on Monday.
Toodle-oo for now
Hugs Kath xxx