Disney Drama?

OK.. it is official! I've gone completely crazy with this upcoming Disney trip! Free Dining was announced this morning. I've just spent almost 2 hours this morning alone trying to make sure the deal I have now is better than using the free dining!

To take advantage of the free dining will cost us 200 more than the way we currently have it figured. The deal we have now is better...and I KNEW that, but still had to work it a million ways to see if I could make it better!

I've also been working on the Missouri trip for July... yes TWO, count them TWO vacations this year! I know C-R-A-Z-Y!! But the Missouri trip will be with family, so it should be fun! I've made my ressies, and we are working on a mini itinerary. This will be a much more relaxed type of trip and we will spend some time visiting with my in laws. This will be my first real trip to Branson, as we usually just visit there during a Day Trip.

I'm really looking forward to it. If anyone out there has any suggestions on cheap (read free) ideas for the Branson area let me know. I'm also looking for some quilt shops to visit while I'm there, I know about a good one in Springfield, and definitely plan on visiting there!

Well, time to go get the house straightened up before my little Alyssa gets here! (way too much time spent on Disney this morning!)

Nini

On Saturday I took my daughter to a 'quilt show'. While it was somewhat 'local' it was still big enough that national teachers were there, and it sort of 'travels' around to different cities through out the year. (actually comes here to Atlanta twice a year.)

I was amazed at the amount of difference between the various vendor booths. Some were manned by someone that greeted you as soon as you started to show any slight interest in their wares. Others completely ignored you. There was one booth, manned by two women each working on their own handwork, talking to each other. The conversation went something like this...

"I think this is my last year here. I haven't sold ANYTHING this whole weekend! I don't what these people are doing here, they certainly aren't looking to buy anything"...

Now, it may just be me... since you can get 99% of the items for sale from their website, and I have a minimum amount of money to spend, what is going to make me buy from a vendor's booth?

The first thing to catch my eye will be the booth itself. How attractive is it arranged? Is the person manning the booth friendly? Are the things I'm interested in easily seen? Can I see/touch samples? Are the prices easily seen and fall within my pocketbook?

While I go with a specific list in mind, most of my purchases are 'gut' reactions. I see something and it speaks to me begging to go home with me.

On the booth above, the arrangement was somewhat lacking, but the merchandise was easily seen and not too unattractive; There were no samples available to see/touch, and I saw no prices on anything! And worst of all...the people manning the booth were completely oblivious to the fact that several people were in their booth!

I can't IMAGINE why they weren't selling anything!

.......

I did manage to pick up a few items, like a pattern for my next Alyssa quilt (hopefully it will be finished for Easter), a few tools for the longarm and a long arm ruler. I definitely ran out of money before I ran out of things calling to come home with me!

I will say the pattern I bought for Alyssa is really cute. I talked with the designer and her husband. They were both adorable! Brianna got a kick out of knowing that the person who designed the quilt was there for her to talk to...just wish Bri wasn't so shy and would have talked to her.

I did not take any pictures, simply because I forgot to! (this coming from the person who took over 100 pictures of the SNOW last weekend!) I had my camera with me, and had it out and ready...but since we only had two hours to shop I was too busy trying to take it all in! (I know, pictures would have helped immensely with the inspiration process!)

I did notice one thing...almost all the samples were done in a simple meander! The quilts in the 'competition' were all custom quilted, but the booth samples were all just a simple puzzle meander ... interesting!!


Nini

Wow...I didn't realize it had been a whole week since i had blogged! This past week has been pretty busy around here. Between the Disney planning, the granddaughter watching, the doctor visits ...and the SNOW! Yes, that's right, SNOW!

The weather man had been forcasting it for the past week, but no one really believed them. I mean, after all, how many times have we heard about the 'sky is falling'? I kept a close eye on it, and as of Saturday night they still didn't have a good idea as to when it would hit or where...one minute we were told to expect 1 inch and another we were told 4-6 inches, then back to 1-2 inches. Each local channel had something different and the Weather channel had something different still. (add to that how WARM it had been for so many days and well, you got to see how hard it was to take this seriously!)

Sunday morning when we got up it was raining. The temps had gotten a bit cold, and we were warned to expect it to be even colder. By the time we left church services around noon, it had turned to sleet. By the time we got home it was really snowing. I mean REALLY SNOWING! I started taking pictures as soon as we got home. A few pics of the yard every hour or so just so I could show hubby that it really did snow.

Meantime, I surfed the 'net looking for deals and info on Disney (yes, I know that my planning is borderline obsessive!) Suddenly I looked outside to discover the flakes were as big as my palm! I had never seen such big flakes!

We ended up with a little over 6 inches and were without power for a few hours, but over all not too bad. Of course my son was without power for a couple of days..

All is back to normal now and we are expecting 70 degrees tomorrow.

My new sewing maching came in and I can get back to piecing again! I probably won't be able to get to the blog for a while....lots of work to get done around here!

Nini