work,wine, laughs and new friends!

I've no excuse - I should have come to post earlier about the Olympia show that I was working on for Design Objectives (I DO, do you?), except for the fact that I could hardly open my eyes yesterday. You see, we worked hard, played hard and laughed hard!!

(photo courtesy of Kirsty Wiseman www.limegreenbogiegirl.blogspot.com/)


It was my pleasure to meet, work with and spend four days with the gorgeous, mind-blowing, hilarious and amazing (and any other adjectives you can think of which means great) Kirsty Wiseman. Along with Anita Brooks, they were holding scrapbooking and card making workshops, and their work was to die for. Kristy made and taught a fantastic layout based around her beautiful daughter Ellie. I really wanted to have a go at this gorgeous thing, but just never seemed to get the time. Anita was in charge of the card making workshop, and at the end of each one, customers had two lovely cards to take away, in addition to the remainder of the products they had used.

Sian headed up our team and it was lovely to see her again before she jets off for a year around the world. There wasn't a dry eye in the house as we all said good-bye, knowing that we will not clap eyes on her again until her return. we will of course keep in touch, she's such a special person, and we all made sure she knows that if she needs anything, she only needs to ask.

I don't think I've laughed so much in ages (I think the last time was at Farnborough with Sheila doing impressions of Rolf Harris). Many a joke was told ( I can't repeat them 'cos I can't remember them), and of course hilarity ensued. I think I found just about everything that happened funny, and was exhausted by the end of each day from all the laughing we did in the evenings.

I was down in the bargain basement (as I liked to call it) doing my demos on behalf of Do Crafts. I demonstrated 8 cards I had designed (these will be on http://www.docrafts.co.uk/ soon) and everyone who attended seemed to enjoy the demos. Some came over to have a closer look, say hello and take photo's of the cards. I even got asked for my autograph twice!! I can't tell you how surprised or flattered I was. A few people I knew came to see me, including Emma, Holly and the gang from DO head honcho office.

Emma and I after my first demo(photo courtesy of http://scrappingandwine.blogspot.com/)

On Friday (after about 3 hours sleep, due to raucous noise made by the room next door at 4am) I met Dawn Bibby and JJ, who were also demonstrating in the same area. She was absolutely lovely, and I enjoyed gleaming as much knowledge as I could from this industry figurehead. This lady has been there from the beginning, and knows just about all there is to know. All the ladies that came to watch her demonstrations certainly felt this way. I have never seen so many people wanting a piece of her, and she took it in her stride and was lovely to them all. in the afternoon, Catherine Huntley from QVC came to help out Dawn, and she is just as charming as I expected her to be. We had a good old chat about things, and I was honoured when she wanted to see my cards, and thrilled when she said they were gorgeous.

Saturday was very busy, and so were my demos. Leonie from QVC attended, and it was lovely to see her again and have a chat. She had to go home early, so couldn't join us for a drink, so it was just Sian, Anita, Kirsty, Dawn, JJ and myself left propping up the bar after a few bottles of Pinot Grigio Blush. Then we thought we'd better soak up some of the falling down juice and so went for a meal. It was so lovely to spend some time with people you admire and get to know them a bit better (I'm talking about you as well, Kirsty!!). I think the cherry on the top of the crafting cake was when Dawn said she had seen my cards and thought they were excellent! I think the wine helped bring a tear to my eye at that point. After our meal, Sian, Kirsty and myself stayed in the bar and soaked up the cosmopolitan atmosphere. As you can see felt at home in this refined atmosphere.

Please remember that when these photos were taken we had been awake for about 19 hours!

The final day left me with mixed emotions. I was happy as I was coming home to see my gorgeous Joseph and David, but so sad that I would say goodbye to my new found friends and of course, Sian. As Kirsty lives "two coughs and a whistle" away from Sheila, I have promised to visit her soon, and I will definitely take up Dawn's offer of saying hello again at her new design Studio (which sounds amazing).

Girls, it was wicked! It was a pleasure working with you all and I enjoyed every minute. I am missing you all terribly already and can't wait to see you all again. We left the show tired but happy...as you can see!

To top it all off, Dawn said hello to us Do Crafts girls on QVC today!! What a surprise and thrill that was. All I can say is *shu' up*, Oh em Gee! I'll try and upload some photos of cards tomorrow, until then, don't do anything I wouldn't do!