Spring Craziness!!!

I am just as busy as usual, but at home!  I have had fun playing with the kids this week and actually cooking dinner and eating at the kitchen table (and even once at the dinning room table) all week!!! The kids have loved playing in the sprinkler, driving the golf cart by  themselves, and spending time with dad and mom both at home.  I have been crafting, but it is a surprise so I will share later.  I am really in the mood to sew a bag.  After going to Mary Englebreit last week and meeting Amy Butler,  I bought one of her patterns for a bag.  Jemellia sews so many great things and I want to too!!! I used to sew a little when I was younger and want to pick it up again.  My surprise craft involves hand stitching so my kids have felt the need to sew too.  They did an ok job but loved it!  If anyone cares, Mary Englebreit put a picture of Jemellia and I one her blog :)  http://www.maryengelbreit.com/blogs/.
Happy belated birthday to Leslie!!! We have all been so busy that we have not been able to celebrate.  We will make up for it next week (I HOPE!!!).

Name dropping to the 10th power!

Jemellia snapped this of Rene and I working hard in Kaari's millinery flowers classs.

These are the two flowers I finished in class!  I had so much fun hand stitching these with Jemellia, Rene and Rachel!  Kaari was a really fun teacher, and I was glad to take both of her classes!!!

Kaari Meng and I 

This is Kaari Meng, Marcia Ceppos and Wendy Addison signing our books.  I forget to get a picture of Mary Engelbreit signing though:(

More name dropping........these are all the books I have bought in the last two weeks that I had signed minus Jo Peckham's!  lol  To tell you the truth,  I wasn't familiar with half of these people until this week!  Jemellia had to give me a little tutorial when we got there! Ha!

Projects

Sweet gifts from Jemellia

Thank you for all your help keeping my kids momma, Stacie, Leslie and Misti!

First day of creating at Mary Englebriet

Our first class bright and early this morning was our aqua bracelet class by Kaari Meng!  I have never made any jewelry before, and to make my first piece and be taught by Kaari was so exciting!!!!  This picture is awful of the bracelet (sorry I need to learn to use the camera)  This is our new friend Priscilla from CA and she made a rosey pink one and it was sooooo beautiful.  I think I am definitely hooked on making jewelry now.  Good thing because I need another obsession!!!

Mary Englebreit's studio and other fun adventures!!!

Ok the day started EARLY!  I drove myself to the airport at 6:00 in the morning, parked, checked in and got on the plane all by myself!!! Of course Jemellia and Renee were there to join me.  But still.... pretty impressive for me!!! The flight ended with Jemellia and I holding hands for dear life as the plane landed with tons of turbulence and people yelling in fear a little!!!  Oh ya, also I got Luke autographs from a football player guys from Dallas, the Rams and Sam Bradford!  They were all on our flight and Luke will love it!!!  So we landed and went straight to Mary Engelbreit's studio here in St. Louis, MO, and the area we are in along with the studio were beautiful!!! I even got a picture of me standing behind her desk:)  We then had a great lunch outside at LiLuna.  The street we are staying on is so charming and our hotel is way too nice!  We even got upgraded to a suit!  While we were standing in line to check in Mary Engelbreit walked in and I just smiled at her.  She said, "you look like one of our art girls."  I said "yes" and she said "I am Mary."  I said, "Hi Mary." Then I realized oh geez Shelley it's Mary Englebreit!!! She was super sweet and visited with Renee and I  while Jemellia got us all checked in.  Jackie told us to go to the store Red Lead.  It was BEAUTIFUL!!!  We loved it and had so much fun rummaging through all of their fun finds!!!  It is ran by two sweet and hilarious sisters Sharon and Chris!!! They had me cracked up the whole time, and we hope to meet up with them tomorrow at the event:)  (Ok I am now frustrated with the way this blog is turning out!  The pictures are all scrambled and not separated like they were a few minutes ago!!  It is 11:30 and I am exhausted so bear with me please:)  Anyhoo, moving on....  We went to Anthropology too.  I had to refrain though at that store (not that I did two weeks ago with the catalog;)  Finally, we went to the welcome reception where I got a picture with Mary and Barbara and the very sweet Kaari Meng.  It was a great time and fun to get to see Rachel again.  Robin you are missed:)

Off to Mary Engelbreit with Jemellia!!

We are so excited to be leaving EARLY in the morning to Mary Engelbreit!  I am still on my Savannah high though!  I am very excited to get to see new friends like Rachel and Jo!  I hope Jemellia can tolerate me that long!  Whish her luck!!! lol

A morning with Jesse!!!

What can I say?!?!?  I too get baby fever at times, and it is not hard when you get to hold master Jesse Abston!  If you haven't kept up;) he is Brian and Holly's newest and 3rd son!  I am in love with this baby!!! (Check out the true love heart shadow or something on my left arm! How weird is that?!?!?)   Holly and I crack-up/scare/amuse her husband Brian with our talking in a very fast paced/never finishing a thought or sentence/ or taking a breath banter that all true friends possess!!   He was sitting in the kitchen working on the computer as we rambled.  I love her and we got in 50 topics in about 45 minutes!!!!  (We may be extra talented at this so do not try this at home:)

Now these two may be having a wedding planned in about 20 years by the two of us!!  That wedding would be insane!!!!  My Maranda will probably want a very modern wedding and we would be crushed!!

Savannah Gifts

These are the gifts I made for Misti and Leslie to open on each day of the event this week.  We journaled  about all the beauty of the event, meals and all the hilarious memories we made!  Then I made them corsages for their dress up night and forgot to give them to them until the next day!!!  Finally, I made them the name tags to wear out to the plantation.  I made this collage for everyone to sign for Jenn.  It was to  say thank you for being such and amazing hostess! BTW everyone went nuts over the name tags which was my girlfriend Jackie Peter's idea!  I think I told everyone about my dear Good Grief Girdie!!!

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