I AM BACK

Hello everyone. I am back from St. Louis and a fine time was had by all. We left here Thurs. morning and checked into the hotel about 3.30 (about 5 hr. drive). We stayed at a Drury Inn & Suites and it was very nice. A great handicapped room for Harv. and a surprisingly young staff but they were so nice and could not do enough for you. One of the perks is there is a DVD player in each room and they had a large 3 leaf binder just full of the movies they had for you to use. We (or should say I as one of us snored all the way through) saw Invictus and it was great. We also took out Body of Lies with DiCaprio again but I got back too late to watch it. Another perk was they give you a drinks ticket with 3 free drinks or glasses of beer each every night. Could really get the girls going. You could tell by the giggles who used all three on their card. Harv appreciated a couple of beers that he didn't have to buy. They also served a great breakfast and every night they had a small dinner. Baked potatoes, chili, hot dogs always for the kids, chicken nuggets, chicken wings, etc. All free so if you were not terribly hungry there was also a free light supper.

There were 15 of us plus a couple of day trippers, gals who knew either MaryAnne or one who knew one of the Minnesota gals. They let us use a small conference room free and we had a couple of tables set up to sit and sew. Some sewed the whole time, some shopped almost the whole time and fun was had by all. I went to the antique store just across the highway and did find 2 things. One a very tall, thin silver pitcher. Very unusual shape as most of them are bowl type pitchers. This is gorgeous for flowers. Also a very old mirrored picture frame that I am going to take to Florida. Actually both will go there. Must take a pic when I open them down there. We went to Jackmans fabric store on Sat. and I just bought one piece of fabric. Turned out Lisa Caryl bought the same piece so it must be nice for both of us to think so. She has such good taste - and is very talented. Must see what she does with hers first - ha ha.
I sat at a table with Sherrill from the Bead Ranch in Oklahoma who had driven in with her hubby and Martha Green who is also from Oklahoma and she flew in. I have met Martha but did not know her well. Now I do. Sherrill also. I snapped a couple of pics and then my card was full. I charged the battery before we left but never thought of the card being almost full. It stopped after just a few pics but I did get one of a purse Martha made for herself. To you who know Martha you know how incredibly talented she is. Allie will attest to that or anyone who has had Martha when she taught at the John Campbell Folk School in the Carolinas plus other places. I don't know if she has taught at Omaha or not. She is hoping to do another class at John Campbell so watch for it if you are interested. In the pics it is Martha in the green and where she is holding the purse strap I was trying to get a pic of the medallions she sewed on the strap. Her work is wonderful.

One gal came all the way from Maryland by herself on a pair of crutches. Now if that isn't gumption I don't know what is. She did not know any of us except she has been an internet friend of Kates for awhile. That shows you the power of the internet.

I must go now and make more flowers for my lace class. Will post some pics of that tomorrow. More pics to post tomorrow.