Our Group Gathering!

Well, I’m finally taking the time to tell you about our “Group Gathering.”  I hope you won’t be too bored, but I have to share!  Just a brief background: four years ago I joined a brand new Yahoo! group started in part by someone I had purchased some items through. The group stayed small and we became great friends and wanted to meet “for real.”  So we did!  This year was our fourth year of getting together, with members attending from California, Illinois, Nebraska, Iowa and Minnesota.  (The attendees were (from left to right and top to bottom) Joanne, Dawn, Joyce, me, Sheri, Georgia, Harriet, Andrea, Vicki, Kris and Terri.)

Harriet flew in to Minneapolis (from California) and together we drove down to Des Moines.  We met for lunch and shopped at a stamping store in Valley Junction.  We checked into our hotel and had dinner at The Machine Shed.  We spent ALL day at Archivers in West Des Moines.  They are soooo wonderful to us, and reserve us the whole room.  The two years before this, we left all of our things in the store and went back again on Tuesday.  (I can't believe I have NO pictures from Archivers this year!)

This year, however, we all went to Taylor Van Bruggen’s house (of Taylored Expressions!) on Tuesday.  How fun was that!  She had a Make and Take prepared for us.

Here is a picture of me with Harriet and Taylor.  (Yes, Taylor is very tall!)

This is the card we made – isn’t it great?  We got to shop, and she also did a demonstration using stencils and Maya Mist.  We met her mother, Linda, and her husband, Jon.

Taylor is known for loving cupcakes, and there was a cupcake waiting for each of us.  We each also got a goodie bag!  It was fantastic.  After leaving Taylor’s, we went to lunch and capped it off with a trip to Michael's:)  Then we had to split up and each go our own ways.  That is the hardest part.  But, we’ll do it again next year!

This picture is some of us at the hotel after doing a card swap.  See the figure on the table?  That is "Flat Char."  Char really wanted to join us, but couldn't make it.  So, Flat Char came :) )


Lucky for me, Harriet comes back home with me and we get to spend all day Wednesday on the computer and stamping!  But then Thursday comes along, and we need to return to our “real” lives.


Thanks so much for stopping by, and I hope you'll come back and visit again soon!