Tuesday 23 October 2012

Missing In Action!!



Just in case you thought that maybe I had skipped the country, dropped dead or plain old forgot about blogging, the answer is, nope, none of the above! Just busy. Crazy busy!!
Jeanne and I just came off of a hectic whirlwind tour!
We did manage to cook turkey's for our families for Thanksgiving!




But after that, it was flat out!! We flew to Toronto on Oct 10th for the Creativ Festival. We flew schlepping SEVEN suitcases! That's right, SEVEN!! 3 that had nothing but kits and quilts, 2 that had our clothes and more kits and quilts. And 2 that had even more kits and patterns and we carried on as carry on! Sheesh!! That was a treat!

Once we landed in Toronto,


and we struggled and lugged and managed to find a cab large enough to take us and all of our luggage to our hotel, the driver dropped our luggage on the sidewalk and drove away. Ok Fine. We're big girls. So Jeanne says, you stay with the luggage, I'll go get a dolly from the hotel.

And yes, there really are 7....you can't see the other 2 in this pic!
So I'm standing with the luggage, yes all 7 suitcases filled to capacity (that's 50 pounds in case you were wondering!) and I watch Jeanne walk down the sidewalk and right on past the hotel!! At this point, I don't have a lot of choices. I can't leave the luggage. I can't take it with me. I can't yell at her down the very full streets of downtown Toronto. And I know she won't answer her damn cell phone!!
So I just waited. I knew she'd eventually have to come back. And she did!
We piled our luggage on the dolly and managed to get it up to our room, only to find that we had booked the smallest hotel room in the whole world!!! Yes folks for the fabulous price of $122/night in downtown Toronto you are entitled to 200 square feet! Our booth at the show was bigger than that!!




Oh well! We were only sleeping there! And besides.....it was that, or $400/night. And besides....we were across the street from the Royal York Hotel. It was a bit of a struggle while all the suitcases were still in that room - but after 5 of them went to the show it was all good!

After setting up and working the Creative Festival show, Thursday to Sunday, we had a teaching engagement with the Halton Hills Quilters Guild. We did a trunk show the Monday evening and facilitated a class on Tuesday!







So right after the class, Elaine drove us.....and our SEVEN suitcases to the airport. At this point, I was tired and coming down with a cold, and wouldn't ya know it.....our flight is delayed!! Fortunately not terribly long! Flew home, drove back to Moose Jaw, unpacked, repacked, slept, and got in the cargo van the next morning and drove to Calgary for that Creative show!



For those of you who are not regular attendees of these large shows inside of these large convention centres.....there's one thing you may not know, that we know all too well.....there are birds inside these buildings!!! That's right. BIRDS! Flying birds. Swooping birds. Usually they stay away while there are so many people, but during set up and take down - they seem to come out again in full force. In Toronto it was pigeons. In Calgary it was sparrows and this one lone magpie that flew in the building throughout the show!! Poor, poor Jeanne. I thought I was going to have to scrape her off the floor if those dang birds swooped any more!!




Don't let it be said that we are all work and no play! Cause frankly that would be a bald face lie!!!
We stayed with our very good friend Janet Samuels, former owner of Freckles Quilt Shop in Calgary, and even managed to squeeze in a nice dinner out!

Jeanne and Janet

Jeanne and Jo




One last thing...................... You know you're from Saskatchewan when..................