stamp-a-faire: just how awesome was it!?

"WICKED AWESOME!"

I am still gushing from the most amazing and fun trip I have had in a while, so I will do my best to give you a summary of my weekend! This is a much longer post than normal, only because I want to describe everything in as full detail as possible (but without making you fall asleep, of course).

I think I should start by acknowledging that I have never been to anything like PTI's Stamp-A-Faire before, so I didn't really know what to expect. In fact, if I hadn't been able to use frequent flier miles for my plane ticket or had been able to convince Jessica to come with me, I doubt I would have attended...but I sure am glad that I did! Here we are leaving on a jet plane:

Here's another that Jessica took at the Lexington, KY airport, where I was asked by someone if I was from America (because of my accent):

We arrived at the hotel and walked into a hotel lobby filled with TV cameras...they were interviewing Rand Paul, who is a US Senator from Kentucky. This vehicle was parked in the parking lot:

That night, before SAF, we had a chance to meet up for dinner with Christina MacLaren, who also stayed in the hotel with us, Sara Mac and her friend, Chere. Sara is a fellow Papertrey Paper Doll, and it was exciting to finally meet her, though bittersweet that none of our other blog group members could join us. Jessica was so sweet to take this shot of us:

Here we are car pooling in an attempt to find Graeter's ice cream. The store was closed for renovation when we got there:

 

Okay, so let's cut to the chase! We then got up bright and early the next morning for Stamp-A-Faire. We made a pit stop at Dunkin' Donuts for breakfast, true to form for anyone from the Boston area, to energize and eat some yummies to keep our stamping strength up:

And here is one of my favorite pictures from the entire weekend. It's one I took of the three of us on the escalator, making our way toward the ballroom where the event was being held:

When you arrived at Stamp-A-Faire, you were given a cute SAF bag filled with goodies, a SAF lanyard for your name tag, a SAF passport that would be "stamped" upon completion of each of the 10 make-n-take projects, and a SAF placemat. It's clear how extremely well thought out the day was! Our goodie bags contained 3 PTI stamp sets, including the exclusive SAF set, coasters, buttons, 2 paper packs, brads, and other embellishments. AMAZING! I love the PTI paper pad as well. Here is a photo of the map, which each of us pinned with our name onto our hometowns, and the suitcases that decorated each table, which were named after cities across the world. These suitcases would later be used to hold all the prizes given away at the Dessert Reception:

I was really excited to meet Maureen Plut, whose blog I have followed for a while; she later joined us for dinner:

Here we all are at Betsy Veldman's table, having fun!

And here is a shot of Lisa Johnson and her table. If she isn't a sweet dynamo, I don't know who is! I have to say that even though I loved meeting all of the DT members (especially Nichole, that goes without saying), I {LOVED} meeting Lisa. She was high energy all day and all night and just overhwhelmingly sweet. And I'm not just saying that cuz she hooked me up. She made me promise not to tell. :)

I love this shot of several of the PTI Forum members working at Dawn McVey's table. From left to right we have Rose, Amy, Melissa, and Denise...CUTE!!!

One thing that I thought was hilarious is that a lot of the workers who were assisting the DT members at their tables had no idea what any of the supplies were until last Saturday. One of them said, "I had no idea what those acrylic blocks were for until today!" LOL!

Next up was our dinner break. A larger group of us went out for dinner and a successful outing to Graeter's. It was so fun talking to everyone!

In the above photo from left to right are Christina, Lizzie Jones, Sara, Jessica, Taheerah Atchia, Lynn, Maureen, me, and Chere.

There was a concert going on in this plaza, and we decided it was too loud for us to talk so we headed over to a hotel lobby where a little bit of wackiness ensued with Lizzie's husband, Shawn, and us ... with a group of guys celebrating a bachelor party. They asked if we were in town for a family tree convention. They were very funny and I am nearly certain that one of them had to have gotten into some kind of trouble later that night:

Then we headed back to the convention center for the Dessert Reception. All the while I was thinking about the day and how much more beautiful each and every card that gets posted on the DT blogs is in real life. It's overwhelming how gorgeous all the samples were.

The night before I couldn't sleep because Christina asked us if we thought we would be sampling the new ink at the make-n-take tables...and I got too excited about that. She must have ESP because sure enough, the new dye inks were in-da-house and they were fantastic. *HERE* is a video that Nichole Heady took of me and another woman commenting on the new ink! This video makes me giggle. I was just giddy and silly all day. In fact, I still am as I type this.

More giddiness: here is a shot of the envelope that Nichole featured in this month's release post, when she highlighted my question about whether or not the edger dies can be used to decorate envelopes:

And you know I had to get a picture of me with the new envelope! Thanks, Jessica, for capturing the excitement so well! This is now my new go-to avatar. :)

And here I am talking to Nichole, who was signing my passport book for me. I am bright red, blushing! She was so so sweet! I will remember it forever!

The last thing I want to post is our photo from the photo booth and those will be made available online sometime soon so I can download it. Christina, Jessica and I had so much fun doing that. It was the perfect touch to the evening reception! I will add that here on the blog later.

At the end of the day, the WHOLE trip was fantastic and I feel so lucky to have met so many wonderful people. I am over-the-moon about having met all the DT members and Julie and Jane as well. And I know I must be forgetting so many details, but it's all still flurrying around in my brain like a snow globe! I will edit the post later if there's anything I forgot.

Have a great week!