I'm baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack.!!!

Yes that's right I'm back, bright eyed and bushy tailed from my adventures across the pond. Loads to tell and too little time to tell it, after a mammoth 4 hrs editing photos. so I am going for a quick fly by of the show.

I landed in the middle of a mahoosive heatwave. And we aren't talking 80 degrees or even 90 degrees...at the most we hit 119 degrees.!!!! Great for a holiday but not so great when you are jet lagged and working.!!!! This was one of the hardest shows I have demoed at, everyone was lethargic, bloated from the heat, and hot, hot hot. The minute you walked outside the heat hit you like a ton of bricks, almost making it difficult to breathe, and talk about humidity.!! My hair was so frizzy I looked like Cleopatra Jones Afro.. Or according to Tim, a poodle that's ready for a trim.!! Charming as ever.!!

The first night I was trying to work in bed and had turned the air con off for 5 mins, when I fell asleep. Well I woke in the morning absolutely boiling and wet through. I flew to the bathroom for a shower and when I returned this is what greeted me.

Oops yes that is my hair dye..

today was education day, and I had been spared that ordeal and was just down as assistant Fifi in the morning class. And for all of you who always thought it, think his halo looks well and truly polished, don't you.??

The tutors were Jenni Bowlin, Claudine and Tim and here are there canvas's respectively L to R.

Jenni's

Claudine

Tim

Here we are in the all important run through

The calm before the storm.....

The gorgeous creature who is Sir Mario, checking his twitter.

"Luvved up"Teresa trying to escape

Quick dash to the loo before class starts....outfit for the day...

 The goyjuss Wendy Vecchi...

And who do we spot here patiently waiting in line.??

 
Only the frikkin Queen from the Queens Ink.  Quick curtsey's at the ready...

Oooh the Queen bestowed me with gifts...

And so the class gets underway...not sure how these two reprobates sneaked their way in. Kathy and Jayne from Personal Impressions.

Claudine

Blimey...are they actually creating..??

The Queen..concentrating hard

The luvvly Carol, always a pleasure to see her again, with or without her trusty sidekick and partner in crime Richelle.

The class was running smoothly so I bailed out to see if my stamps had arrived. All my show samples were made over here in England with no stamps. How.?? I can hear you ask... All frikkin hand drawn, that's how.!!!! So I couldn't wait to get the actual rubber n my hands and play.

Here's the Stampers Anonymous Booth going up and yes they are my stamps...Yee Haa.

So I set too amaking those samples..

Teresa got the job of picking the quotes

And in case you were wondering, here's my "rider" for the show...

First day of the show and they poured in, one of my first visitors was the lovely Cathwren..

After 4 hrs demoing on Stamper's Anonymous Booth it was back over to Ranger for the rest of the day.

Here's my display on Ranger's stand...How frikkin fabulous does that look.??? I still have to keep pinching myself and remembering it's real, lol.

And here's my display on Stampers Anonymous Booth

Hard at work

Meeting up with the gorgeous Martha, who describes watching me as peaceful and calming..!!!!

And my buddy at every show, always makes me laugh.

But I can't seem to find the pic of me with my American Mom, Shirley :-( who I didn't get to spend nearly as much time with as I would of liked. Shirley if you have a pic can you forward it xxx

I was having a bit of a bad day that day as you can see by my foot attire.

And before you ask...No it wasn't deliberate...and I have no idea how it happened, but had to spend most of the day wearing them.!!!

I didn't get much of a chance to look around the show, but on the last day me and Tim sneaked a sneaky half hour to look around. There was a display of hand made dresses and this one just completely had me. It was made by Julie Balzaar and was a journal dress. If you look closely every inch of it is painted, journaled and doodled.

The talk of the show was the Blue Violet stand, by Lilla Rogers, which came under the Prima umbrella. A wonderful rainbow fusion of colour and eclectic madness. I was like a bee around a honeypot...

Unfortunately the pics don't really do it justice, but trust me..

Here I am with Lilla who, unbelievably makes me appear quite sane..!!!

After constantly getting stopped by the hoards of people who want Tim's photo, we decided to make a break for lunch.  I was a bit hesitant as lunch with Tim is normally a bit of a night mare, with not a moments peace, lol. But he assured me he had found a little secret spot, away from all the pandemonium and madness.

And he was right..

Mario volunteered to go get the butties and came back with this.... A Gibson's bag...

Now for the uninitated...Gibson's is the creme de la creme of restaurants... But I think Mario got away with only having to donate one kidney to secure this little feast.

It was a struggle but we managed to eat it somehow...lmao

Back to the show floor where I was accosted by the very lovely Katie...

And the lovely Connie from Norway, who incidentally, was the first ever person to own all of my Dyan's downloads. Don't tell anyone but a trip to Norway may well be on the cards...

And then after all the fun, it's onto the big breakdown. Not my breakdown, but the breakdown of the stand. Tiring, tiring work, with none of the adrenalin left to spur us on... I was only left fit to order room service. Yum yum...Skirt steak, garlic mash and roasted veggies....Very healthy....

Oooops not sure how that  got on the tray.!!!

So my time in Chicago was almost up and I was busy packing for the second leg of my journey, up at 5am to travel to The Queen in Baltimore.

Smooth journey...!!!

No frikkin way....

Tune in tomorrow for the full story...

Enjoy xx