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Heyyyy, Folks...

Arrived home early Monday morning to cool weather in Florida! After the 100+ in Phoenix since Wednesday, the cool felt really, really nice. However, I've always loved the AZ weather... even above 100 degrees, it still isn't as uncomfortable as Florida's humid heat.

Plane trip went great... stopped off first thing at Mr Evo's favorite bar at the Tampa airport to let Rick the bartender know he's a hero in your eyes. So many of you remarked how neat it was that he went above and beyond the call of duty to find the marker for me on the previous trip for stamping tags. He grinned all over. A really nice guy.

The SW Memory Expo show was a tad different for us. Our first scrapbooking show. Several booths with brass stencils, stickers, lots of different types of scissors and other cutting devices, and some rubber stamp booths, also. Sweet Stampen did a make-it-take-it of stamping on food and coloring with food coloring ... looked like a really fun booth! DMD was there with some really neat papers... dark cardstock packets for only $2.99 (I bought two) and beautiful colored vellums! I didn't get any of those but but did get the info for future reference. Once Upon a Time was across from us... I think our first show with them. We enjoyed meeting Judy and the "whole crew" in their booth. Polly of Polly's pals visited with us... have been in shows with her before, so was good to see her again. And met charming Ellen of Tessler next door to us... always a smile... such a joy to meet.

Betsy P, Adrienne O and my sister, Grace, receive first place, for booth help at the show. Smiling friendly helpfulness was abundant all 3 days ... even though I knew all three were tired and the aches & pains crept in from the long hours. All three deserve a medal for the help they gave us. However, I did detect a tiny degree of panic in Grace at the end of the show when she asked... "And we have to do this again in November??????" :{<> Yep, Grace and DH Ernie will have to put up with us again for the Mesa Show. That is... unless they "head for the hills".

Mr Evo took first place for "display shelf" moving. After he had assembled the shelf and we had filled it with "stencil brush bouquets", I decided we needed to move it a tad to another location. I started to do it... when he stopped me abruptly. "I'LL do it", he sez. (I think it was a "man thang") And move it he did, quick as a cat can wink his eye. And it only took 10 minutes or so to get all the toppled brushes back into their bouquets. :}>

Ernie took first place for transportation and hospitality until he forgot to put the dolly in the trailer. Seven 70 lb bins to be taken into the booth... yep, Ernie dropped to "honorable mention" at that point. However, shortly after I remarked that the bed Mr Evo and I were sleeping in was the softest I'd ever seen and wanted to know what type of mattress it was... was like sleeping in a recliner... Ernie soared to first place again, in hospitality. Turned out my side of the bed was broken and Ernie and his trusty saw fixed it in no time flat.

Our make-it-take-it table stayed full and busy both days... the only show we've done this at. We even had vendors that sat down at various times to make the pop-up flower cards we were show-casing. They look so difficult but are soooo easy, as many of you have found out. I promise to get instructions on these up on our website as soon as I can... but am sure not until we return from the Las Vegas show coming up this weekend.

I've found joy in stamping on photos again, (remember... this was a scrapbooking convention), and did some before we left for the show and a few while at the show. I was really into photo stamping wayy back in the 1900's ('94 & '95 ;}>). I loved to do snowman scenes on the Florida beach photos we took, and add animals and funny characters to the beach scenes that included our grandkids. I think I've caught the bug again and have the Phoenix show to thank for that, too.

And, thank you, Arizona, for furnishing us with relaxing moments watching the Quail and Doves and Cardinals and Juncos and Finches and Wrens and Thrashers and even a Rabbit! and several other birds that I don't know the names of from Grace and Ernie's back porch. Amazing country, Arizona, filled with rocks and sand and cactus and wildlife and beauty.

Ellen :}> Evo

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