Evo's Show/People Report
The Washington Art & Rubber Stamp Festival
May 19 & 20, 2001 - Puyallup, WA
Sponsored by Heirloom Productions
3900 NW Cherokee Lane
Newport OR 97365
Voice/Fax (541) 574-8000

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Heyyy, Folks...

Just returned early this morning around 2 am from our Puyallup/Vancouver Island trip, and whadda trip it was! A trip we'll remember with wonder and wonderful memories.

Day 1: Thursday

Packed and ready to go, we headed to the Tampa airport Thursday afternoon. No glitches, no surprises, no "evo/murphy's law" happenings... smooth as silk. Too good to be true??? Of course it was. But you already knew that, didn't you!

After checking in our bins at the curb, we parked, returned to the terminal and took the shuttle from "land-side" to "air-side". At the security check, I lay my fanny pack on the conveyor belt plus a small bag that held our boarding passes and my absolutely-necessary-for reading-while-in-flight-paper-back book, some munchies and some 1/4 lb clear bags of embossing powder that wouldn't fit in our bins.

I had joked as we made the 1.5 hour drive to the airport that I'd probably get pulled over at the security check about the bags of clear embossing powder, and if questioned, I would suggest they taste the powder if necessary but to keep any heating tools at a distance if they did. ;}>

Was the powder the object of their search?? No! They shoved the baggies aside without a glance and zeroed in on 2 pairs of KAI scissors that I had put in at the last minute... a pair of shorties and a much bigger pair that I knew we would need on this trip.

The shorties were ok. The longer pair was not, but it was NOT due to their length. It was because they were held together by a nut and bolt type of connection that could be undone... creating 2 weapons. If they had had a rivet type connector, they would have been ok, too. Live and learn. Now I know and so do you.

Soooooooo, my precious $20+ scissors would be confiscated unless we returned to the main terminal and checked them in as baggage. The problem was, they weren't in a baggage-checkable container. We returned to the terminal and I decided to mail them back to myself at home to solve the problem and to save my KAI's.

By this time, Mr Evo was getting sort of antsy. He tends to do that when we're leaving on a trip... in his heart of hearts, he knows someway, somehow, I'm going to cause us to miss our flight. As I was buying a padded envelope in the terminal book store, little comments like, "We're gonna miss the flight" and "Just buy it and let's go" kept coming from him. Each time, I would say... "Dale, we're early. Relax. We have time. And the KAI's are worth it!"

The bookstore also had a stamp machine. Whoa! Way to go, bookstore! As I dug for the change to put in the machine and dug deeper for more and re-dug , the mutterings continued from his way. I continued to assure him, "Relax. We have time, and the KAI's are worth it!"

When I came up short 10 cents worth of stamps, the nice young guy (who had been watching us with much amusement) took out a 10 cent stamp from his cash drawer and offered it to me. As I dug for the needed dime, Mr Evo started his "time-to-go-dance" again, and the young guy looked at me, grinned, and said to him ..."Relax. You have time and the scissors are worth it!" :}>

And so was our trip to Puyallup. Worth it, I mean. In the states, you can't go much farther than from Florida in the extreme SE diagonally across the continent to Washington State in the NW. Well, yeah, Oregon in September will be farther, but as the crow flies (or more pertinent, Delta) ... not that much.

Day 2: Friday

Set-Up went well. Enchy (better known as Enchy Latta, lesser known as Diane M) was there to help us set up. And, she was good! We set up in record time and Mr Evo and I left to grab a meal and go back to the hotel room to do lots of stuff that needed doing before the show the next day. Enchy was meeting Serene (lesser known as Tina H) and Ms Faye of Stampniques fame in Yakima for dinner. A little before 9 pm, a knock on our hotel door and an Enchy voice saying... "I brought help." Whoa. Two hours later, five of us achieved what would have taken Mr Evo and myself hours and hours to get done. Or not get done. Which would probably have been the case, since 11 pm was already 2 am our Florida-body time. Rubber Orchids to our Friday night rubberstamping angels. :}>

Day 3 & 4: Saturday & Sunday ... Show Time!

Five of us in the booth, needed one more to be a "floater", to check back often to relieve anyone that raised their hand and yelled, "potty-pause" or
"can't-fight-anymore-my-gotta-shop-urge" or
"evo's-demo-class-need-to-cover-her-time" or
"mr-evo-has-disappeared-again-need-to-cover-him-time".

Who was the unbeknownst-to-her-targeted-to-be-kidnapped-floater-stamper???? On-line name, Magenta (lesser known as Maggie H). And, Maggie, you came through with flying colors. Innocent bubbly person that you are, you said... "Yep. I can do the floating thingy. I'll check back often." Little did you know that you would spend sooooooo much time in our booth doing very little floating. Mr Evo and I have officially dubbed you "Faux Floater #2". You have rivaled the #1 Faux Floater of all time, St Flossie, from the Grapevine Convention in January. And that is NOT a small achievement. St Flossie wins by a smidgen. Relax, St Flossie... you still hold the title for this year, but watch out for next year! ;}>

Thanks to all of our helpers at this show... again, we never, ever could have done it without you. And Ms Faye??? You wowed stampers with your demoes. When you demoed, I could have taken a walk and no one would have missed me. And... that's a gooooood thang, 'cause I did just that once or twice.

We met many of you that we would never have met otherwise. Some of you we've known as customers and/or as convention goers and/or from email lists we're on. Some were new. Edie??? Hope your DH caught lots of fish! And hope he goes fishing again soon!!! Michelle??? If I had my "choices" we'd meet more often. Joan and Teri and Terah and Darlene and Jutta and Nadia and Nan and Aimee and Connie and Marilyn (of Cork and Canadian Challenge fame) and Jeff "Santa" (soooo sorry you couldn't make it to the show) ... and... evo's tired brain falters. Soooooooooo many stampers, soooooo few memory cells. Of course tomorrow, I'll remember more... :{/ Thank you all for being there.

Puyallup Show Stampers???

Thank you again for a really fun show!
That's why we were there, don't you know.
Well, the income helps too, and that's a real thing ...
To pay for our booth, our tickets, & Mr Evo's traveling...
Which means we plan to be back again next year...
Yep, we are ... I'm saying it loud & clear!
That is...
God willing and the crick don't rise and Mr Evo doesn't shed his "traveling shoes".

Never happen... the traveling shoe thingy, that is... he was born with them on and aims to keep them on. Way to gooooo, Mr Evo, I'm following your footsteps. And enjoying every minute of it. All 49 years. Well, give or take a few. ;}>

Ellen :}> Evo
PS: Report #2 coming up soon I hope ... will be starting on it now. A whole lot of Vancouver Island visiting rubberstamper Bonnie and DH Lyle stuff ... a tad more rubberstamping stuff... and just stuff. Read or delete... I promise I'll still be your friend either way. :}>