Back from the Abyss

I am exasperated! I have tried so many times to get onto Blogger over the past week that I had just about resigned myself to the fact the I should look at another site. Finally managed to get on tonight through a back door. Is anyone else out there having problems?

Well, we're back from the trade show that was held in Birmingham, seems like an age but it was only a week tonight that it drew to a close.

However, it all started when Emma and I set off at 0800 hours on Saturday the 17th to drive to the NEC to meet up with Glenda and Adrian who had driven the van down in the early hours of the morning. Set up was pretty straight forward with no major hitches. It was a long and arduous day but with the most magnificent 90 minute respite for Glenda and myself when we attended a work shop in the afternoon with the wonderful Mr Tim Holtz. Then all too quickly, it was back to work and dressing the stand. We finally finished for the evening at 2055 hours and headed off to our hotel to meet up with Paddy, the fifth member of our team, have something to eat and off to bed at a reasonable time. Sunday would be a very long day.

The stand looked absolutely fantastic and drew so many compliments from our visitors and other exhibitors. We were all very proud and it was a real team effort, from everyone back at the office and in Production to the team at the show, that made it the huge success it turned out to be . So many people stopped to admire the artwork and Kathlene had done a wonderful job of setting out the art boards in the run up to the show.

In fact, the official photographer turned up to take photos of the stand and all of the beautiful artwork.
The days were very long, very tiring and very,very successful! Paddy demonstrated some of the new Stampbord products coming in April which went down a storm and complemented all of the new stamps beautifully. The Creative Acrylics were a runaway success and everyone loved our new catalogue.

The show closed at 1630 on Tuesday and we had to tear down the stand, pack up the van and make our way back to the North East. We had a good journey home, traffic was light and the road conditions were good once we were clear of the M42. All in all, it was an exhausting week but one that was extremely successful. We were all left longing for the weekend and days off and they couldn't come quick enough.

It was a quiet weekend for a change and not a lot got done - a little tidying here and there, washing, food shopping, Sunday dinner with Mum and Dad and just a little crafting - in a round about sort of way. Whilst sitting watching TV, I mounted some of the new stamps launched at the trade show, onto KlingOn and cut them out. There are so many new designs, I didn't get them all done but concentrated mainly on the A4 themeplates of Flora and Fauna and the Alphabets. I had already had the opportunity to use the Grungy Uppercase Alphabet on some Stampbord pieces:

This alphabet is fantastic, I really love it and it goes so well with the Stampbord, I can see that it is going to be one of my all time favourites.

There is another alphabet that I can't wait to use on some scrapbook layouts I have planned.

Here it is mounted onto KlingOn and all trimmed up. I'm pleased with my scissor work, just have to test them now. I was a bit brainless at the weekend (what's new I hear you ask), just hope I haven't decapitated something I shouldn't have. Time will tell...........

Busy, Busy, Busy.

It really has been such a busy week and the weekend won't be any different. At work, we are preparing for the trade show 'Stitches' at the NEC Birmingham which starts next weekend. But I shall start back to the beginning of the week - Monday! Although cold, it was a bright sunny day and despite having to food shop and do the housey chores, I managed to get out into the garden for half an hour and have a tidy round the beds. Things are really greening up early and this mock orange blossom has tiny new buds appearing.

As soon as I got the camera out Diesel decided to get in on the action and climbed into the shrubbery bed. Next thing I knew he was sticking his head through the bushes and pleading: 'Take one of me Mum......Pleeease!' Well, how could I refuse his pleadings? So here he is looking cute for the camera.

Unfortunately, this was the last we saw of the sun this week. We have had dusting's of snow (but nowhere near as much as in some parts of the country), freezing temperatures, ice and more freezing temperatures.

Tuesday at work was funny. I was the first to arrive and I thought it was cold when I went into the office so my first job was to turn up all the radiators. They were all on the highest setting and stone cold! As we are working between split sites at the moment, all of the portable heating units have gone up to our new premises. I wish I had taken my camera with me on Tuesday I could have made a fortune. We were all sitting at our desks with several layers of clothing on (in fact, as many as we could get our hands on) including: hats, gloves and I even had Diesel's travelling blanket from the back of my car, wrapped around my legs. We had run out of oil for the heating - it had to happen in the coldest spell of the winter didn't it.

Glenda soon arranged for some heaters and we managed to all operate from one room for the day - it was quite good fun and we had copious amounts of steaming hot tea, chocolate and Chocolate cake to keep us going. The cake was for Judiths birthday which we celebrated at lunch time.

The preparations for the trade show have dominated the week for us all. The team will be heading off down to Birmingham next Friday to set up the stand on Saturday. There is still an awful lot to do and in amongst all the show activity, we have two TV shows on Tuesday to prepare for. Glenda is doing a live show in the morning and I have a pre-record to film in the afternoon. Stress? What? Who? Me?........nah!

This weekend will predominantly be taken up with prep for the TV and getting some more artwork done for the stand but I will hopefully find time to post some more photos at some stage and of course......... watch 'Dancing On Ice'! tomorrow night.