Summer Crafting ...

... the show!

Saturday 16th July - 

Cally and I had decided, after the manic Saturday morning at this show last year, that we weren't going to go early but have a leisurely morning and go for early afternoon, when the crowds were starting to thin out ... hopefully! Instead we had a late breakfast and then went to have a look round the Lakeside Village Shopping Outlet which was just down the road from our hotel. Cally literally 'bagged' herself a real bargain as she found a lovely blue leather handbag which had been reduced to £25 from £80.  I tried on a dress I saw but it stayed in shop and other shops .... Next Outlet and Clarks, didn't get our custom. We walked in their doors and straight out again in both shops. Can't be doing with shops that look like a jumble sale. I don't do rummaging - *LOL* I bought some slippers in M&S Outlet and some cute brads in The Works but other than that there had nothing that attracted us so we stopped for a coffee and made our way to the show having spent quite a pleasant hour or so strolling through the shopping centre, if not the shops *hehe* Neither of us are 'shoppers', unless it's craft related, of course :0)

Works purchases

We got to the show around 1pm and it was still busy.  We bumped into Susan, who we last saw at the House Party and Sue and her friend who had been at the workshops the day before. We then found Toni, who was demonstrating for imag-e-nation.com, and rescued her for a break as we'd promised we would. 

Around 3pm the thick crowds had disappeared and it became pleasant to walk around, which we did and spent a little - and yes, that is a little, very little!  In fact, so little we were totally ashamed of ourselves! We have never spent such a small amount at a craft show and what's even worse ... we've not been to a craft show since this one last year *scary!*  We left the show just after it closed, back to hotel for a rest and analyse our purchases *lol* then it was off to collect Toni from her hotel for dinner. Lovely evening.

My show purchases

Cally's show purchases

Sunday 17th July - 

Late-ish breakfast, check out of hotel and homeward bound. Well, not quite! Cally had been thinking of things she should have bought the day before so we decided to go home via the show's car park to check out how busy it was before we decided whether to go in or not.  OK, so car park was in the opposite direction to home and Boris kept telling me to make a U-turn - *oops!* Anyway, once there it would have been rude not to visit again so visit we did! 10:15am we entered the show and it wasn't busy. Cally got the things she wanted, I bought another stamp set I'd thought :about, we went and said hello/goodbye to Toni and the imag-e-nation.com guys (it had been good to meet Gary in the flesh after all the years we'd known him because of the, now defunct, forum) and we were out of there again at 10:45am and the crowds were starting to build again. Think we escaped at the right time *LOL*

Gary, owner of imag-e-nation.com

11am and we were keeping Boris happy by travelling in the right direction - homeward! Stopped a couple of times for coffee and lunch and arrived home around 5:30pm.

A really good weekend with great company ... roll on next year - *LOL!

Today it's been all back down to earth. Well, it has been since Monday morning really what with clearing up, housework and Dad visit but today .... hands and knees in bathroom! I hate cleaning the bathroom. Still tomorrow I'm picking up eldest grandson from college and we're off to see Harry Potter. We've seen every HP film that's been made, together.  He's grown up with them as the stars have grown up on screen. We're going for a pizza after :0)

  Thanks for dropping by .....