Inspired 2009

I am going to cut you in on a little secret. I had a BLAST at Inspired 2009. I intend to go every year from now ON! I don't know if I can stay away from my babies for that long again, so next year, I suppose there may be a sitter on board?! Especially since I have already informed my sister, my mom, Jessi, and by the way, you too, Breanna! that they will be joining me! Oh, and Suzy A., you still reading?! YOU need to be there too! You would LOVE it. And all you blog readers... need to consider it. It was so cool.

A couple of days before I left on my trip, Masson, my 13 year old sitter, who will be going to fashion camp this summer and who plans to be a fashion somethin' or another when she grows up, went shopping with me. She is the one who says, "ummm, NO!" to my shoes or a certain outfit I put on. I figure she is more in the know than I am , so I listen! Anyway, she picked out several new things for my trip at Old Navy, saying, "ooooh, this is so artsy. You HAVE to wear this!" and etc.! She picked out this bright blue shirt and told me I MUST start wearing summer scarves. And I listened! So, this frist picture is for her. I took a picture of myself while standing on the side of the tub in the hotel bathroom prior to leaving for my first day of classes! This picture is for her! So, at this event, you are put into a group. There were 6 groups of about 50. I didn't know a single soul, not only in my group but at the entire event! SO, I didn't really care which group I was put in! We had three major classes per day on Friday and Saturday. They were like 3 hours each. Then, all day Thursday, and Friday and Saturday nights, there were mini classes available for whoever felt like staying up and art-i-tizing! I took several! I took one, in fact, from this chick...
http://teresacollins.typepad.com/ Let's see if I can make these links work tonight! She is hip! She has FIVE kids and had her fifth grader, Zach, with her at the event as her assistant. He was pretty cute! We made dome rings and a transparent mini book in her class. I will show a picture of my products of the classees when I take pics of them. I didn't really like h0w my ring turned out. I put a picture of Gabbi Lou in the clear ring, and the glue didn't cooperate, and spread down onto my picture, so I think I am going to turn it into a glitter ring instead! She was fun.
This is a dome ring of someone in my class. She used a yellow fabric in the background and cut letters from stickers and line dthe outside with rhinestones. I liked the idea, so I took a pic.
This is Donna Downey. She is the hostess of the entire event! I have been reading ehr blog for a while, and LOVE her canvas mini books. I just kinda got a wild hair up my butt and decided to sign up for her INspired event all on my lonesome. So glad I did! http://donnadowney.typepad.com/
The above picture is of Tena Sprenger's mini workshop. We made a little collage of sorts on a canvas. I am making mine for my Poppa's upcoming 80th birthday. I am getting pics of all the great grands for his surprise. I will show a pic of it when it is complete. This is Tena up close. http://www.tenasprenger.typepad.com Most of these women I am talking about are "famous" in the scrappin world! Tena has published many of her works in books that I buy for ideas. I loved getting to meet my "heroes".
I found this pic in all my may and had to include it. This is tonya. She was one of my friends I met at the event. She was not; however, in my group, so I looked forward to seeing her at the end of the day. She was a hoot! She was from North Carolina, but still several hours away, as I recall.

This is a schedule of events. All the little squares on the 2nd and 3rd plaquards are the mini workshops available to the participants. The first one just told us where we had to be for each of the main classes. I was in Group Z. Just in case you were wondering!

Ok, so one of my favorite blogs is by Cathy Zielske. She was a regular contributor to Simple Scrapbooks magazine. Her blog is just plain funny. I have been reading hers for a long time. It was kinda thrilling to meet her.
http://cathyzielske.typepad.com/my_weblog/ I hope all these links work!

And now for all you sewing types out there... this is Heather Bailey. Heard of her?! She is only like the coolest fabric designer around!

If you go to her blog http://www.heatherbailey.typepad.com/ and scroll down a bit, you will see the project we made in her class. I will share mine soon. It was a butterfly shaped book. I was not all that fired up to make it, as I am just not all that crazy about butterflies anyway. But, I DID want to meet her personally, so I signed up for her class and really enjoyed it ! I need to take pics of my projects, don't I?!

Well, that takes me through, like, Friday! I will do the rest tomorrow! I think the thing I liked the most was realizing that I LOVE sewing! LOVE it! I made a fabric scrapbook. LOVED it! That and more coming tomorrow. Stay tuned!

See you later, tater. Melanie