Hi honey, I'm home!

I'm just back to mom's from a whirlwind weekend at TNNA (The National NeedleArts Association)-- the big, annual wholesale show in San Diego. This year we shared the San Diego Convention Center with May Kay......the sidewalks of the convention center were decorated with pink opalescent cars of all makes and models (I suppose they were going to be prizes for lucky sales folk) and they even had life-size body cut outs like the ones they have at amusement parks-- you know the ones with the body's painted and the heads missing so you can "pose" as the person/character in question. I really should have stopped and had my picture taken as the ideal Mary Kay rep. Honest to pete it was funny to see the MK folks lining up to have their pictures taken behind the cut outs. lol Certainly the MK folks get high marks for convention neighbors -- last year we shared with an extreme boards sports trade show. They were nice enough people, but let's just say that for ever smoker that was at the Mary Kay show there were 250 smokers at the sports show and since you can't smoke indoors in San Diego that meant the sidewalks all along the convention center were one fluffy cloud of smoke.

No matter the atmosphere, we were all in needlepoint heaven. There was needlepoint like you wouldn't believe. OMG. We picked out some lovely things for the shop. For instance, it seemed every designer had stunning/adorable/cute/funky/beautiful houses (and a bunch had "3-D" canvases so that you end up with fully-stitched houses, churches, shops, etc). Some simply beautiful florals are going to be coming our way too. Oh and animals... there were such cute animals to be had. The Christmas stuff is always to die for, but there seemed to be even more perfect Christmas choices than ever before... ornaments and stockings galore! New threads, you ask? Of course! Rainbow Gallery has some great new colors of Splendor coming out and some cool new fuzzy threads, and we're testing some samples of brand new flosses that look very promising. :) There were great boxes, purse options, shoes, ohhhhh one vendor had color and cuff canvases for denim jackets!

My Personal Highlights: Goofing around with the designer from Gimmies -- she's a hoot and a half and her husband is a treasure [if you've never seen a Gimmies canvas, you should take the time and no picture can do justice to how well they are painted and how fun they are --- some of her vast collection of adorable critters can be seen at: http://www.stitcherstreasures.com/Gimmies.htm and I have a finished cardinal ornie on my webshots completed projects and several unstarted canvases picture in my webstos "needlepoint stash" alblum], shopping with Wichelt who was so patient with me wanting everything they had, staying at the Wyndam Emerald (great rooms -- lame restaurant staff), watching the shop group sit around cross-legged on the convention floor in a corner working out which 13 picture and logo nail files to order.

The lobby art at the Wyndam-- plexiglass and wind chimes....




My Gimmies cardinal:

Some Gimmies I have to do:








And yes, I was bad. Really pretty darn bad. I didn't buy everything I liked, but I bought plenty! What did I order? Well, I'll have to get the formal list out, but off the top of my head....
1. a beautiful half-round silhouette ornie of the 3 wise men on camels
2. a nifty state of California ornie
3.Bothy Threads' Cut Thru Rocket (which goes with their Cut Thru Princess Palace I got at Myrtle Beach from the lovely ladies of Counted Stitches)


4. some awesome Valerie Pfeiffer birds and flowers
5. some beautiful Beau Geste Radko ornie/canvas combos
6. a small collection of some of the world's most adorable and/or stunning ornament canvases
7. a specialty frame for a Ewe and Eye canvas I already have
8. a headband canvas which I can't wait to BEAD!!!!!
9. a few wonderful Gimmies... of course! lol

Well, I guess I better get to finishing stuff, huh! I sure better be a much faster stitcher in 2007!!!!!

I left the show at about 1:30pm to head back the the Emerald to meet up with my sister and BIL who flew in from D.C. We headed straight to Old Town (if you've never been to San Diego, you should come and definitely go to Old Town and dine and drink your way through Mexican food). The chips and salsa were excellent and my raspberry margarita was nearly a smoothie it had so much fruit in it. The dinner was adequate though not great, but sitting outside under a sunny afternoon sky in ***January*** with strolling mariachis was worth pedestrian Mexican food.
My sister and some cool flora at Old Town San Diego -- say "hi"

rbehling1916 While I was taking this picture I think my BIL was taking a picture of me taking the picture. We'll see what shows up in my email tomorrow. lol

Now that it's tomorrow morning in DC the three of us are here at mom's. I cleaned and laundried while they grocery shopped so we're set for a week of sorting and packing.... again. Wish us luck!!!!! My sister really wishes I had goals for the week. It's such a huge job that it's hard to have them, but I suppose I'd like to:
1. get the last of the trucks that we haven't opened (2) or fully explored (another 2) fully gone through
2. to get my Christmas ornaments (the non-stitched ones) sorted, wrapped, boxed, sealed, and stored
3. to pull out and sort/rummage what's left in my room still and get some staging areas set out in there
4. to take another load of books over to the Eaton Collection
5. to get the furniture I know I want at the moment into storage
6. to find the missing Fenton boxes so I can get the last of those boxed and stored

That'll do for a first night list. lol

By the way, you should really check out the Mars Themis website for the images they are collecting daily from Mars --- One of Friday's was especially nice -- they simply called it "Landslides" but it also has a nice, small crater too .....

rbehling1916
http://themis.asu.edu/zoom-20070110a