back on track...

or at least back ;)

I finished and sent my Hall of Fame entry with nary a moment to spare. It arrived safe & well on Thursday at the CK offices. One less thing off my plate. Next was preparing for Atlanta. I got to break in Rick's new luggage set... and it worked perfectly!! The big rollie-bag for clothes & stuff, the medium rollie-bag for scrap supplies and the little shoulder bag for my carry-on stuff. I packed several books to read on my down-time and lots of cute & sassy clothes (many thanks to e-Lan).

My flight for Atlanta left on Thursday at noon-ish... we dropped off Violet at class & Riley at gymnastics (with Miss Valerie) while Mr. Jim drove me to the airport. I was so excited about the plane flight... direct to Atlanta... and it even was showing a MOVIE!!! "Ladder 49" - one I haven't seen yet! I rented the little cheap headphones for $2 so I could see it. On the flight I had an ENTIRE ROW OF SEATS ALL TO MYSELF!! It was AWESOME! By then I was exhausted and decided to stretch out... just for a minute.... and slept the entire way there. I woke up just before the plane made it to Atlanta.... oops! So much for the movie!

The temperature when the plane landed (at 8 p.m.) was 27 degrees....eeeeeeeeeeeee...... I was ffffffffreeeeeeeeezing!! At baggage claim, my bags were the *LAST* ones off the plane. Everyone had gotten their stuff and left and I was standing at an empty carousel, freaking out a little, when the bags popped up right over the side. WHEW!! Took the shuttle to the hotel to meet my roommate, Ursula, whom I have known online for a long time, and also designed for Michael Miller Memories.

The Hyatt was nice - not amazingly swanky, but not bad either. I think I was expecting nicer... but it was actually decent. All our food expenses, etc. were picked up by the company, so we enjoyed some decent meals at local restaurants. Friday we went to a place called "Ted's Montana Grill" which was excellent. Saturday was "Mary Mac's Tea Room" and lots of Southern comfort food. Sunday we attended an awards dinner and the food was awards-dinner-esque. Decent but obviously catered for the masses. Monday was our staff meeting and an EXCELLENT catered meal at the hotel. That one was awesome.

The week was nonstop. We'd get up at 6:30 a.m. and not go to bed till 1:00 a.m. every night! The show was usually 8-5 or 8-6 a.m., but there were all sorts of events after the show we were attending, from meetings to dinners to meeting friends... and, well, you can imagine, I never cracked open my books once. I had a great time getting to know the other Memory Makers Masters, as well as many other people I had never actually met in real life. At the booth I wore pink & green polka dotted jammies and did product demos and make & takes. It was all the talk of the show. :) Everyone wanted my jammies!

Monday I walked the show floor with a fellow Master, Samantha, and the two fo us made some connections. Sam was offered a product line deal from a MAJOR company. There are a couple of companies really interested in seeing what kinds of product line I can design for them (WOW!!) and then another company owner was discussing with us the pros and cons of designing for another company or owning your own and being in control. Either way it's a big decision to make. I wish I knew the right thing to do!! I have a lot of work ahead of me.. I need to get myself going to pitching my product ideas if that's the way I want to go. Otherwise I need to be developing my line and starting a company... lots to think about! aahhhhhhhhhhh

Even thoughI missed my family tons, the week went by tooo darn fast, and before I knew it I was heading on a plane back to Vegas. Once again I had a row all to myself and once again I fell asleep, missing the movie.. this time "Friday Night Lights."

It's good to be home... now will someone help me unpack??!