Super Tired Monday!!!

Hey guys!!!! Happy Monday....well, kinda wishing you that a little late today, huh?! LOL. I do hope you all are having a fabulous day so far though! I am just about beat! As yall know, I spent the whole weekend with one of my best friends, Cristal. I promised I would tell you all about it, so I wanted to make sure I did that today.

I flew into Nashville on Thursday morning. My flight was like 40 minutes early...how rare is that?! So, while waiting on Cristal, I chatted it up with the nicest little old lady. I was immediately so glad to be back in the South where everyone is so friendly!!! Me and this lady just had the best time laughing and chatting. Cristal arrived shortly after and we immediately went to Cracker Barrel to meet up with her good friend, Adrian. Adrian was just the sweetest girl! I loved hanging out with both of them and we laughed so much! I was so glad to meet a new friend. After eating, we then drove to Cristal's house and started packing up the kits I mentioned in the post below this one. It was a lot of work, but definitely fun!!!! I just knew our class would be a hit at the Cave City Convention Center.

So, on Friday, I slept in just a tad while Cristal took the boys to school. Once she got home, I got up and we piddled for a bit before getting ready to go to see Gage and Justice (Cristal's 2 youngest sons) at school. Gage was going to be in a play called 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar.' He was just absolutely adorable and I am so glad I got to see it. Justice sat next to me while Cristal video taped the play. Justice and I just talked and talked. He is such a sweet young man! After the play, we checked the boys out of school early and went to grab a bite to eat at Krystals. I LOVE eating at Krystal! We do not have any up here in PA and I miss them so much! After eating, we went to a local scrappy store so Cristal could pick up some eggs....yes, you heard me right, eggs. LOL. She buys farm fresh eggs from the lady at the scrap store. Can you believe I did not even go in? Me and Gage sat out in the van and chatted it up. After that, we all drove back home and finished up the last bit of preparation for our trip to KY.

We left for KY a little later than expected, but that was ok. We originally had planned to take the back roads to Cave City in order to avoid that Nashville traffic. Well, wouldn't you know it....we hit a road block due to a bridge being out and had to find another way around! LOL. But we had so much fun in the car! I do not think I have laughed as much as I laughed this weekend in a long, long time! So, we finally arrived at the scrapbook store in Cave City, KY that we were suppose to meet/greet at. It was so fun to meet all of the ladies at the store and to help demo some Purple Cows and Imaginisce product.

After the meet/greet and demo at the store, we checked into our hotel. Of course, it had to be an experience too! LOL. We were assigned a room on the first floor and can you believe the door did not even lock?!!! We slid that little credit card looking key into the lock and thought it had opened. So after we went in the room, Cristal said...'Hey Aymee, go outside and see if you can get in the room.' So I go outside, shut the door, and opened it right up again without a key!!! So we had to go back to the check in desk and ask for a new room. They moved us up one floor. We then settled in for the night.

We woke up super early on Saturday in order to be at the Convention Center in plenty of time for the morning staff meeting and to set up our room. I just cannot tell you how excited I was to actually be helping out!!! I have never helped to teach a class and I was giddy as all get out! There were close to 200 ladies there and we were going to be teaching the same class 4 times to around 50 people in each class. As I helped to set kits and so forth out on the tables, I thought more and more about all the people I would be standing up in front of and have to admit...I got a little nervous. But once our first class started and we began talking, the fears immediately went away. Everyone there was just so nice and we all had a fabulous time. Cristal opened up the class with a little introduction and demo on some tools. She showed them all how to use the Purple Cows Trimmer and Imaginisce I-Top tool. After the demo, we showed them how to complete 2 layouts. If you would like to see the 2 layouts we did, go check out Cristal's blog HERE and you can see those.

We opened up with the first layout you see on the link above. The layout involved taking this beautiful sheet of patterned paper from Imaginisce and tearing it into strips. Well, this was an experience in itself. I guess me being a freestyle scrapper for such a long time, I did not think anything of tearing paper. But several of the awesome ladies there just could not tear the paper. I guess it all depends on what kind of scrapper you are and what rules you follow when scrapping. I myself do not follow many rules...LOL. So teaching this class really helped me to see that we are all so different and do things different ways. I guess I had not given that much thought before. I mean, I always notice different styles, but it's different in person. I thought it was so amazing to see each individual lady's take on the layout. They all did things a bit different and each layout was simply beautiful!!!! I loved how they all mixed things up and they even showed me several great, new ideas! It was so awesome!!!

Next, we moved on to the second layout you will see in the link above. This layout involved one of the COOLEST tools....the Purple Cows Freestyle Mouse! I had never had the opportunity to play with this dandy tool until the class. I just loved it! It glides along the paper and cuts like butter! LOVE IT! So while Cristal was teaching, I walked around the room and demo'd this tool to all of the ladies. Each of them were just in love with it as I was! All of their layouts turned out just as fabulous! Again, they all put their own unique spin on it and being able to walk around and see all of their work was so awesome. Not only getting to see their work, but just talking to each lady was so amazing! We all just cut up and laughed! It was the best time! We also gave away several RAK's, including the Imaginisce I-Top tool, in all of the classes! The ladies just loved this as well!

In between each class, the ladies had the opportunity to go into the large conference room of the convention center and crop, shop, etc. While they did so, Cristal and I would set thing up for the next class. We taught 2 classes and then had a break for lunch. At around 5:30 or so, we were all finished up with our classes and went into the big conference room where all the ladies were cropping. While there, we sat at a table so that we were available for demo's if need be. Now, I know I was supposed to be teaching, but I had to sneak off and do a bit of shopping too! Tee Hee! I bought all I needed to work with my new Imaginisce I-Top tool!!! I cannot wait to try this baby out! It is just the neatest thing! If you do not know what this is, it is a tool that allows you to make your own brads. I bought all 3 sizes of the punches and am excited about those as well. Those can be used to make some super cute flowers. I am looking forward to trying those out. One of the ladies who worked with us that day had the cutest carrying case for your I-Top!!!! Now, don't tell Brandon, but I have already went on Ebay and bought one to match! Shhh! LOL! I also got my hands on the new Imaginisce I-Rock tool. This is another tool that I cannot wait to play with!!! Also, we swapped kits with the rep from Little Yellow Bicycle. So we both scored some super cute stuff! She even gave us a bag that we could use while cropping. How nice was that?!!!

Overall, I just had a ball meeting all of these new people! I am in love with teaching/assisting! I would love to help Cristal out again and SOON! Wink Wink Cristal if you read this! Tee Hee! It was just so much fun and I had the best weekend! After the day though, I think Cristal and I both were ready to pass out. We went back to our hotel and chilled for a while before going to sleep. We had to get up around 3:30 am in order to get dressed and drive to Nashville. I had a 6:45am flight! The weekend went by so fast!!! I knew it would, but I enjoyed every single minute!!! Thank you to Cristal for inviting me and letting me help! It was a time I will never forget!

I hope yall have enjoyed reading about my trip. As soon as I get some pix to share, I will be sure to do so. I know Cristal took some, but she has family staying with her and is super busy right now. I hope all of you have a great week and thank you for stopping by my blog! I am going to finish cleaning up my messy house and return to the normal routine! I can't wait to get back to my scrappy desk!!!

Happy Scrappin' everyone!