EXPO Surprises

It is the end of Day 2 at the Fort Worth EXPO.  Phylly and I are sitting in "our" living room -- in our pj's -- each of us on our computers.

We have been snapping pictures of each other on our cell phones, but none of the pictures are in focus.  I'm going to share them with you anyway, just so you will know what we have been up to.

We arrived Wednesday afternoon about 2:00.  IF the MapQuest directions had been RIGHT, we would have been here even earlier.  The directions said to turn .1 mile and turn right after the Pizza place.  We drove for 3 miles, and when we had passed more than one Walgreens and CVS pharmacy on each side of the road, we decided that we had gone WAY PAST .1 mile and the supposed Pizza place.

Being extremely advanced women drivers, we KNEW to stop and make a phone call before we drove 21 miles the wrong way as my husband has done before.  Sure enough.  We were on N. Beach Street which was 3 miles past the road we were to turn on.

The nicest hotel lady I have EVER talked to -- her name was Roma -- very sweetly directed us to the hotel.  The problem was there was NO Pizza place and the road we were supposed to turn on had NO street sign.

We finally arrived in this two-bedroom suite.  It is quite old, but it doesn't smell bad.  When the dog across the hall isn't barking, it is very quiet, and we like it.  The beds are comfy, and the shower is DIVINE!  I almost decided to lie back in the tub and enjoy the shower the rest of the morning, but I didn't.

Here is Phylly unloading her things off the wheely-dealy.  Remember, I said the pics are all fuzzy. When I get back home, I can download the ones from my camera.

Thursday -- yesterday -- I was the co-pilot and Phylly was the driver.  We had a little over 9 miles to drive to downtown Fort Worth.  The directions AGAIN, were terrible.  Not only MapQuest directions, but directions from the EXPO people.  It is a miracle we ever found the place! 

Again, we asked for directions from a very nice man by the building with the horses.  We had underground parking very close to the entrance.  Nice!  We did a little shopping, but mostly, we took classes.  

Phylly and I could probably have taught the classes we took, but always nice to get a refresher course.  Especially from Louise Cutting.

THIS is the SURPISE part of EXPO:

Ladies kept coming up to me and saying, "Don't I know you?"  "Aren't you that lady with the blog?"

The first one was Doris.  I asked her to sit next to Phylly and me on the front row of some class we were in.  I was SO SURPRISED that anyone there knew me.

A little while later, another lady came up to me and said, "You are that blog lady!"  

And later, another lady came up, and another, and another.  

By the end of today - Friday - at least ten ladies have come up to me and told me they knew me from my blog.  I wish Phylly had snapped a pic of me with each of them, but we didn't think of it.  PLUS, the ladies may not have wanted to be in my blog.  I sure did enjoy meeting them though!  I told them I wished I had put more make-up on or a fancy dress or something!

So HELLO Doris, Carol, Ellen, Robin and all the other very nice ladies I met.  Sorry I can't remember all your names.  I can see your faces in my mind!  Thank you SO MUCH for saying "HI" to me.

Phylly drove the death-defying, bumper-to-bumper track back to our hotel yesterday after the EXPO.  I was SO VERY, VERY, VERY glad that she was doing the driving.  She had a killer headache from an icicle cold room and something coming down from the ceiling at one of the booths.

She took some Tylenol for her headache when we got back to the hotel, and we learned there was a Zio's Restaurant very close to our hotel.  We headed there for dinner.  Dinner wasn't any big deal, but DESSERT was something else.

Phylly was very bad and ordered the 20-layer dark chocolate cake:

I, of course, stuck to my strick DESM diet and ordered the very healthy FRUIT pie.

It had some kind of vanilla-wine sauce on top of it under that ice cream.  It was A W E S O M E !!!!! I wanted to lick the dish, but I refrained so Phylly wouldn't crawl under the table like my husband usually wants to do when we are in a restaurant, and I ooh and aah over the food.

Today - Friday - Phylly and I had most of the afternoon to shop the booths in the exhibition hall.

There were NO mirrors!

How are you supposed to "try on" fabric without any mirrors???

This is Louise Cuttings booth.  She is the LOVELIEST person as all my sewing buds know, and I asked her HOW I was supposed to tell if her fabric looked good on us without any mirrors.  She said, "The mirrors always break."  She told me to just take the bolt into the bathroom and check it out.

SO NICE!!!!

And just before I snapped this picture I literally SHOVED Phylly in there and ORDERED her to stand next to Louise.  You can see it on her face!

I told Louise that Phylly and I had found another way to "make" a mirror:

Yes, I bought that one.

Yes, I bought the pink jelly beans too.

And we didn't like this one on Phylly.  The print is too big for her tinyness.

Tomorrow - Saturday - we may or may not return to the EXPO for three more classes.  THEN we will head back to my Kingston , OK house.

When we are safely back in my sewing room, I will show you all the goodies we purchased.

Before I close, I have to show you this picture.  The pretty tall skinny model is Rhonda.  She reminded me SO MUCH of Jeannie, Jerry's first wife, I felt like I knew her.  She looked amazing in everything they put on her.

Some of you may recognize the other lady.  I won't put her name here because I don't want this to come up if someone googles her name.  Phylly and I were just BLOWN AWAY by her outfit.  Check out those BOOTS!

I told Phylly it looked like she had just driven in on a Harley -- thrown off her helmet -- and dashed to the stage -- FORGETTING what she had on.  This lady is usually the picture of perfection.  I was just shocked when I saw her today.

And that is all I have to say for now.

Except for a few small glitches, it has been a perfect little vacation.

Come back tomorrow and see our haul!

Hugs, Joy and Phylly