creative diary, day one

I don't know where to start to tell you about last week.  It was exhilerating and tiring, inspiring and of course went way too quickly.

The Creative Connection Event http://www.thecreativeconnectionevent.com/
was the brain child of Jo Packham (creator of "Where Women Create") and Nancy Soriano (former editor in chief of Country Living magazine).  The concept was to gather together women artists, business owners, and bloggers to talk about how creativity and techonolgy can work together.  It was a three day event, packed with classes to take, panel discussions to attend, and fun to be had.  I met artists I have admired for years, authors of books I own and use, bloggers who I follow religiously.  I met people who also had Etsy shops, women from all parts of the country, some famous, some soon to be famous.  It was INCREDIBLE.  Even though I only attended one of the three days, I feel so full of inspiration I can barely sleep.

Tracy chronicled our day here:   http://sellabitmum.com/
she brought her camera, while I brought a bag full of all of the supplies we needed for our class (my experience in that class deserves a post alone....) and another bag full of all of the books I wanted signed.  So I have no photos to share, but luckily there were lots of people taking pictures.  I will borrow some of the pictures from their blogs for the rest of this week's posts.

Lunch was amazing, the chef at the Hyatt used the Pioneer Woman's recipes to make chicken peanut noodle salad and her red velvet cake.  Oh my.  We got to hear Ree tell about her blogging life, she got a big reaction when she confessed she owned neither a sewing machine or glue gun, and wasn't quite sure why she was there.  But we all knew, as she is the queen of the blog world, and everyone wanted to hear her story.  She has already blogged about the Handmade Market at the event here: http://thepioneerwoman.com/homeandgarden/2010/09/if-you-like-this-kind-of-thing/

The panel discussion we attended in the afternoon covered everything from how to start a blog, to how to use a blog to advance your business, to the advantages of Twitter.  I caved, I have joined, I now Tweet.  Although I have no idea what I am doing, and will need a tutorial from Tracy, queen of the tweet.  That sounds funny.

Cocktail hour gave us a chance to meet famous crafters and artists and have books signed-here is who I got to visit with:

Leigh Standley of Curly Girl http://www.curlygirldesign.com/ She is young and adorable and I just wanted to hug her.  She created the official poster for the event, which I had her autograph, and is now framed and hanging in my hallway to inspire me every day.  I also picked up some of her calendars for 2011:

 Betz White wrote "Warm Fuzzies", also young and sweet, she encouraged me to finish all of the projects in her book I have started.

Heather Bailey-if you ever need to be cheered up, just go visit her site.  I ADORE her use of color, and on top of that she is so sweet.  http://www.heatherbailey.typepad.com/

Kaari Meng-I own several of her books, my favorite is French Inspired Jewelry.  She is exactly how I had pictured her-I sat with her at a table at the Handmade Market, where she was in between demonstrations, and had a delightful time chattimg with her.  She told me of a line of French inspired fabric she is designing, and all of the other things she is working on.  I often visit her on-line store, plan on lots of time for dreaming and maybe a little shopping:  https://www.frenchgeneral.com/  And here is a link to her blog: http://frenchgeneral.blogspot.com/

Amy Butler. http://www.amybutlerdesign.com/mainmenu.php I can't even explain how it felt to talk to her.  She is warm and beautiful and I was nearly brought to tears just being close to her.  I have read her story, and am so inspired by how she creates and how she lives.  I own LOTS of her fabric, and patterns, and have made many of them.  AND she's a cat person.  She was one of the two keynote speakers at our dinner that evening, and it was delightful to learn even more about her.  I want to move to Ohio and be her best friend.

Dinner was incredible, I met even more new people and we all shared a lovely meal and listened to MaryJane Butters of MaryJane's Farm http://www.maryjanesfarm.com/and Amy Butler.  Bags of swag adorned our chairs, what was inside deserves a post alone.

Tired but inspired, we made our way to the parking ramp and headed home.  In the next few days, I will be sharing links to some of the other women who were there, this is a week long diary!