Who's going - CKC Manchester?

[morgansmom2000]

I know but i really wanted to. I wanted to see the vendor faire. I wanted to have lunch with my dis friends.

I know, me too. Some other time though...

 

[joyah]

We ended up splitting up JD's were total jerks we had talked to them they knew we were coming I will be writing a HUGE complaint letter to them and the raddison so not enough places or choices to eat.

I missed you both though!

 

[lovingthemouse]

Missed you both today - heard there is a huge stamping show here in Springfield on June 5th - maybe then?????

 

[PinballFamily]

Whew! Back from CKC - had a great time! Lots of stories, lots of shopping, lots of laughing! Minutes before leaving NH, we got the word that ALL of metro Boston is under a "boil water" alert, thanks to a huge pipe rupture earlier today.

We were able to stop at a Walmart in NH and stocked up on bottled jugs of water, paper plates/cups/bowls, etc., Purell (we can't even wash our hands!), and so on. The grocery stores in the Boston area are/have been swamped and are cleaned out of water - so it is a good thing we found out before we left New Hampshire!

We're still unpacking and putting away water jugs (!) - so will collapse soon and post more of the stories tomorrow. Hope everyone made it home safely!

 

[Lisa]

What a fun day (though Jennifer and Holly, we missed you!). It was great seeing our DIS friends; Pam, Danica, Michelle, Ryan, Suzanne, Rhonda, Christy, Linda, Jackie, and meeting new ones. Joyah's Mama and pjlla.

Caroline, Denise, Diana and I met up at 8:30 am for the ride to NH. I got a little mixed up on 495 so we got there a few minutes later than I wanted to. There wasn't as many vendors this year, however Rusty Pickle was there! Did not see Skinny Cow. My big purchase of the day was the MS scor board. Though the vendor was not wearing white gloves while he touched her merchandise.

I won a $15 vendor gift certificate again. This year it was for Purple Daisy Stampers (something like that). I was excited because I have been getting into making cards and thought I could pick up something good. When I arrived to the booth and excitedly showed the vendor the gift certificate, she tersely told me I could choose three paper packs from boxes on the floor. I was disappointed I couldn't choose whatever I wanted but free paper is free paper. I did go through most of the paper packs to select what I would like the most rather than just taking and go. Whatever I don't care for I will sell at the LSS tag sale later this month.

We had a blast reviewing all our goodies on the ride home, although it was decided for next year, before we leave, we sit down together and review our goodies so we don't miss out on something that a friend got that we overlooked.

I am looking forward to the class reviews. Who liked what? Which class can be avoided next year.

For some reason the crowds of people bothered me this year, while last year it did not. Not sure what was up with that.

We are already planning our next adventure. The Stamp Expo at the BigE in Springfield, MA, June 5th. Anyone else in?

 

[Lisa]

Pam, smart that you stopped and got water before you left NH. abc (channel 5) is reporting that it is okay to bath in the water.

 

[morgansmom2000]

I saw that on the news last night and shuddered (thinking back to our 10-12 days of the boil water order last summer). Glad to hear you got some water, I hope they help you out on that front, but it's waaaaaaaaaaay more people than just my town this time.

June 5th is not good for me. We're supposed to be camping Friday night with girl scouts, but would have to leave early in order to get to dance, because there's no way she can miss class 2 weeks before the recital. Any chance of going on Sunday?

 

[Lisa]

Let me check with the other ladies, Jennifer.

 

[morgansmom2000]

Let me check with the other ladies, Jennifer.

Don't change it all for me, Lisa, really.

 

[PinballFamily]

OK - up and stumbling around the house! Where did all this new scrappy stuff come from? Gotta put things away before heading into the Census office to do payroll. Then come home and update our supply lists - I think our Stickles collection is now 100% complete!

And my lovely maple syrup!

The latest with the water situation: two million residents affected in 30 cities and towns. Thank heavens we were "farther up" in NH and had no problem grabbing lots of water and supplies - the news reports last night showed ugly incidents in MA grocery stores - police having to shut some down, etc. They did say "days if not weeks" to totally fix the huge pipe break. Hope that isn't the case, but I will say that as we were grabbing jugs off the shelf and filling up our cart for our family and Lou's, Danica and I thought of you and your earlier "no water" experience, Jennifer.

Maybe D will post a CKC report later - but maybe in a day or two - she's got one last school paper to finish FIRST!

Linda - hope you got home ok and that the yummy calamari and baklava survived the trip!

 

[LindaBabe]

We got home just fine. Full report later. Baklava upside down in cooler made everything a sticky mess, but IT was fine and I can clean up the mess. lol.

IT was GREAT meeting you all. SO sorry we didn't get to eat together but I will say this about that. You guys who did not go across the street missed something special. Cool, quiet, white linens, great food, pitchers of water, great company, great food, and peaceful, quiet unhurried lunch. I *will* be eating there again, if CK comes to NH next year.

And if it doesn't . . . What do y'all think about meeting in Valley Forge? It's the same distance for us.

 

[joyah]

Okay this will be a work in progress as there is no way I can metally process the whole weekend is 1 post. My brain is still tired.

thursday arrival day.
Lets see got out of work on time and hit the road. I drive cause mom's driving scares the puckers out of me plus I like control of my destiny ( i'm stange) so with the 1:30 min trip ahead of me I turned the radio up and hit the interstate. We get on right at the 91 89 interchange it was smooth sailing till about New London when the wind started kicking up so bad I was fighting to keep the CRV on the road. now refer back to the I'm strange comment I was thanking my lucky stars I was driving the CRV and not my Sequioa I'm not sure I would have stayed on the road, there were very few tracto trailers out they were all in the rest areas. the wind kept up all the way into manchester. Once we got the hotel I was glad to stop. the check in process was easy they knew that PBF and mine were to be close together we ended up right across the hall. the desk told us it was easier to bring everything in at the main door. NOT we found out that using the cart was actually harder course we found that out on check out day. So we headed to the room upon the elevator opening we're met by a ton of work men and carpet. Interesting but fine...... we get everything dumped into the room and head to move the car. I managed to get a spot in the same level as the expo center entrance yay me!!! Made the packing up procedure easy!

back up to the room to unpack and set up the room. and time to scrap. I got a ton done as you have all read and was very pleased with myself. I can tell you it was strange not tho hear mom every 5 mins around dinner time.

speaking of dinner we ate at JD's I had soup and sandwich the Corden Blue (SP?) and half a roast beef YUMMY. Mom had the waldorf chicken salad she said they forgot the apples but it was very good. after that we walked around for a bit and peeked in the windos of the center to try and see where everything was. this year the program book did not have a layout so it was hard to plan everything. After seeing what could be seen finding the class location for the next day we headed back to the room for more scrapping.

Friday woohoo arrival day for some, I can say that staying thurs night was the best thing we did. Up and ready for the day. Mom and I are not breakfast people so we ate out of the cooler. our first class was Boxer Palooza. WOW WOW and double Wow the only way to start off the am. Sit and listen and have a ton of product and ideas given to you. She is also funny as anything. Georgeboyfriendoffouryearsstillnoring all run together like that just had us in stiches all morning Both mom and I highly recommend this class. It will be on the list for next year for the first thing in the am. Yes I missed the first 1/2 hour of early entry but...... they(boxer like I said brain not working) give you a 10% off button for the whole weekend. she also mentioned that we might want to save those and bring them next year she has a few ideas that she is working on........

On to the vendor fair but you'll all have to wait as I have to go get the boys and get something done around the house.

 

[joyah]

before I go on to the vendor fair I have to tell you all about the boxer class somemore. Can ya tell I LOVE it? so inaddtion to papers I think like 8 sheets maybe more we got the giant cloths pin, a 6X6 or 8x8 calendar, cd tin with paper cut to go in it, buttons, flowers, and sooooo much more. Just amazing they said in the class description $70 worth of stuff.

Okay on to the floor. I had made a plan of what I needed to hit and what I wanted to hit mom was along for the ride cause she is NOT a planner (she is however glad that I am. I know she mentioned to a few of you that she thought I was nuts bringing all the stuff) since my birthday is in a few weeks this was my birthday present love ya mom!! I tried to be good honest i did. guess you'll have to ask mom how I did.

I stayed away from paper loft cause i dropped a bundle there last year and I still have plenty (i hope) till next year. first place we hit was boxer because we had coupons and the button and they had a basketball stamp set i HAD to have. then we wandered I picked up the spectrum pads only 2 those things are 11 each mom got 2 different ones so I was happy. We then hit ez laser designs I LOVE this booth. I had done a bunch the night before in the room and so I knew what i was after here. I can't even begin to tell you what we spent in that booth I know there was a deal or think there was anyway I know it was under 100 though. from there we wandered around and picked a few things here and there Paper wizard I was wishing Holly was there they have lego paper and they had deals too!! we didn't get much there other than some swimming stuff. hit other places I knew had swimming pages and wandered more. Came around the corner and there was the quilting place. Hold the phone mom and I came to a screaching hault. Deals deals and Deals on fat quarters and patterns oh my after that booth we went and had lunch. At least on 3 different times I saw a dis shirt which turned out to be Pam but by the time i could get to her she was moved on. Lunch and a rest and unloaded bags we grabbed the tool totes headed back down to wander some more. Linda and Dimples found us and we chatted for a few mins I Loved that she punched to bottem of the transfer for her shirt. Mom and I had class so off we went.

The class was one by Technique Tuesday Friends through thick and thin. the project I loved the teacher needed to get a clue she addmitted that she'd never done the project. Turned me off so badly I hardly walked through there booth and I really liked the tiles. Oh well the other dissers in the class can chime in one their feelings, remember I'm stange. so on to the next class I knew the group was meeting for dinner cause TB and Shamrock had a 6 pm class but this class really interested me and I wanted to stay especially after seeing the papers in person I was so glad I did. The class was double the fun in 1/2 the time. This was another WOW class, the organization of the class pack was awesome. all the embellies were in individual bags placed in a big bag all the papers for each project and there were 4 or 5 one more than I think the description talked about were all papercliped together. Mom's class was the fabulous flowers to much of a learning curve and the teacher was having trouble so that one is off the list too. We were going to eat dinner but jd's was packed so we did room service which was nice and quiet. Pam (nh one) popped in and we chatted till she went to get her table and stuff at this point we all hung out in PBF and ZTH's room. Linda was the only one to take pics (duh camera was across the hall). It was a blast ZTH was show mom how to make grunge flowers (she's still talking about it and just LOVES the one you gave her). It was pushing 11 by the time we crashed. I mean crashed too. I don't think I made 10 pages in the magazine I was reading.

Saturday arrival day for the day trippers.
up early as usual ready to go, got a text from PO3 they weren't comming since I had an 8:30 class and I wanted to get stuff to the car we brought down a load and I grabbed the class pack for the great outdoors I wanted to stay but was torn since I wanted to be on the floor for opening. that won out. chatted with Linda and then got in line when they opened I headed straight for the mosaics. I love them and needed to stock up on the papers since I only got 1 pack last year. chatted with people and what not.

gotta go feed kiddos back in a bit

 

[joyah]

okay kids fed they (all 3 of them) are acting like spoiled brats tonight. I'm thinking I'm going back to ckc

I plan on doing a bunch more of the mosaics and I definately want to take those classes next yr.

I wont say how much I spent there lets just say I had to go to the car and empty the bag shortly after that stop. I was ready for a break and mom had class so I went to check in at jd's since PBF had stopped to tell them there was a big group comming and make sure they were ready for us yep no problem well It turned into a problem. this was my biggest complaint of the weekend. They did not plan well for food. the floor and jd's was it. jd's was PACKED. so we went to Athens just across the street It was nice and quiet and food was good. Mom and I had to scoot out for class.

101 for the boys was the class I was most looking forward too and it was okay. her samples on the handouts weren't the same as the ones we were making and everything was just jumbled and thrown in the class pack many pieces were missing and the help was ANNOYING she kept talking over the treacher. the chipboard were in sale packets so after you opened it to get your pieces out the pack had no way to reseal (i tried the adhesive didn't work.) I was also tired by this point and when for the 2nd time I said something was missing and the helper looked at me crosseyed I just wanted to walk out. I calmly packed up my stuff and sat there. Mom was getting grumpy cause I was and I wanted to go home.

after class I met up with Caroline for the syrup transfer and Lisa and we chatted for a bit. Mom wandered the fair a bit more and I sat and chatted.

Over all it was a great weekend and I am looking forward to next year. I had so much fun just wish I'd spent more time with friends and chatting.

Linda took pics of the group and I will try to take pics of the stuff I got before I put it all away.

 

[LindaBabe]

VERY Nice, Christy! I reading reports from other participants in the same event!

JAckie and I didn't arrive until noon on Friday, because she has 5 kids, a dog, a demanding full time job and just can't be gone that long. We left at 7 am for the 4 hour drive.

It was pretty overwhelming the day we got there, very crowded and the wrong end of the day for me, so I only bought stuff at the Carolina Crafters (just rite stamps and nesties) when I caught their booth empty. Likety split class Disney Magic (loved it) and skipped my second class (birthday cards) in order to do dinner with the girls on Friday.

Dinner was good and took about 1.5 hours for everybody to get fed and out of there.

Then my last class was the Button farm recipe book class - LOVED IT! so much that I went to their booth on Saturday and dropped another $100 on two of their kits. Jackie loved their stuff too, but said she already had the materials for xyz (I forget) so she went back and talked to the lady about selling the instructions seperately, as a download. Wouldn't that be cool! I would buy instructions for everything she sold, if the price was right!

Dimples went to the room party at Christy's on Friday night and there was a VERY incriminating photo when she and Suzanne's little pal got into the root beer.

They all looked like they were having a great time, but I was so done (even ready for bed in the photo - I had awakened at 1:30 AM and that was the last sleep - you KNow I just died when I hit the bed Friday night.

Saturday, I skipped my 8:30 class (sei's envelope album) in favor of shopping. I was the second one in the door, and went directly to Embellish-it, for my Basic Grey. Got card kits and a collection pack and a few coordiating stuff. Then, more nesties and just rite stamps, some water color "brushes"? and glue, a couple books. Went to Boxer Palooza which, the instructor said was, although she couldn't say it in the brochure, a "give away" class. We didn't have to DO anything, which is great in those tiny spaces, but we got so much stuff, you wouldn't believe. 11 sheets of paper, a blank 8x8 calendar, bottle of buttons, clear stamp, giant clothes pin, cd tin and pages to go in it, 4 yards of ribbon, a printed transparency, die cut dog house, some hardware, and I forget what else - then the door prizes were gift certificates to their booth. It was FUN.

Jackie took the digital class and liked it, and the piggy tales class and didn't like it. But she loved the whole event and meeting you guys so much that now she wants to go to Valley Forge in July, and has committed to go to Manchester again next year.

We were supposed to get to gether for lunch Saturday before hitting the road, but what a disaster that was!

Anyway, the restaurant couldn't accommodate us all, together, so the crew that arrived early and was dickering with the restaurant decided we should go across the street to a greek restaurant, then the later arrivals were "don't like Greek" "don't feel like walking across the street" or whatever, so they stayed there and ate salads in the vendor faire. Your choice, gang, I needed to EAT before we hit the road. "The early contingent" went over to the Greek place and sat in quiet air conditioned comfort with white linens and wonderful food. If there's another CK in NH, I *WILL* be eating there again. As much as possible. (I had lamb on a skewer and salad with a chaser of baklava to go for dh)

I wasn't all that sorry to miss JRs - some people had gotten food poisoning the night before on the clam chowder - but what I DID miss was spending time with the day trippers - I didn't even get to hug Denise and Diana there was so much confusion and people milling about. which made me sad.

The girls who have been to CK Manchester before said the vendor faire was smaller than before, but I thought it was quite wonderful and managed to drop the equivelent of a flat panel tv, on the stuff on my list. I got everything but a heat gun, which I didn't see any.

I bought Basic Grey paper pack, card kits, embellis, and "basics", 2 more Button Farm kits, 5 sets of nesties, a huge pile of "just rite" stamps from Carolina Stampers, stuff from Boxer, and a Theresa Collins travel journal (I forget who from).

It would all be put away except that I decided to reconfigure my entire storage, which entailed moving my good dishes out of the hall closet shelves to the kitchen, lugging 3 boxes full to the cellar, cleaning the floor in the closet, etc. BEFORE I tacked all those darn plastic packaging - even using industrial strength scissors it took a couple hours to liberate the stuff and two trips to the recyle bin.

Someone had a great idea for storing nesties - the printable magnet sheets aren't really strong enough, but the magnetic heat vent covers ARE, and I just happened to have an extra one, stuck to my dryer. Sure enough, it WORKS! Now, all I have to do is figure out what to do with that sheet of nesties. Right now, it's stuck to my fridge.

Can't WAIT for next year!

 

[party of 3]

Thanks for the trip reports ladies. Sounds like you all had a food time.
I can almost name everyone in the pics. Can someone who is at the table please tell me who's who? And how about in the room?
Thanks.

 

[joyah]

Holly I'm the one al the way in the back with the red shirt cracking up. Pam and danica are on the left ofme in the pic Michelle is sitting and Linda is standing on the right. Ryanann and Pam are in the front. Pam is the blonde (didn't know if you'd met Ryan)

Thanks for posting the pic linda! can't believe I never went and got the camera from our room (right across the hall). I hope it was halfway easy reading i'm still wiped out and brain is still tired.
Can't wait to hear what the others have to say

 

[ZeroToHero]

Here's mine:

So we got up at 5 am on Friday to get out of the house by 6 - we got out at 6:30, but were still able to get there by 7:20, which was great.

On attempting to check in, they told us they were full... we'd have to wait until 3. Ack. So we had them hold one of our bags, and went to get in line to register.

We registered & dropped our class bags off with the Cup Crusaders, and then, since we didn't have an early class, got in line for the vendor faire. We were probably 10 and 11th in line, at most. Around 8:30 the coupons started getting passed out, and when we got our Quick Quotes one, my mom and I decided our plan of attack would be I would go drop our door prize tickets off which she got me chalk inks at QQ to get the free bag (for the first 25 people). She ended up being first in line, and then got herself a grab bag tote too, because we got confused when she asked us if we wanted the bag, we were like "yeah," but the free bag and the bag were different things... oh well. Haha.

So then we shopped. I spent almost all of my money in those first 2 hours (and then was amazingly able to ration the rest until about 2 hours before it closed on Saturday.. then I had to borrow some.)

I got a lot of great things at Boxer, Paper Wizard, Scrapbuck, Tessler Stamps, etc. It was fun, but I found out the next day just how much I bought when my shoulders hurt from the weight of my bag!

My first class was at 11, and it was the 2010 Latest & Greatest - it wasn't as great as I thought it was going to be (they didn't even do door prizes!), but looking back on the pages, I think I can fix them up a bit and they'll look pretty cool.

I LOVE the new capella line, I must say.

What else... oh, then my other class was the Simplicraft class - a little goes a long way. Alright, if you're going to say it's a little paper, don't use only patterned paper! Every page I did in this class had something wrong with it, so I'll have to fix them later - either the way she told us to put the ribbon looked bad, or she told us to clip corners that don't look good rounded, or the ribbon flower we made looked... well, awful. This was my least favorite class.

Then I shopped more, and kept trying to find out if our room was ready. Finally, after 3 pm, and it still wasn't ready, I asked - they said they were giving us new mattresses, so we'd hear soon. I gave my phone number so I could be called when it was ready (by the way, never got called - I just eventually went back, and it was finally ready.)

We went to JD's Tavern for dinner, where I was told I couldn't make reservations, but could come 10 minutes early with one or two other people and ask for a table for 14.. alright.. so I did that. We all trickled in from classes, and I was the only one who got an appetizer. Everyone made fun of me because they were messy wings, and I couldn't even pick up my drink, but when their food took an hour to come out, I was glad I had gotten something.

Then we went up to our room (which was finally ready at 6 pm), and unpacked everything - pjilla and I were the only ones who cropped at our cropping party, haha. I made a grungepaper rose, and she worked on pages. That finally ended around 11 (I was falling asleep before it started from the long day, but the cheese doodles and brownies woke me up), and I crashed immediately afterwards.

Up the next morning was a frenzy in trying to pack and make our Boxerpalooza class - I wasn't much help in getting ready, but we got to class only about 5-10 minutes late, and this class was awesome - got the coolest stuff, and I would definitely do it again. It was worth the price.

Then I had to go to my Piggy Tales class, which was good - what we did it class wasn't too great, but other examples that they had at the beginning that I wrote down were good, and gave me some ideas. We had to paint edges (like chalking) and I ended up painting myself more than the paper, but it was fun.

After that, we shopped more, until my mom's class - then I finished the shopping up. The booths I liked didn't have any last-minute sales, but that's okay. I ran into NEE, and we hung out until my mom got out of her last class.

That's when we found out that the boil-water order had been put into effect (I got a call on my cell phone), so we stopped off at Walmart and stocked up on gallons of water for ourselves and Lou's family.

I still haven't unpacked, but I will as soon as I'm done with this last paper!

 

[LindaBabe]

Lovely report, Z2H! And your shirt designs were a HUGE hit! I got SO many comments on it.

That rose you made was wonderful - I don't know that I'd put it on a page, but I sure might WEAR it - BEAUTIFUL!

Capella! Yes, that's the BG I bought. all of it, lol. Can't wait to see you guys again

 

[hegs65]

Hi Ladies, I wasn't able to make it to the crop but I did make it to the vendor fair on Saturday. It was fabulous! My favorite booths were the Technique Tuesday one and the one that did the laser titles. I bought a bunch of the Disney titles at the laser booth-they were so amazing! Perhaps I am behind the times, but I loved, loved, loved everything in the Technique Tuesday booth. The ladies there could not have been more helpful. Plus as a bonus, they let me take pictures of all their layouts. There were so many great ideas there. I got some great buys at the SEI booth too. Overall, I spent waaaayyy too much money but it was totally worth it. I loved having so much stuff under one roof. I wish I could have met some of you though! I was going to try and peak in the crop room, but had no idea where it was. So looking forward to WDW in August!