Our Trip to CATS, part 1

I promised I would post about CATS, so this is my recap.

I had a blast. I have to say I had a wonderful time. Maybe because it was the last one, and there was a sense that we had to do it to the max, or because my mom was along and she is the ultimate enabler, but it was great. I know people have been complaining about it was smaller, or not as good as it had been in the past, but I don't think we were at the same show, because I had great fun. There were less classes than previous years, but they didn't even know they were going to have it and it was pretty cool that they had any classes.

So I thought I would start from the first day. That makes sense right?

We wanted to be there when the shopping mart opened, so that meant getting up at 5 AM on Thursday. I had mostly finished packing, but hadn't loaded the car, because I don't live in the best neighborhood, and I've had my car broken into 4 times (wow, I just realized it's been 4 times, gaahh), so I try to not pack early. So my cell phone alarm goes off at that hour, in order to make sure I have everything packed and can get through not only DC traffic, but also Baltimore and Harrisburg traffic in time. The dogs did not want to cooperate. Robbie decided to play his, "Mummy I didn't hear the alarm going off and it's too early to wake up, so let's sleep" act, and I had to get him out and pottied. My brother, who was babysitter for the dogs, was stuck in Indiana for work, and was not sure when he would get back to Maryland, so we weren't sure how long they had to be cooped up without a potty break. And pottying three dogs is not a 5 minute thing. So we got them pottied and then it dawned on Robbie that I was leaving. I wouldn't stress about leaving Chancey and the cats, but he's very attached to me, and he's never, in the six weeks that I've had him, been away from me for more than 8 hours, and for him, that's a big deal (and he let me know about leaving him last night, LOL). He was not happy with the fact that I got ready to go and hadn't gotten out the leash and he really wanted to go, I tell you it broke my heart No, my boy isn't spoiled, is he?

Finally we got out of the house, and on the road. It was a pretty decent trip. There was an accident on 95, so we took another route. It was an easy run up 83, but that's a nice ride anyway. Little bit of a hang up in Harrisburg, but not bad. I thought Hershey was further from Harrisburg than it is, so we were there and in line by 8:30.

We got into the shopping mart on time. I have a system in place, that has worked well the past two years. We went to Stoney Creek first to pick up some of those little pieces that I need for their charts. They offer great kitted up packs, you just provide floss. Pretty cool. And I had to go look at Hummingbird Trellis afghan, to imagine that some day, if I just stick to my guns, I'll get it finished Then we hit Picture this Plus. I brought Sleepy Hollow along to pick fabric, and also an Eva Rosenstad kit of horses in the snow. The cats, OK, I had to pay for it, but they bought it for me, bought that one for me, a couple years ago for Christmas, but I can't figure out why they used cream linen for a pattern in the snow, so we swapped that out for a piece of Crystal Mercedes. Oh we chose Loch for Sleepy Hollow, which is a good match for the fabric used for the model. She also suggested Echo, but I didn't like that as much.

We also hit Scandanavian Stitches, and Gitta's. Mom fell in love with an afghan with little Eskimos on it that they featured. So we bought those. We also hit Dnky Dyes for their Oops packs, great bargains! A lady I consider an online friend, Draggy, came up to me while I was there, and I met a couple other people I know from boards.

We hit a couple more stands. OH, I found a Just Nan Bluebird Queen at Silver Needle. Very cool, that was sold out everywhere else.

I had to take Mom down to Lancaster to do some banking. I have to compliment her bank on giving CORRECT directions. This is a biggie for me. I hate getting lost. So we had a break from the show. Got back, and I wound down the windows a little, went into the stitcher's lounge, and it started raining. When we got back, the car seats were wet, uncomfortably wet. I did get a lot of stitching done in the stitchers' lounge. I took a design from UK Cross Stitcher to work on that day, and I got some good work in. People kept thinking that it was a Halloween picture, but it was called Stunning Irises. So I worked on it, even during the time we were back in the hotel. It was the perfect evening, stitching, and watching CSI. I had a hard time staying awake, because I'd been awake so long, but I did it. Then went to sleep, dreaming of what would happen on Friday.