2000 miles to Nashville (and back)

This may be a bit like a hobbits tale: there and back again.

I left on a balmy Wednesday night; my Houston helper had bummed her knee out, so instead of doing the drive in one big jump, I was doing it in stages. I went to lovely Baton Rouge and caught some Z's at Mom's Manor.

Thursday I got up early and started the journey North.

It wasn't long before I was entering the third state of my journey: Mississippi. I made a brief stop at the Mississippi State Crime Lab in Jackson. No, I wasn't in trouble or anything, a good friend of mine works there and we met up for lunch! After lunch, I was on my way again, although the temperature was rapidly dropping. I stopped for the night in Southhaven, MS and visited with my Great-Aunt and Great-Uncle. I stayed in my Grandmother's house, which was a bit strange since it was now empty. Well, it wasn't completely empty; my father is getting it ready to be sold, so there are tools and cans of paint everywhere. In a way that was comforting because it reminded me of Dad. I took my Great-Aunt out for dinner (we had the early-bird), then after chatting for a while, I went back to the house to finish putting patterns together! I thought I would never get done! But I did (after watching Survivor, CSI and ER). The next morning, I was supposed to get up early and pick up Amy, who was going to help me out at the show, but I woke up to reports of freezing rain and bridges and overpasses closed. I waited a bit and then called the 1-800 number for Tennessee road information. I was expecting a recorded message, but someone answered the phone! He very nicely told me that all the roads were open, so out I went. The roads were indeed fine, but nice and empty. I did see several accidents, so it must've been slick earlier. I picked up Amy, and away to Nashville we went.

Finally, headed east, the weather was quite different:

Once we got to Nashville, we unloaded the car and started to set up the room. It doesn't take too long, and this is what it looked like when it was done:

Friday we had one last hurrah before all the hustle and bustle of Market and went to dinner at the Grand Ole Opry (although we almost didn't because of the $12 + tax parking). In the end it was all worth it. The hotel is really neat inside and the food was fabulous!

Unfortunately, after dinner we had to package Snowfight accessory packs and Map Action Packs (for the new complimentary design). The Snowfight accessory packs weren't too bad, there were only 30 of them, but I had made 250 maps to go with the new design, so we were cutting, stuffing and labelling those for quite a while.

Here are pictures of the new releases:

Mayan Mystery: Note there is now a hardanger alternative included for those who don't want to cut their fabric. The glyphs around the border represent the 20 days of the month.

Easter Ellipse: A companion to Angle of Love.

Triangularity: A companion to Labyrinth and Maze

Snowfight: Violet - a new dragon in the snowfight series!

This isn't the best picture (I'll put a better one up later), but I forgot to take a direct picture of this one: "X Marks the Spot", which is the newest in the complimentary design series, The Adventures of Oscar and Ralph. You can see the treasure map in the center of this design, which Oscar (the dragon) is holding and Ralph (the mouse) is studying. The map is actually a Stitchable Fabric Button and is washable and colorfast. A very cool enhancement to the stitching!

Saturday and Sunday were filled with the usual Market stuff, then it was break it all down and pack it all up again. The drive home was long, and I pit-stopped in Baton Rouge again, but I made it home safe and sound.