SPARK WAS AMAZING

Hi Everyone,

My life has been crazy lately!! I was able to squeeze in some creating time this past weekend at the wonderful first year of SPARK in Salt Lake City.

The setting was beautiful, the hostesses were even more beautiful and sweet! Liz, Margie, Jefra and Rhonna.

The day and a half flew by, Friday afternoon there were 15+ different stations with fun make and takes, and demonstrations of new techniques or tools. Saturday there were four classes. The first was an art book class, the second was a photography class...check out this photo I took with a cool lens....

Here was one I modeled for while a Spark tried her photo skills.

The third class was a embellished t-shirt class, here is my creation.....

And finally we had a jewelry class making charms on a chain. More photos to come on that.

The event ended with a trip to the most amazing store I think I have ever walked in!!!

Dear Lizzie! The ladies catered lunch for Spark on Saturday, and also taught one of the workshops making fun junk bows! (Aren't they fabulous?) Can you believe they opened the shop late into the night to let the Spark girls shop?? Thanks so much, we had so much fun shopping!!

Thanks to my friend Annette for entering the world of crafty and fun!! It was such a great weekend !!

Onto Silver Bella in 2 days!!! Oh but not before a work trip to Phoenix tomorrow and Wednesday. Please let me stay healthy!

More photos to come, just need to go to bed now!

Night

Rach

Nebraska Game

The game today was VERY disappointing! However, it was still a fun time at the stadium. I took my clients and we had a lot of fun.

Next week let's see a better game guys!

The Fruit Loop

Hello Again,

I did have to share a few other pictures from Oregon. They have a fun little area that has numerous fruit stands along the side of the road.

The best one had the nicest Fruit Farmer? Fruit Rancher? Fruit Procurer? Fruit Grower?? Nicest Fruit Guy around. He let us try these Asian Pears that were the juiciest thing ever! We bought three to eat while we were in Portland!

Another stand was recommended to us, but we just stopped for some photos ops, they displayed their fruit and pumpkins in huge bins.

Having food fresh right off the field is such a treat!!

How do you like them apples??

Rach

Portland Adventures

Hi Everyone,

Yes I am so behind on blogging, Yes I have over 900 posts to read on all my favorite blogs, Yes I have a very short weekend since I begin traveling again on Sunday, and Yes I am desperately wanting to work on some of my new fun kits I've been purchasing, but alas no time yet for that too much "day job" work to do!!!

Good news is I finished my recipe pages for the Bella Recipe Book Swap. Or I should say, I mailed them off to the lovely swap hostess Shea. I'm sure I could have tinkered with them for quite awhile but alas I didn't have more time. I realize I just used the word "alas" twice already...that can't be good.

Anyhoo, I am tempted to post pics of the pages, along with my tag for my Year of Tags swap that I am hosting, but I am going to keep them under wraps until after Silver Bella, then I can share all the pages and tags from everyone at once!!

So now instead, I'll share a bunch of pics from my weekend in Portland, Oregon with my friends Carmen and Nicole from Chicago. We all used to work together when I lived in Chicago, and we have had some great times together! This trip did not disappoint.

Wednesday we got into Portland. We stayed at the Hotel Monaco, my favorite! Part of the Kimpton hotel chain, so so fun.

We had a wonderful hostess there who made some great recommendations.

Dinner Wednesday night was at Clyde Commons, a very tasty restaurant with plates to share and wonderful fresh and local ingredients. I think I had at least 3 or 4 beet salads while I was there.....Beets!! Where have they been all my life?? I love them on salads!

Thursday we drove up to Mt Hood along the Columbia River stopping at the numerous Waterfalls along the way.

We stopped in Hood River for the best lunch I've had in a long time at 3 Rivers. Nicole and I share a tasty quiche and salad, along with Fish Tacos....yummmm makes me hungry thinking about it.

Thursday night we went to a nice seafood restaurant called SouthPark. Friday our Wine Country Tour guide Mike picked us up and took us to 6 wineries, some small family ones, a fairly new one and some tried and true spots.

Cheers!

What a fun day, and what beautiful weather, we were soooo lucky. Also lucky that most of the wine we purchased made it back on the plane intact. Friday night's dinner was a few small plates to share at 50Plates. Oh and we had a very tasty lunch in Carleton OR at a great Italian restaurant. The stuffed mushrooms were so good!

Saturday was a fun epicurian walking tour of Portland. A cute sandwich shop called the Flying Elephant, we tried a Tomato Orange Soup that was to die for, google the recipe and you'll find it online. I must try making it!! Then we stopped at the oldest Brewery in Oregon called Bridgeport. They have a huge restaurant and brewhouse there with only 2 garbage dumpsters they fill up once per week. They have invested LOTS into being as green as possible recycling nearly everything. Props to them! A little bakery, tea shop, cooking school, and cupcake place rounded out the day. Dinner that night was at Andina, such unique dishes to share and some very tasty Scallops!

So if you think all we did was eat while on this trip....you are pretty close :) Now I must workout to lose the few pounds that Portland bestowed upon me for visiting!!

Off to the Zoo tomorrow with my nieces. I think we are seeing an IMAX first!

Have a great weekend!!

Rach

Chateau Getaway!!!

Bon Jour Everyone -

I am so excited that I just signed up for the French General Chateau Getaway Deux! The wonderfully creative Kaari Meng from French General has opened up registration for the 2nd year of this amazing getaway in the SOUTH OF FRANCE!! I have never been to France, and thought this would be a fantastic way to spend time there. I will be going for the 1st week, she has 2 weeks available, both in July of 2010.

Click Here to get all the details if you are interested in coming along to be inspired in a beautiful setting!!

I must go learn some French now so I can be prepared for all the markets we'll see there :)

-Rach