First Ever Fork and Talk

Ok.  So my current obsession is craftgossip.  I've talked about it before.  It is this wonderful blog that links to other wonderful blogs.  And, as I learned, they are an international site, and their headquarters are in Australia.  However, 4 of their editors live right here in Central Arkansas!!!  They got a luncheon together sponsored by EK Success, which is a great crafting company.  I really thought that they just did paper.  Boy, was I wrong.  At the end of the luncheon we got a giant goody bag of tons of EK Success brand items to try out!!  Now we get to try all of them out and blog about how awesome they are.  So that means that there will be a lot of posts about the new stuff I get to try....because there is so much it will take me forever to get through all of them!!!  It is fun though, and now I have lots of stuff to fill my craft room with (even though it is already pretty full...).  So, since I haven't been able to try anything yet (I've been in bed with a stomach bug all day) I decided I would blog about the actual event on Saturday, September 10.

So the first Fork and Talk was at Trio's restaurant in Little Rock.  Such a good place to eat.  You really need to go there.  We were in a room by ourselves and had a special menu to pick from for lunch.  There were four tables set up, and we got to pick where we sat!  There were five people plus one of the editors at each table.  First things first, we got lunch!!

 I got the Leilani for lunch which was this wonderful croissant with appricot jam, dried cranberries, turkey and avocado.  There was also a fruit salad with poppyseed dressing......it was SO good!!!  I wish we could have had seconds....but there was crafting to be done!!

We went around the room and told everybody about ourselves, what we blogged about and what the strangest thing we ever crafted with was.  I believe this picture is me explaining that I am way to OCD to craft with anything else besides what is made to craft with.  I guess that doesn't make me very creative....but what can I say.  The weirdest I heard was using tampons to apply chalk, and knitting with--wait for it--collected dog hair.  Blech.  Couldn't even imagine.  

Not the best picture of me.  But you can see behind me some of the goodies we get to play with in a little bit!!!

After we finished eating we had a challenge to decorate a hat within fifteen minutes with our table.  We got right to work and ours was a beautiful hat with pink sparkle ribbon, a big tulle bow, and a little bouquet of flowers in the back!!  We didn't win....super depressing.  But I thought we were awesome.  

So EK Success has these little kits that they put together.  I think they are pretty awesome.  Because I like things already ready to go....everything you need is in these little kits.  The ones we were trying out today was to make these flower barrettes or pins.  It has the fabric, the felt, the barrettes, and even a needle and thread!! The only other thing you need for this project is a hot glue gun (we used glue dots and they worked just fine). It was super simple and I loved making them!!!

 Here we are showing off our cute new flowers.  Funny story: Andi, who is on the right, was in school with me at UAMS! I haven't seen her in so long, how funny to come across her at this random event!!!!  

After we did our flowers we finally got to dive in to our goody bags.  And let me tell you, those things were PACKED full of goodies!!!!  In fact, there was so much stuff, that we got an additional grocery bag full of stuff!!  We got to look through and see all of the stuff we were going to get to take home with us!!

I'm pretty sure the things I am most excited about are the Martha Stewart Craft supplies.  I am a big fan of Martha.  

Okay.  Seriously.  We got mustache stickers.  Doesn't get any better than that.  

This is everything laid out so that you can see how many things we actually got!!! Can you believe it?? We are so lucky, and EK Success was a great sponsor for providing all of this to us!! I seriously can't wait to try every thing out!

This is a picture of all of the ladies that were at the event.  I am so excited that I got to meet all of them.  They all had such amazing stories, and I feel like I made so many friends who I have crafting in common with!  I can't wait to keep up with their blogs, and maybe meet again someday for more lunch and crafting!!!

After the lunch was over, I headed over to meet Tim for some tailgating.  He had been golfing all morning, and we got finished at the same time.  We had a blast seeing all of our friends!! Only thing I didn't like? I got beer poured on me.....twice....by two different people.  Oh well. I guess that is what happens!! 

Tim and I got tickets to the game from his uncle (thanks!!).  They did something really cool this year.  They had all of the people in the even sections wear red, and all of the people in the odd sections wear white.  The student section was given blue shirts.  We were sitting in section 19, so we dressed in white!!  

The stadium looked awesome, and I think it was such a great way to honor our country and the anniversary of September 11th.  I feel so blessed to live in the country that I do, the land of the free, and the home of the brave.

Oh...and GO HOGS! We won!!