Market = Awesome. Reality = Bites.

So I'm back now from International Quilt Market in Houston, and my head is spinning for about 19 different reasons. I'll only bore you with a few:

1. Fall market really is way huger than spring market. Plus maybe more quilt shop owners have just said "Screw the bad economy, I'm off to spend some money!" or something, but especially during Schoolhouse, you could barely walk between classrooms for all the people. Quilting is alive and well, hotties. But you knew that.

2. Houston is hot. And the cabbies clearly have never seen women before.

3. During my own Schoolhouse presentation, which was way better attended than my last one a couple of years ago so yay!, I actually recognized a couple of shop owners who attended the last one. I still can't figure out if they wanted to see me again or accidentally came in the room, saw it was me and said "Crap. Her again." but were too polite to leave, but I had a great time and I think the audience did too. It's what I do, after all.

4. Sample spree is crazy, but crazy fun too.

5. Learned that my website home page does, as I have known and feared and not known what to do about it, indeed suck. But hey, now I have confirmation of this from a professional. Yip-de-do. Now to find time and the smarts to fix it. Or $600 extra bucks to pay someone else to fix it.

6. I want to be BFFs with Debbie Gabel. Among other things, she created a Quilt Police voodoo doll and I bought a bunch to sell at my lectures because they could not be more perfect or less overrated.

7. It was fun to hang out in Jen Eskridge's awesome booth a bit - if you don't know her stuff, check her out at www.reannalilydesigns.com because she is amazing - and pick the brains of Carol Dockery and Kristine Poor to try to figure out if I am ready to take the plunge for a booth of my own next fall. I still have absolutely no idea of the answer to this question that was my main purpose in attending market to solve.

8. My "Night Owl" quilt looked adorable in Adorn-it's booth. Which was way adorable itself. (Photo to be added if I can figure out how - see reality bites section for more details.)

9. I may be a northerner through and through, but you do have to love a good southern gentleman, such as the one who overheard me say to my colleague and travel companion Cary Flanagan that I was bummed the airport gift shop didn't sell blank notebooks because I was teeming with ideas to work through on the plane home. Random nice man came up to me and offered me several sheets from a steno notebook, which made me happy for two reasons - a. I now had paper, and b. OMG I am NOT the only person in America who does not do everything on a computer!

By the time I reached Manchester NH, I had filled all the pages and outlined so many projects I shocked even myself, and I cannot wait to get started. "Woo hoo!" said me. "I will land, say hello to the fam, then immediately start sewing."

Enter reality. Have I mentioned reality bites? No? Have you not been listening? 13" of wet heavy snow on top of leafy trees while I was gone made a complete disaster of my town. Thankfully we have power, but there are still those without, and with power I should ostensibly be able to use my machine, right? But I have this little problem called three daughters home from school for October and November snow days.

And another little problem called my studio looks like a bomb went off due to all the last minute sewing I was doing for my Schoolhouse.

And another little issue called my laptop got zapped by the xray machine and died. AGAIN! Just when I was ready to give EQ a run for it's money.

But I soldier on. Make it do or do without. I'm using my laptop-free time to organize the sewing studio, and using my children as babysitters for each other. That's why one should have more than one kid anyway, isn't it?

Ah, but the memories of the fun and joy will remain.