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Friday, March 2, 2012

Wow..... What a Whirlwind!

What a week it was. I have so much to share! We got back last night and I had my first full nights rest in several weeks. I almost feel human this morning, almost. I'm now sitting on my couch drinking a decent cup of coffee with my two puddie cats on my lap, purring away. They are so happy we're back home. Uncle Curtis stayed with them & took good care of them, but they love having mommy home.

Happy Diva Kitties


First, let me say.......... I will NEVER, yes for those of you that know me so well, do remind me of these words later, do something like that by myself again!!! We all know I'm pretty insane with the things I do. Being dubbed as "Martha Stewart on Crack", the "Tasmanian Devil" etc. etc.  My body aches from head to toe, my brains is pretty much mush. I'm just exhausted all the way around.

For those of you that don't know the contest results. I didn't win. I thought for sure, I could be a shoe in after seeing the tables last year. Not so much, the BIG GUNS came out this year and were locked and loaded, ready for battle! Wow, it was amazing, all the creativity & talent there! (I'll be posting pictures and video later, Terry has most of the pictures). The Company that pretty much swept the whole competition had a "crew" of about six, two being guys it looks like they hired to build and tear down their structure, yes I said structure, steel at that. There was only myself and my new friend Cheryl, who has been doing the contest for 5 years, that did our tables by ourselves. Again, never again...

Terry helped me as much as he could. Here he is unwrapping my chairs.
Thanks honey, don't know what I'd  have done without you!

Terry unwrapping my hand blown glass flowers. Final push for end of Tues., set up day.
(See the structure behind him, that's the one that won)

Table almost done. Terry has much better pictures.
The one to left of  me was beautiful. They had like 5 ladies working on their display. The one on the other side of me you can't really see, was amazing. It has little mice with sewing thread that spun around. It was beautiful and so creative and they didn't place.
I never did get a final count on how many tables there were. There were originally 36 or close to that, but some did not show up. I literally did not even see all the tables, since I set up to the bitter end at 9AM on Weds. before the judging. I then had to run back to my cousins to shower and change and get back for Tutera's judging at 11AM. We then went out on the floor of the convention to see what was there and to get some footage and some little interviews.
We then had to be back at our tables at 2PM to tear down everything we'd just created, load it out and then get back to Caesar's Palace for the closing session and announcement of winners by 5:15! It was insane, because we had to return the chairs I'd bought for my display, then come back and get the rest of the stuff! (We didn't eat all day, until 9:30PM)

During breakdown is when things got a bit interesting. When we got back to the table to tear down, this woman came up to me with Erica the gal from Catersource that was handling to competition and said "I've been looking for you". "I want to buy your center piece", huh? I was totally shocked! I looked at Terry and said "what do you think"? He had talked about how we should keep the display for Bexx Secret Garden. Who was I kidding? After all, he is still the husband I know so well. Of course, he said sell it, especially after all the money I spent on the thing! The short of it is. She is now commissioning me to make her custom design for her entry and I'll be doing some other greenery designs  in her home. I didn't win the competition but I got something even better in some ways. A new client!!! We have some other exciting things that came out of our walk on the convention floor that I'll be sharing later.

All in all, I learned a lot, not just about the competition but I learned quite a bit in the sessions I was able to get to on Monday. Preston Bailey was amazing and so was Tutera's closing session. This whole experience has helped Terry and I to look at all the things I do and where we want to go with my talents and the branding of The "Diva". So watch for some changes in my blog and my site (that is truly, just about finished)!

Everyone, have a wonderful and creative weekend!

4 comments:

  1. You waz robbed - robbed I tells ya! But if you got a client out of it, I'll let it go for now. Wow. What an amazing post. Sounds like another crazy, exhausting, whirlwind event for the Diva that you managed to pull off. Wish I knew how you did it. Can't wait for more pictures of the competition. Welcome Home.

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    1. Thanks Brian,
      Let's just say I've been worthless since we got back. at least I got caught up on this season's The Voice yesterday!

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  2. I love it Mom and like I said you did win. Maybe not be the definition of the contest but you won in a lot of ways with all of this. I can not wait to see the other pictures and hear about it all tomorrow. Love you!

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