PW in Charlotte, Nephew's Birthday, and Mother's Day

The Gnome, EG, Little Man, and I traveled to Charlotte on Friday to meet the Pioneer Woman, go to our Nephew's first birthday party, and celebrate Mother's Day. It was a multipurpose trip for sure. We arrived in Charlotte just in time to grab Mom G (my mother-in-law) and head over to the bookstore for the cookbook signing. We had planned to get there two hours before P-Dub's arrival. We got our number in line when we arrived (which was around #200) and waited in the bookstore's children's area to the delight of Little Man. At 6 pm, PW came onto the balcony to address the crowd. She was hilarious, sweet, and wearing her fabulous boots as always. Here's PW and her boots:

*photo courtesy of Mom G; I forgot my camera :(

PW spoke about the wonders of Spanx, answered some crowd questions (e.g., does MM wear boxers or briefs? boxers, in case you're wondering), and sang some Ethel Merman per someone's request. Then the signing began. We went to the nearby food court to get dinner while we waited. And then we spent the rest of our waiting time outside around a fountain at the mall. It was a gorgeous day outside, and the gardenias planted all around smelled heavenly. 


Note: For those of you that are planning on going to a PW book signing...If we had been savvy enough to call the bookstore ahead of time, we would have known that we could have gotten our numbers as soon as we knew she was coming, not 2 hours before the event. Oh well. They called us in groups of 20. So all in all, we waited about 5 hours until we could meet PW for our picture and signed cookbook.


PW was super-nice, and it was well worth the waiting time to get our books signed and meet her. She even whipped out her camera to take some pics of Little Man. Here's our group pic (I am notorious for closing my eyes in photos):

*photo courtesy of Mom G

Although Friday was Nephew N's official birthday, the par-tay was on Saturday. Family and friends gathered to enjoy playroom fun, outside time, barbeque, and Paula Deen's Pig Pickin' Cake (Mmmmmmm). They had the most wonderful beverage there: have you ever had Arizona's Arnold Palmer Half Iced Tea Half Lemonade? You must run out and get some straight away. Here's a pic of the Gnome, Gnome's sister Suz, Nephew N, and me at the shin-dig. Isn't N adorable? :)

*photo courtesy of Mom G

And Mother's Day! I am thankful for the bestest Mom (you know, the ?L) and mother-in-law in the world. LollyChops, in her infinite crafty genius, designed these felt flower corsages for her mom(Chops) for Easter. I decided to whip a couple up for Mother's Day. I ended up buying a different (but similar) Sizzix die (paper sculpting lilac instead of Build a Lilac) by accident, but it still worked pretty well for the task. The only problem I had is that I couldn't get the floral foam to stay snug in the fabric cone. I'm sure I was just doing something wrong (or using the wrong floral foam?), but I'll have to figure out a fix so that the bouquet will stay where it's 'sposed to. I also attempted the crocheted butterflies, but mine weren't very round (and a little big) for some reason. Obviously, I am not an accomplished crocheter (is that a word?...It is now). They're still pretty cute though. I didn't end up beading the leaves because the beads I had were a little on the large side. I even got Pops to get me two corsage boxes and corsage pins from a florist for gifting. Here are corsage number 1 and number 2:

I also made special cards for the ?L and Mom G using my new Martha Stewart punches I got on clearance. The dark and light pink (note the yellow button brad :) ) flowers are the Pop-Up Water Lily Punches, and the coral flower is the Chrysanthemum punch. I used the Cuttlebug Swiss Dots embossing folder on the background.

In Etsy news, I made my first sale! The felt flower clip I made was shipped off to it's new owner this morning. Time to list some more items! :) Happy Monday!