And so it begins......

Look -- there are PICTURES in the blog and I'm away from home!   Now isn't that exciting!  I brought my camera (small one) and my phone so I'll be able to edit anything.  Ronda will be so happy to know that these pictures are from my phone and I just plugged my phone into the computer in order to get them!!!  Now isn't that just the coolest!!!   Just remember to hit ALLOW on the phone. 

I did sleep in yesterday which doesn't surprise me considering the odd times I've been going to bed and getting up the last couple of days and the fact that it was so late when we got to bed.  We had a good breakfast and got to the booth where some of our stuff had arrived but not the main part of our stuff. I walked to the loading docks at the back and soon spotted a trunk from Ontario and caught a picture of the guy backing into the loading dock!!! 

Yep - that's our stuff in those big crates!!!

Stuff arriving at the load docks

 For those of you who do not get to enjoy the experience that we call set-up day, here is a shot from the floor early on in the day. As the various crews arrived and the crates and boxes got opened, it became almost impossible to wander around.  The aisles were blocked with stuff. Total mayhem.

On the floor before most of the total chaos begins

When I was hanging out at the loading dock, I overheard one person say to her friend, those fabric companies take up all the aisles with their stuff.  And it's true - the fabric companies are the ones (mostly) with the huge crates. But there are loads of pattern designers, long arm companies, thread companies - you name it - they are here.  Celebrity spotting yesterday included Alex Anderson and Marti Michell. Actually had a good conversation with Marti who remembers me so that's always a good thing!

It was a long long day but we were kicked out at 6 PM so that was good - at least there is an end to the setup day.  There's still a lot of work to be done today, but I'm hoping to attend a couple of schoolhouses as well as give my schoolhouse presentation.

I'll take some pictures of the area outside the convention center. It's beautiful.  They've been working on it forever. This is my third show here and each year it gets a wee bit more finished. Now I think they are finished.  Looks nice and lots of artwork and a whole lot of restaurants in the area.  Previously there were none.

This is a happening town to be sure.  Not only are there thousands of quilters in town for Quilt Market and then Quilt Festival, but the Houston Astros have got themselves into the World Series.
They won the first game a night or two ago and the people around here were going crazy - horns honking, crowds cheering. 

Let's put this scene into perspective for you.  In the picture below is our quiet hotel on the left.  It's not one of the much larger hotels that are affiliated with Quilt Market.  We like it quiet!  That's the Westin in case you are wondering.  On the right in the picture is the Minute Maid Baseball Stadium.  And behind me is the convention center. So you think it's going to get crazy???   Oh yes!!!

Hotel on the left, baseball stadium on the right and convention center behind me

Now let me tell you what's going on right at this moment.  It's now 6 AM here. The church bells just ran 6 AM. Actually, I don't think it was to announce 6 AM, but some church service???  And it would appear that there is a movie being filmed???   Yesterday I saw a big truck full of AV equipment driving around and a guy on the street said - Oh that's for me, drive around the block to that corner to drop it off?.  Never thought anything more about it.  Then this morning around 5:20, I could hear cheering. I'm thinking that it's a wee bit early for the baseball fans to be cheering.  But what the heck - they could be enthusiastic. But when I hear the drums, I had to get up to see.  It looked like a mini protest?  Oh, now they are cheering again!  But it's not ongoing so that's why I'm thinking it's a film shoot.  What weird timing!

I have to laugh when we come to these events. We have two camps - the ones that eat dinner right after the event closes for the day and those that are just going out when we are finished. I'm in the early camp for sure.  I'm exhausted enough without staying up to all hours of the night. 

My legs were super tired yesterday - oops - there goes the drums again!  I can see them from my window.  Doesn't look like a film shoot - no cameras or such.  I've no idea what's going on!!!

Anyway, my legs were super tired last night. I checked my Fitbit - only 17,700 steps. No wonder!!!


On that note, I'm out of here as I have to get ready for the day. We have a meeting and then back to the convention center to finish setting up and it's Schoolhouse today!!!!   More on that tomorrow.

Have a super day!!!


Ciao!