The Creative Connection was more delightful than we could've hoped for. Being that we drove there...yes, from New Jersey to St. Paul Minnesota, 25 hours straight, no motel stops, just the occasional sugar and salt binge...we needed to rest up once we arrived in St. Paul. So in order to stop ourselves from turning into real life actual zombies we grabbed some beauty rest. This meant missing the opening day breakfast and also the lunch...but that was fine...We arrived at the event right before dinner and checked in...receiving our itinerary package (which was so so clear, concise, and helpful) and name tags. And at that point the hotel was teeming with fabulous gals and a palpable buzz was in the air. This was the beginning of what would be the ultimate odyssey of hands on, tangible, social networking...more consecutive handshakes, hugs & kisses than Mickey gets on a good day at Disneyland. It just warms the heart to reconnect with everyone...all the gals that we only get to see at events like this. And even better than that is when you get to meet in person for the very first time a longtime online friend. And what tops that is when you strike up a conversation with a complete stranger and then you carry that conversation over the next 3 days in St. Paul...and you just know that this will be a real deal friend for life.
The big opening night dinner was fantastic...foodwise and contentwise.
Jo Packham welcomed the ballroom of nearly eight hundred peeps, with her trademark wit, charisma, and above all candor. I simply adore her honesty and true spirit. She got very emotional up there at the podium and it's not hard to see why being the founder of an event like this would break you up in joyful tears. The whole message and feel of the event was that we are all so much alike...that, at an event like this you know that you can walk up to anyone at all and connect on a million topics. Because the pre-work was done for us all...we could all fairly assume that if the person is there at The Creative Connection then they are our kind of person.
Tim Holtz was in attendance and he took the microphone briefly, talking mainly about what it was like to be the first guy featured in
Where Women Create. And the keynote speakers were fabulous.
Cristina Ferrare treated us to pretty much a tell-all, E true Hollywood story of her life. And the super sweet
Holly Becker lead us through her own coming of age tale...and being that she's a blogger extraordinaire she had great visual aids on the projection screens flanking the stage.
The following day the vendor market opened and classes began. Classes - these were the reason for our journey...everything else was just the sprinkles on top. We taught three classes with two different themes and it's impossible to pick our favorite. We did
Hooray for Cake and
Lovely Ladies, Layers & Lines. Each was so so rewarding in it's own way. The connection we make with our students and seeing the artistic twinkle in their eyes is a cure-all for the soul. So much self discovery is happening right there before your eyes...and to think that you yourself play a small role in bringing about that discovery is just plain magical. Everyone was so darn sweet...arriving at class with an open heart and mind. I hope we filled them with good stuff that they can put in their artistic toolboxes for the long run. The slide show up top shows just the tippy tippy tip of the iceberg. I encourage you to take stroll through blogland to see what everyone else has to say about their good times...I've been seeing some great pics on Facebook too. Me and Aar would love to return next year...even if we're not instructors we'd even go just to be vendors at the market...speaking of, I guess that was our only disappointment. Our classes were scheduled at the same time as the market on both Friday and Saturday...so our booth at the market was left unmanned while we taught our classes. Next year we'd make sure to bring help or to set up with one of the few super generous gals who offered to help us out next year if ran into the same problem.
As much as I'd like too, it's impossible for me to give you guys my full blow-by-blow recap of The Creative Connection. One thing I'd have to say is that this is one event that is so very worth putting on your calendar for next year. And say you have a friend that you'd love to travel with but maybe they don't have an interest in taking art classes...well this is the perfect opportunity. Even though us artistic people tend to sorts take an event over and make it all about the artistic projects, the getting down and dirty with paint and glue and glitter and more. The Creative Connection is so much more than that. You can go and take classes on starting up a small business, opening a bakery, putting together a unique and creative menu...jeez, tons of stuff that doesn't involve cutting, painting, drawing, making etc... It really is a special event for making connections not only with others but within yourself...for seeing what was always there but you were maybe too busy to acknowledge it. I know it worked that way for me and Aar in a way. Well, it really hit us on the ride home (which we did much slower than the ride there...actually got three motel rooms in three states) we'd like to do a lot more of this. And so now that we're home our goal is to not fall back into any old patterns but to carve out new ones that will lead us to a life that contains much more of the stuff we want it to contain. And with that said,
Art is You is nearly a week away ( not too late whatsoever to sign up! do it if you can...it's in Danbury Connecticut and our classes are awesome! Really great projects!) and we are stoked to hit the road again and teach teach teach and meet meet meet.
Please don't forget to enter our swag bag give-away...two swag bags and two chances to win... either comment on the video on the
previous post or comment under the same video on
Facebook. The sound on the vid is out of sync and it urks me to no end, but in a way it makes the train wreck that much more fun right? Ok, gotta go grab some dinner. Thanks so so much again for stopping by!
xoxo, Jenny
