Ankeny, Iowa Feb 28, March 2, 2020

Right after our great vacation in Florida, I got to have one more adventure

before our world changed.

Kathy and I had made plans back in October to go to Ankeny, Iowa to a scrapbooking

retreat sponsored by Memory Bound.

The weather was great for driving.  If we had just driven straight through, (what fun would that be),

it would have been a four hour drive. We stopped at a couple quilt shops, and of course

picked up a few "much needed" quilting supplies. Our plans were to drive on Thursday as the retreat

was to start early Friday Morning.

 The retreat was for Friday, Saturday and Sunday. It 

started on Friday at 9:00 am.   Memory Bound was open early Friday morning, so we had to be there

to check all things out!  What a great store. Naturally we had to buy a few things for just

in case.  Our plan had been to work on "gnome" projects for cards.

We had these neat dies to make gnomes.  Kind of labor intensive, but we were having fun

creating them.

Everyone had their own table, lots of room to spread out.  

We had lots of things to spread out with!  Let the creating begin.

Spread out we did!

One lady near us let us borrow a couple of tree dies to make enhancements

for our cards. Now we know it would be a good move to have a tree die or two

for future use.

We took mini road trips in the area. We even found a quilt barn.

Kathy knew of this great antique mall "The Brass Armadillo". 

It has been so long since I have been antiquing.  What fun.  Not that we needed

anything, but we each found a few treasures.

There were even a couple quilt shops in the area.

Naturally we had to check them out as well.  You know every shop

seems to carry different fabrics and patterns. Again, you jusst might see

something you need to add to your stash.

Quilt barn signs show up just about anywhere.

Loved this little pattern.  New Christmas fabric seems to be coming in

already.

Found this cute towel with the Halloween pattern embroidered on it.

Ideas, ideas.

While at the retreat we caught a conversation about a new shop called

"Taylored Expressions."  It was not far from us, and they were hosting a free,

make and take. The card on the left is the one I made.  They had everything

set up for us to make it. How cute!!!

(side note, Taylored Expressions and I have become purchasing great friends. Already

have spent a couple hundred on fun dies and stamps.)  Taylor Van Bruggen is the owner and creator of

so many cute and great dies and stamps.

The other card was a fun make and take.  Both cards are techniques I have never done.

Oh my what fun new things for me to learn.  Even at 74 I am still learning new things!

We had so much fun on the weekend.  Hated to have to pack up Sunday afternoon.  Why do things never fit the same for the trip home.

We had decided to stay over night Sunday, as it would have been dark doing the drive home.

Besides, we would be able to make a couple stops on the way home.

After all we did not stop at all the quilt shops on the way to Ankeny!

Can you guess where we did stop?

Does this help?

Mike and Frank of American Pickers!

They weren't there, but we enjoyed looking around at all the fun

things they had for sale. 

As I said earlier, this was the last adventure before all H... 

broke loose.