My cousin and assistant Erin manned the shop on Friday of the retreat, and I had told her, "It'll be quiet today, since it's Friday." Little did we know that all of the retreat gals wanted to head right over to the shop. Poor Erin did pretty well, and said it was nice that everyone knew what they were doing when they shopped. She's learning on-the-job and having a good time.

As usual, we ate WAY too much food -- some lovely pastas and salads, vegetarian sandwiches with focaccia bread and roasted red peppers, chocolate covered potato chips from Widman's. Some of the gals had "aah-inducing" massages on Saturday. Plus, the Blue Angels and a giant air show were in town, so we had fun watching all of the action all weekend overhead. When someone thought they saw one of the pilots in the hotel, half of the group casually peeked out to see if he was cute or not :D And we all laughed about one of our members, Sue, who practically fell on a farmer's lap in the hot tub, trying to get to her seat.

On Saturday, I showed everyone how to cover a paper mache box top with a small needlework project (I have one in the shop -- a cute an inexpensive way to finish a piece of needlework.) And we had the drawings for door prizes -- Rensel Studios sent a group of mats that had a berry painted in the wrong place (for Blackberrie Sampler) and those were the hot item to win.

We also made a run to the bead shop here downtown, in small groups. I bought some fun glass beads -- a couple that look like hard candy, and one that was made in Fargo that looks like a bee. You never know when you'll need that special embellishment. I found a neat ivory-looking embellishment that would look great in a band sampler. A few others bought it at the shop, and I had to make a call for Amy to see if Sue and the gang were still there so they could pick her up one. (She got her embellishment -- mission accomplished!)

A bunch of the gang stuck around for the extra day, and we had a nice breakfast at Kroll's diner (looks like a 50's diner, with German and homemade fare on the menu.) And we had margaritas on Sunday -- oh, with dinner.

I am going to try to announce my dates for next summer's retreat or retreats earlier this year, so it's easier for people to take time off (watch for an announcement late fall on the website.) I do have another retreat in three weeks, but may only host one retreat next summer, because of the new responsibilities of running the shop (we'll see...) I hope you can come.

Happy Fourth of July -- eat some watermelon, wear your bathing suit, don't forget sunscreen, wave a sparkler...and GOD BLESS AMERICA!

© 2007 Theresa Venette. Articles on this site may be reproduced in needlework group newsletters or other handouts with permission of author and proper attribution. Send questions, comments and suggestions to: xspeddler@yahoo.com