Pricing for custom bags in the new size are listed on the shop page. I will be working on getting a more steady stream of ready to ship bags for this holiday season but you can always place a custom order even if you want a gift recipient to be the one to make the fabric selections!

Friday: Arrival. I got to the hotel and checked in after my flight. They almost could not find my reservation but that was because I am an idiot and forgot that when I booked TechEd under my maiden name (hoping I’d have that done by now) that went for the hotel too. I fixed it with TechEd but forgot the hotel. I am really dumb at times, poor lady at the desk must have thought I was so daft. Oh and then I didn’t call and tell my CC company so when they saw the hotel charge they put a hold on my card so I had to call them too. After that drama I got settled and headed to Little Tokyo with some new friends from the This is Blythe forum. The meet was fun and I tried mochi ice cream for the first time. Um yeah…yummy! Fun was had by all and dolly photos galore! It is always great to meet other people who are in to Blythe and hear about what do and whatnot. So many different walks of life and such kind people. Lois is such a kind woman and so creative (you should see the stuff she’s made). Her husband and granddaughter were equally kind. Wendy was awesome, I love her fun photos and holy crackers she is good at customizing her dolls.

Saturday: Meet Day part dos. Saturday started with a ride to Union Station. The metro was super easy to ride and I was only two stops on the Red Line from Union Station. There was a Breast Cancer walk downtown and it was National Train Day or something so there was a good size crowd around. I met up with Paula and a few others and had an amazing lunch at Phillipe’s, home of the original french dip sandwich. The line was crazy (see previous sentence about the events in town) but well worth it. We then walked to Chinatown, checked out some shops, scored a good deal on lace trim, took photos, and generally chatted. Paula and Linda are amazing knitters so it was a treat to meet them. And Melissa and Paul are insanely creative as well so it was pretty much amazing to be hanging out with these people.

After that, Betty and her daughter picked me up at the hotel where we headed to Little Tokyo for another meet. They have collected a variety of dolls for quite a long time but are newer to Blythe. They brought along all 12 of their girls so that was a treat to see so much variety. We met up with Dollster there who brought his Rosie. He also has been a collector or other dolls in the past but bought some of the early BL releases and never deboxed them until last Fall. If know know Blythe I’m sure your jaw just dropped. Lauren and her DH (what a trooper) showed up as well so I was able to meet her two dolls and get to chat with her. It is really cool after ‘knowing’ people via Flickr, Twitter, and so forth to actually meet them. On the way back to my hotel Betty and her daughter spotted a shop that they have been wanting to go to but is always closed…and it was OPEN! So they were able to check it out and I was able to get some cute hair clips and some other stuff.

Microsoft TechEd starts tomorrow so I headed down to the convention center to pick up my stuff today. The bag this year is pretty nice, score! I’m off to knit now and rest my poor tired feet. Right foot is still acting up but I brought the brace dealy thing so maybe that will help. Tonight will be spent on some work stuff and getting all prepped for tomorrow morning and waking up EARLY. Me + early = RockStar needed. Like an IV of the stuff.

Let’s start at this weekend and work backwards shall we? Okay so, Friday was the annual trek to the Phoenix Quilting & Sewing show. C and I have made this trip a little tradition over the past few years. I like to joke that we are the youngest people there not in strollers but it is still a good time.

This year we skipped the make and takes as none of the projects really caught our eye. We did however check out the Fair Isle clinic. HOLY CRACKERS! I was able to do it! No, really, I was able to knit with two colors of yarn and with one in each hand. I do hope you were sitting down for that one because it shocked the heck outta me. So now of course I totally want to try it some more. Which then just reminded me that I have been really slacking at Ravelry. Oops.

After the Sewing we went on to yarn and visited TYF. I’ve been a big baby about the cold and haven’t been there in ages but it was awesome to see Terry, Candy, and Fred. I bought some more wool to make fulled hats for the shop and also some yummy sock yarn. I HAVE to finish my niece’s socks first.

Now let’s travel back in time!! Last weekend was Las Vegas with C and D. We went up on Friday and came home Sunday. Getting there was like running the gauntlet! So the plan was to leave early, like noonish. Well, D and I needed to stop at a post office and a credit union on the way to C’s house. Easy peasy right? I tell her to go to the Hallmark by my house since they have a PO and it is so much faster than the regular one. Um yeah…they were closed for lunch and wouldn’t open for another hour. *sigh* Ok so we will go to the CU and then the big PO. I can’t make this stuff up people…we turn into the strip mall where the CU is and the CU is blocked off by yellow tape and there are cop cars everywhere and news crews. So yeah….let’s find a CU that isn’t being robbed. We then go to another Hallmark and ship off the items that needed sending. Then we go to Wal Mart that has the CU in it that D needs. Me, I just need an ATM for Vegas money. Guess what…the ATM was broke. So we got on the road late but did make it to Vegas after driving through lots of fog and watching out for zombies.

While in Vegas we met up with a Blythe pal and had a meet over at the mall. I’ve met Laura before and she is just fabulous. She brought her daughter this time who was so bored with us. Poor kid. While at the mall I picked up a new bag and such from leSportSac which is super cool and I freaking LOST MY MIND and bought Gracie (yes, Gracie the plastic doll) a keychain at Coach. The rationalization I have came up with is that I won’t have to put her through college or pay for a babysitter or for bail money.

The last big ticket item news wise is that I joined a gym…again. This time I have been twice and am already sticking to it much better than the other times i have joined. I am very motivated to get into shape. Both because I just plain need to for my own sake and that I’ve got a vacation coming up in May. I will be meeting up with someone I haven’t seen in 16 years so I’m a bit more than freaked out. EEP!

Ick and my flipping divorce paper work STILL isn’t done. GAH!! It serves me right, you get all upset and don’t want to thing to happen and then when you accept it and actually look forward to it it takes for-frickin-ever.

Let’s see, not a whole lot is new. I am still slowing working on ‘operation clean the entire house and get rid of all the crap’. Looking at some old pictures of the mess that was the dining room shows me that I have indeed made progress. No update on the official-ness of my single-ness. Ugh! I want it now so I can go change my name on everything. 2009 is working out to be so good so far so I want to keep that momentum going!!!

The shop is doing well. I’ve went with Regular, Ultra, and Deluxe to denote the bags that are pre-quilted, pre-quilted and a layer of fabric, and quilted by me. I am hoping it will help people understand the price difference. Each step up adds more labor and also more yardage needed so I think people will understand. I also finished a pattern for cute little raglan sleeved nightgowns so those are in the shop too.

Today was not not only inauguration day (WAAAHOOO!!!) but also Candace’s birthday. This weekend to celebrate she and I and Devon are headed to Vegas Baby! It should be a super fun trip that will also include a Blythe meet.

Speaking of Blythe meets, we had on on Saturday. It was just me, Candace, Devon, and Sylvie but we still had a good time. Since people tend to not show up when it is any amount of distance from us we may as well keep having them close to home.