Fiskateer Roundup

Yee Haw!!! It was such an awesome weekend in San Antonio, Texas. I headed down on Friday morning and arrived in the early afternoon. The first people we met (besides the other Fiskateers on the bus) were the really awesome Fiskateer leads Holly, Cheryl, and Stephanie. This picture is of me and Cheryl. She is just as sweet as I expected her to be! I headed up to my room on the 19th floor (I really do not like to be up that high!) and met my roomie Ramona. After lugging my 50 pound suitcase through the airports and hotels (thank goodness for wheels!) I was ready to do something relaxing for a while. I met up with Amyre in the hotel lobby and we decided to head out and see a little bit of San Antonio. We took the riverboat ride, not knowing we would be going on it again with the Fiskateers on Saturday. The scenery was beautiful and it was neat to hear the history of San Antonio. Afterwards we headed into town in a search for the Alamo. We were only a few blocks away. I was suprised that it was in the middle of town and so big. After taking a ton of pictures, we headed back for dinner and our welcome from Fiskars and Brains on Fire.

I was so shocked at how many tools we were given to bring back to train other demonstrators. When we entered the salon for dinner, we each had a rolling tote and an orange cowboy hat. The totes had papers and mini albums in them. Over the course of the weekend, we received more tools than our "horses" could carry.

Friday and Saturday evening, we were given the opportunity to share any Christmas, Valentines, or family projects we have done. I shared a few of my iris folding cards and scrapbook pages. It was a little nerve racking to get in front of the camera and introduce myself and talk about my projects. When I was introducing myself once, I couldn't even remember my Fiskateer number. "Hi, I'm Jennifer B from Salt Lake City, Utah and I'm Fiskateer # ................duh............... what's my number...........Can I start over?" Hopefully they don't decide to show bloopers on FiskersTV :)

I decided to be bold and ask Suzanne Walker of FiskersTV if she would be interested in doing a segment on iris folding. Before I could even ask, she asked me if I would be willing to film a demonstration of my iris folding. She had seen my tags and really liked them. Trying not to scream, I told her I would love to. We ended up filming late Saturday night when my eyes were bloodshot and my hair was not looking it's best. (When I asked the camera guy if he could edit that out later, he laughed and said he was not a magician.) I was worried that I rambled a lot but they said it went good. I'm not going to get too excited for it to actually go on FiskarsTV but if it does, that will be way too awesome! This picture was taken before the segment shot.

I took several projects and way to many tools and hardly used any of them. We had plenty to keep us busy. We did a minibook and scrapbook page on Friday night. Saturday, we had four classes with projects in three of them (one scrapbook page, a round album, and a frame). That evening we had classes with Nancy from Cloud 9 and Heidi Grace from Heidi Grace Designs. We started a CD calendar in Nancy's class and made an altered notebook in Heidi's class. I just have to say that Heidi is so darn funny!!! I was laughing so hard that I was crying and could hardly see. Thanks Heidi! I haven't had a good laugh like that in a long time! This picture is of Holly and me holding my frame I made in her class.

Saturday day we also went to lunch and dinner as a group, saw the Alamo again, and took a riverboat ride again. It was great to hang out with such a great group of ladies! By Saturday evening I had had enough socializing and was ready to just be creative. I'm really good at socializing and being the last one at the party if it is with people I know well, but when I am getting to know people and worried about what others think, I find it very, very tiring. (Am I being too honest here?) I headed back to the hotel a little early from the dinner party and just tried to organize.

We were trained on so many really cool Fiskars tools. I can't wait to use my border and circle punches more. My squeeze punches are awesome! My kids love them because they are so easy to use. The trimmers are all really cool. The new paper lines we were given are really cool (each night we came into our rooms with paper packs from the different designers). I can't wait to find 20 people who would like to be trained as Fiskars demonstrators as well. It will be so much fun to share the fun and excitement of this past weekend!

My trip home was fairly uneventful. I did get to spend an hour chatting with Heidi Grace and Jenifer (another Fiskateer) as we waited for our flights. Dragging my 75 pounds of luggage through the airport was not fun and well worth the $3 for a luggage cart. The smiles on my kids faces when they saw me at the airport was priceless.

Thank you Fiskars and Brains on Fire for a weekend that far exceeded my expectations! It was so much fun! Thank you Holly for considering me worthy to be one of the Nifty Fifty! Thank you Ramona for being a great roommate and being understanding of my coming in late at night after you were already asleep. Thank you Amyre for hanging out with me. Thank you everyone for a weekend that I will never forget!!! I hope to see some of you again in the future.