I just arrived home after an amazing trip to Tucson, Arizona to visit my amazing friend, Mary Fish. Between the time I left Atlanta early on Friday morning and the time I left Tucson Monday afternoon, Mary had planned amazing things for us to do, incredible places for us to eat and lots of “just hanging out” downtime. We strategized on business and hung out with friends. I’m excited to share some of the stamp-related parts of our weekend with you.
We went to a delicious restaurant Friday night and a culinary walking tour of Tucson Saturday afternoon. What fun! On Sunday, I helped Mary film a video tour of her new craft room (which is unbelievable). We also hosted Facebook lives in our team Facebook pages (my team is InKing Royalty, and Mary’s team is Stampin’ Pals). Such fun! Mary planned a little get together Sunday afternoon – it’s always fun to hang out with creative friends.
Mary planned a fun game for us – she pulled out cardstock holders of retired colors and challenged us to name the retired color. She scored the winner of each round on a little Post-it Note.
Can you name that color? I think it was Brilliant Blue. How about this one?
I want to say that one is Certainly Celery, but I could be wrong. In fact, I was wrong A LOT during our heated competition. Here’s Kadie Labadie, Trisha Chuba, Sheryl Sharp and me.
Kadie won (which, in my view, made it a dumb game *tee hee*), but Mary gave us all a small gift. What fun! I also played a game where I read sentiments from stamp sets to get them to name the set. They were terrible (“Ooooh! Ooooh! The one with the tree in it” is not a correct name for a stamp set) – only Mary earned a point before they complete shut down my game.
Kadie, Tricia, Sheryl and I weren’t the only visitors in Mary’s craft room – Freddie made a celebrity appearance for a quick meet-and-greet.
After the games and celebrity meet-and-greet, Mary demonstrated some fun techniques with the new Country Floral Dynamic Textured Impressions Embossing Folder and a sponge dauber.
She’ll be sharing this project (it’s incredible!) on her blog soon, so I don’t want to reveal it to you here. As part of her demonstration, she showed us how to use a sponge dauber.
Kadie also planned a make-and-take project that we loved making. Mary will be sharing this project, so I am not sharing the pictures I took. The get together included some amazing treats, too! Sheryl brought some peanut butter Rice Krispies Treats with chocolate kisses in the middle. She came with a HUGE bag of them – and we ate lots! We also ate homemade sugar cookies:
and graham cracker toffee with pecans:
After all the sugar wore off, we returned to the craft room to play around. Tricia helped me design a project I’ll share here later in the week, and Mary created some fun treats with Designer Series Paper. She smartly referenced her Designer Series Paper Swatch Books during the process.
I was so happy to see her using the books I’d made.
You can see the excitement for yourself:
As the impromptu party came to an end, the hummingbirds started showing up outside – you could see them through the screen that blocked the afternoon sun. I couldn’t help myself but to make little bird hand puppets to amuse the crowd inside. 
It was such a wonderful trip! Mary and her family were so amazing to open their home. I couldn’t be more grateful. I’m happy I could share some of these pictures with you.
Thanks for stopping by today!
Brian
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It sounds like you had a fun trip! The cookies look amazing and I probably wouldn’t do well on the games either. Ha!
I love a good competition, but I was really bad at this! 🙂 Mary’s daughter made the cookies, and they were wonderful!
I don’t think you could have packed anything else into your short, fun trip. How exciting to hang out with Mary and her creative friends. I’m looking forward to seeing the new projects. Have a great day!
Thanks, Hilda! It was a wonderful trip – glad you like the short recap. You are right – we couldn’t have packed in one more thing. 🙂
Wow! A truly Royal meeting~Stampin Up!’s reigning King and Queen! What a great visit you must have had! Thanks for sharing the pictures of all the fun. Can’t wait to see the projects you spoke of.
🙂 I’m so happy to share these pictures, Linda! It was truly a wonderful weekend. ♥
Don’t we meet such great people in the stamping world!!! So glad you had a wonderful time. <3
Crafters are the best! So happy to have so many friends through this craft – including you, Dawn!
Well, color me Seafoam Green or Mint Macaron! I am just a tad bit, no, make that a whole lot of jealous! I just thought Mossy Meadow (one of my favorites) was too dark but then again if I was outside standing by our house – I would blend in with the dark green. Sorry, I sort of got carried away with your games. Looks like a good time was had by all. Looking forward to seeing more photos.
Maybe color me Lemon Lime Twist as I am both jealous and envious?
🙂 It was such a wonderful trip! I could totally be wrong about this color – I was wrong A LOT during the game. ♥
Loved the photos, BK, as well as our “amazing” weekend. It was the perfect blend of stamping, food and friendship!
It was incredible, Mary! I can’t tell you enough how appreciative we are of your hospitality and generosity. Miss you already!
The Sunday gathering was a HOOT my friend……..I just wish we had laughed a tad bit more (NOT!!!!). You made my weekend…..THANK YOU. Hope to see you again soon.
PS……Your ‘Name the Occasions stamp set game’ was SUPER HARD. You can be sure I will study the catalog next time you come to visit. GAME ON!!
I was so happy to spend time with you, Kadie, and loved the project you shared. I understand Mary will be sharing it soon. We laughed a lot on Sunday – my cheeks still hurt from all the smiling.
Looks like a great time was had by all!
p.s. that green is too light for certainly celery, IMHO. I don’t know what it is though!
It was a wonderful trip. You are likely right – I wasn’t very good at the game. The only time I got them right was when no one knew and Mary started giving us clues. ♥
It looks like you had an amazing and fun weekend. Great pictures.
The weekend was both relaxing and energy-filled. A wonderful time with great friends! ♥
Brian, other then your Mom, I can’t think of a nicer, sweeter, more generous person then Mary Fish for you to get to visit for a weekend. She is oh so very special and it sure looks like you all have a great time. Good times, good food, good friends – what could be better. Thanks for sharing it with all of us.
You’re right, Grace! I have two amazing Marys in my life, and I am lucky to spend lots of time with both. ♥
It looks like an amazing time spent with friends Brian! So glad you could get away.
No truer words, my friend! ♥
Wow, now thats a weekend!
A lotta, talent gathered together…boy, to be a fly on the wall ?.
It was amazing! Such talented folks – every one of them. ♥
Looks like sooooo much fun!
Soooooo much. ♥
So much fun! I realized after reading about your experiences, that my mouth was watering. It does that when I see treats.
Nothing wrong with a spread of delicious treats. 🙂 Thanks so much! ♥
Lucky, lucky person. Tucson ,Az. is an amazing place, we lived there 3 1/2 yrs. We lived out in Sabino Canyon, near the entrance to go up Mt. Lemon, southern most ski area in the U S, when we got up in the 90’s and 100° we would head up the MTN. It was usually 60° to 80° up there. Funny how u remember things. I no u had a GREAT time. Mary just seems like such a wonderful person. Later ??
It was wonderful to spend time in Mary’s home. Our tour of downtown was pretty amazing, too! What a lovely city! ♥
Pistachio Pudding IMHO. Your sentiment game sounded challenging and fun and I wanna do that soon with my Stampin peeps!!!
(Pistachio Pudding was an In Color in 2013, when Jen Lane and I met you at Convention. )
So glad you had that fabulous weekend to hold in your heart!!!
It very well may have been Pistachio Pudding, Cindie! Just shows how terrible I was with the game. 🙂
Awwwww, so much fun , I loved all your pictures,
Thanks for sharing my friend ♥️♥️♥️♥️
Hugs Frenchie ♥️
Ps , I love your hearts on my comments, lol ♥️♥️♥️
SO happy to share this amazing trip with you, my friend!
♥♥♥♥
You are so awesome! Thanks for sharing your amazing trip! I can’t wait to see the craft room video you did! It looks so different than her older ones. That huge craft table with the huge stamping pad!
Thanks, Nancy! It’s quite a wonderful place – the view from that room is inspiring beyond belief.
Brian, what a great trip! Thank you so much for sharing your activities with us! I feel like we were a little part of it!
It was truly wonderful – and that’s just four hours of the long trip. 🙂 Thanks, Denise!
It was so good to see you and have some fun! I think all that laughing gave me a muscle strain.
I love you so much, Tricia! I’m still laughing.
So jealous.. Thanks for sharing the weekend and photos. Her craft room is amazing on video and I bet even more in person!
It’s quite amazing, Windy! Would have loved for you to join us there – but I know you wouldn’t trade it for your amazing trip! ♥