Having A Blast At The NEC ....

At 11.03am on Wednesday 24th March I left Shalford railway station in Surrey to go here ....

Here - is Wolverhampton (information for Sue - founded in 985AD; population of the wider urban area in 2004, 251,462; and home of the first automatic traffic signals installed in 1927)  Arriving three quarters of an hour late - points failure between Oxford and Banbury - but it didn't really matter 'cos I was travelling First Class - how posh is that.
Wolverhampton - famous for locks (and Enoch Powell) ....

Then I went here ....

to stay with my lovely Wulfrunian (see Wikipedia) pal, Sue and her family for a couple of days. Why - because on Thursday we went here .....

Here being the NEC.  There were the four of us - Sue, Anita, Carol and me and we had an absolute whale of a time.  The starting blocks were out as soon as the train pulled into Birmingham International and with a smile, a wave and a 'see you later' - Sue and Anita were off to the Clarity stand like a  bullet out of a gun - lol.  Carol and I followed at a more civilised and calm pace.

We each did our own thing in the morning and met up for lunch  .... (mind you - Carol and I being the  more sedate of the party, decided to meet up for a coffee half way through the morning - attempting to conserve our energy - lol).  Look at the bags - and we were only at half time - lol ....

After lunch more shopping (with Carol and I having afternoon tea - lol).  Here is some of my stash ....

Once Upon A Stamp Nesties and more Just-Rite stamps (just so liking them) ..... 

Some lovely Paper Artsy stuff, including the two new larger stamp sets (stunning both of them) and three of the new Squiggly Inks Sets, Flora and Fauna (really fun and funky); some metal; a TSS mould of very en  trende cogs and wheels; and Ferro .....

Some more Stamps by Judith and a new steel edge ruler from Stamp Addicts; and more Scene-It stamps being demonstrated by  the lovely and helpful Jenny Mayes .....

My most absolute favouritist thing that I bought I will post about later  - I am going to make every effort  to make something with it - in fact I have two fave things but that will mean switching off the phone and hiding the car, so that I am not disturbed - we will have to see how it goes.
By the end of the day, all four of us were tired but happy little bunnies ....

Friday saw Sue taking me round the local sights and amongst Sue's normal shopping, (and I have to say here, I simply didn't realise the vast range of doggie treats that are available - Oscar is  one very lucky doggie - lol) we just had to nip into Hobbycraft - as if we hadn't done enough crafty shopping.
This has to be the piece de resistance of the trip though ....

This is thematic stamp storage - well actually it's a three tray ArtBin - but this one is solely for Sue's Clarity stamp collection and inks - and by tomorrow (another friend is going to the NEC today), her second brayer (just in case something  happens to the first one - lol) which apparently she picked up, put down and forgot to pick up again when she came to pay ......
This is a pretty cool idea - a Paper Artsy box, a Stamps by Judith box, a Scene Its box ..........

Got back late last night and we are already talking about November .....

Thanks girls - I had a great time ....
Oh yes - and one final thing - come on girls - get blogging ......