The $6,000 Creative Escape shirt...

... one of the most inspirational things that happened at Creative Escape this weekend was that there was so much money collected at the event for the American Cancer Society. A number of attendees and organizers had been affected by the disease and so many people stepped up to the plate and donated what they could. One woman, Connie, not only stepped up to the plate, but hit a home run. Tim Holtz wore a fabulous custom shirt, a white button-down with "creative escape" silk screened down one side. It was gorgeous. He was generous enough to donate it to to auction off to the attendees at the last night's Dinner and Keynote speech. The bidding started at $50 ... $100... $200.... $300 ... soon is a hot $1,250 and I think Tim was blushing.... finally it hit $3,000.... and Connie came in and went for broke.... $6,000 for the shirt! Amazing! She got to "strip" it off Tim herself and was thanked profusely by the entire CE staff for her generosity.




While that was incredible, I must admit that Jason Hall's Keynote speech had everything you need to get motivated about your life - laughter, tears, suggestions, challenges... if you ever have the opportunity to hear him speak, do it.

Dinner was delicious, probably because we got to indulge in our dessert first!

That's right, we were served dessert first and with little plastic treasure chests. One lucky lady (it turned out it was her birthday!) won a trip for two to Creative Escape next year!

Earlier in the day, I completed my final class. There were roughly 8 groups of 80 that rotated between the teachers Friday and Saturday.



After the first day, my 8 x 8 wire-bound acrylic album class "Celebrating YOU," had the reputation of being fast and challenging, with a lot of techniques to get through.


I was happy to hear that... I'd rather challenge people and teach them new things rather than bore them with projects they already know how to do!

I also met up with my Secret Sisters, both the one I gave to (Shannon from Arizona)


and the one I got from (Susan from New York).


I really enjoyed getting to know them both in person. Actually, I had met Susan on the Bazzill bus tour Wednesday, but I had no idea who she was... And poor Shannon had known I was her SS for awhile... I had stupidly forgotten to mark out my return address on one of her packages! Duh! What a bummer!

I had such a wonderful time teaching... the attenedees were so gracious and supportive. So many stopped me to say they liked the class, that they learned a lot - and to make sure I was surviving OK! Which I was... the CE and hotel staff were fabulous ... the two volunteers in my classroom, Shelley and Wanda,



were just wonderful and really made the class run so much more smoothly.

And a huge thanks to Heidi Swapp and the Bazzill Gang for this incredible opportunity! It was a dream come true! Now I need to get some sleep....