Ally Pally - a day with friends - and a credit card...

Hi, Happy Sunday to you - and good luck to all running the London Marathon... I will be - watching from the sofa!!

Yesterday, saw my twice-annual trip to Alexandra Palace and the BSSBS - Big Stamp and Scrapbooking Show - I LOVE this show, (my credit card gets lots of exercise too...as you will see later)

The day dawned early - I like to be near the front of the queue, lol!!  This time, I was meeting the oh-so-lovely Julie Ann  at Victoria station in London for only her second trip to Ally Pally.  From there we headed to the venue to meet Lin  It was nice to have someone to travel the rest of the way with and chat in the queue - although to be fair, most times you just chat to the person next to you anyhow.

At 10 when the doors opened we headed - dashed! - straight to Paperartsy (of course) for the new stash we'd missed out on in Paris (bottle caps, Emma!) The lovely Lin Brown and Leandra were already hard at work demoing (early entry for disabled visitors to allow them some space at the stands) so we did a bit of a sweep of the racks!

Lin working hard - tags covered in fabric and paint stencilling on top (you can see in the samples at the front too)

 Leandra also working hard with her funky new hair colour!

Julie Ann and Lin laughing with Leandra..

 this tag with the gorgeous doilly stencils turned into a bit of a Jo Myhill/Leandra collaboration - so much so that when Leandra had a break, Jo stepped in to demo -

 both these stencils had to come home with me, lol!

 

 Jo was a natural!

 Mark - Mr Paperartsy - then had a well deserved break and Leandra had to work the till... hope it's not in too much of a mess, Mark!

 that finished tag - a beaut

 there was time for a look round too - it was fabulous to catch up properly with my fabulous friend Gabrielle, it's the first time for ages since her awful accident last year, but you looked great Gab, and so did Freya-brayer (in joke) and her cousin Rebecca, seen here with the lovely Karen who was sadly there working!

There were lots of people there, but now the show is held in the Great Hall it doesn't feel too crowded - unless you want to get to your favourite stands!

towards the end of the show the #PATWITS gathered back at Paperartsy - here's Jo still working away!! - and the lovely Lesley watching Lin

and Christine and Lin doing some last minute browsing!

 Once the show closed - and we all finally stopped going "oh I might just get this" some of us headed to the bar for a drink - though the inside was packed we had to sit outside - it was a bit chilly - Jo, Julie Ann and Nicky

and the group having a catch up on our days





 Mark and Leandra's gorgeous daughter Millie

 so I guess I should remember to put in pics of what I bought - some cardstock and tissue

stencils - just one or two!

 this and that - sorry it's not a good picture!

and some stamps...
now, where can I put it all....? I could be gone some time!

Thanks to everyone for a great day yesterday - and if you're going today, have as much fun as we did!