BINGO!

I can't believe it! I did not take one single picture at BINGO yesterday!

I was so excited to offer my first Stampin' Up! BINGO! I chose a busy weekend, unknowingly; but I had a full table of six anxious-for-prizes guests as I called out the first number.  Oh, but wait, I am far, far ahead of myself.

After I begging and bribing and refusing to think that I may have to cancel the event, I left much of the preparation till the last minute. In my mind, I was well prepared. I had seen a video by Ronda Wade covering the ins and outs of hosting BINGO parties. I had chatted several times with my upline and colleagues about their BINGO parties (thanks Susan Elise, Monica and Kathy!) and sat in on a party just a couple of days before mine (thanks Kathy!). And at the same time, SU had a huge facebook event centered on planning for parties ~ lots of valuable info.

I designed the day to include four games plus a jackpot game and stamping time to create three make and take cards. As you know, staying up all night is what I do, so I did stay up well, well into the AM cutting paper and preparing for the stamping. I took inspiration from Julie Davison and Tami White as I found their super cards on Pinterest.

I left just a bit to have to finish up Sunday before the gaming stampers arrived.

As I was beginning to feel the heat while bustling around my husband looked at the thermostat and said, 'the temperature is going up instead of down,' and looked at me with a face of dread that I just cannot even describe. I was feeling the heat all right!

Oh, I just did not want to cancel ~ my guests had made their plans, I had prizes from the new catalog and chocolate!

I recognized the caller ID name on the phone. 'Is the Midtown Tunnel closed?' she asked. I swear I read the highway advisory sign to say the tunnel was closed 8 PM - 5 AM Fri - Sun.  I interpreted that to mean it was closed each night, not all weekend! So I gave her alternate directions.

The next name on caller ID was also familiar. She was detouring because of the tunnel.

My cell phone dinged with an IM: accident on interstate - but on the way.

When the next caller ID name appeared I knew what route she was taking so I knew she would be a bit behind, too.

And the temperature slowly rose.

With a couple pitchers of mint iced tea we made the most of it. They came for the prizes! And actually, for the good company they knew they would find.  They just didn't know they would find a house with no air, which did make for some good 'remember when' stories.

Except for the heat, we had a lovely afternoon full of stories and laughter and sweat and stamping and melted chocolate. We played with the new In Color markers and papers and the Painter's Palette stamp set and washi tape. There really is something extra special about stampers ...

As the afternoon was headed into an evening threatened with storms, and the stampers were spent from their excitement, they elected not to create the third card I had planned. So this afternoon I made their cards and will mail them to those stamping guests, who really were and are 'the nicest.' Julie Davison included directions on her site that I will pass along to the stampers so they can re-create this themselves, too.

AND I crafted them in a once again cool house, thanks to my Oh, What A Guy husband! He was at the supply store when they opened this morning and had the AC running in no time!