It is time to start planning for the upcoming gathering – this year in Winchester, VA. The months of September through January always FLY by, and before you know it – it’s that time again

This year is going to see some changes / additions in the workings, activities, location and coordination of the gathering. As usual we try to implement changes that make it easier and more enjoyable for all.

Firstly the event city and location has being changed. After years to trucking to PA, I have decided in order to continue my coordination of the event, it needs to be closer for me and so this year it will be in Winchester, VA.

We will be back at a holiday inn. Holiday Historic Gateway in Winchester, VA. Unlike years previous I have been able to check this location out, see the rooms, experience the service and make sure the meeting room will accomodate us comfortably.

Registration this year includes a breakfast, lunch and snack break in the afternoon. For those with dietary restrictions please email me for registration details, this year the registration is an inclusive price per person.

Early registration starts on March 1st and will represent a savings of $10 over the regular registration cost of $55.  Registrations not including meals is $30 (No Early Registration Discount). No guest registration discounts, we only have room for 50 registered guests. Once the spots are sold out, we will close registration. Not that we don’t want to grow our organization but this is what we have decided through experience is a good number for us to manage and cost effective for our sponsors.

Now we are making plans for speakers and demos – we have three so far, but we are looking for ideas from those that will be attending. Here is a list of those ideas and suggestions given so far:

Swirling in soap, making CP pretty, different techniques.
Cream Soap
Bath Melts
Massage Candles
Cupcakes with the good frosting!
EOs and EO blending
Herbs how to do them and use them!

Please feel free to add your suggestions – and of course there are some of you out there that so graciously offered to do demos – so speak up, email me! Jacqui is going to be helping me with the day’s schedule.

We are still having the “Meet & Greet” on Friday night and have reserved space at a local eatery that has Karoke in the evening.  I need a coordinator for this event - thanks to Nancy for volunteering last year. We need informative quickie demos and “tips & tricks” for that evening and I believe will be doing the Yankee Swap as is tradition.

That is it for now – as information becomes available I will pass it along – here on the blog! If you join our Facebook group, my posts will appear there as well – on the wall.

I have had quite a few requests to keep our convo board up – and at the same time our Facebook Group Page continues to grow.  And while I love Facebook…I find it hard to read ongoing topics, because they get lost. So…

I transitioned our convo board over to a regular post and read forum, for all to use. I don’t know that it will replace FB but it will be alot easier to find things on and it will be in place for next year. Registration is easy if you already have php board user name you can use it on there as well.

Check it out and make recommendations for topics you would like to see…it’s a work in progress so I will create new topics as requested.

Thanks -

Abbie:-)

http://www.blackcatgraphicdesign.com/LLForum/

Hello Ladies & Gentlemen ~

This year was a fantastic gathering, the best for me so far! I loved seeing so many returning friends and new crafters, with no major venue problems. The hotel was a nice location, despite some issues behind the scenes. Seeing everyone having a good time was fantastic, that is the part I always look forward to the most.

Again to those volunteers that answered my call for demos…you out did yourselves! The demos were great and I think everyone left with different plans of attack to try at least one or two, if not all of them. I know my box of soy pillar wax was ordered shortly after arriving home and I was out looking for dandelions this morning! I have enough scrub to do until I can make some more and I am looking for new molds to use with my crock pot soap making. Yes, liquid soap is on my list along with rethinking my packaging of soaps, to snazzy things up a bit. I was so inspired by all the energy and ideas!

The website/blog is being updated, so if you receive updates that seem odd, this is why. I try to move out the old and move in the new.

After the gathering, I give myself a day or two to reflect and determine if I am up to doing another. My heart always says “go for it”, but my mind knows the undertaking it requires! It is a decision I struggled with last year. I do wish for our gathering to continue, and grow. I think it’s a wonderful event and I have been and will always be committed to its purpose, even more so after this year with all the excitement and comradery. However, the planning and preparation that goes into this event requires a great deal of time and energy by those that help and give graciously of their time, talent and resources. I feel I owe it to myself and those that assist and attend to make our event the best. I no longer feel I can be responsible for the planning, arranging, and coordination of this event if away from my home. For this reason – I am going to move the location of the Mid-Atlantic Lights & Lather Artisans annual gathering to my home town of Winchester, Virginia. http://www.visitwinchesterva.com. This way I can attend to the planning personally, onsite.

It’s a decision that I was very conflicted about until I looked up the registrations lists of all those that actually attended for the past four years. Over half of the guests would have less distance to travel than more! For some reason many locals register, but than do not show up. Of those guests that had more distance to travel, it was less than four hours. Winchester is located at the very top of the state, only six miles from the West Virginia state line, 21 miles from the Maryland state line and about 40 miles before you are in Pennsylvania. About an hour from Washington, DC and a bit more from Baltimore for those wanting to plan a mini vacay. There will be a passenger van pick up at Dulles International for our out of town guests wishing to fly in and for those in need of shopping fix, we are going to plan a run to Tyson’s Corner and the Leesburg Outlets. Friday night’s “Meet and Greet” will include a pizza picnic for all those registered and their guests! We are also looking into a Men’s day time activity for Saturday afternoon. The hotel I am looking into is in the historic district and right next to our cobblestone walking mall. For those that need a lift we have local help with cars that can get you to our destinations! 

I know this will disappoint some. I apologize for that, but I hope that you consider making the trip. Although I can’t guarantee a great time, I know that being in my “backyard” will afford me the opportunity to make the gathering even more organized, which in return – will result in guests having an even better time. I will miss greatly those guests we lose as a result of the move. I hope there is an understanding that this decision was made to ensure the gathering would continue, prosper and grow.

Thank you all again for such a wonderful time! If you have questions please contact me and I will try to assist. I look forward to planning for next year.

Abbie:-)

I Wish we could have stuck around to say good-bye, but we had a rental.

Thank you Marty, Julie, Jacqui, Lori, Nancy and Judy for sharing your experience and knowledge with us – you all did such a fantastic job! Rockin, Kay, Lori & Abigail we appreciate your help so much in bringing this together. Dawn & Mike you are best!

BIG hugz to all my dear friends and my brand new friends – let’s do this again next year!

Registering for the forum is super easy – they only ask for a user name, password and email – confirm the email they send and you are in! Here is the link http://lightsandlather.yuku.com.

I really need to hear from those presentors/demonstrators that I have not – you know who you are I have a tentative schedule and I would like to run it by those involved before I start working on the rest of the day’s schedule.

Still missing some questionaires - if you did not receive one, email me!

I hope everyone is having a wonderful beginning of the year. The months of September through January always FLY by.

I know this is a bit early for me to be putting out information for the gathering – being that it is over a half a year away, but like I indicated last year – I need to simplify and steamline some of the tasks involved with the gathering.

That being said, I have received many requests to continue the gatherings – which of course I will try to do. I have also received many offers of support and assistance, which is very sweet. I appreciate and will partake of the generosity!

This year is going to see some changes in the workings, activities, location and coordination of the gathering. I always meant to implement things I had learned at past events, but never did, or never seemed to do so in a manner that made things any easier on me, this year – I am.

Firstly the event location is being changed. While Sharon and the Holiday Inn was a nice venue, we had some issues last year and there has been a continued struggle for some of our guests due to their lack of accessibility to the various meeting rooms, hotel rooms and the dining area via steps or walking up/down a steep hill.

The new location is just down the street from the old and promises to be a refreshing and welcomed change. Our new location is the recently completed Cambria Suites, opened in July 2010 on the same road as the Holiday Inn. Shuttle service to casino and mall is available and the rates for rooms (all of them – suites) is $99 before taxes, a savings over Holiday Inn’s updated rate.  Here is a link to the hotel’s page: Cambria Suites. I am sure they will give me a code for discounts on reservations, and I will pass that on when I have it.

This year we are more limited in meeting room space so we will be limited to 40 guests. The hotel is a hotel of suites so there are only 105 rooms. If you plan to attend you might want to make reservations early for the gathering and for the hotel! I have very little wiggle room -

Registration this year includes a continental breakfast, choice of sandwich boxed lunch, and a cookie break in the afternoon. For those with dietary restrictions please email me for registration details, this year the registration is an inclusive price per person.

Early registration starts on March 1st and will represent a savings of $10 over the regular registration cost of $45.  Registrations not including meals is $20 (No Early Registration Discount). No guest registration discounts, we only have room for registered guests.

Now we are making plans for speakers and demos – we have three so far, but we are looking for ideas from those that will be attending. Here is a list of those ideas and suggestions given so far:

Swirling in soap, making CP pretty, different techniques.
Cupcakes with the good frosting!
Carve out lanterns/balloon candles
50 ways to use dead sea mud
HP Soaping/ Soap Painting / liquid soap / cream soap
EOs and how to get them to stick in products
Infusions how to do them and use them
Wax Bowls with botanical embeds
Shower Jellies (Abbie:-)

Please feel free to add your suggestions – and of course there are some of you out there that so graciously offered to do demos – so speak up, email me!

We are still having the “Meet & Greet” on Friday night and have reserved the room. Nancy Taylor will be our coordinator for that – thanks Nancy for volunteering. We need informative quickie demos and “tips & tricks” for that evening and I believe will be doing the Yankee Swap as is tradition.

That is it for now – as information becomes available I will pass it along – here on the blog! If you join our Facebook group, my posts will appear there as well – on the wall.

First of all, please accept my gratitude for all the warm wishes, special notes, supportive messages and kind words that you have sent my way since Monday – they have made my days much easier and I have been extremely grateful to have such friends in my life.

I apologize for not getting these updates on here sooner, but it’s been a rough week and I just now had a minute to post them.

As we promised we have made available to our guests anything we have with regards to demos and notes given to us by speakers at our gathering. I had been waiting for a recipe to go along with Kim’s emusified scrub demo, but it was not meant to be. I know she would have wanted our guests to have it – she was a teacher that way and assured me she would send it to me this past weekend, but was unable to do so. Please remember that due to unforeseen circumstances we were were forced to make major adjustments to our gathering schedule at the last minute. Being the tropper that she is – Kim volunteered to do an emulsifed scrub demo – as it has been requested numerous times. We discussed both our recipes and after I emailed her mine, she decided to combine hers and mine togeter as they were very similar and she would substitute her recipe oil blend. I have made the recipe available on the “media” page under Supplement to Artisan 2010. In addition I have added what I believe is her bath table recipe from Friday’s Meet & Greet.

I hope this satisfies the requests I have had to convey this information, it’s the best I can do at this point. If I come across the “exact” recipes you know I will post them.

I have not even unpacked all my goodies, gifties and swap lovelies. I was just too tired and once I have gone through all those chores it will be very clear another gathering is over!

I had a GREAT time! I love meeting all the new guests and seeing my dear friends and former guests – it’s like a class reunion without all the drama! Now I miss everyone so much and wish as usual that I had – had more time to talk, chat and talk shop. Every year I tell guests to call on me if they have questions or just want a sounding board in their business endeavors, maybe this year more will take me up on that and my network of peers will continue to grow.

I have not committed in my head to another gathering next year, this year was really hard. I need to determine if there are enough out there that are willing to commit to the gathering – YOU are the reason the gathering is done in first place. Any takers – let me know and if enough are interested and I have the help, we can start to make plans in February. I still have a couple of days of work ahead of me in thank you notes!