Mukwonago, Wisconsin

A week or so ago, my crafty friend Nancy asked me to join her on a fun card-making adventure in Mukwonago, Wisconsin.  

The card-making merriment was to commence at 1 p.m.  A class demonstrating the use of  blendable Norwegian markers. They are the rage.  

Mukwonago is a about an hour plus 10 minutes from Rockford especially when we are starting out in the heart of the city - not where I reside near the interstate.  I forgot we would be leaving from the heart of the city.  *sigh*

Two days before our adventure my traveling companion called to reserve our seats for the marker class only to learn that the class actually begins at 9 a.m.  Said traveling companion called to be the bearer of bad news...well, well, well...guess who was delighted by the early morning traveling?  The caffeine-loving gal who is blogging.  YES!  I love mornings.  Yep, I'm on of THOSE people...a morning person.  Give me a mug of coffee and a shower and some nice praise & worship music and I'm delighted with early mornings.  Take away a third of that mixture and, well, let me quote Mr. T, "I pity the fool..."  What fool?  The fool that would remove a third of my equation.

So when Nancy said we would need to leave at 7:30...I'm not going to say that I was jumping up and down with excitement...I'll just say I was happy that we were getting an early start.  Also it should be noted I was happy to know that I had a FREE drink coupon (that replaced my icky-made-with-cow's-milk-latte).  So there's that.

We headed out a smidge later than we intended because how was I to know that the coffee establishment would be busy on a Saturday morning.  I guess I just assumed it was only busy on week days.  I'm so fickle and nonsensical before proper coffee consumption.

The beauty of hanging-out with Nancy is that she's hilarious.  

I spent 3 hours total (2 classes each 90 minutes in length) laughing at her absurd remarks.  

Stickles is a product that puts a semi-clear coat of glitter on cards and notes and scrapbook pages.  Nancy told our corner of the table that she sometimes puts the Stickles on her glasses.  People who do not know Nancy are not fully aware of her sense of humor.  So for her to say that she was putting a semi-clear film of sparkles on her glasses, the teacher just stared.  I, on the other hand, died laughing.  STICKLES ON YOUR GLASSES!!!!!!  Hahahahahahaha!!!!!!!

Another funny moment in the classtime was that the class pretty much behaved like arts-n-crafts e in 2nd grade and / or children's craft time during VBS.  

Half of the table listened and jotted down notes.  The other half...well, the other half had a crafter who glued her hanging-from-a-tree-limb sloth upside down.  As in the sloth was stamped holding on to the branches and she turned him (holding the brand) upside down...think a sloth "standing" but his appendages were hanging...or supposed to be hanging.  AS ALL SLOTHS DO...?  

So many other funny things happened...someone impaled a bottle of Stickles-like sparkles so of course the double-holed bottles was then leaking the sparkles.  

I wanted to stand-up and tell the class, "Ok.  Everyone put your supplies down.  Stop talking to one another.  Hands in your laps and let me see your eyes."  And then I thanked Jesus that I'm not a crafting instructor and that my new church does VBS during the daytime when I am at work. I forgot how difficult it to lead a group during crafts.  And apparently kids or adults - crafting is complicated.  :) 

We made 6 cards.  Three were embellished with die cuts and three were the Norwegian markers.

I'm thankful we took the class...especially the marker class...because I now know I'm not a marker shading kind of gal.  In my head, the markers blended better.  In real life, they do not.  I prefer my PrismaColor colored pencils and blending tools.

This is a good thing because I already own said colored pencils and the Norwegian markers are quite costly.  

Look at me - not getting hooked on pricey markers.  :)

Between our classes, we ate lunch at Fork in The Road.  It's a local establishment.  My shaken salad (yes, shaken - not tossed) was deeeelish.  Black beans, chicken, Romaine lettuce, tomatoes, a yummy dressing - all shaken in a huge clear container.

After our classes, we went to a cute local grocery store called The Elegant Farmer.  It was quaint.  I told Nancy it reminded me of a country-fied version of Whole Foods.  They had so many unique things.  I got artichoke spread, some apples, 2 pretty red peppers, and a hankering for apple crisp.  I blame Nancy for the latter...as we were walking through the store looking at jars of apple sauce and other almost-Fallish items.  You know what?  The store reminded me of a grocery store meets the apple orchard.  Yes!  That's what it reminded me of.  It was lovely.

We then traveled home omitting a stop at the Goodwill we could see from the road.  We'll save the Goodwill for our next adventure.