My Stamping Community

When you move to a new town, it often takes a while to feel a sense of community. A lot of people will tell you that it takes a full year for a new town to feel like home. I can tell you that in some cases, five years can go by, and you will still feel like a square peg trying to fit into a round hole.

I am happy to report that this is not the case for Pittsburgh.

I have felt at home the minute we moved here. Yes, I love my house. And yes, the hills and rivers and city are impressive. But at the end of the day, it is all about the people. This city has some of the best people I've ever had the pleasure of knowing.

For the first time in a LONG time, I finally have a stamping community again. I have Cindy to thank for this. Cindy has only been a Stampin' Up demonstrator for a little over a year (she was stampin long before that, though), and she is such a fantastic demonstrator and friend! And if this photo looks a little bit blurry, that's because Cindy is always on the go!

This weekend, Cindy hosted a Stamp Camp at Iris and Ivory's Tea Room. It was so much fun!

I had a lovely winter blend tea that went perfectly with Cindy's homemade snickerdoodle cookies! (I won't tell anyone that you bought the cookies at Walmart, Cindy! LOL). Of course, because she always goes above and beyond, she had the cookies in a perfectly-themed hand stamped presentation.

Lunch was amazing! Balushka, where have you been all my life? One thing I love about Pittsburgh is that it is a town with a rich ethnic history. Restaurants will serve side dishes of pierogies, potato pancakes, and cabbage. There's a lot of ethnic pride here, and it shows in their yummy food!

Cindy had display tables filled with all the new goodies from the Occasions mini and the Sale-a-Bration catalog. Wow, the items are so pretty in person! I have a long wish list now!

We made some really fun projects after lunch. I will try to show them this week, or you can just hop on over to Cindy's blog. She really is amazing! Her projects are beautiful, but they also make you look at them and say "Oh, I can do that!" Unless, of course, it's a project with score lines and complicated folds and math. Then we're all completely lost. Ha ha!

Here's a link:

http://www.stampinup.net/esuite/home/cindybrumbaugh/blog

Have you ever noticed how wonderful people are often surrounded by more wonerful people? That is definitely the case with Cindy. I have made so many friends from her stamp camps! Sisters Jan and Diane (love you, ladies!), Sandy, Mary, and so many more. Every one of them will tell me "You were so lucky to find Cindy. Isn't she wonderful?"

Yep, she is!

Yesterday, in the sermon at church, our pastor said "You'll never get the full grip of God's love for you until you live in community."

That is so true!

I now have a stamping community!

I'm feeling the love.