Sit, relax and enjoy...

The anticipation was the hardest part of planning.... wanting everything to be perfect for our first meeting of fellow bloggers and readers.

Amy was so generous in opening up her gorgeous home to us.

We wanted it to be welcoming for everyone attending and who had taken the time out of their day to come. We even had some out-of-state guests!

(Let me preface this post by saying Amy and I are "feeders". No one should leave one of our gatherings hungry! )

We had the glasses shined...

and drinks chilled...

The coffee cups were at the ready...

coffee and chocolate were perfect just before Valentine's Day.

Red velvet cupcakes, fruit salad and muffins served on vintage dishes.

Pain-au-chocolat and croissants with clotted cream and jelly,

and a small desert bar waited our guests.

We were so happy to see Janet.

And Joy. She is so, so, so lovely. She is one of the very first blogs I started reading when I started blogging. She is such a kindred spirit.

There were these fabulous and very talented ladies Rebecca, Traci , Suzanne, Heidi and Judy.

Traci and Suzanne have some great pics of the event on their blogs as well.

There was the wonderful and enjoyable Joan with Jayme and Cindy (who both came in 3 hours from Indiana.). Cindy makes the most amazing soap and Jayme is hilarious. She tells the best chicken stories.

and two wonderful and sweet readers ( we are renaming "lurkers" to "readers" because "lurker" sounds a bit in the bushes after midnight, doesn't it?) Penny and Pat. We were so happy they could come. They are such lovely ladies.

First we ate and chatted, and loaded up on coffee.

Then we started the raffle with lots of wonderful things that people brought or donated, like Tricia who donated a candle from Backyard candle company.

Pat won a wonderful gift from Tara that included sweet, little vintage forks.

Heidi won an awesome pillow from Tracey. Amy and I almost conspired to hide it until the raffle was over.

Sweet Judy was a big winner too with a fabulous basket put together by Pat full of Pottery Barn goodies.

Everyone won something, and after the raffle, we went around and introduced ourselves and were able to chat about blog topics and creative ideas. Annie was too funny. I loved talking to her; She has a great delivery.

Tracey with an -ey is as sweet and nice as she is on her blog, and Traci with an -i is so warm and open.

Anne Marie came in a sweet frock she had made herself, and I just loved her earthiness and that she is in person exactly as she is on her blog...

I could have talked to these ladies all day, but as the day wore on, unfortunately, we all had real lives we had to go back to.

Thank you ladies for giving me such an amazing day.

So let's do this again? Okay? Summertime? So those of your who couldn't make it last time can come the next time? What do you think?

Jen

PS... I didn't forget the giveaway of our gift bags... I am leaving it open until Wednesday at Midnight Chicago time.... Leave a comment on the previous post if you haven't already. I'll announce Thursday. :)