Mary Engelbreit Home Companion Workshop in St. Louis

This past weekend I had a fabulous time in St. Louis, Missouri at the Mary Englebreit Home Companion Workshop. My friend Rachel who I had met earlier this year at Brave Girls Camp met me there along with her friend Kara. We checked into the Hotel Indigo and then headed over to the Chase Park Plaza hotel where the event was taking place.


The moment we walked into the reception hall, there was Mary Engelbreit herself standing right there! She caught me by surprise - I didn't expect to see her standing right there but there she was and she held out her hand and introduced herself. She was so friendly and down to earth and it was so exciting for me to finally meet her in person. I have been a fan of hers for years and was a faithful and loyal subscriber of her magazine right up until the very end.
At the reception, we got to meet some of the other attendees, and hung out with Claudine Hellmuth who was teaching two classes at the event. Claudine has a lot of spirit and I look forward to taking one of her classes soon. She is fun and of course, I immediately liked her but when I learned that she too is a total animal lover, well, that was all I needed to hear. I wasn't in any of her classes this time because we could only choose four and although I would have loved to take them all, I had to choose the ones that *most* spoke to me. I was happy with the classes I did pick. My suggestion for next year's event is to make it a couple more days and let us take ALL the classes ;) THAT would be some major crafting.
The first class I took was by Kathy Currato and was called "Award Ribbons". Kathy worked for Mary Engelbreit's magazine for many years and is now doing her own freelance work creating for other magazines. She is so talented and such a warm and friendly person.
Kathy's class was amazing - we walked into a room with all kinds of beautiful papers, ribbons, trims, and tools. I immediately found my groove and knew exactly what I wanted to create which is a first for me. I usually sit and ponder and can't decide what I want to do. Not that morning - I focused right in on what I wanted to do and got to work. I didn't look around to see what everyone else was doing because I didn't want to get off track. Here I am with my materials eager to get started.


The ladies at my table were so much fun! We laughed and had a great time. By the end of class it was incredible to see all the creativity that was being brought out in everyone. All the finished projects were absolutely beautiful - so different but so beautiful.
My finished project with Kathy: (sorry it's so dark but the lighting wasn't the best). I'm so happy with my award ribbon - I LOVE the way it turned out.

Since the weekend was packed with so many fun things, I'm going to break the posts up a little bit. In my next post, I'll show you pictures of my next project: A Charm Bracelet with Kaari Meng of the French General. Stay tuned!