Exhausted, but happy!

I have spent a wonderful day today at Alexandra Palace with my three best crafting friends, Wendy, Sandra and Hazel, at the Big Stamp and Scrapbooking Show. Wendy collected Hazel from her house and then they came to me, arriving at 8.15am! We piled into my car and then drove to collect Sandra. We then had a very easy drive up to London and arrived at Ally Pally by 9.35am - 25 minutes before it was due to open.

A trip to the toilet and then into the queue. The voices of hundreds of excited ladies rose to fever pitch as the clock ticked round to 10am! The queue moved very quickly once they opened the doors and the four of us headed straight to the back of the exhibition hall as we new it would be less crowded there to start with.

We had a fantastic time. We actually split up into pairs and I went round with Wendy. Over the past 14 months, each time we have met up we put £10 into a savings pot and so we all started off with £140 each to spend, which was a wonderful amount of money to spend! I didn't actually have anything that I wanted to buy, so was just having a mooch around and buying what grabbed me!

Before we knew it, it was 12.30pm, so we all got our hands stamped (so we could go back into the hall) and went and sat out in the outer hall to eat the sandwiches we had taken with us.

After lunch it was a (not very quick) trip to the toilets again (as the majority of visitors were ladies, the queue here was immense!) and then dive back into the show!

It was still very busy, but not quite so bad as first thing in the morning. Eventually Wendy and I met up with Sandra and Hazel again. By now it was 3.30pm and we were exhausted! We decided that as we had all spent our money (now, how did that happen!?) it was time to go! We went and sat on the steps outside first of all, to get our breath back and enjoy the wonderful sunshine and fresh air.

Wendy with our 'stash'

After a breather we made our way back to my car and put our purchases into the boot. It was a good job we had taken my car, as it has a big boot!

The journey back seemed to take forever! The traffic was horrendous around Ally Pally, but once we got onto the M25 the traffic was a lot easier - now it is not often you can say that about the M25! First to drop off was Sandra - we went in with her and had a cup of coffee and chatted over our wonderful, fun day. It was then back to my house where Wendy and I had some stash to split up - we had bought some  deals and decided to split them as they worked out as very good bargains! Then it was farewell to Hazel and Wendy and collapsing for me! But not before I had laid out all my stash to take a photograph of it and show it to the family.

We had a brilliant day and are already talking about going back again next year :) Now, if you will excuse me I need to put my feet up and have a doze!