Ya Mon!

View from my room

Hi everyone! Back from vacation and feeling super rested and revived even though it was a girl trip ;-). Every two years twenty four of us, ranging in age from 24 to 56, travel together to some tropical destination to hang out together and just "be".

"John's Key", a little island for sun bathing, accessible by a sand bar path

 Each time we seem to travel a little further south in pursuit of warm water and sunny days. This year it was Jamaica. The waters...in a word, stunning. Flying in over Montego Bay was just breath taking to look at and even better for the fish in our group (that would be me). I could stay in it all day and night if my fingers wouldn't "prune" up like they do.

A shanty mercantile...really...these are shops just down the beach from where we were sunning. Very tempting to move urban farmhouse there!

From Jamaica I met up with my mom and we hit the ground running at the gift show. For 2 days we looked at new product, walked, scouted for new vendors, walked, tried to put our finger on new trends (tartan plaid everywhere!), walked, placed orders, and walked some more. I think we need to go rest up in Jamaica!!

Aching feet feel way better in the sand, don't ya think? Ya mon!

But we're back at it at the shop with all kinds of goodies scheduled to arrive very, very soon. In fact, one order arrived yesterday! I found some fabulous jewelry, rugs, florals, furniture and even ordered pages and pages and more pages of Christmas decor!!

Ned! Get back in that truck! You don't have time for the beach there are boxes to be delivered! What's that? Oh...they're my boxes and you were looking for me? Okay, okay....on my way...5 more minutes....

It's all going to start pouring in every week (not the Christmas, thankfully) so stay tuned or get out here and see it for yourself!! In the meantime...can someone get me another pina colada?

P.S. If you ever have the chance to plan a trip like this will your girlfriends I highly encourage it!! As I stated above, we do this every 2 years, always in January over MLK weekend (Thurs thru Mon). We each squirrel away 10 dollars or so a week (EASY PEASY!! That's a couple Starbucks coffees a week!) for two years to cover our costs. One of my friend's is a travel agent and she puts together our choices. We vote on the destination and determine who's rooming with who at one of our trip meetings, a great excuse to get together every month for about 8 months prior to departure. The memories and the camaraderie are priceless!