In which my whereabouts are revealed and Rhea meets Rae (and Liesl, and Heather, and Denyse)!

Now I am back safe and sound from my mystery 48 hours away and I can reveal my whereabouts...

On Saturday Ollie and I traveled to Vermont where we met up with Liesl Gibson and Heather Ross and Denyse Schmidt for dinner at the Blueberry Hill Inn.

I know, right?!?

Liesl invited me to come and meet them at the Inn a few weeks ago, but with our Clearance Sale going on, I had just not thought it would be possible.

However, in true Alewivesgirl-fashion, those last few nights I lay in bed wide-awake thinking what a great opportunity this was and how much I wanted to meet up with these ladies and at the last minute I decided to push the envelope and see if I could get someone to cover for me.

That someone turned out to be my business associate (MOM) and it was her birthday weekend, so THANK YOU, Mom for working O.T. on your birthday... wasn't that a nice present for me to give you???

But, as fabulous as it is to make your Mom work on her birthday while you go on a little mini-vacation-of-sorts, let us get back to the topic-at-hand...

First of all, let me just say that they are all three (Liesl, Heather and Denyse) not only insanely talented and beautiful and creative and clever, but they are also some of the nicest, most sincere (and funny!) ladies you will ever meet.

In short, they are exactly how I imagined them to be.

Even though I had met Denyse before, I had never met Heather and despite a lot of internet/phone correspondences I had never met Liesl in person before, either.

So of course I was a little nervous but most of all excited... it felt a bit like I was going on some kind of "internet-tri-state-area-celebrity-sewing-blogging-date" thing.

But any nervousness I felt quickly dissolved upon meeting the ladies/taking in the gorgeous scenery at the inn/having a glass of wine.

Just to make you totally jealous, the Inn served Oliver and I the most wonderful dinner we have ever had, during which I sat across from Rae Hoekstra (yes, the Rae of Made by Rae and the Buttercup Bag fame was there as well!). She and I had a great conversation that made me realize how lucky I am to have a built-in "real-life" community of "sewists" to come home to.

Apparently, that is a bit of a rarity around the country and I am much more fortunate than I realized.

Everyone at Blueberry Hill (Liesl, Heather, Denyse, the "Sewing Campers" and even the Inn staff) made Oliver and I feel so welcome and I came away from the weekend with SEVERAL priceless memories.

Ultimately, even though I had brought my camera, I made the decision to not take any photos as I was enjoying the rhythm and flow of the evening way too much to disturb it with a round of picture-taking.

And even though I had dragged my now well-worn copy of Weekend Sewing across three states with me (tissue paper patterns busting-out and all), I never asked Heather to sign it, but something tells me I will get another chance to ask her.

So I would like to extend a huge thank you to Heather (who is quite possibly the funniest person I have ever met) and to Denyse (whom it is always lovely to see... she is one of my favorite people), but especially to Liesl, for presenting me with such a great opportunity in the first place.

I have such wonderful memories of the evening, not the least of which was spending time talking to and connecting with Liesl... I got some great "scoops" on upcoming Oliver+S projects, I asked her lots of questions and was very flattered that she had questions for me as well.

I think we have a great connection and I am really looking forward to seeing Liesl -and all of the ladies- again soon.

I don't quite know how they did it, but I went to the inn excited and nervous to meet three people who are by all means celebrities in my world, and by the end of the evening, they were so gracious and kind that I came away feeling like I was the important person.

Thank you, ladies!

Thank you, Mom!

Aaannnddd...

Thank you, Ollie, for driving with me across three states just so you could have dinner with a LOT of women who were talking about sewing!

(We're talking major brownie points.)

XO,

Rhea