Now that my pnemonia is under control..and the weather went back up into the 40's ( hence dry roads, I decided to tank up the car with some gas and myself with some high octane coffee and make the 90 minute trip to Endwell. Boy, I am glad I did....what a blast!

I am lucky enough to have known Scout for some time, but for those of you who have never met her, she was in her element last night. Patient, friendly, nurturing, informative...I could go on and on. Scout made that sterile meeting room morph into semblence of a country sitting room. The tables and chairs may have been folding chairs, but you'd never know it as we came from near and far to rub elbows with our fellow boxing enthusiasts. Scout, the Bilbliochicks and Ithacabelle hid some clever boxes, which allowed us indoor/nighttime boxers to have the thrill of the hunt throughout the building. Why oh why does anyone just DUMP an event box on a table anymore??? That is a custom I hope dies out quickly....and I am proud of Scout and the others for adding to that demise. Such clever girls!

Scout took a measure of the new boxers in the room ( there were plenty) and encouraged them to carve and plant. For Scout it's never been stamp snobbiness...it's a genuine belief that people would be surprised and amazed at how well they could carve with a little guidance and encouragement, and she delivered that in spades. Her love for carving, even the most humble stamp, is evident. There were plenty of tools and carving materials to share, and every person who left that "parlor" was chattering excitedly about their new ideas. Bravo, Scout!

But in addition to the good food, good convo, and clever theme and fun boxes...there was a surprise. Scout had taken it upon herself to research quilt patterns and personally chose a quilt block pattern to match each of our personalities or other interests. For instance, Ithacabelle, who lives by that lovely lake, was assigned "Lady of the Lake"; Infinity, who is getting married this year, was assigned "Contrary Wife", etc etc. I know I earned my "Hovering Hawks" pattern because I waffled about coming and then swooped in to sign up the day before!! AND she STILL managed to have a pattern there....chosen just for me. Have you ever heard of anything so sweet??

So she handed out our handpicked assignments, and everyone shared their carving scraps, tools, tracing paper, etc. In 20 minutes, most of us finished our little squares and then the fun began, as we sent around our stamps table to table so each of us could "build our own quilt"....with each of our proud little stamps laid side by side in a vast array of colors. It was clever, well executed, educational and totally FUN.

We had lots of laughs, some "adult" stamps made the rounds, I got to launch a pair of cooties "Boxers n Briefs" in honor of my friend wassamatta_u ( and several other cooties to boot) and I do believe cootieness will be a major factor at Desperately Seeking Sun. So you've all been warned!

So many thanks, my dear friend Scout. And as Maggie worked so hard at your side, and mingled among the guests, I could easily see her running her own gather in several short years. Why not? She's had an excellent teacher.

LW PhD
"Nice Counts"

As newer letterboxers, this was our first event. We'll admit, we were very skeptical--we couldn't imagine the fun that would await us at the Parlor City Carving Bee. As soon as we walked in, we were welcomed into a warm and friendly atmosphere. We never felt like the awkward newbies that were are.

It was so wonderful to hunt for the cleverly-hidden boxes around the location and wonder just what would prove to hold "suspicious" contents. We really enjoyed playing backgammon with Maggie.

We also especially enjoyed making our little portions of the quilt and were so touched when Scout, who had never met us before that evening, remembered little details and chose a fitting personalized square for each of us.

Thank you so much for a wonderfully organized event that has made us very excited to attend our next!