What a difference a year makes! This year, no babies, shorter hair, and my first time attending the event as a representative of Whirling Turban! It made for a busier weekend, but still a rousing good time. The most stressful part of the event was preparing for it, as always. But this time was even more stressful because I had the added worry of waiting for my dresses from Whirling Turban. Katherine and I agreed (did I need much convincing?) that I should represent the brand a few times during my trip, and she designed me four beautiful dresses to wear. I would also be carrying a hand painted bag highlighting the name of the brand, a fantastic idea since it is a way to inform picture takers who you are wearing, without depending on business cards. The dresses arrived the week before our trip (whew!) and I adored them. It's amazing what it feels like to wear something made for you. Like you are doing something wrong, in my case. I felt naughty. haha
Travel Day-Friday-April 6We were unable to work out the Thursday arrival this year, since we had to take the kids to Memphis to stay with family. We also were unable to find decent airfare out of Memphis (what is UP with that, MEM?)so our flight was out of Little Rock, at the ungodly hour of 7:45 am. This means we had to get up at 3(!)am to make the trip to Little Rock and catch our plane. My buddy Moose and her saint of a mom drove my husband and I to the airport and we did make it. But it was rough and I don't plan to do that again. At the airport, my darling sister-friend Lulu and her husband were there to greet us, looking shiny and gorgeous and radiant and tall. I wanted to kick her and kiss her all at once. The fellows at the baggage claim were staring in disbelief. I was wearing a vintage day dress on the plane but one look at Lulu's gorgeous skirt made me feel like I needed to change into something more confidence boosting. So when we got to the Orleans, I changed into a summery 1950's dress with a crinoline. I ran a brush thru my hair, slapped on a flower clip... Ahhhh...much better.
Friday was the day of the Viva Bowling, so we caught a few minutes of that as well. It's a fun event and the turn out was great. Afterwards, my husband headed outside with Misty and Michael (her husband) while I went alone to TGI Fridays to eat. People thought this was odd but I was perfectly happy.
Eventually, Moose came down and joined me and so did two couples who were also meeting us for the weekend. After a quick bite, we went out to the pool party that was in full swing. The male vintage swimsuit competition was going on and it was highly entertaining. Our friend Steve was by far the healthiest competitor but he didnt win, in spite of our Tennessee screams. It's rigged, I tell ya.
Once we had relaxed a bit, we went back to the room to get dolled up for evening. I opted for a 60's face and my gold pencil skirt with a basic black top. I also gave the hair lots of volume and wore the lovely LFSt custom hair clip and jewelry I got from Miss Tayva Jewelry. After a quick dinner at Koji, we ran upstairs to catch The Jive Aces and the Planet Rockers before turning in.
Just before bed, I threw my hair into pin curls in preparation for Saturday, our important day of Whirling Turban activity. ___________________________ End of Day One. :)
