Friday, July 31, 2009

The SW Regional

Well.......what could I possibly say. It was a great weekend. Starting on Friday we went to Porto Alegre for Brazilian food, followed by cheesecake and champagne in our room. This started the weekend off.

The show on Saturday was fun. The banquet........we had the best time. My dress was very well received. The champagne flowed at our table. It was just magical. Jon and I had to go up several times. That probably made it the most fun.

When you're so caught up in the moment, it's very hard to visualize the things going on around you. I'm fairly certain and Jon confirmed it that Polar was very much applauded when he was called out for 2nd Best Alter. It seemed pretty loud to me and I think I saw several people standing for him. I do remember it being loud because I was very touched and teared up a little on my way up. I do know that everyone liked the photo that I used of Polar for the Powerpoint. It was just an extreme closeup of his face. I'll have to see about posting it here. I'm also going to see about posting a picture of me, in the dress, with my partner in crime Jon.

With as wonderful as the weekend was and with how much we were looking forward to it, I am amazed at how little there is to say. It lived up to all our expectations to say the least. We had a big box of awards and rosettes to bring home. Our benching area was covered on Sunday. We had lots of people coming over and congratulating us all weekend long. It was almost like a wedding. Too funny.

Now we're concentrating on the upcoming Annual. Again, should be another fun filled evening. Can't wait.....

meow for now,
melissa

special offer from Regional vendor

I will chat more about the incredible time we had at the regional in a separate post. I wanted to highlight an offer that one of my vendors has for everyone.

I invited a Tastefully Simple representative to the show. Karalee Johnson is my rep from where I live. She trekked the two hours north to help out and vend at the show. Karalee loves cats.

So......she is holding an open book catalog show until Friday, Aug 7th. A portion of the proceeds from the sale will go to an animal shelter.

You can order online and use her representative # 1205, not sure if you have to mention cat show somewhere. Or if you have any questions you can call her at 760-735-5998 or email her at catshow@lovethatgarlic.com

Tastefully Simple has very easy to prepare mixes that taste incredible. They also have some great seasoning blends and sauces.

I'm encouraging anyone who can to order and help the kitties.

meow for now,
melissa

Friday, July 24, 2009

The SW Regional is upon us....

Well, tomorrow is the day. The SW Regional. We have been busily preparing for months. Planning party favors, choosing a dress, etc. We are set to go.

For now I just have to endure the pre-event stress stuff. Need to finish the party favors. Need to finish stuffing the cat beds to sell. Need to make my fur toys to sell. Need to paint my toe nails. Need to leave work early to do errands and then go home and pack and feed the cats and scoop litterboxes and hit the road. Ugh.....I'm tired just thinking about it.

But by 7:30 tonight it will all be worth it. That's when our weekend officially begins. We have reservations at a Brazilian restaurant across the street from the hotel with a group of our friends. Then back to our room for champagne and cheesecake. We are celebrating.

Tomorrow we will round up all the cats that we brought, herd them down to the show hall, kick back and relax with our friends. Tomorrow night is the banquet. This should be fun. A time to celebrate the great season that not only we had but the great season that our friends had as well. I know there are some who are getting their first Regional win ever. It's a very exciting time for everyone.

Of course there will be the special awards as well at the banquet. Can't wait to see who won the Piggy Award. I'm pretty sure we were edged out. Thank god......I don't want to wear the piggy snout. Then we'll see who wins the SW Judge of the Year, Member of the Year and who knows what other special awards await us.

It looks like we're in store for a fine weekend. I've been to many regional awards banquets. For some reason this one seems just a bit sweeter than the rest.........

I'll report back on Monday!!

meow for now,
melissa

Monday, July 20, 2009

So much to do, so little time....

It has been suggested that I change the name from the Daily Meow to the Not So Daily Meow. Sorry Meowers. Just been so busy trying to get ready for the SW Regional and then the International after that.

We've also had a few litters of kittens getting ready to leave to their new homes, more kittens on the way (we're trying to produce the next Polar or PJ) Keep your fingers crossed. We're fairly sure that JJ is pregnant.

So let's see, what else has been happening.........since the last post.......trying to get entries coordinated for Jon and I for five shows. Also trying to put together a table for the Regional and Annual banquets. And then there are the party favors associated with being Best Cat in the region, plus all the other wins. Right after the Regional I start on the party favors for the Annual. It's busy business having winning cats!! LOL. But I wouldn't trade a second of it for anything. We are having the time of our lives.

Sometime in all of this I need to concentrate on making cat toys for our vendor booth, working on three websites and being vendor coordinator for several cat clubs. Oh.....did I mention that I also need time to work in my real job, take care of the cats and find some time for myself? Too funny.

It's all good reasons for being busy. If the toys weren't selling, I wouldn't have to make more. If the kittens weren't selling, we wouldn't have a need for the website. If the cats weren't winning we wouldn't have a need for party favors. Etc....

Even though you plan things out so they don't fall to the last minute, things always seem to work out that way. Of course I think I do some of my best work under pressure. I ordered the cards for the party favors weeks ago. They're still not here. Should be here Wednesday or Thursday. That means I have 150 party favors to finish either Thursday night or Friday night. Grrrr.....

And sometime this week I need to get my dress to my Mom so she can put straps on my strapless gown. I was going to rely on "the girls" to hold it up, however......if I carry Frosty up for his Best Cat Award, I don't really want him exposing me to the whole room. Frosty always did have a fondness of putting his paw down my shirt when I showed him. I could just see him doing that to me at the banquet. I did entertain the thought of writing something across my bra, just in case. Something like Best Cat. That would have provided a chuckle or two. :-)

Oh well......things will fall into place and all will be right with the world.

Sometime this week I'll have to bathe two cats as well. In spite of me saying that Polar was retired......he will show this coming weekend. I miss showing him and I was asked to bring him.

It's going to be a fun weekend. Frosty will be making an appearance. His last one in a show hall for a long time. Our new kittens, Polar Bear and Arctic Princess will be making their show hall debut to get their training wheels. Two white Siberians courtesy of Frosty.

Sometime during all of this chaos we have managed to get to some local one day shows. Czar Nicholas had his big boy debut at the show on July 11th. He finaled in 8 out of 10 rings. There was a Best Cat in there somewhere. Pj finaled in 5 out of 10 with 2 Best cats. Rudy, our Ragdoll also brought home a few finals.

We can't wait to see what this season has in store for us. Jon and I have both said that we're staying home this season. Just doing our local, driveable shows. We'll see what we can do out of that. We have some interesting kittens coming up. And we can't wait to see what JJ will give us this time around. Seeing as we have a rather long list of people wanting showable Bobtails......I am still looking for the next Polar for myself. I just can't get enough of these Bobtails!!!

I will try to post more regularly. Definitely after this coming weekend.

meow for now,
melissa