Well, I promised I would write about “You Said It, Sister!”, so let’s start there, shall we?
YOU SAID IT, SISTER!
My dear friend, Judi Slingerland, and I had an idea. We decided to combine our talents to make a super sister weekend. Fun how when friends are motivated, things unfold and blossom into something glorious!
The weekend ended up in Salado with about 80 women. Our sweet friend, Sharie, helped set up the business end of the shindig, Judi was in charge of
“Move Over Martha,” and I was in charge of entertainment and a Super Sara
Spiritual Sendoff, scheduled for the last morning, Sunday.
Friday night—women arrived from all over. We gathered in the main conference room of the Stagecoach Inn. What a fun place Salado is! The hotel is convenient to sassy little shops—you just walk out of your room, past the bean shaped swimming pool and cafe, through some trees and voila! Shopping!
Antiques, specialty gifts, baby items, and even a very unusual Thai gift shop that had wood carved creatures, gourd scuptures, old photographs (love old photographs of families and places from long ago…I can sit there for hours and entertain myself with made up stories), candles and fantastic handmade jewelry from around the world. The shop owner was very knowledgeable about the artists, and that lead to interesting conversation. She also had a dog that I mistook for a rug, he was THAT still.
So, Friday night, I sang and joked and told stories and got the ladies to hug. Then, we did some crazy Salvador Dali stuff. I brought construction paper and pens and had all the women draw blind contour drawings of each other. Following, I taped them all to a wall so we could admire each others’ work.
I LOVE having people release their fears about making art! It is such a joy to watch them laugh and get to know one another, too.
Then we did what is known as automatic writing. I broke everyone up into groups and each group wrote a “story”, which I then read dramatically (in a variety of crazy voices) to the room.
By then it was late, and we headed off to our rooms, happy to be new sisters on a journey together.
Saturday—After a yummy breakfast at the cafe, we headed over to the conference room where Judi delivered a hilarious and informative workshop
a la Martha Stewart, only without helmet hair or a low, stoic voice. I got to be Judi’s jester whenever there was dead air, and that was fun, too. Judi taught us how to make baby cakes wrapped in chocolate, flower cakes; how to create a new calligraphy style, decorate tables, create invites, use fabric for a variety of purposes…gosh! It was stellar. We all had an excellent time taking notes on the cool notepads included in our groovy YOU SAID IT, SISTER! hot, neon pink goodie bags. (Which, I’m sorry to tell you—I can’t tell you all the secret ingredients in the bags. You’ll have to come next year to see all the FREE STUFF you get to keep! Yowza!)
Then, we all had lunch together. Mmm. (My only faux pax was in pouring peach cobbler onto my chicken because I thought it was a gravy. I invented a new taste sensation that will be described in next year’s weekend getaway!)
Then, back to more fun with Judi…shopping…and when nighttime arrived, we all crowded into Sara (yes, I’m talking about myself) and Judi’s hotel room for a sing-a-long with Christy, Judi’s dear pal from Nashville. Wow! Christy has such a throaty voice. She was clever and brought along her guitar AND a songbook, so we did covers by the Indigo Girls, John Denver, and an assortment of other singalongables. Then Christy sang a song she wrote when she was 7 about liking herself and everyone was boo-hooing…it was so sweet and mature for someone to have written at seven. It was an excellent ending to a happy day.
Sunday—Got up and put on a turquoise dress and silver slippers I had bought when visiting Judi in Corpus Christi. (I even had on PANTY HOSE. Yes, you heard me right.)
Then I gave my spiritual sendoff…we laughed, we cried, we hugged each other with love and went off into the world knowing we were better people for taking the time to just be…just be ourselves and be ourselves together.
OVERALL RATING on the joy meter: 15 (10 being the highest)