A Visit to the City of Sisterly Love!

You guessed it: It's Kristine again (sick of me yet?), returned from another fabulous road trip a few weeks ago, this time to Philadelphia. The city has earned the moniker "City of Brotherly Love," but after hanging out with more than 100 amazing Krafty Kritters on Kathy Markloff's team and those from around the Northeast, it's time we redubbed the town "City of Sisterly Love."

The weather was gorgeous and so were the lovely Consultants in attendance. What a smart looking group of ladies, including our mini-reunion from last year's Scrapbook Spa Getaway—five of our nine winners were in attendance, and it was a sight for sore eyes to see these dear friends again! (Here's a picture of us reconnecting, party balloons and all!)

And speaking of gorgeous, the artwork donated for the silent auction was some of the most inspired I've ever seen. I've included a few shots here, but I'm afraid mere photography won't capture the whimsy of the birdhouse, the uniqueness of the tiles, or the HUGE WOW of Nancy Brown's sewn cards. Nancy, you took our breath away! It's no wonder that at the end of the day, the artwork had raised an extraordinary total…drumroll, please: $3,000 for Operation Smile! What extraordinary artwork and even more extraordinary generosity. Check out VP and COO Brian Holman waving the impressive stack of "benjamins" with the CTMH event staff and Naomi Smith and Kathy after all the counting was over. This single event garnered enough to fund more than TWELVE surgeries for needy children.

Kathy did a wonderful job of hosting (you REALLY did, Kathy! Thanks for doing it, even though I know you'd rather have been sitting quietly on the back row.) At lunchtime, Kathy hosted a lunch featuring four generations of greatness—Senior Executive Director Naomi as the "great grandma," Kathy as Naomi's first Downline, second Downline and Executive Director Wendy Vogel-Vienis, and third Downline and Director Lynn Como. Each of these women have done great things for the company and their teams and it was awesome to break bread and swill a diet coke in their presence.

We left Philly full of cheesecake and cheese steaks and a gift from Kathy given to each attendee. It was a fuzzy stuffed monkey—a "krafty kritter" filled with treats and a tag that summed up the message of the entire weekend. On the front: "Believe in yourself." And on the back of the tag: "Let's party!" Thanks to Kathy and the great ladies of the city of sisterly love, we did both!