Today was a special day.  I attended the ASCP workshop in Leesburg, VA and got to meet Miss ASCP herself, Annie Sloan.

Let me give you a bit of the back story.  Last year, around this time, I was introduced to Patty Seaman, one of the original ASCP stockists in the US.  At that time, there were only a few stockists in North America and they were just starting to get the word out about this amazing paint.  Well, I asked Patty if she would send me a sample of the paint, so I could give it a try.  She sent it.  I tried it.  I loved it.  I blogged about it.  And the rest is, as they say, history.  Despite the fact that I have been using and promoting the paint for a year, Annie and I have only e-mailed once or twice and we have never met.  I’ve always worked with the distributor and stockists.  We finally got to meet today.  We’ve both had an impact on each other’s business, so it was so nice to finally hug and talk about our amazing journeys.  It’s really providential how our adventures became intertwined and we compliment each other so well.  I’ve always felt that, but meeting her solidified it.

Annie is a delight and a wealth of information about paint, color, design history, art and I’m sure a lot of other things she didn’t have time to fit into her seminar.  She has so many wonderful ideas and her creativity just oozes.  I thoroughly enjoyed her seminar and even sat in on one of the workshops for a while.  If you ever have the chance to attend one of her events or pop into her shop in Oxford, England, to meet her, you definitely should.

 It was my first big outing since my surgery, so I left a couple of hours before the end of the event to go home and rest.  Before leaving, I did get Annie to sign one of her books for me…

So cool.

Thanks so much to Annie, Janet, Celeste and Kelly for inviting me to be a special guest at the event.  I met so many wonderful ladies and had an amazing time.

If you’d like to get to know Annie better, you can follow her on her blog, Paint & Colour, or connect with her on the ASCP FaceBook Page.