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Adventures in Nashville (from a reader’s perspective) Part 1

This past week I was blessed with the experience of an incredible adventure. As a mama of three littles under the age of seven, I do not get out much and I have never before been away over night. As my youngest has recently turned two and is nearly weaned this was the time for a mama adventure. A beloved dear reader friend invited me to share an Airbnb and attend a one-day Christian Fiction Readers Retreat. We turned it into three days and had an amazing time!

One might think, what is the big deal getting together with a reader friend? But what if I told you that this friend lives states and many hours away and our relationship was built upon the commonality of our book choices and timing of our addition of children to our families? We are kindred spirits, although we may be in contact from afar and reader friends, we are indeed.

Getting to Nashville was not but an afternoon drive for me, so I headed over a bit earlier and hit the Nashville Violins shop and bought myself a well needed shoulder rest. Do you have any idea what it feels like to go into a shop full of fragile things and not have to be concerned about your trio of chaos knocking over and breaking everything?!?! It was unreal and a well needed experience. Oooh! Did I mention I stopped for take-out on my way through Jackson, TN and was able to run in and grab it to go with out unbuckling and hauling in the minions to run along with?! I’m speechless of how much of a weight removed that was toward relaxation for me. I love my kiddos, but leaving them a few days with their daddy was the perfect timing and good for them as well.

Once finished with my violin errands, I searched and found The Stitching Post, the Nashville LNS and headed on over. Inside I discovered two lovely ladies and kindred stitchy spirits. Incredible prices on DMC floss, a wide variety of specialty threads and room after room of intriguing patterns and books. They have yarn as well! I gathered what I was missing from a few projects I brought with me and planned to stitch my free and downtime away over the rest of the mid-week vacation. (I do have to admit, I didn’t lift a needle once! I was too busy!!)

After my adventures across town, using my sister inspired GPS (thanks SisterL!) I headed back across town to locate the Airbnb and debated heading out to find a particular large bookstore I’ve heard so much about. Once I found the Airbnb, the sun was setting on the horizon and I found the book store was more than 20 miles out beyond where I needed to be. So I declared myself to settle in. Then I realize I had not yet had dinner…

I went onto Facebook looking for company and was rescued by the blessedly wonderful Carrie Fancett Pagels! What? An author rescued me?! I headed my car-weary non-clothes changed self into the fancy Omni hotel where I was quite quickly wrapped in the arms of the amazingly Miriam-like Mesu Andrews who knew me at a glance! What? An author recognized me?! From there the night just got better and better. We headed off to a local BBQ destination (girl living near Memphis ate what while out of town?!) and I sat between Ronie Kendig and Carrie Turansky, across from Gabrielle Meyer, and Christy Ann Hunter, and of course Mesu and Carrie too! In a bit, we reorganized and I was sitting with Jan Drexler, talking with Rel of RelzReviewz (hi!!), and Becky Wade.

More details and pictures! to come…

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(No spam, I promise. Just creative madness ramblings, reviews and life-stories, with quilting and cross stitch inspiration in between!)

The Creative Madness Mama also known as Margaret is a Christian Stay-at-home Mama, married to the Enginerd, quilter, cross stitcher, avid reader and book-a-holic. As book blogger for various publicists, she loves to share the latest and greatest about books coming out as well as her needle art and other crafty projects with some pictures of her fourteen-year-old AppleBlossom, twelve-year-old OrangeBlossom (the Princess), nine-year-old Almond Blossom (the Rascal boy!), six-year-old (red) Mermaid Warrior, the four-and-a-half-year-old Viking Dragon, and Huckleberry (due in June 2024!) in between. Homeschooling, cloth diapering, breastfeeding, babywearing, bone broth brewing, tea drinking, list making mama full of a little creative and a lot of madness.

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