Last year I wrote about the CREATE YOUR STYLE in TUCSON experience, the showroom, the classes, the parties, and by all means they were there again this year, just as sparkling and exciting. 

This year, I want to write about something else that happens in Tucson.   Something that happens to my heart.

It starts the moment I arrive.  Maybe it is the dryness of the air, the golden sunsets and layered blues of the sky, I feel energized, all the waiting is over and the magic is happening and I want to breathe it all in.

Then I go to the CREATE YOUR STYLE in TUCSON showroom.  This clean, crisp, sparkling room wipes away all my cares and transports me into a new world.  And there, there in that new world is Nicole and Krissie, and the hugging starts and happy tears are shed.  It has only been since October we saw each other last, but it both feels like forever and like yesterday...just the way you feel when you see family. 

Then one after another after another, a familiar face, a welcome hug:  from Kansas City, Pennsylvania, Milwaukee, and even from Northern and Southern California, and of course, from Austria....shrieks, yelps, joyful sounds fill the showroom, and fill my heart.

All the beautiful crystal sample pieces for the workshops are laid out in the showroom and I finally see up close and personal what everyone else is teaching...Darn!  I want to take them all. But I'm not a student here anymore, I'm a teacher, a Swarovski Ambassador, and a featured designer in the new CREATE YOUR STYLE Magazine.  My heart does a backward flip and simultaneous cartwheel when I see the pieces I had kissed good-bye so many months ago -- the displays are stunning, everthing glistens in the light.  How did I ever get here?  I'm pinching myself...how can this be real? How can this be possible? Don't they know I'm just a little girl who likes to play with my mom's sparklie "jewels" and draw pictures of dresses and shoes and handbags and pretend they are all mine, pretend I have parties to go to where I can wear the dresses and shoes and carry the pretty handbags?  And then, in a little corner of my heart is a glow, and warm realization that yes, this IS real, these are my accomplishments -- these are my realized goals, it IS possible, for me, for all of us.

          

And it goes on, as the week goes on.  Reconnecting with my darling friends...friends who I have met in Tucson over the years now (OMG, has it really been 6 years!) I've omitted most of the last names, cause after reading this it sounded like I was name-dropping something awful, but these are friends I could only dream of having, like Laura Timmons (one of the most amazing souls anyone could meet -- I remember I asked Andreas a few years ago to introduce us....little did I dream we would become such soul-sisters), and Lisa, Leslie, Deb & Deb, Brenda, my dearest June, Jamie, Kristal, Val, Monica, Katie, Lilian, Tammy, Diane, my absolute darling Linda Hartung  -- everyone one of these ladies has increased the size of my heart, and they keep blowing it up like it is some gigantic balloon.  And then...hearing about weather problems and flight cancellations, and my heart deflates a bit.  Peg, Sandy, and Anna won't be there...oh no, I was so looking forward to seeing them also. Jubilation later in the week when Anna WAS able to get to Tucson...lots more hugging, and boucing up and down while hugging happend then!  And Fernando...Nick, Christian, Walter....Tucson isn't just about the ladies!

                                      

All of this happens because of Swarovski, because of CREATE YOUR STYLE.

And so many new friends, Heather, Marlene, Pam, Rae, Kelly & Vivian, Anne, Dana, Kim & Kim, Paula & Paula, Jill & Jill, and Theresa, -- my heart just keeps stretching as all these lovely people jump in.  And of course, my roomie Stephanie; shared experiences, shared laughs and shared love enlarges my heart even more. 

There are favorite vendors to revisit -- Beckie, Nikia, Kay, Cindy, Rosalyn, Lisa and many new ones to meet.  Parties and more introductions, more reconnections, more hugs, even sightings of a few San Diego neighbors...a few slightly embarrasing photos taken; more friends and more memories made.  I never thought there was room inside me for my heart to grow this big.

Next year and in years to come there will be shrieks and hugs as we see each other again...and our hearts grow even bigger.

In Tucson.

Sparkles and smiles!