The Pioneer Woman Comes to Tempe, Arizona

Ree Drummond, the Pioneer Woman, came to Tempe, Arizona last Thursday evening for a book signing at Changing Hands bookstore. As a blogger and cookbook collecter (I have several 100) I was excited to attend her book signing. And it turns out, she has many other local fans too - there were hundreds of people there. Some were huge fans who have every detail about her family memorized from reading her blog. If for some reason you've never heard of her you must check out her blog - but how could you not have heard of her? Time Magazine named her blog as one of the best 25 blogs for 2009 and she has over 33,000 followers on Twitter.

If you haven't yet checked out her book, The Pioneer Woman Cooks, you must. The recipes sound so delicious and every detail is explained and illustrated. The book also is full of many interesting stories and photos of her life and family on the ranch and is a great book to just sit down and read. For some great reviews, check out Bakerella and RecipeGirl. I have so many recipes marked to try - tonight, in fact, for dinner my family enjoyed PW's Cream Mashed Potatoes - very rich and creamy!

The event start at 7 pm and she started with a short speech and then answered questions from the audience. With hundreds in attendance, the seats were full and the rest of us crowded along the isles of the book store trying to get a glance as she spoke.

Once she was finished, the book singing began with group A and those with babies and children. The first group took at least an hour but after that it move a little faster. I was group M and had the chance to meet Ree Drummond around 1130 pm - it was worth the wait! She is just so sweet and this was after signing hundreds of books with still more to go. I don't think she left until after midnight. She also brought along her sister-in-law, Missy, and Mother-in-law who were also signing books.

While there I met Shealyn of SheyB. She makes really fun and sassy camera straps - I have a turquoise and brown damask one and people are always stopping me to ask where I got it. And best of all, while she sells her products through etsy.com, she is a local based in Phoenix. She brought two of her gorgeous camera straps as a gift for Ree Drummond.

Stayed tuned for a great give away to be announced this week - bigger and better than any we've done before and this one is open to anyone in the US, not just the Phoenix-metro area...

editing to add, Ree Drummond has blogged about her book signing tour last week including her stop in Phoenix