ZEBRA Day

First of all -- I've gotta say -- AMERICAN IDOL SUCKED last night. Are you kidding me?? Curtis Finch went HOME??? I thought he was amazing. The only good news is that Nicki Minaj said if HE went home -- SHE would go home. I can only pray that she is a woman of her word...(but I seriously doubt it). She brings NOTHING to the show. She was late arriving for the performance show, and I'm still trying to dicipher her waffle analogy... Sorry -- I didn't mean to get off track there...I just could NOT not comment.
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Now we are going back to our regularly scheduled blog for today...
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Here's what I have learned. When you hear a GREAT IDEA -- you just need to GO WITH IT.

Sometime in January -- two of my FAVORITE SEWISTS IN THE WORLD -- Jan Potter (mother of the Hey Rita tote) and Bonne Swett told me they would be wearing their zebra fabric challenge to Sew Expo on Friday.

Of course, zebra has long been one of my favorite things -- and I decided then and there that Sew Expo should have an actual "zebra day".

I will be sharing many, many zebra stories...but first -- of course -- SOME PICTURES...
here I am, on that Friday morning, greeting people at the gate -- including Jan and Bonne!! WE LOOK HOT!!!


And the Zebra just kept coming...they put zebra fringe on their tops and their cuffs...

There were zebra scarves...

Zebra jackets...

Zebra jewelry...

I started calling this look the "Zebra smile"...

Even ZEBRA SHOES...

And all day long, I kept smiling and talking to my zebra peeps...


But it wasn't until late in the afternoon -- when I sat for a few minutes with Marilyn -- that I really understood the power of the zebra. She has been coming to Sew Expo for over 20 years -- always with her sister -- her sewing buddy and best friend. They looked forward to Sew Expo all year long and it was their annual girlfriend getaway.

Three years ago, her sister died. Although Marilyn has continued to come to Sew Expo -- and she loves the classes and the style shows -- she is a quiet woman, and it has been a lonely place for her.

BUT -- guess what?? ON FRIDAY -- Marilyn WORE ZEBRA. And she told me that from the moment she walked into the show -- other zebra-wearing women were smiling at her and she was once again part of something. She felt connected, she met new people, had many conversations. She was AMAZED. She ate lunch with a lovely group of women from Portland (ALL WEARING ZEBRA) -- and everywhere she went that day, she was surrounded by friends and sewing buddies.

There was a lot of chatter on Facebook and the Yahoo Groups about Zebra Day -- and one woman said it was like a "secret handshake".

She got that right...

THANKS everybody for playing the Zebra game.  It was a zebra stampede of impressive, mega porportions....