CTA Rock Stars!

Mary Collen is one of our CTA's. (Clothing Textile Advisors)

The CTA's are the backbone of the Puyallup Sewing & Stitchery Expo. If you have ever attended the show -- you know they're in the back of every classroom, taking tickets, managing seating, directing traffic.
But there is also a lot of BEHIND THE SCENES work. If I can manage it, I'm trying to post a slideshow of Mary's crew -- they have rehearsals for SIX style shows. Every garment must be fitted to the model, and then each model has "dressers" who help during the quick changes.
Like most things worthwhile -- it is MUCH MORE WORK THAN YOU CAN EVER IMAGINE.

This is one of my favorite pictures of Mary Collen. Her daughter London is an excellent photogrpaher (more about her later). Two years ago, we were changing the format of our at-door piece (the Expo Insider) and I needed a picture really FAST. London sent me this FAB PIC of her Mom -- hiding behind a mountain of fabric. Who hasn't done that? (bought more than you can possibly sew in a lifetime!)

Mary sent me a sweet note about this "blog" -- so she became TODAY'S ASSIGNMENT.

Mary -- what are you doing this summer?

Here's the report I REALLY WANT to hear...

Mary won the Bernina sewing challenge, "Project Everyday" -- and that meant a trip to BERNINA UNIVERSITY in San Francisco!

Right?

so -- HOW WAS IT, MARY??

DO YOU HAVE ANY PICTURES YOU'D LIKE TO SHARE WITH THE GROUP??

Let's see if you AND I can figure out this back-and-forth-blogging thing...

Your comment also prompted me to try to upload an album ALL ABOUT THE STYLE SHOWS...but that didn't go so well.

Maybe tomorrow...

TELL US, MARY -- C'MON!!

July 18, 2009

This is a picture of my new grand-daughter -- Lillian Claire. She was born March 9, 2009. do you see how smart she is? She waited until I got back from Puyallup!!

Of course -- I could hardly wait to make her a custom blanket. Zebra stripes on one side and pink flannel on the other. Notice the 2" black t-shirt fringe around the edges...Lillian's Mom (my beautiful daughter-in-law, Emily) -- tells me that whenever she takes Lillian out with her zebra blanket, she gets asked a lot of questions.

Humm...funny -- she didn't exactly tell me what the questions were. Something on the order of 'WHERE DID YOU GET THAT WACKO BABY BLANKET??"

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Okay -- so this is my first stab at writing a "blog". Ugh. I've been putting it off for two reasons -- first of all -- I'm afraid it will be a time-suck. There are only so many hours in a day and if Ray Charles could visit my house, even he could see that I'm already plenty behind on my important housework...

But my second big reason NOT to write a blog is that I'm afraid my blog will SUCK. It's like having a party and nobody comes. Or -- worse yet -- a lot of people come, but they are bored out of their mind and leave early. You just know they can't wait to call everybody you know to tell them what a bad party-giver you are.

One of the ways I’ve been putting off actually WRITING a blog is to read a lot of books and take a lot of classes telling me how to do it. (This is the same approach I used in 1970 for having sex…)

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Whereas I've been PUTTING OFF WRITING A BLOG -- some people are out there actually DOING THE RIGHT THING. Like Susan Chesney and the CTA's in Everett, Washington. Here's what she writes:

The official title of the school is Camp StitchALot. We had almost 80 kids signed up this year.
Class topics included: Cargo pants, knit top, Chalkboard apron, and refashion your wardrobe. Each class was 3 hours a day for 5 days. We offered 2 morning classes and 2 afternoon sessions.

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Hey -- one more thing I want to do -- post a picture from my cellphone. The thing is -- I've never actually taken a picture with my Blackberry -- and I know less than nothing about writing a blog...so, posting a picture from my cellphone seems a bit ambitious.

But -- in the spirit of "no pain -- no gain" -- here is a picture of Schaeffer Hall in Iowa City. In order to tell the story of the first morning of our "Blogging" Class -- with pictures instead of words -- I would have criss-crossed the front doors with bright yellow crime scene tape.
(exactly 11 people get that joke...)

I'm slowly but surely learning how to "post". BUT -- I cannot figure out why THESE GOOFY SPACES KEEP REAPPEARING??

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Now, for more "homework" -- I need to figure out how to add a video from YouTube to my blog. So here goes....although it may not seem related (lol) -- Th big mean guy in this video (Pedro) is my son Ross -- he is a photojournalist working in remote, cold Minnesota. In their spare time, he and his buddies make short films for contests. Hey -- everybody's gotta have a hobby!!

'He's My Brother' - (..I received this story TWICE on the same day. Once from my husband John, and also from my friend Donna Babylon.) It is priceless...

Two young boys walked into a pharmacy one day, picked out a box of tampons and proceeded to the checkout counter. The man at the counter asked the older boy, "Son, how old are you?" "Eight," the boy replied. The man continued, "do you know what these are used for?" The boy replied, "not exactly, but they aren't for me. They're for him. He's my brother. He's four. We saw on TV that if you use these you would be able to swim and ride a bike. Right now, he can't do either."