Reporting from the Sewing Expo!

                        It has been a super busy week so far. All  22 of our boxes arrived safely on Monday,  thanks to Fed Ex. What a relief! We (my cousin, Rose ~ who flew in from Idaho to help) got everything moved from our hotel in Tacoma to our storage facility in Puyallup. That felt so good to get that part done. On Tuesday, we travelled over to Bellevue (where Microsoft is based ~ see the buildings above) and visited my good friend, Judy Barlup, the "queen" of Japanese Tailoring. She has a beautiful article in the latest issue of Threads magazine - a definite "must read".  Here is a picture of the two of us. She is such a dear!

            The rest of Tuesday was spent "playing" as we tried to visit as many knitting shops as possible! And, naturally, we did find some goodies. But, Wednesday was definitely NOT a "play day". We were at the fairgrounds by 9:15am to get in line to unload. This is always the hardest day of any show. By slightly after 10, we were already wheeling the dolly back and forth unloading all of those 22 boxes. The process of unloading, setting up and arranging the booth took literally all day. We finished or should I say, quit at 7pm! Ugh! And, yes, by then we were exhausted! Here is a picture of Rose hard at work -the "before" picture-  and below is the "after" shot.

 

                       Our booth looked really great by the time we left. And, we had a fabulous location ~ across from the ladies restroom! Everyone has to stop there eventually - right?

After dinner and a hot hot shower, we collapsed.

                         Today was the opening day of the show ~ yippee!!! I had my first class ever at the Expo. It was SOLD OUT! Yes, and with 100 people. After a rocky beginning with a slight problem with the sound system, my seminar went off smoothly. I had a wonderful group of very enthusiastic sewers. Oh, what fun. And, as for the rest of the day. Well, suffice it to say, I only made it to the restroom once ~ so, yes we were extremely busy! I am a very happy lady tonight ~ and, once again, exhausted! 

                          I did get to meet with Deepika of Pattern Review.com today! What a delightful lady! We had a wonderful little visit. She even made her first purchase at the Expo at our booth ~ and this is her first year to come to the Sewing Expo. Tomorrow night, all of the Pattern Review members who are attending the Expo, will meet at our booth at the end of the day to all go out to dinner. Fun, Fun!

                         I promise that I will do my best to get out of the booth tomorrow and take some pictures of the Expo for everyone. Oh, and yes, I will take my wallet as you just never know what you will find!

Happy Sewing everyone!