How can a person sew with this kind of help?

 
 

Cookie Sales

This is the weekend that the girls are hitting it hard on the sidewalks selling cookies. We are a bit behind the 8 ball since Shauna was out of the country when sales began. Have I mentioned that I will NEVER again volunteer to be the cookie manager for girl scouts? I am overwhelmed with all the paperwork and complexity of something that I ASSUMED would be simple. I have already told Shauna that I will be moving out of the country so the GS people can't find me. And I told Dave that the only reasonable way out of this for me is death. If we get this whole mess reconciled it will be a miracle. I haven't done everything the right way so don't have all the paper trail they expect to see when the sale is over. This 30+ page manual was way too intense for this grandma. And another problem is that Hailey's troop is small and only 3 of the 5 girls are able to sell. UGH.

But here they are having a fun time yesterday. They were VERY successful!! One of the mom's owns this salon and we had to go through the approval process to be able to set up there. It is surrounded by a bunch of restaurants and a bar. A police cruiser drove past, stopped in the middle of the road and used his bullhorn to say "We bought S'mores and are enjoying them." That was fun! Despite my frustration, the girls are learning to be bold and talk to people. They have to make change and deal with the cash box. And they are SMILING!!

The blonde lady left the restaurant across the street to come buy cookies and take the girls' photo. That was sweet. And a gentleman donated $100 for the troops. OCD or Operation Cookie Drop is a gift of caring project with Girl Scouts allowing cookies to be given to local military personnel via the USO.

Girl Scouts and School Performance

My dd, Shauna, needed a helper for Girl Scouts several months ago, when she began her adventure in leading 2 girl scout troops for her daughters. Voila! It is I, the one who sweeps in to say "yes, I will help." This simple yes, also led me to agree to be the cookie sale manager for both troops since none of the moms would volunteer. That is another story for another time. 😭😭

Yesterday I arrived to be with the Daisy Troop (Charlotte's troop) because the mom who would normally be there couldn't come. The leader must have another "approved/background checked" person in attendance at each meeting. Poor Shauna had just arrived home from vacation at 2 am or thereabouts so hadn't had much time to recover from the long day of flying let alone preparing for the troop meeting. She did, however, have an idea for the craft portion of the meeting. And what a winning idea it was.

Here are the girls, making small cookie booth's for their 18" dolls. They are not actually doing booth sales this year but will be doing so next year. This will give them good practice for when they can sell in front of businesses. Aren't they sweet?? Notice the boxes of cookies on the ledge in back of the girls.

This is Charlotte's creation.

Of course, Hailey, who is a Brownie, HAD to be involved and made a cookie stand too. Sorry this photo didn't turn out. I should have snapped a couple more. At least her doll is in focus!

When the meeting ended at 5 pm, I had to get back home, make dinner, eat and leave by 6 pm for the 2nd grade singing program at Briarwood Elementary, which Hailey took part in. I was SUPER impressed with this 1/2 hour performance. They sang songs about the planets and even sang about poor Pluto being demoted from planethood!

Can you find Hailey? She is left of center by a few kids, 2nd row up, with only the top half of her face showing, right under the kid in the dark shirt.

It is amazing when I think about how many 2nd graders there are at this school! There are over 100 kids and 5 teachers. A far cry from when I was in 2nd grade!

SEW EXPO 2017 IS OVER

This was my first year working at the Sew Expo in Puyallup. I did love it, but I was gone for about 12 hours per day for 5 days straight. I showed up for a couple of hours on Tuesday to get the lay of the land and help with set up a bit. Then from Thursday through Sunday I was in the classroom from 7:30 am until typically 6 or 6:30 pm.

I worked in the Bernina classroom which was in the Expo Hall, separate from the rest of the sales booths and fun stuff, where we had 30 sewing machines and 15 sergers set up and 2 to 3 diferent classes each day. My role was to be in the classroom (there were 4 of us total) to help the students. If the sewing machine needle broke, we changed it, if they couldn't find the right sewing foot, we helped them find and install it. Thread breaks? We rethreaded and adjusted. If they weren't sure what the instructor wanted them to do, we would guide them along. We also checked in the students, collected the money for supplies, handled the door prizes and got to know each of our workmates along the way. The biggest challenge was trying to get all the machines set up and prepared for the next class. We only had 1/2 hour between classes and each instructor/project was different and we had to set up according to their needs. Then after the last class finished up at 4:30, we had to clean things up and prepare all the machines for the class in the morning.

We were always surprised when we would discover in talking to many of the students, that they had come from far and wide to attend the Expo. Some came from Montana, Nevada, Michigan and even 2 ladies on Sunday had flown in from London just to attend this event. I knew it was a big deal because I typically attend every year, but I had no idea it was THAT big of a deal! I had heard that there were about 1/3 less vendors this year and most of us noticed that it was less crowded and it was quite apparent to those of us who have experienced this Expo in the past that there were less businesses represented. Still, in all, it was fun. I only had about an hour and a half total to shop and that is just not enough time to really see all the goodies. My pocket book didn't take too big of a hit this year because of this!

Here are some photos from the 5 days.

One of our instructors had the most amazing coat on. Of course she made it, but she said it took her 8 years of off and on work to get it done! I know this photo looks a bit risque, but she is showing the people in the class that the inside of the jacket has lots of lovely embroidery work as well.

And here is the back

Gather around and learn this great trick.

I enjoyed learning a thing or two from the various instructors....when there was a lull in attending to the people in the class. Oh, and we actually had a few MEN that attended the classes.

We typically had 30 students in the classes

Sell those machines!

This is in the Make and Take area of the Bernina sales booth

Just a shot of some quilts that piqued my interest

I had already made a couple of these several months ago when I saw it in the latest Sulky (thread) technique book, but then learned a few more tips to make it even stand out more.

We didn't have any mahine embroidery classes or even free motion embroidery classes, but one of the instructors had this sweet pouch which she had made sitting on the table..

OOOHHHHH, there is Shelly (owner of Bernina of Renton) and Cheri with whom I had the pleasure of working with. Cheri and I hit it off and are looking forward to when we can meet up again. She lives down in the Puyallup area. They are both two very sweet ladies!

And here is one of the Bernina of America Ambassadors (most of them fly in from all over the country to teach and oversee things. She is standing next to Ken who was a HUGE help for the entire time. He and his wife (below) own the Bernina store in Aberdeen.

This is Sue, a wonderful lady and look at that snazzy coat that she made!

Look at all of that machine embroidery work. Isn't it gorgemoondous!?