What an amazing year we have had so far....front row seats at the new Cirque du Soleil show in Atlanta in January, a visit to the Georgia Aquarium to see the whale shark exhibit, a show in Palm Beach in March, the Smithsonian Craft Show in April where I met the new head of the Smithsonian Institution and his wife (who gave me a four leaf clover earring for good luck!), two weeks in England and Ireland in May, an amazing drive across country on the way to Calgary where we spent two weeks doing the Calgary Stampede, our first visit to the the Buffalo Bill Museum in Cody, soaking in the sulphur hot springs in Thermopolis, working on the house, developing a new line of canvas totes, and then, a second trip to Washington D.C. where we just did the Smithsonian Craft2Wear show.
We stayed with the CFO of the Washington Post and his wife, and on Sunday afternoon, sold a small bag to the new Supreme Court Justice, Sonia Sotomayer, who arrived with two Secret Service men and an assistant, and who was kind enough to take the time to visit nearly every booth at the show, and to talk with nearly all the artists. I wasn't nervous talking to her, but when it came time to fill out the paperwork for the show (which was a fund raiser for the Smithsonian Women's Committee) I told her "I can't pretend I don't know who you are, but I don't know how to spell your name"...what really made her laugh though, was when I told her we were supposed to get her address, and she said..."just put down the Supreme Court. I am sure it will get to me..."
We were on the wait list for the Washington Craft Show at the Washington Convention Center the following weekend, but we were told we would have little chance of getting in since its one of the top craft shows in the nation (so no one ever cancels), so we decided to pack in as many tourist destinations as we possibly could that Monday before heading home. We started at Arlington National Cemetery where we saw the gravesites of John, Robert and Edward Kennedy, and witnessed the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, which was very powerful and very sobering, then we headed across the Potomac on a hop on hop off tour bus to see the Lincoln Memorial, the Washington Monument and the Vietnam War Memorial. The American History Museum was undergoing renovations, so we saw very little of that museum, then took in the Natural History Museum where we saw the Hope Diamond, and headed for the Air and Space Museum, when the promoter for the Washington Craft Show called to say they'd had a cancellation.
We checked into a hotel that night and the next morning, headed off to see the rest of the tourist sites in Washington. It was an absolutely gorgeous week with regard to weather, and our timing on some events couldn't have been better. We walked right up to the Supreme Court Building just as they were allowing the last group of the day to get in, so we were able to hear a case argued before the Supreme Court (something I never dreamed I would get to do), then toured the Capitol Building where I saw a statue from New Mexico carved by an artist I used to be very good friends with in Statue Hall. We spent Wednesday at the National Art Gallery where we saw some of the most amazing art ever created, then on Thursday morning, we got up at 4:30 am, showered, and headed for the convention center where we were interviewed by the local Fox news station for a segment on the Washington Craft Show.
We got there an hour before the news team did, and then found out that we weren't being interviewed until nearly an hour and a half later, so we went for coffee across the street and got a frantic call to come back, then were told it would be another five or ten minutes and could we go get a few more handbags, then got another frantic call to come rushing back, and because I was a mess by then, I dove into my bag for a brush, and as I was brushing my hair, the interview started, so I wound up leaping into the frame just as the reporter began the interview.
We set up that same afternoon, and while that show wasn't a financial blow out, we had a good time and got through move out pretty easily.
We are back in North Carolina now, about to get started on our Christmas orders, then we head for Stillwater, Oklahoma, where Michael's son, Jarred is graduating from college. Hopefully he will be able to join us for the trip to New York afterward, where we have tickets to the Daily Show on December 16.
If we could just win the lottery, life would be perfect! As it stands right now, its pretty darned close.....
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