PurpleRunnerBean72511

New products, ( Beyond Burlap runners, Dots Tablecloths, Rattan Napkins and more) media kits, price lists, re-organizing our booth ... these seem to be the hot topics on my mind lately.  But, at the same time, I'm trying hard to make time to enjoy my garden (it's lovely this year except for the rabbits and the leek fungus), take a swim in the lake, walk before the birds stop singing in the morning, and watch the sun set each night.  I'm also trying to be "laid back" (I am a product of the 60s ad 70s.) by not counting how many days 'til August 13 and the beginning of the NYIGF.  Rather, this year I've created a contest between the NYIGF and my lovely purple runner bean.  I'm betting my runner bean will be at top of my pergola (see picture of runner bean and pergola above) before I leave for NY on August 10.  Certainly more fun than counting the days on the calendar.

In case you want to know who wins, come to Creative Women's booth at the Show ... 6308. You'll get to see our new products and find out the race results.

Ellen

On the last day of my recent trip to Ethiopia, we had decided that it would be interesting for the staff (admin, weavers, sewers, fringers, dyers, tea lady ... everyone) to see what the products that they create look like in stores, on websites (some of them had never heard of a web site), in catalogs. So, I showed them the Creative Women website, links to Ochre and Anthropologie, (2 stores that carry our products), photos that I have taken, and our booth at the NYIGF. 

With each new photo, I started hearing whispering, but since the whispering was in Amharic, I didn't know what was being said. The fellow who was translating told me that one of the weavers was telling everyone that he made the towels that I was showing and that he'd never seen them look so good. His proud grin gave made me pretty proud, too.

Weaving with a smile.

Then one of the sewing women asked me (through the interpretor) if I would comment on the pillows ... how was the sewing. This was a particularly timely question, since our first pillows often arrived in VT and went straight to a local seamstress who inserted new zippers.  Today, the pillows arrive looking perfect; I showed her a photo that I took in my home, of the pillow collection. More whispering, laughing ...

Tsigist, one of Sabahar's sewers.

On of the weavers (a young man who comes to work in an ironed shirt, neat pants and loafers and changes into his weaving clothes before starting work) asked where I got my ideas for designs. I told him I look at magazines, work with Kathy on new ideas, and look around me a lot. I then suggested that he might have some good ideas for designs since he's an expert weaver, and should tell the production manager if he has any. I suspect that Sabahar has a undiscovered designer among the weavers.

The final comment came from one of the dyers ... a tall man who would smile and say hello to me each time I walked by the dyeing room.  That's as far as our conversations ever got. But, now he just said "I never thought about what happens to the things I dye.  eeing where they end up, I'm proud to make things that show the world that beautiful things come from Ethiopia." Wow.

.Dots Beach Blankets drying in Addis before being shipped to the US.   

It's not as if folding laundry has ever been a favorite hobby of mine; and although I have done enough waitressing to know how satisfying it is to have a couple of boxes of napkins ready to go for the dinner rush, I certainly never took particular pleasure (or care) in folding them at home.

Then I came to work at Creative Women. Every shipment we receive, of course, has to be counted, then shelved in a way that makes each product easy to identify and pull out for filling orders. At first, I thought Ellen's insistence that all the tablecloths should be folded the one way, all the scarves another was just possibly a little compulsive.

Within a month or so, however, I realized she was absolutely right. Give it another six months, and I started experimenting with different folds to use shelf space more efficiently while keeping the fabrics in good shape. I've been here two years now, and I've gotten a little territorial about the folding. Come on—I just want to be sure it's done right. Not that I'm compulsive about it, or anything.

But if you do it carefully, you can smooth out most of the shipping wrinkles as you go, and everything will fit better on the shelves, and those full shelves just look so much better … and, yes, I've become a little compulsive. Sue me.

This is what's making me happy today (excuse the picture quality; it's from my cell phone):
Tablecloths, blankets, and throws, oh my!

Okay, some of the stacks are starting to get wobbly, but still, there's something about shelves full of nicely-folded tablecloths (and blankets, and throws) that makes me smile.

And the scarves that I completely re-vamped when we got the new colors in. Again: full shelves, smiling Amy.

Lots of folded scarves.

~ Amy