Thanks SO much Lisa, you rock woman!!!! Also, Marcy, you are a gem, thank you for helping everyone with ride/room shares! We are blessed to have you both on staff!
Patty and Karen, BIG hugs.....and thanks for your support of West which sure helped folks on the other coast take a chance with something new....xoxoxo!
Jeanne, you are so sweet, I really enjoyed meeting you and sure hope you come back!
I took a week after the event to spend with family in Jersey after cleaning up the event venue. I came home Tues wiped out and still under the weather from a flu but VERY happy!
Everyone made this event a huge success! The first year there is always fear of the unknown but by Friday night it seemed as though we had all been together long before the event. I love all the sharing and "stepping out of the box" that happens when everyone feels welcome and a part of something bigger.
Except for the deep freeze Saturday things were very smooth, just goes to show you can't stop the fire
I am proud of all of you who had faith in us, who came, fired up, jumped right in, shared and huddled together, you are ALL what makes this event the better every year, another GS family had begun! There are always a few bumps in the beginning, next year we will make sure things go as planned. I will make sure we get to the Pajama Jam, between the cold, a late start that night and me being sick I apologize for not being able to get that accomplished. It really is a blast and I'll have a back up staff member prepared to help me get it started next year.
I do have some great news for those who wished we had more heat that day in the "other" classes.......we are obviously going to need more space with the kind of response I have gotten this week after the first GS East! Mary at Carlisle has offered up the large lunchroom in the torch manufacturing building!!! It is WARM, has bathrooms, sinks, tables, microwave and fridge....plenty large enough for the other classes, woohoo Mary!
That means I can add another torch class per period too! Thanks to our Featured artists Barry Lafler, Cindy Lemmo and Lisa St Martin this year. We are working on Featured artists for 2012 now, looks like Roger Parramore (wow!) and we are trying to get Brad Pearson too! The dates are set for Sept 27-31st....the first weekend in Oct does fall on Columbus day so we moved it up a week. I know some of you who really wanted to come back couldn't come Columbus Day weekend.
We will bring back Lisa St Martin, Marcy Lamberson, deb (me), Doretha Jones, Hugh Salkind, Cheryl Frech plus adding Bill Futer and Sue Wilson. We will repeat this year's full classes and add lots of new ones! Sign up for spots will open up Jan 2nd, 2012 on East and West pages at debcrowley.com. Sign up closes March 31st, don't forget to sign up for your coast's event and PLEASE use current email posted on the page to sign up, not previous years email entry addresses!
A huge thank you to everyone for their participation, especially to all my staff, I couldn't do it without all of you.
Glassy love to old and new friends!
deb