American Made...

What a whirlwind week it was last week!  Craziness and excitement on top of craziness and excitement!  It all started on Monday after the car was loaded and I was off to NY.  I picked up my friend and helper for the week, Andrea, in Albany and we proceeded to Brooklyn, where we were staying with friends (thank you so much Todd and Elena!).  We got in slightly late, but Elena had a delicious fall dinner of acorn squash and salad waiting for us.  We arrived a day early because Andrea and I had a place we just had to have time to visit...Dead Horse Bay.  I'll be telling you all about that in the next post.    

After Dead Horse Bay we arrived at Grand Central Terminal with a giant suitcase and feather tree in tow.  We set the table up with all the fantastic little people and animals I'd been so so busy creating in the last several weeks and over the summer. 

 Andrea snapped this photo of me with the "children".  Martha's crew constructed fabulous tables that didn't even require table clothes...hallelujah!  (And my pretty white dress was 10 bucks at a garage sale!)

We literally didn't have enough room for everybody...so many of them had to stay in a box until the second or third day, when space cleared up.  By the end we were working to make the table look full.  That's the sign of a successful show for sure!

There were only about 12 vendors, but boy did they have pretty things with pretty displays!  A gal selling cards held them in the bristles of up turned brooms...so clever!  I made several new friends too...nothing better than that!!

In other areas of the event people were making things they could take home, like cards, pom poms, wooden bead necklaces and polka dot garland.  Simple but fun!  I did a short demonstration here too.  There was also a food area, tables and chairs to lounge in and a secret hidden area where Martha was giving her key note speeches to registered participants.  They also had a booth where they were making (on site) screen printed tote bags promoting the event and they were so pretty I really wanted one!  But the line was forever long.  :( 

We did have the privilege of having the best view in the house of the amazing United States of Pans, made by artist Alisa Toninato.  Martha took a tour of the vendors booths several times throughout the three days we were there and purchased a good number of spun cotton animals.  She asked for more but I didn't make that many!  Maybe next year....

I met so many fancy people!  All the top editors of the Martha Stewart magazine (they all bought stuff and I didn't really realize who they were until I was processing their credit cards after I got home...eek!  How awful I am like that!).  The Fabulous Beekman Boys stopped by my booth and asked if I wanted to do a collaboration for their company...sure!  TV people and fashion people and other magazine people were all there!  Mayor Bloomberg was there too I guess...but I don't know if I saw him because I forgot what he looked like!  Arg!  I should have done some research ahead of time.  Gael Towey talked to me like I knew Hannah Milman, which I did, but I didn't know her name!  Ugh...what a dummy...
 
I did see some wonderful familiar faces again though...like Hosanna Houser and Lenore Welby, both of whom worked on her show and now work on other projects for Martha...I love those two!  And I was tempted to buy another acorn charm from Hosanna's collection, but I didn't and now I think I'm going to buy it online. 

I'm not one to take a lot of photos and certainly not one to be obvious about it...but when I saw Martha being Grandma to her little granddaughter (with an assistant of course), I couldn't help but snap a sneaky pic (can you see them?).  So cute!

They had two super huge tall screens that were projecting all sorts of stuff throughout the event.  Very futuristic of you Martha!

 

But a little more down to earth were these amazing wood slab tables.  I wish I could have dragged one home with me...but alas, I'm not that strong and it would probably be stealing anyway.

Hip hip hooray for American Made!  They are hoping that this event will be the first annual...so here's to next year!