The Start Of Summer

I want to start by saying the cotton interlock material Sherry found at the show in L.A. is absolutely wonderful, I could sleep on it! It is so soft, it is perfect for our body shirts, definitely worth the wait.

Our summer is off to a busy start, how about you? We puppy sat last week, that was a lot of fun. We were spoiled with Mickie, since she was older she didn't have as much energy as she did as a pup. Milo (Sherry's dog) reminded us just how much energy a puppy can have! He was here about 10 minutes and had already found the only mud puddle in the yard. He decided to roll around and then lay in it. He joined me while I watered the flowers and garden by walking in the trenches I had just filled with water. I'm sure his memory of me is holding a bucket full of water and a towel! Since Mickie has been gone I have had to sweep the kitchen floor more often, I never realized how much she helped me. Milo took over that chore for her, one I'm sure he didn't mind. It was nice having a dog in the house again, the kids kept asking me, "When are we getting our own dog?, we need another one!" I am enjoying my break of animals right now, I have been caring for a pet for the past 16 years. Given all I have been dealt with the past couple of years, I need to lighten my load a bit. I definitely do want another dog, I LOVE dogs, but now is not the time. I told the kids maybe in a year, my heart needs to heal.

Helen started summer school this week, we dropped her off on the first day so we could meet the teacher. We ran into a couple of her old teachers from two years ago, they couldn't believe how grown up she looked. One of them was the assistant that adored Helen, she would always refer to her as "my girl". I feel better knowing they are there. Today is the last day of Bible Camp for the other kids, they are putting on a show. They have been practicing for the past couple of days. I was making beds in the girls room yesterday when Helen came in, turned on the music, and started doing the routine. I hope she will be okay when we go see the show, she may start singing and dancing in her seat!

Over the week-end I volunteered at the Greek Festival, I worked in the food line passing out spanikopita(spinach pie), and tiropita(feta cheese pie). It was my first time being a part of the fest, I had a good time. Peter used to work at the festivals whenever he could. I remember one year he put so much time in, we barely saw him for a week. He loved doing it that year because he was able to get to know the new priest better. He began going to church every Sunday, and became more involved. The only problem was, he was "snubbed" by his church because he was married outside of it (we were married in the Catholic Church). He asked me if I would get married in his church so he could once again be a member. We had planned on having a ceremony with just us, the kids, and our witnesses, after I had baby number 5. We never got around to it, something always came up. We were finally married in his faith when he was in the hospital, 5 days before he died, he slept right through it. He was able to receive confession, communion, and a beautiful Greek Orthodox funeral. That was almost two years ago...

Enjoy your summer!
Until next time-
Take Care,
Sue





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Los Angeles Textile Show - The 3rd Time WAS The Charm

Hi Guys -

Sorry I haven't posted for a while. There's been a lot going on within It'll Fit'll and the other facets of my life and I'm still figuring out how to juggle all of it. Obviously, I continue to drop a ball here and there. This post, for example, was written weeks ago but I haven't posted it. It's not as fresh as it was in early May, but I hope you'll still be interested...

Some of you may remember that I wrote a blog entry about my upcoming trip to Los Angeles for the Textile Show. That entry was a good long time ago, because the show was in mid April. I was hopeful that I could find thick, soft cotton interlock (comparable to the soft stretch cotton that’s used for receiving blankets) fabric for our line of bodysuits (which we’ll call body shirts and most folks call “onesies”. That familiar term is, unfortunately for us, trademarked by the Gerber Corporation. So, we can’t use it to describe our product.)

At any rate, I’d been confounded in my search for that fabric. Having attended two prior, fruitless, fabric shows – one in Chicago and one in New York City – I was concerned that the elusive cotton interlock was somehow unattainable for It’ll Fit’ll.

That third show did turn out to be the charm for us. We found the perfect, PERFECT fabric for our needs. It’s super soft (so it’s a pleasure to wear against bare skin), heavy weight (so it’s durable), and reasonably priced (so we will be able to make bodyshirts that are affordable for you). When you add the fact that the company contact person is nice, reasonable and has great follow-up – we couldn’t ask for more. Hurray!

We also found sources for other fabrics and components, but those weren’t as worrisome to me as the cotton knit. All in all, the trip was highly successful – even more than I expected and, despite my worry on this one, I’m always overly optimistic.

That’s the quick and dirty report on the LA Textile Show. For those of you who are interested, as I would be, I took some photos to share. The software limits me to 5 (a small fraction of what I shot) so here's a small sampling.

This was the lobby of the show and the Trend Gallery. The Trend Gallery displayed a wide variety of fabrics, trims, buttons, accessories that represented an overview of the offerings from participating exhibitors. It was essentially a preview of the color and fabric trends that we'll be seeing in the Spring 2009 fashion cycle.

The Trend Gallery was vast and almost overwhelming. Nearly every time I visited the gallery (it's less overwhelming in small doses) it was buzzing with people. This was a rare, quiet moment in a corner of the gallery.

This shot shows a few fabric booths. The layouts and quantity of offerings were many and varied. Some booths were overflowing with fabrics and some had very edited collections.

This booth had buttons, buckles, snaps. You name the accessory and there were booths that carried it - belts, ribbons, handbag handles, snaps, zippers...

Some of the bigger fabric companies had office showrooms rather than booths. Here was a standard size showroom; there were a some big showrooms too.

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Congratulations Helen and Katie

Helen and her regular education teacher Mrs. Lehrer

Helen and her special education teacher Mrs. Coughlin(in red)

and her assistant Mrs. Culshaw

Katie and her teacher Mrs. Botzau on Graduation day!!

Congratulations to my girls, I am very proud of them. Katie did such an awesome job at her graduation, she walked in with her class, sang with them, and even raised her hand in order to say the Hail Mary for Father, which, she did. Everyone told me what a wonderful change they see in Katie, and how happy they are to see the fun little girl she is. She made a lot of play dates for the summer, she and her friends arranged everything without the mom's knowing about it!! How cute is that? Everyone except Helen is done with school for the summer, her last day is Friday. We have been very busy the last couple of weeks, but things are starting to slow down a bit, thank goodness. I have taken the kids with me when doing errands and they have been quite good, I'm glad we are able to do that. Last summer I had my friend Katherine volunteer to take them once a week so I could get a few things done without them. I really appreciated her doing that, I don't think she knows how much that helped me out. Last summer they weren't quite mature enough to go with, Noah and Helen especially didn't listen. They both do so well with me now, although they do still have their moments, but, who doesn't!!?!

Helen graduated yesterday(the date on the picture is wrong, something happened to my camera), I was so proud to see her participate and behave so well. She listened to the teacher and did what she asked. Helen didn't see us when she walked in, when she got to her seat I saw her looking around the room. My father-in-law came with us and was sitting closest to her. Helen looked directly at him and looked very confused, he didn't belong in that setting, she did finally smile at him. She yelled, "Mommy", when she saw me, and was very happy to see all of us there. She received five awards, Good Worker, Cooperation, Outstanding Friend, and Most Energetic (no doubt!). The last award was given to her because every month she earned the classroom quota for behavior, she received a special gift for that, squirt guns. When we got home from the graduation the kids filled them up and had a blast!!!

Next week is the start of Bible Camp for Ted, Robbie, Katie, and Grace, for two weeks. Helen has a week off and then starts summer school, Monday thru Thursday, two hours a day. I enjoy having them home, it's nice not to have any schedules. I'm looking forward to the summer, let's hope the rain lets up, we've had a lot of it around here. It has been nice not having to water the garden or the flowers! Everything looks good in the garden except for the eggplant, there is no sign of it. Let's hope it's a late bloomer, I love eggplant, Peter got me hooked on it. It would have been his 45th birthday a couple of days ago, we talked about him and had a few laughs. Sunday is Father's Day, we'll be going to the cemetery to light his candle and check on his flowers. I hope all of you Father's out there have a wonderful day, Happy Father's Day.

Until next time-

Take Care,

Sue

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In The Blink of An Eye...

Alex's 1st Day of Kindergarten, with Aunt Annie

(Anne Marie - more than my sister-in-law, my great, good friend - teaches

at the elementary school that Alex and Blythe attended; Evan still does.)

Alex on his graduation night

Alexander Burke Roberson, my older son, graduated from high school on Saturday night. I remember his first day of school like it was last month. It hardly seems possible that the little boy who told me, when he was in first grade, "Mommy, I'm super shy..." evolved into the Student Council President and graduation speaker in what seems like the blink of an eye.

Alex is heading off to Auburn University in late summer and will be studying Political Science. He's already had a good bit of experience in the political realm, having campaigned for passage of a referendum to build a new high school (which, by the way, did pass!), serving as Junior Class President and Student Council President, managing the campaign of a friend who ran for the School Board, being interviewed on local radio shows about those activities... Along the way he has become an eloquent writer, an articulate speaker, a high level thinker and a hard worker. And, best of all, he's retained the kindness and quick sense of humor that he possessed as that sweet young boy. I could not be more proud of Alex.

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