Look, I'm a Cover Girl

Here in Western Pennsylvania our local governments are townships. We live in a very small one, just 4 miles by 4 miles. Hampton Magazine is our version of the town newspaper. It is published about every 3 months, mailed to every home in the area and contains all of the important information (like when to sign-up for swimming lessons and which teachers are retiring and the water treatment report, which as you can imagine is spellbinding.). In every issue they write a feature on a local resident or business. The Quilt Company was chosen for the issue that was published and distributed on Monday.

When they contacted me to tell me about the feature, they said it was about the STORE. When they called to schedule the photographer they said that I would need to be in the photo. I hate having my photo taken. I love having my work featured, but photos of me..... not so much.

The first photo shoot was scheduled on the same Monday that hurricane Ike blew threw town causing major power outages. No power also means no hair dryer or curling iron. The photographer had the decency to not show up for that appointment. We rescheduled for Tuesday. He was busy taking school photos and ran late. We scheduled for Thursday, then Friday then the following Monday afternoon. By Monday morning I was pretty confident that there would be another cancellation and I would be off the hook and only a stock photo of one of my quilts would make the cover. No sooner had that thought entered my mind and the photographer, with a spare 15 minutes, walked in the door.

Now you would think that a woman that was going to have her photo taken for a magazine cover would at LEAST bring a hairbrush to work with her. Nope. I had planned to go home for lunch, change and get ready for the shoot. That plan didn't work. The publisher also had the idea that the photo should be in "fall" colors and as uncluttered as possible. As you can see, that didn't work either.

In an E-Update message that I send to my "regular" walk-in customers, I told them that the photo shoot had happened and I was having a bad hair day that day. I inserted this photo in that message. An amazing number of people assumed that the person in the photo was me. Even the people that see me ALL the time thought that this person was me - without makeup.

What on earth were they thinking? My eyes are brown.

I've been taking lots of friendly harassment from the clerks at the post office, the bank and the guys at the printer (who claim they like the idea of my being a cover girl, but were really hoping for a centerfold - I pointed out that I am old enough to be their Mother). Funnier still are the comments from the people in town that have known me my entire life. Most of them are like very proud parents. They've been stopping me in the store to tell me that they always knew I'd "do good". One older man claimed that I must be a genius. I've figured out how to make money doing something that his Mother and Grandmother did all their lives and all they ever got was "sore fingers."!

Ahhhh..... the glamor of it all.......