Hello again, for my second post of the day! Not a long one though, as we have lots of dying/painting things red and washing and ironing to do in preparation for the grand finale tomorrow!
Today, three lovely ladies kindly gave up their dinner hour and called into our shop to get dressed up. Libby, Stephanie and Anne-marie all came bouncing in one after the other and as time was an issue, all needing to be back at work at 2, they spent no time deliberating over their outfits and grabbed what was available(if only everyone was as easy). Looking fabulous, we we’re out of the shop in no time at all and on a shortened version of the walk….directly to Mr Cappuccino for one of his delicious, full to the brim and totally boiling hot cups of coffee. I had it in my hand for 3 seconds only before spilling it all over both mine and Libby’s knee. Liz, a work mate of Libby’s, didn’t get dressed up in red but came along for the walk and took some photographs of us all together which was very good of her, then dashed off to the cash point before heading back to work.
Tomorrow at 12 o clock midday, the event will begin to take place as everyone who has done the walk, some who haven’t and anyone else that wants to participate, will all arrive at our red shop to take part in our en masse red walk. Its going to be a bit of a free for all with the red clothes and hopefully some people will already be dressed in red when they arrive. We hope that the weather will be kind to us but we have plenty of red umrellas at the ready if it decides to rain. We shall keep our fingers crossed and look forward to making it a brilliant success!
Dominique here today. Didn’t blog last night as it was a manic busy day and when i got home i was absolutely exhausted. I put all the red washing in(my normal washing is almost touching the ceiling) and then collapsed with a glass of dry white wine. The rest is history.
Yesterday was our launch. It went really well and lots of people came along to see our work and hear us talk about the project. Elaine, Phillippa, Kathryn, Katrina, Gemma, Jenna and Adele all got dressed up in red for the occasion and all looked stunning. Security patrolled the centre looking the picture of authority in there red straw hats. Even the pound shop and thorntons got into the spirit of the project and added red accessories to their uniform! All in all, it was a great success, and a brillliant turn out.
In the afternoon we dressed up three gorgeous girls in red and what a performance! Hazel, Margaret an Margaret had real fun in their outfits as the chuckled and howled all the way round the walk. They had all the accessories on and really went to town and thoroughly enjoyed the experience! We have alot on today and as getting picked up in 10 minutes i’d better dry my hair and get some makeup on!
Teresa here and I’ve just spent an age trying to sort my computer out and get Internet access. So, will be quick as I’ve not eaten yet and its now 8.30pm. Jake and Max, my lovely twin grandsons came to do the walk today as they can’t come on Saturday. We had a few histrionics from Jake regarding his red trousers which didn’t quite meet his approval. Otherwise all went well and we generated quite a bit of attention – Dom’s rather large and thoroughly magnificent hat and the gorgeous boys I think. Tomorrow’s the launch and we’re looking forward to seeing everyone. I’m finally going to get to wear the pride of place, red velvet creation which I’ve been secretly saving for a special occasion. Well tomorrow’s the day, so hey ho let’s hope it all goes well (and it still fits?).
Dominique here today! Last week was extremely busy and we spent Saturday having a general tidy up. We had a helping hand from Kathryn, one of our volunteers. She spent a good few hours ironing all the red clothes which had been worn throughout the week, washed, and still slightly damp. I bought a beautiful hat from the charity shop round the corner and my afternoon was taken up painting it red. Teresa painted another hat and she gave her boots another coat of paint which will now take until Christmas to dry, never mind September. We had fun dressing up Kahn, St. John’s security man, in a red hat and tie! On Thursday for the launch, all his colleagues will be joining him in wearing the red accessories.
It was really lovely coming into a tidy shop this morning. We made a brew and had 30 seconds to admire Saturdays hard work, then in walked our first customer. Not only our first customer of the day but the first person also to have an adverse reaction to our shop and our project. Quite an old lady, about 70ish, and quite adamant that our project wasn’t art. She launched her attack and we spent 10 minutes defending ourselves and our opinion of what we think art is. Not good enough an explanation(i don’t think she was even listening), off she stomped, tutting and shaking her head. I don’t think she’ll be back to do the walk. Pity. A breath of fresh air when Celia Cross came in to dress up in red and she looked fantastic, and despite the wet and windy weather, we set off on the walk. We almost made it to the square when we spotted some red things in the window of a charity shop. In we went and came out with two red bags, a red dress and a skirt for me which will look nice with boots in winter. Peter(Mr Cappuccino) seemed in a good mood which is always a bonus. We engaged in conversation with a young man who would be ‘up for wearing red’ if he can find a red Henly’s t-shirt. A lady from Manchester whose car was being serviced came over and asked us why we we’re dressed in red and if she could take a photograph. We asked her if she was interested in doing the red walk and she explained how she never normally comes to Preston but she does go to Bury so she’ll come and see us there. We then went back to the shop and Elaine came with the projector and a big piece of plasticky material to be put up in the window which sounds easy enough. Two hours of smoothing out creases, creating more, smoothing them out, creating more….. and eventually, we sort of got there. We shall finish it off tomorrow as we had to leave before the gates to the centre were closed and we were locked in.
Teresa here. Today was another mad and busy day. Philippa called in to see us and we had Adele and Gemma to help us. Thank goodness for those two. We all walked together with Catrina who came in prepared in her very short red mini dress and brought new shoes to be dyed. We had a very interesting time painting the shoes, my old boots (they’ve not a hope of drying before September due to my over excitement with the lovely red paint) and we all sang along to David Bowie, happy in our madness. We bought a new cd as my lovely grandson snapped the needle on the record player on Tuesday. I resorted to my boots and trousers, which I dyed last night, due to my feet killing me with all the walking round in silly shoes. The afternoon was great as the rest of yesterday’s family came in minus one brother. Try as I might I just couldn’t convince the 14 year old niece that it really is a cool thing to walk around Preston dressed totally in red. I can so understand her as she’d seen endless mates around town and even in her ordinary clothes she kept a discreet distance from us and insisted she was the only sane one around. Not to worry, I don’t think I’m losing the knack and I remembered my own 14 year old experiences with my 3 children and gave up gracefully and admitted defeat. We ended our Friday on a lovely note with fish, chips and mushy peas as looking at the photographs of me, I simply couldn’t get any worse – famous last words. They were gorgeous though and it has to been done sometimes.
