The East Coast

Whew!

That’s how we all feel about the east coast leg of the tour. This 12-day jaunt was a whirlwind of fun and madness. This time we had the help of our good friend Dave Junion as we traveled down the road. From the first show in Boston to our final stop in Philly, we enjoyed meeting people and “putting on the show” every night.

Our favorite day was the scheduled break day. We were able to hang out in Manhattan. We shopped, ate, saw a play and had a great time. We also had Sam’s daughter Katie with us. It was really nice spending time with her, and she was a great help.

One of the crazy adventures involved four flat tires in two days that nearly made us miss the Philly show. Thank heavens our dear friend Christian H. pulled together a few cars and saved us from the highway. Once we made it to the Hotel, we were able to set up and being the program in only 32 minutes. It was an unbelievable miracle and we hope to never do that again! Thanks to all of the audience members who jumped in to help!

Diva Boutique ’08

We pulled off our first annual Diva event. What a blast!

Diva Boutique ’08 was a fun evening. Nearly 200 of our clients joined us to enjoy great shopping (the merchants were awesome!), delicious food, cool music and just hanging out visiting with one another. We even took over the sidewalk with café tables, street lamps and live music.

An exciting moment was being able to share my joy at having my first book published. I signed copies of The Sandy Puc’ Guide to Children’s Portrait Photography and even got to pose with some of the young models that were on hand to buy autographed copies.

Didn’t my team look great? We all had a blast dressing up like divas. Even our men got into the spirit of the evening. Don’t you like those fairy wings? I’ve heard rumors that next year some of the staff wants to add more bling to their outfits. Go, girls!

Minneapolis

We worked hard at beating our previous terrible schedule, and we pulled into Minneapolis at 12:30! This gave us a few minutes to enjoy a lunch break with our great friends from WHCC (our printing lab). We were able to tour the lab and see all the new construction on the building. Quite impressive!

I was VERY excited about the Minneapolis show because I knew that we would have record numbers. With almost 500 people in the room, the excitement was SO contagious. Sadly, we had a few major (we think gremlins did it!) sound problems. Although annoying, we managed to make it work. The good news is by the second half of the show, everything was ironed out and we finished strong!

I must say a BIG thank you to the wonderful tour helpers we had this leg. We not only had awesome scheduled helpers that fed and watered us, but many audience members were kind enough to help us pull everything down and pack it up! A super thanks to all of you for being so kind.

Des Moines

It is official! It does not matter how hard we try, we cannot get anywhere on time!

We decided to drive through the night from Omaha to Des Moines so that we would have a whole day to just rest. We made it about four miles from our destination and crashed at 3:30 am.

The really scary thing was that with only four miles to drive it STILL took us five hours to get there! We were shocked when we finally got up, got our stuff together and ate a bit of brunch.
Next thing we know, we pull up and it is 2:00 arrggghhhh.

We WILL find that black hole and close it!

The night ended with pouring rain. Loading the trailer in the rain was a new exercise in futility. As expected, we left a few things behind . . .

Omaha

After a bit more wind and a few hours more on the road, we have come to the conclusion that it doesn’t matter how far the drive is, it always takes us until 3:00. We try so hard to get where we are going early, but we have decided there is a big black hole that swallows us every time we head out.

Rolling into Omaha, we were pushing to make it on time. (Mind you it was only a two-hour drive.) We promise to do a little research on the time-space continuum, and we’ll let you know what we find out.



PS- Sam found out that when she is standing on the stage, working hard, all the tour vendors and staff party in the parking lot! BBQ, music the works! NOT FAIR!!

If it's Thursday, Sam must be in Omaha

Yup, our fearless leader is back on the road. Bon Voyage!
This leg of the Bellies & Babies tour is taking her to Kansas City MO, Omaha NE, Des Moines IA and Minneapolis MN. Whew!

Last night's show broke a record, with over 400 in attendance. Way to go Sam! Her team holding down the fort in (snowy) Colorado is so proud of her.

There are still many more stops on the tour, giving photographers throughout the US the opportunity to learn the tips, tricks and secrets of a master photographer. The feedback from past attendees is overwhelmingly positive.

Sam will be back back in the studio by Monday. It's going to be a big day at Expressions by Sandy Puć. We’ll be hosting Diva Boutique ’08.

We’ll also have the pleasure of watching Sam hold her first public book signing for her hot-off-the-presses book, The Sandy Puć Guide to Children's Portrait Photography.