Crystal Gala Awards Dinner -

Crystal Gala Awards Dinner - August 18, 2006

Doll Signing at Expo 2006 - August 19, 2006

Now when you look at the photos, keep in mind, I had to do a lot of fixing with PaintShop Pro since CVS did a really bad job and even wrecked some of my negatives. Walgreen's managed to give me digital files on CD that are terrific. Keep that in mind, if you develop 35mm film and want the picture disk, don't ever go to CVS! The picture files are terrible and way too small to print. Walgreen's does a great job. Here's the links for my pages of photos:

Adora Plum Crazy Belle - Event Doll

I had so much fun at this event. Our table was awesome and it was even Marie's lucky number, 13. I love filet mignon, and, yes, Tim, it is a small steak. Just my size! Listening to Marie speak (which she did for quite a while) was wonderful. She related funny stories, touching stories, had us laughing and crying. The insurance company has returned what they deemed salvagable and Marie is going through the boxes. She said the things that survived the fire are amazing: the first doll her mother ever gave her named Bubbles, a book of notes and fabric swatches of dolls Mother Osmond hoped she would make and Marie said that she would make those dolls to honor her mother, hand written recipes from her grandmother. I think for the most part, we even put our cameras down and just listened. When they drew names for the 15 Artist Proof dolls, each person had to relate their favorite doll and why. The stories were amazing. One woman won Adora Belle Trick or Treat Eeyore and told Marie her husband had bought her gala ticket for a special gift and his nickname was Eeyore. One lady related that her favorite was a flower doll (I think she meant the older Kewpie style ones) because her daughter had been told she couldn't have children and the day that the flower doll arrived and the woman was opening it holding it in her hand, her daughter came in and said "guess what? I'm pregnant!". Her daughter was with her and stood up to show how very pregnant she was with her second child. Another woman got up and got so emotional I'm not quite sure what the story was but it was something to do with a Christmas doll because she named her daughter Carol because of it. Marie was in tears at the end of the story. One doll, they announce the winner and someone yells the person is in the bathroom. Marie sends Peggy and Lisa in to the bathroom. Turned out to be a 10 year old girl who was mortified, wouldn't talk to them, and Peggy just says "she's not amused". So Marie said something to the effect of "that's ok, we're sorry."

Joe Jones talked about Marie to make the presentation of the Crystal Award. He talked about knowing people through out his life who were "stars" and by that he meant people like his mother who were always doing for others and who spent their lives making other peoples' lives better. He said Marie was a "star" to him in that sense. He talked about how you might think she had a happy go lucky life, but that like all of us she had her bumps in the road and he talked about the fire at her house. He told us that he even has some of her dolls at his home and office.

The song from Peggy and Lisa was hysterical. It was to the tune of "Thanks for the Memories". One of Peggy's verses was about Marie making them drink a health drink which turned out to be a laxative. Lisa had one about the calls from QVC for Marie talking about the wrong things like the last appearance talking too much about chocolate and not dolls. I think Marie about fell on the floor laughing. We heard her comment "I've worked with Bob Hope and all I can say is he's in having having a serious talk with my mother right now."

Marie took the time to do group table pictures and had us doing the point and look scared photos. The banquet manager had come over and was trying to tactfully get us to leave. We told Marie loudly that they want us out of here! And he joked about them paying his overtime. Well, you know Marie, she took him by the hand and went off to find the one extra gift bag for him, led him up the line to sign the event dolls and signed everything in the bag for him. He went off with a hug and a kiss and was smiling!!

Marie looked fabulous at the signing. Her pink jacket with the black skirt embroidered with pink roses looked so pretty. She had pink slip on pumps and showed us her nylons were cut off at the toes, but had a strip through her toes so she could wear them with sandals and keep them on. A few people ahead of us was a lady with a pomeranian dog (I'm sure I spelled that wrong). The little dog had a broken leg in a cast. Marie loved that dog and you will be seeing him in Adora Belle's blog. Every now and then, they'd bring over Adora Belle MOD Squad to take a photo for the blog. Naturally, Marie found a man's head to sign. I took a photo and realized from that she also marks 1/1 on the back of his neck.

When I asked about doll photos, Charisma told me they'd rather not have them taken. Since they know where to find me, I didn't dare :) I do have a couple, one of Baby Abby with the big blow up photo of her behind her. The other thing we did was the big blow up picture of Marie holding Crystal Anniversary, we all signed the back for her.