New Project!

At work we are hosting the Tehama County Prom Project, an opportunity for foster, homeless, and other teens in need in our communities to get formal wear and accessories for that very important teen rite of passage--the PROM. We have been collecting dresses, suits, shoes, jewelry and bags for several months now and have amassed a stock of close to 150 dresses. Mens wear was harder to come by and we have fewer offerings for the gentlemen, but we still have a few choices, including a tuxedo rental and some rental discounts.

In addition to receiving beautiful formal wear, the youth will be participating in a Prevention Lounge, and place set up to provide prevention education and safe prom tips to assist the youth in making healthy decisions come prom night.

Along with the Prom Project, we have started a new blog called My Prom Story, and have invited people to share the good, the bad and the ugly (dresses) from their prom. The blog site is www.mypromstory.blogspot.com and it has been such fun to accumulate the prom stories. Starting Monday we get to begin giving the formal wear away. I am so excited for these young people!

Tehama County Arts Council

I am pleased to plug the new blog for the Tehama County Arts Council at http://tehamaarts.wordpress.com/
I am honored to be the current TCAC chairperson. We sponsor three major events each year; Missoula Children's Theatre, the Children's Art Contest, and ArtWalk. We also provide arts-related support through mini grants, maintain and artists referral service database, and generally serve as an umbrella organization for the arts in Tehama County. Our website is www.tehamaarts.org

Hometown Holiday

Our town is really lovely in the holiday season. Since I was visiting my other hometown for most of December, I didn't really get to appreciate it until the last couple of days. We have a misshaped Christmas tree downtown that looks beautiful, in a Charlie Brown sort of way. All of the trees downtown are adorned with white lights, the lampposts in the Cone and Kimball plaza are wearing ribbon and light-up wreaths and store fronts are painted with holiday scenes. We were around for the Christmas parade, and that was great--the theme was The Twelve Days of Christmas, and so many groups really took it to heart with their entries. There were several musical groups, and even the low-rider car club entered. (Note: Photo is from www.downtownredbluff.com)

The season of mass consumerism has, for the most part, passed. I am interested in and pursuing a movement called "the Compact" through which you make the pledge to avoid buying anything new for a whole year. It has been neat learning of people's creativity with gift giving and their ingenuity for necessities. Of course, a variety of items are excluded from the Compact; food, of course, toiletries, and medicine. But even in little ol' Red Bluff there are a plethora of second hand stores and antique shops that can yield a variety of necessities throughout the year. I don't know how true to the compact I can be, but it will be interesting to try. It is an especially nice way to encourage myself to be crafty.

Speaking of crafty, I have begun using the Knit Wit and Knifty Knitter knitting devices, and so far love them. I have recently learned how to knit traditionally, but find it frustrating and tedious. I am using the Knifty Knitter loom to make a scarf for my brother (he got to be my new "technology" guinea pig) and while the weave is really loose, I am enjoying the process. I made one Knit Wit rosette, and it turned out poorly, so back to the instructions I will go, hopefully getting the hang of that.