tim holtz weekend, continued

the weekend was very organized. tim's assistant, mario, was meticulous about organizing all our supplies, drilling holes when needed, handing out glue, paper towels, whatever we needed. women, in general, are demanding. now add women who are crafting and you are running back and forth! those 2 have a lot of patience! each class kit contained a goodie bag full of wonderful ephemera, vintage items (like faucets, jacks, light bulbs, etc.) - just fun stuff! they also had a little store in the back with mario as the proprietor, where you could purchase some of these fabulous items (and of course i did!). tim is also very good with tips and has found lots of clever ways to do things easy. i'm a big tip person (like at my hotel, in the morning at breakfast, i found myself handing out "tips" to make things easy. 2 older gentlemen wanted to take some hard boiled eggs, but didn't want them rolling around on their plate and falling off, so i piped in, put a napkin under the egg and then it won't roll. well, they looked at me like i was the most cleveriest person in the world!) those are some of the types of clever, but simple tips tim always had for you.

after each morning class, we would all take our things and our chairs and go outside to have a pre-ordered lunch while tim and crew set up for the next class. as soon as we were done eating though, it was back into the store to shop!

kate and her staff had an awesome system for helping us shop and to keep it organized. during each class, if tim discussed an item we wanted to purchase, all we had to do was hold up our pre-assigned # and someone from the store would put it on your account. same thing while shopping. you carried around a basket, then gave it to a clerk with your # and they entered it into the system. at the end of the night you just had to pay and viola - you were done! i never waited in line more than 5 minutes; and you have to consider that the store was PACKED with Tim Holtz crazed women!