The Big Hang

Good Morning Everyone! Well, it happened, but not without a few glitches. I decided to make this a day to celebrate all the donations, so rather than hang mine, we hung a total of 800 pillowcases. I did have a few maybe 30 or so sprinkled in just to make sure we made it to 800 :) A friend of mine who is a professional pilot, came to fly along with me as I really wanted to fly the last photo mission. Well, this is where it all sadly went wrong. The lens on my camera is just too small for such a fast moving target. I got pictures of everything but the pillowcases. By the time I would get the camera focused on what I wanted, the plane had moved on. The only picture that at least gives a glimpse of the pillowcases is below. It's not a great picture, but at least you can get a small idea of just how lovely it was from above.

Here's my friend Keith who flew along with me and his two boys. This was their first time in a small plane and they LOVED it!!

Pilot to be George :)

and my little godson, Kenny. What a cutie pie :) I'm not at all partial ;) Recognize my bag in the back on the floor?!!

As we drove back from the airport, I thought that I could possibly leave the pillowcases up over night and have my friend who has a large camera flyover first thing this morning. He told me that the winds were supposed to pick up and become quite gusty, so I didn't want to take a chance of leaving them up and the pillowcases getting blown to kingdom come. Then Keith, my pilot friend had an idea, "why don't I get on the roof of the house?" Hey, it was worth a try. The next two pictures are from the roof of my house and I think they are really quite wonderful. 

I really love the one below.

Our neighbor has a beautiful deck that looks out over the river and he offered for us to come and take some pictures from the deck. He said that the pillowcases looked amazing from there and I think they really did. The deck isn't as high as the roof of my house, but it still gives a nice perspective

This isn't a bad picture, it was taken from inside the house. You can see that there are a LOT of pillowcases!!!

Below is my girlfriend Pam, her oldest son Bill, Pam's mother Cecilia and my fellow Haute Couture friend, Alison. They stayed behind and finished hanging while we drove out to the airport.

Bill is quite the accomplished musician. I think this is about the best compliment. He said, "I really wish I could keep one!" I now know what I can make for him for Christmas :)

Once the pillowcases were hung, the ladies and Bill went in for a bowl of Pozole, you may remember I made it here, and a spirited game of Monopoly. I put the Pozole together on Thursday night and set it on low in my crock pot. Worked out beautifully!

I love the candid shots that my husband was able to catch.

 A final shot of all who participated, well, except my husband and he deserves a big, big thanks for all the work he did to help make this happen.

When I began the drive for the pillowcases, all I had was a thought that it could be done. Now it has been done and it's even bigger than I imagined. So I would like to leave you with this.

Thank you to everyone who made this happen. On a quiet street in Chicago, you were celebrated.