OutOnThaPorch....

Leigh and I were thrilled when we were approached by a local TV station about doing a segment on our business. When asked which one of us wanted do the talking during the interview -- there was no doubt -- loud-mouth Caterina, of course!!! As usual, I always have something to say and Leigh would rather be off camera being the brains of the business! We hope you enjoy! Caterina

We recently had the pleasure of hosting the seminar "Roman Shades And Creative Cascades" with Scot Robbins. Scot showed us his techniques for producing beautiful roman shades and innovative cascades. This event was sponsored by the Greater Birmingham Chapter of WCAA. Everyone had a great time learning how to take our business to the next level with the help of Scot's vast knowledge and experience.

About 20 students from the Hoover High Interior Design Class visited our studio on Tuesday. Teacher Teddie Butcher, organized the event. We met her when we spoke at the Alabama Association of Family & Consumer Sciences. Hopefully they learned something in addition to how fabulous Caterina is!!!!

Hugs and kisses to Anna (Leigh's daughter) for uploading all the wonderful pictures that our customers have sent in. Be sure to check out our picture gallery with the all the new photos. Sorry we got a little behind, but keep sending in all those wonderful pictures!

One big step in getting our new patterns ready for marketing is doing the photography. We have set up our own photography studio in our loft and take the pictures ourselves. Leigh has taught herself photography and Caterina does the staging. You know we are a bootstrap company! Caterina painting our window for photography All was going well last week until the dogs knocked over our camera and broke a $400 lens!! So we had to go to Lowe's and buy some construction fencing to keep them out. Dogs on the outside looking in. Cricket watches as Leigh snaps a picture.

We sometimes get customers asking where we get the names for our patterns and, of course, there is a story behind each one. So here we will give a little background on the names of our patterns. Cuff-Top Valance: This was our very first pattern created in 1996. This design was based on a valance that Leigh had designed for a client's bay window and had entered in the Window Fashions Design Contest. She won 2nd place in the specialty window category. At first, we named our valance patterns with descriptive terms. Pull-Up Valance & Lace-Up Valance: More descriptive terms...BORING. So from then on, we decided to give the rest of our patterns real names. Emily Valance: This pattern was named after a dear high school friend of Leigh's that died of breast cancer in her mid-30's. In addition, Emily's mother was Leigh's home-economics teacher and played a part in Leigh's learning to sew. Haley Valance and Kasey Valance: These two were named after Caterina'