St. Louis NAME National --Table Gifts and Souvenirs

These are table gifts I received sitting at table 13 with Vernis Ross as Table Hostess. Vernis is the nicest, friendliest and best table hostess I have ever had since attending my 1st NAME National Convention in Seattle in 2010. Molly Cromwell was also at my table, Jane Justis, a couple from Virginia with her mother in tow, Vernis' sister Althea Baker, and two other very nice, but quiet ladies I didn't get a chance to chat much with. I ended up at a great table despite having reservations of who I would end up with on completely random basis.

Here's my pile of table gifts before being opened in St Louis

Our best-ever-table hostess Vernis Ross presented the entire table with a bag of goodies that included necessities for surviving a convention, such as a travel size pack of Kleenex, foam paint brush, travel size bottle of tacky glue, a foam sponge blotter, pencil, pen, notepad, glue stick, and too many other goodies to mention.

 From Vernis Ross

 from Althea Baker

 

The readable Raggedy Ann book and huge shopping totebag were all from the same lady. The book is printed and readable on both sides and does NOT use the accordion style of making book pages. It's like a real-life book, but in miniature scale. Very nice.

 

 hanging flower pot

 lattice wall planter

 hurricane lamp in crocheted base

 lady's fan from Jane Justis

 handmade hyndrangea stems

 a wood box to decorate

 how convenient--the plate has same initial as my 1st name!

 a plate of beautifully made petit fours, from the same lady who made the hyndrangea flower stems

 This was my big exchange gift, from the same lady who made the petit fours--awesome!!!

 Our 1st souvenir was received at opening luncheon. It's a river paddle boat cast in pewter by Barbara Meyers, who specializes in making animals in QS.

 This set of Mark Twain books was also presented at the opening luncheon. The books have blank pages, same cover for all 6 volumes, but is nicely made. How cute is the tiny black box the gifts come in? I see re-use possibilities in miniature.

The final gift was presented at Sunday brunch and is a laser cut photo album of major cities along the Mississippi. It features a pop-up of the famous Golden Arch of St. Louis and was created by Carol Kubrican of True2scale, who also created the logo for the convention. The gift came in a mini linen bag stamped with the convention's logo.

The Becky doll (from Mark Twain's Tom Sawyer) is the deluxe souvenir of the convention from Pat Boldt and presented at the Saturday banquet. 

Let me tell you, it is a lot of work to fire the doll (porcelain), paint the face, wig the doll, and dress the doll, for 450 people. Look at the doll--she has a bonnet, an apron, a dress, and underwear. It would easily take the average person one week to complete just one doll, much less agree to make 450 such dolls.