35th Anniversary Series to begin in September!

It’s hard to believe, but “Creative Living with Sheryl Borden” will begin its 35th anniversary series in September!

In fact, we just added a new poster/picture in our hall at the station. The one on the far left is for 25 years, the one on the far right is for 30, and the new one in the center is for 35 years. I thought you might like to see them.

The cover of our new booklet features a vertical version of the same design. I already have the segments chosen for each show, and a postcard (with the same design) has gone to all of the program managers at the other PBS stations throughout the country. The series begins September 7th and will run for 26 weeks. I hope your PBS station carries “Creative Living,” but if they don’t, you can ask them to do so — it’s a FREE offer to all stations!

Do you know anyone whom I could contact to be a guest on the next series? Just send me their name, e-mail, website (if they have one) or phone number and a brief description of what they do. I’m currently scheduling guests for October and November.

Besides celebrating our up-coming Anniversary series of “Creative Living,” and celebrating the 4th of July, I also get to celebrate my birthday on July 2nd – and what better way than with my two grandkids – Dillon (age 9) on the left and Kelsey (age 4) on the right. The beautiful yellow roses are from my oldest son who lives in Miami.

That’s about it for now. I’ll try to do a better job posting in the future. I just get busy with other things, and forget about having a blog.

Enjoy the rest of your summer. Stay cool.

Sheryl

Advertisement

It’s Auction Time

Please take time to view all of the items we have for bid on the KENW 35th annual KENW Auction. Go to: http://auction.kenw.org and browse to your hearts content. When you get ready to bid, you do have to register if you haven’t previously. Go to the “Register” link at the top of the page, and fill in the required information and choose a password. In a few minutes, a Username will be e-mailed to you. Then you’re all set to participate — and Auctions are a lot more fun, if you participate.

All monies raised during the auction each year go to support our programming budget at KENW-TV. We have to raise over $385,000 each year to pay for the programs that our viewers enjoy watching on our station. The Auction is our biggest fund raiser each year, and the most fun of all. We have almost 2000 items for you to bid on and you’re sure to get some bargains. If you have any questions, just e-mail me at: sheryl.borden@enmu.edu.

Behind the Fun!

If you’ve been following my blog, you know that I went on a fabulous 7-day Western Caribbean cruise with my two sons and my grandson the end of February and returned on March 6. Actually, the word “fabulous” doesn’t begin to describe our week-long trip, which was too short!

This was the first cruise for my youngest son, Michael and his 9-year old son, Dillon, and part of my fun was watching them and observing all the “firsts” they experienced. It was Dillon’s first airplane ride (except when he was an infant which he doesn’t remember), first moving sidewalk in the airport, first train ride in the airport, first for so many things, and he loved all of it. He was interviewed by the Cruise director and shown on TV, and lots of people on the ship commented about seeing him. When asked what his favorite thing about the cruise was, he said it was the pool! I think he may have set a record for climbing the steps to the big water slide the most. He and his dad spent a lot of time in the water.

My oldest son, Rob, works for Carnival Cruise line, and I can say that it sure has its “perks” being with someone who works for the company. Dillon had special smoothies brought to him at every meal, and we had special desserts many times as well. We had the great thrill of being asked by the captain if we’d like to visit the bridge and watch our departure from the port at Isla Roatan. How fascinating it was to watch how this process takes place. Of course, we had our picture taken with the captain, and other crew members. We were also invited by the Captain to have dinner in his private dining room one evening and were able to learn more about him. He has a 17 year old son who is following in his footsteps (even though he said he tried to get him to become a lawyer or a doctor! ha) and also has a 17-month old who is a typical infant getting into everything! He’s from Italy, and I learned that all of the captains on the Carnival cruise line are from Italy. Interesting, huh?

Rob and I also had dinner with the Chef one evening, along with 14 other people. We started out with a tour of the kitchen and galley and had 3 appetizer courses brought to us there. Then, we proceeded to the private dining room for a 7-course meal that defies description. Everything was beautifully served and tasted delicious. At the end, we each received a group picture and a cookbook, both autographed by the chef, who is from India. We learned all sorts of interesting facts about how much produce, meat, beverages, etc. are brought on the ship at the ports of call.

Then there were the excursions – swimming with dolphins, zipline, airboats, snorkeling and much more. Of course, my favorite thing was visiting the spa and having wonderful, relaxing massages — I’m such the adventurous type! ha

All in all, it was a vacation full of wonderful memories. I’m getting ready to make my Caribbean Cruise scrapbook so we can all revisit the countries and relieve all the memories over and over again. I felt so blessed to be able to make this trip with “my 3 boys!” We are already making plans for our next cruise.

One of the things that really stands out in my mind is the “customer service” and positive attitude of EVERYONE who works on the ship. They all ask about your day, how you are, inquire if you want anything, and when thanked, they respond ‘My pleasure.’ I know a lot of businesses that could sure use some customer training such as the Carnival employees receive. And, they do everything with a smile!

I almost forgot to tell about our last adventure while on the ship. It’s called “Behind the fun,” and it consisted of a walking 4-hour tour of all of the behind the scenes things on the ship — including the laundry, which was my favorite part, the kitchen and galley, the electrical and engine rooms, the bridge (again), the training center, the dressing rooms and behind the stage where the wonderful musical productions take place, the recycling center, the Steakhouse and much more. I have a much greater appreciation for what all of these people do and how well they do it since taking the tour. At the end, we each received souvenirs to take home with us. If you ever go on a cruise, and have the option of taking this tour, please do so. It’s quite an eye-opener.

And, last but not least, every night when we returned to our rooms, we had a different towel animal to greet us (along with chocolate). I even bought the book on hold to fold these creatures, so maybe in another blog, I’ll share some of my creations.

Thanks for letting me share some of our special memories. I’d love to hear about your cruise adventures!

A fun trip to Miami!

I have a son who lives in Miami Beach, and thanks to a friend who lives in Greenwich, CT., I recently got to see both of them. My friend bought a vacation package from KENW through our annual on-line Auction (http://auction.kenw.org) last year, and asked me to go with her. The hotel was in Coconut Grove, just outside Miami Beach. I went down a day earlier so I could spend one night with my son.

On Friday night, a friend of his had tickets to the New World Symphony, and it was in their new facility. This turned out to be a rehearsal night, so after we toured the fabulous new facility, we were treated to an hour-long performance by some outstanding young people who are attending this program in Miami. I think what made the performance even more interesting was the fact that these 20+ year olds were dressed in jeans, shorts, tee-shirts, flip flops, etc., but if you closed your eyes, you would have thought you were attending a renowned concert! This rehearsal was in preparation for the grand opening this weekend of the facility. Look closely at the picture I took:

My friend arrived on Saturday, and we had a great afternoon of massages, then a lovely dinner and a late cocktail party. Then on Sunday, some friends of my son hosted a luncheon outside by their pool, and we enjoyed the warm sunshine, delicious food and lots of visiting and laughter.

Sunday night we went to see “Country Strong” with Gwenyth Paltrow and Tim McGraw, and it is a great movie. I’d like to try to get the soundtrack. Have you seen it?

Then it was back home to reality on Monday but with lots of fun memories. Now it’s time to get back to work taping segments for “Creative Living” and working on the 2011 Auction. I hope you’ll go to our auction website and start bidding on this year’s items — remember, all proceeds benefit the programming for our public television station.

Til next time….

Birthdays!

I wanted to write this today because I’ll be too busy being the “hostess with almost the mostest” tomorrow for my dear friend, Jane Hilliard, who just turned 91 years young. Jane has been a dear friend for over 40 years, and is my mentor and role model. Though I know I’ll never be able to be the woman she is, I’m trying as hard as I can to learn as much as I can from her, and to pattern my life in many of the same ways she has.

So, at noon tomorrow, seven of us are going to SURPRISE her with a birthday luncheon at my house. I can’t wait to see her face when she walks in and finds out that it’s not just the 2 of us having lunch. All of the invitees feel the same way about this marvelous lady. She does so much for so many of us, and has inspired and motivated us in various areas of our lives.

Everything will be done in pink tomorrow — because that’s her favorite color. Last year, there was a huge 90th birthday celebration in her honor at the local Woman’s Club building, and hundreds of people came from all across the country to celebrate with her. There were 90 beautiful long-stem pink roses used in various centerpieces in the room, and although tomorrow’s celebration will not be that elaborate, it will be special because of her influence in each of our lives.

I hope each of you has someone like Jane to love you, to love your family, to praise you when you’ve done something well, to be there when you need to cry on her shoulder, and to share all the special times in your lives. I’m very blessed to have her in my life — so Happy Birthday, Jane. I love you.

Taping has begun!

Last Thursday marked the first taping for “Creative Living” for the fall semester. We have a new crew of college students, and they were great! It usually takes a few weeks for everyone to feel comfortable working together, but we didn’t seem to have any of those problems this time. Maybe it’s because I had three excellent guests to work with.

My first guest was Franki Kohler, and she’s a quilter and author who showed lots of ways to make and embellish fabric postcards — and they can go through the postal system. When I asked Franki how she got interested in making these fabric postcards, she said she had gotten tired of making large quilts so she turned her talents — and fabrics — into the small works of art.

I had so much fun working with my second guest — Casey Schwartz. She’s a floral designer and she and her sister own Flower Duet in Redondo Beach, CA. You know how you sometimes meet someone for the very first time, and you just “click.” Well, that’s how it was with Casey. She was so easy to work with and we had so much fun. She has a very interesting background relating to the floral business, and it’s easy to see why she’s so good at what she does. She showed five different techniques for making various centerpieces and arrangements. The students were so excited when they got to take home a centerpiece from the taping — thanks to Casey’s generosity. And, today I had the pleasure of scheduling Casey & her sister as my first guests for Fall 2011! I can hardly wait.

And, then my longtime and dear friend, Laura Dellutri taped a couple of segments on new appliances and products for making your life less stressful. After the taping, Laura, her friend Shawn and I had a late lunch (at 2:00 pm). I always enjoy when I can spend some downtime with my guests — especially the ones I’ve become such close friends with.

Well, that’s about it for now. Our station is hosting a political debate on Saturday, October 9th and Sam Donaldson will be here to serve as the moderator. Should be very exciting. Tune in and watch the candidates for District II US Senate seat.

Web Page Design

I know that many of you probably can create or design, update, etc. your web page. I, however, find it very frustrating. The University has a web master who has worked with our station for several years because we can’t afford to hire a full-time person. This talented young man came to the station to “train” about 6 of us so we could start making our own changes and additions to the various pages.

Well, I have to admit, I didn’t do anything about this until after a major project was completed which took about 3 months. Then, when I was ready to tackle the Creative Living web page, I couldn’t remember what he had told us. However, one of the people I work with had been using the skills we were trained in, and with a lot of help from her, I managed to update my web page.

The problem I am having is that a month goes by before I need to update or post anything new to the web site, so we’re back to square one.

Thanks for listening. Just needed to vent. ha If you’re interested, you can visit my web site at: www.kenw.org and click on the Creative Living tab at the top of the home page.

That’s my story & I’m sticking to it!

Now that it’s been a few days, I can actually laugh at my “snake” encounter on Monday! Here’s what happened:

I had the worst experience last night. I went walking at 7:30 and decided to venture over to the softball complex that has great walking paths. I had my cell phone and ear plugs and was listening to music while I walked. The weather was beautiful – a nice breeze and not too hot. As I walked along, I decided to cross over some grassy/weedy area to get to another walking path that looked inviting, and as I was walking, I almost stepped on a HUGE snake. It was at least 6 inches around and 6 feet long. He was just laying there – not coiled up so I don’t think it was a rattler snake but it was big and ugly. As I turned to run away, I slipped and fell on my left side and in trying NOT to land on my knee (the one that I had a knee implant), I hit hard on my hip and it is so bruised! About that time, the snake started moving and fortunately, he went away from me (I probably scared him to death!) and not towards me because I was having a hard time getting up since I’ve had knee surgery. I don’t think I’ve ever been so scared in all my life. I finally got my phone out as I was scurrying over to the other path (away from the snake) and called my husband. I was so out of breath he could hardly understand me. Anyway, I made it home safe and sound, but still shaken up. I’m not going anywhere on a walk that is not on pavement. I guess if I had stayed on the walking paths, and not crossed to the other area, I would have been fine. Only one small scratch on my left knee and I’m grateful for that.

Have you had a scary encounter? Let me know.

We lost a dear friend!

Two special people have died on my birthday! My mother died many years ago and that has always made it very sad on my birthday. A colleague whom I worked with for over 30 years died this year on July 2nd. Although it wasn’t as traumatic as having to say goodbye to my mother, none the less, I will always think of this person on July 2nd.

Things happen for a reason — we just don’t always know that reason. For now, I’ll just say “Good bye, Yale!”

Now that the dust has settled!

Our 34th annual KENW online auction is officially over, and we are pleased with the income that came in. This was by far the hardest auction I’ve produced and I think that’s because of the over-all economy — it was harder to get items donated, and buyers naturally had to use discretion in terms of buying merchandise and gift certificates. But, the monies raised will go a long way towards purchasing the programming for our local PBS station. Thanks to everyone who helped by donating or by purchasing items from us.

Now, on to bigger and better things. I’m looking forward to meeting with a friend on Friday for lunch regarding a new project she has planned. It will be even more special because Friday is also my 29th birthday again! ha

The rest of the summer will be spent more in planning now that the auction is over. I need to schedule guests for taping for October and November for Creative Living. Do any of you know someone to recommend? I’m always so thrilled to have repeat guests, but am also on the look out for new people to have on the show to share their particular area of expertise. Just e-mail me at: sheryl.borden@enmu.edu if you would like to recommend someone.

How many of you play Bunco? Isn’t it the most fun game? It’s what is called a “no-brainer” but when you spend all day working, it sure is fun to get together with 12 or more friends and play Bunco. I’ve even won once in a while — but not often! ha

Any big plans for the summer?

Talk to you soon.