November 16, 2009

2nd Annual Greenthumb Book signing Great Fun

Greenthumb book signing 2 The book signing at Greenthumb International this past Saturday (11/14/09) was fantastic fun!

I’m not sure how Bryan, Kirki and their wonderful staff keep doing it, but they make this open house event more colorful and festive each year.  This store is noted for their all out Christmas decorating and tree dressing, but this year they added a bookend walk in Christmas display near the front of the store that really boosted the store’s holiday charm.

They had a wonderful signing station set up for me, and with live music, cookies, cider and multiple giveaways of Christmas themed gifts, it was a splendid open house to kick off the season just right. I saw return visitors from last year that purchased a book who even picked up another copy for new friends and family this year.  Lots of children dropped by too – a few tried the game and even found a few of the hidden clues on the fly!

I really enjoy signing at the store, and hope to see you out there soon.  We are working out a follow up date for this season, and I’ll post it to this blog as soon as it’s firm.  I buy many of my Christmas ornaments at Greenthumb and have for years.  Maybe I’ll bump into you around the ornament section.  Cheers.

November 11, 2008

Book Signing at Green Thumb Great Fun

Checking out the Magnifying Bookmark

Green Thumb shopper checking out the book's Magnifying Bookmark

What a great day we had a Green Thumb International in Newhall, CA. First off, the weather was absolutely picture perfect – cool, clear, crisp and full of autumn. It was a football Saturday and UCLA was playing ball, but thank goodness everyone didn’t go to the game. Plenty of folks showed up for Green Thumbs “Open House” for the Holidays, and they surprisingly I think saw this author with a children’s picture book standing at a potting table near the store’s entrance.

This was my first book signing ever, and it was a thrill to do. I’ve attended many trade shows for my various companies over the years, but this day was special. It was hard to sleep Friday night – “Did I remember everything?” I had some wonderful old friends and neighbors show up, and I made some new acquaintances too. I stayed the entire day (9 – 5pm), and frankly speaking, it zipped by in a flash.

One of the funnest aspects of the book signing was affixing a gold seal to emboss in the book with some of the kids. The scrapbooking part of me kicked in and I let the kids do the handiwork with the seal. It always amazes and surprises me how much pleasure kids get out of “doing” something so simple as putting a sticky seal on a sheet of paper and pressing it with an embosser… cutting, pasting or threading – it doesn’t matter, kids love it!

My thanks goes out to Kirki, Bryan, Evelyn and all the wonderful people that make Green Thumb such a special and personable place to shop. I hope to visit the store for a second book signing soon!!

My friend Rich Samuels drops by for a "bud" shot

My friend Rich Samuels drops by for a "bud" shot