MONDAY

Sorry I haven't posted in a while! I have been EXTREMELY busy. I know that I keep saying that, but it's the truth. Anyway, so I'm going to give a recap of Monday.

Well, we got to finally start setting up the storefront! We brought everything from the storage unit over and started hanging stuff up. Then, a reported from the Windsor Times came and took some pictures. That was pretty cool! HERE is a link to the article. After that we went over to Coddingtown Mall because they said we could take clothing racks from the old Gottschalks. That was actually a lot of fun.

After that we went back and continued to set everything up. We pretty much finished that night, so for Tuesday, we only had a couple of things that we had to do. Anyway, after that we went to Office Depot because the people that donated the space, the DenBeste's, said that we should fill the backpacks we were giving away with school supplies. Thank you much Mr. & Mrs. DenBeste!!!

Then we went home. It was really fun. Okay so tomorrow I'm going to recap tuesday!!!

TTYS!

-Allyson Ahlstrom

PS: remember to suggest people to become fans of our facebook!

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Threads-For-Teens/10150105122060512?ref=ts

This week is finally here!

WOW! Tomorrow the Threads For Teens Event begins. I have been waiting for this moment since January, and it's really a great feeling. In less than 24 hours Threads For Teens will have it's very first customers. These past two days it has been a mad dash of getting all of the last minute things together. I will start with a quick recap of saturday.

On saturday a very good friend of mine named Kayla came down to visit me here in Sonoma County. I have known her since the second grade. :) I felt kind of bad because our whole day was spent running errands for the project, but nevertheless we had a ton of fun.

The first thing we did was go to Wet Seal where we spent a couple of minutes speaking with managers and getting the necessary approvals to obtain some of there unused clothing racks for Threads' boutique. While we were there, a grand opening sort of event was going on and there was a raffle to be entered. My mom, sister, Kayla and I entered the raffle, of course not expecting to win at all.

Next we did some shopping, looking for some clothing tops to make our inventory a bit larger. While we were at TJ Maxx shopping around, we came across these really cute, reusable shopping bags that were really big. The best part was that they only cost 99cents!!! Of course we picked out eleven of them so that the girls would have something to carry home their clothing choices. I wish I had a picture to show! I'll try and remember to take one tomorrow. :)

After that we got a phone call saying that Kayla had won the raffle at Wet Seal! She was so happy because Kayla seems to think that she has bad luck, because she was never won anything before. Well, now she can't say that as she is the proud new owner of a bucket of candy...wrappers...we ate all of the candy right after she won it. Kayla was very generous and made sure to share a ton.

We went to the storage unit after going to Wet Seal again to pick up the candy and then went to my storage unit where I had fun showing Kayla around. We tried on some outfits and had a lot of fun! I will put up some pictures.

The last thing we did before she had to leave was make a poster boards with all of the names and logos of places that donated to Threads For Teens. We didn't really budget our time well, so the majority of the poster was made in the car while driving her back to her grandma's house in Napa. Let me tell you, it was an absolute blast! Glitter glue was all over the car, ourselves and the poster. We both got so much glitter on each other that we had to take an "emergency" bathroom break to get it off. I will take a picture of that tomorrow. All around, it was an excellent day and I'm so happy that I got to spend it with such a great friend.

That's all for now! I have to get back to work and finish some last minute things. I will do a recap of monday soon, today and the days to come. Look out for those posts.

XOXOXO

Allyson Ahlstrom

so soon

In less than TWO WEEKS the Threads For Teens event will take place. I cannot believe it! Lately, I been working on making sure that all last minute details are in place. This is includes, going through inventory, getting clothing sizes for the girls, picking up hangers and clothing racks, and all of that crazy stuff!

Something exciting that I did last night was have a meeting to organize a press release. It should be sent out next week. Now, if you don't know what a press release is, here is an explanation. Basically it is sent out to different media outlets (newspapers, magazines, radio stations, tv stations, etc.) and if any of the media outlets are interested in doing a piece on what is in the press release they will contact the person that sent it out. So, it would be so amazing if any media outlet picked up the story of Threads For Teens, because it would give it so much more publicity and the chance for more people to donate. This could help out so much!

That's all for now!

Allyson Ahlstrom

the time is almost here!

Everything is happening so quickly! In 17 days Threads For Teens will have officially kicked off. I seriously cannot believe how great everything has gone and that this project has became so much bigger than I ever thought that it would become. Of course, I could never be able to have done this all on my own. So many tremendous people have helped me out throughout these past couple of months and without them, Threads For Teens will not be what it is today. Anyway, this blog post is not dedicated to thank you's. That will be coming in a later blog.

Lately I've mostly been dedicating my time to picking up last minute donations and documenting them so I know what I need to buy. I have also started picking up some items that were not donated, but I needed to "fill in the gaps". I have received several VERY generous cash donations. You do not know how much those are helping this project.

The other big, big thing that I have been working hard with? Finding girls to come and "shop" at the boutique. This really has been so humbling because these girls I'm working with have so little. It is my privilege to help them out. Honestly, if everybody in the world were to just dedicate a little time each week to volunteer at something they believe in, we might not have as many problems in the world as we do today. This whole notion reminds me of the song "If Everybody Cared" by Nickelback. It's a really great song, and really makes you think. I would highly recommend listening to it.

Well, I'll put some pictures up later! I know that reading all of this is probably quite boring, but I didn't really have much of anything to take a picture.

TTYS!

-Allyson Ahlstrom

I GOT A STOREFRONT DONATED!!!!

Okay, wow I'm so excited to share this news with everyone. I was very worried that I wasn't going to get a storefront donated for the project, but two very kind and generous people donated a GORGEOUS place for this project to happen. I went to see it yesterday, and took some pictures to share with you guys.

Isn't it great!!! Well, that's all for now. I've been working a TON lately so expect more blog updates.

TTYS

Allyson Ahlstrom

Wow, it has been a month!

Summer is almost here! I'm so excited because that will mean that I am out of school, relaxing and winding down from freshmen year. I honestly cannot believe that it all has gone by so fast. Ursuline has just been so great to me, the teachers, the students and the faculty. I absolutely adore going to Ursuline. On another note, summer getting here means that work on my project will start speeding up a ton.

Over these past couple of months, I have been hard at work collecting donations. In these coming days (months), I will be working a TON making sure that this whole project itself happens. That will mostly include choosing the girls and setting up a space. At this point in time, the donations that have been given are pretty much enough to outfit ten girls. I really just need to get jewelry and accessories for everything to be complete. I would also have liked make-up to have been included, but I wasn't able to receive any.

Choosing the girls, seems to me like a daunting task. I want to make sure that the girls chosen are absolutely perfect. I will get it done very soon though. Please pray for me about that. Also, please just pray for this project in general! That would seriously mean the world to me. :)

Now, onto some fun stuff! I haven't really updated with donations lately, so I'll do a little mini-update right now...with pictures!!! This is a picture of stuff received from the VERY popular jean company, Miss Me! I'm so ecstatic that Miss Me sent stuff for the project, they are so great and many girl love their clothing. Please excuse the bad quality of the picture, I took it with my webcam.

Also, besides the donation from Miss Me, I have received very thoughtful and large donations from Tommy Hilfiger, Joes Jeans, and Hot Topic! I will put up pictures later...also I'm going to be doing a blog post abut some inventory I did a while back with my aunt when she was visiting from New York.

I have to go now and study for finals.... :P But, I will update soon!!!

Thank you!

-Allyson Ahlstrom

Lots of new things!

So I mentioned a while back that I was going to be speaking at my church, and I've been meaning to post an update about it. I spoke last sunday in front of both services. It was so fun! I met a lot of really nice people afterwards and got several pledged donations.

Some of the things that I had been needing were a seamstress, and hangers. Well, now I have both! I haven't received the hangers yet, but I think I'll start getting some tomorrow. Really everybody was so nice and so many people wanted to help out. It was very exciting. A video was made, I will post it when I get it.

In other news, I will start picking the girls soon! It has come up so fast. I mean, I remember back in january when I first started this and not even knowing if I would ever get to that point. Well, here I am! I'm kind of nervous, but I'm sure that everything will go well.

I'm going to the storage unit today, going to pick somethings up that need a little fixing. I really feel like such a slacker lately, because I haven't been able to work on Threads For Teens as much as I would like to. That's what happens though in last quarter. :P Thankfully summer is almost here.

That's all for now!!

Ttys!

-Allyson Ahlstrom