A Weekend in Montana

It is that time of year again for my business! Twice a year we trek to Montana with a trailer full of products and serve the dance community. This was my first trip I ever went on for the Shop, and it will always hold a very special place in my heart. I had an entire post ready with my entire weekend laid out, but I really hated how I had written it. So I scrapped it, started over, and this is what we have! More or less a photo diary of my trip. We were so busy fitting pointe shoes and selling leotards and what-not that I got very caught up in the moment and didn't have much to say about it!

The drive through the Mountains of Montana was quite gloomy and dark. Although, dark and dreary weather are by far my favorite driving conditions. The tops of the mountains were still dusted with snow, and the rivers were high and strong from the snow beginning to melt. Once we started to descend from the last mountain pass, we were hit with very high winds, freezing rain, hail and snow. It was so weird, yet calming for me. This storm followed us all the way to our destination, including a buildup of thunder and lightning! Oh, I do love the Northwest..

The picture above might be the best picture I took all weekend... as in terms of an "inside" joke. The hotel we stayed at was right on the river, and I was so excited for all of the pictures I would be able to take of the amazing view! Well, when I opened up the blinds, we had a magnificent view of the Hunting Trade Show that was being held in the courtyard of the hotel. Just what I wanted to see; Guns and boats and things that I don't really enjoy. Thus, the joke of our hotel room was born!

The following set of pictures are of our set-up in the College the dance festival was held at. I absolutely adored this space. As someone who grew up in the Theater for recitals, Nutcrackers and all sorts of ballets, a room like this feels right at home for me! The lights gave a really lovely ambiance to the space, and kept me very warm in the basement of the Performing Arts building.

Here, we have our fitting setup. Just a few carpets on the floor with chairs and our signature traveling "Shoe Customization" station. It is something very special that we do, and I'm almost positive that we are the only ones in the country who do anything like it.

I never thought that becoming a Master Pointe Shoe fitter would be my calling. To understand how special these shoe are, and how important a proper fitting is, is something I take very personally.

Take for instance this picture; this lovely young, aspiring dancer was in desperate need of a proper fitting. She has quite the pleasant feet for dancing, and the shoes she was wearing were giving her bunions and bruised toe nails, and so many painful things that come along with pointe work. However, properly fitting shoes can help prevent those kind of things from happening. She tried these shoes on and they fit perfectly! She fell in love with the shoe, bought it, and started sewing them immediately afterwords. It brings me so much joy to be able to make other dancers happy.

The drive home was very different than the drive there. We had sunshine and few clouds. Montana is known for it's big skies, and we could definitely see them! I, unfortunately, got a migraine and fell extremely nauseous the entire ride home. It was awful, and the bright sunshine did not help one bit.

I hope to be able to do more traveling blog posts like this, but maybe a little more in-depth. I travel almost once a month for my business, with another trip to San Rafael coming up very soon!

This is all for now!

Tootles,