Erica is growing a mustache...

...did I say "growing"? I meant sewing.

Elizabeth (pink octopus) won first. Chastity (Sherlock Holmes) won second. Reba (Fourth of July) won third. I think Pam (bacon) should have won. That was hilarious!

Last week was employee appreciation week at my job. Delta Dental of Oklahoma has been voted one of the Best Places to Work in OKC and I completely understand why. The working environment is great, they hire some amazing people and they really go all out to show employee appreciation. This was my third employee appreciation experience. We get a theme each year and this year's theme was 2015 Delta Dental County Fair. We even had a "fair/carnival" at the end of the week. So much fun :D

The only ride I went on was the giant trampoline with bungee cords. It was pretty fun. I'd like to think I work out and am moderately in shape but that thing wore me out. My poor little legs!!

Employees were allowed--encouraged, actually--to have a table to display and sell crafts, goods and treats. OMG...mini show for RagsReborn!! I shared a table with Marie, owner of Glass Soldier Gifts. (Her stuff is quite amazing. Check out her Facebook!) I posted on the company intranet throughout the week to advertise. Look at my marketing skills go!

(above) I emailed this to my coworkers. (below) And check out this little gem on our intranet bulletin board. I tried crossing out the Delta Dental-ness...not like there's any HIPAA here but our Compliance department is rather strict and I fear. LOL 

My little table booth at the event did really well (almost as good as I did at the Indie Trunk Show!). I sold two totes (one was bought by our CEO's wife!), two pillows and a coworker brought me an old Elvis t-shirt for a custom order. Oh, Elvis! *swoon*

There were little events and competitions each day and Tuesday was the mustache and beard competition. We were all encouraged to put on a mustache--real or fake. I knew I had to do a fake one! I looked online for some ideas but none popped out at me. I was chatting with Vietfil and she suggested that I do a pillow mustache ... how perfect since I would be selling at the carnival later in the week. Give 'em a sample of my craft! (Thank you, Vietfil, for the idea...that girl should get into marketing!) RagsReborn can do freestyle pillows, right? I made a huge one for myself and some little ones for my coworkers. All made out of old t-shirt scraps so technically, they're still t-shirt pillows to fit my business theme. Since I can't give out my pillowing secrets, here's a tutorial for small prop mustaches.

Party mustache tutorial:
        Materials needed - cloth, cotton (not pictured), dowel rod, hot glue, scissors & a mustache pattern (I drew mine with paper and pencil). And any decorative materials, if desired.

Making these from leftover t-shirts! Yay for recycling :D

1. Find or draw a mustache pattern. I am not a good artist so I had to Google a picture to work from. It took a few tries but I finally drew one I liked.

2. Trace the pattern onto the cloth and cut out two pieces - one will be the front and the other will be the back. I used chalk to trace my pattern. It's not listed in the materials but you can use whatever you have... pencil and marker works, too. I attempted to cut one out without tracing first, which worked okay but was more difficult. I considered doing a different color cloth for the front and the back but I eventually decided against it. Its always still an option for you. The sky is the limit when it comes to crafting!

3. Hot glue the dowel rod in the center of the designated back mustache piece.

4. Hot glue a little bit of cotton onto the back mustache piece. Try to keep the cotton toward the center of the mustache. You want enough cotton for the mustache to be sturdy but not too much to where it's overflowing out the edges.

5. This is the hardest step and be forewarned that you will burn your fingers with hot glue. >.< You're basically making a sandwich with the cotton in the middle.
        Carefully glue the front piece of the mustache over the cotton.  Do this by slowly hot gluing around the edges. Move the cotton toward the middle as much as possible before you start gluing and continue to push toward the middle as you glue. I had to add more cotton to the middle as I glued. It needs to be stuffed pretty full in order for it to be sturdy.

6. Done!! I tied a ribbon on each of the dowels and glued initials on them (I have 4 team members in my department and had to do something to distinguish between which mustache belonged to whom). They look pretty cute without decorations, too. Again, its totally up to you!