Thursday, February 10, 2005

Nashville Bound.....

Well, I am pretty much packed and ready to go. I’ll get the girls on the bus this morning and come home to check through my list one last time before heading to the airport for about 10 am. I am ahead of the snowstorm that is headed our way, but still not sure if that will make going through Toronto any trickier. We are supposed to get most of the snow late this afternoon and into tomorrow, so I am very glad to be leaving this morning.

My hair is now red with highlights to add some fun and punch to the weekend with the sword. I love changing my hair style or colour to suit my moods!!!

Regardless of how this show goes, it is fun to see fellow designers and shop owners who have grown to be friends over the years. Working “in isolation” though connected to the whole world is a bit weird for an extrovert, so it is fun to have weekends like this where I get to totally immerse myself in activity and crowds... then come home to rest and be creative again.

Time to get some girls ready for the school bus!!

Wednesday, February 09, 2005

Luckily I Love What I Do...

When worlds collide......... I just finished saving all of the illustration files, fonts, etc. to CD for the illustration/design job I have been working on since early December. Almost every deadline I had tried to set with this client (in order for things not to clash with Nashville) was ignored, so here I am less than 48 hours before my major trade show of the season, burning the midnight oil on something other than my own stuff.

Luckily I am pleased with how these illustrations look... but I am too tired to really do any back flips. I still have to pack tomorrow so that it won’t be another late night before I go. Yawn.... off to bed at last!!!

Monday, February 07, 2005

B is for Bethany... B is for BARF!!!

It’s the sound that every parent dreads... the sound of their child being sick in the night. I was still downstairs in the living room, around 1 am Sunday morning, signing and numbering charts for our Limited Edition design being released in Nashville when I heard that horrible sound of someone being violently ill. I raced up the stairs to discover Bethany on her hands and knees in bed wailing because she’d just barfed all over “Monster” her favourite stuffed animal!

Having been so violently ill during both pregnancies, I can totally sympathize with those gut-wrenching heaves that leave you breathless, but I also am totally paranoid about being sick myself because that reflex got so damaged it can no longer shut down on its own. Once I start, I need a drug called Maxoran to turn it off, which is only available in an IV here in Canada... so I usually let Nick do Barf Patrol.

This time, I was the one wide awake and available, so I helped Bethany get to the bathroom and began cleanup duty while she stayed near a toilet. I kept having flashbacks to how wonderful it felt to be taken care of by my mom when I was sick as a child... and they were warring with the voice in my head screaming “Oh my gosh! This is SO gross!! This has to be one of the ickiest things about being a parent now that diaper changing is over!! How did this much stuff come out of such a small tummy... Ewww! What is that??...How will I ever get Monster clean again?? What if I start barfing before Nashville?? Where is the Lysol?? Oh please let me get through this! Make it go away!!”

I finally woke Nick to get his help because we needed to clean right down to the mattress. Then I had to wake Sue in the basement to put everything in to soak. A very good friend of ours (one of my “Twisted Sisters”) stays with us overnight every second month when her kids have custody with his parents here in town. I’m not sure she signed up for that type of wake-up call when she checked in for the weekend, but we’ve seen each other through much worse!

I got our Barfy Bunny info some new jammies and back into a clean bed. There were a few tears about not having her purple teddy to snuggle with but I assured her that Monster would be all clean and fluffy by the following night. I then changed into my own jammies after scrubbing myself with antibacterial soap and tried to get to sleep.

Any Mom or Dad will know that when your child is sick, you sleep with one ear open, listening for them, so I was able to get up with Bethany the next 4 times before the waves finally stopped and my poor barfy princess was able to sleep at last. The skin on my hands was looking a little raw from all the antibacterial soap and scrubbing... so I slathered on the moisturizer and got some sleep.

It’s now Monday morning and Bethany is feeling fine. Like most flu bugs, it swept through her and was gone in less than 24 hours. I got her off to school with Erin and have started to pack for Nashville.... hoping that there won’t be a Barfy Dragon before then!!