Getting Unpacked At Last!

Today, when I really wanted to just relax and goof off, I did the grown-up thing and unpacked. That really is the worst part of any trip...coming home and facing the mountains of laundry! The girls kept running around the house playing with things as I unpacked, sorted, did laundry, filed stuff away, checked e-mail etc. Nick was back at work for his first day, so I had a few moments of wishing that EVERYONE was back at school...but that will come soon enough!

Now all that’s left to unpack are the models and other trade show stuff to tuck away until Toronto and Nashville.

There's No Place Like Home...

After 2 days of traveling, a detour in Maine to get sneakers for Nick and I at the New Balance Factory Outlet Tent Sale, picking up Wuffles from the pet store where he was being boarded and having to change his cage right away, picking up milk and bread to survive until we can do groceries and being SEVERELY TEMPTED to either mail my darling girls to Australia in a box or eat a 2 litre container of ice cream (I did neither... I blogged!) I can finally say that we are safely home!

The trip was a wonderful way to combine family fun and very necessary business. I honestly feel sorry for shops that never make attending trade shows a priority. Yes, they are expensive to do and require actually getting up off your chair, out of your comfort zone and traveling, but you get to see such a better perspective on the industry and its potential that you see staring at the same 4 walls all the time! Seeing the models from different designers and putting faces to the names (as well as zany personalities) has to be better than peering at a computer monitor to see what a new release looks like! I know that from a designer's perspective, I prefer to see store owners face to face now and then instead of just speaking with a voice over a phone or e-mail. If they deal with Hoffman during the year and never come to shows, then I never build that relationship that allows me to know who to recommend in a particular state when I get an e-mail from stitchers. I never hear about ways that I might be able to help them get new stitchers into the shops or entice stitchers who have fallen by the wayside back to the craft. I also don't get to spend the much needed time talking to other designers who actually understand what it is I try to do for part of my career!! The other Moms at the bus stop still really haven't figured out what I really do for a living, but when I share frustrations, joys or challenges with other designers, 9 times out of 10 they know what I mean or can imagine how that feels.

I also think that sharing information with newer designers is crucial to this industry surviving. There were so many designers who took the time to answer my basic questions when I first started out and I always vowed that I would try to do the same. That doesn't mean that I expect them to listed to the "Gospel of Jen"! By listening to how other designers approached things, I was able to find a path that suited ME. The more people's journeys you listed to, the better you are able to chart your own in a way that is true to your soul... and that applies to much more than just cross stitch!

Time To Head Home...

Today was another great day as a family! We got up a bit later and had breakfast, then headed out to mail off what leftover leaflets we had to Hoffman and one model that we'd had another store deliver off to the trunk show it was supposed to be at. This time, since we knew where the post office actually was, it was a much faster trip.

After that, we headed off to The Nascar Mecca.. the Lowes Motor Speedway. Taking the tour and actually driving around the track in the tour van was SO awesome... as was the look on Nick's face since he was in the front seat!

Tonight is all about packing up and sorting things out, so I won't blog long. It was a good show, and some great family fun, but I am ready to get home!

After The Show... The Kids Get Rewarded!
Even though we were a bit punchy from the weekend and eating at odd hours during the show, we woke up fairly early today because we wanted to be able to let breakfast settle before getting on any of the coasters at Carowinds!

Nick helped Kat Rocha, from Cross-eyed Kat, get her stuff to a UPS store/pickup centre so that she could ship some of her things home separately. The girls raced upstairs after breakfast to watch cartoons while I checked out of the room under my reservation with Needlework Markets and checked back into the same room for a 2 day "Stay and Play" package that gave us our 4 admission tickets to Carowinds for today (2 per day but we booked 2 nights).

We'd told the girls that we had to drive "all the way to South Carolina" for this adventure, so when we pulled off the highway just 18 miles from where we left the hotel, and they saw the huge roller coasters rising into the sky, they began to squeal.

What a day!! I did manage to handle one extreme roller coaster called Top Gun that did an upside down loop, many corkscrews and lots of screaming on my part. We also did all of the other ones that Bethany was tall enough for, but looking at the Borg ride where you went backwards, lying flat and face down much of the ride... I got quite squeamish. Luckily, the wait for the ride was almost an hour, so we decided to pass on that second ride that Erin thought she deserved my company on thanks to the shop we deal with in London, Ontario. The very first thing on Saturday morning as they placed their order and we told them about our plans for Monday, Kathy looked right at Erin and said "I hear if you are a big help and your Mom has a good show, she has to go with you on any 2 rides that you want her to!" I survived!!

We concentrated instead on all the rides where you got soaked! I have never been that wet over and over. Of course, we were in regular street clothes and our denim shorts may not dry out before we get on the plane Wednesday morning unless we leave them to steam dry in the car tomorrow! By the time we got back to the hotel, our feet were all wrinkly from being in damp socks most of the day! Eeeeewwwww!

I guess we've just ensured that the girls will want to come and help us at the show next August here in Charlotte. I doubt Nick and I will be able to sneak away and do the show just the two of us with stuff like Discovery Place and Carowinds to make them want to help!

Erin looked at me the last day of the show and with an air of exasperation said "I guess you'll have another whole talk about the models next year that I'll have to learn! Just when I think I got all this one memorized, the show is over!"

That's what it is all about.. meeting friends, encouraging others in the industry, showing off what you've created and listening to feedback, trying to come up with things that will make the show fun and enticing... and then ending up with hugs, goodbyes and tons of ideas for the next time you do a show!

Time to head to bed!!

The Chaos of Setting Up for a Show!

What a crazy day! The girls went back and forth between being great helpers and driving us CRAZY, so Nick and I still have a bit to learn about doing a show with kids! This morning, when we needed to head out to pick up a few last minute items, they tried to stage a revolt and demand to be left behind in the hotel room to watch cartoons and play Barbies! I don't think so!

We got everything done and now the room is as set up for the show tomorrow as it is going to get. Understated, but at least you can really see the designs that I brought without them getting lost among props or decorations... but I go by some of the rooms and still doubt myself. Mine will look very stark by comparisson!

Here's to the excitement and chaos of the show!!!

Making The Most of the Day...

What a busy day! We got up early (our regular wake-up time is 7 am back home, 6 am here) and had a nice breakfast at the hotel before heading out for the day. We found an Office Max where we could pick up a few supplies and leave off the copies we needed to have made (slightly more expensive than getting them done in Canada, but less to clog up and weigh down luggage!) then headed off to Discovery Place.

Nick and I first visited this hands-on science centre 11 years ago when we came to Charlotte for the first time. We'd pulled into Charlotte sounding like a tractor because our Subaru has lost the muffler along the way and while the car was being repaired, we walked up to Discovery Place to take our mind off how much we were going to have to put on the Visa. IT was captivating then, but what a difference to see it throught the eyes of my two girls 11 years later!! They were totally captivated for the 5 hours we were there and we had to pry them away! I was worried that the copy centre might think I'd disappeared instead of coming back for my stuff!

We explored Charlotte a little bit more after picking up the copies. Nick is SO wonderful about driving in big city traffic... but I doubt I could ever live in a city this size again. Having grown up in Montreal and even learned to drive there... it seems strange in a way to prefer the pace of Moncton... but I am sure that I don't lose as much time in my day to travel as many of the people we saw pushing their way through the 5 lanes of traffic, jockeying for the quickest spot.

The girls are happily playing Barbies upstairs and I thought I would blog quickly before I get set for the class I teach tomorrow afternoon and the set-up for the show tomorrow morning. This is the calm before the storm, but sometimes watching a storm roll in can be exhilarating!

Teaching Kids To Be Great Travellers...

We started today in Bangor, Maine at 3 am. We've now arrived safely in Charlotte, NC for my cross stitch trade show this weekend to show off our 3 (and one to come) new designs. My girls have been absolutely WONDERFUL travellers and are now playing happily in the hotel room with their new Barbie dolls that we found during a Target foray upon arriving in the city.

What helps kids learn to be great travellers? Partly it is approaching trips with a sense of wonder and fun even as adults. You teach them to revel in the unexpected joys and discoveries along the way. You make travel time a special time to snuggle or play wicked games of Harry Potter UNO. One of the things that the girls enjoy most is the "Doodle Diary" that I keep for every big trip. I do tiny cartoons of events during each day and then we have a visual record of the "unforgettable" moments of the trip... such as not noticing until the second airline today that my sharp scissors were in my carry-on and having to mail them to myself at the hotel... such as discovering that Bethany is actually called Nethany in her new passport and that we'll have to correct that once we get home... or watching the girls faces light up when the National Car Rental lady handed them a bag of Beanie Babies when they got on the shuttle and told them to each pick one to take with them!

Travelling also opens their eyes to the way the world around them differs from life back home. As wel drove to the hotel, Erin noticed a man at one corner with a sign that said "hungy... will wash your car for food!" Since we didn't know if we were headed in the right direction, we couldn't really stop, but she did ask that we include him in our prayers tonight and mentioned him during grace at the restaurant because we were lucky enough to be eating out.

By learning to embrace the joys and wonders that travel can hold... how can you not pass that onto your kids? There's a big wide world out there to explore and enjoy!!

A New Record! Maybe I’m Learning??

It’s not quite 11 pm on a night before we leave for a trade show and I’m done! The bags are packed, the forms are filled out for customs, I’ve rounded up most of the loose ends on my list, the rest of the family is packed and the 4 boxes that we need to mail from within the USA are all taped shut and ready to go!

WOW! Maybe I am learning how to schedule things better... I’ve gotten better at delegating... or I’m forgetting something really important, because usually I am up until at least 1 am and Nick worries about me traveling on too little sleep!

The girls both take after us in terms of having trouble falling asleep before trips (or anything exciting like Christmas and birthdays) so it was a challenge to get them to bed tonight. Wednesday morning when they have to wake up in Maine at 3:00 am to get to the airport for a 5:30 am flight may be another story completely!

What am I looking forward to most? Seeing fellow designers and shop owners of course, but also sharing this part of my life with my girls so that they can have a better idea of the work Mommy has to do when I go away to trade shows!

The Company Of Good Friends....

Despite the fact that I have a few loose ends to tie up before we leave for Charlotte, friend of ours across the street invited us to join our meals together for supper. We brought over the fresh corn on the cob that we bought at the market this morning as well as BBQ’d chicken burgers and they added their food to the list as well. All of our children played well together which gave the adults a much needed and much appreciated chance to chat. That is what being in the company of good friends is all about. What a nice release from the pre-trade show crazies!!! It was just what I needed to distract myself from the cross checking that I do before a trade show... wondering if I have everything covered... wondering if I have all that I will need once I am down there... wondering if I will forget something important...

Funny how so many people think that once you are a “recognized” designer that you have helpers and people that take care of you, organize you etc. How far could they be from the truth!! Most designers create designs because of this overwhelming need to get an image or an idea out of their head and onto graph paper or into floss and fabric. It literally does not let you go until you serve the work. Why else would we create something that is SO vulnerable to being copied and shared? If we did not love bringing a design into the world and watching what people would think of that particular combination of floss and fabric, we would not be doing what it is we try to do... To risk anything creative... from creating an image or story to bringing a new life into this world, is to be open to possibilities that you have yet to dream. That is where the magic truly lies... and that is what keeps us trying to create that next design.

Taking a break from creativity tonight to just enjoy the company of really good friends was wonderful!

Getting Ready For Next Week...

Well, we’re down to the crunch getting ready to leave for the show next week in Charlotte. The new designs are back from the printers, packed up and ready to go with us. The models are safely bundled in bubble wrap and I even found a new hard shell case to replace the one that Air Canada busted on the trip home from Nashville back in February.

Looking at some of my older models from a dozen years ago, I can see where some of them will have to be reframed eventually. Shipping things down to shows or off to trunk shows does put far more wear and tear on the frames than if they were to hang safely on a wall, but this is, after all, what helps sell the designs.

Isn’t it fun when you are stitching something, to see how much better it looks in real life than in the photo on the cover of the pattern? No matter how often I juggle with exposures, check colour levels etc. before taking designs to print, you just cannot completely capture that sparkle and magic that slowly evolves before your eyes with needle and thread. No wonder so many of us get hooked!!

Now that the trade show stuff is at least mostly under control, I can work on the website tomorrow and get that up to date...

It’s Never Just One Thing....

Last night was a late one, going over several forms that I’ll need to make copies of once I arrive in Charlotte, making the changes to the Evening Fairy design that I’ll be handing out to shops that place an order there and trying o sit comfortably in our old office chair. It just wasn’t the right height for the new desk and by this morning, my hands were sore. So today was also the quest to find an office chair once we were done painting the nursery at church.

Every now and then I am reminded in a rather obvious way that I am just built on a different scale. Almost every chair we tried had the back support in the wrong place, wouldn’t go high enough, didn’t bring the armrests up to the right height, even on full extension etc. We finally found a model that was fairly adaptable and comfortable, but they didn’t have the black version in stock at the store nearest us. Having just redone the colours in the office, I ended up sounding like such a picky artist when I told the clerk “I just can’t buy the burgundy version because it will clash with absolutely everything in the room!”

Then of course I needed a drawer organizer since I haven’t had a drawer in a desk in YEARS, and that led to getting an extra little slidey tray... surely we do that all the time in a stitching store! It’s never just one thing!

Nick is upstairs stitching on a project for me and I must go thank him, so until tomorrow...

Less Than A Week...

A week from now we’ll be in a hotel in Bangor, trying to convince the girls to grab a few hours sleep before a very EARLY flight to NY and onto Charlotte. The new office is all tidy! Except for one box of papers that have yet to be filed and sorted, everything is in its place and I am just getting the last things ready to take with me (forms etc.) I’ve learned now to find a Kinko’s or Office Max down there and pay US$ to avoid lugging the already printed forms with us on the plane. Suitcases can only handle so much!

I have to work on the website tomorrow night, but the design for Evening Fairy got some tweaking tonight when I came up with a perfect sub-line. The chart has the caption “Evenings are meant to be Magic” and I suddenly modified the design to include a box of chocolates and the words “especially if they include chocolate” beneath the big text! While this chart is a special gift for shops that order from us in Charlotte, it will be up on the site in December, so don’t worry!!!

Tomorrow morning I have to take a break and head over to church where the girls and I are going to team up with another family of 3 girls to help add a bit of fun to the nursery. It was repainted and repaired this spring, but the colour is a bit.... boring, so we’re going to paint 3 sheep (and do the fleece with sea sponges and paint for a nice texture) on the main wall that you see from the door. Along the side wall, we’re going to paint a vine that has various sizes of hand prints in different colours as the “flowers”. Since the girls tomorrow range in age from 10 to 3, I think we’ll have a good variety of sizes. I wonder how much paint will end up on them instead of the walls??

Half an Office Back...

What a busy day! We headed off to the dump early this morning to drop off the two old and disassembled desks to the recycling depot. Then we went to St. Pat’s for our morning workout while the kids played in the TV room. They have the full cable there and we usually have to tear Erin and Bethany away from the cartoon channels that we don’t have here at home.

After that it was off to the smaller of the two farmer’s markets in town which we try to support. The large one in Dieppe is nice, and very new, but you have to really want to be squished in a ground and have to push your way through aisles where people just stop to chat with friends instead of moving on or buying things. I picked up a custom-designed ankle bracelet that I had ordered from the young girl who makes them. I wanted a certain pattern but all in dragon greens of course! I also came home with two new plants for the garden and tucked them into place before lunch.

Nick got the whole office painted in the afternoon and then right after supper, while the girls watched a DVD, he and I assembled the hutch part for the desktop and the shelf/drawer unit that goes to the left of the desk. He wheeled one shelf back in for me and I now have about half my office set up again. I LOVE the new colour, a deeper blue called Limerick that looks more Maritime than the cornflower blue I had before. I can’t wait to get the lateral file part assembled tomorrow afternoon so that I can start sorting and moving things back into place. I threw out a whole bunch of “stuff” today and it felt great!!!

Total Office Chaos...

Friday nights are usually “date night” in this house where the kids go to be at a reasonable hour, even though it is the weekend, and Nick and I get some time together as a couple. Usually, that means playing a game or watching a DVD, but tonight the poor guy had to bring his screwdriver down to my office and help me tear down two desks, then assemble the base of the new one so that I could get at least one computer hooked back up enough to blog!

Tomorrow, we’ll paint the office and then move most of the stuff back in. I say most, because anyone who grew up a bit packrattish knows that you end up with little piles of “stuff” that you mean to sort out sometime but just haven’t gotten to yet, or things that you are pretty sure you’ll need sometime soon.

Part of my “getting ready to turn 40” has not only involved cleaning up my eating habits and getting in shape, it has involved learning how to let go of “stuff” and just hang on to the memories instead of the object.

So I am trying to make sure that any “stuff” I really don’t need or haven’t gone looking for lately, doesn’t come back into the new office!

Procrastination or Productivity??

With less than 2 weeks until the show, what happens today? After months of searching for the right desk to replace the 2 I have in my office an hopefully get both computers a little closer together, I had pretty much given up when we found the perfect model... and on sale! It’ll be delivered next week (since this is a long weekend here) and Nick pointed out that this would be the perfect time to paint the office before we rearrange everything and get it just right! Aaaaack!! At least the borken keyboard tray from the one desk won’t keep falling out on my toes!!

He has to go down to Petitcodiac for the day tomorrow to do some muscle work of his own, turning a work room into a book room and moving boxes around, so that will give me some time to just get a few things out of the way on the computer and then start lugging things out into the family room so that we can paint.

We also went into the pet store for “just a peek at the animals” and came out with a second cage for Wuffles, our dwarf hamster. We bought the set of tubes as well and now he can run back and forth between the cages or through a tube that runs along the outside. We even got the little “potty” with the scoopable litter to see if that will coax him to pee elsewhere than in the tube that leads to his bed! He ran around like a crazy thing for almost an hour checking everything out and then fell deeply asleep for a few hours, all tuckered out from his explorations!

I still haven’t decided whether this is procrastination or productivity, but I can wait to get the office redone!!

Two Weeks From Today...

It’s a bit scary and hard to wrap my head around that we’ll be arriving in Charlotte exactly two weeks from today. Part of me wants to run around like Chicken Little screaming at the top of my lungs... and part of me is quite amazed at how much farther ahead I am than usual before a trade show!

I get like this before every show... its part of the charging up, revving up and gathering in energy to use during the event, but you also have to be careful not to burn yourself out before you even get there.

I am also so incredibly aware of how you cannot take anything in life for granted. So many of our friends are going through turmoil right now, facing life-threatening battles, coping with legal battles, facing the sudden injury of a loved one, struggling not to lose a job... it makes me very grateful for the hugs from my children, the ability to do a job that I love and the fact that I have a roof over my head at night. Those are the things that we really cannot ever afford to be complacent about when so many in the world spend every day on the brink of survival.

The newest piece, that will only be ready to show off the model of in Charlotte, has just gripped me and shaken me until I got it all on paper. It is for all the strong women in life who face challenges, even when afraid. The design features a frog with a little gold crown lounging in a glass slipper. Above him read the caption “Forget the Balls & Kissing Frogs” and below the slipper it says “I’ll make my OWN Happy Ending!” I’m trying to think of a charity that really helps women in need (other than breast cancer) towards which some of the proceeds could go... but there really isn’t a National program here in Canada that would apply...

Getting Ready To Juggle 2 Blogs at Once!

I must be a sucker for punishment, especially with a trade show just over 2 weeks away... but it was time to set up my blog about becoming She-Hulk, since tomorrow will start the 40 day countdown until I paint myself green and get on stage at Dragon*Con to celebrate turning 40 with a bang.

If you are interested in this second blog and the details of the transformation that a crazy extrovert has decided to undertake, you can check it out at http://becomingshe-hulk.blogspot.com

Today was productive in many ways... the first harder workout with Nick... getting the Hoffman order off by courier so that this replacement order for the two boxes that the Canadian and US postal services still can’t agree who lost will get there... finishing off the sketch for the middle of the design Nick has been stitching from my roughs so that he’ll have a chart to work from at last... and getting the new blog set up to launch.

Life is going to be hectic for the next little while, but it WILL be memorable!

Unexpected Adventures... Playing Tourist In Your Own Province!

We just got home tonight after deciding to turn a chore into an excuse for a family getaway. I knew that we needed to take our passports to the passport office in Fredericton in order to get them back for our trip to the USA next month. The girls now need passports of their own, so with three to submit, it seemed easier to drive them there.

We endured a drizzly, damp Saturday and found out that the forecast for Sunday was going to be bright sun and fairly warm temperatures, but that Monday would be back to cold and drizzle again. We decided to call Fredericton to see if there were any hotel packages at the Lord Beaverbrook hotel downtown... and sure enough there was a wonderful Summer Sizzler package that included two queen size bed and breakfast for the family in the morning! We threw our stuff in a bag Saturday night and hopped in the car Sunday morning to head for Fredericton.

Kings Landing is the most awesome historical settlement that takes a good 3 hours to walk through. Houses from the early to late 1800s were moved and restored to recreate this settlement or farms, churches, mills, print shop, smithy, houses and general store. Everyone in the town is dressed in costume and stays in character for the period and shows what life was like in that era. They cook their meals over the hearth or stoves in the house, work the land, apprentice in the businesses etc. This time the girls were old enough to really fall in love with the place. Erin has even decided she might like to try the “Visiting Cousins” program next summer where you attend the camp for the week and act as a character during the day, learning skills from the era and even attending school in the schoolhouse for a few hours every morning. She got the chance to hold the reins of the wagon as we drove back to the main entrance and was absolutely thrilled!

After most of the day at Kings Landing, we headed for the hotel and a nice swim at the pool. We dressed for dinner and walked off to the greek restaurant we knew about in town about 5 blocks from the hotel. Unfortunately, when we got there, we and several other tourists were disappointed to find out that it is closed on Sundays! This was the beginning of our half an hour, 5 block maze chase around the streets of downtown Fredericton, desperately trying to find ANY restaurant that served something other than fast food! We finally found a great pub called the Snooty Fox and had a fabulous supper that did much to restore our spirits and get rid of the “grumpy whineys”. We headed back to the hotel for a massive game of Harry Potter UNO and then read in bed while the girls fought over who was stealing the covers and who had toes on whose side... Even in a Queen sized bed, they still managed to get on each other’s nerves until they fell asleep. My sister could probably correct me, but I don’t remember fighting with her that much over sleeping space!!

This morning, after another quick swim and breakfast, we headed off to the Passport Office under grey and cloudy skies that left me wishing I’d packed a sweater. We got through our business there with one little flaw... seems Quebec has changed birth certificate information to bring it in line with the rest of Canada and Vital Statistics... so my old Birth Certificate is no longer valid. Even though I used it to get my last passport (and it is still me) I have to send away for this new version. Sigh! If they had let me know about this when I was up there in June, I could have taken care of it then. Just as we left the Passport Office, the heavens opened, so we ran a few blocks down to the Science East hands on science center and spend over 2 hours exploring the exhibits, helping the staff move baby stick bugs onto new raspberry plant stalks to eat, setting up domino mazes etc.

On the way home from Fredericton, we stopped to explore Old Orchard Crafts and the village of Gagetown where Flo Greig, a potter whose work I adore, has her studio. Nick and I received a magnificent salad bowl of hers as a wedding present 16 years ago and have added a few pieces to our collection since then. We have always meant to try to find her studio and stumbled across it today as we tried to find a place to eat a much overdue lunch! She happened to be there when we wandered in out of the damp and it was such fun to let another artist know how much her work has meant to me! We headed home a new addition to our collection and some great memories of a village we’ll go back to explore again.

Sadly, New Brunswick seems to lag WAY behind Nova Scotia in terms of properly promoting its craftspeople and making it easy to find them through brochures, signage etc. Having been in Nova Scotia just a few weeks ago, I am saddened by the difference between the two provinces...

Now we are home again and ready to get orders off in the mail etc. It was fun to turn the chore of dropping the passports off in person into a fun family adventure and strange to think that we’ll be doing that run again in two weeks time to head down to the show in Charlotte! Where has the summer gone??

Thank Goodness It’s Friday!

Friday night is Date Night in our house and the kids are just finishing up their turn on Animal Crossing before we bundle them off to bed, pour ourselves a nice glass of our new favourite wine. It is called Terra Rosa by Jost and is a light red wine that can be served chilled. The perfect thing now that the thunderstorm has rolled through and the humidity has broken a bit. My files are at the printers and so will be ready for Charlotte. We have one model to stitch up to show off for a September release, but Nick has done as much as he can from my rough pencil sketch. I need to graph out the image in the middle for him to be able to work from a real chart for a change.

Tonight, the work stays in the basement, the Hoffman order can ship out on Monday instead of racing to the airport to catch a plane that leaves in less than 15 minutes... I’ve spent most of my week in the basement staring at a computer screen and it is time to take a break!

Life is good. I know that Laurie and Yoshi are safe, although my sister was out and about during the latest round of mayhem in London. I can’t wait to see my new nephew and my fast growing niece in just over a month at a family wedding the in Ottawa area. I had an awesome workout at the gym today and in less than 45 days, I get to be She-Hulk at Dragon*Con. Life is cool!

Have a wonderful Friday night!!!

Crawling Through Files...

Sometimes this is the stage of the design that I hate the most, even if it is one of the areas I am most qualified to do (and one where I am able to save myself some money). Being a graphic designer lets me layout all the files and hand a CD over to my printer camera-ready, but the larger the files or the more complex the design, the more chances there are that you will overlook something important, miss a spelling mistake etc.

I get to the point where I peer at the screen or at artist’s proofs so many times, I can no longer be objective about them. I grab friends, teachers and sometimes even total strangers to look over the proofs, begging them to read them through in case there is an error. Most times, I find them about 3 days AFTER they come off the press as I am folding them to send to distributors. Sometimes it is eagle-eyed stitchers who notice things as they are stitching them while the design is only a few weeks old. (You know who you nimble needles are!!) Then there is nothing to do but grit ones teeth, scream loudly in the basement where the neighbours can’t hear you and call the funny farm, post corrections to the website if the FTP is cooperating and then hope that next time you will catch everything.

Back to peering over files to avoid the basement screaming in a few weeks if at all possible. This is the only cool place in the house. Poor Wuffles is still upset about living in a fur coat through a Canadian summer, but at least our dwarf hamster is down here in the basement with me!