The Magic of Retreats...

I’m back from a truly wonderful weekend up at Camp Wildwood with the most amazing bunch of ladies. This was the 28th retreat (they are held twice a year) and though our numbers were smaller than the fall version, 57 of us still had lots of giggles, stitching and fun!

Friday’s weather was horrible with snow and sleet. It certainly wasn’t as bad as anything the brave gang heading to Myrtle Beach this year faced, but since the fresh snow was covering up some of the muddy areas, a few cars got stuck on the camp roads or getting to the cabins.

The main lodge was toasty warm with a fire going by the time we all got our chairs, tables and lights set up in our little circles. My friend Sue and I were up on the stage again this time. It’s a fun place to site because you can look down and have a great view of what people are working on. It’s only about 8 inches higher than the floor...but I’ve always known that a few inches can make a BIG difference!

The food was fabulous again and WAY too tempting! One of the best parts about being away at this retreat is that the meals are all prepared for you, so you can just concentrate on stitching, napping, relaxing, going for a walk, chatting, reading or all of these whenever you feel like it.

I often get a chance to sit at one of the picnic tables and do some designing. This retreat was no exception. When I design up at retreat, it hardly feels like work because I am surrounded by such creativity and laughter. Many of the ladies had fun peeking at what ornament will appear in this year’s JCS Ornament Issue ahead of time. I also finished one of the designs that I plan to launch in Columbus, so that needs to get off to a model stitcher as soon as I transfer it into the computer! It was also wonderful to see how far one of the ladies has gone with her own dream. Tracey had some marvelous button embellishments for the little craft sale we had at the fall retreat and has since gone on to not only produce buttons to sell to shops, she has even designed two amazing patterns that feature her products. I’m sure that stitchers outside the Maritimes will be hearing about Fiddlestitch Cottage as she continues to build her dream. Now if I can just get Debbie to put her gorgeous cross stitch bags on Ebay....

Saturday and Sunday were gorgeous weather. The sun and warm temperatures melted the new snow and I got out for an hour long power walk. Saturday nights are fun because we all try to stay up as late as possible to get stuff done before the “last day”. That’s when we do all our door prize draws and get into silly things like glow-in-the-dark glasses or bad jokes. Sunday mornings are bittersweet. We share a time of fellowship and stitch almost frantically, knowing that after lunch we will all pack up and head home. Just before lunch we do a gift exchange and it is always amazing to see how creative stitchers can be. The fall retreat is an ornament exchange, but in the spring, it is a stitched item, so we had everything from pillows and bookmarks to scissor fobs and candle wraps. We even raffled off a stitched bag that many of us had worked on to raise almost $200 for Cancer research.

It was such a restoring and recharging weekend. It is almost impossible to describe a retreat experience to someone who has never been to one, but I know that I always come back feeling more in love with stitching than when I left, more inspired than rested and more thrilled that this is actually part of what I do for a living! If only it weren’t 6 months until the next one!!!

Off to Retreat!!

What a busy week!! Erin is presenting her science fair project that she did with her friend across the street today, so our home has been a whirlwind of magnets, printouts and helping glue the backdrop together for their Electromagnetic Crane. Bethany had pajama day at daycare and then Dr. Seuss day with lots of great books read. I started to learn how to do Butterfly in swimming and boy is it hard!!

Now I am off to retreat tonight to meet up with 60 - 70 women for a wonderful weekend of stitching and fellowship. The fact that there will be a nice fire going in the main lodge as we set up our stitching circles will help counter the fact that it was HAILING this morning!! It has now turned to snow... and I think this will be one of those weird Maritime springs that only lasts 2 weeks. We’ll go right from winter to the high 70s in just a few weeks and “poof” it will be summer.

Bethany is feeling sick this morning. If she’d eaten breakfast, I would have suspected that it was just a case of “I’d rather stay with Nanny and Grr here than go to daycare...” but her throat seems to hurt too much to swallow, so I’ll try to have her seen by our doctor before I head off late this afternoon. Nick still gets jumpy about me going away and kids getting sick since he dealt with chicken pox alone last fall while I was in Toronto. It’s wonderful to know that Mum and John will be here to help this weekend.

I was trying to explain to Bethany WHY I needed to go away when she said it wasn’t for work. There is something totally selfish about taking time just for me, but I need this retreat twice a year to recharge those “me” batteries so that I can be a better person, wife and mommy. It is just so wonderful to have no fixed schedule, no interruptions, no meals to cook or laundry to do and even no e-mail to answer (though it does pile up!). Time to just sit and chat with other strong women, time to indulge in the sheer creative PLAY of stitching or doodling new designs for as long as I want is sheer heaven.

I know I need a piece of that right now!!

Spring Cleaning And Spring Sunshine...

The Aries Birthday Season is finally over in our household and I have thrown the last of the cake and ice cream into the garbage. Those are both “trigger” foods for me, and while I hate to waste food in a world where many still go hungry, if it lingers around the house, I am the only one who will eat it. One of the ways I have kept my weight off since losing it two years ago is to not set myself up for failure, even if it means throwing stuff out. This is why I also ask the Easter Bunny to bring more shiny dimes that chocolates for the girls to hunt...

Sunday was a wonderful day of fellowship and family. Nick’s Mum and “Second Dad” came here for the Easter meal and I had a wonderful chat with my Dad on the phone. My sister called and I also got to speak to my Mom later that night, so I felt very connected to everyone.

Today was a glorious Spring holiday Monday. We were able to get outside for bike rides and chalk drawing wearing only light jackets. It felt glorious!! We also spent the morning sorting and organizing toys for the girls. Now that they are the “advanced age” of 9 and 5, there were toys around the house that just weren’t getting played with anymore. Today, I lovingly gathered all of the pieces for each Fisher-Price Little People set that we had (farm, garage, town, school bus and circus train) then bagged them up in plastic to take to our self store until that day MANY years from now when I become a grandmother. We also sorted out Barbies and Polly Pockets to get the tangle of toys so often hastily shoved under beds and into drawers all sorted out and back in the proper containers.

I must admit that it was with great satisfaction that I tossed a few extra bags of garbage onto the heap tonight and packed a huge bag into the van for our church rummage sale. We really do live in a society that accumulates STUFF at an alarming rate. Every time I de-clutter, I find it so much easier to find things and so much less stressful. I wonder why we feel this need to have so many THINGS in our lives to help us feel fulfilled???

Finding Inspiration In My Daughters’ Eyes...

One of the things that I love most about being a parent is that I get to be exposed to creatures that are infinitely more aware of the world than I am... my children. As we grow, we learn to put all these filtered lenses on our perceptions of reality that take us far away from everyday wonder... even those of us who try hard not to “grow up”.

Both Erin and Bethany are still caught up in that wonder and magic of make believe and exploration, so some of my best soul recharging moments come from when I am pretending something with them, listening to them tell as story out loud as they draw it, getting lost in a wonderful book with them, talking in silly voices or answering one of their infinitely challenging questions that always seem to start with WHY??

Yet, as Erin grows closer and closer to her double digits and then teens, I find I have an incredible sense of watching something precious slip through my fingers, like mist or stardust or sparkly tears. I do not want to be the one to break all of her bubbles, because I still make wishes upon stars... but it will be hard when magical things like tooth fairies, Easter Bunnies, fairies and Santa Claus are no longer part of their lives. I hope that I can still keep some of that wonder alive so that they still reach for the wisps of dreams and are not afraid to entertain angels unaware.

The other night Erin cried about not wanting to grow up. Such a hard thing for a “little girl” in a tall girl body. I remember that ache when everyone treated me as so much older than I really was. We talked for a long time about breaking the worry and panic into manageable pieces... how we would always be there for her... no one ever gets to know what tomorrow holds and must journey into it with grace and faith...

Now as I try to capture these thoughts in my blog, I know that I still feel that bafflement sometimes about not wanting to be the grown up or the parent or the responsible one. But I am also glad that I still retain the sense of wonder and “impracticality” that allows me to imagine a dragon hoarding chocolate, having tea with a wizard or being tamed by a mermaid. May none of us ever grow up TOO much!!

Back On-Line After Computer Woes At Last!!


This year the April Fool’s Joke was on me a few days early!! Last Monday, my computer began acting funny and making strange noises before it dissolved into nothing more than a box of plastic and wires that wouldn’t even acknowledge it had a hard drive!

Of course I handled this as any sensible, computer-dependent graphic designer with deadlines would.... I totally freaked out!! I did manage to find out about a wonderful company in Fredericton (about an hour and a half away) that handled Macs, so off my poor computer went by courier. I always do my back-ups at the end of the month, but I may just go to bimonthly after this last episode!! As it turned out to be the hard drive itself getting old, they transferred most of the information over to a new, larger hard drive and put in more RAM while they had the case open, so now I have my machine back and am slowly returning to the world of the wired.

It was a very STRANGE feeling to be so cut off from the Internet, e-mail, computer programs to design with. I did still put pencil to paper on a few projects (which is how I always start my designs) but it still felt strange...

I’m glad to be back blogging and have finally got the website updates over to the server, but that’s about all the energy I have for tonight. Erin had her first slumber party this weekend and I am still catching up on sleep... but that is another story for another blog!!

Is Ignorance Bliss?

In the battle against copyright abuse, I so often hear the excuse “I didn’t know I was doing anything wrong” that I have to wonder which sandbox people have been hiding their head in. Sometimes, there are small victories, like a wonderful letter from a Russian site saying that they are going to add reminders to their rules so that people don’t post copyright materials. I know that they cannot moderate everything, but they were very prompt at shutting down the sites that were reported. When an ISP is cooperative like this, it helps make it at least a tiny bit tedious for the infringer, leaves a link that people may be sharing in groups as a dead end and acts as a wake-up call for people who really didn’t know any better.

Take auctions on Ebay as another example. Far to often, thanks to the miracles of modern technology such as charting programs and scanners, people just put an image of a cartoon, illustration or drawing that they like and create a chart to stitch from. Any random search can let you find lots of Disney and other cartoon characters or even wonderful Fantasy artwork scanned in without the permission of the copyright holder being sold in auctions. This week there was even one seller who tried to explain to a designer asking questions that “she just sold the stuff” and that the person she was selling for was the one who was producing the charts, some of which she had permission for but which ones, the seller wasn’t really sure. Hmmmmmm.

One of the first things I decided when I first started to design was that I would always make up my own verses or text so that I didn’t have to worry about tracking down who might hold the copyrights to quotes I liked. I also firmly believe that each designer has to find his or her unique voice to share with the world rather than copying a style or theme which might be trendy at the time.

Yes, you can “make money” by producing a chart from an image that you didn’t have to create. Yes, you don’t have to worry about actually stitching up a model of the piece because there is always someone out there who is looking for a Winnie the Pooh chart or unicorn etc. and they probably won’t really care how easy to read the chart really is. There is always FAST money to be made in this world and fools to part it from... but that doesn’t make it right.

Maybe it is harder to keep your eyes open.. to ask questions if something seems to good to be true... to save up for something you like instead of finding someone to just “make one copy for you”

Ignorance may be bliss.... but it does not make what a copyright infringer is doing any less illegal.

A Wonderful Princess Day...

I’m not even sure how they first came to be named “Princess Day” in our household.... but today was another one of them. Princess Day can only occur when there are school holidays and Nick still has to leave the house. It then falls upon us girls to lounge about in our jammies for most of the day and do silly stuff, games, crafts, baking etc.

On a Princess Day, Mommy only takes phone calls and leaves her computer off unless there is an unforeseen emergency with a client, so it is a change of pace for me as well. Sometimes, though not this morning, they even sleep in. This morning, Bethany had a nightmare about people trying to steal her, so she crept into our bed as soon as she heard Nick’s alarm go off.

Once Nick was out the door, we made low-fat blue berry muffins with enough extra frozen blueberries in them to turn the batter purple. We lounged about and played for a bit then tried out the new Harvest Moon “It’s a Wonderful Life” for the Game Cube. The girls had fun naming the puppy and cow as we started out to build our farm and the graphics are spectacular, but right now they are very much hooked by the action and danger involved in the Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time. It wasn’t long before they were pleading with me to switch games and we had great fun learning how to soar off a cliff using a chicken as our glider! The only hard part is that neither of them are interested in mastering the controls yet... so guess who has to be doing the actions? The only problem is that whenever I make mistakes (as you sometimes do with video games) I get this chorus of “Oh MOM!!” in stereo!! At one point in a tunnel, Erin was screaming “no... go right... go RIGHT!” so loudly in my ear when I got turned around that I made them turn off the game for a break. Since it was close to lunch, I taught them how to make their own mini pizzas using English Muffins while I made myself some tuna melts. Bethany discovered that she loves tuna fish (which Erin cannot abide) and took great delight in telling Erin how much she loved it... but it set them both off on a round of quoting the Lilo and Stitch movie. “Do you know what tuna is? It’s fish!! If I gave Pudge a Tuna Fish sandwich, I’d be an abomination!!” (Try to picture an almost 5 year old with no front teeth say the word abomination! My sides still hurt!)

The only mishap of the day was Bethany chewing a hole in her jammies during a scary part of the Zelda game, so we are ending Princess Day with a run to the store to buy some new jammies for the smallest princess. Luckily we ran out of time and Nick came home before we got to the part where they styled my hair with all the little hair clips they own!!

Growing Pains...

I’ve been sifting through piles of paperwork again today and hating every moment. I have finally come to the conclusion that it is time to pick some of the tasks that take me the longest to do (ie. accounting, inventory etc.) and contract some of it out or delegate. Erin will be 9 in a few weeks and I am sure that once a month, she could sit there and check the stock that I have made up or start to help with batching orders for distributors. I have a few leads on accountants in the area that know small business needs... but will they understand mine? It is hard to find someone to work with that way, but it is time!

Everyone in the house seemed grumpy today for some reason. I think we are all still tired from the weekend’s chaos. I’ve been trying to get my work done earlier in the week because there is no school on Thursday or Friday. We’ve just had report cards come out, so tomorrow after school and Thursday are parent/teacher interviews and then Friday is a professional development day. Since Nick will need the car, I have decided to send Bethany to daycare tomorrow and keep her home on Friday. We girls will stay in our jammies and have a “princess day” while Dad is working. This time that means snacks, crafts, drawing sessions and playing our new Harvest Moon “It’s a Wonderful Life” on the Game Cube. Dare I hope that they will sleep in a bit?

Spring... Hah!

We celebrated the first full day of spring yesterday with 10 cm of new, white, fluffy snow. It was actually the kind that in December makes you want to skip around and sing carols... because it fell in soft, white, whirling flakes and clung to every branch and twig.

But now that it is the end of March, I have had a taste of warmer weather and I am hearing from people further to the south who are already gardening... I think I am ready for the lovely white stuff to melt away.

We had our big goodbye party/birthday celebration yesterday as well. It was bittersweet as any parting is. I suppose the true test of any friendship or relationship is whether or not you are willing to invest the time and energy to keep it going.

Today I also got down to the business of tidying my office and cleaning up e-mail, trying yet again to get a response on two Russian sites that are hosting my patterns illegally. I did manage to get one of them closed down... but I don’t know if they have just moved it or realized that they were doing something wrong. The second site is being more stubborn. I suspect that this is someone who KNOWS they are breaking the law and just doesn’t care. I have been writing to the people who run the site, but they are far harder to deal with that Yahoo or MSN.... possibly because of the language barrier. Sigh! Those were hours I’d much rather have been designing. Thank goodness for stitchers who can surf around and let me know about sites like this. If I was trying to police my own stuff out there, I’d never have time to design another piece!

Sifting Through Memories...

This is going to be a wonderful weekend... and a very hard one.

We started it off in grand style by taking Nick out to a local restaurant called “Jungle Jim’s” that has lots of stuff to look at around the room (jungle theme, tiny plastic animals hidden in the fake plants, strings of lights in the shapes of peppers or parrots etc.) The girls proudly announced that it was their Daddy’s Birthday Dinner and so the whole staff (two of whom are former students and almost all of whom remember the 40th Birthday embarrassment last year) came out to sing the wonderful “I don’t know but I’ve been told.... someone here is getting OLD! I don’t know but it’s been said.... someone’s face is going red.... Happy Birthday... Happy Birthday to YOU!” chant that my girls just love. Since Nick is allergic to chocolate, we just ordered a piece of cheesecake to stick the sparkler into rather than the free chocolate cake. I’d like to have him around for 42!!

Tomorrow is the last session of swimming and gymnastics for the girls and a fairly quiet afternoon finishing off presents for Sunday. Sunday morning is Nick’s actual birthday, so I expect the girls may pounce on him instead of letting him sleep in. Erin is singing in church as part of the Sunbeam youth choir and there is a special soup luncheon afterwards. We’ll head home after that and get ready for the special party/celebration/goodbye event at our house that night.

Nine years ago, 6 other teachers on staff with Nick were pregnant during the same time as I was. Everyone joked that there was something in the water cooler that boosted fertility. Nick and I started the mini baby boom off with Erin’s birth in April and the last baby was born the following October... but it made for lots of baby jokes and we even started having some “Moms & Tots” parties after the kids were born. From that larger circle, two other families stayed really close with ours and our kids have all grown up like cousins to each other. We have shared joys and tears, life events and lots of giggles. When one of the families moved out West for almost 2 years, it felt like forever until they were home again. Now the other family is moving 1 1/2 hours away to Fredericton. It will be hard to say “goodbye”, but at least this is close enough that we can still plan some of our special get togethers and yearly traditions like visits to the apple orchard and making Gingerbread Houses together!!

I put together an album of some of my favourite photos of “our gang” to send with Clan Tremblay (Twins took their family from 4 to 6 last year, so I think they deserve clan status) and while it was fun to relive some of those wonderful memories, it was also hard... because I know that I will miss them. I wonder if this is how my parents felt when so many of their friends left Quebec in the mass exodus after Bill 101 when many companies relocated offices to Toronto or elsewhere in Canada?

Life is all about change and growth.... but I don’t think any kind of goodbye is ever easy!

A Tired...But Proud Dragon!!

Ever since Bethany started “helping” me with the groceries on Wednesday mornings, I have had a little pact with myself (and with her). Before I go anywhere near the store, I get an hour’s workout in at St. Patrick’s Family Centre where we have a family membership. For the past 2 years, it has been a one hour aerobics class of step and sweat, while Bethany plays with other “workout orphans” under the watchful eye of Brenda, the incredible lady hired by the centre for parents who want to get fit.

After Christmas, I decided that my body was just a little too used to the type of workout I’d been doing (and occasionally teaching)... so I decided to take a 10 week session of adult swimming lessons. Just another way to exercise... right??

Wow! I discovered that some of my muscles didn’t get used in aerobics... that doing laps of crawl is much harder than doing step routines and that somewhere along the line after I finished taking swimming lessons, I stopped trying to breathe on my left side during crawl and just stuck to my right. The first two weeks, as I struggled with bilateral breathing and not trying to drink half the pool, I felt like I was that awkward kid again who was never good at sports. By the time I finished 2 laps of the pool, my arms felt like lead and I had no style or form what-so-ever. But... I was certainly getting a more intense workout than I had been in a while! I was even learning how to do the Back Crawl... which I had never mastered at all during my Red Cross Swim lessons over 30 years ago.

Today was our “evaluation” session since the program wraps up next week. I managed to do 100 meters of crawl ( 6 full pool lengths) , 100 meters of back crawl, 50 meters of breast stroke, 50 meters of elementary backstroke and then an endurance swim of 324 meters (18 pool lengths and one more length than I needed to because I hated ending up at the “odd” end of the pool and had to swim back to the tester anyway). To cap it all off we did sculling and treaded water for 5 minutes. I feel like I have used more muscles in my body than I knew I had, but I am also very proud of myself. I won’t know for sure until next week, but I think that will put me at Level 10 swimming!

As I was showering, I wished for a moment that I could travel back in time to put my hands on the shoulders of that little girl who was convinced she had absolutely NO athletic ability at all. Would I hug her and tell her that she needed to just stick with it until she built up some muscle and endurance?? Would I have discovered a jock side to my personality and actually played sports or just enjoyed being fit for fun??

We humans only dance through time one way. I know that when I would come home discouraged at how poorly I did in any sport or attempt to do something physical, I would almost always pick up a pencil and start to draw... or lose myself in the magic of a good fantasy novel. Would I have been as creative if I hadn’t spent so much time drawing??

What I understand now, at long last, is that learning anything takes practice and time. Yes, there will always be cases where there is raw talent and ability... but if it is not honed or given a chance to be used, natural talent won’t make that much difference compared to persistence. I should have seen that, even though I might never have chosen a career as an athlete, I could have still enjoyed being active as I do now. I know that is why I make sure than both girls have the chance to move and learn skills while they are young and as they grow.

I won’t ever be a champion swimmer... I certainly didn’t break any speed records in the pool... but I am a VERY proud dragon tonight!!

Making that First X...

I had several e-mails today from new stitchers (YAY!) that had picked up one or more of our patterns to stitch... but one of them wasn’t even sure how to make that first X. It brought back memories of my own stitching beginnings...

A male, colour-blind friend of ours taught both Nick and I how to stitch. I love telling that to people and watching their faces! Tim teaches high school biology and loves anything with flowers, whales or birds. He worked on some beautiful Cross Wing Collection designs, lovely huge florals or humming bird designs and lots of whales. The fact that he sees most of the design in shades of grey, with only hints of colour, does nothing to detract from his enjoyment of the hobby. As Nick once said “After a day of teaching, it is nice to work on something that doesn’t talk back to you and stays done!”

It was sifting through Tim and Anne’s magazine stash that I found the Lori Birmingham design that made my fingers itch to try this stitching stuff, even though I was still a bit unsure of how much fun it could be to make the same type of stitch over and over again. Ok... so I was horribly wrong and totally underestimated how addictive that little X would be!!

Off I went to our local craft store. I didn’t even know that such a thing as a NEEDLEWORK store existed!! I walked in with the magazine and asked the sales lady for something called “Mushroom Lugana”. She smiled and asked me how long I had been stitching. When I explained that this was my first piece... she looked a bit troubled and suggested that perhaps I might like to buy a small fridge magnet kit to stitch first.

I know that she was trying to be helpful.... I also know that I was very lucky to have someone sit down with me and get me started like Tim and Anne did. Cross stitch can be learned all on your own, particularly with all the helpful information out there on the Internet... but it helps to see someone doing it or to know that you have someone to turn to when you have questions. I don’t think that “beginners” should have to start on simple designs. Maybe not pulled thread and specialty stitches on 32 count linen right away... but if you find that image that makes your fingers “itch to stitch” ... I think you will be far more likely to stick with something because you care about that picture. If I had run into problems on the fridge magnet... or gotten bored... I am sure it would have ended up in a drawer somewhere. Then I might never have gotten hooked on just “doing one more area to see how that colour looks”... or started to see pictures in my head that were made up of little floss Xs instead of line drawings and watercolour paint.

Isn’t it funny the twists and turns that our lives take. Sometimes we only see the pattern as we start to look back at the design behind us.

Growing Up Doesn’t Mean Having All The Answers...

I was going to write about something else entirely... my dislike of getting receipts together for tax time. Even though I keep a fairly good system, there is always a pile that appears AFTER I get everything in, so this year I am rechecking all the corners of my office where stuff might be lurking... but tonight’s episode of Joan of Arcadia contained a scene that I just loved - because now I can see it from the parent’s perspective.

Joan’s Mom finally admits that she’s been grumpy because she’d been having trouble sleeping, worrying about her new teaching job. Joan says something about thinking grown-ups had all the answers and her Mom replies that there are just more questions.

I can SO remember that feeling of looking at the grown-ups and thinking that it would be nice to have all the “control” and all of the answers. Erin is beginning to question rules and bedtimes, wanting more of the privileges yet balking at also accepting greater responsibilities... and it is like looking back in time! Funny how your perspective changes.

My definition of OLD keeps changing... especially as my own age creeps up into the category I could once barely imagine being. I think mine will always be about 30 - 40 years older than my own age, so I won’t start to worry until there aren’t too many 130 year olds around to compare myself to!

If I am to truly learn and grow as a person, then I hope that I always have more questions than answers. Maybe if my children see me still willing to ask and adventure, their own quests won’t seem as scary...

The Pride Factor...

Cross Stitchers are a proud bunch. It’s funny how that word has come to have a negative meaning in so many ways. To call someone proud is to imply that they are boastful or somehow full of themselves. “Proud as a Peacock” isn’t a compliment... and yet today was one of those days when I wish that more of the world had the kind of pride that stitchers do.

Remember when things were built to last? Remember when most of the world actually took pride in a job well done and not that it was done as quickly and as cheaply as possible... or with as little effort and expense as you could get away with?

Trying to teach my girls to take pride in the things they do, even the smallest of tasks felt like a foreign concept today. From the knock off/copyright infringements that a local store was selling as “the real thing” to trying to explain to Erin why something should be neat and readable as well as just “done”...to hearing a friend complain about a new purchase that is already falling apart after a few months.... I spent most of the day wondering if most people are really proud of the work that they do anymore?

Cross stitchers are proud... the GOOD kind of proud. I look at so many of the beautiful pieces, made up of so many careful stitches and I know that they still take pride in something that they love. I once explained to an interviewer that when you are working on a piece for someone as a gift, you can’t help but think about that person and the fond memories that you have or the feelings you have for that individual. Each stitch becomes like a tiny prayer or wish... and if you look at how many stitches make up some of the pieces given as gifts... that is a LOT of “I LOVE YOUs”!

I read a book a few years ago about a female artist who went to live among the Amish for a summer. Though she knew that she would never be a part of their culture and world, she still came away from her stay with an incredible respect of how they lived their faith in almost every moment of the day. Any task, however menial, was worth doing properly and beautifully. While I doubt I will ever jump for joy at how well I have dusted or scrubbed... I still felt an echo of what the author was trying to convey ... whatever you do, it is worth doing to the best of YOUR ability (not to measure up against some impossible standard but to the best of your ability on that given day at that moment) and to rejoice that you are ABLE to do it.

I think that more of the world needs to take PRIDE in what they do and learn from stitchers or other creative souls.

Reliving Wonderful Memories Amid the Cold....

Last March Break, when we went to Disney, I started a tradition for our family. I keep a “Doodle Diary” in my small sketchbooks when I am at trade shows sometimes... little cartoon snippets of the days and events. I began a new Family Doodle Diary for our trip to Disney and it was something that the girls loved to read and reread over the past year. The second entry in that special Doodle Diary was this year’s trip to Myrtle Beach and I am just getting caught up on the entry for Saturday (our traveling home day) tonight.

While they have been pouring through all of the pages, last Wednesday is certainly one of my longest doodle entries... and also their favourite to review. I wish that I had had blog access down there to share all my excitement the following day instead of almost a week later, but the thrill still remains. Thanks to Diane Merlock who attended the retreat and her husband, Randy, we were ROYALLY treated to an evening of enchantment and magic at MEDIEVAL TIMES in Myrtle Beach. It was truly an evening that none of my family will ever forget!

For those of you who have never heard of this franchise, the premise is a fantasy-lover’s dream come true. You drive up and park in front of a castle (I am told they are each a bit different) and cross into a world of wonder. The girls were a bit afraid of the two guards at the front door until a lovely wench called them “princesses” and led us into the ticketing area where we had our photos snapped, got our seating assignment and crowns to help us identify which knight we would be cheering for at the tournament. We then walked into a Great Room, complete with murals, banners, gift shop and bar areas amid suits of armour and tapestries. My girls looked ready to burst... and I could feel the “perma-grin” setting in on my face, just like the first day at Disney. Erin, being at that gruesomely curious age, just had to take a tour of the Dungeon and torture equipment with Nick. Bethany went along to prove she “wasn’t a baby”, but my Mom, John and I decided to quench our thirst at the bar. I also spied a wonderful stuffed dragon that I just HAD to add to my collection! The girls were in the midst of telling me all about the torture equipment when the Master of the Hunt wandered by in wonderful leather armour with a REAL falcon on his arm! Every so often, the trumpets would sound and the Chancellor (with a wonderful voice that could melt honey) would announce the evenings details. Diane had warned me that something special lay ahead... but you can imagine my surprise when I was called forward to kneel before the King and be knighted a Lady of the Realm!! Talk about fun!! Obviously word had spread about how heroically I defended Teresa, Queen of the Borders, in Nashville!!

The King and his lovely daughter (who was dressed in finery that had both my girls drooling to play dress-up) retired to the dining hall and the Chancellor began to tell which groups could enter after them. When he asked us to show our enthusiasm, our yellow & red group let out a mighty roar (thanks in part to Nick’s loud bass and my two girls trying to scream their heads off) that earned us the respect of the realm and the chance to enter the hall third. Had I had my full voice instead of a croak, we might have entered even sooner!

Not only would our seats have made a hockey fan jealous (center ice), the girls were thrilled to find pennants to wave at all our places. This did cause a few moments of concern for eye-poking and nostril twanging until they got settled in their chairs, somewhat puzzled at the large oval of sand that lay before us. “Where is the screen?” Bethany asked me in one of those loud, little kid whispers. I couldn’t help but chuckle to myself. Was she ever in for a surprise!! Our serving wench treated them like little princesses and explained that they would be eating the whole meal with their hands... can you imagine the grin on their faces?? Then the show started and every single one of us was swept away into a world of chivalry and honour. The story was far more intricate and riveting that I had even dreamed it could be... the sight and sounds of swords clashing and lances shattering as horse and knight thundered towards each other was SO inspiring that it made my fingers want to twitch and sketch.

We cheered ourselves almost hoarse (well, I was already there!) encouraging our wonderful knight...I could see the stars begin to twinkle in both my daughters eyes as they got caught up in the pageantry of this hero on a horse. When our knight kissed one of the flowers and tossed it to Erin, I saw that first glimpse of hero worship that will no doubt cross her face many times in the years ahead for movie stars, singers and cute boys. Not that much later in the evening, our knight won a token from the fair princess and galloped back to Bethany where he lowered his lance to let her slide the token off. Her eyes were the size of dinner plates... and shinning with the excitement and magic of it all. She is taking the “scarf” (which our knight autographed after the performance) to Show and Tell at daycare this Friday and only grudgingly let it out of her sight for Erin to take it in on Monday to show her friends.

There are just TOO MANY wonderful memories from that evening... from Bethany saying “Look, Mommy! The horses are tap dancing!” when the four horses and knights do some fancy footwork.... and reassuring her that the “dragon meat” (chicken) is not a GOOD dragon that we are eating...to the sigh of contentment from the back of the van as Erin whispers “My friends are not going to believe it when I tell them about this!”

I smiled into the darkness... reluctant to let that magic go and come back into this century. That feeling still lingers almost a full week later.

Thank you Diane and Randy for giving us all such wonderful memories and surpassing our expectations of what Medieval Times are all about!!

I’m Back... and Still In Awe of the Determination of Stitchers...

We’re back from Myrtle Beach feeling rested, ready to take on our routine again.... and surrounded by piles of laundry and e-mail!! I shivered most of the day after the nice weather last week and the chance to wear a t-shirt and shorts most days.

It didn’t start out that way. We left Bangor on the 26 of February not knowing that we were flying into some pretty fierce “weather”. Luckily our flight path took us through Atlanta that got 3 inches or so of snow instead of Charlotte that got over a foot!! We know how to deal with that up here in Canada... but they just aren’t equipped to handle Mother Nature dumping that much white stuff on them. One flight out of Cincinnati was “scrubbed” but we made it on a later flight and still managed to hook up with my Mom and John in Atlanta then just had to get through a bit of wicked wind to land in Myrtle Beach. All of our bags arrived safely and we checked into the resort.

Sarah from the Lazy Daisy, our host for the event, and Teresa Wentzler made it down by supper time, but Teresa’s luggage did not. I also learned that Karen Weaver from Black Swan had had to turn back in the horrid weather... so it began to look as if I would be teaching FIRST instead of last... and my voice was showing the strain of the past month’s workload. Would it hold out?? I also began to worry how many stitchers would make it to the event... but I never should have doubted!!

The next morning as we gathered and shared our storm stories of convoys through the snow and sleet or arriving early and sleeping in cars until check-in time, I was humbled and amazed to discover that all but one stitcher had made it... and she showed up by noon!!

A more tenacious, dedicated bunch of stitchers I have yet to meet... and they were such darn fun to spend time with too. I doubt that all of us would have tried so hard, or faced such traveling conditions for any other event. Friends and colleagues couldn’t understand the determination to drive through all that icky stuff “just to sit and stitch”.. but it is so much more than that!! (Isn’t it??)

This was the chance for fellowship and fiber fondling... for restoring creative batteries and sharing a love of a craft that remains hard to put into words.

To the women of Myrtle Beach 2004... thank you for all the memories, the laughter, the hugs, the feedback and the fun. When “Summer’s Magic” comes out in print, your heroic efforts to get to this event will be remembered in my dedication... because you inspire me!!

Off to the Beach... so Hold Those E-mails! The Dragon Has Flown the Coop!

I meant to write a blog entry last night, but this Milk assignment has actually kept me flying until now, just an hour before we are due to get on the road to drive to Bangor, Maine. Yeeeeeesh! I am sure that when the cheque arrives in the mail 45 days from now, this weariness will be a distant memory, but I am just getting TOO OLD to pull more than 2 late nights in a row!

I have no idea about accessing e-mail while I am down there, so I worry about the box overflowing, but hey... there is only so much you can do. If anyone reading this hears of people asking about me on the boards and why I am not answering... feel free to enlighten them! To all those whom I am going to see in just a few days, I can’t wait to meet you in person.

I can’t wait to go teach, get inspired and get rested!! Blogging can wait until the beaching is done!!

Looking Forward To The Great Escape...

About 48 hours from now I will be in a motel room trying to convince my kids to go to sleep because we’ll have to catch an early flight the next day. This time they get to come along and have discovered the perks of Mommy being a cross stitch designer. They get to come to Myrtle Beach again for the wonderful Lazy Daisy retreat! While some may think that there are warmer destinations for March Break... I know that even if the locals find it cold, it WILL be warmer than here and there WILL be less snow!!

The fact that Bethany has been on some heavy duty antibiotics since Saturday for a sinus and ear infection that produced a really high fever has somewhat tempered my excitement until tonight when she seemed to be getting better... enough to DEMAND that I play “Go Fish” with her instead of just lying there listlessly on the couch.

As much as I love sharing my thoughts with everyone here in the blog... and answering all the e-mails everyday to keep in touch with stitchers all around the world, this dragon is VERY much looking forward to getting away from it all and basking once the retreat is done for some pure family time!

Say It Isn’t Snow.....

The alarm went off at 5:15 am this morning because Nick knew that it would take a while to snowblow the driveway. The city plow had made 2 passes down our street last night JUST as we were heading up to bed. Since the winds were still almost 100 km/ hour, Nick decided to just leave it until the morning. I’ll admit to being just a wee bit glad to be the one on “radio duty” as I took over the whole toasty warm bed and listened for the weather. It reported a final snowfall count of 62 cm, just over 2 feet, but Halifax and parts of Nova Scotia set a record for a single day’s snowfall in their area with almost 3 feet!! As the machine chugged and paused, chugged and paused outside, I heard them cancel school again for the day. The roads were still being plowed and most of the school parking lots hadn’t yet been touched. With the sidewalks buried and most side roads to one lane, there also weren’t too many safe places for kids to wait for the school bus! I slid out of bed and flashed the outdoor light to get Nick’s attention, but he decided to soldier on and finish the job. It took almost 90 minutes. For most of the lower driveway, the snow was drifted more than a foot taller than the snowblower, so he had to first break things up with a shovel and then snowblow it. The left side of the driveway has snow banks taller than either of us, so the snow also has to be blown to the right or it tends to fly back in your face.

As the sun rose, the temperature did too. It was actually a lovely day and so, in true motherly fashion (and in desperate need of some time to organize my day) I turned both kids out in the snow of our backyard with their dad who was clearing off the deck so that our “emergency exit” is available. Things went smoothly until Bethany decided to clamber up on the snow pile ON the deck next to the shoveled path... and fell off of it face first onto the hard, bare deck. Those two top teeth that were a bit loose are now VERY loose and she still has a bit of a fat lip tonight. At the time, the sight of blood and the jar on her already sensitive teeth were enough to send her into a howling frenzy. Mommy and her ice pack sprang into action.

By lunchtime, I had sorted out which new orders needed photos and got my negatives together. We also had to pick up the 9 boxes of Runekeeper books that were still at the printer’s, so off the family went in the car!! I bribed my children with the promise of lunch at Wendy’s... because Bethany thought a Frosty would feel good on her sore “tooths”. We picked up the boxes, dropped off the cow proofs (yes, proofs not poops!) to Milk Maritime for the corrections to the English layouts then headed down to the self-store only to discover that they were still in the process of clearing a 3 foot high drift from the front of our unit. We helped shovel out our door and opened it, only to discover a disaster!! The high winds had somehow found a way to force a LOT of snow into our unit!! Three or four open boxes of leaflets were filled with almost a quarter inch of snow and in the corners near the door, there was enough snow to have really puddled if we’d never discovered before a thaw hit. Nick and I used the car scraper brushes to sweep out the area, sorted out the open boxes, shook most of the snow off and brought 3 boxes home to sort through and remove any damaged product... but it was about half and hour of heavy box tossing.

By the time we got home mid-afternoon, errands now complete, Nick was starting to fade. I sent him up for a nap and brought the girls down to the playroom next to my office in the hopes of getting all the packages for the post office sorted. By 4:30, I told Erin to wake her father in an emergency and left them playing while I did the post office run up the narrow back streets of our subdivision. At least 75% of what I wanted to get shipped today got up there in time... so that ‘s pretty good.

Tonight is date night... so the computer stays off and I get to spend time with my husband. Since he was still yawning a bit at supper, it may actually be more of a bet to see who can not fall asleep in the other’s presence... especially since the NEXT storm is supposed to hit tomorrow afternoon!! Say it isn’t SO!!

Of Blizzards and Small Successes!

We knew the storm was coming. All the channels told us so. With the sun shining and a beautiful sunset last night, it was hard to believe that something so fierce was bearing down on us... but by 5 am, the winds began to howl and the snow was falling fast and furious. Since then, we have huddled in our nice cozy home and just stayed put. Almost everything around town has been canceled. Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island, who are being hit even harder than us, have declared states of Emergency and all of the plows have been taken off the roads. We haven’t even seen across the street for most of the day, let alone seen any signs of plows or snowblowers. I think everyone is just waiting for it to let up before they go out to do anything about it. After all, why exert yourself with the 100 km an hour winds are going to blow it all back in. We can’t get out our side door because the snow is up to MY armpit (that would be over the heads of some of my shorter friends!) and yet the front door and steps are completely bare!

The site I mentioned in yesterday’s blog has taken down ALL of the albums where they had patterns for download and has just left up the ones that are for trade, so I think that in this case it might have just been a stitcher who didn’t know any better... but to think that there are digital files out there that could still resurface (unless they did delete them completely) is still a sobering thought.

One of the biggest dangers about getting such files “for free” is that most of the time, the quality of the scans is so poor, it would actually be very hard and not at all relaxing to stitch from the charts that those files would print out as. Yet, if a person thinks “since I got a copy for free, I don’t need to buy one”... they never pick up a copy until the time comes for them to stitch it. Then, when they want to get a clear copy at a local shop, there may be the risk that the designer or those charts are no longer available... because the designer has moved on to something else.

I am SO humbled by the many cyberhugs that filled my e-mail box today (thank you everyone!!) and it was indeed a reminder of how many HONEST stitchers there are out there. In reading over last night’s blog, I can hear the frustration in my tone and the discouragement... but I cringe at the thought that it also sounded a bit whiny. Such is the nature of capturing a moment and its feelings in time. One of the whole reasons that I wanted to start this blog was to provide a peek into the real life of a designer.. with all its joys and frustrations. Last night, I had indeed stomped up to Nick and said “You know what... I think I will just finish off my next big dragon, release it as DD-80 and just stop there! “ Yet this morning, as I woke for the second time (we got to go back to sleep once we heard the schools were canceled!) the idea for a new design was already swirling around in my brain....

I am done printing covers for my chart packs and the two English files for my Milk Maritime projects are done, so I am going to go up and stitch on a Bent Creek design for a bit tonight. It is a perfect night for stitching and I want to relax with someone else’s design in my hands for fun!

I Just Don’t Get It... But It Makes Me Want To Cry!

Thank goodness for eagle -eyed stitchers... but it is also so hard to open e-mail and find out that something of mine has been posted to a Russian site again. I spent the day working on both Milk Maritime projects, meeting with my client this afternoon after a very late night last night building the files. She really liked the “look” for these pieces and while we do need to make a few changes, I can basically get the English version squared away tomorrow so that then I can do a “save as” and start working on the French versions. Since New Brunswick is Canada’s only Bilingual province (Quebec is Unilingual French), we have to have both versions for the school system when these newsletters go out. Since I had my thoughts on cows all day, I had no idea that half a world away, someone in Sweden was sharing one of my patterns on a Russian site for any and all who visit there.

I just don’t get it.... Do people really not see it as stealing? Do they think that I have unlimited funds to draw on or that my salary is similar to a famous author or recording artist?? To put a pattern down on a scanner, break it down into electronic sections and to post it (on a site or in a group) is basically to slap the designer who spent all those hours designing it in the face. It is to rip something to shreds in front of their face and make them wonder why they took the time to share that unique vision and inspiration with the world.

Even as I spoke with someone today in the bank lineup, trying to explain what it is that I do... I thought “most people just don’t understand.” When it comes right down to it, I take an idea and nail it down onto paper. I happen to create an image with thread instead of paint, and then make detailed instructions so that other people can have the fun of watching the same image grow beneath their needles... or take my suggestions and have fun creating something that is not only partly mine, but something uniquely their own. So WHY should something I work to create then spend my money to produce as a pattern, carry inventories of in my self-store and pay printing bills for be so EASY for them to STEAL?????

I’ve had such fun releasing my latest designs in Nashville and running around with a sword... but tonight, as I think about how I may have to spend money on legal fees instead of a trip to see my brother this summer overseas... I wonder if I won’t be moving back into illustration more when Bethany starts school in the fall. At least then, if a project gets “shared” without my consent, it will be the publisher taking on the battles instead of me putting our family’s money on the line!!!

I Love It When A Cheque Arrives On Time!

Maybe it is a carry-over from those bygone days at University when mail was so important. Once a day there was that trek to the mail room when you opened your box... just to see if there was mail from anyone back home. I know that at Mount Allison, one of the highlights was seeing that bright orange “PARCEL” slip that meant you might have a care package with some FOOD in it!!! On days when there was no mail, some of us often waived the little metal door back and forth just to circulate the air in there in the hopes that the next day would bring something instead of just empty box.

I am still like that at my postal box or when I stick my nose out in the freezing cold to reach inside our brass mailbox. I think longingly of the mail slot in my grandparents door where you could hear the mail hit the foyer floor each day with a satisfying slither. I am sure it was also a bit drafty, but not as bad as having to open the whole door and let out the warmth!!

I had the pleasure of getting a long-awaited cheque in the mail today for an order than Nick and I batched and shipped to one of our US distributors back in December. They in turn shipped the product to the chain store they deal with in early January and Net 30 after that date, mail us our cheque! The nice thing about this order was that it was from a press run that I had already paid for, so THIS cheque is able to help cover the Runekeeper Saga I finally had printed and just released in Nashville. To have this cheque arrive a full week before my invoice is due is a nice change from the juggling and balancing I sometimes have to do!

Now if only there was a parcel slip with the possibility of some Kraft Dinner or cookies from my Nanny...

Of Cows and Cold... Of Robots and Reorders...

Well, I know that life was going to be a bit crazy between Nashville and Myrtle Beach... but I didn’t imagine quite how much! Luckily I don’t have any more outdoor photos to do because the temperature has plunged back down to the horrid “take your breath away” cold. I’m actually in the middle of cows again with two projects for Milk Maritime. It is fun drawing the mascot Moo-moo or this time even a glass with a cape and good biceps, but working on complex projects in a short time span means losing a bit of precious sleep hours.. . which is hard now that the high of the trade show has worn off.

Bethany is still quite the shadow, as if she worries I will take off again without notice. She knows that we all go together to Myrtle Beach... but is still very clingy. Erin has a project due at the end of the week. She has had to build a robot with her parents (not functional... unless you want to have moving parts) and we’ve had great fun making a circuit board out of wires and cheerios or wrapping wire around chopsticks to get a good coil. We found some cool kitchen gadgets for hands and are hoping to borrow a neighbour’s garage to spray the whole thing silver by Wednesday... but her classmates keep bragging about their walkie-talkie insides or remote control car legs. I tried to explain that mostly girl toys around the house means not a lot of parts to incorporate.... but it is quite amazing to watch how competitive everyone is getting just in Grade 3!! Sigh! What ever happened to just being proud when you did YOUR best???

It is also very satisfying to get reorders from shops that attended Nashville already! It adds to the blur of the week but in a happy way. I am aware of growing pains as every now and then the company gets beyond what I can comfortably handle myself. Once Bethany is in school this coming fall, I shall see which of my graphics clients I truly want to keep and assess everything else as I also get back into more freelance illustration projects.

For now, I put my nose to the cow grindstone and dream of slightly warmer temperatures... it can’t possibly be THIS cold in Myrtle Beach, so any extra warmth will be a welcome change!!

Ahhh... The Joys of Being a One Dragon Show....

It’s almost 1 am here on Friday the 13th and I just got all my updates sent over for my website. Entering all the addresses of the shops that ordered from me in Nashville (so that stitchers know where to get their claws on our two special sample designs) has made me almost cross-eyed, but it was fun to also put up the picture of me with a SWORD!! It was so COOL to wear one all weekend, even if it was heavy enough to give me a new appreciation of what real warriors had to lug around.

Nick and I decided to switch our “date night” to tomorrow night anyway, so I slogged on with my HTML code and got the first one in my Generosity/Elemental dragons up on the site. After getting so much feedback from stitchers all over the world, I figured that the honour system would work best rather than forcing people to give to just one charity. I tried to also include some ideas of how people could help/contribute in non-financial ways... so we shall see what stitchers think.

Earlier tonight we had some friends of ours over for pizza and so that all our kids (and the Big Kids too) could watch Lion King 1 1/2 to see if it was worth buying. After being SO disappointed with STITCH when it came out directly to DVD, I vowed we’d always rent one first to see. I laughed harder than I did at some of the antics in Nashville!! The DVD was HILARIOUS!!! Watching Nick twitch when Timone started to hum “It’s a Small World” was priceless. He and I got stuck for over 25 minutes in the finale of that ride when we went together about 10 years ago and the song is a joke/form of torture for him. I also thought that a Riverdancing warthog was worth anything they might charge for my own copy, so the girls have decided that would make a much better Valentine’s present for me than roses which “go all mushy after days and days”! Such thoughtful children!

Happy Valentine’s Day everyone!!!

Back and getting into the swing of things...

Well, this is actually the first quiet moment I have had since leaving for the show in Nashville to gather my thoughts together.... sorry to my friends and even my sister who called to find out if I had actually made it back in one piece... since there was no blog to check!!

The show itself was SUCH fun!! I had a local seamstress make up a grey leather/suede vest for me to wear with my long black jeans and high black boots. An absolute angel in the USA (thanks Jeffery/Mr. Tink!) brought me a sword that he uses when teaching theater combat. It weighs as much as a real sword, but it isn’t edged. Many of the actors have to wear it on their backs and draw it that way... but I have such long legs that I wore it at my hip! It was SOOOOoooooo Cool to swagger around with a sword all weekend and raise a few eyebrows. I think some shop owners were even worried that my 2 Dollar Store tattoos were real!! I am definitely more cut out to be a warrior than a princess!!

I taught a class to shops on how to teach Illustrative Blackwork to stitchers, which was great fun, and spent the rest of the weekend either selling designs or hanging out with some of the zaniest people in the industry. One of the things that makes attending market so special is the fact that I get to build friendships with the stores who carry my designs instead of just business relationships. 18 of us taking over a traditional room at a sushi restaurant was a lot of fun too. I did discover that my legs just don’t collapse that far under the itty-bitty, low tables. I just stuck my feet straight out and tickled Connor’s armpits all evening. This was also the first time I really had a chance to see a bit of Nashville, including the Country Music Hall of Fame and “the Mother Church of Country”.

Standing for most of the weekend and then a long layover in Toronto before getting squished by the passenger in front of me putting the chair back certainly took its toll. I got home to feet that had almost no ankles left showing on the inside of my feet and strange bruising which have luckily returned to normal now.

The girls had a wonderful time getting stranded at their Grammy and Papa’s in the snowstorm that hit Moncton Friday night after Nick ran them down. His training session on the Saturday was canceled, but the roads were so tricky down near where his Mom lives that she just told him to stay put and kept them a second night. They had a blast!! Bethany and Erin pounced on me as soon as they woke up on Tuesday morning and I think they have been my shadows every waking moment since then. At least the next trip we do is as a family!!

Now that I am back, the Milk Maritime cows will keep me busy with 2 big projects while I get the extra orders shipped out and the last 2 of the new designs to my distributors. I was SO nervous about the reaction to the Runekeeper Saga, since it is the first mix of story and stitching that I know of on this scale, but the reaction was very positive. Most shops told me that they really appreciated my efforts to produce a quality product and still keep the price reasonable.

We had SO much fun, that I am already planning some more magic and mayhem for the Nashville show next year, but right now I need to pay attention to closer deadlines such as getting my Dragon of Fire up on the website tomorrow and getting things done before I teach in Myrtle Beach on the 27th!!

It IS good to be back in my own bed and have my “cave” to hide it to get stuff done!

Ready or Not.....

Actually, I do feel ready for the show in Nashville, but the leaving is always hard. I worry that I will have forgotten or misplaced something important... I have a hard time when my oldest child goes to be in tears saying “But Mommy... what if something happens to you?” ... I know I will miss my husband and worry for him, even though he is SO capable when it comes to taking care of our daughters.

Mingled with all of this is also the excitement of knowing that I will be with colleagues and friends whom I admire... showing off designs that I have worked very hard to bring to life... and getting inspired by new colours, new ideas, new trends and just plain being away.

I thought I would have time for something much more lucid... but I want to check over everything and then spend some time with Nick!

What a Difference A Few Degrees Make!!!

For the first time since Christmas, the weather outside was actually bearable today. Bethany’s daycare took the kids outside twice because, with the sun out and very little wind, it was a perfect day to let them play in the snow! Of course all of her stuff came home soaked, but she fell asleep early!!

I am more or less under control for Nashville, though my printer ran out of a colour ink cartridge last night and Nick had the van today. I just hunkered down and got my last bits of computer stuff done as well as rough packing the totes to see how I will balance out the weight. The hardest part of this show in Nashville is trying to make sure you have enough stuff to sell. I can’t always tell which design with sell better than others or what you might run out of... yet I can’t bring everything but the kitchen sink. Weight restrictions play havoc going down, so I try to make sure all the leaflets and chartpacks are spread out between the 3 cases. Thank goodness Jo from X’s & Oh’s is driving down! She is going to bring along 2 boxes that I shipped to her earlier this month.

Tomorrow is the last fitting for my costume for Nashville too, as well as my “run around and pick up all those last minute things” day. I am pretty notorious about losing tickets and passports (there is a pair of expired passports hidden somewhere in our house that we “tucked somewhere safe” 8 years ago and still haven’t found!) so I leave them with the travel agent until the last possible moment. Thank goodness e-tickets are making it easier for people like me to just show up with their ID!

I spoke to a few shops down in that area who are driving in on Thursday and the forecast may be iffy... I think it is still to far out to tell if there will be “weather” playing havoc, but as Europe learned last week, you just can’t plan for some things. My Mom had to spend and extra day in Switzerland with my brother and his family when the Geneva airport closed due to severe snow!

It’s funny how, in this modern era, we try to overcome the weather and make it adapt to our “business as usual” instead of being more flexible the way our ancestors were. Winter storms or blazing summer heat were a signal to slow down or rest a bit... now we just turn up the heat or the air conditioner and keep on going!

I am always so nervous and excited before a show like this. It is partly because I am putting things I have created on display... and no matter how confident you may feel about something, I think that anyone who is creative (or becomes a parent... or falls in love... or faces a great challenge) understands that there may be risk or rejection. It is also a very exciting time because I get to meet my “colleagues” and talk shop. So much of my designing or daily work is done without people here in town who really understand what I do... so it is great fun to have others to share, brainstorm and just plain goof around with.

I’d better go over my lists for tomorrow and make sure they are up to date!

Where We Choose To Stitch....

I’m probably not the only one that has a “nest” to stitch in... that comfy spot where I like to curl up with all of my tools and stash close at hand... my throne of stitching, so to speak. Yet in the past week, I have had bits of stitching along with me at various meetings and events since I am trying to cram every possible moment before Nashville into being as productive as possible. (It also ensures that I might show up with some fingernails too... if I don’t keep shattering them when I lug boxes around.)

The Illustrative Blackwork is attracting the most attention... partly because it is a cool way of making pictures with just backstitching. Using braid also seems to get people asking questions about how to stitch with the sparkly stuff.

It made me stop and think. How often have I seen people knitting on the bus or train?? At meetings and events where parents are waiting for their kids to finish up activities?? This fall, it was seeing stitchers who had taken classes from me stitching with something called “Boa” that got me re-hooked on knitting. Instead of making those cotton dishcloths on car trips, I was suddenly taking one evening a week to make up scarves as Christmas presents. Each time I saw a new colour combination in the Boa, Eyelash or Fun Fur wool, I had to pick up a ball or two just to make another scarf. I hope they are still in vogue next year, because I still have a few left to knit and two in reserve all ready to go.

Many of us get together with other stitchers... but it is when we take out stitching out to other places that someone else might see what we are doing and decide to try it themselves. I remember reading about Wayne Brady actually knitting on his show a few months ago, or how it made the news that Survivor Winner Ethan’s mom owned a knitting shop.... and I wonder if sometimes that is why one craft becomes more trendy than another. People SEE others doing it and realize that it’s not that hard!!

Just this week, a friend of mine who had introduced a colleague to cross stitch, took her new convert to the local LNS here in town. Do you remember when you first discovered that there could be a shop JUST for needlework??? I remember feeling like a kid in a candy store!!!

One of the things that I still love MOST about any type of craft... at the end of my time (be it a meeting or just watching some TV to unwind) I have something to SHOW for my time.... something I have been able to create.

If I have time.... amid all the preparations for Nashville, I am going to go out and buy a design by some OTHER designer... so that I can have fun stitching something that ISN’T mine! Maybe along the way, I will inspire someone else to pick up a needle and have this much fun!

A Week Until Nashville... and the Panic is Under Control...

I should be careful about saying that, especially since I had a crazy Nashville dream last night. Remember in high school when you would dream that you showed up to the wrong room for an exam... or showed up after the test was over etc.? Last night I dreamt that I was in the hotel down in Nashville, looking around my suite, only to realize that not only had I not brought one of my trunks full of models... but I’d somehow flown all the way down without noticing that my second trunk... and my helper from Moncton, Terri, weren’t there either!! LOL! Like I would EVER have left the airport in Moncton without her or my stuff. In the dream however, I was racing around trying to find a phone to see if Nick could put the trunks on a bus....

Other than crazy dreams, I am actually feeling further ahead than I expected to be. I am running the roads today now that Erin is back at school and Bethany is at daycare today. I have to pick up all the photo paper to print off my covers for 2 design (and ink cartridges too), get my order form in so that they can make NCRs and save me from fumbling with messy sheets of carbon paper all weekend, shoot one more photo outside in the not as bitter cold as earlier in the week, develop that film, scan in the photo and print those covers before my helpers arrive tomorrow night for a massive “batching” party once the girls are in bed. My Nanny was right. “Many hands make light work!”

Another One Bites The Dust... OR Of Weekends and Wind Chills...

Take your pick. Either of these titles could have applied to my blog today. The weekend was fun but bitterly cold. I got outside for one more photo shoot and took the kids out for a much needed run around the yard. Erin even helped balance the still slightly mangled box against a leveled off snowdrift since, after the last dump of 30 cm of snow, there wasn’t really enough space to set up a chair and sit the box on it as I usually do.

Sunday afternoon we took the girls to their first hockey game as the Moncton Wildcats played the PEI Rockets. One of our best friends has a son who has just started hockey and all of the players from the Timbits tournament (this is going to take some explaining to those who don’t know Tim Horton donuts... they sell a little round bit that looks like the bit from the hole of the donut... They are very small, just like most of these 7 to 9 year old hockey players... so the name has that “Cute” factor going for it) got to parade around the ice between the 2nd and 3rd periods. So off we went to show our support. We actually ended up having a lot of fun!! I did notice that Hockey has gotten a bit more aggressive since the days when I used to watch the Montreal Canadian at the Forum. My dad delivered the babies of Guy Lafleur and Larry Robinson, so we got some pretty good tickets every now and then. Nick also pointed out that at the level we were watching, the players are still developing their skills and trying to catch the eyes of any scouts who happened to be watching.... but we were right behind the boards and all of us jumped a bit when the players would get smashed into the Plexiglas right in front of you!!

This morning, we woke to a wind chill warning of -41... lay there waiting for them to cancel school again... but exams are on at the highschool level and so the “powers that be” must have decided that, although the safety of the students was a priority for 3 days two weeks ago, it wasn’t today. Why they didn’t just close the K-8 schools and let the older kids still write their exams is beyond me, but a nice neighbour drove Erin up to the bus along with their own kids so that she and I didn’t have to freeze. Nick had left early with the van and dropped Bethany off at daycare. Such are the occasional trials of being a one car family in subzero weather.

I got down to work and motored through some of the charting/layout/proofing I still had to do for Nashville with my CDs blazing away in the background. Sometimes I like to work to the purr of the computers, but this was a “blast the tunes” kind of day... perhaps because I am warmer when I tap my toes.

But.... the phone rang at 11:30 and a very tearful Erin on the phone told me that her tummy was REALLY hurting. I asked her to be brave until dismissal time and bring home her work, but when Nick called 10 minutes later and told me that he had no lunch duty, we decided that he’d pick her up and swing her home.

She was pretty pale by the time she made it home, so I have cleared my meetings from tomorrow morning’s schedule. I think the poor thing has Nick’s flu.... and I am going to keep washing my entire body with antibacterial soap or Detol!!

I HATE GERMS!!!!!

Panic Attacks and Husbands with Flu...

Tigger doesn’t look good green! Poor Nick came home from his meetings at lunch looking very washed out and feeling icky, so I made him some hot soup and tucked him into bed for a nap.... then Barb called (You know I’d mention you sooner or later!!!) to see how everything was. She’ll be one of my two helpers at the show in Nashville, trying to keep this bouncy dragon sane!! I was fine until she mentioned that 2 weeks from today, we’d be setting up in the hotel room and then I just felt half of my brain cells try to turn to mush!

Where has the time gone??? It seemed like only yesterday, I was getting back from the show in Toronto and the Nashville deadlines were months away!! Actually, when I take a deep breath and look around me, things are actually further ahead than this time last year... but the perfectionist in me keeps measuring things by some impossible scale of wanting to have my trunks already packed in the basement ready to go with all the right items and leaflets and models safely tucked inside!

Hah!

The one thing I can say is that I really like all of the designs that I am taking.... that I can’t wait to see reactions to the RuneKeeper model and book (just like the fun of seeing people react to “Not Forgotten” this time last year) and that I will get to hang around with some of my favourite people in the industry. At least that is what I keep telling myself every time my brain tries to turn to mush and I think “Remind me... WHY am I doing this???”

Because even with all the panic attacks, to-do-lists and late nights that the next 14 days may hold, I still like what I do!

Where is January Going??

I can’t believe that it is Wednesday already. Actually, I can! Monday was indeed a snowstorm and there was this one little circle of the province where Mother Nature dumped more than 30 cm of snow... can you guess where?? Moncton!! It was so funny to see our city shown as this little circle on the Weather Channel while the announcer was talking about one city getting double the snow of anywhere else in the storm!! So the kids and Nick were home for a 4th day!!

This time, having finished RuneKeeper in the wee hours of the morning, I called a courier company and got THEM to drive the horrible roads to get the CD to the printer... then I played with my kids and took it easy. The only problem was that our snow blower decided to conk out, so when a neighbour came to help, we decided to team up for supper and let our kids play... It was fun, but Tuesday I was very glad to have a quiet house again.

I got the Iris proofs (colour proofs) of RuneKeeper yesterday and went in to colour calibrate the front image. My monitor is not as accurate as the ones the printers use and I found the cover photo looked a little too Magenta for my tastes, so we played with that and now I am getting really excited about seeing the final product. The “bluelines” (prints made from the actual negatives) are home with me to proof tonight, and then it is a go. Wheee!!

I had meetings and errands all day until Nick called me on the cellphone to say he wasn’t feeling well. I think he’s getting a brush of the flu that has been going through his school and wiping out all the teachers that didn’t get their flu shots. Nick got his, so I am sure he won’t be down and out for long... but since he is in meetings all tomorrow, he wanted to get some rest tonight.

I checked e-mail and found 3 orders that have to ship out tomorrow, so it is off to Staples to get the charts that I don’t have in stock copied for batching.... I can’t believe it is the 21st already???!!!

Half a world away doesn’t seem so far tonight...

I guess, since the clock struck midnight here over half an hour ago, that I should say this morning instead of tonight... but I am far to giddy with the fact that everything is now burned to CD for the RuneKeeper Saga and ready to go off to the printer’s in about 7 hours.

The snow for the snowstorm that is supposed to hit us overnight and into the day has already started and the three Aries in the household were performing various forms of the snow dance before bed. Schools have been closed since last Wednesday morning due to the extreme cold... so will snow be the cause of yet another cancellation?? Time will tell. At least this time I won’t be hiding in the basement while my saint of a husband plays with the kids on the other floor like Friday!

One of the real reasons that I feel so giddy and finally confidant about getting RuneKeeper off to be printed is that my sister Laurie, a far more talented writer herself, has done an amazingly deft and thorough job of sifting through the .pdf files that I sent to her over the weekend... and even called me from Japan to go through the corrections! Just hearing her voice as we tweaked a few things and caught a whole bunch of typos was reassuring and made it feel as if she were far closer than half a world away. One of the many blessings I count in my life is the fact that my relationships with both my siblings have that ability to transcend time and distance. After hanging up with her, I felt as close as if we had been sitting together chatting over a mug of tea. I only hope that Erin and Bethany know the joys of having a sister become a true friend. (See... I did warn you that I might write about you in my blog, Laurie!)

So as the snow falls quietly outside my office window and I gather my papers together as well as my thoughts, Tokyo and my sister’s smile don’t seem so far away. Thank you, Laurie!!

An End In Sight???

We woke up to the news that schools in all of New Brunswick, and many businesses too, were closed due to -44 degree temperatures with the wind chill. So Nick and I went back to sleep. Unfortunately when Bethany woke up and crawled into join us, she was burning up with a fever. We got an appointment with our doctor as soon as her office opened and bundled the whole family out into the cold. It looks like it is either Strep Throat or a bad case of Tonsillitis, so she is on medication now but still feeling very “sooky”. We got one piece to the framers and the negatives to Black’s then “mall ratted” until they were ready.

We got home to discover that we’d missed the redelivery of the banding I needed from Purolator by about 6 minutes (it had slipped my mind in the rush to get Bethy to the doctor) so poor Nick braved the cold later to fetch it from the depot across town once the truck reported back in.

It looks as if it will warm up by tomorrow (or should I say this morning???) and that schools may reopen. I’m not sure that having Bethany home sick while I try to meet my printer deadline will be easy... which is why I am still not in bed yet, but we shall just see. If tomorrow is dreadful, or she needs me more, then the files will have to wait until first thing Monday morning. You just do what you gotta do.

I’d better get myself to bed now... so that I can proof check all the inside materials with some sleep behind me. The alarm goes off in about 6 hours.....

Trapped...but relatively warm...

Nick and I woke up when the alarm went off to realize how much the wind was howling outside and how cold it felt beyond the confines of our duvet. Sure enough, the radio announced that schools in much of the province were closed today... not so much for the paltry snow we received overnight.. but because with the high winds, the temperature was the equivalent of -41 degrees!

Nick was the only one who ventured out at all for a brief foray to the grocery store to pick up some essentials. I found various activities from play dough to Polly Pockets and Harry Potter Lego to amuse the girls while I got some work done on the computer. I didn’t even bother to try going across town to Black’s with my Runekeeper negatives. That will have to wait until Friday now since Nick needs the car tomorrow for a Vice-Principal’s meeting. If the outer cover files have to wait until Monday for the printer, so be it. They won’t be doing much with the other files on Friday unless I have them there when they open!

Brrrr! It has gotten even colder outside and the wind is howling beyond the office window. I am so glad to be in a relatively new and well insulated house!! Nick has been making dinner upstairs and it smells heavenly, so this dragon is going to crawl out of her computer cave and see what is on the menu!

Sometimes I HATE making decisions!!!!!

Well, I’d love to say that after all of the torture shooting Runekeeper in the bitter cold yesterday that the photos knocked my socks off... but I can’t. I was using the tail end of a roll of film from indoor holiday shots. When a film is processed, the machine usually takes an average reading and exposure for the roll, then some can calibrate each image a bit from there.

It’s not that they are bad... I just need to go in and spend some time with the girls at the photo lab to alter the image ( a bit more magenta... a bit less density....) The real problem is in how much of the model I am going to show. I love the framing and matting on this piece. I know that when shop owners see it “in person” they are going to say “Wow”...but none of the photos that show the full frame really do it justice yet (I may change my mind when I play with the colour a bit and have them print it as a 5 x 7)! The one exposure that really draws me tonight (under my horrid kitchen lighting) is the one where I zoomed into the piece and shot a “close-up” that just covers the stitching and the cut edges of the mat around it... but ignores the frame and our DD fabric.

So, I did the really mature thing and indulged in a 5 minute pity party where I had my little rant “I wish it hadn’t been so cold out! I wish I’d been making these decisions 3 weeks ago because now I feel like my back is against the wall and I hate to settle for anything less than being thrilled with something.... I wish I had people to delegate stuff to....”

Then, I picked myself up off the couch and made some toast and a warm mug of tea to curl my claws around. I always try to eat the elephant one bite at a time.... I will play with the image at Black’s tomorrow to see if I can come up with a version that I really like.... and if not, then I will decide from there. After all, the files don’t have to be to the printer for 36 hours... and Nashville is only 23 days away...

Deep Breath.... Think of a Happy Place..... (I just want to go claw something!!!!)

You Do What Has To Be Done...

I will ALWAYS LOVE my husband.... but right now I HATE him!! He called around 9 am to let me know that the sun was indeed out (my basement office doesn’t have very big windows... but I had already guessed that) and that the temperature was holding steady at -18 degrees Celsius. For the first time in just over a week, there was NO wind to kick the -33 degree wind chill into effect. So, I bundled up in my winter woolies and headed out to our little shed to find my photo shoot box. This is a large cardboard box that once held the “Excersaucer” we bought for Erin when she was a baby... so that tells you I’ve had it for at least 8 years.... but it is big enough and sturdy enough cardboard to pin my fabric to and then put the models up for a photo shoot on one of our kitchen chairs out on the back deck.

This time, however, there was a problem getting to the box. Not only were all the recently removed Christmas decoration and artificial tree boxes between me and my goal. the giant Mickey shaped wading pool, a wicker basket of empty plastic storage containers, the screens from the windows and the patio furniture had been piled up around the box in the farthest, darkest corner of the shed. With a sigh, I began to move boxes. Have you ever played Jenga or Pickup sticks?? Have you ever spent time trying to untangle a skein or Rayon or Flower Thread?? It seemed that somehow most of the summer stuff had shifted in the cold, sliding down to trap my poor box against the back wall. In order to even get to it and move it in any way, I had to first clear through the debris field. I’d forgotten that I still knew some Greek swear words..... but they all came back to me. After almost half an hour, I finally got a path cleared to my box and managed to wrestle it free (by now I had lost the feeling in my fingertips and toes) only to discover that it had been severely crushed on the side I liked to use by the weight of all the stuff!

I came in to the house to thaw a tiny bit, box and tripod in tow. I stumbled down to the basement to iron the Dragon Fabric (just peek at any of our model shots and you’ll know which one I mean) since I keep it folded in a cupboard when not in use. I was so cold that I even contemplated ironing some warmth back into my fingers! Not really, but the warm fabric sure felt good under my fingertips. Then, grabbing the model and fabric, I raced back upstairs.... only to discover that the sun was now hidden behind cloud cover!!!!!

I could have cried. Nick chose that minute to call about a file I had e-mailed to him and I was almost in tears of frustration. He took the brunt of it VERY well (poor guy!) and told me that perhaps things would clear up soon since it was still sunny over at his school. I hung up and then remembered that he works in the direction the clouds seemed to be moving towards... so maybe they hadn’t reached him yet??

With a deep breath, I pinned the fabric to the one remaining side of the box that was intact, put my winter woolies back on and headed out onto our back deck. Taking a deep breath in the shed hadn’t been too bad. Out in the open, you could feel the air trying to freeze you on the way in until body heat won... I set everything up to start taking my pictures, cloud covered sun or not. While sunlight makes the braid sparkle nicely, any full spectrum light is much better than indoor light for colours anyway... and all the white snow reflecting around should help to brighten the piece anyway. So I began to shoot the last 9 pictures on my roll of film from the holidays. The story does have a happy ending after all. The sun came out briefly for the last 3 frames... just enough to add a bit of sparkle, I hope.

So I will run these over to our photo place tonight (or as soon as Nick gets home with the car) and see if any of them are crisp enough to scan in once I get a 5 x 7 made. Since Runekeeper is being printed as a book, I want the cover image to be as crisp and clear as possible... which would normally mean shooting an image on a larger format or high end digital camera. I have called a few studios and know what kind of money I am in for if these don’t turn out, but at least this way I will have TRIED....

After a warm mug of tea and some toast, my fingers and toes have thawed enough to type this. Being a designer means sometimes doing whatever it takes to get a quality product out to stitchers... and I am sure that many of my fellow designers have their own collection of horror stories. I’m just glad that today’s had a happy ending!!

Back in the swing of things...

This morning was the first Saturday morning back in our usual routine of getting up and out the door by 8:15 to head for Saint Pat’s Family Center. I wasn’t teaching the Circuit Training class this week, so I got my workout in first while Nick waited with the girls until they headed into the pool at 9:00 am. Bethany came out at 9:30 and showered with me and we managed to get the hair partly fluffed dry with the blow dryer before Erin came out at 9:45. They both headed into gymnastics at 10 for an hour while Nick went up to take the circuit class from Denise while I watched the girls in the gym and worked on some stitching. By 11:30, everyone in the family had had at least one workout and everyone’s hair was clean too!!

The only thing is... it is FREEEEEEEEZING out. I don’t think my fingers have been warm at all this week unless I have them wrapped around a mug of tea! Even my stitching feels slower than usual.. thank GOODNESS for quick model stitchers like Dani, Beth and Juls... or I would be in a TOTAL panic!!

I’m off to speak with a seamstress this afternoon because I have decided to get a little help with my costume for Nashville... My sewing machine is being a bit temperamental and as Nick said the other day “how much is your time and sanity worth??” Sometimes trying to do everything yourself just isn’t worth it.... so we’ll see what she quotes and then I can decide

Fire and Ice...

It is SO ironic that as I am putting the finishing touches on the first of my elemental dragons... Fire... and have been looking at ways to use these charts to help others around the world, that a disaster should hit so close to home. Late Monday afternoon, one of my fellow “bus stop moms” came home to find her parents herding her boys out of the house as flames began to burst from the roof line. Somehow something smoldered in their chimney and, despite the fire department coming once to check the house, burst into flames later in the day. Most of the upper floor and attic are totally destroyed, and there is quite a bit of water damage elsewhere. Since all 5 of them moved in with her brother’s family, whose home is even closer to ours than hers, many of us took up food, spare clothing etc. What else can you do when tragedy hits but respond as a community? Isn’t this what I hope my neighbours would do for me if something happened at our house?

Today, the temperatures have plunged into Wind Chill warnings and bitter cold. I don’t think that I have had warm hands or toes since I first crawled out of bed. Tomorrow is supposed to be even more bitterly cold, but after that... I hope things warm up a bit for a photo shoot... If not, I will be finding a studio space to rent or hiring a professional to shoot the Runekeeper model..

I’ve enjoyed the feedback from stitchers about how to best use the Elemental Dragons for charity purposes. I really feel the need to somehow encourage people to not only enjoy what they are stitching, but also think about how they could also help others in tiny ways. Imagine that each one of us helping one another is like one more tiny X added to a design that makes the world a better place instead of an X that has to be “frogged” (Rip-it,-Rip-it).

Since so many stitchers outside North America pointed out how hard it is to find truly International organizations (like the Red Cross), I think I have come up with a solution that works for me. When each elemental dragon is posted, I will put a list of ideas for places to donate on the website... but then let each stitchers decide for themselves. I’m not going to try to “force” people to be generous. I also know that there will be some stitchers who choose not to donate anything to any cause, but I think that will be better than making it a chart which can only be obtained with a contribution. Somehow that will make the chart even more tempting to those who continue to abuse copyrights and share or post patterns illegally. I’m working on the wording that will appear on the chart itself, but I think there will be room in there to put down some ideas of causes.

I can remember looking at a campfire this summer and thinking just how beautiful and terrible Fire can be.... that something to bring warmth, cook food, act as a beacon in the darkness (that scene in Return of the King where the beacon fires were being lit game me goosebumps!!) and much more can also destroy...

Ahhh.....Back To Just Me and My Thoughts...

It was a wonderful and relaxing holiday season... which is probably why I posted so few blogs... I was just too busy having fun with my family! But as much fun as it was not to wake up to an alarm clock or be tied to much of a schedule, I am still glad to have the house back to being quiet and getting some work done.

I really wonder if I could work in an office anymore. I have become accustomed to the silence behind the clatter of keyboard and mouse, the soft tunes I might tuck on in the background when I am designing and just being able to get lost in my work.

With Nashville only a month away, it is hard not to give in to panic as my “to do” list grows, but I learned long ago to eat that elephant in small bites... so I just concentrate on getting things done one at a time!!

Today I am printing out covers for A Dragon’s Tea Party on one Mac while I polish up the final layout for our Runekeeper Saga on the main computer. Even though the press bill on this one is going to be on the edge of my comfort zone, putting together a beautiful book with story and stitching is quite fun. The framed piece looks so wonderful and I can’t wait to have a sunny, non-windy day (without the -22 wind chill today) to photograph the piece on our back deck. Sunlight really does bring out the sparkle in the braid the way you can’t do unless you have LOTS of studio lights. Photos never really do the model justice, but at least you can try to make it as close as possible. One of the thrills that I had stitching other designers patterns was that it always looked SO much better in real life than in the photo, so you had that joy of falling in love with the design that your fingers were itching to stitch all over again!