Happy Father’s Day? YES!

I used to get a little jumpy around Father’s Day. 26 years ago, that was when my father told us all that he was leaving our family to be with someone else. What I never admitted to him was that I had actually found out a few days earlier by accident. LIke any child who hopes to change an adults mind, I poured all of my efforts over the next few days into that single purpose - I created a little illustrated book of all of the things I loved most about my Dad hoping that it would convince him to stay. I didn’t understand then that guilt really isn’t the most effective persuasion tool.

Now that I am a parent, Father’s Day has taken on a different meaning...I am more aware of how to help my daughters celebrate their love for their father. This morning, they are sitting at the dining room table putting the finishing touches on some adorable cards while the object of today’s celebration gets a much needed chance to sleep in.

Yet, as I thought about how to write this blog entry, especially as I am watching a very good friend struggle with helping her own kids adapt to living in a divorce environment, I knew that I had to also celebrate the many things that my Father continues to give to my life.

It was my father that introduced me to books about Science Fiction and Fantasy, beginning a lifelong addiction that would have me dreaming of other worlds where dragons did fly and the distant stars were not so unreachable.

It was Dad’s boundless enthusiasm and love of new adventures that made me brave enough to leave home for University on the East Coast at the age of 17. I don’t know if I would ever have met Nick otherwise...

My father loved to travel and we were lucky enough to take many trips as a family to such far away places as New Zealand, Bermuda and Florida. When he left, although it was hard to have him so far away, his living in Hawaii and Tulsa also gave me even more wonderful opportunities to travel. This is something that has become a priority for our family as well. Visiting new places, especially new countries, reminds us that “our way” is not the only one in the world.

It was Dad who first showed me that it was OK to be silly with your kids and just play with them. Perhaps that is why I looked to that quality in my husband, knowing that someday I would want him to be able to do the same with our own children.

It was Dad who taught me to adore music and singing in harmony... though it is equally beautiful to watch my “other father” John bring that alive in my daughters and keep the music going in my own life.

It was Dad whose eternal optimism taught me that you can dare to dream BIG (we do Big well in our family... it is all a question of scale!) and to chase that dream... even if it didn’t turn out quite the way you expected. While I learned more of the organizational ways to make those dreams actually come true from my Mom, I owe a lot of that “stardust and dreams” hopefulness to Dad.

I’ve learned that loving someone has nothing to do with them fitting into your expectations and everything to do with just loving them for who they are... no matter what... without conditions. That’s a great lesson to know with all the important people in my life. not just the DADs

Last Day of School and Daycare!

Wow! Where did this year go?? This morning I walked Erin up to the bus stop as she clutched her present for her teacher and told me that she wished school could last all summer (I didn’t have a thermometer to check her temperature to see if she was feverish...) !! Then Bethany and I continued on to daycare with our wagon full of little treats for her 5 “teachers” (Thank Goodness for home-baked goodies and the dollar store!!) and th owner of the daycare where Bethany has enjoyed the last year and a half.

It will be nice not to have to wake up every morning at 6:10 am in order to get everyone out the door by 7:15 on days when I needed the car... but I am sure that there might be the occasional post this summer from a grumpy dragon hiding in her cave while everyone is underfoot (and under tail!). Next year, I will get used to doing all of my creative/concentration work between 8 am and 2 pm while Bethany and Erin are both at school. I am also hoping to teach them to play on their own after homework at least one or two days a week to keep on top of e-mail & orders so that I don’t have to do it all after they are in bed.

This afternoon we will be having our traditional block party among our bus stop kids and parents to celebrate the beginning of summer, but Erin will be home off the bus in just over an hour, so I’d better get to those website updates!!!

Happy Last Day of School!!

Back Home from Columbus.....

It was hard to get out of bed this morning... I had missed our comfy bed and it felt nice to get a full night’s sleep after all the chaos of doing the show in Columbus. This morning Nick and Erin got off to school, Bethany up to daycare despite many protests about not wanting to leave me, now Mum and John have just said their goodbyes and headed back to Quebec.

In the peace of a quiet house, I am getting the trade show props put away and having time at last to really reflect on how the show went. Doing a show in a new city or new environment is always something that I find very scary. Fellow designer Teresa Wentzler and Letha Welch of Fantasy Crafts who were there to walk the show bunked with me as well. The giggles and great discussions helped keep me from giving in to the worst of the panic attacks. They were also such a wonderful help in watching the booth when I needed potty breaks or bringing back food for this dragon when shop owners started to look tasty!

Columbus was a great city and the convention facilities were wonderful! I found the growing pains of this first combined show were minimal and often dealt with smoothly. I still have to figure out how to work the dates, which are just so horrid for our family, into my future plans. Some shops seemed to share the same feeling that this show was still relatively close to Nashville. Since this was a more expensive show for me to do, I’ll have to get out the sales orders and do the math to see what that information tells me. There is nothing like the physical trade show to let you touch and feel things, talk with colleagues face to face over good meals and really let you get a scope for the industry as a whole... I did love seeing the yarns, felting, fashion and other needlepoint creations there as well as the cross stitch. It made me realize just how wide and versatile the Needlearts industry really is and how creative a bunch we can be!

I'll try to put photos of the new designs up on the website in the next day or so. No Late Knight Snacking was a definite hit and the painted canvas went over well. I hope my Josh Groban CD doesn’t wear out since that is my favourite music to paint canvas to right now!

I can also finally report, now that it is official, that Nick will be the new Vice-Principal at Petitcodiac Regional! This rural Kindergarten to Grade 12 complex is about 20 minutes from our door and actually has 2 Vice-Principals and a Principal. Nick would be in charge of the K - 5 section of the school which has almost as many children as the school he now works at, giving him the wider perspective that he needs to be a principal of his own school in the future. He has agreed to this one year “secondement” with the provision that he can return to Arnold H. McLeod to finish years 4 and 5 of his existing contract if he chooses. It will certainly mean that I walk more and do runs to the post office etc. once he gets home with the car in the evening, but I had already decided that my focus in the fall will be to do all the computer, designing or illustration work from 8 - 2 until Bethany gets home and then stuff like banking or shipping later. I am so proud of him and the experience that this opportunity will give him. He called me on the trade show floor Monday as soon as he heard on Letha’s phone and everyone around cheered when I shared the news. Way to go, Honey!!

I guess I’d better get the laundry on the line and then get down to batching orders to see how many we’ll need of each design to fill these... It is great to be home!!

Hellos...Goodbyes and Off to Columbus!!

The sun broke through today and the temperatures soared!! Summer swooped in and suddenly some people in town were complaining that it was TOO HOT!! I just kept grinning as I finally felt warm. This dragon likes the heat!

My Mom and John arrived this afternoon, about 10 minutes after I left with Erin to take the last run of parcels to the post office and do a bank run to make sure I had taxi money for the cabbie coming at 4 am!! They wandered around and checked out our garden in the backyard for the few minutes until we got home and then Mom came with me to pick up Bethany. It is such fun to see my two girls get lost in the magic of having their grandparents here. I can remember that fun and sheer love with my own grandparents. I called my Grampy tonight to let him know that Mom arrived safely and was preciously aware that at 93, he may not be around for that many more years. As grown-up as I feel sometimes, just talking with him takes me back to the mornings after I stayed over with my Nanny and Grampy. Nanny would always make me porridge and then Grampy would stomp down the stairs saying in his loudest, gruffest voice... "Somebody’s been sitting in MY chair!” Since I felt every inch the blond Goldilocks with my long hair, I would sit and squeal with glee as he rounded the corner to give me my morning hug.

Lullaby time tonight was hard. Bethany really hates it when I go away and has the most poignant ways of twisting that knife into your heart. Tonight it was “I will always love you forever, even after you die and my eyes fill with tears all the time!” I let her know how much fun she will have with her “Nanny and Grrr”, that I will be very careful and that I will think of her often.... but I don’t ever glibly promise that I’ll be back before she knows it. In a world of the unexpected, we cannot always promise safety.... but I CAN promise her right back (Nick and Erin too) that I will ALWAYS love them!!

I am thrilled to be packed and off to bed at a reasonable hour, excited beyond words to see old friends and find out the reactions to new designs (and how much the Morning Wizard sample chart is going to make people grin!!), a bit terrified of not knowing what to expect and how to get around in a new city... but ready to go discover Columbus!!

Will I Remember Everything?

I used to laugh at my mother’s lists. I can remember thinking to myself... “I will NEVER make those when I am a grown-up!” The things you need to remember as a child and as a teen, even though they seem very important at the time, just are not as complex as the stuff you need to carry around in your head as an adult. At least having a PDA has helped me keep everything in one location instead of dozens of tiny notes-to-self and lists.

I feel so strange heading off to a new show. I knew what to expect and how to set up for things in Charlotte, but that anxiety/terror/excitement mix can also be energy worth harnessing if you figure out the balance. WIth all that’s been going on here in our lives over the past week for Nick’s career, none of which I can mention yet, I am glad that I decided to scale back on what I had hoped to release to make it manageable.

Tonight, instead of trying to finish off a model or create my order forms at the last minute, as I have in other years, I am actually mostly packed. I have made my list of tasks for tomorrow with everything from picking up my tickets to returning the kids library books, which will hopefully keep me from forgetting anything major.

Nick had the District Track Meet today and somehow missed two whole patches on the backs of his knees/legs with the sunscreen. He is pretty uncomfortable and VERY red. Poor Tigger!! Luckily my mom and stepfather arrive tomorrow to stay here with the girls and lend a hand while I am away.

I must go check over my list one more time before bed...

Career Day, Picnics and Garden Planting

Friday was Career Day at Nick’s school, Arnold H. MacLeod, and I was asked to be one of the guests who came in and spoke to two classes about my job. It was such fun to bring my big black portfolio of drawings along.

The first class I spoke to was a lovely 3-4 combined (grades 3 & 4) French Immersion class. I offered to speak to them completely in French, but the kids begged the teacher to let them ask questions in English “for a break”. I started off by sharing with them that I found out at age 11 that grown-ups could draw for their jobs when I won the Young Artists & Young Writers contest through Jack and Jill magazine. I spent 5 days in Indianapolis, Indiana with the other 9 winners as the Saturday Evening Post Publishing Company showed us around their facilities and their city as well as arranging workshops for us and even taking us to see Rock Hudson in the musical Camelot! Since many of the kids in the class I spoke to were 9 and 10, they found it interesting to have decided what I wanted to do so early.

The second class I spoke to was one of the wiggliest Kindergarten/Grade 1 classes they had, so I switched tactics and we made a joint drawing. Those who were sitting nice and still each got to tell me what they wanted me to add to the picture. As the drawing grew, I also talked about being an artist and the things I do... but mostly they kept watching my pen bring the shark trying to eat the mermaid as the kitty parachuted down from beside the pegasus to nearly land on the race car next to the speed boat in the lake just in front of the burning castle where the princess and the frog prince lived..... (It was a pretty interesting picture to fit everything in on 8.5 x 11”) Afterwards, the teacher photocopied the picture so that they could each have fun colouring it in. This is one drawing that will definitely never end up as a cross stitch pattern! LOL!

Considering that I leave on Thursday for the show in Columbus, I feel remarkably calm and well prepared. Probably because I pared down what I was trying to get ready for the first time in the decade that I have been doing shows. Now as long as I remember all the important stuff like passport, ticket, new models and money, I should be fine. Nick fielded a call from a shop in Columbus that got my 4 models from Nashville sent to them in time to meet up with me for the show... but it wasn’t the shop that I had arranged to have them sent to!! Luckily, the shop owner knew me and called to ask if she could have a mini trunk show over the weekend and have me bring a dozen of each pattern to her this week!! I guess the shop in Texas that had been hosting my models lost the address of the shop they were supposed to send it to and just picked one in Columbus... but I will have to let them know about the goof tomorrow. That could have been messy!!

Today was the first warm, sunny day in almost 3 weeks of rainy, cold weather. It coincided with our Sunday School closing and church picnic, so my girls all but collapsed into bed tonight still smelling of suntan lotion and bug spray. Not only did they play around during the picnic, we got out the wading pool when we got home and they splashed while I finally got my garden planted. We’ve had frost almost once a week for the past 3 weeks... so I was a bit worried to plant it on our May long weekend. Poking around in the mud was nice and relaxing after shooting the last few pictures I needed to take of the new models.

Hmmm! Considering how much I have been yawning as I write this, an early night for me might not be such a bad idea since last night was interrupted by crazy trade show dreams.....

A Burden Shared...

It is hard to see anyone that you care about suffer and not be able to do much about it. Now that I am a parent, I understand how much my own parents sometimes set limits to keep me from being hurt. At the time, I thought they were being unfair. It is hard to watch a loved one battle a disease or illness and not be able to make them better somehow. It is hard to watch a friend go through trials and tribulations that make your teeth grind in anger and your heart ache. It is almost harder to watch another person’s pain than it is to experience it yourself... almost.

The creative person inside me always wants to try to find a solution or way of helping to make the problem better. The reality is that sometimes, the only way to help is in other small, indirect ways. A note, a hug, a word of support, an offer to share a meal. Tonight I may not be able to carry any of my friends’ burdens, but at least I can let them know that I am here. The perception that a burden is shared often helps to make it feel lighter, even if you know that you are still the one carrying it. I must go and reread that poem Footprints in the Sand...

Web Site Updated At Last!!

It was a busy but productive weekend. I had a chance to speak to the Youth Forum of the Maritime Conference of the United Church in Sackville yesterday about “Living the Call”. I shared with them how there are many ways to use the gifts you have been given without necessarily being a minister. There were lots of other guests including a songwriter, so maybe we gave the young people who heard us some career ideas. I shared that you never know when you will be led down paths that you didn’t expect. Designing cross stitch was certainly never anything that I had ever dreamed about... and yet I couldn’t imagine my life right now without that, especially when a stitcher sends an e-mail sharing how much a certain design has touched their lives. I don’t think that will ever cease to amaze me. (I still keep thinking that I should be thanking them for stitching the crazy stuff my imagination comes up with!!)

Getting the website updated is also a MAJOR weight off my shoulders and wouldn’t have been possible without my girls playing so well together or Nick handling the dishes etc. Sometimes writing that HTML code from scratch can be really hard on my brain, but it gives me the results that I want and saves the money of paying someone else to do it!!

One of the reasons that the updates were so late is that I wasn’t sure what the final line up for COLUMBUS was going to be. A book deal deadline that got pushed back meant that one adorable release (the sequel to Winter Wonder called “To Trim A Tree”) will have to be pushed back until the fall. Having a huge order to fill for one distributor also meant that cash flow got messed up enough to prevent me from sending two other pieces out to model stitchers. When I looked at the logistics of paying them, framing costs and printing costs to release them for Columbus, it simply wasn’t possible to put them out now.

Luckily, Nick IS a faster stitcher than I am and got the first in our newest series “NO LATE KNIGHT SNACKING” ready in time. Many experts are saying that cross stitch is in a decline right now compared to other hobbies. The one thing I hope to do with this latest series that will be released as a single page leaflet to needlework stores or in kit format with lots of clear instructions and diagrams, is to reach fantasy people who may not be stitching yet and introduce them to this wonderful hobby I’ve gotten so addicted to. Each one in the series is designed to fit within a standard 5 x 7 inch fame, so hopefully they will be zany projects that are challenging enough to be addictive and yet not too complicated for beginning stitchers. We shall see!

Now that all the files are sent over to the website, I had best surface from my basement cavern and read some bedtime stories!!

Two Weeks To Go!

A cold, wet day here that certainly does not feel like the end of May and no hope of sunshine in the forecast for the weekend. Hmmmmph! I got one large tote of models shipped off to a wonderful shop/designer near Columbus so that they will be waiting for me when I arrive on the 10th of June. I am still very nervous about this show because it is a new city and a new venue for me, but that excitement/terror can also be fun. Why else would someone have invented roller coasters??

I am finishing up one of the painted canvas samples into an adorable little door hanger so that I can get stitchers’ imaginations going. I’ve also decided the lineup for the show in terms of what models will be ready in time. It certainly is leaner that I hoped, but I am happy with what I DO have ready. Will I remember to pack everything this time??

Now I must put the finishing touches on the special chart that I am handing out to shops that place an order at the show. The Morning Wizard is the “companion” piece to the Night Wizard from Nashville and I hope it will put as much of a smile on people’s faces as the last one did....

One Vehicle Side Benefits...

Wednesday morning are usually when Bethany and I spend time together. The day normally begins with my swimming lessons and Bethany has a chance to play with the other kids at St. Pat’s (a wonderful lady named Brenda provides care for preschool kids in the mornings while parents get a workout in!) then it is off to do groceries. Then the rest of the day is ours to spend together until Erin gets home. While it often means that she has to come along for mail runs or bank deposits, Bethany also gets to corner me for games of Go Fish and 20 questions etc.

This morning, Nick having the van made his day so much easier. The kids also had a 4 day weekend because Monday was a National Holiday and yesterday was NBTA meetings. Tomorrow is also Kindergarten Orientation morning, so Bethany was already set to be at daycare today. While part of me misses being in the pool this morning, it is also very nice to have the morning in a quiet house (at last!) to get stuff done. There are models to pack for pre-shipping to Columbus, one chart to finalize and one more canvas design to paint. Then there is the dreadfully out of date website to update... so I don’t think there will be any lack of things to keep me busy. Factor in the insurance costs and the soaring price of gas to the fact that I’ll get stuff done at home today and I’m actually glad we only have one vehicle!

Bonds That Don’t Change...

What a fun long weekend!! Yesterday, we piled into the van and drove to Fredericton (about an hour and a half away) to see some friends that had moved there almost 2 months ago. We even experimented with setting the cruise control to a slightly lower speed than we might have driven before gas prices soared through the roof. We had lost of cars sail past us going well over the posted speed limit, but we still got there in the usual amount of time and used only a quarter of a tank of gas. - YAY!

The day was fun. Our kids all played together as if they had never been apart and it was such fun to catch up on all the news. It is also nice to spend time with friends who have been through so many of life’s major events with you... you have that whole common history and you can just be yourselves. It was wonderfully relaxing and I even finished the backstitching on one piece that Nick had stitched as well as most of my little painted canvas piece!

Today, we met up with another great friend and her son to go see Shrek 2. The kids liked it a lot, but it was the adults in the theater who killed themselves at the “inside”/pop culture jokes and not so subtle digs at Disney. Luckily, someone had also told me not to leave before the end of the credits, so I didn’t miss out on the scene with the dragon!

The best part of bonds like friendship, or even a hobby that you like such as stitching, is that they can restore and recharge something deep inside you which you might not have realized needed tending to. This close to the trade show in Columbus, I could have just spent the whole weekend working (especially since my website is in desperate need of updating) but I needed to have that time with my family as well. Life is sometimes more about balance than anything else.

Beginnings, Endings and Possibilities In-Between

Fridays are always something I look forward to. The beginning of a holiday weekend (Victoria Day is celebrated here in Canada on Monday) is even more special because there is that sense of freedom from having an extra day to “relax”. Nick and I are both feeling the need to curl up and slow down a bit tonight after such a hectic week. Nick bravely faced each crisis at school this week from grief counseling to Grade 4 students wearing “sex bracelets” (jelly bracelets that have a colour code for sexual favours to be granted by the wearer) capped off by two sudden deaths in the family of one staff member last night and today. I had a week of trying to finalize my lineup of designs for the Columbus show and ship out orders with Erin home sick two days this week and now on antibiotics. We rented a movie to watch tonight, but I needed to sneak down here and blog.

Today was also the last day of the pilot 6 week pre-kindergarten literacy program that my friend across the street and I created for Queen Elizabeth school where Erin attends and Bethany will start Kindergarten in the fall. It was fun to get sticky hugs from all of the children as they said goodbye to us today after we had our Teddy Bear’s Picnic.

On the way to pick up Nick this afternoon, Erin and I got into a wonderful discussion about why life doesn’t last forever. Trust a 9 year old to bring up the heavy topic stuff while you are driving!! It did, however, get me thinking about how I used to perceive grownups and how I think about life now that I am one. I used to think grownups never did anymore growing UP and therefore just grew old but didn’t really learn new stuff. Considering that my mother had the courage to start a second career while I was in high school, that was a pretty silly idea to have. I think by then I had started to think differently.

Now I embrace the fact that there is always some new trail to explore, some new thing to learn, a new place to visit, a new food to taste and new skills to acquire. There will always be new things I want to learn and try. I think that is one of the best things about doing crafts. There are always new colours to play with, new fibers to incorporate into designs, new combinations to put together, new stitches to try. It is probably the same for music, writing and so many other things.... the possibilities of what lies just around the corner is what makes each day so exciting.

Falling In Love All Over Again....

Sometimes you just need to fall in love all over again. I have been doing that a lot lately. Despite the blackflies, the bunk beds that were too short , the giggles and the snoring, Brownie Camp was a lot of fun. While I had enjoyed my time in the Girl Guide movement immensely when I was young, I did drift away from it until Erin became involved. Watching the experience through 14 pairs of young eyes, making crafts and s’mores, meeting the wonderful woman who will be Erin’s Guider when she flies up to Guides, using your new tea lights in punched hole tin cans because it was too dry to light a real fire or smiling when each of the girls had to introduce “Flossie” (can I pick my nickname or what!!) to her parents during pickup made me fall in love with the Guiding movement all over again.

I’ve also been falling in love with needlework all over again, partly because I have been having such fun stitching up one of the painted canvas designs I will be showing off in Columbus. It has been such fun to play with some of the thicker, funkier fibers that you just can use in cross stitch! I still wish I had been able to finish up some of the cross stitch designs I was trying to get done for Columbus, but I can always release them later on in the summer or early fall!

This past weekend also brought home how important it is to “fall in love all over again” with the people in your life that you care about. While I was up at Brownie Camp with Erin, Nick received word that one of the parent volunteers at his school has died suddenly at the age of 37. Because all 3 of her children attend the school and she was such a visible presence, this triggered the crisis protocols. Nick had to spend time calling staff and arranging things for when the counseling team came in Monday morning. He called me up at camp just to hear my voice. Moments like this are always reminders not to take anyone we love for granted, even when we are ready to scream at things they do ( I think that’s why kids look so cute when they fall asleep... so that you can forget/forgive some of the things they did when they were awake!!)

I’ve also fallen in love with having a sense of humour. Moncton is a small enough town that I heard via a very roundabout grapevine about the woman I had spoken to in Staples about making illegal photocopies. It seems that she has recently purchased her own copier so that she can continue to make copies in the privacy of her own home without anyone pointing out that such behaviour is still illegal. I wonder how many “expensive” patterns she could have bought legally for the cost of that copier?? I hope still feels this dragon’s shadow looming over her every time she hits the copy button!!

Of Rupert, Pigeons and Brownie Camp...

A few weeks ago, I woke up in the middle of the night with two ideas for painted canvas designs. I’d been looking at canvas work stitches to incorporate them into a sampler design for this fall and instead found myself thinking about how pretty some of those patterns would be if worked up in Fantasy pieces instead... I have only tried painting canvas one other time, and I didn’t like it that much, but suddenly my fingers were itching to try these two designs. Thank Goodness Tink Boord-Dill was only a phone call away!! She answered most of this pesky dragon’s questions.

So last night, I had a great time painting away while the Survivor show was on in the background. I was thrilled that I could actually vote for something this time. Watching American Idol and not being able to vote has been SO frustrating!!! I was just thrilled when Rupert won the million dollars. I wondered if Dani was shouting with glee too.

This morning, as we all tried to get out the door in the rain because I need the van to go teach the pre-K literacy program at Erin’s school in an hour, we had a lot of unexpected excitement. There on our driveway were two pigeons. One seemed to be fluffing its wings rather pathetically while the other huddled close and of course my girls erupted into fits of “Oooooh! The poor thing!! What are we going to do??” Since the birds were right in the path of our van, backing around them wouldn’t work and backing over them certainly wasn’t an option even if most people around here refer to them as “flying rats”.

As everyone continued to get ready, I put on my rain gear and donned my bright yellow rubber gloves. I figured that I could lift the injured pigeon over to the lawn, get everyone where they needed to be and call someone if the bird was still there when I came home.
I marched out onto the driveway, hood up against the rain.... only to have the two lovebirds take off!! I guess they’d been doing some post aerial nookie cuddling on our driveway!!
Off came the gloves and away we raced.

I had to come home to check the tracking numbers for our shipment to be sure everything id going smoothly, so I thought I would blog now. Erin and I are off to Brownie Camp for the weekend, so there won’t be any blogging until Sunday. We’ll be in a big cabin, so the fact that it should be freakishly warm tomorrow with thundershowers won’t be as scary as in a tent. Bethany was a little miffed about staying behind with Nick until I pointed out that when it is her turn to go to Brownie Camp, Erin won’t be able to come!!!

Time to dig out my camp blanket with all my badges on it, my Girl Guide camp hat with all my trophies and buttons... and hope that SOMEONE there will know the melody for the song “Barges”. I love to sing harmony on that one, but nobody down here seems to know it!!

Holy Shipping Nightmares, Batman!!

Today was one of those days when I needed a knight in shining armor to ride to my rescue... and Nick did just that when he came home... but let me back up a bit.

We spent most of the Mother’s Day weekend packaging up this huge order to go out to one of our US distributors that deals with chain stores. Since I was dealing with a larger volume than usual this time, I had asked Purolator about shipping one palette instead of many, many boxes. “No problem!” they replied. “Just sending your dimensions of the skid once it is ready so that we can arrange everything.” So Monday, I hired the daughter of our LNS owner who is home from University and not yet employed for the summer to help batch the last of the chartpacks. Another friend helped me get half of the shipment over to our printer, who had kindly volunteered the use of their loading dock, a palette and to shrink-wrap all the boxes on it for us. When Nick got home, we took the last half over, called in all of the dimensions to Purolator and were told that I’d be contacted the next day (today) to arrange the last details.

By 2pm, when I still hadn’t heard anything, I called them back to check the status. Their computers had been down the day before, so they reentered the information and put URGENT on the file. “You’ll get a call before 3pm!!” I was told.

At 3:10 pm, I picked up the phone and went through some managers this time, thanks to a very nice Purolator person (who sounded like she was a stitcher because she knew who I was!) When I started to discuss the arrangements with the Logistics person, it quickly became apparent that I was... how shall we say it... in deep doo-doo. The only way they could guarantee delivery by the date I needed was to send it AIR, since they hadn’t contacted me that morning to arrange pickup today! This is when I discovered that the “special shipment” department isn’t really Purolator either...

I then called my printer and told them to stop shrink-wrapping the palette because I was coming down to pick up all the boxes again!! Nick loaded the girls back into the van and we drove across town to pick them all up. We then made a pit stop at Staples to pick up some photocopy paper boxes to help hold all these individual cardboard boxes that get split up for the chain store shipments. Nick backed the van into the driveway and I began to pack them into the bigger boxes while he cooked supper for the girls and made sure that Erin got into her brownie uniform. Luckily it wasn’t our turn to car pool tonight.

Once the boxes were packed up and I had all the dimensions, I fired up the computer to do a multiple shipment which the last Purolator person I had talked to insisted I could to on-line. After 40 minutes of entering all the information, the program refused to go any further due to memory errors!!

Off we went to the airport terminal after another phone call to Purolator assured me that I could get a manifest form there to do all the boxes on ONE waybill.... but once we arrived there, it turned out that was only for Canada!! Bethany sat down in one corner with my gameboy while Nick and I commandeered the photocopier and main room breaking the shipment back down for 3 waybills, even though all my customs documentation was written up for one shipment... and everything made it out on the plane to Toronto by the 8 o’clock deadline. We also made it home about 10 minutes before Erin was driven home from Brownies!!

Now, having relaxed a bit while watching American Idol, I am more philosophical about the whole thing. I have learned that it really is more affordable to do things the more difficult way sometimes (many shipments instead of one) and that when you are working for yourself, you will do those crazy things that are above and beyond... I feel like I have run a Marathon or taken part in some extreme sport where I had to push myself to the limit today and not freak out under pressure.

I am also so lucky to have a true partner that will put up with this kind of chaos and unpredictability. He jokes that this falls under the “for Worse” part of the wedding vows... and I am not sure he isn’t right. It is truly one of the more challenging parts about being the whole company and why I get so angry when people scan my stuff.

The highlight of the day was finding out that my brother’s contact was able to get all of our designs removed from the site! I’ve also been getting a bit of information on some of the offenders, so perhaps I’ll be able to track down a real person this time and take some legal action!

I sure hope tomorrow is calmer!! Boring is so HIGHLY UNDERRATED!!

Pancakes...Presents...Packing Charts to Great Music and Films...

Today started VERY early for a Saturday in our household. The alarm went off at the usual time and we bundled the girls into the van under blankets still in their jammies to get Nick to church to cook the famous Mount Royal Happy Face Pancakes for their Pancake Breakfast. I can’t reveal the secret here, but it does involve a turkey baster...

We came back home without him, but the cold air had done nothing but wake my two princesses up completely, so we played until it was time to go get our own turn at eating the pancakes. Then, while Nick was still working on cleanup, we girls went to the Farmer’s Market, picked up the new covers for the designs we have to batch this weekend and bought the supplies I need from our local needlework shop to try my hand at one canvas design for release in Columbus .

I was given one of my Mother’s Day presents a bit earlier in the week when things were going a bit hectic. Nick had found some lovely “sparklies” for my ears and then today, he tracked down the Josh Groban CD I’d been trying to find with the song “You Lift Me Up”. Not only does the man have the most glorious tenor voice, I truly love the lyrics of that song and may very well wear out that track on the CD should such a thing be possible.

Tonight, after the girls went to bed, Terri came over to help us pack up part of our order while we watched Calendar Girls in the background. It was a wonderful movie and I felt very “well fed” in the movie department having thoroughly enjoyed seeing Time Burton’s Big Fish the night before.

Both movies made me realize that we just never know all the ways in which each one of us touch other people’s lives. We may never see the ripples we cause or the seeds we plant bear fruit, but we all have such an ability to create real differences in the lives of others around us. It was also a reminder of how something that seems like such a simple idea... can sometimes grow!

Princess Day Tomorrow...

Well, we finally have our van back now that they managed to discover what the problem was... the alternator (at least I think that is how it is spelled!) but we won’t need it tomorrow!! Whenever there is a “professional development day”, we let Nick go off to work, then the girls and I lounge about in our PJs and watch DVDs or play games, do crafts, bake things etc. It can be a wonderful break and down time with my girls... or it can be a masterful feat of juggling so that they feel like they are being spoiled and having Mommy spend time with them, but I still sneak down when they are watching movies to check e-mail etc.

Tomorrow we are also inviting two princesses from up the street and that Mommy for an afternoon Tea Party... so it should be a bit more chaos, merriment and juggling than usual.

With the large order I received from one distributor, I took the plunge and decided to have the cover sheets for A Dragon’s Tea Party, Of Woods and Wilderness as well as Dani the Stitching Dragon printed up my local printer rather than run my dependable little Epson 740 into the ground, so I stopped by to sign off on the Iris proof this morning so that the job can go to press first thing in the morning and I will have all the covers by Saturday at noon. Then I am calling in some favours because many hands make light work and we shall have a batching party to get everything ready to ship.

Now it’s time to run up and tuck my oldest Princess in bed....

Pedometers are addictive!

Once I finally got my stride properly programmed into my pedometer, I was hooked! It is such fun to see how many steps you actually take in a day or week when you make a conscious effort to move more! I’ve even started making two trips up and down the stairs sometimes instead of risking the trail with overly full arms.

I’ve had to run a few errands to places within a 5 or 10 minute walk and am gleefully leaving the van in the driveway to do it... or looking for parking spaces in the middle of two points I need to visit. It may not seem that much at the time, but all those little steps really do add up. Considering that I need to sit to stitch or to be on the computer, making an effort to move more often during the day should keep this dragon’s butt from getting any bigger.

I need to get the web site updates done... but I just have no energy tonight after a very hectic day... so I am going to goof off tonight and finish knitting a scarf I started weeks ago. Sigh! It’s hard to ignore that little voice that screams of deadlines and pushing the limits... but I shall just duct tape it’s mouth shut for tonight!

Pack, Stuff, Ship, Fax, Phone......

It was one of those days with so much to do and get out... and it didn’t help that our van was in the shop to try and figure out why the battery keeps draining too fast. Nick also had things to pick up for school and get ready for a staff meeting. Moncton is one of those cities where there really isn’t a viable public transit system unless you can handle waiting an hour between buses on the same route, so the dealership was at least cooperative enough to give us a demonstrator for the day.

I also discovered a form on my desk that should have been faxed out on Friday, so off that went while I sorted through e-mail... only to discover that May somehow crept up on me before I knew it. Yikes!!! I’d best get my website updates done before even more e-mail comes in asking about what is new for this month!!

I have meetings tonight and tomorrow morning, so I guess it will have to wait until tomorrow afternoon. I sometimes wish I could clone myself.... but then I’d probably fight with myself all the time who was going to have to do the ickier tasks.

At least it feels good to know that most of my packages for the last batch of orders has gone out and that Just Cross Stitch received my ornament this morning. Now I just have to finalize my Columbus lineup and get ready to pre-ship stuff. Five weeks is plenty of time... right??

Sunshine, Songs and Bubbles...

I try to always keep Sunday as a family day. It doesn’t always end up being a day of “rest” and certainly a far cry from the times my grandmother used to tell me about when they had to sit quietly all afternoon and not play with their toys!

Today is the second, glorious, sunny, hot day in a row we’ve enjoyed here. A very FAR cry from the snow last Sunday!! Several of us in the choir loft found it almost too warm under the gowns by the end of our special Anniversary service, but the two anthems we got to sing were just too much fun.

Since lunch I have found time to putter in the garden while I watched Erin and Bethany enjoy the first soap bubble bonanza of the year and listen to their giggles as they raced around the backyard to try to pop each other’s biggest bubbles.

Now they are out with Nick washing the van and “helping Daddy”, so I thought I would grab a few minutes to blog as my second printer chugs out the cover sheets for another batching session tonight.

Packing charts on a Summer evening...

It’s only May Day, but it sure felt like summer today! The sun was shining and the temperature soared into the high 20s (about 78 degrees) which was a welcome and very far cry from the 1/2 inch of snow we woke to last Sunday morning.

A very good friend of ours came over tonight to help package up leaflets and chartpacks for a few orders that needed to go out and to make some headway on the huge order that came in on Thursday. It almost felt like a warm summer evening and since Erin still has her heavy blankets on the bed, she kept coming down to complain that she couldn’t sleep. I think hearing grown-ups laugh and chat had something to do with it as well.

Even though the actual batching of charts is somewhat of an assembly line process, it is fun to do when you either have something good to watch on television (I often use batching as a way to justify what little TV I watch) or to have good company to chat with. Burdens shared don’t always come up with answers or solutions, but sometimes I think it helps to just be able to talk to other people. We had the chance to both share and listen tonight and it made getting through the piles more bearable. My Nanny was right - Many Hands DO Make Light Work!!

Angst and Affirmation...

It’s been a VERY long day. I once vowed to myself (and to Nick who has to put up with listening to me rant) that when I started to only have negative things to say about the cross stitch industry that I would just get out.

Today, I came very close to hanging up my needle and just walking away from everything.

Supply teaching with a local license for $100.00 a day was looking very appealing as Nick struggled to find supply teachers who could speak French. At one point today, running away to another country to raise pygmy goats was looking far less stressful and more rewarding that being a cross stitch designer that people could steal from. Being informed about a foreign site that was hosting over 20 of our patterns illegally was not something I really wanted to face less than 48 hours after listening to someone tell me why she couldn’t afford the “pricey patterns”.

I never wanted this blog (or my career as a designer for that matter) to be an extended pity party... just the chance to give a more honest look into what it really means to try to do what you love as your career. At one point, after more than 2 hours of trying to sift through sites seen through translator programs (when I really needed to be proofing my article and instructions to go with my Just Cross Stitch ornament, I could actually feel my blood pressure spiking and took a break for lunch.

“That’s it!” I thought as I took my frustration out on the breakfast and lunch dishes. “I work too hard at what I do to have it be so easy for people to steal what I create!” Bubbles flew, pots gleamed and I even tore a hole in my rubber glove. “I am SO tired of sounding negative! I just want to go back to earning a regular paycheque!” Even a phone call from a very dear friend didn’t quite dispel the frustration (though it did make me feel cared about!)

Nick was a sweetheart about cooking supper so that I could fax a more complete list of class selections to the Creative Sewing and Needlework Festival for their show this fall before their office closed in Toronto. We had a great supper, but my stomach was still a bit in knots over the days events. I joked about everything from learning how to be a short order cook (Nick knows I can’t handle the smell of grease cooking very well and am a bit of a spaz with sharp objects when I am in a hurry) to running off to some remote corner of the planet where there are no computers.... but I was having serious doubts about continuing to design.

Nick went down to check his e-mail and play a few games on my computer, when suddenly he came bounding up the stairs. The fax had beeped and there was a huge order from one of our distributors which will have us scrambling for the week to batch up. A kitting company I had contacted called back with the details I needed to submit my project idea to them, a store called with an order and there were two more waiting on the e-mail for me tonight.

Coincidence or affirmation?? It feels more like affirmation to me... and a reminder that you have to have both sun and shadow in your life’s design. There are far worse shadows that could have fallen in my life right now. As hurt as I felt by the fact that these posters seem to want to ignore the fact that there is a PERSON behind the designs they are scanning, that is nothing compared to the pain that so many people around this world are facing right now.

“Count your blessings instead of your burdens!” I think to myself as I wrap this up before heading off to bed. “That way you won’t sound like you’re whining!!”

Beating Your Head Against the Copyright Wall...

I am SO mad right now, I had to come home and put it all down in a blog while the anger, frustration and almost tears are fresh. I’’ve been having “pre-show jitters” already, even though Columbus is just over 5 weeks away. Then my show release lineup had to change yesterday because one of the designs I had planned to release has to wait longer until after the publication it will appear in (long story). So... maybe I am not as objective as I should be.

I walked into the local Staples store to drop off my master patterns for 3 orders that just came in and as I stood and the counter I noticed a woman with a stack of over 40 cross stitch patterns and books making copies at the self-serve copier. The store was really busy and I am not generally one to like making a scene... but this was just such a HUGE amount of copies being made, methodically, one of each page, that I would have hated myself if I had stayed silent.

I politely introduced myself and explained what I did for a living and then asked her if she knew that what she was doing was illegal. The woman got quite defensive and replied that patterns cost too much money, so she had no choice but to copy them... and besides... everyone was allowed to make ONE copy. I explained about the concept of working copies and how that was different from making your own copies and then handing the pile back to “her bowling buddy” who had lent them. I asked her if she had thought of just borrowing the originals from her friend a few at a time and making her working copies while she had them in her possession and was actually stitching them. “But I want to do them all and I got not enough money to buy them!” she insisted. “My friend said I could make my ONE copy!” I explained that it was her choice, but that making copies was as illegal as downloading music without paying for it or taking that pattern from a store and then left before I started to either foam at the mouth or cry.

The whole way home, all I could think of was how much money I was investing in myself during the next 60 days in terms of airfare, hotel, display unit to be shipped ahead from Canada because that was still less than renting it onsite, pre-shipping models because I am going alone and will only have 2 suitcases, model stitchers, framing costs, table rental, Sample Spree, meals etc. in order to produce patterns that SOME people feel they are justified in copying because they are “too expensive”!

Sometimes it really feels like we are beating our heads against a copyright brick wall. I have no idea if that woman will ever change her mind about what she was doing, but I know that at least I have said my piece as politely as possible. (Maybe I should have had an ultimate Dragon hissy-fit and made the whole store aware of what was going on, been hauled away for disturbing the peace and appeared on the 11 o’clock news..... that would have gotten a lot of media attention for copyright issues!)

Then I remember the Barry Manillow song from last week’s American Idol... “One Voice” and hope that will be true eventually.

Of Snow, Trios, Attitudes and Bounty Hunting Cows....

Ok.... Spring can come ANY time now.... Just when Nick and I thought that we could put away all the winter coats, hats and boots, it snows!! Of course, Moncton didn’t get the wallop that poor Newfoundland got. They were supposed to get over a foot in the middle of a strike with no one to plow the roads!! We were watching TV last night as the rain poured down when all of a sudden, it got very quiet. I looked out the window and there was a mini-blizzard of swirling, white flakes coating our lawns, bushes and roads. YUCK!!
The year I was married, it actually snowed here on May 8th, just 2 months before I was due to be wed and I was convinced that spring would never arrive. What I have learned now it that there are some years when we go right from Winter to Summer in just 3 weeks... so this may be one of those years.... sigh!

This morning, I sang the very low notes (Tenor) with two other wonderful ladies at church and we had SUCH fun!! It was one of those toe-tapping gospel style numbers and it was hard not to boogie too much while I was singing. As nervous as I was before hand (I’ve only sung one other time with a microphone and BOY does your voice sound MUCH louder to your own ears!!) it went off very well, so that felt rather satisfying.

Erin and Bethany were both having those kinds of “unconditional love” days... the ones where parents have to constantly override the urge to mail their children to the other side of the world in a box with lots of air holes and enough broccoli to sustain them on the journey...
We’ve been having lots of reminders about treating people the way you wish to be treated... or speaking politely instead of rudely, but I am just now getting a taste of how much attitude both my headstrong little girls are capable of. I know that I don’t want doormats and obedient, timid little things for daughters, but I do want to work on everyone at least being civil! Still lots of time to work on this before they are both in their teens!
Maybe I will get some grey hairs after all!!

We also went to see Disney’s Home on the Range this afternoon and both girls have been quoting favourite passages ever since. How can they remember things so clearly when I have to pause to remember where my car keys are??

As much as I love my whole family, I also love the quiet of retreating down to my office and getting things done once they are asleep or off at school/work. Quiet is highly underrated!!

Of Harmony and Discord...

Choir practice ran late last night at church, so there wasn’t time to really jump on and blog. I am going to be singing the very low notes of a trio piece on Sunday and it was great fun to hear my voice blending with 2 other women, but whenever one of us would hit a sour note (as does happen now and then) I was far more obvious of how discordant it sounded than when I was singing with the whole choir. There were also moments when all three voices blended so well it was a pleasure that gave me goose bumps.

Funny how little things like that get the gerbils in your head going (you know... the ones on the squeaky wheels that are always churning ideas around back there even when you are trying to fall asleep?) I found myself thinking about how stitching projects can be like that... moments when everything flows so well and you see a design really coming to life that you get all caught up in the magic of it... or times when there is a mistake to unpick/frog, something goes wrong or an accident happens to the piece (grape juice, pet accident etc.) and what had been a symphony of colour and design feels more like a howling chaos or noise and notes.

Designing can be like that too. There are some moments when a design jumps to life as if it was meant to be and others that require far more work to be birthed into the world. I am working on some fun ones right now, lost in the harmony of watching new things come to life, but it doesn’t help when one of my favourite authors drops a captivating tidbit in my lap to distract me!!!

I devoured my way through Mercedes Lackey’s JOUST in the past 48 hours, moments snatched while e-mail was downloading, files were saving, bank lineups were moving like molasses etc. This book made me fall in love with taming dragons in a way that hasn’t happened since I first discovered the Pern books by Anne McCaffrey. Since most of my collection is in paperback, I’ll have the frustration of having to wait for the second novel to finish its time as hardcover... but I know it will be worth the wait. What fun to wander into a world of someone’s imagination and see all the detail they have come up with.

Now back to creating things from my own imagination!

Stitching to Barry Manilow....

OK... I have a confession to make. Sometimes I love the fact that I can “work” while watching a favourite show, such as American Idol, and still feel like I am accomplishing something. One of the reasons that I think I ended up being such a crafty person (as in making things... not as in sneaky) is that I loved to have something to show for any time spent in front of the television. From drawing and quilling to macramé, beading, stitching or knitting, I need to be able to see that what select time I do spend watching television still has something tangible accomplished.

Tonight’s theme was the music of Barry Manilow which I have always loved, despite sometimes being teased royally by friends in high school and later in Fine Arts. One sitcom back then even featured a stern English butler muttering the line “There are two things in this world I cannot stand... a woman’s tears and Barry Manilow!”

I considered myself LUCKY to see him in concert at the Montreal Forum in my late teens and still remember what a great show he put on. Hearing the new spin put on some of his classics tonight ranged from thrilling to painful (depending on who was singing) and a real nostalgia trip.

Hmmmmm... I guess since my old cassette tapes are getting pretty worn out, it will be time to hunt down some CDs of his music to add to our collection so that I can introduce Bethany and Erin to his timeless music. One thing I know for sure... I will NOT go on-line to download any of those classics, because I respect the man and his musical gifts enough to want to make sure that I don’t cheat him out of any money he has rightfully earned!!

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!!