Jumbled Thoughts Of Picture Day, Hamster Feet, Pre-Show Chaos and Being Thankful...

What a week! I am sure that my thoughts will be so scattered... I just hope they make sense. Each one of these probably could have been a tiny blog entry on its own, but when things get busy, they sure pile up fast!

The girls had picture day this week and wore some of the wonderful outfits they have in their closet that have totally gone ignored because dressing down is more popular. I put my foot down and asked them to wear their little tunics because they look so nice in them. Erin really had a hard time accepting the fact that I wanted her to look a bit dressy in the picture. Isn’t it amazing how they throw your own words back at you? “You always tell me that what is INSIDE is more important, Mom!” To which I replied “Yes, but the camera can only see the outside!” I can still remember when picture day was a big deal at school because it was FUN to get dressed in something nice for the pictures. By grade 3 I knew right where to go for the class pictures too... middle spot, back row. I mourn the fact that school clothes are so much more casual nowadays, even though I know the kids are probably more comfy.

After only a month of living with us, Nipper (the dwarf hamster) has my girls very well trained. She has decided that she likes waking up every morning before they go to school so that she can have them feed her some almond slivers before she goes back to sleep for the morning. Considering that the shop owner called her kind “Evil Incarnate”, she is taming quite nicely. She is acrobatic enough to climb up the cage bars towards the door when you have it open to put in food or water, and this morning came right out onto my hand for a treat for the first time. When she ran out of almond, she sniffed my hand and started to give me a nip as if to say “More!” so she got one other sliver before we let her jump back into the cage. Of course now Erin is wanting to have Nipper in HER hands immediately, but I have been promoting the concept of patience in training pets. I figure they might remember someday that patience also applies to parenting!

This is our Thanksgiving Weekend here in Canada and I really enjoy the chance to have a big turkey dinner over TWO months away from Christmas. We’ll be heading down to Nick’s mother’s on Monday for a meal, but I may just cook a turkey of our own to get the bones for soup and all the leftover meat.

Because I leave for Toronto on Wednesday, this weekend will also be about final kit assembly, packing, making sure that I have everything I need for the show etc. Not quite a restful long weekend, but hopefully a good one nonetheless. Nick looked at me the other night and asked what my hourly wage would be if I took the income from the weekend and divided it out by the number of hours it has taken me to design, kit, assemble, teach etc. I’m almost afraid to do the math, because it would probably work out to well below minimum wage... and yet I love what I do!!

It’s been comical in the chaos of the past two weeks with computer woes, sick kids and husband, late nights and stressful days, how easy I have found it to complain. This morning as I write this, I am reminded of all the things in my life that I DO have to be thankful for, especially given the many places in our world where people’s lives lie in shambles... even just to the south in Florida.

I think I just need to go rake up a big pile of leaves somewhere this weekend and jump in them!

Friendships Beyond Price

In some ways, it was a really lousy weekend... and in other ways I feel like one of the richest people on earth.

Technology can be such a major pain when it doesn’t work well (and that is putting it in the politest language that I can use in public!). Nick arrived home early on Friday and offered to cook supper while I finished proofreading one of my charts for the classes I am teaching in Toronto. As I was changing a last section, the whole screen locked, froze and disappeared! When I restarted everything, the program continued to lock overtime I tried to click on the selection tool in that program and all of the changes I had made in the last 15 minutes of working and saving had disappeared. By this time, I was close to tears, but I turned everything off and went up for supper. Afterwards, I called a wonderful store that I deal with which carried Mac software and found out that they had a copy of Norton System Works, so off we went to buy that along with some much needed groceries. It was a bit grueling with two girls who were tired after the week at school and seem to be in “Who can tattle on the other first” mode, but we survived and I came home to install the program on my other machine to check. Unfortunately the machine with the problems uses an older operating system (on purpose) but the version of Norton that I used to have still worked and said it was fine.

I picked up the phone and called a wonderful friend, who knows and depends on Macs as much as I do to be creative, just to get an “awww”. I also knew that she would understand how I felt to stand in front of the new G5 Mac computers with a combination of awe, lust and frustration (I am pretty sure that I didn’t leave any drool on the store model’s keyboard) because those machines are just SO amazing. She was wonderfully sympathetic and laughed with me when I reminded her of the post on one pattern-sharing group this summer about designers being millionaires. “If I WAS a millionaire, I would have about 6 of those in the house... one just for decoration!! “ I moaned. It was just so great to be able to vent to someone who really understood! (Thanks!) With her encouragement, a bit of patience and switching mice between my two computers, I managed to get the file reproofed and rebuilt before 1 am.

Saturday morning we headed off to the gym by 8:15 and losing myself in swimming laps for 40 minutes helped to make up for the late night. The girls had their classes, Nick got his workout and I taught my class and then we headed home. After racing out to see a mid-afternoon movie with our girls and our godson, we came home to fix supper for another great friend who stays with us overnight once a month when she comes to town to provide her ex-husband’s parents with custody of her children in his absence. (Don’t get me started!) She brought some homemade salsa and a wonderful bottle of wine for our evening chat once the kids were in bed, but Nick’s sinus infection was making him feel pretty miserable, so he headed off to bed just as we were getting ready to start kitting up one class for Toronto! I went down to print off the labels to stick on the file cards that identify which floss is which... and the label paper kept jamming!! Instead of getting 8 labels I could use per sheet, I was lucky to get 4 or 5! Sue was so patient as she kept working on cutting out what labels I could get printed when I kept trying to hand feed each sheet through the printer. Finally, I decided to print them off on my main machine... only to discover that the internal Zip drive was not working at all!! I had no way of getting the files from one machine to the other since it was too big to fit on an old disk and the older machine can’t burn to CD!!
I finally stomped upstairs with enough labels to do most of the kits and then we just talked, snipped and kitted until midnight. Being able to laugh with someone and find joy in the face of challenges and tribulations is so healing! I also felt bad about being grumpy over something so small when she has faced such huge problems.

Sunday after church I bent my “no shopping on Sundays” rule to get an external USB Zip drive for my main machine. The $130.00 was worth it in the long run because I just can’t send the machine away to be fixed before the show and it did let me get the label file onto my main machine. Everything seemed fine until I went to print out the second class’s labels. There were inconsistent gaps in each label sheet when a different label at random (or 5 of the 8) would just not appear on the printout!! I finally figured out that it must be a memory problem, so I would just print one sheet at a time, let the machine freak out... restart it.... print one more sheet, let the machine freak out... restart it... It was starting to feel more like a Windows machine by the time I got the last one printed.

This morning I have run all my programs and tidied the drive up (which was really fragmented) so hopefully this will be it for computer woes between now and Toronto. If not, I may show up with little dent marks on my forehead from where I’ve been banging it against the monitor!

Planning Ahead... It’s Kind Of Like Swimsuit Magazines!

The funny thing about deadlines in many industries is that they are SO FAR AHEAD that I often get muddled. In talking with Karen Weaver today, I suddenly realized that TONIGHT was the deadline for class proposals if I want to teach anything to shop owners in Nashville! YIKES!! It is so hard to think ahead to February when I am trying to proofread sheets and instructions for Toronto! Now I know how those models in swimsuit magazines feel when they are trying to look warm and sunny on freezing cold beaches in the middle of winter! How do fashion designers ever get inspired when they are creating styles so far ahead of time?? Do they make themselves little notes while experiencing the warmth of summer or chill of winter to bring back those feelings, sensations and ideas half a year later??

I did manage to dig out my notes and get the forms filled out... but after a whole day of working on an intense graphic layout , a night of being the only parent while Nick did the “Meet the Creature” night in Petitcodiac and trying to get Erin to help me with groceries in the hour that Bethany was at Sparks, I don’t really trust myself to get the files and codes for the Earth Dragon proofread tonight. I think I will do that first thing in the morning after my swimming lesson and see how many e-mails pile up reminding me that October 1st started at midnight!

Just Not Enough Hours In The Day!!

Where have the last 6 days gone???

Just as I am getting set to kit everything up for the Creative Sewing and Needlework Festival in 2 weeks, a major client of mine drops an assignment in my lap!! If they weren’t such a well paying client, or if shops respected Net 30 terms a bit more, then maybe I would say NO... but now it just means sandwiching things in where I don’t feel I have time!

Erin’s homework is taking much longer this year and she gets frustrated sometimes. Teaching her how to stay on task and get things out of the way first, then play, occasionally produces some major battles and extreme urges on my part to call my own mother to apologize, but it is an essential part of learning time-management skills that will last her a whole lifetime. Bethany is also learning patience. She wasn’t around last year when I helped Erin with homework because she was still at daycare. This year, she is a bit more jealous that Erin’s work takes more of my time than the hour of “Mommy Time” she gets, but I keep explaining that it will balance out in the end.

I did manage to talk a wonderful shop owner who wanted copies of ALL of our painted canvases to just take the two that I already had painted up and photos of the rest because there physically isn’t time to meet her deadline with Toronto and this graphics project filling the next 2 weeks! At least I have finally learned not to burn the WHOLE candle... just singe both ends a little!

Of Squeaky Voices... Burnt Toast... and Fire Alarms

Well, I found out last night that it is not just a missing voice anymore. I have a sinus infection, ear infection and upper airway rattle, so they pulled out the antibiotics to clear it up and I am sure that I will feel much better when they kick in. It was really hard to drag my dragon butt out of the toast cave of the bedcovers this morning and I am still fighting the urge not to crawl right back in there...

I did have to share one funny episode before I forget to get it on paper. Monday was so awkward trying not to use my voice. Every time the phone rang, I had people doing a double take because they were sure they had the wrong number. I even let the answering machine pick up a few calls because I could barely make a squeak and the doctor had stressed NOT using the voice unless it was an emergency.

That came as I was trying to prepare garlic toast to go along with the past dish I had prepared for supper. I got the last of the bread ready and stuck it under the broiler, when the girls yelled that Nipper (our Dwarf Hamster of 2 weeks) was doing something cute, so I rushed downstairs to see. You have to understand that I have been wanting a little cute rodent of my very own for quite a long time now and she was being particularly adorable.... so I forgot all about the garlic toast until our alarm system went off!!

Here I was with both girls freaking out as this piercing whistle sounds and the panel starts yelling “SMOKE DETECTED.... FIRE....EXIT NOW” in a machine voice around the shrill beeping whistle. My girls, instead of helping open doors and follow typical fire safety patterns are both crouching over Nipper’s cage trying to soothe a now totally startled and freaking out hamster.

I bolt upstairs to open back door and side door, hoping that what little smoke there actually is will clear and that the thing will stop its noise, when I notice that our phone is automatically dialing out to the alarm company like it should. The only other time it did this, they rolled the engines from the fire hall near us and the firemen looked quite grumpy that it was overflowing Lipton’s chicken noodle soup and not a big blaze to fight.

I lunged over to the counter to grab my cell phone to call the alarm company, since the main line is tied up with the system dialing out, and get through to some operator who is trying to make out what I am saying over the din of the alarm.

At this point, what little voice I had cut out and I began to squeak and sound very much like a teenage buy at the worst of their voice change. I am trying to explain that there isn’t a fire... but just some burnt toast, but the operator is having trouble understanding me and keeps trying to reassure me that help will be on the way. Did my voice sound as if I was being overcome with smoke? I decide to force the voice a bit and manage to say “THERE’S NO FIRE!” just as the other phone rings and Nick walks through the open door. Luckily, his voice was fine and he told both operators that everything was under control.

The firemen never did show up that night, the hamster got over her trauma, Nick made new toast and I didn’t have to answer any questions about how my day went!

A Dragon With No Voice!

Well, after speaking with two classes of High School students about what it is like to have a career as a Graphic Designer/Illustrator, I seem to have misplaced my voice! The two girls had been battling colds last week, but the oddest thing is that I feel fine... I just can’t speak above a low growl!!

Luckily, Nick has kept the silent wife jokes to a minimum! I have warned the girls that if I hear them fighting upstairs that I may clang pot lids instead of bellow, but for the next 3 days the dragon is on “voice rest” instructions from her doctor and musn’t talk if at all possible.

In other careers (or closer to teaching in Toronto) this might have been a disaster, but I have just been sitting quietly this morning listening to musicals (Cats & Phantom) as I tidy the last box of paperwork bits, receipts that need to get in their proper files and general clutter in the office. How nice it feels to be tidy and organized again!!! I know that each time I vow I will keep it like this... and hope springs eternal that this time might be different.

I don’t need my voice today. My hands are working enough to stitch on a model. I will have to speak a bit with Bethany since she can’t read my notes yet... but the dragon can still type her blog!!

Saying “I Love You” Instead of “See You Soon”!

It was another rough morning for Bethany at the bus stop. She absolutely loves school, but saying goodbye to Mommy each morning is proving to be difficult. Last year, Nick would just put her in the car and drive her to daycare. This year, he is out the door while we are still eating breakfast and Bethany first starts dragging her heels when the time comes to put on her shoes! She gets quiet on the walk up and starts to clutch my hand tighter as I babble away in my best “Cheerful Mommy Voice” about all the fun things that might happen at school today. It is when everyone lines up for the bus and we have those 5 to 10 minutes of waiting (the bus has yet to arrive at the same time twice yet) that things really get hard. I can tell that she gets a big lump in her throat because you can almost hear her swallow. The tears spill out quietly over those freckled cheeks of hers as she just stands there wanting desperately not to have to say goodbye.

Part of me wanted to just say “I’ll be seeing you SO soon!” and yet, lately, I have found myself avoiding that phrase and saying “I LOVE YOU” or “It will be OK” instead. Those really are the only two things that I can promise.

We cannot predict how the world may change from day to day. September 11th taught us that, the recent terror and tragedy in Russia reminded us of that yet again. Getting an e-mail from Hoffman Distributing last night about their closure due to Hurricane Ivan heading directly for them made me aware that we cannot control Mother Nature or the actions of others. And yet, we cannot walk into each day with fear... because that really isn’t living life to its fullest... it isn’t really LIVING at all.

What I CAN teach my children is to say “I LOVE YOU” to those you hold dear as often as you can, and to live that out. To KNOW that you are loved is one of the greatest gifts there is. I will love them no matter what. Bethany and I say “I love you up to Infinity and Beyond” every night and that is so true...

BRING! BRING! (Sound of phone ringing!)

Moms must have ESP... because just as I was typing this, MY mom called to see how I was doing! We had a wonderful chat... and she told me to go ahead and say the “I’ll see you soon”s in my life. As she pointed out, if something were to happen, it wouldn’t be breaking a promise to my kids, which is why I think I have always hated saying that.

Hmmmmm! Perhaps you are never too grown up to have your Mom point out that you might still have some Monsters hiding in your own closet!

THANKS MOM!

Now I Need To Get MYSELF Into A Routine!

I had forgotten just how hectic this time of year could be. Monday everyone headed off to school scratching a few more mosquito bites than they’d had before a wonderful weekend at Camp Ta-Wa-Si. Monday night was registration for Girl Guides, so Erin signed up for her first year of Girl Guides with the same troop that the rest of her Brownie Pack flew up to on one side of town... and Bethany signed up for Sparks at our own church on the other side of town. Erin was a wee bit jealous because she’d never been a Spark, but I reminded her of the Highland Dance lessons and other things that she had tried when she was Bethany’s age.

I also decided to pull apart my entire office since I coped most of the summer by making little piles around the room of things that I needed to get to but was having trouble doing with everyone underfoot. I hauled everything out into the family room except the furniture itself, clearing off every surface, shelf etc. Not only did I find a few giant dust bunnies and lost change, I also managed to fill two bags of paper garbage before the garbage pick up that night. I made sure that if stuff came back into the office, it went in the right place. Nick is teasing me because there is still a pile of 2 boxes to deal with out there, but I am almost done sorting. It feels wonderful to have a desk surface again and to be able to see what a nice shade of blue carpet I actually have!

Tuesday was meetings and I missed a box from Purolator. I hope it is some of the stuff I am missing to put my kits together for Toronto! I called to have it redelivered on Thursday. Bethany and Erin both needed help with school stuff when they got home, so I felt as if the day just flew by!

Today was hot and sunny, but I had the van today and had 3 appointments to try to squeeze in between the girls getting on the bus and Bethany getting home. For some reason, she did not want to say goodbye this morning and was all tearful and blotchy-faced getting on the bus, but Erin later told me that she was fine by the time they arrived at school. Both of them came home feeling very tired and flat, complaining of sore throats and stuffy noses. Sounds like the back-to-school germ fiesta has begun!!

I have more paperwork to get taken care of tonight, just in case either of them is running a fever by morning, so I will end here for the night, but I really sense that I need to get MYSELF back into a routine. I am learning to get more done in the shorter day than when Bethany was at daycare, how to cook meals while calling out spelling words and then how to gear up to do a bit more once they go down. I am sure that it will all fall into place in a week or so.

Happy Birthday to Me...

The remnants of Hurricane Frances dumped plenty of rain on us again this morning, though not as bad as Gaston. Both girls got on the school bus this morning which was a birthday present in itself!! Both of them pounced on me early this morning to sing and cuddle, then Erin presented me with a lovely drawing that showed me being waited on hand and foot by my family! She also gave me $2.00 from her savings to “buy something fun up at the corner store” which I did right after the bus. I also got plenty of cardio in this morning because Bethany insisted on wearing new shoes that hadn’t been fully broken in yet and by the time we reached the bus stop she was almost in tears at them being so “rubbing on her little feet”. I raced home to pick up the comfy dress shoes and ran back up to the bus stop in time to change the shoes on her feet before she boarded the bus and bring the uncomfy ones home. We try to break the new shoes in by wearing them to church for a month of Sundays where it is only an hour or two instead of a whole day in new shoes... so I reminded her that they would be fine in a month or so once the other ones got tight.

I goofed off today and it felt great!! I did get a shipment ready for Purolator to Hoffman and another parcel for a model stitcher. I decided to pay the higher fees for courier and brokerage on this Hoffman shipment since the last box of these new designs is still missing somewhere and being searched for.

Tonight we are heading out for sushi and then off to Camp Ta-Wa-Si for the weekend. The girls are looking forward to bunk beds and beach glass and I am looking forward to counting stars and having someone else do the cooking! What a nice way to celebrate my 39th!!

WE HAVE A PET!!!!!!

Those who know me will understand that I am doing back flips along with my girls to announce that we have a new pet in the Dragon Dreams household! It is a tiny dwarf hamster named Nipper!! It is SO silly to be this excited over something so small and furry... but, next to dragons, I have always loved small mouse like creatures with a passion. Mousie was my nickname growing up and I have quite the collection of small mouse figurines. I owned gerbils at two different points in my life and adored them until twice someone gave us cats!

You have to understand that very few of my adult friends, and most especially my dear husband, do NOT feel the same way about small things that scurry. We have also put off having a pet since the disastrous rainbow guppy Aqua Babies incident a few years ago with Erin that involved far too many fish headstones in our backyard and over 80 dollars to try and get a fish ecosystem that would keep something alive. Knowing that we like to travel also made it easy to tell the girls that a pet was impossible for the time being.

Then, Erin was asked to help look after the neighbour’s cat between our own holidays this summer. That started the longing for something of her own to take care of. We stood firm and marched off on our own second adventure for the summer. But then we went to Prince Edward Island again on Friday to visit other friends of ours. They live in rural PEI and not only had two bunnies, but two tiny barn kittens!! Erin and Bethany both bear the marks of playing with tiny, clawed kitty tornadoes. That day we also went to the petting zoo right near their house where they were selling off miniature Rex bunnies and beagle puppies. We got to pick up cats, puppies and bunnies galore, including one tiny grey rabbit that kept snuggling into me and trying to nibble my green sweater.

Perhaps, in a warped way, it has something to do with the fact that my “baby” is heading off to school this year... but I could feel my defenses beginning to crumble, especially as Erin and Bethany kept doing the Puss In Boots eyes while holding small, cute furry things!

We drove home late on Friday night and when both girls conked out in the car, Nick and I had a chance to discuss our approach to pet ownership again without the girls overhearing us. He’d managed to convince me that the 10 dollar bunny would turn into a much more expensive proposition than I had planned, but Saturday morning when we needed to do groceries, he was the one who suggested we have a peek at the pet store nearby.

In we went and peeked at all the animals that had just arrived including adorable $500 siamese kittens, bunny cages that cost $149 and then as we rounded the corner to the rodents, there was one of the Dwarf Hamsters doing a little scratchy dance against the glass! My girls were lost in fits of “ohhh how cute!!!” and this time Nick just said “You have to have a plan in place before we buy any pet!” It became a math lesson as we walked around the store to figure out with Erin and Bethany that the eight dollar hamster would end up costing over 100 dollars in accessories!

We went on to do our groceries and “think about it” as the girls began to put a plan in place for where the cage might go and how we could take care of the little dancing critter. By the time we got home, we had agreed to tidy the whole basement up to see if there would be room in the family room for a cage. I have never seen my girls so eager to TIDY! We also called the pet store back to ask more questions about owning a Dwarf Hamster. The shop owner did refer to them as “evil incarnate” but the three of us were determined to tame one eventually or just sit back and enjoy watching it from a safe distance.

After lunch, we went out and bought everything we needed to make Nipper feel welcome at our house.... well... almost everything. I broke down and went back to the pet store this afternoon for a little balcony, a smaller wheel since she didn’t have enough body weight to make the one we’d bought move... and some hamster treats. I am hooked!!!!

When The Going Gets Tough... Yank Some Weeds!!!

Another chaotic day in the countdown before school starts. Nick was able to get a drive down to Petitcodiac so that we could have the van for a doctor’s appointment for Erin. I covered for 2 other Weight Watcher leaders yesterday, so I needed to catch up on e-mail this morning... and the girls just kept getting on each other’s (and my) nerves. I spent some time on the phone with Nashville organizers planning the layout for next year’s Fantasy Faire and I am sure they heard the girls bickering in the background. How professional!!

Finally, I took them out to wear off some steam before the doctors and then we picked up some groceries on the way home. Tomorrow we head to Prince Edward Island to see another set of really good friends and spend the day at the beach. The weather has turned cooler, but it should at least be sunny.

By the time Nick arrived home tonight, I was feeling frustrated, frazzled and just generally grumpy... Like a dragon who just can’t reach an itch in the middle of her back, despite rolling around on all that lumpy, bumpy treasure. Nick offered to do the dishes and I headed outside to plant two presents from our neighbour who was splitting her perennials. I got really into yanking out a whole section of one plant that had taken over the back garden. Out with the yellow and in with the pink! Yanking all that out was truly satisfying.....

rekindling Friendships and Cleaning Closest

This weekend was a lot of Fun! My godson had his 5th birthday party on Saturday, so we headed over there for a Harry Potter party. Ben’s Mom, Karen, had a full slate of Hogwarts activities for them from Quidditch to Potions class and gave them all report cards for their “term”. All of the kids eyes grew round when they poured their green goblets of vinegar into the cauldron of baking soda and everything got fizzy. They they had to add from bowls of catsup, oats and flour to thicken out the mixture. Erin had great fun making a big pot of goop!!! Some of the younger kids were a bit more hesitant.

Sunday afternoon we headed over to PEI to reconnect with some good friends of ours from University who also have kids. Both families have been making excuses with busy schedules for far too long now. Tracey and I actually had some business to discuss, so I put her logo on CD rather than send it by e-mail and took it over as my excuse. It was great fun and the Confederation Bridge makes it so easy to get back and forth. There was the 39.00 bridge fee of course, but we did fill up on cheaper PEI gas!!

Today was much harder. Nick started work officially (though he’s been back at the new job for over a week now) and so he headed off early. I have already tackled Erin’s closet but now it was Bethany’s turn.... and my little pack rat had stuffed all kinds of clothes and toys in hers!! Trying everything on, including a big pile of hand-me-downs took over 2 hours. 5 year olds just don’t really have the patience for that so we had several bouts of tears and Erin saved the day more than once by being the “fashion critic”. The nice thing is, we discovered a whole bunch of clothes that she is about to fit or can just now get into!! Even though she has grown much faster than Erin this summer, there is a wealth of stuff to fit into that is pretty nearly new. I will round it out with some new turtlenecks and t-shirts, along with the exciting socks and underwear, but it won’t be as drastic a shop-up as Erin was. I tuck away a bit each month towards clothing, but as I shopped around for bargains last week for Erin (who is hovering between a size 16 and a ladies small just to get the sleeves long enough) I kept thinking of that thread on one of the pattern groups about designers all being millionaires! LOL!! We have a wonderful second hand store here in town that many of us with fast growing kids rely on to keep the clothing budgets from being unbearable!

After the Great Closet Tidy came the Great Muffin Bake. Nick is bringing muffins for the staff at his school for a speacial breakfast event, so the girls helped me bake 24 double chocolate muffins, 30 carrot muffins and 32 oatmeal and raisin muffins to go with the 28 blueberry muffins Nick made on Saturday. Having the oven on all afternoon i the warm temperatures was a bit much, but we endured.

Tonight is batching up charts again. I have a baby-sitter coming in tomorrow and Wednesday for two meetings, but I am still looking very much forward to having everyone off to school by next Thursday... I can’t even find the floor in my office again! Surely there are LOTS of other parents out there who are counting the hours????

I’ve Run Out of Tricks! Send Them Back To School!!

As much as I love my 2 children, I am ready to box them and ship them to China!!! This past week, with Nick back to work and thus no van to run errands with, has been a real test of my patience as a Mom.

They have played well together for the occasional small stretch and Erin even invented her own comic book this week about a tiny vampire chipmunk that runs around trying to nibble people’s ankles because he’s lonely (rather than evil) but when I cam up from checking e-mail this morning to find that they had strung a “tightrope” for their Barbies to slide along that was halfway to pulling a desk drawer handle out of the desk!! Luckily a friend of Erin’s had won a pass to the local water park and offered to take her along this afternoon, so that just left me with Bethany. She and I walked up to the park behind the post office then mailed some letters that needed to go off and paid the power bill on the walk home. It was only about 15 minutes each way, but by the home stretch her legs were “going to fall off if she didn’t get something good to eat”! Hah!

My latest order of plastic bags to hold my chartpacks also arrived this morning, but they are different from the ones I usually get with more plastic above the hang hole. That will just get in the way on most shipments, so I called them to ask if they’d changed suppliers. Apparently no one there bothered to look at my order before they sent them out and their first comment to me was “Yes, those look very different, don’t they. We’re not sure what’s up either!!” What a way to instill confidence!! I’m going to keep 1000 to handle the orders I have to ship out and kits for Toronto in October, but then send the other 2000 back and have them send me my regular bags. Sigh! A quick check on their part before sending things on to me could have saved us all a lot of trouble!

Well, the girls are finally down so I am off to watch Hidalgo with my husband for date night upstairs... and maybe by the morning the urge to mail my offspring will have calmed down. They do look very cute once they are asleep.....

Missing Designs....

The Postal System has eaten another parcel!! While on vacation, I did receive a few e-mails from stores that were trying to reorder our newest designs that we released in Columbus from Hoffman. Before we left to visit my Mom at the end of June, I mailed out the copies of the new designs to Hoffman, so I was baffled as to why they wouldn’t have them yet. As it turns out, that parcel never arrived!! Hoffman never e-mailed me in follow-up once I had sent my price information in, but I probably should have remembered to check all the parcel slips like I usually do to make sure that the trackable stuff arrived!!

After almost half an hour on the phone with the post office, they are almost as baffled as I am as to where the parcel could have gone, but they have opened an inquiry. The parcel was insured, so that means that I will get some of my money back, but now I need to sit down and make up a replacement order and get that off as soon as possible. I picked up the charts from the copy center this afternoon and a new shipment of bags is on its way from Toronto because another order just used up all but 100.

There are times when I wish that I lived close enough to the US border to drive my orders across and ship them from within the USA... but 3 hours each way makes that a bit pricey!!

The girls are getting very restless and I will be quite glad when they head back to school. As much as I love my family, I have also missed having the quiet time to get my work done that now only comes if I stay up after everyone has gone to bed!!

Mud...Mud....Mud!

What a busy day!! I now know how fighters must have felt after sword practice... Our family had Vacation Bible School this morning for the last time as the session ended. I had a great time helping out with Arts & Crafts... but it did make getting the order off to the UK a bit more hectic that I would have liked!

Yesterday afternoon a very nice man in a dump truck delivered our 3 yards of topsoil to bring up the area in the backyard that had settled over the past few years and created a lake that kept trying to flow into my basement office window. Nick and Fred dug a proper window well when they replaced the deck, but since we changed where the steps down from the new deck come, we wanted to build up that sunken area as well to prevent any surprises next spring.

When we ordered the topsoil, the forecast for the weekend had been clear and sunny, so we’d planned to do a bit each day and get the project done by Monday. By lunch time today, the forecast had changed drastically and they were calling for heavy rain all weekend. I had visions of the nice topsoil being washed down the driveway before we could get it spread... so Nick and I donned our sunscreen and headed out into the backyard for a four hours mud moving marathon! Erin was just super about answering the phone (wasn’t she Barb?) and bringing us cold water to drink. I now know why they call it SWEAT equity!! At one point during this Topsoil Turmoil, Nick reminded me that we can NEVER sell the house now because we have too much blood and sweat invested in this property...

I am now a bit more scratched (from moving garbage bags of trimmed shrubbery down to the curb) and blistered (shovel calluses) that I’d expected, but almost all of the mud has been spread. The remainder is hiding under a tarp that one of our wonderful neighbours lent to us so that we can see if there are any spots that settle further with the heavy rain tomorrow. After 3 late nights this week, I am going to head off to bed before the Cinderella hour and enjoy!!

Back Home and Blogging Late Nights or Early Mornings Again!

Well, after a wonderful two weeks of holidays and a few days of chaos after we got back home, I am finally back in front of my computer screen to blog again. Funny that it seems to be after midnight again! Thanks to a special charter flight that was happening between Moncton and Paris this summer for the 400th celebration of the founding of the Acadian settlements here in Canada (the ones who became known as Cajuns when they were later deported to the USA), we were able to get over to France to spend 3 crazy days in Paris before joining my brother and niece at their home in Provence, far to the south of France.

As usual, life and business have collided again. Nick and I volunteered months ago to help out mornings this week with the Vacation Bible School at church. This morning we did a Noah’s Ark Relay where you run down a field as different animals (I am sure that many of you would have laughed to see me demonstrating how the elephants, crabs, kangaroos and monkeys should move!) but then we rushed home so that Nick could head down to work at his new school in Petitcodiac for some afternoon meetings and I could finish batching an order from the UK that came in while I was away and needs to ship out tomorrow. There were two new girls working at the copy center of Staples who mangled one of the batches and I had to ask them to redo the job. The afternoon was spent printing out some of the covers for the chartpacks and assembling those I didn’t do between 11 pm and 2 am last night (this morning?) Nothing like hitting the ground running after a vacation!

Our vacation really did recharge my batteries on the deepest creative level though, so I don’t really mind the chaos before the girls head back to school. The colours, textures and light levels of Provence are still mulling around in my heart and head. The smells of olive oil and lavender linger in my drawers and on my counter top from souvenirs I brought home. The photos I took of crumbled castles and weathered stones just begging to have dragons drawn for them are all safely tucked in an album for me to leaf through whenever I get the urge to escape.

It was a wonderful vacation... but it is also good to be home!!!

Why We Go On Journeys......

My kids can barely contain their excitement. Nick is grinning and so am I. There is something so magical about setting out on a new adventure into the unknown. Dragon Dreams will be closed from July 29th until August 15th. I tried to find someone here to train to cover things, but explaining everything and finding someone I trust to allow into my home and into the business was just a bit too tricky. That is one of the major drawbacks of being your own boss and being the company in general. If you want to get away, it has to come to a halt. Luckily, stitchers can still get stuff through my distributors and shops that already have product.... but it is a bit of a worry.

Getting ready for an adventure made me think about why we go on journeys in the first place. Sometimes, the journeys take us across miles or oceans, and sometimes they are just emotional or intuitive leaps, but the process of breaking out of the pattern you’ve gotten into is the same. Journeys give us the chance to see and explore new things... get a broader picture... think outside the box.... and they capture some of the wonder and excitement that we too willingly seem to set aside as adults. I really learn a lot from my children in that department.

I am also really looking forward to getting away for just over 2 weeks. That’s something that I haven’t done in 9 years, since I went freelance. Every other time I went away, I found ways of checking in by e-mail, phone , fax etc. to make sure that I didn’t miss anything important. The only thing I really learned those times was that I didn’t really let myself get away completely. Letting go of control is scary, but it can also be refreshing. This time I am determined to just get away and enjoy spending time with family. I am sure it will recharge my batteries deep down inside!!

Here’s to adventure!!!!!

Surfacing At Last...

It’s not quite 1 am here... and since this is an EARLY night for me compared to some of the nights this past week, I thought I would blog before bed. The highlight of today was singing “Seek Ye First” with Nick, Erin and Bethany as a family anthem in church. I’ve loved singing in parts ever since Dad first taught me Tenor harmony on car trips. Erin sang a solo verse and then they held the melody line for my alto and soprano decant variations. Bethany had decided that next time SHE wants a verse of her own, so I guess my worries about her getting stage fright were all for naught! This was a nice smile after all the chaos since last Sunday. It’s been a grueling week for both Nick and I physically, but also one of great achievements. Never give two Type A personalities challenges to overcome... it puts us into overdrive!!!

We knew that if we wanted to have a new deck to replace the one that was rotting, that Nick would be doing it himself under the guidance, supervision and expert craftsmanship of our next-door neighbour, Fred.... but the reality of building a deck in 2 days of cloud and drizzle followed by one of scorching heat, coupled with a new cordless drill that turned out to be defective and a wife with her own production issues turned out to make the first 3 days of this past week a bit more stressful than we’d anticipated!! Thanks to Nick’s incredible efforts and Fred’s help, we now have a wonderful two level deck that has had everyone peeking over fences to oooh and ahhh. We even coaxed two other Canadian cross stitch designers, Lee Fraser of Stitchable Expressions here in town and the visiting Joanne Gatenby of X’s & Oh’s (along with her husband Bill) over for some dessert on the new deck. It was a great time for fellowship and giggles at the thought of us three “millionaires” (‘cause all designers are just ROLLING in cash according to those who share our charts illegally!) enjoying the chance to talk shop and vent together. I needed that night off from what has been going on.

I’ve been painting furiously for almost 2 weeks now and am just putting the finishing touches on the last two canvases so that all of those can ship out tomorrow night. Painting with a deadline has been hard... but having canvas arrive 2 weeks later than I’d been promised, after already arranging a second, smaller shipment to Mum’s while I was up there on vacation, certainly made things MUCH harder. I was at the point where I was about to buy the canvas RETAIL from our local store when the “missing” canvas finally showed up. I’m still trying to get to the bottom of why the date on the mailing label is 13 days later than I’d been assured that it was mailed.... It irks me to know that I will have to ship two of my parcels by courier instead of regular post to meet special deadlines because of someone else.

I honestly don’t think I would push myself to such limits for anyone else. One of the reasons that I haven’t blogged much is that by the time I pry my paintbrushes out of my hands around 2 am, I’m not really in the mood to type or click a mouse. I certainly don’t have a staff of little helpers or hirelings to work through the night like Debbie Travis does!! Some of the canvases didn’t have to go out right away, but it was easier to paint them at the same time and ship them early. On Thursday, I am shutting down Dragon Dreams for a holiday with my family and won’t be near a computer, paintbrush or e-mail for 2 weeks. I’m not sure I will be able to blog either... so don’t worry if the Musings are pretty silent from the 29th to the 13th!

Yawn! That’s about all this dragon can handle for tonight. I just wanted to let everyone know I was still breathing!

It’s Amazing What You Can Fit Into A Day!!

It’s almost midnight and time for me to crawl up to bed. As I write this blog, I am struck again by the repeating thought that I would never work this hard for anyone else’s dream.

Today began early. After vacation time up at Mom’s, I almost resent waking up to an alarm now, but at least it was 7:30 instead of 6:15. We got up and started breakfast, but our neighbour, Fred, showed up earlier than expected, so Nick bolted down his food to head outside and begin the Great Deck Demolition. We coaxed the deck through one more winter because we just couldn’t afford to build a new one last summer. This year, the boards are rotting and the steps have collapsed, but Fred has offered to oversee the project with Nick doing all the labour, so we are squeezing it in now before we head off again.

I got the girls dressed and tried to tackle the day’s e-mail before I headed off to fill in for another Weight Watcher leader from 11:00 to 1:30 pm. Once you’ve covered the material in your own meeting, it is easy to share the same information with other groups and fun to see new faces. This meeting was a lunchtime one, so I had to make sure I kept things brief. It went well and , as it turned out, my Regional Manager was there observing/critiquing me, so I am glad it went well.

I headed home afterwards only to discover that work had progressed much faster than expected!! The deck was gone and Nick now needed to rent a pickup truck for the day to haul the old deck lumber to the dump and pick up the gravel needed to put a proper window well in for the window under the deck. Since this window leads directly into my office with all my computer equipment and the soil under the deck had settled, we’d had to sandbag the window a few years ago to keep all the water from collecting outside and trying to come in! No one had eaten lunch yet, though Erin had made up a peanut butter sandwich for Bethany and used a heart shaped cookie-cutter to put a shape into the middle of it, so we piled into the van, drove Nick down to the car rental company and then picked up lunch on the drive home.

I tried to get a bit more work done after the girls were fed, but after squabbles erupted for the 5th time, I put the computer on sleep mode and went upstairs. I am playing the Legend of Zelda - Ocarina of Time on our Game Cube and the girls had been pestering me to get to the Temple of Time so that they could see our character grow up. LIke I really needed to be coaxed into playing for a bit!! It was fun, but now that everything is suddenly changed, I am all lost again in the game!

Fred and Nick made their trips to the dump, got the window well installed and started spreading out the rest of the gravel over some landscape fabric before the huge rainstorm hits tonight or tomorrow. He fired up the barbecue and did double duty while I made salad and the rest of the meal. They raced to get the job done while the girls helped me with the dishes and then I managed to coax them into “playing nicely with each other” (which 15 minutes later turned into each of them drawing in their rooms) while I finished graphing something out on the computer and working on a layout for a client. I checked e-mail quickly before putting the girls to bed only to find out about a Hoffman order and another copyright infringement on a Brazilian site... so it was off to the translation site to help turn a “Please don’t do this” message into Portuguese!

As I headed up the stairs to tuck the girls in, one of the other Weight Watcher leaders called to see if I could do the early Friday morning meeting so that she could get her boys up to camp. Once you have done a subject twice, doing it a third time isn’t that much harder... and I get bonus pay when I do more than 2 meetings in the same week. It did make me chuckle when I thought of the pattern sharers who think I am a multimillionaire....

Erin was thrilled to get to stay up to watch Canadian Idol tonight. Nick found it hard not to fall asleep on the couch. I had the whole dining room table taken up with paint and canvas again, which Erin had to check out each commercial break, but it lets me work on a whole set of a design at once. They went off to bed once the show was over, then I turned off the TV and painted until that whole colour was done on each design.

I fired up the computer about an hour and a half ago to finish up the 4 banners I needed to make for the Vacation Bible School at our church in August. The person in charge wanted to get everything set up before she heads off for her vacation because we will be away when she gets back.

As I finished that job off, I suddenly realized that I hadn’t really blogged since getting home, so this became my late night ramble. Do I still think I am lucky to do what I love for a job? Of course!! Would I work this hard for someone else’s dream? Never!! I'm glad each day only has 24 hours, though.... I don't think I could have fit anything more into today... or should I say yesterday??

Back In My Cave... And Surrounded By Laundry!

We made it home safely today from Mom’s and now I just have to sort through two huge piles... one of mail and the other of laundry! No sign of my original order of canvas from Zweigart. The replacement order sent to Mom’s arrived just 4 days before we left, so I have been cutting and tracing and painting like mad! I’ll unpack my paints first thing tomorrow while the girls are getting to know their toys all over again so that most of the canvas orders can go out this week.

It feels good to be home in my own house... but back to work I go!!

Celebrating 15 Years... and Mourning Theft...

I came back to Mom’s today after 2 marvelous days away with my husband, taking a small break from being a designer and small home based business person to discover that the Legends of the Dragons pattern had been posted to a Yahoo group illegally. What saddened me the most was the horrible backlash against those who spoke out to post about this type of illegal activity.

The scanning and sharing of patterns illegally over the past two years has been one of the most controversial and damaging things that this industry has faced. Too many pattern sharers promote the idea that designers are multimillionaires that are
too busy or too wealthy to care that their patterns are being "enjoyed" by others harmlessly in yahoo groups.

Legends of the Dragons was the first collaboration that Teresa Wentzler, Karen Weaver and I created to try to add some excitement to the industry and to work together since we all admired each other's work. Over 400 collective hours went into the design, production, stitching, framing, proofreading and creation of that piece between the 3 of us. We paid for the entire press run of that pattern up front, with our own money. Unfortunately, that pattern has been especially sought after among illegal groups, including those who use Russian or chinese sites to trade patterns. When fans ask us if we will do another collaboration, we smile and say not yet... but all 3 of us have decided not to bother risking our work being stolen from us yet again.

There will always be a campaign to portray designers as wealthy enough to afford such theft by those who are sharing patterns illegally. This is no less a theft that someone who creates “fake” copies for sale at a flea market or on E-bay. There are no shades of grey to make one worse than the other.

I wish I could have spent less of my day defending what is rightfully mine.

Joy Multiplied...Plus A Chance To Sneak Away!

What fun to hug my sister again in person and to share in her and Yoshi’s happiness!! How amazing to watch my kids parade around in Yukatas (summer
weight kimonos) that came all the way from Tokyo!! What a joy to welcome Yoshi into our family again! We looked back at pictures of my Mom and John’s wedding 17 years ago when he was last here and marvelled at how little and how much we had all changed. Back then, despite their love, the distance between their cultures seemed too vast to bridge... now I listen to Laurie teaching my kids how to count to 10 in Japanese and smile, knowing that my family has just gotten bigger more diverse!

Tomorrow we all head into Montreal to see my grandfather and meet my cousin’s bride and daughter from the West Coast. My grandfather will have 3 of his 4 great granddaughters under one roof! My girls will understand the fun of having a second cousin even if she is only 1 and everyone will be able to wish Laurie and Yoshi congratulations in person!!

Best of all, for Nick and I, comes the chance to sneak off and be just a couple for 2 nights in Montreal as an early 15th wedding anniversary present! As much fun as it has been to do all the family games, crafts and fun things with our girls over the past week, it is also going to be nice to show Nick parts of the city where I grew up and discover how much things have changed!

Family ties...

In just a few hours, my sister Laurie and her new husband Yoshi will be here for a visit!! They landed safely in Montreal last night and stayed with friends, but will head down once they’ve had brunch with some school chums this morning. I know that my girls are excited to meet “Uncle Yoshi” and see Aunty Laurie again... but I have a hunch that MY excitement level is greater.

I have been SO lucky to have a wonderful brother and sister that I truly like as friends and not just because they are my siblings. The hardest part is that we have all settled in different parts of the world, not just far corners of the same country, so I don’t get to see them in person as often as I would like.

The highlight of this summer for me is definitely going to be spending time with each one of them in person and to stock up on hugs so that the physical touch part will last through the phone calls and e-mails until the next time I can see them in person!

Oooooooh! I just can’t wait!!!

Wonderful Canada Day Memories...

Yesterday was a wonderful day of celebration on our Nation’s birthday. We took our picnic lunch and headed out on the back roads to Hatley for the Canada Day celebrations. Everyone making a donation to the town’s events got one of the special yearly wooden nickels, a Canada Flag and a little pin. We got there in plenty of time to get a fairly decent parking spot in one of the hayfields and then staked out our spot along the edge of the main road to the parade at 11 am. Once we had our groundsheets, lawn chairs and sit-upons to reserve our spots, we took turns exploring the many booths and tables of everything from homemade goodies to wonderful craft items. Nick found the lady who makes such wonderful fabric ties and we expanded his collection again. We found an adorable dress on sale for only 8 dollars that looked as if someone had made it by hand for a wedding. It was just the right size for Bethany to grow into this summer, but I think Erin was a bit jealous, despite the fact we’d helped her pick out new earrings the day before to replace the ones that broke on vacation!

The parade’s theme this year was celebrating Canada’s Multi-cultural Heritage... and the floats were certainly creative!! Everyone from individuals to service groups entered floats. There were horses of all sizes from Shetland Ponies to Belgians and you should have seen the look on my two “city girls” faces when one of the big Belgian horses had a dump right on the road in front of us!! They spent the rest of the parade waiting to see if any of the marchers or float vehicles would get all “poopy”!

Right after we sang “O Canada” at high noon, my step-father John played and sang with one of his friends on the keyboard. The girls were very proud to see Grrr up on stage. (He got the nickname when Erin was little and could only say that part of Grrrrrandad)

After our picnic lunch and dessert of fresh strawberries over ice cream (or the cotton candy that Erin opted for) the grownups all needed to escape the heat and head home for a nap, much to the dismay of our girls who wanted to stay for all the races and games. We coaxed them home with the promise that we would do our own races and games after nap time.

Sure enough, by the time I woke up, Erin had set up the most elaborate combination of Scavenger/Treasure Hunt imaginable and we did some egg races with plastic eggs on spoons, bean bag tosses and races... but then the heavens opened and the lightning drove us inside for supper.

We all played a board game called the Enchanted Forest after supper (which regretfully didn’t have a dragon in it) and then got them tucked into bed. The day ended with the storms clearing off enough for Nick, Grr and I to walk to the end of the street and look out at the Fireworks in the sky over the park beneath a full orange moon. Happy 137th Birthday Canada!!

Technology is Cool!!

Sometimes the way technology has changed by leaps and bounds amazes me. Here I am on vacation at my Mom’s... and yet I was still able to send my files from the computer here to the server in New Brunswick so that the Dragon of Air sample chart could be up for the July 1st deadline. I’m even able to blog from here too!! Of course Erin and Bethany were a bit miffed that I spent over 2 hours on the computer today instead of playing with them. I got lots of “I thought you were on VACATION!” wails.

Nick is feeling a little more human but still not his usual Tigger-ish self. Poor guy!! Hopefully the next few days of rest and relaxation will help. I know that the novelty of getting lots of sleep has yet to wear off for me!!

Monkey Bars, Colouring Books and Contracts...

One of the things I love most about being at Mom’s is that she and John loan us their room and sleep in the basements with the kids. For them, the novelty of being pounced on in the morning is still something fun and for me, sleeping until I wake up on my own is heavenly!!

Despite Nick still feeling icky and pretty much being quarantined to our room, the girls and I had a great time. We wandered down to the park nearby for a play this morning and saw a real bunny munching the clover!! I managed to make it all the way across the monkey bars but not two bars at a time or with my eyes closed like my daredevil oldest child. Bethany has also learned how to get on the swing and get herself going!! She still requests the odd push, but what a leap to independence compared to last summer...

We also had a wonderful session colour in our 3 identical Barbie colouring books that we bought at Walmart along with a huge brand new box of crayons. I can’t remember the last time I just sat and coloured. It was SO much fun!! It totally recharged my batteries in a get in touch with your inner child or get lost in those creative brain wave moments.

I also went over the proofs of my class descriptions for the Creative Sewing and Needlework Festival this fall in Toronto. I think I am going to have a lot of fun from the half day co-colaborative sampler class to the one of the dragon in her bubble bath!! The wizard with his fuzzy bunny slippers is even back for a small design to help people learn how to stitch over 2 and the Blackwork Princess pattern is going to be a blast to stitch with the Silk Bella..... For me, the most fun is spending time with stitchers in that more limited class environment. Designers can never forget that some of the most important feedback we can listen to is from stitchers who are involved in the industry for the sheer pleasure of it instead of as a business. That is a big part of what keeps our own sense of fun and wonder alive... the other is remembering to take time to play!!!

Santa’s Village Memories and Safe Arrivals...

Road trips are SO much fun with the girls at this age!! We spent Sunday on the road and made it to Gorham, NH before supper last night. Nick wasn’t feeling that well and had driven most of the way, so I took the girls to the pool for an hour-long swim while he slept. We then had a picnic supper in the hotel room with the groceries we’d picked up at the Super Walmart along the way and my poor “Basic Cable” kids went into fits over all the choices on the television!! When the hotel found out we were returning again this summer for their package deal, they gave us the room with 2 king sized beds!! Somehow even after a second swim to tire them out, they still managed to kick each other until I put pillows down the middle of the huge bed. This morning, we went over to the breakfast buffet as part of our package and then took our passes for Santa’s Village with us when we checked out. We drove there and had a GREAT time exploring the place... even though Nick was feeling worse as the day wore on. I drove the winding roads up to Mom’s in Sherbrooke... but Nick recovered enough to take us up the one hill I hate and into the city to Mom’s. Now we can relax and enjoy some family time.

Don’t worry.... the Generosity Dragon AIR will be up on the site on July 1st along with pictures of the new designs... I can do stuff like that remotely!!

Dragons on a Road Trip....

I can still remember my parents getting ready for trips when I was a kid. When you are a child, there is only the excitement of the impending adventure. You can’t understand why the grown-ups are getting so snappy and flustered!! You are just giddy with joy and far too much nervous energy.

Suddenly I understand how my parents felt!! Then endless lists of things to do and items to remember to pack! Bethany and Erin are being allowed to stay up later than usual tonight with a DVD upstairs so that maybe they will sleep a bit in the van tomorrow morning and avoid too much of the “Are We THERE YET?” syndrome.

All of my Columbus orders are on there way except for the ones with canvas designs left to paint... and even then I had some shops where I sent the leaflets on ahead and will ship the canvas at my own expense as soon as it is painted. Like most learning curves, this one has been vertical!

We last about 4 hours today to help a very good friend get her rented cube van loaded for her move to PEI. Sigh! I have lost my two “Sister Moms” (our club of 3 families that all had babies together in 1995) but it will give me friends to e-mail and excuses to plan better so that we can still have get togethers once every few months.

Our lives are really the most intricate weavings of endings and beginnings. I sometimes don’t understand the pattern until later... or enjoy the sad threads, but they are part of my life’s design. Our local tragedy of a young girl being killed while trying to bike across the highway that circles the city this week has made everyone hug their kids more and explain to them the importance of not doing anything risky... even if their friends are. Nick found some quotes to read to me today and one African saying has the gerbils in my brain racing around on their little wheels to see what kind of design it would make.

I will still be blogging on my adventures, but I won’t be near a computer until late Monday night or early Tuesday.... this dragon is hitting the road with her family!! Wheeeeeeeeeeee!!!

No Longer Nervous About Needles!

After weeks of dreading her last needle that she needs to have before school, Bethany survived her needle yesterday with flying colours! I think that she had built the event up in her imagination to be far worse that the reality of it, partly because she couldn’t really remember her last shot. While it did hurt for a moment, it was over and done with so quickly that today it is just a distant memory.

That got me thinking about how nervous I get before anything new. I was lucky to have Teresa and Letha to keep me grounded before the show in Columbus... and once the show got started, it really wasn’t that different that any other trade show I had ever done.

So often, we let our worries build into such overwhelming obstacles in our heads instead of just going ahead and facing them. Yesterday I was inspired by my daughter to be brave. Today I am trying to plow through the last of our orders from Columbus and get everything in the mail by the end of the week, except for the canvases.

Whoever said you learn from your children was right!!

Summer Solstice Celebrations....

Today was the first Monday of summer vacation for the girls. Nick got up at the usual time and left early since he only had to worry about himself getting fed and out the door. I sighed blissfully and rolled over to fall back to sleep. Around 8:15, I heard the sound of little feet coming up the stairs, down the hallway, pausing and then going halfway down the stairs again... then repeating the process. By the third time, when the footsteps paused as Bethany peeked in Erin’s room and then mine to see if we were awake yet, I gave up playing possum and got up to feed her. Now I know to put a few “tide over the tummy” healthy snacks within her reach if she is going to be the early bird!!

It was an extremely busy and productive day. The girls helped me stick labels on the 6 boxes going out with Purolator after also helping me measure them with the tape measure and lift them onto our bathroom scale. I had final press proofs to look over and correct (they were missing a font and instead of letting me know, they substituted an ugly one) and a batch of charts to get up to Staples for copying on the special 24lb paper I love to use in my chartpacks.

The girls played well after the first fight this morning. Erin had declared today to be “the First Annual Be Nice To Bethany Day” which lasted for approximately 49 minutes until Bethany first got on her nerves. She then told Bethany that “Be Nice To Bethany Day” had been canceled and would never happen again... EVER... so Bethany came down to me in tears!! When I asked them to stop measuring each other in the middle of my phone call with the Purolator operator, he burst out laughing! I explained that as a home based business, I was having a bit of a tricky time with the transition to them being home.... but I could hear him trying not to giggle for the rest of the call to arrange the pickup.

Finally, the most exciting thing that happened today on June 21st, 2004 (which actually happened here last night at 10:00 pm EST) was that we added to the family!! No... I am not pregnant... and we did not buy a pet!! My sister, Laurie, was married in Tokyo to Yoshi, her college sweetheart from when she attended Lester B. Pearson International World College many years ago. We are thrilled for both of them and welcome him into our zany family with open arms, many hugs and excited squeals from Erin and Bethany. I certainly wish I could have had access to a Star Trek teleporter to be there in person, but we are hoping to celebrate with them in Canada at a later date. Laurie and Yoshi will be moving to Manila in the Philippines in August as his job with Honda takes him on to new adventures. With both my brother and sister in such exotic, far-flung places, it is certainly saving to travel on visits a priority!! Luckily Laurie will be coming to Canada in a few weeks, so I will get a chance to hug her in person!! We’re just not sure if Yoshi will be able to get any time with the impending transfer.

Our family is also starting to get very excited about our visit to my brother and sister-in-law’s house in Provence later this summer. It wouldn’t have been affordable if there hadn’t been the special charter between Moncton and Paris this summer due to the 400th Anniversary celebration of Samuel Champlain’s landing on the island between Maine and New Brunswick. I’m not sure how many tourists are actually coming to visit because of this special flight for this summer only, but we were more than happy to take up a few seats and get the chance to see Dave and my niece Juliette in person. We will miss seeing Anne who will be busy in Athens with the IOC as she works at the Summer Games.

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!!