A New Addition To The Family!

What a crazy weekend! They say that the best pets kind of find you... and the latest addition to our family was no exception. I’d been moping around the house with no hamster to talk to since Wuffles passed away while I was in Toronto. Though I didn’t miss cleaning the cage, it was strange not to hear little scurry noises outside my office and get up for a stretch break to see how “my fella” was doing. In those last few weeks of his life, Wuffles was actually in my office with me so that I could keep a close eye on him after his first stroke.

We headed out as a family to do groceries on Friday night before all the stores closed for Remembrance Day on the 11th. It was a ZOO!! We stopped into the pet store near Sobeys to have a peek and there was a batch of new grey dwarf hamsters that has just arrived from the breeder that day! I put my hand in to check gender (we’ve had better luck with boys) and they were all still hand tamed! I found one male, a cute little grey fellow with white paws, who seemed friendly enough, but Nick and I try not to make rash decisions. We decided to do groceries first, but that meant that the girls skipped along beside us, up and down each aisle, asking if we were going to get the little grey smudge of a hamster. It didn’t help when Nick said it was all up to me!! That meant their entire energy was focussed on convincing me that we needed to bring this hamster home! I decided that we’d go back for a second look while Nick was loading the groceries into the car... and sure enough, we came home with SMUDGY! The girls thought that when he gets older and chubbier, we can call him pudgy Smudgy! (Groan!)



We left plenty of food and water out when we headed to Prince Edward Island the next day for an overnight stay with friends of ours. It was great fun to see them again and very hard to drag the kids away from playing with their friends for a noon departure, but Erin still had a major project to finish up back at home and I didn’t want the newest family member to feel too abandoned! By mid-afternoon, I started feeling a little under the weather and have taken it easy today. There have been quite a few bugs and flu strains roaming around, so it didn’t hurt to take it a bit easy on the third day of the long weekend. Nick went into work for a few hours, I proofread the last part of Erin’s project and made sure that got done. My darling husband has taken them off to choir to give me a few moments of peace & quiet to get the blog done before another chaotic week begins. Thank goodness for that nap this afternoon and the companionship of a new tiny furry friend!

This Is Just Too Cool!!!

Ok... I’m a bit punchy from getting up every few hours on Wednesday night to check the basement, and I did run the pump most of yesterday, but I am pleased to report that no water got in the office this time. I’ve plugged everything back in and even managed to sort out one pile of junk!

This morning, I checked Amazon to see if the book was up yet and THERE IT WAS!! How cool was it to use my name for the search and have the book pop up on the screen!!! Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! By the tenth book I illustrate, some of the novelty may wear off, but for now it is a wonderful way to celebrate the start of a long weekend here in Canada. The girls have no school on Monday and we are heading off for one quick overnight to visit some friends, but now that Nick is back from his meetings with all the principals in the province, we are looking forward to some major family time.

The first batch of books went off to Amazon yesterday, so that’s why it shows the longer shipping time. I am sure that once they get them in stock, it will hopefully show a much shorter shipping time. Having just waited almost 5 weeks for a birthday gift from my sister to arrive, I can understand the frustration of having to wait. Dragons do NOT like to wait for their treasures. Hopefully, this will let some of you, who have been e-mailing me about how to get the book in the USA or overseas, get your claws on a copy! The author is also in the process of revamping her website so that you can buy either book from the site.

I went back to check Amazon for the URL, but it is way to long to quote here and it remembered the book from my last visit, showing a tiny thumbnail in the margin. WAY COOL!!!

I Wish It Were Snow Instead!!!

Nick has been away since yesterday afternoon at a gathering of all the Principals in the Province of New Brunswick in St. Andrews. I’m so glad he’s having this chance to network and expand his horizons professionally, even if I miss him like crazy. The only nasty thing is that, just like the last time he went away this summer, we are under a heavy rainfall warning until tomorrow afternoon and I keep wishing it were snow instead of rain. Snow cannot seep into your basement office!!

This time I am prepared. I won’t even bother with the shopvac like the last time he was away... this time the pump will go right into the window well to suck the water that seems to seep into it from below when the backyard hits critical mass. At least the ground isn’t completely frozen, so perhaps it can absorb the rain between bands as they hit. Two of them have been through already tonight and so far, so good.

It’s been so busy while Nick is away that I haven’t really had time to miss him as much as I thought I would. Erin’s volleyball games and practices are certainly reworking our routines, but their team won again this afternoon by a narrow 2 point lead in the fifth game to get the “3 of 5” needed. This makes the second straight win for the team and Erin had a marvelous save in the 2nd game. What a proud mother I was knitting on the stage while Bethany played Go Fish with one of her friends behind me. Had the light been better, I might have stitched... but I knit by feel, so that lets me watch the game at the same time. After all, I have presents for the holidays to finish up just like every crafty person out there!!

So cross your fingers that our basement won’t look like my NOT FORGOTTEN design by morning!!!

SNOWFLAKES, LAUNDRY & LESSONS LEARNED AT RETREAT

The very first snowfall of the year is falling softly outside my window. I don’t have iTunes blasting yet, so the only sound is the hum of the washing machine and dryer as I try to get the laundry done from being away at a cross stitch retreat this weekend and the click of my fingernails on the keyboard.

Retreat was just AWESOME!! Like the CreativFestival in Toronto, it went a long way towards recharging something deep inside and bringing back a joy that had begun to fade.
So here are the lessons I learned at Retreat:

- Food always tastes a million times better when you don’t have to cook it yourself.

- Pack your digital camera FIRST! I forgot it and missed a lot of great shots!

- Listen to your body more and take naps when you really need them.

- A brisk walk not only makes you feel much better, it might just go a teeny tiny way towards offsetting at least one bite of a gooey treat!

- Listening to other’s life stories is important. It teaches you empathy, how to really listen, how healing a hug can be, how cleansing tears are and how much laughter can ease the aches deep inside our souls. It also reminds you to count the blessings in your own life.

- Watch out for flying, howling monkeys! (If I can get the picture that they took of me as the toy monkey came flying at me, I will post it hear. Dragons CAN be startled!!)

- A real fire is comforting on a crisp day.

- Women can be strong and generous. We raised over $500 for Breast Cancer and 5 of our survivors drew the names for the baskets of pink things we put together to raffle off.

- Stitching Over One is hard on my hands and a bit hard to see late at night when your eyes get tired, but the results were spectacular. I wish I’d had my camera to capture my ornament for the exchange... because I doubt I’ll stitch that design again over 1!

- I rediscovered how much FUN it was to stitch something that’s NOT MINE!! When I stitch something that isn’t my own design, I rediscover all the fun of NOT KNOWING how it will turn out, what neat colours another designer will put together and how much better it looks that the photo!! I have decided that I need to stitch at least 15 minutes a day on something that isn’t mine, just to remember how much fun this hobby is!!

- Retreat never lasts long enough... and then you can’t wait for the next one!

I’m Off To Retreat...Wheeeeee!!!!

Where did the week go? So many changes, so much activity, so much chaos... I am SO ready to jump in the car and head to the cross stitch retreat as soon as Nick gets home and my ride gets here!!!

Let’s see.... a job for a client that needed to be wrapped up wiped out most of the time I’d hoped to spend on my new illustration project, but now I get to invoice them and hopefully see a cheque before Christmas.

Bethany got her ears pierced last night and is just thrilled, but she’s also fighting a bug of some kind because she’s had a headache and gone really pale twice today. Maybe she knows I’m going away!

Erin made the volleyball team for school and is the only Grade 6 on the team, but she’s also the tallest one on the team already! Heh! Heh! Just wait until she’s in Grade 8 and is almost 6 feet!!!

I got orders off too this week, but didn’t get to the website. Guess what? I am feeling so burned out right now that I am just going to run away to retreat where I am not teaching, I am not a designer but one of the girls and I am going to spend the weekend stitching stuff that ISN’T my own design! Wheeeeeeeee!

Back to Reality With A Bang!!

Well, I’ve been back from Toronto for a whole week and it doesn’t even feel like 48 hours! I’m not sure where last week went. I arrived home to 6 meetings, volleyball tryouts for Erin, 2 projects, a Brownie Hallowe’en party, 1 temperamental computer and a very messy office once I got the luggage back out to the shed with the promise of sorting it all out when I had time!! Free Time... what is that??

Thursday and Friday were PD days for the school district. Thursday was Parent/Teacher interviews for both girls, a book sale and a supper meeting. Friday morning, I took care of 2 other girls along with my own for a friend who had morning classes at University and didn’t want to pay a second full day of daycare. We planned a “princess day” watching Over the Hedge (thanks Erica!!) and painting nails, but I had forgotten how exponentially giggly and wild a bunch of girls can be when you put them together!! Yeeeeeesh!

Today the car went in for its last service appointment before the warrantee wears out. New snow tires, new front brakes, 50 point inspection etc.... and OUCH!! It can be scary how fast car things add up, but you just can’t play around with safety, especially since we only have the one vehicle.

I had a great chat with my sister today and that helped more than she will ever know. It is funny that even though there is an ocean between us physically, I felt as close after the call as if she’d been right here at my dining room table! Once the girls got home, the rest of my day was a blur of making Orange Rice Krispie treats for school, checking costumes for tomorrow at school and tomorrow night, planning my Weight Watcher meetings, cutting out hand-drawn ghost stickers, batching part of a Hoffman order, updating files on the computer, saving e-mail, watching Heroes as a break and then getting my blog entry done at last.

Tomorrow promises to be total chaos, but I do want to write about the wonderful show in Toronto on Wednesday...

Tired... But Totally Recharged!

I’m back home and not really unpacked or caught up on laundry yet, but I have a huge grin on my face from the many wonderful memories about this year’s CreativFestival in Toronto! I got to spend time with a fabulous bunch of stitchers, wander through lots of temptation on the show floor, eat some great ethnic food, spend time with one of my best friends and hopefully excite people about the crafts they love while still being very, very real about the challenges that designers face.

I know that I certainly came away feeling more hopeful about the industry than I have in a long time. Not because the markets indicate things are turning around and certainly not because there is any quick solution to the problems that designers in any craft face from piracy. The issue of Macleans magazine that I picked up in Toronto has a huge article about the Internet and how it has actually become a home for pirates, thieves, porn and mediocrity where the purchase of music basically relies on the honour system. That is true for much of the craft industry now as well. I must find the quote that I like and post it here tomorrow. I’d never dream of copying out the whole article!

For all the stitchers who offered feedback, hugs, food, good company and giggles this weekend, especially when the dragon went off on a tangent (DING!) I thank you. You have helped recharge something deep inside me that was feeling empty and you won’t believe some of the crazy ideas I have for NEXT fall.

To Teresa, who reminded me how precious it can be to have a friend who truly understands the insanity we’ve chosen as part of our careers, the search for what else we need to fill our plates and how important it is to be able to laugh at ourselves when we mess up kit counting at 1 am... thank you for being such a great roomie during the show. I hope this can become a more regular tradition!

I need to get to bed at a reasonable hour tonight... so that I am coherent when I lead my Weight Watcher meetings tomorrow! Goodnight!

Hellos & Goodbyes

What fun to be here at the CreativFestival! I got into Toronto yesterday morning at 7:20 am after a 4am wake-up and arrived downtown at the hotel only to find that my room wouldn't be ready for a few hours! Luckily a stitcher is never without something to work on, especially a designer with some things to finish off on a class model! I got into the room by about 11:45 and started to unpack then snip floss for kits. By 2 pm, when I still hadn't heard anything from Teresa, I began to worry that she was stranded somewhere and headed downstairs to see if they had any record of her. As I checked with the concierge to see if my package from Zweigart had arrived... the cell phone rang. It was Teresa wondering where I was since she'd been in her room for over an hour with no sign of me! The hotel had checked her into the wrong part of the suite (Lily Chin's part)and I'd been sitting one wall away from her wondering where she was!

Last night we went to see the musical WICKED after a wonderful sushi dinner and it was FABULOUS!! I used myt birthday money from my grandfather this year towards the tickets and am SO glad I did!!

Today, I finally got the emergency delivery of the missing stitchband from Zweigart for my class that day, much to my immense relief. The class was a lot of fun and I had just turned the room over to Teresa for her class when she needed something from our hotel room. Off I went through the human habitrail of tunnels to get the missing plastic bags. When I got to the hotel room, the message light was blinking so I checked it and there was a message from Nick asking me to call home as soon as I could.

All kinds of terrible things go though your head at that point. When I called, both girls were still in tears. Our beloved dwarf hamster, Wuffles, had had a second stroke and they had just returned from the vet. The vet had explained to them how much Wuffles was suffering and so they made the decision to put him to sleep. My faithful "old scraggy fella" won't be there when I get home, but he lived a very full and friendly life. It is hard to love something that rarely lives to be 2 years old, but I would not have traded a moment without him, despite the hurt I feel tonight. I comforted the girls the best that I could long distance and thanked Nick for being brave enough to make that decision while I wasn't there.

Life is full of both Hellos and Goodbyes. Each should be treasured.

A Silent Dragon Is Usually A Busy Dragon...

A few e-mails this afternoon asking if I was OK prompted this quick entry. Whenever this blog gets quiet, it usually means that the dragon is tangled up with something. In this case, it has been having a houseful of company for a week while Nick's Dad and his wife came for a visit over the Thanksgiving weekend. It was great fun having them here, but the week before I go to a show is chaos at best. Toss in a project with a crazy deadline and a bunch of illegal pattern sharers getting all riled up about albums being closed on Multiply... and you get more chaos in my day than this dragon can handle!

If you want to check out the adventures of Rick Mercer's jeans and see how they turned out or read my latest rant about the boldface lies that sharers tell each other about designers, just click on the appropriate links.

I cannot tell you how much I am looking forward to heading to Toronto for the show. I can't wait to spend my time with honest, creative stitchers and one of my best friends, Teresa. I need this time to get inspired all over again after dealing with the nastiness of some people who keep trying to justify that they are doing nothing wrong by sharing.

New Projects and a New Blog...

In exactly 2 weeks, I will be in Toronto for the CreativFestival. That means that it is crunch time around the house as supplies for kits come in the mail or need to be tracked. I have things to assemble, things to proofread, things to file and in the midst of all this chaos, what do I do?? I agree to take on another project!!! This one was just too fun to resist, but rather than clog up this blog with all the photos that it will take, I created a NEW BLOG!!!

Just click on the link that says These Jeans Took 22 Hours in my sidebar and you will be whisked away to as crazy an adventure as when I became She-Hulk!!!

I wonder if I should let Rick Mercer know what I am doing in the blog so that he can check out what is happening to his jeans!

The importance of Date Night...

What a hectic week! The book launch was fabulous and being on TV last night was TOO COOL... but I really meant to write about it all this morning, except that a job for a client and some mundane life things totally got in the way.

Friday nights are special in our house. The kids don’t ask to stay up because they know that it is “Date Night”. Even if Nick and I don’ t go anywhere, we put work, stitching and all other distractions away and just spend TIME with each other.

He’d on the phone right now with his dad, who comes for a visit from the Yukon for Thanksgiving, so I have the chance to dash off this entry. Sorry everyone, but reconnecting with my husband after the whirlwind month of September is more important than anything else tonight!

Hot Off The Press!

I meant to try to get these photos and blog entry up Friday, but my camera was acting a bit feisty and I didn’t have time to play with it until this morning...

The book is printed!!! YAY! Hurrah!!!


I went in on Wednesday to check final proofs and see things as they came of the press. When you go out back, you have to slip on these little steel toe shoe cozies in case anything big and heavy tries to fall on your toes. The dragon is all for protecting her tootsies, but these are just plain UGLY! They also make a funny click, click sound and dragons are very fond of being able to sneak up on things!


The proof area at the end of the large press has this HUGE full spectrum light. I kept wondering how much it would cost to put one in my studio or stitching corner, but definitely out of reach of this dragon. My pile of gold that doesn’t go for mundane things like groceries, gas and bills just isn’t big enough!


The way they match the colours to the Epson proofs and check ink saturation was really neat, but neater still was holding one of the sheets right after it came off the press. I didn’t even get messy paws from handling the ink!


Friday morning, Kay and I went to pick up the final books, all trimmed, stapled, and packed up in cases. We asked the sales rep to take our picture holding up a copy of the book. Isn’t it strange how everyone ends up looking so short when they stand next to me?? One of the things I love about my family is that we are all in the same scale. One of the girls said to Nick once... “You give Daddy hugs in OUR size!”

I took all of the extra cases down to my self store so that they could make friends with my cross stitch leaflets because the author lives in a fairly small apartment and was wondering where on earth she was going to store the overflow. Having been through the “my business is taking over the family home” dilemma already, I had the perfect place to store the extra books. It was a great workout lugging all those boxes from the printer’s to the van and from the van to the self-store, but the extra burst of adrenaline when a huge spider scuttled out from the back of some boxes to check me out gave me a super burst to finish the job.

I can’t wait for the official Book Launch on Wednesday night. It is just TOO COOL to hold the book in my hands at last!!!

Being Picky Vs. Quality Control

Almost 3 am and one of the perks/challenges of a home-based business is that the office is only 2 floors away. A hot flash woke me up about half an hour ago, but my husband’s snoring made it impossible to fall back asleep. That is a dangerous place to lurk... in that half sleep world where you begin to make a list of things you need to do. Nothing like scaring yourself with a burst of panic when you realize that the show in Toronto is less than a month away!!

I’ve been SO critical with Santa’s Dragon, ripping out sections and reworking them, that I am beginning to wonder if it will get done in time. I hate being such a slow stitcher!!! This got me thinking about the difference between being PICKY and acting as your own QUALITY CONTROL.

Last Wednesday, after I looked over the proofs with the author, I realized that I needed to make changes to 5 images in the files. They needed to have the brightness/contrast tweaked a bit so that they would better match what I had drawn. I went in Thursday morning with my homework already done (after seeing that my monitor and theirs weren’t that far apart after all) and spent about 1/2 hour tweaking the files with one of the computer techs. When we saw the proofs the following day, I knew that the time had been well spent!!!

It seems as if that desire to make the best product you can is sometimes a rare commodity. I had a fascinating discussion during the Labour Day weekend with someone who talked about products being purposely created NOT to last and was “quite freaked” at the whole concept. I find it hard to know that some companies create products with cheaper components or lower grade materials so that the price point is low enough that replacement is a better option than getting something repaired!! Computer printers have almost gotten to that point now and I sometimes imagine a scary pile of dead printers in our landfills because it is cheaper to buy a whole new printer than fix a drum or replace cartridges!!

As a crafter, I understand making things that are and are not intended to last. Some quick crafts are just created for the fun, for the event, for the moment or as a gift that is not intended to last... and other things become heirlooms, precious treasures to be handed down to another generation. The quilt that hangs in Erin’s room is a tangible reminder that beauty can last!!

I’m not sure where to draw the line. Perhaps that is something to wrestle with on each occasion. To find that line between being obsessive and striving for quality. I just wish it didn’t keep moving on me!

Celebrations, Copies and Colour Proofs!!!

Today is Nick’s mother’s birthday, just 3 days after mine. When the girls were lamenting the fact that they didn’t know what to buy for Grammy or have a lot of money to spend on a present a week ago, I suggested that instead of taking her out for dinner tonight, we turn our home into a restaurant just for her. Talk about jumping on the bandwagon! The girls made me call her to find out what her favourite foods were and promised to help me cook the whole meal! We got out the fancy tablecloth, the good cutlery and even candles. Bethany drew the cover of the menu for the Birthday Bistro and Erin printed out the menu for the inside. When Grammy and Papa arrived, the girls were decked out in their nicest dresses with little tea towels over their arms to greet them. It was a fun and hilarious evening that ended with impromptu dancing and a magic show!

I also had a batch of orders to take up to Staples for Hoffman, the trunk show in Saint John this Saturday and two other shop orders that need to be mailed out this week. It reminded me of this time last year. I was up at Staples paying for a huge Hoffman order when I noticed a woman standing at the self-serve copy machine with a gigantic pile of cross stitch charts. I walked over to see how many she was systematically copying and there were easily 120 leaflets in the pile! I introduced myself politely and explained that what she was doing was breaking copyright law. I told her that as a cross stitch designer myself, I knew many of the designers whose work she was copying illegally. When she insisted in broken English that her friend had told her it was OK to copy anything she liked from her collection because patterns were SO expensive, I switched into French and fluently explained the issue in my other language. This did NOT go over well with the lady, but I remained polite and decided to leave instead of throwing a hissy fit in the store. A few days later, the local cross stitch shop told me about a customer stopping by who had been in the store with this lady. Apparently, she decided to buy her own copier so that she could copy patterns at home with out being hassled. After all.... the patterns were so VERY expensive. I wonder how many patterns she could have bought legally for the cost of a copier??

After Staples, I got a few more errands done when the phone rang. The colour proofs of the book were ready for approval!!!! I picked Bethany up from the bus stop and we drove across town to the printers to see the proofs. When she brought them out, the hair on my arms literally stood on end. It was SO COOL to see the colour slicks and the Dylux paper proof of the book flow. Of course I was a bit freaked out when I noticed that one whole galley was missing from the Dylux proof!! Apparently, they’d forgotten to output that center page (both sides) so the story didn’t match up at all... but that was quickly fixed and they stapled up the new sample for Kay and I to approve. Watching her look at the proofs was fun as well. It made all of those late nights seem worth it. In many ways, this is exactly how I felt after the girls were born. At first, you think “I am NEVER going to do this again!!!” but then suddenly, you find yourself thinking about the next one, forgetting about all the sleepless nights, pain etc.

Any creative process is taking the risk to bring something into the world. No wonder so many artists, writers, musicians etc. talk about their creations as being their babies!!!

Escape Weekends, Birthdays and Terrible Head Colds...

What is it about finishing a big deadline or task that invariably has your body crashing afterwards? Nick has been fighting allergies or a cold since going back to school and now I’ve come down with an absolutely horrid head cold... as a birthday present I’d rather NOT have had. Maybe once you get past 40, the warranty begins to run out a bit!

Our family had a glorious weekend of badly needed escape and family time up at Camp Tawasi this past weekend with about 35 other people from our church. It was time to get messy, walk on the beach, sit and chat, play with our kids and just enjoy a recharging weekend in the midst of all the back to school chaos. This is the 4th year that we’ve been and it has become a much-anticipated part of our fall rituals. We even got to try out Bethany’s Dragon Kite... but it spent most of the time diving to earth instead of soaring, which is kind of how this dragon feels right now!

I begin to understand the attraction of doping oneself up on cold medicine... but being hypo-thyroid, I really can’t take most of the drugs out there that would offer relief. Instead, I am honking away into piles of soggy tissue, putting vaseline on my nose so that it won’t feel so chapped, drinking warm liquids, sucking on cough drops and feeling pretty sorry for myself.

But amid all the germs, there were wonderful birthday memories as well. Of 41 cupcakes set on fire up at camp as they sang to me on Sunday morning, calls from family and friends, e-mail greetings from special people, an unexpected bouquet of flowers and some great hugs!! Now if I could just invent a bottomless box of kleenex!!!!!

Back To School!!!

All three of my darlings headed out the door to school today!! Nick was a veritable Tigger of excitement this morning and at 6:55, I told him to just head out the door and up to school! There will never be another “First Day as Principal” of your first school... and it was a doozy. Over 30 kids extra showed up for the first day than had registered ahead of time, so there is some serious number juggling to be done. He’s headed up to bed already, happy but tired.

Mum and John have been down for a visit over the Labour Day weekend and drove the rest of us to Queen Elizabeth school this morning to get the girls settled. There is just SO much stuff to bring in the first day that very few kids actually take the bus. Bethany met her new teacher, one that Erin never had, and was thrilled to find a bigger desk just for her. She announced this afternoon that her Madame is the most wonderful teacher she’s had, so I think some of the anxiety from last night has been put to rest.

Erin was thrilled to discover that she was seated next to her best friend in the classroom, along with having one of her favourite teachers ever as her homeroom teacher this year. Best of all, she has a double Art period on Wednesday mornings, so she thinks that her schedule ROCKS! She got to show off her new hairstyle and clothes today with great reviews. Apparently a Grade 8 student stopped her in the hall and asked her where she got the totally cool outfit! Heady stuff to a Grade 6 student. Of course in typical Erin tomboy fashion, she also spent the lunch hour testing out the cool new piece of playground equipment with the gang of boys she plays football or running games with.

Tonight, I loaded all of the files, fonts and images onto a CD and printed out the paper proofs. I am off to the printer’s in the morning to turn in the files and get this book printed! Wheeeeeeeeeeeee!

Thursday morning, once they are all out the door or on the bus, I think I shall skip merrily down the street and see if I can’t tidy my office and put away all the pencils, pens and markers that have spent the summer cluttering up the floor of our dining room!

Endings, Beginnings, New Crayons and New Chances...

Other than loading everything onto a CD and getting it to the printer’s on Wednesday morning, the book is done! It’s a bit hard to believe that less than 4 months ago, I met the author for the first time at an enrichment day and then showed her some of my artwork a few days later. I still plan to check the final colour balance on the digital images of my drawings on their computers Wednesday morning to avoid any surprises when we get the colour proofs. Some of the images look VERY different from one computer to another here in my office, so it saves time and money if I look them over on their colour calibrated computers... but I am almost giddy at getting the hardest part of this project done.

Endings are rather bittersweet. There is the sense of accomplishment and pride in completing something, and yet a certain sadness that the challenge of that project is done. There is the excitement of looking forward to the next project and yet the freelance pitfall of wondering what it will be. Of course I already have 2 other graphics projects to work on in the next 2 weeks, a web site to update and Toronto to get ready for, so it’s not exactly as if I will be sitting around twiddling my thumbs!

Beginnings are exciting too! Erin and Bethany both spent the day getting everything ready for tomorrow’s first day of school. Erin took a lot of time to pick her outfit and Bethany took all of 30 seconds... but that is the difference between Grade 2 and Grade 6! We labeled all the school supplies, packed backpacks, made lunches etc.

There’s something so wonderful about looking at all the new school supplies. I love the empty notebooks waiting to be filled, the crayons and coloured pencils with their sharp, perfect points. Going back to school held all the potential for a brand new year of learning things, making new friends, getting a new teacher. It is still one of my favourite times of the year and it continues to teach me something even though I no longer step inside a classroom or change grade levels. Fall teaches me to let go of some things and shed them the way the trees shed their leaves in a riotous splendour. Fall reminds me that no matter how old you are, there are always new chances, new pages in our lives and new beginnings. Fall affirms that life cannot always be about the heat of the summer or the frantic energy of spring. There must also be a harvest and a time to slow down or sleep a bit and re-gather our resources until the next adventure.

I will be watching my daughters find their classrooms tomorrow morning before my own meetings. They will look to see where the tallest desk in the classroom is to know where they are sitting, just as I did not that very long ago. I can still remember the wonder, the excitement, the possibilities....

Now I just have to go upstairs and try to get my principal husband to settle down and get some sleep as well!

Creating Beaches Instead of Fuzzy Alien Monkey Babies...

I’ve been staring at the computer screen for the past 6 hours touching up digital photos of the artwork for the final versions. Removing a wrinkle in the paper here, lightening a background there and even creating a beach in one ocean scene for the author instead of redrawing the whole full-bleed layout by hand. I can copy grass, create new waves, expand a bush... so I know how to alter stuff pixel by pixel. Perhaps that’s why some of the tabloid headlines and photos don’t grab me anymore. I could probably create Fuzzy Alien Monkey Babies that looked a lot more believable. Mine would certainly be cuter!!

So tomorrow morning I will replace all the dingy rough photos with these touched up scans and then get everything ready to go to the printer on Wednesday morning. The colour proofs will be the most telling, but so far, despite the many hours to ensure the proper colour, detail etc. I am pleased to get the digital artwork so that it does the drawings justice. I didn’t spend all summer creating those images to have them go muddy when scanned or look icky because of how they were photographed.

This is where being a type A personality comes in handy. When I wasn’t happy with the results of the photo shoot because the stuff shot under the studio lights looked too yellow, I double checked by going to the printer’s and looking at the images on a calibrated screen... then went outside the next morning and shot all of the pictures again in full sunshine. There really isn’t anything like Mother Nature’s full spectrum light to bring out colours properly.

I did take a break this afternoon to go for a long walk on the trails at the Irishtown Nature Park about 15 minutes from the house by car. We all went and Mum & John were amazed at how many different kind of birds we saw. I am sure they will bring their binoculars next time!! Bethany complained a bit that her legs were going to fall off, but forced exercise is sometimes necessary!

Well, it is off to bed with one last chance to sleep in just a tiny bit before the routine of the 6:15 am alarm starts again for another school year. Updating the website for September will just have to wait a bit longer!!

Happy Labour Day Weekend everyone!!

The Last Drawing Is DONE!!!

What a wonder to think about heading off to be when it is only just past 11 pm! How marvelous to think about getting more than 5 hours sleep!!

The last drawing is done and they are all pressing beneath a huge weight to get them nice and flat for the photo shoot in the next few days. The friend whom I was going to bribe to help me is hip deep in Provincial Election work and as a fellow freelancer, I know that you can’t say no to work that pays, even if it means going on very little sleep. I called him tonight and offered another solution since our cameras are about the same power. If he can just set up the studio lights, I can run over there and shoot the pictures myself. I want to shoot all of them digitally as a back up because my scanner seems to darken scans to the blue end of the spectrum and that would make a LOT of calibrating before Wednesday’s deadline.

Tomorrow, I will shoot a very rough digital image of each drawing and use that for placement on the pages as I build each file in Quark Express. I can add the type and block out the placement of the images enough for the author to preview on Friday morning, even if I’m not using the final high-resolution photos.

Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! What an incredibly giddy feeling to have all of the drawings done! How hard it is to look at some of the pages and think “next time, I’d draw it from this angle....” When does that perfectionist streak ever turn off??

I have 2 pencils that now measure less than 1 inch high. I have nursed them along through the book, terrified that they would run out before I finished all of the drawings and that a replacement pencil would be as off as a different dye lot of floss. I may frame the tiniest of the two because drawing with it was such a funny thing to look at. Maybe I can get Mom or John (who just arrived for a week’s visit) to photograph me holding the tiny little pencil tomorrow.

How strange as well to think that this time last year, I was heading off to be She-Hulk at DragonCon in Atlanta. I do have a way of picking huge goals to accomplish and then crossing them off my life’s list. I do know that this will not be the ONLY book I Illustrate. As much work as it has been, it has also been a true joy. Wheeeeeeee! The Drawings are DONE!!! Time to build the final version of the book!!!!!

Knowing When Your Hands Have Had Enough...

I’m SO close!! The second to last illustration, the second most complex of the whole book is almost done, but after almost 4 hours steady of drawing as soon as I got the girls into their jammies, my hands are starting to shake and tremble. It is time to put the pen down for the night.

Knowing when to stop is one of the hardest things for a slightly obsessive personality. So often, when I was younger and more foolish, I would push myself to the absolute limits of my endurance while working on an assignment only to crash and burn once everything was done. I’d get a massive cold or something as my body rebelled against what I had demanded of it.

Perhaps, now that I am entering my 40s (I’ll soon be 41) I am finally getting some of that wisdom that I so admire in a few of my mentors and role models. It is very hard to turn off that Type A personality sometimes, but after the “oops” a few days ago, I am just not willing to take a chance and muck up an illustration.

Since it is well past midnight, that might be another clue that it is time to turn in for the night. I love the silence of working once everyone has gone to bed. It is the only way that I have had my “quiet, alone with my own thoughts time” this summer. I am SO looking forward to the empty house to get my work done in once everyone goes back to school!!!! At least my pens didn’t turn into pumpkins at the stroke of midnight!

Good News Amid Total Panic...

Good news that many of our designs out there have been removed from the sites that were hosting them. Like mushrooms, I am sure that they will pop up again because speaking out against something that is wrong does tend to make one a bit of a target, but I needed that sense of accomplishment amid today’s horrid adventures. IF I believed in biorhythms, mine today would have been flat line. Everything that could slow things down, mess things up etc. seemed to be happening on a day when I was determined to get the 3rd to last illustration finished.

While the girls were out at VBS, the phone rang, the fax machine jammed, the washer got off cycle, and some of the socks fell into the garden instead of staying on the clothesline. The girls came home and I fed them a quick lunch, letting them picnic in the living room since Mommy had once again strewn the dining room table with every box of pencil crayons and felt pens that she owned. The girls were a bit wound from the morning’s activities, so I suggested the slip in a DVD to wind down a little. All went well for a while and I got the colouring and markering done then prepared to start inking the picture.

About halfway through the inking process, with the girls getting a bit rambunctious again, I moved my hand too quickly and smudged a whole section of the pigma marker detail!! I could have screamed!! I could have curled up in the corner and sobbed! I wanted to just rip everything to shreds and whirl around in the confetti bits as if trapped in some kind of giant snow globe!! But I didn’t. I did the logical thing and removed the children from the area, sending them to their rooms to play so that they wouldn’t accidentally be chewed up and spat out as I tried to deal with the panic and the “I’VE KILLED IT!!” reaction. This is where drawing by hand doesn’t come with an “undo” command!!! Poor Nick happened to call about then and when he asked if I wanted him to come home soon, I resisted the urge to yell “About 4 hours ago!!!” and instead just bit his head off... Sigh! Poor, patient husband living with a volatile dragon!!!

I had a sudden idea that coating the area with a thin layer of white gouache paint might give me a base to hide things under and camouflage the massive oops... but at that point I needed another soul who understood what I was going through and how hard I was trying not to cry or barf on my drawing!!! Luckily, Teresa was very understanding and supportive, making the appropriate sympathy noises in all the right places, despite the fact that I was interrupting her sweet corn canning. (Thanks!!!!) She agreed that gouache might do the trick, so at least I could get air into my lungs again by the time I ended the call. Upstairs I ran to put a light coat of gouache on the afflicted area before we headed over to a friend’s house for dinner. Tonight was the “thank you” dinner on their new deck which Nick helped build. It was wonderful not to have to cook or do dishes (they own a dishwasher... I am the dishwasher in our house!) but I admit that I didn’t fully relax or breathe deeply until about an hour ago when I finished the drawing. When I called Nick over to have a look, he couldn’t tell where the oops had been, so I am cautiously optimistic that the author and the digital camera won’t pick it up either. If they do, I will do a bit of touch up in Photoshop once the image is digital.

It takes courage to keep working on something when you think all hope is lost. It takes maturity not to walk away from disaster or make it worse in anger and frustration. My kids will see me deal with defeat and turn it into something beautiful. This is the greatest challenge and reward for any creative soul. Never give up.... even when all you see is the ashes!

Because Words Really DO Matter...

Tonight was SO amazing that I almost don’t know where to begin! I’m down to the last 3 illustrations for the book, including the huge double page spread for the centre of the book (which really should count for 2...) and feeling a bit frantic with the deadline for getting everything to the printers for September 6th.

Nick got free tickets to EVENINGSIDE tonight, in the tradition of Peter Gzowski to help raise funds for literacy before the PGI tournament here in Moncton tomorrow. We got the girls favourite baby sitter to come over early so that Nick and I could sneak out for a quick sushi fix before the show started. It was held at the Capitol Theatre downtown, a beautifully restored old theatre and the variety of the program would have made Peter Gzowski proud. For those of you who aren’t Canadians, Peter was a very famous broadcaster , reporter and writer who hosted the CBC radio show MORNINGSIDE for many years. Mr. Canada was a fixture on the radio every morning for many of us growing up. 20 years ago, he got together with a couple of friends and held a golf tournament to raise money for and awareness about literacy. Moncton has actually raised the most money of any city in Canada with its yearly tournament, far more than cities many times its size such as Toronto or Vancouver. It was truly a night to celebrate our cultural diversity and our community’s generosity.

I am such a voracious reader, and I learned to read so early, that for many years, I truly did not grasp what problems those who cannot read face each and every day of their lives. I simply could not imagine someone not wanting to, or even not being able to, curl up with a good book and escape. Let’s face it... I was a reading snob!

Then along came my daughter, Bethany. Unlike her older sister, Bethany showed little interest in reading and putting letters, sounds or words together. This could have had something to do with the fact that Erin, four years older and eager to prove her superiority, would always jump in and read the word before Bethany was halfway through sounding out the first syllable! Suddenly, I could see that to learn to read was harder for some than others. At one point I despaired that Bethany would never read well in English before she went into Grade 1 Immersion... and then the reading bug bit! While she prefers to read Neopets magazines and the text in the Harvest Moon games, she will also pull out a picture book now and then to curl up with.

What must it be like to not love and revere the written word? What must it be like to be terrified that someone will ask you to read something and your secret will be out?? Tonight’s fundraiser and tomorrow’s tournament are all about helping others to learn to read.

What a night it was!! From the comedy of our local Hubcap Comedy Troop and Laura Earl to incredible readings by New Brunswick’s Lieutenant Governor the Honorable Herménégilde Chiasson and Myriam Cyr to incredible music by Blues master Marc-André Léger, Oumou Soumaré’s African songs and 3 songs by Canadian Idol Top 5 finalist Casey LeBlanc I’m not sure how loudly Erin will squeal when she wakes up tomorrow morning and finds the autographed copy of the new album from Braided . Erin is determined to audition for Canadian Idol as soon as she turns 16. It was fun for Casey to be back at the Capitol Theatre because that was where she auditioned for the show in the first place!

The highlight of the evening was undoubtedly the readings by Peter Mansbridge and local radio host Rhonda Whittaker. They read some of the letters that Canadians has written in to Peter’s Morningside show over the years and shared stories about how important literacy became to him once a guest shared what a problem illiteracy was more than 20 years ago.

It was fun to meet him after the evening was over. I was wearing my 3” heels and I think he was a bit surprised at having to look up to Nick and I. He’s fairly tall himself, incredible well spoken and generous in carrying on this wonderful tradition in Peter’s memory.

Those of you who read this blog are not the ones who need help, but I am thinking about creating a special dragon with a book to add to the sample page of our website once things calm down a bit. Those who attend my classes at the CSNF in October will probably be the first to get their claws on this as a class treat, but I think it is important to create something to raise awareness, celebrate a love of reading and of course urge people to read to a child or volunteer their time to help someone learn to read.

Moving On Does Not Mean Goodbye!

The outpouring of messages that drifted into my e-mail since my last post, the comments posted here and on my Multiply site have prompted me to blog tonight to clarify what I meant.

Part of the switch for this blog and our website in the last year has been to reflect the greater view of my life as an artist, instead of only a needlework designer. I have always loved to make pictures, create images, play with craft supplies, dream and imagine possibilities that don’t have to be anchored by laws of physics or practicality. To be creative is to always look for the possible impossible. To dream of unicorns and dragons.

For the past 12 years, I have been making most of my publicly recognized images with needle and thread. Ever since I began doing cross stitch, I have imagined pictures made up of little stitches, written poems that begged to have bands of stitches or tiny images enhance the words or added sparkle and shine to imaginary creatures that I could never have done with watercolour or pencil. The fact that some of my ideas literally do not leave me in peace until I put them onto graph paper will not change... I doubt I will ever walk away from needlework completely, because it brings me the most amazing satisfaction to watch something grow stitch by stitch until suddenly... you have a picture!!

What has kept me enthused about stitching this summer, amid all the chaos of the show we traveled to and the book illustrations, is looking forward to the CSNF show in Toronto later this fall. Like the chance to meet store owners in person at a trade show, this incredible multi-craft extravaganza lets me RECHARGE my creative batteries instead of depleting them. Spending time with stitchers is one of the most rewarding experiences I can think of... to get their feedback on a new design that comes out as a class before the rest of the world sees it... to spend time laughing and celebrating what we love about stitching... to fondle new fibres or play with new beads. That is what keeps me going through the grind of reporting illegal sites or firing off letters about infringements I see to other designers.

All creativity involves risk. No one knows that better than creative souls in our modern society. Arts and Music programs are slashed in schools. Songs, movies and patterns are traded electronically by people who truly don’t care that they are breaking the law. Ideas shared could be ideas stolen. But in a world that seems to focus so much on the negative and the horrific, those who create offer places of refuge, peace and enjoyment.

I just laughed and snorted my way through The Second Summoning by Tanya Huff that I found before our trip. Having the story set in Toronto and other parts of Ontario was just the icing on the cake. For the few hours it took me to devour the book (I’ve always been a speed reader in English. I’m about average pace in French) I was totally captivated by her witty style and knack for throwing in the neatest zingers. The book has now been fondly placed among the several hundred books that clog our basement shelves, to be enjoyed again someday.

This morning, after I pretty much averted the flooding of my office due to a freak 2 hours of rainfall (the carpet beneath the window is still a little soggy from the waterfall when I got the pump into the window well) the soothing sounds of Pachabel’s Canon restored my sense of calm as I settled down to complete another illustration. Just 5 more to go!!!

Without the creativity of others, my life would be so much poorer...

I just still don’t understand why or when it became acceptable to steal it?

Back, Unpacked and Angry

Coming home from any trip is a mixed blessing. You are so glad to be back in your own home, your own bed and eating your own food, but reality crashes in with tasks such as laundry, paying bills, buying groceries etc.

We got home much later than we expected after some real adventures getting home. The flight we were supposed to take from Charlotte to Newark on Wednesday with Continental was delayed because of a part that needed to be fixed in the plane, but the airline immediately began rerouting passengers on other flights and even with other airlines rather than have us sit around for 4 to 5 hours. Remembering what Terri and I went through to get to the show in Nashville last February, I think Air Canada could learn a thing or two from how proactive Continental was!!

So we found ourselves waiting around the Charlotte airport for an extra hour before boarding a flight to Philadelphia with US Airways. We reached Philadelphia on time, but had to race to the other end of the airport via a shuttle bus and reached the gate just as the flight to Bangor was boarding. No lunch for any of us, but the stewardess did make sure we each had 5 or 6 packs of pretzels! We arrived in Bangor a mere 40 minutes after the Continental flight would have been in and ALL FIVE of our bags made it!! We went over to both the US Air and Continental desks to compliment them for getting us here etc. and they looked quite surprised to get Positive Feedback!!

We jumped in the car and raced for Skowhegan to get to the New Balance Tent Sale that happens every year during the State Fair. With Nick and I having such odd sized feet (13 E for him and 12 AA for me) when it comes to sneakers, it pays to get our sneakers as seconds instead of paying full price. We then drove back to the hotel and stayed overnight so that we could do a bit of back to school shopping for the girls in the morning before heading back to Canada. Erin and Bethany love having outfits that no one else in the class have!

We arrived home late on Thursday night and dragged everything to the basement to unpack the following day. I downloaded all my e-mail and headed off to bed. As we unpacked, sorted laundry and got caught up on messages, I discovered a horrid copyright violation of my designs on both Multiply and a Russian site. 27 of the 95 designs I’ve created were there for anyone to request by e-mail!!! The Russian site also had a ton of Karen and Teresa’s works as well, so I let them know.

All 3 of us are getting very fed up and discouraged by the core infringers that trade stuff on such a large scale. I blogged about it on my Multiply site and asked them to answer some basic questions that have puzzled me since all this first began more than 6 years ago. So far, no one has been brave enough to answer... I wonder why??

Most stitchers are incredibly honest people who truly support the designers of the patterns they enjoy stitching. What is so sad is that a small percentage of techno-savvy pirates have the ability to do so much damage to the industry. Less stores are spending the money to go to shows. Less designers will go if there are no stores to sell to or take the risk of spending money to create something which can be stolen so easily. It is sad to think that some people truly do not consider this ethically or morally wrong. It is scary to be told that the legal system has much more important things to worry about that friends sharing something for the joy of it around the world. I wish I knew what the answer was... It just makes me glad that I have already begun to move on to other things.

Ready To Fly Home...Almost

Today was all about how you need to be adaptive when things don't go as planned. We had a lesson in that last Thursday with all our airport adventures, and usually one lesson is enough! We headed up to Concord today to take a tour of the track and lunch at the Speedway Club, but when we arrived, it turned out that all track tours had been cancelled due to a huge motorhome show that was taking up most of the inner race field.

We went over to Concord Mills to indulge in some retail therapy and Nick actually found a cool sports jacket and a few pairs of pants, so we mall ratted until they were tailored, but decided against going back to the Speedway Club for lunch, especially after they told us that a huge group was coming in for lunch from the Motorhome show.

So now we're mostly packed and ready to get on the plane tomorrow, except for one annoying detail. Bethany is a HUGE neopets fan and I had pre-ordered a set of stuffed neopets from them on e-bay to be delivered while we were here in Charlotte. I'd even checked with them about the shipping time when I placed the order and was assured that Priority Mail would get it to us in time.

Alas, we have to leave the hotel at 7 am tomorrow morning. Bethany has been anxiously checking with the front desk every day since we got here, and has now tearfully given up. I will try to leave them some money to maybe mail us the package in Canada, but it has been an annoying and frustrating experience. Everything worked so well last year for my She-Hulk boots...

I guess, when it boils right down to it, how we react to life's curve balls says a lot about how we face life in general. We saw a lot of people yelling and taking their frustrations out on others last Thursday as everyone struggled to cope with the new travel guidelines. I hope that we can teach our kids not to meet the unexpected with anger and verbal outbursts, but with patience and a sense that eventually all will be well... or at least to be thankful for all that we still have.

Sunburned, Screamed Out and Giddy With Glee!

Thankfully, Embassy Suites offers a little refreshment when you show your room key between 5:30 and 7:30! After almost 7 hours at Carowinds today, my throat is pretty raw and we are just a little sunburned, despite liberal applications of suntan lotion all day. It was a blast to see how much more the girls enjoyed the visit this year.

Last year, Bethany was a bit too short for some of the rollercoasters, so our time was divided between the Nickelodeon section with the rides for younger children and the larger rides that she was able to go on. This year, my little thrill-seeking princesses even got me to go on the DROP ZONE. Bethany and I actually vowed NEVER to go on a ride like that again in our lives. Being raised to such a huge height and then DROPPED was terrifying. Luckily, Nick sat that one out because I think he would have been a bit pinched in the seats. He was brave enough to go on a whirling, mad ferris wheel-like one with the girls that had me cringing.

Unlike last year, we dressed appropriately and when we got SOAKED on many of the rides, we just grinned. Last year, we wore jean shorts, socks and sneakers, so we made squeaky, squishy noises through the park all day.

My only complaint about the whole day was that you get VERY hot and thirsty at a park like that. A 40 ounce souvenir cup of soda pop was $6.99 and then every refill was $1.99... but each bottle of water was almost $4.00!! If we are serious as North Americans about addressing the issue of childhood obesity, water should NOT cost more than a gallon of gas!!!

Tomorrow we head up to Lowe's Motor Speedway to tour the track and eat lunch at the Speedway Club thanks to some friends of ours. How thrilling!!!

As fun as the show was, it is nice to have a few days to relax with my family before the huge push to finish the children's book and get everything ready for back to school. I am forced to relax here because I don't have any more work with me, except for Santa's Dragon to stitch during the finale of Hell's Kitchen tonight!

All Done With The Show!!

Well, tear down of a show never takes as long as set up! The girls are just giddy with glee that now 2 days of family time begins. The weekend was a good mix of wonderful stuff and challenges. There is nothing like being at a show to really get a chance to build relationships with the shop owners and fellow designers, to get a much broader perspective of the industry that you see in your city, state/province or country. People help each other, offer advice, exchange ideas etc. in a way that you just can't do via e-mail or in chat rooms.

I've learned so many things this weekend that it almost makes my head spin. I've played with a punchneedle, fondled new fiber colours, been inspired by some of the energy of new designers, helped some exhibitors get the answers they need about coming up to Canada for the show in Toronto and had wonderful chats with lots of old friends.

I've also had moments of trying to explain to my daughter why some shops don't want to carry fantasy designs or wander into our room. She personally thinks that every shop owner should have at least wandered in for a peek (and she might be right because only 2 of the 4 new designs were fantasy). Could I have wished for better sales? The shop owners that attended came to buy and I was very pleased with that, especially since there was less competition from other vendors this year! But if you loose too many exhibitors, shops wonder if they should bother coming, so it becomes a bit of a chicken and egg syndrome.

Many ideas were bandied about for next summer and that seems a long way off right now. Since TNNA has moved the show back to the first part of June, it might be more feasible to try going back to Columbus and I already spoke with one shop owner there to arrange some stuff.

I got to talk to the shop owner in Lakeland that we'll visit with when we are down in Florida for March Break. The stores that brought back the gold coins I handed out in Nashville were thrilled with their treasures. The response to the Evening Dragon chart was priceless, so as soon as I get home I will post the list of which shops attended. The class I taught on the Importance of Cross Crafting was well received and all of the store owners thanked me for helping them think "outside the box"... so all in all, I am glad I came to the show. I'm just a bit tired from the business side of things and looking forward to playing with my girls for a few days!

One of the nicest gifts we received was from a friend of one of our "show neighbour". Their daughter was out with a friend and told them that we were taking the girls to Carowinds tomorrow. She works at the park and is often given comp tickets for working overtime, so sent two FREE tickets to us for the girls. They were so thrilled, they just about hugged her to pieces when she came to help them with teardown this afternoon!

People are what remain at the heart of this industry... and there are some darned cool ones involved!

Setting Up, Making Copies and Unpacking Found Luggage!!!

Well, Bethany didn't have to share her undies after all! This morning, we drove out to the airport, on the advice of the baggage control center in Houston,to check with an actual person to see if the bags had arrived in the wee hours of the morning. Apparently they got into Charlotte around 3:20 am and were promptly locked into a nice room to keep them safe, but no one had entered them into the system as arrived. By going out ourselves, we were able to get the bags back to the hotel and change into clean clothes BEFORE I had to teach my class at 10:45 am. Yay!!
After that, we grabbed some lunch at Chick-Fil-A and did the various running around, making copies of order forms, picking up a few groceries and stuff that I'd fogotten to pack (like clipboards) etc.

The girls were VERY glad to have a swim in the hotel pool at last and now that the room is set up for the show and I have blogged, I am heading off to bed. Tomorrow will be a busy day, but at least I will sleep more soundly tonight knowing that all our stuff is here with us!

Travel Adventures!!!

It's well past midnight back home and my 2 brave daughters are zonked up in the hotel room. We've arrived safely in Charlotte after flying through a crazy Newark airport today under the new security regulations. When we woke up this morning, we discovered that all the rules for flying had changed thanks to a terrorist threat. Arriving at the airport almost 2 1/2 hours early gave us the information we needed and forced us to transfer all but the most essential medications out of our carry-on luggage. All flights were messed up and we waited over an hour in Newark for our plane to leave, but that meant no running between gates with a 20 minute connection.

We arrived in Charlotte this afternoon, only 1 hour late, but alas... only 2 of our 5 bags made it with us!!! One other flight was due in just minutes after ours, so they asked us to wait and see if the bags were on that flight. An hour later, Erin was in tears because Bethany had her swimsuit and clothes but none of the rest of us did. We finally filed the appropriate forms and headed off to claim the rental car.

So here I am at the hotel. The only clothes I have are the ones I am wearing. My models did arrive safely, but the suitcases with the materials for the class I need to teach tomorrow, all of my dress clothes, the extra patterns etc. are somewhere in limbo. A massive thunderstorm this evening has turned at least one flight back, so there is a very slim chance that our luggage may come in at 1 am or not.

Everyone here is very supportive and I am sure that I can teach the class regardless... but it has certainly made things a bit more stressfull that I had anticipated. Kudos to all the airline and security personal who had to handle so many passengers today, like us, who are confused, missing things etc. I have made a point of thanking everyone I dealt with today. I would rather they be extra carefull than rush things and I don't envy anyone who had to deal with grumpy, irrate passengers today.

Bethany was a bit freaked out when Nick told her that she would have to share her underwear with everyone until our bags arrived! We did manage to find some contact lens solution at the hotel shop and a lens case for about $15.00, so at least Nick and I can get our lenses out soon and try to grab some sleep. The master copies for my order forms, trade show handouts and covers for one whole set of chartpacks were in my missing luggage, so I may have to get VERY creative tomorrow....

Ahead Of The Game...

I am almost giddy!!! For once, I won’t be staying up until the wee hours of the morning to get ready to leave on a trip! I DID stay up late last night to get ahead and that’s when I posted the rambling little entry that was very much due to lack of sleep.

It was almost comical. I finished on the computer around 1 am and crawled up to bed, ready to just crash until the alarm at 7 am, only to have the first band of a massive 3 band thunderstorm roll through our province. Even as tired as I was, it is hard to fall asleep to brilliant flashes of light and massive claps of thunder. Erin was so scared that she crawled into bed with us during the first band and woke up during the power failure on the second band. I think we were all fairly groggy by the 3rd band...

Anyway, we are mostly packed and there is very little I can do now to suddenly design and produce something at the last second, so this is when I actually start to relax a bit. The time for second guessing is done, it is too late to start in on a drawing etc. So I am going to head upstairs and have a nice warm bath, get to bed at a reasonable hour and wake up to get on the road tomorrow. We only have to get as far as Bangor, Maine, so that is a bearable 4 1/2 to 5 hours. I am pretty sure that the hotel in Charlotte has a common internet access area, so I will be able to blog about some of our adventures, but probably not include any pictures.

This is the time when I can actually get excited about the show because the pressure is off a bit. Now I just have to see how the new designs do and what the response is, but the kids are SO excited just to be going back to such a neat city that they couldn’t care less how many patterns Mommy sells... Smart Girls!

The Clock Is Ticking...

Today was an absolute zoo... from washing dishes in the bathtub upstairs because of the broken faucet to desperately trying to finish 2 more illustrations for the children’s book before my meeting with the author... from a wonderful chat with my sister to Erin and a friend thumping directly over my head as I drew with their card game.

It always feels like there are never enough hours in the day before a trade show, but this year that is amplified by needing to work on the children’s book and doing my Weight Watcher’s meeting all tomorrow morning.

There are a few moments... like right now... when I wonder what it would be like to have a 9 to 5 job, a steady paycheque, a pension plan and actual 2 week paid vacation... but then I look at how this creative, wacky career of mine fits in with our family, allows me to be here when the girls get off the bus etc.

Nick always smiles at this point and tells me that I could never go back to working for someone else because I like control too much... and he’s probably right, but sometimes the idea is tempting. At least for 30 seconds!

Charlotte Countdown, Broken Sinks and Early Morning Phone calls...

Today is New Brunswick Day here in our province, a holiday that many provinces get to make up for the fact that Quebec has the St. Jean Baptiste holiday in June. After all, it isn’t fair if one province gets an extra statutory holiday per year that the rest of the country doesn’t! The weird thing is, almost every province names this 1st Monday in August something different (though most name it something to do with the Province) so every year we confuse lots and lots of tourists. This year’s calendar just has “Civic Holiday- Canada” written there, which is correct unless you are in Quebec, so that must be how calendar companies cope with this quirky Canadian holiday.

The fact that EVERYTHING except emergency services and some pharmacies or convenience stores are closed today has also made the countdown to leaving for Charlotte a bit trickier. We made sure to get our US money out of the bank late last week, though it put us in line with everyone else who wanted money before the holiday. We got the last of our photocopying and printer cartridges from Staples, to be sure to have what we needed as the last of the new designs got batched up to sell. All seemed to be fairly under control until last night after supper.

Yes, less than an hour after the stores closed on Sunday, our kitchen sink faucet decided to break a small plastic ring/seal which sent water spewing everywhere! We quickly got the water shut off at the source, but will now have to lug water from the taps upstairs to do mundane things like dishes and rinsing vegetables. Paper plates might take care of some of that, but both Nick and I found it a bit frustrating. As an adult, you just can’t throw a hissy fit because something shows an incredible lack of timing when it breaks. Much as I wanted to stomp around the house and yell “This isn’t fair, this is the LAST thing I need right now before the show!” I took a deep breath and reminded myself that some people in this world have to walk 4 km to gather a pot full of dirty water to stay alive. We take SO much for granted sometimes.

The girls stayed up fairly late to watch a movie while Nick stitched and I batched patterns. He’d gotten a fair chunk done on the model for Santa’s Dragon when he discovered that one section was off by ONE thread. A hazard when you stitch over 2 on linen. Once we got the kids down, I took over and managed to track down where the problem was. After a but of frogging on both our parts and one tiny section I can just change in the final chart rather than rip out, we were off to bed just before the stroke of midnight.

This morning, we were both jolted out of sleep by a phone call from a stitcher who fully expected to get a Dragon Dreams answering machine. Nick explained that this is also our home phone number and then just passed the cordless phone to me. I was able to wander down to the office in my jammies and find the information that she needed as well as have a lovely chat with her. I never begrudge phone calls like that, but it does feel just a little strange to be wide awake early on a morning that I’d planned to sleep in a bit! Oh well, more time to stitch and pack!!!

I also have to meet with the author tonight or tomorrow to go over the last batch of pencil sketches so that once Charlotte is behind me, the last 7 drawings can be completed. Erin joked about the summer flying by but that she’d had a great break from school.... and I just grinned. I’m not sure this summer feels like I really had a rest, but I will always look back on this time with a sense of pride and amazement. Pride that I finally illustrated a children’s book and produced designs that I am very pleased with... and amazement that I survived trying to do both at once!!

Slave Labour, Photocopy Frustrations and Printer Challenges...

The great thing about your kids wanting to earn spending money for a trip... they made great slave labour. Not that my working conditions are unduly harsh, but it is good for them to actually have to put in some effort to earn the money. Bethany was perfect at checking the printer as it chugged away printing cover sheets. On the Epson photo paper, she could just wait for them to pile up and run down now and then to get a batch. When we had to switch to the Kodak photo paper, she had to wait beside the machine and remove each page as it printed out, run it into the next room and lay it out on the family room floor so that the ink would have a chance to dry properly. Otherwise, it sticks to the copy above it or smudges terribly. Erin was good at batching the innards for the chartpacks or counting out the bagged versions into piles of 25. At one point, Bethany looked at me and said “Why are we doing these patterns?” to which Erin replied in that 11 year old world-savy tone “So that Mommy has something to sell at the show, silly!” Bethany just looked at me in a puzzled sort of way and said “But why do people buy these?” Sigh! Put in my place by a 7 year old. Why indeed....

I hope you readers of this blog and fans of my work know how incredibly humbling it is when you send me a message telling me how much a design has meant to you. I always think that I should be running around thanking the stitchers for buying my designs instead of them thanking me for creating them!! But then I remember how much enjoyment a good book brings to my day or how much I ADORE stitching other people’s designs when I have the chance... so maybe I do understand wanting to thank them for the enjoyment they bring to my life.

We picked up the huge batch of photocopying from Staples after Nick and Bethany went to the dentist today, lugged the 2 boxes home, sat down to batch them and discovered that over 160 of the 200 Dust Bunny charts weren’t fit to use. Somehow, they set the copier WAY too dark, so it left smears, smudges and grey areas all over the nice 32 lb. bright white paper. So off I trucked with the box of rejects, back to Staples to drop it on the counter and ask them politely to redo them. I honestly believe that stitchers should get the best quality pattern I can produce.... and it is frustrating when a new person in the department treats it as a “disposable” copy job. I keep training them to watch for stuff and then they move on or advance in the company!

I also called HP in a snit today. There’s nothing like venting a bit of pre-show frustration by calling a customer service number. The new HP printer I got came with 2 ink cartridges that were basic instead of high volume, but when I asked about which numbers were for the high yield cartridges, 3 out of the 4 people I asked drew blanks. The regular cartridge printed out a grand total of 32 cover sheets before it ran out of ink!! Gosh! At $33.00 a cartridge, doing an offset print run looked pretty good!!! The high yield number I got from the website was in stock at the store and it proved to print almost 75 covers before losing one of the colours completely and mucking up 3 sheets before I could cancel the job.

Colour technology has changed a lot in the past few years, and it does let us do some amazing things from home/business printers that we’d never have been able to do even 6 years ago, but the fact remains that it cannot touch the quality of real offset printing. I just find myself more and more reluctant to add to the stock in my self store that is paid for, sitting there... Which came first? The chicken or the egg???

Child labour may be hard on the pocket book, but at least it is easier on the head than some other business decisions!!!

Where Did July Go??

I’d intended to write another entry altogether... but then as I sat down at the computer an hour and a half ago, I looked at the calendar. Oh Pickle Snurf!! Where did the month go?? Instead of writing that entry, I got all of my updates done and sent over to our server, so the August updates are up, and it is now August.

I knew this was going to be a crazy summer, but I jest never realized how colliding deadlines would make me feel as if I was juggling one to many moose and someone suddenly tossed me a squirrel! I always set myself lofty goals, but it is very humbling to know that the design advertised in my blurb for the show guide (which had to be submitted MONTHS ago) is the one design that I didn’t get done in time. Am I still proud of the design? I think it is my best ever. Will I rush the job to release it at the show and compromise that quality? Not on your life!

If I look back at this summer though, I do know that at least 65 hours, that could have been spent stitching, were spent filling out forms, sending e-mails or requesting that copyright infringements of my work be removed from sites. About 4 hours worth of that in the past 48 hours alone. My hands are SO tired, but if I don’t defend my rights on-line, no one will do it for me. Thankfully there are so many honest stitchers out there who watch out for violations, who are willing to go under cover and maintain dual identities, who DO care about helping this industry stay alive.

I spoke with one designer this week who said that NO designer out there, no matter how famous, could make their entire living from cross stitch anymore. Maybe I am lucky that I never tried. I’ve always been juggling many ways to make pictures and multiple sources of ways to earn money. This is a lesson I am trying to teach my kids. Make the most of all the talents you have and never put all of your eggs in one basket unless you truly enjoy scrambled eggs. There are SO many wonderful possibilities out there to just limit yourself to one thing. In the words of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe - ”Live the journey... for every destination is but the doorway to another!”

Rebounding Gophers, Chewed Peas and Losing Money on Postage!

It was just one of those days... Nick got home yesterday from the conference, but looked absolutely green around the gills and was suffering from either a flu or food poisoning. He seemed a bit better today, but went back to sleep for almost 3 hours after I got the girls up so that Erin could get off to her last day of sports camp.

He got up to shave and looked out the window only to bellow “He’s BACK!!!” Sure enough as I ran to the kitchen window, I caught a glimpse of familiar gopher butt disappearing under the shed. Remember those Disney movies where the pets travel incredibly long distances to be reunited with their families? I guess a few city blocks just wasn’t far enough. The furry little devil even got half of my pea pod crop before we managed to trap him again. This time Nick and a friend took him for a LONG drive to a local gravel pit/ wooded area just outside city limits. Be a nice rodent and go make friends in the WILD!!!

I did also promise that this blog would be a realistic peek into an artist’s life. Here’s a good example of how hard it can be not to freak out when pattern sharers tell me I am being a greedy designer to get upset over them sharing a “few” patterns with their closest friends all around the world.

I head off to a major trade show in 2 weeks and like many other Canadian designers, I have been wrestling with the need to adjust my prices. When the US dollar was stronger, my cheques from the US used to get multiplied by 1.5. The last batch of cheques went through at 1.12 which is a huge change. That extra exchange used to cover the fact that postage from Canada to the US is outrageously more expensive than mailing things from within the United States.

Today, I took 3 orders up to the post office to ship out. The first one could go regular letter mail, which is a bit scary because I cannot track or insure it once it leaves the country, but it only cost 50 cents more than the 10 percent shipping and handling on her order. The other two contained button embellishments which need to be protected and therefore had to go in a box instead of a padded envelope. The first one cost 6 dollars more than the shipping covered and the second one cost 10.75 more than I actually charged.... so on the three orders I shipped out today, I actually paid 17.25 extra to earn the money from those leaflets. How does that make sense when the news reported that Exxon made 10 billion dollars in profit last quarter? Maybe I should train those gophers to dig for oil in my backyard!!!

New Steps, Sticky Drawings, Happy Birthdays and Flying Photocopies...

Today started VERY early around 4 am when a massive thunderstorm ripped through our area and dumped a deluge of rain and ground shaking booms that had Erin and I resetting our clock radios by flashlight while Bethany slept soundly on. Erin and I were a bit groggy once those alarms did go off a few hours later.

This morning, during a wonderful phone call with my patient sister, Bethany came tearing down the stairs to the office to ask if it was OK for there to be men in our driveway yanking the steps off the front of our house with a big truck!! I’d done some logo work for a company here in town and got a great deal on replacing our front step, but we’ve had no idea when that would happen all summer... so today was the day!!

I spent the rest of the morning working on the last drawing of the batch that Nanny Kay will review tomorrow morning, but had a “disaster” smear that I will have to take out in Photoshop once the image is scanned in. It’s on the very edge of the drawing and into the white space, so very easy to fix, but I know better than to try to hide it under a layer of gouache or liquid paper. That’s more likely to show that leaving it there. Still, the perfectionist in me is just totally annoyed. It was also very hot and humid, despite the storm that rolled through, so trying not to stick to the drawing or sweat on it was a challenge!

Once Erin got home from the morning sports camp, we called my niece in Provence to wish her a Happy Birthday. Juliette is now 5 and sounded SO grown up with her little French accent on the phone that I was worried I had the wrong number! Aunty Dragon was sad that she couldn’t be there for the occasion, but my Mom and John who are over there right now shared that the 45 (113) degree heat is a bit much even with the pool.

Suddenly, the humidity over hear didn’t seem so bad. I wish I could have kept my temper cool an hour later when the girls got into a massive fight over someone taking someone else’s Lego creation apart... I timed myself out for a good cry and soldiered on with very contrite girls who felt bad about making Mommy “blotchy”.

Erin even helped batch some leaflets tonight for an order, but we ran into a real problem. When you have the big fan on to keep you from dripping and sweating on things, it does tend to cause sheets of paper to fly about the room when you least expect it!

Just one more crazy episode in my life as an artist. When the pressure starts to get to me, I just watch an episode of Hell’s Kitchen!!!

How Do Single Parents Do It???

OK.... I’ve had enough!! Not that I would mail my kids to Australia in a box with teeny, tiny air holes, but being the only adult in the house is starting to get to me! I miss my husband and the tossing and turning on the other side of the bed. I miss having someone else as a sounding board as I get ready for this trade show in just over 2 weeks. I find myself wondering how single parents cope, let alone keep their sanity... and I have great kids!!

Today was just a comedy of errors and perhaps that’s part of the problem. I had a great morning at Weight Watchers because it was a fun topic to do as a leader and I was really proud of being down 3.8 lbs. this week as I get the extra from my visit to Mom’s off!!! Bethany came with me because Erin was off at a sports camp for the morning and was a great helper, but by the end of the meeting, she was starting to pace a bit. Once we picked the gang up from the sports camp (my turn to do pickup) and got every one home, I fed them and hoped to get an afternoon of drawing in. Erin and Bethany desperately wanted to have a Barbiefest, but the basement just “wasn’t what they needed”... In a fit of desperation and creativity, I took the bowls and baskets off our kitchen island and let them convert that into a Barbie condo. The only flaw with that theory was the soap opera saga game they were playing was too noisy to be next to!!! The dragon scurried down to the basement and hid in her office getting one more chart ready to output for the show in Charlotte! Things went well for a while then the mayhem kicked in and I had to resolve a fight that left Bethany “accidentally” falling off Erin’s back because she let go!!

I actually teamed up with another Mom on the block whose husband is away on business and has kids of a similar age for supper. Like me, she was craving some adult conversation and rational adult company!!

The evening was fine except that the kids just seemed to want more and more. We walked up to the new local candy shop for a gelatin and stopped for a play in the park on the way home, but all of our kids gave us grief when we said it was time to go home. It is nice to have another mother on the block who is willing to be “ a mean mom” and set boundaries for her kids!!!

I got some stitching done tonight, but I have also learned when it is better not to push my hands and try to go on to some drawing. Instead, I have set aside tomorrow morning to finish the last colour illustration of this batch so that tomorrow night I can work on pencils of the last few illustrations. I’m not sure why I left some of the hardest ones for the end......

I really miss my best friend tonight, even though I know that this conference will teach him things he needs to know as a principal. Isn’t it wonderful to realize that you shouldn’t take someone for granted??? Isn’t it educational when the shoe is on the other foot?? I have learned so much about what Nick goes through when I am away at shows. I have great kids... and yet they will still try to be kids every chance they get. My mom always said that I would understand when I had kids of my own and every so often I phone her to tell her how right she was. I now use that line on my own children because it is true. Only when you are a parent, trying to juggle all of the adult things, do you TRULY appreciate what you put your parents through when you were young.

Kudos to any and all single parents out there. You have more courage and strength than you know as well as my admiration and respect. I have walked a few days in your shoes several times this summer and my feet hurt!!!

Sore Hands and Rodent Temptation...

I’ve been working SO hard on book illustrations, computer stuff and stitching that my hands are sore and stiff every morning when I wake up. For an artist, there is no greater terror than to have something happen to your hands... and for someone who is now in her 40s, a shadowy specter looms on the horizon for the first time. Will there come a time when I am still mentally alert and physically healthy, but with hands that are no longer able to create things? It didn’t help to find out this summer that my mother’s grandmother, a brilliant knitter, had such severe arthritis that she had to give up everything like that in her early 60s!

I try to give my hands a rest as often as I can. I take small breaks and Nick does a wonderful hand massage, but the fact remains that I am dependent on what these hands are capable of creating and like any other body part or talent, then can get strained. Last night I went to bed wide awake but knowing that my body, and hands especially, needed the rest. “I wish I could clone myself!” I wailed to Nick as I imagined a copy of myself that would stitch quietly through the night. He just shuddered and said “I don’t think so!”

I am lucky enough to have wonderful model stitchers who can help me bring stuff to life, but there are times when I am unsure of a design or it evolves as I am stitching it and needs changes, so those models are ones that I must stitch myself... and I am such a SLOW stitcher.

It has felt like a great defeat somehow to know that Santa’s Dragon won’t be ready for the show in Charlotte. I try not to look back over the last 4 months and wonder where I could possibly have found more time, slept a bit less, stitched a bit more, ignored other things that needed doing to have the model ready and framed by now. Nick reminds me that some things just need a bit more time and that if the design is truly something that I am proud of, which it is, then it will be worth the wait. Thank goodness he is there to ground me in my life!

I woke up early this morning and tiptoed down to the office to work on a few things before I begin another day of stitching and drawing. Reading the Yarn Harlot’s blog for the 21st of July certainly helped!! The way in which she captures the angst of writing could certainly describe creating art as well. The silly things that others imagine about life as an artist or needlework designer do apply as well. Self Doubt? Those of you who read this blog on a regular basis know that I face that same demon, I just may not describe it as well as she does.

Amid all of this chaos, pre-show panic, Nick getting ready for yet another conference this week and life in general, a little furry rodent temptation has been thrown our way. We stopped by the pet store where we’d bought our dwarf hamster Wuffles, who though old and creaky is still fine, and discovered that there is a batch of baby midnight black dwarf hamsters that will be old enough to go home with owners in just over a week!! They are just ADORABLE!! Barely an inch and a half long, these little furry bundles were zipping about the cage playing tag as my daughters let out super sonic squeals at their cuteness and reminded me that we have an empty cage now....

My head and heart are a bit more practical than that. Perhaps I am not ready to replace Jellybean so quickly, especially right before we go away, even though we have a fellow dwarf hamster owner to look after them. We will go back in a week or so and see if any of the males seem really friendly. I have told the girls not to count on getting one.... and yet little names like Soot, Midnight, Shadow etc. are already rumbling at the back of my brain.

Summer’s Magic... and More Rodents!

It has been sweltering here in the Maritimes since we got home, just like it was in Sherbrooke. Since this is the weather I only dream of in the depths of winter, I don’t complain too much, but sleeping is hard and I didn’t even try to draw today. I hate trying not to sweat on artwork. Instead, we hid in the cool basement and I did a bit of charting.

After dinner, we went for a walk in the park near our house and picked raspberries as a family. We got almost 2 cups of them to bring home and wash in case of bugs, pesticides etc. I can remember walking with my Dad on Nun’s Island/ Ile des Soeurs near Montreal as a child and doing the same thing. I think we just ate them as we picked them back then...

The girls were busy telling me what a wonderful adventure that was and how that was just “one of the most funnest things about summer” when we noticed our neighbour out on her front step holding something small and furry in her hands. She is in the same class as Erin at school and so we went over to say hi. To their utter delight, Erin and Bethany discovered that she had 3 baby bunnies that her brother had rescued from a field over the weekend after the mother had been killed.

My girls sat there with their eyes shinning in excitement and their hands full of tiny, soft, fluffy bunnies!! I should have used these little rodents for the models of my dust bunnies... I think this will forever remain the “summer of the rodent adventures” in my memories!