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

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

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

Just Not Enough Hours In The Day!!

Where have the last 6 days gone???

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A Dragon With No Voice!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

BRING! BRING! (Sound of phone ringing!)

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

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

THANKS MOM!

Now I Need To Get MYSELF Into A Routine!

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

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

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

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

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

Happy Birthday to Me...

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

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

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

WE HAVE A PET!!!!!!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

rekindling Friendships and Cleaning Closest

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Missing Designs....

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

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

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

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

Mud...Mud....Mud!

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

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

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

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

Back Home and Blogging Late Nights or Early Mornings Again!

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

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

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

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

Why We Go On Journeys......

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

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

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

Here’s to adventure!!!!!

Surfacing At Last...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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