project365 week 39...

1. Had afternoon tea with some lovely ladies for a friend's birthday.

2. lucky14 sign all ready to go.

3. Just a new bag that I thought looked pretty hanging on the front door.

4. Packing up for Ooak.

5. My table all set up at Ooak. Thanks to Glen for making the hanging rack and sign.

6. Packing for our trip to New York / New England. Can you tell what my current favourite

    colours are?

7. In Seattle. At Madewell. Love that store and have my fingers crossed that'll they'll open a store

    here soon.

project365 week 38...

just a few weeks late...I was kinda busy. 

catching up now.

1. Glen made a lamp for my table at One of a Kind (Ooak) out of bits and pieces he had around

    the shop. 

2. Creepy legless cat.

3. A beautiful tea towel arrived from my good friend living in Singapore...an early birthday present.

4. Assembling hang tags for Ooak.

5. Attaching those hang tags.

6. My coffee sleeves in the Vancouver Sun!

7. I had a bunch of vinyl labels of my logo made for the show. Glen is being very serious about

    applying them to the sign he made.

project365 week 37...

1. It's sock season! Brand new socks (made in Canada!) and a kitten trying to eat a ball of yarn.

2. My favourite new sweater. Only $14. And from Walmart of all places. Who knew?

3. More Ooak prep. My fabulous mother-in-law made fabric labels and stamped and attached all

    these tags for me. Thank you.

4. On my walk to the mailbox. 

5. More beautiful end of summer light. The morning light in the kitchen is one of my favourite

    things about our house. We're planning built-in seating in this kitchen nook. I have it designed

    and drawn. Now we just need to wait for money and time to do it. I can't wait to have a cozy

    morning spot to have my coffee.  

6. And more Ooak prep...labeling.

7. Glen found these metal letters at the scrapyard. And he didn't think I'd like them. So he didn't

    buy any! Of course we had to go back so I could look for myself. Other than not having either 

    of our initials, they're perfect. We got there at 5 minutes to closing so were in a bit of a panic. 

    No time to really think things through. They only had about 5 letters (but multiples of each of 

    them). So I figured I'd just get a 'd', 'k' and 'a' and decide which I'd use later. Grand total $13.50!

    About 5 minutes into our drive home, Glen suggested I should've taken an 'o' as well so I could 

    spell 'ok'.

    Great. You couldn't have thought of that 5 minutes ago?! 

    So of course now I desperately need an 'o'. Which means I'll be heading out to the scrap yard 

    first thing monday morning. 

a hard couple of months...

Look out...this might get long.

I'm finally starting to feel normal again.

Although participating in One of a Kind Vancouver was amazing and has led to some exciting opportunities for 2012, the preparation and lead-up was really hard.

Apparently I put a lot of pressure on myself.

Gee, who knew?

So, of course, everything needed to be perfect.

Although I know rationally that's impossible, it doesn't stop me from trying.

And going over every detail in my head over and over and over in vicious circles.

Very unhealthy.

So I was working feverishly, knitting about 14-15 hours a day.
Hiring knitters!
Getting help from mom and mom-in-law.
Glen was a superstar...bringing my booth design into reality.

And then, one week before the show, I sliced my left forefinger trimming gift certificates.

I needed 3 stitches.

That sucked.

And meant I couldn't knit for a few days.

Then two days later we had to put our cat down.

 

That was horrible.

He hadn't been eating and drinking for a few days.
We took him to the vet thinking some medication would fix him right up.
We were told that 'this kitty is really sick' and that he likely wouldn't make it through the night.

What the hell?

We had him for 12 years and I miss him like crazy.

I always knew it would be hard when he died, but didn't know just how hard.

I still cry at least once a day.

I'm undecided on whether to get another cat in the new year.

All this added to insane amounts of stress.

So, that just meant that my stupid health issues flared up just in time for the big show and I was physically unable to be there manning my booth.

Thankfully, I have some amazing friends and family.

There was someone at the show every minute of the 4 days covering for me.
I can't express to Karen, Kim, Jessica and Veronica (and my booth sitter Sally!) just how grateful I am to them.

In the end, the show was a huge success and I'm happy I did it.

This was a huge lesson learned.

Don't take on more than you can handle.

Next year's Christmas craft show season is going to be very different around here.

Now it's a week later and I'm almost back to normal.

I'm forcing myself to not do anything.

We didn't even get a Christmas tree this year...too much work.

Glen made this instead. (copied from here)

I actually love it.

I'm lying on the sofa listening to Christmas music and catching up on blogs, perusing Pinterest and just plain relaxing.

I could get used to this.

just like carrie bradshaw...

I'm on the side of a bus!
Thanks to Ally and the rest of the team at One of a Kind Vancouver who chose one of my images to use in their transit ad campaign.
And of course to Vanessa for taking the lovely photo in the first place.
I haven't seen an actual bus for myself yet but am thinking of stalking a bus depot in order to catch a glimpse.