I woke up this morning to the sound of the birds singing outside. There seems to be a family that decided to build a nest in the tall evergreen tree near the bottom of our steps right off the deck. The cats like that, as there is plenty of activity to entertain them from their window to the world.

Choices. We all have them and make hundreds of them every day. Some are automatic and simple (do I want cream or milk in my coffee) while others can be more difficult and have a lasting impact on our lives or businesses.

This is especially true if you have your own business.

Today will be a day of cutting and printing patterns. Yesterday I was unable to get to the saw at all and we spent the day in Digby, picking up wood, paper for the patterns, visiting our friends and checking on one of the shops where that sells Keiths’ pens. It was a full day, and by the time we arrived home it was almost dinner time.

Well yesterday was just a dandy! Even though it poured rain and the wind was howling most of the day, it didn’t put a damper on my spirits. I got a lot accomplished AND I discovered something that was pretty cool. It was a great day!

In receiving the new for a second order on my Halloween painting kits, I knew I needed to kick it into high gear.

We often hear the saying that “something is better than nothing” and I for one, am one of those people who truly believe that. Recently, I had a problem with my Excalibur scroll saw and while it is out of commission as I wait for the part, at least I have my back up DeWalt saw to use so that I can still get my work done.

After the rocky start yesterday morning, the day didn’t turn out to be all that bad. I truly do believe that attitude plays an important part in how we live our lives and that taking things in stride and moving on made a big difference in how I felt all day. One by one I was able to right all the things that went wrong and in the process, it gave me some time to think and reflect on all the other good thing in my life that are going well.

Hey! Wait a minute! Isn’t it just starting to get warm out? It is here in Nova Scotia anyway!

While most of you are starting to get the garden ready and dreaming of days at the camp or the pool or the beach, I have been sitting here humming Christmas tunes to myself and getting my projects ready for the holiday issue of Creative Woodworks and Crafts magazine.

I had a decent working day yesterday. I was happy that things went the way they did, and having a good attitude about what I was doing made all the difference in the world. I think in writing yesterday about not being afraid to fail, I did well in convincing myself that it would be OK if things didn’t work out for me the first time.

Well guys and girls, it is just one of those days where I have been working, but there is nothing very interesting to show you. I am still in the process of drawing up the patterns for the bell ornaments that I am making and yesterday I began cutting them out. I have been experimenting with some different processes, and have been successful with some of them and not so successful with others, so while I am keeping busy and working here, it doesn’t really make interesting reading.

As many of you may know, I live with my partner Keith in a one bedroom apartment. While we realize that there are larger places available, we are happy here, as it is situated in a on a quiet country road right across from the Meteghan River.

While it is small, there are many things we love about our place.

One of the great things about being a designer is that I get to work with all kinds of new and different products. Back when I was just starting out in my business, I used to attend an annual trade show held in the Chicago area that was hosted by the Craft and Hobby Association.

As I look around today and see the boxes filling up with patterns, I can’t help but think that I learned a lot in the past couple of weeks. For someone like me who isn’t used to doing this type of work, I feel quite accomplished having completed this order. I’ll be honest and say that I am getting ready to move on to other things by now.

Well, I didn’t quite finish up yesterday, Sometime around 5pm I just felt tired and decided that the small amount of cutting remaining could be done today. While I would have loved to be able to tuck myself into bed knowing that I was done cutting, I was beginning to tire and I didn’t want to push it at the risk of being sloppy or not cutting as accurate as I wanted.

What a good day yesterday turned out to be. After the sluggishness of the past several days, it felt really good to have a day where I felt like I moved ahead and accomplished a great deal. I think my lull is over for now, and I hope that I can keep this momentum that I have and continue to cross things off of the list.

After a fun (and lazy) weekend, it is time for me to get back to work. We had a wonderful visit and dinner again yesterday but it is time to get back to things and get productive again. It snowed most of the day yesterday, and in Digby, there was even need for some shoveling as we saw.

This is my second attempt at the blog this morning. I had one partially written and something came up on my computer that made me shut down my browser and when I got back it was gone. Its a bit frustrating, seeing as things are supposed to be saved every so often, but sometimes things just happen.

Yesterday was spent getting things ready for the site update. Between finishing up the patterns for the new stuff, designing and cutting the new free pattern that I am offering and even drawing up a couple of additional quick designs it kept me pretty busy.

I finished the pattern for the calendar topper and that is about ready to go.

Yesterday was one of those days where everything was falling into place. I had a lot of odds and ends to finish up with, but the satisfaction of seeing those project get done was really motivating and it kept me pushing to do more. 
I love when that happens.

I finally got the cheese tray photographed.

Yesterday I had a really good day cutting. I spent the majority of the day at the scroll saw working on cutting the pieces for the decorative painting kits that I am supplying. I made a huge dent in the pile – much bigger than I would have anticipated – and with only a couple more hours of cutting to do today, I will finish the first leg of my mission.

The sun is just coming up this morning and I can see that there is no snow on the ground. Already it is a good day.

It’s going to be one of those days which involves lots of running around, and part of me feels as if I am not going to accomplish a lot.

Well, I finally feel like I actually accomplished something! While part of me knows that I work just about every day, sometimes I feel that unless I see something tangible at the end of the day, I didn’t get anything done.

It seems like forever since I was able to present a new project, and even though I know it hasn’t been that long, with all the other things that have been going on lately, I feel like I have been slagging lately.

Most woodworkers that I talk to don’t like sanding. Of the many steps in the process of doing a woodworking project, I think I am pretty safe in saying that it is the least liked part. In fact, I am amazed at the number of people who spend hours on a project that simply skip over the sanding step completely.

I can’t even say that I mind that the day was so full yesterday. When all was said and done, there were several loose ends tied up and all in all, we accomplished a great deal. It just goes to show what some good planning and having a good attitude can accomplish.

In looking ahead to the day, one could have easily felt that the number of tasks and stops we needed to make were somewhat overwhelming.

I am happy to say that I did accomplish just about all I wanted to over the weekend. It still seems however that sometimes things just move ahead at a snails pace.

I honestly don’t know how some other designers come up with such a quantity of patterns over such short periods of time.

I am sorry that I don’t have more exciting things to write about these days. While I am busy every day, it seems that I am just kind of caught up in the day to day stuff of life and haven’t had time to create anything new. I haven’t even been here on the computer too much, except to answer questions and fill orders.

There are many different avenues that one can take and still be on a creative path. While having choices is good, there are times when there are almost too many things to choose from and only so many hours in the day. While most of us are familiar with the phrase ‘spreading ourselves too thin’, there are times when things are not as defined as we would like them to be as far as which path to follow and it is hard not to want to do everything at once.

I am afraid that I don’t have many interesting things to talk about today. I spent the majority of the day yesterday working on photographs for the pumpkin pattern. I had shown the step-by-step pictures that I had taken earlier in the week and since then have taken more pictures to show the steps to painting the pumpkin faces.

I am afraid that today’s post won’t be very exciting. I worked most of the day yesterday on writing instructions and I did get the materials ready to ship the Kitty Cat Chalkboard to New Jersey for publication. I don’t know why it seemed to take so long, but there were 18 pictures that I included in the instructions and doing the editing on them took me a bit longer than I anticipated.

I seemed to have a pretty decent day yesterday work-wise. I did the final drawing and tweaking on the new project that I am working on. This one I will be doing for my own site and not selling off to the magazine. I also got the entire thing cut out and I hope to get all the finishing and assembly done today.

Every four years we get an extra day. I never really thought about it before, it really is something that is kind of special.

Those of you who read regularly have heard me wish from time to time for that evasive 48 hour day.

While simple, this latest project took a little figuring out. As I stated yesterday, I wasn’t really happy with some of the things that I initially drew and like many of the projects I design, it took some revisions to get it how I wanted it to be. I know sometimes people think I just draw, cut and I am done, but lots of times there are some little things that don’t go together quite right or feel right and I have to tweak things just a bit and re-cut or remake them.

I spent yesterday finishing up on organizing files and getting everything in 'perfect' order. After Monday’s day of sorting thorough receipts and figures, the simple act of putting things in their proper place and throwing out what isn’t needed was quite infectious and continued throughout yesterday.

Yesterday was filled with fun and surprises! It was one of those days where I set out to accomplish some things and actually got everything done – and then some. It really made me feel so very fortunate to be doing what I am doing and living the kind of life I live. Sometimes I just like to take a breath and drink in the contentment.

I was kind of all over the place yesterday, with much to do and several different directions to go in at once. while some designers have the fear of not knowing what to do next, I think my problem is the opposite – which idea do I develop first.

While it is good to be in this creative mode, I think from time to time we have to walk away from things for a bit, take a breath and regroup.

While it didn’t seem as if I got as much done that I wanted to yesterday, I did accomplish a few things. I notice that these type of days seem to pop up right after a big push. I just needed a day to catch up on the house stuff and do things like clean my desk, organize my supplies and sort through my files.

I made a great deal of progress yesterday cutting out the little shamrocks. I had some things to do in the morning and didn’t wind up really starting to set up things until just after lunch, so I got a later start than I intended. Still, I was able to cut out all 15 pieces (double stacked) and at least finish with that for the day.

I spent most of yesterday writing the pattern packet for the little boot ornaments. Writing one pattern doesn’t seem like it should take a full day, but I finished it around 9:30 at night. It turned out to be 18 pages long. That’s a lot for 12 ornaments. It is like a small book.

Today will be a fun day. We are going to our friend Bernie’s shop to dress some wood and bring it back here. It was Bernie’s birthday earlier this week and we are also going to have a celebration dinner there, as it isn’t only his birthday, but also his daughter’s, too.

Thinking ahead is something that we do on a daily basis. several times a day. From the time we wake up, most of us begin to organize our days in our minds without much conscious thinking. For many people, the planning begins early, with that first cup of coffee. From choosing breakfast to deciding what we will have for supper and everything in between, we plan the short term activities that fill up our day.

Yesterday turned out to be a really good day. It was one of those days that was somewhat quiet and I stayed focused and made good progress on my project.

I tidied up the house a bit and then I spent some time refining some of the drawings.

Sometime around noon there was a knock on my door and the delivery man was here to take the package which contained my calendar project. As I saw the truck drive away, I felt a sense of relief that it was finally on its way. I had done all I could to make the project look good and it was now out of my hands.

I still have to finish up the writing of the instructions – but that was the easy part.

Well, it wasn’t because of lack of effort that I didn’t finish yesterday. With looking ahead at what I need to accomplish today to finish, I think it was much more my usual nemesis – underestimation – that is to blame.

It is funny how I always do this.

I pretty much finished up my drawings yesterday. I just have a little tweaking to do today and then I can start cutting. So the day is pretty mapped out for me and I should have something to show for it tomorrow.

I do have a question for you all though .

I am still working on drawing up the new sets for the calendar project. I spent the majority of the day doing as much and I am making good progress. Hopefully, I can finish up today and then tomorrow will be a day of cutting the pieces out and then on to writing the instructions. I made a little sample picture to show you:

It seems that most of yesterday was spent catching up with things and getting back to normal. Being offline for the day caused me to really get behind in my emails and computer things. While I accomplished a lot on the saw Saturday, there was a lot of stuff that I needed to do on the website that took a bit of time.

One area on the site that I can’t seem to keep up with is the place where I show other customer’s photos.

Yesterday winter arrived here in Nova Scotia with a vengeance! It arrived with a few flakes starting to fall in the early afternoon and within a couple of hours, the snow was blowing sideways and building up in drifts. It made me rather happy.

I am not quite sure why I like the cold and snow so much.

Those of you who know me well know that I am not a ‘random’ type of person. I generally like to keep everything pretty organized and when I do something, it is done systematically and orderly. I find that as my way to keep my busy life under control. I have always been somewhat like that.

With that said, I realize that doing an assignment or project such as the one I am working on now is something if a stretch for me.

It has come to my attention that some of you are having difficulty finding the Olson scroll saw blades that I frequently talk about here on my blog. While I know there are other brands available that work very well for others, I have tried many types of blades and find that the Olson blades work the best for me.

I especially think it is important to have a good blade that you feel comfortable with when cutting designs such as the one I just finished (my Conversation Heart Valentine ornaments) because the lettering in this project is quite small and you really need to have decent control of the blade in order to accomplish the design.

I had another good day yesterday, and pretty much finished the work on the new Valentine ornaments I was working on. I am happy to report that I didn’t even break any of the small pieces while I was sanding them and cleaning them up. All the scrollers out there know what a plus that is when doing something like this. It seems that sometimes breaking off small pieces is just part of the project at times.

The site was down earlier today and I was unable to post my blog. I did write it before I headed out to the gym and this is the first time that I was able to post. (To those of you who wrote – thanks for missing me! :D)

I had a great start to the new year yesterday.

Well it is my own fault that I am running late today. I just got out of bed and it is already 7am. That is just about unheard of from me. I usually get up somewhere around 5am. It is my ‘quiet time’ and I spend it not only picking around the web and catching up on emails, but also writing here. I have a lot I need to accomplish today and the last thing I needed was to oversleep.

As we get closer to the holiday season, things have slowed down considerably on the site. While the month of November was the best month that we have had so far, December has so far been a bit quieter and the orders have tapered off quite a bit.

You would think that would bother me, but it really doesn’t.

Yesterday was filled with doing more ‘Secret Santa’ things, so again it is not easy to talk about them.

I spent the day organizing things and making lists and getting things ready to send out.

Well, I got most of what I wanted to accomplish done yesterday. Of course I would have liked to have more done, but that is just me.

I did get the calendar pieces all finished and stained and ready to go out the door.

We all have heard the saying “good things take time” and I am discovering how true that is while finishing my latest project.

Yesterday I spent the bulk of my time doing the final sanding and applying mineral oil to the many pieces for my calendar project.

As usual, I earned the title of “Queen of Underestimation.” At least I kind of did plan for it this time, so I don’t feel too bad about it.

The second leg in the calendar project is just about done being cut.

I’m getting ready to face battle here. My partner Keith has come down with what is turning into a nasty cold. The last thing I want or need is to get sick right now so I am doing everything I can to avoid sharing in the experience. To me there are just some things you don’t want to share.

It started last week when we were doing the major cleaning.

I am trying not to feel overwhelmed at this point. Even though it is only Wednesday, it seems like the week was already six days long. To say I have been busy is an understatement, and even though that is a very good thing, I just need to not let it all get to me.

I find myself with my head in many different directions again.

While I am always grateful for the life I have and the people in it, there are some days when it seems quite overwhelming to me. I have wonderful kids, friends and people in my life who make every day good (they even make the not so good ones better) I have a job that I love which allows me to be creative and meet other creative people and share that joy with them.

Well folks, it seems I am finally going to be able to finish this up today. Yesterday I spent most of the day working on photos for the pattern packets of the new ornaments. Since there were 24 ornaments (12 of each finish), I wanted to have a single shot of each and also group shots with each type together. That’s a lot of editing, even if it is only a couple of steps.

I made a great deal of progress yesterday in my ornaments. I am truly happy with them so far and I look forward to finishing them up today.

I finished cutting the final two by around noon, and I also remembered to take step-by-step pictures of the final one so that I can include them in the instructions.

It seems that I am out of the gate quite early this morning. I wouldn’t think I would have been because I was simply exhausted last night and could barely keep my eyes open. But I awoke today well before 5 am and it was one of those times when there was no point in staying in bed anymore and I figure I may as well get something done and take advantage of the extra time.