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.

Sometimes we plan things and they actually work out like they are supposed to. When that happens, it can be puzzling and confusing.

Have I finally found the ‘magic formula’ to make things work? Humm .

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.

Now things are come fast and furious. It feels good to be out of the mud and actually seeing the results of my work again. For those of you who are wondering, my kitchen is a mess. There is a corner of counter that is piled with supplies and finished pieces that still have that little something left to do on them before the final photography, and there is a pile of clutter.

I spent the the entire day yesterday doing research and also some experimenting with some products that I intend to use for my next design. While this doesn’t seem to be the most exciting thing in the world (at least not to blog about!) it is something that is necessary so that when I draw my patterns up, they work out well.

I figure you are all probably tired of reading about me doing this order, but it has really occupied so much of my time this past week or so that there is little else for me to write about. Today will be the final day regarding it, except perhaps in passing (I promise!)

I finished getting everything packed up yesterday and took the remaining part of the day to get the house back to normal.

By the end of today, I should be pretty much ready to put in a call to Purolator to pick up the boxes of patterns. This will be a huge milestone as far as I am concerned and I will feel great about doing such a big job in a relatively short amount of time.

When looking back on the last couple of weeks, I realize that I have woven some other projects in between doing the production work.

I am seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. As I watch the pieces pile up, even I can’t believe that I got that much cutting done in such relatively short amount of time. And I was there.

While I estimate that it will take the majority of today to finish up the cutting, I can't help but be encouraged looking at the pile of finished pieces.

I really want to thank everyone for the nice thoughts yesterday. I felt kind of silly putting up here that I wasn’t feeling the best, but I didn’t want you all to think that there was something wrong or that I was really being lazy or something like that. :)

I spent the morning yesterday doing stuff like mail and running some errands.

After all the production work over the weekend, it was good to take a break from the saw. Seeing the two projects getting finished up on Monday was a good feeling too. I really makes me feel like I am heading in the right direction.

But I am not one to sit on my accomplishments, and I know that there is still a lot of work to be done.

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.

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 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.

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.

One thing about doing the variety of things that I do, I never really run out of new ideas. I enjoy the thought of moving from one style to another and while sometimes it can be a bit overwhelming, for the most part it keeps me longing to work and looking forward to each day and creating something new.

I never know what is going to trigger an idea. More so than not, when I am looking for something, I can’t find anything suitable but when I least expect it, something jumps out at me.

Every project idea that I see isn’t always what I would call ‘original.

As the days tick off of the calendar, I am still trying to figure out why they go by so quickly. There is always so much to do and every day is filled from start to finish with what seems like a hundred different tasks. I have noticed that the days are already getting longer, with the sun coming up earlier and setting later.