OMG happy

beautiful and delicate gingko leaves...

lovingly pressed and shipped in a parcel to me from BFF @ 1-800 design help.
I love getting mail and getting a parcel, well, that just sends me over the top. The parcel also contained a clear crystal egg to place on my desk and to stare into while awaiting miraculous creative inspiration. She has one on her desk, and apparently it's working for her.

Well it's an OMG morning. Up before 4am drinking coffee and checking my email (weirdo, I know), 6 emails (1 annoying - only because I allow it to be so, and 4 exciting, work related, good news emails, and 1 from itunes - spam).

I'm lovin' this new customer - Karen, a designer with big fish gift co., and she's my art director on this project. It's her collection of product that I'm interpreting into a jewellery collection. And thus far she's been amazing. She gets back to me promptly, is very chatty in her emails, super friendly and grateful (that's unusual and much appreciated) - really makes me feel like I'm already part of the team. This kind of communication, although extremely rare in my experience, is SO essential and lovely when you, the designer, are sitting far away, alone at your desk, having just sent off - through the ether (in the form of JPEGs) your blood, sweat, heart & soul and then you wait (and tears) .... often you wait & you wait & you wait and hear nothing Silence = they must hate my ideas/drawings. Every single time I go there, to that dark place of insecurity, I don't stop to remind myself that these customer's have busy, busy city lives, lives with in-boxes filled with urgent messages, meetings & voice mail - (* please see The 4 Agreements). again!. Anyway ... I love her, Karen, she's already sent me three emails, lots of feedback, notes & thoughts and I've sent her only 1 JPEG, just the beginning. A freelance designer's dream client - perfection!

Another email from No.1 boss lady Val, with another small frame collection approved, I need to do the finished tech drawings, the creative part has already been done. It too, was a chatty & kind email. She's also great and I know she's always rooting for her Nova Scotia designer. This company is in Boston.

Our car is back! Our car is back! The sweeties and I went to the beach, the real beach, the paradise place, yesterday afternoon in celebration of the return of our wheels. Happy free dogs and me. Jake ate the entire carcass of a dead bird, Miss Dixon and I were way ahead of him, he was dilly dally-ing, which he has a tendency to do. Winn and I sat down on a beached log to wait for him. He loves the odd dead crab snack, and is also known to chow down on quite a bit of seaweed (an iron supplement I think). But it soon became obvious that what he was eating was neither crab, nor nori, and perhaps it was - the dreaded washed up dead animal. So, Winnie and I ran back up the beach just in time to see the last bits of feathers disappear between his lips. He's a retriever and he'll eat anything! Thankfully he seems to have a system of steel and this morning he's fine. This morning, being Saturday, we'll meet up with the whole gang 4 women, 5 dogs and we'll enjoy 2 hours of chatting and walking & sniffing and romping.

I could spend much of this weekend working, which is what I'd most like to do. However my house is beginning to cross over the line from messy & untidy to squalor and we can't have that. I must, begrudgingly houseclean, at least for a little while : vacuum, and dust and move the piles of things around to new places. I have brand new 100% cotton, heavy flannel sheets and pillowcases, in putty - a creamy beige, to hang out on the line this morning. Just to make the nest even more appealing come 6:30pm. What more could a girl ask for?


tout la gang - Fancy Clancy, Winnie Dixon, Chandra, Maggie Sue & Jake