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My Journey As A Creative Designer - Woodworking and Beyond

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7M views 13K replies 477 participants last post by  teaklight12 
#1 ·
Beginning this Blog

I recently was referred to this site by Steve Good, who has a wonderful, comprehensive scroll saw forum and blog page. Although I have been doing woodworking for almost fifteen years, I have finally reached a point in my life where I am able to make it the main focus of my activities. Since my life revolves around my woodworking and business, I believe that this blog will reflect that very clearly, although it will also be somewhat personal. But I think that woodworking is very personal anyway.

It has been a long journey to get to this point. There have been many good times and some not-so-good ones, but I appreciate every single step because I think that if even one thing was different, I would not be where I am today or who I am inside. It isn't only the positive events in our lives that make us what we are. Many times it is the negative things that mold and shape us and teach us to look at things in a certain way. I try to remember that when things are tough and move ahead.

I have learned that there is only one thing we can be certain of in life: change. Whether things are good or bad, we need to hold on and appreciate the moment, as we can be certain that things will be different before long. This helps us to not only appreciate the good days and things we have now, but also hang on when things are not so good, as we know that they will be different soon. I like this philosophy.

I liked reading about the new contest offered by this site in the newsletter. Fluidity. It is a perfect theme for projects because our existence itself is fluid. I am anxious to see what interpretations are going to be, as I am sure everyone else is. It will be an adventure for all of us for sure.

So why am I starting this blog? The other day I received a call from a customer who had a question for me. He kept saying how surprised he was that I answered my own phone. I have worked as a Contributing Editor for Creative Woodworks and Crafts Magazine for the past 13+ years and I guess in the scroll saw community, many people have heard of me. It seemed so odd to me that he would think I would have a secretary or staff. We kind of laughed about it, but it really got me thinking about his interpretation of my life. We all tend to form opinions of others from very limited information. We see the outside of a person as they are presented to us and many times are very quick to categorize that person in our minds. I do it myself.

But in my years of talking with and dealing with many people from many different places, I have come to realize that people are like icebergs. We only see the tip of them and below the surface is a vast, complex side of them that is the basis of their actions and thinking.

Everyone has a story. Everyone has traveled a journey. No two people have traveled identical paths. Thus, we are all unique in our thoughts, actions and creative processes. I enjoy hearing others stories. I think that listening to others and hearing their experiences helps us to understand each other. With that understanding, we learn.

I have used the phrase "Knowledge Is Power" in my signature since I have been on the web. Once someone told me that they thought it was quite arrogant of me to say that. He thought that I was implying that I knew more than anyone else and he found that offensive. I told him he couldn't be more wrong. My interpretation of the phrase is that our QUEST for knowledge EMPOWERS us to make better decisions about things in our lives. We are never finished learning. I learn every single day from my friends, colleagues, fellow woodworkers and students. We never know when we will learn something new. Sometimes you can learn from even a seemingly insignificant event. I feel the key is that we need to be open to learning.

Everyone has a story.

So I will close today with those thoughts. I don't know how often I will post here, but I hope to make it a habit. I don't know if anyone will even read this, but somehow it doesn't matter. Writing is a key in self-awareness. By writing things down we categorize our actions and it helps (me anyway) to keep my life organized. Organization leads to peace as far as I am concerned.

I am quite overwhelmed with the scope of the site here. I am still getting my footings and lurking around. I think for the first several days or maybe even weeks I will be more of a passive observer while I find my comfortable position among the others here. I want to upload the new things I am working on here. Like everyone else, I am anxious to see the response they get. I love seeing others projects and could spend my days just looking.

Although it is quite intimidating, the forum looks like it is full of friendly, knowledgeable and wonderfully creative people.

I think I am going to like it here.
 
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#2,072 ·
Classes Are All Mapped Out

To start off, I will say that I am in a far better position than I was yesterday. I made some phone calls and figured some things out and it is quite a relief to me to get things in order and lined up.

I spoke with my friend Jeannie and got the answers to most of my questions regarding the extra classes that I am going to teach after the show. I immediately felt much of the anxiety draining away, and I am happy to say that I had a most productive day.

It seems that I am going to be teaching an all day scroll saw class, as well as two- three hour painting classes on my way back through town through her area the week after the show. The Northeastern Woodworkers Association, who hosts the Showcase, has a wonderful facility to hold classes in and that is where I will be teaching.

For the scroll saw class, I decided that I am going to teach the Autumn Leaves Candle Tray and Charms project. We will cover every step from applying the pattern to spraying on the final finish.


This is one of my first candle tray holder patterns, and it uses a variety of techniques, yet is fairly easy to accomplish even for the beginner scroll sawyer. The process of cutting the recessed center of the tray on an angle is easy, yet it is still intimidating to many new scrollers. I think that by walking them through this, they will see how easy it is to accomplish and also be able to apply it to many other projects that they may want to do.

The actual cutting of the leaves is fun and not very intimidating, as there is a lot of room for error if the scroller isn't as familiar. I can teach different ways of approaching corners and curves and even if the student isn't exactly on the line, the design will still look nice.

I am also going to show the class how to apply the color using the staining medium and acrylic paints. This process can be used in so many future applications on all types of woodworking and scroll sawing.

The facility will be able to accommodate up to ten students, which will make the class small enough to give personal attention to each of those who attend. I am happy about the relaxed time frame too. When I cut the tray out, it took approximately 2-3 hours for the basic cutting of the leaves. This will leave us plenty of time for questions and full interaction with the students and hopefully that will translate to them getting the most out of the class. By the end of the day, they will each be able to bring home a completed project. I think it will be a fun day and I am really looking forward to it a lot.

The two painting classes will be on two separate days and last approximately three hours each. I have been developing painting patterns specifically for these classes and am just about finished with it. The patterns consists of ten sea shell ornaments or magnets. I felt that sea shells are a good, universal subject that most people will like. The ornaments are small and not difficult to accomplish and they are also not an exacting subject (such as something where you had to paint a face or eyes) so even the beginner painter can complete them and have a nice project when finished.

I also liked them because they will enable me to teach four of the most basic painting techniques of decorative painting: base coating, float shading, dry brush highlighting and line work. With knowing these four techniques, you can probably accomplish most painting projects. The shell designs are quite forgiving too so that the students will be able to complete them even knowing only these basic skills and still wind up with an attractive project.

Since I want to include several photographs in the pattern packet, I have decided to divide the ten shells that I designed into to separate patterns. This way it will be easier to show the step-by-step process in detail and still keep the pattern a reasonable size.

I am going to teach Set A on one day and Set B on the next, and offer extra pattern packets available for those who may not be able to attend both. For each class, I will be able to accommodate 20 students, and the goal will be to complete one to two of the five sea shells in the pattern. Besides providing them with the pattern, I will also give them a set of blank wood pieces to paint. This way once the class is finished, they can take home the remaining pieces and continue practicing.

Here are some pictures of the other shells:






I have two more to complete today of the ten. I then am going to make the pattern packets and I have to provide the photos and information for the class advertisements. I also need to order up the paint and literally get cutting on the blank pieces. I suppose it is going to be a full weekend.

I feel so much better though now that all is mapped out. They seem to think that the scrolling class will definitely sell out and whether the painting classes do or not it won't really matter to me. I have taught painting classes to any number of people from one to 35 and I am very comfortable in that role. I think the attendance for those two classes will probably fall somewhere in the middle. It seems that whenever I offer a painting class among woodworkers, they always sell out or nearly sell out. There is a good amount of interest among woodworkers in learning the process of decorative painting and no matter what, it will be a great way to end a nice long trip.

Meeting the people will also be great and teaching in their new facility will be a treat. I am sure I will have lots of pictures and stories to tell along the way.

Happy Saturday! I hope you get some time to play in the shop!
 
#2,073 ·
That sounds like a Great plan, Sheila. One thing: Don't Forget to go loaded with business cards or some kind of flyers to hand out to your students so they can order more patterns later, or be guided to your website! Each new face is contact and future customer!
 
#2,077 ·
Plans, Plans and More Plans . . .

Remember the other day when I talked about those unexpected curve balls that pop into our lives? Well, yesterday I was thrown a little one and it is a good example of what I was talking about.

With only three short weeks left to prepare for the trip, I am making good progress with checking everything off of the list, but there is still much that I want to accomplish and get ready for leaving. Being gone for almost three weeks is going to be a big thing for me. I can't remember the last time I had been away for that long, and certainly I haven't since I had my business up and running.

I have a friend who I went to high school with who travels all the time with her job. In the last six months alone, she has been to Vegas, Los Angeles, Alaska, New Orleans, New York, Miami, and several other smaller cities. I enjoy watching her travels on her Facebook page, as she always has interesting and beautiful pictures to show. It is part of her life and she loves her job and the adventure that comes with it.

Although I made the big move to Canada seven years ago and have done more traveling in these past years than I have done in my entire life time, it has been about three to four years since I have been away from my home. I haven't been to Chicago in (I think) four years when I was last there to see my son graduate from the police academy. In between these two legs of the trip that are going to be in New York, I plan to drive to Chicago and spend a couple of days with my son and seeing some friends that I haven't seen in a while. I also plan to drive through New Jersey where the offices of Creative Woodworks and Crafts magazine are located and spend at least part of the day there. It is pretty much along the way and should be a great chance to touch base with the people from the magazine that won't be at the show.

So anyway, it is going to be quite a full few weeks and I am sure it will go by quickly. Besides the main show at the beginning of the trip and getting back for the three classes the following week, everything is quite flexible. That is one reason I am so happy to travel by car. I do want to make it to Saratoga Springs a day or so early however, so I can get the lay of the land and get settled before the big show. I thought that yesterday I would really start to map out our day to day travels so we can solidify some plans along the way.

I live on the western side of Nova Scotia, right on the coast. When flying over in a plane, I find it fascinating that you can actually see Nova Scotia from the one side of the plane and Maine from the other. It is separated by the Bay of Fundy.

When driving, it is commonplace to take the ferry from Digby to New Brunswick, which is just north of Maine and drive down. The boat runs every day and the voyage is approximately three hours. Nova Scotia is nearly an island, and is connected to the rest of Canada only by a small patch of land up near Amhurst. I found a map to illustrate this for those of you who don't know:


I live between about half way between Yarmouth and Digby.

So I thought that I would check the schedule of the ferry yesterday and see if it would be necessary to make reservations for the day I wish to travel. I went to the site for Bay Ferries and read all the fares and times and such and figured everything out. Then, when I was just about satisfied that all was well, I noticed in very fine print under the ferry schedule there was a note that the ferry would be dry-docked from March 7th through the 24th for annual maintenance and would not run during that time.

Well, that would not do.

Since even when the boat is up and running on the 24th, it doesn't leave until 4pm (meaning it wouldn't arrive in New Brunswick until after 7pm) and we still had over 10 hours to drive, including a border crossing to get to Saratoga Springs, it would make it impossible for us to take the boat. I need to be there all day Friday to set up the show, as well as take part in judging the contest.

We planned on leaving Tuesday the 22nd, which would mean most of the drive would be Wednesday and give us the day Thursday to get ready before we were to report to the center on Friday. Since the boat was to leave at 4pm, it would give most of the day Tuesday to finish packing and get ready, and we would in all likelihood stay over in St. John and start fresh on Wednesday morning for the 10 hour travel to Saratoga Springs.

Good thing I checked.

It isn't what we consider a disaster though. It is just one of those little curve balls of life that I was talking about the other day. It will take us about 8-10 hours to drive up through Amhurst and back down to St. John, and we can do that on Tuesday, as we originally planned. Instead of leaving at 4pm when the ferry departs, we will just leave early in the morning, allowing for weather and keeping it a relaxing drive, and we can still stop in St. John overnight or continue on if we feel like it.

We can finish up our journey on Wednesday, as planned and still have Thursday to settle in and get acclimated. It will also allow for any other unforeseen delays. That's one of the many reasons I like to drive so much.

I am happy that I decided it was time to check things out. I know I may seem excessive with planning things, but I really want to be ready for anything unexpected in this trip so that I can relax a bit (as much as I can) and enjoy the time. Looking ahead is a good thing and gives me a great deal of peace of mind.

Today will be finishing up the pattern packet for the shells. I finished the last two yesterday and started writing the instructions. Painting instructions are a bit more detailed than woodworking ones, I believe and with the shells, it is proving to be even more challenging because there are many variables in the painting of them. I may need to add more step-by-step pictures to get my point across.

The last two shells:



I also need to write an autobiography and description for the advertisements for the last set of classes, as well as make the lists to submit to DecoArt to order the paints for both classes. The description needs to be short and you all know what a challenge that can be for me. :)

So there is plenty to do today and hopefully I will get this project pretty much buttoned up. It should keep me out of trouble anyway.

May you all have a wonderful Sunday.
 
#2,084 ·
Still More Details

I hope that everyone isn't getting sick of reading about my preparation for the Woodworker's Showcase. As you can imagine, it pretty much has been (and probably will be) the focus of my life for the next couple of weeks. It seems like it has been forever since I have been at the saw. There just doesn't seem to be enough time, it seems.

I read many posts where people wish that they could do woodworking as a full time job. I can see from what I read that they have visions of spending all day, every day in the shop creating wonderful items. Even though that what they are envisioning is partially true, it seems that lately for the most part I am doing other things. At least in my leg of woodworking (designing).

I am at all not saying that I don't enjoy what I do. I suppose that it is just that some days (like you) I long for that actual shop time when I can be making saw dust. It seems like it has been a while since I was at the scroll saw and I miss it.

This past week, while I was getting all these things I was preparing for the show done, my partner drew and created another incredible basket. This one he made of jatoba and cherry. It is another beautiful example of his talent. The lines are clean and precise and when he put the oil finish on it I thought - wow! It is a beautiful project.

I also watched him draw up a new pattern yesterday pretty much start to finish. It is for a three dimensional cross with a fretwork overlay. It will stand on a pedestal and have room for a small candle in front of it. I know it will be hit and I can't wait to see it come to life.

It really helps me so much to have someone to work with like this. Not only is it great to see the incredible projects that he makes, but it is also very helpful to have someone to share the day to day details of the business and get another opinion. I realize that many people can't or don't want to work with someone else like this, but I think that if the right combination is found, it can be a great asset.

I suppose the reason that I am thinking along these lines is because it is time for another site update. I try to update it once a month or so and being the last day of February, it is time. However, with all that I have been doing to get things ready for the show and just all the other things, I find that I have no new patterns of my own to add to the mix.

Where the heck did the month go?

I don't feel like I have been slacking, and I have half a mind to go back and look at the last 28 blogs to see what I was up to. I honestly don't really look back at them unless I am answering a comment on them about one thing or another. But it seems that the month just kind of slipped away much too quickly.

Now on the positive side of that, I need to look at where I am standing now. There is a reason that I am not feeling sick to my stomach and in a panic about the show, as I would have thought I would have been by now. Things are very nicely falling into place and with three more weeks of preparation left, there is still time to finish up and do what I need to do to make the trip and the presentation and the classes run smoothly. Also, I am happy to say that we just had the best month to date on the site despite it being just after Christmas and a slow economy. I am very proud of that.

I spent the day yesterday again working on the patterns for the painting class. I decided that I didn't like one of the sea shells, so I reworked and revised it. I also had to get the class descriptions and information, along with a short biography about myself to the gentleman, who is in charge of the publicity for the class. These are all very important pieces of information, as they will be used to sell the class and entice people to partake. He thinks the scroll saw class (which will be an all day class) will sell out quickly, and I told them that if they would like, I can stay an extra day and teach it one more time. After all, with coming so far I would hate to leave if there are people interested in it.

The painting classes should go over well too. There seems to be a lot of interest in painting, if not by the woodworkers themselves, then by their significant others. I think that both of the classes will be fun and successful. The painting class seems as if it takes a bit more preparation than the scroll saw class, but that is only because I haven't taught a painting class in such a long time and there are so many different variables. Little by little though I am getting a handle on it, and in the next couple of days, the lesson plan will be completed, as well as a pattern that even a beginner can follow and be successful with. I suppose that is one of the biggest challenges in that pattern - making it fully understandable for the beginners. If I can achieve that goal, then I am doing OK.

As for today, much of the day will be shot because I need to take a run to Yarmouth to get a new battery for my car. The little Mustang is almost eight years old and I have never replaced the battery. Since it has been sitting since November (although I periodically give it a start and drive it up and down the driveway once or twice) we noticed the battery is struggling. Eight years is a good run for a battery and it is just time. Last year I had just about everything else overhauled on it - new tires, new breaks, etc. and it is in beautiful shape. I am going to take it in again in the next week or so to get it checked once again before our journey. I want everything to be safe and in tip top shape.

I have a list of things to get for the trip too, so the day will be quite functional. There are lots of odds and ends that I need to pick up before I can call myself ready.

All these things are part of the big picture of a woodworking business. I think it is a good thing that there is so much variety in my day to day life. It keeps me fresh and keeps me longing to do more woodworking. There is no chance to get "bored" with my job, and those of you who know me know that there is no such thing as "routine" in my life.

Although it will be great to get back to producing new designs, I am thoroughly enjoying the opportunities that are in front of me now. These next several weeks, I will be living a life that many here only dream about. I think that I have laid a strong enough foundation in my business that it can withstand me focusing on these other aspects for a little while. After all, I think that it is part of what I was striving for in the first place.

Have a great Monday!
 
#2,085 ·
Hi Sheila,
Good morning for a lady full of power in her daily life. I like best when you really write at your busiest days as it is full of inspiration. Your conclusive last paragraph had given me to take a good look of those that I almost give up. Then after seconds of thinking… I start laminating by gluing and decided to be back on the course.

I wish you the best on your forthcoming endeavour. Hope that you will have the energy and the right decision in those sudden twist during the workshop. What I mean… the audience (students) will always be trying to divert however you are the one steering them to the right course (direction).

God bless on you trip.
 
#2,089 ·
Who Asked for "Snow"???

I never said I was the sharpest knife in the drawer. I don't really think I am stupid either. But what do I know? . . .

If yesterday was an indication of the weeks to come then we are in trouble. It is amazing how such a simple plan can get so fouled up in such a short time.

It started out simple enough. I wanted to get a new battery for the Mustang so it would be ready for the trip in three weeks. I had to be in Yarmouth (which is about 40 minutes away) for another appointment anyway, so it was a good opportunity to get some errands out of the way. I had been making a list of things I will need and it was getting to be quite long and with just three weeks left for preparation, we thought it would be a good idea to cash in a day and get this stuff out of the way. So off we went.

Since the Mustang has been parked since November, we saw no reason to have to jump it to get the battery. After all, installing a battery is a simple procedure and why should we pay more to do something we could easily do ourselves?

We got to Yarmouth and at the store they told us that there was only one battery that was recommended for the car. It was not the brand we were considering, and had less power and we inquired about the better brand one. The clerk was very helpful, and brought the other one out to compare and it was slightly larger in size in height and width. (By slightly I mean about 1/2 an inch) Not a lot when you consider the overall size.

We talked it over with him and asked if we could buy the better one and if by chance it didn't fit, we could easily return it. He informed us that although we could do so, it would be a troublesome for him because of the paperwork involved with the warranty. Since is was only around noon at that time, and my appointment wasn't until 2pm, we decided to go back home and get the Mustang and bring it in to be sure. The weather was overcast, but the roads were clear and there was no threat of snow.

We drove the 40 minutes home and I checked the weather while my partner proceeded to jump start the Mustang. It looked good. There was a chance of rain, but the temperature was to be nearly seven degrees. The plan was that we would drive both cars to our usual garage (which was on the way) and then we would drop off his car and take the Mustang to Yarmouth for the new battery and errands and then come back to the garage where we would leave the Mustang for our mechanic to check out when he had the opportunity and come home in my partner's car. In theory it was a great plan.

We got to the garage and while my partner was in talking to our mechanic, I noticed a few flakes fluttering around (I didn't dare turn off the car yet). I thought it must be my imagination, as it was. after all windy out and certainly those two or three flakes were just the snow that was on the ground fluttering in the wind. We drove away thinking nothing of it.

About ten minutes later, it really started to snow. We couldn't believe how quickly this storm came up. It was blowing and swirling and fortunately not really sticking on the ground. We spoke of turning around, but by now we were getting too close to the time of my appointment (one that I couldn't miss) so we went back from the secondary highway to the main highway where there were less curves and hills and more likely to have the salt trucks out first. We were already over half way there by the time it got bad, so going backwards would not really benefit us at all. We slowed our speed and forged on.

Twenty minutes later, we were almost in a white out (again!) and made it to Yarmouth. The snow was turning to rain, and we could hear it pelting on the roof of the car. It was a windy slippery mess. Our original plan was for my partner to drop me off and go get the battery done and come back for me, but the streets were slick with snow and sleet and getting around town was not easy so he parked outside and waited instead.

By the time I got out, things had once again changed. It was now a driving rain and quite windy. This, however was a welcome change from the ice and snow an hour earlier. The rain, although messy, was melting the snow and ice and we wound up continuing with our errands and going to several stores. Each time we got out of the car we were soaked. But there came a point where it didn't even really matter anymore.

We finished up around 6pm, and had a car load of office supplies and groceries (and of course, a new battery in the car, as I opted to pay the extra to have them install it there). As we drove home (carefully and slowly) it was only raining, with all the snow being erased by the monsoon of water. You can actually see grass in most areas (or mud, if you will) with only the highest piles of snow lingering. We drove near the ocean, and the tide was high and the water was barely a foot under the bridge near Mavelette. Spring was definitely arriving.

The last insult was that I realized at some point while driving home that we would need to transfer the booty from the Mustang to my partners car at the mechanics, and then once again from that vehicle to the house in the driving rain. We arrived home after 7pm, cold and wet and hungry. I had 42 emails in my box and we had to put everything away, but at least we were here. Safe and sound.

I spent the remainder of the evening catching up on emails (I still haven't finished) and reading. I put on my jammies and dove under a warm blanket while doing so. My kitty pancakes was good enough to snuggle up with me and get me warmed up again.

I hope that this isn't going to be an indication of the weeks to come. I realize the weather is quite volatile in my neck of the woods and we have planned extra days to allow for things like this. I suppose that is the good thing about driving - you can make your own schedule and adjust it accordingly.

So with those things checked off of the list, we will keep moving forward. I look to today with a positive attitude, knowing that I don't have to leave the house at all and that I accomplished quite a lot yesterday, despite the weather. Of course it is calm outside today, though it is overcast and muddy and generally icky looking out. For these reasons, Spring is probably my least favorite time of year. But I suppose it is necessary to take us to the next step.

I am very grateful to have the day behind me. I hope I can stay out of trouble today.

Happy Tuesday to you all!
 
#2,090 ·
Be thankful you are in Newfoundland. We have weather like that here with the Puget Sound convergence zone when 2 systems meet coming around the Olympic mountains. When that happens in Seattle, everyone is 10 hours late getting home if they make it!
 
#2,104 ·
Busy Times

I got up this morning to an ominous email that threatened to shut down my website. Before the sleep was out of my eyes, I was signing into online chat with customer support from the place that hosts my site to find out what was up.

The notice said that my account was delinquent, but I knew for a fact that not only did I pay it, but the charge already showed up on my online credit card statement. Surely this must be an error.

I went to my credit card statement again, and sure enough there was the payment, already deducted from my account over a week ago. Now what I thought?

I had a chat with the rep from the hosting company and she informed me that the payment was unable to be processed. This was hard to believe because I was looking at the fully processed payment on the other tab on my screen. Nothing was indicating any problem with it. She directed me to sign in and update my credit card information and as I was trying to get to the screen which showed my account information, I noticed that it signed me in to the older software from that site. I realized that once again, they screwed things up.

I wrote to her that my new software was up to date with payments and functioning, but that I was also being charged for the old software that hasn't been used since October. While I was trying to go through screens with her we were somehow 'cut off' and the screen I was talking to her on disappeared. It was very frustrating to say the least.

I have a number to call for billing, but they don't open until 7am and are located in Utah. That gives me three hours before I can even call. I have plenty to do before then, but I want to try to get this settled once and for all. It is frustrating and takes way too much time on my part putting out the fires that they set. At one point, she told me to email her a copy of my credit card statement to their general customer help line. (Yes. That is just what I want. To send my credit card number and personal information over an unsecure site to wind up on someone's desk or in a general email file. That sounds safe!) I told her as much and it was right before we were cut off so I didn't really see her response. She wasn't rude and seemed quite professional so I don't think she dumped me on purpose, but who knows. Maybe she went for her second cup of coffee.

This wasn't the way I planned to start the day.

I plan on finishing the painting patterns for the two classes today. I am almost done with one and have the format mapped out, which was the most time-consuming part, so the rest show pretty much flow. I want these instructions to be excellent, as they are geared for beginners who have never painted before and I need to be sure to cover every detail so that they will be able to understand them and follow them correctly. This is so important when introducing a new skill to someone. If I do a good job, they will be encouraged to continue and do more painting. If I fail, they will possible be turned off from painting altogether. I want this to go well.

I received an email last night from the gentleman who is setting up the classes the week after the show. He informed me that he had sent an email out the previous night letting members know about the scroll saw class that I was to teach (the leaf candle tray class) and that already five of the ten spots have been filled. In less than one day and with notification only given through email at this point. It looks as if it will sell out by the time it is fully advertised and hopefully I will be adding a second class. I was very happy to hear that.

I spoke with my editor yesterday and it is all set for me to visit at the magazine offices on my way to Chicago from New York. Their offices are located in New Jersey and it is right along the way and it will be a wonderful chance for my partner to see the offices and meet everyone there and see how the magazine is run. I will also get to meet Robert's assistant Debbie, who I have worked with for several years but never actually met in person. It will be yet another fun leg of a great trip.

I received my new paint brushes yesterday too. They really are outstanding. Getting new brushes is like getting any new tool - fun and exciting. They are very reasonably priced and look like they will be wonderful to use. I am going to do some things today and give them a 'test run'.

So that is about it for today. I also heard that my new saw will ship soon so that will be a thrill when I receive it. That in itself will be quite thrilling. I just can't wait.

I love being busy and seeing things fall into place. Little by little things are really coming together. With less than three weeks until I leave, the time is going to fly.

I hope you all have a great Wednesday.
 
#2,105 ·
Let us know how this credit card mess turns out.
I had a similar experience a while back. My credit card company was saying my payment was successful, while the company I ordered plans from was saying my credit card was declined. It's a very frustrating situation, especially when they won't just let you allow them to talk to each other and straighten it out. I had to play the middle man in my situation and go back and forth with this transaction number and that one, because the transaction numbers was the only information they allowed to discuss over the phone.
I hope your situation works out well. I finally got mine straightened out. Both companies suddenly became much more cooperative when I threatened one company with cancelling my order and finding another source for those supplies and threatened the card company with cancelling my card and finding another company to handle my online transactions.
 
#2,108 ·
Just 'cause I Trip, Doesn't Mean I Have To Fall

Yesterday was just one of "those" days. It seemed that no matter what I did, it wasn't enough. "One step forward and two steps backward" is the only thing I can think of to describe the day.

I know, I know. I need these bad days to appreciate the good ones. I shouldn't whine but I suppose I am human and going to anyway. There are just some days when I feel like I am climbing up a muddy hill with an elephant on my back. Nothing really disastrous happened, but it feels as if I worked all day and made little headway. That isn't a good thing when I have less than three weeks to get my act together.

A majority of the day was spent trying to straighten out the issues with the billing on my site. Apparently what was going on was that they were billing for both the 'old' site and the 'new' one and they are having troubles merging the financial part of the two of them together.

I finally got hold of them about 1pm, as they are located in Utah and the department doesn't open until 10 their time (which is three hours difference from Nova Scotia where I am.) I will say that the customer representative was intelligent, patient and very helpful. That was a blessing. Kevin (his name) and I got to be almost "buddies" after the over two hours we spent trying to sort things out on the account. (Yes, you read correctly - over two hours!) The unfortunate things is that in the end, the accounts are still not fully merged and things are still not exactly right. They don't know why and I certainly don't have a clue.

Without drawing the story out, it seems that because there are two sites (which I refer to as 'the old site' and 'the new site') and there is one license that gets billed. The "system" is trying to bill for both accounts, even though only one is published. The old account is there and should be at an "inactive" status, but somehow it doesn't want to die and keeps being changed by some unknown source to an "active" status. Now this means nothing to anyone, as the domain name of "www.sheilalandrydesigns.com" can only point to one place (which thankfully is the new site!) but it screws up the system.

After two hours of trying to figure everything out, we just threw in the towel and deactivated the old account (again) and we are going to cross our fingers that it will stick. They could see that I paid every month. The problem was that I was getting billed twice - once for the old and once for the new. He thought that it would resolve the problem for me to go on an "automated billing status" but I quickly said no thank you to that. I could just see getting charged twice every month and then having to fight to get my money back. No way.

So I fell as if the day was pretty much a wash. It is funny how stuff like that can suck the life right out of you.

I did manage to finish the first of the two painting patterns for the classes I am teaching. That was a big accomplishment. The second pattern will be easier (I hope) because the formatting is done and all I need to do is change the pieces. I sent a copy of the pattern to a friend of mine who is somewhat new to painting. He also does beautiful woodworking and we have become friends over the past several months and he was gracious enough to look over the pattern and will be giving me feedback on whether everything is explained in a way that is understandable.

Friends like that are a gift. My friend Leldon has helped me so much on the woodworking side of things by proof reading my patterns for me. He has offered good and sound advice and suggestion about explaining things better and I am sure that Steve will do the same for me on the painting side of things. I am very lucky to have such people in my life.

There was a minor error in some of my patterns that we discovered that really annoyed me. My partner was doing some finishing touches on one of his little candle tray patterns and he noticed on one of the patterns that after tilting the saw a couple of degrees to cut the recessed center, it was never really mentioned in the pattern to put the saw back to zero degrees (90 degrees actually). One would think that would fall under the category of "common sense" but we all know how that can be a gray area at times and after discussion we thought that it was better said than not. I check my last batch of six or so candle trays and I did indeed tell people after cutting the center to put the saw back to zero. However, with further checking, I came to the realization that the first sixteen or so patterns of the trays I did not. Poopie.

Now there have been hundreds and hundreds of those patterns sold in the past few months, and not once did I have someone call me or email me to question why that wasn't said. However, knowing it wasn't right there in the instructions when technically I felt it should be really bothers me. Am I being picky? Probably. But I need to be picky in order to be successful. I need to be better and have the best patterns available.

So I am going to have to take the time to change approximately sixteen patterns today and add one line in that says 'return your saw to zero'. I also should probably send the new patterns to the wholesaler. But they had reworked all of my patterns into their format so it will also be a pain in the butt for them. I suppose that I should give them the choice as to what they want to do though. Then there is the part of me that wonders if it is necessary at all since people really seemed to figure it out anyway and not one person has mentioned it. (Believe me - if it bothered them, they would mention it!) I am in a dilemma.

On a good note, I am finding that my class for doing the tray is nearly sold out, if it isn't already sold out. In only two days. I received a call from a gentleman who wanted to sign up for two more spots on it and with the five already filled the first day, it looks like it will be full. Hopefully, they will let me stay an extra day to do the second class. That is really wonderful to hear.

We got the call from Bernie that our wood arrived yesterday. We had ordered wood for the classes and need to go get some more maple to prep for the scroll saw class. My partner wanted to go today, but I need a day to 'catch up' and finish up these loose ends that have been hovering all week. I think it would be better to go tomorrow, as I will be in a better place and have more peace of mind. He was agreeable with that and I plan to really make some head way today and get some of these things completed.

I feel better this morning than I did last night. I think a good night sleep did me wonders. I felt so overwhelmed and deflated last night and just needed to take a breath. We are going to go over our list again today and see what remains to be done before leaving and revise the list of what we are taking with. I am sure that will give me some peace of mind.

I am trying not to let the anxiety get the best of me. I feel that actually for the most part I am on top of things. I have something like 70 pieces of mail in my email box that I have to sort through too. Not all of them require answers, but I don't like the feeling of not getting back to people when they write. It is funny how quickly it piles up.

Getting through these issues is part of life, especially when owning your own business. Although they sometimes throw me off track for a little while, I don't feel in danger of them derailing me altogether. I know I am stronger than that. :)

I will leave you with my though for the day:

"If you find a path with no obstacles, it probably doesn't lead anywhere." - Frank A. Clark

That's my story and I am sticking to it.

Have a great Thursday!
 
#2,109 ·
Hi Sheila.

When I was in the Air Cadets, our squadron used to volunteer every Christmas to go caroling at the veteran's hospital in Toronto. It always cheared the patients up and it gave us a lot of pride in our uniforms when we saw how much some guys had paid for the honor of wearing them.

One guy in particular always sticks in my memory. He had volunteered at age 18 for the army in the first World War. He went to France with his unit (by coincidence, my own unit in the reserves many years later) and was caught in a mustard gas attack. Mustard gas attacks the skin much like acid does. As a result, he was kept in a tub of saline solution, as if his skin dried out he would be in excruciating pain. The gas had also cost him his eyes.

This poor soldier had been laying in that tub of saline since 1917 and when I met him it was 1965! Imagine living (if you can call it that) in a glorified bath tub for almost half a century! I can't even begin to imagine what it was like. I just thank God I don't have to experience anything even close to it.

Any time I start feeling like life is treating me badly, I think of that poor soldier and then I don't feel so hard done by.

If it's any consolation, I am sending you a huge e-hug. E-hugs are better that in person hugs because they can be used over and over again whenever you are in need of one. Stand by, here it comes…

HUG!

Feel better now?

Have a great today and a better tomorrow.

Paul
 
#2,115 ·
Small Change of Plans

I should be the poster child for why it is good to plan ahead. If anything, I hope that my documenting the day to day things in my life can show others how important it is to think ahead and be prepared for those unexpected things.

Unexpected isn't always bad. It is just unsettling to some people. I think I mentioned not long ago how being flexible can be quite an asset in many situations. Yesterday was a good example of this.

I received a call from Bernie at 8 in the morning and he said the plywood that I ordered that I need for my painting class was in. I had ordered several sheets of 1/8" plywood for the sea shell pattern kits for the class. Each pattern had five shells and there were two patterns. Each class had the potential of 20 students, and I wanted to have some extra kits from the other class available so that if someone were only attending one class, they would still be able to buy the pattern and shells from the other. That is well over 400 ornaments that I would need to have with me.

Since I had a lot to do, I asked Bernie if we could come on Friday to pick it up, as we also wanted to get the wood prepared for the scroll saw candle tray class. He said he had other plans and it would be better if we went right away, so off we went.

We made a stop at the lumber yard that we went to last fall that was about 10 minutes from our place here. It is a large mill and is mostly geared to industrial customers, but they don't seem to mind small customers like us if we aren't busy. Their stock is limited there, but they do usually have a good deal of maple and birch available.

We were going to get some maple for the trays, but it seemed that they only really had one piece that was over 8" wide, which is what we needed. They said their stock was low and they were expecting more soon. We decided to go with birch, as there was plenty of wide boards to choose from. We picked a couple of additional boards and got them cut so that they would fit in the car.

When I went back to the office to pay for the wood, I found out that they had lowered their (already low) prices recently. The birch only cost $2 per b/f and the maple was $2.20 per b/f. In comparison, when we get this wood from our favorite place in Halifax, both types of wood cost somewhere around $7 per b/f. Quite a difference. We were quite pleased that the total bill, taxes included, was only around $40. That was a good surprise.

We spent the afternoon at Bernie's shop resawing the boards and cutting them to size. Unfortunately, things didn't go as smoothly as we would have wanted. His planer blades were not very sharp and we lost a lot of wood due to tear out.

Originally, I wanted to just plane the boards down from the get go, but I was outvoted. The guys decided to resaw it, the goal being to get a half inch piece and an 1/8" piece from each board. We had done this before and due to the way things are set up, it always appears we come up short. Bernie's tools are a bit old and not as accurate as we would need them to be. But beggars can't be choosers and we are grateful that he helps us out.

The planer, as I said, was not in a good mood. The wood really took a beating and my job was to run the pieces through the finish sander - a slow and tedious process - to get everything as even as possible. Most of the thin pieces were consumed by the planer, as they cupped terribly as soon as they were sliced off of the thicker pieces. Most of them wound up as firewood.

I felt as if we kind of set ourselves up for our own frustration. However, with the planer blades being as dull as they seemed to be, I don't think that only planing the boards down to thickness would have been the answer either. It seems either way it was meant to be a long and frustrating afternoon.

We would have been better off taking the boards to the local lumber yard here and paying to have them plane them down for us. They have huge industrial equipment and charge for this type of service by the hour, but it would have probably taken about fifteen minutes for them to get the boards to thickness.

In the end, we did wind up with the wood we needed for the class. I have 23 - 8" x 8" x 3/8" squares of wood that will be fine for the trays. I think we will probably cut a couple of extra pieces just in case someone has a mishap with their piece at the class. I want to have extras there for them.

We never touched the maple board at all, so the cost per piece really was pretty reasonable. It is just the thought of the wasted wood and aggravation of working with tools that aren't quite up to par that was a bit frustrating. It only makes us want to get our own tools even more (and with that, find a place to work with them).

We got home after six. It was a big relief to tick that one off of the list of things to do. One by one things are getting done and with two and a half weeks left to prepare, I think I am going to be OK.

I just need to take things as they come - one day at a time.

Happy Friday everyone! :)
 
#2,116 ·
the best laid plans …...........

adapt
or get left behind

i now always get a set of spare knives
(the reversible throw a ways)
for planer
for just such times
set-up and changing is a snap
and the cost if better than the old style knives
that need to be set with precision by hand
 
#2,124 ·
Anticipation

I think that sometimes the most exciting thing about an upcoming event is the anticipation you feel while making plans. As the time comes closer for me to leave on my trip, I find this to be the case. As the pieces fall into place, I find myself becoming more an more excited about the many things that I will do and people that I will be able to see.

I am not feeling as nervous as I thought that I would be by now. There was a time in the beginning of the planning phase where I was wondering how I was going to get through things without being terrified. Although I like to write here daily to many people, I was never one to get up in front of a crowd and do well speaking. I much prefer one on one or smaller groups. That is best when there is a great deal of interaction between us and I am not the one doing all the talking.

I also think that a large part of my calm state of mind is because of the type of group that I will be speaking to. As we see here, woodworkers are a generally friendly group and most, if not all of the people that come to the show, do so with an open mind and friendliness and willingness to learn. It isn't going to be an angry mob that I am speaking to. I actually will know several people that will be in the audience, and that does make a difference.

Another part of the puzzle is that I feel comfortable in my knowledge of what I am to speak about - scroll sawing. I am not saying that I know everything, but I feel that I have enough of a background to answer questions intelligently and help people gain some information that up to that point they may not know. This past year of being active in the forums and on this site has helped me realize that I do have some things to offer others and share with others. I am sure that I will learn a lot too, and I am excited about that. It is going to be a wonderful time.

There are so many layers of this trip that are going to be positive. Seeing my friends for the first time in years is certainly one of them. Another aspect is seeing my kids for the week that I am going to be in Chicago. I spoke with both of them yesterday and the thought of actually seeing them together really made me happy. I haven't seen my son in almost four years. Since the last time I had been there, he has bought a house and is well-established in his career as a Joliet police officer. We are already planning our time together, and will probably visit several of my favorite places, including Navy Pier, The Museum of Science and Industry, and Brookfield Zoo.

I had been a member of Brookfield Zoo as long as I can remember and it is the inspiration for many of my wildlife designs. One of my favorite places in the zoo is outside the snow leopard exhibit, where the snow leopards lounge against a four inch thick piece of glass. It seems as if you can touch them and pet them and they are magnificent and beautiful.

Navy Pier has always been one of my favorite places in the city. It has evolved to a place for shopping and entertainment. In it, they have a huge Tiffany Glass exhibit with hundreds of pieces that were salvaged from churches and buildings in the Chicago area. I have always loved Tiffany and seeing these beautiful works up close is incredible. Pictures just don't do justice to the subtle beauty of the glass.

Navy Pier also has many other activities going on. In the summer it is bustling with people and bands playing on the boardwalk. I used to have a favorite bench where I would sit at the end of the pier for hours and look out at the lake and listen to the music playing in the background. Several times I would have popcorn and feed the greedy sea gulls and watch them banter with each other for the food. It was quite comical. I realize that it will still be cold there and the summer activity won't be present, but there is enough new stuff inside that will surely keep us busy.

My son tells me that there is a new show at the IMAX theatre in the museum on storm chasing that he wants to see. That will be fun too, as well as the museum trip in general. I have memories of going there for the day with my friends from school. We would take the bus and admission was free and we would spend the entire day exploring the huge building. It will also be interesting to see how it has evolved over the years. The last time I was there, it was to see the Titanic display sometime in 2002 I think.

All these exciting things and woodworking too! I am sorry to ramble on, but I suppose talking and planning yesterday got me thinking about all the great things to come. I promise to take pictures as much as I can.

As for yesterday, I succeeded in making six new patterns into packet while my partner updated the web site. although there aren't as many new things as I would have liked to have up there that I did, my partner did some outstanding designs and there is certainly enough to give a variety of new items for people to choose. I need to write my newsletter to get to our customers today and let them know of not only the update, but also of the special sale for them. Then I can finally finish the second of the painting patterns for the class.

I am really happy that things are going the way they are. I feel like a child waiting for Christmas. I am sure that the adventure will be unforgettable and even the preparation for leaving is fun and exciting. It is a really good place to be in life.

Have a wonderful Saturday! I hope you all have some time to create something beautiful!
 
#2,135 ·
Finding a Way

Some say that necessity is the mother of invention. I tend to agree. Need is a great motivator. Needing something has a way of pushing us to think outside the box and perhaps be a little more innovative than we would normally be. Especially if we have limited resources.

Many of you know that I live in a fairly small place. I don't have a real shop, per se, but rather do most of my own work in my kitchen and living area. My bedroom doubles as a storage room for most of my beautiful exotic wood, with all of it neatly stacked inside or on top of my storage cabinets. When I think about it, the wood stored in my bedroom takes up more square inches of real estate than my clothing. I suppose that shows where my priorities lie.

Many people view spring as a beautiful season. We often hear songs of trees blossoming and love blooming in the spring and everything is sunny and green. Call me an old poop, but I tend to look at spring as a muddy mess. It is certainly my least favorite season of the year. Even here in the country everything is wet and grimy and dirty. There are remnants of winter in the form of dirty piles of snow scattered here and there, but for the most part, there is wet mud everywhere. I realize that it is part of the cycle, but I honestly can't wait for it to pass.

Why should I care, you may wonder?

With living in a small place such as I do, a great deal of my messy woodworking is done on the front deck. Although I have been known to route in the bathroom from time to time, it is usually only occasionally when it is too wet to do so on the front porch. I try to work around doing things like that as much as I possibly can.

But with only about two weeks left until I leave for the woodworking show and having to cut out over 400 1/8" birch plywood ornaments to bring with, time is of the essence and I can't really afford to wait until things are nice outside. Cutting the ornaments with the saw really isn't an issue. The tiny blade brings up very little dust and even though there will be quite a quantity of them, there is no way that they will all be cut in one fell swoop so the mess is minimal and easy to clean between sessions.

What I am talking about is the preparation of the wood for cutting that was the issue. I recently picked up five pieces of 1/8" Baltic birch plywood from Bernie's for just this purpose. I use this type of wood frequently for painting projects, such as ornaments and the skating pond and although I realize that I won't be using it all for this particular set of ornaments, I will be using a great deal of it. The wood come fairly smooth, but in order to make a good base for any type of painting, it needs to be finish sanded prior to painting it. There in lies my issue.

Sanding is messy no matter what. Typically, when doing a project such as this, I would spend an hour or so on the porch and sand out there. As I look out my window, however, not only is it windy, but also wet and somewhat muddy. It isn't really a great environment for sanding.

With the recent purchase of my Rigid oscillating belt sander, I came to the realization that when attached to my new shop vac (which I call "the monster") I can actually sand inside the house with virtually no dust. Now I know that many of you are shaking your heads in disbelief, but it really is true. It sucks away just about every bit of dust the sander throws out. I was highly impressed when I saw this in action, although my cats were not quite as much so. (They are becoming quite stoic though, and Richard even has been seen bravely walking by the monster when it is on and coming within about a foot of it. I think he just does it so he can look tough though!)

In any case, after cutting the necessary plywood pieces (approximately 45) down to size, they needed a quick sanding on both sides with my Makita 1/3 sheet orbital sander. Now the sander has a little dust bag on it, but the filtration on the bag is not what I would call "really effective" so until now I have only considered using it outside. But with the recent acquisition of "the monster" we got the feeling that anything is possible. We pulled off the dust bag from the Makita sander and used the adapter and hooked the little hand held sander up to the monster.

In testing the results, we are very pleased to report that it did a wonderful job of collecting the dust from the sander. There was nothing airborne that we could see and no thin film of grit apparent anywhere. This was great news and we proceeded to sand all the wood necessary for the ornaments. When we were finished, we barely needed to vacuum the floor near where we were working. There was no dust on the tables or counters or anywhere. I was very happy that we were able to do this without a problem.

Now I know it isn't the most optimal situation, but it isn't the worst either. This was an unusual situation for me to have that much stuff to sand at a time and it certainly won't be the norm. It just feels good that it can be done inside without much of a disruption or cause that much mess.

I often get letters or private messages that question that I am even scroll sawing in such a place. Many people don't want to believe that it is possible to do so and still have a clean environment. Many times non-woodworkers and friends don't believe it until they come over and they can see that it is clean here and there isn't dust all over the place like most shops have. I think that the key to keeping things nice and livable is taking the time after each session to clean up whatever mess you make. It takes only a few minutes and it really makes it possible to use the space that I have for woodworking.

One day I will have a 'real shop' to work in and build things in. But until then, I will keep trying to find ways to make what I have work for me. It helps a great deal that I only build smaller projects. That means less dust and mess all around. But keeping up with things is really key in making things work.

Today will consist of continuing to cut the ornaments for the class, as well as finish up on the second pattern. I got all the photographs prepared for the second pattern and only have to assemble the packet into a usable format to be done.

It is time to really begin making a physical list today of what needs to be brought. We have been making mental lists, but as the time gets closer it is time to really start writing things down. We are coming to the home stretch and don't want to forget anything.

I hope everyone has a good day today. Enjoy your Sunday!
 
#2,136 ·
Well girl, I admire you. My house is full of dust. Dust from wood burning, dust from 32 dog feet and 44 puppy feet and yes, dust from using a sander with no dust sucker and a circular saw and a drill etc. etc. IN MY KITCHEN. So, there you have it. My front porch is covered with sawdust and wood chips. And now a pile of paint/stain/urethane cans that were kindly delivered to me from a friend (he was cleaning out his garage.) So, I wish I had a clean/dust free house. But I don't. LOL
 
#2,145 ·
Another Milestone

Yesterday was good. I finished the two sea shell painting patterns for the classes that I am going to be teaching. I am fairly happy with how they came out and I hope they are clear and understandable.

Writing painting instructions is so much different from scroll saw patterns. Scroll saw and wood working patterns seem to be pretty much cut and dry, but painting patterns have many variables in them. I often find myself when doing a painting adding another layer or changing the tone here and there. It is difficult for me sometimes to present how to do this in an organized way.

When I painted my polar bear a couple of weeks ago, I fully intended to make it into an instructional pattern. In thinking about it yesterday, the realization came to me that in order to do so, I will definitely need to paint it over again - perhaps several times - in order to recreate the process. It simply isn't easy (for me, anyway).

But these shells came out good and I feel as if a huge weight is lifted off of me. Everything is falling nicely into place. The only major piece of the puzzle that i need to find out about is obtaining the brushes for the classes. I have a good lead on it and hopefully I will be able to find out this week about them. The paint is all ordered and my partner has been cutting shells all weekend and it looks like he will finish today.

In other news, I heard that my first scroll saw class for the NWA club (the week after the big show) is indeed filled. It looks like I am going to stay another day so I can add in another class on Saturday. That way we will be able to give the people who work during the week the chance to participate. I was told that the Saturday class should fill up quickly also, which makes me really happy.

Teaching these classes is going to be great. I truly like the thought of spending time with people and walking them through the project. They are allowing a full eight hours for each class which means it will be a fun and relaxing day. I have chosen the following project to teach there:


I have full confidence that each student will be able to complete the project from start to finish in the time frame. I think it will be cool that everyone will be able to go home with a finished project. When I cut mine out, the actual cutting of the leaves only took me about 2-3 hours. I am not a particularly fast cutter so this should leave lots of time for practice and questions and working at a nice, relaxed pace. I am really looking forward to this part of the trip - perhaps even more so than the lecture. Interacting one on one with people is much more enjoyable to me.

I am curious to see how the painting classes will be. I am able to teach up to 20 students in that type of class. I don't know if they will be full, or even close to full, but in the past I have taught anywhere from two people to 35 and I much prefer the lesser numbers. Smaller groups are so much more pleasant, as I get to really get to know people and give extra attention to them. But either way I will be happy. I realize that this is a stretch for many woodworkers and I hope to at least introduce them to another possibility regarding their work. I am sure it will be fun.

Today I am going to hit the books and get my taxes in order. I started that a bit last night, and I have what I need to get started. I just need to log and categorize everything and make an appointment to see my accountant. With being a dual citizen and having my business based in the United States, I need to file in both countries. Last year I discussed with my accountant the possibility of moving my business here to Canada, but it seemed to be in my best interest to leave it as it was. After everything settles down, I again want explore my options and make sure that I am doing what is best for me. I just want to be able to approach it with a clear head when things aren't so busy.

I am following Big Tiny's Basic Financial Planning Blog and it is very interesting and brings up many good points about basic business practices. He is very generous to spend the time blogging this and I think it has some very good general pointers for a broad range of people. I know that this has been a part of my life where I basically was 'winging it' and I would like to look at things from a more purposeful perspective and really see what will be good for me in years to come. It seems that I am finally coming to a point in my life where I am settling down and should really start planning for down the road. They say it is never too late to start, so I suppose it is time. :)

Getting these taxes ready will be another big thing to check off the list. I will be returning home with less than a week to file in the US, and I don't need that hanging over my head while I am gone. It will be great to get it out of the way.

With two more weeks to get ready, I feel I am just doing fine. Hopefully I will get my car back soon and it also will be ready for the road. I should also hear from them in the next day or so.

I hope you all have a great day. It is melting here and warm and Spring is definitely just around the corner. Have a great Monday!
 
#2,146 ·
Good Morning Sheila,
Though I read your post a bit earlier, I again read it… You got a nice choice for the students to do. It is likely that almost all the techniques and skills required can be experienced in doing that. However, I feel that most of them will create mistakes if they will be doing at higher speed. Slow but sure.

Talking about Big Tiny… really amazing on his business adventure… He commented that he even had a veneer saw .1 mm saw kerf with 52 tpi … Without those great connection worldwide, he won't be able to have that saw. He is really big in this kind of business. If Big Tiny is reading this… I am really jealous of your experience and I like to put it in practice but wait till I am a fultime woodworker.. Dream that can be realized.
 
#2,150 ·
Still Crunching

Today's post will probably be a bit shorter than usual. It certainly isn't very exciting. I spent pretty much the entire day yesterday working on my business and getting everything ready for my accountant.

Actually it isn't as bad as it seems. Just time consuming. I do have everything in one place, and it is only a matter of me categorizing everything and getting the figures in the right place. It is more sorting than anything.

As I looked in my accordion folder which I keep all of my receipts, I am pleased to find that the first three months are all neat and everything is already listed in the proper category. That is always a treat. But the last nine months of the year are once again "just there" and need to be cataloged and sorted. Every year that happens. It is like that because every March or so when I decide to do this, I swear that I am going to be good and one day a month sort everything so that by the end of the year it is all ready to go. I have very high hopes for myself, it seems.

But alas, by the end of April it is back to what is normal for me and seems to get pushed to the back burner until it needs to ge dealt with the following March. And so the cycle continues.

I mentioned Big Tiny's blog yesterday and the more I read from him the more I am inspired to do better. As my business grows, I need to keep on top of things even more so I can see what is going on and make better decisions. I have done this somewhat in the past two years and I do believe that it plays a large part of why it is surviving even in this dismal economy. I think when I design and for many other aspects of my life it is OK to live in my 'pink cloud' world, but as far as finances go, you really need to get off the pink cloud and be very realistic. (Besides - the IRS doesn't believe in the pink cloud way of life! I am sure many people have gone to jail or at least received penalties for pink could thinking. They are just funny that way, I suppose!)

Perhaps if I swear off to you all here in public to do better, I really will. Every once in a while someone here can throw me a random "How's the business going this year?" which can be a code phrase to remind me that I should be keeping track of things and that I should know with a definitive answer. That should bring me to a reality check.

I don't know why I don't do this. I actually like seeing the numbers. Whether good or not so good, having them in front of me helps me make better decisions. It's kind of like an X-ray is to a doctor.

Say you broke your arm. What if the doctor is sitting there trying to decide whether you need a pin put in your arm and he needs to operate on you or if just resetting it and putting a cast on it would do. The nurse suggests an x-ray, but the doctor declines, because he feels he knows how bad it is. He wants to cut you open anyway. You would probably be thankful you didn't break your leg and run out of there.

It is probably a lame analogy, but you get my point. There is really no way you can gauge whether your business is healthy or not without looking at it clearly and objectively. It is difficult to do so sometimes - especially when you pour your heart and soul into doing something you love.

Two years ago, I reached a turning point in my life when I figured out that I could no longer pretend that my business was successful. The numbers told me otherwise. I was on my own and knew that it was only a matter of time before I would go belly up if something didn't change. My business was in such a state that I couldn't afford any good financial counseling and had to make some big decisions. Either I stand up on my own and learn some things about running a business or call it a day and do something else.

I read and did some research and got back to WORK again. And I gave myself a deadline. Not only did I decide on this deadline, but I told others about it. Somehow that made the commitment even more important. I gave myself two years to see improvement and make my business self-sustainable or I would walk away from it and do something else. That doesn't mean it had to make it's first million by then, but it did have to make enough to at least support me in whatever lifestyle that I choose to live. Otherwise what would be the point? I didn't want the stress of falling deeper and deeper into debt and worrying about things all the time. I was really getting tired of it.

By having this goal in front of me, it helped me develop a new attitude regarding my business and it also helped me make better decisions. Instead of doing favors for everyone and allowing many people to take advantage of me, I have stuck to my guns for the most part and treated both the business and myself with more respect. As you may have read in some of these posts from me, sometimes people didn't like the fact that I stood up for myself because they weren't used to that attitude from me. But I needed to turn a blind eye to how they reacted to me and continue on with my own plan. I know I was still being fair, and they would need to just get used to it. Otherwise my business would not survive.

I am happy to say that things are looking better. In the past two years, my business has turned around from losing money to beginning to make money. (Note the word "beginning") I have used the analogy of a train before, as I think it is very fitting. Not only do you need to stop a losing venture from going in one direction, but you need to turn it around and move in the opposite direction altogether. This takes time and there is no quick fix for it. I picked a two year mark because I felt that by then, if I didn't see the trend changing it would be time to think about doing something else.

Bottom line is that knowing the numbers and facing reality is an important part of any business. As one who thinks with my creative side of my brain most of the time, this part of the process is something that I have to train myself to do on a regular basis. Being creative is a wonderful thing, except when you are doing your taxes. ;)

So a bit more working on it today and I should be able to button it up. Right now I am just finishing things up and fine tuning some different reports. If I think about it, it is kind of fun to see which parts are working and which need more work. I feel like the doctor looking at the x-ray and making an educated decision as to what needs to be done. It isn't really that bad.

For those of you who are working on making your own businesses successful, you should read Big Tiny's blog if you get a chance and also remember to look at things realistically. It sounds like a simple thing to do, but it is amazing how easy it can be to turn a blind eye. Eventually however, reality will surface and if you are losing money consistently, you will not be able to survive. Keeping track of things on a daily basis will help you cope with the ups and downs of your business far better than being surprised once a year.

Have a wonderful day.
 
#2,154 ·
Planning is Part of the Fun!

Well, I am happy to report that I am finished compiling the information that I need to get to my accountant to do my taxes. It really wasn't that bad, because I had all the things in one place. Now next year I need to go a step better and do monthly reports to keep on top of everything. It shouldn't be very difficult because I really am what you call a 'small business' and I don't have that much activity. With the new site, tracking sales is not difficult at all and I am able to run reports very easily. I also have it set up that my wholesalers send me monthly reports by email so everything is on my computer. I do all my banking online too, so that is easy to store and retrieve.

I have been following Big Tiny's blog on financial planning and although I had been doing many of the things he suggested, there is still room for improvement. Somehow knowing that I wasn't too far off base gives me some inspiration to do even better. I really appreciate his blog and his willingness to share his expertise on the subject. I find that there are so many people willing to help each other here at LJ's and really am glad I found this place.

So it is on to more planning and getting ready for the show.

I found out yesterday that both of my scroll saw classes are nearly sold out. That was great news. I am teaching one on Wednesday, April 6th and Saturday April 9th. I had initially intended on leaving to come home on the 9th, but since there was so much interest in the show, we thought it would be fine to stay another day. On Thursday and Friday I plan on teaching two painting classes. These classes are only 3 hours long each though, so I offered the possibility of teaching them both on the same day and then putting in a third scroll saw class on either Thursday or Friday. As long as there is interest, I will be willing to teach.

In talking to the director of the classes, he informed me that he didn't start to promote the painting class yet and will be doing so later this week, so there was still time to make these changes to the schedule. I think it would work out nicely if possible. He also told me that without any promotion at all, he has members that want to sign up for the painting class. That is a good sign right there. As I said before, it wouldn't matter if I had five people or twenty, I will enjoy doing the class anyway. The non-business part of me likes having small classes because I get to spend a lot of time with each individual student. But having up to 20 people is still a decent number considering the difficulty of the project that I am presenting. I think that the students will be able to grasp everything pretty well in that time frame, and if they need some extra coaching, there will be time after the class for me to do so. These aren't difficult concepts that I am teaching, as they are just the first steps on the path. Yet when put together, they will allow the students to have a good base to learn further.

The scroll sawing class is really coming together nicely. We aren't going to be doing just the project. We have developed some great practice exercises to show many different techniques of scroll sawing like cutting circles, turns, acute and obtuse angles, casting on to the piece and many other aspects that they will encounter in many different kinds of projects. I want them to walk away from this class also with a good foundation and feel good about trying to do other scroll saw projects.

We even are going to offer a short exercise on using spiral blades to cut portraits. With spiral blades, you are able to cut the pieces in any direction without turning the pieces, as the blades are twisted so that there are teeth on all sides. My partner Keith uses these blades when he does his portrait style pieces, and he will be helping demonstrate some of the basics for this method.

I love having the eight hour time frame for these classes because it will really give me a chance to interact with each of the ten students and spend some time with them. Besides scroll sawing the project, I am also going to teach the application of the stain using the acrylic paints and the Antiquing and Staining gel. This is something that few people have probably used before and I believe that it will offer a new way of staining and finishing that they can apply to other projects. I am confident that everyone will leave the class knowing a little more than they came in with and at the very least have a nice project to take home with them.

So all is well here in Nova Scotia today. The sun is out and there is little evidence of snow left. As much as I love the snow, it is time for it to be done with and hopefully we will have dry pavement to travel on.

I am going to be a bit antsy for the next two weeks, getting everything ready to leave. I can't see myself designing anything new, as I have so many little details to check and recheck regarding the trip. I feel odd at this point and a bit unsettled, but not in a bad way at all. As each puzzle piece falls into place, I feel more confidence in myself and also that we are all going to have a wonderful time. As each day goes by, I am feeling fore and more excited about all of the aspects of this trip.

So much to do, so many people to see and so much fun to have! I am a very fortunate girl! I am finding out that not only am I going to enjoy the trip itself, but that half of the fun is in the planning and preparation. And of course the anticipation!

I hope you all have a wonderful Wednesday!
 
#2,158 ·
Good Days/Busy Days

It is just after seven AM and already we have both printers humming away happily. For the past couple of days we have been busy printing out catalogs and patterns and other material to take with us for the show. Everything is going pretty smoothly, with one small exception, and we should be finished with the bulk of the printing today.

We are having minor trouble with one of the ink systems, as we have after a bit of playing around figured out that we must have used an older bottle of ink in refilling the system. The one color (magenta) seems to keep clogging the printer head and periodically needs to be cleaned. We know it is the ink because when we tried switching the system to the other printer, the same thing happened after a while.

Fortunately, we figured out how to clean the heads without too much problem. The Canon printers have a removable printer head assembly and it is fairly easy to pop out the cartridges and the head assembly and simply soak it for a few minutes to loosen it up. We read online that you can use Windex to clean the printer heads and we just set it in a shallow dish with about a quarter of an inch of Windex for a bit and then wipe it off and it is ready to go for another couple of hours.

Unfortunately we had just refilled the entire system right before we narrowed the problem down to the ink and it is pretty near impossible to drain the system once filled, so we are going to use it this way to print the catalogs - which use a lot of ink - until the new system arrives and we run this ink out. It is well worth the effort we feel. The entire new system is only $59.00 filled with free shipping which is less than the cost of two sets of cartridges and we just thought it would be better to start fresh.

Apparently all printer ink has a shelf life of about two years. It has been almost that long since I originally purchased the system and who knows how old the ink was then. From now on, when I order additional bottles, I am going to place a date on them and use them in the order that I get them. Also, I am not going to order too many bottles at a time, as I don't really use all that much unless it is at a time like this when printing a lot of stuff at once. In any case, we are still much better off than having to buy cartridges. I would never be able to print this quantity at a reasonable cost using store bought cartridges. The cost would just be too high.

Amazingly enough, the quality of the printing remains simply flawless. And I mean flawless. There isn't a smudge, streak or broken line on the pages. They are perfect. When it works, it works well. I continue to be impressed by these little Canon printers. It certainly makes our patterns look professional and allows us to include several color photographs in each one without costing us much more to print. Several years ago that would have been impossible, with color printing costing as much as fifty cents per page. That was one of the reasons that I stopped designing decorative painting patterns. I couldn't afford to produce the packets at a reasonable cost.

We even learned how to print duplex pages. The printer actually prints one side, sucks the paper back in and flips it over to do the other side. It is quite amazing when you see it happen. Me and the cats are fascinated. We use a higher grade heavier paper and print our catalogs in this way. That way we are only using ten pieces of paper for them instead of 20 and it looks awesome.

I do love technology and all the advances that are made daily.

As for today, I am in the process of re-painting the two shell ornaments that I will be teaching for the class. I am painting about five of each, partly for practice and partly so that the students will have finished pieces to look at during the class. I want to be completely sure of myself and by repainting the pieces several times, I know that I will be able to teach them with ease. It probably isn't necessary, but it will give me a better sense of confidence in what I am doing. It will also give me the chance to get better used to the new paint brushes that I have. Like most things, different brushes work slightly differently and I want to become as familiar as I can with them before using them in front of a lot of people. I think it is a good thing.

I am still waiting to hear on when they are shipping my saw. I have set tomorrow as a deadline to follow up on that, as well as other things that need following up on. When I last spoke to them about getting it, they said that it would be shipped out of General International in Ontario and they were finishing up the details regarding it. But seeing as I have only a week left after this week, I really need to see what is up with it.

Worst case scenario is that I won't get it in time to take with me. Honestly, that won't break my heart because it will be one less (big) thing to try to fit into the Mustang. There will be plenty of saws at the show to use and I honestly don't have to have my own there with me. However, I don't want them to try to have it delivered when I am not here for three weeks. Usually a shipping company will only hold things for a short time and then they get sent back. I can see that happening if it arrives after we leave. The saw may wind up having more miles on it than we will. I think I will need to talk to him tomorrow and really make sure that I can pin down a shipping date.

The last big piece of the puzzle that I have is obtaining the brushes for the classes. I am still waiting to hear from two different companies regarding supporting me for the class. One company has higher end and more expensive paint brushes and the other has much more reasonably priced brushes which are geared for the everyday painter. Having used both lines of brushes, I can honestly say that they are both good and I like them both. The lower priced ones are surprisingly excellent in their performance and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend them for anyone. I have been using them myself and like them very much and the cost is about 1/3 of what the higher end brushes cost. However, the more expensive brushes are also quite nice and if you have the extra money to spend, they are a good, quality product and will also give great performance. Both are good choices and I will be happy if I am able to get either for the classes.

If neither company decides that they are able to help out, then I will still have time to get brushes on my own. So it isn't really a big deal. I would just like to be able to cross that off the list too.

So little by little everything is falling into place. After these pieces are painted, the only big thing I need to do is to finalize my presentations for the big show. I have everything pretty much outlined and I want to create some handouts which I can pass out after class which will cover all the material that I went over in the lectures. That way people will not have to take notes. I also want to include some simple patterns in it for people to practice the ideas I will speak of and some photographs. Somewhat like a little booklet. My goal is to have every person walk away from that lecture knowing a little something more than the did before they walked in.

I woke up this morning with a feeling that something good would happen today. What? I don't know. It may be something big and it may be something small. But it was a funny feeling that I had that is still with me. I like when that happens.

If we shall take the good we find, asking no questions, we shall have heaping measures. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

I hope you have a fun day!
 
#2,159 ·
Sounds like you got this think under control Sheila. Good for you!

Hope you have a ton of fun teaching and traveling. As one who has "been there and done that" I know both can be a ball or a bother. Hope yours avoids the latter.

If you have an extra copy of that brochure you're printing out… (big silly grin)
 
#2,165 ·
Sad News

I woke up this morning to news of the earthquake in Japan. I don't even have "regular TV", but get my news in the form of the NY Times and Chicago Tribune in my email box every day. I try not to dwell on the news, but I do like to stay informed. Many times it is overwhelming for me.

Since joining here at Lumberjocks, I have met many people from all around the world. There are also many that I haven't really interacted with, but I have sat back quietly and admired their beautiful work and contributions to the site. Being here has made the world much smaller as far as I am concerned.

Yesterday I received the chip carving knives from Jaime Speirs. I had mentioned that I was thinking of trying of trying some chip carving and looking at purchasing some knives from Lee Valley. Jamie immediately contacted me, saying that he had some extras from a class he taught and offered them to me. He sent them, and the first set never arrived. He was kind enough to send a second set which did indeed make it here.

He didn't ask anything in return. He just wanted to see them get used and enjoyed by someone. He lives all the way in Scotland, which is an ocean away from Nova Scotia where I live. But he treated me as he would a friend who lives right around the corner. I want to publicly thank Jaime for his kindness in sending me these knives not once, but twice. I will think of him every time I use the knives and it will remind me of the kindness that lies in people's hearts. Much like I do with the beautiful turned pen I received from Steve in England and the jewelry box from Grizzman in Alabama. These are all reminders of how wonderful people can be and how we make 'friends' through sites like this.

I have a new friend on facebook this week. His name is Carl and he is from Hawaii. He turns bowls from Koa trees. I have not heard of Koa before and I was fascinated seeing his beautiful work with them. When I heard about the tsunami heading toward Hawaii this morning my thoughts went to him. I checked my Facebook page and he had posted that the warning sirens have gone off and they were instructed to get to safety. I hope I hear from him later.

It is difficult to concentrate on my trivial things here knowing the peril that others are facing. The sights and stories of the pain and destruction weigh heavily on my heart. I don't really feel like writing about my own experiences today. I just want to know that my friends and the others are safe.

We need to be grateful for what we have. At any given moment it can be swept away. We need to live each day with appreciation and care for others around us and be aware of our gifts. Family and friends. Appreciate them.

May you all have a safe day. My thoughts and prayers are with those who are suffering.
 
#2,173 ·
Overcoming Demons

The days are winding down and I am getting closer to leaving my comfortable little surrounding here, I fear that I am beginning to feel a (ahem) small amount of pressure regarding the entire trip. As the thought of leaving my comfort zone and stepping out into the real world for three weeks approaches, I can't help but feel a small bit of anxiety.

It could just be because I am getting old. We all know that as we get older, many of us seem to find comfort in our daily routine. When I was a young teen, we lived with my grandparents for a time and even at that young age I would notice that my grandfather was very set in his daily activities. He woke at 6am - even on Saturday and Sunday. Lunch was promptly at noon on the weekends and when he was retired. The Cubs would come on at 3:00pm for the afternoon game and no one would even think to ask to watch something different on the TV (that was back in the day when there was typically one TV per household!) Bed time was just after Johnny Carson. And on it went.

I see the same traits in my dear friends Bernie and Ellen. They are quite set in their ways and even though there is always an open invitation from them to "just stop in" whenever, I can't help but sense that when I do their routine is disturbed. There have even been times when after lunch (dinner as they call it here in Canada) Bernie would wander off to the sun room to have his daily 20 minute "nap" while we all chatted at the kitchen table. :)

So am I getting to be the same way? I also have my daily rituals and find much comfort in them. When I was younger, I used to seek adventure and excitement. At some point, I think that I found that there is comfort in routine and a sense of security in the expected. I kind of like the way things are with my life.

But that doesn't mean that I have given up adventure altogether. Truly in the bottom of my heart I am looking forward to both the trip and all the opportunities it will bring me. The thought of meeting people face to face and talking to customers and lecturing and teaching is a wonderful opportunity for me on so many levels. It is just a bit intimidating at times.

In the past, when I did both woodworking shows and other types of shows (I used to design and sell collectible mohair teddy bears) I would always be nervous before the event began. But once I got around my fellow vendors and the customers, I had a splendid time and felt happy and comfortable. The time would go by much too quickly and I would thoroughly enjoy the interaction with others who had similar interests as I did. It kept me coming back over and over again.

Perhaps the apprehension that I am feeling comes from the fact that it has been a long time since I have done a show. Add to that, I have never done a show of this magnitude or been a featured presenter at any show. All those unknowns seem to have added up and from time to time I feel short bouts of panic. I try not to allow the "what ifs" to fill my head for too long. It isn't helpful.

My best defense to this anxiety is being prepared. In that respect, I am 'getting there'. With just over a week to go, I have nearly everything done and in order, with just a few details left.

One of my biggest undertakings to accomplish is to produce the hand out sheets that I will be distributing during the four lectures I will be giving. I purposely left this task until the end. I have a general outline of topics of discussion for each of the two individual classes, but in compiling these handouts, I will be refining the information and it will be fresh in my mind for the actual lecture.

You all my find it comical, but one of my biggest fears is that I will be standing up in front of a crowd and run out of things to talk about. I don't know why this plagues me so much, but it does. I believe I know my subject matter and I am truly not afraid that I will not be able to answer questions regarding scroll sawing, but somehow I fear that I will not be informative or entertaining enough for people to get their money's worth. (By the way - the class is free with admission- so what is that all about?) Perhaps it is because I am "featured". I am one of only four who were invited. Living up to that billing in a show of that size is scary.

Oddly enough the painting and scroll sawing classes the following week are something that I not only do not fear, but really look forward to. In that arena, I am on solid footing, and I feel confident in what I am presenting and with my ability to teach and help others. People will come expecting something I feel I can offer them comfortably.

Fearing the unknown is something that has plagued mankind all through the ages. I have found in my lifetime, that the anticipation of things I feared, is far worse than the actual thing or event. So with that said, I am in the process of convincing myself that this time it is no different.

For the most part, I am winning this battle within myself. I am happy, excited and looking forward to facing the unknown. There are just those small moments that creep in every now and then when I am feeling overwhelmed that I need to attend to them. I recently read a great quote which helps me put things in perspective:

"Always do what you are afraid to do." -Ralph Waldo Emerson

With that thought, I will carry on. :)

Have a great Saturday!
 
#2,174 ·
Hi Sheila;

Somehow I have trouble picturing you running out of things to say! You described perfectly, my own fears when asked to do a presentation of any kind.

There's a local woodworking club that's been trying to get me to do a presentation on building european style cabinets, and the difference between them and traditional stlye cabinets. In fact, I'm the one who came up with the topic, when they asked if I would do another presentation. I had done one on veneering a couple years ago.

But that same fear you mention, of standing in the front of the room, and going blank can really be crippling, if you let it. So far, I'm letting it! I've been avoiding it completely.

But like you, I find that being prepared makes all the difference, and once it gets going, I do fine, and actually enjoy myself. It's the time leading up to go time that's hardest to deal with. I guess the trick is to stay so busy preparing, that you don't have time to worry about it.

Well, I'm quite confident you will do great.

Lee
 
#2,182 ·
Where Did That Hour Go? I know It's Around Here Somewhere . . . .

"Daylight Savings Time" they call it. I am not really comfortable with it, as I much prefer the autumn when we turn the clocks back and gain an extra hour for the day. 25 hour days are good in my book. Not to mention that I got curious this morning and Wikipideia-ed it and spent another twenty minutes reading about it. After getting up while it is still dark for the past several months, I can't help but feel like I am being lazy when I see the light streaming in my window in the morning and I am still in bed.

But much like the weather, there is nothing that I can personally do about it, so adapt I will.

I was wondering today if doing paperwork counts as woodworking? After all, we all know that paper is made from trees. Or do you need to see actual grain in what you are working with to qualify? It seems that the closest I have come to woodworking lately has been pushing paper. (Oh, how nice it would be to have to sweep up some sawdust for a change!) I miss getting my hands dusty and creating. I know that "now isn't the time", but I will be looking forward to when I get back and can get the sawdust flying again.

I talked to Jeannie yesterday and things are going well in preparation. My paints already arrived from DecoArt for both the big show and the subsequent classes. Two big boxes! I ordered enough so that I can demonstrate the Antiquing and Staining medium in my second (intermediate) lecture. I think that will be a good thing, as I have had a lot of people asking me about it since I introduced it in some of my projects.

I also talked to Ray from Seyco on Friday and my saw is going to be shipped directly to Jeannie's. There was still time to get it here, but it would have been kind of under the wire and with having the little Mustang and so much other stuff to bring, I thought it would be best to ship it directly to her. Ray had wanted me to have time to play and familiarize myself with the saw before the show, but obviously he didn't realize that probably the last thing that I would have time to do a day or so before leaving would be "play with the saw".

This will gain me precious real estate in the back seat of my car for other things like clothes and clean socks. As it is, I will probably be wearing the same couple of outfits for the entire three week of the trip. Good thing I am not a glamour girl! Wardrobe is not an issue that I have even really entertained yet - although there have been moments where I thought about it in the back of my mind. Good thing that I am not a "shoe hound" either. The only shoes that I will be bringing will be a little pair of black leather flats besides my LLBean hikers. After all, I hear New York still has a lot of snow. I may bring one good outfit in case by chance we need to go out to a fancier dinner, but the chances of that are rather slim and I will have to see how much room I will have.

I spent the day yesterday printing out note cards of my good paintings to sell at the show. I know that doesn't have a lot to do with woodworking, but when I talked to Jeannie before, she thought that they may do well. I know from my own experience at shows that many bring their significant others and stuff like jewelry does really well. When I used to do shows, I found my note cards did surprisingly well. My photography skills and printing skills have improved very much since then, and I found a place that supplies me with the clear sleeves to put over each individual card. This makes a beautiful and professional presentation. I sell them for $4 each or six for $20 and many times I sell out of them. Since they only take up a small bit of space on the table, I think it will be a nice diversion for the non-woodworking people (do they even exist?) and see how they go. I have nothing to lose. Many people enjoy my paintings and this is an inexpensive way that they can have copies of them.

The only real piece of the puzzle that I am missing is the paint brushes. I was supposed to hear from the one company by Friday and I did not. That doesn't necessarily mean that they aren't going to help, but that they need a prompting. I will write them again on Monday and see what they say. I also haven't given up on the second company, as they are busy also. There is still time.

I have a full day ahead of me today with continuing to print and write. We have over 200 full catalogs to bring right now, and we prepared a double-sided one page flyer for when the catalogs are out. We printed over 500 of the flyers already and I think that should be sufficient. If we run low, we will have the printer there with us so we will be able to print more. I still need to make up order forms too, but that should not take too long. And I need to print some more business cards.

There is about a week left until I leave, and it is with guarded optimism that I say that I think I will be ready. I was considering having a square pool where you could all bet on what I was going to forget, but I thought that would be thinking in a negative direction and thought better of it. After all - we follow where we focus as I always say. :)

I hope you all have a great day today. Enjoy the day and do something fun!
 
#2,189 ·
A Little Demonstration Piece for Class

Today's post is going to be short. I know I have said that before, but then I get to rambling on. I can't however today because I have an appointment in Yarmouth and need to get it in gear early.

I am happy to say that I got to spend at least a little time at the saw yesterday. I worked on some of the pieces that I will be demonstrating with at the lectures.

Since this isn't a 'hands-on' type of class due to the size and time constraints, it is up to me to convey my points to them by demonstrations. I wanted to make something that wouldn't take too long for me to cut, but would show as many different techniques as possible.

Last year, I designed a little bunny dish to give away free on my site. I did this right before Easter, and thought that it would be a nice little something for others to make that they could use for quick gifts filled with jelly beans or M & M's.

the original design had three rings that were cut by angling the saw so the edge beveled outward from the center and caught on the next outer layer. I like these kind of little baskets, but I didn't want to mess with pieces or glue. In order to get my point across, I decided to rework the pattern so that I cut a beveled spiral from the center of the basket, much like the little lady bug dish project that I show in my project gallery. I think it came out really cute:


This little design will allow me to demonstrate several different common techniques. The most predominant one being the spiral cut that allows the wood to kind of 'bend' and form the sides of the little dish:


Not only will I be able to demonstrate how easy it is to bevel cut, but I will also be able to show how to cut inside and outside corners, applying the pattern, inside cuts, and cutting in a circle.

I timed myself when I cut the bunny out and it took approximately seven minutes. That is certainly enough time to fit it into the class. I think that if people watch me do it start to finish, they will not be intimidated by it and will hopefully give it a try. I am going to offer up the pattern in the printed material that I am distributing at the class and later on I think I will maybe make a video of it for my site and have it available there.

I can see people making a bunch of these for teachers, children and friends as just little unexpected gifts.


I am going to cut one out of walnut later on today so I can have a "chocolate bunny" too.

It felt good to get back to the saw, even for this brief time. I am down to one week now before I leave and I am sure it is going to go by rather quickly. Each step that I can check off of my list of things to do is an accomplishment.

With that said, I need to get on to other things today. It is still dark out but starting to lighten up and there are some things I need to do before I leave this morning. I hope you all have a great Monday and that your day is filled with fun and creativity.
 
#2,194 ·
Planning for the Future

Hiccups are a part of life, it seems. Yesterday things went pretty well, although it seems that there are always little things to get in the way. There was a time when I felt that I was 'over-preparing' for this little adventure, but as I get closer to the day of departure, I am happy that I have done things the way I have and have allowed a good buffer zone for these little things that come up.

I know it will sound silly to some, but part of me has felt lazy in the past month or so because I am not really "producing" any new patterns. After all, I am a pattern designer and that is what I do. It seems the design part of my job has just come to a standstill the past month and a half and it is so much out of the normal rhythm of my life that it feels quite odd.

However, on the other hand, it seems that I have been working from dawn to dusk every single day on things and details that relate to this trip and part of me is really tired. I look back to last summer and my little "day trips" and think of how we just took off for the day to take a break and enjoy the outside world and it seems so long ago. I seriously can't remember when I even just sat down to watch a movie without doing something work related on the side.

I am not complaining, mind you. It seems that I am justifying to myself why there hasn't been a great amount of new patterns made at this time.

The logical side of me sees the global impact that this trip will have on my life and my own career if you will. This isn't just a holiday that I am going to take to visit friends and family, it is an important stepping stone in my life and my business that can invite many different successes that are not possible to achieve from working only from my home.

Many shows are like that. Unfortunately, people often assess their success or failure when they do a show solely by the dollar amount of what they sell minus what it cost them to participate. Although those figures are somewhat important to a growing business, what can't be ignored is the long term impact that participating in the event would have on the business as a whole. That is a bit more difficult to measure.

When I used to design and sell my mohair teddy bears, I participated in a posh show that would come to the Chicago area (Schaumburg, exactly) twice a year. It was a juried show and you needed to be approved to even participate. After approval, the tables were nearly $500 (that was over 10 years ago!) and you were also expected to stay in the hotel and participate in the pre-show auction, as well as the Saturday night banquet and other activities, which required at least two, if not three nights stay in the large hotel. My friend Cari used to come with me, as it was our chance to have a 'girls weekend' and get out for a bit while our children were small.

In the end, these shows would cost me approximately $1500 to participate in. As most of you know, I am not a wealthy woman and with a growing family and other financial responsibilities, it took careful planning for me to participate. (Not to mention that the mohair fabric that I used to make my teddy bears cost approximately $150 per yard) It was an expensive business/hobby and at times it was difficult to justify.

As far as the return from the shows, I mostly made back at least the money that I put out to be in them. I say "mostly" because I didn't keep very good books and I think that in part, I wanted to sway things in my favor so that I could continue to do a hobby I loved and justify it as a business. I see that a lot in woodworking too. There are many who sell what they make just so they could buy more wood.

There is nothing wrong with that, I feel, and for myself at that time, I was not supporting myself. I was married and my husband was the main supporter of our family. I appreciate that he always encouraged me to do what I wanted with my creativity (within reason) and was always happy for whatever success I have achieved. Even to this day he is a good friend and encourages me to continue to follow the path I have chosen.

One thing I learned at those shows was that one had to have the foresight to recognize that it is the long term effects of the show and not just the day's receipts that are important.

After one of the teddy bear shows, I was contacted by a museum in Japan that purchased one of my bears for their displays. I was also contacted by a toy maker in the Chicago area (a firm called Breslow, Morrison and Tersian) which did ground-level development of toys for the big companies like Mattel and Tyco. BMT were the designers of the first electronic game, "Simon" as well as hundreds of other well-known toys. When you walked into their offices, they had a train that ran on a track suspended over your head and their offices were a mix of Star Wars technology and Santa's work shop. Their main conference room had several shelves which held award after award for their designs.

I worked with them as a free lance designer for several years before leaving Chicago. I had the pleasure of making prototypes for toys like "Little Talking Bubba" as well as some Simpson merchandise and Sesame Street musical characters, and I even had the honor of making prototypes for some of the toys that came from the Dreamworks movie "Chicken Run". It was fun to see the cells of the movie more than a year prior to its release. When the movie finally came to the theaters, it was a wonderful feeling knowing that I had been a very small part of it.

Unfortunately, they only needed me a couple of times a year (that would have been a KILLER full time job!!) and my main job with them was to make the soft sculpture prototypes for presentations to their clients. They would call me to a meeting and show me pictures and drawings and I would make them into 'things'. Several times things had to be reworked over and over to fit the mechanical 'guts' in, but it was fun and interesting work and it paid very well.

All of this came because of the teddy bear shows I did that I barely made my cost.

So who knows what the next month will bring for me. This time the unknown is very exciting for me. I think that this is the chance of a lifetime and it warrants my full attention in preparing for it so I can give my best impression possible.

And now I have rambled again. I suppose I made up for yesterday's shorter post, didn't I? But I want others who do woodworking shows to realize that you will never know where the next 'big break' will come from. You need to look at the big picture and remember that you don't always realize the full extent of your returns on the day you are counting up your receipts. I hope you can look at my story and see how this is so.

One week left. I had better get busy! :)
 
#2,195 ·
Hi Sheila;

I know what you mean about doing shows. I used to do woodworking shows, back when I first started marketing my Ezee-Feed units. The first show we did, was very spur of the moment. We had only a few days to prepare. I rented one booth, for $500.00 and set up a table saw with my units on it. We had some brochures, too. We couldn't demonstrate it in use, since 10 feet by 10 feet isn't enough space to rip sheets of plywood.

Well, I sold exactly zero units during the 3 day show. The next show, I rented two booths. More space but stilll not enough to demonstrate how the units worked. Still no sales. One of the other vendors must have felt bad for me, because he came he came up to us at the end of the show and proceeded to give us some advice.

I followed the advice, now renting four booths, with a table saw and shaper set up, along with a dust collector. I had a banner made, and a table set up with a continous loop video, as well as brochures and business cards. With this space we were able to rip plywood sheets. I also had my portfolio, which has about fifty pages of 17" by 13" photos of my cabinet work. Between all of these things, we managed to sell a few units.

It was pretty obvious that there is a learning curve to selling things, especially something that is new to the market. Myself, and my buddy Bruce, aren't salesmen, by any means, and we proved it. LOL

I did one more show after that, and we sold close to thirty units, I believe. I'm pretty sure if I were to start doing the shows again, we would be able to pick up where we left off, and sell units, but with the economy being what it is, I'm not taking the chance.

We did continue to get sales from those shows, for a couple years after we did them. So, you are right, it's not what you end up with at the end of the show. Plus, as you point out, you do make a lot of friends, and contacts that will last for years to come.

I'm beginning to think I talk as much as you!

Lee
 
#2,199 ·
Another Piece of the Puzzle In Place

Another piece of the puzzle has fallen into place - but not without effort. One of the last things that I needed to think about was to obtain paint brushes for both the painting class and the scrolling class.

Back in the days, my favorite brush company was very supportive about providing brushes when I taught larger shows. Of course they didn't send new brushes for every show I taught at, but every couple of years, if I were doing a larger show I could request paint brushes and they would set me up nicely.

This would help tremendously because I would typically need at least four to five different sizes of brushes when teaching a class. Multiply that by the 20 to 25 students in each class and you can see that needing 100 brushes or so is not out of the question. Prices on these brushes range typically from $4 to up to $15 on some of the larger 'wash' brushes used for varnishing and finishing (now the same brushes that were provided previously are nearly $28!) and you can see how quickly this can be a major expense.

For years I worked with a wonderful representative at "company A" because I truly loved their products and they were willing to support teachers in classes such as this, as they realized that new students who tried their products would likely become good customers. My liaison at the company said she used to love to provide me with brushes because I introduced them to an entirely new demographic - woodworkers.

I never took advantage of this generosity. I only requested what was necessary to complete the given project. The brushes, once donated, were mine to do with as I pleased and I typically kept them for further teaching assignments or if I saw a particularly enthusiastic student, I would give them a couple to take home and help them out. I loved to see someone who was interested continue with their hobby and I am sure that it helped the industry grow.

When I taught regularly at Hobby Lobby, I brought these 'teaching brushes' along so that students could use them if they needed to and frequently they would go out the the store right after class and purchase their own brush because they liked it so much. I feel that the investment that the company made paid off several times over in the long run and brought them many new and long term customers.

But times have changed and things are much harder now. My liaison is no longer with the company and the entire company in fact has been taken over by another company. They still say that they support designers. In fact they encourage designers to mention their products by name and promise a small compensation for doing so when being published, but things are definitely not as they were a couple of years ago. Since I have used their products for years, I don't mind doing so, but I do find that the communication with the company is very difficult, if non-existent.

Long story short(er), I put in a request for some brushes for my upcoming class almost two months ago. As of last week, I still hadn't heard back from them. After a follow up letter last week, I was told that my request is being considered and I would hear from them soon. With a week left before I left for the show, I needed to know. I didn't want to be left at the last minute scrambling for supplies.

In the mean time, I did find another source for good, quality paint brushes. They were offered from a company that has also been around for years and I have dealt with on a consumer level and have been very pleased with both their products and their prompt, courteous customer service. ( I will refer to them as company "B") They typically sell patterns and some painting surfaces (they are considering selling my skating pond patterns for me in the upcoming months) and since I liked the way they did business and was getting nowhere with Company A, I thought I would try their brushes.

I must say that I was very pleasantly surprised. I received my order about two weeks ago and I was very surprised at how much I loved these brushes. My expectations were not high, as most of their brushes were priced well below the similar brushes of Company A. Now I know that there are different grades of brushes to use, but so far I see these as performing very nicely. I am extremely pleased with how they have worked so far and I think they are an excellent line of brushes to introduce to new painters and veteran painters alike.

In speaking with my liaison there, she was able to help me with my class and offer to supply one of the four brushes I needed to teach. With times being what they are, I am very appreciative for any help whatsoever and graciously accepted. I also ordered the other three from their company, although unfortunately they only offered the one style of brush I needed in a set of five sizes, which wouldn't do for the class. It would just be too expensive for me to put that kind of money out and it would give me a quantity of unnecessary brushes that I didn't need or have use for, as I don't teach very often. So I took what I could and figured I would find the missing style of brush in my travels.

Not twenty minutes after settling out my order with company B, I received an email from company A, saying they would provide twenty of one style of brush for my classes. I immediately responded to her email, and requested the missing style that I needed for the class. She wrote back that the order had already been placed, but they were sending a duplicate of what I just ordered from company B. With a little persuasion, I was able to get her to request that I would instead be sent the style that I needed. I didn't want to appear ungrateful, but since I wanted something that I needed instead of twice as much of another, I felt it was worth asking. I am happy to say that it seems to have worked out.

I don't think that there is anything wrong with accepting products from two different companies in this instance. Both have high quality merchandise and while one is strictly mail order, the other is strictly retail. Living in a remote area as I do, I find that it is difficult to find things retail and I do quite a bit of mail order shopping. I find that my customers do so also. I want to be able to hook them up with a place where they can find supplies as easily as possible and I can personally vouch for company B.

Company A however, has been around a long time and also has a great reputation for quality products, although they are a bit more expensive. I feel that it is good to offer two choices. In any case, it is a great load off of my mind to get this matter out of the way and settled. I believe it is the last big thing that I have been trying to resolve.

I put together several new pattern packets yesterday as well. I had to get the instructions for the next magazine submission ready to bring with to give to my editor when I see him, as well as a couple of additional new patterns that we will be putting on the site for our next update.

Today I need to re cut some of the sample bunnies, as I found they need adjustments because of their small size. The spiral 'basket' part of them is not locking in like I thought it would and I believe I need to adjust the angle a bit to make it work. I also need to do some adjustments on the line work and prep several of them to be ready for the demonstration. And I need to continue to work on my handouts and outlines.

Things are moving right along and I think I am on the right track. One by one I am checking these important things off and accomplishing. With each one I feel a bit better.

Have a great Wednesday.
 
#2,200 ·
You are very correct. Times have changed, greatly. It seems you just can't rely on many companies like you used to. A local Lumberjock and I were discussing this very topic the other day. Places we used to loyally take our business too havesince been taken over by the kid's of previous owners or sold all togehter and are now no longer worth going to.
A good example is ABC Hardware (of course I made up the name to hide the real name). I used to buy all of my hardware there. I mean ALL of it. If the old man there didn't have it I would let him order it. If not, he has even gotten it from another hardware store and I paid his markup on it. I was willing to do this because of the great service. Also the store felt like a home away from home. If I had time I would pull up a seat, have a cup of coffee to the side of the service counter, and talk with the owner a bit.
Now the son has taken over the business. He has no idea where nothing is. He has no desire to find out where nothing is, or to learn the hardware business in general. Going there is like going to a yard sale and hoping to find what you need. If you don't find it, you will get no help. So, needless to say, I stopped going there.
Now though, I feel lost at times. I have nowhere dependable to get my hardware locally.
 
#2,204 ·
Five More Days of Prep

"Time goes by so slowly for those who wait
No time to hesitate
Those who run seem to have all the fun
I'm caught up
I don't know what to do"

And running I am!

I have never felt such exhilaration in preparing for a trip before. (And I mean that in a good way!) I am torn between wishing it would get here fast and knowing that it will pass so quickly that I want to take my time and enjoy every bit of it.

I got to pick up my car yesterday from my mechanic. It is all inspected, freshly undercoated, oil changed and ready to roll. It felt so back to be driving again, as it has been several months and I don't think that I have liked the car so much since the day I drove it home when I purchased it and it had 9 miles on the odometer. It's a stupid thing, but I love that car and even though I love my winter buried in snow in the country, I think I had my fill of it for this year and I am ready for the spring thaw. The thought of road trips and the sun shining down while driving with the top down is quite enticing these days! I suppose that is what is good about having four seasons. You are always ready to go on to the next by the time it gets here.

As I drove past the gas station, I was somewhat brought back to reality when I saw that gasoline went up to $1.30 per liter at the pump. As a reference, it hovered around $1 last year and when I first came here to Canada, it was around 70 cents. (And that was when the Canadian dollar was much lower). But at times like this I always say we "pay for scenery" here and live with it. What choice do I have? Besides, there are many places that gas is much higher so who am I to complain?

Leave it to me to be the genius who is going to drive across the country in a 250+ horsepower car when gas is near an all time high! But it is one of those things that "just is" and since I am staying mostly with friends and family, the trip is costing me little besides food (which I have to eat anyway) and gas. Besides, when I met with my accountant Monday, she confirmed that all expenses like that from the trip are deductible. So there is my "pink lining" on the black cloud of life. And thanks to Paul (Big Tiny) and his financial blog, I have a great system in place where I am keeping track of every expense incurred. Hopefully, it will be a habit and I will continue with it throughout the year. I can't see why not.

The weather looks as if it will cooperate too. I spoke to Jean yesterday and she said they are forecasting 50's for the next week or so. I can only hope that it is true! Even though they still have snow on the ground, it should mostly be melted by then and without anymore new accumulation, the roads are fine. I am optimistic!

She also told me the painting classes are filling up - something that surprised me. Even though I had said I would teach up to twenty per class, in my mind I figured I would be happy if I had five or more students. But she said there are at least ten in each last she heard and there are several weeks left for others to sign up. That is truly exciting and a great bonus.

As for today, it is more printing and organization. I want to clean and detail the inside of the car so that it is sparkling clean to start out. It looks a little overcast today and it rained yesterday, but I think I will have a chance to bring "the monster" outside for me to work on it. I like having it showroom clean and am sure I can make it look just like new. After all, we will be living out of it for the next three weeks so I want it to be pleasant.

So with that said, I had better get to it. Five more days of prep and then I need to hit the road. It will be here before I know it!

Have a great Thursday everyone!
 
#2,205 ·
Hi Sheila;

Your first paragraph reminded me of a speech I used to make to clients. My construction company would do very high end renovations, and often would be total gut and rebuilding of condos. These jobs might be as large as 7,000 square feet, and include cabinets and furniture, in addition to the construction.

And always, the people would be in a big hurry to get done. I would try to explain to them that enjoying the journey was very important. So often this need to hurry to get done would lead to dissapointment.

Design decisions were often made with "how long will it to get it done", instead of what will look the best.
Then we would be asked to tear out what we just finished building, and redo it based on what would look the best. At extra expense, of course! And extra time.

I could never get some people to realize the bigger the hurry, the longer it will take. And that need to hurry just seemed to make everybody cranky.

If they would just try to enjoy the entire process, things would go much better, since the planning would be better.

Seemed so simple to me, but NO…

Lee
 
#2,217 ·
Details, Details . . .

I look around and there are "piles" everywhere. Piles of papers, patterns, wood pieces, etc. Even the cats know something is up, as Richard is flying back and forth through the house this morning like an idiot (well- as much as he can fly with a short runway!) Since I have sat down here this morning, he has ran the length of the apartment at full speed at least a dozen times, as if a rocket was lit under him. What a nut!

It's time to enlist one of the most important elements you can have when leaving on a trip or traveling - "the lists."

I found myself up and walking around at 3:30 am this morning thinking of stuff I had to do and bring and remember. That wasn't good. I still have four more days to go and if I spent the nights pondering like I did last night I am sure I will be exhausted by the time I leave on Tuesday. I almost just stayed up, but I knew full well that if I did, come around 2:00pm I would woefully regret it and hit the skids. I went through some emails and scouted Facebook for an hour or so and then I managed to think of things other than the trip long enough to feel sleepy and went back to sleep.

It is raining today and is also forecast to do so for the entire weekend. I am happy that I spent the day preparing and cleaning the car so even if it rains up until Tuesday, I am ready. There was part of me that felt guilty playing with the car yesterday while living among the clutter here in the house, but I think it was a good decision. Today I don't have any reason to leave the house and can really focus on getting many of the loose ends tied up and ready. I am close, but one good day is needed to really get a handle on things. I am looking ahead to a good and productive day.

I was absolutely shocked last night when I received an email from Jeannie that the paint brushes arrived for the classes. It was a mere two days since I talked to the girl at the brush company and after the previous six plus weeks with little communication from them, it amazed me that they were there already. I suppose once they got it in gear, they worked in high speed. AND she told me that the brushes that she sent were the elusive deerfoot stippler brushes that I had requested. I give them a 10+ for scoring a fourth quarter touchdown. The first thing on my list after the blog here is to write the girl I talked to a nice "thank you" letter for coming through for me. That is one less thing to worry about.

In looking at the UPS tracking number that was given to me by Ray from Seyco, the Excalibur saw is on the truck and should be delivered to Jeannie's today. That is also exciting news and I can't wait to see it and try it out. I received a call from Ray and he wants me to call him as I am setting it up to go over a check list and make sure that all is in order. He said that he usually does these things himself, but since the saw was shipped directly from General International in Tennessee, he was unable to do so and he wants to be sure everything is set up right. I have heard many stories about him and the wonderful service he gives his customers, and I am happy that he not only has such a great reputation, but in the short time I have dealt with him so far, has shown that the reputation is warranted. This is going to be a great chapter in my life. I can feel it.

I don't have much more to report but "onward and onward". I had a great time reacquainting myself with my car yesterday and getting it ready for the trip. Somehow it made it seem more "real". After thinking about it for months, it is sometimes hard to believe that in reality it is only a couple of days away. I'm in the home stretch now and feel really good about everything. I apologize for all you hard-core woodworkers that my blogs here have not focused much on making projects, but I think that this trip is going to be a nice way to show a different side of woodworking.

I plan on taking a lot of pictures, not only of the show, but of the classes and the learning center and of course the offices at the magazine so you can all come along with us on this trip and get a feel as to what it is about. I don't know if I mentioned it here before, but I may even be able to meet up with Rivergirl (Kelly) on my way to Chicago if our schedules work out. I will be driving kind of by her place and we are going to try to meet for lunch on my way across. That will really be cool.

So for today, I had better get to it. I hope you all have a great one!
 
#2,227 ·
Land of the Lists

It's getting to be that time. The final countdown. I wish I could say that I was sleeping a bit easier, but I think that the excitement is just too much. I awoke up earlier than I wanted to this morning and I almost went back to bed, but I had already had the first sip of coffee and it tasted soooo good that it wasn't worth parting with it. Besides, I have lots to do today and an early start would probably be good.

I finished most of my printing yesterday. I have a nice little box of note cards with prints of my paintings on them and they are all packaged beautifully in the clear sleeves. They look nice and professional. It may seem silly to sell such a thing at a woodworking show, but from my own experiences and also from talking to Jean, she thought they may do well there. I found that many times couples go to these types of shows together - even if both aren't interested in woodworking and it seems that jewelry and art items do sell well to the spouses of the woodworking addicts.

I sell the note cards at a fairly reasonable price, and when I used to attend the farmer's market in Annapolis Royal and also do some of the craft shows, I was amazed at how well they did. There were many times when I had a slow day when those little cards would help me through. It never hurts to have a back up plan. It was a nice chance for people to get copies of my paintings rather cheaply. I even had many who said they were going to frame them.

I also ordered some prints of my paintings to have on hand "just in case" there are those who are interested. With all the people that are attending this show, I figured it wouldn't hurt to have them there so people can see I do also paint. There is a place that I order them from in New York that does an incredible job on them. I send them digital files and they send the prints. They offer high quality archival paper and as with the note cards, I package them beautifully and professionally with acid-free archival material. They always seem to sell too.

It doesn't hurt to have these things with me. I don't know when I am going to get this kind of exposure again and I want to be prepared. I understand that a couple of years ago, one of Hillary Clinton's decorators was at the show looking to commission woodworkers for some work. Jeannie told me the entire story and to be honest I forgot it, but she also told me of other high end commissions that were offered at previous shows. She said this year that one booth had a handful of pieces that were worth (collectively) over a million dollars. Yikes! I am sure from the previous pictures that this is going to be not only a woodworking show, but also a beautiful art gallery on display. I promise lots and lots of pictures!

Today it is going to be time to make several final lists. I need a list for the scroll sawing class, a list for the painting class, as well as a list for the booth. Then there will be the "general list" of stuff that I will need every day (like socks and underwear!) It dawned on me the other night that I need my passport (DUH!) For years before I had my "Landed" papers here in Canada I carried it around with me in my purse. But since then, I have it in a safe place here at my home. I could see driving 10 hours and getting to the border only to remember that it is safely tucked away here at home! That sounds like something that I would do.

Camera, charger, computer, charger, projects, wood, etc, etc. I wonder what I am going to wind up forgetting? Hopefully nothing that I can't easily obtain once there. The extra day I will have prior to the set up day will be so important for pulling everything together. I am so happy that I am going earlier than necessary. It will give me a chance to acclimate to the place and take a breath.

The saw arrived yesterday too and the stand. In watching the tracking, it said it was 21 lbs. I was thinking it would be just my luck if they sent the stand and by some glitch in the system they didn't send the saw! That would be funny. (Not really - but kind of!) I told Jean we could have Keith sit on the stand with a hand saw and wear a hat that said "Excalibur" on it.

I don't know how much time I will get to actually use the saw at the booth. They are going to have me booked pretty full and I have lots of customers that said they are going to be there. There is going to be several of our friends from Steve Good's site and Facebook and I am really excited to meet them face to face. We all kind of talk almost every day much like our group of 'regulars' is here and it will be wonderful to actually see everyone eye to eye. We are going to try to do a group photo so that will be (another) highlight.

All in all, I am doing pretty well and not in a panic yet. I hope I don't get there. There is no reason I should if I keep focused on the path that I am on.

So with that said, it will be another day of odds and ends. It looks like it will be decent out and I hate to jinx myself but it appears that the weather will cooperate and that winter is (for the moment) done. I am going to spend the day, not only writing lists, but also checking things off of them. I already have a nice pile of "things to go" that I keep adding to. So far it all looks like it will fit fine! :D

I hope you all have a wonderful Saturday and that you are all experiencing the same. Have a fun and creative day!
 
#2,228 ·
Goood morning Sheila early on today :)

it wuold have been a bummer to stay at the border with out the passport
and have them spliting the hole load apart just to see what you hide

if you do that to Keith then remember it shuold bee an old framesaw and call it ExcaliburART :)
or you can ask Shipwright if you can borrow his chevalet
here is the link if you havn´t seen it
http://lumberjocks.com/shipwright/blog/series/3745

have a great day
Dennis
 
#2,237 ·
Odds and Ends

Well folks, its kind of the same old story. We've all heard the saying that "no news is good news" and I am happy to report that this is the case. It doesn't make for very interesting blog reading, but it makes for a very, very happy Scrollgirl.

We are at T-minus two days and all seems to be going well. As we get down to the nitty-gritty, there are still no disasters and it appears that everything is going as planned. Yesterday, upon inspecting the little skating pond set that I am bringing to display, I realized that I was short a bridge. I had given some of the sets away and it appears that I had gotten lazy and never made that last bridge and gave my own away. No biggie though. I whipped one up in about an hour in between doing everything else and all is well with the skating world again.

I printed out labels with my information and stuck them on each of the individual scroll saw blade samples that we are going to be passing out. I figured that anything that we give out should have my information on it so that at a later date people will be reminded how to get in touch with me. Just good PR I think. I also printed out business cards - lots of them - to distribute at the show.

The bulk of what we are bringing is paperwork it seems. We have two boxes of printed out patterns, as well as 200 full catalogs and 500 double-sided flyers which highlight some of our most recent projects - just in case the catalogs run out. After all, the catalogs are available for free download on the site and the flyer directs customers there. I realize that some people want to take home information from shows like this such as catalogs while others would prefer only small items like the business cards or flyers.

We are going to bring only one of the printers and ink systems with - just in case there is a run on a certain pattern or patterns and we need to replenish our stock. I have over 400 patterns on the site and it was impossible to print out copies of everything. We decided to print 10 copies of each of the newer patterns and best sellers and leave it at that. That was still a lot of patterns.

Then there is the projects. Deciding what to bring was not easy. We tried to bring a variety of different styles of scroll work and projects. Of course, I brought some of the candle trays. I think I will have only a couple of them set up at the table though. There are baskets and plaques - some with traditional scroll work, some with segmentation, some that are self-framing. And also there are ornaments of all different varieties. These projects will do double-duty as props for my lectures, as I will show the many different types of things you can accomplish on the scroll saw, as well as several different techniques.

Fortunately, these things are all pretty flat (except the baskets) and take up little room. Since most of the class supplies are already shipped and waiting at Jean's house, we don't have as big a load as you would think. Here is the pile of boxes so far:

Cat Carnivore Felidae Shipping box Wood


That's Coco sitting on the boxes. The cats are taking turns sitting on or around the boxes, much like they are guarding them for me.

We got the suitcases out of storage yesterday too. It appears that all of these boxes will fit in the back of the car, leaving nearly the entire trunk for the suitcases, printer and perhaps the laptop. I have a small nice suitcase and a matching duffel type bag to go with it, as well as a small carry on for toiletries. That should do fine. As I said, I am not a clothes horse at all and besides - the less clothing I bring, the more room for wood and tools. :) Sometimes you just have to compromise.

With two more full days left, I think I am on top of things pretty well. Today I want to go over everything that I need to transfer from my main computer to the laptop. Everything is networked here so it is like one big database and I am quite spoiled in the fact that if something isn't on the computer that I am using at the time, I can easily access it through the network. That won't be the case once I leave though so I had better be sure that my files are all loaded up. I want to burn some music, too so I have some updated stuff for the five plus days of driving. It is funny though how even on our long road trips we use the sound system so little. But it will be good to have anyway.

I also want to go through every box and make a list for when we cross the border. I found that if we are organized and well-prepared, they tend to be much easier on you. I am going to number the boxes and list what is in each one and if needed I can present that to the customs agent when passing through. That will also help us stay organized at the show and it will be a great way to do the final check on the way out the door. It will be a good thing all around.

So all is well and good. I may even have time to do a final sweep and cleaning of the house before I go so that I can come home to a clean place. After three weeks on the road, the last thing I want to do is come home to a mess that I will need to clean. (Most of the guys won't understand that, but the ladies will. Sorry to sound sexist!)

I realize that these past couple of weeks haven't probably been the most exciting for you to read about. But sometimes in business you just need to take the time to lay a good foundation - mundane as it may seem - to insure that what you build on top of it is solid. Preparing for this trip has been all-consuming for the past several weeks for me. In the 'old days' I would have been pushing myself to do extra projects that I could bring with and dazzle people with at the show. But this time around, that hasn't even been a consideration.

Have I become lazy? I don't think so. I think I am finally learning to have confidence in what I am at the moment. I think the time to dazzle people will be after I return, after I am exposed to all these new techniques and people and as Jeannie said yesterday - I am filled with "creative overload". In the past I would have in the last week started "just one more project" and would in all probability been scrambling to get it finished as I was walking out the door. But somehow I don't see the need to do that. What I have here with me now is what got people's attention in the first place. I am proud of what I have accomplished in the past year or so and I believe it accurately depicts my capabilities. I find that I am comfortable in my place in life and I will do OK. As Popeye says - "I yam what I yam".

It is a good feeling to be in this frame of mind. Instead of being frazzled or worried or nervous, it leaves me calm and excited about all the opportunity that waits for me. I can honestly say that I have never approached a show with this mindset before and it feels incredible to be able to do so. Perhaps I am maturing after all. Instead of worrying about what can go wrong, I have learned to anticipate all the wonderful possibilities.

If we shall take the good we find, asking no questions, we shall have heaping measures. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Have a beautiful Sunday!
 

Attachments

#2,238 ·
Odds and Ends

Well folks, its kind of the same old story. We've all heard the saying that "no news is good news" and I am happy to report that this is the case. It doesn't make for very interesting blog reading, but it makes for a very, very happy Scrollgirl.

We are at T-minus two days and all seems to be going well. As we get down to the nitty-gritty, there are still no disasters and it appears that everything is going as planned. Yesterday, upon inspecting the little skating pond set that I am bringing to display, I realized that I was short a bridge. I had given some of the sets away and it appears that I had gotten lazy and never made that last bridge and gave my own away. No biggie though. I whipped one up in about an hour in between doing everything else and all is well with the skating world again.

I printed out labels with my information and stuck them on each of the individual scroll saw blade samples that we are going to be passing out. I figured that anything that we give out should have my information on it so that at a later date people will be reminded how to get in touch with me. Just good PR I think. I also printed out business cards - lots of them - to distribute at the show.

The bulk of what we are bringing is paperwork it seems. We have two boxes of printed out patterns, as well as 200 full catalogs and 500 double-sided flyers which highlight some of our most recent projects - just in case the catalogs run out. After all, the catalogs are available for free download on the site and the flyer directs customers there. I realize that some people want to take home information from shows like this such as catalogs while others would prefer only small items like the business cards or flyers.

We are going to bring only one of the printers and ink systems with - just in case there is a run on a certain pattern or patterns and we need to replenish our stock. I have over 400 patterns on the site and it was impossible to print out copies of everything. We decided to print 10 copies of each of the newer patterns and best sellers and leave it at that. That was still a lot of patterns.

Then there is the projects. Deciding what to bring was not easy. We tried to bring a variety of different styles of scroll work and projects. Of course, I brought some of the candle trays. I think I will have only a couple of them set up at the table though. There are baskets and plaques - some with traditional scroll work, some with segmentation, some that are self-framing. And also there are ornaments of all different varieties. These projects will do double-duty as props for my lectures, as I will show the many different types of things you can accomplish on the scroll saw, as well as several different techniques.

Fortunately, these things are all pretty flat (except the baskets) and take up little room. Since most of the class supplies are already shipped and waiting at Jean's house, we don't have as big a load as you would think. Here is the pile of boxes so far:

Cat Carnivore Felidae Shipping box Wood


That's Coco sitting on the boxes. The cats are taking turns sitting on or around the boxes, much like they are guarding them for me.

We got the suitcases out of storage yesterday too. It appears that all of these boxes will fit in the back of the car, leaving nearly the entire trunk for the suitcases, printer and perhaps the laptop. I have a small nice suitcase and a matching duffel type bag to go with it, as well as a small carry on for toiletries. That should do fine. As I said, I am not a clothes horse at all and besides - the less clothing I bring, the more room for wood and tools. :) Sometimes you just have to compromise.

With two more full days left, I think I am on top of things pretty well. Today I want to go over everything that I need to transfer from my main computer to the laptop. Everything is networked here so it is like one big database and I am quite spoiled in the fact that if something isn't on the computer that I am using at the time, I can easily access it through the network. That won't be the case once I leave though so I had better be sure that my files are all loaded up. I want to burn some music, too so I have some updated stuff for the five plus days of driving. It is funny though how even on our long road trips we use the sound system so little. But it will be good to have anyway.

I also want to go through every box and make a list for when we cross the border. I found that if we are organized and well-prepared, they tend to be much easier on you. I am going to number the boxes and list what is in each one and if needed I can present that to the customs agent when passing through. That will also help us stay organized at the show and it will be a great way to do the final check on the way out the door. It will be a good thing all around.

So all is well and good. I may even have time to do a final sweep and cleaning of the house before I go so that I can come home to a clean place. After three weeks on the road, the last thing I want to do is come home to a mess that I will need to clean. (Most of the guys won't understand that, but the ladies will. Sorry to sound sexist!)

I realize that these past couple of weeks haven't probably been the most exciting for you to read about. But sometimes in business you just need to take the time to lay a good foundation - mundane as it may seem - to insure that what you build on top of it is solid. Preparing for this trip has been all-consuming for the past several weeks for me. In the 'old days' I would have been pushing myself to do extra projects that I could bring with and dazzle people with at the show. But this time around, that hasn't even been a consideration.

Have I become lazy? I don't think so. I think I am finally learning to have confidence in what I am at the moment. I think the time to dazzle people will be after I return, after I am exposed to all these new techniques and people and as Jeannie said yesterday - I am filled with "creative overload". In the past I would have in the last week started "just one more project" and would in all probability been scrambling to get it finished as I was walking out the door. But somehow I don't see the need to do that. What I have here with me now is what got people's attention in the first place. I am proud of what I have accomplished in the past year or so and I believe it accurately depicts my capabilities. I find that I am comfortable in my place in life and I will do OK. As Popeye says - "I yam what I yam".

It is a good feeling to be in this frame of mind. Instead of being frazzled or worried or nervous, it leaves me calm and excited about all the opportunity that waits for me. I can honestly say that I have never approached a show with this mindset before and it feels incredible to be able to do so. Perhaps I am maturing after all. Instead of worrying about what can go wrong, I have learned to anticipate all the wonderful possibilities.

If we shall take the good we find, asking no questions, we shall have heaping measures. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Have a beautiful Sunday!
The cats are not guarding them FOR you. They are guarding against you picking them up. They know something is up and they don't want you going nowhere. Animals are funny that way. They don't know exactly what is going on. They just know they don't like it.
 

Attachments

#2,244 ·
Ready to Launch

We're down to the final day here - and not a moment too soon. I think if I had any more time to think, prepare or plan I would drive myself crazy. I haven't been in crazy state of mind though. Quite the opposite. I have been quite calm and happy. I even took some time out to play a bit of Scrabble on my Facebook.

Yesterday my site was down for almost the entire day. I first noticed when I tried to post my blog on it early in the morning. (I copy this blog to it every morning). I was going to log into customer support, but I soon discovered that not only was it my site that was down, but the entire host company that I couldn't get to. Somehow this made me feel better. It wasn't "just me."

As I checked throughout the day, I had a minute or so of fear. What if the company which hosted my site went under? After all, in this economic climate, you hear about stuff like that happening all the time. If they were to go under, would they even notify us about it, or would they just pull the plug and be gone? Hummm. . . .

After several hours of checking, around 2pm I saw a different error when I tried to access their site. I found comfort in that because it at least meant that they were working on it. In another few hours, I tried their home page again and not all the elements, but half of them were working. I knew that things would be OK. By 7pm or so, things were back up and running and everything worked fine.

Now a couple of months ago, I would have probably been really bothered by this. I would have spent the day trying to figure out what was wrong and worrying. Yesterday however I just 'let it go' and waited until it got fixed. Am I finally learning? Perhaps . .

I sorted and rearranged everything that will be going with me and made my list for the customs people, if needed. I know that may sound like I am going overboard, but in my travels back and forth across the border, I have learned that you need to be ready for the unexpected. Most of the time, the agents are friendly and don't say a word to you besides "have a nice stay." But occasionally you get someone who has to know every single thing you are carrying with you down to the last stick of gum in your purse. It took me all of ten minutes to type up a list of what was in each box and although I may not even need it, if I do it will make things much simpler.

Today I am going to spend the day tidying up and burning some music to take with. I did most of the cleaning yesterday, as well as the laundry so there is really nothing for me to do besides this last minute stuff. I have to pack my clothes, but that has never been an issue with me. I never really saw the reasoning behind laboring about what to bring. I am glad it is a woodworking show because everyone dresses pretty casual. Casual works well for me, as it is the story of my life. I may bring one outfit that is a bit dressier, but then I think that I won't really be needing that either. Even when I am in Chicago, there isn't anyone that I will be seeing that will be dressing up too much. I don't think we will be at any formal dinners or things of that sort either.

I am going to try to post as regularly as I can, but things may be off schedule for the next few weeks as you can imagine. Most importantly, I am going to try to keep a good record with pictures and upload them to my Picasa albums as much as possible. I was thinking of taking some videos of the show with my camera, but I am not sure as to how it will come out and the uploading time may inhibit me from doing so. I don't know what type of connections I will be on. At the very least, I will try to dump my day's pictures onto the hard drive of my laptop to deal with later on. That will give me a clean slate each day as far as my camera goes and keep things manageable.

I want to apologize now for the soon-to-be atrocious typing that I will certainly be imposing on you in the next couple of weeks. I really do despise that keyboard from the laptop and I found I have great difficulty with it. I am certain that if I gain any new readers, they will surely think that i am illiterate. I am bringing a USB cordless mouse so I don't have to deal with that tiny pad on the laptop. That is another thing I have trouble managin There are some things I just never want to learn.

So with that all said, I suppose I am ready. This will be a wonderful adventure and I know it will be the experience of a lifetime for me.

Let the fun begin!
 
#2,245 ·
Morning Sheila, I'm up early(for me) as I'm getting my roof shingles replaced today. We are wishing you a very safe and fun trip with lots of new knowledge gained. I am saying that today instead of tomorrow so you can read this and have the blessings from us. We will be praying that everything goes smoothly for you and that if any "glitches" should occur, that they are minor and perhaps memorable? Take care and drive safely and may the "NUTS" on the road be elsewheres from you!

Erwin, Jacksonville, FL
 
#2,256 ·
Room to Spare!

Sometimes I'm really good! For those of you who doubted we would be able to fit all the stuff we needed for the show in the little Mustang, I get to say "I told you so!" LOL I don't mean this in a nasty way at all, but I must say that I am pretty darn proud that we were able to fit everything in - and even had room to spare.

I suppose that I am so proud because before I had Mustang(s) I had a 1990 Buick Regal. If any of you are familiar with them, you know that you could fit another small vehicle in the trunk of it - not to mention the large rear back seat. It was the ideal car for me when my children were growing up, as we always had plenty of 'equipment.'

But when I graduated to my first Mustang (a 2000 V-6) it was quite a shock to have about a quarter of the room that the good old Buick had. But I adapted.

Three years later, when I moved up to this car, with its killer sound system, I thought I would drop when after I signed the paperwork on the car and asked if the trunk was much smaller because it was a convertible. The salesman said "no, it is only about 3" shorter" and opened the trunk for me to look.

"What's all that?" I asked as I looked into the tiny trunk with a rack and two large boxes on each side.

"Well, that is your Mach 1000 sound system." he replied.

"Can you take it out?" I blurted out, thinking about the upcoming wood shows and wondering how I would get everything I needed to fit in.

He looked at me like I had two heads.

I honestly didn't realize that having that type of sound system would require the use of so much of the already limited space.

"Caveat emptor"

Over a short period of time I have learned to love and live with the music system. I figured out that it was better to have cool sound than trunk space. Like living in my little one bedroom, my car has taught me to minimize the amount of "stuff" that I have or cart around with me. And that isn't a bad thing.

I did have a trailer hitch installed and I expect I will be renting a trailer for the ride home. After all, I will be carting home a NEW EXCALIBUR SAW!!!! :D

But for those of you disbelievers (Dennis - are you looking???) here are the pictures . . .

The "necessities"

Car Land vehicle Vehicle Wheel Automotive tail & brake light


And below are two more pictures of how nicely it all fits:

Motor vehicle Vehicle Automotive design Automotive tire Plant


Shipping box Package delivery Motor vehicle Automotive design Packing materials


Believe it or not, the trunk is still completely EMPTY! I do still have to put in my two medium size suitcases and my travel bags and there is one other small box with miscellaneous thing in it, but that is all. As the title of this post reads - there will even be room to spare!

I am quite proud of the accomplishment, as we used every cubic inch available.

I am writing this last night to post this morning. We plan on shoving off early - how early? I don't know. If I am up early then there is no reason not to hit the road.

It is a great way to begin the trip. I hear it snowed in New York today and a storm is moving through. The doomsayers are telling me that there is more to come but I looked on the weather and it looks as if there will be little if any additional accumulation. Besides, we have an extra day and a half to get there if we need it.

We are prepared.

It's a great start to a great couple of weeks. I feel it in my heart that this will be a trip of a lifetime. I will do my best to keep you all posted. :)

Have a great day!
 

Attachments

#2,257 ·
Room to Spare!

Sometimes I'm really good! For those of you who doubted we would be able to fit all the stuff we needed for the show in the little Mustang, I get to say "I told you so!" LOL I don't mean this in a nasty way at all, but I must say that I am pretty darn proud that we were able to fit everything in - and even had room to spare.

I suppose that I am so proud because before I had Mustang(s) I had a 1990 Buick Regal. If any of you are familiar with them, you know that you could fit another small vehicle in the trunk of it - not to mention the large rear back seat. It was the ideal car for me when my children were growing up, as we always had plenty of 'equipment.'

But when I graduated to my first Mustang (a 2000 V-6) it was quite a shock to have about a quarter of the room that the good old Buick had. But I adapted.

Three years later, when I moved up to this car, with its killer sound system, I thought I would drop when after I signed the paperwork on the car and asked if the trunk was much smaller because it was a convertible. The salesman said "no, it is only about 3" shorter" and opened the trunk for me to look.

"What's all that?" I asked as I looked into the tiny trunk with a rack and two large boxes on each side.

"Well, that is your Mach 1000 sound system." he replied.

"Can you take it out?" I blurted out, thinking about the upcoming wood shows and wondering how I would get everything I needed to fit in.

He looked at me like I had two heads.

I honestly didn't realize that having that type of sound system would require the use of so much of the already limited space.

"Caveat emptor"

Over a short period of time I have learned to love and live with the music system. I figured out that it was better to have cool sound than trunk space. Like living in my little one bedroom, my car has taught me to minimize the amount of "stuff" that I have or cart around with me. And that isn't a bad thing.

I did have a trailer hitch installed and I expect I will be renting a trailer for the ride home. After all, I will be carting home a NEW EXCALIBUR SAW!!!! :D

But for those of you disbelievers (Dennis - are you looking???) here are the pictures . . .

The "necessities"

Car Land vehicle Vehicle Wheel Automotive tail & brake light


And below are two more pictures of how nicely it all fits:

Motor vehicle Vehicle Automotive design Automotive tire Plant


Shipping box Package delivery Motor vehicle Automotive design Packing materials


Believe it or not, the trunk is still completely EMPTY! I do still have to put in my two medium size suitcases and my travel bags and there is one other small box with miscellaneous thing in it, but that is all. As the title of this post reads - there will even be room to spare!

I am quite proud of the accomplishment, as we used every cubic inch available.

I am writing this last night to post this morning. We plan on shoving off early - how early? I don't know. If I am up early then there is no reason not to hit the road.

It is a great way to begin the trip. I hear it snowed in New York today and a storm is moving through. The doomsayers are telling me that there is more to come but I looked on the weather and it looks as if there will be little if any additional accumulation. Besides, we have an extra day and a half to get there if we need it.

We are prepared.

It's a great start to a great couple of weeks. I feel it in my heart that this will be a trip of a lifetime. I will do my best to keep you all posted. :)

Have a great day!
Be careful, but most of all, HAVE FUN!
 

Attachments

#2,262 ·
Room to Spare!

Sometimes I'm really good! For those of you who doubted we would be able to fit all the stuff we needed for the show in the little Mustang, I get to say "I told you so!" LOL I don't mean this in a nasty way at all, but I must say that I am pretty darn proud that we were able to fit everything in - and even had room to spare.

I suppose that I am so proud because before I had Mustang(s) I had a 1990 Buick Regal. If any of you are familiar with them, you know that you could fit another small vehicle in the trunk of it - not to mention the large rear back seat. It was the ideal car for me when my children were growing up, as we always had plenty of 'equipment.'

But when I graduated to my first Mustang (a 2000 V-6) it was quite a shock to have about a quarter of the room that the good old Buick had. But I adapted.

Three years later, when I moved up to this car, with its killer sound system, I thought I would drop when after I signed the paperwork on the car and asked if the trunk was much smaller because it was a convertible. The salesman said "no, it is only about 3" shorter" and opened the trunk for me to look.

"What's all that?" I asked as I looked into the tiny trunk with a rack and two large boxes on each side.

"Well, that is your Mach 1000 sound system." he replied.

"Can you take it out?" I blurted out, thinking about the upcoming wood shows and wondering how I would get everything I needed to fit in.

He looked at me like I had two heads.

I honestly didn't realize that having that type of sound system would require the use of so much of the already limited space.

"Caveat emptor"

Over a short period of time I have learned to love and live with the music system. I figured out that it was better to have cool sound than trunk space. Like living in my little one bedroom, my car has taught me to minimize the amount of "stuff" that I have or cart around with me. And that isn't a bad thing.

I did have a trailer hitch installed and I expect I will be renting a trailer for the ride home. After all, I will be carting home a NEW EXCALIBUR SAW!!!! :D

But for those of you disbelievers (Dennis - are you looking???) here are the pictures . . .

The "necessities"

Car Land vehicle Vehicle Wheel Automotive tail & brake light


And below are two more pictures of how nicely it all fits:

Motor vehicle Vehicle Automotive design Automotive tire Plant


Shipping box Package delivery Motor vehicle Automotive design Packing materials


Believe it or not, the trunk is still completely EMPTY! I do still have to put in my two medium size suitcases and my travel bags and there is one other small box with miscellaneous thing in it, but that is all. As the title of this post reads - there will even be room to spare!

I am quite proud of the accomplishment, as we used every cubic inch available.

I am writing this last night to post this morning. We plan on shoving off early - how early? I don't know. If I am up early then there is no reason not to hit the road.

It is a great way to begin the trip. I hear it snowed in New York today and a storm is moving through. The doomsayers are telling me that there is more to come but I looked on the weather and it looks as if there will be little if any additional accumulation. Besides, we have an extra day and a half to get there if we need it.

We are prepared.

It's a great start to a great couple of weeks. I feel it in my heart that this will be a trip of a lifetime. I will do my best to keep you all posted. :)

Have a great day!
OOH yes I´m looking …. LOL
I would have gessed you wuold have taken the backseat out
but I have to second Bert … so at least take the printer down from the shelf
you don´t want a thing like that fly forward under a surpricing stop … it cuold kill one of you

the worst/werd I have seen was one who had a first aid kit in a plasticbox on the rear windowshelf
like almost everybody ells in europe back then …. the box only waight ca ½ kg … well you got the picture
today they are made as a softbox

drive safly

Dennis
 

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