Cheers

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Deanne

Day 21: Running out of time….

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I skipped more than the anticipated 2 days off this 30 day journey of posting, due to a combination of factors.

A work project ended up being due earlier than anticipated – practically as soon as I stepped off the plane,  I had to get on top of things. Plus, not really a surpprise, travelling involved delays, and that takes it out of you.

Bonus: Marc Crawford (the former Canuck’s coach, now commentator for CBC) was on the same flight. He is much taller and stockier in person. Seems like a very personable guy. He was with a young woman, and my first (classically suspicious) thought was “hmm – I wonder if that’s a mistress?”. Upon closer inspection, she looked way too young for that, and indeed, when Mr. O was brave enough to introduce himself and say hello, we found out she was his daughter. Mr. O didn’t want me to blog about meeting Mr. C, but seeing as Mr. O doesn’t have his hockey blog up and running yet, I thought I may as well provide the feminine perspective:) Mr. C was wearing nice jeans and polished black shoes. Always look to the shoes;) My own were ghastly sneakers, for comfort, plus not having been so well I looked like crap, so was less than my exuberant self.

I haven’t chosen my Word of the Year yet, toying around with the simple and elegant now or the more bold and brave courage. The trick is, last year I chose the word balance. And I finished up 2008 battling (still) a nasty ear problem which is causing me dizziness. Kind of gives me the spooks about how much “the universe” throws at you to help you learn lessons.  So I’m almost thinking that I should select a word that is the opposite of what I want to achieve, eg: poverty.  This WofY is from Christine Kane’s site, btw. You can read all the guest posts’ there, including one from moi.

Running out of time refers to the 30 day blogging goal being completed by now. I’ve got 9 posts left, and unless I want to squeeze them all in the next 24 hours, I won’t meet that goal:( I will continue posting however to meet the 30 days. Then I’ll hopefully be able to figure out just what the heck I do want to blog about! Happy New Year!

Cheers,

MzD

Day 20: Travel and Time

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I missed a posting day yesterday, due to not feeling well. Got me thinking about how when you travel you have this idealized sense of time in advance. For me, this meant I packed about 10 skeins of wool with me – with big ambitions for the knitting projects. I added to this horde by buying some cotton skeins here as well (5 ).
Well, with two days left here, what I did knit was:

  • one hat (finished it off here, started in Van – first hat – hooray!)
  • 1 pair baby booties
  • 1.5 dishcloths

Which means there was a bit of a disconnect between my knitting goals and the reality of the amount of time I’d have here. Partly, this was due to my continuing battle with my ear infection/cold/weirdo dizziness, partly it is due to fact that (again) I have the laptop here, and used it for client projects. I took precisely 2.5 full days off from client work (the aft of 24th to the 26th). This was dumb in retrospect. Doing work eats up a lot of time.

One project absolutely cannot wait as it has a launch date early Jan. Another (direct-mailer) was time sensitive and was completed before the 24th. But the other minor updates et al could perhaps have been left. Perhaps I could have a) sub-contracted some work out – not super realistic when it’s a relatively small amount of work or b) told clients “I am on vacation” .

So work and over-estimating how much free time I’d have to knit was a big factor in the fact that I’m taking 80% of the wool home with me:)

But I think most of us have that tendency, bringing “War and Peace” or some other lofty novel along with us to the pool, thinking – now this will be the moment I finish this book. Or, in my case, 20 mystery novels, where 2 would suffice. Or packing 3 dressy outfits, when one would do.

Travelling, whether or big adventure or a trip home, usually brings with it an element of surprise, or aspects that you couldn’t pre-plan for, and that eats up time. Might be customs, might be simply getting your bearings or getting into the time zone.

Either way, I’m not going to go home disappointed I didn’t knit 2 hats, 2 scarfs, and master turning of the heel (the baby booties used a Debbie Bliss pattern that did not turn the heel). Rather, I learned that scaling back my ambitions for time off should factor in the estimating of time the way one might estimate time for a client project: figure it out and double it! Also, sometime in the next year, I need to take a vacation without the box.

Cheers, and Happy New Year!

Day 19: Guest post – Word of the Year thoughts

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I have a guest post at the de-lovely Christine Kane’s site! This means I am theoretically no longer invisible (in the blog world that is). However, something went awry with the post and my bio and links are missing. Shucks:( I sent them an email, hopefully they will switch it – but the day is over, and the sort of first rush is gone.

So it got me thinking about how to handle these little mishaps. I’ve had much worse.

Example 1) My first solo show – the curator was brand new to the job and had not written a press-release. When I asked her, she didn’t really even know what a press-release was.

Example 2) I was invited by an art magazine to publish a web art project (Flight Path [a bird in the google], and naturally was tickled pink. They let me choose a writer, and he wrote something I was happy enough with. Not ecstatic, but felt it was a good piece of writing. Well, the piece came out and they didn’t have my name right at the beginning or even featured anywhere on the page. It was only a sub-mention of his work. That really ticked me off, let me tell you.

I learned from these 2 examples, that when it comes to press,  you have to triple-check and insist on seeing a proof and any other details you care about before anything goes to press. Well before. It was a good, if painful lesson.

It also made me think there should be such a career as an agent for visual artists – they could handle these tedious details! 🙂

From this guest post situation – a much less significant oversight – it started me thinking about the word “Acceptance”. Ok – so I didn’t get the sympathetic viewers linking here to read my words of wisdom, etc etc. But, I did put my thoughts out there publicly (even with a photo!) and that will have to be good enough. I don’t think I’m going to choose Acceptance as my word of the year, too many other possibilities await, but it will sit at the back of my mind, helping me prepare for the ups and downs that relate to expectations.

Cheers,

MzD

Edited to add: They updated my post with bio/links in early Jan.

Day 18.5: What not to wear marathon

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I’ve been still feeling like crap. Got some homeopathic drops today – we’ll see if they work. I had meds from my doc, but as I am travelling in a province where you have to pay first and I’m going home soon, I am not going to see a doc here, but rely on the internet instead. Dangerous stuff hey:) Note to self: Always purchase health-insurance when travelling to la belle province.

While feeling crummy, I have 3/4 completed the baby booties, and watched hours of What Not to Wear. Most of the women were quite young (22-23), and hovering between adolescence and adulthood, therefore can be forgiven their fashion sins, no? Moi, on the other hand, laughed out loud when I saw one of the victims wearing a pair of sneakers I only recently threw out, and various other faux-pas.

What I could relate to was their sense of their own unique identity being tied into what they wore, whether it was to stand or to to blend in. Either way, their clothes were providing them with shelter. I don’t think I’d would bawl if Stacy and Clinton came and threw everything in my closet out, particularly with the 5 grand to spend:), but I might shed a tear or two for a few trusted friends.

It does inspire me to go through another bout of de-cluttering when I get home. My wardrobe consists largely of t-shirts and jeans. Time to dress age-appropriate, as they say.

Cheers,

Day 17: Boxing Day sans box – k1, yf instead

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It is icy here. Really freaking icy. The city has put gravel on the sidewalks but that only provides about 5% improvement. Even though I grew up here, it’s been a while since I’ve had to walk on ice in winter. So I was being careful. Very careful. Mr. O was walking ahead of me, and slipped. That was super scary watching him fall, and being of the male species he tended to brush it off. I have been worrying every since.  So much I’m even annoyed by myself. I learned to worry from my aunt – both my parents are most nonchalant when it comes to their approach to life. My aunt used to rub her hands together worrying. One day I will make a great video that brings that image together. I will soften it with the image of her big arms kneading dough, making fluffy white bread.

It’s boxing day and all I bought was some vitamins on sale. This is partially due to the aforementioned ice, but also to a longing to stay away from the frenzy. Instead I am working on baby booties for a friend’s 9 month old. It is a Debbie Bliss pattern from the Cotton Knit for all seasons book. Only I am using cheapo cotton. Not super cheapo, it is some kind of enviro-friendly blend. But much less than the DB brand. Since the first pair of booties I knit turned out suitable for hooves, I’m keeping the investment small for the time being. Although you do pay a price  – the cotton has a tendency to unwind and you have to be more vigilant not to have the strands separate.
The Debbie Bliss site  is remarkably low-key compared to what I expected given the $$ of her yarns. It must be new, there’s only one newsletter under that category and only one free pattern under that section. The girl on the front is a doppleganger for my cousin’s daughter. Who knows, maybe M moonlights as a knitting model.

I’m off to decipher the bootie pattern, and look up how to say baby bootie in French.

Cheers,

Hope you had a Merry Merry if you celebrate!

Day 16: Christmas Eve – another time out

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Something is off with the date stamp on these posts, not sure if it’s because the server is in a different time zone, or what. Once I eventually get around to upgrading WP, this should resolve.
There is yet another snow warning in effect and I’m running out of  descriptions for the snow. I read once that the Inuit have hundreds of words to describe snow. Looking out right now I can see the snow appears to be

  • fluffy
  • crystallized
  • steady
  • light

In other words, still ok to head out and shop for a last minute gift. I’ve been sick, so I forgive myself for leaving things to last minute. I finished my hat, which was to have been a gift, but it’s too small. The instructor has a big head (her words) and I used bigger needles (5mm) but although  it’s cute, it’s just too short around the ear area, which in this delicate but persisent snow, is inadequate.

I’m taking a time out. No box activity tomorrow.

Joyeux Noël!  Happy Holidays!

Cheers,

xx
MzD

Day 15: Do you really need a website? [happy happy joy joy]

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[ Hmm. Probably not an appropriate post on the eve of Xmas Eve. But I had it already typed out long ago, and didn’t bother to publish said gems of wisdom. Now that I’m on this 30 days of free to post whatever I want, I can benefit from prior efforts.

Cheers & Happy Holidays. Joyeuses Fetes and all that jazz. (desolee, can’t find accents in the WP Wyswig). ]
Maybe not. What’s that? Heresy, you say, from a web designer – I should be pushing the benefits, the joys, the $$$ signs you’ll be seeing all over the map (the google one that is), not asking you if you really need a website.

But, sometimes, that is in fact, the genuine case.

1. Artist – with a limited budget and sufficiently established in their career (these two may statements may seem like a contradiction, but not if you’re an artist – check out these statistics from the Canada Council) . Artists with dealers may not  need a website for strict promotional purposes. Their gallery takes care of that already. So, reasons for a website?

  • Vanity
  • Degree of control over presentation of work
  • Exposure, provided you give good SEO

What to do instead?

  • Start the proverbial blog, but it’s hard work baby
  • Get good press
  • Sleep with the hot, young curator

2. Small business, as in solopreneur – equally limited budget, but probably eating organic vegetables. Might belong to local Board of Trade, or another organization with potential for networking opps excellent. So, reasons for a site?

  • Exposure
  • Follow up resource for networking, tracking tool
  • Feel good factor

What to do instead?

  • D-I-Y – some have tread with success up/down this tricky ladder of heroism. Faint of heart need not apply.
  • Blog, which is almost the same thing, but a good, enthuastic writer can probably achieve results. Yours truly can attest to time commitment required. Review time lapse between postings.
  • Hire a consultant.

3.  Business large enough to have employees, too small for an IT department.

  • Blog also essential, no doubt. Do not pursue if no one in your organization can write, or if you are already understaffed and overworked.
  • Website useful for “static” pages which offer information such as size of org, jobs available, contact/location info, privacy/return/other policy (ies), reason for being, mandate/mission and so on…
  • Hire a consultant.

The last two lines of the last two points were pitches masked as advice. And yet, it remains good advice. I hire consultants when I can. It makes a difference – they have done all the proverbial heavy listing.

Well, tomorrow is Christmas Eve. I am without our Futurama Xmas dvd, c’est la vie.
We do have the gorgeous GM (chatte) and the snow.

Cheers!

xx
MzD