The Fruit of my Labors

Audrey Jeanne’s CHA Designer’s Showcase TableWell… for better or for worse here's my rough layout for the CHA Designer's Showcase table.  We've worked late into the night the last week to get it pulled together, now we're down to the wire!!!  I still have my Press Kit (Oh joy!), brochure to hand out and Book proposal to complete before we roll out of here by about 8 PM tonight.  Yikes… what am I doing here then?!  I'll do almost anything to get out of doing publicity stuff 🙂

Audrey Jeanne Roberts

Shades of my Crafting Days!

I have glue gun burns on my fingers, sticky icky stuff is all over my desk and there are scraps of paper littering my clothes like a bad case of dandruff and yet I’m waxing nostalgic.  May it’s because it’s 1:22 AM and that was the hour I did most of my crafting when my girls were little so the memories are flooding back.  If I had to do this as many nights as I did when they were young I’m sure the nostalgia would wear off really quickly.

 I’ve spent all day creating one of a kind mockups for the CHA show and I’m sure several of them will end up being crafting kits you’ll be able to purchase at D.A.I.S.I.E. Company in the not too distant future.  It’s hard work over insanely long hours, but it’s really more like playing as I don’t have any set plan or anyone else’s agenda to meet.  If I like it, it goes on my table, if I don’t well… you might get it for a Christmas present next year!

The list is still way too long for comfort as we must leave by 8 PM tomorrow (correction, oh my I mean today) but I’m going to bed.  I’ll tackle it fresh in the morning.  If my digital camera works and I can figure out how to upload an image, I’ll post some pictures tomorrow.  I really am dying to dress up this blog, but I guess if you don’t mind, it will have to wait.

Thanks for the encouraging words and those of you that pray, please do.   Without God’s help, I don’t have a chance of getting everything done that I need to tomorrow/today!!!  The most fun part about this trip isn’t the business end of it anyway, it’s the time my husband and I get to spend with friends old and new. 

We get to meet Stacey and Andrea Wainscott for the first time though we feel like we’ve known each other forever.  We get to spend a lot of time with my dearest friend and artist/author, Karla Dornacher (www.karladornacher.com) and our daughter Ariane, her husband Michael and cousin Michael Brett will be meeting up with us for an impromptu visit.  Sounds like an awesome time even if I don’t get that last little creation done…

Nighty night.

My Brain is Whirling!

Last night Steve and I worked on our CHA display until after 1 AM.  Of course once I’m doing anything creative after 10 PM it’s nearly impossible to get this crazy brain of mine to stop thinking!!!  So one glass of wine, 2 benadryl (knocks me out) and at least an hour later I finally fell into a dead, dreamless sleep.

We made a lot of progress yesterday, we laid out the backboard design and then built it. We were trying desperately to figure out how to create shelves for displaying the crafts when we remembered we had some glass block store fixtures left over from an old retail venture.  So at 9 PM Steve grabs his flash light and goes out into one of our 2 storage containers where it took almost 2 hours to find them.  He’s truly my hero.  It made all the difference in the world.

So this morning, with semi-fresh eyes I go back to work… only today and tomorrow left to do about 3 weeks worth of work.  Hopefully I’ll get some pictures up soon so you can see the display in progress and then the final pictures at the CHA show.  Back to work I go… now where did I put my coffee?

 

Wow! what a learning curve!

There’s soooo much to learn, but I’m finally past the “I’m going to blog one day” and I’m actually set up and ready to go.  As my daughter would say, “Scary Biscuits!”

I plan to share tidbits of my daily life (not all that exciting but can often be hilarious) and bits of new art being created, products being designed, perhaps some craft ideas and lots of links to my dearest artist friends.

Often times, my husband Steve and I will be walking together and have a discussion that I’ve thought, “Now that would make a great blog post…”  So sometimes that’s exactly what I’ll do…

Basically, I want to connect with you.  I want to know what you’re thinking, feeling and what kind of styles are attracting your eye.  It’s no fun designing in a vacuum and hoping it’s what will bring joy to people’s lives.  It’s much more fun the way it used to be for me, hanging out with the girls and showing them my latest — sometimes to raves, sometimes to “I think it would be better if…,” always to support and encouragement!

Thanks for tuning in and pass the link along to your friends.  For those that do, let me know and there will be a free gift available for download as a thanks.

AJ