nevermind...

If you read my post on Tuesday, you'll understand my disgust. Ugh. The photo above was taken today.... enough said.

There's hope for Spring...

There seems to be little to give hope these days in Minnesota that winter will end and that Springtime will arrive, but I found a glimmer of hope today when I looked out at our gnome named McRayski. McRayski is our family's summer vacation mascot at Pelican Beach Resort near Nisswa, MN. Every year now for 3 years, my husband and I have rented a cabin there along with my brother, his wife and now 2 kids. We have started a barbecue smoking competition with our neighboring cabin-renters who are also there the same week every year. McRayski is the trophy and, last year, my hubby was the champion! McRayski stands proudly on our deck through rain, snow, more snow and scorching sun and will make his journey back to Pelican Lake with us this next July. He's been covered in snow for a VERY long time now. I think the last time I saw more than half of his body was back in December sometime... maybe longer. I long for the day that he's sitting on our picnic table up at the cabin, the temperature is WAY above freezing and I'm sipping on a cocktail while I watch my husband put his special rub on the meat about to go in the smoker! I leave you tonight with warm thoughts!

Opening my door...

"When one door closes, another opens; but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us." ~Alexander Graham Bell

In October of 2008, I had a door close. I was laid off from the design firm that I helped to create in 2001. The layoff didn't come as a great surprise, due to the economy, but that didn't help it to sting any less when it actually happened. Determined not to let Bell's quote become true for me, I immediately looked for a new adventure. That adventure turned into starting my own online Etsy shoppe selling custom card designs for special occasions. (www.PaisleyPrintsEtc.etsy.com)

For the first 9 years of my professional career, I provided design services for a mix of corporate and private accounts. Although all the glory was supposed to be from landing a big corporate account, it had always been the small private/family projects that I loved the most. Whether it was holiday cards, baby announcements or party invitations, I received much more personal satisfaction from those small run projects than I did from designing a brochure that would be mailed out to thousands of people. It had to do with the fact that I knew, in my own small way, that I was helping to make their special event just a bit more special.

Granted, my newfound career on etsy doesn't pay nearly as well as my last job (at least not yet), but I love it nonetheless. I am extremely fortunate to have a loving husband/best friend who cheers me on daily. His favorite words of encouragement are, "There's no designer finer!" (smiles). I "heart" him.

Part of my reason for starting this blog is let others inside my head for a moment (that's scary), but another part is to record, for myself, my journey on Etsy. Last week marked my 50th sale and 100th person to "heart" my shoppe! It's fun to know that over a hundred people have liked my products so well that they bookmarked the shoppe to stop back again later.

A long standing motto in my household has been that, Life is an adventure and it's up to us to make it a fun one! So, here's to new adventures. I'll try to keep you posted as to how it's going for me!