apparently, my leanings towards cat-lady-dom began at an early age.

happy birthday, me!

first of all, it’s my dad’s birthday today. happy birthday dad! he *hates* fuss so here is where I’m not going to tell some sort of sappy story about how much I love my dad lest he get the idea that people are reading it. on. the. internet. That is serious business.

The other exciting thing I managed to squeeze in tonight was a good long look at the new (and premiere) issue of craft: (from the lovely people who make “Make”) – it’s great! I haven’t given it a thorough read yet, more of a skim punctuated by a few “ooh!”‘s, but hopefully there’ll be more time for heavy craft reading this weekend.

After birthday celebrations it was time for work – I have some serious crafting to do. I’ve been procrastinating for weeks! First up is a quilt I have been working on for-ever that is way overdue.

It’s the first quilt I’ve been slightly freaked about in a long time, in part, because it’s my own design (and I have no idea what it’ll look like when it’s actually laid out in real life instead of an illustration on my computer), and in part because it’s applique, and mostly because it’s for someone who I *really* want to like it.

Tonight was cut out all of the applique pieces night. That was tedious. But interesting. I’m used to working with predictable shapes – squares, rectangles, triangles – but this required me to work with odd stuff – birds, flowers, and branches – that I’m just not sure about yet. We shall see….

after 9 hours of flying and what felt like one hundred hours of waiting, I am home sweet home. Back in my studio, my kitchen, my bed, my life with the people I love most.

Travelling for work, though always a little bit fascinating, is awful and tedious and tired. While some can wax on at length about the beauty of new cities (and I can see this perspective), what they sometimes fail to see is the no-time, no-patience, no-energy you’re left with at the end of a long (and sometimes longer than long) work day.

I will gladly spend the next few weeks *not* talking about price-points, and RAM requirements, and offering up a “would you like to see a demo?” because you can really only talk about any of these things non-stop for five days without having a bit of a breakdown.

but despite the crazy work and the show that was one day too long, and the long flights, and the trying to answer emails in my room between show duty and dinner and socializing and omg, the overcrowded 8:42 tram #4, Amsterdam was hands down one of the nicest cities I’d love to see again. And I know some people would disagree, but I think it’s like having centretown times 1000 + bikes (!) and H&M (!) and way better coffee.

And now all I’ve got to do is look forward to doing it all again next year. :)

In the meantime, I’m going to be happy to settle for my (if only slightly) overgrowing porch. Hello basil!