Big News For Me

It may not be all that exciting to the rest of you, but it is damn exciting for me. In a little over 2 weeks, I'm retiring. No, I'm not suddenly getting a pension and nor did I call in rich. 

Hubby and I have done a lot of thinking and talking and planning and more talking over the summer. We've decided that life as we've living it isn't sustainable for us, as individuals and as a family. So I am leaving the desk job to be a full-time mom, part time writer. I've been writing professionally on the side for just under a year now (see me here!) and it's time to take it one or two or three steps further. And Hubby's business is booming, but that means he is spending less time at home. We realized that the girls saw the nanny more than us!

This is a huge step for me, personally and professionally. I'm terrified that we will devolve into a very traditional wife/husband thing. The only thing I want from the Mad Men era is the furniture, thank-you very much. There is great comfort in knowing Hubby wants it about as much as I do.

I've also never seen myself as a stay at home mom full-time. I admire the folks who can do it, but I know it isn't in me to do. That's why I will still write part-time. I'll be truly taking advantage of all sleepytimes, but I'm sure I can make it work for me.

Professionally, this is pretty big. I'm putting myself out there. I'm stepping out as an entrepreneur essentially. That is also something I never saw myself doing with life. But to be successful you can't just write well. You need to sell yourself, you need to run a business. I won't be doing this half-assed, that's for sure. I've already made great strides and I can see a lot of work and success in my future.

I want, I need to do it. I'm making the change for me, I'm making my life what I want it to be. No one is doing it for me. And I'm damn proud of myself.

Freedom 35, baby!

Summer = Watermelon and Bathing Suits

Wordless Wednesday

Concept Evolution

One of these days I will actually have some quilt stuff to share with you. Just haven't felt much like playing with fabric lately. But I have sketched. Afterall, I have those wonderful markers to play with.

I wanted to share with you the evolution of a design today.

We live rather close to the Rocky Mountains, I can see them if I'm in the right part of the city and the weather is right. And they are less than an hour's drive away. Sadly, though, we only get there every couple of months. But they are there, taunting us with majesty and the possibilities of fun (I used to mountain bike and until recently, ski).

On a trip to Banff last year, for work of all things, I snapped a couple of photos. The colours and details on that trip were very inspiring in the face of a boring work trip. In the 9 months since, ideas and colour and shape percolated though my head. That trip may have also started my fascination with grey and the accumulation of grey fabrics in my stash!

The Rocky Mountains are young mountains, formed when shifting continental plates pushed the layers and layers of sedimentary rock up. As your drive through them you see, literally, folds and thrusts of rock. You can see layers, where millions and millions of years ago there was once water flowing, depositing the silt to create the rock.

Up close, you can see the shards of shale, the moss growing, the bits of life that emerge from a rocky landscape. From a distance you are awed and made to feel miniscule in the grandeur. Up close it is a slow fascination with life.

So those ideas bubbled around and I finally sketched them out on our recent road trip. Strong diagonals, layers, loads of grey and that little bit of orange. To be honest, I don't know when I'll ever get around to fabric with this, or if I ever will. But the concept evolves.

Just Playing

This has been a rough few weeks for our house. As a result, not much quilting is getting done. I just can't motivate myself. I'm picking away at commissions, but I hope the recipients understand. Did I mention its been a rough couple of weeks?

Two weeks ago we had to leave town for a funeral and that necessitated a 2 day road trip, in each direction. Just prior to leaving, feeling the need for some retail therapy, I went shopping at an art store. I'd decided it was time to get some dedicated sketching materials that were all mine. Up until now, if the notion of a quilt came into brain it was usually sketched in black pen on whatever paper I could find, or with my daughters' markers on their craft paper. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that, and it will still always happen. But it was time to treat myself a little.

And boy, could I have treated myself. I had no clue that fancy markers cost so much! I had it in my head that I would be able to get a set of about 50 colours for a pretty reasonable price. Uh, no. At least not at the store I went to. I had to settle for a set of 20, decent quality markers for a good price. I really wanted more colours, but I couldn't justify the expense, no matter how bad of a week I was having.

In the end, this was a good purchase. A smaller set means that it it all transportable. And all I really want to be able to do is to capture a notion of the idea in my head, not a precise pattern. Besides, nothing can replace actually playing with the fabric.

Then, this week, I was at the grocery store and saw a pack of 50 markers for less than $10. At first I sighed in frustration. But I've realized that the best part about my markers is that they are mine and all mine. The girls know they can't play with them.  That means I will never run out of the red.