Well.. so far I have 8 emails in for the current promotion. If you haven’t heard or read about, read this post here: Promotion 1 Post. I am getting great feedback! Once I get all feedback in, I will write about the information I received from everyone, and let you know what the most popular answers were!

It has been sooo long since I have had a launch.. I am in withdrawal. But I have been super busy with publications… Next year many many designs will be out there of mine! I cannot wait to tell you more. Soon, though I can. After contracts are signed and I get the go ahead from the editors. Want to make I remain on their good side!!

I am hoping in 4 weeks (or sooner) to have all the other items I have left to do for publication to be done, at least for the time being of what I have on my plate now. It has been crazy… I am not used to deadlines. I am used to working at my own pace… going on what comes to me.. etc. Just yesterday I received an email from an editor that she needs some ideas/samples in within 5 days.. (wow!). So… today I spent swatching and experimenting. That is for a publication in a book due out next year.

I do enjoy this fast pace, despite things probably seeming very slow on the website. But hopefully with the new launch, when it does happen, it will be well worth the wait!! As well as all the designs of mine you can find in publications. And remember.. Winter issue of Interweave – due out in December.. will have one of my designs in it.. and well, yes I am biased, but I must say- it is a kick hiney design!!!! I am so proud of it I wish I could tell you what it is.. but then that would spoil it when the issue does come out, wouldn’t it??

I remember when I was a kid.. and my parents kept all the presents wrapped up covered by huge sheets hidden in the basement room.. Well, my brother and I, the little angels we were, decided one night we deserved to open one gift each! So.. alas, we each very carefully looked over each and every wrapped present… Shaking one here, lifting one here- thinking maybe heavier means something better… After we finally selected our chosen gift of our own accord, we took a deep breath, and within an instant the paper was off.. We were all smiles. Quietly we took them upstairs and played. Later my mother walked in and saw us. Us, being naive’, said “Oh mom… Look! Santa must have dropped these off early for us and forgot to wrap them!!!!” Oh we were good little actors.. but more so, it was my mother wanting to cling onto our childhood and believe in her mind that we were still her little babies and that maybe, just maybe, she did forget to wrap a gift or two… Well, soon the gifts disappeared and were under the tree Christmas morning. We knew what was in each box.. It was not as much fun and I know for myself, I regretted opening it previously. I even felt a wee bit guilty, such an empathetic child I was, feeling sorry that I may have destroyed my mom’s belief that we still believed in Santa Claus. But for her, I was all smiles and excited and jumping up and down. But it wasn’t the same as that first night I opened it.

So… You must wait! But it will be here sooner than we all know it… What is great is that this issue is coming out right around my birthday! The 4th of December is my bday and the issue will be out sometime after that.. so what a lovely birthday gift this will be!!!

Well, I had 6 items due to be made, written, and checked by end of October, with about 30 days to complete on one, and about 40 days on the other, and both due in the office on the same day. Eeek! Well.. luckily, though still severely cramped on time, my admins and a tester came through for me.. they were my first time “stitchers.” I will make more announcements when the publication contract is signed and the date draws near for release.. but they worked their little hineys off and I just cannot say enough… keep checking back when I tell you more about how this entire process unfolded and through our ups and downs and my lack of nails through the entire time… So, after working crazy, all of us for 30 days straight.. I send them in. Quite a relief that all arrived on time and both editors are VERY pleased!… So what happens now, right back to the crunch!

I have 19 items to make by mid December… 16 of them yet to be designed! Even though the swatches were made, there is still shaping, and sizing, and making the overall design for each piece.. And there are numerous sizes for each item! LOTS of work!!! I do not know how I am going to make it. I started the first one yesterday. I am only 1/4th the way through, between chaperoning, cooking, laundry, etc..I will be crocheting like a mad woman I tell you!!

Multitasking has another dimension- beyond the frenzied chatter and conversations with crochet hooks! I swear one is calling me right now… “Come to me… come to me my darling…”