janis

We're off to CHA

The time has finally come and we're nearly Anaheim-bound!  We're in for a week of connecting with old friends, making new ones, checking out the latest & greatest in the craft world, nursing our tired feet, and having a great time through it all.

So here's a full layout to display what two of our newest templates can do.  This was designed by Donna Kauffroath.  You may remember her from a December entry where I showed a picture of her with Tim Holtz...she's the one who super-glued her fingers together!  But when her fingers are apart, they do awesome things with cardstock, adhesive, photos, eyelets, fiber and a couple of our new templates. 

Daisy is doing well since her surgery on Monday.  Her little toe appears to be healing nicely but I'm afraid she's getting cabin fever these days.  She's not supposed to get her foot wet, among other things.  Daisy just loves her tub time and is really jealous that Dewey gets to splash without her.  And while we did find a willing person to take care of them in our absence, we made the decision to board them at the vet's.  It's pretty difficult to give medicine to a duck and she has 3 kinds each day right now.  This way, we know she'll get the medicine she needs, plus the vet will be right there if anything develops with her foot while we're gone.    Jake will be spending time with a neighbor dog buddy so he'll be in good hands too.   I'll try to report in from Anaheim so stay tuned!

The freakiest weather ever!

Todd & I are spending the day doing final (we hope!) preparations for the CHA show.  Today's task is primarily getting everything ready for shipping:  making sure we have all of the booth components (just slightly important!), getting things boxed up, weighed, and so on.  We are driving our car, not a van, but still need to take a few critical booth items (large) in our vehicle as opposed to shipping them.  We were having a "discussion" about whether or not something would fit in the back seat and so Todd decided to test it.  So we go meandering out to the car which is parked in the driveway (the garage is quite full...one of the hazards of owning a business).  I was in a t-shirt and no shoes, which would normally be okay for 5 minutes outside in the middle of the afternoon in January.

Two steps out the door and I exclaimed, "It feels like it could snow!"   Then Todd turned to me and said "It's SNOWING!"   I thought he was kidding, but he was right!  Tiny snowflakes were coming down!  Most melted when they hit the ground but some stuck for awhile.  I went back in for a jacket and when I came back out, the snow covered me in little white flakes.

Just when I thought our weather couldn't get any more strange this year, it SNOWS!

Here's a Daisy update for you:  You may recall that Daisy has struggled with laying her eggs.  It's painful for me to watch her each morning and more so for her actually having to do the deed.  It normally takes her about 90 minutes, way longer than it should.  In addition, we noticed a bump on her toe about a week ago.  She was limping and favoring her right foot.  We thought she might have hurt it while laying her egg as she kicks a lot near the end.  Thinking it was a sprain, we kept her quiet, gave her lots of tub time for warm soaks, and gave her some aspirin (I had learned the proper dosage from a rehabber).  The swelling did seem to go down, then on Friday we noticed it had become significantly worse. 

Fortunately, it was not bumble foot.  That would have been on the bottom of her foot.  This was on the top of a toe joint.  Yes, they have joints in those toes just like we do!  We called an avian vet and got an appointment for Saturday.  Todd took her in as I was at my monthly scrap group.  I suppose the news could've been worse, but it wasn't great.  Bottom line:  they think she has a bacterial infection in the joint.  If it's not cleaned out, she could lose the toe, or foot.  She's scheduled for surgery tomorrow morning to get it taken care of.  While under anesthesia, they will also x-ray her to try to determine why she's having such difficulty laying eggs.  She should heal very well, except....

She has to be kept indoors and out of water for a week.  Therein lies the problem.  We thought we had everything planned for Daisy & Dewey to be kept in the outdoor pen while we're at CHA.  That is no longer an option.  And trust me, it's not easy to find someone to duck-sit.  They have very specific needs and they're rather high-maintenance.  Nobody we know is going to want to keep two ducks in their house for a week.  We think we have a plan, but it isn't finalized yet.  And if this doesn't work out, I'm not sure what we're going to do. 

One side benefit to the vet visit is that she confirmed that Daisy is indeed a Silver Appleyard duck.  Todd told her we thought she might be a mix to which she replied, "If she is, I don't know what with.  She's Silver Appleyard through and through." 

So, snow, duck surgery...what other freaky thing is going to happen this week?  I'm ready for some normalcy around here!

A bigger peek

Things are starting to really come together for CHA.  I guess all those nights of 3-5 hours of sleep are starting to pay off!  Our new products are in production, packaging is designed, display samples have been coming in, make & take supplies are ordered, show details are starting to jell, and it looks like we'll be good to go on time next week!  There's something very satisfying about working on something so hard for so long and seeing it come to fruition!

So in a tiny celebration of sorts, I'll share another peek into our product release for the show. (You can click on it for a larger image.)  I'm especially happy with how this template turned out.  (You're only seeing a small part of it in this image, so prepare yourself to be wow'd!)  Well, I guess I feel that way about all of them, but this one just speaks to me for some reason.  It's so versatile and can be elegant or whimsical depending on color, layout theme, background paper, and so on.   

Be sure to check back in a few days for a full layout!  Yes, there's more!

Another teaser

Here's another little clue for our CHA product release.  We still have so much to do before we leave for the show, but I'm so excited to get there and share it all with everyone that I can hardly stand it! 

Brr....

It's COLD here!   Okay, I know some of you aren't going to be very sympathetic so let me start by saying it was nearly 80 degrees a few days ago and I was getting the mail in my Crocs and a short-sleeved shirt (pants, too, of course, but you should assume that!).  A cold front has moved in and it got down to 25 at our house during the night.  I'm writing this at 11:00 am and we've been hovering at 36 for several hours now.  This is the coldest we've been in 16 years!   

We had to take precautionary measures to prevent our citrus trees from freezing last night.  Todd brought in an orange this morning and it was nearly too cold to eat!  But, not frozen, so that's a good thing.  However, one of the coyotes was back, lounging under the citrus trees, trying to stay warm until Jake chased him out of the yard.  It's a constant battle with those creatures and I wish they'd just leave.  We'll be at CHA in two weeks and while the newly-reinforced duck pen should be finished by then, I don't relish the idea of my sweet duckies getting stared at by the coyotes in our absence.

Still lots to do for CHA.  But we're very excited about the show, seeing everyone, showing you our new products.   

It's coming... (aka CHA madness)

It happens every year.  I should be prepared for it.  I always think I plan adequately.  But somehow the weeks between Christmas and CHA are the most busy, sleepless, frantic weeks of the entire year. 

Todd and I have been working nearly every minute of every day on preparations for the show.  We're putting final touches on new products, designing packaging, finalizing our new catalog, preparing displays...and those are just a fraction of the many details that go into planning a major trade show. If we had a staff of hundreds (or even tens!) it might be a little less stressful, but I suppose even then we'd just have more details to follow up on! 

At any rate, I haven't fallen off the face of the earth.  I'm in the office virtually all day (except for fun stuff like dental appointments) working on getting this show to happen.  The ducks are good, Daisy's still laying eggs regularly (though laboriously and I'm a little concerned), Jake's bored (he's not getting as many walks as usual), and we're getting by.  Somehow it will all come together and you will see our bright shiny faces at CHA on the morning of January 28th!  Don't look too closely though, or you'll see the bags under our eyes!

Oh, and for those of you who are craving a sneak peek of our upcoming product release, check out the picture above.  It's part of a project we'll be displaying in our booth at CHA.  Two of our new products have been used in its creation.  Can you guess what they are?  And that's only the beginning.   We will be introducing new items in every single product line with a total of 14 brand new and 10 updated products (i.e. "new and improved").  We are very excited about introducing you to these new items and showing you what they can do.  So come see us in Booth 1993 at CHA!  And keep watching this blog for more sneak peeks!