The excitement begins.

On January 5th, the landscape of my life changed dramatically. Not only did my dear hubby turn 60, but he also retired from our business. This is not a surprise - in fact, this was always the number that he associated with retirement.

In the advertising business, very few people reach 60 actively working. You are generally "old" in your 40's and new blood is the lifeline of staying creative and cool and desireable to the young brand managers who are churned out each year from the biz schools and into the companies that have big marketing budgets.

But everything has changed!!! The internet has had a more profound affect on our industry than just about any other. Not only is traditional adveritising (TV, radio and magazine) going the way of the do do, but the plethora of designers and writers who you can find online willing to sell you a logo for $50 or write a brochure for $75 is staggering.  We have been commoditized!

Years of experience matters little when you are dealing with young clients, shrinking budgets and the new reality of a world that allows people to control what messages they see. It's incredibly easy to edit out all commercial messages from your life except the ones you want to see. And not that there's anything wrong with that - I think it's brilliant actually. It's just not a good thing for a 30-year copywriting/creative director veteran. Or for a new one either, for that matter.

This was not meant to be a diatribe on the state of marketing in the universe, but somehow that all needed to come out.

And, by the way, I am NOT retiring - at least not yet. And I'm hoping in the next few months to be able to establish a "virtual" scenario that allows me to stay as involved with this business as I choose to be.

Now that the line is drawn, it does set in motion a number of changes and we have a timetable and a plan to move forward. I'm relieved, since I kind of feel like we've been in limbo for a while now. We will be listing our home on February 1st and depending on how quickly it is snapped up and what kind of closing is arranged, we will mark the calendar with a definite departure date.

As I start sifting through the 26 years of stuff in the house, in an effort to "de clutter" and maximize the assets of my wonderful house, I realize the magnitude of all of this. Luckily, since we are going to the cottage (which will need a new moniker), we can start moving as much stuff as we like at our leisure. And we can determine what is not going to make the trip.

But I also realize that for the first time in over 40 years, I have no real clue about what happens next. I have dreams and hopes and wishes - but nothing concrete. And I find that very exciting - Rick on the other hand is a tad terrified. I am definitely a glass-half-full gal and figure that we'll just make the leap and figure it all out on the way down. I'm a believer that what will be will be - not a fatalist - just a person who thinks that it will unfold as it was meant to.

My big thing is to cross all appendages for good health for enough time for us to enjoy this. Too many times, I have heard stories of people who retire and then one of them immediately gets sick. It's like the stress of their lives is what kept everything glued together and when you remove the stress you remove the glue. That's a scenario I do not wish for.

But when you think about the last time that you really didn't know what came next, that's really kind of fun.
We won't have the finances to traipse around the world, exploring here and there like some of our friends, but I'm sure we can do some exploration within certain perameters.

And the prospect of not having to go to a job every day is pretty darn appealing. Everyone tells me that I should expect to be even busier in retirement, and I'm up for that too, but not right away.

So the first step is gearing up for February lst. (Oh, to add to the frenzy, the office is also moving - January 31st!)

Stay tuned.

Happy 2010!

This is not a hooking picture, but a sample of the view that greeted me pretty much every morning of my holidays. Not one that I would get tired of too quickly. Sorry there's not a picture of progress on anything, but this is pretty darn "pretty" don't you think?

Certainly, I did enough stuff over the much-enjoyed holidays to warrant a picture or two, but I just didn't take any. But from the 24th of December until this morning, I enjoyed every moment of my winter break and got lots done.

As per tradition, we had Christmas in our house (the last one there, boo hoo) and then Boxing Day at my sister's in Oakville (hopefully not the last one) and then headed north on the 27th. Our Christmas feast was delicious as was the Boxing Day buffet and many leftover goodies made their way up north. Those that were not consumed did not get brought back.

I worked away on Max and meant to take a picture, but it's just soooooo big that without taking it completely off the frame, you really can't tell. I did get to roll to a totally new section of the project, though, which really is a good sign of progress. And I plan on having this whole thing finished in time to display at the Annual in April. With a definite deadline, I'm bound to get it done.

One of the highlights of the time at the cottage, along with some cross country skiing and wayyyy too much cooking and eating, we ended up discovering the first two seasons of LOST. Our daughter figured it was the perfect opportunity to devote some time to it and brought it with her on the 27th. Rick immediately was hooked, so we devoted part of every day to watching and managed to plough through two seasons!! (She brought seasons 3 and 4 over last night. They will take far longer to get through, but we are now devotees and since she got Season 5 from Santa, we have our watching all laid out for the foreseeable future.)

Since knitting and LOST go so well together, I actually managed to finish a sweater I was working on and get a sock and a half done. I'm totally incapable of sitting still and just watching, so easy knitting is definitely the ticket. And I have yarn for 6 more pairs of socks, so that can just keep going.

Before we headed north, I purged my hooking room/office at home, disassembled my cube shelves and packed all my wool into Rubbermaid bins to transport up to the "future studio". Although I had some separation anxiety at the thought of not having my stash with me, I knew it was the thing that needed doing, and I actually managed to clean out the whole room on Christmas Eve day. Amazing what a difference it made. Now only a zillion more rooms to de-clutter!!!

So, before I came back to the city, to stave off wool withdrawals, I sorted all the wool and took a strip from everything! That way, if I need it in a city project, I can get more from the now-labelled bins at the cottage.
I still have to get it all organized on rings, but will do that at some point this week. A pretty productive and relaxing time, all told.

Now, back to normal. Am tapping this entry at my desk, postponing opening my email to see what awaits, but I must go now and do that.

No big resolutions for me, other than to embrace this new year of change. And to give my poor body a break from the too-much food and too-much wine that were enjoyed on the break. But after all, that's what makes holidays so special, isn't it? I never beat myself up over it, since that would kill the joy. My theory is that as soon as I stop "over-ing" everything will go back to normal. So far, that theory has held true.

So happy New Year everyone. Let's hope it's a happy and healthy one for all of us!!

Merry Christmas from The Rugged Moose.

It's 11:51 and I'm at the office - doing a bit of work, but mostly revisiting all those lists in my head. Who have I forgotten? What did I miss at the grocery store? It will soon be too late to worry about it, and I'm sure everything will be just fine.

The most important thing is to be with family and friends and try to de-stress from all the other stuff in the world. And that is what I hope to do when we scoot up north on the 27th.

I hope you all find a way to do the same - not go up north - but relax into the new year. It seems the older we get the more frazzled life becomes. It's good to catch your breath from time to time.

All the best for the holidays. Talk to you all again in 2010.

Counting Down.

The tree is trimmed, the gifts are wrapped (mostly bagged actually - what did we ever do before the reusable gift bag?) and I think I am mostly ready. This will be the last Christmas in the house we've owned for 26 years, so it's proving to be quite an emotional time for us - and especially the kids. I took extra care in the trimmings, putting three more stands of lights than usual on the tree.

On my "Santa" list, I've completed: 10 hooked snowmen, 2 hooked santas, 1 hooked cat, 1 hooked footstool, 1 sign, 1 knitted snowman hat, 1 pair of yoga socks, 3 aprons - I can't think of anything else. 

Now just one newsletter to finish putting together and shoot out the door before Thursday. 

And I'm pretty sure there will be a bit more last minute wrapping and "second guessing shopping". But mostly I'm done.

My ma-in-law turned 85 on Friday, so we treated her to a birthday lunch on Saturday in Peterborough and brought her back to stay until Boxing Day. She's like the Eveready bunny - in the 30 years I've known her, she hasn't changed very much. Knock on wood she's still healthy and strong and I can't see that changing much in the next little while, God willing.

So now I can just get the work work done that haunts my sleep and look forward to some nice downtime between Christmas and New Years.

I hope all of you who have been following along with me have an incredible holiday, filled with family and friends and good cheer. May 2010 be an amazing adventure for all of us, and may we all find good health and happiness waiting for us there.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to everyone.

Much love.

Wendie

Aprons for Christmas?

I am a recent lover of aprons. Perhaps because in the past few years, they have become beautiful and things that you would feel wonderful wearing – versus the ugly utilitarian things of days gone by. I think the love of all things retro has had a very positive effect on the apron business.

There was a woman selling wonderful ones at One of a Kind. And the ones at Anthropologie are incredible. But a beautiful apron comes with a price tag, so I decided to make some instead, after finding a pattern called Emmeline at Sew Liberated (an online site with beautiful patterns).

It’s a very feminine reversible apron that really appealed to me and I immediately thought of my daughter who is just learning to cook. How wonderful to put on a lovely apron and create things in her freshly painted yellow kitchen. (The bright yellow, blue and purple one with the striped reverse is for her.)

When I went looking for her fabric, other combinations kept leaping out at me, which is how I ended up doing three (or 6 when you count both sides of each apron). I spent a good deal of this past weekend cutting them out and sewing them. But at the end of the effort, I think they are really beautiful.

Living in a house with two men folk doesn’t bode well for the construction of aprons as Christmas gifts. They just kept saying Aprons???? Incredulously, which nearly made me second guess myself. And they did beg the question, is an apron the sign of oppression, which I’m sure the feminists would support, or are they a practical item that can also be beautiful?

Like every gift I give, the acid test is whether or not I would like to receive on as a gift. And the answer is a resounding “YES”. Now having made three, I know the pattern by heart. I have visions of all my leftover fabrics being put to good use in 2010. I can see these becoming a staple in my life.

The flakes and the fur flew.

Sorry about no post yesterday (to my regular tea and post folks). I was up north - taking yesterday in lieu of Friday. I'm still loving these longer weekends, regardless of where the extra day falls.


It was a weekend FILLED with snow. Amazing how just two hours north of the city and you're in a winter wonderland. We hit the storm on Friday night about 90 kms south of Parry Sound and it stayed with us all weekend. It snowed so that you couldn't even see across the lake. It snowed in slow motion. It snowed heavy and light. We shovelled twice on Sunday - about 8 inches each time. Definitely time for a snow blower....

On the studio front, I was definitely feeling like one of Santa's elves and my list got quite a few check marks. The snowmen are moving right along, with four of them stuffed and waiting for arms (too snowy up norrth to pick any). But some new fun things this weekend were this stool for my sister Nancy (hope she's not reading this week) and a stuffed cat for my friend Sheila. Nancy's cats Gus and Sam are depicted here and as you can see, Gus is like Garfield without the love of lasagna. Mostly lies around and eats a lot. Sam is like an electric cat who never stops moving. Their personality difference is really reflected in their body shapes, which made this little stool cover so fun to do.

And while on the subject of cats, I decided that instead of a snowman for my friend Sheila, I would hook her cat Hank. He is a wonderful cat who loves people and loves to fetch. I think he thinks he's a dog. He's getting up in age (and weight) now and suffers from diabetes, so we're not sure how much longer he'll be with us. This seemed like the perfect gift. He was very fun to do, and if time permits, I will do my grandcat Jasper for my daughter too. She'll love it and I'm sure he'll appreciate the company.

I must confess to surprising even myself with how well I'm staying on track to get everything done. If the hooking stuff is all finished this week, then it's time to dig out the sewing machines and tackle a few more goodies.

And I still have more than two weeks left to go.

The Hooked Snowman vs. The Punched Snowman

Following my friend Jennifer’s lead, I decided to make a few snow folk this year as Christmas gifts.

So far, I have hooked 2 large ones and punch needled two more. I have also hooked some half-pints, which are adorable and very fast to do. I have also thrown in a few Santa’s for good measure.

Looking at them finished (but not assembled), I am faced with the question, which do I prefer, the Hooked Snowman or the Punched Snowman? Both have good things going for them, and I’m pretty sure I’ll like them all once they are put together and have their eyes and arms and hats, etc.

The punching was definitely faster, and I do like the texture I got in mixing two yarns. But there’s something about the strip mixture in the traditionally hooked fellow that I really love.

Before I do any more, I think I’d better see how tough the assembly process is, cuz I have no idea and may end up with some flat ornaments instead. I’ll take pictures again when they are assembled and you can see for yourself which you prefer.

(I actually finished the punched fellow last nite, but I'm waiting till I have his arms and nose before I show the final result.)