Lots of Progress

I think that taking on the care and feeding of a fiber business is actually really good for my brain: it has been buzzing madly, since last we met. I have gone from being timid about parting with a chunk of my savings, to feeling more confident every day about this being a good move for me and for my colleagues.

A "big fat order" from the mill that creates the really luxurious stuff is working its way through the combing machinery, at said mill, and I am waiting for the email that will tell me that it is time to go to the bank and wire the money, so that the boxes and boxes and boxes of luxury fiber will begin their journey to me. (it is going to be "fun" to see how well I can organize it, once it gets here! Rod is a little worried about space but my own personal fleece stash can make way, into the hands of others)

I got my office organized into a much more efficient space (it is about time, I know) for all of this weighing and shipping that will be happening and the biggest upside is that it is SO much better for getting the dyeworks packages out. DUH! My mother always said to me, when I was a teenager and on into my messy twenties (young motherhood), that "one can always tell the state of someone's mind by the state of their surroundings". Oh. Taking on an extension of my business has forced me to organize my mind AND my surroundings. Ok, I get it. Nice work, Mom.

The other "little something" that comes back to me, from my 30's, is what my co-leader of a Brownie Troop said one day; "if you need something DONE, ask the busiest and most productive of your friends. Even if she is juggling things, asking to put one more ball into her rotation will hardly phase her, because she is already on high alert". Do you believe it? I guess that I do. I see it with my own daughter, who works full-time, cooks beautiful meals and gets her kids here there and everywhere for activites. I wonder how she does it but then I was a stay-at-home mom who crammed a creative career, baking, gardening, couponing and raising small farm animals into the waking hours of every day. We just DO it.

Now, I feel more energized, just thinking, planning and getting more organized. I guess that after the stress of trying to work during Mom's decline made me a little "soft" after she left. I found myself thinking more about being the next in line to leave, instead of all of the things that I wanted to do every day, for all of the rest of my LIFE. Seeing my mother through all of that time of transition really took a toll on me but I have come through it, stronger and more determined to live my life fully, every day.

We had a WONDERFUL and exhausting trip to Stitches West. I kept wondering why I was always SO much more tired, doing that show, and then it hit me; all of the other shows, we arrive the day before load-in, getting a good night's sleep before the muscle pumping schlepping and set-up. Hell, this year, the day before we drove three hours to GET to set-up, we had to dig out of a blanket of snow, so that we could get safely get out of here before dawn. Oh, no wonder I arrived tired. Hah! We also drive home, the same night as load-out (after a day of the sales floor), and I wondered why I was a freaking zombie on Monday! That all worked ok, when we were in Lafayette and the drive to and fro was about an hour but now I think that next year, we will drive down on Tuesday and drive home on Monday. MUCH smarter.

The West Coast Stitches is always an Old Home Week for us, touching base with people who have been friends or customers of mine since the days of juried craft fairs. In those days, people in California could get their hands on me at shows several times in a year, before we began to travel cross-country. Now, we are one-and-done with our home state, in February of each year. I keep wondering how it can be 30 years now but then the days are zooming by in a blur. Perhaps, adding this new level of interesting work will put a little rubber stopper in the spokes of my life wheel and make the days slow down a bit. Is that possible?

What is possible is something that I did not dare to hope for and that is the excitement and renewed interest in the voice of my web-goddess, Holly. She had begun the daunting task of creating a new and more efficient/clean website for the dyeworks (it is happening behind the curtain of the internet) when this new thing popped up. I never thought that she would want to take on such a BIG job again but surprisingly, it has inspired her and the wonderful website for Weaver Creek Fibers is being put together for launch, by the end of the week! (she must be feeling the same excitement and creativity that has touched me!) I am SO excited and grateful for her help and enthusiasm and I joke about her racking up enough hours for me to have to buy her a car!

When something like this is dropped into your lap, one of the hardest things is knowing where to begin, when everything must be done at once, but we have done just that and now I have the task of creating an email list from a business that was only done with phone calls and "snail mail". When I said that I called my friend Melissa a Triceratops, my grandson pipes up from the back seat of the car, "Grammy, did you really call her a Triceratops"? Why yes, I really did, but in a loving way. :-) Now, I am pulling this business into the 21st century, one web connection at a time and it is energizing.

Look out world, the old Lisa is back.

Comments

[Helen]

Good for you! Looking forward to the 'opening'. :)

[Sandy]

Remember the television commercial that says
"open....open.....open"
That is how I am feeling. ;-)
Might be seen jumping up and down a little too.

[Debbi]

What a beautiful and inspiring post! Your creativity really shines through in everything you do! Can't wait to see what comes next... : )