I spent a good part of the morning yesterday and again today, visiting lots of amazing and lovely blogs with Tasha Tudor tributes, and left a few comments here and there. It's all very inspiring. So interesting to see how her influence has affected each of us in so many wonderful ways. I'm thrilled her pioneering spirit lives on!
On a similar note, regarding the pioneer spirit, some of you know that I’ve had my nose to the grindstone preparing my wool blanket project for publication and it’s been all-consuming for months now. There's been so much to learn. New territory to cover. And conquer. So instead of breezy summer fiction, I've been delving deep into technical tomes and (so-called) "quick-start" manuals; with my viewing entertainment coming in the form of video tutorials for every CS program out there. In essence, I’ve been schooling myself. I do realize there are easier ways to do all this, with Blurb and Slurp and LuLu and other self-publishing programs already out there, but most of their online software was slightly limited for my purposes, and besides I really just wanted to roll up my sleeves and start from scratch. Embrace a new challenge. Honestly, there's been frustration along the way. There's always that. But for all the hard work, I'm actually
seeing a little light at the end of the tunnel and it's exciting! The projects, patterns, and written portion of the book is done and I'm pretty happy with it all and hugging myself! A proof copy is in front of me now which has illuminated a few things that need to be fixed though. Things like rearranging photos, nudging text, and more proof-reading; little details for sure, but somewhat tedious and always time-consuming. I have half a dozen lively and uplifting playlists in heavy rotation to help get me through this. The Mister and the girls have been wonderful in helping cook and take care of the house and without their help and support I couldn't have done any of this. Obviously I'm taking time to do other things, but when I'm working, I honestly am so distracted and concentrating so intensely that I forget everything else around me. Including pots cooking on the stove. Twice now, I've burnt hard-boiled eggs! How can that happen? Not easily, but I manage to do it. I'm always telling them, I need watching. So my seventeen year-old daughter, Grace, designed and uploaded a simple program she calls the "Trusty Timer" that has a pop-up window and a rooster that crows, as a reminder for me. It sounds wacky, but it works great! That is, when I remember to use it. I may need a reminder for that too. Maybe a live chicken under my desk pecking at my toe or something. Anyway...I’m hoping to get the pages all bundled and off to the printer very soon. Keeping my fingers crossed. And feet tucked in. Just in case.