Well, I am busy wrapping up loose ends and getting ready for my trip to Hawaii. I'll be flying out of Charlotte, NC, on Tuesday, May 3, heading for two weeks in Paradise! It has been almost six years since I've been back to the Islands. I will be filling any orders this weekend and shipping them on Monday, so if you haven't ordered the new charts yet there is still time to order and have them shipped before I leave. I will be back on May 19.
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It's hard to believe that it is almost the end of April. Where does the time go? If you follow my Facebook page you know that recently I began posting quotes from a perpetual calendar that my cousin, Cindy, gave to my mom many years ago. Even though my mom is gone, I still think of her every single day when I flip the calendar page. Today's quote, "Use your hindsight to improve your foresight" is a good one. I've been mulling it over all day. I don't know about you, but I don't always use lessons learned from the past to avoid problems in the now or the future. In the past, I have several times jumped into creative endeavors hoping to make a go (money) at them with less than stellar results. My cross stitch design business was very successful for many years while I lived in Hawaii. After moving back to the mainland and letting it lapse for a number of years, I recently jumped back into designing with both feet. But business is lagging and I am trying to understand why. For now, I will keep creating new designs. I welcome your feedback and suggestions as to how to keep improving Frances L. Johnson Designs.
In the meantime, I am really trying to use hindsight to improve my foresight. We'll see how it goes. I have finally finished the layouts for the rest of the letters of the Hawaiian Alphabet (K, M, U and W) and the Big Island Sampler. They will go to the printer the first of next week and hopefully, I will have the finished products by the end of next week!
Here's a preview: I've been busy finishing the layouts for the remaining letters of the Hawaiian alphabet. Four are ready to go the printer after one more proof-reading. One design I have to stitch again since I made a mistake and left out a whole line so rather than the design being 42 stitches by 42 stitches it's 42 stitches by 41 stitches. I couldn't have that! And please don't ask how I managed to do that, I have no idea. You would be amazed how many mistakes I make. I know I am.
I'm still finishing up the Big Island Sampler. I seem to always set goals to have charts printed by a certain date and then things come up and I fall short. But I'll get there. One week ago I finished a round of topical chemotherapy on my face. I went to the dermatologist to have some pre-cancerous lesions frozen off and he said I had so many actinic keratoses (pre-cancer) on my face that I should just do my whole face at one time. So twice a day I had to apply this cream which would attack any cells that were growing faster than normal (and so potentially cancerous) but wouldn't affect normal cells. After a week my face was covered with big blotchy red spots. Eventually about 3/4 of my face was covered with red blotches that eventually became scabby, weepy sores. It was miserable, to say the least. But that's what was supposed to happen and now my skin is healing up though there are still lots of red spots. Hopefully, I will not have to go back to the dermatologist for a year or more. Believe me, I will continue to use sunscreen religiously from now on. Have you checked out blogs about cross stitching online? Just for the fun of it, I did so the other day and it was really fun and interesting to read about what other people are doing. I'm not a great blogger, still learning my way around the whole website bit so it's a learning experience to see what others are doing. I have to limit my time reading other people's blogs or I'd never get any of my own work done. I will be traveling to Hawaii in early May to attend my goddaughter's wedding. I am so excited! I haven't been back to Hawaii since 2010 and I am really looking forward to catching up with friends and visiting the needlework stores while I'm there. |
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January 2019
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