Sleepless in Seattle...

Ok, well I was sort of sleepless in Seattle this past weekend, but not from insomnia. A friend and I went down for our annual girls-only Christmas shopping weekend. This year there was a bonus - the Canadian dollar was at about $1.08 US, so it was like a bonus 8% off of everything. The trip was great fun, I scratched off about 80% of my Christmas list recipients, and I found my new favorite store...Paper Source in Bellevue. I know Paper Source exists all around the US and on the Internet, but I'd never stepped foot in one myself. It was fantastic. A candy store for paper and stationery junkies. I'd list all the wonderful doodads and whatnots that I discovered, but that would take all day. I did find some PVA and another paper product that I am going to experiment with over the next few weeks...

When I returned from Seattle on Sunday I had one bit of bad news waiting for me, and two bits of good news. The bad news - while I was away some moron decided to hit and run my car while it was parked in front of my friend's house where I left it. The arse either didn't notice they hit me, or they didn't have the guts to leave me a note. Nice. Now I'm out $300 in deductibles. Luckily I don't have to pay the full $800 in damage he or she did. L-O-S-E-R.

The good news, an article written by Alex Browne of the Peace Arch News (a local paper) about me and fellow artists from the Creative Finds art show (December 1st) was printed in the Sunday run. Although I was not properly identified in the photo (see above photo [I'm the one on the right]- they noted me as the mother of the little girl in the photo), and I was misquoted on most items, the gist of it came out ok. The focus was more on Rachel, the little girl, as she is quite the entrepreneur! You can read the whole article here...The photo was taken in the paper's lunch room with all of us sort of sitting on a tiny table!

The other good news, my dear friends Harold and Rebecca welcomed baby Mathias...and boy is he a cutie patootie! Congrats!

While I was gone I also received an email from an AIL reader asking about my paper cutter - the QCM stack cutter. The reader asked if I liked the QCM - the quick answer - yes, I love it. But, there are drawbacks - the grid on the measuring area is not that exact, and it's a bit hard to line up papers just so. I've actually taken a Sharpie to mark my measurements better on the grid, but it's still not exact. If you need exact measurements, it would be best to invest in a proper cutter. Personally, $350 was about what I wanted to spend - the better cutters are in the thousands...

Best of luck and happy letterpressing!