Friday

Coco is near completion and while I mull just how much grout I'll ultimately use on her, she's sitting by the front door of my house,

greeting me as I arrive home each night.

Someone is going to stub their toe on me and I don't want to hear about it.

I put together a quick video, mostly for my Aunt. She's a talented artist and enjoyed looking at Coco's photos on my phone during lunch on Sunday. I told her I would send pictures, but realized it might be easier to show her this:







Grouting is (to me) the scary part of a project. I can never quite trust I won't ruin my hard work by not removing everything at the right time. Just after I smothered Coco in brown grout, I rushed her outside to hose off anything that may have potentially ruined her sweet face. (I'd like to point out, I did NOT put her in the kitchen sink, thus risking the purchase of another garbage disposal.)

Beads/shells always become loose during this process and will need repairing, but for now I'm going to give her (and me) a few days of rest before returning to glue/beads/shells/grout/etc.

Next Friday at this time I will be arriving at a Spa located somewhere in Utah, with Blogger Pal Moi and her posse of friends for a long weekend of hiking, workouts and pampering. My first true vacaction (aka not a family reunion/obligation) in nearly three years.

Strange, how much can change in a year.

I was invited last year, but at that time my little Company was exploding from within with large orders/short lead-times/stress and the thought of leaving to even go to the bank seemed impossible.

this year, her invitation came to a different person,

in a New World,

and I hesitated only a second before saying,

"yes".

If nothing else, the last twelve months have taught me that time is short, our friends and family are precious and anytime someone offers,

Hot stone massages,

You'd be a fool not to go.

Especially since I seem to have the time to actually enjoy a few days off. Thank you recession for the relaxed work environment!

Of course just over the past few days my business, like the weather, has begun to warm again and I've spent this last week fielding phone calls, submitting quotes and working in the shop in a way that is very reminiscent of last year.

Which is good, of course, and I hope it continues.

But I'm not the same person I was a year ago, so instead of worrying about what will happen if I go,

I'm going to worry about what would happen (to me) if I didn't.

So I'll be spending my weekend packing, locating never used summer clothes and buying as much sunscreen as I can find.

I'll be back for Mute Monday. The theme is New York.

I know, I don't get it either.

Have a great weekend.