To quote Monty Python....
And now for something completely different!

I know this will sound strange to some but life has literally been a whirlwind for months....and months....and months.  Okay, almost a year.  Nonstop.

First the grandbaby.  And he has been such a joy, who wouldn't want to spend time schlepping back and forth in Chicagoland traffic from the darkside JUST for the chance he might smile or remember who Gramma is?!  Wish we lived closer but the 2-3  hour RT drive it is still better than flying back and forth....

Ok...no, that's not the grandbaby below.  It's our puppy Lacy Lulu....the source of most of our whirlwind.

Months and months of  ongoing and seemingly endless puppy stuff.  Puppies are incredible amounts of work...and an undetected low grade bladder infection made the housebreaking an impossible challenge! She is much, much better now at 14 months but still a puppy with endless energy.

Then there were trade shows to get ready for.  Oh yes, retail trade show season starts waaaaaaay too early every January...and goes on for months.  It all starts earlier and earlier each year. I suspect it may eventually become a tradition to spend New Year's eve at a convention center setting up booths!

As a licensing illustrator for product, it is crucial for me to create many new art collections so my licensing agent will have lots of good stuff to present at the shows she attends in my behalf.  That creative prep alone takes months.  While she is off to Atlanta, New York, and other fine cities across the country, I attend shows, as well....including the big Craft & Hobby Association trade show in Anaheim, California in early January. So yes, I have to travel during what has been some very challenging winter weather in recent years! I also demo, teach workshops, and work behind the scenes with manufacturers in the industry to create display projects for their booths, make n take projects, develop new techniques and on design teams.  I also teach workshops.  And, trust me, prepping  out-of-town workshops for up to 50 people per class takes months!  We barely return from the show before we have to start brainstorming workshops for the next year's shows! Good thing I love what I do! I don't ever consider creative work a chore...just the deadlines get a little nuts. And recent computer issues almost pushed me over the edge this past month.  But that is another tale....

(A couple of the workshop projects from last year....using some of my stamps from my stamp line with Impression Obsession. Wait til you see the new ones I have developed for the 2016 workshops!)

Which brings me to the "something completely different" part.

I got SO caught up in everything, I totally forgot to post the link to the awesome technique I developed for Clearsnap......which debuted at the January 2015 Craft & Hobby Mega Show (Fondly called the CHA show).

So, go ahead and click here:
https://youtu.be/NgR-5VaK8xA  to watch the video that was shot at the 2015 CHA show at the Clearsnap booth.

Here's a little sneak peek......

Enjoy!

As always, please leave a comment....I would love to hear from you!