The next time you hear from me we will be moved into our new place!

The truck is loaded and being guarded by one of our friendly neighborhood hobos and we are just organizing the last few pieces for tomorrow. Final painting and patching in the am, a leisurely breakfast at Deacons, then keys at noon. The parking spot out front has been secured by Darren and the previous owners are all out.

Darwin is super freaked out from moving stuff out today, we will see how he is once moved over and everything is quiet for a while. Poor kitty

See you on the flip side!

The sale closed today – money transacted and papers ruffled and whatever they do, but the sale is all complete and we get keys on Saturday.

Thanks all for the love and well wishes. We really appreciate it. We worked half a day today and have just been cuddling with Darwin otherwise. Thankfully Reilly has been on top of the game and we’re pretty much ready to move, just a few more things to pack and the painting etc. is almost done (we have to put everything back to white, and most of our place has been painted otherwise so it’s a bit of a job).

Darwin keeps looking for Luna which is sad, but he has been ultra snuggly which I appreciate. I don’t know that there’s been a single day in the last 6 years where I worked on my computer or sat on the couch *without* Luna on my lap at least part of the time, but Darwin has been visiting me all day so I haven’t been too lonely.

I hate that she’s gone, but I’m grateful that if it had to happen that it happened here rather than the new place. Sigh.

It’s been a weird day – frustrating news for Tanya and Barry, exciting news for Kimli & Ed, bittersweet day for us.

Here’s the fairly dramatic story of when we brought her home. The first time she jumped 9 feet head first with reckless abandon, she landed in a pile of clothes. This time she didn’t make it, but she didn’t suffer. She wasn’t scared of anything, which made her the kitty she was. Curiosity…

xoxo Lunacat

While today started like a typical day, I have somehow accomplished SIGNIFICANTLY more than on most days.

It’s also well past midnight and I’m still working (HAH! But I’m backdating this post to the 24th because if it happens before I sleep, it counts), but it’s worth it knowing how close I am to being caught up. Some highlights:

-  I chose images and designed 5 mockups for a client’s thank you cards, and sent them off for their review

- We got the wedding of some fantastic September clients online

- Reilly and I visited the lawyer to hand over all of the money for closing and to sign stacks upon stacks of paper. Closing happens on Thursday!

- I finished culling one wedding, I completed a second wedding start to finish, and I culled a portrait session as well – so a few hours all told. Those are ready to be sorted and organized and sent off to one of our outsourcers for next steps

- I completed all the overdue Indie I Do updates. The website has been tweaked and updated, the 2010 vendor list is online, the seldom used blog has been converted to a news section, the stats have been reviewed,  I posted all the major TV, radio, and other media pieces from the January show, and I’ve started up the online ads as we are just 2 months now officially from our 2010 event. Tickets have been coming in  (cool fact: first ticket sales happened in May for our upcoming January show!)

- I blogged on the Blue Olive side about Got Craft (you’re coming, right?)

- I went through all the current intern applications and contacted each applicant with an update on their status. I was nervous that I didn’t have many applicants at first but I’ve got a great bunch of people starting to come in with 5 great looking people on the shortlist and more than 2 weeks to go, so I’m no longer stressed as much about this

- After starting the day with around a typical 80 items in my inbox (which means to-do box: anything not requiring my action is filed immediately), I currently have ZERO remaining items. Really. For likely the first time this year. Invoices sent, vendor file requests filled, people put in touch, meetings setup and so on. It’s refreshing.

SO! That’s it for today. Heh.

(this was the promo pic I sent for my stuff at Got Craft)

Almost forgot to post!

Reilly is all kinds of incredible and the vast majority of our things are in boxes in the livingroom. Woo!

Tomorrow we take the final large LARGE pile of pennies to the lawyers and sign many stacks of paper. Side note: property transfer tax? Ya. Doesn’t exist in Alberta. Does here. I love spending near $10 000 for no good reason, which is cash by the way, not rolled into our mortgage and separate from our down payment. Anyways.

Tomorrow: Reka in the office, lots of work to do, painting, finishing drywall, lawyer, and more things I can’t remember.

Josh and Shan are all moved in!

Many boxes and loads and configuring and strategically placing later, J+S+cats+stuff are all tucked into their new home. Shan has the next 2 days to sort and unpack and settle, and we spend the next few days prepping for our own move.

Highlight of the day of course was massively dislocating my knee by standing wrong and having it not go back into place easily or quickly, so that was awesome. Really. At least I got to strip off my pants in an effort to re-locate it, a house isn’t really a home until your friends are in it half clothed.

Now – curled up with a blanket and ice for my knee and a cat watching some mindless TV. Tomorrow – cleaning the house in the chaos of boxes, buying more boxes, mail and off-site backup runs, and 2 new client meetings in the evening. They’re the last 2 booked here before we completely destroy the place over the next few days.

Cool fact of the day: on a Sunday evening with no traffic door to door Josh & Shan’s to our new place is 13 minutes. Weu!

Super huge congrats to Josh and Shan who are officially in the process of moving into their new place!!

Our wedding today was short and done early so we were able to head over after R got home for the tour and delicious celebration food complete with dude on dude action. It’s true – we hit the pub in their new hood to discover there was some sort of major fighting sporting half naked dude wrestling situation happening on all the screens, and everyone in the bar was all into it. Bizarre.

Look how happy (via bad iphone pic)! And look at the fancy floors and fireplace!

We’re into the final countdown: Josh and Shan closed on their purchase today and they get their keys in about 12 hours. This signals the final days to when we get OUR keys to our place next Saturday!

I’ve already had to stop buying things, I’m only one piece of furniture over what we were going to do so we are hoping it all fits and works as it should. It will be a bit chaotic until I am back on my feet from my next surgery (still unknown date, btw, although I’m too busy right now so I’m not hounding them either just yet) – once that is all over we can finalize the last of the furniture. Until then we’ll have an extra couch borrowed from the lovely Jeanie which will double as a bed on the main floor and we have some extra stuff we’ll have to craigslist.  I have lots of little details as well that I get to dream up and incorporate, once we’re in of course.

We’ve moved a couple times since, but when we bought our first place in 2003 in Edmonton this is what Darwin looked like:

So tiny and cute!

That time, we moved all our stuff first then brought him over. We set him down on the floor, and he promptly hid behind the fridge. Where he remained for 6-8 hours. We’re clearly hoping for a smoother transition this time.

Then again, last year when we leased the place next door we cut a small cat-sized hole in the wall first before we tore the whole wall down. Luna jumped through and was super excited, Darwin was excited until he jumped through – he realized the confines of his universe had shattered, he jumped back and ran straight to the bedroom where he hid for a long time. He was scared of the other side even after we tore out the entire wall – so I suppose nothing much changes.

Anyways, on the topic of craigslist, posting jobs there can result in x-rated offers via crank call. It’s been so long since we’ve had a crank call! The recording – of course – is on R’s blog. Thanks to technology and super sleuthing we also have his email address, first name, IP, and know his cell and internet carriers in the event he chooses to be an ongoing nuisance, which we don’t at all expect.

Happy weekend all!

I was coming here to tell you I wasn’t posting here today – I posted here twice yesterday, and I posted on the biz blog like a billion times today, so I figured that covered it.

I did remember a small snippet of my day that I thought I’d share though. I hate that it is me grumping, so I will try to think of something cheerful also.

Most of my items for Got Craft are completed or well on their way, but I’d been waiting for a final delivery of typewriter keys so I could finish the bracelets I’m doing with those. I ordered 3 sets from one person a full month ago, and while everything else arrived within a week to ten days, these hadn’t shown up.

The seller hadn’t shipped them with tracking, so the only real option was to wait. Earlier today they were found – they showed up back with the shipper marked “no such address”.

As it turns out, instead of writing “#410  55 Water St. ” as I had given her, she wrote”#4   1055 Water St.” – not the same thing.

So, of course, the seller blames ME.

Yup, clearly this was my error and I should send additional shipping funds if I wanted my package. To make matters worse, I really need this item in the next week, getting it AFTER Got Craft via regular shipping is just not helpful. Meaning, I need expedited shipping, which is $30 (the item was around $100, fyi).

The seller blames me because I listed the unit and the building on the same line (which I have done for probably upwards of 100 packages since living here). I blame her because regardless of how I listed it, she transcribed it incorrectly and had she not done that I would have received it. So, rather than argue, I told her that we should split the difference and both pay half and call it a day.

Which she refused.

OK, seriously people? I know it’s been some time since the whole “the customer is always right” mentality ruled, but I wasn’t asking to be right, I was asking to split the difference because we weren’t going to agree otherwise. It’s called a compromise. It’s what you do.

Anyways, she eventually very reluctantly agreed when I suggested her feedback score would be impacted, but it was certainly an unpleasant start to my day.

In other news, the whole thing made me appreciate my customers more, so I’ve got Reka working on the project of all projects so I can send each of our 2009 wedding clients some Blue Olive holiday love in a few weeks, just because.

Applicants are starting to roll in for our January graphic design internship here in the studio, so that’s fun. I’m not seeing as many applicants as for our summer opening but I suppose that’s to be expected, but the plan is to hopefully hire our intern part time as a real true employee when the internship is over if all goes well, so I’ve got my fingers crossed for lots of interest. Yay for more employees!

I don’t yet have the couch, but there is nothing stopping me from getting the cushions and afghan that will go on it, right?

Awhile back I saw this image for an afghan pattern:

And, like any sane person, I fell madly in love.

I don’t however have any time at all to make such a piece, just thinking about changing colours so often makes me nauseous! So I set out to find someone to do it for me.

I’ve searched a couple times in the past few months and came up empty handed. Well, lucky for me, my search is over!

The lovely Cherie at her etsy shop Forever Design uses a similar pattern, and I’ve ordered my coveted afghan!

I have a specific colour scheme in mind, so here are the swatches I’ve picked out:

Can’t wait to see the final piece!