Only just over a week till CHA! I am busy creating for deadlines, another box out the door today and then onto final show prep. The cold winter days find me enjoying my bright warm upstairs studio with my office conveniently next door. After twenty some years I have the space to work in I really love. I will post pics later, right now in preshow chaos I think not!

I love my home, almost two years here and still everyday I wake up grateful to be living here. I especially love when friends enter my home they enjoy it as much as I do. The front entry is large enough for my Mom's fireplace and antique chair. The mantel is decorated with winter snowmen, greenery and mini lights. It brings me JOY everyday. Follow the JOY! Debra, CEO!

We are women in a world where many of us are so very fortunate. As my good friend and champion of the world the Marvellous Ms. Margot Potter has posted this week we still live in a world where women are treated in many parts of the world as less than human worse than animals. Tortured, executed and mutilated without rights. We have made great strides in women's rights but there is so much still to be done. In 2011 in Canada there will be a Womens World congress with women from all over the world coming together to look at advancing women's rights globally.

I attended a meeting locally recently and was very surprised to hear the statistics on the inequalities of women here in my own province. Pay, representation we are way behind men in these areas yet women comprise an equal part in the work force. Politically our very small representation affects the attention issues relating to women and children receive. It is not to say they are not dealt with but not in the way that women advocates would. To truly understand an issue you have to be part of it.

Why are we not stepping out there more as a group? So many of us are busy with jobs and family in ways most men are still not. If you are single parent raising children you are most likely a woman. If there are aging parents to deal with it is most likely your role. Where does this leave time to be part of a system, open yourself to criticism when standing up to a mostly male dominated arena. Yet it is mandatory, we are each other's keeper and young girls who cannot even attend school because they do not hygiene products for during their periods, how unjust is that.

I believe in this life, the goodness, the richness, the JOY of it all and I also believe we are meant each of us alone and together to make a real difference. I have daughters and one of the gifts I wish to leave them is that I was part of making a difference in their world. Always follow the JOY! Debra, always the Creative Eternal Optimist!

Well less than two weeks till CHA! Debra is surprisingly calm but Freda & I really think it is because she is sleep deprived and so not really with it. The evidence being her overlooking our minor indiscretions of birdseed in the sheets and slushy footprints from the front door, up the cupboards into the sink. (the tub just seemed too far to go for a footbath!)

Want to meet us in person at CHA? Shameless self promotion here as our very divine Ms. Margot Potter would say! Stop by our booth in the License & Design #2639 section of the show, we will be there in the feathery flesh along with some other of our fowlicious friends like Oliver Owl!

Travel to the show we hear for us Canadian birds will be a little tricky, stuffed in the luggage between Debra's unmentionables, nice color choices though if you like pink, pink and more pink! We embellish but hey we are the height of embellishment ourselves.

So see you at the show just follow the bird tracks! Follow the fowl Fran & Freda!

The New Year has arrived! In two weeks it is off to CHA, the Craft and Hobby Association tradeshow in Anaheim! This is the big international show of the year with a two day consumer Craft Supershow first followed by a four day tradeshow. Like so many of my designer and industry friends the show is a marathon schedule for us all! It is wonderful and exciting to reconnect with everyone and to see all the new product and tools! I am also brilliantly trying to mask sheer panic at this point while finishing deadlines before the show. This would also explain why I am writing my blog at 2am.

At the show!
Jan 24-27 Exhibiting L&D, License & Design Section Booth #2639 with the talented Carla Schauer.
24-27 CHA Designer Global Gallery Display
24-27 Demos at Homearts Booth
24 Sunday Designer Showcase 12-5, Room 303 open to Editors, Publishers and Manufacturers
25-26 Monday, Tuesday  F+W booth #4228, 11:30-12:30, Sweatshirt Remix book demo.

In the February issue of Crafts 'n Things magazine a black and white tunic is featured from my book Sweatshirt Remix along with a couple cute bird designs I did. Here I am at fall Quilt Market wearing the tunic shown in the current magazine issue.

So will I finish everything on my lists, no because life has a way of reminding us always that it does not stop for big events like CHA. There are still kids to be fed and hugged, the dust can build, the laundry too (a mountain of laundry literally!) but the important moments, the people we love are there to remind us always what truly matters in life! Follow the JOY always! Debra, CEO!

Another year comes to an end and 2010 is almost here, a new year, a new decade. Every year is filled with events, constant change, many minor, some major and with people we share some part of our lives with. Those we love, those we know and connect with all shape our lives. Some leave us and it is always too soon, we grieve and remember them with love forever in our hearts. 2009 held several major life events for me personally, my Mom's passing and both daughters graduating one from high school and one from university. I enjoyed the gifts of a couple of new very dear friends and a wonderful man has come into my life. I danced in the waves of the Pacific Ocean and swam in the warm Atlantic off Haiti. It has been a year of many blessings for which I am truly grateful.

(California at the ocean, photo by dear friend Michelle Zimmerman)

The waves of the ocean are constant yet everchanging. As far as the eye can see the blueness stretches, crystal shimmers from the sun dance across the surface. Such a timeless and infinite beauty with magical motion in each wave that frolic across the sand.

Like the constant wondrous waves of the ocean the past year has been filled with wonderful women who I am very grateful to know and who are my friends. They have taught me much about life, about commitment and caring, creativity and character, listening and loving, showing up and sharing. THANK YOU to the women who are part of my life, thank you for being there, thank you for being magnificent, marvellous, awesome YOU! Thank you for the JOY! With gratitude & love, Debra

One of my favourite materials to work with is felt. There are several kinds to choose from depending on the project. Lately I have been working with the new Xotic Bamboo felt from National Nonwoven. It is very soft and available in a range of fun bright colors. I featured the product and the company in my Creative Homearts column "Make it Green" for the December issue. These funky ornaments are quick and easy to make! Add some decorative stitches and hot fix crystals for extra detail and bling!

Simple, easy and inexpensive gifts and ornaments can be created from felt. Cookie cutters make great patterns. Place the felt on a soft surface. By pressing the sharp side of the cookie cutter firmly onto the felt an imprint is made to cut around easily. Stitch or glue, embellish and stuff! 

Happy Crafty Holidays! Always follow the JOY! Debra, CEO!!!

Yesterday was the anniversary of a very special day, eighteen years ago on December 17th my youngest daughter arrived. Twelve days old on a very snowy day, a car seat hastily borrowed from a dear friend Claire to bring her home in. Her Dad went to school to pick up our nine year old, all she wanted for Christmas was a baby sister and her wish came true. I sat holding baby Katy when Amanda walked in, such a surprised look on her face, then excitement and happy tears. We placed a cradle under the tree and baby Katy slept there as the visitors came. It was a Christmas to remember always!

And now as it is Fowl Friday I turn over the blog to Fran who will fill you in on how yesterday was celebrated with the annual Gingerbread House creation! Each year the girls choose a theme for the Gingerbread House and at the ages of eighteen and twenty-seven there is no cute red and green with an elf here and there. This year the theme is a tribute to Michael Jackson's Thriller!

Finally Fran here. Well the table was littered with all kinds of stuff, the sweet sticky kind of which there is never enough!

The girls were all dressed cozy in hoodies and jeans while visions of tombstones were decked out in jelly beans!

When up on the roof there arose such a clatter, Kate tried to shoo us off, it just didn't matter.
We tried to stick a gummy worm here or there but the girls said no, twas so unfair!

Soon the house was finished with strange delight and for all it was indeed a very Merry Night!

This year I travelled more than usual and sometimes missed things, that would translate into missing things at home and also more often than not overlooking other things. One such item was a post I did for the wonderful site "Craft for Health", the creative partnership of Kathy Peterson and Barb Dehn. Their blog features people from all over the world sharing their inspirational stories of how crafting has impacted their lives and those they share their gifts with. When our hands and mind are involved in the act of creation, our bodies relax and rejuvenate, creativity is good for us in so many ways.

The post I did way back in October tells the story of the Craft Club I started several years ago at my daughter's elementary school. There was an art room available to use and I brought in supplies for weekly noon hour craft projects. It was so much fun and the kids enjoyed themselves. Whatever their mood when they arrived was by the end of the hour they all left relaxed and happy. I will always remember one little boy coming up to me and saying he couldn't sleep the night before because he was so excited to come to Craft Club and make a bear! Read the full post (Oct 21st, near bottom of page)

What we create everyday touches someone and when we share that love of creativity we touch the world. We all make a difference! Always follow the JOY! Debra, CEO!

JOY is only defined by the feeling, how it arrives, the possibilities endless! Around our home this year JOY is a couple of small and furry packages, our ragdoll kittens Milla & Bella Blue's first Christmas.

The story unfolds! "So big sis what shall we do today?"

"How about trying to catch one of these sparkly toys Debra left dangling for us. I'll give you a boost!"

"Thanks Milla, now I can reach the new toys! Oh such fun!"

"That's it Bella, just jump up and hit it again. Way to go kid!"

"OOps! Busted! Oh well good thing we are adorable!"

"Now what!? Big Sis help!" Always follow the JOY! Debra, CEO!

'Tis the Season is heard often these days when we turn our minds and hearts purposely to giving and sharing. The music, the lights and the messages are everywhere. I know for many it is also a time when loss is felt more keenly, stresses financially and others to perform and do so much this time of year can be exhausting. We can not do it all or make the Holidays for others by over extending ourselves in any way.

This year will be my first Christmas without my Mom, I have spent every Christmas with my Mom my entire life and find myself forgetting, the pink sweater I saw the other day she would have loved. (the pink thing is indeed hereditary!) I miss her dearly but remember how much she enjoyed the Holidays last year in her new apartment with us. She loved to sit with the music playing and the fireplace glowing. My oldest daughter is off to ski for the Holidays with her wonderful birth family so my youngest and I will celebrate here a little differently. No tree this year for the first time but with two kittens probably a good thing! The place is still decorated and the girls are making their traditional non traditional Gingerbread House this week. (This year's theme a homage to Michael Jackson's Thriller, always a challenge to fit it into the decorating scheme!) We are not having turkey instead a yummy seafood casserole.

I have also someone special in my life now and part of my holidays will be elsewhere. So the season like life itself changes and the emotions are a mix as well. That is life and in life the sorrows allow us to also know and appreciate true JOY. Each morning I put on the twinkling lights around the house and the Holiday music, I sing and dance (great aerobics!) around the house with each window a wintery masterpiece of snow covered trees and sparkly land.

What anyone really wants is connection, compassion and caring, the gift of another person whether with a visit, a call, a card that expresses the importance of one for another. We never know how long we are meant to be here, may those we love know always how much they mean to us. Make this a season of love, love messages from the heart that is the JOY of the season! Follow the JOY always! Debra, CEO!