You can see more about my professional life and specifics of services I offer on LinkedIn.

The link here takes you to my professional site to see my favorite and best projects.

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On the hunt for my next big adventure

So … I’ve been trying to figure out what I want to do when I grown up. (40 is grown up, right?) Just restless of late, not feeling as though I really fit in the career skin I’ve somehow donned. I haven’t made it very far in my quest for something new, though. Then this comes along.

Seth Godin is making the offer of a lifetime – six months studying with him at his New York office. He’s proposed this as an alternative to getting a traditional MBA where you would study big, important things like finance and accounting.

The best part? (Outside of getting to hang with Seth for six months, that is.) – The part where Seth says this is going to be about practical application of (drum roll) stuff I’m actually interested in!! I work with accountants right now. I’ve tried to read books on financial reports and corporate finance. Just can’t make it through because that’s not where my passion lies. I want to dream big. I want to grow our firm’s internal community. I want to find new places to share my thoughts.

So this lens is my official application to Seth’s experimental education program. Best of luck to everyone applying!

What Seth Wants to Know

Because it’s good to follow the directions sometimes

* What do you do now?
* Why do you do it?
* What are you hoping to learn?
* After you learn it, what are you going to do with it?
* Tell me a true story about making a change in the world.
* Have you overcome a Dip?
* What astonishing thing did you do before you did what you do now.
* Make a wish.
* What else should I know?

Where I Am Now

What I Do For Money

Marketing manager for accounting firm – I’m changing the world there by pushing us into social media and more team selling. We’re out on the cutting edge with a few of these things.
Creative genius – I still have people asking me to do graphic design for them and paint (I used to have a faux finish/mural business). I would like to expand this to things that can be on my own terms, like opening an Etsy shop.
Online marketing – Thanks to Squidoo, I’m establishing my own creative world online where I actually make money. Not enough to replace my regular income – yet.

Why I Do It

Typical reasons – Money, security, insurance. My husband works for himself, which means there can be a lot of uncertainty there. My taking a normal job allowed him to go out on his own (increasing both income and security) and gives him freedom and latitude in choosing projects he likes. Am I brave enough to just toss all that? Yes. But it’s not just me that would have to be brave.
Creative outlet – Squidoo gave me a place to use my research skills and creativity without anyone else telling me what to do. (Not that I couldn’t still do with an editor now and then.) That was my sole motivation when I started, but it’s opened my eyes to the number of different doors I could walk through now.

Why I Want to Study with Seth

And it’s more than just a joy of learning that has me excited.

Relevance
I might want to be the CEO of my own life and I might want to change the world in some way, but I don’t plan to do it by running a big division or company. As a result, it just seems to me that so much of what you would cover in a traditional program would be … let’s say unrelated … to my end goals. Seth is planning to cover the things that actually get me excited and that I would want to spend the next 20 years doing.

Time
I am guilty of being impatient with the journey. I want to be there already. I’m still pushing for a four-day work week in our office. So I love the idea of something short and intense so we get to where we’re actually using what we learn.

The Company
This wouldn’t just be a cool opportunity for me. It’s also a cool opportunity for several other people. Which means I’d get to do this gig in a room with people smarter than me, who are also passionate about these topics.

Failure Encouraged
Seth’s general philosophy falls in line with one of the things I love the most about Southwest Airlines. There is no shame in failing. Only shame in not trying. (Which is contrary to Yoda, though. “There is no try, only do.”)

What I Want to Do With What I Learn

What I Hope to Learn
– Discover some focus, a true passion
– Learn just how to keep myself focused on the strategic ends rather than the tactical means.
– Develop a new skill set that I can apply to whatever I tackle in the second half of my life.

What I Want to Do With It
– Leverage the power of Seth’s name and the education to change my career path
– Give my husband’s company better marketing power
– Find a problem I can get passionate about and solve it

About Where I’ve Been

How I have been astonishing

I have had some unusual jobs in my lifetime. When I was a kid, we picked pinecones, which were then turned into Christmas ornaments. In high school, after basketball season, I worked in a mail house, leaving with the great skills of counting pieces quickly and knowing every zip code in the country.

But the two things I’ve ever done that people find astonishing and want to know more about? My first career was as a sports writer. I started out at a time when women were still rare on the sports pages and given how girly I’m getting in my dotage (of 38!), it surprises people that I pursued such a tack in life.

The second thing was my trip to southern Sudan in the summer of 2007 with my church. Just the mention of Sudan tends to freak people out, but it was an amazing adventure. We were there to do training and to see what else our church could get involved in. Since then, there’s been a second trip with a dentist and I’m trying to convince my dad to go to do some badly needed AIDS education.

Don’t Waste Your Life
I read this during my mission trip to Sudan in 2007. Inspired me to take on a few new projects on my return and really rethink just what I intend to do with the rest of my life.

How I’m Changing the World

It’s small, but impactful

When I got back from Sudan, one of my personal challenges was to figure out how I could make a better impact on the world around me – now. But it had to be something I could actually do, something that I could make work with my life. (Sad, isn’t it, but I know my limits and I didn’t want them to keep me from doing this.)

The plan when my team went to Sudan was to do training for church leaders and scout out for projects our church could get involved in. As often happens, the best things are the unplanned. Once we got there, I was asked to help out in the evenings with an ESL program. Southern Sudan is planning to become its own country in a few years and there are big changes afoot as a result. English is becoming the official language, women are constitutionally set as part of the government and there is some effort to move away from tribalism.

So this class I ended up in was an advanced class, meaning they were learning exciting things like how to conjugate the pluperfect and so forth. It was all men, most of whom had held jobs in the Arabic-only government of the north and wanted to learn English to make the transition. Our first night was spent with them staring at me skeptically (educated women are rare in Sudan) and me trying to remember what the heck the pluperfect was. But by the second night, I was explaining how American businesses made money, why Jeb Bush wasn’t going to be president just because his brother was and our education system. They learned new words like accounting and I got a peek into a side of Sudan I wouldn’t have seen otherwise.

So when I got home, committed to do something more productive with my life than make sure I was on the sofa in time for House every week, I looked in to my options to teach ESL. (I had learned how to speak slowly and sound like a thesaurus, so I knew I could do it. My church had a program working with the refugees in the neighborhood around the church (betcha didn’t know we had refugees in Dallas, did ya’? I never did until I joined this church.), but I knew I would never keep up with it if I had to drive all the way over there. So I found a session that was right by my house and started teaching there.

I was only there one night a week, but during that time, I felt I was making an impact. Helping people in a small way that would improve their job options, expand their world view, teach them new things. I had a couple of students repeat my level and I could definitely see improvement in their skills, which is no mean feat when you only come twice a week.

I had to take a break this fall for several reasons and was planning to go back in January. (Guess that’s out.) I really enjoyed working with my students, hearing about their lives (and appreciating their patience when I tried to use my Spanish!) It was a small change, but one with a ripple effect that I hope makes a difference for years to come.

Fighting Through a Dip

My career is in a Dip at the moment, which is part of why I am excited about doing this. It’s not a magic bullet, but it would be a way to push through and get to a different track and on an upward trajectory.

But my real Dip was on a personal level. Several years ago, I went through a down patch mentally and emotionally. Not quite a full-blown depression, but I was on the way there. Fortunately, I was aware of my unhappiness enough to try to do something about it before bottom came crashing to meet me. That led me on a path that eventually led to counseling and medication. It was amazing and scary to me to realize just how far from my true self I had fallen (those drugs are awesome!). The real part of the Dip, the part where I feel I pushed through, was working toward getting myself out of counseling and off of medication. There are many days when I know things would be much easier if I just kept the medication going rather than actually coping with something. (Mood swings are tough on everyone around you.) But I was determined to get myself to a place where I could cope, could deal with life rather than rely on a pill.

Yes, I’m Hoping for More Than World Peace

My grown-up wish

My real wish? The one I most desperately wish would come true? That the producers of the Amazing Race would get off their duffs and call me and my friend to be on the show. They don’t know what they’re missing, but I am painfully aware of it every week when I watch the show.

That’s a real one, but probably not in proper context here. What I wish for, long for, ache for is to figure out how to make “me” work. Let’s see. How to explain this.

I am random. I am obsessive. I am full of ideas. All good things to some extent. But what it also means is that I’m a bit ADD when it comes to my interests. Woodworking becomes my obsession for a few months and I build bookcases and reface drawers, but then I don’t do anything else for years. Or I have ideas for internal communications projects and revenue teams and target clients at work, but not the time to be the driving force for every idea I have. (And have ya’ noticed that if you come up with the idea, people expect you to be the one who does it?)

So my wish? Figure out what kind of life, career, job, cause, mission can take advantage of someone who gets really intense and focused on one thing for a short time, but then might not ever be excited about it again. Someone who likes to chase the new and shiny. Someone who can generate ideas like some people generate carbon dioxide. To figure out how to make a lifework work with the way I am rather than trying to shoehorn myself into a traditional box.

My Strengths (Per Marcus Buckingham)

My strengths as given in Marcus Buckingham’s book – Now Discover Your Strengths. It was just a little freaky taking that test as it actually pegged me pretty well. Still trying to figure out how to best make use of the info, though.

Learner – People strong in learner have a great desire to learn and want to continuously improve. In particular, the process of learning, rather than the outcome, excites them.
Achiever – People strong in achiever have a great deal of stamina and work hard. They take great satisfaction from being busy and productive.
Focus – People strong in focus can take a direction, follow through and make the corrections necessary to stay on track. They prioritize, then act.
Communication – People strong in communication generally find it easy to put their thoughts into words. They are good conversationalists and presenters.
Input – People strong in input have a craving to know more. Often, they like to collect and archive all kinds of information.

Now, Discover Your Strengths
This book changed the way I saw myself, giving me the freedom to focus on making my strengths the best they can be instead of “fixing” all the places where I’m not that great. I’ve spent the several years since I first read it trying to figure out what kind of career actually let’s me use my strengths to their best. Still looking.

Dealbreakers from Seth

The things Seth listed as being no-gos:

You have to find a place to stay that allows an easy commute to my office outside of NY (zip code 10706). We are three blocks from the train station, which is 40 minutes from Grand Central Station.

No problem. Already found a place with a yard so I could bring the dogs.

You have to speak perfect English.

I even know when to use “whom”.

You can’t smoke.

Yuck. One vice I’ve never been tempted by.

You have to be both nice and smart, with an impeccable list of references.

Hmm. I know a few shady characters. But nice and smart I can definitely do.

I don’t care a bit about how old you are or particularly what your business background is. I care a lot about what you’ve done and even better, how you’ve done it.

This is good because my career has been quite spastic, actually. Which makes me a real risk in some people’s eyes. Better to take the person with industry experience who will do everything the same old way.

Why Seth Shouldn’t Take Me

Just a few reasons Seth might want to proceed with caution with me.

Even though none of the dealbreakers are an issue for me, there are still a few reasons Seth might want to reconsider.

I am excited by new ideas.
I know, this doesn’t sound like it should be a negative, right? But what happens is that I’m always chasing the shiny, new thing and not necessarily finishing up the old, dull thing that I was excited about a few months ago. I’m hard working, determined, dedicated – but also easily distracted. Which means I often start a lot more than I finish.

I am all over the place.
I might technically be a grown up, but I still can’t seem to decide what I want to do when I grow up. I’m all over Twitter, have several blogs, try to maintain a Facebook page, etc. My digital footprint is bigger than my carbon footprint. Done well, this can be a valid strategy, but it’s definitely not in line with Seth’s general philosophy.

I live on Susan time.
This is a frustrating thing for my hubby, but one he’s learned to adapt to. Susan time doesn’t involve being late or slow. It involves getting far too focused on the task at hand and losing track of time. Which means a hard shopping trip lasts for hours or I spend five hours updating Squidoo lenses rather than getting to the dishes. Time passes more quickly when you enter a Susan zone and before you know it, it’s hours later.

I love bacon.
Given how Seth feels about bacon (check out his comment in the debate), maybe we wouldn’t get along. Hmm. I guess it works for Megan so it could work for me.

Spreading the News

I got just a little excited about this whole deal. This is an amazing opportunity and just thinking about the possibilities made me giddy. I’ve been obsessing about how I could make it work for me, but am just as excited about who I know might also enjoy the opportunity. There are a few people I would love to do this with.

So it was time to get the word out. That meant an immediate tweet out on Twitter, as well as a DM to a person I know is also a Seth freak. I did a blog post on my main blog, which gets repurposed via RSS feed to about 10 places. I then went through my address book and sent email out to anyone I thought might be interested (or would know someone who would be interested). I also updated my Facebook status with the link to the lens with details and later created the Facebook group – I Want to Study with Seth!! Whew! All told, I probably hit at least 500 people via all these sources and I know at least two were going to apply. (Hmm. Conversion rates get me every time!)

Books That Influenced Me

These are some of the books I’ve enjoyed over the past few years and have tried to implement in my life. Definitely recommended reading.

The Circle of Innovation: You Can’t Shrink Your Way to Greatness
Every time I read this, I find something new I just want to grab someone and tell them. It’s one of those books that if other people read it, they might start to understand a little of the way my mind works.

Purple Cow, New Edition: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable
For me, everything about Seth’s other books stems from the philosophy put forward in this one – be remarkable. Without that, you’re toast.

• The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference
• The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable
• Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything
• Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School

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Or how my life has changed in six short months.

The blog post asked – “If you could change your life, would you?” I thought the answer was yes. I thought I wanted to. I thought I was ready.

I had no idea just what I was getting in to … .

Change – real change – doesn’t come easy. There were many tears shed, many headaches, many frustrations along the way to making me who I am now. But change did happen.

What I do with that change, how I sustain it, how I continue it – that’s all on me now. But there’s a little bald guy in my head now who continues to poke, push and prod as I head down the path. I will forever be grateful to Seth for his generosity and unrelenting pushing that started me along this route. May I live up to your hopes for me and my expectations for myself.

Here’s a recap of one humongoidist (I’m allowed to make up words now) thing that changed for me and the three biggest lessons I walked away with from the program. May they inspire you as you seek change in your life as well.

Change in Perspective

This part isn’t so easy to explain, because it’s so personal. But the reason my life changed isn’t because I learned how to read an income statement or how venture capital works or a fancy method for setting a marketing strategy.

What changed my life was a change in perspective. About myself. About what is possible. About what is possible for me.

More than any skill I learned, any philosophy I heard, any book I read – the slow rotation in how I looked at the world in general and myself in particular has meant a sea change in how I approach life and my options. I’ve gained the courage to be as bold as I always wanted to be and the knowledge to make those bold moves effective.

Ask the Right Questions

Questions come in two kinds – the right ones and the wrong ones. And I learned two things about asking them.

Sometimes, the question being asked is part of a game you can’t win. The proposal is asking for one thing and there’s no way to stand out from the crowd by actually answering it. Sometimes, the question being asked is just the wrong question.

Change the question.

Doing so better serves your boss, client, prospect, spouse. And better serves you by resetting the ground rules in your favor.

Part of how you know you’re asking the right question is because you start at the very beginning. It’s tempting as marketers to jump into tactical questions – should we start a blog, did we get a Twitter account, we should get it in red.

But the right place to start is long before that. What is the goal? We get distracted by the shiny and fun things we can do and often forget to ask whether we should even do those things. Even if we ask the right questions about audience and action, we forget to really drill down for a goal. And until we know that, the tactics can become just a game of running in circles.

Ideas Are Worthless

I am an idea hamster. It’s a huge part of how I see myself and part of the value I feel I bring. It’s certainly why people think I’m creative and value my input.

So the first time Seth ever said that ideas were worthless, I bleated in protest. (And it was a bleat. I was far from being ready to really challenge him yet.)

It took a long time for me to come around on this one, but … he’s right.

I have files and lists and boxes full of ideas. Idea for Squidoo lenses, ideas for blog posts, ideas for books, ideas for home decor. But as long as those things remain just files and lists and boxes, they are worthless. They don’t earn me anything, deliver value to any readers, bring me any joy.

Their worth only comes as a result of executing the idea. Execution (or shipping, as Seth likes to say) is the key to unlocking the value in an idea. But often we idea hamsters are so in love with generating ideas, we never do anything with them. And that’s an unfortunate fail.

There is No Right Way

There is no right way. There is no right way. There is no right way.

I believe this now. I really do. But it’s still easy to get trapped in the fear of uncertainty, the desire for perfection, the need to look good.

Because that’s the path of the person who thinks there’s a “right” way, a “right” answer, a “right” solution when it comes to marketing.

There are right answers in math. There are right answers in physics. But in marketing?

Waiting for the right answer leads to exactly that – waiting. Sometimes, you have to take your best guess, jump off the cliff and see what happens. It works more like a video game than reality because if that tactic crashes and burns, you can always shift and jump again. But waiting for perfection means you never ship. And not shipping? Takes us back to worthless effort. (See the above point if you’ve forgotten it already.)

Books I Read

This is likely to be a long list when I’m done. But here’s a start to the books I’ve read in the past six months while in this program.

• The Knack: How Street-Smart Entrepreneurs Learn to Handle Whatever Comes Up
• The Bootstrapper’s Bible: How to Start and Build a Business With a Great Idea and (Almost) No Money
• Winning Decisions: Getting It Right the First Time
• All Marketers are Liars
• Meatball Sundae: Is Your Marketing out of Sync?
• slide:ology: The Art and Science of Creating Great Presentations
• Problem Solving 101: A Simple Book for Smart People
• The Red Rubber Ball at Work: Elevate Your Game Through the Hidden Power of Play
• Zig Ziglar’s Secrets of Closing the Sale
• SPIN Selling
• The Blue Sweater: Bridging the Gap Between Rich and Poor in an Interconnected World
• The Ten Faces of Innovation: IDEO’s Strategies for Defeating the Devil’s Advocate and Driving Creativity Throughout Your Organization
• Status Anxiety
• The Republic of Tea: The Story of the Creation of a Business, as Told Through the Personal Letters of Its Founders
• The Adventures of Johnny Bunko: The Last Career Guide You’ll Ever Need
• The Art of Possibility: Transforming Professional and Personal Life

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We’ve all seen the fine print on investment materials – past results are not indicative of future success. Or something like that. I’m sure it’s more precise and lawyery than that.

Much of what we do in the internet marketing world is lather-rinse-repeat. Once you find something that works, you do it as often as possible until it stops working. Or you find something that works better.

I’ve always found that so incredibly frustrating. Incredibly. Because while I can lather-rinse-repeat, it’s not always obvious which stage of that cycle is working in order to truly repeat success. It could be how hard you lather, what you lather, what you rinse with, how often you repeat and on and on and on. It’s never quite as cut and dry as you would like. Or prefer. Or wish for.

Prime example for me was a fluke I made in October 2011 when I was reading up on the animated movies coming out in 2012. (I’m sure it was research. It always is. Looking ahead for opportunities to take advantage of.) I’m not entirely sure just what I thought I was going to do with it, but lo and behold – it took off. And hey, it does well, we want to repeat.

But the same formula – improved on actually – isn’t working for a similar page on the 2013 animated movies. Go fig. There are big sequels coming out this year – like Monsters University. Yet – little traction. Did I start too late (lather), mess it up by trying to improve it (rinse) or miss the point of what was successful (repeat)? Drives me nuts!

While I really like repeatable successes – makes life much, much easier after all – winning the game is about changing the rules, which requires staying ahead of things, making the change, directing the course rather than just copying the past. Copying in the past works if you want to maintain the status quo – be part of the “hey, no fair!” crowd when someone else rocks the boat and forces you to react. Now to just figure out the rules so I can change my game … .

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So let’s see how I did with some of my goals for 2012.

• Knitting. Um, kind of went crazy with this one. Not only have I made several useful things, I have almost read nothing but knitting books this year. OK, not really, but I’m pretty sure I’ve downed almost 100 of them. Truly enjoying this particular new hobby!
• New each quarter – Good in theory, but not so much in practice. Maybe it’s the topics I chose. Maybe it was too much like school to try to learn on a schedule. Or maybe I was spending too much time reading knitting books to get around to anything else?
• Figure 8. Still suck. Can’t even do it on a regular bike. Admittedly haven’t gotten out to practice much with many excuses along the way. Got a new bike, had to wait for bars, etc., etc., etc. Fortunately, this is a great skill to have, but not utterly necessary in order to ride.
• CHL – Ran out of time somewhere in September to get this done. Classes are only on certain Saturdays and between rehearsals and travel, it just didn’t happen. So scheduled to take the class and test in a couple of weeks. Can I count it if I got it scheduled in 2012?
• Art on my car – Finally picked a color and design and then it was too hot to put them on the car. So just got these up in early November and I love them! No missing me now!
• Paint my bike – Well, got a new one, which I wasn’t planning on at the beginning of the year when I made my goals. But I still do plan to paint it this next year to match the cases I painted too. Or maybe have the cases repainted to match the bike since I didn’t do the most professional job. And of course, I went down on my bike in the first month or so after I got it (hit a gravel patch and lost control) so there’s a definite need to get it painted now, not just a desire. (I really ought to be taking the parts off right now to take to get painted since it’s too cold to ride. Hmmm.)

As for 2013 – well, obviously actually taking the CHL class and getting my bike painted are on that list. I also have some skill sets with knitting and sewing I intend to tackle. But I really haven’t given a lot of thought to it at this point. (Not good, right?) The only big one I can think of is to figure out a topic for an ebook that I actually write and market and actually turn into a steady money-making stream. I want an income stream that is a lot more passive than some of my current ones, as well as something I totally control.

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Oy.

Now, I’m all for juries, happy to serve on one, not happy about having my day wasted with the process that always ends up in me being politely sent home.

See, no one wants me to sit on their jury.

If it’s not because I’m against gun control, it’d be because I’m for capital punishment. If it’s not because I think drug laws are a joke, it’ll be for my opinions on personal responsibility. Oh, and to top it all off, that one concept that pisses off prosecutors and judges alike – jury nullification.

They ought to just put a big black mark by my name to point out that it’s a total waste of time to even call me to serve. I’m exactly the kind of person you’d want to have on your jury, but no lawyer will ever put me on one. Screwed up much?

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Red flags for the critical thinker as they allow a speaker/writer to make an assertion designed to elicit an unwarranted response. You don’t strike fear in a heart by saying “There’s a 10% chance that would happen” but by saying “It possibly could happen.” People bypass the generic adverb and head straight to panic mode.

Too many soft adverbs and not enough hard numbers mean science and economic reporting designed to mislead, not inform. And Susan spends way to much time yelling at her radio.

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One thing that’s been holding me back was just trying to decide what to do. Coming up with ideas is certainly not the problem for me. So I started poking around in my fabric closet to find something I liked and met my desire for something bright and happy. Pulled out this great daisy fabric from Northcott that I bought for no reason other than that I liked it. And it falls in that confusing area of being flowers and blue. Do you know how hard that is to use in a baby quilt? Argh. But I loved it. So that’s where I started.

Decided to do the walls in the yellow with blue for the accents. I knew covering that mural was going to be tough so I primed with Kilz (the toxic version) and then did three coats of paint with primer. And I swear if I think about it, I can still see some of the ladybugs ghosting through. But I will be the only one who ever does, so I stopped at three coats. And I ran out of paint at that point.

It’s blazing hot right now, so I did all the priming at once inside in my craft room. Not a great idea since that original Kilz needs to be in a place with plenty of air circulation. Headaches ensued for all of us. Stupid, Susan.

Priming isn’t always a big part of my painting routine, but there was no way to avoid it this time, in part because I was redoing some old crappy furniture. This dresser has been making the rounds since Kevin and I got married; it was his when he was a kid. Other than the hardware, it really wasn’t that horrible. But I wanted cute and adorable and unique, so it was on the painting block. It took over a week to make that cute look happen despite the fact that I rushed a couple of steps (I am so impatient) and I might cover it in plastic to keep anyone from touching it.

The new hardware I purchased turned out to not be the right size; I apparently need some remedial measuring classes or to possibly remember to take a measuring tape with me to the store. So we had an extra step in there of filling holes at the beginning and drilling holes at the end in order to make my purchased-at-a-store-closing-and-thus-not-returnable hardware work. Coat of primer, couple of coats of white on those stripes, taped it off, pulled off a punch of white paint with the tape, cursed, painted the blue stripes, pulled off more white paint with tape, cursed, touched up white paint, modpodged flowers cut from the fabric, one clear coat, scratched the blue trying to get a drawer back in, cursed, touched up blue after getting all the drawers in, ignored the fact that I have a couple of different sheens on the piece now. Again, something one I will notice as most people will just be wowed by the fact that I did that to the dresser. Yea me for not getting obsessed with making it perfect! It’s now filled with my new yarn stash, which means I need a new place for stencils now.

Ages ago, a church I attended was getting rid of a huge bunch of cafeteria tables. I snagged one with no plan in mind (along with 10 metal folding chairs which sit in a closet) but it eventually became my cutting table. Perfect size and once up on bed risers, the perfect height. A coat of primer, blue paint, some white decoration and three coats of clearcoat to protect the whole thing. The table is usually covered in cutting boards and fabric, so I didn’t really want to spend the time to repeat what I did with the dresser. The excessive clearcoating is because multiple sharp objects are typically on the table and I’d like for it to stay perfect as long as possible. It’s still out-gassing and probably will for a month before I feel completely confident in tossing things willy-nilly on it.

Last project so far was making an ironing board cover of the inspiration fabric. (Have to use it somewhere!) Looks good, doesn’t it? Totally isn’t working. I added a bunch of new padding, which makes for a great ironing surface. But the extra padding isn’t staying in place, rolling up on the sides as you try to move a shirt around. And the cotton of the daisies is gripping so you can’t really move the shirt around that well anyway. Great in theory and certainly if all you’re doing is pressing quilt squares, but not a success for ironing clothes. Rethinking what to do about it, but for now, I’m just enjoying the improvement over the stained beige cover.

With the painting projects out of the way, I’ve moved on to trying to come up with a good organization system for above the cutting table, reorganizing my built-in bookcase, labeling my fabric scrap bins and small things like that. Eventually, I’ll have everything done and ready to show off. But already, I just have a great big smile on my face every time I walk into the room. Mission accomplished!

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Stagecraft Fundamentals: A Guide and Reference for Theatrical Production

That said, I still just gave this quite a bit of skim. It’s quite comprehensive, which is why I picked it to start with for my quarterly learning topic. But way more comprehensive than I really wanted or needed. Costumes are interesting, makeup not. But really, I’m more interested in the stage/production management part of things, which had just a tiny part between the history of the stage and the in-depth discussions of various jobs and roles. Still, I have a much better understanding of the various roles involved in a stage production and how they work together.

The Perfect Stage Crew: The Compleat Technical Guide for High School, College, and Community Theater – Dumbed down version of the previous book. Meant for someone with no clue and not a lot of time to get a clue. He tries to not write in a dry fashion, but it wasn’t nearly as interesting as the above. (Side note: I never knew there was something called theater tech until they talked about it on Victorious once. That’s a class I wish I had taken, for sure. Finding it just not as interesting to read about. I think it’s probably the kind of thing best learned hands on.)

The Emperor’s Edge – Still free for Kindle and I definitely recommend reading this one. First in a series (the others aren’t free, though) that sets up this kind of Robin Hood-ish band that calls themselves The Emperor’s Edge. Well, at the end of the book they call themselves that. Like I said, this book is the one that brings the characters together and sets the framework for what they do and why they’re needed. Great characters, although I did wish for more explanation of the political situation and the magic involved. Oh – and a map. Definite downside to reading books on the Kindle is it is so danged difficult to flip to the front to look at a map or list of characters, which no good complex fantasy story should be without.

Reinventing Leona – Yet another book with a death in it. I know this is a major life change that works as a good plot point, but it’s still really tough for me to handle. This is a Christian fiction book, pretty well written, nice core characters dealing with realistic internal and external issues. That said, most of the characters were way to true to life for me. Just reminders of how incredibly sucky Christians can be at times, especially in how we treat each other. Not to mention the horrible standards church folk hold their leaders up to, which gives you performance-oriented kids who fake their way through life. (Ask me how I know. Still, a lot of that was what made the pastor’s family so real to me, and in a lot of ways, the good guys showing true loving-kindness won in the end.

Raises an interesting question though about how real you want your characters to be. And why is it real characters in non-Christian fiction are fine, but real ones in Christian fiction aren’t? Why does Christian fiction try to create these super Christians a lot that aren’t just not real, but also not interesting. Hmmm.

Wonder – Loved, loved, loved this one. The entire book is told in first person, although the person in question changes as we move through the school year with the different voices being used to great effect by the author. We have a kid who’s been homeschooled his whole life because of a massive facial deformity about to enter a real school for the first time, two friends he makes there, his protective sister about to enter high school, her (former) best friend who’s been around since the kid was born and a boy friend just coming into the picture taking turns telling the story of August Pullman’s first year at school. It’s wonderfully told, nothing fake about it and a great discussion piece. It’s a book for kids, but well worth a read for adults as well.

The Paris Caper – Huh. They changed the title of this since I downloaded it. Was The French Detective’s Woman. I think I like the new title better. Possibly a wee bit too much sex focus for me, but really pretty good. Interesting characters with some pretty deep backstories that totally shaped who they are now. I could so see this one as a movie. French detective meets and falls for girl, who is the cat burglar he’s been hunting. He’s smart, she’s smarter (at times) and they play a cat and mouse game the entire time because neither can trust the other one since they’re on different teams. Bit of an Ocean’s Eleven vibe at times, although this thief has a real heart of gold.

On the Run (The Gregory Series – Book 1) – Romantic thriller again. First in a series, the kind that revolves around a family – typically three or four brothers and one sister – with each book basically the romantic thriller that leads them to their eternal love. In this one, we have girl on the run from a drug dealer trying to kill her, former DEA agent in love with her trying to find and protect her. They meet up at the beginning and go on the run together, but there’s a real trust issue on her side (and occasional cluelessness on his), not to mention the entire mystery of why someone wants her dead in the first place. Lots of nice twists and turns. Good beach read for sure.

The Extraordinary Education of Nicholas Benedict – Have been waiting for another Benedict Society book! This one takes us back to when Benedict was a kid himself, moving into yet another orphanage. Lots of references to things we’ve learned about him in the first three books. He has a bit of a Sherlock Holmes bent to him – observing, processing and concluding far faster than the rest of us. Not to mention, a bit of that Aspberger’s that I swear Holmes shows. In this case, though, I think Benedict is just lacking in time with people rather than any real inability to relate to people. But that’s part of his growth story here as he tries to find the treasure supposedly hidden at the orphanage with the help of his first two friends ever.

Started and gave up:
Pirates of Savannah: The Hunt for Shamus’s Booty – Kids book that I couldn’t handle past the first few pages. Reads like I wrote it. And I don’t do fiction well.
Parallel Worlds – Not even available anymore. Odd. But probably just as well. Got through the first couple of chapters, at which point she had pretty much left the actual story for a bunch of pseudo-science about the concept of parallel worlds and multiples lives and gaaa. The first chapter had promise, but if you don’t stick with your characters and tell their story, it starts to deflate.

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Guess crappy weather in the past few years was the final straw and they’ve just given up.

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