What I’m up to now

(This is a now page. It was Derek Sivers’ idea. He’s smart.)

Printing at my living room table. I've been slowing transforming my studio table into a daybed that I can convert into a printing table as-needed. Mostly so that when friends or family visit, they don't have to sleep on the floor. I got as far making the daybed with my light table safely stowed away inside and easily accessible when needed (genius) but then work got busy and I had to set the project aside for a bit.

In the meantime, I'm content printing in my living room when the need arises. Skye predictably drapes herself across the doorway to my studio so that I have to step over her every time I go to hang a freshly printed shirt. I think it's her way of feeling part of the fun whilst still getting in a good nap.

Printing a big restock for Spruce Moose. If you’ve ever stepped foot in Joel’s booth at the Market at Western Fair, you know he has an amazing eye and likes to changes things up on the regular. I love it when I get a message from him saying, “I want to try something new” because I know his order is going to be full of fun colours and styles we haven’t tried before. I’m hustling to print his order this weekend so you should see new things in his shop soon!

Getting ready for Sunfest. Now that I only have a day or two a week to focus on Me & C., I have to start prepping for summer festivals months in advance! I’m excited about Sunfest this year. I’ll have some new designs and some tees. I haven’t decided what to do about Skye yet. She’s advocating strongly for being a booth dog again.

Celebrating my birth. It’s my birthday this week and I’m celebrating with a few days off at a cottage with some dear friends. The weather is going to be gorgeous and you can bet that Skye and I will be spending a lot of time by the water. It’s going to be wonderful.

Choice-based training. Speaking of Skye, I’ve been learning a lot lately about choice-based dog training. I love it because it focuses on building trust and relationship with your dog by controlling the environment to support them to make “good choices” (i.e. the behaviours you're looking for) instead of trying to control and manage their behaviour. There are no commands. Instead, you create opportunities to reinforce good choices until eventually those choices become habit. Skye and I have been having so much fun with it. It’s incredible how much it’s deepened our relationship.

Learning about histamine. I have a bunch of minor but weird health things going on and I’m wondering if they might be symptoms of high levels of histamine in my body. I’m making some dietary changes to see if it helps. Stay tuned.