Wednesday - More Work on the Paisley Collection

I think that the time difference caught up with me today. Of course Santi and I going to bed at 3 this morning probably didn't help, but I got up at 7, saw what time it was and decided that wasn't working for me today and I went back to bed. I finally got back up at 11:30 this morning. Of course Santi was up at 7 and stayed up, but she had work to do. It was enough work for me to keep my eyes open!

Santi is still working on the paisley collection and they are coming along. She has to do some color sorting on 3 designs and then I think there is one more to finish. She started it a while ago and then for some reason moved on to another one and left this one unfinished. It's just awesome to watch her work. She is so meticulous about her work. She doesn't like jump stitches and that is one thing I love about her work. You'll only find them where there is absolutely no way to hide them. How she keeps up with where she is and what she's doing is beyond me. I asked her about it last night as she was color sorting one of the designs and she said that it used to be harder for her but the more she does it the easier it gets. That doesn't mean she doesn't use use that UNDO button LOL. Anyone who works with embroidery software knows that UNDO and his cousin REDO are your 2 favorite tools!

One of the biggest problems I have is that I never know when she's talking to me and when she's talking to her computer! I told her that she has to let me know when she's talking to me otherwise she may think I'm ignoring her. Then there are the times when I'm convinced she's talking to me and she isn't!

Liese came by this afternoon for a few minutes. She looks wonderful but a little tired. She's chasing after 2 kids and that would make anyone tired. The 3rd, a boy, is due in February and right now they haven't come up with a name. It took them a while to come up with Declan's name but Liese said that Zoe came easy. Liese is looking for a name that will be the same in English as it is in Afrikaans. I never even thought that a name might change but after she went through a few they had discussed it made more sense to me. I suppose since I only speak one language it's just something that I don't think about. Liese said if this were a girl they wouldn't have any problems coming up with a name but the boy name is proving more difficult. Apparently Declan didn't have a name until just before he was born.

Stephan came by last night for a bit and he and Peter visited in the living room while Santi and I stayed in the office working on her designs. It was good to see him again! I met him the last time I was here and I was so happy when he and Cara decided to get married. They make a good team I think. I know that when Cara comes home on the 8th of November, Stefan is going to be very happy. Santi makes dinner for him about once a week to make sure he gets a home cooked meal LOL.

Tonight she is working on some ox tails. I keep telling her just to cook it and I'll eat what's put in front of me, just don't tell me what it is! It's not that I'm a picky eater but I don't know how brave I am at times. My mother had her list of things she made, and she was a very good cook, but she didn't do a lot of experimentation when I was growing up. Now, E.K. (one of our moderators) said she loves ox tails and she uses it in her home made vegetable soup. Her family came from a farm so she eats a wider variety of foods than I do! Santi just laughed when I told her that E.K. eats ox tails in her soup. She thinks I'm a coward at times I know LOL.

Peter is Peter, charming as ever for those who have met him. He comes in from work in the evenings and makes sure that Santi and I have coffee or tea. He's very attentive. He's one who always makes you feel at home even if it's in the States when they travel! I think he really does enjoy the traveling and meeting everyone. He's quite a good salesman as well.

I saw Mari for a few minutes yesterday. She's doing good :) We are going to get together for lunch while I'm here. I see Mari more than I see Betsi when I'm here. I haven't seen Betsi yet. With Cara in the States Betsi is taking care of the office and doing a lot of Cara's chores. I think Betsi is going to be very happy to see Cara back too. Not everyone loves the admin type of work she does. Hatched has a large following here in South Africa and their customers often come to the office to make their purchases. How cool would that be? Just to walk into the office and see the girls? I haven't seen the new office just yet, Santi has been busy working and I'm the slave driver!

I don't know about Santi but I'm going to be in bed early tonight! I know her, she's going to work until these paisley designs are finished tonight. She's determined to get them up on the webpage tomorrow! It's a lot of work to get these designs ready to sell once they are finished. There are webpages to be built, files to be converted, images to create for the webpages. There is actually more work than I think most of us realize in getting a set of designs up. There are still more sets that are waiting for final testing so we can expect more goodies in the next few weeks!