Dawn Brocco's Life & Design Blog

The robins are out. A small flock of them were swarming the lawns today. I'd take it as a good sign for spring, if it weren't for the 12" of snow due tomorrow.

Designing
Well, what with the state of wholesale shop pattern orders these days (read: nil) and retail pattern sales these days (read: slim), all understandably, as we all still struggle through this mess called an economy, I'm being more proactive, and 2 opportunities have suddenly come my way.

I haven't actively submitted to magazines or books in ages - I just couldn't do both submissions and self-publishing while dealing with life, Cancer and this long, drawn-out torture called house-selling. But I've been approached by 2 nice ladies to submit designs, one for a book and the other for a magazine.

Hence that mad rush I was under the past few days.

Today I'm taking a break, while cogitating upon the last submission, and continuing with another pair of Viking socks - same Sirri yarn. It softens a little with washing. But softness is not what I'm after. Warmth is what I'm after and they are warm. And light. Surprisingly light, considering this is a dense, non-stretchy yarn.

Simple socks are ideal for pondering and fretting. We're gonna ponder and fret anyways, might as well have a pair of socks to show for it, no?

The next 4 months will be a whirlwind - 5 birthdays coming up - 4 of which are big 0 birthdays, 30, 50, 50, and 70. There's also 2, 20 birthdays.

Then there's son's PhD graduation I gotta hope my bod can be well enough to fly to, in CA.

Then a trip to the Columbus TNNA show for a day or so - AKD business to tend to (I'm a board member) and I'd love to finally see faces to go with names, after 13 years of being in the biz. It's also good for business to meet others in the industry

So, these socks will fly off my ndls whilst I cogitate, ruminate, and speculate how I'm gonna manage all this. I wonder if 1 pair of socks will be enough.

The rest of this post has been pre-empted due to a change in topic.

I hereby sing my praises for Ronald Coleman, Myrna Loy, Melvyn Douglas, Greta Garbo, Jean Arthur and all those fabulous 30's and 40's actors. In those wonderful sets and wardrobes.

Hubby may laugh at my choice of films. May? He laughs all the time. And groans. Big, Deep Groans.

He knows very well I like my share of modern films. But there's something about those old black and whites. A crappy day can turn on a dime, and a good day can be made even better, after 90 minutes of a 70-year old movie.

They're like little magic happy pills. On celluloid.