The Big Reveal!

Some of you may remember last January when I - nervously and excitably - announced I had signed on as an indie designer on a special project.  But I couldn't talk about it. And boy did it kill me not to be able to talk about it because I was pretty stoked! Because the people I was working with were - well - kind of a big deal. But I signed a confidentiality agreement and I honored that. 

Today I chatted with the creators of the project and they said "please let people know about your beautiful work!! We couldn't have made it all so great without your talents." 

So humbly - and with gratitude - here's the scoop:

Have you ever heard of a little thing called Baby Einstein? The creator - and creative mind behind Baby Einstein - (I discovered) lives in Aurora.  Just a few miles from me. And 10 years ago sold Baby Einstein to the Disney corporation for $40 million dollars.

Yeah, them. That's who I was working with.

You may wonder - why me? I sure did. Here's the story...

Last December we did something unconventional for Christmas and took a three day trip to Las Vegas. Upon returning as our plane was taxiing to the terminal I turned on my phone to check messages and emails - you know, like you do. The first email (thru Etsy) was from Julie Clark - who at the time was unknown to me. She said simply, "Hi Cindi - I'm the founder of Baby Einstein... I saw your products on display at the airport and am interested in talking with you about designing some puppets for a new project I'm working on... Please drop me an email if you're interested in talking."

I looked at The Mister and we discussed - not having a clue at the time what the project was and omg - how huge this would end up being. Of course the first thing I said was, "Puppets - I've never made a puppet before..."  The Mister said,"Just talk to her."

Once home of course the research began immediately. I viewed Baby Einstein videos and man - they were cute.

Long story short, I met with Julie and her husband Bill and bingo, bango - I'm hired. With absolutely no puppet-making experience. I was nervous, excited and so thrilled to have been chosen.

That all quickly dissolved into panic. Because they were very specific about what they wanted (which is good!). I would be working off an artist's drawings and create 8 different characters. I could use the same basic pattern for each, but each would have very detailed features to make them unique. The characters were all chickens but based on famous people in art, literature and music (there would eventually be a cultural teaching component). 

The fabric - which no one could recall the name of or what it was composed of - was very specific as well. It was pliable but firm. And then there was the time frame  I had six weeks in which to do this. (Luckily that was extended by another 3 weeks or so - but still tight deadlines.)

We finally determined that the fabric was vellux. And very difficult to find. So I bought several king-sized off white vellux blankets and went to work hand-dying the fabric for the various colors I would need for each puppet.

One thing I forgot... I had 8 original designs to make - but also needed to make 2 back-up identical puppets for each character for a total of 24 puppets. Lesson learned - dye enough fabric for the back-ups. Oops.  And don't hand over the original 8 before you match the color dye lots. I dyed A LOT of fabric to make everything match. Whew. Probably the most challenging part of the project...

Once the original 8 were complete, I sat in on a filming session with the puppets. Because you see -- an iPad app was in the works. And it was a brilliant idea! But my work was not finished. Working with the puppeteer we discovered I needed to tweak a few things internally on the puppets to make his job a little easier. He and his assistant and I put our heads together and I went back to the studio to tweak.

A few days later we met again and yay - problem solved. Hugs all around and I'm off to make the back-ups.

So what did they look like?  Meet the puppets of Puppet Play - an adorable iPad App that will entertain kids and adults alike. Remember they are all birds and have clever names playing on the real names (Julie and her family are responsible for the names).  

Bantam of the Opera

Emily Chickenson

Charles Darwing

Jane Austen

Leonardo deFinci

Ludwig Von Beekhoven

Marco Pollo

Sir Isaac Hooten

And here is the whole crew.

Well, almost the whole crew.

This is the back-up crew.

The Originals were filming. 

So get thee to iTunes and download to see them in action!  The App is FREE for a limited time only!

It was one of the most fascinating experiences of my life.  It was challenging, invigorating, fun, scary, nerve-wracking... but in the end so rewarding! I loved working with Julie and Bill and Mark and I learned SO much. I stretched my abilities in ways I never, ever thought I could. I worked extremely long hours and faced one surprise after another but - wow - I am so glad they took a chance on me. I'll never forget it.

And now I'm off to buy an early birthday present - a mini iPad so I can see my "kids" in action!  ha!

A Journey of a Thousand Miles. Or a Thousand Pounds.

I read an article recently about finding stress relief in your comfort zone. What does that mean you may ask? The author suggested reaching back into your childhood to the things that brought you comfort and revisiting them.  This may not apply to everyone, but there usually is a thread there ~ some bread crumbs you can follow. For some people it's movies, maybe a particular genre like comedy.  Maybe it's baking for you. For others it's skiing as fast as they can down a snowy slope. Some lose themselves in books.

And yet others wander. And all who wander are not lost. Sometimes they find themselves.

Sometimes in their own backyard.

The article got me thinking ~ and I guess I'm one who finds solace and comfort in nature. I know that since I have carved out time to resume my morning walks I can't imagine not walking every morning now. So I followed the breadcrumbs. 

It may sound odd, but I don't really remember a lot of my childhood. Yes, it was that uneventful. But I did find a crumb or two and remembered that with my older siblings 11, 9 and 7 years older than I and my little sister still a baby, I spent a lot of time alone. And I do remember walking the fields of the farm and finding little secret paths; riding my bicycle on dusty gravel roads exploring. In looking back I guess it was a little lonely but at the time it was all I knew. One thing for sure ~ it sparked my imagination.

So I guess finding myself as an adult in nature is natural. And nature still inspires me. 

And this little guy seemed to want to be my guide today.

He paced from one side of the path to the other

as if he was expecting someone (me?) ~ or worried

about something (me?).  

Bless his little heart. Y

I practiced my "catching birds in flight" skills.

Or non-skills...

And not unlike a snake in the grass (which is what I thought when I heard rustling in the weeds next to me)

A very clever pheasant in the grass evaded my lens.  Crafty bugger.

 But the shot that really got away

was when I pulled my Jeep into the park entrance 

and saw this little one eating a yucca blossom.

Ack. Adorable.

But of course there was no place to pull over

and there were antsy drivers behind me.

Damn.

So I came home to my morning smoothie

Strawberries, bananas, peaches...

with a little vanilla bean yogurt...

with a little almond milk.

So now ~ to explain the whole "journey of a thousand miles or pounds" thing...

Part of it is a metaphor for the miles I started walking when I was 5 or 6 up to the mile I walked in the park this morning.

And where will the path lead in the future?

And maybe it's not a thousand pounds. It's not even a hundred pounds. But it is more poundage than I'm going public with at this point. But the weight loss path is mine once more. Yay! 

My first test was resisting the Mister's mashed potatoes last night. If I were to list my all time favorite foods pizza and mashed potatoes would pretty much be tied for #1. Thus making them the most difficult for me to resist.

But resist I did!!

And although I can't really remember the last time 

I stepped on the scale (it was within the last week)

I've lost 2 lbs. 

And find myself in a new (lower) digit.

So yay me.

And as if Mister Potato Head and his mashies last night were not torture enough ~ he goes off to a client's all day leaving me with leftover mashed potatoes taunting me in the fridge.

I will resist!  Because 2 lbs. is 2 lbs.  And every journey starts with that one little step. 

Counting My Blessings

There I feel better now.  Got that out there - shook my fist and stomped my feet, swore like a sailor and today is looking a bit better.  

And compared to this tragedy -- pffft ~ I have no problems.

For the folks of Oklahoma ~

And for the rest of us (especially me) ~

I'll Make My Own Damn Spring.

Tired of me whining about the weather?  Me, too.

But when I woke up to this - again - on May 1

I was happy I keep flowers around me 

and I did a little Lensbaby Original action with them early this morning

And on this snowy day I've got a little extra warmth in the studio.  Boda Buddy is spending the day in here with me.  (It was time to come out of the closet.)

Oh, Lordie... It's All About the Food

I married into a family of foodies.  I mean people who really love food. Who get super excited over food. Who can spend hours - I mean hours - in a grocery store. I once stopped with my sweet mother-in-law at King Soopers to pick up cheese - just cheese.  Two hours later we're in line and she says, "Oh honey, I forgot the cheese!"  

Put them in some place like the fancy dancy King Soopers on Leetsdale in Denver and they can spend a day there.  I'm not kidding.  Take them to a Farmer's Market and you would be wise to bring along your Kindle because it'll be a loooong day.  Give them a menu in a restaurant and they will pour over every item and "oooo" and "aaaaahhhh" for what seems an eternity.

Don't get me wrong ~ I love them all. Food ~ and preparing meals ~ has always just kind of been one more thing I have to do. Sometimes I enjoy cooking; but more often than not, it's just one more thing to do at the end of a busy day.

Time together with these foodies I love - whether it be a celebration, a serious conversation or an impulsive, spontaneous get together - always centers around food. Whether it be breakfast

or lunch (the favorite time to meet)

or dinner (if we can stay up that late)

A birthday requires cake

or perhaps something a bit healthier

So when the mister became friends with a new-to-Denver, extremely talented caterer, Katie, who makes delicious meals and the her equally talented artist husband, Chris, delivers them right to your door ~ well, he was over the moon excited to give it a try. I was intrigued but having grown up in a household where you do everything for yourself, it seemed like a luxury I didn't quite deserve. But busy as we are (and I would not have had a moment's hesitation a couple of months ago when an Indie Design/Production project had me working 16 hours days!) I consented to give the idea a try.

One of our first meals was a pasta dish (the pic doesn't do it justice but I was in a hurry to dig in) that had me going back for seconds and I had to stop myself from thirds...

Besides the delicious food the other thing I love about The Spicy Radish is all your meals are delivered in Be Green containers ~ every bit of the packaging is recyclable.  YES!  My kind of people! No Styrofoam here thank you very much!

The chicken burgers with dill, roasted red peppers and feta with a caper aioli sauce and roasted sweet potato fries on the side were unbelievably yummy.

And then we have things like the beet, orange and feta salad and spicy garlicky shrimp with orzo that I love but would never make for myself.

So, yeah... it took all of one week to say "Sold!" on the idea of The Spicy Radish making weekly deliveries to our home.

And we are noticing other great benefits to this wonderful home delivery ~ like did you know there is a light in the refrigerator?  And I have glass shelves! For once the fridge isn't full of all manner of leftovers we never eat and bits and drips of things we don't need. 

Which brings me to the other good thing ~ for the most part we are staying out of the grocery stores. Which eliminates all those impulsive food purchases that (a) we don't need and (b) we often don't even eat beyond the first couple of bites that tempted us to buy them in the first place.

And because we're not spending time and money in the grocery stores (other than quick trips for milk, bread and the essentials) we are saving some serious coin!

So this is a total win-win situation.  And I promise from now on I will be shooting the food properly with my real camera rather than my phone.  Because Katie's food deserves the best!