Frustration, death and sadness -- Enjoy, Embroider and Create!

I learned a few lessons this week.  One is to know when to cry uncle.  I've been working on a Mardi Gras krewe logo for about a month.  I must have put in at least 40 hours on digitizing this logo.  My friend from Orlando was even helping me when she was here.  Alas, in utter frustration, I gave up yesterday and posted on one of my embroidery forums that I needed a quote for digitizing this logo.  Lots of digitizers contacted me but it turns out that it wasn't necessarily my inexperience that was the problem.  The lettering on the logo was the problem.  I contacted and was contacted by some top notch, award winning digitizers who explained to me that not everything can be digitized.  This logo probably would work okay on a full back but for a 3.5 inch, left chest area design, it won't work.  I did finally get a quote from another top notch digitizing company and was amazed at the low price.  They say they can do it with all three colors in the lettering.  I forwarded the quote onto the client and am waiting for a response.  I should have cried uncle much earlier and not wasted my time doing something that just didn't work for me. 

This digitizing experience taught me another lesson, too.  During my frustration, I contacted another forum for my digitizing software and several of those people contacted me teaching some new techniques with the software.  This was really cool. 

On top of all of that I learned that forums are very helpful and you can make some really good friends on a forum. 

One of our friend's father is dying.  Hospice is with him 24/7 now and he could go any minute.  It is so sad to watch someone die.  We did this with my mother.  Because of Hospice, we were able to keep Mama at home with us until she died.  The people at Hospice are very special people.  So many people are afraid of dying in a nursing home.  This way that fear is erradicated.  There is nothing easy about caring for a dying person, especially if it is someone you love.  But I have no regrets.  I know that we did everything to make Mama happy and comfortable until she took her last breath.  I'm not sure how I would feel if she had passed on in a nursing home.  Would I be feeling like I could have done something else? 

Today I found out that another friend is at death's door.  Baban's daughter, Diane, was my best friend.  Diane died from cancer in 2004.  She, too, had Hospice.  Now her mother, Baban, is getting ready to leave.  I have such fond memories of Baban.  She was the first to teach me that you can never use too much butter when you cook.

As George tells me, we have reached that time when life stops giving and begins taking.

Times like these puts things into perspective.  I love my family and friends and need to tell them more often that I love them.  There is nothing better to do when sadness appears than to embroider and create.  There's a time for everything, including sadness.  It's up to each of us to determine how long the sadness will last.  I refuse to let it take hold of me and cause depression.  There is no value in depression.  Happiness has tremendous value, and I choose to take that road.  I choose to rejoice in the wonderful lives these people lived and the blessings that I gained by knowing them. 

C'est tout, mes amis:>)