018|365 Downtime

Happy Sunday! I'm enjoying some downtime in my studio before I get some work done this afternoon. This quilt is a work-in-progress wall hanging that I am making for a friend. It is an unfinished project, aka UFO, and one of my goals for the year is to get rid of all the UFO's hanging around. They take up so much room and make me feel guilty. So I'm trying to finish one UFO, then start a new project, then another UFO, etc.

Later my time will turn to catching up on email and packing to go to DC for inaugural festivities before heading to Memphis for a client meeting. Definitely enjoying the peace of a Sunday at home.

017|365 Sigh of Relief

What a week. The holidays feel like they were months ago. I was in Tampa this week for client work and the photo is a shot of my schedule/timesheet. All I can say is that I'm glad that last week is done, but I'm a little nervous as the next three weeks will be this crazy, or worse.

I have to admit that I'm having a tough time staying on top of this 365 Project. I had really hoped to upload every day but it isn't working out that way. I'm going to stick with it though and try to do better.

016|365 Sun Rising

I had a lot to get done this morning before my meetings started. It was a crazy day with different meetings at 8, 9, 10, 11, 11:30, 12, 1, 2:30 and then a dash to the airport at 4. So, I really enjoyed this moment of peace on my balcony as the sun came up over the Copperhead Course at Innisbrook.

015|365 Dinner in the Wine Cellar

Today was the day of the optical industry leadership event where I spoke about digital media. It was a good day and there were many interesting topics discussed by all participants. After the event we convened at The Venue Restaraunt in/near Tampa for dinner.

I had eaten here several times before when in town for Transitions, but this time was special as we had a private room and were able to dine in their wine cellar. This was especially cool for me given I collect wine. Plus, I loved the monotony of the same bottle in the rack when taken close up.

The food was delicious. I especially loved the Caesar salad. They made a cup out of melted parmesan cheese that held the lettuce leaves together and had a balsalmic reduction drizzled on the plate. It was fab. And the company was great too. I sat with Connie, Pat and Scott from Transitions and two AOA board members. It was a lot of fun and I was happy to be there.

014|365 Stuck Inside

014|365 Stuck Inside, originally uploaded by erinbyrnenyc.

Today was supposed to be a little more fun. I was in Tampa to have some meetings with Connie and Paul and to speak at an optical industry leadership event about digital media. Wednesday was scheduled to be morning meetings, a brunch with representatives of three participating organizations, and then a round of golf on Innisbrook's famed Copperhead Course to build relationships amongst participants. Unfortunately I was way too busy to play golf so I decided to stay in and work. Connie gave it her best effort to get me to reconsider but I knew I had too much to do and I would have been on my blackberry the entire time.

I was in my suite working when all of a sudden I heard a little commotion outside. When I went onto my balcony to see what was going on, I saw Connie and her group on the green. They looked they were having a fun time, and I have to say I had a great afternoon in the quiet of my room, with a view of the beautiful Copperhead course.

In other news, we had a funny moment in the morning. Connie, Paul and I were getting together in his suite for a working meeting over breakfast so Connie picked me up so we could go over together. I got into her car and we started to leave and suddenly we found ourselves on the cart path. In her car. Interestingly the greenskeepers that were working on the course didn't try to stop us. But, we figured it out, make a K turn, and were on our way. No harm done.

011|365 Quilt

This is a baby quilt that I made for a friend at work who had a baby boy last year. It was inspired by Kaffee Fassett's work, and was the first time I did something completely freestyle. It was a lot of fun to work on and I am happy with the result. I hope Michele is too!

You can expect to see many quilts make appearances here. I love to sew - sometimes focusing on clothes for Maddie and other times on home decor, but mostly on quilts. People are sometimes surprised that I am a quilter given my other hobbies, but it is a hobby that I find very soothing and in pleasant contrast to the craziness of my job. It is also nice to have a creative outlet which helps me stay objective when managing creative projects for clients.

One of my resolutions for the year is to finish 24 quilts this year at a rate of 2 per month. That sounds like a lot considering I work at least 60 hours a week but I will finish some work-in-process projects while starting others from scratch. I think it is very manageable if I rotate - one new project and then one I finish. And, some will be wall hangings or crib quilts but others will be larger including a bed quilt for me.

I finished the quilt pictured last night, binding it while watching Sex and the City - The Movie and started a new one this morning while Maddie was working on her blog. Yes, Maddie has a blog at 9 years old. She started it yesterday on the topic of Club Penguin cheats. Pretty funny. She installed google analytics and is looking for traffic so give it a look...it will make her day.

010|365 Beautiful Morning

I love my house. Well, actually, the house is quite ordinary but it is on a beautiful piece of property with an awesome winter view. (The summer view isn't so bad either, but the leaves tend to block some of the mountains.) I took this picture sitting on the couch looking out the window with the Catskills in the distance. And then I had a pop-up visitor, Mittens the cat, who decided it was time to come in from the cold.

I laugh out loud every time I see Mittens pop up unexpectedly in the window. It is like a little kitty puppet show, and one of these days I think he'll bring a bunch of kitty-cat pals and perform for us. (It must be the exuberance of a day off and a great cup of coffee talking...)

Maddie just woke up, being the total night owl that she is, but is still looking a little sleepy. We were supposed to go visit my brother and his family in Pennsylvania today but the weather reports are predicting 7-10 inches of snow. Better to stay put, catch up on a few emails, and spend some time in the studio. Plus, Maddie has a project planned for later in that she is building a website about Club Penguin website cheats. If only I were so smart when I were 9. Or now. Either way, it is a beautiful morning and I'm happy to be home.

009|365 Nightfall

A view from my back deck as night falls and the moon rises, which led me to switch from the work week to the weekend. The week was long and it is safe to say that the vacation glow is gone. But, I'm determined to enjoy every weekend and I plan to do my best with this one.

008|365 Mindless

I love Project Runway. It is such a mindless pursuit with the contestants and their drama, which suited me just fine when I was watching reruns from DVR while working last night. I was pretty exhausted having gotten in at 3:00am and started working again at 8:00. To still be at it 13 hours later wasn't the plan, and Heidi Klum's band of sewing misfits definitely helped pass the time while my fingers did the talking on email.

This time last year I had never seen Project Runway. I had heard of it, of course, given that I don't live under a rock and all. It wasn't until I was in Alaska with Carmen in July that I saw my first episode, on as background noise while we were prepping to do frolick in the woods with bears. As soon as I got home I set the series up to record and have been addicted ever since.

The caption of this image also cracked me up as it says to "create a collection of 3 looks that incorporates 3 outdated trends." Look inside my closet lately? I try to get one look together that incorporates a minimum of 3 outdated trends on a daily basis!

On another note, I have to say that I am somewhat conflicted about this project. I have two goals that are not necessarily aligned. One is to improve my photography and the other is to tell my story of 2009 in pictures. This image was best for how I felt yesterday, mindless, but it certainly could not be referenced as "photography" by any stretch of the imagination. So, for now, the visual storytelling is winning over trying to take decent pictures. Yes, that is a disclaimer of sorts, isn't it.

007|365 Eastbound

I planned to take a photo from the air for Day 7 as the flight home was beautiful. I usually grab an aisle seat, but since I was traveling with Lynn I took the window. We had great views of the Grand Canyon and also the Rocky Mountains. Funny though that this image is the one that caught my eye. Clouds and sky. It was peaceful. And it had been an exhausting two days so this image captured my mood perfectly. Ended up landing at LGA just after midnight and walking in my door at 3am. The only thing more comfortable than how these clouds looked was my pillow.

006|365 Burgess Merlot

I headed out to Palm Spring to deliver the keynote speech at the Essilor National Sales Meeting with Lynn. It was a whirlwind 48 hours - I left my house on Tuesday at 3:00am and walked back in the door at 3:00am on Thursday. Fun.

Seriously though, it was a great trip. We arrived without incident and went right into dress rehearsal. Of course there were tweaks to the deck and the production company just loved that! Not. After rehearsals Lynn and I went to dinner - enter Burgess.

I was stumped as to what my picture for the day was going to be. I had taken some safeties from the flight - you can see them here, or here, or here. But then we went to dinner and when I saw Burgess on the wine list it was a done deal. I had taken a trip to to Napa with a friend last spring and visited several wineries. When we were almost done we decided to visit one more winery that neither of us had ever heard of. We closed our eyes, pointed at the map, and ended up with Burgess. It was the best visit of the day - so much fun that I wrote about it on my work blog.

So, cheers to Burgess.