So I decided to begin 2024 in a somewhat unorthodox way – right after the new year, Mike and I flew to Florida and set sail on the Odyssey of the Seas for an 8 night cruise to the Bahamas, Aruba and Curacao.  I AM sorry about the snow that fell right after we left – and very grateful to neighbors and family that assured us they would take care of us.

In the spirit of authenticity…I’ve made some big changes professionally in the past month, and while they were a long time in coming, they all came together very quickly that last week of December. 2023 was a challenging year in many ways, and I knew that I needed to make some changes.

 By last fall, I had made the decision that in order for my teaching and design business to flourish, I needed to reorder how my professional life was organized.  I referred a long time client to a local resource which will serve him better in the long term.

My brain was still racing (and I was still answering emails) in the airport on the way to the ship, so I did a brain dump into my phone, putting everything there that I was thinking about, the to dos, the blue sky ideas, the emails I needed to send. I hit save, and then turned my phone into airplane mode for 8 days.

That meant, effectively, no internet - at all. It was a weird feeling, and it did take some getting used to for about a day. And after that, I didn’t miss it at all.

I relaxed, enjoyed myself, enjoyed my husband, the ship, the amazing Massage that was a Christmas gift to me, watched a movie, great performances, the beach and the ocean breeze.

For 8 days, I didn’t quilt, think about quilting, doodle about quilting, or work on the handproject I brought. It was a hard break - that seems like it lasted so much longer than a week.

If inspiration is everywhere, here’s some I found along the way…