Deadlines all around me.

The week started with a deadline -- our current project was looking even more daunting than I had pessimistically anticipated. The full project requires the digitization of 5 maps, 8 photographs, and approximately 1375 pages of text which includes a handwritten diary and several handwritten manuscripts.

In the midst of this I was handed another deadline (basically "We need this yesterday!!") and as I gathered the data, I found that one of the archival scans had been corrupted -- and the backup had been scrubbed from my desktop some time ago -- so I had to re-do the work, putting back my ability to deliver by another day.

Outside of work there were two more deadlines looming: the need to write a review this week for the Brother printer we've had on loan to test for the last two months and the need to submit an application for PlushYou 2008, the deadline for which had been extended to January 20th.

Everything started to come together late Thursday -- by 4:00 I had shipped off the critical data and that evening I wrote my printer review (Hubby wrote his review today).

By Friday afternoon I was feeling pretty good about it all -- I assessed what we had accomplished at work and I think we are at least half done the basic scanning! We have completed one map, two books (over 300 pages together), the diary (600 pages) and one manuscript. In the midst of it all, I have markedly improved my scanning and photography skills and probably tripled my Photoshop™ knowledge.

Today, though, that was the icing on the cake. Before I applied for PlushYou, I had wanted to have a dedicated Creative Miscellany site in place. Luckily, a few weeks ago we picked up some 99 cent .info domain names, including two to be dedicated to my crafting. Last night, Hubby suggested a quick way to do a splash page using Fireworks image slicing, and I was off. I whipped up the front page last night and a bio page today: http://www.creativemiscellany.info.

With the website in place, I selected my favourite photos for the application and sent it along. I hope to hear back in the next month or so!

If I can keep up the level of productivity I've averaged this month all year without losing my mind, 2008 is going to be a Very Good Year.