We finished putting together the May/June issue today (# 117) at around 6pm. Dad and I are hanging around the office while we wait for the final magazine files to finish transfering to our printer in Ripon, Wisconsin. It takes about three hours to upload the whole thing, so we had dinner in town and are enjoying a little local brewski (Rogue Deadliest Ale — I think they should make us a DeadLINE Ale) while we wait.
I’m really happy with how the issue turned out, and I’m looking forward to catching up on my sleep. Next deadline will be even more exciting, because my husband should be home from Iraq. I can’t wait.
It’s here! The new issue! The issue with my cloth diaper article in it! (Excited? No. Why do you ask?) As I type, thousands of eager BHM subscribers are retrieving from their mail boxes the September/October issue of Backwoods Home Magazine. And the first thing they’re doing is flipping over to read all about cloth diapers. (Right?)
And so, as stated in the article, you can now download the full, multi-sized diaper pattern right here! Cool, huh? (The file will download as a PDF that you can print at home. Just match up the guides [1A to 1A, etc.], tape or glue the pieces together, and pick your size. Seam allowances are already included.) So far the instructions are only available in the magazine, but I know you’re a clever lot.
Now I hope you’ll bear with me for a couple of weeks while I make any needed adjustments to the download. I’m deep in the chaos of packing, and our moving party is Saturday, but if you have any trouble I will try to help you the first chance I get. I’ll be adding the download button as a permanent fixture to the sidebar soon, too.
I hope you enjoy! (And please note that this pattern is for personal use only. Please don’t make diapers from this pattern for sale.)
Deadline is over at last, and I’m particularly pleased with how well this issue came together. And I’m even more pleased that my cloth diaper article that I’ve been whining about telling you about for ages is finally going to print! Hooray! (And incidentally, it turns out that Ben and Jerry’s Cherry Garcia ice cream is even better than the best chocolate for getting through my writing fits… especially when it’s my very own pint hand delivered by my charming husband.)
So for all of you who have been sitting on the edge of your seats wondering, “When will she finally finish that dag nabbed article,” you can rest assured that it will hit your mail box in mid-August.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to do the happy dance with the kids… and wash diapers.
We are full on into packing mode, deadline mode, and getting ready for deployment mode. On the one hand I’m feeling a little bit insane, and on the other it’s a bit of a blessing–there’s no time to slow down and feel bad about the upcoming deployment.
The kids are taking all this excitement very well. Olga was a bit concerned that the storage unit was like a giant trash compactor, but now she understands that we’ll get all of our stuff back eventually, so she’s helping me sort through toys and blankets to pack. Gavin still lives in Oblivious Land, so as long as he can climb in and around, and drive his cars over the boxes, he doesn’t really care what else is going on.
I had so much fun at the MREA fair in Wisconsin! It was such a pleasure to meet all of you who came to the show despite the heat (Friday), wind and dust (Saturday), and rain (Sunday). And it was great to see so many good folks rockin’ the BHM t-shirt! I was practically hoarse from flapping my jaw by the close of the fair every evening. That’s kind of unusual for me, since I am normally the shy type, but I suppose the difference at the fair was that A) we had something in common to talk about, namely BHM, and B) the Central Waters micro-brewery tent was always open (and possibly not in that order–that is some mighty fine brew). As we descend into deadline again (in fewer than three weeks) it’s nice to know you think we’re doing a good job.
Deadline is over, we’ve all pretty much recovered from our colds, and the weather is beautiful (it has been in the 70s or low 80s for weeks). But instead of being outside as I ought to be, enjoying spring and my beautiful seedlings, I’ve been glued to my computer, writing.
Writing is hard. I’ve been trying for months (and months) to finish writing my cloth diaper article, but one thing or another always causes me to run away and seek the nearest source of chocolate (which, unfortunately, is almost never my cupboard). But I’ve been toughing it out for the past few days, and I feel like I’ve finally finally gotten into a rhythm. I’m not sure I’ve made a breakthrough, yet, but I’m getting there.
Truth be told, I’m a bit nervous about finishing the article and turning it loose on the world. Will it be any good? Will you like my pattern? Will I die of embarrassment when I discover a typo in print? It’s been years since I published an article in the magazine, and even though there have been many requests for me to start writing again, I worry that I won’t live up to expectations.
I’ll just keep working at it, anyway. With and awful lot more work, a fair amount of luck, a couple pounds of chocolate, and a hearty scoop of courage, I’ll make it into the next issue.
I finished up the last article tonight that will make it into the issue. The quality of articles is especially fantastic this time–I can’t wait to put some of these ideas into effect around here. If you’ve been on the fence about subscribing, this is definitely an issue you don’t want to miss!
Tomorrow I’ll start building ads, and hopefully get a chance to start tidying up around here. My office will soon become the guest room when Erik’s folks show up. I hope to be all done with deadline by then.
