Win this bag! Today Only!

Today only, you have the opportunity to win a brand new custom designed MBE bag from Daylin Skye Designs. In fact you have two ways to win! 

1.) Share this email with your friends and then send me an email with the phrase, "I shared Daylin Skye with my friends!"

2.) Go to the Daylin Skye Designs Facebook page, (www.facebook.com/Daylin.Skye.Designs) click on "Share" and share the page with your friends. Then leave the comment, "I shared and want to win a bag!" 

The winner will be announced on the Daylin Skye Designs Blog on June 19th. 

Peace,

Amber

Daylin Skye Designs
daylinskye@yahoo.com
www.DaylinSkye.com

GRAND OPENING!! The new website and online store will be open on July 17th! Stay tuned for prizes and discounts. One lucky person will win a new DS Designs bag!

Always and forever

It is one of those days. Those that make you grateful for what you have, and remember with mixed emotions, those beautiful people who have passed from this life to the next.

It is Father's Day.

It was nice to see so many of my friends on Facebook take a moment to celebrate the Dads, husbands and brothers in their lives. As did I. However, I was one of a few friends who's post was to honor our Dads who have passed away.

The other night some family friends stopped by my place. We stood together looking at the wall of photos in my living room. Among the many photos hanging there are those with my Dad in them. They remarked that it was so difficult to grasp that he had passed away. To them he was still so present. As though at any moment he would be walking in the door having just returned from a ride on his Victory motorcycle. I told them my mom and I feel the same way. He's just out having coffee with my Uncle Tony, or he is off on a ride. We will soon get a text from him telling us when he will be home. I think that is why my mom and I never use the word gone when referring to my Dad's death. He is with us still. Maybe it is because he was so big in life that his memory has a way continuing to fill space.

I have to tell you, he is one of the most handsome men you've ever seen. He is one of those manly, rugged type of man's man. He is movie star handsome. A striking man who could stand shoulder to shoulder with the likes of Clint Eastwood and Tom Selleck. And my Dad was a people person. He enjoyed talking with people, and getting to know them. I'm not sure he ever met a stranger. People were drawn to my Dad. He had that charisma. When he walked in a room everyone knew he was there, but not for any reason other than he had a way of filling a room. A disarming smile and sparkling green eyes. And he had this scar above his left eye from going through the windshield of a corvette at the age of 17. The scar begins above his eye and curves up into his hairline. Somehow it just added to his good looks.

I was his only child. His Goog. A nickname I earned as a baby because my eyes were so big. And it was what he called me until he passed away. I have vivid memories of so many times and so many places when he would look and me and in a quiet low voice say, "I love you".

So it was no surprise today while I sat at the computer reading my friends posts about their fathers, that when I looked over to my right I heard those familiar words again from him.

I know Daddy, I love you too.

Two New Custom Bags

Nice work if you can get it!

As I mentioned in my Change! post, the challenge of pursuing my handbag designing full-time is a little daunting. A big help is you all have been so incredibly supportive and encouraging (especially my Burnham family peeps!!) of my following a new path. 


I knew my choice would require a much leaner lifestyle and I made my peace with that prior to resigning my job. (I won't say goodbye Nordies, I'll just say see ya soon!) Starbucks has been replaced with a cup of joe from Mom's Cafe/Doggie Daycare. My pretty girl Allie, (my car) now sits in the garage while I drive my Dad's little green jeep. And Mecca, (aka, The Home Goods Store) is now Saturday morning garage sale hopping with my mom. 


So it was a HUGE surprise to hear (through a very lovely friend) that a previous boss of mine had heard I no longer worked down in San Diego and wanted to talk to me about working for him again. I had worked for him right after I finished college. He and his wife design and build high-end custom homes. He has a side business as a glass blower, she as an artist, and he has a brand new company making and selling paddle boards. They needed someone in the office part-time to pay the bills, manage the fund accounts for the custom homes, take care of their rental properties and basically do whatever was needed to keep everything flowing. I would be able to set my own hours and days, come and go at my discretion and they understood my bags were my primary focus.


So I have a part-time job! 5 minutes from my house. (all back roads!) I work for a really cool couple. (Did I mention that the office is part of their amazing custom home?) And a little of the "pay-the-bills" pressure has been alleviated. 


Nice work if you can get it!

New!!

This bag is a custom order and is already sold

New!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Change. Like it? Can't stand it?

Ok, so I'm one of the weirdos that like change. I think I get bored easily, so for me change keeps my brain clicking. But I'm no different than most in that even though I embrace change, (bake a cake when I see it coming, as my dad used to say) it still can be one of those things that is a little scary.

And voila! X marks the spot. That is where I find myself.

Suffice it to say I haven't been happy in my 9-5 for over a year now. I adored my peeps (co-workers), but I disliked my two-hour commute. Even more, I was always worn out by the time I got home. Something about that hour to hour and 30 minutes (fingers crossed that there weren't any accidents to delay traffic even longer) trek home, was draining for me. Once home, I found I didn't want to do anything. Most nights I would plop myself down in front of the internet with dinner and then drag myself to bed only to start the whole thing over again at 4:30 the next morning. Over the past year I gained (eeek...) 35 lbs. Getting it off without any form of exercise was impossible. Ugh...I was so unhappy. And so after months of thought I resigned from my job. Yesterday was my last day.

Yesterday was such an emotional day for me. Even though I was doing what was right for me, it was still such a hard step to take. I'm not much of a crying type of person (my mom calls me hard-hearted-Hannah) but yesterday I definitely shed my share of tears. But after the waterworks ended, I realized I felt such a weight (not literal lbs. mind you, although that would have been welcome) lift off of me. It was finally done. Over. I felt, well, free.

Today, my internal clock woke me up at the usual time, but I stayed in bed till 5:30. I'm a total morning person and one of the major things I have missed about having to commute an hour to work, was that I didn't get to start my day off with a cup of coffee and a comfy chair at the local Panera. I had really missed that. So that is where I was a few minutes after 6 this morning. A cup of yummy Panera coffee, my iPad and me. It was so nice.

The task of making my bag designing a success is so daunting! Jeez, the pressure I feel inside is no fun. But, I want to see where it can go. I hope it is a huge success, but if it isn't, I'm ok with that too.