Busy as a Bee

Well, I finished my first project for Agape Europe yesterday (yes, Saturday!!). A few weeks ago, I mentioned working on a brochure for an upcoming conference. Well, that was the initial plan, but our directors decided they wanted a really nice, sharp, magazine-like brochure that could be introduced at the upcoming ELF conference (the one in Mallorca, Spain that Thad is attending in a couple of weeks) and possibly be used as a PR piece for Agape Europe in the future...

Hello! Overwhelmed!! Not necessarily by the project itself, but rather by the fact that I wanted to do a good job and that I had no idea of what kind of time-frame something like this would take. Many of you may know that my "expertise" is in Interior Design, but that I have dabbled in Graphic Design just slightly (um, 'print' experience, let me think..2 tri-fold brochures done in Microsoft Publisher, umm, yup that's it!!).

Knowing that my job was going to include Graphic Design, I figured it would happen slowly. You know, do a little brochure here, another there, and eventually work my way up to something big. God had other plans.

Well, I dove in and prayed that I would not only 'survive' but also give our directors a nice, professional 'product.' The first morning (in my temporary office space...a whole other story), I sat before my computer screen and just stared.

My thoughts:
"I'm working on a Mac, which I have never really used before"
"Adobe InDesign, hmm, I wonder if this program is like AutoCad...nope, not really"
"Something professional, not flat. Illustrations that look sharp."
"Is it possible to just paint on the screen and have the design created through osmosis?"
"Is it time for coffee break yet?"
"Lord, I need you desperately, how am I going to do this? What if everyone hates it?"
and finally, "Lord, I said I would glorify you through my work, so please just show me what to do."

So, here I sit, the day after our "get it to the printshop" dead-line, hoping that I caught all of the mistakes, hoping that the Table of Contents really was correct, hoping that for some strange reason things didn't just slip out of place, hoping that all of the graphics print out sharply and not fuzzy, hoping the printer doesn't call and say "um, we have a problem," hoping that all of the directors will like it, and hoping that I really am glorifying the Lord through this.

This is just one of those times where I have to remind myself in every thought to just hand it over to the Lord. It's hard though because my brain can't stop thinking about it. So, as I mentioned in the previous post (just below this one), I forgot to email everyone about praying for Thad's travels...now you know the reason. I was forehead deep in design world.

Thank you for venturing with us. It's exciting to see the Lord's plans unfolding. Pray for me as I get back to learning German, that I can balance both the language and current design projects (I have two more).

Oh, and pray for a decision regarding the conference in Mallorca...there is a possibility that I may get to go!! When we showed (via the wonderful world of technology) the final draft to one of the directors, he asked if he would see me at the conference (he lives in The Netherlands). So, if there is room at the hotel, then I will get to go. Yeah!