Yesterday I met with professional writer, Amanda Washburn (sp?), for help in organizing my thoughts on the website. So that I could write it. She accepted my disorganized thinking pleasantly, even smiling when I suggested that I couldn't be creative and organized at the same time.

I have been looking for help in more than one place. On Small Business Saturday I went into a used bookstore and for $1 purchased a hardcover copy of “The One-Minute Business Writer” by Bell & Wyse It's already made me feel better. Apparently what I have been doing for months and months is 'pre-writing'. It's comforting to know it has a name.

 My search continues on the web. On writer's block Maya Angelou writes “I may write for two weeks ‘the cat sat on the mat, that is that, not a rat.’ And it might be just the most boring and awful stuff. But I try.”

 Another perspective is offered by English author Neil Gaiman: “Put it aside for a few days, or longer, do other things, try not to think about it.” Personally this is my favorite.

Before she left, Amanda and I created an outline/task list. My pre-writing days are numbered. Either that or get used to 'Jill went up the hill, with Bill, who's a real pill”.

Our first snow storm this year has interrupted my Sunday morning routine. I have no internet connection, therefore I blog. I've been starting and stopping for months, ramblings. I am here now to inform and, hopefully, entertain. While I know much about grammar, I will inevitably put a comma where a semi colon really should be. For that I apologize ahead of time. I bring my flaws to this blog and I am not detail oriented. That's why the world has people like our office manager, Traci, and our production manager, Todd.

This first ever blog will concern our website, currently under construction. It has been for quite awhile. Slowly, ever so s..l..o..w..l..y it is coming together. A few months ago I started writing this blog with “We have been working on our website for several months. Missey and I have met with our web 'guy/hero' Kyle Schumaker. We've made lists, checked them 15 times, sat down to meet and decided that we don't know how to do this. I sort piles, rearrange them, read articles about web site design, look at zillions of websites and still – we only have a landing page and this blog (my fist ever!)”

The sad part is that we didn't have a landing page because we just weren't in love with it. I visited MANY websites and started seeing a pattern. When shared with Kyle, he said that some web designers get a template and use that for all of their clients. No, we couldn't do that. Mostly because Paper Image isn't a template kind of business – we're quirky and happy and just a little weird (in a good way).

A few days later Kyle presented the idea of circles, buttons if you will, and we got excited. Cool and different – just like us! Adding the vocal track was a risk. My son Travis, Paper Image's part time driver and bindery whiz kid, advised me not to do it. Kyle advised us not to do it. Missey, Todd and I looked at each other and decided that we wanted to anyway.

This leads to my last 'first blog' thought: feel free to share with us. Paper Image, in all it's fabulousness, would not exist without you, our friends. Cindy