Purple Haze - my other life

Lianne suggested this post -- so you all could see what life is like when I'm not teaching and parenting (and one of the reasons I've not been blogging this summer). For the last 12 years - early mornings (and I mean early), some late nights, and several days in the summer have been devoted to making Purple Pages -- the gotta-have-it-guide for raising kids in York Region -- a reality.

The guide was the brainchild of Allison, my friend since the first year of university. It came to her when she was a new mom, at home, away from her life as a social worker. The name, Purple Pages, came to her in a dream, and we are proud to say it's now a household word in these parts. We have just finished our 12th annual edition --30,000 copies will be printed in September -- to date, we've distributed nearly 350,000 copies. We've become a corporation -- Family Wise Communications Inc. -- we've got a website of sorts -- more just a homepage -- need to take this baby farther -- perhaps Mosey Along and her creative talents can help us in that area...hmmmmmm...there's an idea.

Purple Pages is the child Allison and I share -- we went into the whole mompreneur thing with little more than an idea -- no business or publishing experience -- I didn't even have the mom experience behind me when we first started. We joke and say, "Are we still going to be doing this when we are 50?" (which I'm sorry to say isn't that far away). Will this be my retirement project? Who knows?

So here's a little tour of where it happens at my end -- perhaps this will inspire Allison to blog about the PP process from her perspective.

It's important to create a good working environment - 

but it's also fun to shop for the purple accessories.

This is where it all happens -- here's a shot taken during a big day working on the mock up. I do the rough, cut and paste (literally), and then our graphic artist makes us look great in purple. That's our tag line -- "You'll look great in purple!"

A shot of one of the mock-up purple pages.

The wall of fame - Purple Pages, editions 1 thru 8.

I'm a bit behind on hanging the plaqued covers.

Here are the 9th, 10th,  and  11th editions.

This is Blanche our secretary - Allison surprized me by putting her in our PP mailbox at the UPS store --we had many times joked that the mailbox was our office -- so every office needs a secretary.  One day when I went to pick up the PP mail, there she was -- even wearing purple. That's our logo on the front of her desk. She's been a loyal employee. Do you like her hat?

Stay tuned for the cover of the 12th edition of Purple Pages.