Merry Christmas

And Happy New Year to all.

The final was printed on Curious Metallics galvanised paper.

There's the Rub

For Christmas this year I decided to bottle my BBQ rub for family and some friends. I had the logo already so I needed to come up with a label design. I really liked the look of the white flaming Q on a black background. It has a classy, high end feel to it. I thought a high end BBQ look would be cool. Yeah, I know high end, classy and BBQ don't usually go in the same sentence, but why not?

I did some research about labels to get ideas and figure out the look I wanted and settled on one that I thought worked well. It speaks of a high end product you might find at a specialty store. I also searched for just the right bottle to put it in. I found a great spice bottle at World Market that would work well for this small run of rub.


You will notice that the usage of it has changed a bit from my original post about the Q logo. I think the way I have chosen to use it now will lend itself to more applications and easier to change for sauce and other items.

Operation Thanksgiving Turkey - Followup

Following up from Operation Thanksgiving Turkey. My friend Ken (who started the operation) received the below letter this week. It is from one of the 286 recipients of the turkey expressing his appreciation. The card he received was from my daughter (yes I am proud of her :-)).

December 3, 2009

Sometimes you don't feel particularly "needy:' But over time, things that uplift your soul tend to slip away.

With the children grown and scattered, holidays are one of those things.

Christmas decorating for the past ten years consists of digging the wreath out of the storage room and hanging it on the front door. All done!

Thanksgiving is even worse. Maybe we go out to a little nearby restaurant and have some turkey. Maybe not.

As my wife's vision deteriorates, she's made the painful decision to hang up her car keys. Cooking also has become a chore for her.

Bless her heart, she has borne up bravely as I try to teach myself to cook. But if I were the one married to me I'd divorce myself.

Lots of sandwiches. Cheerios sound good for supper tonight? Doggie bags from the restaurant will feed us for two days! When I cook, the smoke alarm indicates the meat is done.

Enter Angel Food.

I don't even remember where I heard of Angel Food, but October was our first Signature Box. We liked it so much, we ordered another for November and a Senior Meals to boot.

Saturday. November 21, I arrive to pick up, Naturally I go to the wrong table. The one I stop at is where you sign up for Thanksgiving Dinner ... delivered!

Mama didn't raise no dumb puppies! How much? Free? Sign me up!

Now here is where expectation departs from reality. What I envisioned was a plastic plate with some sliced turkey, a scoop of mashed potatoes, stuffing, maybe some green beans. Maybe even some cranberry sauce. Ready to pop into the microwave. I would have been happy and pleased. I know my wife would have been thrilled she didn't have to eat my cooking.

Late delivery OK - say eight or nine? Yes ma'am, that'll be fine. Wednesday night. A phone call. Were running late. No problem, I never go to bed before 1 a.m.

Todd and his son, Chris, arrived shortly before midnight. The guys have been out delivering all day! Talk about above and beyond the call of duty! But the gifts they were bearing drove out all logical thought. I was stunned! A whole turkey! Smoked yet! And all the fixins - corn, beans, stuffing, cranberry sauce and a whole pumpkin pie! I've never had a smoked turkey in my life! It was delicious!

In addition were two little presents. One was a New Testament. Always welcome. Always needed. Always ready to dispense inspiration and wisdom. Not too surprising, though - it's a Baptist Church after all!

The other present was a simple card. "Hope you have a great Thanksgiving. Remember Jesus loves you!" and signed Alyssa:' Below was a drawing of a little smiling turkey, saying "gobble!"

Tears fell unashamed from my eyes.

I could see clearly Alyssa and her friends sitting at a table making card after card for people they didn't know and would never meet.

This leads to a vision of hundreds of turkeys being prepared by your church family. Boxes and boxes of fixins being cheerfully parceled out. The thought staggers the imagination.

A church event. A family event. Young and old pitching in and working late to prepare a Thanksgiving feast for nameless and faceless people ... out there.

You have cast your cornbread stuffing upon the waters. And it has filled my grateful heart.

Alyssa, you and your friends at First Baptist Church of Fort Mill were my blessing this Thanksgiving.

May you and your church family receive God's blessings in abundance this Christmas season. And may your hearts be filled with the knowledge that your efforts have reached out and the hearts of others.

In deep appreciation,

Dan

Take time this Christmas season to help someone out. Give some change to the Salvation Army bell ringer. Send a card. It is amazing what a turkey, fixins and a card can do for someone and how much it can help out.

If you are on Facebook you can follow Catch a Fire for Q.

Thinking Different

I came across this image on FFFFOUND! today. FFFFOUND! is a site I like to go to when I need some inspiration or just need to look at the world in a different way. Some of the pictures are risque (so be warned), some are frighting, some are odd and many are just plain interesting.

When I saw the boat table I thought, "Now that's innovation." How often are we asked to create something with what we have on hand. We have to look at what we have and see it in a different way. Just like the guy riding the table boat. He had an obstacle (the water), a boat engine and a table. He solved his problem of crossing the water by looking at the table in a different way and using "Design Thinking."

Instead of being overwhelmed by a problem and thinking we can't do it because we don't have the resources, we should look at what we do have and find new uses for it.

Why should we let a little thing like water stop us from doing what we need too? Flip that table over, slap an engine on it and go full throttle.