Custom Portfolio Folder

I had been away from bindery for about a week due to family business, and just came back last week. Before I left, I laid out exactly what needed to be done in order to get to work as soon as I got back. But you see, that sort of seemingly practical planning doesn't normally work if you are away from work for a while. We often get clients who need their work done in a hurry, and sure enough, we had one client patiently waiting for us. He, Mr. Jeff James asked for a custom leather folder for his art portfolio which he needed within a matter of days. Generally, as you can imagine, rush orders make me really nervous because there's no time for any errors. This particular order made me really antsy because we happened to have only one large enough hide in stock that could be mottled the way he wanted, and, also, it involved a custom metal plate of his logo that had to be ordered from a third party, (which arrived yesterday afternoon, the day before the due date!!! Ouch!!) As usual for a job that strictly requires no mistakes, I had performed a mental exercise of mottling the hide for about an hour, created portions of special dye mixtures (some call me an alchemist! haha), and tested and re-tested the effects of the dye on scrap leather. The result turned out to be very beautiful which looked as if it were a Brother Grimms folklore story book, yet was a tad darker and "dramatic" than what Mr. James asked for... Boy, how nervous I was!, thinking that he might not accept it.. Well, he picked up my work earlier today, and I'm so relieved that he was pleased with the finished product, and more importantly I made the deadline! Whew! Have a great time at SCBWI Summer Conference, Mr. James!