I'm Baaaack!

So, did you miss me?

Great. Chirping crickets.

Well, it's my own fault - kinda - I guess. If I don't post, you have nothing to miss, right?  In my defense, the past 6-7 months have been a total rollercoaster in my personal life, but there is light at the end of the tunnel and finally, hopefully, I can move forward and things can start to get back to "normal" again, whatever that might be. Of course, I'm hoping said light isn't an oncoming train ... that would not be good. Two steps forward, one step back is still progress in the right direction, so for now, I'll take it.

So, what's new with me? DS is no longer in school - it's just not his "thing" right now - and an ultimatum was given: it's back to school or work. Work it is. After some persistence on his part (and some HR coaching from yours truly), he's found full-time work at McDonalds. When the call came for new employee orientation, he was so excited - like literally jumping up and down and hugging me and his Dad. He's worked a couple of days now, full 8-hour shifts. I've got to say, DH and I are getting a little bit of "I told you so" satisfaction when DS comes home from work and complains that he's tired and that his back hurts from standing all day. Ah. Welcome to what working is all about, son.

DH is enjoying the European soccer season, regular weekend television viewing in our house. He's also looking forward to baseball season and with DS, will likely try to catch a Tigers game or two if they come to town. The boys usually make a weekend of it, staying overnight and eating Lord knows what (truly, I don't want to know). This weekend we're hoping to get some time in the garden. Thanks to a lot of rain in recent weeks, the grass in the backyard has sprouted and needs to be cut ... and there's weeding to do. Of course, the 80+ degree weather from Monday has been replaced by 30-degree weather today ... really?!  Oh well, I don't mind gardening on cooler days. Not sure about plantings yet, especially since we were under a freeze warning last night.

Still scrapping (duh!!), but also taking some time out for other crafty endeavors. You see, I have this tapestry that my Mum purchased for me as a birthday gift, oh, I don't know, maybe six years ago? I've decided to pull it out of the closet and work on it for an hour or two, here and there. It's quite relaxing, actually. It's a very pretty canvas - a girl with butterflies. I'll have to post some pictures of the work in progress (nothing like a little accountability, right?).  Scrappy-wise, there's already buzz about iNSD - [inter]National Scrapbooking Day - first weekend in May ... mark your calendars!  I'll be doing a Speed Scrap over at Pixels and Company that weekend - and it will be during the day, not in the evening, so I'm hoping some of my fellow international scrappers will join me. I'm also trying to work through some of the classes at Scrapaneers that I didn't quite finish - so much fun and I'm learning a lot! Right now, I've got about four pages on the go for Crystal Livesay's Everyday Me class that I took last year (love that I have access to the class and can go back and see what modules I missed). Sort of wishing I had a SmartPhone with a good camera built in - that would make selfies a lot easier than dragging the dSLR out. But alas, I don't have a SmartPhone - Gasp! I know. Think DH would let me get one ... for scrapping? Yeah, probably not.

Speaking of Scrapaneers, there's some awesome new classes coming soon. Let's see a show of hands: How many of you know how to use the Pen Tool in Photoshop?  Um, yeah, not me - that tool sort of scares me. Next question: Do you have kids or family members that play sports, and you wish you could make posters to celebrate their achievements - you know, the ones that would have their team or individual photos, jersey number, etc.?  Okay, if you answered yes to either question, these might be of interest to you:

 

 

The beauty of both classes is that they're self-paced, so you can work on things in your own time. Kelly's class makes me wish DS played sports, but he's more of a pick-up-game kid, not an I-need-to-learn-the-rules-of-the-game kid.

 

Okay, I'd better get back to work as there are 401k reports and an Affirmative Action Plan that need my attention.  To close, how about a little eye-candy of some of my more recent scrapbook pages?  Adios!