Life moves fast when you've actually got things to do

So here’s what I’ve been working on lately:

In September I signed up for an online Photoshop course, since not knowing that program has stalled my career in every direction. And of course, once I signed up for it I promptly put it off and tried to forget all about it. The final exam is due the day after tomorrow and I still have 8 lessons to finish before then. Oops. My head is so full of layers and masks and brushes already, it’s mind boggling to realize how much is left in front of me. The first half of the course was pretty much just drudgery, but now I’m starting to actually be able to do some stuff, so now instead of being kept awake by abstract ideas of scrapbooking products I’d like to create, I’m being kept awake by actual designs I’d like to make. That’s progress already.

I also started tutoring the greatest little guy in reading. His internet name is Jack Gold (I had him start a blog to improve his writing and reading skills), and I think he’s super keen. It’s been so great for me because I love spending time with this awesome kid, and I feel like I’m actually accomplishing something with that education I worked so hard to acquire. I’m actually using all that studying I did on multiple intelligences and Erikson’s stages and reading comprehension and language acquisition. Go figure. His mom is a great lady and is full of a lot of the quirks I’m filled with, namely an emphasis on education so strong it shares import with breathing. I told her I’d do it for free since reading is one of my great passions in life, and it’s not exactly like I’ve got anything else occupying my time, but she insisted on paying me, so even though I intended to put all the money towards my fancy camera fund, I think I’m going to splurge on Christmas decorations again.

Which brings me to my next diversion. The holidays begin at my house with Halloween and don’t stop until Valentines Day. This is my absolutely favorite time of year, bar none. I’m wild about any holiday that includes decorating my house. Even though we’ve already been married for 6 years, we still consider ourselves newlyweds what with the no kids and the no career and the moving and moving and moving and the student loan debts, so we don’t have anywhere near the decorations that I want. I try to get a couple new things for Halloween every year after the season, and I try to make something each year too, but this year I completely ignored my Halloween plans and went straight to planning for Thanksgiving.

This is only the second year that we’ll be having Thanksgiving at our own place, and the first year we’ll actually be having guests, so I wanted to go BIG. For starters I must have table linens, so I went to Wal-Mart (I know they’re evil, but their fabric is so darn cheap!) and bought some orange vinyl and some brown and burgundy in a cotton/poly blend that comes off looking like a natural fiber because of the nubs that pop up in the weave. Anyway, I’m making the runner out of the vinyl, with brown and the burgundy on the ends, placemats out of brown with burgandy binding and orange vinyl leaves on the side, and napkins out of burgandy with brown binding. To finish it off I’m going to paint leaves on the vinyl with brown microbeads. In my head it looks outstanding. We’ll see how it turns out. I’m also making a centerpiece out of copper wire that’s going to be shaped like a tree.

Then: Christmas comes all too soon and in our house, that’s when we go hog wild. Bear grew up with the original Christmas elves and he wants to continue that tradition in our house, with which I am in total agreement. So I’m working on Christmas cards (of course. A professional scrapbooker MUST send out homemade Christmas cards! It’s a rule.). I also designed an AWESOME advent calendar made out of polymer clay. I have to brag on this one. It’s freaking cool. I got the idea years and years ago and I designed all the little figurines, but I came up against two problems: how to store them with cute little doors to open, and what to hang them on. So I figured out how to make an appropriate tree out of clay, but I was still in trouble with the complicated actual advent calendar part of the calendar.

Then: brain storm. A shadowbox. I’ve seen frames that were already sectioned off that you could store your golf ball or thimble collections in and assumed they’d be easy to find. Right? Hoo Boy was I wrong. A full 8 hour day of searching at every store in existence yielded nothing but exhaustion. Finally, out of desperation, I stopped at TJ Maxx. There I found a bamboo wood silverware drawer organizer and I heard the voice of McGyver, “You can do something with this….” So I snatched it up, took it home, cast some plaster into flat plates which I sent through my table saw to create the missing walls, painted them up to match and glued them in place with industrial adhesive. Wha la. Advent calendar. Now I just have to make the doors and it will be finished!

What’s the best about this advent calendar, is that it will fit in with one of my collections and that means we can put our meager Christmas funds somewhere else. Bear’s parents shower their house in dolls. Dolls that move, dolls that sing, nutcracker dolls, you name it. I’m not so much in favor of that since I think dolls are creepy. For me, I want to drench my house in Christmas Trees, advent calendars and nativities. And Bear wants a collection of Department 56 Dickens Village. So every year we try to add one new decoration to each of our collections, but with so many collections, you can imagine that can get a little rough. So now that we’ve already got this year’s advent calendar taken care of, I can put my tutoring money towards other things. Like this: target nativity