I Don't Remember Drowning...

I don't remember feeling this over my head the first time I was a full-time college student!  I'm thankful that my ever watchful lifeguard, Andy was on duty yesterday as I was close to tears trying to keep my head above the water.
 I don't think I ever embraced studying then.  I was always working and trying to stay afloat financially.  Maybe I have just wiped it out of my memory but I don't actually remember doing homework.  By the time I was a junior, I adeptly managed for my assignments do double duty.  Either I tutored someone on the literature that we were reading or I wrote articles that I got paid for AND could turn in as writing assignments.  I don't remember studying for anything.  Either I got it or I didn't and more often than not, I got it.

I have five classes I am taking.  Yes, I realize that is a lot of classes!  Yesterday as I was making sure I had everything done for my classes today, I fully realized that five  classes -- 15 credit hours -- was a lot.  My almost-ready-for-AARP brain doesn't absorb so much.  I am more like oil cloth then I am cotton.

Time management is critical for me at this junction.  I can no longer meander through the days, especially when I start to work (which I expect to start something in September), and do the home work and reading and thinking when I feel the motivation.  Motivation will now have to live on a time table, most likely between 6pm and 11pm.

Maybe by week four, I'll have mastered the art of swimming, on a time-table, and someone will give me a cotton towel.

Art Ninja

So last night began my formal training as an art ninja.  It was like I was in a trance for three hours!  When Robert our instructor called for a 15 minute break in the middle of our class I was disappointed but knew my butt and back needed me to walk around.  You see, on the very first night, we were instructed that when we go to the classroom we are to get an art bench down from storage and face the big dry erase board.  Also part of our supply list was a drawing board and a giant 18" x 24" sketch pad.  The drawing bench is made so that there is a groove where you place your drawing board and then you straddle the end of the wooden, no padding anywhere, bench.  Of course, with my fibro,  it was just a matter of minutes that my butt felt like I was grinding my bones and my lower back was sore.

But I didn't care!!! I was in an art ninja trance trying to control my muscles in my arm so the perfect line I was thinking about in my head flowed out of my pencil.  I have a ways to go before everything is working with that art ninja efficiency. 

Now, those of you who know me know that I can hardly draw a straight line when I have a ruler!  Although, my lines were never perfect, I felt like with practice I could get it.  The class progressed into perfect circles.  Mine tended to look like rounded corner squarish things at first.  But again I felt like I could get this if I tuned my art ninja skills.

Then we got into our first homework assignment.  We need to draw a variation table with six rows each with eight swatches from darkest to lightest that are two inches by two inches.  The first row is a variation of shading.  The second row is crosshatching. The third row is overlapping circles...any way you get the point.  We have a week to get this accomplished.  I'll post a picture when I'm done...I'm intrigued and scared to death of this assignment.  Will the prof take one look at mine and know I'm not an art ninja?  Stay tuned...

Where have I gone?

Dear Crafters of Creativity-

I have been an absentee blogger for July and much of August and my sincere apologies to you.  July was a whirlwind month of travel -- both work and personal,  preparation for the Stampin' Up! convention in Salt Lake City, and preparing for going back to college.  Today is the big day and my first day of classes.  I am nervous.


Why am I nervous?  Well there are a plethora of reasons.  One, do I have the stamina to go back to school, excel in my "day" job at SAP, develop my Stampin' Up! business and maintain some kind of home life too? With my fibromyalgia, I sure am cutting off a lot to chew.  But I have an energy lately that is helping me push through and I am confident I will be successful at my foray back to higher learning!

Secondly, I am nervous because I am pursuing my degree in Art Education.  This means that I need to develop some classic skills in drawing, 2-D and 3-D Design, color theory as well as develop skills in a specialty.  I am not officially accepted into the program until I turn in a portfolio. This will mostly be made up of the work in my first two art classes -- 2-D Design and Color Theory and Drawing 1 -- plus additional pieces that I have created on my own. That date to turn in is April 11th so be prepared to have me stress out as that date approaches!

Thirdly, I am nervous because I have a husband, five dogs, a house, friends, a business, a full-time job (that pays the bills and needs to continue to pay the bills!!) that all need attention.  The pressure is tremendous to make sure everyone and everything is taken care of while I'm trying to finish my degree. How am I going to do it all?

Well, like my Crafty Girl Project, I guess I take it one day at a time!

Stay tuned for tomorrow's post on some of the really cute swaps I got at Convention!!!

Oh - and anyone from Book Club -- make sure get the book for September and start now!