Birthday Musings

Here are my remaining two ATC's and the design for the back of the cards. I planned on posting these yesterday, but life interfered with my plans and before I knew it the day was over. Yesterday was my birthday! I celebrated with my husband at a nice steak place for dinner. We ate too much and were embarrassingly uncomfortable when we left with our doggie bags in hand. It was a great dinner, though! Perfect table by the window, not too much of a crowd. Very nice.

Birthdays are kind of like a mini-New Year's for me. I tend to evaluate where I am in my life, what goals I want to set, how I'm doing on the goals I set at the beginning of the year, etc. While I'm pretty pleased with the overall picture, there are many things I want to work on this coming year.

On the arts front, I want to pursue my art with more gusto; try new techniques, branch out and actually make more mixed media pieces. I want to improve on my photography skills and I want to take a drawing class! I'm still waiting for info on the drawing class at the university, and I hope to enroll in the fall.

In my home, I desperately need a decluttering marathon. Too much stuff tends to accumulate in our living room and study. We are both avid readers so there are literally piles of reading materials sprinkled throughout each room. I've got to get organized. It's driving me crazy working around all of this clutter!

And on the personal front, both my husband and I are sadly out of shape! Time has a way of sneaking up on you in this area. Over the last year we have both gained weight and become less active. I definitely need to re-establish my fitness routine. I can tell when I'm slacking because the fatigue knocks me flat. So, these are just a few of the things I was evaluating yesterday. Many goals have been set and now the real work begins.

By the way, I added a few new websites to my Challenge Yourself sidebar. That's one of the ways I hope to create more art. These are websites that offer weekly challenges to create art based on the theme for that week. You post your work to your blog, then link back to that particular website to share it with all of the other participants. I definitely need some gentle prodding to get results. Hopefully this will help.

I'm working on a canvas right now. This is total experimentation on my part. If I'm brave enough, I'll post it when finished. Stay tuned...