My first break was so wonderful I just HAD to write about it!  Fri. night Lainey took us out to celebrate my straight A completion of 1st quarter.  (I have set the bar pretty high!)  We were also celebrating a late birthday meal for Charlotte since she was way busy over her birthday week. 

We had the place to ourselves for an hour and a half, which is unheard of at the famous Glass Chimney.  This is happening a lot around here these days.

Then Sat. Lainey took me out and picked out a new drawing table from Prizm Art Store.  Wowee!!! Mom declares that it is out of desperation to have the kitchen island back (with winter coming on, that would be my main workspace!)

So this break was about getting my working area put together to accommodate my art classes.  It has been all set up for quilting for a couple of years, but I am selling as much of my fabric as I can get rid of to make room for this and I also got rid of some of the fabric shelving.  I even changed over the quilt cutting table to also house my new mat cutter. 

I LOVE getting things organized and making life more efficient so this was wonderful!

It was a GREAT week “off” and the topper was taking my niece, Samantha, and heading to Ohio over the weekend to see my newest niece, Kara.  One month after her birth, but oh how much fun just to hold her!!! And so much fun having my first road trip with 7 year old Samantha! Bonding time like crazy.

It was a great break!

On a personal level, my newest niece, Kara, was born on Labor Day (to my sister Mattie and husband Aaron Yeske located in south east Ohio) while I was down in Florida.  As of this writing I still have not seen her personally! That is driving me a bit nuts in between my efforts to complete finals and get set up for work study for next quarter.  So much to do, yet I really want to see that baby!

This is #18 and all but 3 are under the age of 7.  Can you imagine that?

Those of you who know me probably know that I am back in college and changing my career due to severe and life threatening allergies.  What you might not realize is that over the past 2 years I have been increasing in health and physical stability due to a wonderful medical doctor who practices a natural allergy elimination technique termed NAET! 

Being at college, symptoms have returned (fortunately, none life threatening), so I went in for a treatment today.  One thing they can do is test to see if you are allergic to something new in your environment (as long as you can bring it in.)

Sure enough… YES paste was one of the main culprits (used to matte nearly everything we do and it is on all the matted art posted on the walls at school.)  Somehow I kinda guessed that.  

The other thing I suspect is the perfumes that I sit in class with for 4 hours at a time.  Some students just load it on not realizing what it can do to people around them.  It is a hazard I have to deal with…at least it is not 8 hours a day 5 days a week.  Think maybe I could haul some of them in to Dr. Honan to be tested?  “Hey, Doc, I am bringing my whole class in!  Can you tell me if I am allergic to them?”

Oh…and after some online searching on forums, Yes Paste is not considered archival!!!  It yellows.  Ok… time to do some paste research!

The same week I started school, Charlotte decided to foster a rescue pup, so Toby (Tobiyas – Hebrew for the Lord is Good) joined us. 

He captured our hearts, so we have plans to keep him.

In addition to Toby, we also welcomed into the family another niece! Number 17 of my nieces and nephews, Abigail is a sweet little baby and I was so frustrated at not being able to get over to see her immediately.  Plus…I was not sure if I had the flu or just a messed up gall bladder.  I felt nauseous all week.  Come to find out, I think it was just stress, so I got to hold her briefly on Sunday. 

All around…it was one wild week with a lot of “new” happening!

This is my first personal blog…so please feel free to give me feedback, but be gentle. I am the sensitive, artistic type! Ok…so I am not really sensitive, but I will admit to not knowing what exactly I am doing.

Here is the initial intent:  to photo journal about my adventures at The Indianapolis Art Institute, with small diversions into other aspects of my life as they offer themselves.

I am writing 5 weeks of this in retrospect, but I will say that the weeks prior to and the first week of school had my nerves all over the map.  While I am not sure why (since I go into businesses and have stood in front of classrooms for years) for some reason I was a mess and it was rough.  After that first week, things began to settle down.

Classes this quarter looked to be pretty light.  It did not take me long to realize that “light” was a totally incorrect adjective!

1. Mon: Drawing and Perspective
2. Wed AM: Photography
3. Wed PM: Digital Imaging (Adobe Photoshop)
4. Thu: Fundamentals of Design