five questions.

I've been finding a slew of online creativity classes lately, all of which I would like to take!

They all cost money though, and funding my newfound (or rather no-longer-dormant) creative juicing and exploits is not in my budget. August is always the leanest month of the year around here.

I did find one free online creativity class. There is one lesson per month. I didn't find it until last week, so this month's assignment is a bit short for me. The assignment was to ask myself five questions a day for the whole month. They could be any question I could think of. Here is a sample of one of my days:

Five Questions.

1. What was the first random thing that made you happy today?

my big, tasty bowl of instant oatmeal with raisins, dates, and walnuts

2. What was the first non-random thing that made you happy today?

thoughts of my husband and our first date and the goodness of the Lord who crossed our paths

3. What color combination are you liking right now?

pink and turquoise

4. What small thing do you wish you still had that you used to own?

my Polaroid camera

5. If you gave a recital tomorrow, what are five pieces that you would sing?

Ach Ich Fuhl's, Donde Lieta Usci, Caro Nome, Depuis le Jour, Chi bel sogno di Doretta

This has been a fun assignment.

gifts and surprises.

So, in the last month I've won five giveaways. I'm pretty psyched. I've won some skincare which I've been using every day. Even though it is a drugstore brand, it feels really luxurious. It came with a serum and cream, and while it's not philosophy or anything (my favorite brand), it certainly does an excellent job for what it is!

I've also won a couple of other small gifts, including this delightful custom memento set that I can't wait to get in the mail. Last but certainly not least, I won a $100 Visa gift card!

And now I've entered a $500 Wal-mart gift card giveaway. Pretty sweet prize...that's a lot of diapers! Here is a link for entering the contest, which ends September 9: http://bit.ly/1Y3LfR

I love this winning trend.

tgif.

We've had a very good week, but I am still glad the weekend is here so that we can just chill for a day or two. I have had so many creative ideas swirling through my head this week it is quite overwhelming. I started doing a couple of small mind maps a couple of days ago, but of course got sidetracked with other things. Maybe I can finish them up this evening. Or maybe I can get the rest of the photos off of my camera and into iphoto. I don't know. I'll do one or the other.

Or maybe I'll sit and make yet another list of the projects I want to tackle in this sublime craft book that I've had for several months and have flipped through countless times already. There's just so much to do! So much to learn! So much NEW!

Since it has been so long since I've been posting lately, which means it has been even longer since I posted a nice little photo, I made sure to post one this time. Yep, it's my shoe. It was taken in the springtime. It's random, I know. But it's a cute shoe!

woo!

Well, after much time away, I am posting here again. Since my last post in January, my family and I have had the opportunity to fall in love with two more cities through my husband's work: Charlotte and Chicago. We spent four months in Charlotte, finishing up in March. Then about a month ago we were in Chicago for a week and a half. That was by no means enough time. I hadn't been to Chicago since I was maybe twelve years old, and even then it was to the South Side to visit relatives. Beloved memories, those are. But I had never seen the CITY. Never saw Lake Michigan. Or the skyscrapers. Or the Chicago river. Nothing like that. 

So we spent our amazing ten days in the HEART of the city. It was too awesome for words. I still have loads of pictures on my D40 that I have yet to download. Although my husband was working, it was still like a vacation for all of us. I am so glad we had the chance to go. About a month prior to our trip, my husband had to travel out to San Jose, California for a week and we could not go with him. I was so bummed. This trip totally made up for it.

So now, here we are, chilling at home, waiting for his next assignment. I'm in my third week of preschooling my three year-old (with my eighteen month-old joining in!), and it's the second week of school for my seventh-grader. We're one week away from being completely back in the swing of things schedule-wise, and the dog days of Summer are winding down. It's almost time for my favorite time of year: Autumn!

I've become quite the shutterbug since I got my D40 in December. That was one of the best birthday presents I've ever had! I'm still trying to organize my photos from the summer, but I plan to post here a lot more often about the things that have been inspiring me lately. That means I'll have photos to share as well!

Now it's time to fire up the grill and get dinner started.