This past week has been an extremely busy one. I seem to have turned into somewhat of a social butterfly and have been out to lunch or dinner several times in the last week. It's making it pretty tough for me to stay on my diet but I guess that's to be expected.

Today I'm celebrating a birthday - yes I hate to admit it but I am actually 39 - yet again! I was out to dinner with some girlfriends Saturday and tonight I'm off to the Keg with DD and two other couples and then back to our house for birthday cake. Let's face it one "must" have birthday cake on one's birthday.

On the art front, I have been working on Christmas designs for the store. I've also managed to make a couple of 4 x 4 cards for a monthly swap. I don't know why these 4 x 4 beauties appeal to me so much but they do. I just love them!

I'm finally starting to feel more energetic - thank goodness for that!

Here's a little peak at 2 of my new designs.

Traditionally the store has an open house at the end of October. Another one is then held at the other location a week or so later. The gentleman who owns the store likes to have the product in at least a week prior to the Open House so he can price everything and work out his layout etc. So this week I'm working on a couple of more samples for him to approve. I have some popular designs from last year still in stock but I like to try to give him lots of new stuff each year.

I have a pretty good sense of what he likes. He always views them before I make them up and 99 % of the time he gives me the ok to make them up. I'm just about to send these 2 off to him so keep your fingers crossed!

It's the end of summer, the beginning of the season of harvest and only about 15 weeks til Christmas. Where does the time go?

I'm finally starting to come out of my lethargy of the last 6 months. I'm feeling more energized, more focused and more creative. I've let many of my artistic pursuits and interests fall by the wayside. Hopefully, I've turned a corner and will be re-energized artistically.

I am presently focusing on creating some new Christmas designs for the store and have also promised myself that I will create some new wedding designs. I have a couple of art journal pages which have been percolating in my brain for the last several days - I think I'm ready to commit them to paper.