August Stuff

It does not do for me to get out of my routine.  I seem to have a harder time getting back into one. 

I have been off work while between jobs, but it has not felt like a vacation in any way.  The time was mostly spent getting the new computer equipment set up in my home office, getting paperwork in, going through pre-training, etc.  A big part of all this was getting my internet upgraded and getting a new modem installed.

Last Monday was my first day at the new job, and it was mostly online training for the first couple of days.  Wednesday was the first day of going right into the work system and going full speed ahead.  And it went pretty good until I suddenly lost internet.  The rest of the week was spent trying to figure out what happened.  Long story short, we think a storm on Wednesday somehow damaged my new modem, and another new modem was installed which seemed to fix the problem.  By then, it was late Friday and I had lost half of my first work week.  I'm sure I made such a good impression on the new employer :(

Other than the new job, life goes on.  I had made weekly calendars for August for my DLP 2016 planner at the end of July, but haven't done much else with the planner.

I pondered why my box of freezer bags contained a lot of mutant bags, with parts of bags sewn into the seams of other bags.  It was quite bizarre.

I also enrolled in a new online class. I admit that before I left for Stampaway, I questioned my sanity in signing up for a new class that would start when I was out of town, and that would overlap with me starting a new job.  I must be out of my mind.

But, I did.  It is a Creative Lettering class with Andrea Joseph, taught through Sketchbook Skool.  I have been a fan of Andrea's work for a long time.  She makes amazing detailed drawings with just ballpoint pens.  She inspired me several years ago to make this journal page spread. The trick for me, which she suggested as a way to get a drawing started, was to trace around the object I wanted to draw, then fill in the rest.

When I was at Stampaway, I purchased a square Dylusions journal to use for the class (not required, but I had been wanting a square journal and this has nice pages to work on).  I decorated the front page with washi tape and a couple of stencils I also bought at Stampaway.

Some of my homework assignments don't look that great, but I'm loving this assignment and how it turned out! 

Since the class is about lettering to go in your sketchbook, I've been trying to do more sketching.  I was pretty happy with this one, which I drew with brown ink.  I then used a brush with water to wet the outsides of the bottle and make the ink run, spreading the ink around for a background.  That is, I did love it, until I wrote on the back side of the page with a marker that bled through.  But life is what it is, and I can't stress over it.  Just makes the page look aged or something.

 

I'll be catching up with my 2016 planner as time goes on and post progress here.  And I feel like I'm starting my new job again for the second time tomorrow, after not being able to work last week.  I feel like I'm in the movie Groundhog Day, where the same thing happens over and over! !