Oh Scrap! It's My Job

Over the years, I had many of my friends say that I should do something with my scrapbooking skills: "you should go into business" or "you're so creative" and so forth. Well, if you've ever scrapbooked (not digitally), you know how time consuming it is so I would pretty much net zero! Also, I loved to scrapbook because it helped me relax and I do love the ability to be creative without the pressure. I have enough pressure with P growing up so fast, I don't need more!

I haven't really dived into digital scrapbooking, although I'm sure I would love it. Just haven't had the time to dedicate to learning since having P.

But, I was able to take a couple 3-hour sessions of Adobe InDesign private tutorials through work from a Cal Poly professor, and now I'm hooked! I have been designing our outreach pieces and redesigned our quarterly newsletter and have gotten lots great feedback and compliments. The organization is able to save quite of bit of money doing everything in-house, so I decided to take a class to become more efficient, learn the shortcut keys, and just get a deeper understanding of the program.

So, I thought I would share with you one of my first assignments in this class. Now mind you, this is a very rudimentary design, and I'm actually a lot more advanced than this, but I had so much FUN creating this, that I find I'm more excited to share this than my professional work! I'll eventually put a digital portfolio together. Who knows, maybe this could lead to something else, but I'm not holding my breath!

Campcation

We took an impromptu camping trip to San Simeon. It started out as a plan to go to Big Sur, but without reservations and a Friday start time, we didn't think we'd luck out. Luckily our friends, the Davids, are optimistic and adventurous enough to try it out. So, they left Friday morning and didn't hear from them until the afternoon.

No such luck at Big Sur! Our back-up plan was San Simeon--only a half hour drive from our house, but a nice place to visit and hang out for the weekend. We lucked out and got the last site!

We got there Friday evening and had no plans for the weekend, which was so nice to not have an agenda. From our last trip, we had hoped that having another kid for P to play with would be the ticket for more relaxation for us. Not sure about the relaxation part, but at least Jakob and P had each other to entertain. They also go to the same daycare, so they know each other very well!

We spent lots of time at the beach and the kiddos were so tired that they fell asleep easily and left the evenings free for the adults. We had such a fun and entertaining time being silly and carefree. We saw lots of birds at our campsite, went and scoped out the tidepools one evening, and even saw zebras roaming the grasslands!

As usual, a trip just isn't a trip unless P gets a scrape or two. The dads and kids went for a walk the last morning while the moms cleaned up breakfast. P did fine on a declining part of the path and then bit the gravel as she came to the flat part. Lots of bleeding and a good-sized upper lip. Ouch! Poor baby, but she recovers fast and doesn't cry too much. Still, I'm sure it hurts a lot!

A fun time was had by all, and we want to do it again soon. We are loving our tent trailer and can't wait for the next adventure!