FF and saying goodbye to summer

Its Friday Favorites time and its also "that time of the year" - summer has come to an end and school starts on Monday. I can hardly believe it. As usual, the summer seems to have FLOWN by. At an almost alarming rate.

OK, so 'alarming' may be a little melodramatic.




But seriously, it has gone fast.





The older I get the faster the time seems to go by.  LG will begin third grade on Monday. WOW. Third grade. I think he will enjoy getting back to school, being around his peers each day. For some reason this summer we just never did get signed up for any camps. Just the camp at church, but no others. Not that he has sat home every day doing nothing. He's had lots of activities, friends over, day trips, sleep overs, and of course an extended vacation this year. But most of that has centered around family and his closest 'buds'. Going back to school will reinvigorate all those other friendships and really get his mind going again with lots of new things to learn. YAY!


Myself, I'll be somewhat happy to return to a routine, but not quite so much as in years past. For some reason I don't feel that - "I can't wait to get back to a routine" - that I usually feel. I guess we've kept up a pretty good pace through the summer and I'm actually a teensy bit 'nervous' about returning to all the renewed time committments and challenges that the school year will entail. Time to get organized!



I've already skipped out on a big end of the summer bash......hopefully this weekend will be a time of organizing and gearing up for the mad dash that seems to define the first weeks of school.

Along with organizing for school, cleaning out LG's desk and making room for the deluge of papers that will soon come home crammed in his backpack, I hope to get my studio cleaned out. Things were looking really good there for a while and then I had a few quick worksessions and packing and unpacking of supplies for that workshop and now my studio looks like a bomb went off in it. And of course I have my new bench and other new tools that are sitting in my garage patiently awaiting a new home in my studio. Which so nicely brings me to my fave for today.


Craigslist.



I have never been consistent about checking Craigslist, but I've finally been convinced that it is worth it if there are things you know you want but aren't dying to get right away. I strongly recommend checking Craigslist daily for items rather than buying everything new. You can get some great deals and meet new people right in your own area. I recently purchased a new bench (new to me), polisher, mill, sandblaster, torch head, and some hand tools from an ad found on Craigslist. I saved a lot of money and got to meet another artist who lives relatively close. Its a win win situation.

I'm leaving work early today for an open house at my son's school so I must get back to work - my delicious lunch of beet 'salad' is over! I am hoping to get my studio cleaned up and show pictures of my new items and some new work tomorrow night, so check back. :)


~Janice