Looking forward to Fall 2014 Semester

Summer is over- and despite my goals; I pretty much did nothing but unpack and clean over the last four

Painting by Michelle Mia Araujo-
I just needed something to add some color
to this post :)

months.  I mean that literally.  The bright side is that outside of normal apartment maintenance- I don't have a huge house related project hanging over my head.  This is the first time in my marriage that I've had our home unpacked and clean.  It's kind of a big deal for me.  Also for the first time in our marriage- and consequently the first time since I started college- we have stability.  Which is to say we are not moving.  Considering I'm closely related to our current landlords (as I've stated before- living in the basement apartment of my parents house) we don't have to worry about being kicked out because the landlord is selling the place, the rent going up randomly, the house being sold because they are going to bulldoze it and make it into a parking lot or any of the other reasons (all out of our hands) that we've had to move in the past 6 years.

Basically- even though this summer I only did one painting and 3 sketches- I'm feeling good.  I don't have to unpack or do any major projects (well I do need to empty our storage unit- but honestly; that place is pretty organized- so it's mostly going to be moving box from storage there to storage here).  I can focus 100% on art.

Other positive news- my kids (4 and 2) are old enough now that they need a lot less mommy attention.  Not that I'm going to be ignoring them- but the three of us can actually sit down and essentially schedule our time.  For the most part they stick to the schedule (we've been practicing over the last month) AND they both go to bed on time.  THIS IS THE FIRST TIME SINCE I'VE BEEN IN SCHOOL THAT I DON'T HAVE A BABY!! (Babies are awesome- but take SO much time; toddlers and preschoolers are more awesome- specially when they get along and play together)

This next semester also marks my first full time semester in years.

I'll admit it- this scares me a little bit.

Also- we converted one of the bedrooms into a studio for me.  While this isn't the first time I've had a studio (the last apartment I kept moving my office- but I always had a space that was mine) This is the first time that I've had everything unpacked and accessible- which follows naturally from my announcement about having the house unpacked.

I'm excited- I'm excited that I will actually be able to focus on my classes and my personal art projects with a lot less of the stress of previous years.  The only thing I don't have done right now is a perfectly planned out meal plan. I'm going to tackle that this week as school begins to wind up.  My husband and I have discussed what we'll do for meals- so it won't be that hard to finish up.

I'm not putting out my Fall Semester Art goals at this time- I need to see what my professors have in store for me before I start making my rather absurd goals.  So maybe tomorrow night I'll post what I'm thinking of.

I make these impossible goals, not to overwhelm myself- but because I tend to reach farther when I have them.  I always grow- even if I don't reach my goals; and that's the point I think :)

~Alicia

Hello!

So as far as the internet is concerned I almost literally fell off the side of the planet this summer.  Good news? My home is almost clean.  I'm not going into that any father because I tend to babble a lot about such things on my Decidedly Nikkie blog.

The weirdest thing about being gone so long and then coming back is that apparently I've picked up some followers.  Granted- they seem to be the same people who follow my other blog; but I'm not complaining :D

School starts in 2 weeks.

I've got a lot of work to do in the next 2 weeks.  The two big things on my list are to go over my A-Z entries and re-draw and finish some of the sketches that I did for that, and to do as many of the exercises from Keys to Drawing as I can.

Right now I'm going to bed- but thought I'd check in.

Night!

~Alicia

PS- wow- forgot how sad the design of this blog is; maybe I'll make that a priority and try to make this a little more amazing before school starts.