This Old Dog is learning some new tricks.......

I always planned to go back to school and get my education.  It was kind of an unspoken understanding that eventually I would do it.  But it never seemed to be the right time, or maybe it was that I didn't make the time for it.  Either way, in April of 2011, I got bit by the school bug once again, until that point it was not on my radar at all.  This is how it happened.......  My husband got approached about taking another job, but it required web design skills, something he always planned to learn, but never did in his schooling for Graphic Design,  (Web design was not as hot then, and he had a great job right out of school).  I started researching, for him, programs that he could learn the web design, when it hit me, that I could go back to school.  DUH!!!!  It became clear that the job was not right for him or our family, but this was what I needed to get me back to school.  Now, my plan had always been to become a social worker, a school teacher, or something with music.  I toyed with the idea of becoming a music therapist.  I never took art classes in school, it just was not my interest.  Music YES, I loved it.  Painting, drawing, or sculpting.........I suck, honestly.    But I love paper crafting, I love designing and laying out projects, and I had always been fascinated to sit and watch Shane work.  He is truly an amazing and gifted artist.  I also wanted to learn to do digital scrapbooking.  We had toyed with the idea of someday Shane being able to work as a freelance graphic designer from home, and we had the large format plotter.  We began to develop our plans for our business Graphik Xpressions, and Shane told me he wanted me to grow this business for him (with his help of course), so that he could work from home.  So here I am, about 6 1/2 months into my college experience.  Some days I love it.  Some days I hate it, but I am learning so many new and interesting skills.  I am following a new path, and while it is a little scary, it's ok.  I want to share with you a couple of my projects that I have done in my classes.  Nothing super neat-o, but fun stuff that I couldn't do a year ago.

I took this photo and did the photoshop work.

Another photo I took and photoshoped.  :)

An assignment for my Design Principles class, focal point.

So now when I tell people that I am back in school, and I say I am studying Web  and Graphic design, I also tell them I decided to do that since it was the closest thing to getting a degree in scrapbooking.   :)  Have a creative day!!