So What's Been Going On In Our Little Cottage?

Lots! That's what!

Well, as you know, we got sweet daughter moved up to law school. That was really quite a feat.

I threw a lovely bridal shower for my assistant last Saturday. I will be sharing some pictures of that in the near future. Super fun!

I read and finished Anna Karenina. I'm pretty proud of that and will be sharing a review on that selection also in the near future. (LOVED IT!!!)

And.... are you ready? I have lost 22lbs!!!!!!! YAY! ME!

(I don't really look like this ...hehehehe)

Of course there is always the job! Which helps to allow for all the fun but takes up most of the time. I should probably tell you that I landed a HUGE new account. (an insurance company that must remain nameless)

So, in all of that I really didn't have time to blog a lot. Including visiting my pals. I even have to admit that I was wondering if I should give up the blog altogether.

I was remembering a conversation that I had with someone about my blog and she asked "Well? What's the point of your blog?" I was a little shocked and taken off guard by the boldness of the question but I answered, "I don't know? " And that made me think... Is this just wasted time for me? I mean, I don't sell anything, I'm not a decorator, I do some crafts, but nothing that is really terribly original. What is the point?

I'm not going to lie and say that I wouldn't love to find my blog in the pages of Artful Blogging, Where Women Create or Romantic Homes. What about Cottage of the Month? I have often thought "wouldn't that be the most amazing thing ever?!" I mean we see it all the time. Right? But the truth of the matter is that that probably is not going to happen.

So! Why blog?

Well, I had to go back to why I even started my blog in the first place. I really did just start it to track little projects and to show off my great finds. Maybe share a little about my faith. That was it. But, boy did I get side tracked. I found that I really love taking photos. Sometimes, in my head, I pretend like I'm putting together a book or a little magazine. All of a sudden it occurred to me that I was using things that I had put away and finding pretty new uses for them. My blog and next post was always in the back of my mind.

I was finding a new path for creativity. This is good!

Now! Let me tell you something else here. The benefit has been entrance into this special community of support and encouragement. There seems to be this unspoken or unwritten rule that we all abide by. It is all about building each other up and pushing each other on. Try that craft, achieve that goal, finish that project. I love this little world. I feel honored to be here and miss it when I'm not. I have met some wonderful women that I would never have met otherwise.

So! The final decision is that I will continue to blog. I will continue to love the beautiful things about it. I will try to forget the things that discourage me, and just do what I love. Take pictures, decorate, craft, and read books.
And of course share it all with you!

Where Bloggers Create

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Coming soon to My Desert Cottage....
Don't miss out!

Photoshop and New Framing Tool

Well, as an edit to my post from yesterday.....The PhotoShop Tutorials were a bust. PhotoShop is just too complicated for me to "just pick up". I would eventually like to take a course and become fully competent. But that will have to wait. So instead my poor husband spent the day with me looking for tools and software programs that were simple and easy enough for me to use and MAC compatible. We were successful with one specialized tool and found that it had some of the basics.

So I thought that I would share with you my husbands review. You might find it interesting. Coding Tools, Reviews, and Solutions The name of the Program is ImageFramer. It is pretty inexpensive and, I thought, easy to use. I tried it out on my header. I am a former user of Photoscape (which is PC only) so that gives you an idea of my skill level. : ) I also use ScrapBlog a lot. Another very simple, fun to use tool.

Do you have any suggestions or helpful tools that you use on the MAC?

TA DAAAAA!!!!!

Yay! My Blog is here My Blog is here!
My sweet husband worked all morning with me (yes we ditched church) to get my page customized and " pretty-fide". Thanks Baby! He has a lot of talent and great ideas.
It took a lot of patience but I think we created a really pretty stop in the blog-i-sphere.

I'm a baby blogger and still learning... so we'll see what happens in the days, weeks, and
months to come.

Just A Little Anxious.....

I was really hoping that I would be looking at my beautiful blog by now. But alas.... things take time. Especially when they will be worth the wait.... I am still learning how to do things and it just takes a while..... Be patient self!