I am a single Mom with 4 children. My oldest 2 – Matt (22) and Kayla (21) – live wonderfully independent lives in Australia, and the youngest – Paris (8) and Ciel (7) live with me.
My work as a Development Specialist at a non-profit social service agency is interesting, exciting and enables me to help the low-income population of my community …. it’s a way of giving back for me, the agency helped me when I first became a single mom.
My hobbies are pretty much all craft-based. I love making lampwork beads, but don’t get a chance to do that as often as I wish. So I’ve decided to build on my other interest, which is playing with pixels! I have loved using image manipulation software since I worked for an Airlines Union in Australia, where I first “found” Photoshop. Since then, I really used it on an “as needed” basis until the version I had on my computer became so obsolete there were no more tutorials! I knew I had to upgrade, but didn’t have the financial means to do so. I moved on to PaintShop Pro, and even tried The Gimp, until I had the opportunity to purchase Photoshop CS3 at a deeply discounted price (no, it’s not a knock off, it’s a legitimate copy!)
I tried scrapbooking for a while – it’s too frilly for me! Paris and Ciel love to scrapbook and it’s an awfully expensive hobby if you let your guard down at Michaels or Hobby Lobby, but they’re having fun.
I still love to make glass beads, to make kumihimo braids, to make jewelry, but a fellow lampworker – Jo Mueller – introduced me to ATCs (Artist Trading Cards) and ACEO’s (Art Cards Editions and Originals), and I knew I was whupped! It’s a way for me to do what I love without the expense of all the materials.
Burning the midnight oil? You bet! Tired? Ah, that’s just a state of mind!
Here’s JoJo and I at Beadapalooza
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