Life Lately

I hope everyone had a lovely Thanksgiving and a successful Black Friday if you went shopping amidst the craziness! I did a bit of shopping online and decided to avoid the crowds, although I did make a trip to Walmart last night with my mom for a 32" TV for only $98 that my dad apparently couldn't live without. :) Luckily the wait wasn't too bad but the amount of people was insane! Lines were weaving through aisle after aisle... I'm glad we were in and out of there rather quickly.

Anyways, instead of sharing a project today I thought I'd share a bit about what it's like in the life of Ashley... outside of her craft room. :) I don't normally share a lot of my personal life on here, but if it's not too early to make a New Year's resolution, that's something I'd like to start doing, so why not start early?

Currently I'm a student at Ashford University, it's my first semester here but I'm a junior since I spent two years at a local community college earning two Associate's degrees - one in Art and one in Science. I'm loving the small school atmosphere and my classes, my professors are great and even though I have quite a heavy workload, I'm really enjoying it. Oh! I'm studying to become an elementary school teacher. :) 

Since I had to leave both of my library jobs to move to attend school, I'm not currently working a regular job, although I'd like to be. With my class schedule though and all the hours I have to spend in classrooms, I really wouldn't have the time. So, I found a job that doesn't have a regular schedule... teaching craft classes!

When I moved to Iowa to start school at Ashford, I came across an advertisement for a new brick and mortar scrapbooking store called The Scrapbooking Studio in Davenport, about 45 minutes from my school. They were looking for instructors, so I thought what the heck?! Inquired about it, and took a drive down there not long after that for an interview. I now teach Copic classes there on a regular basis (putting my certification to use - yay!) and am loving it. It's so much fun to put my knowledge to use and teach others how fun coloring can be and how fantastic Copic markers are.

Not long after I agreed to teach at The Scrapbooking Studio, I received an email from a local scrapbooking store back home called Peddlers Den that was also looking for instructors (home is about an hour and a half away from Ashford). I inquired there as well, and have been teaching classes there since mid-October. 

So in a nutshell, life is pretty crazy. I can honestly say I don't remember the last time I was bored, or that I didn't have anything to work on. But, I love the craziness and I really feel like I've grown a lot since starting at a new school. Thanksgiving break is almost over and then it's time for finals, but thankfully 5 of my 7 finals are projects/presentations, so I won't have to do much studying. My motivation is three full weeks of break with hours upon hours to craft. If there's one thing I dislike about school, it's that it takes away from my crafting time, but I know in the end it'll be worth it.

Have a great weekend, everyone.