It's a wonderful day.

Of course what about Friday isn't wonderful?  That big weekend is just beaming at me and just within my grasp – with only a picnic and wine tasting fundraiser on the schedule.  Wonderful.

Also on the list of wonderful, the fact that I can actually wear some things in my closet that I haven't worn in years.  It's like shopping, going in that closet and chest of drawers!  Wonderful.

The kidoodles are back at school, and so the public library has become my new haunt.  Loads of books on painting and drawing techniques, with a dash of time to actually look through them and give it a go.  Wonderful.

I picked this rack up at TJ Maxx to help the kids keep their library books organized.  They can be the opposite of the Roach Motel Slogan.  "Check out, but they don't check in…"  and I'm tired of the hunt for overdue books.

Otherwise the kidoodles all seem to be settling into school well too. 

The twinkies are in the same 'cluster'; which just means that I've only got one set of teachers and assignments to pay attention to.  If one of them is doing homework, the other one better be doing it too.  With their different strengths it helps to have this built-in check against each other to make sure things are on track.  And if one forgets a textbook, you can bet the other will have it.  Meanwhile even though they are in the same cluster of teachers, they have different home rooms, 'specials', different world language classes and different art classes so they won't be getting sick of each other at school.

My oldest is in high school this year.  It's such a huge change from middle school!  She is doing well with organizing her many subjects, but In typical fashion, she has not been doing the best job of taking in information and passing it along to me.  Things like when soccer practice happens and where and when I am to pick her up.  But I believe she has gotten her act together.  Crossing fingers.

And so since I'm feeling pretty good about how things are flowing around here, I decided to make a new card for the Art Abandonment project:

I painted the background in acrylics with a pretty blue sky and some leaves.  Then I added the die cut scroll work lattice and leaves as well as a couple of Prima flowers.  The sentiment is from CTMH and stamped on a chipboard tile.  I colored the die cuts with Tattered Angels Chalkboard in Charcoal, Evergreen and English Ivy as well as the layered edges dipped in Charcoal for contrast.

I used Helmar's V2 spray adhesive for the die cuts and Quick Dry 450 for the flowers and mounting it to the card base.

Hopefully it will spread the joy around in a world too caught up in divisiveness these days.

Happy Friday to you!