Farewell Friends and Fame (a tad too dramatic perhaps??)

In scrapping news...I haven't been doing much of it. Okay, none. I was on 2 teams for years, and loved it, because my dear designer friends, Shawna Clingerman and Kim Giarrusso, are full-on amazing with their talents. And I got to play with all of their stuff! Well, Kim had a baby AND took over The Digi Chick (not as in hostile takeover, lol), so she stopped designing. Something about not having any time? Wha...? 4 kids under 5 and running a business, whatever! So Kim gracefully released all of us on her team a few months ago.

Shawna also had a baby, and was knock-down, drag out sick the whole pregnancy. So I'd been able to keep up with her team...UNTIL she popped that baby out. It's been kit this and kit that ever since (she's like a maniacal creative genius these days!) That's when I started falling behind until I finally feel like this huge dead weight on the team. You see, I have actually been able to be on my feet the last 6 months, and I've discovered that I've got A LOT of real-life making up to do. HURRAY that I've got that much energy back!!! But BOOOoooooo that every detail of raising a family and keeping a house waited around for me. (I don't know why...I don't even do it that well.)

So, although I LOVE scrapbooking, and it has quite literally saved my sanity during the last five years, I have to face the fact that I am just not team material right now. So I resigned from Shawna's team. Sniff. Of course, I can still scrapbook when I have a few minutes, so what I'll really be missing is the on-line community I've been a part of. Those relationships I've formed are as real to me as any I've ever had, and because of how these people got me through my illness, many of them are like family to me. What a gift that is! So I'm NOT giving that gift back, I just know that I won't be on expanding it. Sigh.

And THEN, I'm going through my old emails yesterday and find this one from Digital Scrapbooking Magazine:

I’m writing to you because Digital Scrapbooking magazine and Adobe needs your help for an upcoming project.

Adobe is holding an event in New York City for the consumer press including Family Circle, Modern Bride and Seventeen magazines on June 24. They would like to provide their attendees with sample scrapbook pages created using Photoshop Elements and have asked Digital Scrapbooking to provide samples.

Your layout “Ordinary Magic” from the December/January issue of Digital Scrapbooking magazine is one of the ones we’d like them to show off. We have your layout in smaller form but in order for Adobe to print it out at 12 x 12, we need a new file. Any chance you could use yousendit.com to send me a 12 x 12 300 dpi version of the layout? I will need to receive these files by Thursday evening at the latest so Adobe can have them printed.

NOT a good email to find a month too late. Sigh. But it feels good to (almost) be recognized for something artistic, and I'm thinking "Can I give this up?" Looking for reassurance, last night I say to Hubby, "Am I doing the right thing?" And in his own acutely perceptive way, he says... (wait for it) ... "I dunno."

And this is why I keep him around??? (JK, Honey, I wuuuuuuv you!)

Luckily, I know it's the right thing to do, and I am so grateful and happy to be at this place in my life. I need to dig my heels in and make some magic happen around here!

But is it too much to wish that somebody would recognize my contributions at "an event" in New York City? It could happen. Bathroom Weekly may want to showcase my tips on shining a toilet as only I can do.

(Note to self: Ask cleaning lady how she shines the toilet.)