a.k.a. the reason why I disappeared from the WP neighborhood 😦
21… hours my children and I spent at the pool
126… laps I swam while my children were in swimming class
4… times I saw The Hunger Games 1 & 2 or whatever their names are 
1… cleaned the whole house 😦
1… considered cleaning the garage
42-45… degrees Celsius (aprox. 107-113 F), the average temp here all throughout the Summer, and it’s still going strong
0… books I read completely through 😦 …bought The Vacationers which is waiting patiently for the next opportunity
3… days spent at the beach and touring our state’s Wine and Olive Route
14… photos taken of beautiful cloud formations 🙂
Yeah, I know… this could not have taken up all of my Summer!
The rest of the time I was taking care of…
60+… orders I received for my personalized back to school stickers and tags 🙂
YAY!!! May I say I am both amazed and proud of myself, just as I am infinitely grateful to all those moms and aunts who placed their orders and trusted me and my work to be of their liking.
I have made peace with Facebook, not as a socializing platform, which I still don’t do… but more as an intangible though quite efficient web that let me and my designs reach people I would have never gone up to in person to offer my work.
For me, as an Introvert, Facebook proved to be my best option right behind word-of-mouth advertising, you know where a satisfied costumer shows of their recently acquired good and gladly passes on the author’s info…
I can not make a list of the people I know much less make a list of the people who might know me, however, through Facebook I keep track of those that have given my product a try and have labelled themselves as “satisfied costumer” , nevertheless, I have no way of keeping track of how far the images of each of their designs will reach…
I have now changed the status of the product images to private due to the fact that they’ve got their children’s complete names on them and it can be risky in these times… I have to make some space to change the images to generic names and avoid any possible problem in the future.
Anyway, Facebook proved to be the medium through which my designs spoke and not me, they sold themselves… the challenge is to now put together a few new products before I have to get to the design of the personalized Christmas tags catalog…
and YES, continue with teaching my
2… Reading and Writing courses at school
plus
1… Creativity Workshop
Oh, btw…
6… my sister’s months into her 3rd pregnancy (well, 5th in reality, though 2 are angels in heaven)
I wish I could make a compromise with myself and decide to post at least once a week, but I am hesitant to do that trying to avoid the anxiety I know I’ll fall into if the day comes and I haven’t had time to sit and write a worthwhile post.
xo lovely people
read you soon!
ACT. REACT. or just THINK about it! 
Don’t worry. Things run in phases, I’m not on here half as much at the minute either, but it’s always wonderful to be able to reach out whenever we spot each other back again 🙂
May life be being kind and graceful for you. Much affection as ever xxxx
🙂 🙂 xxxxxx
Safi, my dear friend… believe when I say this: I’ve missed your inspirational/motivational posts! The sense of calm they give me as I read them… I have had my mind elsewhere and my work has been my meditative practice these past months, though I know all I’ve missed here. Nevertheless I am so,so grateful to find your comment greeting me at the end of this post. You, Marina, Karen are some of my most beloved ‘neighbors’ here and I love coming back to you! I won’t make pacts but i will make it a point to pop by and say HI, I’m alive and working! 🙂 xoxoxo my lovely friend
Marina, thank you for gifting me with this joyous comment 🙂 happiness comes from within and is a daily decision one makes, so from that perspective YES, I am happy but above all grateful for my summer job (which I hope continuous well into fall and beyond the new year…) and for finding you at the end of this post cheering me on!!! I just liked both your pages and will be up to date on your art & music developments… xoxoxox my dear friend
Karen, Thank you 🙂 yes, that’s where I left off! You were taking your mom with you and your boys to Europe… have you blogged about it? I suspect you have, would you send me a link to read all about your Enchanted European Adventure with Mom?! I am hesitant to call it success, I don’t know if it’s the fear of junxing it or just plain surprise 🙂 (see how I avoided calling it lack of self-confidence, which would be more precise…I need to work on that)I love to read your comment here and am grateful you had a moment for my post… huge hug Karen and read you soon xo
Alexandra, congrats about your business success on Facebook! I can’t say that I accomplished as much, though we did go on vacation to Europe in June. My blogging is erratic, but I am trying to get back to it! Loved hearing from you!
Blessings,
Karen
Awww, Alexandra, you’ve been so busy!!!!! + happy + busy + happy… Great to have you back in good spirits!
🙂 xxxx
YEY! So lovely to see you! It doesn’t matter how you spent the summer and if you posted or not, it’s just great to hear of how you’re doing. Don’t make any kind of pact but just pop on to say hello sometimes. So lovely to see you, and photos too! Xx