In the Classroom and in the Pool .... huh?

As you've probably noticed, I haven't been creating too much art lately. Snow days, sick children, errands, and the heyday of the season have kept me busy. But, that sort of thing happens to pretty much everyone. So why haven't I been making any art this month? Believe it or not, every spare moment I've had has been spent studying for my scuba certification; in fact, my husband and children are doing it as well. Because our youngest isn't old enough to do the coursework on line (internet safety laws prohibit anyone under 13 from taking an on-line course), she and I watched four hours of video, read through a 220+ page book, went to six hours of classes, and took multiple quizzes, four exams and a final while the other three cruised through an on-line course in a few hours. Yes, our path took up lots of time.

But it was worth it. We passed the written coursework and yesterday, we all finished up the second part of the certification process by doing the confined water dives. In other words, we spent a few hours at the pool reviewing scuba skills. We looked rather funny in our scuba gear at the local gym's lap pool, but hey, we passed! It was relatively easy since we've been diving before, but still .... yahoo! Now that that's done, I hope I'll have some time to work on the projects that have been buzzing around in my head for weeks: I have one for a Fast Friday challenge on microbiology (last month's challenge, but I like my idea so I still want to do it), one for Textile Abstractions using "walls" as the theme, one that I'd like to try to create soon enough (and well enough) to submit to Quilt Visions and another for a new, special project I'm working on that I'll tell you more about in the new year. All this and oh, the costume adjustments for my daughter's dance company. Rats, those have to get done first.

Anyway, art's hopefully on the way! In the meantime, here's a picture worth a good laugh: that's me in full scuba gear from a dive in April. And while you're chuckling about that, can you let me know if you're planning to set goals for yourself for the new year? I've been thinking about this a lot in the last few days. What should I try to achieve art-wise in 2010? I'll try to post about that next.... and maybe I'll have a glimmer of art to show you, too!