Busy Busy! Summer is almost here!

I'm sorry I missed last weeks posting! My son Alex has been having a wonderful couple of weeks and I have just been absorbed in his joy! We were invited to an awards banquet and were considering blowing it off. Who wants to sit for a couple hours and listen to how wonderful everyone else's kids are when you're pretty much inclined to think yours are every bit as wonderful, right? lol His instructor tells him it's a must attend, so we put the good clothes on lol and omg he's Student of the Year!

He opted to compete in Skills USA this year. Alex is second year auto shop and really enjoys it, but regretted not trying last year. His scores on the written test were so high it earned him an invitation to the AAA Ford Competition in Batesville at Mark Martin's. Only 10 teams are invited and scholarships are awarded to each participant.

Each team is given a car with the same problems. They each have one and a half hours to find and fix all 9 problems. Alex was the second team to get their car started and were the fourth team to finish. They lost points here and there, never having worked on air conditioning they completely passed on trying to locate the problem and fixing it - turns out it was a plug unplugged under the dash oops! So they finished in 9th place. But to be 16 and to be in the top 9 in the state is such a huge honor! I just really couldn't ask for any more than that, it was such a great learning experience for him. He came home with tools, a scholarship and a job offer!

Since auto shop is no longer just a class in high school - it's vocational study at the University. He also has completed his course of studies and "graduates" tomorrow night.

It is finals week at the University and my younger daughter is finishing her freshman year. It's so hard to believe how fast this year has flown by! She has her classes scheduled for next year and have made sure she's met all her requirements to keep her scholarship going. She's really looking forward to getting her Etsy shop up and running this summer - be on the look out for updates on that front!

Last but not least I've changed my profile picture on Etsy. In embracing the hand made movement, as we all have, I've decided to make my hands in the process of making one of my filigree pieces my new avatar. Though I suppose technically since it is still me, it's just a new profile pic! Big Grin!

The idea came to me when reading the forums at Etsy. They were discussing a silent protest showing their disproval of a manufacturer as having been chosen as the seller of the week. Ooops!! This as they are cracking down on drop shippers and resellers or at least trying to step up their efforts. Then a team mate of mine on the wired team is suspended for her rather wordy thank you for supporting hand made announcement while she places her shop on vacation for rebranding. On her blog she shared a photo of her hands.

And well darn it if hand made isn't ALL about our hearts and hands and so it just makes perfect sense to me.

So here they are my hands as avi - though I guess I could have used a full size pic instead of the avi sized one huh?

Be good to yourselves, enjoy your summers! Thanks for stopping by and we'll see you next time!
Dana