I've noticed this year that Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales have started earlier than ever. I like to keep up with financial news, and current reports say that last year's shipping and supply chain issues created so many shortages that retailers have stocked up for this year, only to find that inflation has slowed spending. Now there are surpluses. The good news is that we are getting a lot more sales!

I need to remember that sometimes the simplest of projects can be the most rewarding. Our daughter Riley wanted to put together a photo book for her sweet 2-month-old baby Calvin so he could begin to recognize the faces of family members, even though he can't be around them every day. You can imagine that I was more than happy to offer my help with this!

I've been collecting some fun links to share, so let's take a few minutes and catch up on the good stuff around the internet right now.

I’ve been so busy lately, that I’ve had a hard time balancing everything. When that happens, blog posts often get pushed aside. Then it’s hard to get back in the habit. I’m going to just dive right in though and get started again. Next month will mark seventeen (17!) years for this blog, and I’m not ready to quit yet!

I spent the last week visiting my daughter and her husband, which means I got to spend a lot of time with my grand-doggy. Piper is a golden doodle, and she’s got so much energy and a silly personality. And bless her little heart because she sure loves me! She likes her grandma rubs and loves to fall asleep on my feet. Not just touching my feet, but the full body on top of my feet. That’s her favorite. lol! She likes to look me right in the eyes and then put her paw in my hands to ask me to pet her.

I have been on a real creative bender lately with my digital designing. I’ve had so many ideas that it has been hard for me to keep up with my brain! I’m finding that I can get lost in photoshop for hours. It’s been a lot of fun, but I’ve noticed that I’ve had very little creative energy left for other projects like blogging. It’s reminded me that while there is no end to creativity, there are limits on creative time and energy.

I’ve been working hard on several upcoming projects, so that means that I’ve fallen a bit behind in my blogging. I feel like I need a couple of catch-up days. Does anyone out there remember my old “catch-up” posts where I also included an image of a ketchup bottle? Let’s do one of those to get back on track!

If you’ve been around here for a while, you know that humor is one of my love languages. I need regular giggles in my life! Do you know what’s great? My son-in-law is the same way. He also collects these types of silly snippets and memes and we often exchange them with each other over text. I love that!

I realized the other day that the photo I’ve been using for my “about” page (now updated) was from 2016. Somehow, 2016 was six years ago! How did that happen? I decided I better update it with a new one so I took a quick selfie using portrait mode on my iPhone. I’m trying to be better about getting in front of the camera this year so it was a good exercise.