Amy Artisan

Family | Travel | Craft | Life | Books

Category: Reflections (page 1 of 8)

Seasons Change…

…since last this blog saw much action, many things have been happening…and as the seasons changed from winter to spring, there is a definite season of change around here…The last week of March, I moved home to the Ville!

Last August, I decided that the time had come to get back home to Georgia and when I renewed my lease I was able to go with a shorter term lease and began planning to leave PA by the end of March. As 2018 progressed, I started working through my move plan – while also pursuing a new role in the company that would have allowed me to be based anywhere. By the middle of March, this role got caught in some company hiring constraints and since my previous role had been ended, it was time for me to exit the company after 6 1/2 years. March was a whirlwind of a month. Mother Nature provided plenty of entertainment with four nor’easters. On the home front, furniture and home goods donations were being gathered and picked up. Packing was happening. Movers were being finalized.

I did most of the packing. The best money I spent in move prep was bringing in Wendy from Gingerly Packed to spend a couple of hours packing up my kitchen and dining/entertaining wares. In seemingly no time at all, she had emptied all the cabinets and drawers and china cabinets and had everything securely packed into dish packs and other boxes.

Before I knew it, I was packing up my desk where this “Embrace Change” art had been a smart reminder of the work that I led. Farewells were said. A final happy hour with office friends.

After a final fast paced weekend of packing, my moving team arrived around 9AM on Monday and quickly had everything loaded into the truck. By noon they were pulling out of the apartment complex to head down here to Georgia (and they had unloaded everything into my storage unit here by 5:30 on Tuesday afternoon). While I was mentally ready to hit the road, I had to “stay back” to finish closing out the apartment with the thorough cleaning & carpet cleaning on Tuesday & final walk through on Wednesday morning.

“Finally” just before 11AM on Wednesday, I pulled out of my Pennsylvania carport one final time and started my southward trek home. While the skies threatened rain for several hours, thankfully it was a mostly dry drive on Wednesday. While I wanted to just drive straight through, I knew that I needed to stop along the way. So as the sun was setting, I reluctantly pulled into a hotel outside of Charlotte for the night.  By lunchtime on Thursday, I had passed these signs and was pulling into the driveway, home in the Ville.

By lunchtime on Thursday, I was pulling into the driveway here in the Ville and ready to begin this next chapter of life. I’m home. I’m decompressing from an intense couple of years as I look ahead to what’s next with work. Catching up on sleep. Reading. Enjoying being home with Mom & Rebecca. Planning. Returning to the artisan side of life.

Looking…

A new year! A time to look back…a time to look ahead…a time to look around…

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Looking back…2013 seemed to be a return to a more balanced work/life integration. As I mentioned, most of my travel was for fun. At work, I transitioned into a new role and am enjoying the challenges of learning something new. I enjoyed the challenge of tackling a Whole 30 and incorporated several things into my regular routine throughout the year.

Looking ahead…2014 is 365 new chapters to be written. I’m making lists, goals, jotting ideas of what I want this year to be. A return to fitness – it’s time to combine the success of 2010/2011 with the new nutrition learned in 2013 and get serious once again. As I “play” in the kitchen, I need to share the results more. Increase the knit stitches around here and share them. Memories have been captured in recent years & sit in the cloud – it’s time to redefine what is scrapbooking for me & get pictures onto pages. Continue to make new memories with family! Later this year is a milestone birthday…I’m starting to pull together a list of things I want to do before then.

Looking around…I started blogging out here in January 2006. Much has changed since then – in my life, in the world, in social media. The blogging community has changed quite a bit. I miss it when I’m not actively posting here – I joke about mentally blogging so many things – the reality is that the blog provides a framework for writing, whether or not I ever hit publish. This year I want to be hitting publish more. I see a couple of blog link ups that I think I will jump into this year as a way to stay connected.

If you are still here, thank you for continuing to look…I look forward to seeing what unfolds!

On Flights & Family Time

As another year winds down, inevitably it has us looking back on the year & determining highlights. For me, a highlight of 2013 was the fact that I wasn’t constantly on the road with work travel. In fact, I only had 4 weeks of work travel this year. With 26 flight segments taken in 2013, only 1 trip was for work. That means that the others were for fun times with family. So where did those flights take me? Here, a few highlight pics from fun times in Georgia, Wisconsin & Texas…
May - A surprise trip home to cheer Rebecca in her first super-sprint triathlon.

May – A surprise trip home to cheer Rebecca in her first super-sprint triathlon.

June - Artisan Family Great Lakes Getaway. We enjoyed a week around Lake Michigan - first at Mackinac Island and then in Door County, WI

June – Artisan Family Great Lakes Getaway. We enjoyed a week around Lake Michigan – first at Mackinac Island and then in Door County, WI

July - In Marinette to celebrate kid birthdays and take in a Brewers game!

July – In Marinette to celebrate kid birthdays and take in a Brewers game!

August - Rebecca & I go back to Mercer to see a thrilling win as Mercer returns to football for the 1st time since 1941.

August – Rebecca & I go back to Mercer to see a thrilling win as Mercer returns to football for the 1st time since 1941.

October - Fall fun in Marinette, including the pumpkin patch and haunted hayrid

October – Fall fun in Marinette, including the pumpkin patch and haunted hayride

October - Trick or treating with the girlies in Texas.

October – Trick or treating with the girlies in Texas.

December - A quick trip home to the 'Ville to enjoy a Family Christma

December – A quick trip home to the ‘Ville to enjoy a Family Christmas

As the 2014 calendars are being opened, I’m already making plans for trips  & adventures with these dear ones!

In Pictures: January 2013

In my ongoing quest to be capturing life as it is happening, I’m once again restarting the “month in pictures” as a part of blogging. Looking back on January, I didn’t take nearly as many pictures with the phones; however, here are a few highlights:

January Scenes

 My page-a-day calendar at my desk this year is beaches – early in January, a page combined one of my favorite vacation spots (Bermuda) with one of my favorite Shakespeare plays (Much Ado About Nothing) – this page is now on my bulletin board.

Most of January I was home: it was great fun to host friends for a long weekend. Being home also meant quite a bit of cooking – one highlight was Portobello & Poblano Fajitas, I’ll definitely be making these again. There hasn’t been much snow here this winter – but one Friday night we got a couple of inches of the dry stuff that is sparkle snow – of course by the next afternoon it was mostly a memory.

The last week of the month meant a return to WI – the lack of snow in PA was made up for by more than a foot of snow falling the week that I was there. While there was lots of snow, there was also a lot of fun time with my dear friends that made it seem like I wasn’t on the road that week.

Dusting off the cobwebs…

…and poof…a new year! I’ll dispense with the normal introductions about how many times I’ve mentally blogged since I last posted. Without a doubt, 2012 was a year filled with many adventures in all facets of life. With the New Year, a new attempt at being dedicated to blogging. It has been 7 (!) years since I started out here – who knew then where the years would take me.

 

Since my last post, life has been filled with several changes. With my ‘new’ job I knew that 2012 would include relocating to Pennsylvania. In August, I packed up my “stuff,” donated my car, and headed East. Once I got here, I was still on the road for most of the fall; however, the travel is now the exception to my days so it is great to be settling into my new PA home.

Some highlights of settling into PA, so far:
+ Coming back from fall travel in time to prep for super storm “Sandy” & 36 hours without power
+ Hosting the family here for Thanksgiving week!
+ After so much time away from home the last couple of years, I’m having a ball decorating my new place – finishing furniture, finding antiques, hanging art, making it home!
+ Being back in the kitchen is great! After tagging so many recipes into Evernote, it is great to finally be making some of them. These days, the iPad is a frequent “ingredient” in my cooking.
+ The last couple of years, I haven’t really decorated for Christmas with all the travel. So this year, i was very excited to decorate my place – including a tree (the first one since 1998!). I had joked with friends that it had been so long since I had been through my Christmas decorations, it would indeed seem like Christmas just going through the totes.
+ The knitting needles have been a bit slower, but currently I have a great (big) project on the needles that encapsulates the last couple of years. It will definitely make an appearance on the blog.

 

As I started last year, I read an interesting book on technology & life. Indeed – it was mentally blogged. Maybe in the coming weeks I’ll finally get around to reflecting on it. There are times when it seems that technology is simultaneously making us more over connected & isolated.

 

I don’t know what my blogging rhythm will be (must utilize iPad apps) – last year I had hoped to do at least a “the month in pictures” – 2 of 12 months isn’t a success with that- hopefully some semblance of that will be a regular this year. I find that I’m often snapping a moment on my phone – I need to be sharing those on a regular basis.

 

If anyone is still reading this…thank you for sticking with me!

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