Life...

Things have changed a lot since my last post.  These past few Summer months haven't been all rosey for me.  Sure, I've had some great times but life's thrown me a few curve balls this Summer.  Without going into too much detail, I've had some personal issues, health concerns and some career setbacks.  Let me catch you up on where my career is heading...

First, let me say that I STILL have a job with My Creative Classroom.  Not only do I teach classes online there but I'm also their Marketing person.  It's a great place to learn and a great place to work (even better since I do it all from my home!!) 

But as far as in person teaching goes...

I'm on my own.  Basically.  The Scrapbook Cupboard will be closing it's doors forever on September 30th (if not before).  I've already taught my last class there.  I've been with Bev and the Scrapbook Cupboard for 7 years.  It's like loosing a ton of friends all at once.  I know that many will follow me and many will keep in touch but it's not the same as seeing them at the Cupboard.  This is a sad chapter for me, like missing a piece of me. 

I started at the Cupboard teaching a Circle Journal class.  That didn't actually run for a few years after it was introduced.  My running class was a sketch series that we called "Map it Out".  I had three 'regular' students.  Melissa, Stacy and Susan.  They stuck with me for maybe a year or so.  In that year, I tried other classes but not many ran or if they did, they had small attendance.  That was when the Scrapbook Cupboard was all about Scrapbooking. 

About 2 years after I started, we started to move into mixed media, stamping, cardmaking and other paper crafts.  That's where I really fell in love.  I liked scrapbooking but I LOVED getting dirty with paints, inks and all those other goodies.  From then on, I went on to aquire my certifications.  Ranger's Inks, Silhouette, Ten Seconds Studio, Copic 1, Copic Intermediate and even some silly ones like the Tombow one I got at CHA this past Summer. (it wasn't really a certification as it was a class on it).  Why so many certifications?  To better myself so I could teach my students new ways to use their supplies. And I love teaching.  I really do.  I think I've got a natural ability to help others and I'm creative enough to come up with a project I'm confident enough to teach.  All important traits to being a better teacher.

I've even been on some design teams, like Kandi and Dreamweaver.  Both of which, I'm sad to say, I didn't put in as much as I should have.  Designing for the sake of designing isn't for me.  I design with ONE goal in mind... to teach it.  And really, I've always had the store and it's stuff to deal with.

So, you might be thinking, "What about another store?"  I have decided NOT to tie myself to any one store.  I was going to.  I was all set to start moving my classes over to one store but (thankfully) I found out that wasn't going to work.  And now, this frees me up to be able to work in other stores and venues.  I've already got some of that in the works!

For now, I've made arrangements for my ATC club to meet at a local community center.  These will occur once a month and we'll enjoy each other's company and create some beautiful art to share. 

As for some of my other classes, well... I bought a large bar-like table that I can teach off of right here at my house.  I'll continue some of my classes here and use the community center for the larger classes. I started my own website... www.kimparkinson.com that I'm going to showcase class dates, times, prices and photos.  You'll be able to view the class, chose one and pay for it all online when it's finally implemented.  Very cool and very easy!  I'll be working on that within the next week and hope to have it all up and ready soon with classes started after October 16th.

I need to be better with my blog now, so you can expect more frequent updates.  At least several times a week. I'm ready for the challenge and I hope you are all ready for me too!