Especially when it is expensive software that you not only use daily, but is one of the mediums with which you express your passion of creativity.
Last week I attended a great speaking event put on by a local group I am a member of. The group is called the Dayton Creative Syndicate. I joined a few months ago so I could connect with other creatives, learn, and of course network. They are fairly new with having just reached their one year mark. They have speakers, happy hours, and also something called the Adobe user group. The Adobe user group is where one can learn more about the ever amazing line of adobe software that most us creative use. Adobe (software company name) only allows one user group for every major city. They provide things to the group for setting up these meetings and.. you guessed it a few lovely door prizes for the group administrators to give out throughout the year.

The speaker I went to hear was Todd Henry giving his presentation “Create or Die”. He gave a great talk about the dynamics of create-on-demand and important disciplines for sustained growth in our lives and art. Learn more at www.accidentalcreative.com
Anyway, as most events with the DCS there are door prizes to be given out. I am always excited for the opportunity to win anything but always seem to be one of those persons who ends up pouting saying, “I never win anything”. This event there was a big prize up for grabs and I was really excited but at the same time now allowing myself to get my hopes up too much. Oh the scares and heartbreak of never winning anything (tear drop). After the presentation I was chatting with the gentleman sitting next to me, telling him how stoked I would be to win Adobe CS4 and joking about how unlikely it would be. Next thing I know they are calling out the number on my ticket but my brain would not register it because I heard a guy across the room yelling out. I thought I must have read that wrong because that guy is way too excited. Finally I realized he was yelling “I was one number off!!!”. I finally realized it was my number and that I had finally won something totally exciting. I was telling my family and friends that winning that was one of the best things I could ever hope to win.
I have had a copy of CS3 since bought the standard package in 07 but CS4 is a great upgrade that I was probably not going to be dishing out the cash to upgrade to so soon.
Since getting it installed I have has a great time finding out what improvement and new features are to be found. I have a lot more exploring to do! After I have thoroughly discovered I will hopefully find time to share my finding in another blog post. I will certainly, be posting examples of work I have finalized using this wonderful gift.
A HUGE thanks goes out to the DCS, Adobe User Group, and of course Adobe!

Every year around Valentines Day the youth group at our church holds a banquet called the Sweetheart Banquet. My husband and I are both very involved with the youth and this year we were in charge of the banquet. The event is crazy because there is so much involved. The kids came up with the theme of Mystery Admirer. They always do a great job.
We do as much prepping as we can for a month or so but the day of the banquet there is always a lot of work to be done in a short amount of time. My assignment is usually to paint the backdrop for the photo area. This year I was crunched and left with not much time to bust out my 10ft x 10ft photo backdrop mural. I managed to paint it all in 45 min (more time with prep naturally). I then had to switch hats and become the photographer for the night. A hectic but very fun night it was.
The mural is very rough, but I did the best I could with the time I had. Sometimes working fast brings out better results than you would imagine! It no master piece by any means but it did the trick.