The One with Closed Doors and Open Windows

My days of working a desk job are coming to an end (at least for the time being - who knows what the future holds?). 15 more days to be exact! Yes, I'm that excited, I'm counting. And while I'm looking forward to being at home more and being able to go to all the fun activities that all the other SAHMs around here go to when I'm usually working, I'm also worried about how we are going to make ends meet. Fortunately/luckily/serendipitously, while this receptionist job door is closing, other job opportunity windows are opening, and we feel so blessed.

I've been working from home for Scrapbook Trends/CARDS/Simply Handmade/Create for just about a year now (and worked for them for four years in Utah before we moved, so we're going on five years now). It's worked out extremely well and I've kept most of my responsibilities from before because I can access the computer that's based at the office from any computer in the world. Technology is a wonderful thing. My only major problem is I'm running out of room to store all the copies of the magazines!

On the side and here and there I've been helping the fabulous Amy Tan(gerine) with her scrapbooking events and making layouts for clients. So pretty much I scrapbook from home, or I head out to The Hills and attend crazy cool parties, and get paid to do it, and that, my friends, is awesome. Because of all these scrapbooking shenanigans, the scrapbook room/guest room/soon-to-be-nursery looks like this 99% of the time:

I'm one of those people that has to clean up between every project so leaving the room in this state for days on end makes me fidgety. But it's worth it in the end!

The latest and greatest opportunity to come my way is taking over the position of American Crafts blog hostess starting next Monday.

I feel like I'm following in Kelly Purkey's footsteps! I filled her spot as an In-House Scrapbooker/Product Designer when she left American Crafts, and now I'm replacing her as the blog hostess. What's next for me Kelly? :) I'm excited to work closely with the Contributing Design Team again, not to mention still keeping my foot in the door at the best scrapbooking company in the world, and of course helping to make ends meet once this baby comes is a great bonus.

Notice that all of these jobs and opportunities are based around scrapbooking. I thank my lucky stars each and every day that I just so happened to walk into that store called Yesterday's Scrapbooking & Stuff (unfortunately out of business now, sigh) when I was 16 years old and looking for my very first job. They didn't even have any applications, they just took my name and number. I truly believe I found my calling in life by working at that scrapbooking store. Look where it's led me! Who knew scrapbooking could become such a major part and theme of my life? I love it so.

And, when it comes down to it, all of these jobs and opportunities can be accomplished from the convenience of my own home. How fortuitous is that? I don't have set hours, I don't have to drive a half hour in traffic to get to work, I can go on vacation whenever I want... As long as I can get my tasks done and done on time, it's a pretty sweet deal. I know when Fox comes my world will turn upside down, but I have high hopes that everything will work out.

Basically, I'm feeling pretty lucky right about now :)