I'm on my way!

I just took two very important (in my opinion) steps to advancing my career in something that I love. The first thing I looked into was my jewelry skills, since that's what I'm concentrating on right now. For a very long time, I've wanted to learn how to make jewelry. I know what you're thinking..."but Erin, you do make jewelry". Yes, but what I wanted to learn was metalwork, casting, soldering, etc. I searched endlessly for courses like that in Hilo and found absolutely nothing. Maybe I've been looking in all the wrong places, but I couldn't find anything at all. So I started my search for online learning, since online is what I seem to do best now days. I found the Jewelry Design & Repair program at Ashworth University. The courses this program offers are pretty much everything that I've been looking for. I did my research to make sure everything is legit, then enrolled. My first shipment of course materials is on its way, and I'm super excited to start learning. As the program progresses, I'll let you know how it goes.

The second step I took was to look for something to enhance my sewing skills. I've always loved to sew, and took sewing classes when I was a lot younger. Since then, my sewing began to taper off, and I don't sew at all anymore. I have a grandmother who sews wonderfully, so I've kind of been taking advantage of her skills lately. However, as I started my interest in the fashion world, I realized how much I wanted to learn actual dressmaking and design. This led me to the Dressmaking and Design program at Penn Foster. It, like the Jewelry Design & Repair program at Ashworth, is a diploma program, so I won't be getting an Associate's Degree or anything like that. But as I reviewed the course materials, I realized this is exactly what I want to do. So I enrolled, and actually began my program today.

I am so excited for these opportunities to learn. I'm very happy that with the Internet, I'm able to do distance learning like this while remaining in the home I love (for the time being - I'm still tempted to start that Apparel Accessory Design Associates Degree in Portland) and keeping my daily schedule pretty close to normal. I'm really not sure how these two programs will turn out, but I'll keep you posted!

Unfortunately, because I've been so busy with this, I haven't made anything new this week. Soon I'll have new arrivals.