"For a fine Sunday in Bath empties every house of its inhabitants, and all the world appears on such an occasion to walk." (Northanger Abbey)

What a tumult of emotions! These past few weeks have been a series of ups and downs and lefts and rights and I am still too drained to completely understand what's going on. I can't even really expand on the situation further, except to say that in trying to help others, I've ended up more stressed in my own personal life than I needed to be.

Happy thoughts, happy thoughts... Hmmm. We did get to the beach this weekend and last. Ever notice how when you go through the trouble of making a trip to enjoy beautiful weather, the climate doesn't necessarily adhere to your plans? We drove down to Point Pleasant last week, and it was hazy and cloudy and the water was freezing. The beach was crowded, and we ended up crammed together like sardines. So we chose a quieter beach this past weekend, figuring that Belmar would offer some sanctuary and more space to enjoy the beauty of the ocean. Except that it was about sixty degrees, cloudy, and very windy. We needed sweaters. And that was MOSTLY because we got there after a three hour crawl through traffic, missing all of the prime sunshine. But it was definitely more relaxing than the previous trip and much less crowded.

And now it's over ninety degrees, humid, hot and muggy. Perfecct time to be at the beach, where it's slightly cooler and I'm sure the water is MUCH warmer now! :) But of course, we have no more plans to venture down the shore until the end of August... When it'll probably rain instead. Figures, no?

So in all this stress, I am not really happy with the creative work I've come up with, but here are some of the things I have finished.

(This was for Karmyn's Think Outside the Box challenge at the Shoe)

(This was made for a CafeMom challenge using a sketch from 52 Sketches)

(And this two page layout was done for July's Basic Grey kit, which I got from Scrap-A-Doodle Doo...)