My design skills are limited to the rule of three, sending white space to the outside, and the eye line rule. Years ago, I used Pagemaker to help students design school newspapers (relying on their design skills as mine are nonexistent). Then I learned HTML and began creating web pages with Dreamweaver. I added Photoshop to my bag of tricks, though I still struggled.

When I started blogging and using wordpress, I didn’t need much HTML. Pages on my Mac came with templates. And even photos needed little work to use online.Somewhere along the way, I stopped designing much of anything.This year, I’ve had to create small ads for my writing studio for our local newspaper, and without a program, I’ve limited myself to text in a white box. Exciting.

Today I tried to create a flier to advertise a new class I’ll be offering, and I realized I have nothing on my computer to help me do that. I used a template but wasn’t able to change the background or move photos around. Grrrr.

Oh, the headline to this post? As I sat here working, I realized I have 5 paintings of different river views in my room–one oil, three acrylics, and one water color. Each has its own perspective for design and color, all beautiful.

I think it may be time to invest in some learning again.