All About Jen

hi there – I’m Jen.  Welcome to my blog.

This year I have started a Uni degree, studying Bachelor of Graphic Design (minoring in Advertising and Marketing) at University of Canberra.  Prior to that, I was at home with the kids for 8 years and running my handmade business on the side for 6 years of that.  At the end of 2009, I wound up the handmade business and relaunched Red Instead as a graphic and web design business.

I have three great kids – Sam is 17, Jack is 9 and Emma is 6. Sam is a brilliant artist, in Year 12 and biding his time till he can finish school, move to Japan and be an anime artist. He also has Asperger’s Syndrome which makes life interesting for all of us.  Jack is very loud and loves to read books of facts – he has a brilliant general knowledge and is right into Maths and Science. He loves Lego and Mythbusters and anything the Top Gear team do. Emma is growing up fast and she is in first grade this year. She talks a lot and loves to play games where I am the vet and she brings all her toys to me for a checkup, or she is a hairdresser and I am the customer.  My husband is Paul and we are mad about each other. We only got married a few years ago even though we’ve been together for about 14 years! He is wonderful and we make a great team!

I have been writing in this blog since October 2005.  I’ve been blogging since 1997 – well before weblog was even a word, since before Blogger or any other program existed.    Fast forward to now – in April 2010, I decided that I really needed to start fresh so I have made the big decision to change the status of the bulk of the old posts to “private” which means they are still here, but you just can’t see them (and neither can Google).   You can read more about why I have done this in the post I wrote called Blog 2.0.

I have a house I really enjoy and a garden that needs lots of work.  I also like to take photos with my digital SLR. I have a million things I want to do but not enough time.  I am learning to pace myself, manage my time and work out my priorities and goals.