Learning New Skills

I have never been super good at trying new things. Trying ot learn new skills is not my favorite, but I really wanted to push myself this year, so I'm trying to step out.

I have been interested in cover design for quite a while now, but my skills are not very refined, so a friend of mine, Jessica Greyson, offered to teach me. She's a professional designer, scary good at her job, and delightful to work with. Right now I'm learning some of the very basic things; how much space to leave, what fonts to use, what images really make a good cover. I've made three covers for one book so far, and just now am finally feeling like I'm making progress. =) Also, I never knew how much work went into really good covers, so I aprechiate good covers a lot more now. I didn't think I would like learning this so much, but I am loving it!

I am also learning how to train our puppy, Belle. She's an adorable handful, and actually has a pretty good attention span for how young she is. I don't know a lot about training, but my sister is teaching me as we go along. I was able to teach Belle to go home (which constitutes her running up onto our deck), which was so satisfying after all the work we've been doing with her.

And while sometimes cover designing sessions end up with me crying in frustration, and training with Belle sometimes just means going out and petting her, both have been to rewarding to stop.

What are some new things you've been learning lately?