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"When you recover or discover something that nourishes your soul or brings joy,
care enough about yourself to make room for it in your life."
Jean Shinoda Bolen
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May 23, 2009

A NEW favorite item in my craft space

While at the retreat last weekend, I noticed an awesome paper storage system, but unfortunately, the system is no longer available. So, Jeanne & I put our heads together and came up with an alternative. I've had two sets of wire cubes sitting around since I left college, so I put them together, and using those great little slip ties, used some of the components to install shelves in the cubes and viola! 12 x 12 paper storage. I then cut core board to cover the outsides of the cubes & to make the "doors" to prevent sun damage to my paper. Total cost yesterday: $10.88! Everything else was recycled or re-purposed.

This and That

Well, yesterday did not go well. Our old kitty, Varmint was in a cat fight mid-afternoon, and it was almost midnight before we found her and brought her inside. She's been seriously injured, but she's doing a little better today. We're still keeping a close watch on her. I'm just waiting for a decent hour to call the vet for her to get treatment. Last night, I had to call a vet in Great Falls for advice until this morning when she can be seen (hopefully) by one of our local vets. We made the decision that no matter how crazy our three kitties drive us, they are from now on, inside cats. I was heart sick when I saw Varmint. She's almost 15, and only weighs about 4 pounds, and the cat that fought with her was probably closer to 12 pounds. Plus, Gary tells me the truck seriously needs new brakes, which thrills me no end since we've only had the truck since January. I guess that's a pitfall when purchasing a used vehicle! Oh, and the car needs the air conditioning fixed (the car is a 2006!) and needs the tires balanced and rotated. I think that's it for today's list!

Deer up close

During the retreat, one of my favorite things to do in the early evening was to step out the back door of the main hall and watch the deer cross the highway and start feeding.
This picture was as up close with my zoom lens as I could get. I was actually only standing about 15 feet from these deer. They were certainly not tame, but they sure didn't mind people nearby. Don't you just love digital cameras?

Recovery!

Although I've been back from the retreat almost a week now, it's taken me this long to pick up where I left off at home! The retreat was lots of fun, the ladies were full of creative ideas, we stayed up late, and I made lots of new friends! The beds were sort of hard for sleeping (who did much of that anyway?), but the location was amazing and the weather was perfect. St. Thomas Camp is only about two miles from Monarch, and has wonderful accommodations. I was able to finish all my Thanksgiving and Christmas cards for 2009, so now I can play for a while. I started my explosion box, but only got the box itself done, not all the good stuff inside and out. I'm still trying to come up for air, so it may be a while before that project gets done.

Purses 2009

I think this is the perfect birthday card for my dear "niece" Cherinda - who really loves clothes! All the purses are cut out with punches (except the two squares) and put together with small scraps of DP.
Thanks to "dldean" from SCS for the inspiration and purse patterns!