Busy times around a Holiday!

I was fortunate enough to spend time at my parents lake house up in northern minnesota, it was sweet I got to take my first propeller plane ride and I didn't freak out. While I was there I spent some time reminiscing in nisswa since there are plenty of things that are still there from my childhood for instance the totem pole in town, the 10 cent horse that I rode as a child is still there and still only costs 10 cents.
We got to see a bunch of friends and family all while relaxing on the lake or around the campfire. There was a bunch of drinking and eating, we went to a meat raffle (explanation: they cover the pool table at a local bar and they display packaged meat and you buy tickets and hopefully get to take a pick of the meats), my husband won a pork tenderloin so we could that up for the whole family and of course his bbq sauce was too spicy for the midwest tongue.


We even did a bit of work, 5 of us helped my father cut down 4 trees that had died over the winter. He was so happy because he would cut down a tree and by the time he was finished making it into firewood we had it packed up on the trailer. I definitely had a lumber jack moment and thought of the tale of Paul Bunyan being back in my homeland of minnesota was amazing.


Before the holiday I was planning and labeling for a yard sale. I got rid of some things but not all of the stuff. So since we have gotten back I have been bagging everything up for the vets to come and pick up on wednesday, donated the books to the library and have put some electronics up on craigs list if you are interested just email me. We have also been doing alot of cooking and eating and relaxing and will be doing more of that the end of this week.

I have been working on more of my art dishes, made one for my mom and one for my sister. I did a vase for my mom that was yellows and greens and it was great she had white and yellow flowers so it matched perfectly. I will be working on more this week, I have some new technique I want to try out.

Checkin in and then checkin out!

So sorry for the lack of posts I have been without a computer for a week as my computer had to go to the doctor AGAIN! Now I am heading off to 1 of the 10,000 lakes for some R&R and well needed family time. Here are a few pix from my NYC trip a week ago and here are some pix of my garden. Have a happy and safe 4th and here is some patriotic inspiration.

Garden Blooming Inspiration

I took these pictures about a week ago and it is amazing how quickly the garden changes in that amount of time. These guys are nearly dead now and the petals are laying everywhere. On the other hand, my vegetables are growing like crazy, I have a bunch of flowers on the tomato plants, a lot of the chilles have already started to weasel their way into the world. Yesterday I was able to pick a few radishes and throw those on a greek salad. The stocks on the green beans are getting really strong and I have a feeling that I will have some many of them I will be handing bags out on the street. Taking the time to watch nature really allows us to store up the inspiration and pull it out when we need it.

Daily Dose of Inspiration-East Coast Part 3

Aaron Rutledge has a great tech blog for everything a geek would want to check out.

Whats Next Blog is a great resource for marketing and SEO information.

Jeffery Zeldman is everything web designer and more with a new look too!

Daily Dose of Inspiration-East Coast Style Part 2

Debonair Mag is a really interesting site that has found a niche with men's fashion and technology and has so far has a nice site and hopefully more content to come.

Bill Mahoney of Willy the Jackass has a great site with food pictures gallour but of course I am biased he is my husband and I have actually eaten most of the food you see there and it is damn good.

Maryann Devine from smArts has a niche blog on marketing the arts that has some great information.

Crafts Part II

Today I started adding the tissue paper to the background and am realizing that it takes quite a bit more so it isn't so see through.





Here are the first few layers.



here are a considerable amount of layers added here. I like the way how when you overlap multiple colors you get interesting combination's

Daily Dose of Inspiration-East Coast Style

Among Many a great technology blog.
Bryan Brinkman has some great cartoons and vidoes.
Feedest is a great site to find great feeds, you can add your feeds as well.
Greg Verdino inspiration for marketing, media, technology and trends.
John Gruber over at Daring Fireball

Back with Some Crafts I have been working on!

These are some bowls that I am working on, here you can see all the random items I have cut out of various publications. I put these on the bowl face to the bowl with a mixture of half glue and half water, inhale if you must.



Here are all my main pictures in place and the next step is the background and sealing that I will have finished and posted of the final product.