Not feeling well at all today - slept in late and took naps, but finally felt like getting out, so I went down to Mutiny Bay at the boat ramp. The county has been trying to keep the ramp clear of sand, but it's an on-going battle, for sure. They had pushed piles and piles of sand away - there were tire tracks and a big mess everywhere. And, with the next high tide, it will all wash back onto the ramp anyhow!

But I liked the way the water seeps out of the beach and races for the waves, passing a brightly colored oyster shell on it's way.

THURSDAY, MARCH 13, 2008

I've come down with one of those miserable colds, and didn't even pick up my camera, so am offering something from one of my favorite artists:

Studio Notes from Laura Cater Woods.

"The hardest thing is to make this little space for yourself where you can think and not get inundated with other stuff coming in." Catherine Yass

And there's the issue for so many of us, eh? To intentionally take the time and use the energy required to be still, to be quiet, to think our thoughts and make our observations - without getting distracted by the must do, should do, ought to do lists of everyday obligations. As we approach the Vernal Equinox (hooray! The official beginning of Spring in the Northern Hemisphere), think about renewal. What would that mean to you in your personal life and in your creative life? What gifts of time and space can you create for yourself that will allow you to reconnect with the spark that keeps you aware and that makes you want to express that awareness through your creativity? Setting aside the time needed for renewal is so difficult sometimes. If it is hard for you, try this: First make an appointment with yourself. Then, using a kitchen timer set to 5-10 minutes. It is your task to just sit and look out the window or -anything- just sit and be, for the 5-10 minutes. Do this several days in a row. Then extend by five minutes. As you find yourself getting annoyed when the timer goes off, you will know the exercise is working for you.

"Observe 'what is' with undivided awareness." Bruce Lee

Tonight was our Basket Guild meeting, above is Sally and Bill Roeder, our guest speaker. He studied in Germany, learning about skeined willow basketry. Sally is holding a tiny example. Bill spoke to us last year, and you can see some photos from that time if you click on his name.

Unfortunately, our president, who has the only key to the museum where we meet, didn't show up, so we waited in the parking lot for a while, but finally gave it up.

Ginnie and I went to a near-by restaurant for a little treat and some visiting, which was really nice.

At our Book Club meeting, Cathi had a poster printed, showing her bookshelf with a bunch of our books on it. It was supposed to have been done for the library exhibit, but it was late. It is a great poster, but no one was quite sure what to do with it!
Robin, Cathi and Karen listening to Candace talk about the book, "A Short History of Nearly Everything", by Bill Bryson. It is almost an encyclopedia, with a story from the Big Bang to right now. Bryson is a very entertaining author, and presents a tongue-in-cheek viewpoint that really gets you to look at things in a different way. Only a few readers made it all the way through, but it's the kind of book you can pick up and read a chapter here or there, and most of the rest of us had read parts of it. Everyone highly recommended this book!

It was a very low tide, and the sky was half full of clouds. I was trying to capture the light over the water as I saw it when I was driving by, but by the time I drove to the beach and parked, the light had changed and became ho-hum. With the wide expanse of beach, the birds were having a field day, prying the clams loose from the muck, carrying them aloft, then letting them drop onto the boat ramp. Broken shells littered the beach, but their insides were so beautiful!

Amy's eyes are so pretty, I've been trying to get a good close-up to show the color. For some reason, she objects to having a camera lens an inch away from her eye, so it's quite a challenge for her and for me. But this one came out pretty well, and I'll keep trying.

I received another photo journal from my Photo Art group. This one is "Have A Heart", and Catherine made it into a tag book, cutting the corners off the photos and punching a hole to make them like tags, and binding with a large ring. She added a heart charm and fun fibers, too. The challenge was to find or make a heart shape, and it was very fun. One of my photos is the driftwood log, below. It's kind of a stretch to see the heart shape, but it was fun to go out looking. I really wanted to find a heart-shaped rock, like you can see in the photo above, but do you think I could find one?? Then, I had an idea to find a tree with a heart carved in it, and went looking for that, but couldn't find one of those, either! Later, a friend told me where to find one, and I'll go and get a photo of it and add it to my book.

HA!! Daylight savings time rears it's ugly head again today! I'm not quite sure why it annoys me so much - maybe it's because there is no logical reason to disrupt a whole nation. In the whole political scheme of things, this may be small potatoes, but I don't know why it even IS.

Here's my new key-ring. It was one of the projects I made at the Whidbey Weaver's Guild meeting last Thursday, and I actually picked it up and finished it at home! So often those projects that get started at a meeting just sit and wait for me to finish them! I always want to, but sometimes they get put away, and then I forget. But, sometimes I do get them done! Like this one!