Shepherd's Harvest

Shepherd's Harvest was wonderful this year- great sunny days and no rain on Fri. setting up (yea).  Nice customers both new and old.  It's always nice to have someone say that  they loved what they bought last year.  There were some new vendors that I enjoyed getting to know. I have some pics of our set up at the show and of the trailer loaded after the show (soap,honey, candles yet to be put in).  The back of the vehicle is also loaded like anyones going on a trip with out suicases, cooler, projects, snacks.                               Haven't kept up with posting and I am going to make an effort to post at least weekly.  Will have some pics soon to show you as I'm very excited to be going to the Wool Festival at Estes Park, Co. June 9-10 and then on to my favorite city Santa Fe, NM.  I plan on visiting fiber shops  along the way as I encounter them and will let you know what wonderful things I find,  

SPRING IS HERE-AGAIN

When I moved into this house several years ago there was a grapevine wreath in the alcove going out the living room door onto the porch and birds had built a nest there.  The previous owners said birds had nested there for several years raising their young.  I had 5 cats at the time and as the first spring came for me 3 of those cats would stand at the windowed door onto the deck and watch the birds.  A pair of birds came and must have noticed my cats with "lunch" expressions watching them and decided to go elsewhere to rasise their young.  By last year I was down to 2 cats and they were content to lay on the back of the couch.  A pair of birds came and 3 eggs were laid and sat upon but one morning I looked out to find them broken and empty on the deck. So again I have birds that nested , laid eggs and now there are 2 baby birds growing up in the nest. It will be a joy to watch them grow and hopefully nothing interferes with their reaching adulthood.   

RIVERDANCE

Riverdance was AWESOME- Two friends went with me Sat to see the show at the Wharton Center in East Lansing.  The intricate footwork/dancing was amasing.  It was dizzying watching their feet/legs move.  I have the tape of their preformance but live is so much better. This is their final tour in the USA so I am so glad I got to see them.  The hard work it takes for them to get to dance at this level boggles my mind.  While I knew when I was 3-4 years old that I wanted to be a nurse I didn't have to do anything special except study in school and get decent grades, which was expected of me no matter what I wanted to be.  But these dancers started learning to dance/train when they were 3-4 years old!  They had competitions to win and always new steps and dances to learn while the rest of us were playing.  Such dedication to their dreams from such an early age amazes me.  How many people are in college today not knowing what they want to be when they "grow up" but these dancers knew at an early age what they wanted to be in life and went after it.  I thank them for the joy they give those of who are fortunate to watch them. 

The Road Less Traveled

This morning I was looking out my kitchen window and watched my young neighbor start off for school.  He is a 3rd or 4th grader and typical for a young boy he chose not to walk down the driveway that had only about and inch of snow but walked thru the yard with more than a foot of snow with higher drifts.  At times he really struggled to get thru the drifts but he trugged on and made it to the road and then ran off down the road.  It reminded me that as creative people we need to sometimes go not down the roads that  are easy and known to us but to try new things even if we struggle at first learning a new technique.  The pictures I took near Brimley,MI a few weeks ago when I went up there to visit friends.  Snow covered and beautiful.

Lucky Day

At 11a.m. I went to the Secretary of States offfice to see if I needed to get a new title for my car now that I have it payed off. I walked in and there was no one sitting in the chairs or leaning against the wall waiting, no one at the counter having their business being taken care of.  An unheard of  occurance  was that there was no one in the office but the clerk behind the desk and me!!!  There have always been people waiting whenever I went in to get my driver's license renewed or new plates no matter the day of the week or time of  day,  Another part of my Lucky Day was enjoying the sun streaming thru the car windows and when I was out walking.  Beautiful SUN.  Have not seen enough of the sun this winter so I enjoy it when it is here. 

Taxes are done and so is ACLS

I have spent a portion of most of my days off this month studying for ACLS (advanced cardiac life support).  It is something as an er nurse that I have to recert in every 2 years, and I always stress about it.  Real life situations are different than the testing and as I get older I like tests less and less.  So the good news is that I am done for 2 years,yahoo, and should only have to take it once more before I (hopefully) retire.  Still have to do the Pediatric equivelant of acls this fall and trauma course next year. I spent Friday evening surfing blogs on the net.  It was so nice to not have anything I had to study for or do.   My taxes are done and ready to take to accountant Tue.  Spent the weekend doing them.  I really need to do the paperwork at least every month  instead of tying up 2 days getting it together.  I always start out good in Jan. (easy as there are few receipts to keep tract of) but by the time I'm done with the first fiber show I tend to forget all about entering the info into the ledger! I was happy with how the show year ended so now I have to spend Feb creating since I haven't gotten anything done in Jan.   The bracelets and pins/brooches sold very well so need to  make more of those.  Have some ideas for different designs that I need to try out.     

Two for Tuesday-Books made into Movies

Two recent movies that have been made from books are THE HELP by Kathryn Stockett and THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO by Steig Larsson. Both of them are on my list to read and see. Will have to rent The Help as it's no longer at my local theater but hope The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo stays here until next week so I can see that on "the big screen". Everyone that I've talked to that has read or seen either or both books/movies have loved them. One of the docs I work with had rented the Swedish film with subtext and he loved it and now we have it out in English so that's even better. The Help is Kathryn Stockett's first book but Steig Larsson wrote two other books before he died, The Girl Who Played With Fire and The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets Nest and they are on my list to read also.