Friday Fill-Ins

1. Dancing to the _music of Leonard Cohen or Enya_ while _holding my dh close_ makes me __smile__.

2. The last time I _rode a fast amusement park ride_ I nearly __Threw UP!! (things seem to change as I get older.LOL)__.

3. When I drive I _like to listen to my boys in the back seat_.

4. I saw __our new kitten_ standing __near the door waiting for breakfast__.

5. Give me __Peace___, give me __Joy__, give me _Happiness___.

6. Next week I am looking forward to __relaxing on the beach with family and friends___.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I’m looking forward to _Packing__, tomorrow my plans include _driving to the beach and smelling the salt air as we get closer__ and Sunday, I want to __SWIM and forget about everything not related to being at the beach___!

Self Portrait Challenge

It has been a while since I have had the time to think about the Self Portrait Challenge. But I was on the site yesterday looking at other photos and I think the theme for this month is Shine. Such a cool topic and right up my alley. So here is a picture of me and of one thing that makes me shine and shines in my life, our families life. It is our Full Moon Circle for this month. We have a full and a new moon circle each month. It seems like the last two months have been so tremendously busy that we have not taken time for that. Which is disappointing because we all enjoy it so much and it connects us as a family, doing this together. So here are the candles from this month's Full Moon Circle, cause they make me shine and they shine. And another shining thing in my life, you can see in the background the sun shining in the kitchen window, filling the kitchen with light.

Soul Collage

Last month was a productive one for me at our monthly Soul Collage gatherings. Just a few friends who want to work on Soul Collage cards and share time as friends, chatting and laughing. I am currently working on my Council Suit. Here are three cards I finished up last month:

This card represents the connectedness of things, how I feel connected to my family, friends the earth, and everything around me.

This one represents the joy in my life. Family, friends, my life in general and my place in the scope of things. Everything I surround myself with, wrap myself up in.

This last one represents death. The losses I have felt throughout my life. The longing, the emptiness.

I can RELAX

OK but just for a week.....The Love to Learn Conference was yesterday. It was wonderful. We had such a mix of sessions and homeschoolers and vendors. I love to see that. We had more people attending than last year, more speakers, and a couple more vendors. Just a wonderful day, but exhausting. We hope to move to the Charlotte, NC area next year so if anyone has any ideas for reasonable space please leave me a comment!!! We are really aiming to keep this conference inexpensive for attendees.

I haven't been blogging much the past couple of weeks because I have been so busy with the final details for the conference. BUT now I can get back to normal for a bit, then comes Live and Learn and FLT after that. WHEW!!

But in the now. Phillip created a cool art creation from his hand. Not sure where the inspiration came from but one night he asked if I could make a really good outline of his hand. So I did my best and he added money to it. He called it his coin hand. Here is a picture of his coin hand and his own hand side by side. Very neat.

Recycled Bag

I have been so busy lately getting ready for the Love to Learn Conference and the Live and Learn Conference. But I still manage to carve out a little time for my create outlets. I blogged a bit about the T shirts my boys decided to get rid of. As they were sitting there on the floor I was trying to think of a way to recycle them into something other than rags. I started cutting and cut myself some "yarn". I just trimmed off the bottom hem, then started cutting 1/4-1/2 inch spirals up the body of the T-shirt, and ended when I reached the arms. So each shirt created a good sized ball of yarn. I knotted each ball together as I crocheted and came out with this lovely bag.


I used on of my sons button up, dragon shirts for the liner. Just sewed up the buttons, used one of the short sleeves as a pocked. For my bag it worked out just the right size if I cut the shirt off just under the arms and sewed across that cut. I use the bottom 1/2 of the shirt for the liner. Just sewed it into my bag. Added a button from my mom's button collection.


I love this bag. Love the colors. Any of you from previous Live and Learn Conferences will recognize the tie died blue T shirts in there, I think they were from the St Louis conference. The colors remind me of one of my favorite places, the ocean. Think I will try it out tonight for MNO.