Hi Ho, Hi Ho

It’s off to camping we go.

When last I left you I was headed off to Newport, OR for the wonderful Paper Arts Festival. It was great. I loved getting to see everyone again and meeting new folks. The classes were well received and folks made absolutely lovely books.  Thanks to all the delightful folks in my workshops.

Unfortunately, it was pollen season and I came down with a roaring sinus infection. That kind of knocked me out of the loop for a while. I took antibiotics and got better . And then it got worse. I couldn’t breath. It was awful and I was miserable. The Mailman did a run to the drugstore and signed a note swearing that he wouldn’t use the medicine he was buying to make illegal drugs. He got me Mucinex D by way of a recommendation from the pharmacist. And it worked, hallelujah!!!!!! Boy, you don’t know how wonderful breathing through your nose is until you can’t do it.

Then my mother-in-law slipped in the bath tub and suffered a compression fraction of the L1 in her spine. I became nurse and housekeeper. While she was pretty good about it all, I don’t take well doing either one of those jobs. She was with us for about 5 days, weaning herself off of the stronger medications so that she could drive herself around and get back to her life, at least a bit.

After that came the Focus On Books Conference. Again, it was lovely to see old friends and make new ones. The books that were created in class were fabulous. We didn’t get as much sewn on the books as I had hoped but I learned that I was going to have to push a little harder and just warn folks that time is precious and flies quickly.

So now, the Mailman and me are going to spend the 4th at our property trying to build a permanent deck as a place for our tent. I’m not really looking forward to it but working with the Mailman tends to be fairly fun, even jobs I don’t like. Take for example, painting the picket fence. Not a fun job. There was no one to lure into working ala Tome Sawyer. But it wasn’t too bad doing it with the Mailman. So now we have a nice white fence again. At least, most of it got painted. There are still a couple of areas that need paint but it all looks good on the outside.

I hope I can keep that positive attitude thing going the whole time we are there. The thought of four days without electricity or water other than what we haul in, just doesn’t charm me. The Mailman assures me that we can run into town ( a mere 10 miles) to get anything. But I just don’t relish the thought of facing folks after a few days of heat and dust and no shower. Not exactly the face I want to show the world. I have a recipe for dry shampoo that I’m going to try out as I can’t go but a few days without washing my hair. I hope this stuff works.

And I’m not taking my computer as it gets really dusty dirty out there. Did I say dusty? Well, it’s not so bad on our part of the property but our friend, who owns the other half, cleared out a lot of growth building his place (yes, he has a house…...but still no water and the electricity is supplied by a generator. It’s okay but not how I want to go). He wants us to learn from his mistake and yes, we have. Did I say it gets dusty? I mean really dusty. So it is not a kind environment for computers. So it will be staying home.

But I will be taking some art supplies. I am being tough a leaving most of the stuff at home. I am only going to take:

• Watercolor pencils

• One mechanical pencil with eraser

• One pencil sharpener

• Six Twinkling H20’s

• Two Niji water brushes, in small and medium

• One fine tip Uni-ball Vision pen in black

• One glue stick

• My packet with paper journal from Teesha Moore’s JournalFest

• The latest issue of Cloth, Paper, Scissors

• The latest issue of Mary Jane’s Farm Journal

I guess the Mary Jane's Journal doesn't really count as an art supply but with its charming illustrations and yummy layouts, it should.   That’s it, I told myself that I had to limit what I brought and use my imagination more. I’ll share the results after I get back. That should spur me into more drawing.

I’m going to take a couple books as well but I limited those also.

And Eldest Son is going to house sit for us, making sure the cats and plants outside stay alive. It is always nice to know that things are well taken care of here. Produce Guy threatened to have a party while we are gone. I told him to go ahead but just make sure to clean up afterwards and don’t make the cops come over. Took all the fun out of the idea with cleaning up afterwards. But he was only joking, anyway. At least I hope he was only joking. I leave you all with a picture of my dear, sweet granddaughter, Ylaiza. Got to give you something pretty to look at, right?

So go forth and celebrate this fabulous idea of democracy we call the United States. Be safe. Be well.