Busy Work

I have been busy for several days trying to get ready to go to an art retreat. Organizing the supplies for the workshops have taken up much of the time. Deciding how to get all the stuff from here to there was a problem for me. I finally bought a new set of luggage. The largest and smallest piece I will use to pack my clothing. The second largest will carry items I have been busy with the rest of my time-making art items for the artists sale on Friday night. Having not attended a retreat before, I have no idea what to take to sell. I will have to see how the things I made sells. I might be rather out of touch with what will sell, since we have been out of the Gallery seven years. I will have a better idea after this retreat. I bought a tool bag on wheels to take the stuff I need for the amazing quilt workshop. It is big enough to carry everything I am hoping, even my sewing machine. If not, I will just pare down. I put all the tools and supplies I need for the silversmithing workshop in my bag I have used for years to carry stuff back and forth from work. So, so far, I will have five bags full of stuff to load into the car. Won't that be fun? At least three of them have wheels so that should help. All of this has been therapeutic for me, giving me something to focus on besides the same oh same oh. Only four more days till I leave!

Bubba and I took pictures of the wild flowers on one of our morning strolls. I will have to download them as soon as I get some time. I am campaigning for a new camera. I can't believe mine is outdated already. I want one that can take better pictures with more pixels, but is still a point and shoot easy to use camera.

Tomorrow, I am going to make a carrying case for my laptop. I have this idea in mind so I hope it works for me and will keep my laptop safe when I am traveling. That will make one more bag for me to load! Plus, I have a small camera bag too. Whew!

Hanging Out

I am not doing anything responsible this whole week. I had assumed I would be on vacation now. But, life has a way of interfering with plans. So I am at home. I decided to take a "home vacation." So I am not doing one single required thing. I have read, and read, and read. I have hung out on the net. I have organized some supplies for an art retreat I am going to at the end of June. Bubba and I have taken some walks. I actually got to use my new scanner and am delightfully surprised at how easy it is to use. I am doing a bit of artwork. I do miss my family though. Not the vacation I had planned on, but better than nothing. I am getting geared up to start my own happiness project. Having a happy vacation is a step in the right direction.

I do have plans once my vacation is over. I need to spring clean a few areas. I might try to sell some stuff on the net. Not on ebay but there are other places, like ksl.com classifieds. I want to make some art pieces I can sell. I wish I had some now, as I could take them to my art retreat for sellers night. I want to bake cinnamon rolls! Yum! I want to go "junking" in the second-hand stores for stuff to use in my art. I want to straighten up my end of the garage. This is just a partial list of my want to's. I will surely have more to follow. Oh, yes, I want to journal a bit more. I will continue to read and compute. I am thinking seriously of buying a new camera with more pixals. Mine is only 2.5 and now they have cameras up in the double digit range. I need to learn to use my photoshop elements program first, maybe. Well, I am off to enjoy my vacation again...a good read is coming up!

Happiness Projects

I think I need to start a new happiness project of some sort. I have researched some on the net. They all have to do with positive attitudes and positive thinking and all that stuff. I have practiced some of that on an off for years. It is kinda like exercising, you have to do more and more and more in order for it to work. Eventually, you are spending all your time on it. I think feelings have much to do with how you behave. I know I cannot be creative when I am tired. Nor can I be as creative when I am experiencing sadness. However, when I think about it, most of my poems have been written while in the throes of dealing with sadness. So maybe it is that certain areas of creativity are disabled by certain types of feelings. Disappointments also affect a persons happiness and creativity.
My happiness project needs to focus on not allowing outside influences like negative feelings to affect how I feel and so not affect my creativity. Being visually creative is what makes me happy. I will need to work on this some more.
Here's a start:

I see the many wild flowers
Here and there on my wild and untouched rocky land.
Deeply purple sage types growing by the rock wall.
Bright hot yellow buttercup looking flowers sweeping across the sage flats
And bouncing cheerily in the breezes.
Brilliant orange blooms on sage green stems of the mallow plants can be seen at random.
Tiny mounds of the desert daisies, like blobs of pale, pale pink dot the desert pavement here and there.
The glowing white beauty of the primroses and the pink tinges they turn into as they die at random are within view.
Ah, what are these majestic looking pinkish purple flowers and those white bushy looking ones over there?
And where do they come from, all these beauties, that light up the environment with such sweeps of color
Set off by the great clumps of dull green sage bushes, wild clumps of grasses, and of course, the cactus' that will soon bloom.
Too, there is the wild onions delicate globes of white blooms on tiny stems.
The beauty of these wild flowers are unmatched, are given by nature freely, are a true source of happiness for those who want to see.
Happiness might be encouraged with simple things like wildflowers accepted gratefully.