SUMMERTIME - SWAP TIME!

Yesterday I posted about my creativity funk. This morning, my good friend, Vivian Neroni, suggested just the thing to solve it - host a swap! YES! THANKS, VIV! You are better than VITAMINS! I've thought a lot today about what SORT of swap I'd be interested in hosting this time, & KNEW I wanted it to have something to do with Summer because I figured no one would EXPECT that considering I don't 'specially LIKE the season. (Understatement of the year.) But I did the typical Virgo thing and made some lists of words and memories the season evoked. The list of weather-related words ALMOST made me change my mind. LOL! Then I thought of songs which had Summer IN them. Naaaaawwww! Activities? Hmmm ... that didn't do it for me UNTIL I added READING to the list. In school, we ALWAYS had a Summer reading list. YOU KNOW THE ONE! If you were an avid reader, you delighted in it, and read everything ON it even tho' you were required to read only 1 or 2 of the books. If you were more the outdoorsy type, you either forced yourself (or your PARENTS forced you) to read what was required. And if you somehow managed to get through the season without so much as cracking a book, you either crammed one in at the last second or walked back into the next grade with a swagger that said, "I didn't read any stinkin' book! I was BUSY!" Whether you were or were not a big fan of reading during your school years, surely at SOME point in your life you've read one or more books during the lazy part of a hot Summer day. Do you remember one well? Did any book stay with you & evoke feelings and memories? If it DID, here is a swap for YOU! Choose one book you read & recall, and INTERPRET something ABOUT that book in an art form. Are you a doll maker? Perhaps you'll make a character from the book. A painter? A mixed media artist? Do you work with clay? Metal? Paper? Beads? You will be sending your swap partner these things:
1. Either a COPY of the book OR - if it's difficult to obtain - a good synopsis of the story,
2. Your art piece & a VERY brief explanation (you want your art to SPEAK to your partner WITHOUT too much explanation)
and
3. One small, inexpensive bought item that is mentioned MORE THAN ONCE in the book you are interpreting.
Also, although OPTIONAL, you can send a list of other books you read & suggest as great summer reading!
From tomorrow - June 1 - through Friday - June 12 - I will accept sign-ups. Do this by emailing me at kola54@sbcglobal.net. Make SURE you send me YOUR correct email address as well as your name & mailing address. On the 16th of July - a Thursday - I will email you your partner's name & address & on the 18th of July - a Saturday - you will mail to her. I think it will be more fun this time if you prepare your swap piece and package BEFORE you know who your partner is. I will assure everyone that ALL the people who sign up will be great swappers and NO ONE will be slighted! AND I have some lil' surprises planned for this swap! So! What do you think? Did I READ you all right? Are some of you ready to delve into your shelves (or at least your MEMORIES) and pull out a fave Summer book? GREAT! Sign up and get in on the fun! And if you DO sign up, please click onto the related link to the right side of this blog & put it on YOUR blog! Now, I think I need to go find a good novel & settle in for some reading. I'll be waiting for you, Swappers!

WELL, NOW! HERE IS MY DILEMMA ...

I have what I consider a really NICE craft room. It holds all my doodads & thingies & has a big work space where I can leave half-finished projects out instead of putting everything away, and yet ... despite all that, I have a lil' problem. I cannot for the LIFE of me, seem to get inspired and actually MAKE something. I know we all go through 'dry' periods where creativity is concerned. And I know those are sometimes prompted by exhaustion (I'm not exhausted) trauma (NAWWWWW!) external issues, etc. Whatever the reason (and, yes! I DO know what prompted this but it shouldn't have knocked the creativity clear OUT of me) I feel EMPTY. Does this happen to any of you? I thought about starting a Yahoo group - even had it set up! It was going to be called Speaking Fluent Art because I believe whatever anyone THINKS is art, IS art! It was to be a non-public group, by invitation only, & I had the idea to invite people who worked in ALL genres (that includes many of YOU, my dear & talented blogger friends) and mesh everyone into a group that would share all SORTS of cool tricks & techniques so we could carry OUR version of those into OUR art, and do neat challenges where we'd be given a topic and each of us would interpret that topic in whatever artistic manner we felt. Lots more ideas - but I dissolved the group before I even TOLD anyone about it. LOL! I admit I am gun shy as far as groups go because - well - because. Do I sound like a rambling idiot? That's how I FEEL. What I want to know, please, is how do all of YOU handle it when you run into a brick wall? Someone give me a good swift kick in the brain, please & jump start my creativity. Anyone? Help????

AND OUTSIDE WE HAVE ...

OKAY! Here it is - the continuation of the post just BELOW this. Sigh ...
Some of these photos were taken from inside the screened in patio so that will explain the fuzziness. Here is the very back of the yard where this week I intend to add some colorful potted flowers between the trees.

You can see I have a Hummingbird feeder - no takers yet - and a small hanging birdbath.

I bought THIS sign just for the birdies. LOL!

My Geranium is doing well! I have ALWAYS loved Geraniums!

I bought this collection of succulents because it included a String of Pearls plant! YEARS ago a friend gave me a cutting of one but failed to tell me it was in the cactus family & I watered it to death. Ooops! THIS time I know better!

I'd intended to get a big birdbath here but already had the chair & the container so I utilized those. Tomorrow or Tuesday I plan to plant EITHER pole beans, Sweet Peas, or Honeysuckle near the chair & train the vines to go around the chair legs & back. Any suggestions about which will do best?

I'd JUST about decided to toss this attempt at growing ginger when I saw that it has some new risons so THAT means it's growing properly! Wooohoooo! ALL have some, but the tallest piece near the Geranium pot has several - one above the dirt & 2 under. Ta-da!

I had begun calling THIS the Charlie Brown tomato plant because it was really VERY straggly when Ray brought it home. Now it has flowers and appears to be TRYING to produce some tomatoes!

This is my pride & joy! My bell peppers have newborns & LOTS of flowers which promise MORE baby peppers! YUM!

The jalepenos are doing well, too! They have tons of teeny peppers. I feel salsa coming on!

We have multiple containers of radishes, cucumbers, and leaf lettuce. These are radishes about halfway to full growth and scallions I planted way too close together. I will plant more and THIS time do it properly. Bad Kai!

Another view of the pepper pots.

And then there are the tomato plants! WOW! They are producing like CRAZY! We have 3 which are trying to ripen and a BUNCH of babies! I intend to start several more, as well as new onions, more cilantro (mine died, tho' the mint thrived) some catnip if I can EVER find some seeds, basil, chives, etc. And at the end of August I will plant greens & cabbage which do BEAUTIFULLY in the Autumn months here! OMG! I'm turning into a Farmer Girl! And guess what? I LOOOOOOVE IT!

WHERE'S WALDO ... UH ... KAI?

I'm right here! Hi, everybody! I've missed you all LOADS and I've ALMOST caught up with your blogs except for a couple which are being mean & not letting me comment. WAAAAHHHH! Because I took a bunch of new photos, I think I'll most likely have to do two or three back-to-back posts because I seriously doubt Blogger will allow me to have so many on one post. Here are my first ones. This is a shelf that was sitting empty in the hallway (Ray put it together and - as ALWAYS - turned one shelf upside down. Sigh.) Anyway, I moved it (cattywampus shelf & all) into the den/dining area & put some stuff on it.

We have this small table between our recliners & it was getting rather overloaded with the phone plus remotes, glasses, etc. At first I made a thing with pockets to put over the armrests of the chairs but I didn't like it. Sooooo, I pulled out my trusty - what else - FELT - and made this. Here is Ray's side with pen & pencil for his puzzle search book addiction, and places for his book & glasses.

And here is my side with the remotes & my glasses. May not be so pretty but it does the trick!

Finally, here is what I'm working on. I actually started it the 2nd week we were here but obviously haven't finished. It's on this week's agenda! LOTS more work needed!

Now I will stop THIS post & start a new one and of course they'll be out of sequence. But you all know I am out of sequence in ALL things anyway. LOL!

PICTURES

Here are a BUNCH of photos of the new house. I HAD captions but YouTube ATE them. The original PHOTOS are CLEAR & GOOD but the slideshow SUCKS. LOL! Still, hopefully you can see a bit of where I live now! I know I owe EVERYONE emails & I have not yet gotten to blogs, but I am slowly catching up! Really, truly I am! LOVE YOU ALL & WILL GET MY ACT TOGETHER SOOOON!



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHGDuhWKdXM

LOOK OUT! I'M BACK ON THE COMPUTER!

OH, NOOOOOO! The MOUTH has returned to computer-land! I was supposed to be back online the 29th of April, but there was a snafu thanks to some major flooding in our area. Arrrrrggghhh! We JUST got our U-Verse, phone, and internet 2 hours ago. I will be blogging AND emailing asap - most likely tomorrow - but wanted to pop in and say I missed you all sooooo much! Lots to share and even more to catch up on from all of you! Here are two peeks at the house as it was about 2 weeks ago. Much more added and switched about since then, but thought I'd show you these. HOPE EVERYONE IS DOING GREAT!!!!