A cure for ants in the pants

Sometimes I get "ants-in-my-pants" and after having my seat planted in front of the computer photoshopping for too long yesterday... I got a little stir crazy in the rump and the head. I grabbed Tim, Annie (our dog), some beat-up towels, and the car keys and headed for our favorite hidden forest hot springs. It was the relaxing magic we needed. Tim read “The Name of the Wind” to me as a warm wind dropped pine needles into the pool. We sank in and let the little warm waterfall and the slick, soft moss against our skin pull us into a blissful trance while Annie stood guard for squirrels.

We hiked back to the car and decided to drive further up the mountain and explore a bit, happily plowing through piles of snow until we met one that was too deep ...we really should have seen that coming. We were high-centered. The weather had been toasty so Tim had taken the tire chains and snow shovel out of the car last week. We had a camping shovel the size of a spatula and a windshield brush to clear all the snow out from under the car. Nearly two hours later, and surprisingly invigorated, we plowed ourselves out. Today the ants are gone and the snow chains are back in the car.

Starting on a new kit

Since Baby Bee Garden came out last week I am working on 3 different kits. I’m not sure which one will work its way out next. I just watched Spirited Away again and it has been stirring up beautiful, cloud-filled ideas in me so I’m going to have to do something in that direction.

Here’s a couple new pages I photographed, photoshopped, and painted this week.




I like skies. My DH moved out West from Chicago. He likes looking at mountains. I have always lived in the mountains but skies are so huge back in the flat Midwest. They make my insides feel eager and tingly watching the wind push the sky around. Big blue mountains dragging tattered clouds behind them are definitely pretty. But a storm sneaking up on you from a distant horizon is really thrilling. Those voluminous storm clouds are kind of the Great Plain’s version of mountains in my mind.

These papers are skies whispering at me to look out. The sky with the circle forming is how I felt yesterday. Something is happening or has to happen, it could be something big or it could just blow over, it could be refreshing and exhilarating or it could be scary. Could.

It looks like IE8 is not treating this blog as it should, while IE7 and Firefox are being just peachy. If the page keeps blinking out (and you can read this) you might want to switch browsers. I’m trying to fix this.

My first Blog

Hi, this is my first ever blog.

I mentioned to my friend and CT member Dani3 that I would like to have a blog someday and blinkety blink she sent me this. It's beautiful and a little scary. Once I get it all figured out I will be basically writing out what's going on in my noggin as I'm putting together my next kit. This should be fun. Thanks for visiting.