meet....

The Rock Family.
Freshly decorated for halloween.
They have names...just cannot remember them...but Hannah knows. :)

been busy...

Well, I am still here. Just busy. Yep, busy.

I have been making stuff for my church craft sale - bath salts and craft aprons. Bath salts, done. Craft aprons, started.

I had decided to make bath salts this year due to a suggestion from Julie. I already had scents (essential oils) , glycerin and soap colorant so I really only needed epsom salts and sea salt. So Hannah and I whipped up a trial batch, combining recipes I found on the internet. One of the sites - and only one mind you - suggested drying the mixture in the oven at low temps. So i did.

Big mistake.

First the salts started to melt.
Second, my house stunk up. And bad.
I took it all outside to sit and dry. It dried up fine but I think the smell was baked into my oven. Then I put all my baking sheets into the dishwasher and the dishwasher stunk every time I opened it.

Chris was not happy.
I tossed it all.

Well, I started thinking about it and decided i would make it all outside in disposable pans.

So I did.
Three batches - lavender, honey cucumber and honey almond.




Now it is time to start on the aprons - making them from dishtowels. Hopefully they go quickly.

What else have I been doing other than shopping for and crafting items??? Well, there has been my photo assignment. Yep, my photo assignment. To find letters made from things in nature. Or at least things that are not supposed to be letters. Like this:



So those would be a Z and a J. Why you ask? Because it was a challenge posted on my photo message board and it was fun. So while hannah and friend were wandering around the overly crowded Apple Festival with cell phones attached to their hips, I was wandering around a junk yard having fun looking for letters. Much more fun if you ask me.

So that is for now. Bath salts, aprons and photo letters. Not very exciting.

still here..

Hi just a quickie post.

My back is doing much better. Tomorrow I am going to start exercising again.. I am going to power walk and work back up to 3 miles. but I will hold off on running again. I think I am going to give it up. We will see.

Also doing yoga 2x per week - I think I could get addicted to it.

Hannah has a cold.

I am running a scavenger hunt for middle school youth at church tonight so I need to run and get organized.

Sorry, no picture today.

stalking the mighty blue heron....

Went for a walk this morning and when i was almost home, I saw a blue heron sitting on my neighbors dock - 2 docks to the left of ours. I ran home, grabbed my camera, slapped the 70mm-300mm lens on it and ran back down to the docks.

And he was still there.

Now, normally when I do this, he takes off as soon as I come running and gasping anywhere close. But he let me shoot and shoot pictures of him. Of course the sun was rising behind him so they weren't great, but still.

So here he is - sleeping I believe.

Now I am waiting and waiting for him to take off flying.....I want to catch him spreading his wings...but I get distracted by my faithful companion, Tiger the mighty bug hunter...

and he takes off while I am not looking.

But wait! He flys over to the other side of my dock and perches right on the end of the abandoned dock. So I head over there and catch a few more shots. Once again, he just keeps hanging out, not worrying about me at all.

Of course, my faithful companion is still with me. Kinda of.

And I get brave and head down the dock. 2 steps, stop, shoot. 2 steps, stop, shoot.
Finally he decides enough is enough and off he goes....

still here...

Ok, I've not posted for a while.

Sorry.

Hurt my back loading the camper last friday and am only sitting at the computer for limited amounts of time. Chris thinks I need to stop running - he thinks that is causing my disc compression issues. Could be. I do have a tender back alot lately. So i am thinking of doing my 3 miles x 5 days a week as power walks not running. Then I am starting yoga 2x a week at church. And add the bowflex 2-3 times a week after the walk. We shall see.....I was trying to push my running a little to get ready for my first 5K.....but last time this back took many weeks to get better so I am assuming the 5k is out anyway.

Hannah has had 2 weeks of school so far. Riding the bus in the morning - we have only missed it once. Yippee. So with her riding the bus to and fro, I have an extra hour each morning. On Friday she was one of nine kids getting jumped over by some skateboarders. Huh?

Trying to get back in the work groove. Working on newspaper ads and some promo brochures for FCI.

Camping was good - Chris, Hannah and Bailey did some canoeing, I sat on the shore. No hiking though - I guess they did not want to leave me behind. We had quite the rain Sun. night so we were glad to be in a camper and not a tent!

Hurricane hanna did not effect us at all. A little wind, some clouds, no rain. Hot and sunny right now.

And because no post should be without a picture and I need to wrap this up and move around some......getting ready to canoe:

gambling with acorns....