Beautiful inspriation

My new-ish laptop and all the Web's bells and whistles have been distracting me from paper crafting recently. I love paper crafting, particularly card making, and it is my main creative outlet and I feel less myself when I don't devote time to making something. I am also a big fan of Steven Covey's Sharpen the Saw principle and saw it in action today.

I have procrastinated in making my Thanksgiving cards and now it's too late to send them so I have to deliver them on the day itself. I had time today and sat down to make them. The well of creativity was dry so I went to a primary source of my inspiration, The Papertrey Ink gallery, where I found this beautiful card and my muse for the afternoon. I used to visit the gallery regularly, like every day, and did a lot more card making. I joined the PTI RAK group and would make cards for random members. A good New Years resolution - to make time daily for some sort of paper crafting activity. Sharpening the saw.

The approach of winter

2008 has just slipped by. So fast. The current cold snap is lending a feel of winter to the air which is making me think of the end of year that much more. I. and I took a ride up to a beautiful, old cemetery today that my dear friend S. brought me to a couple of weeks ago. It's a very peaceful site, tucked back in the woods. The trees are all bare of their leaves now and the sun was streaming into the area adding light but no warmth at all.

I finally have taken a picture of Minnie. And this is Bear. He has taken to staying downstairs in the basement on occasion instead of following either of us up. He'll stay down there for hours sometimes, just waiting at the bottom of the stairs for one of us to come down and carry him up. I know it's not fear because often he'll run right up behind you. I. thinks, and I agree, that it is because he's a little jealous of the attention Minnie gets and is looking for some of his own. We're not giving in to him because we know that it would start a bad habit. Better to let him sit down there and come up on his own. The white fluffy head at the bottom of the picture belongs to Jack.

Keeping busy

Last weekend I. and I took in the Treasures from Assyria show at the Museum of Fine Arts. Excellent. When we were in London in 2004 we must have seen some of the pieces at the British Museum, their home. The MFA displayed the pieces in a larger area and that really set them off. Amazing reliefs and pieces of intricately carved stone. The pieces of writing were so small and the writing so close together we wondered at how they could have ever been legible. If you have an opportunity to catch the show, I would recommend it. My mom was very kind and agreed to stay over and watch the "kids" so we could spend the night in Boston. I chose a great hotel, if I say so myself, the Hotel Commonwealth. Another thumbs up although I would skip dining in their Great Bay restaurant and stick with Eastern Standard, also at the hotel. The service everywhere was excellent and the room was spectacular. We were right across from the famous Citgo sign.

The weekend before that we took a short walk at Mt. Wachusett and I was able to take some great pictures.

Minnie and all the other pups are doing very well. Minnie is still fighting a yeast infection in her ears and continues to develop her sweet personality. She's taken to sleeping on top of the cushion of the love seat in our front room while I. is on his computer in there.

The plant where I work is shut down next week so I get a week's vacation. I do have several appointments scheduled but am looking forward to the down time. I'm reading C.S. Lewis' A Grief Observed. His writing is just beautiful. I look forward to reading other books of his.

Exactly