Inspiration from the Ordinary

  5 Random Things about Me:
1.  For years I've collected quotes
2.  I sometimes read at least 4 books at a time.  I'm rereading "The English Patient" by MIchael Ondaatje now
3.  For years I've kept a little sketchbook of ideas, swatches, etc.  It's like the popular "smash books" people rave about
4.  Sometimes inspiration comes from just pasting things in my sketchbook.
5.  I never refer to my sketchbooks afterwards.  At the time of pasting, I just needed to do something with the bits of flotsam.  Or unload my swirling brain.

Here is today's very quick pasting of bits.  I loved the phrase I came across from "The English Patient"--"the drifting landscape of stars".

The photo is blurry because I was more in a hurry to get it taken and get to my idea!

Shifting Gears

  Lately my journals aren't "doing it" for me.  I haven't wanted to do anything in them-not even write an entry.  Instead of beating myself up about it, I know it's time to try something else.
  There are so many things I like to create with.  It was good to do something 3 dimensional, even if it was a small 6 inch square piece.

Raining Creativity

  It's been raining on and off today.  I'm enjoying the cooler temperatures and also hoping this rain finally douses the last flames of the Waldo Canyon fire.

  I finally finished a silk arrangement I'd been putting off for months.  And I did a few pages in my journal.

A Positive Message

  Two weeks ago I was headed towards my sister's house on the west side of Colorado Springs.  As I waited to make the turn onto her street I noticed huge black clouds and leaping flames in the horizon.  Something was on fire.
  Cedar Ridge, a community of beautiful, upscale homes, seemed to be engulfed in flames.  Many neighborhoods and mountain communities were threatened and evacuation was mandatory.  The fire appeared to have started in Waldo Canyon, a popular hiking trail up Highway 24.
  The fire had everything going for it.  Colorado has been in a drought for years and the mountain snowpack was non-existent.  Winds kicked up and greedy flames devoured the straw-like underbrush.  The most destructive fire in Colorado history was born.
  Two people died.  346 homes were destroyed and countless others were damaged.  18,000 acres went up in flames.  At the height of the fire 30,000 people were evacuated.  A popular local attraction, the Flying W Ranch, was totally destroyed.  It had stood for 60 years.
  Heroic efforts on the part of firefighters from all over the country have the fire at 70% containment now.  It will be at least a week before the authorities feel they have it under control.

  Watching the television coverage of the Waldo Canyon Fire paralyzed me.  I was horrified and felt helpless.  Then I realized the victims of this fire would need help now and in the months to come.  So I joined the people of this beautiful mountain city and gave what I could in time, money and resources.  A community will be rebuilt.