Saturday, April 23, 2011

Saturday-10:45pm

No.
We haven't actually seen the sun for days.
I just picked an older picture of Karma sitting in the sun as a reminder it does exist--ROFL!
I wouldn't have seen much of it if it had been out. My days and nights are totally flipped at the moment. But I have been puttering about in the dead of night--hehe! Being a good girl and starting on my files?
No.
Decided to combine our paper flowers for crafting. Too many flowers in too many places. I took this box that I had painted and glazed a few years ago...
...and put all the store-bought paper flowers in there. As you can see, we mostly buy white ones so we can color or decorate them ourselves. Lots of room for more!
Then I had an assortment of small die cut flowers I had cut out using the Cuttlebug that were in all four of these smaller empty wooden boxes (we had sitting around to be decorated or to use for woodburning).
I decided to put them all in this one shallow wooden box that at least had a couple of dividers.
Yes, we are going to have to just dig around and search in the chaos...not Leah's and my preferred storage style...but the number of paper flowers has grown to where it's not practical to have them all sorted out and organized like we'd like them to be. Leah doesn't know I did this and I imagine she might be a little disappointed, too, since we are both pretty OCD about these things--but we'll just have to dig and search. Sorry, Leah. ;) They are easier to get to, now, tho.
So what has it really looked like up here the past few days?
Dark and wet.
Despite all this rain, can you see the stubborn frozen clump that's left of the humongous snowpile between the garages? (Can double-click to "embiggen")
It is just plain saturated up here. Water sitting in the fields...
...and the lake in the parking lot keeps growing.
For the first time I remember, there's a second lake up in the next section of parking spaces. And do you notice anything? Empty!!! All the piles of boards and siding...the big orange machine...the roofing van...do you think they are really done and gone? They disappeared before the rain/sleet days began. But--did they just move everything because they don't like wading thru water to get to their vehicles and didn't want the lumber to rot? Will they reappear once the sun shines? Only time will tell. ;)
I don't think I mentioned that thru a blog (and I can't remember whose now) that was talking about how nobody writes letters anymore and they remembered "circle letters" (which I'd never heard of and had to comment on, of course). One of the blog commenters suggested maybe we could start one. I emailed her, along with some other folks. So the first circle letter is making its way around the United States. Cool! I am lucky number 7! I am actually shocked that I have never done this or even heard of it before!
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I think this is how it works:
You write a letter for all the other people to read and add it to the envelope. You get to read all the individual letters from the other people in the circle--and then send it on its way to the next person on the circle list. Once it has been around the first time, you remove your old letter when it comes back to you and then write and add a new one. You are supposed to try to get the letters on their way within a week. :)
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So exciting!
I can hardly wait for that envelope full of letters to make it here to Fargo! It's like having 9-10 new pen pals at once! (I'm not sure how many we have. She said ten, but I only see nine addresses on the list.) Anyways, this just sounds awesome! I wonder if they hand-write them or print them off? Do they use stationary or legal pads (like I usually do)? Do they put their own letter inside an envelope..or card? Probably not cards like I'm used to doing because of the weight....??
I'll have to let you know when it arrives.
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Makes me want to dig out some actual stationary or nicer paper I have...and I have lots of inks and pens to pick from (you know mine will be handwritten--hehe!)...and I could decorate plain paper or even legal pads with stamps or stickers...hey, I could even type one on my old Underwood! Meeting ladies from PA, NY, ID, OR, TX, TX, (me), OH, SC!!! No idea how old they are, what they do, what their lives are like...I can hardly wait! For privacy's sake I can't tell you anything personal, of course, but I can sure tell you if there are any artsy-crafty ladies or things like that...and eventually share blog links, if they don't mind. :)
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You can see how much fun this is for me to ruminate on--LOL! Well, time to get moving. Hope everyone is having a great weekend! :):)
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"Take more time, cover less ground."
Thomas Merton

13 comments:

Intense Guy said...

You certainly have a lot of flowers. I can imagine you and Leah putting them on wooden stems and when no one if looking, "decorating" that muddy field with thousands of them - wouldn't that be a sight.

It looks so dreary up your way - (its been rainy here too) one has to take more time, and cover less ground - or end up stuck in a mud puddle!

AliceKay said...

The sun was out here for a short time this morning. All of the sunrise services would have been pretty nice as far as weather goes. A bit chilly, but at least it wasn't raining. Rain is on it's way again, tho. I wish we could send our rain and wet weather to Texas where they desperately need it. Our ground is pretty much saturated, too.

Wow, you do have a lot of flowers. All shapes, sizes, and colors. :)

The circle letter sounds neat. Never heard of it before. I can tell you're a bit excited. :)

Time for me to get ready for church. Have a Happy Easter.

B @ Sweet Limes said...

I write letters! Isn't it fun to write them? I have a friend that does circle letters with her family. It's a great way to keep everyone in touch. Have fun with that!

Rita said...

Iggy--Ha! That would be quite a sight!
Now all of a sudden (Monday) we are supposed to hit 60 degrees and have sunshine!!

AliceKay--Sun is here this morning! Whoohoo! Going to be sleeping during the day today with the bedroom window open! :) Nice!!

B--Yes! I've always handwritten letters and have been making cards regularly for about 20 years. Can't imagine not putting pen to paper. ;) It will be fun to meet the new ladies, for sure! :)

Toriz said...

Sorry you've had such rubbish weather. :(

You guys would have hated my card making supplies box then. Apart from little things like stickers and stuff, everything was in together. I had a couple of boxes, but it was a case of start looking whenever I wanted to find something. I did plan on sorting through the stuff, but... Well, I never got to it, and then I gave the stuff away (I know for a fact it's not getting used; wish I'd known you then, you'd have used and appreciated it all!)

The circle letters thing sounds really fun! If it was an option for me to do so, I'd love to do something like that.

Rita said...

Tori--Compulsive organizers have no troubles sorting thru chaotic boxes of goodies--ROFL! In fact, we enjoy that very process and are good at recycling what we don't want for ourselves. I went thru old art supplies of Leah's sister's a while back and that is where the one empty wooden box with the dividers came from that I just used to store the small paper flowers. And I just used the other wooden box from Ariel last night for my fountain pens (I'll post pictures next time I blog). We repurpose, too. ;)

There are some pen pals who do recorded letters back and forth on cassettes. You might want to check into that if you have an old cassette player/recorder. Just an idea. :)

Toriz said...

Really? I might check in to that at some point then...

Deanna said...

It seems it has been lousy weather everywhere. I cannot imagine looking out and still seeing snow. We've had terrible storms here in Missouri. I guess that is all part of the changing seasons.

I've never heard of circle letters. It does sound like a lot of fun. I can't wait to hear about the rest of the experience.

Rita said...

Tori--I saw them when I was snooping around online thinking about pen pals again. I saw them called Tape Pals and Voice Pals. My aunt and I used to do that years ago before we had internet when I moved away to Wisconsin for several years. Takes a while to get used to talking to yourself, but it is fun! :)

Deanna--I hope we are done with snow now, but you never know. I heard about the tornadoes and bad storms across the south. Such crazy weather! Glad you're okay. :)
Circle letters are new to me, too. I'll report. ;)

Serena Lewis said...

It certainly does look like you've had some dreary weather up your way. We've had some rain here and there but also some hot and humid days.

I had never heard of circle letters either. It sounds like fun but I doubt I'd be able to keep up. I am looking forward to hearing more about your experience with them tho.

That is a lot of flowers! I'm sure it will work okay but, as you mentioned, at least they will be easier to get to. :)

Rita said...

Serena--Been a rather dreary spring, I guess. Either dreary or cold. but things are looking up. At least it's not as cold--LOL! ;)

Well, with ten people in the circle letter...if I takes 1/2-1 week each you only get the big envelope every 5-10 weeks, so it shouldn't be too overwhelming. I would imagine at first people will answer more quickly, but that it might take them the full week later on. You know how busy people are. :)

Having the flowers easier to get to, I've already made a card and sent it off. Forgot to even take a picture. It will work out just fine. :)

Anonymous said...

That letter thing sounds pretty nifty and fun. I used to have a pen pal in Singapore when I was a kid but we just quit writing to each other one day and for the life of me I cant remember how we started writing in the first place, she was very nice though and a huge fan of Michael Jackson :o) I love all of those flowers you have and you have them so neatly arranged in that pretty box :o)

Rita said...

Lynn--When I was a kid I had a pen pal from Italy, but he got weird on me (pages of Xs and Os) so I quite writing to him. He showed up in Minneapolis as a foreign exchange student my senior year! And he was creepy! But I have had lots of female pen pals over the years. Many kind of fade away, but I still occasionally write to a couple of them. Now I'll have eight new ones at once! LOL! :)