Along the Clearwater

Earlier this month Dale and I traveled back to Idaho for our granddaughter Annalee's birthday. We stayed in my old college town, Lewiston. To get in a little exercise after the long car ride, we took a short walk on the Lewiston Levee Parkway Trail along the Clearwater River. We walked from the downtown area down to the confluence of the Clearwater River with the Snake River.

Looking west at the confluence.
The Snake River is on the left; the Clearwater River on the right.
From here, the Snake River flows west through the valley.

Where the two rivers meet, an interpretive center highlighting the Lewis and Clark Expedition has been built. It includes this bronze sculpture that depicts the legends and creatures of the Nez Perce Nation. 

We sat on a bench facing the sculpture ... and found a geocache.

Walking back upriver, this railroad bridge.

A bit further on the path, this marmot poked her head up out of the rocks.

After taking these photos, we saw her baby. So cute! So small! And too quick for me to get a decent picture.

It's odd how many old stories and memories and emotions bubble to the surface when I'm back in Lewiston. I've not lived there for 42 years!

Plan C

... aka it's time to abandon this wreath idea. 

Plan A

What I planned on doing in March 2024 was to make a Spring wreath featuring butterflies. I figured it would be a quick little project using supplies on hand. I gathered:

Flowers

Materials for the scrap paper butterflies I made in April 2024

A black "bicycle wheel" wreath form

Pop dot adhesives

Baby clothespins

Spray paint

The inspiration was:

I set to work: 

First I spray-painted the wreath form silver.

Then dry-fit the butterflies I had on hand in place. My vision was to have butterflies in lots of colors and patterns and in various sizes. Super cute. 

But I abandoned the idea of using the scrap paper butterflies because making them was fiddly and it took too long to make a good-looking finished product. I couldn't imagine making over a dozen of them, especially since that meant engineering three sizes of butterfly templates. After all, this was supposed to be a fast craft.

So I mulled the project over.

Plan B

I purchased 4 packages (4 designs) of iridescent butterflies in early April 2024.

Then the project sat for a year. I couldn't figure out how to proceed. 

:: play Jeopardy music here ::

With Jodie's help last week (over a year later), I decided to try sandwiching pop dots between the clothespins and the butterflies. We clipped 3 different sizes of butterflies in 4 different designs to the wreath form in an "artistic" formation.

Man, that just didn't work. 

• First, the wreath form should have been a different color than the butterflies. Everything was visually jumbled.
  
  
• Second, the proportions were all out of whack.
  
  
• Third, the butterflies kept "flying" off the wire wreath form when the clothespins didn't get a good grip. 

My frustration was real. I didn't even bother to take a picture.

Time to mull this project over again.

Plan C

This morning I decided life is too short to bang my head against this particular wall. BUT!

Maybe the butterflies will be a sweet addition to my bedroom wall:

The pop dots easily came off the clothespins and attached to the wall. 

The entire installation and putting extra supplies away took all of 15 minutes. 

Depending on the time of day and how the light comes through the window, the butterflies show off their various colors. As their shadows move throughout the day, the butterflies appear to fly.

It's time to get inspired and work on a different project. 

My brain weighs less now that the butterflies are off my mind.

Still Waiting

 

The trip to see our Idaho grandchildren weakened me, then I got sick. I'm somewhat better, but still not fully healed. 

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My dog spot

Macro Monday

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Fantastic fuchsia color!

Bookmark Experiment

Over the last year I made hundreds of bookmarks for the charitable organization I work with. All of them have been made of fabric and ribbon sewn together. I wanted to experiment with bookmarks made of paper and cardstock. I had a vision ... 

I started with scrapbook paper from my stash and coordinating cardstock cut from facial tissue boxes. 

I bought a couple packets of dies to cut into various bookmark shapes. This is what I used to cut the cardstock.

After cutting the scrapbook paper to size, I used embossing folders to add texture to the paper. (Those little hearts are adorable!)

Then I used a specialized paper punch to round the corners of the embossed paper.

I've wanted an excuse to purchase this tool for quite some years. Now I can add grommets to my projects.

I stacked the cardstock and embossed paper, punched a hole, then squeezed in the grommet.

The last step was to add a coordinating ribbon. I have lots of colors to choose from!

My vision came to life!

So far, I've made 16 bookmarks of various sizes. They are fairly time-intensive to make. So though I am extremely pleased with the finished product, I'm not sure this is the most efficient use of my bookmark-making time. I might return to the fabric bookmarks for that organization since they sew up fairly quickly.

Pollen Hunter

Diving in head first

#FlowersForFriday

Throwback Thursday: Easter Banner

I put the finishing touches on this Happy Easter banner in 2019.

You can read the entire journey of this project here on my blog. I like this decoration. It's hanging in our living room again this year.

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Clustered

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Back at the arboretum ...

 Flowers for days ...

Daffodils! (part 2)

I'm always pleasantly surprised

when most of the seeds and bulbs I plant

actually flower.

It's a happy splash of color glowing in the sunshine near the entrance to our home.

Thirty-four

34 years. Still better together.

I love this guy and how we became a family.

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Buddies

I appreciate the black and white version, too.

Rustic Recycled Wrapping Paper

I'm back to recycling Amazon's packing paper. Last time, it was all hearts in different patterns. 

This time I added flowers

stars

butteflies 

and happy faces

They're pretty cute when all piled together as wrapped gifts.

I added stickers to each package for an extra dash of fun for our granddaughter.