No, this isn't Narnia... it's Olympia WA. This picture was taken in front of our house just after the snow began... before we lost power.
This was quite the storm. It started Monday- the kids were off school because of a holiday- and just kept getting worse. First a big dump of snow (over a foot), then it turned icey. That was when the trouble started. It wasn't the snow that caused this whole area to lose power... it was the ice. There were over 300,000 customers without power. We lost our power on Thursday, 8am.
It's not until the sun starts to set that you realize how much you rely on electricity... for lights... for heat.... for connection to the outside world via the internet. At first it's a bit of an adventure... eating by candle light, playing hide-n-seek in the dark house. Then, by the next night, you realize it's a pain... and you realize all the food you're going to lose in the refrigerator/freezer. The kids had a solution for some of the refrigerated items... (Sam calls it our "hobo 'frig")
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| Our "hobo 'frig" |
We were all set to spend another night in the dark when... THE LIGHTS CAME ON!!! The lights were accompanied by exuberant cheers. Everyone was SO HAPPY to not have to sleep another night in the cold. I was just so happy to be able to get back to normal. The only blessing in all this was that, without the electricity to distract us, we were able to connect as a family... playing board games, cards, etc. It was nice to know that we can still enjoy each other... even without cell phones, television and the internet.
So I came to my dining room table armed with my camera, white posterboard and my new flower frog... Could I do it? 
I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out. I'm really excited about trying out and continuing to advance my photo skills. 
I just got my new card kit from Jillibean soup and my ribbon from 3GJ... I was so excited at the thought of incorporating these products for the new challenge at Made Especially for You (www.especiallymade.blogspot.com). From my choice of colors and patterns, you can see how excited I am about Spring!
Sometimes I get scrappers block when trying to create my design each week. Somehow, this time, things just seemed to flow. I even had the opportunity to incorporate some of my new baker's twine (one of my new favorite embellishments... is ribbon an embellishment?) Be sure to stop by the Made Especially for You blog and check out our new challenge. 
Eat dessert first... Life is too short... Stop and smell the roses... It's not the number of breaths you take in life, but the things that take your breath away. These are all great philosophies to live by; one that makes us realize that we are not enjoying the things around us. There are some obvious things that make us just stop and say "WOW!"... things like a beautiful sunset or the miracle of life. But there are the not so obvious things... the things that we need to keep our eyes and hearts open to see. Things like a handmade valentine, a hug from one of my kids or... this morning its my kitten curled up in my lap. My wish for you today is that, today, you can find the things that take your breath away...
