Carving a new niche

If there's one thing that Minnesota has in abundance, it's sand and rock. And well, sandy rocks. And mosquitos, but that's besides the point. I've been picking up rocks since I was wee. I still have boxes of rocks that I collected as a kid and polished in my trusty Thumler's tumbler. Oh how my mother hated that tumbler. It mysteriously disappeared sometime during my adolescence and I have no doubt she tossed it in the dumpster when I wasn't looking.

Now that I'm a mom, and still a rock-picker, I was only too happy to buy my 8 year old a tumbler of his own. Together we gather rocks and polish them up. It's great fun. Probably more fun for me than for him though. We have found numerous agates in our "yard" and they are bumping noisily in the barrel as we speak. I say "yard" as we haven't laid down sod yet and our yard actually looks more like a beach with trees than a yard. Which (finally) brings me to my point. In our yard-beach, we have not only the aforementioned tumbling agates, but loads of river rocks worn smooth so many millions of years ago. With this plethora of natural material, I was moved to start creating with them.

And the carved stone magnet was born.

It's fun for me, and it keeps my husband from complaining about yet another box of supplies in the basement. So, I've been happily grinding down my diamond bits, filing the carvings to perfection or rather intentional imperfection, and sealing the stone with beeswax that I purchased from the very nice catsewg on etsy. Check her out for her great deal on beeswax and some other nifty items.

May flowers

I've been walking in the woods today. It does wonders for my mental state. It seems that all those thoughts and worries that are buzzing in my ears finally trail off after a while and slip down around my heels and get left there, in the woods. They'll be there when I get back, I know, but for a while it's nice to be without them. On my trek today I noticed that our woods are carpeted with these pretty little flowers called trilliums and I had to stop and snap a picture. the ferns are coming up too and they look like little green violin necks sticking out of the dirt. I realized today also, that I really like our little piece of land. I struggled so much with the move to Minnesota but I'm finally at a point where I can say there are things I like about living in the woods. I love checking out the new birds-I saw an Indigo Bunting today! I love the way the moon looks silhouetted by trees. I love the drumming noise of the grouse and the infinitely different songs of the birds I have yet to see. There is so much beauty here and I feel so inspired to create. It isn't the old push of anger and angst that used to drive my paintings, but a quieter appreciative feeling.