Here is my other house. The one I am thinking of maybe swapping? I will swap one but which one is yet to be determined. This one is supposed to represent France. I have always loved Country French and the idea that I would someday be in France to take in a vacation or some of the culture. This house gives me the feeling of being there and having this "Chocolate Shop" right near by where we could go and sit outside with the music and a cup of coffee and some chocolate truffles. Oh my, when can I leave?

Now I have another favorite place, or so I imagine. This would be a home in France where family could gather and we would go to the chocolate store that is on the front side of this home, or any sidewalk cafe and savor away the hours. My dilema now is which house to swap out. I will pick one but I don't know which. Is it house # 1 or house #2?

This is a house done for a swap of favorite places. It is supposed to be house #2, but I never did house #1 as it was too challenging for me at the time and I ended up leaving it in the middle and haven't gone back to it yet. Maybe now I will as this one turned out to be a lot of fun. It has glued on it all my favorite memories of "camp" growing up. The front really just has family and a picture of my grandmother's camp in the windows. And the favorite activity of all which was swimming. Following is the back side of this camp which includes a lot of the activities we did on rainy days at camp and the memories associated. I'm afraid that even though I did this for a swap, it isn't going anywhere but in my own collection. The memories are there but this was a celebration of them for me and I need to keep it.

Here is my second side of my camp. All the things we did as kids I tried to put in there. I think I could have kept going, but ran out of room. We played cards, like go fish, slap jack etc. My grandmother would give us doilies and we would color them and also play connect the dots and hangman. We would always find a bat in our camp at least once during the summer, but the bat also has other ties to me. Even in the rain we had fun indoors.

Of course most of the time we were swimming or boating or water skiing. No matter what the weather, it was my favorite place to be. My dream is to someday have another place on the water somewhere, and Gary and I are trying to make that happen.

This isn't your usual blog post, however I was fasinated when I saw him crossing the street and I stopped the car and got the camera out quick.

When I opened the door he stopped and didn't move a muscle. I was hoping he would not go inside his shell. He let me get up pretty close.

I don't know what kind of turtle he is, but he looks old and his claws look very sharp as I'm sure his teeth are too. Probably a snapping turtle. He didn't look like something I wanted to test so I just took his picture and left him alone.

He wasn't squished on the street when I came home so I trust he found his way into the waterway nearby. That's where he was headed. I'm still fascinated as I haven't seen one in years.

I just love this photo of one of my peonies in my garden. I think, but of course I don't know, that I might like to try a painting of this. If it came out anything like this it might look neat

Time in my garden has kept me away from my art room, but it is ok since it gives me such feelings of peace and that we are all just a small part of a bigger picture.

I feel the happiest when I am surrounded by nature and away from the routines of household duties.

To add a friend to that equation makes it even better, but the heart speaks volumes to me while immersed in the beauty of these flowers.

If I don't get back to artistic creation for awhile, it's because I am capturing these images for the short time they are here to inspire me over the long cold winter months. I will gladly share them as they show their striking beauty.