Welcome Tigger & Belle

Finally decided after a year and a half of no cats that it was time to have some furry critters in the house again. A week ago Sunday we paid a visit to the CT Humane Societies beautiful new facility in Quaker Hill to see who might need a home. I've been telling my friends and family for months - no kittens and no male cats. Well, I managed to break all my own rules. Look who we came home with...

Tigger, a one year old boy who was abandoned by his original owner and came to the facility with an upper respiratory infection. He is friendly, outgoing and has the cutest squeaky but very loud purr.

Belle, a three month old girl from a feral litter had hypothermia when she was found but is doing fine now. She still spends most of her time hiding under the bed. She is quiet and shy except when chasing Tigger up and down the stairs at one o'clock in the morning! 

Artful Seeing

Squam Workshop #3

It was a perfect sunny Saturday morning for the last SAW activity of the weekend. We wore our hiking shoes and carried our cameras as Shari Altman guided us along the Five Fingers Point Trail (part of the trail system for Rattlesnake Mountain in Holderness, NH) for her workshop called "Artful Seeing". To keep us focused on looking at the natural world with different and questioning eyes she gave us creative challenges for color, composition, and light. She talked about her series of photos called "by the waters edge" which I was really intrigued by. I did take some photos during the morning with this idea in mind as she got me thinking about the interest to be seen in the many different ways and places that water meets the earth.  

"Squam Lake Waters Edge" K. Johnson

"Through the Pine" K. Johnson

"Flowing Water" K. Johnson

"Autumn Leaf" K. Johnson

More photos from the workshop can be seen here.

Art & Spirit Boxes

Squam Workshop #2

The second day at SAW was again at the cozy Sugar House cabin.

This is how we were greeted at the door.

I remember being drawn right in by Maya Donenfeld's description of the "Art & Spirit Boxes" workshop because using recycled and everyday materials is something I love to do. After a guided meditation to get us in a creative frame of mind we got started on our first project of making boxes to carry tools and supplies out of used wax paper/saran wrap type boxes. We disassembled the boxes, worked on both sides, painting, collaging and stamping before gluing them back together. Time flew by and I felt like I was just getting started and it was already time to leave for lunch. I'm envious of those who are able to finish their projects in the time allotted in a workshop. I always seem to be finishing later at home.

beginning stage of my Tool box

In the afternoon we worked on the "Spirit" box part of the class. This was an exercise of looking within and creating a shadow box of sorts that reflects some part of your life. Again, I'm finishing this one at home and will share when I do get around to finishing it.

You can see more pictures of the workshop and get a peek at some of the boxes created by classmates on Maya's Blog.