Usually we say "Stop and smell the roses."  Today, my roses aren't blooming, but the rest of these beauties are too good to pass by!  Some day lilies, white coneflower, honeysuckle and delphinium.  And a photo bomb by the hydrangea!  That pale peachy lily on the bottom right is the first bloom I have seen on that plant, so that started the floral collage!

I'm pleased to introduce my mom, Sally!  She's a sport to be our guest star today!  The wanted her to share some of her story about camping trips when I was a kid.  Really, that's how I learned what I know about camping.  Since my memories started, I recall that excitement and fun of leaving our home behind and finding new places.  And I think mom and dad felt the same way!  Please watch the video, and if it brings to mind some questions, post them on Youtube and we will answer for you!

It's time for another YouTube video!  Sewing for a cause is a good feeling.  You'll see below:

Bob and I took a pause in our winter traveling to lend a hand at David Crockett Birthplace State Park in Tennessee.  The map down below on the next page shows approximately where we were.  We worked for 2 weeks with 30 other volunteers who just happen to be travelers, too.  This was a project organized by A Year To Volunteer, as they cross the country looking for places to do good deeds.  This was our first time participating, but some of the other couples there were repeaters.  We all had trailers or RV's of some sort, and were kindly provided with free camping while we worked.  It's a cute little park showing the history of early settlers in the area, including the Crockett family.

Confessions of a serial crafter today!  I just like to make things and I just like to try new things!  Nothing wrong with that, unless you are wanting to weed out the many things in the house that make it full and harder to live a minimalish lifestyle!  Maybe that could be my new thing for YouTube -- Mininmalish Mania!
But, back to the crafting collective!  I'm trying to think of my personal history of crafting.  Here's what comes to mind:  sewing, knitting, a wee bit of crochet, embroidery, crewel embroidery, soapmaking, candlemaking, papermaking, cake decorating, photography, beads for all sorts of stuff, making doll clothes, fabric painting (remember those puffy paints?!), block printing and then there's the supplies for drawing/painting that I've been picking up here and there but haven't really done anything with yet!
There's an untested craft that hasn't made the list. I know, strange!  It's called Diamond Painting, at least I think that's right.  I heard about it at a retreat 3 or 4 years ago from someone working on it.  I really didn't get the allure at the time.
Fast forward to January 2021.  I'm getting some thread or something from a JoAnn store.  On the way down the aisle, I see a display for Diamond Dotz Painting kits.  Out of curiousity, I took a look so I could see what something like that cost to do.  I don't know, maybe I was hoping it would be real crystals and way too spendy to even dabble in.  I could see that it really wouldn't break the bank to try it, but all of the pictures ringing any bells for me, except for way down on the bottom, I spied a box of greeting cards that could be blinged up with Diamond Dotz.  Among those cards, there was exactly one that really spoke to me and that's what you see below.

I just missed getting this into the Golden Globes!

Not trying to be a Negative Nelly here, but I thought maybe I could share some of what goes on during our real life as real humans!  Bob and I hoped for so long that we would one day be able to step away from the workforce and be able to carry on for as long as possible doing the things we had put off doing.  It seemed like such a pie-in-the-sky sort of lifestyle!  What would we do? Would we be healthy? Would we even like retirement? What if one of us got sick? What if one of us was left alone? And on....

One of our most hoped-for goals was to have the time to go places for more than a week or 10 days at a time.  We have never had high paying jobs and that's ok.  We knew how to live within our means and carried on.  We knew that retirement was not going to bring a big pot of money with it!  So the only real way we could travel much was to do it on our terms, which means economically!  That's what led to our choice to get ourselves a comfortable home on wheels and see what develops.  And it's still developing, and we're having a good time.  But in the interest of transparency, I'll clue you in that there are little bumps along the road, too!  Things happen, and you change. 
​Just like this agave plant in Arizona, growing all happy in its spot until a wildfire comes along and changes things!  Hopefully there will probably be some new growth on this guy, but only time will tell.

If you live in the American Southwest, you probably are so accustomed to the desert landscape that it sometimes just becomes the background to your life.  Just like the prairies and lakes and forests of Minnesota can become so everyday that they are unappreciated.  But, when this Minnesota person encounters the desert, the landscape is front and center in my mind.  I've enjoyed taking some pictures along the way and I've created a collection to share with you.  I especially like the curious vegetation and the sunsets over mountains, so you will see those.  Some I can identify, but not always.  And my identifications are not guaranteed to be correct, so bear that in mind!  Several plant pictures still need to be identified, and I'm working on that! 
​Enjoy a visit to southern Arizona, especially my friends and family from the tundra back home!  Wish you were here!