Recharged and ready to go; home after the holidays

My daughter and I enjoyed spending our Thanksgiving holiday in South Carolina. I do have one major regret <sighs> with all the chatter about my Nikon battery charger, you’d think I’d have learned my lesson right?

Well, guess who decided not to pack a battery charger? Stupid, I know, I know… My reasoning, I have a full charge, so I don’t need it. The sad thing is, I hadn’t looked at my camera in about a week, and I’d taken hundred of pictures since that time.

Of course, I didn’t remember that important detail, until I tried to take pictures of Lake Marion. I was wondering why can’t I take pictures? Looking at the viewfinder, cleared that up quickly. My battery charger was almost dead, and so “looking at the battery charger just the other day and seeing I had a full charge,” was most likely a few weeks ago. I did manage to squeak out one photo, before my Nikon D80 shut down completely.

Of course, there were tons of gorgeous photos I could have taken — with a charged camera. Stepping outside the condo, when there’s very little activity, except for the fisherman at Lake Marion, makes for some amazing pictures. My favorite Lake Marion shots are taken while most of the world (around me) sleeps. Oh well… there will always be Independence Day.

Crafting during the holiday

Besides that, my daughter and I had a great time bonding with the part of the family that we only see once or twice yearly. In the early morning, and late evenings, my daughter and I worked on paper crafts. One day, I stayed up until about 3:30 am working on a few ideas I had for my die cutting machine (Cuttlebug) using a common metal item, that most people might have in the house.

Although I like paper crafts, I’ve always enjoyed working with metals/beads more, and so I’ve been looking for ways to incorporate them into the paper crafts that I create. Currently the handmade cards I’ve made (a few I’ve shown here at Celebrate Life) are samples to show ideas I’ve had. I don’t consider them a finished product, but a way for me to bounce around ideas.

During the Thanksgiving holiday, I made several cards, and will be posting a few of them over the next few weeks. I also will be releasing a new website within the next few months, but more on that later.