Where Have I Been?????

Woo doggies it's been a busy last 4 weeks! I've had goofy meetings at least twice a week. Meetings for a fundraiser we're doing for the Peace Officers' Memorial, regular Peace Officers' Memorial meetings, and meetings for Camp Erin which was last weekend. Had a wonderful time again but ended up having to come home Saturday night. We did a "grief ride" with the kids on the horses. We had signs up in different locations such as "sad", "angry", etc. and the kids would discuss those feelings as they rode the horses. We were standing at one of the signs and I was holding the lead rope on the horse when it got mad at the horse next to him and so he turned around and bit me on the right arm. Of course, it had to be the arm that I have lymphodema in and after a few hours, it started to swell. I hadn't taken my sleeve with me so I had to drive home so I could take care of it so it didn't get too bad. In a way, I didn't mind too much because the night before I'd only gotten about 3 hours of sleep as we had 3 women in our cabin who snored up a storm. UGH!

Remember these guys?????



Well, 3 nights ago, the 4 bigger siblings escaped, leaving the 2 smaller siblings in the cage. Night before last, at about 6:30, Elmer was looking out the kitchen window and said "The raccoons are back!" so we raced outside. All four were on top of the cage trying to get back in the way they had gotten out but we had blocked their exit. So, Elmer started catching them by grabbing them by the back of the neck and putting them back in the cage. Then we noticed that the more he got into what he was doing, the more raccoons there were! Yep, the little devils had obviously joined a local gang and rounded up some new "wild" friends and brought them over - obviously telling them about the good food we served. So, as we were putting them back in the pen, we realized we couldn't tell which ones were ours, and which were wild. Finally, the remainder of them had scurried away so we went to count and see how many we had recaptured and realized they had found ANOTHER way out and we were back to the original two.

Poor Elmer was scratched on both arms from the capture with nothing to show for it. So, we're going to borrow the neighbors live trap and get them all back in the next few days. I'll tell ya, raccoons are really smart!

I went yesterday and picked up my bra for the "Artfull Bra" project. I'll take pictures and post "pre art" bra and the "post art" pictures when I'm done. I'm really excited but I have to admit, I tend to have wonderful ideas and they turn out to be absolute crap - so we'll see!

The Pink Project...

I'm going to be participating in a project for the local Susan G. Komen organization called "Artfull Bras". They are asking 55 Komen "supporters" to create an artful bra. Almost anything goes.



The Pink Project will be an event which will feature local breast cancer survivors and supporters telling their stories through an artful bra. Participating merchants in the Downtown Boise Association will host and display the artful bras and customers visiting participating merchants will vote for their favorite artful bra throughout the month of October. The kick-off will take place on First Thursday, October 1, 2009!

Guidelines:

1. Each bra will be displayed in store front windows in downtown Boise.

2. The bras will be donated by Fashion Forms for artists to use for this project. Pick up for the bras will be scheduled for the end of August, the date is TBD.

3. Each bra will be displayed for public viewing. While there can be some artistic interpretation, it is important to remember that you are representing Susan G. Komen for the Cure as well as the host stores.

I thought about doing something with pink feathers in honor of the flamingo - born the same year as I was. I've also thought about doing something with "spys" to honor my friend Val who recently died of breast cancer. She was the Spy Mom who allowed me to work with her until she got too sick and had to give up PI work. I've also considered something I could do and call it "Breast Friends". Another thought was "Tough as nails" - a bra covered with nails.

Any other ideas? I'm looking at this as an opportunity to come up with something really fun and representing the women I know who have lived and died with breast cancer. I think that's why I love the "tough as nails" idea. I've also thought about doing something with pink sequins that would look like armor and calling it "bullet proof" or something like that.

What do you think?