happy monday!

Happy Bench Monday! I'm joining in the fun! Suddenly there are an amazing amount of women jumping on benches (or upturned buckets) with their camera timer buttons on. For the last several Mondays a rapidly growing flickr group, "Bench Monday", has been captivating me. It's so deceptively simple: a self portrait of feet standing on a platform... but each photo tells such a story. Check it out when you have the chance... maybe you'll jump on a bench, too!
The above photo tells a little bit about about my weekend. I'm holding a bucket that I made for my Anatomy of a Coffee Sack workshop on Sunday. My lovely participant, and wonderful friend, Pat has such a beautifully written post about it that I think I'll just send you right over to read it... and to see her fantastic bucket. Thanks Pat! I learned so much from you, yesterday! She, not only took the class, but was also my pattern tester. Yes, bucket patterns are slowly in the the works!.

Within that bucket, I'm holding is the most recent issue of Artful Blogging.

I've been waiting for weeks to see it and finally got a hold of a copy when it hit the news stands on Friday. Some of you have already seen it and have left me such sweet comments. A belated, but heartfelt "thank you" to each of you! Artful Blogging is so much more than a magazine. It's a gorgeous pictorial guide and companion to some of the amazing art/craft/food blogs we all admire so. I can't tell you how grateful and humbled I am to be included in their impressive line-up. I keep pinching myself. This is the stuff of dreams... and has got to be one of the most exciting moments of the last year for me! I'm beginning to feel that anything is possible if you believe in yourself. Really!

It's also nice to have an editor that believes in you, too! A special thanks to the very thoughtful and kind Christen Olivarez... I couldn't have asked for more.

So have a great Monday and don't forget to find a bench!