getting a kick out of being a kid

I get such a kick out of being a kid.  I seriously (funny that I am using THAT word) play like a six year old.  This weekend I walked the river with my dog and spent about an hour collecting items for an experimental mini ecosystem I can observe in my home over the winter months (by the way, I could have done this for 3 hours and lost all sense of time).  It was a most beautiful fall day and my almost-16 year old Stella was in dog heaven.  I turned out picking up some cool canisters at the dollar store (a set of 4 for $8) and now I have three different experiments currently in process (2 from the mississippi river and one from my backyard).

I have always played with stitching in my mixed media art but I just started to embroider for fun this week (yeah, for the FIRST time).  It's like stretching out the painting process.  I started with a blank piece of muslin and just started stitching.  My intuition tells me what color to use and what shape to begin placing when and where.  I want to fill the entire blank space eventually.  We'll see where THIS goes...