nobody here but us hippies...

Happy Anniversary, Dave!
1975 - 2008
33 years and still truckin'
Love, Jane

photo styling 101: how to roll towels like a pro

I admit it. Sometimes my thrifty nature gets to be a bit much. I don't like to throw things out, and tend to use things until they wear out or fall apart. Old socks are recycled into sweaters for my Santa dolls and Fairies, bottlecaps are turned into lamps, twigs and tree trimmings are fashioned into rustic furniture, and worn out T-shirts and flannel sheets make good rags for dusting. All this recycling would lead one to believe Camp Cactus is a tidy place, orderly and simple. A place full of useful objects, a place that gets dusted occasionally, right? Well, not exactly...here, let's check out the linen closet:


I ask you, just how many dust rags does one need? I know, at first glance it doesn't look that bad. (What you don't see is the depth of the closet...at least three feet!) Please note that there are no towels in the stuffed to the gills neatly organized linen closet. There are however, crib and twin size sheets, even though we haven't had either a crib or a twin bed in the house for years. All this hoarding thriftiness has led to many inventive storage solutions, which is how we came to store the towels in a bookcase in the bathroom...

Even this is not simple, much to Dave's dismay. The poor guy craves the simple life. He doesn't like fussy stuff, whether it's "art food" or over-stylized window treatments, it just doesn't sit well with him. Which brings me back to the towels in the bathroom bookcase...

I'm a professional photo stylist. It's hard to check my design sense at the door. You've probably read the post I wrote about reorganizing the books in the front hall, so you know I get a little [ahem!] anal about how things look. But, back to the towels...I decided they didn't look so great folded, and if you wanted one from the bottom of the stack, it was difficult to extricate it without messing up the rest of the pile. So I pulled a stylist trick out of my hat and started rolling them up. Dave did his best, but couldn't quite replicate the look, so I decided to write a little tutorial. Here goes:

Step one: Fold in half lengthwise, ends together.

Step two: Fold the top third down to the center.

Step three: Fold the bottom third up over the top third, and smooth it out.

Step 4: Roll it up neatly, left to right, or vice versa.

Step five: And there you have it -
just like in the catalogs!

Stay tuned for my next tutorial: How to fold a T-shirt, Navy style.

how do you doodle? a buenos burritos giveaway!

She's done it again. Yesterday morning I was minding my own business, meandering aimlessly around the blogosphere, and landed (as I often do) on Bossy's site. I read her post, then the Guess and Press, and then finally moved on to her Favorite Things section, where she talks about...you guessed it: her favorite things.

In the recent past, these favorite things of Ms. Bossy's have included deflated basketballs, Converse sneakers, subways and cinnamon, to name a few. Many of these things we have in common. (Except maybe the subways...I spent way too much time on the IRT during high school) Anyway, yesterday's Favorite Things were little pocket-sized notebooks.


And that brings us back to what the heck it is that she's done again: she's inspired me! I'm a crazy note-taker, jotter and doodler myself, and I've gone through many, many, many little notebooks over the years. So it got me thinking and wondering how many other creative geniuses are out there, doodling away, just pages away from the next Big Idea.



Here's my Big Idea: send me a photo of your notebook(s), and don't forget to include a peek at the inside! The winner will be chosen by our team of impartial judges here at Camp Cactus (see photo below)



Deadline for submission is Thursday, September 11th. I'll post the best ones a week from today, Saturday, September 13th.

The winner will receive this beautiful, hand bound leather notebook, dimensions:4" x 5.5", (unsullied by my crazy doodles) to help you come up with your next Big Idea.



So, I'll be looking forward to seeing your doodles, lists, clippings, and inspiration. Just email your submissions to me at cactuspetunia {at} yahoo {dot} com

And thanks again for the inspiration, Bossy!

is my car making all that noise, or did a fleet of harleys just pull up behind us?

Early one morning a couple of weeks ago, I hopped into the minivan, with my trusty art camp assistant in the passenger seat, and started it up. A split second later, we both nearly jumped out of our skins and looked behind us, trying to locate the source of the deafening rumble that seemed to come out of nowhere. At first, we thought these guys were behind us, but then...

"I think it's us!", shouted my trusty assistant, as Dave came running out of the house in his pajamas, looking quite alarmed.

Signaling me to open the hood, he peered into the engine compartment looking for some clue about the racket. Finding nothing obvious (like a Harley) that could be causing such a loud roar, he threw out a few possible causes, like a hole in the exhaust manifold, or a blown head gasket, (all of which sounded very plausible to me...I'm always amazed at how much he knows about the way things work.) and since it was raining, he was understandably reluctant to crawl under the car to check out his theories.

After driving us to work, he called AAA and had the van towed up to our mechanic, who called us later with the news that our catalytic converter was missing, and it looked like we had become the latest victims of an increasingly common crime: catalytic convertor thefts.

As it turns out, catalytic converters contain small amounts of the precious metals platinum and palladium, and they seem to be easy targets for thieves who might otherwise be ripping off copper pipe and wire from construction sites.

Five years ago platinum traded for about $600 dollars an ounce, and palladium went for around $200. Currently, platinum sells for around $1,400 and palladium for around $400.
Metal theft is a big deal these days. An electrician friend of mine who works in new construction told me about whole subdivisions being stripped of brand new wiring, house by house. People routinely walk into big home improvement stores like Home Depot and Lowes, and run out with spools of copper wire. I just read about a poor guy who parked his Toyota pickup at Home Depot, and came out a few minutes later to find someone had removed his catalytic converter in the parking lot with a Sawzall. In broad daylight.
Now that we've gotten the van running quietly again, we're considering installing an alarm system...which is kinda laughable, really. I doubt seriously it would raise the resale value above $1,000.
So I did some research on the internet, and came up with this cheaper alternative:

(photo borrowed from this site)

waaaay back wednesday...

Here's my little sister and I taken way back...when?

 Can you guess the year? (and please don't say 1939!) 

(I don't remember who the other kid is. Johnny Somebody-or-other.)

the audacity of hope

Do we dare hope and pray for something this audacious? You bet. But we've gotta do more than that. We've gotta VOTE for it.

Lighting a candle to ask for this guy's help couldn't hurt, either.

psst...it's labor day.

It's 8 am. There's a swarm of bees buzzing around the bedroom. And someone's trying to hit them with a hammer. And someone else is using a table saw to build a trap for them. And...and...oh. Wait. Wake up.

It's just a swarm of painters, not bees, and they're not in my bedroom-they're across the driveway at the neighbor's.
Sanding. Sawing. Hammering.
These guys work seven days a week!

Didn't anyone ever tell them that Labor Day is supposed to be a day of not laboring?



C'mon, guys - take a day off, already! Because I can't stain my new deck today if you're sanding right next to it....

Happy holidays!