Originally on Blogger June 11, 2011

My friend Mychele and I always try to get together at least once for a full day in the summer.  Mychele lives two hours away.  I know that doesn’t seem like much but we both have very active lifestyles and families that keep us busy.

When I heard about the 30 Days of Creativity challenge on facebook (I still need to write and thank that person), I challenged my friends to come on board with me.  I was especially trying to pull in my friend Em (whom I  have never met but love dearly) and Mychele as they both have young children which means they HAVE to be creative every day.

I guess it wasn’t planned that way, but it ends up Mychele and I had a whole day dedicated to creativity.  We could not have done this without the infamous daddy Chuck taking the girls off for a day.  I do not think we would have gotten much done with Sophia and Gwendolyn in on the act!

Packing for Mychele’s was a riot-it looked like I was moving out.  I had to bring everything I wanted to talk to her about because I did not know when we would have this opportunity again! I knew Mychele wanted to learn Onestroke (I am a certified instructor).  I also knew she wanted to play with aluminum wire after seeing a picture of my bookmarks.  I had some things I wanted to show her and a mother’s bracelet I made her years ago that needed adjusting (we are adding Gwendolyn’s name).

Aluminum wire and tools-love this stuff.

Paint, apron, brushes, papers…

Beads, books, other secret stuff…

Mychele, smaller than the last time I saw her,greeted me with a beautiful lavender plant and a beautiful smile.

I had to leave at a certain time for my daughter’s birthday celebration so we discussed a schedule to make sure we got everything done.  We started by playing with Onestroke first as that was the most involved.  She took right too it and I left her with videos to keep practicing.

Then I showed her some new things I was getting ready to try.  Of course I can’t tell you about those….yet.

Then she got really creative with lunch. I saw her spreading a thick layer of guacamole on bread and I knew all would be well.  She added shreeded cheese and tomato and grilled it.  Or salad was spinach and fruit with a poppyseed dressing, It was WONDERFUL and I have since created that lunch again twice and my guests loved it as well.

After lunch Mychele started playing with the aluminum wire.             I could tell she loved it as much as I did.

We finished off the day with henna. Mychele is a henna artist that is very well known in the area. That is how I first met her-but that is another story. I love henna and can really get wild in the summer.

Mychele and I talked about our time together.  She had made a comment that I was doing the teaching-that she wanted to teach me something.  In discussion though we realized we need to accept that it is ok for people to “give” us things even though we may not feel we are giving back.  I have often blessed someone with something only to be blessed by someone else the next day.  I have had people share with me but it may be another that I share with.  The great things about close friends is there is no keeping of tabs.  We give/share for the love of it -without expecting anything in return.  I have found however, that what goes around comes around.  Everything I give away or share seems to come back in some way.

I felt totally blessed being with Mychele.  Packing for the trip made me get organized a bit.  It also made me get in my creative place where I love to be.  I learned two new great recipes from lunch, got a wealth of ideas, and came home with henna.  Mychele had also been through some of her other supplies and shared things with me. We both made out like bandits!  I also have some ideas/projects in the works that I bounced off Mychele and her responses solidified my ideas.

It was a wonderful time!  If only Ms. Em could have joined us…