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Reed Gold Mine, North Carolina, originally uploaded by CarolinaRen.

We visited this mine just to the east of Charlotte because my son did a project on it last year and wanted to visit in person. From the back: “Reed Gold Mine State Historic Site in Cabarrus County, NC is the location of the first gold discovery in the United States. Visitors can take underground tours, see exhibits and pan for gold seasonally.” Being claustrophobic, I skipped the tour. And my kids “panned” for gold, given a plate of dirt, finding no more than one teeny, tiny fleck. They still enjoyed it though–enough to go back for “seconds!” Others were finding more gold than they did, so I guess it is possible! 🙂

Cabarrus County Miners, 1880, originally uploaded by CarolinaRen.

Neat old-timey view of life in the old days.

Reed Gold Mine, originally uploaded by CarolinaRen.

This entrance to the underground mine was put in by the state when they opened the Reed as a visitor attraction.

My daughter is very creative. She drew this while on a long car ride. Its title is, simply, “Bored.”

My professor turned us on to this free, online assessment called Brain Works, the Left Brain Right Brain Test. You can access it at the Mindmedia site.

The test was very accurate in my case. Here’s the result I got:

“Renae, your hemispheric dominance is equally divided between left and right brain, while you show a moderate preference for auditory versus visual learning, signs of a balanced and flexible person.

Your balance gives you the enviable capacity to be verbal and literate while retaining a certain ‘flair’ and individuality. You are logical and compliant but only to a degree. You are organized without being compulsive, goal-directed without being driven, and a ‘thinking’ individual without being excessively so.

The one problem you might have is that your learning might not be as efficient as you would like. At times you will work from the specific to the general, while at others times you’ll work from the general to the specific. Sometimes you will be logical in your approach while at other times random. Since you cannot always control the choice, you may experience frustrations not normally felt by persons with a more defined and directed learning style.

You may also minimally experience conflicts associated with auditory processing. You will be systematic and sequential in your processing of information; you will most often focus on a single dimension of the problem or material, and you will be more reflective, i.e. ‘taking the data in’ as opposed to ‘devouring’ it.

Overall, you should feel confident with your life and yourself. You are, perhaps, a little too critical of yourself–and of others–while maintaining an ‘openness’ which is redeeming. Indecisiveness is a problem and your creativity is not in keeping with your potential. Being a pragmatist, you downplay this aspect of yourself and focus on the more immediate, the more obvious and the more functional.”

Take the free assessment to see how learn best!

I love the Life is Good product line. Today, I picked up these stickers (about the only LIG product I can afford!) at the Diamond Brand Outdoor center in Fletcher. Everytime I go there I get to thinking about camping and hiking and in other ways exploring these here mountains! 🙂

My husband Craig, owner of a termite and pest control company serving the Hendersonville and Asheville markets, Blue Ridge Termite and Pest Services, came up with this fantastic idea — to send this card, the artwork for which my daughter created, to all of his new customers.

Before, he just used your standard “thank you” postcard, with a pretty mountain picture on the front. But this–this card will get noticed! People will want to look to see who sent it, and why!

Here’s a view of the back, which really didn’t come out well in the scan:

I told my daughter she could earn money creating postcard art like this 🙂 (And frankly, this is not nearly her best work–she’s a pretty good artist!) If you’d like child-created art for your business, get in touch and we’ll work out a deal 🙂

Thanks to a free, hour-long afternoon program at the Hendersonville County Public Library, my daughter learned how to make “art cards.” She was so enamored with the process and her creations that she decided to hold a “class” in our home–complete with “sign up sheet”–to get the rest of us involved in something she loves.

Dad signed up first, then me, then my oldest son. My middle son, who’s not the artsy type, didn’t sign up. But she was okay with that 🙂

Here are the results of this very fun, very quality family-time, easy art project. First up are images of some of the cards my daughter made at the library.

Next up, images of the cards we made this afternoon!

My daughter’s cards first:

Now, oldest son’s. (Click for a closer look to appreciate the details!)

Even dad joined in on the fun (again, click to appreciate the details!)

And, finally, mine:

These cards are really easy to make.

Supplies:

Construction paper
Magazines
Stickers
Crayons/Markers
Stick glue
Old cards of various sizes

We used addition/subtraction flash cards, regular playing cards and trivia cards we’ve outgrown as the bases for our cards. First, we glued a card to the corner of a piece of construction paper and cut the construction paper to the size of the card. Then we did the same thing on the other side, using a different color paper. Some of the cards are two-sided, although you can’t see that here.Next, add stickers as you like to the construction paper. And you’re done!

We also made some cards that have construction paper on one side and a magazine image on the other. Simply tear out the page with the image you want to use … apply glue to the card … then hold the paper and card up in the light so you know where you want to stick it. After you get it on there, you can bring it down to the table and “press.” Then, simply add stickers to suit.

As I said, some of the cards we made are double-sided; I did not indicate that in the photos but I don’t think it matters. What matters is that we learned new things while looking through magazines for photos, had fun dancing with our creative sides, and spent good time together as a family!

If you’re interested in or even a little bit curious about the creative process, then you might enjoy this 20-minute video capture of Elizabeth Gilbert, author of “Eat, Pray, Love” speaking on creativity at the recent TED conference.

What she shared here totally shifted my thinking–in a very good way! 🙂

I read about this family helping villagers in Malawi to create and sell products. Buy a bag or three or other handmade, African products to help villagers who want to make a living. I did!

View this particular bag here: http://www.africabags.org/catalog/i65.html

View the homepage here: www.africabags.org.