Friday mornings are my time to write. My coffee is delivered to my “home office” by my hubby; I open my computer and the window shades and look out onto our backyard. The view and the routine inspire me. But not this week. My “to do list” was stacking up in my head and the more I tried to write, the bigger the struggle.

Have you ever had a deadline….and you just sit watching the cursor blinking on your computer wondering why the words will not come? That’s what happened to me this week. After two hours of sitting and still nothing on the page….I decided to forget the blog and tackle a few things on my to do list.

The garden shed….AKA….House of Bugs

I decided to clean our garden shed. It has been on my to do list for months. We had an infestation of boxelder bugs in the Fall and I set a bug bomb off in the shed. No judgement please! I don’t like working in a space with hundreds of bugs crawling around!

As many of you know, I share the shed with my husband. His side is all yard business, my side is all photography business. Dead bugs do not make nice photos! So I began sweeping the bugs and cleaning out of the shed. I had to move all the props and backdrops in order to sweep under them. It was cold, and a “not so pleasant” job, but I found it a huge relief from the blinking cursor!

As I was putting things away after the great bug sweep, I remembered that I had dried hydrangeas and eucalyptus on our patio that were just waiting to be photographed. I arranged them in an old tin and placed them on the small table in the corner of the shed. This began the process of creating a still life vignette.

I added a brush to the table and a piece of voile to the window to create a curtain.

Then I added a stool and topped it with a coffee pot, a spoon, and a coffee cup. I also added two spools of twine on the shelf under the table.

And then hung a twig wreath on the wall.

I kept adding elements to the vignette as I put things back in the shed.

And played with the light by opening and closing the doors.

I snapped photos on my phone as I played with the props……and then suddenly….the blinking cursor had a purpose! I knew what I wanted to write about and I had images to add as well.

Picking up the broom cleared the bugs from the shed and from my head!

Some days you just need to sweep the bugs to find your purpose!