Spinning In the Park

Well summer has officially started since we had our first spinning day outdoors. We met at a little park on the river that has this neat gazebo. I brought dessert and Amy brought a salad. Debbie Cullison also showed up, and it was great seeing her again. We had so much fun that I spun up all the fiber I brought with me. I took to knitting after that. I will have to bring more next week. For us this is a nice day out and a chance to get some spinning done that we do not manage to do at home.

 











Here is Amy spinning wool to finish up a blanket she has on her loom.



 












Here is Debbie, she had the most difficult time with her wheel. She really hadn't made friends with it yet and she hadn't spun in a long time. Even with all the frustrations she said it was the most relaxing day she has had in a long time.



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Here is a pic of Sarah at Gingers house. These chairs hang from some willow trees and they are the most comfortable things around. They look like a contraptioni of sorts but they are really great. I wish I had a set of them.

A friend gave me 10 years or more of old Victoria magazines. So now I have been going through them cutting out collage material. I am about 1/2 way through them. Then its all the clipping and organizing to come. Its a great mindless thing you can do while watching television. I am ready though to start doing some art instead of just collecting for it. 

Happy Birthday Dave

Yes here we have another birthday. All mine are taken care of in June. First Sarah and now Dave. He is 58 today, oh I no thats not correct I think he is 59. One more year till the big 60. I don't have a pic of Dave to show I guess I should remedy that soon. Oh here is an old one, that is his true personality. Have a great day sweetie.

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I have the cheescake in the oven. It is what Dave requested for his birthday cake. I haven't made one in years. The batter sure tasted good. Its a recipe that my Dad developed and is very yummy. With 3 cakes of cream cheese, a cup of sugar and 1 1/2 pints of sour cream it has just a few calories in it.

If Dave feels up to it we'll go to an outdoor concert tonight. I don't know what kind of music it is tonight but it will be fun anyways. I also heard there is a nice exhibit at the Carr Gallery so we may check that out too.

Happy Birthday Sarah

Its been 18 years since you were born and placed in my arms and looked out in the world with wonder. Its been quite a ride and you have turned out to be quite a wonderful young woman. Happy Birthday Girl!

Blogging where it all started

I discovered this on a writing site that I like called the Bold Soul. This link is a timeline on blogging. Check out whereit all started. Thanks to Justin Hall a Swarthmore student who started the first blog in 1994.

On Thursday night we went to cook at the men's shelter with my friends Amy and Ginger. We had a big crowd so we really worked are tails off. It appears to be so much busier in the summer. The we went over to Vino Rosa and had a glass of wine and listened to our friends Nelson and Craig perform. This time they were on Spanish guitars and had their drummer friend George with them. It was a great evening. I made an attempt to draw Craig playing, its a good first start but I need a little more practice live drawing before I can post that. It was fun doing it though. I plan to attend a lot of outdoor concerts this year so I may take the sketchbook and pen again.

The flying ants are back eek. Every year about this time I find them at my front picture window, hundreds of them. I have to vacuum them up over a several day period and then they are just as mysteriously gone as when they got here. I will be glad when that is over with.

I have been busy warping the loom for a set of towels. They are bright so they will be fun to weave. I'll have a picture soon. It is taking awhile to thread the almost 600 heddles. I do it a little at a time.

I belong in Paris

Hey it looks like I belong in Paris.... I saw this on another blog and thought I would play along.

You Belong in Paris

Stylish and a little sassy, you were meant for Paris. The art, the fashion, the wine, the men! Whether you're enjoying the cafe life or a beautiful park... You'll love living in the most chic place on earth.

What City Do You Belong In?

Summer Solstice

 










We celebrated the Summer Solstice last night with a bonfire. I forgot to take pictures before everyone left so here is a pic of my fire. Someday I will remember to take pictures at the right time. I had four friends who came and we laughed and talked and drank the wine Janet gave me at the Fiber Fair. We had a great fire and wrote our wishes out for the coming year on paper and threw them into the fire. A simple but nice ritual. A nice night. I stayed up for about an hour after everyone left but doing an all nighter alone wasn't too exciting so I went to bed. Maybe next year.


Spinning

 









I pulled out Gabrielle's fleece and started preparing it with my English 4 Pitch wool combs. The wool is just beautiful. She has a wonderful luster about her. I want a knitted shawl made out of her, so this is the first step. Maybe I should do a little combing tutorial on that. 

Labyrinth pictures

 










Here I am with the owner Patty Meyer. She is one fantastic lady.

 









She has all these great features that she has created on the property, using wood from the trees. This is one of the gates.



 









Here is the entrance to the Labyrinth. It reminds you of Stonehenge, doesn't it.

 










Here is the Labyrinth, its a magical place. Check out her website sometime. 

Back home from Orientation

I have been up in Montana for Sarah's college orientation. She is going to the University of Montana in Missoula. Its a beautiful area, the campus was just gorgeous. We had a great time.

We took the trailer and Dave and I camped at the KOA in town while Sarah stayed in the dorm. Here is Flynn all comfortable in the back seat on the way up there.

 










Orientation was jammed packed for 3 days. I haven't walked so much in a long time. We got to see the campus along with Sarah's dorm room, yes its small but still nice. She is in one of the dorms where most of the honors college students live so that will be nice for her. We got to meet all the Deans of her various interests and heard about all the various programs they have to help kids adjust. It was great. I kept telling her that she should stay home and I will go to college again. It seems so much better than when I went to school. They have the most impressive fitness center, it really made me want to work out. I thought I took tons of pictures but a lot of them were not worthy of showing here.

 









I call this the clock tower building, I can't remember its name


 











Here I am right in from of the Griz statue on what is called the Oval. Its a big area where the kids play ultimate frisbee and there are plenty of spots to sit and relax. it is the perfect meeting place.


 










On thursday night they held a carnival and gave out prizes. Sarah won 50.00 that was put on her school debit card. Now that was sweet. Here we are at the carnival playing Texan Hold em, Look at all that money that Sarah has.






We took a side trip to Victor Montana and walkied the RedSun labyrinth. It was so nice and peaceful. A nice way to end the trip. I did not take any pictures this time but I have some from last year. Blogger is being funny, it doesn't want to let me post them. I will add in a new entry instead of fighting it.

Pictures as promised

Well here are those pictures as promised. First we have what the Leaf Lace shawl is supposed to look like.

 












Now we have what I am knitting so far. It really looks different when it is not blocked. The yarn really feels nice.

 












I decided to do a soul collage card as a birthday card. Violette is such an infleunce on me that I decided to do a community card featuring her. She is the one who helps me to dream, journal, visualize and create magic in my own life. Here you get to see the magic cottage and the glitter girl van along with lots of other things. I made a copy of the card and made it into a birthday card that I will then send to her to help her celebrate her birthday this month.

  

Just Dance

I have been in a pickle for some time now. If it hasn't been hot flashes its been my new medicine for my high blood pressure that's hard to get used to. Or maybe its the process of letting go of Sarah and all the new changes in my life. Or the heat, its too damn hot already. I long for a trip to the beach. Too bad its almost 800 miles away. So instead I remembered how at the wellness festival I enjoyed dancing so much so I put on some music and a flowy skirt and danced away. Wow that felt great.

Next week we take Sarah up to University of Montana in Missoula for orientation. I am looking forward to some nice time away. I plan a trip walk the Labyrinth at my friend Patty's place, the Redsun Labyrinth Its a wonderful magical place and walking the labyrinth is such a cool thing.

Knitting and Spinning

I have been knitting on the leaf lace shawl and just loving it. I will take a picture of it soon. Its a beautiful shade of purple yarn which I have wanted to make something out of for a long time. I have not had too many problems with the pattern so that has been great.

I have been spinning some grey shetland from one of Robbie's fleece that I kept for myself. It is beautiful stuff. Amy and I decided to do lots of spinning this summer so we plan to go to the park at least once a week and drag our wheels and get some work done.

Drawing and Collage

On the drawing and collage front, I have been decorating the covers of 2 journals and doing collage on the inside too!. The other day I pasted some maps in a page and then painted over it with watercolors. That was quite fun. I haven't decided what else I will do with the pages but something will evolve. I put out a call for old magazines to a couple groups I belong to. I just heard from a book and collage artist who is divesting of all her old magazines and art stuff so that is going to be great. I will stop and pick up the stuff tonight. It will probably be quite a haul.

I took my journal to the greenbelt to draw but instead I ended up adding watercolors to some old drawings. That was fun. I tried the trick of adding a little soap to a Niji waterbrush and used it in the moleskine and it worked fairly well. I have pretty much reserved the moleskine for drawings and pulled out a journal Peggy gave me a few years back. Its beautiful and has all hand made paper. I was going to use it exclusively for writing but I found myself embellishing it too! I played with some different medium the other day. I tried oil pastel and colored pencil, watercolors pencil, soft pastel, watercolors. It seemed to take all of it well except the watercolors really seeped through the paper. It was fun to see how the oil pastel just stayed on the surface of the texture of the paper. I need to play with those some more. I don't use them since I don't know how they are normally used but there is no reason I can't just play around with them and find my own way.