Craft Camp (Retreating) - Part 2

Cake Wreaks continues to delight - and if you haven't already seen it, you should go look at the Cupcake mosaic Zilly Rosen put together to honor Presidents Obama and Lincoln for President's day. Entirely spiffy!!

Happy Valentine's Day!!
DH has to work today so after I got home from work yesterday, he treated me to dinner at Venice Restaurant (I'm considering sneaking back tonight to have another serving of the Triplet Ravioli (oy/the Pesto Sauce/sigh)), a visit to Baskin Robbins for a scoop of Ice Cream, and a re-view of Stardust on the DVD at home.
I'm feeling like a VERY lucky woman.

Back to the retreat narration.
As previously noted, last weekend I got to go to a crafting retreat at Bear Cabin Inn.
I got some more crafting done on Friday and Saturday:



I finished stitching this sampler.
It needs to be washed, ironed dry, and the "C", candy cane, stitched on - then it's fitted into a small pillow.










I finished knitting this Moebius Basket and started on a 2nd.
(Recognize the teal yarn?)





And I worked on this bit o'lace...
(Malabrigo - yum!)













The woodpeckers came back to visit:




























After treating us to a yummy breakfast on Saturday morning...
Have I mentioned yet that Carol who runs Bear Cabin Inn is a REALLLLLY good cook? That's half the fun of the retreat - no home-chores looming over you and delicious meals that just add to the comfort!...sigh...
Where was I? Did I mention Carol (and Maggie) just published a Cook Book?



Cool, huh?
I wasn't kidding - she's a really good cook.





Where was I....? Oh, yeah... After treating us to a yummy breakfast, we all piled into cars to visit the Gordon Teele Alpaca Farm a little ways up the road.



Pat Dempsey gave us a tour of the barn and animals.






























These are the female alpacas in the barn.
(Check out the cooling system he has rigged for the summer - clever!)










I listened to the the interesting and educational comments from Mr. Dempsey (no, really, he appears to know his stuff about alpacas - t'was pretty cool) from a side-stall, next to some of the younger Male Alpacas:

















Hmmm - seems I was taking pictures of the 4-legged critters and not so much of the 2-legged crafters.

















Then we moved over to hang out with the baby alpacas...and I don't remember much else Mr. Dempsey vocalized as I was smitten with young alpacas nibbling on my jacket and coming up to snuffle me. (Yep, I'd have failed the pop-quiz at the end of the class...)










































Martha was of particular interest to the baby alpacas!



(Or maybe it was the carrot-colored camera/ phone?)





These are the Alpaca Dogs.
They are Not people dogs.
They are there to protect the alpaca from coyotes, who are smarter than I gave them credit for. Seems they send down a bitch in heat to distract the guard dogs and then the pack will take out the guard dog chasing the female coyote.
Mr. Dempsey indicated these dogs have been doing an excellent job of keeping the heard safe.
(Coyotes zero, Alpaca dogs rule!)































You get now why I tuned out of the alpaca lecture, right?
Overwhelming cuteness...


This is a female alpaca watching us in the baby pen.



(And the only picture I got of Bob, Carol's nifty husband).







The "ladies" were a'wait'n for us out in the barn-yard.







Then we got to meet "Jericho", the llama. I was still not tuned back into listening to Mr. Dempsey, but I believe he indicated Jericho will "sound the alarm" if coyotes are on the premises - a guard-llama.
































Mr. Dempsey did indicate Jericho was fond of women and would snuffle over our hair and face - I was gifted with a snuffling...very soft muzzle.
I missed getting any good pictures of other snufflings 'cause there was a crowd. (wry grin)




























Jericho is in with the Male Alpacas:































This one's a handsome fellow!









Pat's popularity with the alpca ladies was only increased by the bucket of alfalfa "candy" under his arm...














And there was a spiffy gift shop!
Did I get pictures of the spiffy gift shop? No.
I was in a bit of a yarn haze. I think pretty much our whole crowd purchased alpaca-based goodies.
They had socks and gloves, fingerless gloves, the fingerless gloves with the mitten-cover, scarves, shawls, throws, rugs, all soft and tempting. Oh yeah, and the yarn. (sigh)
I initially had a huge armful of alpaca yarns in many colors: 3 skeins of a light teal, several collections of varigated browns, cakes of bright white or grey twined with light brown - and Martha had found some lovely blue-black plied with Gray...

Now, the down-side of a bunch of crafters invading a small alpaca farm with a gift shop...it takes a looooong time to check everyone out.
Long enough that some of my common sense reaserted itself and I put a bunch of yarn back.
(Truth be told, too much was put back...sigh).
But I did collect these treasures:


(Yes, and I found some of that beautiful blue-black yarn I'd seen in Martha's hand...)





And there was this hat.
I first saw a lovely brown version of this hat that I was ready to buy.
Until I saw this one.















Oh yes, I'm quite capable of knitting hats - have made several - but I don't have the knack for this embroidery.

I hadn't recognized the decorations on the brown hat were alpacas until I saw this one. (wry grin)
So the gray knit hat with fun embroidery came home with me:




(I wore it for the rest of the day too!)






















And...Saturday night...it Snowed. Not enough that I got to call out of work for a Snow Day, but enough to delight.














Maggie displayed her lap-dog qualities as we marveled at the snow Sunday morning.




Carol's lap specifically.












And it continued to snow...













Then it snowed a little harder...












Enough to make the drive home more interesting.











I have to say, folks seemed to be behaving themselves driving-wise on the way down the mountain...









And look what the DH had waiting for me when I got home.
As previously noted, I feel rather lucky...


Happy Valentine's Day to you and yours!!









(Respectful nod to Celtic Memory Yarn. Posting a blog of this length with this many pictures takes a Looong while.)

Australian Fire - yes, even I noticed

I'm wondering at my own inattentiveness and ignorance.
I know there are wild fires in California all the time. But they don't seem to be as bad as what Australia is experiencing.
Heart wrenching. People that died in their homes or trying to escape. Cars and playgrounds MELTED. Animals and people lost - and found.
Yes, even I went searching for news this week...

I've found a couple of blogs from folks in Australia that have lead to other news sources.
The previously explored blog of Australian Meggie, Life's Free Treats, had some comments about the fire and led me to June of 70 Plus and Still Kicking - who lives in an area affected by the fires.
(Wow - she has a map on her blog now to show the fire locations.)
She's been keeping a diary of the events of the bush fires. Rather well done, in my opinion.
Excellent - she lists how we can help!
Australian Red Cross Victorian Bushfire Appeal.
Here's an article on the American Red Cross Website...and there is an opportunity to help the folks struck with the early tornadoes in Texas and Oklahoma as well.

Meggie also listed this link that has pictures. A lot of them. More added daily. They look like the pictures we've seen of the aftermath of war. So much ash - unrecognizable piles that used to be people's homes. And the photographs of the people...
People you want to hug or laugh with; you see their tears or the character in their faces and you want to ask them to tell you their story. Pictures that confound the senses or bring hope or scenes and concepts that must simply be cried over.
Unbearable except for the courage and heart displayed. It is so hard to describe. Please, go look.

This one is particularly interesting. The Big Picture. It is "News stories in Pictures". Rather fascinating.
The 2/11 one is about the Chinese New Year celebration in China. Amazing pictures.
The 2/9/09 blog is about Australia. Some are pictures I've seen before in the Australian news photo gallery noted above, but not on this scope, and well, just amazing. Again, go look.

I'm off to see what all I can do to help.

Craft Camp (Retreating) - Part 1

It's been quite a week. Lovely, relaxing, and almost enough crafting...

I got to have a retreat from work-work, housework, the scary economy, the constant rain of bad news (and creepy, negative movie ads - what is with that of late?!?!?), kitty maintenance, hubby support, yada, yada, yada...and I got to craft, pretty much to my heart's content.
I'm home today doing laundry, pestering the husband and kitties and trying to pull together many thoughts and pictures from the weekend.

Some of the folks from my crafting group and I enjoyed a retreat at Bear Cabin Inn. It's in Show Low, Arizona, run by a lovely lady by the name of Carol Webb with her husband Bob.
She has a variety of helpers that come in to help cook and keep us in Crafter's heaven.
This was the first time I got to meet "TC", their elderly Siamese-colored kitty who took a short nap on my chest. (No, I didn't get a picture, but I had a bunch of fawn-colored fur shed on my person that would stand as proof of the encounter.) I did need the kitty-fix, I was missing my own furry monsters.


And there's Maggie, their black Labrador, who...







loves to fetch, announces all visitors, sleeps in a wing-chair in the living room, and she dances in the snow.

Technically, it's supposed to be a "Quilter's Retreat" - but our group is eclectic and we had quilters, knitters (me), needle-pointers, hookers (Rug hooking crafters), cross-stitchers (Debe and I), a sewing maven making spiffy little bags, and a silver clay artist complete with kiln on our retreat.
(I didn't get my quilting stuff pulled together in time else I'd have been in the quilting category too.)

So our retreat started on Thursday with a drive to the White Mountains!


And I took my first out-the-car-window pictures with the digital camera:





















Windshield shot:










There was a detour from I77 on the way up and then there were pauses on the detour (I177) for blasting.
My roomie and I got through pretty easily, but others had to pause for quite a while and even got to feel the bounce of the explosion (I believe the State was moving rocks the "quick" way to widen the road).




Salt River Canyon Pictures!
(This is the one that wasn't blurry...):



Confession - I did a poor job of documenting my trip and the camp pictorially.
There were concerns about battery life, base ignorance on how to document my trip for a blog, and...I just forgot to on occasion.

So we arrived as the first campers in Show Low Thursday afternoon (all others being slowed down by later starts, detours, blasting, and the lure of previously un-visited quilt stores along the way...)

We claimed one of the bedrooms and setup crafting nests in the big work room at Bear Cabin.
This is the view from my chair of the work room. It is from later in the weekend when Martha and Jan had nearly completed the quilt-tops on which they were working (beauteous, aren't they!?!)
Martha was recovering quilt squares she made 10 years ago (when she didn't know much about quilting). I think she did a grand job then AND now!!














The view from my craft table - through the french doors and past the balcony, there's lots of trees and a meadow. Jan's lovely and nearly complete quilt top is on the left.

















Kitty-corner from me.
(Yep, it's a big room!)








The camp includes meals on Friday evening, Saturday breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and brunch on Sunday.
So we explore meal-options Thursday night and Friday morning. We went out to a yummy Barbecue place for dinner Thursday night.

There was more crafting on Friday - I finished the knitting part of my Knit Dr. Bag homework.


3 pockets and 142 inches of I-cord for the handles - Done!






(I have to have this felted before our next class.)

There was also a trip to Amazing quilts. Ok, several trips, but I only made purchases during one.
I fell in love with this Laurel Birch X-mas Fabric (planned for a Tree Skirt) and the "Chocolate" fabric was too much for this chocoholic to resist (and I got a spiffy bag):
















From my seat in the work room at Bear Cabin, I also had a grand view of one of two bird feeders. There were a variety of little finches and what I'm told was a "Tit Mouse" (small, gray, looked like a finch with a cardinal mohawk) but I didn't get any good photos of the little bird stuff.
These Woodpeckers were less wary of me:
























































Next Blog...the Alpaca Farm Field Trip!!