Fun in the Desert

Wrangell, Alaska Photo Essay

2011-11-09T05:38:00.000-07:00

Flowers in front of the fabulous Wrangell Museum

These photos are from our June trip to Alaska. What an amazing place! It's so very different from the Arizona desert. First of all, there's WATER!! Second, there's RAIN!! Oh, wait, that is water. Third, there are pine-type trees. Next, it's cold (to us) in June.

This page shows Wrangell, Alaska. Wrangell is a small town that is missed by most cruise ships. Too bad for them.

View from the picnic table in front of the Wrangell Museum

A boat in the repair facility in Wrangell

Wrangell is small enough that we could often see who was driving where and what boats were heading out and coming in. After walking past the fishing tender Frigidland (above) in the repair facility a few times, we later saw it motoring away.

Tribal House of the Bear on Shakes Island

Shakes Island is a small island in the Wrangell Harbor. You walk to the island across a pedestrian bridge.

One of the totems on Shakes Island

View from Petroglyph Beach

About two miles from the center of Wrangell, is Petroglyph Beach. The ancient peoples carved or pecked images into rocks on the beach. You can wander around and try to spot as many as you can.

View of Wrangell from observation post on Mt. Dewey Trail

The Mt. Dewey trail will definitely get your heart pumping! It's mostly on wood planks and takes you into thick rainforest. It goes up and up. Then it pops out with an observation post that overlooks town.

Cruise ship arriving!

When we saw the cruise ship pulling up to the City Dock, we picked up our pace a bit on the trail. We were planning to lunch at the Stikine Inn & Restaurant with the gray roof. We moved a bit faster to beat the crowds. We needn't have worried.

The people at the Stikine Restaurant were very friendly and accomodated my husband's special diet needs as best they could.

The Charles T in a Wrangell repair facility

We walked past this repair dock several times in our days in town. The Charles T caught my eye. It's a fishing boat that was built in 1919. Crab fishing season opened while we were there. That meant a lot of activity in town and in the harbors.

We spent almost four days in Wrangell. Town is pretty compact so we walked almost all the time. When we went to and from the airport and the ferry terminal, we got a ride from Bruce, owner and operator of the Sourdough Lodge where we stayed.

While we walked about town, we started recognizing some of the locals and they waved and greeted us as we passed.

Crows are all around town. There was at least one that hung out in the downtown area that cawed and then beeped like a Toyota (or was it a Nissan?) when you use your key to unlock it. Made me look a few times. When I figured it out, we laughed and then enjoyed the mimicry each time we heard it. It was funny to hear that sound when it came from high in the trees.

Go to Wrangell to enjoy the relatively unhurried pace of life here. It's not a ritzy place, but it's real. It has its own kind of charm. Watching the tides is amazing!

What is your next adventure?

Blogger's Block of the Month

2011-11-02T16:50:00.000-07:00

My block for the month of October

One of my favorite things to do is read blogs. One of my favorites is Amy's Creative Side. She's all about quilting and sewing and keeping it fun. And sharing.

Then I read her blog post about the Blogger's Block of the Month (here it is).

It looked like fun and I need to use up some of my REDs in my fabric cabinet (can't fit any more reds in there!). I love looking at Amy's quilts and thought that I'd love to make at least one block designed by her.

I hopped on over to another favorite blog (Canton Village Quilt Works) and learned about the Blogger's Block of the Month here. It is FREE. The list of designers includes some familiar names and some that are new to me.

It's intended for all levels of quilters and is all pieced.

I picked out several reds to use along with some mostly white background fabrics. I have no idea what to expect. But that's OK. There is no rule that says you have to know exactly how your quilt is going to look when it's finished. Serendipity can be a whole lot of fun. Just pick out some fabrics and colors that you like.

If you're interested, join in! Please click on the button on the left of my blog with the Mariner's Compass Block. I can't wait to see what you come up with. I'll be watching.

I'm already a bit behind because I haven't started the block for November even though it's been out for several days. Best get with it.

We'll have fun together!!

Bellingham Washington Photo Essay

2011-10-26T05:00:00.000-07:00

OK. So these photos are from June of this year. Things have been a bit of a flat out dead run around here. I'm kinda starting to get a bit of a routine going, so I feel like I have a bit of time to share these long overdue photos with you. Not that I'm caught up or anything, but . . .

I got to go to Bellingham, Washington this year to attend soapmaking classes (Soap Intensive Weekend) offered by Bramble Berry. Before I went to class, I walked along the water. I'm a desert kid, you know, so large bodies of water fascinate me.

Here are a few of the photographs from that walk:

The Alaska ferry Columbia

The brick and mortar store related to Bramble Berry in downtown Bellingham

The soapy classes were great! Bellingham is charming and very walkable (if you don't mind a bit of up and downhill).

This town deserves more exploration . . .

Firecracker Quilt Being Quilted

2011-10-19T05:00:00.000-07:00

I was getting my Firecracker quilt ready to quilt on my sewing machine. This was before the arrival of the longarm quilting machine (more on that later!). I used a version of Sharon Schamber's method of hand basting. See her video here.

Then I got busy quilting it on my sewing machine. First, I studied the photo here on quilt designer Julie Herman's blog of the fabulous quilting done on the quilt by quilter Angela Walters. I knew I couldn't do the amazingly beautiful job that Angela did on Julie's quilt, but it inspired me. First, I outlined the triangle shapes of the pinwheels.

Then I did swirls in the background spaces.

Here is my version of the quilt all done!!

It's now hanging in the local quilt shop, Hearts and Hands, where it's on the class schedule.

What project have you finished lately?

Firecracker Quilt in Progress

2011-07-14T11:24:00.000-07:00

I'm always looking for quilt ideas that catch the eye. We get plenty of inspiration while surfing the Internet. So many creative people out there who are sharing what they do.

One day while I was reading Lazy Girl's newsletter or blog, she mentioned this funky ruler and gushed over the quilts that Julie at Jaybird Quilts created with it.

Several of those quilts caught my eye, but I needed to narrow down the choices.

I decided I liked the "movement" of the Firecracker quilt, so I asked Nina at my local quilt shop, Hearts and Hands, to order it for me. We talked about using some of the new patriotic fabrics in the quilt.

Brilliant idea!

When the pattern arrived, I shopped a bit and picked up some of the new red and blue fabrics from Hearts and Hands. I also got a nice cream on white fabric for the background. I have plenty of red and blue fabrics in my stash, so they got thrown into this mix.

The photo at the top of the page shows the interesting shapes you need to cut to get this quilt started. As Julie says in the pattern, be sure to read the instructions all the way through. This is a quilt where you cut all the pieces, sew about half of the pieces together, cut what you've made into other funky shapes, start laying it out, then sew some of your original pieces to what you constructed to make the fireworks.

The directions are really very good. The diagrams are lifesavers and excellent.

Here is what you get when you sew the funky white shapes to the kinda triangle shapes. I like the look already.

Then you cut these up using the Lazy Angle Ruler that I mentioned above (the link's up there, too). Lay them out on your design wall (or big table, in my case) with the left facing triangles you have ready to go.

You're making pinwheel shapes!

Then sew triangles to pieces to make blocks.

Here's what you get at this point!

More later as things progress . . . What are you working on?

I Had No Idea It Would Be So Soft

2011-06-04T11:11:00.000-07:00

The other day the post office left a notice to pick up a box. I saw it was from Danni from the blog "On the way to critter farm . . ." I was excited, but, alas, life has been in the way so I wasn't able to get it right away.

This morning, my husband was going that direction, so he was nice enough to stop at the post office and pick up the box. As he handed it to me, he said, "Be careful. It's heavy." It was NOT heavy! I opened the box and here's what I found!

Fiber from Kai the Llama!!

Chocolate from Danni!!

One of the blogs listed on the side of my blog is Danni's excellent and entertaining blog about her life in Oregon with her animals. A few weeks ago, her llama Kai got a haircut. Kai had quite a coat of fiber (hair, fur, whatever). Danni generously offered to share some with blog readers here.

Here's what a bag of Kai Llama's fiber looks like.

Kinda like furry chocolate. I didn't know what to expect when I took it out of the bag. It's SOFT. And dense. And soft. If there's some coarser fiber in there, I haven't felt it yet. It's really very soft.

Oh. That's what I'm planning to do with this fiber. Felt it. On soap. I make cold process soap from scratch. I have some soaps that are sitting around waiting for a new home. I think those soaps will make excellent experiments with Kai Llama's fiber. I've studied up on how to do it. It doesn't look difficult. It looks like it takes patience. I'll take a dose of it before I get started and then I'll report back. I owe that to Kai, you know.

I have another project that will take a couple of weeks of my time and then I'll be felting away on soap with Kai's fiber. I'll take photos and notes and let you know how it goes.

To Kai Llama and Danni: THANK YOU!! THANK YOU!! THANK YOU!!

I can already report on the chocolate Kit Kat bars from Danni:

Sewing Weekend at a Friend's Home

2011-06-03T10:22:00.003-07:00

Fire engine panel quilt made by my friend Kim

Desert Bear made by my mother

Crazy Eights quilt made by Kim and me (and Mom, too!) (pattern by Bits N Pieces)

Kim is tying these two fleece throws together (sorry about the upside down dogs)

My husband is starting to machine quilt (you might have to click on this one)

Purse I made--from Grids & Grommets pattern by Indygo Junction

It was a great weekend of quilting, sewing, eating, and visiting. We got plenty done and solved many of the problems of the world--if others would just do what we suggest.

Mom is making progress on her bear quilt project. My husband is just learning how to machine quilt and I think he's doing great! He already has several offers from friends and family to quilt their projects. He says he's not ready yet. I think he is.

I'm already planning for our next sewing get-together day. Hmmm . . . which projects should I take along?

What crafty or other get togethers are you doing with friends and family ?

Mom Finished Her Quilt!

2011-06-02T07:00:00.011-07:00

Mom was very excited when she stitched the last bit of binding on this beautiful, colorful quilt on Monday. She instructed me to call the newspapers. And then take pictures. It was afternoon, so the lighting isn't the best, but I usually do what my mother tells me to do . . .

Off and on, it's taken her about two years to complete this quilt.

It's very special to her and to me because many of the fabrics used in the quilt came from scraps leftover from her mother's (my Grandma Lucinda's) handmade dresses. Can you tell that Grandma Lucinda liked floral prints?

The modern fabrics are the backing fabric, the diamond print in the corners of the borders, the striped sashing, inner border, binding, and backing. "Dusty rose" was Grandma Lucinda's favorite color. Mom included shades of this pinkish color to remember Grandma's favorite.

The fine quilting, emphasizing the lines on this quilt, was done by Shirley Pratt of Cowgirl Up Quilts in Benson, Arizona.

The pattern was designed by Pamela Goecke Dinndorf and appeared in Quilter's Home magazine here.

Mom loves this quilt, especially now that it is DONE! I think it will be out to be enjoyed regularly. It is a great reminder of Grandma Lucinda and all those pretty fabrics.

Mom--good job!!

Sewing Days with Good People

2011-06-01T09:15:00.000-07:00

My friend Kim made the above cowgirl rag quilt for a friend of hers. I think the friend loves it! She showed a photo of herself wrapped up in the quilt with all three of her dogs, a cup of tea, pinky out, at 1:00 AM watching the royal wedding. THAT'S the photo that I need for this blog, but she refuses to give it up.

By now, you know that I LOVE to make things. I love to quilt and sew and make soap and . . . my friend Sue says that my crafts expand to fit the space. I think I should admit to BEYOND the available space.

My mother and my friends and I get together every so often to sew together. Usually, we work on our own projects. Sometimes, however, we work on projects together. Usually without fighting.

Food is involved, too. You have to keep your strength up to keep on sewing and quilting, you know.

Kim used the leftovers from the rag quilt above to make a smaller quilt. Here is her Maddie helping with the layout of the quilt.

My mother received these fabric circles from a friend. Mom's plan was to make round placemats. Well, she got one mostly done. Pronounced it a centerpiece and moved on to other projects!

Here is Mom's stack and whack quilt in progress. It was going pretty well until she couldn't find Row 10. Turns out she didn't make a Row 10, but after all that hunting and aggravation, she was kinda ready for a break.

Here is a baby quilt in progress. Kim and I worked together on this one. Mom worked on it too, but she didn't like the colors, so she made sure to have enough of her own projects ready to avoid having to work on it again.

Here's a pretty flower from Kim's back yard.

Here is Kim's Maisy on the bed with the batting that was spread out to "relax" out the wrinkles before it got put into a quilt. The plastic bins are there to keep Maisy off the bed and batting . . .

Why is everyone looking at me?

Maddie has no quilt available to arrange or test, so she's sleeping very well on her bed, but there's something wrong with this incline.

Quilts in Progress

2011-05-25T07:20:00.011-07:00

I've been crazy busy for the last several weeks, so blogging has been sporadic. However, others are busier than I am and they're still blogging. So here goes!

I'm showing some of my sewing and quilting works in progress over the last several weeks.

Here's the Fantasia quilt in progress:

Here is the Charlie Pirtle memorial quilt that I made for the Becoming an Outdoorswoman in New Mexico workshop. It's a raffle quilt for scholarships for women to attend the workshops. It's in honor of our dear friend and outdoorsman Charlie Pirtle, who died in 2008. Here is the blog post about the finished quilt and Charlie.

Here is the Shadowbox quilt.

Baby quilt getting basted--Crazy Eights by Bits 'n Pieces

Fire Escape quilt

The Charlie Pirtle quilt (at the top of this page) is finished and at home with its new owner.

The others all need to be quilted.

The baby quilt might get quilted this weekend. After all, this baby is due within the next month! Best get with it!

I love making the quilt tops. I love quilting them, too. Sometimes, though, a deadline such as having a class sample in a shop by a certain date prevents me from getting the quilting done. Other times, a quilt with a more pressing deadline (such as a gift) gets put ahead of a quilt that is ready for quilting. That causes some of my quilts to stay unquilted.

I feel so good when it get one quilted and bound and done. I always have mixed feelings about finishing a quilt. I feel relief and happiness to have it done. I also feel a little sad to see the project end.

I love the process. I also love the finished product. When one goes away, I have a twinge of sadness. I hope it gives joy to the recipient.

Now--off I go to my sewing machine!!

Charlie Pirtle Memorial Scholarship Quilt

2011-05-18T20:03:00.000-07:00

This is part of the quilt that I made to be raffled in memory of our friend, Charlie Pirtle, who passed away in August 2008. Charlie was a real gentleman who loved the outdoors. He loved sharing his knowledge of the outdoors with others. He taught at the Becoming an Outdoors Woman in New Mexico workshop for many years. His students loved him and fellow instructors loved to be around him because we could still learn so much from him.

Photo courtesy of Dan'o Miller at Semper Fi International

This is the third quilt that I've made in Charlie's honor to be raffled off at BOW-NM. A woman from the Albuquerque area won the quilt this year. She and I both had tears in our eyes. She never met Charlie, but I'm sure she felt the love and friendship that I tried to sew into this quilt.

The pattern is called Sweet Sixteen Patches designed by Kaffe Fassett and published in Quilt Magazine.

Here are the two other quilts that I made for the Charlie Pirtle Memorial Scholarship raffle.

This was for the 2009 BOW

For the 2010 BOW

I'm honored to be making these quilts in Charlie's memory, but I'd rather not be making them. I think of him (and Sara) all the time I'm working on these quilts. I think of them often even when I'm not working on the quilt.

My husband, who loved Charlie, too, already helped form the idea and the plan for the next quilt. It will be an old fashioned pattern. Made in an old fashioned way. I think Charlie would smile and nod about that with his grin and that twinkle in his eye.

And Charlie--I'd take pocket change from you for that T-Bolt.

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!!

2011-05-11T12:57:00.000-07:00

Yes! I know! I know I'm a few days late here, but . . . oh well!

Happy Mother's Day to my great mom Mary. I appreciate all she's done for me and continues to do for me. Love her lots.

Several weeks (months?) ago, she asked for some tree art to go on the walls of her computer room. Her computer room is where she likes to do genealogy research. Hence, the tree art idea.

Here is my first contribution. This small quilt is a tree from the Dream a Little Dream quilt pattern by LizzieB Cre8ive. The pattern is great, easy, and fun.

I made it with all cotton fabrics and did it all on the machine.

Now . . . to plan the other tree art . . .

Mom: I love ya lots!!!

yk

Buy Duracell Batteries--Support Volunteer Fire Departments.

2011-03-29T11:02:00.003-07:00

I'm on the board of our local rural volunteer fire department. It's a small department (in terms of number of vehicles and volunteers) that covers a large area here in southern Arizona. This little department does a lot with very little.

Think about 35 square miles. 25 volunteers. With jobs.

When we put pencil to paper, we figured out that it costs us about $50-60,000 each year to operate. That includes radios, lights, training for our volunteer firefighters and emergency medical personnel, vehicle repair and maintenance (all of our vehicles were well used by someone else before they came to us), insurance, medical and firefighting equipment, fuel, firefighting clothing, helmets, masks, gloves, boots. You get the idea. The list goes on and on. Things wear out. They break.

Batteries need to be replaced. Think about radios and flashlights. We know batteries are not cheap. And it seems like a small thing. But we all know that every little bit helps. Each dollar that we save on batteries can go to another project--like finishing our station building or replacing helmets or medical supplies.

We get funds from various locations. We have a core of reliable subscribers--property owners who pay a fee on a regular basis for "free" firefighting and emergency medical calls. Non-subscribers still get excellent response from our fire department, but they also get a bill later.

We get excellent major support from The White Elephant, a high quality thrift shop in our area, that has an eBay store.

Some generous donors help us out when they can. A couple of fundraiser volunteers work regularly at a local farmer's market and nearby stores to solicit donations from area residents and visitors. We apply for grants and sometimes our department is selected for grant monies which are usually required to be spent on certain items such as turnouts (fire jacket and pants) or other equipment.

Duracell, the battery company, is running a promotion to support volunteer fire departments. It's called "Power Those Who Protect Us." When you buy specially marked Duracell battery packs (10 and 20 packs), Duracell makes a battery donation to the volunteer fire department that you designate at their website, using the code from the specially marked pack of batteries. If you don't want to buy batteries, Duracell has a link for you to make a direct donation, too.

Here's how to find the code: When you get your "firefighter" batteries, open the pack. Inside is a little strip of paper with a loonngg code of letters and numbers. Then you enter the zip code for the fire department that you want to support. I'd be honored if you would support our Helmet Peak Volunteer Fire Department and that zip code is 85629.

We thank Duracell for featuring and supporting volunteer fire departments. Volunteer departments are made up of "regular" people who give their time and energy on a ongoing basis. They go to weekly training. They keep the vehicles running. They respond to all kinds of calls at all hours--fires, medical calls, and automobile calls. Most of these volunteers have a full-time job, too.

I'm not a firefighter or an emergency responder. I'm too wimpy for that.

I serve on the board of the Helmet Peak Volunteer Fire Department and help where I can. The Green Valley News, a newspaper in a nearby town wrote an article about our department here. This story is very typical of most rural volunteer departments. The departments need all kinds of equipment and supplies to keep the department going. Duracell is doing its part and we appreciate that. Green Valley News intern Alex Dalenberg wrote about his experience at a Saturday morning training with the Helmet Peak VFD here.

So . . . I'm asking you. Every one of us uses batteries. Go get a specially marked pack of batteries (look for the red fire department logo above). Take the code from the package and go to the website. Direct Duracell to support your own volunteer department, if you have one. Select one from the Duracell website. Or . . . I'd be pleased if you wrote in Helmet Peak Volunteer Fire Department in Sahuarita, Arizona.

If you want to support a rural volunteer fire department directly, they are always looking for help. Money helps. Labor helps. Are you willing to fight fires or respond to medical emergencies? You don't need to fight fires or treat injuries or ailments. Do you know how to work on a truck engine? Do you know how to build or maintain a building? Do you have writing or fundraising skills? You'd be surprised at how happy a group of volunteers can be with even a small donation of money or time or materials. It means that we have someone at our back. Just like our firefighters know they have other trained volunteers ready to get them out of a tough spot.

We'd be honored if you'd think of our little department:

Helmet Peak Volunteer Fire Department
Post Office Box 758
Sahuarita, Arizona 85629


Our fire chief's pride and joy. This truck came from New York to Arizona. It was donated by area resident Wally Karnas.

Lightning Strikes Twice . . . Quilt, That Is

2011-03-16T07:00:00.002-07:00

Lightning Strikes Twice quilt top

Quilts in progress . . . I have 10. No. I have 20. No. I have LOTS of quilts in progress.

I LOVE to make quilts. I want to make all different kinds of quilts. That's part of my problem. I find a quilt or get an idea of what I want to make and I start it. Then a quilt with a deadline (a custom order, a class sample, event, birth of a baby, birthday) comes in and pushes something aside. Or I get a little bored with my current project. Or I need to go get something for it, but I can't go today and don't want to lose my sewing/quilting momentum and set the unfinished project aside to pick up something else.

My friend Jacquelyn is really good at finishing quilts. Check out her quilts at her blog here.

Our friend Sheryl makes quilts, too. And purses! Take a peek at her blog here.

Anyway, this post is about the Lightning Strikes Twice quilt that I made. Well, the top is made. It's not quilted yet. So, it's still a UFO. Big sigh . . .

First you start with the pattern from Scrap Therapy.

I chose the version that takes fewer scraps and makes larger blocks. Fits my (lack of) patience level. The pattern calls for scraps cut into squares. I bought a couple of new fabrics (from the Michael Miller Southwest Monument Valley line), but used quite a few fabrics from my stash. Then you sew and cut and sew some more and you end up with some small blocks that look like this.

Then you trim these blocks to the correct size. Keep those pattern instructions handy. And maybe draw a diagram for yourself so you can keep it straight in your head.

Then you arrange the little blocks and sew some more until you get larger blocks that look like this.

Then you start putting your blocks into rows. Can you see the lightning bolt now?

Then you add sashing and borders and you get this quilt top.

It's hanging up now in the local quilt shop where it's a sample for my classes on this quilt.

Of course, as I mentioned above, it's not quilted yet since it had a deadline to be in the shop--before the newsletter announcing the classes. When the classes have run their course, it will come home to me and wait to be quilted.

So . . . quilters . . . what are your ideas for how I should quilt this baby? I'm thinking I might follow the path of the red lightning bolts. What do you think?

Snow in Southern Arizona!!

2011-03-09T07:00:00.004-07:00

Just a few days ago--February 27, 2011--we awoke to the above view of our back yard.

We live in southern Arizona. This snow stuff just doesn't happen here! Well, very often that is. When we went to bed, the wind was whipping up this storm. I heard it raining some in the night. Then I didn't hear anything. It was VERY quiet.

When we got up and looked outside, we saw this whitish-bluish view of a desert sunrise through snowy trees. The trees above are the same trees that are in the photo at the top of the blog. When we opened the door to really get a look at the snow, it was VERY quiet outside. All sound was muffled by the snowy blanket on the desert.

This desert dweller was probably not impressed by this whole thing.

Cactus in the snow.

The friend of the rabbit above--also huddling in our back yard.

This snow was a big deal to those of us in the desert of Arizona who rarely see this. The storm was fast-moving. The snow was gone by noon.

That must have been our last hurrah of winter. The forecast for later this week calls for temperatures in the mid-80s. It will be really hot here soon enough, so I'll turn back to these photos from time to time to recall the cold and the quiet of our snowy morning.

Etsy Finds

2011-03-04T07:40:00.000-07:00

Dog Stare by joykilledthepoet

Etsy has so many talented and creative people!

I love this shop by joykilledthepoet. She makes jewelry and bookmarks. She sells prints of her photographs like the one above. I love her creations and her varied talents. I also love that she mixes those creations all in one Etsy shop.


Pure raw chunk honey by honeyrunfarm

Then there are those people who have a "unified" shop that features one thing. But then, they get so creative with that one thing and make so many different products with it. This Ohio couple started with one beehive. The hobby became an obsession and now they have 110 hives. They sell honey in their Etsy shop and at local farmers markets. They also make beeswax candles and cold process soap from the gifts from their bees. They have a cute blog here that also tells you where else you can find products by this busy couple.

Blue Cowgirl by Carla Sonheim

I enjoy Carla Sonheim's art. It's whimsical and fun and doesn't take itself too seriously. However, it is expressive and the texture and color draw your eye in. Carla's Etsy shop has original art and prints. Right now her shop features girls, but soon she will get her animals series posted on her shop.

Wild Rose Ring by Osiris Jewelry

This shop features handmade jewelry (rings, earrings, and pendants) by an Australian jewelry artist who uses reclaimed or recycled materials. She's open to custom requests. I can only imagine what the items USED to be. Before they became these beautiful creations.

If you haven't visited Etsy yet (or lately), you ought to visit these shops above and look around. And buy!! And then let your fingers do the shopping as you wander from small shop to small shop looking at all the creativity that abounds there at Etsy!

Thanks for looking!

More Vacation Photos--Weminuche Wilderness Continued

2011-03-02T07:00:00.004-07:00

During our camping trip in Colorado's Weminuche, we hiked on the Squaw Creek Trail.

It was pretty chilly on our last morning in the wilderness!!

Farewell to the wilderness . . .

Our kind of quilt store!

We went back to Durango to return our rented hiking sticks and to explore a bit. We were there in time to see the narrow gauge train leave town.

Then it was time to head towards home and back to full responsibilities. Big sigh . . .

Thanks for following along on this picture show from our trip in August/September 2010. It was a great trip.

Have you begun planning your next adventure? Let us know what you're going to be doing!

More Vacation Photos--Colorado's Weminuche Wilderness

2011-02-23T07:00:00.003-07:00

While we enjoyed camping in the beautiful Weminuche Wilderness in southwest Colorado, we hiked on the Weminuche and Squaw Creek Trails. These two trails start from the same trailhead in 30 Mile Campground near Rio Grande Reservoir (by the way, this campground has some of the nicest outhouses I've ever visited--carpet remnants on the floors, skylights, nice posters on the clean walls, clean interior and exterior, and neat trash cans).

A ways down the Weminuche trail, you enter the Weminuche Wilderness.

Because of all the recent rains, the trail was a muddy mess.

But you had an idea of who else was using the trail . . . Hmmm. . . Elk and deer?

The Weminuche Creek is gorgeous!

Sneaking up on a butterfly:

Heading back to camp . . .

Time to sit and relax and plan the next day's activities . . .

Soaping and Lotion Plans

2011-02-16T16:34:00.000-07:00

Valentine's Day Soap

One of my favorite things to do is make soap. Now I'm learning to make lotion and cream, too. It's very satisfying to take some pretty interesting ingredients and follow a recipe or formula and end up with a pleasant product that is both dreamy and practical.

I've been making soaps for about two years and I learn (I hope) with each batch I make.

One time I made a few batches of soap and was wrestling one of the batches out of the mold. I was making a mess of things and was just plain cranky. My husband reminded me that this was supposed to be fun.

He was right. He's also pretty wise and has told me more than once that having the right tool is important when that tool makes a task easier and does it better.

So . . . I'd been thinking about a new mold for a while, but I'd resisted because of the expense. But then my husband made the leap and got this wood log mold from Bramble Berry. I'd been studying it for a while. It's a five pound mold with sides that swing down. It makes removing the soap sooo much easier. My husband is happy when I use it because I'm happier and don't need to call him for help. I love it because the soaps practically slide out.

Here's the mold "in action," so to speak:

In fact, the recipe that's in the mold is from this post on the Bramble Berry blog, Soap Queen, written by Anne-Marie Faiola. I love all the ideas and instructions that come from this blog and the videos that Anne-Marie makes.

My good experience with this wooden mold encouraged my husband to get a larger wooden mold for me from Bramble Berry. It's the 18 bar mold.    Pretty cool. Obviously, I can make more soap in one big mold. I can make pretty cool swirls in a larger mold.

I haven't taken any photos of the new 18 bar mold yet. I've used it only once and I really liked how my soaps turned out. And more of them!!

I've ordered other soap making supplies and fragrances from Bramble Berry, too, and some lotion making supplies. All orders come with a free sample. Fun stuff!

I just started making lotions and creams. I have three batches of lotion/cream under my belt and they have been well received by family and friends. I really took advantage of the Bramble Berry instructional information (both free and paid videos) for the confidence to go ahead and give it a try.

Why the long "discussion" about soap, molds, lotions, creams, and Bramble Berry?

This is my application to be on Bramble Berry's S.O.A.P. panel. Panel members will receive six or seven small fragrance samples of Anne-Marie's top floral choices for Spring 2011. Anne-Marie asks panel members to sniff the new fragrances and test them in any product they want (soap, lotion, cream, bath fizzies). Then Anne-Marie asks for a report to help her figure out the top picks.

I'd like to be on the panel. I think it would be fun. I think it would help me be more organized in my own testing of products. And . . . it's been a little while since I made soap or lotion and I'm ready to get back at it!

I also have a built-in group of willing opinion givers with family and friends who receive samples of my soaps and lotions already. They really like testing and opining and thinking up new ideas waayy faster than I can make them up!

This panel would be a really good reason to pull out the tubs of soap and lotion stuff and test away. And make up some of my own (and my friends') ideas, too, while I'm at it.

What are you making or thinking about making?

More Vacation Photos--Southwest Colorado Camping

2011-02-16T07:35:00.000-07:00

View from our campsite in Lost Trail Campground

After we left the relatively highly populated Mesa Verde National Park, we headed for the isolated high country of southwest Colorado. We went through Durango and stocked up for our trip to the Weminuche Wilderness. We got groceries, of course, and ate ice cream in the parking lot because we weren't going to get it again soon. We left our hiking sticks at home, so we stopped at Backcountry Experience where we rented some for our hike. They were nice people and gave us good information about the equipment and our planned destination. And they were pretty right on about the weather--unpredictable!

Off we went on our new adventure, passing through some gorgeous scenery in southern Colorado. We turned at South Fork and headed through the little historic silver mining town of Creede. Then we turned off onto a dirt road and passed the Rio Grande Reservoir.

A little ways past the reservoir on a rough and potholed road is the small Lost Trail Campground.

We set up camp and I walked around the campground and surveyed the scenery . . .

Then we went for a hike on the Weminuche trail.

I'll have more photos of this beautiful place in another post. Wanted to share these with you now.

Have a pretty day!

Mesa Verde National Park--Photo Essay

2011-02-09T06:00:00.004-07:00

Here are some more photos from our August 2010 vacation trip to Mesa Verde National Park. Please enjoy and make your plans for your own next adventure!

Vacation Photos--Mesa Verde National Park

2011-02-02T13:44:00.000-07:00

Cliff Palace at Mesa Verde National Park

After we left Chaco Canyon in northwest New Mexico, we headed north to Mesa Verde National Park in southwest Colorado. It's another magical place with many dwellings left by the Ancient Puebloans.

In the summer, the park has a wonderful program where rangers portray a historical person relevant to the area. That person leads a late afternoon tour of a cliff dwelling while in period dress and acting in character. On the day that we arrived, we signed up for the tour of Cliff Palace led by Al Wetherill (one of the men who "discovered" Cliff Palace) portrayed by a ranger whose name I have forgotten (I'm sorry because he did an excellent job).

The tour began above Cliff Palace and "Al Wetherill" explained that for the next hour we would be in 1902 and that he'd hoped we'd filled our canteens at the nearby spring.

Away we went for our tour of the Cliff Palace ruins. We got a history lesson about the Wetherill family and the discovery and study of Cliff Palace. We walked down the trail and down some stairs as the sun started going lower. Al paused and showed us a rough, rocky trail that used to be his way down to Cliff Palace. Once we got down to the ruins, we sat on a large, curving rock ledge while Al told his story.

One story of the Wetherill family history is here. We can see that the Wetherill family had a lot to do with the sites of ancient peoples in the Four Corners area of northwest New Mexico and southwest Colorado.

As the sun lowered in the sky, you can see that the ruins (above) positively glowed in the light.

Al had us mesmerized with his story and the story of Cliff Palace and his many visits to the ruin. Then he said we had to get moving since the sun was getting lower. We got up and moved to another location in front of the cliff dwelling while Al told us a bit more about how he and his wife had to leave this area after they lost their ranch in order to survive. He thanked us for joining him on this visit--his last visit to Cliff Palace. Then he paused and removed his hat and . . . became the ranger.

The ranger then filled in other parts of the story that Al didn't know and could not have known.

It was fascinating, but we had to get moving to beat the sun out of the canyon.

Cliff Palace

We had to climb a few ladders to get out of the ruins and to the rim of the canyon. I do NOT like ladders, but I tried not to think about that too much while I tried to just keep moving. I muttered to myself and my man talked encouragingly to me while we made the climb with the others on the tour.

Once out of the canyon, we headed back to the Mesa Verde campground where we spent a quiet night.

The next morning we met some of the campground residents.

Mesa Verde campground resident

There are many deer in the Mesa Verde campground.

And bees. That wanted to share our meals. I like bees about as much as I like ladders, so we kept our tent in the shaded campsite and ate our dinners in an open, sunny, unoccupied campsite where there were fewer bees.

Whew.

Fabric Inspiration & Giveaway

2011-01-31T08:45:00.000-07:00

Here is a fabric and book giveaway by author and designer Amy Barickman of Indygo Junction. If you're going to enter, make sure you comment on Amy's blog here.

Here is Amy's blog post about it:

Many times I’ve been asked how I get the ideas for my books, patterns or fabric lines? And the short answer is lots of places. My passion for seeking out vintage sewing treasures and collecting sewing books and ephemera has lead to many of my projects over the years. The Sew-it Book, Buttonware, Hankie Style and Vintage Notions are just a few of the books that I have created based on inspiring vintage items I’ve found and collected.
Through my travels, I always seek out antique malls, galleries or flea markets to rummage through. Often, I see something beautiful that catches my eye – colors, fabric textures, the shear artistry of a piece or the details in the stitching. It may just be an old book filled with gorgeous illustrations.

Many times this stirs my creative juices and I combine the inspiration with current trends in the market to come up with a new book or pattern idea. Other times, I find a vintage piece and realize the concept or creation would be interesting to today’s consumer and feel the need to “rescue” it from obscurity.

One example is my latest embroidery book, A Stitch in Time with Mother Goose. This book of vintage embroidery designs, along with my coordinating fabric line from Red Rooster Fabrics of the same name, was inspired by a darling baby blanket I found during my travels. The quilt was created from an old Butterick transfers pattern circa 1920’s. I’ve also discovered in my collection the original magazine ad featuring the pattern for sale. Below are a few shots of the original blanket.

I was toying already with the idea of creating a new embroidery book with a vintage feel and had some wonderful Mother Goose line art that I wanted to use, but the project had not yet come to fruition. I happened upon this hand embroidered baby blanket in bluework, along with the original vintage transfers and the entire project took shape.
Embroidery is really making a come back. The book includes 25 designs to be transferred to fabric and instructions for 7 different projects including two quilts. Here are just a few projects included in this book:

Another method of embroidery can be done with just the Mother Goose fabric itself. Two of the fabric line coordinates are “cheater” blocks. These two panels – one in red and one in blue – have the Mother Goose line art already printed directly on the fabric. All one has to do it thread your needle and following the lines. No transfers needed.
Enter to win A Stitch in Time with Mother Goose fabric bundle and book

For a chance to win a bundle of A Stitch in Time with Mother Goose fabric (one yard of many coordinate plus one each of the two embroidery cheater block panels – please note that only 19 of the 24 coordinates are available in this giveaway) AND a copy of A Stitch in Time with Mother Goose, you have five ways to enter the drawing.
1.    Post a comment to this blog post only letting me know what you would create with this collection.
2.    “Like” my Facebook page at facebook.com/amybarickmanstudios
3.    Sign up for my twitter account at twitter.com/amybarickman
4.    Repost this blog entry on your blog. Email me at amyb@amybarickman.com with the link to your post.
5.    Post this blog entry on your Facebook page. Email me at amyb@amybarickman.com with the link to your FB page.
A winner will be drawn at random from all entries. Entries will be accepted until Tuesday, February 1st at midnight and a winner announced on Thursday, February 3rd.
Good luck!!

OK! I've already signed up to win. Now's your chance, too.

Saying Good-bye to Chaco Canyon

2011-01-26T07:00:00.003-07:00


Moonrise on our last night in Chaco Canyon

On our hike on the South Mesa Trail, there were tracks of those who had been there before we got there.

And a colorful resident who paused so I could take his photograph:

By mid-day it was HOT (after wearing fleece that morning) and we headed back to our campsite to get out of the sun. The little thermometer that was in our tent said it was more than 100 degrees in there! No more exploring in the sun for that day!!

Our nice campsite had a couple of large boulders that were arranged just so . . . We called it the Bat Cave. Here's my man sitting in the cool shade of our cave.

We spent most of the afternoon enjoying the relative cool of this spot. We ate, relaxed, snacked, drank, and planned the next part of our trip here in the Bat Cave.

The Bat Cave even had some color!!

When the sun started to get lower in the sky, we emerged from our cave to fix dinner. By the time dinner was over and the dishes cleaned, we were starting to bundle up again.

The next morning, we weren't quite ready to leave Chaco Canyon, but it was time to move on to the next part of our adventure. We were on the trail of more Ancient Puebloans and were headed to Mesa Verde National Park in southwestern Colorado.

We have an idea that we'll be back to the quiet of Chaco Canyon . . .

More Vacation Photos--More Chaco Canyon

2011-01-19T07:51:00.063-07:00

Moon setting at Chaco Canyon after the full moon night

There is no hotel/motel at Chaco Canyon. It's a rustic place--from the road to get there to the "lodgings." We stayed in the campground there at the Canyon. There is an area for tents that's in a little side canyon so the tents are better protected from the wind.


Our tent in Chaco Canyon campground

Here is our humble abode for a few days in our little part of Chaco Canyon.

It was chilly in the mornings. Fleece, flannel, and/or wool was required. However, as the sun rose and we got moving more, the temperatures rose.

After breakfast, we headed out to explore more ruins at Chaco Canyon.

Next on our list was Pueblo del Arroyo. It is another large great house in Chaco Canyon.

Modern day resident of Pueblo del Arroyo in Chaco Canyon

In the early morning, the sun's rays felt good. To us . . . and to the lizard next to the trail.

Then we visited Kin Kletso, another great house.

Then on to Casa Rinconada (Round House?) and the trail up to the mesa and to another great house . . .

Looking back at Pueblo Bonito from the South Mesa Trail

After we walked along the trail for a while (it's easy once you get on top of the mesa), we reached great house Tsin Kletzin.

By the time we arrived, it was HOT! We ate our snack lunch in the meager shade provided by the ancient wall. Then we made our way back the way we came. Back to Casa Rinconada.

This hike was pleasant and not scary at all. As you leave Casa Rinconada and head up the trail to get up on the mesa top, you need to keep your eyes peeled for rock cairns piled on the sandstone to mark the trail. And . . . there is one section where you have to shinny through a sandstone chute that requires using hand and foot holds to get up and down that section. It didn't scare me, though, because it wasn't straight up, wasn't exposed, and the fit was tight enough (my day pack scraped on both sides) that it wasn't likely I was going to fall. I didn't take any photos of this section because I stowed my camera for that little bit of fancy footwork section. Didn't want it dangling and hitting the sandstone or pulling me off balance.

My man's name for that section of trail? The Jenny Craig section . . .

Thanks for indulging my still sharing our vacation photos with you even though it's been MONTHS since we got back.

Handmade Olympics--My Nomination: Favorite Handmade Goodie With Innovative Design

2011-01-17T17:10:00.000-07:00


Purple Alien soap by KristysLovelyLathers

Isn't this soap just amazing! It's pretty. It's fun. It's colorful. The description makes it sound as though it smells good, too.

I nominated this soap for Favorite Handmade Goodie With Innovative Design. the rikrak studio is hosting another Handmade Olympics at her blog. rikrak is a hugely busy handmaking crafter and promoter. Her blog is always fun and entertaining and sometimes makes me think. You can win prizes by participating in the Handmade Olympics by nominating and voting. And . . . you'll have an excuse for hunting around for items to nominate. Well, sort of . . . Check it out here!

Have fun!

Vacation Photos--Chaco Canyon, New Mexico

2011-01-05T08:56:00.005-07:00


Pueblo Bonito at Chaco Canyon

There is a very special place in the middle of nowhere called Chaco Culture National Historic Park. It's in northwestern New Mexico. It's about 40 miles south of Bloomfield, New Mexico. Getting there is a bit of an adventure in itself. When you turn off the highway to head to Chaco Canyon, you still have a paved road for a few miles.

Then the pavement ends and your trip slows considerably. It's not that the road is narrow or winding.

It's not. Its just that it's rough.

Think washboard.

For thirteen miles.

With an occasional pothole thrown in to make sure you're really watching. Add a cow and a few sheep just for an audience and another potential hazard. I was driving--with both hands firmly on the wheel--so no pictures of this part of the trip.

But once you get there, what a magical place.

The above photograph shows Fajada Butte, a prominent feature in Chaco Canyon.
Fajada Butte is closed to the public to protect it, but it has the Sun Dagger marker that is believed to align with celestial occurences.

From 850 to 1250, Chaco Canyon was a center of activity for the ancient Chacoan people all over the southwestern United State's Four Corners region. They had a road system and this "community" of great houses. Pre-planned architecture, astronomical alignments, agriculture, and engineering were all elements of this ancient culture. All of this before the Iron Age! No metal. No paper. No compass!

We arrived in August 2010 just in time (and by pure luck) to join in the full moon presentation at the monumental complex of ruins called Pueblo Bonito. We went early enough to tour part of Pueblo Bonito on our own before we joined the tour with the ranger, who really LOVES astronomy and Chacoan culture.

Please enjoy this photo essay of the rest of our first day (and night) in Chaco Canyon. The ranger initiated us into the culture and deemed us Chacoans. After that visit, we're honored.

What an amazing place . . .

Our Wedding Day--Photo Essay

2010-12-29T13:53:00.000-07:00

Today is Our Wedding Day . . .

2010-12-26T13:30:00.011-07:00

Ever Ours by Enrouge

On this quiet day after Christmas with family and friends, my man and I will get married.

It will be simple. It will be small. It will take only a few minutes.

Even with its simplicity and brevity, it still means that we love each other dearly. The commitment to each other will last much longer than the words that will be spoken this day. We'll be pledging our love to each other before friends and family. We're looking forward to having these special people be a part of our special day. We plan to celebrate the rest of our life together with the same happiness we'll be sharing with special people on our special day.

Please think of us as we marry today . . .


I love this man!!

Please let your special people know how much you love and appreciate them . . .

Happy Holidays!!

2010-12-24T10:41:00.003-07:00

Christmas ornament by Hammermann

How do you celebrate the holidays at this time of year? Do you have a big gathering with lots of food and hubub? Do you do a quiet few days?

These days we spend our Christmas pretty quietly. We do a little decorating such as displaying a couple of Christmas quilts. One is here:

We usually spend our Christmas holidays with family. No one gets too carried away with decorations. Once in a while, we get a bit out of control with gifts (last year I made out like a bandit!). We visit and eat. Then we open gifts and have some snacks. Then we laze around and fix a meal. I think you detect the trend here.

Holiday stocking by rikrak

It's a great quiet time. It's a relaxed time that give us time to think and plan. We enjoy the winter weather (usually from inside) and the time away from everyday life.

Christmas is a time for love. It is a time to love the ones you value most, think of the loved ones who have already gone, spend time with family and friends, and be content.

Enjoy good company and laughter and seek out contentment and joy. Thank you so much to those of you who have provided me with great companionship, laughter, and happiness. I look forward to more time and enjoyment with you.

Merry Christmas Chickadee by NatureMandalas

Soap Swap Box Arrived!!!

2010-12-16T11:38:00.000-07:00

Here I was . . . sitting at my computer working away when I heard a knock at the door. I could see that there was a box on the table outside our front door. I could see that it was from Bramble Berry.
Bramble Berry is a wonderful soap making supplier in Bellingham, Washington. I knew it must be my box of soaps!

Several weeks ago, Anne-Marie Faiola announced a soap swap using fragrances purchased from Bramble Berry. Each of us who signed up would select a fragrance, make a dozen large bars, then send them to BB, who would then sort out the bars and send a dozen bars to each participant. My contribution was bay rum scented soap. I have a couple of bars left in my collection.

My box arrived today. When I picked up the box, the aroma was just wonderful. Exciting and calming, all at the same time. When I opened it up and pulled out the paper and started unwrapping the bars, this is what I pulled out!

The scents include bonsai, sandalwood vanilla (I keep holding this one up to my nose), cherry almond, and cranberry fig. The cranberry fig soap was made by Anne-Marie herself and the instructions for this beautiful, comforting scented soap are here.

Some of the other soap makers are Mayren; Desert Soapstone of Prescott, Arizona; Auntie Lu's Scrubs & Suds; Bayou Liberty Soaps; Lotion Bar Cafe; Bonnie Bath; Palin's Pantry; Garden Gate Soaps; and Casco Bay Soap Co.

What a nice surpise. I mean. I knew it was coming. I just forgot about it for a while. Then I remembered it as soon as I saw the box! I couldn't wait to get it open and see what others made. I might share. I might not. Well, it IS the holidays and all. My thanks to Anne-Marie and the nice people at Bramble Berry for organizing this. It's a fun start to Christmas!!

Isn't it nice when something happens to make you feel good? I'll get to remember this each time I pass by these soaps and inhale the aromas and look upon the colors and shapes and packaging.

Thanks to all who participated and went to the trouble to make their soaps and package them up so special to share with strangers.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!

Vacation Photos--Aztec Ruins, New Mexico

2010-12-06T07:39:00.000-07:00

Aztec Ruins, New Mexico

As part of our Four Corners vacation trip, we visited many archeological sites, including Aztec Ruins National Monument in northern New Mexico. It's a site that was inhabited by the ancestral Puebloans. We were able to walk around and through a portion of the ruins.

This complex had about 500 rooms.

Visitors are able to follow the trail through the West Ruin, built centuries ago.

Part of the interior. These people were short and hardy!

Part of the self-guided tour takes you inside some of the small rooms. I show the photo above to give you an idea of the size of the doors. That's my man looking through another door into another room. The ancestral Puebloans were shorter than modern people, but they would have had to duck through these doorways, too!

A touch of summer color amongst the ruins.

The ancient Puebloans put windows in the corners!

The Ancient Puebloans built kivas for ceremonial and gathering purposes. There are thousands of kivas in ruins all over the Four Corners area in the American southwest. The kiva in Aztec has been reconstructed to resemble what the kiva might have looked like when it was in use by the Ancient Puebloans.

Have you started thinking about your next adventure? Will it be before the New Year? Just into the New Year? Not until next summer?

For me, the ideas and the thinking and the planning are great fun. Imagining. Wondering. Learning.

What adventures are you planning?

Congratulations!!! Winner of the Giveaway!

2010-11-09T07:00:00.004-07:00


Image from Free GIFs and Animations

Thanks again to my wonderful, special customers at my Etsy shop, Lucinda's Nice Things for getting me to my first milestone of 100 sales!!! It's very special to me to have you support me while I stumble and bumble along my learning way in this endeavor.

Thanks, too, to those of you who visit my blog. I really love it when you leave a comment, letting me know that you're out there and reading what I write. It's very special that you visit my little spaces on the web. I'm honored.

To celebrate my sales milestone, I held a giveaway of a Target gift card. And . . . now that the time for entries is passed, the winner is . . .

heidijaneblankets!!!!

Thanks for playing along with my giveaway! Thanks for visiting my little shop. Thanks for hearting my shop and leaving nice comments.

Very special indeed . . .

Giveaway!! Thank you for 100 sales!!

2010-11-03T12:06:00.000-07:00

Thanks to my buyers, I have finally hit 100 sales in my little Etsy shop, Lucinda's Nice Things!

It's had some fits and starts, but I'm starting to get the hang of having a little online shop and business has been good lately. Thanks to those of you who bought from me while I'm learning along the way. Thanks to you for buying when my pictures haven't been perfect (that's most of them!). Thanks for buying when I have typos. Thanks for helping me out when I let you know I don't know something about an item And thanks for pointing out that it's impossible for that bangle bracelet to be only 4" around!

I'm celebrating this little milestone by having a giveaway here on my blog. I thought about it a bit and I chose this $25.00 gift card from Target . . . fun stuff!

Here's hoping for plenty more sales and more milestone giveaways!

Here's how to enter the giveaway (and thanks to RikRak for the ideas!):

1. Visit my Etsy shop called Lucinda's Nice Things
and tell us in a comment below about your favorite thing and why you love it!
One entry!

2. Heart Lucinda's Nice Things on Etsy and tell us.
One entry!

3. Follow me on twitter Denny1600 and tell us.
One entry!

Please note that each entry must be its own comment. Thanks so much!

It is possible to have a maximum of three entries total per person.

Using random.org, one winner of the $25.00 Target gift card will be chosen on Monday, November 8th at 7 PM EST.

Open to contestants worldwide.

Please be sure to leave an email address where I can reach you. Thanks!!

Just to be sure you know I mean it: THANK YOU VERY MUCH!!

Vacation Photos--Canyon de Chelly and its "Other" Ruins

2010-10-01T09:47:00.000-07:00

Ruins (whose name I don't remember) in Canyon de Chelly

After we recovered a bit from our hike back up from the White House Ruins in Canyon de Chelly, Arizona, we headed off to see the canyon's other sites. Those are overlooks along the North and South Rims of Canyon de Chelly and one of its "connector" canyons, Canyon del Muerto (Canyon of Death).

Then we heard it again! That rattly vehicle! Here it is with passengers . . .

We got to the point where we were searching all alcoves in the cliffs for possible ruins. Those Ancient Ones were brave to put their homes in these nearly inaccessible alcoves!

The descriptive sign explained that the ruins to the right were from structures built earlier than the structures to the left. The structures to the left were built in the Mesa Verde "style."

You'll get to see plenty more Mesa Verde structures later!!

So, our culture is certainly not the first to move in and remodel or upgrade pre-existing housing. Recycling, reusing, repurposing. It's been around for a loonngg time.

See the little structure in the little alcove?

There were structures in all kinds of alcoves. We peered into all alcoves we could see. We used our binoculars to see if there were ruins in alcoves that caught our eye. Ummm . . . and how did they get to it? I'm not a fan of ladders or heights or boulders that hang out into nothing, so I would not have made it in this culture, I think.

More sandstone abstraction.

Back in the car and down the road to visit more lands of the Ancient Ones.

Vacation Photos--Canyon de Chelly's White House Ruins

2010-09-30T09:38:00.000-07:00

View near the start of the White House Ruins Trail in Canyon de Chelly National Monument, Arizona.

A small desert dweller on the sandstone next to the trail

The ancient people who lived in Canyon de Chelly (pronounced "shay") built homes in the canyon. They used alcoves in the canyon walls for some of their structures. The White House Ruins Trail takes you to one of these ruins. This is the only trail that non-Navajos can take into the canyon without a guide. It's about a mile and a quarter down into the canyon, but centuries back in time.

Part of the trail is carved from the sandstone walls of the canyon

Before you know it, you're well down into the canyon.

Some Navajos live and farm down here in the canyon. We passed a young Navajo couple leading a mare and her colt.

Once you work your way around a bend and cross the wash with water in it (foot bridges, thank goodness), you spot this amazing sight.

White House Ruins (photo taken by my man)

There is a structure at the base of the cliff alongside the wash. There is also the structure in the alcove part way up the cliff. The Ancient Puebloans lived in the canyon until the mid-1300's.

After we looked at the ruins and took waayy more photos that I'm showing here, we picked a spot in the shade of some cottonwoods for our snack. While we were sitting there enjoying the shady quiet, we heard a rattling vehicle approaching. It's a vehicle used for tours in the canyon. On this leg of its trip, it had no passengers. You can see it has no shade. It's called "Shake and Bake," referring to the "comfort" of its ride and its lack of shade.

After our quiet time in the shade, we started our trip back up the trail to the canyon's rim. As we stopped to catch our breath and to get a bit of a break from the hot sun, I took some abstract looking photographs of the canyon wall. Here's one.

After a few switchbacks and a few more "photo" stops, we finally made it to the top of the rim! There was a pleasant breeze that hadn't been able to make it down into the canyon. We walked to the overlook and saw where we had been from a different perspective.

Then we were off to the next chapter of our adventure.

Vacation Photos--Canyon de Chelly's Spider Rock at Sunset

2010-09-20T09:15:00.000-07:00

Spider Rock at Canyon de Chelly, Arizona

What do you do when you've set up your camp in the campground, had your dinner, done your dishes, and there's still sunlight left at a beautiful canyon location? Grab your camera and head for an overlook!

The setting is beautiful. The light was wonderful. It was just the two of us for most of the time. There was another couple for a while. The male half of the couple offered photography tips to me, clicked away, and then left!! How could you not stay for this?!

Turkey vulture near Spider Rock

There was another young man at the overlook. He stayed the whole time we did. However, he was braver than we were and climbed over the short wall and sat on the rocks that REALLY overlooked the canyon. He enjoyed the entire spectacle in silence. We saw him again the next day on the White House Ruins trail into the canyon.

I'm warning you: we took LOTS of pictures from this overlook. I'll not share ALL of them with you, but it's such a special place . . .

According to the Navajos (Dine), Spider Rock is the home of Spider Woman, the savior of the Navajos from the monsters who were killing the people. Spider Woman taught the ancestors of the Navajos how to weave on a loom. Spider Woman also enforces obedience in children.

Mother Nature cooperated beautifully.

My man took some fantastic photos! He did some black and whites.

Then he switched to color.

What a way to start an adventure in a special part of the world . . .

Vacation Photos--Hubbell Trading Post

2010-09-09T09:51:00.000-07:00

Hubbell Trading Post at Ganado, Arizona

We got a chance to get away for a great trip this year. We decided to visit the Four Corners area of Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, and Colorado (we missed Utah because we kinda made up the end of the trip as we went along). We're interested in archeology lately, so we headed off to visit some historical sites.

First off, we traveled to Hubbell Trading Post at Ganado, Arizona. It's a national historic site. The trading post there is one of the historic buildings there and is still in operation. The wooden floor really creaks. No one moves in that building without making a sound!

We ate our picnic lunch at a table provided in the shade of some HUGE cottonwood trees. It was quite peaceful. We visited the trading post and walked around the grounds. There is the old house that the Hubbell family lived in while they traded here, the garden, the chicken house, another residence, and a guest hogan.

Above the door to the trading post.

I was interested in the Navajo Churro sheep and their guard llama, but . . .

They were none too interested in me!

The old barn at Hubbell

Did I mention that this place was really peaceful?

Summer Photos--Camping, a Farm Visit, Weaving, Backyard Visitors, and Quilting

2010-08-10T11:47:00.000-07:00

On our 4th of July camping trip to Rustler Park, Chiricahua Mountains, Arizona.

It's still seriously summer here in southern Arizona, so I'm hoping to get some more great summer photos in 2010. For now . . .

Apple Annie's produce farm near Willcox, Arizona.

We spent part of a morning at Apple Annie's, a you-pick or they-pick produce farm and orchard.

I'm not so good at this farming stuff and I don't like squash, but I think this is a squash plant of some kind. The flower and greenery are pretty. And it was cooler there than here at home. Could it be all the water and plants?

And then I treated myself to this loom.

I made this checkerboard looking piece of woven "fabric." I haven't decided what to make with it yet. Perhaps a bag. I'm making another "panel" just like this one. This came from Jennifer at CraftSanity. Her loom shop is here.

I also made this dress for my Mom.

And this quilt for a friend and customer.

* * *

Living out in the desert means we get some other desert dwellers stopping by for a visit. Before our monsoon rains really got going, I think they stopped by our gray water tank overflow to get a drink and checked around our house for small wild animal hiding places. Um . . . you can have ALL the pack rats! Except for me, that is. I'm a big one.

Anyway, the photos of visitors.

Bobcat.

Coyote.

We think we've been seeing the same three coyotes lately. We think two younger ones (this one above is one we think is one of the youngsters) and an adult. They hunt smaller critters around our place where many hiding places abound. My man saw that the older coyote had success with one of the smaller furry critters that didn't make it into our fenced yard in time.

Then . . . once the coast was clear . . .

Ummm . . . gotta go!!

Me, too. I hope to have more summer adventures posted before summer's over!! Please let me know what you're doing this summer and post links here in the comments to your photos online.

Sewing Days and Feline Assistance

2010-07-18T11:48:00.000-07:00

I Spy quilt in progress by my friend Sue

My mother, friends and I get together periodically to sew together. It's a great day of projects, visiting, and food. It's all good and we have to do show and tell when everyone first arrives. We must share works in progress, finished projects (!), new purchases, and plans. We also ask for the opinions of others. We even offer opinions when we're not asked!!

A couple of months ago, we got together at my house for a sewing day and Sue worked on the I Spy quilt (above) for her new grandson. My mother explained to Sue that the boy is growing so fast that she needs to add more blocks to keep the quilt big enough for the guy!

I was working on a quilt based on the pattern Dusk 'Til Dawn by McKenna Ryan. This is the quilt in progress.

This eventually became a raffle quilt and raised several hundred scholarship dollars.

Another I Spy block in progress:

My friend Kim was sewing up a storm on this colorful flannel quilt in progress:

And . . . lime green is mandatory these days, isn't it?

My mother was working on this dramatic table runner:

A few weeks later, we got together for a sewing weekend at my friend Kim's house. A sewing and quilting sleepover!

Here's my mom binding her harlequin diamond quilt:

This is Radeen's cowboy quilt with the quilting in progress.

Kim finished this musical quilt top:

Radeen also worked on this quilt! Sorry you have to turn sideways to see this quilt, but it was on the ironing board!

Here is the quilt I was working on:

This is similar to one I made earlier (shown above) using the McKenna Ryan pattern called Dusk 'til Dawn. I was making this quilt for a friend and customer and she asked that the deer in the McKenna Ryan pattern be changed to bears and moose. I created silhouettes of the requested animals and incorporated them into McKenna Ryan's design.

When we sew at Kim's, there's the added benefit of feline "assistance."

Hmmm. I wonder what this button does?

I want to be alone!!

Must be something about this chair:

Why is everyone looking at me? It's comfy here on this quilt in progress.

Then a few weeks later, we were all set to sew at Sue's house, but then her husband had an incident with a car he was working on (the car came out ahead, but, happily, did not win) and we had to cancel sewing at her house. My mom was already here at our house so we could travel together to Sue's. Sew . . . Mom and I had our own sewing day. She started sewing a scrap quilt.

In the true tradition of quilting, she is using scraps from fabrics that she used to make clothing for herself and Dad. Too cool.

The little vintage fabric squares.

Then little two square patches on their way to becoming four patches.

She had a great time coordinating prints with solids.

Whenever you can, be sure you make time to spend with family and friends doing something you enjoy. And eating . . . It makes it all good.

Road Trip to Lone Pine and Neighboring Areas--Part Two

2010-07-02T17:09:00.000-07:00

You may recall from an earlier post here that we went to Lone Pine, California and surrounding areas for a nostalgia trip. It was a great trip with nice times and wonderful scenery.

After we returned from the desert east of Lone Pine, we headed north on Highway 395 to Bishop. We visited the Mountain Light Gallery, the quilt shop, and Erick Schat's Bakkery. Then we headed out of town along Bishop Creek. We knew the road would be closed at some point because of the snow in the mountains. We went as far as the locked gate across the road and got out and walked around a bit and looked at the snow like the desert dwellers we are.

Not too much picnicking going on.

Then back to Lone Pine in time for sunset.

We ate most of our meals at the Mt. Whitney Restaurant/Cafe. Have a salad for dinner so you can have a milk shake for dessert!

Then it was time to head back home again. But . . .not before noticing the industrious bird outside our motel room. And discovering this home under construction in the hedge just outside our motel room door!

Since this trip was in April, I'm sure that by now the bird family is growing!

Different experiences for us to see snow and then spring bird actitivy in the same day! Be sure to look OUTSIDE your door!

My Favorite Things

2010-06-23T16:43:00.000-07:00

My online and Etsy friend from rikrak studio challenged her blog readers to list their 10 favorite things here.

So . . . here goes:

Family by Renee's Funky Country

1. Family and Friends: I love my family and friends. We get together when we can for the good company and good food. And the support. And the teasing.

Double Chocolate Fudgy Cake Truffles by lollidreams

2. Chocolate!!! I love chocolate almost as much as I love my family and friends. It's yummy. It makes me feel good. It soothes me when I'm stressed. It gives me energy.

Baseball Scrabble Tile Pendant by threescoopsoflove

3. Baseball: My dad loved baseball so I watched and listened to baseball the whole time I was growing up. I listened to Vin Scully broadcast the Dodgers games until the Tucson radio stations no longer carried those games. I used to keep score while listening on the radio or watching on TV. Now I love baseball because it's fun to watch and listen to while I'm doing grown up tasks. It's comforting (except when the Diamondbacks go into a slump). I watch it with my Significant Other and we watch it with my mother when we go to visit her. When I'm ready for a break from my work, I can sit and watch for half an inning (or so).

Valle Vidal in northern New Mexico

4. Getting Outdoors: We love to get out of the house and into the great outdoors. Hiking, backpacking, camping. We like it when life gets simpler. No TV. No computer. No convenient phone. You concentrate on the next meal and what will we do today?

The Charlie Pirtle Memorial Raffle Quilt that I made for the 2010 Becoming an Outdoors Woman in New Mexico workshop. It's based on the Dusk 'Til Dawn quilt pattern designed by McKenna Ryan.

5. Sewing and Quilting: I love to sew and to make quilts. I get to play with colors (see below) and fabric and textures. When I get to do that, I make things that are pretty. Sometimes, those pretty things are even useful. And it brings some family and friends together, too.

Super Ricohflex camera by collectorsville

6. Photography: I've always enjoyed taking photographs, starting with the Brownie that my parents gave to me. This camera above reminds me of the cameras that my parents used when I was little. I have those cameras now. I have a new Nikon now and I took a brief photography class, so I know a little bit more than I did before. I'm enjoying trying to put those things into practice. Oh, but the remembering them is so hard!

Vintage Collection of Steinbeck books by scoutHOME

7. Reading: I started reading with my dad when I was very young. I love the entertainment and the learning. What pleasure I get from books and stories!

Beef Roast for Company by $5 Dinners

8. Food and Cooking: I LOVE to eat! I love to cook, too. I also love to cook on a budget. I have plenty of cookbooks, but I enjoy getting ideas from the Internet, too.

My friend Kim's calla lillies

9. Color: It soothes and excites and warms and calms. I love Arizona sunsets and sunrises. I love flowers and other bits of color in the desert.

Map Envelopes by DrakonsLair

10. Travel: We love going places. I guess I come by it naturally, as my parents loved to travel and I started before I was two months old!! I like to see new places. I like to eat new foods. I love to get a taste of local culture. And . . . I love being away from home. And . . . then coming home again.

So, what do you think of my favorite things? And now I want to know--what are your favorite things? Think about them, enjoy them, and then share them. I'd love to hear yours.

Road Trip!!!--Lone Pine, California and nearby deserts and mountains

2010-06-08T15:38:00.001-07:00

Do you like to take trips to places where you spent pleasant times in the past? Do you like to do nostalgia trips? My significant other likes to do that once in a while. I like to go along because he is so interested in where we're going. It's fun to see him get so absorbed. I also love to see things that make up part of his life.

He decided that in April we'd head from our home in southern Arizona to Lone Pine, California and the desert nearby. That's where his father had some mining claims (in the desert near Darwin, California). My SO remembers that his mother and father walked and wandered all over the hills near those mining claims. He went along for the trips as a young guy, so he remembers the trips, but he remembers that things were much bigger then than they are now. Sound familiar?

Anyway, we got his mother (who's in her mid-80's now) to go along with the idea of the trip to the mine and away we went.

Road trip!!

Here is the Arizona desert near Gila Bend. Wildflowers!!

It's many mind numbing hours from southern Arizona to Lone Pine, California, but the stunning views of the eastern Sierra Nevada make up for the stiffness from sitting all those hours. Mount Whitney is in two of these photos below.

The morning after we arrived in Lone Pine, we headed east, away from the Eastern Sierra and into the desert. We drove to the old ghost town of Darwin and then back west into the hills nearby. We meandered around the desert and discussed where we were and where we should turn. We backed up and tried a different road. Then SO's mother said, "This looks familiar. I remember going past these tailings piles." Over the edges of a couple of ridges, across a small valley, then partway up the other side. We arrived!!

It doesn't look like much, you say? Oh, but wait. It was a place to work the land in hopes of finding gold and other minerals. It was a place where my SO's father spent many hours each year, digging, blasting, and improving as required by the mining laws. He escaped the big city where he lived. He got in touch with his roots and searched for gold as his grandfather did years ago in northern New Mexico.

My SO's mother got out of the truck with the help of a step stool, donned her son's hat, took my hiking stick, and proceeded to explore familiar territory which she hadn't visited in many years.

We found some spots of color near the diggings.

And marveled at the blossoms on the Joshua trees.

Here we are next to the monument marking part of the mining claim boundary. His mother sent us up here so she could take the photo!

The collapsed mine shaft that he worked so hard to dig and blast and reinforce.

The view from the main mine shaft back down the hill to our truck and the "driveway."

It was interesting and fun to wander around and look at the remains of the mine out here in the middle of nowhere. Truly! There were many artifacts and reminders of days gone by--rusted cans, weathered wood, piles of rocks. We wandered and explored and turned over rocks and tin cans. We sat in a chair we placed near the truck. We had a snack, a swallow of water, and a last look around.

Then it was time to go back to the truck and head back to the "big city" of Lone Pine.

We all enjoyed the visit to the old mine and hope to visit there again sometime in the not too distant future (but at least after summer!).

Make sure you get your own outdoor and nostalgia adventures while you can and while those who might enjoy it with you will go along!!

Hiking in the Springtime in Arizona's Madera Canyon

2010-05-22T15:09:00.000-07:00

Elephant Head, Santa Rita Mountains, southern Arizona

Getting into the out of doors is one of our favorite things. We like to go different places, but when we can't we still love going close to home. Madera Canyon in the Santa Rita Mountains is nearby and we can get out of the desert and into the trees.

And when you haven't been walking regularly, it's always nice to walk on a trail that doesn't beat you to death. So we sometimes choose the Nature Trail in Madera Canyon. You can join the Nature Trail in several locations along the canyon or you can walk the whole length.
A few weeks ago--in early April--we were ready to enjoy the canyon's spring joys, so we started at the lower end of the Nature Trail which begins at the Proctor Parking Lot. The trail is uphill from this point, taking you alongside Madera Creek.

Can you tell that spring was springing?

The cottonwood trees were happy.

Madera Creek was running.

This is newsworthy in the desert. Our mountains got quite a bit of snow this winter. As the snow melts, the creeks run with beautiful cold, snowmelt. Later in the year, these creeks will be dry. So, for this desert rat, this blog post will feature WATER!

Next to the Nature Trail is a huge flat boulder that is a metate--a rock depression or hole used to grind things (mesquite beans, corn, etc.) into flour or meal. A reminder of those who came before us.

Here is Proctor Road at the mouth of Madera Canyon. It's a favorite with bicyclists, hunters, and campers. This road leads to the Proctor Ranch, which was begun by my great uncle Charles Proctor many years ago.

The poppies near the trail were beautiful!!!

And . . . as we left the trail and headed to our car, one last look back at the mountain with some snow . . .

Be sure you figure out a way to spend some time in the outdoors soon!

Camping in Madera Canyon--continued

2010-05-07T07:50:00.001-07:00

Did you know these were hiking shoes and boots? I didn't know the cowboy boots had the green uppers until we were sitting around the fire ring. However, these boots tromped around camp and up the trail and served well while playing catch with the football and frisbee in camp. And made me smile.

Did you know that when you camp with six boys that you will see no wildlife? Well, other than what is habituated to humans--like the camp robber jays and squirrels. So, when you camp with six boys, don't expect to see deer or anything like that. Just so you know.

We camped for just one night. More than that is really pressing it for at least one of the leaders. And on this trip, one night was enough. Some time in the night, the wind really came up and blew HARD!! It was one of those winds where you could hear it rumbling down the hill and it seemed as though it was working hard to gather steam. Then it got to your tent and shook it up for all it was worth. Our tent fared well in the wind. It's had plenty of wind experience. The bigger tent had some floppy places and the occupants got out, packed up, and put their tent away before breakfast.

Needless to say, while you're hearing the wind gathering speed as it roars down the mountain and through the trees, you don't sleep very well at all. Here's a story about some other campers in a different location in the same mountains on the same night!

Oh, speaking of breakfast . . .

Each prepared their own breakfast in their own pan/plate. You got your own ingredients: eggs, cheese, etc. Then cooked. At least one of our campers had never cooked before so he figured it out quickly with coaching and by observation.

After breakfast, another hike was in order. Can you tell that the wind brought cooler temperatures?

We walked from the campground along the trails to the Santa Rita Lodge to visit their bird feeders. They have many interesting visitors.

I took these photos while the others were in the gift shop getting hot drinks.

Then it was a hike back to camp and lunch!!

Oh, are you detecting a trend here? One camper described our camping trip: You get to camp, set up the tent, eat, then hike, stop and eat, then hike back to camp, then you cook!"

Sounds just about right to me . . .

I hope you get your own outdoor adventures soon.

More Soap Making Information! Terms and How-To

2010-05-05T09:00:00.002-07:00

Anne Marie at Soap Queen has another video about making cold process soaps. It discusses terms (just what is "trace?") and other basics. She's holding back on the recipe, though, because she wants you to focus on the basics before you get caught up in the specific ingredients. Here is the video!

How to Make Cold Process Soap: Basic Terms, Episode 2 from Soap Queen on Vimeo.

Isn't this great?! If this doesn't seem like all that much fun to you, or too much work, or you just have too much other stuff going on (gee, is life too hectic?) to do this, visit The Yard Woman online or in Tubac, Arizona to get my soaps. You can also find my soaps at http://www.lucindasnicethings.etsy.com/.

"Against the assault of laughter, nothing can stand."

Mark Twain

Camping in Arizona's Madera Canyon

2010-05-03T09:31:00.001-07:00

We love to camp and hike. We love the outdoors. We especially love it when we can get into some higher country and enjoy the trees and the smells and the sounds.

A little over a month ago, we went hiking with our friends and some of the members of their 4H group. The group decided to camp close to home at the Bog Springs Campground in nearby Madera Canyon. It's a beautiful place in one of Arizona's "sky island" mountain ranges--the Santa Rita Mountains.

Of course, when you arrive at camp, the first order of business is to set up housing. Our little backpacking tent is this orange and blue one. The bigger tent for the 4H leaders and the kids is the one that's going up in the distance in the picture below. Are we smart, or what?

Below, everyone helps get the big tent set up!

Then you know the next order of business is food!

This is the trail mix container. Everyone contributed a bag of something for the trail mix tub. M&M's are my favorite in this tub!! Once all the ingredients were poured into the tub, the 4H leader asked the kids if they'd stirred it up yet. The response, "Ooohhh, that's why you call it trail mix!" Sigh. Oh, and did you know that dried apricots look like red blood cells. I learned so much on this camping trip . . .

Then came lunch!!

And a hike!

This is the Dutch John Trail that takes off from the east side of the Bog Springs Campground. We went for about a mile UP the trail (you can see that UP is the operative word here) to a spring and a nice shady spot with lots of trees and boulders. Here are a brother and sister enjoying a peaceful rest on a big boulder. And some of the trail mix!

And a couple of buddies on another boulder . . .

More later when I share with you some of the appropriate footwear for camping and hiking in the mountains of Southern Arizona!!

Have a good week!

Soap--Cutting and Curing--It's Kinda Magic

2010-05-01T11:35:00.000-07:00

In my previous posts, I talked about getting your soaping equipment together and the soap making process. I also linked to some nice videos, websites, and other blogs that give great information about making cold process soap.

Now--where did we leave off? Oh, yes, the soaps were in the molds.

Once you've let your soap sit in the molds for a day or two, it's time to get them out of the molds. If you use oddball things for your molds, some release the soaps better than others. Some last longer than others. Some soaps cooperate better than others (oatmeal and honey is nice, shea butter is, well, stubborn).

This is a photo that I showed earlier and you can see the various molds that I used for this batch of oatmeal and honey.

Not shown here are some "real" molds that are budget molds that I got at Brambleberry and Snowdrift Farm. I line them with freezer paper with the shiny side facing the soap. That helps the soap release easily. Those molds are very nice, but they must have been saved for another soap (like the stubborn, but luxurious shea butter soap). I'm just not sure how long they will last with the heat of the cold process soaps. After a few batches, they're starting to warp. I'm saving my pennies for one of the nice wooden molds!

I also use a drywall mud tray as a mold (at the top in the photo above). It's not flexible at all, so I make sure to line it with freezer paper so my soap comes out. It makes a pretty big bar of soap if you fill it or it makes a nice hand sized bar if you fill it just over half way.

The "hospital" molds are very flexible plastic so I can flex them like an ice cube tray and convince the soap to come out pretty easily.

The microwave dessert mold works well with some soaps such as oatmeal and honey, but not so well with others, such as shea butter. And those molds work only two or three times before they break while you're trying to push the soap out. They make fun looking soaps, though. My mother loves to help make more of those molds available to me by eating the dessert out of the "molds!"

The silicon candy molds or baking pans (not in the photo) make great soap molds. You have to support them on a flat and level surface or you get slanted soaps. If that's the look you want, great. When you're ready to unmold the soaps in the silicon molds, you'd better be ready because those soaps are practially FALLING OUT of the molds! Some of the soaps may still be a bit soft, so you may need to gently pry the sides of silicon pans away from the edges of the soap so the soap doesn't come apart.

Once you get the soaps out of the molds, you need to cut them. I use a stainless steel dough scraper. I cut my soaps about 1" thick. They shrink a bit while they're curing, I'm pretty sure.

After you cut them you need to let them cure. That means sit. Not used. FOR A MONTH!! Or maybe more.

I put my soaps in cardboard box lids with paper towels or freezer paper in the bottom. I turn the soaps every so often so all sides get exposed to the air. Here are some boxes stacked up with soaps!

I keep my soap recipe with the soaps along with the date that the soaps came out of the mold. That way I'll know when they should be cured and ready to be used.

The little ball soaps are shea butter soaps that wouldn't come out of the molds easily. When you make shea butter soap, make sure your molds are really prepared well to allow that soap to come out of the mold. Otherwise, you end up with lots of little soap balls 'cause you had to use a spoon to scoop it out of the molds and a broken spatula 'cause you tried to pry the shea butter soap out of the mold. Sigh . . .

Above shows patchouli in the top--smells good! Honey and oatmeal is the orangish soap in the bottom. I guess the particular honey I used made it that color. Plus it's still pretty soft at this point. A month later, it's mellower in color.

The smell from the soap curing room (the back bedroom) is nice when you go by . . .

Here are some hearts from the silicon candy mold that makes tiny soaps:

You can see that one or two look a bit "drunk." Those were the ones that weren't level. A couple have "patches." Those didn't come out of the mold so easily. After I took those two out, I put the mold back and waited until the next day to take the rest out. That worked much better!

After the soaps cure, then they're ready to be used. If you want, you can use a vegetable peeler to peel off the rough edges (save the shavings for the laundry!), add some pretty decoration and a label and then you have something like this!

Now, I'm not saying I know it all, 'cause I don't! Not by a long shot. I have lots to learn and try new things every time I can. What I do is pretty basic stuff, but they sure come out creamy and nice to my skin!!

Thanks for visiting and, if you have any ideas for future soaps, please let me know!

My Soapmaking Process

2010-04-21T12:33:00.000-07:00

I love to make soap from scratch. I use the cold process method where you first mix water and lye (you can't make soap without it!) and then melt and mix oils. Then you mix the lye water with the oils. Then this magic thing happens to make soap. Well, it's not really magic. It's science, I guess. It's called saponification--where the lye mixture and the oils get together to make soap. This soap is really, really nice. It's not so drying or irritating as the bars you buy in the grocery or drug stores.

When you make soap, you need to get your stuff together.

Getting everything ready and in one place ahead of time makes life much less stressful when the soap starts to become soap in the pan (which is just out of the photo) and you need to be ready to pour it into molds.

As you can see, I make soap outside. I started doing that because I didn't want lye fumes or any spills in the kitchen. When I use the metal table outside, I don't worry about the inevitable spills. And cleanup is very easy. When the weather's bad and I NEED to make some soap, I've made it inside. I ran the kitchen exhaust fan and opened the kitchen window and had no problems. I prefer to do it outside, however.

This is my batch of honey and oatmeal soap, some of which is on sale in my etsy and artfire shops.

Once I get the lye mixed into the water in the glass measuring cup and let it start to cool, I melt the oils in the stainless steel soap pot.

Once all the oils are melted, you need to cool the lye water and the oils. In the picture below you can see that the lye water mixture is HOT. That's another science thing. Lye mixed with water makes a chemical reaction that makes it HOT!!

And you take the temperature of the oils . . .

When they get to the right (close) temperature, you CAREFULLY pour the lye water into the oils. Then you start mixing. Since life is short, you should use a stick blender to mix your soap. Otherwise, it takes a very long time and your arm gets very tired. Duct tape may be required on your stick blender when you use it for soap rather than the soups for which it was intended.

Then you run the blender for a bit and then use the blender as a spoon for a bit. You don't want to burn up the blender motor. Once it starts to thicken and you can see the image of the blender on the surface of the soap mixture, it has reached or is reaching "trace."

This is when you add your special ingredients. Like ground oatmeal.

Then you add the honey.

Then you pour it in your prepared molds (preparing the molds is part of what you do before you get started!).

Then you put all your molds with your fresh soap mixture in a box lid to help contain drips or spills. Some soaps you insulate with towels, but soaps with honey don't want to be insulated. So this oatmeal and honey soap isn't blanketed.

And, yes, some of those molds are "interesting" things from the hospital and the hardware store. They make good soap molds.

The soap rests in the molds for a day or two or three. Until they're ready to come out relatively easily. That's another blog topic.

Next . . . CLEAN UP!!

Clean up isn't that big of a deal, but it is a bit messy and oily, so keep your apron and gloves on. Sometimes I save the mess until the next day because then it's SOAP!!

There are a few more steps, but we're at a stopping point for today.

As I explained in an earlier post, there are great places online to learn about making soap:

Majestic Mountain Sage

Teach Soap

About.com Soap and Candlemaking

If this just seems like waayy too much mess and work, then please visit my shops linked above to check them out and purchase soaps already made!!

Next week I'm planning to make more soap. On the list of soaps to make are patchouli, peppermint and oatmeal, and maybe rosemary and peppermint.

What other soaps do you think I should try? Let me know what you think in the comments below. Make sure you leave your email address. Why your email address? Well, if I select your soapy idea and make up some of those soaps, I'll email you to get your mailing address. And I'll send some of those soaps your way!! Now put your thinking caps on and let me know . . .

Soap Queen's Video about How to Make Cold Process Soap

2010-04-09T09:59:00.000-07:00

This is very exciting!

You know how a few days ago, I posted about my soapy morning and how I got started making soap?! Well, Anne Marie at Bramble Berry soap making supplies produced this video about how to make cold process soap! Talk about timing! And we didn't even compare notes!

Anyway, this video presents the very beginning steps for making cold process soaps. It also discusses in real terms the "scariest" part to potential soapmakers: using lye. It's a great place start, so check it out!

How to Make Cold Process Soap : Lye Safety & Ingredients, Episode 1 from Soap Queen on Vimeo.

The next installment should come out in a couple of weeks, so keep checking back!

I have some soaps curing (oatmeal honey, shea butter, sweet orange, patchouli, and peppermint). If you're in southern Arizona, please look for my soaps at Yard Woman in Tubac. Thanks, Sharon! Or you can order them here!

If you can't get to Arizona or don't want to order from Yard Woman, please watch my etsy store in about 10 days for the newest soaps. My store has the soaps with the "rough edges" and end pieces and funky shapes. But the soap is still great!

Thanks for visiting and Happy soaping!

My Soap Making Morning--the Equipment

2010-04-07T09:35:00.000-07:00

I thought for a long time before I decided to try making soap. Just what I need--another project that requires "stuff." But I want something better for my skin than what I was buying at the big chain grocery and drug stores that left my skin irritated and very dry.

I read books about it. I read Internet articles about it. I looked at bars of soap on people's Internet stores. I smelled the soaps at shops and craft fairs. I learned that there's more than one way to make soap. But I still wasn't certain that this was something that I wanted to try.

Then I read These Is My Words by Nancy E. Turner. It's a novel inspired by the life of Nancy Turner's great-grandmother, Sarah Prine, and it's set in territorial Arizona. In the novel, Sarah Prine helps to support herself and her daughter by making soap and selling it to a store in Tucson.

Of course, the way that Sarah Prine did it 100 years ago or so is different from how I do it now. Where Sarah used ashes to make her lye and used tallow or lard from butchered animals, modern soapmakers can take advantage of lye (sodium hydroxide) made especially for soap making and the various oils to make a nice bar of soap. I guess I felt that, if Sarah could do it on her own back then, I could do it now. I like history and I like to try things that my ancestors probably did. I like that connection with my ancestors.

So, now I really wanted to try it. Here are some websites that helped me learn how to make soap:

Miller's Homemade Soap Pages
Teach Soap
Soap Making at About.com

There are many others out there and I really appreciate the generosity of the soapmakers who share their information on the Internet for people like me who are interested and need the push. I decided that I wanted to try the cold process method of soapmaking.

I started gathering the "stuff." Here is a good list from Magestic Mountain Sage.

You probably have many of these things already. And the things that you don't have aren't that expensive.
Once you gather your equipment, you'll need supplies or ingredients. We'll talk about those in another post . . . See you then!!

Sewing Weekend at My Mother's House

2010-03-26T12:25:00.000-07:00

Sewing is so much fun. It's so rewarding when you create something pretty or beautiful or cute. You had all these pieces of fabric and you put them all together in a pleasing way. It's even more fun when you do it with a friend. And it's faster!! And then you come up with something like this baby quilt:

This is the project that my friend Kim and I started a couple of weekends ago. We were at a sewing day at our friend Sue's house. Sue's first grandbaby was due anytime during that last sewing day, so Kim and I were racing the clock, so to speak. Kim and I got the center of the quilt top made during our sewing day at Sue's.

In between that sewing day at Sue's and the sewing weekend at my mother's house (sleepover involved!), the baby boy arrived!! I hear he's pretty darned cute. I've seen some photos and he looks pretty cute to me.

Then we got together at my mother's house for sewing weekend with finishing the new baby's quilt first on the list. Kim measured the center of the top, then measured and cut the borders. Then she stitched the borders to the quilt along with the four-patch cornerstones. Isn't this top just the cutest?

But wait!! We're still not done. It needs to be quilted. That was my task. First, you layer and baste. The back is this fun duck fabric!!

We decided that I would do a free motion, free hand loopy quilting pattern. We wanted it to be whimsical. After all, this baby was born into a fun loving family with a great sense of humor.

I practiced a bit on my muslin square until I got the hang of it. Then on to the real quilt. Here is a photo of the quilt with the quilting in progress.

Quilting requires concentration. You must pay attention to what you're doing or you get something you don't want in your quilt. It requires all other thoughts and distractions to go away for a while. You also have to remember to breathe! And relax your shoulders. Every so often, I lost track of what direction I wanted to go with my loopy swirls. A little break, a look at what I had, then off I went again with my machine and my thread and that little quilt. Then a while later, the quilting was done!!

But wait!! There's more! The quilt needed to be bound. The kit came with this fun turquoise fabric. Kim stitched the binding on the front of the quilt, then turned and hand stitched it to the back. Kim is fast!!

More pictures of the fun quilt. Doesn't that great blue binding just set off all the rest of the colors in the quilt!?

Kim quickly wrapped the quilt and Sue arrived later and in time to unwrap it, inspect it, ooh and ahh appropriately, then rewrap it for the parents to unwrap it once again. I hear tell that Sue took it to the baby that evening after sewing time and he fussed on it. I hope he likes it better after he gets used to it.

Way too much fun making quilts. Quilts for babies. With friends.

Fabric Giveaway!!

2010-03-17T09:49:00.000-07:00

Who doesn't love FREE fabric?! Here's your chance to win a Verna jelly roll and 2 yards of fabric to go with it. It's being offered by Burgundy Buttons through Park City Girl's blog here.

Have fun looking!! And I'll keep my fingers crossed that you'll win. But only if I don't win. :)

I LOVE Baseball! It's Spring Training!

2010-03-16T08:55:00.001-07:00

It's an annual thing here in southern Arizona. Alas, this is probably the last year for spring training baseball in Tucson. So sad for those of us who love baseball and love sitting in the ballpark in March. But, for me, one afternoon last week was bliss.

An afternoon at Hi Corbett Field watching the Colorado Rockies play the Kansas City Royals. Thanks to my friend and former co-worker Bill who provided the ticket for me to go.

Is this the same Brian Anderson who used to play for the Arizona Diamondbacks? I don't think so, but our group never reached a definite conclusion.

And for the fans of Troy Tulowitzki:

My friend Bill and I thought the duel between outstanding pitcher Zack Greinke (reigning American League Cy Young award winner) of the Royals and Tulowitzki of the Rockies would be fun the watch. In Tulowitzki's first at bat, he hit the first pitch with a huge CRACK of the bat. The ball rocketed into the outfield. So much for that battle.

In Tulowitzki's second at bat, there was indeed a battle. Tulowitzki hit into a force out, but he hit it hard. He is also very reliable at shortshop. Rockies' fans will enjoy watching him play again this year.

The Rockies' pitcher Jeff Francis was successful in the three innings he held the Royals scoreless.

The day started out sunny and cool. Then it got a bit warmer and I questioned my decision to wear my warm undershirt under my long sleeved polo shirt. Then the clouds moved in later and blocked the sun. While others around me talked about how chilly it was getting, I was feeling pretty smart and pulled my fleece jacket up around my shoulders.

There I was. Happy as a clam. Sitting in the (mostly) sun at the baseball park watching baseball. Sigh . . .

What's Next? How about some Threadplay?

2010-03-15T08:35:00.001-07:00

Well, you know, you finish a project. Then you need another project. Me? I have plenty of unfinished projects. I mean PLENTY. We won't be counting those because it would be very embarrassing.

Anyway, here's my plan for what to do next (among other "next" things):

This is a project that I started in Libby Lehman's class called Two for One Threadplay. The class was presented at Quilting in the Desert in Phoenix in January. It was WAAYY too much fun. I wanted to try all the techniques that she showed us and I wanted to try all of them NOW!!

We did satin stitching. Then some free motion satin stitching (that's the stitching that looks like it's having a bad hair day in the above photo). Then some decorative stitches to go around the edges of the applique fabric. Then some bobbin work by putting perle cotton or Razzle Dazzle thread by Superior Threads in the bobbin and stitching from the back. Then I couched some funky yarn down using monofilament. What a great class that allowed for a whole day of just experimentation. The time just flew by!!

So here I am on my own now to try some more of these techniques. Here's my satin stitching using King Tut thread, also by Superior Threads.

"Now is a good time to do something you've always wanted to do. Being a little impulsive is a good thing." David Critchfield, owner of Mission Peak Soap.

So, what are you trying these days?

FINISHED!! Baby or Toddler Quilt

2010-03-13T03:00:00.001-07:00

A while back I showed photos of this quilt nearly done. Well, now it's really done (except for the label)! Isn't it about cute!?

The fabrics are Woodland Wonderland by Jay McCarroll for Free Spirit and Westminster Fabrics. See it here.

The pattern is Rectangles from Fons and Porter Easy Quilts Summer 2008.

It was a nice pattern. I just love it when measurements are accurate and instructions are clear. I also love that for most of the patterns in the Fons and Porter magazines, they give several size options. While I could figure it out for myself, it's so refreshing to have had someone else do the math for me!

The fabrics are fun and whimsical. And so not my style! I loved working with them, though. I loved the colors and the cartoonish designs grew on me.

If you like this quilt, too, it's for sale now in my etsy shop here.

NOW WHAT TO DO!!??

Sewing Day and Baby Waiting

2010-03-11T10:17:00.001-07:00

My mother and my friends and I have this great sewing day get together. About once a month or so, we get together at someone's house for a sewing day or weekend. We work on our own projects or we work on something together and eat, then sew some, then eat some more and, well . . . you get the idea.

Our friend Sue is expecting her first grandbaby any day now and we were a bit nervous about having sewing day at her house this past weekend. But baby waited and still hasn't arrived yet. But friend Kim and I got into the baby mood with this project.

Sewing rectangles.

Sewing more rectangles . . .

This goes together quickly when two are working together! By the end of the afternoon, this is what we had.

It will get some borders (more white) and four patch corner blocks. Duck fabric for the back and blue binding. We think it's very cute.

It's a pattern called Scratch by Miss Rosie's Quilt Co. The fabric is a Moda fabric designed by Sandy Gervais called Objects of Desire. We cut up charm packs to make this quilt. We took out all the high heeled shoe fabrics since we don't know whether this baby is a boy or girl.

The grandmother to be was working on this project:

And my mom was working on this pretty purple pillowcase (try saying that three times fast!)

And we thank the baby for waiting on us to get this far . . .

CATS AND QUILTS

2010-03-09T13:32:00.000-07:00

I'm not a cat person except when I visit other cat people. Cats love quilts.

Especially when they're not quite sewn down yet. And they can still "help" you with the layout.

Visit rikrak's blog here to see her new cat and the cat stories shared there. She thought she was a dog person and that it was an either/or proposition. See what she learned about herself . . . and cats.

Hummingbird Stitchers Quilt Show

2010-03-09T10:13:00.000-07:00

A couple of weekends ago, I attended the Hummingbird Stitchers Quilt Show in Sierra Vista, Arizona hosted by the Hummingbird Quilt Guild. It's always a fun and inspiring trip. This year was wonderful, too. Here are some photos that I took which just don't do justice to the marvelous handmade quilts.

This was called Fractal Spiral and it was made by Linda Erickson. It won Best of Show. Wonderful use of colors and fabrics. It just invites you to stop and look at it. Then look again . . .

This is one of my favorites. It is titled Cornucopia and it was made by Norde Sebens. Hand appliqued and hand quilted!!!

This was very popular! It's a quilt made to reflect a map of Cochise County, Arizona, the county where the quilt show is held. It was made in 1995 by members of the Cochise County Historical and Archealogical Society and the Sew Peaceful Guild. It hung in the vintage and antique quilt section. It won a Ranger's Choice Award at this year's show. It's chosen by the Arizona Rangers, who provide nighttime security at the quilt show! They are there to guard the quilts. They ought to have a say about which quilts they like!

And I'll leave you today with this wonderful, delightful detail from another Norde Sebens quilt.

The Quilt I'm Working on Now

2010-02-25T07:00:00.001-07:00

Do you want a little peek at what I'm working on now? It's a smallish quilt. It's for a baby or a small person.

You might be able to tell that it's almost done! I'm stitching on the binding. This is what we quilters call the home stretch. Some people don't like hand stitching, but I like it's repetitiveness. It's very soothing. Just sit and listen to the Olympics and stitch away.

Here's a photo that shows more of the front of the quilt.

Aren't these great fabrics?! These are NOT fabrics that I would have chosen at first glance. But I think they turned out very cute and, since they come from the same line of fabric, they were designed to coordinate.

The pattern I chose is a pattern of rectangular blocks. It was very satisfying the put the top together. The quilting stitches echo the rectangle shapes.

When I'm truly and FINALLY finished, I'll show it to you. This will probably get listed on either my etsy or artfire shop. In the meantime, I'm enjoying it. Can you tell?