To read about Mary Jane's book, follow this link. I currently blog at www.makelifediy.wordpress.com
Thanks!
Renee'

Visiting friends

I know that ya'll haven't heard from me in awhile. I have kinda lost my groove and still trying to get it back. It will happen, I know. It's just gonna happen in its own time. Thankfully, I have wonderful family and friends to support me on my journey back to finding my groove, and I went to visit with some of my friends this week. Did I go alone, you ask? No, no I did not. A couple of weeks ago, my GS spent the night at my and left his Sleep Monkey. Sleep Monkey is a turquoise-y colored sock monkey that I got for him awhile back. Well, Sleep Monkey was so comfy at my house that he decided to stick around for a bit. When I got ready to go on this trip, I asked, "Is Sleep Monkey coming home with you while I'm gone, or is he going with me on my trip?" In case you are wondering, here's the answer....

Sleep Monkey was so excited about going that he sat on the suitcase until it was time to go. He didn't want to put on his seatbelt, but I insisted.

 Sleep Monkey was fascinated that we humans were actually smart enough to figure out how to fly above the clouds. He wanted to know if we could go out and get some so we could spin it into yarn later. Have you ever tried to explain the physics of cabin pressure to a sock monkey? I don't really recommend it. But then I didn't really get his explanation of why they have no fear in swinging from tree to tree.

 Here we are on the ground in Denver,

And here's my pal, crochet designer extraordinaire, who met us at the airport to take us to her house.

 Here he is lounging by Rob and Brenda's lovely water feature, just chillaxin'...

and here he is waiting for the wonderful grilled dinner of steak, red potatoes and green beans. Brenda had prepared a tasty salad to go with everything. Tomorrow I'll post more pictures of Sleep Monkey's travels. Catch ya'll later!

A Tour Through Crochet Country...Day 10!

Welcome, crochet fans, to one of today's stops on Crochetville's "A Tour Through Crochet Country"! Why a blog tour, you ask? (If you don't already know why...well...why don't you know why? Are you crocheting under a rock, or something?) Okay, the reason why is that it is NATCROMO, otherwise known as National Crochet Month. During the tour, Professional and Associate Professional crochet design members of the CGOA (Crochet Guild of America) are blogging out crochet love. ALL. MONTH. LONG!!!! What's not to love about that? So, I have been asked to be your co-host on day 10 of the tour, along with my esteemed colleague, Andrea Lyn Van Benschoten. If you haven't hopped on board the tour yet, you really should, because there is swag involved. There will be giveaways, discounts and all other sorts of goodies, including a giveaway on the Crochetville blog, where they are giving away two autographed pattern postcards to winners each day of the tour. These pattern postcards are usually only available in Crochetville's Red Heart booth during the trade shows they attend.
A couple of other important items for NATCROMO: Crochetville is hoping that many of you generous stitchers out there will think about contributing to Project Night Night, whether in the form of monetary donations or hand hooked crochet love. Project Night Night provides blankets for homeless children. Click the link to learn more, won't you? I remember how much my son loved his blankie I crocheted for him as a newborn, well into his toddler years. I can't begin to imagine what a comfort a soft warm blankie would be for a cold child with no home.
Also, if you are a crocheter, and you aren't a member of the CGOA, well why not? Wanna know why you should be a member? Those are all great reasons to join, but for me, the greatest reason has been that being a member of CGOA has connected me with friends all over the WORLD (that's right; not just the USA) who are like-minded; that for the last 5 years or so, I have chosen to spend my vacation with. I call them the "friends who GET me", because they understand  (and share!) my passion for yarn and the fiberarts, especially the art that we call crochet.

Finally, here is what Crochet Renee' is offering in honor of NATCROMO...Above you see my shawl design, Summer Storm, most capably modeled by my friend, perennial conference roomie, Crochetville co-owner and past CGOA President Emeritus, Amy Shelton. Why am I showing it? 1. I love this shawl; it is one of my favorites! 2. Evidently, it is the favorite in my design collection of Crochet Renee' fans, because it has been the top seller. 3. Didn't Amy do a beautiful job modeling for me? 4. And finally, from today until Midnight on Tuesday, March 12th, when you purchase any one Crochet Renee' Pattern from my Ravelry store, you will get the pattern for Summer Storm....FOR FREE!!!! That's right, a two-fer. Buy one pattern for $1.99 and you will receive Summer Storm gratis, for nada, no strings attached. Just enter the code NATCROMO at checkout. But you love the entire collection of shawls, you say? Well, dearie, I am also discounting the entire collection for 10%! Enter the code CrochetRenee at checkout for the e-book. The original price of the book is $19.99, so it's already like buying 10 patterns and getting 2 for free...with the discount it's like buying 9 patterns and getting 3 for free. You're welcome!
I hope you have enjoyed today's stop along Crochetville's "Tour Through Crochet Country". I hope you will continue to follow along for the rest of the month, and please, visit Andrea today as well. Until next time, keep those hands busy and keep stitching!

Corner View- Hands

Today's Corner View theme is "hands".

I have done a lot of things with my hands.

These hands have changed diapers

Wiped tears

Given comfort

Created art

Rendered discipline

Helped with healing

Crocheted and knitted miles of yarn

Held hands with a dying loved one

Stretched miles of barbed wire fence

Held the reins of many a horse

Cooked and baked many meals and treats for a hungry family

 & Prayed

What did my hands do today?

 Today, they made gluten free Pumpkin Maple Scones

They patted the dough into the pie pan, put them into the oven...

Then these hands carried them to my Mother's house, where we shared them for breakfast.

Corner View is a weekly appointment with bloggers all over the world. For more CV's, visit my pal Francesca over at Fuoriborgo.

Corner View-look, don't touch

This week's Corner View theme is "Look, don't touch". In looking through my photos, I found several things that I saw this year...first, a peacock at the zoo.

A wee little frog on the side of my house...

One of the wonderful cave formations in Mystic Caverns

Spring flora (fern fiddleheads and an unidentified flower) on a hike in the Buffalo National Forest.

A holy water fountain in the St. Francis of Assisi Cathedral in Santa Fe, New Mexico

And the amazing staircase at the Loretto Chapel in Santa Fe.

Seems like many of the things that I saw this past year that I could look at but not touch were found during my travels.

For more Corner Views, visit Francesca at Fuoriborgo

Auld lang syne....

First of all, here's a picture of Mom and Wyatt helping me to spread some dried manure on the asparagus bed. On the nicer days we have had so far this winter, we have been trying hard to rehabilitate the garden. Dad was so ill in his final season that we had to let gardening go for more important duties. Dad worked for many years to establish his wonderful asparagus bed; I am determined that we will continue to take good care of it so that we can enjoy the fruits of his labors for many years to come. Mom said one thing we needed to do was gather some manure and put it on so that the winter snows could coax the nourishment down to the roots. Wy found it quite amusing to be picking up poop, as most 4 year old's would.

Here I sit, poised on the brink of a new year. Really, I have never held too much reverence for New Year's. I don't typically go out and party the eve before. Not really my style. But if 2013 will be less stressful, less painful, less aggravating, frustrating and instead be peaceful, and render for me a time of mental clarity and sanity, then I say (as I think my Dad would have said), "So long 2012...don't let the door hit you in the ass!"
2013?
Bring it on.

Corner View- "White"

Today's Corner View theme is "White". So, without much ado, I searched through my photo files to find random shots of different whites...

 This is some Icelandic yarn that I spun from a roving earlier this year from fiber purchased last December at the Arkansas Fiberarts Extravaganza

 This was a baby sweater that I finished for a friend

 Homemade gnocchi

 Whitecaps on the beach at Vilano Beach

 The white (& black) tile I laid in the laundry room

 A beautiful doily spotted in Eureka Springs

 Clouds

 Potatoes, about to be planted

Mom's white roses.
Corner View is a weekly appointment, with bloggers all over the world. For more CV's, visit my pal Francesca over at Fuoriborgo.

12 Shawls in 2012: Memories of Santa Fe

After a year of designing shawls, you would think I would have become tired of shawls, or run out of ideas. Not so...in fact, the ideas are never a problem. The execution is not always so easy. Here we are, it's December (all too quickly, it seems), and here is the final installment of my "12 Shawls in 2012". I call this design, "Memories of Santa Fe".

 

I decided on a good basic, solid (as in non-lacey) warm wrap for the cold month of December. This is not at all the design I originally had in mind, but after enjoying myself in Santa Fe, then coming home to look at my yarn stash, these colors of Malabrigo Lace just begged to be united in a lovely Southwestern-y theme.

 

The year has truly flown by. I never thought it would go so fast. A lot has happened this year, some good, a lot not so good, bad, in fact. I won't bore you with the details right now. If you read my blog or my facebook page, you have some idea. Designing these shawls has helped me maintain a bit of sanity; I have had to be accountable to those who had, in great faith and belief in me and my abilities, bought the e-book I titled, "12 Shawls in 2012" before it was actually completed. Wow. Thanks, dear readers, for your support and faith over the last year as I created each shawl.

Many of the designs have been professionally tech-edited by Haley Zimmerman; she will be editing the entire collection, so if you've bought any of the patterns, or the entire collection, there will be updates coming yet on some of the designs. I will continue to upload these as they become available. I also plan on adding charts in the future, once I have the ability to run Illustrator. Updates will be sent in the future as these become available, as well.

The button above is for the individual pattern for this shawl. To purchase the entire collection (that's 12 patterns for the price of 10!), click this button:

                                                                                              
Thanks again to all of you who supported me and believed I could accomplish my goal!

La Villa Real de la Santa Fe de San Francisco de Asis- Saturday

Yes, that is the official name that was given to what we now know as Santa Fe, somewhere in 1609 or 1610. It's now wonder they shortened it to Santa Fe...by the time you said all that, you would have lost your train of thought regarding anything else you might have wanted to say! I am writing this Sunday morning. We will soon be headed out the get a massage, (try not to hate me too much!) then back to the casita for lunch (leftover paella), then we are going to go explore The Flea. Yesterday, we went to Museum Hill, where we visited the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture and the Museum of International Folk Art. Unfortunately, one is not allowed to take photos inside of the museums, but I did get some shots outside. Here, a view looking toward the Sangro de Christo Mountains.

A giant kachina dancer in the museum courtyard

Part of the sculpture garden

entrance to the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture; if you live out of state, you have to pay more to go in.

Our paella for two at El Farol. We went expecting to also experience the Saturday night flamenco dancing, but as we were told, we would have had to have made specific reservations for that as well as dinner; it seems, "That is a whole different dining experience" by a young hostess who was poured into a tight blue dress and 4 inch heels. Hmph. Maybe some other time. My only complaint, which was soon rectified by our young waiter, Max, was that there were plenty of EMPTY shells in the paella. After fishing out 3 mussel shells and one clam shell, I only found one mussel. Deb was experiencing a similar situation on the other side of the table, so he brought us a bowl of mussels and clams to top if off with. Not sure if that was intentional or not, but if you visit and order the paella, keep this in mind. Overall it was pretty good, even without the flamenco dancers!

Santa Fe- Friday

On a kind of spur of the moment offer (well, at least insofar as I am able to be "spur of the moment"), a coworker and friend told me she was going to Santa Fe, and would I like to come along? She has a friend who has a casita here, so I would only be out travel and food. I didn't think I could swing it, initially, but then the planets aligned and it all worked out. In spite of my friend Deb's exploding suitcase on the way to the airport and the fact that her friend has given her the wrong key to get into the house! But no worries, dear readers; as I told Deb, when I am traveling for pleasure, I just look at hiccups like that as part of the adventure. We managed to procure a new suitcase before getting to the airport and a neighbor who keeps a key to the casita so she and her husband can keep an eye on things when the owners are gone was able to help us out with getting in and out by bringing us a key. See? No big deal. Anyhow, it was late enough on Thursday once we got out and about (and I left my camera back at the casita!), that I didn't get any pictures until Friday. So here goes:

On Friday morning, we went to the Santa Fe School of Cooking, where we took a class on Contemporary Southwestern Cuisine. Here is Chef Michelle Roetzer

showing us how to make vanilla espresso flan. I had never actually had flan before, but it was amazing; think, satin sheets for you mouth...I know, weird imagery, but it's the best I can come up with right now.

Here is my friend Deb, just as our meal was served.

I should have used my flash, but our meal was Orange-Coriander grilled salmon with poblano lime jam, fresh corn-green onion tamales, Chipotle black beans, cabbage slaw with cilantro and serrano chile, and finishing with the flan. Sorry, didn't get a pic of the flan before I ate inhaled it.

This is the famous Loretto Chapel;  click the link and you can find out why they are famous.

Bear with me while I show you some different angles; I just love old architectural details...

If you clicked the link above, then you will find out more about the miraculous Loretto staircase. If you didn't and are just too lazy to scroll up, here it is again.

It's a very interesting story.

Today (as I am actually writing this on Saturday morning), we are headed back into town to get on a tour that will take us out Canyon Road. There are supposed to be a lot of artists and other things to see and do. Catch ya'll later!