Another Roving Art Arrives!

The third and final edition of Roving Art from Taos Sunflower Too arrived via USPS the other day. The first selection (Mother and Child) is just now being spun and thought over as to its creation and now here is the last one to arrive at the doorsteps! Gee whiz, behind and not even begun to spin on any of the other rovings that were recently purchased! OH, well--fiber ages well! It is interesting to note that the dyer did the roving using blue, which is not her favorite color--now isn't that something? Someone else who has a least favorite color to work with! When the photo of the painting was pulled out of the envelope before the roving, the first thought that ran across my brain was "oh, bet there is lots of purple in this roving", so it was a pleasant surprise when the roving contained very little purple!

This roving is dyed around the painting by Henri Matisee and titled A Glimpse of Notre Dame in the Late Afternoon (1902). Henri Matisse was born in 1869 in NE France. He studied law in Paris in 1887 and in 1891 returned to Paris to study art at the Academie Julian. His work was influenced by works of many artists of his day; known for his use of color and fluid, brilliant and original draftsmanship, he is regarded as the most important French painter of the 20th centurey. He died in 1954.
This is a lovely painting and one that is well represented by the dyed roving. The next three selections will be available in the fall. Rovings will be spinners choice of either BFL or Falkland fiber. Wonder if all those other rovings will be spun by then?

TGIF!!!

Yes, it's Friday! and special things happen on Friday in blogland. Over at Alpaca Farm Girl there is a posting of Friday Arts each week. Another site for eye candy is yarnloopie.blogspot.com. Or Smoking Hot Needles--gotta love that! These are only two of the blogs that feature wonderful handcrafts. The Internet gives us the opportunity to have the whole world at our fingertips. Each of us can testify to the number of hours we have spent researching any given topic via WWW. Too many chances to take the wrong turn to another thought--'oh, let's just go to this page as it looks interesting!' One of those wrong turns took me to Charming Girls Quilt Club at Charming Chatter . This soul is definitely a 'sucker' for any fiber art and as they say "jack of all, but a master of none" is my motto. And to find that the Internet offers such riches of wealth for fiber arts warms the mind and body. Charming Chatter asked some questions that are difficult to answer:

1. Favorite Fabric: Choices, choices, choices-- There are just too many fabric lines out there to even pick a favorite.

2. The pattern most looking forward to sewing: There are numerous patterns that are on the agenda and each has that high anticipation level

3. Food weakness: Well, it's anything salty and sweet!

4. If I knew I couldn't fail, I'd: Try to do more than necessary--oh, wait that already happens!
5. The Best "Life" Advice is: Patience is a virtue.

It's a happening world and we are part of that WORLD WIDE WORLD and ain't it fun?!!

Oh, What a Tangled Web!

About three years back, while visiting in China at the silk painting factory, there was the opportunity to purchase silk threads, very fine threads, all dyed with lovely colors. The price was right--20 Yuan, about $2.40 for a small skein. Well, at least it looked like a skein all wound nicely in its neat little twist. Recently, as there were some embroidery pieces to be done, a thought crossed through the brain to use some of these fine threads. It would be simple to take the small twisted skein and wind around a bobbin for usage. Well, here's what happen: one tangled mess of thread!



Time was taken out for breakfast, lunch and afternoon movies (can't see in the dark to keep untangling); still alas, the threads will take some time to reel onto a bobbin before it can be stitched across the cloth.

And to think that the silk worm spun his little cocoon so systemically and smoothly into a neat little ball and it has taken one human a matter of minutes to mess it all up!

A good thing: Knits for Needs

Goal--Score one point!

It always feels grand to accomplish at least one goal during the week. This week two goals were completed! That PURPLE hat was finished--hurrah! and it didn't hurt too bad working with that color of yarn. Hope she really does enjoy this hat!

Another goal was to embroidery tea towels for DD & DDIL. Bird Brain Designs http://www.birdbraindesigns.net/ has been giving a free design for each month. This month's design was to celebrate July 4th and since July 4th is just around the corner it was necessary to work swiftly. First off it was not easy tracing the design from printed paper to cloth. No lightbox here! Next best thing to use--a window where sun will light up the background--ahh, the sliding door would work maybe. Find tape and marking pens--tape printed copy to door, tape cloth over copy and trace. Great! Now to work feverishly to finish, wrap and take to Post Office. We can hold up our hands and say Goal met! Now, new goals to set for next week: finish that July calendar wall hanging piece before July 1st!

Fiber Feast!

What could be better than receiving two packages thru the mail service, each package containing two 4 0z. rovings--three are Mountain Colors, 100% Targhee Top; colorways: Alpine, Crazy Woman and Northern Lights. One Roving of Lorna's Laces, shepherd wool top, superwash (great for socks). These were destash roving packages from Taos Sunflower! What a wonderful selection of colors! Now, have to find the time to spin! Still working on the April yarn from Art Work paintings.

While in Loveland, we stopped in the Loveland Museum to view Northern Colorado Weavers Guild's 2009 Fiber Celebration exhibit. This exhibit is juried and held every year around the region. We sponsor one of the prizes awarded. The winner for our cash prize was Linda Friedman Schmidt from New Jersey with her hooked piece using discarded clothing. Too bad, but museum would not allow photos; you can see photos of the pieces along with award winners at NCWG's website.http://www.fortnet.org/NCWG/FiberCeleb09Awards.htm

It was definitely a Fiber Feast of a day!

Love--Land

A trip to Benson Sculpture Garden, Loveland, CO is always a pleasure!
http://www.sculptureinthepark.org/benson_park.html
We only walked for a short period of time around the larger lake area.
One of our favorites is the circle of friends.

Circle of Friends

Father's Day Scrabble

Father's Day was a beautiful day to be outdoors, sitting on the shaded deck, overlooking the snow capped mountains of the front range. Temperature ranged around 75. Who could ask for a better day? It was the day to challenge the household to Scrabble. Bring out the board, draw one tile to see who is first (which is a coveted position since the tiles laid down receive double points). Yahoo! The first position is mine! Now draw those seven tiles and hope for good letters with high point value.

.

Gee Whiz? Can't better letters be drawn? what word can come out of this?There is my word--putrid! And this is the first go around and now it's back to the first player.

Completed board! Guess who won? Dad! Maybe we let him win? After all, it was HIS day!

Day at Farmer's Market

Here is the notice that you have arrived at the giant Boulder Farmer's market that is held every Saturday, June through September.

The whole block is chock full of various vendor booths on both sides of the street. It is necessary to have a game plan when you arrive--down one side and up the other.

The mode of transportation in this 'green' conscious city is bikes, bikes and more bikes!

Another sign of the 'green' ongoing are cans situated along the route. It's almost impossible to find just a regular trash can to throw away stuff!

How about some fresh greens?

Beef, eggs, cheese or maybe you would like to try some fresh sprouts--cut or plant!

Balasmic vinegars, jellies, jams or how about some popcorn?

Potted flowers or hanging baskets..........breads of all varieties

radishes......... . . . . . .. turnips

garlic scrapes or sweet spring onions pulled straight from the garden

Prepared foods right before your eyes--delicious eggs benedict, served with spinach/tomatoes and rice with hollandaise sauce. Try a large cinnamon roll

There is music entertainment in cuppy holes--this group was bluegrass. There is also face painting extraordinary. What a fine day--a place to shop, eat and enjoy the sites and sounds.

A Fella Gotta Eat!

Disclaimer: These places were not all done in one day!

The Old Stone Church http://www.oscrestaurant.com/

One of Castle Rock, CO little secret food places--we found it! Located in the downtown area of CR, this old church was built in 1888 and served the St. Francis of Assisi congregation for many years before members built a larger church outside of the town. What an interesting idea for a restaurant--the choir loft was remodeled and enlarged, stain glass adorn the windows, the pulpit now contains a table for two, original altar decorates the front section. The menu is varied and unique.
Shrimp Enchilada with goat cheese and chipotle cream,
Pork Tenderloin Carnitas marinated in orange juice and brandy and served fajita style
Rainbow Trout pan seared with lump crab, brie cheese, fresh basil and a champagne butter

Just three of the menu items.

A day spent out in the shopping arena sure makes one hungry and close by was one of our favorite places to submit our taste buds to--Wahoo's--fish tacos! Yumm, so good. This is a chain out of California but welcome in Colorado. Sitting on the patio with a view of the front range is not half bad lunch.

Recently we were offered the opportunity to purchase case of wine from Chateau Ste. Michelle Vineyards and Wineries out of Washington state--Orphelin or orphan, red wine blended with Sangiovese, Petit Verdot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Souzao, Touriga, Syrah, Grenache, Cinsault, Mourvedre; aged in American and French oak. The wine was reasonably price at $144 a case. It was certainly marked down price from the original price. And everyone just loves a bargain! This would make a great Tuesday night or pizza/Wii bowling night wine. Since we didn't eat at home Tuesday night, we decided on a pizza/Wii bowling night Wednesday for the chance to uncork a bottle of this wine for taste. At first sip, we are thinking this wine needs to be decanted and set to air for awhile since there was a bite of acidity. Like DH says "after three or four sips, the taste is better". We think the wine maker just decided to pour all the leftovers into the barrels and see what became of the taste. We are definitely right--this is a Tuesday night or pizza wine!

Heading out to breakfast is one of our favorite things to do but it's hard to find an interesting and different place to obtain this first meal of the day. Usually, you can find the regular chain places--IHOP or 'sticky tables' as we call it, LePeep, Broken Egg, The Egg & I, etc. Thumbing through an eatery magazine, we came across restaurant in Cherry Creek North that sounded interesting so off we go. Oh, shucks, the restaurant is in a hotel! Bummer! We don't do hotel food unless absolutely necessary! Okay, we settle for a coffee shop and a breakfast bagel, which was quite tasty. And the coffee was fantastic!

Okay, is your mouth watering yet?

Oh, yes, on our return to the house after breakfast, we found that our 'lawn service' was on the job!