sewtakeahike

all smiles

If you haven't entered the superbuzzy par.tay! giveaway yet, make sure you do right here!

Smiles:

*The pattern for these can be found on Sarah London's blog. Here's the link for round one . I just stitched them together at the petal points, then did a single crochet around the edges, chaining two where the petals come together.

*Eating breakfast out with my hubby on a very special day and having my best friend call the restaurant and have mimosas delivered to us.  Mmmm, champagne at 6:30 am, before coffee.  Nice. 

*Finally {substantially} cutting into my flea market fancy stash and starting a quilt I've been daydreaming about for several months.  I couldn't help but throw a few Katie Jump Rope prints in there too, they just compliment each other so well!

*Actually having proof that I kayak since my BFF brought her family up and watched L-man and I do a whole kayak run, all the while taking photos like a crazy woman

I hope your day is all smiles too!!

 

p.s.  For those of you in Northern Colorado, (FORT COLLINS, GREELEY, LOVELAND, LONGMONT, BOULDER, GOLDEN, LARAMIE, CHEYENNE, just to name a few!) we are having the Fort Collins Modern Quilt Guild meeting on May 27.  The info is here, we'd love to see you there!

whatcha working on?

Anything exciting?  I'm slowly, but surely working my way through emails and comments, so thanks for being so patient with me!  You know how I love to answer any questions I get in the comments and visit the blogs of the people who take the time to leave comments.  It just seems to be taking me longer to do that than it used to.  All I can say is, tortoise.  That's me. 

I have a couple of swaps I would love to finish up this weekend, as well as another block for one of the bee's I'm in.  This snappy dresden is for Amber of One Shabby Chick.  She sent the pieces to the bee members all cut out and ready to sew.  Sweet, huh?  This is my first dresden and it went together like a dream.  I'm dreaming of a big ol' scrappy quilt of these now!

On the kayaking front, we went up by Kremmling this last weekend and did the Pumphouse run on the Colorado River.  The flow was pretty low, but it was a nice relaxing run.  Perfect for dipping my toes back into the kayaking arena.  It was a beautiful rainy-ish weekend, which included some of my favorite things: 

• Hanging out with friends
• being on the river
• and a little car camping

Mmmmm, it's going to be an awesome summer!

a little evening paddle

on lake Loveland.  We're heading up Friday to do a run on the Colorado River by Kremmling, so any excuse to get in my boat and get a better feel for it is good! 

I hope you all are having a great week, see you soon with part four to the QAYG quilt-along!

~Penny

will you wait for me?

Because I still have 21 18 13 more blocks to go.   I really hope to be done with them this week so I can post part three of the quilt-along towards the end of the week.  I wanted to finish them this weekend, but that doesn't seem to be working out. 

You see, I've had kayaking on my brain.  I purchased a new to me whitewater kayak last year, and L-man and I have been steadily repurchasing our gear so we can kayak this year.  Well, I went to a roll session at a local indoor pool last Wednesday and couldn't get my roll.  I'm sure it has something to do with the fact that I haven't kayaked in 7 or 8 years, but, I think it might have more to do with the volume of the cockpit and my inabilty to reach around it and get my paddle out of the water when I'm belly up.  

And maybe that's just a big excuse that I'm clinging to since I'm so out of shape, but I'm sticking with it.  So there.

Anyway, the whole "I didn't get my roll and I used to have a pretty good one" thing prompted me and L-man to go down to Denver yesterday to a boat swap and I got a different boat.  I'm optimistic.  We're going for a paddle today (on a lake) just to get some practice in and to get a feel for it. 

So my point is, I've been torn between two lovers.  And I realize that many of you may already have your blocks completed since you may not be making a queen size quilt,  but will you pretty please be patient with me?   I'll focus this week and get the rest of them done.  

Then I can post part three, the clouds will part, the birds will sing, the sun will shine and all the animals will frolic and play together.  I promise!

Kayaking in Mexico

Our group without me and one other person (I took the picture).  The man in the pink shirt lived in Valles and took a week off work while we were there to shuttle us.

I was reminiscing with a friend recently about a kayaking trip Lenny and I took about 8 years ago down in Mexico.  We had a friend that had bought a bus and renovated the inside to make it sleep 12-15 people, so we all piled in and drove down to Mexico from Colorado.  We went into Mexico via Brownsville, Texas and stopped in a couple of towns on the way to Ciudad Valles, near the Santa Maria and many of it's tributaries.  When we got to Valles, it was around Christmastime, and there was an outdoor market going on with all kinds of produce and whatever else you could want. 

One of the places we stayed at while kayaking the Santa Maria was a tiny little village that had just gotten electricity only weeks before and every house was lit up with Christmas lights like a little lantern.  The people here travelled by foot or horseback mainly or crowded onto a bus that they had to walk about 8 miles to get to, to go into Valles. 

The Cascadas de Micos  was a sight to see.  It consists of travertine waterfalls with aqua blue water flowing over them.  It was like heaven.  I get emotional thinking about this and the beauty that God created for all of us to enjoy.  WOW!

This is a truck with a load of sugarcane making it's way down the road

And a big hello from my Sweetie!

~Penny