...well, that's 2 months of my life that I'll never get back...

Happy New Year!

I can't believe it's been so long since my last post. But best intentions......

Here is a quick recap of what's been going on, starting with Stitches East.

It was a blast; an exhausting blast but a blast none the less.

We were here:

...which was pretty amazing. Webs is fabulous! And it was incredible to see them set up their booth. Steve is pretty much a master at this and has it mapped out before hand.

He sketches out the basic floor plan and the Webs worker bees go to work. They are really a well oiled machine.

Here's a little of what our space looked like during set up.

The show was great and I got to see a lot of old friends and make some great new ones. Robinand Olivia came to see me. They were really fun to talk with. Olivia has a beagle puppy named....Jake. She has pictures to show me. What a doll! Robin had read here about my Jake. Thanks, ladies for your warmth and humor!

I also got to see Marcy a.k.a. knittinggolfer! I haven't seen her since camp. She's a member of thesmackdown group , a knitter, spinner and a down right great person!

She brought me a great care package which included:

We got to have dinner together one evening and it was so great! Can't wait till the next time, Marcy! (you were right about the wine! YUM!)

We did have a bit of excitement while I was there......

Yep, those are firemen. Fire alarm went off at 11:30 pm. So from the 18th floor to the lobby, me and 300 of my closest new friends made our way via the stairwell. We got down to the street level, stood around in various stages of dress and waited for the all clear. When it finally came, me and those same 300 friends waited in line for the elevators to take us back up to our rooms. Let's just say it was an interesting evening and leave it at that....

I didn't get to do much shopping at the market, but I was able to snag this: (the yarn, not the wine...)

Yep, some qiviut and some cashmere. The wine is from Marcy! Also, Kathy from Webs gave me these.

If you don't know about these, where have you been? This is the new inter-changeable needle set that Webs has. They are really great. If you are in the market for a set of inter-changeable needles, head over to their website (http://www.yarn.com/) and check them out.

Once home from Stitches, I ran my clothes through the washer and dryer, repacked them and headed to Sunriver for SOAR. BMFA had a booth there, but I did get to take a couple of classes too. The first class I took was Beginning Weaving with Sara Lamb. It was great and Sara had me bring my loom to class and helped me warp it for the first time. I left the class with a beautiful scarf started. Loom? Yes, loom. I bought a loom. I need another hobby like a hole in the head but really......Anyway, this is what I bought. Since coming home I have finished the scarf and actually just put it in to soak. Pictures later.

The second class I took was Blending on the Drumcarder with Abby Franquemont. Yes, blending on the drumcarder. Drumcarder? Yes, drumcarder that I have owned for about a year now and have not know really how to use it. Anyway, it was a wonderful class and I left with a whole plan for using it!

Until Saturday evening. That's when the h1n1 showed up. So by the time I was well enough to go home from SOAR there were other things to think about. A trip to California to visit friends, Thanksgiving, Porter and that other thing......oh yeah....Christmas. After Christmas we spent a week at Sunriver and then came home to shovel away the holiday decorations and try to get back in the groove of everyday life.

And here we are, January 11, 2010. 2010 is proving to be as busy as 2009 was. I have a bunch of stuff on the horizon. Hope to be writing about all of it here. But then again, best intentions.... Wish me luck!

...#septsmackdown....

I've been watching the exchange between irishgirleknits and knittinggolfer for the last couple of months regarding their "smackdown" and I decided that this would be a good thing for me to join. Basically, it's a competition between us to determine who puts in the most exercise time each month. The winner gets a skein of STR (like i need anymore of this) of their choice. It's an honor system competition so you keep track of your own points and report in to each other.

I decided that I would add some different things to my exercise routine. I have been walking 5 days a week for a long time and am frankly getting pretty bored with this. On the suggestion of my friend Etta Mae I decided to join a boot camp class at the Y. Holy Mother! This class is beyond anything I have ever done! After the first class I had a hard time even getting out of bed the next day! Katie, who is the trainer for the class, has a son that just finished Marine boot camp.......she trained him! Ack! Needless to say she has no mercy. She doesn't care if you are tired, sore, whatever. If you stop, you had better be having a stroke or have broken a bone. There are no other excuses accepted.

To offset this ass-kicking motivation, I decided to explore the walking trails at the Tualatin River Wildlife Refuge.





It's really a beautiful area near where we live with lots of walking trails and great scenery. Here's one of my favorite views along the way....

The hiking trails meander through wooded areas along the Tualatin river and eventually circle the entire wildlife refuge. There are several view points along the trails......

It is the perfect place to do some much needed thinking and reflecting. Not to mention stretching the overworked muscles from boot camp.

I am lucky to live near this great place and even luckier that it is open year round.

I also added another type of exercise to my September Smackdown routine. We went to the coast this weekend and went salmon fishing. What a blast! But this is not a sport for wimps. This is a workout! This is the first fish I caught.

He's not very big, but a real fighter! I caught 3 more, 2 keepers and one native that we had to turn back. The last one took me 20 minutes to get into the boat. My arms are like hamburger today.
This week I racked up 12 point in the smackdown, but I have decided that this competition is not so much with my fellow smackdowners but more with myself. I think it's a challenage I can win....