Registration just opened up for Art Fiber Fest, which is organized and run by the spectacular Teesha Moore! Art Fiber Fest is a fiber/fabric intensive retreat. You have to go and see the classes that are being offered. This year it is being held in Portland, OR and I am teaching a demo on Thursday evening, as well as selling yarns and kits at vendor night. Even though I live here (in Portland) I will be staying in the dorms so we can hang out! I am so excited (skippity skip)!
It fills up fast so if you are interested, get cracking and send your registration form in! Oh ...IF you are going, please email me so we can set up a meeting time?!
We LOVE Seattle! Below is a slide show of shots from our weekend in Seattle.
We drove to Port Angeles on Friday, then to Seattle Fri. evening. It was a long day in the car but so much to see! We met with special friends and had such a great time!
Friday evening we ate at the Palisade Waterfront. The food was divine and there was a spectacular view of the city at night, all lit up and glorious. After dinner we headed to our hotel in Bellevue, WA and crashed.
Saturday we met friends for breakfast downtown, an associate of Paul's and his wife. After breakfast we went to the Pike Place Market and got some groceries, unique vinegars and of course we had to stop at the original Starbucks. We walked around until it got really crowded then we headed down to the water. There was a gigantic ship from Honolulu docked and it was clear enough to see the Olympic range across the sound.
What next? Oh- yes, we drove to Ballard to the Archie McPhee store, as I am a connoisseur of kitschy crapola. Talk about fun! Those of you in PA will understand this, it is an Ollie's for crazy people, haha! I bought a variety of odd tape for my journals and glass taxidermy eyes! Next we drove around the city for quite a while and Paul showed us his office building. We drove by the space needle and other sites, then to a restaurant supply store Paul drove by once and wanted to go in. Talk about a foodie heaven! fun fun fun kitchen and restaurant equipment all in this big warehouse. sigh. I need to see if there is something similar in Portland.
After the warehouse we were pooped so we headed back to the hotel to vegetate before meeting friends for dinner. After dinner we hit the beds and watched Despereaux and zzzzzzzz.
Sunday we had a leisurely breakfast at the hotel, went to above mentioned friends studio/home for a few hours, then headed back into the city so Paul could run by a few new claims. After that we headed home and picked up our dorg (d0g) our precious friends were watching for us and headed home to one freaked out and lonely kitty (who meowed all night with happiness, sounds cute but is was not).
Now to finish up some remaining orders and make Seattle journals with the girls! Oh yeh, and do the laundry...
It's been an odd few days, but very relaxing and just... well, nice.
Paul actually had nothing to run this weekend so we spent some of Sat. exploring around Portland a bit then chilled out and ate a relaxing dinner. Sunday we spent at home in our jammies, napping and playing with fiber (well, I played with fiber).
Here are some pictures to share:
Eve found this stick with some adorable mushrooms on it, the larger one was only about 2 inches high.
Mt. St. Helens (or Helen, as we call her) had a funky hat on. Something to do with air pressure, I am not sure, but Eve could give a dissertation on it. This is a close-up shot (with the tele lens) from our deck. Last night at sunset she was glowing a neon pink but I was too lazy to find the camera. Now I wish I had. Organized Chaos. Shots of the current state of my back studio room. Needs a few hours of attention, but I have had no extra time to spare. This is what happens when painting, art journaling and fiber arts collide. haha It does make me happy to see it photographed, though, proves to my overachieving brain that I AM getting things accomplished. Sometimes my expectation are greater than reality and real time allow. I think I need some studio fairies or elves to clean up after me.
Yarns hanging to dry from last night and this morning,
some for the one-of shop and some for orders.
Next up: an Arabella box arrived on Sat. so stay tuned for a shop update!
In honor of March, and St. Patrick's Day, and the soon-upcoming season change, this month's yarn is GREEN!
I am no longer taking entries for this giveaway.
Check recent entries for NEXT month's giveaway. Entries ended with comment #96~
"It Isn't Easy Being Green"
Spun from soft merino and wool with a touch of hand dyed firestar and enchanted forest glitz. Plied with a tan cotton thread strung with glass leaf beads. Rotating green novelty threads with awesome texture plied throughout! Bulky~ 84 yards ~Comes with your choice of any pattern on the site! (free or for sale)!
(More pics below~)
DETAILS>>>>> TO ENTER, post me something, well, GREEN! A euphemism, quote, idiom, limerick... amuse me! (just keep it clean haha)
Here is my GREEN connection... KERMIT!
OnSaturday Feb. 28th I will enter the number of each comment (first comment is number 1, etc.) into a random number generator online. I will post the winner here in the blog as well as emailing the Material Whirled newsletter list! To join, click here (link is at the bottom of every page on the site). If I post your name here on in the newsletter, contact me and we can work out the fun details! Please, just one comment per person. To be fair to everyone, if you post more than one I will delete the second.
A FREE SKEIN OF MATERIAL WHIRLED YARN! a $50 dollar value! (includes free shipping to the continental US)
I plan to do one handspun yarn giveaway per month (next month will be a surprise Easter skein!) So spread the word!
HELLO! I rarely post pics of myself because I am usually the one behind the camera, and bleh, I am just not a fan of seeing them. stupid girl issues, I know, but it is what it is... However, I just got my hair done, put back to my natural-when-I-was-a-teen color. I had not done it previously because I hate girlie maintenance things like ROOT maintenance. For some reason I am going gray!( thanks DAD for those gray genes). Which means no matter what color I make my hair I will have root maintenance. So why NOT be blond again? I love my hair. It makes me smile whenever I catch a glimpse of myself. Watch out world!
What I have been doing in my blog absence....and this is only a smidge of it.
PLUS THE FEBRUARY YARN GIVEAWAY will be announced soon! The yarn is soooo pretty and is hanging to dry right as I type this! (snicker snicker) I am so excited to show you! I just need to organize the comment fun a bit in my head and of course, dry the yarn so I can photograph it.
I have been a slacker blogger lately. Life has been craaazzzy. First a visit from my Mom (who lives in PA). Then Paul had some weird virus, then orders orders orders to fill! (Yay-love orders).
So here I am trying to get back into the swing of things again.
Today we went to OMSI for some science labs. Eve attended a Physics lab, she is such a science girl, all science all the time. Her recent obsession is the volcano in Alaska that is realdy to blow any minute. She watches the volcano cams religiously.
Here is a picture of Redoubt from the cam that she saved from the other day:
Ann attended the DaVinci lab. OMSI has a new DaVinci exhibit which is just fantastic! We strolled through it today but did not have time to spend to absorb it all, we are going back next week to take our time with it. (I linked to the OMSI home page since the DaVinci exhibit only runs from Jan. 31st- May 3rd 09)
I am sitting on the couch listening to the man chop potatoes in the kitchen (how sexy is that?!), the cat is snoring in her kitty tent at my feet and I can hear the girls running and laughing outside with the neighborhood kids. sigh. Life is rough.
HELLO! I have been trying to think of a fair way to choose the yarn recipient of the Jan. giveaway. There are 96 comments/entries. I really did not want to create 96 little tickets to put in a hat. SO-- I found random.org and used their integer generator. How cool is technology?
So here goes..... the lucky January 09 "Be Mine" Yarn Recipient IS...
"If thine enemy wrong thee, buy each of his children a drum."
I love this quote for so many reasons. First, if you have younger siblings, or children, you know how they get with banging on things. Second, what a creative way to get revenge! Can't you imagine them loosing sleep with the children banging on the drums? I also like the creativity inherent in the statement.
JC, contact me and we will work out your pattern choices and other details!
CONGRATULATIONS!
Next month's giveaway fun will be up in a week(ish) or so, so keep your eyes OPEN!
(I am still mulling over what the yarn will be)
If you would like to be contacted when the new giveaway is up go to the shop and scroll down-- the newsletter subscription link is at the bottom of every page on MaterialWhirled.com!
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"If thine enemy wrong thee, buy each of his children a drum."
I love this quote for so many reasons. First, if you have younger siblings, or children, you know how they get with banging on things. Second, what a creative way to get revenge! Can't you imagine them loosing sleep with the children banging on the drums? I also like the creativity inherent in the statement.