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hand-dyes drying at the fairground Thanks to my work with Windy Valley Muskox, I had the opportunity to visit rural New York in October.  Famed and celebrated fiber gathering, New York Sheep and Wool, aka Rhinebeck almost defies description, there are just so many facets.  What I can tell you is that if you go, you'll definitely see fiber and yarn and sweaters, knitters, fantastic local food, yarn-related celebrities, and absolutely people knitting.   And animals; you will definitely find animals!   You can see more of my pictures from Rhinebeck here . I would also recommend Glenna C's account here , and this fun video about Rhinebeck Sweaters.

We decided to track down a hot air balloon festival this summer, and spent the weekend in Steamboat Springs, Colorado.  This beautiful little town has good food, beautiful hikes, friendly locals, and a yarn shop!  What more could you ask for??   We watched balloons from sunrise to sundown, seriously.  I am going to mostly let the pictures do the talking but wanted to point out two things.  The "rodeo" portion of this festival is when the balloon pilots attempt to touch down on the surface of the lake.  I think most of them managed it without any problems.  You can see the yellow balloon with the flowers is still dripping as it rises.  Also, out of twelve hand-painted balloons in the world, there are two in this crowd!  They are the circus balloon and the cowboys.   To see more, including a time-lapse video (my first attempt at that,) you can check out the whole set here .  

  Awe; and very pleased that we had agreed to go on this trip to see a hole in the ground in the desert.   A year or so ago, I was taking pictures at my nephew's birthday party and another mom said to my sister-in-law, "How nice that you have your own photographer!"  To which she replied, "Yes, but we don't see many of the pictures."  A few weeks after that, I was at another party and noticed a little stack of photo books.  Of course I looked through them.  (I always look through other people's photo albums if they're out.)  One thing I really liked about these books was that there were several pictures of the whole family.  A few thoughts came out of these experiences.    Happy birthday, this one; and the blizzard on the way home! First, I recall a scrapbook saleslady saying that (photo) books are a technology that will never be obsolete and doesn't require any equipment.  So true; raise your hand if you h...

So!  Here's what we've been up to...  At some point in the past six months, my great aunt Ginnie (inadvertently?) included me on an email about the semi-annual family reunion in Minnesota.  I say inadvertently because I've never gone and there was no reason for her to include me but I assume I'm on her family distribution list.  Regardless, an idea was planted, but I was so unsure of whether we would actually get to Minnesota that I did not put it on my 10-things-to-do-this-summer list , although I really wanted to put Family Vacation as #1!  See, we've actually never been on a family vacation, and I didn't know if we'd be able to squeak it out.  Can you believe that?  I know, it's sad.  We've been on lots of trips to see family for holidays, but only a few hours here or there, and definitely not a vacation, the whole five of us.  Well, things have changed, I'm happy to say! What did we do? you may wonder. On Wednesday night, we dr...

We have just returned home from a little adventure into strange lands and dark forests....  More soon!