caracolina

John and I went for a walk early on the Santa Barbara beach early in the morning when we saw her. John told me he’d seen her before at the beach, pulling her wheeled bag across the sand. At first he thought she was reciting poetry or was an actress practicing for a role, but […]

Read the rest of Woman in the Mist

I left work early so that I could drive down to the airport and catch a flight to Burbank. This was the first time I drove myself there and it was pretty unnerving, but I’m getting better at dealing with freeway traffic so it went just fine. Of course I had given myself way too […]

Read the rest of Flying Out to S.B.

It was tough to leave John in Santa Barbara but I had to go back to work. On the way to Burbank we stopped at the beach near Sea Cliff for a moment to gaze at the surf. The weather was just brilliant. I arrived at the office midday, finished the work day and then […]

Read the rest of Going Home – Alone

This morning John and I took off to Santa Barbara together early in the day with another rental car. The office graciously gave me a couple days off so I can stay until Monday (I’ll fly home). Leaving so early allowed us to make great time. When we arrived Uncle Woody was out of surgery […]

Read the rest of Uncle Woody’s Surgery

True to his word, John drove off to Santa Barbara to stay for a week with our Uncle and Aunt. This time he’s taking his computer because he is planning to use any extra time to update photo tags. Also, he bought Spore and is probably going to be addicted to playing it for a while, […]

Read the rest of John Off to S.B.

It was high time for us to return to S.B. for a visit and what could be better than a long weekend? To make things easier on us we didn’t leave Friday afternoon to struggle with the traffic but instead got up early Saturday morning and had a good drive without any problems. We spent the […]

Read the rest of Labor Day Weekend in Santa Barbara

We drove up to Nutrioso on Friday night so I could attend a 2-day tapestry weaving workshop with Janie Hoffman. Terri and Dave of Waugh Mountain Alpacas hosted the workshop at their ranch. It was a lot of fun and we met Sandy again, too. I came away with a brand new tapestry loom made out of […]

Read the rest of Tapestry Workshop

Our last day was spent finishing up the sample cards and winding the last mini-skeins before heading home in the early afternoon. We left with over thirty different shades of beautiful, plant-dyed yarns. Here is a link to my Flickr set for the whole workshop.

Read the rest of Natural Dye Workshop – Day 3

After beginning our second day here at the Blue River Retreat with another great breakfast and morning walk it was back to the dye pots for me. Today we focused on post-mordanting with copper and tin as well as trying out a variety of exhaust baths and combinations of them, with exciting results. All of […]

Read the rest of Natural Dye Workshop Day 2

Mr. Wise and I drove up to the Blue River Retreat (near Alpine, AZ) yesterday afternoon. We are staying in one of three Windstream travel trailers so that I can attend a three-day natural dye workshop held by Jane (a.k.a. Janie) Hoffman, an expert tapestry weaver and dye master, with five other women. Two of them I […]

Read the rest of Natural Dye Workshop Day 1