Monday, July 02, 2007

A Bit of Daring, A Bit of Daft and a Bit of Crafting


A Bit of Daring -

Our first campout of the season was up at Cold Springs camp ground, near Nederland, the town famous for their Dead Guy Festival. It seems that a man who believed in the science of bring people back to life, if well preserved in ice, lived there. He died and put his grandson in charge of his remains. There the Dead Guy stays, nicely cold in his storage shed in the backyard, thanks to plenty of dry ice. We had a great time.The kids are big enough that we have had to move to having two tents, instead of one, in the name of civil peace. All afternoon it was back and forth between how the sleeping arrangements would go. In the end it was broken down by gender. The next day we went exploring and found some great spots for repelling (starting at the top of a cliff and climbing down) and rock climbing. Here I have a few pic. s to show how brave they were. My bravery was in the form of sitting atop a windy, ant infested cliff and doing cross stitch with linen fabric and silk threads. I know what you are thinking - "Oh, she's so daring!" Later in the day we went to check out the site for the next race - a hill climb, 3000 foot elevation gain over 9.5 miles - not a race for the faint of heart or weak of leg!

A Bit of Daft!

Remember the bags that I posted earlier? The ones that I made that match out team uniforms? Well, in my zeal to create them, I forgot to prewash the fabric and that has come back to bite me in the butt. The lovely white section turned pink one afternoon when Ellie's waterbottle spilled on the bag and was left to soak in. I went to get something and found the nasty pinky streaks working their way up the side of the bag. I was so bummed. I felt mad, sad and a bit stupid. I know better than this! I had been in the midst of making two more as presents for friends. THey had to be trashed. I tore the seams out fo Ellie's bag and redid it. Now, it is better. While I am still feeling stupid, I am at least releived that I figure it out before I gave others away. This will keep me from having to ask for them back. I have since washed all of the fabric 3 times, one time with amonia, to set the color. The first gift bag will be given on the 4th to Paul, a good friend, an advisor and a coach.

A Bit of Craft -

Between all of the biking we have been doing, I did manage to make a gift for my nephew, Orlando. It is a fabric bag, of sorts, that houses a few large post-it note pads in different colors and a set of Pipsqueak markers that are put out by Crayola. They are short versions of 26 colors. The idea is that he can take them with him when we all go on vacation together in a few weeks. I will also be crafting a more girly version for my neice. The names go on the inside for safety reasons.








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