On our way up the trail near Taos Ski Area. It was another beautiful day in New Mexico. Can you make out Tynan searching for yet another gecko…
I’m back! It’s only been a couple of weeks, but I feel kind of better even if I didn’t make it back to friends and family in New England. (For that story, see this post.) Anyway, Tom and I and the dog did manage to take a couple of day trips. The first was up to north of Taos near the ski area. We hiked for a couple of hours then picked up lunch in the very cool, little village of Arroyo Seco. Tom counted every one of the 19 stream crossings that we did in that two hours. But both of us had dry feet – quite the balancing act! – at the end. Tynan, he just forded through them all. Why should he care if he gets wet? Or muddy? Or what happens to the car when he gets back in?
Last week the three of us headed to Los Alamos via the Jemez Mountains. We’d never taken that drive in the fall. Gorgeous! Thus far one of my favorite parts of New Mexico. We didn’t hike this time; we wanted to get home before Albuquerque’s rush hour traffic. But we managed lunch in Los Alamos. It was a good day.
On Route 4 in New Mexico’s Jemez Pueblo. How often do you see something like that?This is Battleship Rock. You can see why.This and the rock pic are for Canadian rug hooker Karen Miller who always has the best close-ups of nature..Even boulders are wicked cool in New Mexico!
This is Valle Caldera, a super volcano that erupted over a million years ago. It’s 12-13 miles in diameter! We looked for elk, but didn’t see any critters at all. Bummer.
On the road out of Los Alamos to take us to Route 84 to take us to Santa Fe to take us to Route 25 to take us back south to Albuquerque. Look at that BIG SKY, people!
Meanwhile I’m busily trying to finish up small and mug-type rugs to sell at the High Desert Studio Tour (scroll down through the page to the part about the tour) this coming Saturday. If you recall, my friend Dagmar of ZiaWoolz invited me again this year to sell at her house/studio. She’s #3 on the map. If you’re in the area, come hang out with us for a bit. I’ll have chocolate!
Check out the Zia rug in the far left center. Guess who made that?
What I don’t sell at Dag’s I hope to unload sell at Santa Fe’s Fall Fiber Fiesta at the Scottish Rite Temple come November 17-19. The 17th is an artists’ reception in the evening, 5:00-8:00, costs $10. Saturday and Sunday hours are 10:00 AM – 5:00 PM, no charge. Unless you buy something, of course. 🙂 Hope you stop by there too to pick up some gifts for the quickly approaching holidays. Can you believe that Thanksgiving is just over two weeks away!
Lastly, Tynan did not forget to bring you this week’s “What’s on the frame” feature. Of course, he received his commission. God forbid I forget that. Talk to you next week!
“What’s on the frame” this week and Tynan. These mug rugs will be done by Saturday. Come visit Dagmar and me and see them at the High Desert Studio Tour in Albuquerque!
Tynan will tell you, life does go on. There’s always a new rug on the frame, and there are always biscuits to eat.
Last week’s post was about the consolation of making art for art’s sake; this week it’s about having to move on. Unfortunately, fires are still burning in California, and it appears that as many as 85% of Puerto Ricans still don’t have power. My problems are NOTHING compared to those, though I’d never belittle anyone, including myself, who’s concerned about their kid. Still, we make our way through new situations. She’s still keeping her room and bathroom pretty clean, and she’s definitely working hard to avoid arguments that don’t have to be had. I call that maturing, and, damn, I still have a hard time with it!
You know you’re luck’s improving when you head off to Walmart and come across the Oscar Mayer Weinermobile!
In the meantime, Tom and I are dealing with the changes too. We’ve been to Home Depot and identified the shelving we’ll he’ll build for me in the laundry room. It should go a long way towards getting the clutter up off the closet floor. And, frankly, we’re coping with maybe the most acute disappointment of our new/old living arrangement. Today we and the dog were supposed to head back east on our first visit with family and friends since we moved here. We’re still sad, but, after two weeks, are coming to terms with it. Again, you have to move on even when life hands you those lemons.
So, tomorrow we’re off on a different adventure, a day-trip that Tom’s never been on. Almost a year ago to the date, Tynan and I headed up north on our own. Tom couldn’t come for whatever reason, and I wanted to get up that way before the snow started to fly. We drove north of Taos to check out the ski area – nothing to see but lots of construction it turned out. On the way back to town, we did some hiking then explored this nifty, itty bitty village called Arroyo Seco. There are some shops, including one with perfect pottery and, of course, Weaving Southwest, which has fabulous rug yarns. There’s a great little restaurant/ice cream parlor too.
My new hiking toy with Tynan’s bowl (turquoise for New Mexico). Tom’s fanny pack is black.
Tom’s not been north of the town of Taos, so we’ll be heading up that way. Today we even picked up nice, new, fanny-type day packs at REIbecause I’m tired of being the one to carry everything in the pack including the water bottles. At Albuquerque’s new Cabela’s (which – for all you New England peeps living near the Patriots’Gillette Stadium is NOT NEARLY as cool as the Bass Pro Shop with its giant fish tanks and honest-to-God, full-fledged pub) Tynan got a new, collapsible water/food bowl. I’ll happily carry that for him.
Yesterday was my last day vending at the Rail Yards this year. While I sold a good piece, this year’s not been that profitable there for me. It’s great for exposure and spreading the gospel of rug hooking, but I think that next year, I’ll cut back to once a month there and look for another venue. More on that in the coming months.
Last day at the Rail Yards Market in Albuquerque yesterday.
BIGGEST NEWS I’ve received lately came yesterday when I checked my email as I sat at the Rail Yards. Albuquerque’s Fiber Arts Council puts on an exhibit every other year (one that’s smaller than the Fiber Arts Fiesta held on the opposite year, no vendors). The marketing committee informed me that they’ve chosen a photo of my entry in the show back in April, 2016, to appear on the marketing materials for the 2018 show on April 7 and 8. Woohoo! I’m very honored and can’t wait to see the flyers and such. You know I’ll be sharing that when I get it. 🙂
Living on the west side of Albuquerque near the Rio Grande gives us plenty of balloon photo-ops most of the year.
In the meantime, we go on. As in New England, fall is the most beautiful time here in New Mexico. Nights have cooled off, but days still run anywhere in the 60s and 70s. Our very BIG SKY is bright blue; you might have seen it on the news last week, NBC covered Albuquerque’s famous International Balloon Fiesta last week, and USA Today has a bunch of pics up and just called it “the world’s most photographed event.” Tom and I didn’t attend this year, but the beauty of balloons is that they’re pretty visible from all over once they get up there. Consider making a visit sometime; hundreds of balloons in the sky at once is a spectacular sight.
Just so’s you know, I’ll be taking a little “stay-cation” from the blog, a week or two at most, while Tom and I find a few more little adventures to share this month. When you live in a beautiful place, you have to take advantage of it. I’m sure I’ll have some photos to share when I return.
What are you doing these days to keep your spirits up and to appreciate great autumnal weather? If you’re going to New England, send some lobsters out here!
To me, lantana is a fine example of summer colors’ last gasp in Albuquerque’s high desert gardens. (Taken at the Biopark.)
INSPIRATION
Being the fourth Tuesday of the month, yesterday was one of the Adobe Wool Arts Guild’s demo days (we’re there the 1st and 4th Tuesdays) at Albuquerque’s Biopark, specifically the Botanic Garden. And although it clouded up and eventually rained, the morning was gorgeous: blue sky, cool, crisp. The colors in the gardens sparkled. I felt a need to pull out my phone and grab a few shots before the flowers all disappear into the chill of fall and winter.
I can’t grow cosmos in my yard here like I did back in Massachusetts. But I miss them. These, in the Biopark, turned their faces away from me and the wind that was blowing the storm in from the south.
When I got home, I headed into my own yard to record the colors of late September. Like the hummingbirds, most will be gone within a few weeks.
This is one of the bougainvillia. It lost its leaves last week, but not its vivid coral flowers.
Cherry tomatoes ripen in the garden after pretty much going dormant through the heat of July and August.
Despite the rosy-colored crepe myrtle, the turned leaves and the chiminea and even the shadows in the backyard remind me that autumn’s already arrived.The vivid color of this bougainvillia suggests that there’s still time for Tom to mix me another margarita. If you’d like one, you better hurry!
It may be the last gasp for summers’ colors, but it’s just beginning for pumpkins’ oranges, greens, and even blues!
Regardless of color, life goes on. Here at High on Hooking, we’re readying for a third show in less than two weeks. Sunday is the OffCenter Folk Art Festivalat Robinson Park in downtown Albuquerque. Lots to do before that! I’ve sold out of all double mug rug sets and most of the singles. I’ll finish up another three singles in the next couple of days. Meanwhile I’m starting a double. Or maybe it’ll be a quadruple…
Anyone showing up to the OffCenter Folk Art Festival to buy a rug will get 10% off if they mention this blog post! Hope to see you.
Tynan took a couple of weeks off, but he’s back with “What’s on the Frame?” That would be the double (or perhaps quadruple) mug rug that won’t be ready for sale this weekend. But there’s always November’s events (more on them later!) or even the Internet. Careful of those pins, dude!
“The First Boucherouite” hooked from old bed sheets and a smidgen of t-shirt.
This past weekend was a busy one for me, particularly in the hooking department. It started early too. Thursday found me hooking with friends. That was good; it let me finish hemming up the Boucherouite. Yes, I finally finished it. It took longer than anticipated thanks to plenty of one-directional hooking – the orange and yellowish areas. That was to imitate the weaving of the real Moroccan rugs. But I have to admit that I love how this one came out. Your thoughts? Me, I’m thinking that I have to make a much bigger floor rug. Time to collect the bed sheets…
Wool yarns that I microwave-dyed in Cathy Kelly’s class. Very pretty aren’t they?
On to Friday:Cathy Kelly gave a class on microwave dyeing to four of us in the guild. Thanks to Darlene for providing the space in her own “dye garage”! (She won’t hear that as she’s about to jaunt off to London and Paris. Why, yes, I am envious. How could you tell?)
The class was great fun. Come on, who doesn’t enjoy playing with color? Rather than wool fabric, we dyed yarn. Except for Nan, who’s high on felting, not just hooking. Here you can see the three skeins I dyed. Guess I was in a pink-purple-yellow mood. Note to self: next time work in the blue-green zone. But aren’t they wonderful and color-full? Thanks so much to Cathy for the class!
Friday evening – Saturday: Time to update the inventory and pack the car for the Sunflower Festival in Mountainair. Then bed. We had to be up early given the hour-and-a-half drive. But, damn, it was worth it. We’d never been to Mountainair before. The ride was visually stunning: bright blue skies; wide, open spaces; long freight trains; mountain passes. The best part was the cooler weather. Mountainair’s up about 6500 feet. For the first time in a long while, I didn’t sweat setting up the booth. Always a plus when you’re hanging with the public. And the tent gave nice shade. Again: perfect, end-of-summer weekend.
Tom rests under the High on Hooking tent. Unfortunately, he did NOT make employee of the month this time. No sales for him!Tynan enjoyed the Sunflower Festival. Of course, people made all over him. However, no sales for Tynan. Like Tom, he did not make employee of the month. Not a completely perfect, end-of-summer weekend for him and Tom. 🙂
I can’t say enough about the festival. I managed to sell a few things, certainly enough to get me back next year. There were plenty of art and food vendors. The bathrooms were near nearby and clean. You had your choice of the indoor type or the fancy porta potty type that I’ve seen out here. AC and everything! Plus there was full-on cell phone coverage when I’d been told not to expect it at all! The festival is obviously one of the big events in this tiny community, and it showed. Kudos to the Monzano Mountain Art Council!
Sunday dawns: We’re tired what with being outside all day Saturday not to mention the three hours of driving. Took the dog for a 45-minute walk then headed off on the weekly grocery shopping trip. I don’t know what I did between then and 5:00 when we left for Santa Fe’s Opera House. (That’s about an hour’s ride.) You see, I’ve always wanted to see an opera there, but Tom, not being into opera AT ALL, demurred at sharing such an experience with me. It’s wicked expensive, so I couldn’t fully blame him. He did, however, agree to see Garrison Keillor with me. Woohoo!
A perfect view for a perfect weekend. See the Sangre de Cristo Mountains from the Santa Fe Opera House. To the right in the foreground is a bathroom and bar. I like how they conveniently go together. Excellent planning, SF Opera!
The experience met ALL expectations. Again, perfect weather. Then there’s the view. The Opera House has a fabulous vantage point and, therefore, a gorgeous view of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains to the east and the Jemezto the west. It’s an open-air theater (a word that doesn’t do it justice at all) so you can literally see for miles. We bought a ridiculously overpriced glass of wine to share and took it all in.
The interior of the Santa Fe Opera House. This is up near the top row, “oxygen seats.” I joke. While we sat below, there really aren’t bad seats in the place.
The show started about 15 minutes late. No matter. Folks drifted in toward their seats. If they hadn’t finished their cocktails, standing just outside the theater proper to watch was perfectly acceptable. (Only bottled water is permitted inside.) Keillor moved through the audience singing extemporaneously, shaking hands, and questioning our cell phone usage.
Garrison Keillor himself.
Making it to the stage eventually, he laughed at those of us who were “saluting.” I learned a valuable lesson: Next time I attend a show at the Opera House, I’ll bring sunglasses. The seats all face directly west, right into the glaring, setting sun behind the stage. Next time I won’t be such a newbie.
The show went on a full three hours. “Intermission” was a sing-along. While Keillor clearly didn’t have to pee, Tom and I certainly did. We didn’t head home till well after 10:00, arriving about 11:20. Bed called, and the perfect, end-of-summer weekend came to a close.
Now there’s just one big question: Whatever will we do for Labor Day?
Can’t there be another perfect, end-of-summer weekend? What do you have planned end the summer?
Whatever you do this weekend, make sure you take time to say a prayer for the folks of Houston who have been affected by Hurricane Harvey this past week. Their next days, weeks, and even years will be difficult.
I can’t believe that I forgot I hooked that rug! Yes, it went plumb out of my mind. Let me explain.
Unfinished and, therefore, unnamed rug being hooked with t-shirts sometime last fall.
Last night I was going through my laptop files looking for a particular rug photo. (I read a blog that encourages people to share their gardens and crafts and such. Of course, they want to see my rugs. 🙂 ) So, I’m combing through the blog file, the guild file, High on Hooking’s inventories, every file containing pics of rugs for whatever reason. And I come across this photo of an unfinished rug.
And I think, where the hell that rug?How come I haven’t been trying to sell that??? It was a pretty large, circular deal. About 28 inches in diameter.
Like many of you, I am not a woman who keeps things that bother me to myself. I less than casually mention it to Tom who responds with What rug? (Insert my eye roll here.) Once I show him the photo, oh, I remember that one! Thank God. I was starting to think senility might be creeping in. Then he asks about its whereabouts. Duh! Then he asks if I ever finished it. Of course, I finished it! I had to have done it before I started the big, blue floral rug around January 1.
I check the wicker trunk and the cedar chest. Nada. I take a cursory glance around the closet and laundry room, but they both hold my hooking raw materials, not finished rugs, most of which currently abide in my mobile store. It’s definitely not with them.
Again to the cedar chest. I do a better search, actually take things out. Nope. The rug seems to have vanished. I briefly consider that Melinda might’ve taken it. She reallyliked it when I was working on it. Nah, I would’ve seen it at her house. So, it has to be in mine!
Tom’s lost interest by now. I head back to the closet and the laundry room. Okay, I have not cleaned or sorted my laundry room counter in a very l-o-n-g time. Been too busy. This time I actually pick up some pile, move things around, and…lo and behold!…there, neatly folded, is that rug. I grab it, unfold it. Oh, the hooking is done – just like I remembered – but the finishing, not so much. Never bandy that word senility around so casually when you live in a glass house. It will come back to bite you in the ass.
I definitely hooked that rug. I most definitely did NOT finish that rug.
Now I have another job to do so that I can get this baby out to the Rail Yards and the other places I’m selling at this season. (That would include, I recently found out, the Sunflower Festival in Mountainair, here in New Mexico on August 26.) Since tonight I’ll finish hooking another rug (see photo below) and have yet to design something new, I guess that I’ll be sewing binding on the “Tree of Life” when I meet with some guild members tomorrow for a mini hook-in. Like you, I’d rather hook.
Last week brought some interesting news. Along with 59 other hookers who feel a need to share the hooking gospel via social media, specifically via a blog, High on Hooking’s blog was named one of the best 60 rug hooking blogs. (It didn’t specify where, so I’ll go with in the entire world.) I admit that when I saw the email that morning, I scoffed to Tom that it was some kind of scam, false news, as it were. But, no, when I got on Facebook later in the day, congratulations were flying. Thank you, Rug Hooking Magazine and Feedspot for a lovely and unexpected boost.
Lastly, Tynan is back with “The Rug on the Frame.” Though he did mention that it felt like a demotion after being allowed to write the blog last week. I told him that if he’s good, he’ll get another chance. And if he stops calling us idiots. This rug is a favorite of his, though he’d make me take out the “WOOF” and put in his name. Then I couldn’t sell it, I explained. Exactly, he said.
Tynan says, that rug should be mine. “Woof” is hooked all in t-shirt. Much cooler than wool this time of year.
