Happy Halloween

My daughter and I finally visited Roger's Gardens last spring after hearing about it for years.

It was amazing!  HERE's a post about that visit.  Since then, I've "liked" them on Facebook.

In September I noticed that they started posting photos of what they were up to for Halloween.

It looked like they had some fun stuff and we had to go see.  What we found was far 

beyond our expectations!  Here's a little glimpse, via my cell phone camera...

They used a photo of this on their sign/poster of the event.  Pretty cool!

We entered the Halloween area through a hallway that had these really tall chairs.

I think the one on the left must have been at least eight feet tall!

These interesting characters were also in the hallway...

They had a lot of eery photos.  They looked like old portraits from one angle but 

as we moved they became scary and looked three dimensional (like the one on the top right).  

The quality was so good it reminded me of Disneyland.

They had glass beaded spider webs for sale...

And, heads in jars!...

Pretty, blingy pumpkins, owls and other Halloweeny stuff...

I liked the vintage Halloween area...

 I really wanted this wreath with vintage graphics.  

It was cute but much more than I was willing to pay.

I think my daughter's favorite things were the hats...

And, the masks...

Another room had some Dia de los Muertos inspired decorations...

And, fun signs...

And, yet another room, had lots of things to decorate like a mad scientist.

Bones, "potions", bugs, frogs and lots of other creepy things...

There was even a mad scientist lab.  It was dark with glowy lights and lots of white things...like bones!  And, decorations that would make for a great Halloween martini party...

They even used an old pump organ to decorate...

One side of the building had a "Scream" type painting...

Of course, they had LOTS of pumpkins...orange, white, green, bumpy, small, medium and large.

The only pumpkin area I took a photo of was one of the orange ones...

I bought a few decorations while we were there.

I got a couple of blingy spiders.  They're hanging out on some lampshades...

And, this glass, vintage style ornament...

It's hanging from a branch in our living room that I mounted on a mirror.

It's the newest addition to a collection of glass ornaments that I already had...

I already posted these a while back but they're cute enough to post again.  

I found them at Pier One...

We acquired some old cardboard decorations this year...

Here are some fun little Halloween "potion" bottles we've had for a while...

This one is my favorite...

We had so much fun visiting Roger's Gardens Halloween display.

And, it's been fun adding some new decorations to our collection.

Each year our house gets a little more festive.

Happy Halloween!

Finally Finished

I've been working on and off on this pair of socks for a long time.

I was surprised at how long when I updated my project notes on Ravelry.

It turns out that I started these in July of 2011!  Sheesh!  It's about time I finished them!

They're just a basic pair of socks knitted with size two double point needles.  Nothing fancy.

I originally bought the yarn for a crochet shawl but the colors pooled in ways that didn't look good.

Knitting seems to be a much better match for this colorway of Zitron Trekking XXL yarn.

I love the colors and I finished them just in time for the wintery weather we're having this week.

I think this yarn would look great as a Sockhead Hat like the one I made HERE.

I have almost half a skein left.  Time to weigh it and the hat I made before and see if it's possible!

Maybe a less slouchy version.  :-)

Woolly Acorns

It's no secret that I love acorns.  They come from such awesome trees.  And, they're so cute!

I started needle felting some a while back and made a few more this week...

I thought it would be fun to make some in bright, fun colors.

Even the caps are needle felted.  I made the little stems by hand-twisting

a bit of the wool into yarn and needle felting it into place.

I'm not sure what to do with them though, other than take a photo.
If I leave them out, my kitty will play with them and my dog may eat them.
I really need to get some of those cute glass domes so I can display stuff like this.

Yarn Therapy

Playing with yarn can be like therapy.  It can calm my mind and nerves, switch my mind

to a better direction, and just make me feel good.  It's often what I think about when I'm in a stressful situation or pushing my boundaries (like when I rappelled into those canyons a couple weeks ago).  

Knitting, crocheting and playing with yarn is a cozy, happy, feel-good place for me.

Yarn therapy is exactly what I've needed lately with some of the stress of my life and the intense activities of our vacation.  I had the perfect yarn for that sort of thing...a skein of Aslan Trends Lecco.

It's fun, funky and made with one of my favorite fibers, cotton.  I used it to create the perfect yarn

therapy type of project too.  I made a no rules, no pattern, fat needles, just knitting project.

Here it is...my fun and fringy cowl...

I used size 13 needles and cast on 22 stitches.  Why 22?  Because it seemed like the perfect width

and it's the age of my daughter (I like picking numbers that mean something).  Then, I enjoyed 

every simple knit stitch and not a single purl.  I knitted until I was getting close to the end.

Then, I roughly measured from the end what I thought I'd need for fringe.  I knitted close to that and bound off.  I gave it one twist to create a mobious, stitched it together and added some fringe.

It was quick and fun and I love the result.  It's a little artsy, I think.

I love the look of the yarn and the results but I'm not sure I'll buy this yarn again.

The unspun parts of the yarn tend to get fuzzy very easily.  So, I'm not quite sure how

well it will hold up with wear.  But, I'll enjoy it as long as I can!

Kolob Terrace

One of the must-do plans we had for our recent Utah trip was to see Kolob Terrace.

It's part of Zion National Park but the road to it starts well west of the main entrance.

It's actually above the Zion Canyon.  The elevation is much higher and Fall is the best time to see it.

We packed a picnic lunch and brought our dog, Salsa, for a day of sight seeing.

It was gorgeous from the start!

The views went for miles in all directions.

Wow!  There's Zion Canyon from above!

A little surprise along the way...

Once we got to higher elevations the colors became more vibrant.

 We were a little late for some sections.  But, it was still beautiful.

This is a driveway to a house that was for sale.

What an awesome place to live!

The Kolob Reservoir at the top was much smaller than we'd expected.

It was chilly up there!  We encountered snow on the ground and a few flakes falling along the way..

There were a lot more homes up there than we'd expected to see.

I can only imagine what it must be like to live in a place with distinct seasons.

I bet it's wonderful!  It's definitely beautiful!

I love the color combinations nature creates!

I think Salsa loved it all about as much as we did!

All the amazing colors made me very happy!

It was like candy for my eyes and soul...a color high!

These are lucky cattle to live in a place like this!

That's Zion Canyon in the background.

The little blonde one on the left was adorable and so curious about us.

Another beautiful, Fall day!

The hill in the distance and on the right is where we went canyoneering.

It's the location of Lamb's Knoll.  We passed it on the way up and back.

We had to stop there again for more pictures.

The colors had changed even more from our visit just a couple of days before.

  

A patchwork of beautiful colors!

I love this red glowing from the sun!

Orange!

Spring-like flowers among the fallen leaves of Autumn...

Breathtaking!

This is the same path we hiked to go canyoneering.

Salsa got to see it this time!

Walking along the base of the rocks...

Salsa got to check out the skinny crack in the rocks where we exited from canyoneering.

She seemed to be a bit uneasy in the tight space.

We loved walking on the soft, pink sand.  I bet it felt great under Salsa's paws.

I had to get a picture of the changing oak leaves!

A view from the knoll...

We've been to Zion during Summer, Fall and the start of Spring.

It would be hard to pick a favorite time of year to visit but Fall is definitely more colorful!