Sunday, October 23, 2011

Winner of the Free Book: Quilting Those Flirty 30's"

I am excited to tell you that we had random.org choose the winning number for comments that were left on my blog to win the book "Quilting Those Flirty 30's.  And the winner is "aracne"! Thank you all for stopping by and leaving a comment. Watch this space for future books to be given away.

Friday, October 14, 2011

Sights of Sri Lanka

We recently traveled to Sri Lanka and had a great time!  So much to see and do in such a small country. Since a picture is worth a thousand words, I thought I would just show you photos, which is a lot better then me just rattling on!

We stayed in some interesting hotels but this one was especially fun!  We even had our own resident crocodile who lived underneath our room.













Beautiful peacocks were everywhere on the hotel grounds and in the countryside.

We saw lots of really cool Buddhas!




















Lots of monkeys in Sri Lanka but this one was especially cute with her baby.












We climbed to the top of Sigiriya Rock. The view was pretty fabulous from up there.


















Since Sri Lanka is a Buddhist country, we saw many young boys who were studying to be monks.

We went on safari and saw lots of animals but we fell in love with the elephants of Sri Lanka.











We saw LOTS of elephants!














We got up close and personal with some.











We rode elephants and fed elephants.




We washed an elephant and gave him a massage.











We bought handmade paper made from elephant poo!





And we watched the elephants make their way through town, on their trek to the river to frolic and play.  It reminded me a little of the running before the bulls in Spain! 

We learned about the lengthy process and all the time intensive work it takes to make batik fabrics.












We took the train up to the tea country. We heard that the next day, after we took the train, the observation car we were in derailed. Thankfully no one was injured!






We toured a tea factory.


We watched the tea pickers bring their tea to the managers to be weighed and their accounting ledgers marked.
We hiked through the tea plantations, had high tea, and bought several varieties of tea.

I don't think we will every think of a cup of tea in
exactly the same way again!





















We met the lace maker and her daughter.  This is an old art that is dying out in Sri Lanka.


Sri Lanka is full of these wonderful smiles!




 We checked out the day's catch of the local fishermen and watched them work.

We watched the local dancers at an anniversary celebration.



Sri Lanka is known for it's semi-precious stones so it was a real pleasure to visit the local jewelry shops and see all the jewels on display.


And of course the sunsets in Sri Lanka were stunning. We saw a gorgeous one each evening, on the south coast near Galle, where we spent 5 days on the beach.  A little bit of heaven!

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Win a Free Book "Quilting Those Flirty 30's"

I am so excited to tell you that "Quilting Those Flirty 30's" has gone into it's second printing.

To celebrate, I will be giving away a free book to one of the visitors to my blog who leaves a comment, within the next 10 days.

From all the comments, one lucky person's name will be drawn on Sunday 23 October 2011. 

Good luck!  And I look forward to hearing from you.
 


Thursday, October 06, 2011

Japanese Textile Study Tour

If you have ever wanted to immerse yourself in Japanese culture, on a very intimate level, this is a wonderful  opportunity and the dates are 15-25 April, 2012.

A very dear friend of mine, Nat Palaskas, has teamed up with  Bryan Whitehead, owner of a small textile school located in his traditional Japanese farmhouse in Fujino, located just outside of Tokyo. There you will have the opportunity to focus on indigo, natural dyes, shibori, stencil dying, and thread making from silk cocoons.  You will also see the cherry blossoms in bloom, picnic in a Japanese garden, visit a silk museum and a pottery studio, visit Mt. Fuji, and take in a traditional Japanese bath.

The tour is eleven days, filled to the brim with beautiful Japanese textiles and traditional arts and delicious Japanese food. You will make friends from all around the world and you will have the opportunity to learn from Bryan his extensive knowledge of both traditional Japanese textiles and Japanese culture.

If you would like to find out more and join in the fun, visit Nat's blog below for all the details of a trip of a lifetime.

See you in Japan!