Details, Schmeetails... Part One

Thursday

I rolled into our Colorado Springs hotel parking lot early afternoon.  I met up with Vickie and Karin, both of whom helped haul my three heavy suitcases (two full of stash) up the stairs of our suite.

We had an awesome loft suite with a large bed upstairs and a sleeper sofa downstairs, two bathrooms, two TV's, microwave, Keurig coffee maker, mini fridge, and a nice long conference table.  Vickie has photos of our suite on her blog HERE.

I put together the retreat gift bags and door prizes while we waited for the others to arrive.  After a late dinner, we all met up at a combination stitching/quilting store, Ruth’s Stitchery.  It was a very nice store.  Had I not been so tired, I would've been more "into" shopping.

Friday
In the morning, several of us went to Colorado Wolf and Wildlife Center near Divide, Colorado.  It was a very interesting and informative tour.  They are a non-profit organization that has given sanctuary to wolves, wolf dogs, foxes and coyotes from various "farms" that use animals for profit.

After the tour, the guide had the entire group howl in an effort to get the wolves to howl back.  It took a couple of tries, but we finally got them to howl.  It was soft at first and then got louder and louder.  It was pretty cool.  Owwwww.. Ooooooooo!

In the afternoon, we all met up for lunch and a tour a Miramont Castle. 

We had lunch in the "Tea Room".  The waitress was dressed in what I think was a victorian maid uniform.  A couple of the retreat ladies ordered the Lite Tea which included tea, finger sandwiches, and a dessert tray.  I ordered a BLT sandwich (very scrumptious!) and soup of the day which was cold cucumber zuchinni.  I'm game for trying almost anything... let's just say the soup wasn't what I expected, and I didn't finish it all.  The "fun" aspect of our tea luncheon was that they had a selection of hats we could wear.  Here's our group:

Photos of the castle tour can be seen HERE.

As part of the castle tour, there was a small Fireman's Museum.  A few of us decided to play "dress up".

Behind us was an antique fire wagon.  It was pretty neat!

Other Firefighter Museum photos can be seen HERE.

In the afternoon, several of us went exploring in Old Colorado City.  I stopped at a pet store and escaped without buying anything, but the store owner tried her darndest to sell me something... anything... stickers, magnets. LOL

After dinner at Texas Roadhouse (Yummo!), we headed back to the hotel to start the flat ornament/cording class I was scheduled to teach.  As I said before, I did get a kick out of watching the ladies diligently work on their ornaments.  We didn't have time to finish them, but I think the class went well.  Here's what mine looked like when I came home:

Do you see what's wrong with that picture??  Yes? No?  At the retreat, I inadvertently glued the ornament hanger on the wrong side of the ornament back!  So I had to very carefully slide a knife in between the two layers and get the cording out.  Then I had to make a new slit and shove the cording down in.  Do you know how hard that is?!?  Here's my finished ornament:

Stitched in Dec 2009 ~ Finished June 2012
Designer: Plum Pudding Needleart
Fabric: Silkweavers Wintergreen 32ct Opalescent Luguna
Fibers: DMC
Embellishments: handmade cording

Back to the retreat:  After the ornament class, we finally got around to doing the Free-For-All Stash Exchange.  Retreat attendees brought stash they no longer wanted, and then we could take home whatever we wanted.  This year there was so much that we each were given a pile to go through, and then passed it to the next person to go through until no one wanted anything else.  It was fun!!   Vickie took the leftovers home to be donated to a local charity.

To find out about the remainder of the retreat, read on!