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!

Details... Schmeetails... Part Two

Saturday
Some of the other ladies went to Cripple Creek to explore. My intention was to get reservations for the train ride to Pikes Peak, and the do some exploring of other areas on my own. As I mentioned earlier, I did get reservations on the last train at 5:20pm. Cool! On to site seeing...

First stop: Garden of the Gods. I drove to the central parking lot only to drive around and around and around it until another vehicle left so I could take its space. I found out later the lot was so full because a young couple decided to have their wedding there! As beautiful as the park was, it was sooo hot that I could only walk around to see a few of the rock formations.

I was surprised to learn that Garden of the Gods

was donated by the children of Charles Perkins to

fulfill his wish in keeping it forever free to the public.

There were quite a few rock climbers! Not I... nope.

More photos can be seen HERE.

Next stop: Seven Falls. I missed the turn off to go to Seven Falls and ended up driving over two miles up through South Cheyene Canyon. Think... narrow winding roads with blind curves and canyon walls as sky high. Talk about nerve racking! After finally finding a place to turn around, I was lucky enough to get an assigned parking space that was only 5 spaces from the falls.

Upon the advice of Vickie, I took the elevator up through the mountain to get to the first level look out. Both she and and I are afraid of heights. I can't believe she climbed the fire-escape looking stairs to the first level! I thought I'd be OK at the first level, but I got about 3 feet from the railing and started to have anxiety from the height. There was NO WAY I was climbing those stairs to the second level look out.

Top of the Seven Waterfalls

Bottom of the Seven Waterfalls

Since I was expecting to go to Pikes Peak shortly thereafter, I headed back to the hotel to hang out until that time. While Vicky, Mare and I were having lunch when the local news announced a fire had broken out in Waldo Canyon. People literally stopped in the lobby of the hotel to watch the news of the fire. Garden of the Gods and Pikes Peak was evacuated and closed. I was so disappointed that I wasn't able to go to Pikes Peak.

The three of us went back to the suite and stitched while we waited for the others to get back. Yes, we finally stitched. I worked on Sampler aux Bouquets. Here's what it looks like now:

This is the project I was working on when I announced I had to frog. I had to rip out almost three rows that I had messed up. As such, the First Frogger prize came home with me.

Four of the other retreat goers were out in the area where the fire broke out. Sandy was able to get back to the hotel before the mad rush of traffic. Poor Vickie, Penny, and Karin got caught up in the re-routing of traffic and ended up getting back to the hotel two hours later.

After everyone was back at the hotel, we decided to order pizza and played with the stash donations from various designers. They were so generous! I was in charge of contacting designers this year and had to carry all that stuff on the plane with me. It's a good thing Southwest Airlines allows two free bags because I needed them.

Sunday
Five forty-five A.M. comes pretty early when one goes to bed after 1am! I didn't plan on getting up that early, however a migraine that wrapped around the right side of my head decided it was time for me to wake up. I showered with a slight bit of light coming in from the outer room... I just couldn't turn on the light in the shower/toilet area. My head hurt too much. I took some meds and headed to the lobby for a bit to eat.. and didn't want to wake Karin or Vickie.

Finally, it was time for me to head back to the Denver airport so I headed to the car where I found ash from the fire on it. As I started out on the interstate, there were spots that had ash that looked like snow on the side of the road.

From Denver I flew into Kansas City, MO and then to Milwaukee, WI.  After another two hour drive, I pulled into my garage around 9:30pm.  I think Celeste was a bit miffed that I interrupted her sleep, lol.  I sure was tired come Monday morning when I had to be at work...  Zzzzzzz.

I had a great time at the retreat, and it was nice to meet up with old friends and meet new ones!