knitters coffee swap

I'm running my first contest for the Knitter's Coffee Swap. I have a name in mind for the tvyarn above and whoever guesses the name (and reason for the name) will win the contest. Should be fun; I expect several correct entries so we'll have to pick a name out of a hat to decide.

knitting in the dark

My purple swap package arrived.. from Sonya. She really got into the purple theme! I loved it all - take a look at the purple knitting needles that glow in the dark for all the times that I really need to knit in the dark! And she knitted an adorable coin purse too.
THANK YOU, SONYA

Golfing to support Breast Cancer research

This week I took a day off work to support a great cause - to support research for a cure for breast cancer. My husband and I played as a foursome with some dear friends. None of us are particularly good golfers since we don't have time to play often. Luckily for each shot we only had to use one shot of our four shots! So we'd have 3 balls in the woods and one in the fairway. Then 3 balls in the lake and 1 on the green! We ended up playing very well and everyone contributed. A wonderful day.

Knitters Coffee Swap

Sunne sent me a great coffee swap package! There were 4 skeins of a yummy cotton/cashmere Noro yarn, some of her coffee-themed stitchmarkers from her etsy store, fresh roasted coffee beans, chocolate cookies, a an awesome "protector" dog-angel charm for my dog Scout! thanks Sunne!

7 things

Sonya tagged me with 7 Things
List 7 random things about yourself.
Tag 7 others.
Leave a comment on their blog to direct them to your site to get the rules.

1. I am purebred Dutch even though I am 3rd generation to live in the U.S. My maiden name is De Vries and my married name is Van Wyk. And my son will be the 4th generation "purebred", rather unusual.

2. I skipped kindergarten and went straight into first grade, so I was always the youngest in my class by almost a year.

3. My husband and I lived in Germany for a year.

4. I hate answering or talking on the phone.

5. My husband does all the grocery shopping and cooking for our family.

6. I put myself through college and grad school by cleaning homes and waitressing. It was hard.

7. As I was growing up, during the school year we lived in Michigan, and during the summers we lived in Washington, which I loved. My Dad was a school teacher. We always drove between the two states and camped. With three kids, how did my Mom ever manage that?

My "Mary's Garden" crazy quilt is on tour

In the spring of 2006 my art quilt "Mary's Garden" was juried into the ARTQUILTimages show sponsored by Profession Art Quilt Alliance-South. This show has been traveling ever since - after visiting 5venues in 5 states the final show is at CK Media Gallery in Golden, Colorado. My crazy quilt "Mary's Garden" is featured on their website.
This quilt is dedicated to Mary Dozeman, my maternal grandmother, and features several photographs of her, my mother June De Vries, and one photo with the three of us - taken in Montana in 1960. I transfered the photos to fabric and then used the fabric in the crazy quilt motif.

flash your stash

Here's part of my yarn stash in my big, old, white stoneware bowl - flashing this stash for the secret pal 10 contest!

Artists' Retreat in New Mexico

Last week I was in southern New Mexico at a week long painting retreat. The workshop, led by Kim English, focused on painting figures in the landscape and we worked primarily outside - en plein air.

It was very challenging and since it was my first opportunity to paint figures... I don't think you'll see any of my workshop paintings displayed here!

I do know, though, that in the future I will definitely be confident enough to add figures to my paintings. Small ones.

The photo is of my good painting friends and I. We meet only once a year or less but drop right back into our good friendships whenever we are together. We talk about our art work for HOURS on end! I'm the one on the far left.

look at what my friend knitted!

Look at the amazing sock that my friend Cheryl knitted! Isn't it amazing? She is SO talented. She knitted this sock out of my hand painted yarn in the colorway named "Sex and the City". I have been so busy dyeing yarn and updating my etsy shop that I have not had time for any knitting lately. Hopefully that will change in a few weeks.

The pattern is Metropolis from Wildhorse Farm Designs.

Thank you, Cheryl!