Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Camano Island Retreat

I have been absent for quite a long time!

I have created numerous blog posts complete with photos. They just have not progressed past my brain!

I got my office all set up in the way I want. I was having issues with my old Sony laptop(way too slow, way too old) so now I have the hand me down Macbook. Greg hooked it up to his old hand me down Dell monitor and it is a perfect setup for me. Really. No excuses for lack of blogging going forward.

I have tons of photos from my visit to see Ruth a year ago as well as photos from Sock Summit 2009. Anyway....

A couple weekends ago I was invited to my friend Arlene's vacation house on Camano Island. I had a wonderful weekend relaxing with friends. These women have been my companions and support system through the Nihon Vogue program. As I look into the future I see these woman being life-long friends. Believe it or not, I do not have a photo of Joni. Joni took most of these photos which explains why she is absent! I won't make that same mistake again! I will be more diligent about taking photos. Maybe.

Arlene, Joni and Whimsey came by to pick me up on the way up to Camano. You have 3 women, a dog and their gear for 2.5 days. What size vehicle do you think we would need? Obviously an SUV was just big enough to fit all our stuff. The smallest bags crammed into the car were the ones for our clothes. The rest was food, knitting and spinning gear. We know what our priorities are!



Our creative goal for the weekend was to learn how to do some right angle weave beading. Joni was a wonderful instructor! This is not your average beginner project! I think we needed a break from design, design, design, knitting, knitting, knitting. We were all pretty burned out after the completion of year two of Nihon Vogue. So we learned to do something different!

Arlene has an idyllic atmosphere to learn this technique!



As we were progressing in our creations we were a bit unsure of the bead colors we had purchased for our bracelets. Thankfully Joni has a nice stash selection that we all looked through to see if we wanted something different than the beads we had originally purchased. Here Arlene and Melinda are looking through some of Joni's stash.



Candace is hard at work. We all know what a hard worker she is!



These are what we made! Another hobby in the works!



In the process, I was flipping Joni off for some reason. Can you believe that? Me?



We ate such great food! I need to be around these ladies more often! So healthy!





I had a great time! Walking along the beach was heavenly!



Although we were heads down beading, spinning and knitting when we looked up this is the view we saw during the day and night. Perfection.





Thank you Arlene for a wonderful weekend!

4 comments:

Elise H said...

Naomi: So glad to see you back to posting!! Hope that all is well. You certainly look relaxed and happy!!
Elise

PICAdrienne said...

You have remodeled, I like it.

Glad to read your blog again.

Arctic Knitter said...

Your bracelets are fantastic! We've just returned from Road Trip 2010 to cloudy & wet AK. The sunny skies of the PNW were wonderful - thanks for sharing!

Joni said...

I distinctly recall that you were flipping me off because you were annoyed I was teaching you something new and for a very, very, very, short period time you were just slightly out of your comfort zone. Your bracelet turned out gorgeous! hugs - J