the carrizo



we're off!

for four days of camping

to california's carrizo plain.

i've written about it here and here and here

(it's a favorite place!)

on one of the days we'll be at the goodwin education center

selling photo cards and images we've made of the carrizo.

in february when we were there, the visitor's center bought some of my cards

and in march they called and invited us back to celebrate the ten year

anniversary of the carrizo plain being named a national monument.

if you are in the area please stop by and say hi

we'll be at the goodwin education center on saturday

from ten till four.

  

mountain bluebirds, owl's clover, phacelia, fiddleneck, coreopsis, tidy tips
meadows and fields and lakes and hills
and quiet enough to hear a butterfly's wings
oh how i love this place.

i made cards with some of these photos for my shop also
you can find them here
thank you so much for the interest you show
and the kindness and comments too
it all means the world to me.

have a safe and wonderful rest of the week and weekend too
see you in a few days.

xo lori
p.s.  before i forget again, the book i mentioned a few posts back is on it's way to germany, to angela.

ruby



my friends baby turned two today
ruby is very much a girly girl and loves to dress up
so i made her a skirt and bag to match.

it was so much fun
i forgot how much i love to sew for babies
and now i want to make a hundred more!

happy birthday dear ruby.
xxx

new loves

meet olive

a small package was sitting on my doorstep yesterday. inside was wee olive. her passage to california paid by a mysterious benefactor. olive loves adventure and is afraid of spiders. i love her. we are already bff's.
visit yoborobo for more softie goodness.  

*happy* 

finishing my simple noro shawl

made me a little sad

this is the kind of meditative knit

that is nice to have on the needles.

no thinking or counting or where was i?

just peaceful, soothing,

needles moving in harmony with wool, again, again...

but wanting to wear it got the better of me

and so it's done

first i asked my husband to take some photos

and then i wore it out to breakfast

with my friends.

.: simple yet effective shawl :.

raverly link here

modification, for my knitter friends, i used noro silk garden ( a worsted weight)

 instead of noro kureyon sock, and size six needles. it seemed to work. i totally lost count how many skeins it took. buying only a couple at a time made it more affordable. i am guessing twelve or thirteen.

gulp. it's good i really love it.

xoxo lori

p.s. thank you cheryl for the crush cakes photos and thank you kj for olive  :)

when a lake feels like an ocean

recently my hours at work were reduced to half leaving me with lots more free time (crossing fingers here things return to normal soon, so it won't turn into worry time!)  monday morning, i went with my husband to work, to glimmering cachuma lake, set amidst acres of wilderness flanked by the picturesque santa ynez and san rafael mountains.

his assignment, was to map distances and length of time, on the lake, in a kayak. this information is needed because effective friday april 15th, kayaking and canoeing will now be allowed at cachuma lake since the bradbury dam was built in 1953.

we paddled for four hours, stopping to bird watch, and to take photos. i understand why entire articles have been written on how to do this from a kayak. it's definitely a technique that takes practice. i am lucky to still have my camera and lenses.

paddling back, the wind picked up and i learned exactly how a lake can feel like an ocean. here are some photos of our day, and of the lake still behaving like a lake...

 

we were the first people to kayak on this lake! well, actually the first and third, chuck had been out once before with another person. so i was the third. i don't think i've ever been first at something (or first three anyway). if your planning on going, the new kayaking rules and regulations are here.

afterwards, we looked all around for the acorn woodpecker. finding not only one, but many. it was a woodpecker party at the lake. hee hee. and another successful day at the office.

for more on cachuma lake go here and to see what we're planning on booking soon go here (so excited!)

xoxo lori