Where have you been?

When your vacation to Orlando starts with 12" of rain over three days some people might throw in the towel, pack up and head back home.  This is Andy on our first day there.  He ran out and got two umbrellas and rain ponchos for close to million  US dollars at one of the Universal gift shops.  The poncho's didn't work super well so that night we headed off to Bass Pro and picked up some real waterproof jackets and pants. 

The sun came out the next afternoon, but we stayed dry that morning and during Halloween Horror Nights which was totally awesome.  If you have never been and enjoy being scared out of your mind this is the place to go!  One of the haunted houses was of a winter graveyard complete with a snow machine that sprinkled snow down on us as we went through it.  No pictures of anything there sadly, but lot's of great memories.

JAWS!

Im really glad we don't fish for anything this big!

My most favorite part of our trip was feeding the baby roo's at Busch Gardens Tampa.  I spent an hour in with them and Andy went back to the front to get more food.  Notice the large puddles in the background.  Did I mention that it rained so hard that the waterparks were closed?  Why close waterparks in the rain?  Don't you get wet there anyway?  Ok onto something more fun!

Andy and I got to meet this lovely Owl and her trainer who let us pat her.  She's been in captivity since she was an owlet because of an injured wing. She seemed quite happy and was interested in everything going on.

A dolphin at Sea World.  We went there on one of the wet day's figuring that dolphins, whales and sharks are already wet.

Happy Hour in Jurassic Park.  It starts at 3:00 and we were there almost every day.  Our favorite bar tender who is originally from Wales was there.  We met him last year and it was nice to see him again.

CityWalk which is at the entrance to Universal and Islands of Adventure

We had some fantastic food there at The Latin Quarter.  We tried several restaurants: Bubba Gump, Emril's, and a few in the parks but liked The Latin Quarter the best and went back three times.  That says a lot since we are both particular about food!

Montpelier!

Hay, what did you do this weekend?

Andy and I went to the Montpelier Fall Fiber Festival in Montpelier Station, VA.  It's a lovely drive through rolling hills and countryside that we enjoy.  The leaves are just starting to turn here so there was a bit of color here and there.

Montpelier is by far our favorite festival.  It's really low key and everyone is laid back and happy.  You can find fibers and yarns that are hard to come by and lot's of unique ones as well. 

I entered my Holden Shawl in the Handspun Hand Knits Wearable division and it received second place.  This was really exciting and quite an honor.  One of the ladies working at the fiber arts display said that there were twice as many entries as there had been in past years. 

This is Judith modeling her hand dyed shawl.  Can you guess what she used for dye?  I never would have figured it out.  She went to a workshop where she learned how to dye with mushrooms.  Every color in this stunning shawl came from a mushroom.  I have to tell you that this was a hot topic in the car on the way home!

What would a fiber festival be without sheep?  This little gal is one of Heidi Passino's Shetland Sheep.  If we had land for animals we would have several sheep from Heidi.

This is a needle felted wall hanging that was entered in the fiber art's competition.  I love how the artist incorporated locks on the body of the sheep.

A wrap with hand spun angora yarn and emu feathers

The picture of this rug hooking doesn't do it justice, it was just fantastic in person!

This is a 6' tall hand felted wall hanging.  It was outside of one of the vendors tents.

Andy spotted this lovely arrangement in the fiber arts tent.  We have a little wheel like this and I think it would be great to use for a floral arrangement.