Tuesday, September 25, 2012

I DID IT !!

I survived! I hiked the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu and made it over "Dead Woman's Pass"!!

We arrived home on the weekend, of course our luggage arrived a few days later, and now I have come down with a cold, but we are home from our Peru adventure. It was AMAZING!!

Peru is a interesting and colourful country. We were lucky enough to be in Cuzco during a parade..not quite sure what it was for, apparently some religious celebration. The costumes were spectacular..


Many people still dress in the traditional costumes.. in the markets and cities they want to be paid for getting their picture taken. That is how they make a living! (wonder if that would work for me??)

But in the smaller villages you still see a lot of traditional dress on everyday people.

There are markets everywhere and of course everybody claims that their products are "real baby Llama wool" and "handmade"!! Even though you see pretty much exactly the same things everywhere. There were some very interesting stuff though.

There is so much Inca history here. They seem to have been a remarkable culture with extremely advanced stone building skills. To this day, engineers are not sure how they cut the huge stones so precisely or moved them so far.

This is our group at Km. 82, which is the start of the Inca Trail.

 It is a 4 day, 3 night (tenting) trek through the Andes Mountains! The views were beautiful and the hiking was challenging!!

The highest point was Dead Woman's Pass at almost 14,000 ft elevation. It actually rained and snowed as we reached the summit, which kind of took some of the fun out of this achievement as we didn't really stop to celebrate the moment. This is me reaching camp after coming down from the pass..wet and cold...but thrilled!!

There were several archaeological sites along the way, and our guides were very knowledgeable and explained a lot about what we were seeing.

On the fourth morning we were up at 3 AM to hike 2 hours to the Sun Gate and watch the sun rise on Machu Picchu!! The first views were breathtaking!

We did spend a few hours touring around the site, but after the solitude of the hike,  the 3000 people crowding around Machu Picchu was very tiring!

It was an amazing, once in a life time trip, we had a wonderful time and saw so much! But it is always good to home again too.

Friday, September 7, 2012

my great birthday adventure

Today is my birthday!  (although I am not sure there are enough candles on this cake !!!LOL)
And by the time you are reading this I will be sound asleep on an air plane heading to Peru!! We take off at 5:30 AM!!

We are going to hike the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu!! (these are not my pictures, they are from travel company sites...I will take my camera and share my pictures when I return!)

Machu Picchu

Inca Trail

It is a 3 day hike. There are porters to carry the tents, and most other stuff, and they cook all the meals as well. On the fourth day we will arrive at the Sun Gate, and watch the sun rise over Machu Picchu!!  It will be the trip of a lifetime, I think...unless I fall off the Inca Trail.!!

We are also spending 3 days on a tour of the Amazon Jungle after that! (if I dont fall off the Inca Trail!!)


So I will be out of contact for the next 2 weeks!! And will report in with lots of pictures when I return....if I don't fall of the Inca Trail ..LOL !!

Wednesday, September 5, 2012

WIP

Time to check in again with TN&TN

and Lee's WIP Wed..over at Freshly Pieced
 I have finished the Salt Air top...I really love the colours in this one...

...more pictures after it is quilted.  And how fun is this fabric I got for the binding (from the Salt Air line)....ready made scrappy !! Love it!

I have it basted now, and I used wool batting this time..

I had never tried wool before. It is completely washable, and actually lighter than cotton batting..and warmer! Also it is just a dream to work with!! I was so surprised. It doesn't crease like the cotton batting and was just so soft and smooth. I haven't started quilting yet, so will find out if it is a dream to quilt, or not, later!!

I also fell in love with a little quilt over at Happy Quilting!  Melissa has such a great blog..such amazing  work ..and yes she always seems so happy and upbeat too!! It was one of the first blogs I started following, and still one of my favourites!

This is the little quilt (with her permission)...She has a great tutorial for making it.
refracted quilt tutorial by Happy Quilting

She calls this quilt "Refracted" because it reminded her of light being refracted.

I am thinking mine would more aptly be call "Fractured" !!...but anyway. .....
I am using some leftover purples...

I had some trouble with the overlapping bits...not Melissa's fault at all..and in fact it worked much better after I read the instructions more carefully!!  Also this is very forgiving, as you trim the blocks down to size, so all is good now!! (sorry, the colours aren't true..I took pictures in a hurry)


I did get better at these blocks though, and they are such fun to make. I am planning to use black sashing, but it is still a work in progress!!

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Reunion "Hangover"

I just got home from my Physio Class reunion....it has been 40 years since we graduated !!! Yikes! how did we get that old???  Anyway, we get together every 5 years..and this year was a blast!

We went to Moose Jaw, a small city here in Saskatchewan. A claim to fame there is that Al Capone set up shop during prohibition to bootleg liquor into the USA. So there are tours of the underground tunnels and actors playing the parts of different characters...they were great!


So in keeping with the theme...we had a Roaring 20's "Murder Mystery"... everyone had the most amazing costumes...and we all had so much fun...
(I am on the far left, black dress, red beads...lots of make-up.. LOL)


I don't remember the last time I laughed so much..and stayed up late every night talking and drinking wine!! I am exhausted....but it was such a great weekend!  Can't wait another 5 years to get together again!!

Monday, September 3, 2012

Milestone Winner !

I am celebrating the milestone of passing the 200 follower mark! So for all you followers who entered my little contest...thank you! You make this so much fun.

The prize is....this handy Hera Marker.


My trusty Random name picker   (my DH !)  has drawn the name..

    Heather A: ..who said:
          I've really wanted one of those hera markers to try. I'm new to quilting so all the tools are rather new to me. My newly discovered favourites as of this week while I've been trimming hst's has been my rotating cutting mat and a ruler with several grid lines embedded in it that makes it easy to trim two sides at once ... accurately. You just run your rotary cutter through the slots. So much easier than using the small square ruler that I started with before remembering I'd picked up the hst tool thingie once upon a time and had never used it. 

And yes, I'm a follower.


Congratulations Heather !!
I will send you an email as well, to get your mailing address.

And again..thanks to everyone who entered !


Saturday, September 1, 2012

I love summer!

I love summer!...I don't love cold and snow!

Why do I live in Saskatchewan you might ask?  Well, I might ask myself the same question every winter!

But for now I am enjoying the beautiful weather we are having...and spending time out in my backyard.

The flowers are finishing now, so not as much colour out there. ....but at least there is snow....yet! :)
Have a great long weekend!