Family Walks

Family walks don't happen quite as often as they should, but we do try.

Not far from the house there is a "lateral". Laterals are turn-outs from the main irrigation channels of the Rio Grande. They are opened in the spring to feed water to the little ranchitos that are abundant in our area. They also make very nice little walking paths.

Autumn enjoys the walks, and was fond of this graffiti until it was covered up.

Erica and I enjoy them also, but the pace is definitely a little slower with Autumn.

We'll probably be taking fewer walks for a while since Erica will be expanding for the next few months, and then we will have an additional non-walking family member.

Sometimes Autumn needs to take a break from walking.

Daddy getting older.

Autumn being cute.

A lovely weekend

Happy Monday folks! I am enjoying the postal holiday because although I am working today I did not have to get any packages ready to ship. On one hand I am VERY happy to have orders to ship, but it is sure nice to get a little break!

If you have not entered to win a tee shirt of your choice from my shop, you can enter here:

http://christiecottage.blogspot.com/2010/10/win-it-wednesday-new-giveaway.html

Saturday we woke to an unfamiliar noise. It was the last day of the international balloon fiesta and there were hot air balloons flying right over our house! Autumn was so excited watching them fly right over us!

(autumn with daddy's keys)

my Dad babysat Autumn on Saturday and Adam and I both did something very unusual. Other than packaging and a trip to the post office, We didn't work. We spent the WHOLE day together. It was really fun. I actually felt a little guilty about not working with all of the deadlines I have coming up.

(autumn and adam looking at a lizard the cats brought in)

We biked around town and went to the Rio Grande arts and crafts fair. Part of the reason we went was because we wanted to scope out the scene and see if it would be a good fit for us, and obviously the other reason we went was to see some awesome artisans. I didn't feel like my items fit in there at all, although because my tees are SO different from anything at the fair they may do well, you just never know. The fair seemed geared towards an older crowd. I think Adams knives would be a good fit but I don't know if he really has the inventory for it. we bought some really yummy honey comb and also some homemade pasta, and almost bought a print from one of the artists. Later that evening we went out to dinner with or friends bill and rocketpants.

(a new screen I burned, this is a scan of the drawing on photocopy mode)

Sunday I made up for not working on Saturday by seriously busting ass. I Got 4 more damas dresses from just being cut out to being almost ready for fitting and I plan to contact my former co- worker to tell her she can bring the girls over this weekend. I sure hope there are no major issues with fit! I also got to sewing the wedding dress I am making for my good friend Missl Command as a wedding preasent. It is going to look really awesome, I can tell already. I will share pictures of these projects and talk about them in greater detail later this week. I also got a ton of printing done, and this morning I have been printing like a madwoman.

(one of the "presents" the cats brought in)

It is finally becoming noticeable that it is fall, and the evenings are starting to get very cool like they should in the dessert. I really love fall in New Mexico, the crisp air perfumed by roasting green chili is something that I look forward to every year, but this year I am really excited, because I know pretty soon our cats wont be bringing in lizards, birds, katydids, and mice any more.

We are Happy Campers.

We were going to go camping a few weeks ago, but no one was really prepared so we postponed our trip to this weekend that just past. I for one had a BLAST. Adam Autumn and I took one car and our friend Jon, (Better Known as Rocketpants) and his wonderful



We arrived late on Friday and instead of choosing a campground BEFORE we left we decided to wait until we got to the 3 sites we were interested in.







It seemed like a good enough idea, but no one considered that there would be no cell service when we got out there. Rocketpants was a little over an hour behind us, but we didn't really know if he was still in range so we went down to the little country store and called his cell from a really cool old payphone.


Since we didn't know if Rocketpants got the message we went down to the entrance to the campsite to flag him down. I am not sure if it would have worked, but fortunately he had already gotten our message so he knew which campsite to go to. That night we didn't have any fire wood and we thought about it after the country store was closed. It didn't matter much, we had fun drinking PBR in the dark wearing jackets.


That first night was freezing. It is hard to believe it can go from being so warm to being uncomfortably chilly. I grew up in the dessert so I SHOULD know this, but we didn't have enough blankets that first night. Autumn woke us all up pretty early, we had a yummy breakfast of bacon and eggs and made sure to pick up firewood and extra blankets. That day was spent climbing and hiking, and the evening was spent hanging out by the fire and drinking beer, but not TOO much beer. The people at the campsite next to ours were REALLY loud, but I slept fine anyway, and autumn didn't wake us up at such an early hour on Sunday morning.






On Sunday we packed up and wandered over to Jemez falls, where there is a great swimming hole that we couldnt find, but that was really OK since it was a little cool for swimming. I really wished we were not confined by Autumn and Melvin ( the awesome American bulldog pictured here) because it would have been a really wonderful place to explore.



From there we went to bandalier national monument, which I was super stoked about. Unfortunately when we got there we found out that they do not allow pets so Melvin and rocketpants headed on to Las Alamos and Adam, Autumn and I went into the park.





Bandalier is REALLY awesome. It is a historic sight where you can see some incredible adobe ruins and some native American cliff dwellings. It is in a canyon that still runs along a narrow creek, so while most of it is still typical desert landscape there is a lush green aria as well.



We ended up doing a little more hiking, and in Bandalier you are actually allowed to go in some of the caves, so that was fun.



There is also a very large cave at the top of a 4 ladder pitch. I think it is 140 feet or something. Adam and I took turns going up there because I didn't want to drop Autumn off a cliff. It was pretty cool , and it was not nearly as hard for me to climb up it as it was for me to climb down, but I am starting to feel like I am getting closer to mastering this fear of heights business.





So... How was your weekend?



XOXO

-Erica