Since my sister and my new brother in law picked their wedding date last fall, we have been planning a road trip back to Michigan for the wedding. Both our families live in Michigan, just a half an hour from each other, so when we visit home, we see both families, which is convenient but busy! I was excited to come home during the summer for a family gathering because not only were we able to see all of our family because of the wedding, but we were visiting Michigan during the summertime, which means swimming, kayaking, boat rides and fireworks over the water! It has been a few years since we were back in Michigan during the summer season, as we tend to only go home once per year at Christmas time, and we were both excited for the trip.
The one thing we were not excited for was the drive; it’s 1,190 miles from Golden to Hillsdale, Michigan and we have never done the drive without stopping to sleep during the middle of the night, it usually takes us 20+ hours.  This trip took us 23 long hours, including several stops for road construction through Nebraska and Iowa and traffic in Chicago, we slept in a few rest stops along the way which added several hours to the drive.
It was nice to drive through Iowa, with the green rolling hills and lush river valleys, one of my favorite things about Iowa are the large windmills used for generating power. There are more and more each drive, though not as many compared to Minnesota we found out, on our scenic road trip home from Michigan.

We arrived at Josh’s mother’s house in Hillsdale Michigan at 6:30pm Wednesday night June 30th. The family was very excited to see us, Josh’s oldest brother Phil and his family were also visiting from California. We were able to spend the evening hanging with their family before getting some rest and then heading to my parents in the morning for wedding preparation!

Since quitting back in February, I have been meaning to send out an email to family, family and literally everyone I know, announcing my new business venture.  The idea was brought to my attention in an article I read a while back about starting your own business.  


I wanted to paste that email here and maybe this will help promote Hip-Threads just a little more.  

The spring just flew by and farmers market season is nearly upon us!  Eep!  I am *not* ready!  Despite the countless hours of sewing, beading, cardmaking, etc…I still am not done creating items nor have I bought everything needed to display my items.  (clothing rack, tables, hangers)  This is causing me to stress out just a little bit  I really need a helper, and have asked some friends for assistance; last week I made cards with the girls and next week I am making necklaces with Heather.  
Next week I really need to gather everything together and set up a display, see what I have and need.  Hopefully this will help me feel more organized!  I am also hoping to have a new website published before the farmers market; my friend Jim is making it for me.  I am really grateful for his help, and I really hope it gets done before the market starts.  
However, in all of my stress, I am still a lot happier doing what I love each day rather than going into an office.  I still get a little excited and giddy when Sunday night comes; and I think, “I don’t have to fret about Monday, because I don’t have to go to work tomorrow.” It’s a great feeling.  
This weekend I had been hoping to go camping and get away from all the stress and work for a few days.  Unfortunately, Josh has come down with a really, really nasty cold and it’s not looking promising to leave tomorrow like we had planned.  Maybe we can shoot for Saturday morning.  
Happy Memorial Weekend and Summer Solstice! 

I  have mentioned many times in this blog that I have some incredible girlfriends that I am very grateful for and those ladies come up with great ideas for my business.  They are my “idea fairies.” Often, I will come to our weekly girls night with an idea or a vague thought about something to make and they will run with it, coming up with a brilliant idea for me to create!  This year I have been trying to come up with some new ideas for the farmers market booth, but I wasn’t coming up with anything that I really liked.  


I have been so busy this spring getting ready for the market; sewing skirts, bags, making jewelry and cards and other small items for the booth.  But I still needed something else, something for the home, maybe?  I decided to email my mom and my sister, two other creative ladies in my life, and see what they thought about all I had done to prepare for the market.  Maybe they would have a suggestion or idea, or notice something I had missed?  A few days later I received an email back from my mother; who reminded me of the wall hanging I had made for them, my grandparents and my mother in law for Christmas in 2008.  
Everyone loved the wall hangings and she thought I should make more.  
About a week later, my sister finally emailed back; she made some suggestions, then near the end of the email she says the wall hangings are a good idea; “maybe you should make wall hangings of Colorado landmarks?”  (light bulb goes on over head *right now*!)  Why hadn’t I thought of that?  What a great idea!  Colorado landmarks for the Denver farmers market!   Yes, perfect!  This week, I have excitedly stitched up three wall hangings with the Colorado Continental Divide image on it; which is also the picture on the CO license plate.  Next, I will cut out some with the Denver skyline both looking east and west with the mountains behind it.  The wall hangings don’t take me very long to make, except for one detail that nearly doubles the time on each wall hanging, the binding!  Why isn’t there a better way to bind a quilt, besides hand stitching it, lol?  I hope to have at least 10 of them done before the market; hopefully they will be a big seller because I really enjoy making them!  


Thanks so much to those idea fairies who help me to be creative, I couldn’t do it without you!   

/I was really excited to bring our new netbook on vacation; I wanted to blog from the beach and share my adventures along the way.   Unfortunately, The Hilton Hotel we are staying at charges $15 per day for their internet; so I have been browsing for unsecured wireless all morning, but finally found one that stays connected; thank you hotel next door!
It has been years since I have been to Florida; Josh and I came here back in 2002 to visit my grandparents and go to Disney World and then we moved to Colorado and haven,t been back since.  It’s great to be here again! 
This morning we have been laying around the pool, reading, getting sun, swimming, and blogging…what a life!  It makes me want to move from the mountains to the beach; from hiking boots to a bathing suit.  But I think I would miss my hiking trails too much and I don’t know if you can hike much through the Everglades.   I think its about time to take a walk down the beach now….fun in the sun!

Hip-Threads is finally an official business!  Yippie!  This is a big week for me   Because I am still doing contract work for two facilities, I had decided not to register Hip-Threads this year; but then found out I needed to do so for the farmers market I am participating in this summer.   I reluctantly got all the paperwork around, it was very confusing and even though I could mail it in, Josh had insisted that I bring in in person.  It was a good thing too, we had made some mistakes on the form.  But after just a few hours of running to the state, then city of Denver buildings, I got it all done!  Now I am waiting on my quote for liability insurance (for the market as well), hopefully it won’t be too much money. 

With the farmers market rapidly approaching, and my not knowing for sure what to sell, I have been sewing like mad to make lots of skirts.  I need to spend some time on smaller items and hope to do that this weekend; I will probably spend one whole day working on making handmade greeting cards like these –>.  Check out my etsy shop if you would like to purchase any at a great price! 

And a huge, big, gi-nor-mous, thank you to my friend Jim who designed my new banner, website and business cards!  Perfect for Hip-Threads; handmade for an outdoor lifestyle!  

Ever since moving to Colorado from Michigan, over 7 years ago now, I have marveled at the different plant life that grows here.  I really love cactus roses that bloom in a multitude of colors in the spring and summertime; they are so beautiful and painful at the same time.  I see them while I am hiking quite often and snap photos each time!  Many of the flowers here have some sort of defense mechanism that allows them to survive in the desert climate.  The cactus just lays dormant all winter, and in the spring plumps up and starts growing again.   

My garden here is very different too; I can plant as early as February here and I can almost grow all winter!  The sun is intense and really gets the little seedlings to grow and grow!  But the soil is not as rich and dark; and fertilizing is a necessity.  This year we planted our cold weather veggies a little late in March; I am hoping to harvest them in early summer and then re-plant in August for a second harvest in late 2010. 

One of my favorite flowers that thrive in Colorado are roses.  The house we bought had three rose bushes planted and they bloom each year several times with little work (besides trimming them, which can be painful).  There are lots of flowers that grow here, that also grow in the Midwest like tulips and daisies; but they don’t look the same!  The flowers are not as tall here, but they are very tolerant of cold weather and snow.  I love to see them peek out of the grass to reach for the sun. 

June is the best time to head west into the Rockies to check out the wildflowers in full bloom.  Some of the valleys are covered in brightly colored flowers alongside rushing waterfalls and below huge peaks.  It’s some of the best scenery in the world.  At very high altitudes above 10,000 feet, the flowers bloom even later, making the high altitude hikes even more desirable.   

This summer, more than any other, I have been excited to get out into the big mountains and hike in the valleys full of flowers and trickling waterfalls.   Mostly my excitement comes from quitting my day job to do only freelance work which allows me to hike on a whim at any time.  Josh has a new schedule at work too, which requires him to go into work at 6am, but he gets to leave at 2:30pm.  This means we will have time in the evening to do some hikes before the sun sets over the mountains.   Colorado living has not bored me yet, this is truly a great state to live in.