I’ve discovered it is going to take more than the Beastie Blogging Intervention that I posted on 04/13/19. Tierney has still not returned to blogging during her move to Colorado. So I have to intervene again and update you all. (By the way, Tierney did find my shoe before we left Central Oregon).

We are currently in phase one of our move to Colorado. All of Tierney’s stuff is packed up and traveling via moving truck, with her car in tow, to her new home in the Denver metro area. Her awesome longtime friend Jason is driving her stuff and also letting Mike her Miniature Schnauzer serve as co-pilot and ride with him! We decided that my dog Mikelet would travel with Tierney and me and not ride with Mike and Jason (he is small and could get lost somewhere in the moving van).

Now Tierney, Mikelet and I are headed to Seattle, WA for her first solo show opening (see post Solo Show Seattle Municipal Tower, Part II).

Currently we are hanging out at the airport on our way to Seattle and I discovered that the airport as a LIBRARY! It is called a…wait for it…FLYBRARY!

Is that not completely adorable (not as adorable as I am but still adorable!). Tierney’s beloved library, Deschutes Public Library, set up a couple stations in the airport for free book exchange. You can pick up a book for your flight or donate a book for someone else’s flight at the Flybrary!

Of course I had to browse some of the books and see if there was anything that Tierney and I needed for our flight.

We did not find anything for us to read so I’ve gone back to waiting in my seat for the plane ride to Seattle.

Still hoping Tierney will start blogging again, but for now I will have to fill in.

After the Seattle show, Tierney, Mikelet and I will fly to Denver to begin our new life and reunite with big Mike (well compared to my Mikelet, Mike is pretty big).

2018-06-23_11-47-12_575 — Photo from June 2018 of Mikelet and Mike riding in the car together

Postscript

Oh Tierney’s friend Jason sent photos this morning from the road trip with Mike in the moving van and he is having a good time so far napping or looking out the window.

Never Stop to Think…Do I Have A Place for This?

March 31, 2019June 22, 2022 tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

So I told myself I would not allow myself to post again until I caught up on all the blogs I follow. Alas, I have not made a dent in catching up on my blogging buddies’ posts, but what the heck, I am going to sneak in a quick post 🙂

This is a follow up to my post 03/17/19 post Library MEGA Stack!. One of the books in the stack was Mary Randolph Carter’s book Never Stop to Think…Do I Have A Place for This? I might have to buy this book someday as I so enjoyed it and it was the perfect book to give me peace right now.

61UXoWpPSEL._SX376_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg — Image credit: Amazon

Those of you following my blog for a while know that I’ve dabbled in Minimalism (see series of posts My Minimalism Journey). I’ve been successful in downsizing over the years and Marie Kondo’s (author of The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing) quote has gotten me through the letting go of my husband’s stuff after he passed in December 2018):

The space in which we live should be for the person we are becoming now, not for the person we were in the past. – Marie Kondo

I’ve been working on packing for my move to Colorado (see series of posts Colorado Bound) and I would not recommend packing as a hobby. Here is an example of the current nightmare:

I’ve been struggling with the amount of crafting supplies I am bringing with me to Colorado. However after reading Mary Randolph Carter’s book I am more peaceful and accepting of my stuff. She had a wonderful chapter on Guilt and discusses her own investigation and readings into minimalism in a very thoughtful way.

Even Marie Kondo states you should have in your life only those things that ‘spark joy’ and my craft supplies bring me a lot of joy (as does my ridiculous collection of crafting related books).

So I decided to “Never Stop to Think…Do I Have A Place for This?” when it comes to the craft supplies I love!

Mary Randolph Carter also has another wonderful book – A Perfectly Kept House is the Sign of a Misspent Life.

In my spousal loss grief support group, the facilitator emphasized that the person you were (your core will stay the same) before the loss of your spouse will likely change. Such a major life loss permanently changes you in some way. I definitely see myself lightening up on rules I’ve tried to live by in the past.

I doubt I will become someone featured in the television show “Hoarders” in the future but I am not going to hesitate (as long there is no harm to others) to do what makes me happy and not really care what others think!

Postscript

As I mentioned in a previous post, I did decided to rent a 2 bedroom apartment in Colorado, instead of the 1 bedroom I had originally planned. I am very excited about my nearly 1200 square feet (111.5 square meters) apartment and I’ve already begun decorating it in my mind!

In a future post I will share my new plan for fabric scraps organization at my new place. And of course I have a zillion other things to blog about 🙂

Okay now back to trying to catch up on my blogging buddies posts!

Colorado Bound, Life in B&W

Colorado Bound (Part III) – Colorado in B&W

March 27, 2019March 27, 2019 tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

Here is my next installment in my new series of posts “Colorado Bound” which began with this post: Colorado Bound (Part I). It is also a continuation of my series Life in B&W in which I pretend that I am a real photographer expanding my portfolio of Black & White Photos taken with my iPhone camera (isn’t that what real photographers use?!?!?).

I recently returned from a 5 day trip to the Denver Colorado area to visit friends and to tour apartments to live in. We toured 10 apartment complexes between Boulder and Denver and I settled on a place in a suburb of Denver, in the Denver Greater Metropolitan area (this is the web and you never know who is reading so that is as many details as I will provide in this public forum).

I did end up getting a 2 bedroom apartment which even has a separate nook with a built in desk for telecommuting! I was originally going to be very minimalist and thrifty but decided that if I am going to work from home I need space. Additionally it will be nice for visitors and to have a decent space for crafting.

I decided to rent in a “boutique apartment complex” type of place for a year which has included a fitness center, a pool, community activities, and other wonderful amenities. It will be sort of like living in a hotel for a year!

In addition to touring apartments (my friend was incredible driving me around on the first day to tour 5 apartments and loaning me her car the next day when she had to work to let me tour on my own), we went on a wonderful tour of Stranahan’s Colorado Whiskey Distillery as well as attended an incredible concert by the Boulder, CO based acapella group Face Vocal Band.

I will feature some photos from Stranahan’s Colorado Whiskey Distillery tour in another post.

Oh and if you enjoyed the video by Face Vocal Band above performing a traditional song, here they are again performing a contemporary popular music hit. Note all the percussion sounds are done by voices of the performers, no instruments!

I so appreciate my friends Michele and her husband Blair introducing me to this fun band!

Okay so let’s get to the Black & White photos I threatened to share in the title of this post (smile).

Colorado in Black & White

Michele, Blair and I went for a lovely hike on the Sunday before I returned home. Here are some photos from that walk:

Postscript

I thought I would start with my recent trip to Colorado as it is fresh on my mind, but I have a backlog of other stories and posts to come 🙂

Colorado Bound

Colorado Bound (Part II)

January 30, 2019January 31, 2019 tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

Here is my next installment in my new series of posts “Colorado Bound” which began with this post: Colorado Bound (Part I).

As revealed in my January 22 post I’ve decided to begin my new life in Northern Colorado this Spring.

In this post I thought I’d share a couple more details.

When I was considering the move to Colorado and not sure if it was the right thing or not, the Universe gave me a sign, and this ad was the first thing I saw when I opened a magazine to read while I was still deciding:

My Heart is In the Mountains

First, I want to share a series of photos that my friend Cody G. shared with me from one of his trips to Colorado (especially the Boulder, Colorado area) that show the mountainous beauty of the region:

I am am drawn to living in places where I can be among mountains. One of the favorite things about living in the Pacific NW and Central Oregon during the past 21+ years of my life is that I got to live in the Cascade Mountain range.

Now I am moving to another amazing mountain range: the Rocky Mountains (Southern Rockies).

The Road Trip

In another post I will share some of the logistics of my move from Central Oregon to Northern Colorado but these are not as exciting as the upcoming ROAD TRIP from Central Oregon to Colorado!

My sister is going to join me on the road trip!

During our road trip across four states in the Northeastern U.S. after my husband died in December (see posts Stories from the Road, Part I and Stories from the Road, Part II) my sister and I discussed that someday we would like to go on a road trip together for a happy and fun reason, not for a sad reason.

So I was very excited to invite her to drive with Mike the Miniature Schnauzer and me to our new Colorado adventure. She is going to meet up with us on our first leg of the journey – in Boise, Idaho.

She will fly into Boise and we will wander around Boise, staying overnight and then head out of our adventure through the states of Idaho, Wyoming, Utah and into Colorado.

We are discussing a detour along the way to Yellowstone National Park!

Old Faithful – Photo by Emily Campbell on Unsplash

We will of course have the tierneycreates Beastie with us (see series of posts Beastie Adventures) and she will be blogging from the road as we explore a couple states I’ve never driven through before!

Here is tierneycreates Beastie and her dog Mikelet, getting ready to study the road maps for the trip (but I hope she is not too much of a “backseat driver”):

I love GPS and the concept of having easy navigation from your smartphone but I still want to have on hand good old fashioned ROAD MAPS!

Postscript

I need to take a break from daydreaming about my move to Colorado and start working on an art quilt for an invitational juried show, a really cool one, which I hope I get accepted into…but first I need to complete my piece!

Oh and I haven’t forgotten about the series of posts I started in early December – Secret Quilt Revealed, Part I, I will continue with the rest of the story about the creation of my piece for the WCQN show: Yours For Race and Country: Reflections on the Life of Colonel Charles Young.

One more thing – I went to lunch with my neighbor Carole today (the one whose lovely “girl cave” I featured in the October 2018 post A Room of Her Own) and came across this sign that made me smile at one of the shops we stopped in after lunch:

Feature Photo Image Credit: Cody Gillenwater

Colorado Bound

Colorado Bound (Part I)

January 22, 2019June 22, 2022 tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

I’ve decided to relocate – to Northern Colorado. Either the Denver Greater Metropolitan area or to Boulder, Colorado:

Why Colorado? Well here is a list that summarizes the reasons for my decision:

I need to move to a major airport hub to put me closer to visiting my family and to make world traveling (should I choose to do that) more accessible.
I have a longtime friend that lives in the Denver area.
I have visited Colorado many times and love it.
I need a new adventure.
I hear they have a great quilting community
The climate (high desert, high elevation) is similar to Central Oregon.
It feels right.
I want to live in a large metropolitan/urban area with more cultural opportunities.
I love the mountains and always want to live near mountains.
Look how beautiful this place is (The Flatirons near Boulder, CO):