Category: tierneytravels

tierneytravels

Oregon Coast in October 2024

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

This post is a follow up to yesterday’s post 2024 Travels. When writing yesterday’s post looking back on my big travel events in 2024 I realized I left off a significant trip, an Oregon Coast road trip with our friends MJ and J.

This trip was significant because it was the first time I was able to return to Cannon Beach, Oregon, where my late husband and our dogs would visit yearly for vacation.

First John and I flew into Portland, Oregon and visited his son who lives there. It was awesome to see the quilt I gave my stepson on the sofa in his apartment, apparently being used and enjoyed 🙂

After a day and a half in Portland we drove our rental car to Cannon Beach on the Oregon Coast.

It was awesome and emotionally overwhelming to return to Cannon Beach. With John’s support I was able to visit many of the favorite places that my late husband Terry and I used to always visit including Center Diamond Fabric (the wonderful little quilt shop); the little cafe across from Center Diamond Fabric; the awesome bookstore the Cannon Beach Book Company (with a sofa!); and the Screw & Brew – a hardware store turned into a brew pup!

Although it was a bit of am overcast day, we also walked over to the beach so John could see Haystack Rock:

It was quite the emotional experience to return. Here is what I share on the Instagram post I did back in October 2024 on this return to Cannon Beach:

(I returned to) Cannon Beach for the first time in six years since my life changed forever in 2018. It was hard to be there, but it was good and healing. I got to return to my favorite quilt shop on the Oregon coast and have delicious hot chocolate in one of the cozy cafés of Cannon Beach. The library had a book sale AND we stopped at the bookstore! (Public library + independent bookstore in the same day = Bliss) 

After our jaunt to Cannon Beach, we drove to Pacific City, Oregon to meet up with our friends MJ and J who we rented a home near the beach with for a couple days. After we got checked into our rental house we all walked to the beach to enjoy an amazing sunset:

From Pacific City we went on various days trips, roadtripping along the Oregon Coast for a couple days and returning to our home based in Pacific City. We went on some wonderful hikes, checked out various areas of the coastline, had lots of delicious seafood (Colorado is landlocked so whenever we are near the ocean we eat as much fresh seafood as we can!), and spent one morning doing some beach clean up and returning a jellyfish to the sea.

It was a memorable trip and I think it was healing to return to Cannon Beach. In the spring this year I am going to do something big (and hopefully healing) and return to Central Oregon/Bend, Oregon for the first time in 6 years. Until now I’ve been emotionally unable to return to the place I lived for 14 years and where I left a piece of my heart (and maybe my soul) when I moved away in 2019 after my husband suddenly passed at my home there in 2018.

But as I’ve mentioned to my other widow friends (both online and in person): “Remember: We can do brave things, and we are stronger than we realize!”

tierneytravels

2024 Travels

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

Here’s a summary of my travel adventures in 2024. I’ve included the link to the blog post about our adventure if you’d like to read/re-read about that specific adventure.

January 2024

Las Vegas, Nevada

Guest Blog Post: Humans Traveling and Dog Camp

February 2024

Englewood, Florida

Sisters’ Trip to Englewood, Florida

April 2024

Hollywood, Florida & Miami, Florida

April Adventures in Hollywood and Miami, Florida

May 2024

Brooklyn, New York

Springtime in Brooklyn

June 2024

Colorado and New Mexico Roadtrip

Channeling my inner Ansel Adams in Taos, New Mexico, Taos Adobe Quilting 

July 2024

Cripple Creek, Colorado

Cripple Creek Road Trip, Part I, Cripple Creek Road Trip, Part II

Philadelphia, PA Area and New York City

July 2024 East Coast Adventures

August 2024

Breckenridge, Colorado/Continental Divide

Breckenridge and the Continental Divide

September 2024

California Coast Road Trip

California Coast Adventure, Part I, California Coast Adventure, Part II, California Coast Adventure, Part III

Richmond, Virginia

Simultaneous Adventures: Richmond, Virginia and Louisville, Kentucky

November 2024

Carolinas Roadtrip (Greenville, SC and Charlotte, NC)

Men Hypnotized by a Computerized Longarm…, Visit to the Upcountry Museum in Greenville, SC, I Fell for Greensville!

December 2024

Miami, Florida

Christmas in Miami

Those are the major trips in 2024 and we did do a lot of day trips to explore our loca region and beyond in Colorado like this one:

RiNo District

Playing Tourist in My Town: Wandering Around the RiNo District

I noticed there are some day trips I posted on my @tierneycreates Instagram account but never blogged about (I just discovered this when I went searching for these imaginary posts I thought I wrote on my blog!)

It was a pretty fun year of travel!

Postscript

John just read this post and reminded me I left off a major trip we had in October 2024 – to Portland, Oregon to visit his son and an Oregon Coast road trip! It was momentous trip and I think I will do a post on that trip for tomorrow’s post 🙂

A Crafter's Life, Special Events, tierneytravels

Christmas in Miami

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

We spent the week of Christmas (12/22 – 12/27/24) in Miami, Florida with my family. One of my stepsons joined us along with my siblings, their kids and my sister-in-law. We came from Oregon, Virginia, Delaware and Denver to meet up for Christmas week!

Here is John on his way to get our rental car in the Miami airport with the artificial Christmas tree we brought along on his back!

John and I rented a couple loft condos in a converted former industrial building so the 8 of us would have plenty of space; and made our condo the main Christmas area with the tree, stockings and meals served there. I put on a fireplace video with Christmas music from YouTube and hung the stockings on the entertainment center for ambiance – ha!

Here’s what our condo looked like with a view of Miami’s skyline:

John made several wonderful meals and it was so good to sit down with the family from all over the country and share his yummy cooking:

I spent an evening on Espanola Way in South Beach with my siblings and their kids wandering around and it was magical!

John got to go on several rented bike rides along South Beach with his son Z who is an avid cyclist in Portland, Oregon (they didn’t appear to take any photos).

Miami was beautiful and decorated for the holidays:

I got to spend a morning wandering around downtown Miami with my sister and visiting the really lovely Brickell City Centre shopping area.

We stopped for some amazing pastries at the Rosetta Bakery.

Our family was so sweet and the day after Christmas they threw a surprise party in the afternoon for John and I at the other condo to celebrate our love and our commitment to family. They decorated the table with my favorite – sunflowers!

My brother, sister and stepson all made amazing speeches and John and I got pretty choked up! It was a very special afternoon.

On our last day in Miami, before heading to the airport, a couple of us went to Coral Gables and spent time in a delightful independent bookstore – Books & Books. It has a cafe, a bar, and endless rooms of books! I didn’t want to leave but eventually we had to head to the airport – ha!

I loved the cozy looking windows looking out to the outside dining at the bookstore.

The week flew by fast and we didn’t get to do all the things we planned (like go to the beach!) but it was a very special Christmas!

Hope your holidays were wonderful, I’ll be catching up on my blogging buddies’ posts I’ve missed in the near future 🙂

Independent bookstores, tierneytravels

I Fell for Greensville!

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

Here is the last installment on the series of posts I’ve shared about our trip to the Carolinas (Charlotte, NC and Greenville, SC) earlier this month. You can check out the previous posts Men Hypnotized by a Computerized Longarm…  and Visit to the Upcountry Museum in Greenville, SC for background on this trip and some of our other adventures while in the Carolinas.

In this post I’ll share some photos and experiences from the  Fall for Greenville Fall Festival that we attended during our 2 day trip to Greenville, SC. The “Fall for Greenville” Festival as is known by the locals as the “Fall Down” festival as it is 3-day weekend (Friday to Sunday) of wine tasting, craft beer tasting, “bite of Greenville” food festival, and in general one huge downtown Greenville outdoor party!

According to the Visit Greenville website:

This family-friendly three-day smorgasbord of food and entertainment showcases 50+ local restaurants serving some 250-plus dishes with more than 50 beers on tap, wine vendors, and over 80 musical acts on six stages—it is an absolute must-do for food and music lovers alike. Sample wines, and learn about local beers. Sample wines, and learn about local beers. Top-name acts shine a spotlight on Greenville’s robust music scene with free entertainment on stages along downtown Greenville’s charming Main Street. Consider yourself invited to the Southeast’s most popular outdoor street festival

We spent two days at the festival and wandering around downtown Greenvile and here are some highlights.

Awesome Bookstore

During our first day at the festival we had a nice wander around M. Judson Booksellers, an amazing independent bookstore in downtown Greenville inside a historic courthouse building.

The coffee shop inside the bookstore had book themed drinks!

Nighttime at the Festival

The festival was so cool to wander around at night and it got really crowded at night (it was basically a huge community party). The weather was wonderful, we only needed a light jacket at times and we had fun joining in the community party!

If you are claustrophobic this would not be the festival for you at night!

Wine Tasting

We attended a wine tasting festival inside the festival (yes they had “festivals” inside the main festivals including a craft beer festival) and we even discovered some wine with quilting themed labels (photo is difficult to see but I put in arrows).

Cool Shops

Downtown Greenville is filled with lots of cool little shops including this one – Vintage Now Modern that we had a wonderful little wander through.

We loved the sign in the image above!

So Much Good Food

We had samplings of so many tasty dishes as the festival which was also like a “Bite of Greenville” festival with 50+ local restaurants showcasing their best dishes. Below is John enjoying some exceptionally tasty taco samples; and John and E posing with their new free aprons they got from the local newspaper’s booth (they both love to cook).

The Beauty of Downtown Greensville

Downtown Greenville was very picturesque and here are a couple photos showcasing some of the lovely sights including an image of the downtown area taking from a rooftop restaurant we ate dinner one evening.

After the Festival

After two days in Greenville, SC, the next day we headed back to Charlotte, NC (where we originally flew into from Denver/our friends live in Asheville, NC and they drove from there).

In Charlotte, after a joint lunch in downtown, the men and the women headed out on their own separate adventures. S and I went thrifting and the John and E met up with some of E’s Charlotte-based friends and went to a cigar and bourbon bar.

S and I also discovered a wonderful shopping, business and dining area created from an old industrial area – Camp North End.

While there we had delicious vegan ice cream (S doesn’t eat dairy) and a wonderful stationary shop where I indulged in some nice pens.

I fell for Greenville while visiting for the first time – awesome trip!

Special Events, tierneytravels

Visit to the Upcountry Museum in Greenville, SC

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

This is sort of a continuation of the posts Variegated Yarn Surprise  and Men Hypnotized by a Computerized Longarm… about our trip in earlier this month to the Carolinas (Charlotte, NC and Greenville, SC) to meet up with our Asheville, NC based friends E and S who needed a break from their post Hurricane Helene life in Asheville.

While in the Carolinas, we roadtripped (E and S brought their temporary rental car as their car had been totaled by a tree in the hurricane) to Greenvile and visited the he Upcountry History Museum to view the traveling show Black Pioneers: Legacy in the American West. My quilt, Langston Hughes: Pioneer Poet is part of that show.

Here are some photos of the museum’s interesting interior:

We headed upstairs to see the show and I discovered my quilt was on display as you first enter the exhibit!

I filmed a walk-through of the exhibit and uploaded it to YouTube (and I was so proud of myself figuring out how to add music so you wouldn’t have to just listen to my breathing!):

While I was there they museum’s Special Projects/Media Relations Director Meg Hunt came up to meet me, chat with my group (John, E, S and me) and take some photos.

Yes I am terrible at selfies…

I really appreciated her taking the time to visit with us.

Okay next post on the trip will be about our fun time at the  Fall for Greenville Fall festival.

Created using Layout (app)

Quilt Shop Tours, tierneytravels

Men Hypnotized by a Computerized Longarm…

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

As I mentioned in my previous post Variegated Yarn Surprise, early-ish in November John and I traveled to the Carolinas (Charlotte, NC and Greenville, SC) to visit our Asheville, NC based friends E and S who needed a break from their post Hurricane Helene life in Asheville.

Originally we were going to visit them in Asheville (we made plans before September’s flooding disaster) and instead of canceling our trip (they are discouraging visitors to Asheville as they try to clean up from the massive damage), we decided to meet up with them in Charlotte, NC and roadtrip to Greenville, SC where my quilt Langston Hughes: Pioneer Poet was showing at the Upcountry History Museum as part of the traveling show Black Pioneers: Legacy in the American West. We also decided to attend the Fall for Greenville Fall festival.

I’ll post more about those two events, but for this post I wanted to share a fun stop we made during our roadtrip – a visit to a quilt shop, Carolina Quilt Studio, where the John and E became enthralled with a computerized longarm quilting machine at the shop.

I knew S, who is an elementary school teacher and a very crafting-orientated person, would keep herself entertained wandering around the quilt shop while I looked around, but I wasn’t sure if I would be torturing the husbands if I spent too long in the shop.

Well halfway through my wander around the shop I discovered the husbands had “set up camp” around the shop’s computerized longarm quilting machine that was quilting a quilt.

They were absolutely fascinated with it and didn’t want to walk away from it. They joked that if someone gave them some chairs and a nice glass of bourbon they’d be good for a while! (After we left the shop, John and E keep talking about the “cool machine” that did the quilting and asking how much something like that costs…new career for their retirements perhaps?!?! Ha!)

In addition to the husband-hypnotizing computerized longarm quilting machine, the shop had Shop Dog that wandered about looking for pets:

I am sure if they could have provided comfy chairs and bourbons, John would have placed the dog on his lap and settled in for hours of computerized longarm quilting machine viewing!

I found a couple items at the shop – some Art Gallery Fabrics for 1/2 off in their clearance rack and then this – a bin of FREE fabric scraps where customers could take whatever they wanted:

I was well behaved and carefully curated what I was going to take – only if it was a scrap I could really see myself using in a piece in the future and only larger scrap pieces. I ended up finding some nice Art Gallery Fabrics scraps in the bin. S, who is a teacher, found some free panels to make ornaments in the bin and plans to use them for a student craft project.

The quilt shop staff were very nice and I recommend the shop if you happen to be in the Greenville, SC area!

tierneytravels

California Coast Adventure, Part III

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

Okay time to close out my series of posts about a road trip we took in early September with our Northern CA based friends. You can check out parts I and II in these posts: California Coast Adventure, Part I and California Coast Adventure, Part II.

We ended our road trip with a trip to Santa Cruz and spending a very fun evening on the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk Amusement Park.

I haven’t spent time on a beach boardwalk amusement arcade and amusement park area since I was a child growing up in Long Island, NY. I really felt like a kid again on the boardwalk!

First we went through the arcade area and John and I got into an intense game of Pacman:

Then we headed to take a ride on the famous Looff Carousel which was featured in the 1987 movie The Lost Boys (as were other parts of the Santa Crux Boardwalk):

Image credit: Wikipedia

Me trying to take a selfie while holding on to a moving carousel horse!

The boardwalk was amazing at night and my friend K and I enjoyed wandering around looking at the rides and the naughty nutritional choices (ha!) while our husbands went to go ride the famous Giant Dipper historic wooden rollercoaster.

Somewhere towards the end of our roadtrip we stopped at an amazing farmstand along the highway. We passed by miles and miles of gorgeous farmland including lots of artichoke crops.

When we got back to K and M’s home we had to spend time with their sweet Black Lab puppy who we picked up from dog camp on our way back to their house.

John got attacked with puppy love our evening back!

On our way to the airport the next day to fly back to Denver, we stopped for lunch at Fixins Soul Kitchen in the Oak Park area of Sacramento. Our friends have taken us there before and we had another exceptionally yummy meal!

We also stopped at a lovely independent bookstore around the corner, Underground Books before heading to the airport and I purchased a new tote bag.

At the airport, we saw a curious sight – a man appearing to be traveling with a doll in his backpack. I got closer to investigate on the shuttle train to our flight gate and I’ll close this post with the photos I took and you can come to your own conclusion about his travel decisions…

Thanks for reading about our adventures over these three posts!

tierneytravels

California Coast Adventure, Part II

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

Here is a continuation of yesterday’s post California Coast Adventure, Part I about our 4-day road trip with our Northern California friends K and M along the Northern and Central California Coast.

We spent part of a day in Monterey  visiting the Monterey Bay Aquarium and wandering around the Cannery Row area.

We got s kick out of the penguins at the aquarium – they were so fun to see in person (though part of me wished they were back in their native habitats wandering around…)

After the aquarium we had some delicious dumplings at Jack’s Bao:

We also stopped for a yummy ice cream sundae treat on the water:

That same day John, a golfer, got his dream and got to see Pebble Beach the world famous golf course where golf championships are held.

We had a wonderful wander around the luxury resort and even snuck a little step onto the edge of the famous golf course.

We hung out near the cafe and I whipped out the granny square crochet project (I always travel with a project!).

I’ll continue our adventures in the next post!

tierneytravels

California Coast Adventure, Part I

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

Catching up on sharing adventures we had this Summer and Fall.

In early September we flew to Sacramento, California and went on a spectacular 4-day road trip with our Northern California friends K and M to and along the Northern and Central California Coast. Our roadtrip included stops in:

First I have to say: California is a very beautiful state and the Northern and Central California coasts have many breathtakingly beautiful areas! I keep thinking the Oregon and Washington coasts were the best on the Western Coast of the US but then I visit Northern and Central California coasts and WOW!

The first part of our trip involved hanging out at our friends K and M’s home outside of Sacramento and getting to know their relatively new puppy Maeve, a Black Lab. She is very sweet and very puppy (quite active):

They have a lovely home on a beautiful piece of land that backs up to the woods. I love this sign in their kitchen:

K is a quilter (I met her years ago when I lived in Washington State at a quilt retreat) and she has a cosy quilting room/studio in her home:

The first day of our roadtrip involved stops in Marina and Monterey.

Beach, ocean, blue skies, boats, delicious seafood, sea lions cuddling; and a woman drawing Mandalas in the sand.

We stayed at a lovely place (we rented an Airbnb house) in Marina for a couple nights of the trip so we had a home base for exploring the area.

In the evening we visited the Old Fisherman’s Wharf in Monterey where they were having FestaItalia, the Italian Festival.

Then it was back to the Airbnb house to head to bed after a long day one of sightseeing. More of our adventures in the next post.

Outside Adventures!, tierneytravels

Breckenridge and the Continental Divide

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

Well it’s time to start catching you all up on our travels this Summer into Fall. It might justify why there’s been very little “tierneycreating” except for projects that I can take on trips!

It’s going to be in random order as I think of what adventure I want to share when I write the post. So this post I feel like sharing our trip in early August 2024 to Breckenridge, Colorado with a stop at Loveland Pass on the way where we stood on a section of the Continental Divide.

Loveland Pass

The Continental Divide as defined by Wikipedia :

The Continental Divide extends from the Bering Strait to the Strait of Magellan, and separates the watersheds that drain into the Pacific Ocean from those river systems that drain into the Atlantic and Arctic Ocean, including those that drain into the Gulf of Mexico, the Caribbean Sea, and Hudson Bay

Here we are at Loveland Pass at 11,990 feet above sea level (yes the air felt a bit thinner up there!)

It was a gorgeous day and we hiked a bit around the Continental Divide area:

We even found some patches of snow in early August!

Breckenridge, Colorado

After a couple hours at Loveland Pass we headed to Breckenridge, Colorado one of the many skiing towns of Colorado (like Vail, Telluride, Keystone, Steamboat, Aspen, etc) for an overnight visit.

Here are some photos from our time in Breckenridge:

I also found some cool old structure that were just screaming to be Black and White photos 😉

Independent bookstores, tierneytravels

Simultaneous Adventures: Richmond, Virginia and Louisville, Kentucky

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

I am backdating some posts as I see my posting was sparse in October (and September) due to travel. I like having my blog be a record of my travels so I am going to catch up on sharing my Summer and Fall 2024 adventures.

In the middle of September I went to Richmond, Virginia to visit my sister while John went to Louisville, Kentucky to meet up with his friends to attend a Bourbon Festival. Below is a little photo travelogue of my trip to Richmond along with a couple photos at the end of John’s visit to Louisville.

Richmond (Tierney’s Trip)

My sister lives in Richmond but we wanted to have a “Sisters Trip” where she didn’t have to travel far (as she’s been very busy her work as a Construction Project Manager for a local University) so we rented an AirBNB place in Carytown so she could feel like she was on vacation too!

We spent a lot of time wandering around Carytown which is according to the tourism website:

Nestled in the heart of Richmond, Carytown is a unique shopping, dining, and entertainment district.  With a focus on small, locally-owned businesses, Carytown is home to the historic Byrd Theater as well as several unique dining and boutique shopping destinations. Adjacent to the Museum District and Byrd Park, Carytown is a necessary stop for a day well spent in the city.

My sister knows how much I love independent bookstores so we stopped at a couple:

First there was Shelf Life Books which had a resident bookstore cat:

I didn’t get to pet the cat as customers were sort of lined up for cat petting. I did grab a quick photos when the cat was taking a break from endless pets:

I found a wonderful used book at this shop.

Later we visited Small Friend Records and Books, and I had a delightful wander in that shop while my sister found a cozy chair to relax in while I shopped. She was so sweet telling me to “just take your time, we are not in a hurry” (she is my kind of people!).

Although the store was called “Small Friend…” I didn’t see any “small friends” wandering about, but still it was a lovely bookstore.

We stopped for a wander around the The Jefferson Hotel to admire its historical architecture and decor; and relax a bit with a hot beverage in their lounge area.

We picked up some fun items from the gift shop including a little pewter pineapple for John who likes little cool things for his desk.

Some movie lore about The Jefferson Hotel: The classic film “Gone With the Wind” was allegedly filmed on the Jefferson Hotel staircase according to the Historic Hotels of America website.

We also visited the historic downtown Richmond, Virginia Public Library which was built in the early 1900s funded by philanthropist and steel baron Andrew Carnegie. The library sort of looks like it hasn’t been updated since the 1900s; and they had “old school” card catalogues!

My sister loves thrift store shopping like I do and we spent some time at Carytown Thrift as well as a couple other thrift shops around Richmond.

We ate at many cool places including a pizza place The Mellow Mushroom which had fun decor and 1970s vibe:

Finally here are a couple photos from an afternoon we spent lounging on a rooftop deck of a restaurant/bar in Carytown with a tropical/”Tiki Bar” theme (I do not remember the name of the place). We pretty much nested there for a couple hours and I pulled out my crochet and worked on my Sunflower Granny Square Blanket (see post Update on Sunflower Granny Square Blanket and Cool Community Garden) while we had cocktails and visited. (I always travel with a portable craft project!)

Like the Rino District in Denver (see post Playing Tourist in My Town: Wandering Around the RiNo District), Carytown had some amazing Graffiti Art on the sides of buildings including this piece:

Louisville (John’s Trip)

Here are some photos from John’s simultaneous trip to Louisville, Kentucky to attend a Bourbon Festival with a couple of his friends who are also Bourbon/Whiskey connoisseurs. One day they spent a couple hours at the Maker’s Mark Distillery and the photos below are from that visit.

In the first photo above, John is dipping into the famous red sealing wax a bottle of special edition Marker’s Mark Whiskey he bought at the distillery.

John also took a group of photos in Black & White on this trip for us to print out and frame for his bar area in the basement. Here is an example of one of those photos:

John and his friends stayed in a really cool Bourbon/Whiskey themed AirBNB house that I found for them (I have better AirBNB skills than John, ha!) so they were able to have a nice time visiting each evening after a day of attending the Bourbon Festival or touring distilleries. (Oh and they were smart/safe and did not rent a car, they used Ubers/Lyfts to get around so they could enjoy safely sampling at the distilleries!)

tierneytravels

Playing Tourist in My Town: Wandering Around the RiNo District

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

A couple months ago…not sure – from May to now has become a blur…on a Friday (John now has Fridays off work as he prepares for eventual retirement) we went wandering the RiNo District near Downtown Denver.

The “RiNo District” is short for “River North Art District north of Downtown Denver”.

Google maps image

It is an amazing place to wander about on a sunny afternoon and has many eateries, shops, breweries and amazing graffiti art. It is known for it’s graffiti art on the side of buildings and I thought I would share a sampling of that art with you.

While we were we got to witness a graffiti artist working on a new piece on the side of a building:

We returned to the RiNo District last weekend while we had out of town visitors and got to see the piece completed:

While in the RiNo District during our wander a couple months ago, we stopped the Denver Central Market an amazing inside eatery with various food vendors/little restaurants to choose from.

I had a yummy seafood taco sampler with a different sauce/topping on each taco (okay don’t cringe those of you who live by/close to the ocean, I am fully aware Colorado is completely “landlocked” and the fish was frozen not fresh before they prepared it – ha!)

Later we had gelato at my favorite gelato place in Denver – Heaven Creamery. It’s not like the spiritually transcendent experience I had eating gelato in Italy the first time many years ago, but for Colorado it pretty darn good!

One of our favorite pieces of building graffiti art in the Rino District is the piece below which changes as you walk along the building. It’s difficult to capture on photo but it is such a cool effect in person!

I just love the RiNo District and look forward to returning for a wander when we have cooler Autumn weather!

tierneytravels

July 2024 East Coast Adventures

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

As I mentioned in another recent post, I’ve had a very busy summer so far.

It feels like I’ve been traveling out town monthly since April 2024, sometimes several times a month. We are either flying somewhere to visit someone, go somewhere on a weekend getaway, or do a Colorado road trip (we’ve done at least 3 since May so far). Now we are at home for a while but we have a series of 3 different out-of-town guest visiting over the next 2 months.

Sounds insane, right? We didn’t actually plan for this, we just kept saying yes – ha!

So in early July 2024 John and I traveled to the Eastern Coast of the US to visit my brother and his family who lives outside of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (or “Philly” as us East Coaster call it); and went to the Bronx in New York to see a baseball game at Yankee Stadium. We also visited with my long-time blogging buddy some of you know – Claudia McGill of Claudia McGill and Her Art World who also lives outside of Philly.

In this post I share stories and photos from some of the highlights of our recent East Coast Adventures.

Trip to the Bronx to see the Yankees play at Yankee Stadium

The second day of our visit with my brother, he droves us to New York, to the Bronx to see the New York Yankees play baseball against the Boston Red Sox at Yankee Stadium. This is an iconic/legendary match up (not a lot of love between these two teams) and this was John and my first visit to Yankee Stadium. My sister-in-law did not attend as it was a swelteringly hot day (nearly 100 degrees F and humid) and she decided to stay cool at home!

Here we are outside waiting on line to enter the stadium:

And here we are inside the stadium as we tried to watch the game while melting from the heat!

My brother found a place near a set of concession stands that had air conditioning (sort of) and we moved to that area to finish watching the game as we were turning into piles of sweat! John took my nephew Austin to get Yankees hat so he could be an official looking Yankees fan!

John absolutely adores my nephews (my brother and my sister each have one son) like I do and we always have a wonderful time with them.

The Yankees beat the Red Sox so there were a lot of happy New Yorker fans in the stadium!

A Visit with Claudia

On the last day of our trip before heading to the airport, my brother dropped us off at the beautiful home (filled with so much amazing art) of my long time blogging buddy, Claudia McGill of Claudia McGill and Her Art World.

John and I spent the afternoon with Claudia and her wonderful husband. She gave us a tour of their home and her studio filled with her art and inspiration.

Here is a photo of a section of her studio that was in her recent blog post, Tiny House 24!.

We got to spend a lot of time talking about art and life while sitting around her living room having tasty snacks.

If you follow her blog, you might recognize this photo of Claudia as an image similar to her inspiration for one of her sketches or paintings (by the way she had fabulous lamps in her house, they all looked like they should be in her sketches/paintings).

And as a nearly overwhelming surprise, Claudia gave me one of her Tiny Houses art pieces that she made for me! Below are photos that do not do the piece justice. She will have a future blog post with much better photos about this house:

I couldn’t fit it in my suitcase so she is mailing it to me and I cannot wait for it to arrive!

Claudia in person was just as wonderful as I imagined she would be. She is the fourth person from “bloglandia” that I’ve now met in person.

Fiber Art in the Philadelphia Airport

I love the Philadelphia Airport. It isn’t more convenient or better laid out than most airports I’ve traveled in, but it always has fantastic art exhibits. When traveling alone to Philadelphia, I’ve spent an hour or more while awaiting my flight, wandering the concourses to see the different rotating art exhibits.

They have an ongoing (for a couple years at least) exhibit of fiber art, primarily crochet as well as new pieces that have been added. Thought I would share some of those cool works:

It was an awesome trip!

Postscript

Mike was at “Dog Camp” while we were traveling and here is a photo of him with his friends playing:

Life in B&W, tierneytravels

Cripple Creek Road Trip, Part II

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

This is a continuation of yesterday’s post Cripple Creek Road Trip, Part I  about our road trip to Cripple Creek, Colorado.

Gold Mine Tour

The next day before heading home from our visit to Cripple Creek, we spent a morning at the The World Famous Mollie Kathleen Gold Mine Tour.

John has lived in Colorado all his life and has never been on a gold mine tour. It was of course my first gold mine tour.

If you’d like to read the history of Colorado and the gold rush/gold mining, here is a link to a wonderful article – Colorado Gold Rush. Like parts of the Pacific NW where I used to live (Washington and Oregon), the hunt for gold help put Colorado on the map of the United States.

We went on an awesome tour guided by a 5th generation descendant of Colorado miners of the Mollie Kathleen Gold Mine, descending down 1000 feet in a mine elevator, packed in like sardines (the tour was not for the claustrophobic).

I’m just going to now share a bunch of photos from the tour without explanation but you all can figure it out (and you can see I just had to take some Black & White photos…)

We had a blast during the tour and the tour guide demonstrated some of the historic equipment that miners used in the 19th and 20th centuries to mine for gold. We only went down to 1000 feet underground but our understanding from the tour was the full gold mine goes to 3000 feet+ down under ground! Here are a couple more photos from the tour including the awful “restroom” that miners had to use of a bucket that got emptied out by the children that worked in the mine for 50 cents a day; and the large bucket that was used to transport miners up and down the mine!

The mine is no longer used as a mine; and according to John in Colorado they no longer do underground mining in Colorado, they only do surface mining as underground mining is now too expensive.

After our mine tour, we had a car picnic in the parking lot:

Here is a view of the Cripple Creek valley that I photographed before we headed back home:

It was a great little road trip exploring more of Colorado I haven’t seen!

Life in B&W, Outside Adventures!, tierneytravels

Cripple Creek Road Trip, Part I

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

Well I’ve been on more summer adventures than spending time crafting, so it’s another post about my travels.

Last weekend we did a road trip to Cripple Creek, Colorado. Out of the blue we received an invitation for a free hotel room, $75 dining credit, and $75 free slot play at the new Chamonix Hotel and Casino in Cripple Creek. So we took advantage of a free-ish weekend getaway and an excuse for me to see another part of Colorado I had not yet visited.

Chamonix Hotel & Casino, image from Casino Careers website

Cripple Creek is one of the historic Colorado mining towns that were granted gaming/casino building licenses to try and revive/save the old mining towns. The other mining towns in Colorado granted this special license are Central City and Black Hawk, Colorado where John goes to play poker tournaments. Gambling is only legal in these three towns in Colorado, except for two Native American run casinos in the Four Corners area of Colorado.

The Roadtrip

Driving from our home to Cripple Creek we passed by some beautiful and interesting sights, some of which we had to pull the car over to see better.

Of course I had to sneak in some Black & White photography…

We came across and old abandoned under the mountain passage that we think was once used for gold mining since we were in historic gold mining country:

Cripple Creek

When we arrived in Cripple Creek, Colorado Donkey Derby Days was going on.

According the the Visit Cripple Creek website:

“People from all over the world descend on downtown to be inspired by the town’s resident donkey herd, who roam Cripple Creek in honor of the original Cripple Creek donkeys from the town’s Gold Rush days.“

They had lots of booths/vendors set up as well as donkey exhibits and we had fun wandering about. They also had a beer garden and food court with an United States Air Force cover band playing (they were really good!) playing good blues, rock and country music in their military uniforms.

After wandering the festival for a while and then checking into the hotel, we ate a nice buffet dinner at the casino with an amazing desert bar:

We tried not to be too naughty at the desert bar, agreeing to only one trip each to that magical section of the buffet!

Okay that’s enough for today and tomorrow I will share Part II with our adventures during our first underground gold mine tour 🙂

Quilt Shop Tours, tierneytravels

Taos Adobe Quilting

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

At the end of May into the beginning of June, John and I did a 4-day road trip from Colorado to New Mexico. Our final destination before heading back home was Taos, New Mexico.

We arrived on the evening of the second day of our road trip and went searching for dinner at the Taos Plaza/Downtown Taos which is where our Airbnb Hacienda studio was located (see post Channeling my inner Ansel Adams in Taos, New Mexico for some B&W images of the Hacienda where we stayed).

While looking for an open restaurant we stumbled upon this…Taos Adobe Quilting quilt shop!

But it was closed for the evening! Oh the torture! All I could do was stare into the window:

Oh I couldn’t wait until the next day to wander over there, and the next day I did:

I had a fun time chatting for a long time to the quilt shop owner’s son, who was headed out the next day on a major solo camping trip. He noticed my tote bag that said: “Libraries Build Communities” and being an avid reader himself, a lover of libraries, struck up a conversation with me while I was browsing. We ended up talking about books, fabric and life!

I didn’t go too crazy on my purchases from this lovely shop but I did get a little sampling of their Southwest fabrics and some other little remnants of artsy fabric.

Life in B&W, tierneytravels

Channeling my inner Ansel Adams in Taos, New Mexico

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

I thought I would dive into stories from my recent travels by sharing some Black & White photos I took in Taos, New Mexico on the 3rd day of our 4-day Colorado to New Mexico roadtrip at the end of May/start of June.

Taos, New Mexico was just screaming for me to pull out my smartphone camera and take photos in B&W, with it’s adobe structures and clear blue skies punctuated with a little cloud here and there.

I’ve loved the work of the photographer Ansel Adams since I was a teenager and while much “cooler” teenagers had posters of the latest “teen idol” on their walls, I had several Ansel Adams posters. I’ve also loved the work of the painter Georgia O’Keeffe (who lived in New Mexico) since I was in my early 20’s and I used to have several Georgia O’Keeffe posters in my room when I was in college (I was fortunate to visit the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum on a trip to Santa Fe, New Mexico 6 years ago, see post Creative Inspiration: Georgia O’Keeffe Museum).

Well our first tourist stop in Taos, NM was the adobe San Francisco de Asís Mission Church at the Ranchos de Taos, which was built 1813 – 1815 and was photographed by Ansel Adams AND painted by Georgia O’Keeffe! 

Here is the Ansel Adams photograph “Church Taos Pueblo 1942” courtesy of fineartamerica.com:

Here is the Georgia O’Keeffe painting “Ranchos Church” courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art‘s website:

And here are my photos:

Yup, Mr. Ansel Adams is probably rolling his eyes from the afterlife on my B&W photographs; but I had fun taking them and pretending I understood composition and all those other mystical photograph taking terms – ha!

No I didn’t attempt to paint it like Georgia O’Keeffe did!

Ok so you might notice the church Ansel Adams photographed in the 1930s looks different than the one I photographed in 2024. According to Wikipedia the church has gone through several restorations over the years (we are talking 90+ years between Mr. Adams’ photo and mine) and the article on San Francisco de Asís Mission Church verifies it was photographed by Ansel Adams and painted by Georgia O’Keeffe. (But if you discover my research is wrong, let me know in the comments.)

Here are some other B&W photos I took in Taos. I was fascinated by the old style doors; as well as the simple tree limb fences.

We stayed at an amazing (and very photogenic) Airbnb studio right in the Tao Plaza/Historic Downtown Taos Shopping District, which was a historic adobe Hacienda! Here are photos of the outside of the Airbnb:

And finally (to end your visual torture of seeing my B&W photography attempts), when we visited the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge in Taos, it looked ripe for B&W photos so here you go:

tierneytravels

Springtime in Brooklyn

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

At the end of April my sister and I met up in New York City and spent a couple days together in Brooklyn, exploring the Williamsburg and Bedford-Stuyvesant (Bed-stuy) neighborhoods.

I always get a kick out of the “I love NY” sculpture at La Guardia airport where I flew into from Denver:

(if you check out this post you will see John and Tierney Beastie on this sign on our their way to Ireland a couple years ago – Guest Blog Post: The Beasties’ Ireland Travelogue (Part I))

I do love New York. Although I was born in Pittsburgh, PA, I grew up in New York State, living in Long Island and in Upstate NY. I’ve been to NYC a zillion times and I remember being 14 and taking the train with a friend all the time for the day from Long Island to NYC (I wonder if parents nowadays would let their teenage daughters do that?). I always feel like NY is my home state, it holds a special place in my heart. When my late husband Terry died, I did consider moving back to New York State and explored with my sister Tarrytown, NY on the drive back from the celebration of life with Terry’s family in Upstate NY. (For some not-light reading…me as a new widow in late 2018…about the road-trip across 7 states with my sister here is the post – Stories from the Road, Part I)

But it seemed Colorado was calling me and besides John was waiting for me in Colorado (smile).

While visiting the NYC area my sister and I stayed at an Airbnb apartment in Bed-stuy and we had these hysterical narrow and steep stairs to climb to get to our apartment. Here is my sister doing the climb (we got use to it after a while):

We spent a day at the Brooklyn Waterfront/DUMBO area shopping, checking out the Brooklyn Bridge, and enjoying delicious food.

We spent a couple days wandering around the Williamsburg Brooklyn area and found the best little tea shop (which we visited twice!) as well as a wonderful indie bookstore. We were naughty and enjoy some amazing pastries at an exquisite bakery.

We also explored the Bed-stuy neighborhood and had a wonderful breakfast at an outdoor French-style cafe as well as got to see Director Spike Lee’s original studio.

The name of this Vegan eatery in Bed-stuy made us laugh- Slutty Vegan!:

It was definitely Springtime in NYC and we enjoyed seeing lots of flowers (and lots of tulips). I also went for a walk through one of the parks in Brooklyn and ran into a woman walking two adorable miniature schnauzers on a beautiful Spring day.

One evening wandering around Williamsburg, we stopped at an Irish pub for a pint of Guinness and met this awesome Willimsburg based couple that we spent the evening chatting with and sharing a meal. They might be visiting Denver in the future and we plan to connect again.

New Yorkers are definitely my people – I connect so easily with other New Yorkers!

It was a memorable trip and I just enjoy hanging out with my sister!

I’ll close this post with a poster on someone’s window in Williamsburg that made us smile:

I did ask my dog Mike but he is not ready to start up his Presidential campaign just yet…

tierneytravels

Rock & Roll Icons’ Guitars and Outfits

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

John and I recently returned from a trip to to Miami and Hollywood, Florida. John had a poker tournament at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Hollywood, Florida.

I spent a day at the Hard Rock Hotel wandering about and donating some money to slot machines while John was in his poker tournament.

The hotel’s decor was a tribute to Rock & Roll and when you first enter the hotel they have guitars on their doors:

The also have a guitar shaped Guitar Hotel!

Image credit: kayak.com

The hotel had an AMAZING collection of Rock & Roll memorabilia, primarily instruments (mostly guitars) and outfits that Rock & Roll icons played and wore. For those of you who love music like I do, I thought you might enjoyed some photos of their displays.

The Guitars

Here is a selection of some of the awesome guitars on display:

In case you have trouble reading the sings below the guitars in the images above, they are in order: Lenny Kravitz, Tom Petty, Geddy Lee (Rush), Eric Clapton, Johnny Cash, and Nancy Wilson (of Heart).

The Clothing

Here is a sampling of some of the outfits worn by Rock & Roll icons they had on display:

The signs might be difficult to read in the image above so here are the artists attached to the clothing in each image in order: The Supremes, John Lennon (The Beatles), Buddy Holly, Jimi Hendrix, Prince, George Michael, Keith Moon (The Who), and The Temptations.

Of course the images I share in this post do not do justice to what the guitars and clothing looked like in real life. It was amazing to see the displays of Rock & Roll history in person.

The hotel and casino was beautiful inside and I really loved this entire wall of seashells they had on display:

More on our recent trip to Florida in another post, just wanted to share a little about my visit to this hotel/casino.

Thrift Shop Adventures, tierneytravels

Sisters’ Trip to Englewood, Florida

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

Back in early January in the post 2023 Recap: A Year in “Makes” and WIPs Going Forward, I mentioned I might do a 2023 Recap of my travel in 2023. Since we are now halfway through February I decided to skip that 2023 recap, but I will share a trip I went on in early December 2023 with my sister that I didn’t post about in 2023.

So my awesome sister, who knew that December is always a challenging time for me (12/13/23 was the 5th anniversary of my late husband’s passing), came up with the idea that we should go on a “Sisters’ Trip”/do something fun in December to distract me.

She randomly selected Englewood, Florida because it is near the coast, had nice Airbnbs (she loves to stay in Airbnbs) and seemed to have a low touristy/laid back vibe. My sister loves to visit places are on not highly touristy but have a cozy vibe.

We stayed at a cottage above a garage at a house near the beach and was called “The Tree House”. The charming elderly proprietor lived on site and had decorated it in a quaint vintage “shabby chic” style with Asian influence:

The house’s garden was amazing and had a little pool as well as lots of scenic seating and wandering about areas:

And there was a garden kitty to pet:

We were able to walk everywhere including the charming downtown and only used our rental car a couple of times. One of those times was when we went on a thrift shopping excursion one day (my sister LOVES thrifting and introduced me to it years ago).

Here I am with a fantastic Marimekko purse I found for $5 at one of the thrift shops:

We visited a giant resale and flea market type of shop where we browsed for hours it seemed and ended up getting ourselves each a teddy bear as a souvenir of our fabulous time together:

It appeared to be a family run shop and we made the teenage boy running the cash register laugh when we were checking out our bear purchase, by making the bears talk to each other and him. It was fun to be so lighthearted and silly with my sister!

This sign at the shop made us laugh:

Ha!

We ate lots of seafood, as I live in a “landlocked” state and whenever I am near fresh fish, then fresh fish and I are together!

We also went to the beach and had a lovely afternoon wandering about the coastal area:

Because it was not a high touristy area we got to hang out with “the locals” and spent each morning at an awesome coffee shop walking distance from our cottage. We hung out one morning with an elderly gentleman (Englewood appears to be a large retirement community) who was from Colorado and his very friendly dog who seemed to know every other local that came into the coffee shop. We had fun chatting with people while eating our breakfast in the living room like seating area at the front of the shop:

You can see in the first photo that the dog is getting his regular “pup cup” of whipped cream.

It seemed like a wonderful and friendly place (with a super laid back vibe) plus the temperature was wonderful in early December – 60s to 70s F (16 – 21 C) – but I was attacked by a zillion mosquitos (they seem to love me) and I do not think I could live in Florida unless I walked around with a mosquito net on – ha!

I’ll close my little travelogue with a magnet that was on the refrigerator of the cottage we stayed in that made me smile!

Guest Blogger, Miniature Schnauzer Adventures, tierneytravels

Guest Blog Post: Humans Traveling and Dog Camp

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

This is Mike, the Miniature Schnauzer that lives with Tierney and John. If you are new to this blog I guest blog post time to time. It’s January 31st and Tierney has not posted on her blog since January 15th (ScrapHappy January 2024 – Update on Table Runner and More ) and I needed to intervene and jump on her laptop and write a post (even though I don’t have opposable thumbs so typing is challenging).

I need to figure out the dictation feature…

Tierney has been busy doing some purging in her crafting area and quilting table runner she discussed in her January 15th (so long ago) blog post. Also she and John have been doing some traveling and recently returned from a trip to Las Vegas where John was in a poker tournament (he didn’t do too bad in the tournament!)

Since I am on her laptop I was able to find a couple photos from her trip to Las Vegas to share with you including a meal they had at Hell’s Kitchen (Chef Gordon Ramsey’s famous restaurant) of the renown Beef Wellington and Sticky Toffee pudding on the menu.

But what is more exciting than their trip is the time I had at “Dog Camp” where I stay when they go out of town. “Dog Camp” is only for dog’s my size and I have a group of dog friends (like my Miniature Schnauzer friend Bandit is a regular at “Dog Camp”).

Here’s Bandit trying to manage one of the humans that run “Dog Camp”:

And here are more awesome photos of me recently at “Dog Camp” (the humans that run it take photos and send to Tierney so she knows I am having more fun that her and John while they are on vacation):

Yes I need to nap, as do my friends, after all that fun!

Well that’s all I had to share, but I am going to talk to Tierney and ask her to get caught up on her blogging friends’ posts as well as start writing her own posts again!

tierneytravels

Folk Art Center, Asheville, NC

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

I thought I would close out my 31 days of daily blogging to celebrate my 10th anniversary month in October 2023 with a little more on our trip to Asheville, North Carolina a couple months ago. Check out the post Greetings from Asheville – Blue Ridge Parkway for more on our trip.

John’s long time friend E was our tour guide during our trip and one day he took us to an absolutely magical place – the Southern Highland Craft Guild’s The Folk Art Center.

Downstairs was an amazing craft shop with everything from handmade baskets to spectacular quilts; and upstairs was a craft museum with exhibits of new work and historical works.

I took like a thousand pictures (okay perhaps only 70 or so) but here are a couple of my favorite images of what was on display or for sale.

If you are a crafter visiting Asheville I highly recommend this place. John and E were very patient as I wandered around this magical place wanting to see everything. I think they had a good time also (E and his wife S have purchased some amazing crafts from this place for their home); or they were patient because they knew afterwards we’d be visiting another amazing Asheville, NC brewery (Asheville is known for its craft breweries!)

tierneytravels

Greetings from Asheville – Blue Ridge Parkway

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

Greetings from Asheville, North Carolina. John and I have been visiting his friends in Asheville, North Carolina and we went for an amazing drive on the Asheville section of the Blue Ridge Parkway and enjoyed the Fall Colors.

Thought I would share this short post to share some photos from our drive and I’ll share more of our adventures in future posts.

Outside Adventures!, tierneytravels

All Aboard the Georgetown Loop

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

At the end of September, John and I went on a road trip to Idaho Springs, CO and Georgetown, CO. We had lunch in Idaho Springs and then headed to Georgetown so I could experience the Georgetown Loop Railroad.

I love trains and I am especially fond of old locomotives!

The day started with an hour road trip to Idaho Springs and a road trip is a great excuse to stop for snacks at a roadside convenience shop in the mountains:

Those were poor nutritional choices but they were delicious!

Snacks in hand, I enjoyed the mountainous scenery and tunnels along the way:

We had lunch in the darling town of Idaho Springs at BeauJo’s Pizza known for it’s “Mountain Pie” a pizza with a tall/large crust with accompanying honey to dip it in.

After that tasty experience, we wandered around downtown Idaho Springs, a former mining town, window shopping and stopping at one of my favorite charity thrift shops that I always visit when I am in the area.

And there was a 50% off sale, but I was good as I didn’t really need anything, I just like to browse!

Georgetown isn’t far from Idaho Springs, so a short drive and we were there:

From the parking lot you can see the train:

Waiting at the station for it to arrive:

We sat right behind the locomotive engine so we had a great view. Here are photos from the train ride:

We stopped at another station for a gift shop and bathroom break and I realized just how high above sea level were were!

My favorite part of the train ride was listing to this – so awesome!

And here is video I found on YouTube by a self proclaimed “train nerd” that provides a nice overview of the experience with history (we didn’t do the optional mine tour this time):

Beastie Adventures, Guest Blogger, tierneytravels

Guest Blog Post: Beasties Return to Ireland! (Re-post)

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

What? Two tierneycreates Beastie guest blog posts in a row? No actually I am sort of cheating – this is a re-post from October 2022. Since it is the tierneycreates blog’s 10th anniversary in October 2023, I’ve challenged myself to post everyday (or shall I say “torture you all everyday to another post”) and I thought I would pepper in some re-postings during this anniversary month of some favorite posts (yep, that’s my excuse for not doing new posts everyday, ha!).

This post is a very special memory from my first trip to Ireland with John, our friends K and M, and our Beasties! Plus we got to meet M’s new Beastie – “Matty” Beastie; and of course meet Helen of Crawcrafts Beasties who made all the Beasties happen!

Please see the “Postscript” section of this post for a special dedication.

Guest Blog Post: Beasties Return to Ireland! (October 11, 2022 re-post)

This is tierneycreates Beastie guest blog posting (if you are new to this blog, my story is on this post –  I’m A Monster!!! and you can see all my posts at this link: Beastie Adventures).

You haven’t heard from Tierney or myself in a while as we’ve been in Ireland!

Tierney, John, John Beastie and I recently returned from Ireland and I got to see my maker Helen of Crawcraft Beasties & Knit with Helen; and Tierney got to meet Helen in person for the first time!

We had lots of adventures in Ireland visiting cities such as Dublin, Galway, Doolin, etc. I told Tierney I would get the blog posts on our trip started as she is still rather jet lagged.

Here I am trying to write this blog post (sitting at my desk that John built me, see post Guest Blogger: A Desk for Me!) while my dog Mikelet is trying to get attention from me as he missed me on my long trip (we did not take him for fear he might get misplaced during the trip).

We visited Ireland with Tierney and John’s friends K and M who visit Ireland a couple times a year. K’s family is from Ireland and she still has family there and M who is part Irish, is well versed in Irish culture and history.

K also knows Helen as she has been working with Helen to get her husband M his very own Beastie!

John Beastie, Tierney, K and I met up with Helen and visited a pub for a Beastie reunion with Helen. Here are a couple photos of our initial reunion, I could not decide which one I like best of my awesome maker so I included them all!

She was pretty pleased to see us again as she sends her Beasties out all over the world and rarely gets to see them in person again once they’ve traveled across the ocean!

After the pub, we all headed to Helen’s studio for a little tour of her studio, to meet the new Beastie for K’s husband M, and to take a little knitting class (Helen is a professional knitting instructor) to learn how to knit cables (which scare K and Tierney).

This is Helen’s new studio and although John Beastie and I were not “born” here but it was awesome to be in a place where our fellow Beasties are now “born”:

Here is a little photo tour of Helen’s bright and cheery studio:

After a little studio tour, it was time to meet “Matty Beastie” (and his dog Riley) the new Beastie Helen made for K’s husband M:

Matty Beastie comes with his dog Riley the Chocolate Lab (to see the Canine Riley check out the post Loved (or mugged) by a Lab, Tierney is Riley’s “Dog Godmother”), a pint of Guinness, as well as his PJs (if he gets tired of wearing his jeans) and his famous slippers.

Helen brilliantly added a magnet to Matty Beastie’s chest so he could hold up his pint of Guinness:

John Beastie and I took a group photo with our new friend Matty Beastie who we would now be touring Ireland with:

As you can see I was not sure where to look during the photo as Helen was also taking a photo of our group at the same time.

We got distracted during the photoshoot and Riley ended up sampling some of Matty Beastie’s Guinness!

I did take Matty Beastie aside and give him some tips on managing humans and how to get away with things right under their noses…

While John Beastie and I visited with our new friend, the humans Helen, K and Tierney) had a cable knitting class. Below is a photo of the class sample and a photo of Tierney clumsily trying to knit her first cable (she won’t be whipping out a new Aran sweater for me anytime soon…).

I am sure Tierney will do a post about it whenever she finishes that headband.

After the knitting class, we headed back out to a pub (the humans visited a lot of pubs while in Ireland) to meet up with human John and human M so he could be surprised with his new Beastie!

John Beastie and I watched with anticipation while M excitedly unboxed his new Beastie:

Matty Beastie was a hit with M and John Beastie had raise a pint to toast the newest member of our US based Beastie family!

Sláinte!

More stories to come on our Ireland adventures. Tierney asked me to include this photo as proof that she and human John really did come on the trip:

I am also including this photo – Tierney captured in a moment of pure joy hanging out with my maker Helen in person for the first time:

image courtesy of K.

POSTSCRIPT

This post is dedicated to Riley (2019 – 2023). The pup that “Matty Beastie” had with him was based on the real life Riley, see post Loved (or mugged) by a Lab. Riley suddenly passed in the summer of 2023 from an unknown illness.

Many hearts were broken including of course K and M who were absolutely devastated.

They do have a new lab puppy which I featured in this post Bag to Celebrate a New Lab!, and their hearts are slowly healing.

John got to meet Riley in 2021 when we visited K and M in California:

Riley giving John lots of kisses

I met Riley in 2019.

Riley was my “dog goddaughter” and I first met her as a puppy a couple days after they adopted her and a couple months after my husband Terry had just died, when visiting K and M in California. Snuggling with their new puppy very comforting and healing:

Riley was not my dog but she and I had a special connection. I miss you Riley.