a relaxing place

I spent a few days last week at a retreat at Casa de Maria in Montecito. What a relaxing time in a beautiful, peaceful place. Here are a few photos that will give you some idea about what it was like.

Beneath the Surface

I've already told you about Beneath the Surface, a special exhibit that I will have a quilt in. ("It's Your Fault")The big news is that it has sponsors, for both quilt festivals in Long Beach and Houston! Brother and Moores Sewing are the sponsors for Long Beach, and Misty Fuse (my favorite fusible!) for Houston.

Also, all the artists in Beneath the Surface were asked to answer some questions about themselves, and they've been posted daily on the Dinner at Eight blog. My set of questions and answers will appear on May 15, Saturday. All the interviews have been interesting, so take a look!

http://dinnerateightartists.blogspot.com/

Notleymere Cottage

I finally got around to organizing photos taken at the end of our Upstate NY trip. Most of the time during our visit we stayed at the Colgate Inn in Hamilton, but one night we stayed at a unique B&B called the Notleymere Cottage in Cazenovia. It was very fun and quirky, so I took a lot of photos. The current owner bought the place in 2006 and decorated it herself.

We stayed in the Teddy Roosevelt Suite. TR actually stayed here, and the current owner was obviously very inspired by the theme. Here is just one detail of the desk. It's hard to see, but there is a pair of glasses that look something like Teddy's on top of the stack of books.

This cow was right outside our door. There are playful details everywhere.

I thought these chairs were interesting.

The windows are original to the house. They're located in front by a grand staircase.

This is one of the many sitting areas in the house. There was lots of taxidermy, sadly.

There were quirky little collections around. I thought this was very playful. These might be toys, I'm not sure.

This painted gourd caught my eye. It was about 12" across. I have a small one at home that is much less ornate.

The house is on a lake. I was quite taken by this sheep sculpture.

Here's the house as seen from the back. We were on the third floor, on the right. The house was built by a parson, and the caretaker told us that he either received a large inheritance, or his flock was very generous to him!

My daughter brought this lovely raspberry pie from Eddie & Zinna's Cafe. The four of us enjoyed it at the Notleymere after dinner. Yum!

Before we left the area, we visited the farm for the last time. The chicks had grown. Jack had them literally eating out of his hand.

Lots of cherry blossoms in view at Cold Spring.