A Restful Hike at Cheyenne Mountain State Park

Mike and I enjoy hiking. Lucky for us, we live in Colorado where there are many beautiful places to do that. 

One of our favorite places to go for short hikes is Cheyenne Mountain State Park in Colorado Springs. It's fairly close to us and we can do a two-hour hike and be back home on the same day. We don't have to stay overnight like we do on some of our ventures. 

On Sunday, when our hike took place, there were some cyclists navigating the hills and a few campers left from the holiday weekend. On previous hikes in the park, there were young families hiking the trails, joggers, cyclists and other older couples like us. There are 16 easy to moderate trails - nothing too difficult. The only thing that inhibited us on Sunday was the heat. It was 96 degrees up there! This is unusual; however, we still had a good time. We just sweated a lot and drank copious amounts of water for the rest of the day - during the hike and long after. 

Here is Mike:

Because the bright sunshine tends to wash out the sky, we did not take a lot of landscape shots. We did, however get some floral shots. We were about a week late on the wildflower peak, but we did find some Mariposa Lilies and some orange Butterfly Milkweed. 

Orange Butterfly Milkweed,
Photo: Alicia Gossman-Steeves

Orange Butterfly Milkweed;
Photo: Alicia Gossman-Steeves

Orange Butterfly Milkweed;
Photo: Alicia Gossman-Steeves

Mariposa Lily
Photo: Alicia Gossman-Steeves

Mariposa Lily
Photo: Alicia Gossman-Steeves

As we were walking along the Bobcat Way trail a bunny hopped out from his hiding place and stopped to pose for some pictures. He was even comfortable enough with us to scratch himself a bit. 

Photo: Mike Steeves

Photo: Mike Steeves

We have more photo galleries linked from here:

Cheyenne Mountain State Park

Being out in nature like this certainly is invigorating. It helps clear the mind and reminds me of all of the beauty of God's creation. We need places like this to right ourselves against the negative things that go on in the world and in the craziness of our own lives. That is what a day of rest is all about, isn't it? 

What do you do to right yourself?

Christmas in July Sale at Writing Places

Today starts our Christmas in July sale at Writing Places! All crocheted items are 15 percent off! This is great for birthdays, back to school, and Christmas so you can start your gift buying now! 

Christmas is always a busy time of year, make it simpler by planning ahead. Custom orders are especially welcome during this sale as well. If you see an item that you especially like but need it in a different color or fiber - such as instead of wool, give me acrylic! I will be glad to do that. Or, if you want to buy more than one in a particular item in different colors, I will be glad to do that too. 

Here are a few items that are on sale:

Our new cotton headbands in bruges lace. They are available in blue, green and tan:

Bruges Lace Headband

Bruges Lace Headband

Bruges Lace Headband

We have men's scarves ...

Men's Scarf

Men's Scarf


And lots of women's items. Take a look!

This Week's Favorite Crochet Pins

Here are my favorite pins from this week. There are some really nice patterns out there!

All of these links will take you to my Pinterest crochet page. Click on the Visit Page button to get a free pattern. They are all good links. 

Mexican Poncho from All-Free Crochet

Heart Blanket - Free pattern from Elan.com featured on CrochetRising
with a lot of other cute heart patterns!

Hippo Basket from One & Two Company

Free pattern for this beautiful Kerchief by Kristen TenDyke

Free Pullover pattern from Yarnspirations

Starfish Dishcloths from Red Heart

Firecracker Sale Now Going On at WritingPlaces

We have a sale in progress! 

All yarn and ribbons is now available at 10 percent off. This sale lasts until Sunday, July 6.

Banana Fiber Kaleidoscope - now $7.20 a skein! 

Firecracker Silk Resolution Yarn -  Now $11.70 per skein

At The Bahamas Sari Remnant Silk Yarn - Now $11.70 per skein!

On Monday our Christmas in July sale starts!

All crocheted items will be 15 percent off so start planning your holiday giving now! 

With this early start date, custom orders are especially welcome. So if you see something you like but want it in a different color and/or fiber or need multiple items please let me know.

I hope everyone had a great Fourth of July and don't forget to take the crochet survey by Kathryn Vercillo on how crochet heals. She mentioned Writing Places on her blog post today. 

Popular Crochet Author Performs Comprehensive Study on How Crochet Heals

I have not read Kathryn Vercillo's book yet (it's on the way)  but I do enjoy her blog. And, because I believe the God uses arts and crafts to bring healing in people's hearts and minds, I am presenting this survey to help Kathryn with her research on a new book.  You can take her survey at the last link in this press release. 

A new crochet health survey has been launched to study how crochet heals people. This is a 27-question survey (mostly multiple choice) designed to gather detailed information about the physical and mental health issues that are helped through crochet work and to what degree the craft is helpful. The survey is produced by Kathryn Vercillo, an expert in the topic of healing through crochet.

Kathryn Vercillo is the author of Crochet Saved My Life, a book about the craft’s health benefits. In the book she shares her own story of crocheting to heal from chronic depression. She also interviews two dozen other women who share their stories of hooking to heal. In addition, she aggregates the available research into crafting to heal.

Several formal studies have been conducted that show crochet to be healing. The new study is designed to add to the available information on this topic. One unique thing about it is that the study focuses specifically on crochet as opposed to lumping it in with other crafts. Another unique feature is that it goes beyond asking the question “does crochet help?” (because we know that it does) and explores how it helps, to what extent and for what symptoms.

Kathryn Vercillo will do an in-depth analysis of the results of this study. She will use that information to publish a full report on the health benefits of crafting. She will also use the information in future publications and it will serve as the foundation for continued research into this important topic.

A survey like this has the potential to lead to a number of benefits including:

• Credibility to get crochet into more settings including hospitals, recovery centers, in-patient therapy groups, prisons and schools
• Information that can be given to doctors and therapists to help them understand how crochet can heal
• Help for individuals who want to learn how crochet can help them heal
• Lays the groundwork for additional research opportunities into the topic

You can help support the craft of crochet by contributing your response to this new survey. The survey is available at https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/crochetsaveslives.

What did you think?

Writing Places is selling YARN!

We're now selling yarn at Writing Places!

I love yarn. I love fiber. I love playing with yarn and fiber. Crochet is my favorite hobby. I take it with me in the car, to work, on some vacations. I crochet every night starting around 7 p.m.. I crochet when the family comes over on Sundays. We'll watch football, eat, chat and I crochet. It's very relaxing and, well, I love yarn.

Because we felt like the store needed a boost, I started looking around for companies that would let my small business sell yarn. That's when I found a company called Darn Good Yarns. They accepted my request to sell without hesitation and they had a good rate. In fact, Nicole, the CEO, and Maggie were extremely helpful in getting me started.

Besides their extraordinary customer skills, the reason I wanted to sell Darn Good Yarns is because its products come from a co-op in India and Nepal that empowers women to earn an income and help their families receive medical care, education and other necessities. In many countries around the globe, people are crippled by such deep poverty that I cannot begin to understand what they suffer.  Women and girls are deeply affected by it and become vulnerable to all sorts of terrible things. Sales of Darn Good Yarns helps people in Nepal and India to overcome the crippling effects of poverty.

That is also why my shop helps out organizations like Nazarene Compassionate Ministries and Compassion for Africa. Because together we can make a difference in the lives of people everywhere - including people in the United States.

So here is some of the yarn. There will be more posts on it later. I just wanted to give you a peek:

Firecracker Silk Resolution 

Banana Fiber in Green

Napalese Hand Spun 100 percent Silk

Banana Fiber - Radiant Orchid

Nighttime Rainbow - Reclaimed Silk Yarn

This isn't it. There is ribbon and more silk at Writing Places and more is coming!

What do you think?

Unintended Break is Over

After what turned into a long unintended break, WritingPlaces - the Blog is back up and running. 

I do apologize for the long time away. For some reason, I hit a dry spell in many areas. Do you ever get that way sometimes? 

During the break, however, we have kept busy. After all of the high school and junior high games we attended, at the end of May and into June we went to North Carolina and visited family. 

We visited Cape Lookout:

Cape Lookout National Seashore

This is where Mike's sister Susie thought it would be fun to teach us how to clam:

Mike, Louie and Tasha hunting for clams

Our brother-in-law Louie is holding what we found. They were all too small so we put them back, but I had a lot of fun doing this:

Now we're back in Colorado. A week after we returned, Mike and I went on a hike up at Lovell Gulch to shoot wildflower pictures:

Lovell Gulch

Lovell Gulch is above Colorado Springs and is a great place to capture pictures of wildflowers in mid-June to early July.

Bellflower

Indian Paintbrush

Iris

Unsure - does anyone know?

Taking pictures of the bluebells, which are very low to the ground.

Pike's Peak

Now I am playing keyboard for our church's Saturday night service. We have a band but we do not have a name yet. Here is my son Jon and I practicing. He's a great guitar player. He also plays bass and the electric guitar.

With everything going on this summer,  I have taken time to read - usually at night. This book by Parker J. Palmer continues to serve as a great encouragement:

Amazon

Have you read it? It's about listening to the "voice" of your life and allowing the open and closed doors along your journey to show you how God can use you right now and in the future. I believe that is why I am back writing this blog. Writing is a part of me. It's part of the nature that God instilled in me and how he wants me to express myself. Crochet, photography and music are other ways as well. It all works together somehow.

Now that I am back, I would like to continue with the "mission" of this blog - to talk about art and spirituality, to show what is going on at WritingPlaces@etsy.com . I hope to also offer some free patterns and book reviews. We'll just have to let the Lord lead the blog and move ahead! 

Blessings!