Where have you been?

With my dear husband of nearly 43 years, we visited Arizona, both up north and

down south. The best two things we did were to embrace two of our treasured daughters - many times. We bonded with Gigi and Charlie, definitely leaners, a girl cat belonging to Kelly and a girl yellow lab trained and loved by Kate. We camped at the Ranch, in the prairie grasses and in the blue minivan in Utah parks; we hiked to the Vermillion Cliffs and viewed the pottery chards and the California condors; we made an early morning visit to Bosque del Apache and met a handsome hawk; we experienced a spa in Truth or Consequences, NM; we reconnected with the national park friends; we had hot chocolate on the south rim of the Grand Canyon at sunset; we found new duds at thrift stores; we ate homemade pie in Pie Town and ate African at a Tucson restaurant.

All in all, we traveled 11,000 miles and left behind six grandchildren and our home schooling experience and Silvio to do all this. It is good to be back home - immediately immersing ourselves in our beloved St. Luke's Church and treasuring our beloved cat Silvio.

Back at "work," we are all set for Vermont Open Studio and our craft fair circuit. We're even hosting the Okemo Valley Chamber mixer in April. The trip inspired new designs at Hancocks in Paducah and the quilt shop in Sedona. Imagine a dolls with panda and penguin eyes in all the right colors!

And while we were gone our porch was stacked with two-year old wood; we exhausted $1,200 in gasoline instead of filling our oil tank at home with the same amount of expense and the driveways were plowed of too much snow. Eileen embroidered faces. I several filled orders from the road, and now every day we fulfill orders for catalogs from Yankee Magazine. Our seed order is placed; the snow is melting; the barn across the street is collapsing; the daffodils are perking. Together we are painting, dressing and decorating a new come-on girl, our logo doll, Andro. But you have to come meet her in person. We are all ready for you.