Planning Begins!

Saturday was the conclusion of a two part class offered by the Stargazer Ranch. Our day was spent with some hands on work with the Alpacas and some “class room” discussion. Spending the day working with Alpacas reinforced my excitement to owning these wonderful animals. A special thanks goes out to Cindy and John from the Stargazer Ranch for putting on such an extraordinary class and for sharing their knowledge and expertise.
Alpacas will be a big part of my life, the resort and now is the time for making detailed plans to bring these ideas into reality! I am in the beginning stages of writing a very detailed business plan, looking for grant researchers and writers, and of course interest in my ideas. Keep an eye out for articles I am writing topics will include; alpacas (of course), quilting, and hippo/animal assisted therapy for conditions such as Cystic Fibrosis, Cerebral Palsy, Down Syndrome, Autism, and stroke. I have also purchased a video camera! There will be pictures and videos coming soon.
Quilting Love,
Michelle, owner of Snow Top Quilts

Alpaca journey...

Yesterday marked the beginning of my Alpaca Journey. I went to Stargazer Ranch Alpacas, for their Coffee to Cocktails event. Having spent 12 years in the alpaca business, Cindy and John are a wonderful source of knowledge, and their joy and love for these adorable creatures is contagious. They have "barn-cams" set up so you can watch the Alpacas live on their website.

My family is considering starting a farm of our own. In a couple of weeks I will be going back to the Stargazer Ranch for the "Ranch-Hand Day". I am looking forward to learning more alpacas and how to care for them.

Stay tuned for more of my journey with Alpacas :)

Alpaca batting anyone?

Just a quick question to my quilting friends;
Anyone ever use Alpaca batting?
Any comments on it?
Easy to use?

Ok, so that was more than one question :) I am considering using this batting in a quilt and would like to know what other people think.

Thinking too much too late!

It is just after midnight where I live and I know I should go to sleep but I just can't turn off my mind. I have so much running through my head, quilts I want to make, quilts I need to make, working on my book, who should I hire to design my website, etc...

I have to learn to let these thoughts go at night so I can sleep. I can't be the only one who deals with this, can I?

Coffee better than Starbucks!

Hello All,

I just wanted to pop in and tell you all about a coffee that my husband and I found. It is called Skinny Coffee, from Boresha. Honestly it is better than Starbucks, I stopped brewing my Kenya blend at home because I got Skinny coffee to brew at home now.

Stop by this website and see what it is all about. Try it once, it is worth it, you won't be disappointed.

I am back

Hello All,
After family medical issues, a long hard move, and getting to know my new area, I am back. It was a stressful 3 months but I am hoping it will get easier over the next month or two. I have started to do some side work as a Virtual Assistant to help make ends meet until Eric can find another job. There are a couple of VA positions I am interested in and they look promising.

While I was away, I had some thoughts on where I'd like to take Snow Top Quilts and I'd like your opinion. My thought was to set up a quilting retreat or camp somewhere in Colorado. My first thought was at the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, CO -the place where they filmed The Shinning- and have some guest speakers, as well as some quilting teachers for 3-4 days. My questions to you are:
Where would you like to go for a quilt retreat/camp?
How many days would you be willing to go for? 3-4 days? 7 days?
Who would you like to see teaching at the quilt retreat?
What classes would you like to take?
How many people would you be comfortable taking a class with?
I am working on finding locations all over the state of Colorado and hope to have a good idea of when, where, who, and how much by the end of the February. Send me an email with your answers to: MichelleHalverson@SnowTopQuilts.com

Just a little Quilter Love

This weekend my family and I had a garage sale to help downsize our stuff for the move. I decided to put some extra quilt patterns out there from my stash. What I ended up with was a small group of ladies sitting around keeping me company for about an hour. We all had a lot of fun sitting and chatting, first about quilting and then about life. It was a lovely time. Amazing how quilters always seem to find each other.

The big move...

My family and I are finally making the much anticipated move from Wisconsin to Colorado. We will be leaving here in 3 weeks. In that 3 weeks, I am planning on having a garage sale to lighten the load in the moving truck, we have to pack up our dvd's and clothes and some of the girl's toys but for the most part we are packed since we never really unpacked from our last move 6 months ago.

We are all very excited to make this move and finally start to live our life long dream of being in the mountains. Megan is so excited she keeps telling everyone that she is moving to mountains and every day she says good bye to the hay bails behind our house.

There are a lot of things to pack for the girl's in the car. I will make home made granola for a snack, thanks to a friend from another forum. Here is the recipe:

Simple Granola

1/2 c oil
1/2 c honey
1/4 c b sugar
1T vanilla
Heat these in a large pan for 3 or 4 mins on a boil. I use a roasting pan.

Remove from the heat and add
7c rolled oats
1c wheat germ
1/2t salt
1/2c almonds
1/2 coconut
Other things I add(it just depends what I have on hand)sunflower seeds,sesame seeds, rice crispies(if am a little short on oats). Add what ever you like. I put the raisins & cranraisins in when the granola is cooling.

I bake it in A 350' oven. Stir every 10/15mins until it is light brown. Browns fast.
When cool store in air tight containers.

MMMMMMmmmmmmmm eat by the hand full~~anytime.

Of course, we'll have trail mix and Sam's club is a good place to get those small bags of gram crackers and boxes of raisins.

I made them activity boards out of small cookie sheets and scrapbook paper and stickers. We made these a few months ago and I have yet to laminate them. Again thanks to a lifelong friend of mine I will be stopping by Michael's to get some foam magnets. We also went to Target and got two small magna doodles for them to color on while we are in the car. One of our dogs eats color crayons and markers are just a bad idea.

I am so excited!

Somethings every quilter should have...

in their sewing basket. Last night I was working on some hand sewing for a custom valance and I had to rip out some stitches. While I was ripping out these stitches, I had to adjust my light and when I did that I accidentally put my seam ripper through part of my thumb. There were no band aids or neosporin in my basket so I had to rummage through the first aid kit to find what I needed. Then it occurred to me, I should keep these things in my basket with me to avoid having to search for them. Now in my sewing basket I have band aids, neosporin, and anti-septic wipes. Just something for all to think about.

Question 4 of 5.

Still waiting for the right answers to yesterdays questions!

Here is question set 4 of 5

1. What years in the 1800's was the Baltimore Album most popular?

2. Who is the founder of the Quilt In A Day books and company?