New Blog

This blog is now inactive.  Please follow me on my new blog:
http://www.heatherhaider.com/blog-2/

Gallery Opening Night

A little over a week ago I got involved with the Art/Not Terminal Gallery in Seattle.  I put some items in the gift shop, and I've already sold 2 pieces!  If you remember back a while, I posted pictures of an orange cat I had crocheted and also a little Roly-Poly Rasta Monster.  These have both found new homes.

Tonight is opening night at Art/Not Terminal from 7 to 10 pm.  I'm happy to announce that I'll have a painting in the show.  If you are in the Seattle area, please feel free to stop by and check out all the awesome art.  There are some very talented artists and I'm looking forward to it!

Silly Monster

I was really having a great time making monsters yesterday and completed another old lady pants monster, as inspired by the book Closet Monsters by John Murphy.

Here is the before photo:

Turns out the inside of these pants looks very different than the outside, and I thought it looked perfect for monster skin.

Here is the creature I came up with, out of those ugly pants:

I have to tell you, this monster is totally as crazy as he looks, but he's also a lot of fun to hang out with.

Monsters!

I thought I would eventually finish writing about my trip in Montana, but since it's been 2 1/2 months since I've been back, I guess it's just never going to happen.

So what have I been doing in that time?  Well....
I've been making Monsters!

They are upcycled from old, ugly clothes.  Here are my first 2 creatures.

The one on the left is named Toothless, also sometimes called Gappy.  He was made from a pair of old lady's green polyster pants, probably from the 70's.

The one on the left is George.  He's made from an Old Navy turtleneck sweater shirt.  He spawned on Richard's birthday, September 18th.  He is currently spending time at the Art/Not Terminal gallery gift shop in Seattle, if you'd like to visit him.

Andy was too attached to Toothless to let him go with his friend, so I had to make a new friend for Toothless.

Here's how it started:

Then I got this:

Then after challenging myself to the max, I felt a bit like Frankenstein must have when turning the switch on HIS monster as I put the last bits of stuffing in.

Here is the monster I finished today to befriend Toothless:

What will I make next?

Glacier National Park~ Polebridge & Hidden Meadow- July 14, 2012

I think we would all agree that one of the best days of our entire vacation was the day we went to Polebridge-- a tiny little speck of a town in the north-east portion of Glacier Park, not too far from the Canadian border.  Here is the road to Polebridge.

The road near Polebridge

This is the road approaching Polebridge.

Approaching Polebridge

There were signs along the road that said "Slow Down!  People breathing" and "DUST is a four letter word!"  In the distance of the above photo you can see our destination-- the Polebridge Mercantile, or just "The Merc" as it's known to the locals.

The Polebridge Mercantile- could you guess?

What is it about this place that made it so special?  Impossible to describe in words.  You have to be there.  The old west charm, the out-of-the-way-ness about it, but most of course THE BAKERY!

Yum!

Here I am, inhaling the aromas of the freshly baked bread behind me and enjoying my morning coffee, daydreaming about how we could transport the merc into our neighborhood.

Andy and Richard enjoying breakfast

We all enjoyed pastries.  I had a cinnamon roll with pecans, Andy had one with lots of frosting, and Richard's had huckleberries.  It was so good we didn't want to leave, but we weren't hungry anymore, either.  We sort of hung around until lunch, checking out the cool antiques and stuff inside while we waited.

Inside the Polebridge Mercantile

For lunch they make these sandwiches that have filling totally enclosed by their delicious bread.  It's sort of like a hot pocket, only a trillion zillion times better, baked by cute girls in Montana with love.  We took them to go, along with a loaf of their  Parmesan garlic pull-apart bread.  We had that for dinner with spaghetti.  Yes, it was so good we had Polebridge baked good for breakfast, lunch and dinner and would have taken up residence there if they'd let us.

When we reluctantly left the Polebrige merc, we headed past the ranger station, to a road that went above the valley and the town, to the Hidden Meadow trail.  Seeing how we were in the thick of bear country and there were no other people around, we though it wise to eat our delicious sandwiches in the car before our hike, rather than tempt the bears.  Yum yum yum!  They were SOOO good!

The Hidden Meadow trail was very pretty.  We passed by a lot of wildflowers and butterflies on the way to the meadow.

Not so Hidden Meadow

It was a very nice hike, despite the mosquitoes-- which there were a lot of!
We ended up back at Lake McDonald, near our campsite, to end the day.

Glacier National Park~ Apgar Village and Lake McDonald - July 13, 2012

On Friday July 13th, we needed some time to re-cooperate after our long hike to Trout Lake the day before.  Also it was time to say goodbye to Avalanche campsite, pack up and head to the next campsite.  We went outside the park past West Glacier to get some laundry done.  I read a book and Andy enjoyed the swings.  I'm not sure what Richard was doing.

Andy on the swings

We had hoped to camp next at Fish Creek, but when we arrived there the ranger informed us they were having problems with the bathrooms and probably didn't REALLY want to camp there.  So we set up camp at Apgar campsite instead.

Once our tent was staked we checked out the Apgar village.

Apgar Village

I loved the old school building they had converted into a gift shop.  I bought some gifts in this shop.

Apgar School- now gift shop

We spent some time checking out the Lake McDonald lodge.  Of course no photo album of Glacier would be complete without a photo of the red buses.

Red Buses outside of Lake McDonald Lodge

We had a late lunch/early dinner at the village and did some more shopping.  The highlight of the day was an evening cruise around Lake McDonald.  We all were looking forward to the rest and relaxation after so many hikes.

Andy and Richard waiting for the boat

Above is a photo of Andy and Richard on the dock, waiting for our boat.

The boat we rode

The boat ride was about an hour long.  It was fun and I learned a lot from the tour guide.  Unfortunately since it was dusk the photos didn't turn out as well as I had hoped.  We did get to see a mother white tail deer and her 2 fawns before we had to come back.

Glacier National Park~ Trout Lake- July 12, 2012

Thursday July 12th we decided to hike over Howe Ridge to Trout Lake.  We didn't know what we were in for when we started.  Here are Andy and Richard near the beginning of our journey that day.

Note:  they are smiling.

This was a very steep trail and it seemed very long, although the trail to Cobalt Lake was actually longer I think.  This trail was 3.7 miles each way, with an elevation gain of over 2,000 vertical feet in the first 2.5 miles.  Then it went down steeply 1,300 vertical feet in just over a mile.  Oh, and did I mention it was in the 90's that day?

Trout Lake from Above

Here is a view of Trout Lake before the descent.  You can see trees from a previous fire.

We made it after all!  We were the only ones there so no one to take our family photo.

I pulled out my painting supplies and did a painting of this beautiful locale that we all worked so hard to get to.

Heather Painting Trout Lake

Here is the view of pretty much what I was looking at when I painted.

The mosquitoes were eating us alive, so after lunch and this painting we were back on our way.  It wasn't really much easier on the way back.  Actually it was harder for me, because it was steep going back with a million switchbacks, the blister pads on my feet didn't help and my blisters popped, and although we each started out with two bottles of water, it wasn't nearly enough and we ran out of water on the way back.  I don't know how much it's possible for a human being to sweat in a day, especially when dehydrated, but I'm sure we were doing maximum output.

Here's a photo on the way back.  Andy is sucking up some of the last of the water.  Notice no one is smiling now!  I collapsed on the way back, but I guess it was just briefly.  I was given 7 grapes and somehow just holding on to them and knowing I had them got me through the next mile, at which point I shared them with Richard and Andy.

Obviously we made it because I'm here writing this.  When we got back to the car we each drank a liter or 2 of water.  In retrospect I'm glad we went on this hike, but at the time it sure was a challenge!  It probably wouldn't have been so bad if it hadn't been soo hot, we'd had more water, and my boots were better broken in!