PENDLETON MILLS

I have this thing about blankets and coverlets. I have accumulated enough to keep every homeless person in the city of Denton warm, all winter long! I have bought my own and I have received them as gifts. I have purchased clearance priced fleece blankets at Wal Mart for as little as $2 to keep in the car for emergency. Granted, living in Texas, that doesn't actually happen but I AM prepared none the less! I have of course, my favorites. Dave bought me a beautiful pine cone coverlet years ago that I put away because I was tired of the endless parade of teenage boys crashing on our couch, who after an all-nighter, X-Box marathon, used my beautiful coverlet to cover themselves. I have the Old Faithful Inn Centennial coverlet from 2004 and I have recently (2013 and 2014)bought the centennial coverlets from Glacier Park Lodge and Lake McDonald Lodge inside Glacier National Park. Next year is the centennial for the many Glacier Hotel and I will certainly get that one too! I hung the 2013 Glacier Park Lodge Centennial coverlet over the footboard of the guest bed.

I've never owned a "snuggie" but I did give one to my Mom to keep her warm when she was going through her chemo treatments. I told her it was my way of wrapping my arms around her since I was so far away. There's just something about burying ones self within the folds of a blanket, feeling its softness and breathing in the scent of your favorite fabric softener...one word that immediately comes to mind: comforting.

There is a difference however between woven coverlets, fleece and woolen blankets. This sometimes secret love affair of mine involves Pendleton. In 2010, long before we found the Mountainview Hideaway, it was the centennial of my favorite national park, Glacier. I have this thing about centennials as I am sure you have figured out. It's my goal to visit those national parks that are celebrating their centennials within my lifetime. When we spotted the Pendleton commemorative blanket, made especially for Glacier's centennial, we splurged and bought it! Two years later on our 2012 trip to Glacier with Dave's brother and his wife, they surprised us with a gift of a Pendleton blanket, this one had the symbolic red jammer on it. After buying our home in Montana and the remodel of the guest bedroom was complete, we moved the two Glacier Pendleton's in there, in keeping with the them of the bedroom. They are on display on this KIVA ladder that I picked up in Idaho in April 2013.

In 2011, after Dave had his surgery for prostate cancer, we went to his happy place for a week, Yellowstone. While we were there he spotted Pendleton's Yellowstone blanket with Old Faithful on it and we purchased it for him. Pendleton makes several National Park blankets (Acadia, Badlands, Yellowstone, Glacier, Grand Canyon, Yosemite, Crater Lake, Ranier and their newest, celebrating Rocky Mountain NP's centennial in 2015. I might be in trouble since we have our family vacation planned to Colorado next year, visiting RMNP of course!)I am really loving the colors!

Back to Dave's blanket...

I ordered another KIVA ladder from a local furniture maker in Kalsipell back in April so I could display his blanket in the family room, AKA "The Yellowstone Room". I could write another blog entry about cramming that thing into our rental car on our most recent trip. We wanted to save a little money so we rented a Chevy Impala as opposed to an SUV. IT took us a solid 15 minutes to load it up diagonally in the car but I digress... Here's the end result, I love how it turned out! To the right, draped over the rocking chair is the Old Faithful Inn centennial coverlet.

We have purchased towel sets, of Glacier and Yellowstone too. I am more about how pretty they look and Dave is all about using them. I am thinking my pretty Glacier ones will outlast his! Here they are in our downstairs, western themed bathroom.

We both have the big coffee mugs and for the time being I have put them on the nightstands in the guest bedroom. Great for keeping track of small stuff: Dave's car keys and change in his or I keep my jewelry in mine when getting ready for bed. You can see them in one of the previous pictures of the guest bedroom.

I just spotted this on their website and I think this has to go on my wish list. Seriously, this is gorgeous!

I left a few of our games up at the house, our old backgammon set amongst them. I can just picture Dave and I setting up the games on a chilly winter day with the snow falling outside, sitting next to the wood stove while the smell of bread baking and soup simmering in the crockpot fills the air.... Can't you?