56 GASPARILLA MAGAZINE May/June 2020
Above, the “Americana” bedroom. Below, the
“Nautical” room. At left, the exapnsive kitchen in the
retreat. Far bottom photo is the “Around the World”
room, which has a view of the backyard and the
alpacas.
“I think a lot of people who come here are younger,” Becky
said. “They work all week, and they want a place to go and be
themselves, hang out with their friends, have drinks, sit in the
spa, sometimes just stay in their pajamas and have fun.”
Becky is a West Virginia girl, born and raised. Her family put
up canned goods and made food from scratch, as well as
clothing. That is how she became crafty herself, in fact. She is a
craftswoman who loves to work with her hands, particularly
when it comes to mixed media, fi ber art, scrapbooking, quilting
and knitting.
“I grew up with my mom making all my clothes,” she said.
“My aunt made all of my prom dresses and fancier things. My
favorite type of work is sewing, specifi cally making them, and
altering and repairing them. When my boys were little and I
would make their clothes, the fabric for boys was four colors
- gray, black, brown and navy blue. Instead, I would buy bright,
pretty colors and make matching outfi ts for all of them.”
Becky had many crafty friends back in Ohio, where she met
Jerry. There were “crafting houses” there as well, where
women would get together just as they can at Becky and
Jerry’s Alpaca Retreat. While there were quilting and
scrapbooking houses in the north, she has yet to fi nd one in
this state … except for her own.
The idea for the retreat was Becky’s
as well, and it all started with a complete
fl uke. After attending an estate sale she
came home with several bags of fi ne
alpaca yarn.
“Not long after that I went to a scrapbooking
house with some friends, and
that house had miniature horses,” she
explained. “We were getting rowdy one
night and I brought up the question as
to what I should do with the alpaca yarn.
After more than a few ribald suggestions
we decided someone would have to buy
an alpaca, because they were so cute …
even cuter than mini horses. Someone
said one of us needed to buy a scrapbook
house and have alpacas there. And that’s
how it started.”
After Becky met Jerry, they moved to
Texas for quite some time and loved it
there, but their children and grandchildren