MR. CATFISH AGAIN ~ ~ ~

Here's one more picture of the Catfish! I had two really good mornings of hooking time this week and it makes a huge difference! Many times, I'm hooking late at night and it's an hour here and an hour there ~ but I really covered some ground this week!

The points of the star are being hooked in antique paisley ~ therefore, I'm leaving them till last. I hooked one point early on and it is so shreddy (if that's a word) from lifting it off and on the frame, that I decided I would wait till the rest of the rug was done ~ put it on the frame one last time ~ and hook all the points at the same time!! Good thinking, hm?

Well, the one thing I did not realize until yesterday, is that I had picked up a piece of paisley from several pieces I am lucky enough to have ~ and it wasn't from the nice big piece that I bought ~ but just a small remnant ~ therefore, I only have enough of that particular burnt orange color to hook one more point!!!!!!!! So ~ my decision now is to cut the remnant and muddle it in with the other paisley that I have lots of ~ or maybe reverse-hook that one point and start over. That will be very hard for me ~ as that paisley will be lost, since it shreds so badly ~ and I am pretty opposed to reverse hooking unless absolutely necessary!! My friend, Heidi, has offered me to look at her paisley stash and see if there is a match there ~ if not, the dilemma begins!! But I'm not going to stress about it until the rest of the hooking is done ~ I'll let you know!! I know ~ it's not brain surgery ~ but a piece of hand-made folk art that doesn't have to be perfect, as long as it's made with love ~ and this piece I do dearly love!!!

If you've never hooked with antique paisleys, they can be very fragile and the wider the cut, the better! But the life and light it gives to a piece is just amazing to me!! When I suggested to Barbara Carroll, as we were color planning this rug, that I use the paisley ~ she agreed ~ that was the PERFECT thing to use in that place on the rug!! Yippee ~ I was a happy camper!! So stick around ~ it will all work out!!

Our builder's association had their annual golf outing today and I drove one of the 'beverage' carts along with two of our daughters-in-law and a variety of other people!! How fun!!! I've done this for years and it's just a great fun day for the old girl!!! It is really heart-warming to me, to be greeted so warmly by all the old guys that we've known for years and all the young guys that are friends of our kids and of us!! We all need all the positive strokes we can get and this was just a great fun day out in the sun with people who work so hard in the building industry and related services!!! This has been a challenging year, not only for our industry but for many ~ so it was just great to see everybody laughing and enjoying the day!! The serious golfers weren't laughing so much ~ they were out to win!! And one of the bonuses is that my son belongs to the country club where they played ~ and he had the wait staff put my 'beverages' on his tab ~ that's a Happy Day for a mother, when the kids pay your bill!!!!!!!

More tomorrow ~ have a good evening!
Alice