This is a progress picture of the Leicester sheep rug I'm working on ~ I took a little break to finish the hands rug ~ and I hooked a little bit last week on this. It won't take long if I stick to it ~ I'm floundering on my 'hook some every day' resolution that I made ~ and it shows!!!

My friend and customer, Lauren, sent me this photo of her rug that she recently finished!! I think it's great and she said it's her biggest rug so far! Some of the wool came from me and I really appreciate her letting me see her finished product ~ very antiquey looking! Okay, Lauren ~ what's next??

One snowy day last week, grandchildren, Jordyn and Logan, came for the afternoon with their dad. Jordyn came in from the Grandpa's shop with this unpainted finial and said she wanted to paint it but she said "I'm not a very good painter" and she thought it would look good with a face on it!! I told her I thought I could paint a face on it so we went to my hooking studio ~ where I have all kinds art supplies that aren't hooking related ~ I've done lots of different things thru the years! So, this is how her unpainted finial came to life and Jordyn wants to put it on a shelf in her room and hang her necklaces from it!! Pretty darned clever of her ~ she's a first grader!! And Logan got a painted pumpkin face to take home ~ I forgot to take a picture but he was sooo happy!! He's almost five and he made such a sad face last week when he saw the hands rug ~ he said "BoBo (that's my grandma name) why did you draw my hand so little??!!" He was too young to remember that I drew his little hand when he was not quite two years old!! They went up to see the rug again last night ~ I can see that it really interests the little kids to see their hands and names hooked into a rug ~ good call, Grandma!!!

Last week, Sonny turned the big 65!! Holy crow ~ I never thought I would be married to a 65 year old~ of course, I'm not far behind!! We celebrated by going to a 4th grade strings concert for grandson, Luke (very nice by the way!) and then Luke's parents (my son Ted and Miki) took us out for dinner ~ that was a nice bonus ~ and the Mexican waiters sang a lovely rendition of Happy Birthday to the old guy while he wore a big sombrero!! A good time was had by all!! Friday night, we had dinner at The Garden up at the lake with friends and last night, Sonny's son Chris and family brought chocolate cheesecake for his dad's birthday!! The celebrating goes on and on ~ and we're glad!!

It's really cold here in Ohio again ~ 7 degrees this morning! I hope you're all warm and toasty wherever you are!
Alice