RUG FINISH AND OTHER THINGS ~ ~ ~

Here it is! My Tipp City rug is done ~ except for the binding of course! I'm going to serge it and prepare to bind it this weekend while waiting for my ride to Ligonier! Hopefully, I can finish another little rug that's waiting in the wings and I can have that one ready for binding as well! I do like the way this turned out and have a couple of places in mind to hang it!  I'm going to embellish the crow with some nice beads that used to be an earring!

Just a little p.s. I want to insert here ~ this rug is hooked in a 9 cut ~ my cut of choice.  Karen Kahle's rugs appear to be an 8, maybe 8.5.  When consulting with her on this background, I asked her if I should scale mine down to get the effect that I want and she said "don't change your cut ~ see how it works for you".  As I progressed that day in class, Karen came by and said "well, now we know it can be done in a wide cut"!  I was glad to get her approval as I was concerned whether it would blend as well as the narrower strips of wool!  It seems to work pretty well!

 Last week, I was gifted with this wonderful book!  It has pictures of all the wonderful antique rugs that we saw in an exhibition while in England four years ago.  It is the private collection of the open-air Beamish museum and the rugs we saw first hand are in here plus many more that were not on exhibit!  And on the back pages, there is a picture of some of our fellow travelers/hookers trying their hand at proddy at a reception the hosting rug hookers group had for us ~ my hooking buddy, Heidi, and several others ~ me, I was probably at the tea and crumpet table!!!  I'm thrilled to have this book ~ I had heard about it but didn't expect to have my very own!  Thank you, friend!!!!

This guy gave me quite a lot of pleasure yesterday morning!!  Mr. Fox!!!  We have lived on this property for 17 years and owned it for 20 ~ never have we seen a fox here until now!  Yesterday morning, I was sitting at my desk and a movement out the window caught my eye ~ at first, I thought it was a dog!  Then, I realized it was a fox rushing by!  I grabbed my camera and when he saw me walk to the window, it was ta ta ~ I'm outta here!!  About 20 minutes later, he comes back! I grabbed the camera again and ran to the dining room windows, hoping to catch him as he went by that end of the house ~ and there he was ~ contemplating walking up the deck stairs!  I snapped a couple of pictures but the setting was too dark and he was hard to see.  While I changed the setting, he jumped up on this stump but so rudely turned his little head!  Even so, I was thrilled to get his picture taken through the window ~ then he ran down into the woods and played in the creek for a while and then he was off, as quickly as he came!     
 
Yesterday was my day for wildlife!  I was out cutting back hostas over by the waterfall and heard this rustling below me on the drive to the gravel pit ~ there were three deer staring up at me ~ two even took a step toward me!!  No camera then ~ I stood really still just like they do to let them make their next move!  They eventually turned and sauntered down the drive ~ not really afraid at all.  About 20 minutes later, I went in the house and came back out and heard rustling again and there they were ~ right up in the area where I had been working!  I guess they were checking out my progress!  I was pretty amazed that they would come there so soon ~ I had a fun day here in the woods!
 
We kept Luke and Luci for a couple of days while their parents were gone.  Saturday,  we took them on a field trip to Amish country down in Holmes county!  We went to Hershbergers animal farm and bakery ~ a lovely combination of businesses, don't you think?   This place was crawling with cars and people ~ lots of animals for the kids to pet and observe ~ goats on the roof of the barn ~ that was funny ~ by the time I got my phone out to take their picture, the goats had gone back down their little ladder!  The bakery was jam packed with people standing in line to buy fry pies and donuts and other goodies ~ fry pies that melt in your mouth, by the way!!  We left there and headed to Charm to the Keim lumber company ~ that was Grandpa and Luke ~ Luci and I went to Mrs. Miller's fabric store!  Then we all hit the boot store ~ I bought a pair of Born shoes ~ and then to Grandma's Homestead for a nice lunch of comfort food!!  From there to the cheese factory ~ they don't make cheese on Saturday (too bad ~ I wanted the kids to see that) but they do sell it ~ lots of it!! 
 

 From there, we headed to Trail, where Aunt Gwen (she is my former sister-in-law but I won't go away) has the Vogt Store, which dates back to 1888.  Now, she sells antiques and junque (doesn't that put a different spin on it?) and I bought a little blue twig table for the lake!   Cute, isn't it?  It's painted with a light blue milk paint over white ~ perfect for Tad's room ~ not that he'll think so!
 
After Aunt Gwen's (which the kids thought was quite interesting), we headed to Troyer's big store on the way back into Berlin.  They were having lots of tastings and we finished off our trip with ice cream cones!  It was a fun day for one and all!
 
I almost forgot to tell you about our Thursday evening fun!  It was our friend, Cliff's, 80th birthday and his wife hired a limousine to take them and four couples to Columbus to meet their daughter and son-in-law at a steak house for dinner!  As far as Cliff knew, Sonny and I were picking them up to go to dinner here ~ but we all met the limo in a parking lot and showed up in their driveway ~ he was very surprised and we had a great time!!  His wife, Margo, had chilled champagne and a cheese plate squirreled away so that we wouldn't get thirsty on our way to dinner ~ she's so thoughtful!!!  Their daughter was waiting at the door and had a private dining room for us, complete with waiting appetizers ~ so we wouldn't go hungry before  dinner ~ they are the perfect hosts!  We really had a  wonderful evening and I don't know what I said, but one of the gals at the other end of the table said "next time, I want to sit by you"!!!!!!  I really tried to be on my best behavior ~ but I did lose an earring sometime that night!! 
 
Other than that, it was a pretty quiet week!!  Oh,  I must tell you that Sonny has the cleanest wallet in town!!  I flew thru the bedroom and grabbed his work jeans and threw them in the last load of laundry the other evening!!  When I opened the washer, his wallet was FLOATING ON TOP!!!!!!!!  I nearly croaked!  And I laughed so hard, I'm surprised he didn't hear me!!!  Then, I took everything out and laid it all neatly on the dryer ~ stuffed the wallet compartments with toilet paper to soak up the moisture ~ turned the dryer on and sneaked into bed!!  In the morning, when he was looking for his wallet, I just mentioned that it was on the dryer!!  Let's just say that it's a good thing he doesn't have my disposition!!  He laughed and put it all back together ~ the only thing that didn't survive was his fishing license and fishing season is over!!!!  Now that I think about it, I think that was his lifetime one ~ a one-time purchase cause he's old!  Oh, shit!  Thank goodness, he isn't prone to spousal abuse!!!! 
 
So that's it here in the gravel pit ~ you do have to have a sense of humor to live here!!  I hope something fun is happening in your life!  Ta ta for now ~
Alice