TODAY'S PROGRESS ~ ~ ~

This evening, I spent a couple hours filling in around the squiggles with neutrals. It doesn't seem like it's moving very fast but I really like the results. I'm even digging onto the worm basket and using a few random neutrals to add to it and give even more variety ~ quite a unique effect!

Hope you're enjoying your weekend! We had grandson Logan today ~ took him to breakfast and then he spent the afternoon with gramps ~ they ran errands until Logan thought he needed to go home! He said gramps acts just like his dad ~ wonder what that meant!!

NEWSFLASH!!!  Elinor Barrett is a fellow rug hooker that I met in Tipp City two years ago.  We struck up a conversation and have touched base several times since then.  Well, Elinor has big news ~ she is taking over Rhonda Manleys "Black Sheep Wool Designs" and I was excited when I heard she is the new owner!  Check out the new website and watch for new patterns!  Congratulations, Elinor ~ and much success to you in your new adventure!!!

Hope you all have a good rest of the weekend!!
Alice






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SQUIGGLES ~ ~ ~

Once again, I'm posting right from my phone! Maybe I'll post more often since I don't have to download every picture to the computer!



This morning, I took time to get these squiggles hooked in to the lower right corner of The Rooster Pair. There is one more line to do and then the background fill-in can begin. It's definitely a good way to use up leftover wool worms! My worm basket is fairly small because I cut as I go but there is plenty to choose from and this rug is making a nice dent in it!

Tonite, I had great fun talking via Skype to my very oldest friend, Kay! We have been friends for probably 63+ years! Can you imagine? That's a very long time ~ since before I went to school! I value my friends, old and new, and love to stay in touch. Then, my former sister-in-law Skyped me and I got to talk to her for a while!! The only bad thing about Skype is if you're having a bad hair day and are still in your jammies, you can't hide it!

I'm off to jump on the treadmill for a bit ~ I need to put in about 5 miles!! Yesterday, St. Peters church had their Easter bake sale ~ those ladies bake the best poticas (nut rolls) and rum cakes and the best cabbage rolls and potato salad ~ it's all sitting on my hips tonite! Ta ta for now!
Alice

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Experiment ~ ~ ~

Hey! It's working ~ in spite of me!! With the help of 12 year old Luke, I have finally uploaded Blogpress, so that I can post pictures right from my iPhone! Woo hoo!


This is my birthday present from my Seattle kids ~ orange is my favorite color and DIL Coni took that to heart!! Handbag, beach hat and scarf/sarong!! Coni and I share the same birthday ~ March 25!!

So my first time efforts at Blogpress are deemed a success!
Ta ta for now!!



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ROOSTER PAIR & VACATION PIX ~ ~ ~

The last two evenings, I hooked a bit and filled in the upper right corner down to the bottom of his rooster tail!  When I really look at this rug, I can consider that it is two-thirds done!  Woo hoo!

Here's a close-up of the area but the photo is a little light . The overall look of this rug is making me very happy ~ if I would hook every day, it could be done in a week or so! 

 This is one of the things I picked up last weekend ~ I think it will look good with white geraniums at the front door of our lake place.  They'll have to be artificial since we aren't there to water but it will jazz up the entry ~ and the words are so true!!

SHARKS TEETH!! A lot of them, aren't there?  This is what kept us occupied like it was job while we were in Florida in February.  We had our noses to the sand for 15 of our 16 days ~ you might say, we were obsessed!!  We kept the biggest ones for ourselves and divided the rest among the grandkids ~ they each got a nice bag full! 

 

This was Sonny and his new friend!  This little bird followed him down the beach one morning and as Sonny dumped out his scooper, the little bird searched for  sea creatures!  It was pretty darn funny!

Each day, I took a picture of our 'catch of the day' and this was all from one morning. I picked up little beaded jewelry bags and put the pink shells in them for the little girls ~ they loved it!  And we were fascinated with shell skeletons ~ a lot of those came home, too!  We had the idea to string them together for windchimes but the prototype doesn't do much for either of us!  They might end up in a nice bowl somewhere!

Isn't she a hoot?  I loved this gal ~ a yard ornament, hanging from the trees,  near the shops at the Fishery.  Click to get a closeup view ~ there are little round mirrors on her wings!  I want one!!!

We had just the best time on our little adventure!  We've never been gone for that long before and having a wonderful sitter for Tad, was one of the things that enabled us to do it!  We saw so many people we know ~ rug hooking friends, Arlene and MJ and their husbands, my Canadian cousins, Linda and John, who were wintering down there,  Dick and Roberta that I grew up with in our little town of Homerville,  friends Peter and Adeline (our kids were married to each other ~ they got divorced but we didn't!), our lake friends, Kathy and Jim (they took us to that jewelry store The Best of Everything) and Sonny's old school chum, Charley!  We ate some wonderful food, drank some tasty cocktails, saw some wonderful art, went to farm markets, and walked the beach every day!

Last but not least, our dear friends, Diane and Greg ~ they are the other reason we were in Florida!  We shared their condo and overlapped our times, so we were able to be together for four days!  We had great fun and tried to pack in as much as time would allow!  Thank you, friends!

This weekend will begin our fun times at the lake and we can't wait!!  Let the party begin!!!!!

Alice

TWO "DAYS IN THE LIFE" ~ ~ ~

 Beautiful aren't they?  Skeins of hand-dyed roving for your viewing pleasure!!  This weekend at the wholesale market, this was just waiting to come home with me!  Love it!  I'll be packaging this in smaller amounts along with compatible yarns & fibers to sell in April at The Gathered Treasures show ~ probably keeping some for my stash, too!

These "Wool" signs will be for sale and I picked up some dinner napkins to cover our small hooking frames ~ they make a nice little cover for those pokey wires!  Other than that, there wasn't a lot there for me ~ the one market is making a practice of letting people in on set-up day, so by the actual day of the market, things are pretty picked over ~ note to self ~ be one of those that goes the day before!  I'm a slow learner!!

I was going to start out this post by saying last week was uneventful ~ but, really, I was pretty busy!  Went to Columbus to two markets, met friend Lori for a nice lunch, shopped, got an oil change in the car, went to Whole Foods (such a fun place to buy groceries!), got a new pair of shoes at DSW where I just happened to ask if they keep coupons on record ~ they do ~ there were $20 in coupons waiting for me!! Woo Hoo!!!  That was Friday and part of Saturday ~ Saturday evening we went to the St. Baldrick's fundraiser where friend Melody was getting her head shaved for kids' cancer research ~ had dinner with them and stopped at the Happy Grape on the way home!  And Friday night, we worked the gate at the Builders Home Show!!   That was a full two days!! 

Procrastination is my middle name ~ today ~ right now ~ I'm sitting in this office and getting the taxes ready for the accountant and not leaving until it's done!  Well, I have to leave Wednesday to get my nails done ~ and Thursday to take Marge to lunch, etc. etc.!!  Ta ta for now, friends!!
Alice

MORE ROOSTER PAIR ~ ~ ~

Blogfriend, Saundra wanted to see the rug all stretched out ~ here it is, girlie!!  In the last three evenings, I've hooked the area from the red squiggle to the area over the right rooster's tail.  Not a lot each time but it takes me a long time to do a hit and miss style!

Here it is, up close and personal!  I hook the colored strips out of my leftover strip basket, a little mindful of the color but not a lot.  Some are skinny and some are 8's and 9's, just using what I have.  Then fill in with the neutral background wool .

These four wools are pretty  much in all the same values ~ I love that word ~ it makes me sound like I know what I'm talking about!  But ~ you do get a nice all over effect and it works well with the shots of color coming from the squigggles!  When I took classes from Karen Kahle the last couple of years, she really did help get that to sink into my brain!!  By the way, Karen has a great new blog ~ check it out!!

This morning the mail lady drove right in the drive, so I knew she had something important other than envelopes!!  Just look ~ a present for moi!!! Such a cute little stitched wabbit in a pot with a cute little hang tag and he brought his own grass!!  I have been wrestling with this cold all week ~ feeling very poorly ~ and sweet friend, Charisse (one of my hooking pals) sent this to me to make me all better!!  I love it and even more, I love that Charisse cared enough to do that for me!!  Look ~ I'm better already!!!  Thank you so much, Charisse ~ she's like an angel ~ so happy to have her and her other pals as my friends!!

Sonny has worked at Kelley's Island all week ~ I was gonna have some fun ~ meet this one and that one for lunch and wine in the evening, etc.  Instead, I had cocktails of benadryl, Motrin, vicks on my chest, and stayed wrapped up in my blankie ~ what a bummer!!  Still not top notch but I have to meet Sonny at the ferry this evening and then we're seeing a customer tomorrow.  Thank goodness, I have Tad's sitter coming to stay with him ~ the last thing he needs is to be trapped in a car with this coughing, sneezing mother!!! 

I hope you've been able to stay germ free and are anxiously awaiting Spring!  Remember to Spring forward tomorrow night ~ won't that be fun!!  I've kind of lost the spring in my step right now so maybe that will help!!! 

Alice

BACK TO THE ROOSTER RUG ~ ~ ~

 After finishing the 1668 Geometric ~ which by the way came from a design on an old Bible box (Barb told me) ~ Magdalena's Rooster Pair is back on the frame.  The last three evenings have been spent doing a little hooking that filled in over his cockscomb and the area to the right of his head!  So progress is being made!!  Woo hoo!!

These beautiful pieces of dyed indigo mandalas and a moon and a couple of pieces of kimono silk, arrived in the 

mail the other day!  They're from Glennis Dolce ~ Shibori Girl ~ I love her indigo dying!  This is the second packet I've ordered ~ now, to make them into something! If you get a chance, drop over to see her artistic endeavors!  

We were at the lake this weekend ~ made a trip to Kelley's Island Friday afternoon in the rain, with the wind kicking up!  Sonny had to check on a job that he'll be doing and since the ferry was running and the Village Pump was opening ~ off we went!  We had a two hour window to be there as the ferry is on short hours ~ we checked out the job and got to the Pump for a couple of cocktails and back on the ferry we got!!  Sonny did some beach glass hunting alone on Saturday and on Sunday, we parked the truck by the roadside on the way out of town and picked up these!!  Look at the beautiful turquoise perfectly round nugget that Sonny found!!  It was worth the stop in the cold and the wind!!  We are obsessed!!

I'm in the throes of a winter head cold ~ the kind where you'd like to cut your head off at the neck and be done with it!!  I've missed some fun things in the last two days because of it ~ one of them being that Luke was coming over this evening ~ he opted out ~ didn't want gramma's germs before they go on vacation!  Can't blame him much ~ smart kid!! 

Take care and if you can, stay away from your germy friends!!!  Talk to you in a couple of days!!
Alice

NEW RUG ~ ~ ~

Ta da!!  After a year and a half, this rug is finally finished!!  Last weekend at the lake, this rug and I spent some quality time together and the last Dresden plate design on the right got filled in.   This Woolley Fox pattern is titled "1668 Geometric".  Each design is done in a different color way of various antique paisleys and I think it turned out beautifully!

This is it's new home in front of an antique red jelly cupboard.  It looks great there and won't get a lot of wear in that out-of-the-way place.  Although the fabrics have been around many years, I just don't want to abuse them with a lot of foot traffic.  So ~ one rug finish completed ~ about four more unfinished rugs to go!

Last weekend was kind of a creative burst for me!  This is a bracelet that I picked up in Florida and then adorned with bits of beach glass that we collect.  These bracelets were in the beach shops and sold for $26 ~ I made this one for less than that, for sure!  Wish I had bought more! 

Sonny and I also like to pick up heart stones ~ I'm always kind of touched when he hands me one that he's found ~ a silent 'I love you' ~ at least, that's what I like to think!!  Glued to the glass of a simple picture frame, they make a nice little addition to this table arrangement!

Last weekend, we hit the lake beaches again ~ Sonny went out Friday and Saturday and finally, on Sunday, I joined him! It was cold up there ~ but look what we gathered!!  And we found tiny pieces of red and blue ~ so tiny that they only show up on top of another piece of glass. I'm always amazed that we can find these itsy bitsy pieces of glass but why in the world can't I find my car keys!!! 

I still want to post pix of our vacation ~ we had such a great time that I want to share it!  If you're a Facebook friend, you got to see probably more than you wanted to ~ I posted every day ~ sometimes more ~ of all the fun and silly stuff we did!!  Maybe the next post will be a bit of that!

Many of us are on the Pinterest site, which I enjoy immensely!  But, I see there is some controversy about the ability to 'steal' design ideas and posting pictures of others work that maybe we shouldn't be posting!  My thought is that it is an online scrapbook, much like we have clipped recipes and photos out of magazines,  of things that inspire us  ~ now we can 'pin' them to our Pinterest boards.  Evidently, others are using it in a different manner.  One of my blog friends has even deleted her account there as it just expanded the potential for her designs to be copied by others. I don't know how I feel about it ~ do any of you have an opinion?

Nice to be back in blogland ~ but now I need to go vacuum up the Mr. Kitty hair that's floating around here ~ and do a few other housemaid's duties ~ I'd rather be on vacation!!  Have a great weekend everybody!