OH OH ~ ~ ~

Look what I learned to do yesterday!!!! I've been bitten by a new bug!!


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SATURDAY'S HOOK-IN ~ ~ ~

 Look how diligent these rug hookers are!  This was at Kingwood Center in Mansfield, Ohio last Saturday.  There were 85 gals all in one place, hooking up a storm!!  Katie Allman put it all together and did a great job ~ from hanging the rug show,  preparing the snacks, to organizing the silent auction and a lot in between ~ she does it all!




 Donna and Judy were in our room along with new friend,
Linda! She came to our house with the Columbus group a few weeks ago ~ nice to see her again!
(I have no clue why these words are highlighted ~ Blogger and I have a love/hate relationship ~ this would be one reason why!)

Kingwood Center is a lovely place to spend some time!  As we were schlepping stuff to our truck, this beautiful peacock was just sitting on the fence, watching us trek by!  He didn't flinch when I stopped to take his picture ~ beautiful bird, isn't he?

Here are a few of the rugs ~ I ran over at the end and snapped a few pix with my phone!  Nice roosters!

A great stool ~ wish the photo was a little better ~ it was cute as the dickens!!  Hooked by Rhonda of My Glory Stars!

The red flowers are hooked by Katie Allman and I'm not sure about the others.  This was really a striking rug!












There were some fun things in the silent auction and I was the proud winner of the  HOOKR bag by 31 ( I love their products!). Katie was the donor and had it stitched with this unique spelling!  I love it ~ thanks Katie for your generous donation!!

Last year, Katie had little bags of various yarns and ribbons to purchase for this year's challenge.  Of course, I did mine the night before ~ the pumpkin was hooked as a sample for a project and since the bits and pieces in the little bag were compatible colors, I got the bright idea to use them in a proddy edge! It worked out swell ~ I didn't win but I love my little pumpkin hooked into the linen backing!  There is a nice piece of orange plaid wool on the back and it's stuffed with wool lint from the dryer!!

It was a full weekend, to say the least!  Friend Jackie came from Pittsburgh to spend the night on Friday ~ she got to help set up that afternoon ~ lucky her!  We finished up Saturday morning and she joined some Ohio friends for the hook-in while Sonny and I manned our booth!  There were four wool vendors (Nancy Blair, Woolnuts, Roche River and me), Lana Omler with her own pattern designs, Larry Ault cutters and Lauren from Rugs and Pugs blog with her cute silver spoon rug hooker jewelry!  We had a good time and a busy day over in our building.  My friends, Charisse and Pam hooked in there along with Donna and her group and a few others. Thanks to all who stopped by  ~ we had a great day!  Even though, I've done shows for 30+ years, it's still a fun thing for me ~ imagine that!

Sunday, we took our friends Cliff and Margo, to the new casino in Cleveland!  It's in the old Higbee Department store where my mom would go to shop when I was a little girl!  It's very nice ~ we had a good  lunch at Michael Simon's burger place and left a little chunk of change in the casino's pocket!  If you like that kind of thing, maybe you'll take a trip to downtown Cleveland!

Yesteday, I drove to Columbus to have the car serviced and met a friend for lunch!!  And on it goes!!!  Life's a merry-go-round here!  The rest of the week is pretty wild, too!

DYEING IN THIS HEAT ~ ~ ~

 Thank goodness for air-conditioning!  Only a crazy woman (or one with a show looming close on the calendar) would dye wool in this weather!  Guess who that might be?!  This is some of the marbleizing that I did this week ~ I absolutely love the results ~ each piece looks like a little work of art to me!

This is yesterday's dyeing ~ trying some lighter colors ~ a little out of the box for me but I like them a lot!  Looks like flower wool! 

And lots of that muddy blue that I used as the background for the bee chairpads. I still have a few of the paper patterns left to sell! I also got some bent scissors in today (Dara, yours are on the way tomorrow!) so I'll be bringing those along Saturday, too! And a few new patterns from a local gal!

Hope to see some of you on Saturday at Kingwood for the hook-in ~ we're gonna have some fun ~ and the extreme heat will be gone by then!!  That's a good thing because I would melt into a puddle of grease if it was in the 90's like it is right now!  Of course, I am on my way to the ballfield ~ Luci and Jordyn have a tournament game!  Last night, I helped Luke at the concession stand ~ my second time in a week!  Years ago, I helped out when my boys were playing ball ~ it never occurred to me that so many years later, I'd be back there selling hot dogs and pizza to families that are calling it supper!  Just like the good old days!!

Okay ~ I'm on my way ~ to somewhere!  Have a good evening!

Alice  

FUN AND FRIENDS ~ ~ ~

 Sweet little lamb brought by one of my house guests!!  Last week, I had hookers come visit at the lake for a couple of days!!  We really had fun ~ laughed, ate, shopped ~ and hooked a little bit!

 We took a tour around the area ~ Pam, Sue and Charisse loved the Marblehead Lighthouse!  We went to Just for Ewe yarn shop, Cruisin' tunes for some cute tops, the Moose and Terry's Tavern in Bayview for perch (not in the same day) and in general, just tried to help the local economy!

These beautiful hollyhocks were in front of the Keeper's House at the Lighthouse ~ so pretty!  We've tried to grow them here at home but not enough sun ~ too bad because I love them!  When I was a little girl, family friend Mrs. Lang, used to make little dolls out of them for me!  A sweet little memory from a childhood that didn't have a lot of them!

This past weekend we went to Kelley's Island on Saturday to see potential customers!  We had such fun, we didn't come back to the mainland until yesterday ~ it helps to have friends who invite you stay over!! This was my lunch/supper at the Island House Martini Bar on Saturday ~ New England Lobster roll and Duck Fat Fries with drawn butter!  Need I say more about why I am pleasingly plump?!!  Oh ~ and they have peanut butter martinis ~ that is a happy thing if you like peanut butter!! 

After a nice breakfast yesterday at Dockers Marina, we finally made our way to the ferry.  But first, we got in a little beach glass hunting and watched two ferries come and go while we walked with our noses to the sand!  We got a couple of heart stones and small bits of pottery and some nice nuggets of glass ~ a nice little gathering of gems from the lake! 

And Friday night, we had fun with our friends Diane and Greg and our Kelley's friends, Janet and Tom! We met for dinner at a new/old place ~ Brandy's Steakhouse at the old Islander Grill in Port Clinton.  Such scrumptious food ~ loved every morsel!!  But more important that eating is just being with people you like that make you laugh ~ and that laugh at me ~ I was on a roll for sure!

Saturday is the annual hook-in at Kingwood Center in Mansfield so of course, I am dying wool and marbleizing wool and getting together some goodies that might entice the rug hookers!!  It begins at 10 and is free other than $5 parking.  There will be several vendors, a silent auction, some goodies in the kitchen to munch on but you might want to bring your own lunch if you want more than snacks!  Katie Allman does a wonderful job of putting this all together and also hangs the rug show of rugs we all bring in ~ if you come, bring your rugs to show, too!

It is getting so dark outside ~ seems like a storm is brewing and Luke has a game at 5:30 ~ I hope it blows over fast!!!  I hope to blog a little more often ~ it's really hard to put my mind to it in this busy summer season!  This is the last week for ball games so it should slow down!!!  Thanks for checking in and stop by soon and often!!!!!

Alice

CATCH OF THE DAY ~ ~ ~

We did a little beach walk this morning!



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DARA'S RUG ~ ~ ~

 TA DAH!!!  Friend Dara sent a picture of her finished mat from last week's class!!  She's on her way and I love how it turned out!  The crow was a dyed remnant and the mottling is just perfect highlights on the crow!  Another student stopped by this morning to pick up a frame ~ and I'm sure she'll now have hers done in no time!!

 Last weekend at Sonny's class reunion, they had a silent auction as a fundraiser!  I bought this cute handmade hat and fingerless gloves that classmate Sandy knit!  There's some sparkly yarn in there and that just did it for me!! She was such a fun gal that I just had to have what she so lovingly created!

This might not show up well but I wanted to show you a little damaged shirt rescue!!  My DIL, Miki, burned a hole in a cute shirt when a spark from the grill jumped out at her.  She felt really bad because she liked her shirt a lot!  I told her I would take it home and work a little magic on it!  I had this sparkly fabric (surprised?) and made a little flower to cover the burn mark (she likes it)!  Then I took a shirt of mine that had two little pinholes (where do those things come from) on the sleeve right at the shoulder  and did the same thing ~ stitched on a flower and a heart that I handcut from the sparkly material!!!  I used a little stitchwitchery and ironed it in place before sewing it on so it didn't move around!  There are a couple of blogs that I've run across that have done this kind of thing so I went to my memory bank (which is a scary place) and put that info to good use!  Otherwise, the garment is useless!  Try resurrecting something that you thought was ruined ~ it can't hurt!! 

That's it for today folks!!  It's a beautiful Ohio day ~ enjoy!!

I'M BACK ! ~ ! ~ !

Last week, I had a beginner rug class on Wednesday. Three fun gals ~ two are friends (I think one 'encouraged' the other to come with her!) and my friend from back in Homerville (that's where we grew up)!

 Class starts at 10 a.m. with a house tour and showing them the various rugs that I've done and then we start hooking.  There's also time out for lunch and we hook till 4 p.m.  These girls really got a lot accomplished in their time here ~ I'm very proud of them!

 This is Dara's crow ~ my friend since 12 years old ~ that's a long time, readers!!!  Dara has been hooking on her own with help via emails and I think she's doing very well!

Peggy did this little lamb ~ she was the one brought along by her friend!  I think she said something like 'she's gotten me into a lot of things but this one was the most fun'!!!  That was a good thing!

 Tonya hooked the crow and gave it a little different wing design ~ I like that ~ it will show up better when the rest of the crow is hooked around it!  They all are creative in some fashion or another and I could see that in the little things they chose to do!  We had a great afternoon together and I'm sure they'll continue on their journey ~ hookers in the making!!!  What's not to love!








Ta da!!  Sonny made a driftwood tree for us! Looks good doesn't it?  Those nice lake-washed pieces of driftwood are perfect colors for our lake place! 

This weekend was Sonny's 50th class reunion!!  He has had this '67 Corvette for nearly 25 years and did a lot of work on it this past month or so getting it ready to show off to his old buddies!!  We drove it to the afternoon festivities on Saturday ~ it brought the old guy a great deal of pleasure!!  Mostly, he just talks about his car ~ one of our lake friends thought it was a figment of his imagination!  Maybe it will be on the road more this summer!! 

We've had a little bump in our road the past couple of weeks.  Sonny had cellulitis in his leg ~ he was off for a week and on part days last week ~ very nervewracking on my end and very aggravating to him to be sidelined for a bit.  He's on the mend ~ we had a great Memorial Day weekend at the lake ~ went to Put-in-Bay on Saturday and Kelley's Island to our friend's birthday party on Sunday!!  But when he tried to work all day last Tuesday, he pushed it too far.  We're hoping this week goes better!! It's enough to drive a good woman to drink!!  In fact,  Sonny always says you don't have to drink to live here ~ but it sure does help!!!  Bottoms up, friends!!!

Hope all is well wherever you are! 
Alice