BAA BAA ~ ~ ~

What I mean to say is Bye Bye ~ for a few days ~ not forever!! I'm going hooking!! Rug hooking!! My friend, Donna, takes a group of friends every year to the Woolley Fox in Pennsylvania and this is the third year for me with this group! Fun gals ~ lots of late night hooking ~ lots of good food ~ and just maybe, a little wine! We'll have fun for sure and Sonny will be Mr. Mom and hold down the fort for me here at home! This little rug is a Woolley Fox pattern that I recently finished ~ it was one of those that I would pick up here and there when I needed something to work on without a lot of thinking! The border is all out of the scrap basket ~ kind of a little challenge to do it all out of there and not cut into new wool!

Friday night, we had friends in for dinner and yesterday, Miss Jordyn (of the green hair Halloween costume) called to see if she could come 'hang out' with me for a while!! Sure ~ who could resist that! Her brother Logan was already here 'hanging out' with Grandpa! And last night we went out for Mexican with daughter-in-law, Miki and Luke and Luci ~ dad, Teddy, is 'hanging out' in a tree in a woods somewhere looking for deer!!! We had a fun weekend and now I'm off for more fun!! I hope your weekend was a good one, too!

See you Thursday!
Alice

HOOK-IN FUN ~ ~ ~

Last week, Heidi and I went to Akron to the monthly hook-in at the library!! Now that Heidi is retired, I have a traveling buddy so we go more often!! Arlene always has a little project going and this is such a cute proddy flower ~ I swear I can't remember if it's going to be a pillow or maybe just a little piece to hang!! Very cute!


This is Betty ~ a well-known teacher in the area ~ maybe even further than that!! Her sweet little flower matches her shirt ~ she's soooo color coordinated!!! And this pansie is hooked in a four cut ~ lots of detail!
Karen's runner is a great design and I love her colors! Karen hooks in a really wide cut and hooks very high ~ it makes for a very cushy rug under your feet ~ and uses lots of wool! We were having the discussion similar to the one on The Welcome Mat about measuring wool for a project ~ since Karen hooks so high, she figures eight times the area!!!!

Miss Jane is working on a cute little sheep ~ I should have asked her to turn it around so we can see it better! Of course, I love to hook sheep, so this is right up my alley!! These gals get so much hooking done ~ almost always a new project each time we meet!!
This was the first time that I got to meet Rita ~ she was the recipient of my Secret Santa gift swap on the old Wool Snippets online forum. She's a very nice lady and doesn't she look happy to be here?! She's recovering from hip replacement and looks like she's doing great! Another thing that's great is her hooking ~ love the antiquey colors in her rug!


Last but not least ~ here's Heidi! She's working on a stair riser that is a challenge rug for a hook-in in June. Have I started mine yet? No, but maybe now I'll be inspired!
This is a progress photo of my sheep ~ just filling in the grass under his purple legs!! I had also taken the American Fish rug that day and finally finished binding it ~ and then took this along and got some hooking done! This is a busy week here, so probably no hooking for me!!!
And this ~ is my Easter pie!! Son, Ted and family came for Easter dinner ~ they brought a wonderful ham from our local meat market ~ and we fixed the rest of the dinner. This grandma doesn't do Easter baskets and buy a bunch of stuff ~ but they do know this is the grandma they can call to mend a stuffed toy, shorten their pants, help with an art project or look up in the stands of their games and see their biggest cheerleader! Since we are a blended family, there is no shortage of grandparents for these kids and I'm the go-to grandma for the creative stuff!! So this bunny pie was my effort at Easter festivities!! We had a good time! Sonny's kids go to their mom's but we did see all the men/children that day ~ they hauled our hot tub over to Teddy's house ~ nothing like a bunch of guys putting on hot tub on a trailer ~ they were in their glory!!

I'm off to Columbus this morning to meet some friends for lunch and get my car serviced. We are babysitting Luke & Luci this week, so I'm taking granddaughters Luci and Jordyn to see Hannah Montana this afternoon after school!!! So I better hustle ~ big day ahead!!! Have a good week and thanks for reading!!
Alice

DOWN THE HOMESTRETCH ~ ~ ~

It's getting close ~ to being done!!! One more evening of hooking in the fleece body and head and Mr. Leicester will be ready to bind and go to his new home!!! After this picture was taken, I gave it a preliminary steaming ~ I don't like to steam fleece or roving (it mats it down) so it was easier to do now before I set in the final fleece hooking. After it's finished, it will probably get another pressing but not both sides like I just did! I'm pretty happy with the results thus far ~ and I think Miss Melody is, too!!!

The other day, one of my rug hooking/blogger friends, Jane, 'tagged' several of her fellow blog buddies to write 6 random things about ourselves ~ so here are mine ~

1. As a kid, my mom and I traveled all over the country by car ~ we were very poor really, but I had the opportunity to travel almost the entire United States by the time I graduated high school!

2. My mom was a nurse. My dad, 30 years older than my mother, was in vaudeville!

3. Both my parents were born in Canada ~ I was born here in Ohio.

4. When I was little, my friends, Nancy and Carol (sisters) could draw like crazy! I tried but the results were not good ~ I had no artistic talent! But as I got older, and tried different things, I found that maybe I do! Hence, my theory that everyone has artistic ability ~ we just have to keep trying until something really speaks to us and resonates within! I wish everyone would open themselves to try something creative ~ you would be amazed at what you might find!!

5. Two times during my growing up years, I went to school in California ~ once when I was in 5th grade and then, my entire sophomore year! I went from a class of 25 to a 10th grade class of over 800!!!! Culture shock ~ YES!!!!

6. Key West is one of my favorite places to vacation!!


So there ~ six random things about me ~ and I mean random ~ I gave no thought to it until I set down here to write!! I'm not passing on the 'tag' ~ if it's something you would like to write about in your blog ~ feel free!! I'm not sure how I feel about awards and tagging ~ I think it's nice that others want to share that, but to follow thru and name others and insert links, etc. is really time consuming ~ for the most part, I acknowledge the accolade but don't pass it on. What do you think?? I actually saw on another one, that she had a little 'blog free and tag free' sign on hers!!!!!!!!

That's it for today ~ two more year end reports to put in the mail and I'll have that task marked off my list!! Then, on to organize this office before next week! And I have to pick up Miss Luci from kindergarten this morning ~ thank goodness her mom called and reminded me!! I get so caught up in what's going on in my little world, that I forget really important jobs ~ I suggested to Miki that she call me and it's a good thing she did!!! Some days, I feel like I need a keeper!!!
Alice

SHEEP RUG PROGRESS ~ ~ ~

For the last two evenings, I have actually hooked a while ~ so the Leicester sheep rug is coming along! This rug is for my friend, Melody, who travels to Ireland as often as she can ~ the white circles in the sky are from a sweater that came from one of her travels and needed repurposed into something meaningful! It really became quite thick after felting and was quite a challenge to pull into loops ~ but I think it gives the sky great texture and also guided me as to where this sky was going! I have to mention, too, those blobs of black are his ears ~ hooked with a black velour-type wool ~ the loops are pretty high ~ I might clip them for a proddy look ~ I'll see when it's finished!

In one of our conversations as to what Melody might like in this rug, she mentioned outstanding Irish rainbows ~ so last night I went through my handspun yarns and dyed rovings and came up with this rainbow ~ I hope you like it Miss Melody!!! I'm leaving the sheep till last because the fleece I will use for his body gets caught on the grippers of the frame and can make quite a mess ~ all the wool hooking around it will be done when it gets centered on the frame for the final hooking of the fleece body and head ~ and that should be in the next couple of days!!

Ohio is under a winter storm warning all day and this is what it looks like on our deck!! We've had a bunch of snow just today and more on the way!! I love it that I can stay inside where it's warm and safe ~ actually, I am very grateful for that!! A big shipment of wool came the other day, so I'm washing wool on the second floor (that's where the laundry area is) and running it to the basement to dry (we moved the old dryer down there just for the wool) ~ so once again, I say "wouldn't you think I'd be skinny from all these stairs?!" No ~ they just hang on for dear life ~ the pounds, that is! I am back on the exercise everyday/hook every day plan that I committed to ~ I fell off the wagon a little last week ~ but I'm back on task now!! CHANGE ~ remember my 'one little word' ~ well, I tell you it's hard to put it into practice ~ but I'm trying ~ what more can one girl do????? Have a good day ~ doing something you like!!
Alice