BLOGLOVIN' ????

Alrighty then ~ I've done it!  The proverbial "they" have made me fear losing my Google Reader supported blog lists and heaven knows what else ~ so, like many of my blog friends, I've bitten the bullet and signed on with Bloglovin' !!  Now, we shall see what we shall see!!  Hang on for the ride, kids!! It's actually scary that I could make this switch ~  I have such a fear of the unknown!! And their icons are all weird ~ this rather large lady face is the least weird of them all!!

Can anyone enlighten me about Bloglovin?? I live in a whirlwind and don't remember getting a message  from Google that, as of July 1, they won't be supporting our blogs.  I just read on another blog that they were switching and decided I better look into it!  What happens if I don't sign up with Bloglovin ~ will anybody be able to find my blog? Will I lose my blog list of favorites?

Help!!!

Livin' in a cave Alice!!!

MARKET FINDS ~ ~ ~

A few weeks ago, friend Lori and I went to market and I found these little treasures for your buying pleasure!  Redware snippet dishes ~ $20 ~ and larger Rug Hooker dishes ~ $25 ~ along with sheep dishes ~ which are $30.

This is a great reproduction mustard box with a lift top lid ~ $88 ~ I thought a hooked piece on top would be fabulous!

 A black  over red repro box on round legs ~ $78 ~ also perfect with a hooked little mat on top ~ or not!

This funky  little Halloween witch is made from vintage mohair and is just plain cute ~ $35!  Along with a little snippet box ~ $10 ~ and woolens sign, which is also $10.  Little treats for the rug hooker or wool lover! All of the items are American Made by wonderful craftsmen ~ I love that part!!

I'll be taking these to Kingwood hook-in on Saturday so email me at gfraizer@neo.rr.com if you would like me put your name on something to be picked up there ~ or let me know if I can ship you a piece or two!!!

I'm up to my ears in getting ready ~ dyeing wool and drawing a few patterns.  I will pack tomorrow and friend, Jackie, is coming to stay all night!  She's so lucky ~ she gets to come help set up and be in the midst of this pre-show craziness!!! 

Will try to post dyed wool pix later!!  I had a customer come this morning and I apologized for the chaos in my shop but she was a good sport and we were able to get her pattern color planned and have a good visit with she and her sister, too!  Thanks, Sharon and Linda, for stopping by ~ I knew they were coming but it looked like a surprise!!

Ta ta for now!!

Alice

GREAT NEW BOOK ~ ~ ~

This is Polly Minick and Lori Simpson's new book that debuted in France recently!  My copy just arrived yesterday and it is very worth ordering!!  It has beautiful pictures and great patterns for the rug hooker or the quilter!  A couple of the quilt patterns are even tempting to me! You can order it from their website ~  click on "Books" on their left sidebar  ~ I got mine in just a couple of days!!  There are definitely some rugs in there that are calling my name!!

Saturday, we went to the art show on the streets of Port Clinton and found these pretty hand-blown glasses! The young man who made them was quite talented and had some beautiful things.  I took his card but,  of course, I can't find it right now.

This beautiful planter was a gift from one of our lake friends that came to visit a few weeks back!  It works out great as the centerpiece for our deck table!!  Since we've had so much rain, it's just grown and grown!  A nice shot of color when I look outside!!  Thank you, Chris and Mike!!

We had such a fun weekend ~ out with our friends ~ going here and there!  Went to some really nice places and we also hit a couple of not-so-swell looking places (but the waitress is so nice at the one, that it makes it a pleasure to go there ~ she remembered what we ordered from being there only twice!).  We have fun and can be comfortable anywhere from a dive bar to the swankiest of the swanky!!!  We're like chameleons ~ blending into our surroundings!!

All day today, was office work and I would really like to hit the hooking room tomorrow afternoon!!  We shall see!!  Hope you all are doing something fun ~ at least part of the time!!  Ta ta!

Alice

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GREAT MORNING ~ ~ ~

This morning, I gave myself a gift ~ the gift of uninterrupted hooking time!! At 8:30, I went to my hooking room and didn't emerge until this was finished ~ four hours later!  I loved it ~ the hooker played hooky from my office work and house work ~ it's all still here waiting!!  Maybe we should all consider giving ourselves the gift of time now and again, to do just what we want to do at that moment!  It feels great!!

Heidi Kramer, whose business name is Woolnuts, donated this pattern, the cut wool and a great photo to go by, as a door prize at the Amish country hook-in a while ago!  I was the lucky winner and it's been burning a hole in my hooking pocket (so to speak) to get it done!  I'm thinking it would make a great pillow or as Heidi intended, put it on the front of a nice wool tote bag!!  Thanks, Miss Heidi, for your generous donation!

Here are a few garden photos ~ this is baptisia or false indigo.  I love this plant although the blossoms don't last very long.  Does anyone know if this is an indigo plant that I could use for dying?  And if so, what part of the plant do you use and how would I go about it?  I'd love it if it could be used to dye ~ I wonder though if the name, false indigo, indicates that it's not a dye-friendly plant! 

This is our dwarf lilac ~ the color was so pale this year but the fragrance filled the garden!

One day this Spring, as a customer was leaving, the husband spyed this guy hanging inside the porch light!!  A BAT!!!!!!!  He was having a little rest during the daylight hours ~ I was totally creeped out and so was my customer!!!!  Her husband was ready to take a broomstick to it but we thought better of that idea ~ what if the beastly bat woke up and decided to sink his little vampire teeth into one of us!!!!  Gross!!!  But all's well that ends well ~ he left by evening!!  Bye bye, bat!!!

Very gloomy and rainy here in Ohio today.  I was going to stay at the lake last night but considering the weather report, I had plenty to do here.  Since I couldn't hunt glass or take a nice walk today, Tad and I came home when Sonny left last night! So I made the most of my morning and hooked something that made me very happy!!  Now ~ I'll do some of the bread and butter stuff in my office!

Hope there's some sunshine in your day!!

Alice

WINNING ~ ~ ~

Everybody loves to win things ~ me included! In May, I was reading Rug Hooking Magazine's blog and by commenting on something, I was entered into a drawing for these nice notecards. They each have a picture of different rugs from Celebrations 2010! I'll definitely use them! Thanks RHM!




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Just a couple of photos of our favorite Lake Erie past-time ~ beach glass hunting! A few lucky stones, some honed glass and some pottery chards!


This is a gathering of glass from a new place we were told about ~ not quite as tumbled and honed as most but still some nice pieces in there. Sonny collected these pieces ~ it was down kind of a steep path and I had on flip flops ~ since I'm not too sure footed, it didn't seem smart to trek down there.

We've had a busy couple of weeks ~ crazy busy, in fact! Business is great ~ lots of ball games to attend for the grands, a 6th grade graduation, dance recital, a/c went kaput so we had to have a new one installed, and lots of crazy weather! But we had a fun, relaxing lake weekend ~ had a great Friday night dinner at JBistro in Sandusky and get togethers with friends.

I hope to be a better blogger ~ time flies by so fast, I can't believe it's been over two weeks since I posted. Talk to you soon!

Alice





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WESTERN RESERVE GUILD HOOK-IN ~ ~ ~

Last Saturday, we were vendors at the hook-in sponsored by the Western Reserve Rug Hooking Guild.  It took place at Lake Farm Park with 125 women registered and what a fun group they were!! As the room filled up, the sound of chatter and laughter increased as well ~ pretty funny when you're on the sidelines!! There were wonderful door prizes ~ 25 hooked round mats and probably that many lavender plants to be given randomly throughout the day!  The mats were hooked by various members ~ a very generous door prize donation!!  There was also a fundraising raffle of two hooked rugs and a huge hooked stocking!  I am a member of this guild but not a very active one and I just admire all the effort put into planning a wonderful, fun-filled day for rug hookers from several different states!!  Linda Gustafson was the chairman and she and her committee did a bang up job!!!!!!

This was my booth later in the day ~ things moved and shuffled and I love it, of course!! We sold wool, and patterns and frames and hooks and books ~ it was a great day!  They serve wonderful treats in the morning and a great lunch at noon and had a huge Chinese auction with around 60 prizes!  That's amazing!  My donation was one of my beach glass bracelets with a piece of watery hand-dyed wool to go with it!  Actually, the truck was packed Friday night when I remembered that I needed a donation!  If you follow this blog or know me, you know that's when I can really get into gear ~ with a deadline looming large in front of me!  So, about 10:30 Friday night, I got the bracelet blank, jewelry glue and my beach glass stash out and a bracelet was made!  Susanne Woodbury was the winner and she seemed pretty pleased!!  I'm working with Susanne to set up a finishing class for the guild in November so we already knew each other ~ nice for a friend to win!!

The creator of this wonderful felted rope yarn is Marianna Halassy and her table was next to mine ~ so we had an opportunity to get acquainted! She's a love Hungarian lady with the cutest accent ~ I liked her a lot! This is some of the most unusual fiber I've seen ~ felted hand-dyed roving made into a thick rope-like yarn ~ gorgeous!! She also had blue Leicester fleece and a lighter-weight yarn as well.  You can find Marianna at www.etsy.com/shop/Marianna98 ~ great stuff!!

Sue Clark, who is a gal I've seen a lot at hooking events, but only met last year, was working on this creative piece.  All kinds of different stitches along with hooking and she is hiding behind it!  I'd been looking at it all day ~ a really showy rug!!

 This rug was close to my booth and is just so eye-catching to me!  Lots of great detail and her hooking was superb!!  And I can't remember the artist's name ~ if anyone knows, tell me and I'll put it right here!! Fritz Mitnick emailed me that Patty Woehler is the hooker of Deanne Fitzpatrick's pattern. It is Patty and three good friends (Patty emailed and said there are FOUR good friends ~ guess Fritz nor I can count!) and Fritz says they each get to display it in their home for a while and then pass it on! What a great gift!

These refreshing Cajun lemonade martinis were waiting for us at the end of our day, at my Great Niece Hilary's house on the other side of Cleveland!!  Woo Hoo!! She and her sister Amy, read on my blog that we would be in their area and quickly called and invited us to hang out with them and their husbands for the evening!  I was impressed on two levels ~ first, that they wanted to hang out with us and second ~ they actually read my blog!!!!!!!  Their mom is my niece, Cheri, and she drove up for the festivities ~ we went to two fun places and at 11 p.m. I had to cry uncle!!  We had been up since 5 a.m., driven almost two hours, set up and did the show, tear down the booth and then partied like rock stars all evening!!  This old girl was 'stick a fork in me ~ I'm done'!!!!!  We had the best time and Hilary treated us to a lovely homemade breakfast complete with mimosas and we were back home by noon on Sunday!!!  Whew!  Great fun!  Thanks, Hilary and Steve and Amy and Dan and Cheri!!

Today is office work and DWTS tonite!!  Sometime, I have to put the hooking room back together, too!  Hope you all had a great weekend and Mother's Day ~ DIL Cheryl, stopped by with chocolate covered strawberries and Ted and family brought a beautiful rose bush ~ this will be my first attempt at growing roses!!  There were phone calls and texts throughout the day!  Enjoy your week!!  It's cold here ~ 52 deg. right now!!! 

Ta ta
Alice