A Talented Bunch

I thought I'd share the talent of others in my family.

My niece, Anna and her husband, Ben live in New Mexico. Ben has been making his living making beautiful driftwood furniture which has been shown in regional and national magazines. He recently opened an Etsy shop and his first listing is this beautiful chair.

My niece, who is talented as well as beautiful, is a blacksmith and has made several gates in collaboration with her husband.She is now working on a series of smaller pieces. I love this one:

She will be in a show at the Range Gallery on August 14th in Bernalillo, NM. If you're in town--check it out!

Dog Days of Summer

Okay.......I realize that this is NOT a dog, but the dog around here is only 10 months old and doesn't seem to be bothered by the heat. Moses, however, has been lying exactly like this on the half-wall between my kitchen and family room for the past week. Obviously, he is in full vacation mode.

And speaking of vacations, I am.....on vacation, I mean. Two days after school was out, I headed out for the Manistee Rug School. I took a class on using a "painterly approach to rug hooking." A requirement of the class was that we bring a rug that we had not previously worked on. I took a pattern I've been wanting to work on: Expect Good Things designed by Brenda Beerhorst.

I just love this pattern.

I am having trouble with the worm (now there are words I never thought I'd say). I want it to stand out more from the background because it is, you know, the good thing, but can't find the right shade of light brown. It seems that everything I have is either too dark and then in fades into the background or is too gold and then looks like part of the beak. I know....I suffer so for my art!

And, because I am so cutting edge, I even put in one of those little rolly thingies that are all the rage right now. Right now, it is just auditioning. I don't know if I like it or not.

Here is one of the birds with her rosy little cheek--something else that is auditioning. I'm not sure if that will stay either.
I'll leave you with a picture of another victim of all this muggy, muggy heat.......