Danger Girl

As if the great bee attack of 2010 wasn't enough, here I am facing, once again, danger in MY OWN HOME.

A few days ago, while innocently sitting at my feet disemboweling one of her hundreds of stuffed animals, someone.......

moved that black nose over an inch and ever so innocently chewed on the power cord to my lap top--which resulted in sparks flying out of the cord every time it is moved. And because I seem to be addicted to technology, I am now sitting here with my computer on my lap trying very hard to type while keeping the cord perfectly still.

Note to my husband: Nothing I wrote above is true. I safely at the library typing this and, just as I promised, I am not using my lap top until the new cord arrives from Amazon. Oh yeah, that little scorch mark on the carpet.......have no idea how it got there.

Actually, I do have exciting news as I am packing for rug camp! I am going to the camp in Manistee. I went two years ago and loved it. We had fun...I learned a lot....and they had chocolate chips cookies every afternoon. What more can you ask for? I was supposed to go last year, but camp started five days after I had Achilles tendon surgery. And while I was sure I would be able to go, it turns out that driving four hours with your foot propped above your heart while popping Vicodin does not a happy rug camper make. So I had to stay home, which made me kinda sad, but they were able to give my spot to someone who otherwise couldn't afford to go to the camp--so it all worked out the way it should----as most things do in life.

My teacher wants us to bring a rug that we have not yet started.......sigh.......another rug to add to the unfinished pile. The theme of the class is a "painterly" approach to rug hooking. Doesn't that sound like fun?

This is the rug I'm doing......

Well, I was going to show you the rug, but for some reason blogger will not let me download a picture right now. Maybe the sparks are scaring them away. (not really, honey. Totally safe at the library.....)

So I'm off to finish washing clothes and packing because you just know I waited until the absolute last minute to do any of that stuff.

Oh.....just so you know....no dogs were hurt in the making of this post.

Where Emily, Lucy and I Narrowly Escape Disaster

I was lucky enough to have my seven year old granddaughter, Emily, spend the night last weekend. Emily is Lucy's greatest fan--which is not easy to do because when I take Lucy for her walk each day, people in cars actually honk, roll down their windows and holler out hi to her. But Emily and Lucy have a special bond and I'm not sure who gets the most pleasure out of their time together.

Anyway, I thought that it would be a nice weekend to visit a farm, so we all piled into the car and headed off to Maybury State Park. Maybury was once a TB sanatorium. After it closed, it became a hang out for teenagers to go to at night to drink and roam the empty buildings. Finally, after decades of decay, the state stepped in turned it into a state park with walking paths, cross country skiing and a working farm.

When we got there, we thought we'd take Lucy for a little walk to work off some of her, shall we say, excess energy.

Of course Miss Sniffer S. McSniffypants (I swear this dog is part bloodhound) could not stay on the clearly marked designated path and head off for the high grass.

So Em was holding on to Lucy; Lucy was doing her very favorite thing, which is putting her nose into places it doesn't belong and I was being the grandma trying to organize everyone into something that would be picture worthy.

.............that's when I heard this loud droning, which I ignored being that I was totally immersed in my artistic endeavor of the perfect picture. All of a sudden Emily screamed and began to run with Lucy. I looked up and saw this:

Well not exactly this because this is something I downloaded from Google--couldn't exactly take a picture right then as we were too consumed with running, screaming and much flapping of hands with a side order of more screaming. But believe me when I say there were a whole boatload of bees. The kind of bees you see in a cartoon when they are chasing that bear and then form an arrow right before they overtake him and he jumps in a nearby pond. Those kind of bees.

I followed Em and Lucy and we watched while they swarmed around and then went back from whence they came--which I believe was a nest in the ground that someone who we will not name, but has big ears and a black nose, poked her nosy black nose into.

Anyway, we had a great day at the farm. Em decided that she wants a pet goat (all part of my secret plan to turn her into a rug hooker):

And I finally did get the perfect picture of my two girls.

A Post in Which You See Actual Pictures of Finished Rugs

Oh now, don't get too excited. They're not my rugs because as we all know I have some sort of severe psychological problem that prevents me from actually finishing anything I start. (For those of you interested, you can google SOS or Shiny Object Syndrome for more details. Or here's a link for the google-impaired among us.)

The rugs that are finished were at the Saline Hook-In weekend before last. Yeah, I know I'm a little late in writing about it, but all I can say is see above.

The whole event was great fun. I talked with friends, shopped, looked at all the rugs, ate lunch and shopped some more. The actual time I spent hooking......that would be none. Yep, never pulled my hook out. I did, you know, show my current work in progress to others and we did talk about said rug. I even bought wool to use in the rug. But actual hooking.......no.

Here is the wool that I purchased. I think I showed considerable restraint........

I actually bought a couple of yards of the brown/black/blue plaid to use for a background. The dusty lavender is for the Crazy Horse rug and the others are for "just because."I also bought this, which may be offically considered my new Shiny Object: It is a Notforgotten Farm pattern from Kris Miller. And seriously, couldn't you just die from the cuteness? Fortunately, summer vacation is coming up soon and I hoping I will be able to finally finish that crazy Crazy Horse rug and move on to this. (My new mantra: "I will finish the Crazy Horse rug.... I will finish the Crazy Horse rug ...... I will, I will, I will..............)

And no, I didn't forget the finished rugs that were on display. Oh, they were stunning. Really, you all must come next time just so you can see all the talent we have around here. I loved this antique reproduction of the chicks and hens:

Prom Night

Last night was our prom night and I've gotta tell you, it was a blast! I know you're thinking that what with the gray hair and the fact that I now pretty much have to wear sensible shoes (read orthopedic) all the time that my prom days are much over. But go to prom I did and enjoyed every second.

Every year we--and by we I mean my friend Karen--put on a prom for the high school and post secondary students with special needs in our district. We invite everyone--current students, past students, general ed students who work in our classrooms and have lunch with our kids. Some kids even come back from college to attend. It is, as you can imagine, a night you don't want to miss.

We rent a beautiful room at the Radisson Hotel in town. We hire a DJ. All the kids dress to the nines. The girls in their prom dresses; the young men in their suits or tuxes. There is a beautiful catered meal. And then the dancing--oh my--the dancing. Dancing like you can't even imagine. We dance until we can hardly dance anymore and then we dance some more.

And here is the magic of prom night......all of a sudden it's not the autistic kid or the mentally retarded girl.....it's not guy in the wheelchair or the the boy with CP.

It's just kids doing what kids like to do....dressing up, hanging with their friends, talking about things that are important to them, eating a meal together, laughing and having fun.

And that, my friend, is what life is all about.

Rainy Sunday Afternoon

My plans were to write a post about the Saline Hook-in that I went to yesterday. However, when I looked around I saw that my housemates had different ideas. Moses and Josie found a quiet spot to wait out the rain......

Jasper was at the other end of the sofa.......

Even Lucy who, although sweet, could not exactly be called lazy and laid-back.....

And it appears that I have a new book that calling my name--so I'm grabbing a quilt and some pillows and claiming my stake to the couch.

We'll save Saline for later in the week. Have to grab these moments when we can!

Spring Break

Lucy made it through her surgery just fine and thanks you all for your well-wishes. Everyone at the vet thought she was the best dog ever!! When I came to pick her up later in the day, even the vet came back out and told me that she thought Lucy had such a wonderful temperament and was really a great dog. Laura (Lucy's first mom and breeder), if you're reading this--be proud!
So I brought her home all fuzzy and drugged up. I put her on the bed and spent the rest of the day with her reading while she slept. I carried her outside a couple of times to do her business, which she promptly did and then would fall right over sound asleep! By the next morning, she was up eating and running around being her usual silly self.
Unfortunately, I haven't done as well as Lucy, spending my week off work on the couch with what started out as some kind of virus and ended up as asthmatic bronchitis. On one hand, good to have the time off to recover and not have to worry about work--on the other hand--hey, it's my vacation! I had hoped to finish up on my Crazy Horse Rug, but didn't even pull it out one time. I did try my hand at some punch needle--which I will save for another post....

Hoppy Spring!

We are having some beautiful spring days--so much so that I just may break out the capris! Here is a little spring bunny rug that I have sitting on a table in my living room. Actually this was the first actually "real" rug that I did. The bunny is textured wool and I dyed the blue for the sky (lupine blue from the book Beautiful Wool). That was also my first attempt at dying wool. The border and the grass are both upcycled wool from two different pair of wool pants. I love that green and just have a little bit of it left to work into some other project.



Yes, that bit of black in the upper left corner is a little cardi nose! Lucy has to be involved in just every little thing that goes on around here.
Speaking of Lucy, she is off to the vets in an hour or so. It is time for her to be spayed. I know it needs to be done, but oh is it going to be hard to leave her there.
Right now she is sitting on the window seat (her favorite spot in the whole house) just watching the world go by. This picture was taken during our last snow storm. It's a lot greener out there now. Don't you just love that corgi stretch?