Just One Thing After Another

Oh Lordy, what a week.

It started off with two power outages at work.....continued with our special ed. director telling us she wanted to make a few changes to our program. You know, just some minor ones. Changes that mean all three teachers moving classrooms and changing up students after the school year has been in session for SIX WEEKS.
Sorry, didn't mean to shout. It's just that most of the time I feel like I am caught working in Superman's Bizarre-o world. You know, the one where everything is just the opposite of what it should be.
Oh well.....cleansing breath.....I know just what I need......take a drive up north to the cottage, spend some time with my husband and see all the beautiful fall foliage. So off I went to see this:

And instead I saw this:

And even this!

Yikes......snow in the beginning of October! I can only imagine what this winter will be like.

However, on our Saturday afternoon drive to see the fall foliage, we stopped in Bear Lake at the Two Sisters Quilt Shop. I love, love, love this shop! I bought some fabric for a bag. No pictures right now, but hope to finish the bag by next week and will post them then.

And while we were there.....guess what?

We found out that there was a quilt show in town! Of course, Rog was just giddy with joy at this news, but being the good guy that he is, he drove me right over and even went in and looked at the quilts with me.

That night we turned on the heat, popped a movie in the DVD player and I started whipping the edges on this:

It's a Cindi Gay pattern that I made at rug hooking camp in Manistee two summers ago. It is supposed to be used on a stair riser. However, since we live in a ranch I think this will end up going over a doorway. Here's a closeup of the center rose:

Amazing how a little fiber, color and time with a really good guy can make the rain, snow and that craziness I call work just fade into the background!

Fiber Festival--Second Time Around

Last Sunday, my sister and I went to a fiber festival in Romeo at Mount Bruce Station. This one was held on a working farm and if you would like to read more about it, their web site is here. It was a beautiful fall day and while it wasn't a big festival, it was fun just to spend the time enjoying the cool fall day and sunshine. This is the farm house that was built, I believe in the 1920s:

One of the vendors had this really neat gourd tree which I would love to have in my backyard!

Anyway, after walking around and visiting all the vendors, we took a class in wet wool felting. Let me tell you people, this is not for the faint of heart. You really work up a sweat doing this! In fact, had it been any warmer I think we could have called the class "Naked Wet Wool Felting." It starts of looking like no big deal. In fact it seems kind of easy. You lay out our nice soft, fluffy roving...

You sandwich the roving between two pieces of plastic, first spraying it with a mixture of water and dish detergent. You have to really wet the roving all the way through. Then the fun part begins.

First you rub the roving with the palms of your hands. You start on one side and just when you break out in a sweat, you turn the roving and do the other side. You have to turn the roving so you work at it from all four sides. And then just when your arms are starting to give out--you turn the roving over and begin again on the other side!

(By the way, our lovely and charming hand model for this post is my sister, Karen.)

At this point just when you are beginning to think you shouldn't have let your gym membership lapse, you find out that you now must roll the roving in a towel, squeeze out as much water as you can and begin rolling it back and forth between your hands. I guess, "rolling" would be a nice way of saying slap it around because that is exactly what you do!

Once you've "rolled" it this way and that--unrolled it, rolled it from the other side and started all over again--you end up with a piece of beautiful felted wool:

While it is hard to tell from this picture, this is a beautiful piece of wool made of angora and merino wool with some blue silk threads running through it.

Now what to make with such a lovely piece of fabric. I would make you wait, but as you may know I have this slight finishing problem, so I thought I would share the instructor's finished project-- wool mittens!
Aren't they beautiful? The instructor also gave us some angora yarn so we can make the lace cuffs. And this wool is just so soft; they will be just the thing on a cold Michigan day. I may just have to put my rug hook aside for a week or so and pick up my knitting and embroidery needles so I can finish these before the snow begins to fly. And seeing that I had my heat turned on before the first of October, I don't think that day will be too far away!

Busy, Busy, Busy.......

Gosh, it has been so long since I posted--the time is just flying by! What with the wedding, school starting and physical therapy three times a week, it seems like I get up in the morning and before I know it the day is over and I'm back in bed again.

All good stuff, however. The wedding, as I said in my last post, was just perfect. And if any of you would like to drop by, I'll be glad to sit down with you and a cup of tea and show you 32,438 wedding photos and discuss them in excruciating detail.

School is off to a good start. I have a nice group of young men and in spite of a few ups and downs, everyone is beginning to settle in and adjusting to the routine. I have two new paraprofessionals and they are very nice and we all seem to be getting along.

Physical therapy is going well. The therapist told me on Friday I could stop using my cane, which delighted me to no end until I tried to walk a long distance without it. Right now, I won't be entering any marathons, but I am beginning to see the light at the end of that tunnel.

Of course, I'm still plugging along on my rug. Here is my slightly wonky bluebird of happiness:

His poor little flat head looks like mama bird let him sleep on his back to much. And what is going on with that beak?

I also finished a couple of the flowers. A blue trio:

And some red......
And when you put it all together....

I also did some dying yesterday in search of the perfect chocolate brown. I'm not there yet, but I think I'm getting closer. And my sister and I went to a fiber festival in Romeo, but that is a subject of another post!

Love, Sweet Love

On Saturday we experienced a wonderful celebration of love as my son married his sweetheart and best friend.

They wanted a intimate, country wedding and, I have to say, the end result was beautiful and personal. It was truly a family affair. My sister and brother-in-law graciously offered their house as the site for the wedding. My niece performed the ceremony and my niece-in-law, who is a professional photographer, took the pictures. One of my good friends made the invitations and my former sister-in-law made the cake. The happy couple was surrounded by people who love them and wanted them to have the perfect day.

While we don't have the "official" pictures yet, several people were kind enough to share pictures they took throughout the day.

They were married under this rustic arbor made by my brother-in-law.

Nate gets his first glimpse of his bride.....

Lesley walks down the aisle with her father....
Vows are exchanged.....
As are the rings......
And Emily runs up to give her mom and new stepdad a hug.
The ceremony was followed by a picnic dinner, wedding cake, a country western band, dancing and the blessings of family and good friends!

Oh, Mercy Me......

......two days of school down and I am tired, tired, tired! Last night I went to bed at 7:30! But the year is starting off well, and I have a nice group of kids. I think it will be a good year.
I finally took some pictures of my Crazy Quilt rug. Progress is slow, but steady.

I'm working on the flowers on the right and then I think I will tackle the bigger leaves. I need to dye some wool, but discovered I left my dyes at the lake! Oh well, too tired to worry about all that now---I'm off to do a little school work and then to bed. I may manage to stay up past 9:00 tonight!

Puttering About....

.....and that's exactly what I have been doing. A little of this and a little of that. While I am out of the cast, I still have to rely on a cane or crutches and need to rest frequently, so things get done in bits and pieces.
I've been in my classroom setting things up. It's not as ready as I would like, but it's the best I can do this year. One things of learned in this recovery process is the concept of "good enough".
I've also been working on my Crazy Quilt rug and making slow, but steady progress. I'm getting some of the larger motifs done and as soon as they are finished, I'll move on to the background. I tried to take some pictures, but the light is fading and my camera doesn't seem to take good pictures when it is dark outside--or maybe it is the photographer, who knows?
And for those of you who have been sitting up nights worried about my safety.......when Moses and Jasperkitty are not busy helping arrange my wool stash, they are on the job alert for any signs of our very own axis of evil.......

a chipmunk that is apparently building condos under my front porch and selling them to his little chipmunky friends. Oh, the growling, the hissing, the throwing themselves against the screen-- all in the hope of just one minute with that evildoer. So sleep well America.......you are safe tonight.

Home Again

For good this time, I'm afraid. No more lazy summer days at the lake for me.

When I go to up north for the summer, I take all the wool I will need for the rug on which I am currently working. Because this rug is so eclectic and I wasn't sure exactly what wool I was going to need, I ended up taking a good portion of my wool cabinet with me. Believe me, Rog was thrilled when he realized that the largest and heaviest of my suitcases was full of wool!

Coming home means I have to reverse this process and put everything back in the cabinet. Of course, I had helpers. Jasperkitty thought that my wool might have lost that fine sheen of cat hair while it was away over the summer, so he had jump into the suitcase and remedy that right away.....

Then when everything was back in its place, he was so worn out from all that work that he needed a nap. And there is no better place for a nap than in the wool cupboard!

Moses thought that all this fuss over wool was just craziness, and instead decided to catch his nap in the warmth of the afternoon sun.

The finished project........
Whew......I'm tired.....I think I'll go take a nap!