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?

Rainy Days

Ah....'tis spring!
Or well not so much in Michigan where spring is more like another three months of rain and mud and gray skies with a few days of sunshine thrown in to make us all wander out of our houses like little mole-people, squinting at the sun.

This weekend was one of those rainy times, the times that just want to make you crawl under your covers and not come out until, I don't know, you move to Barbados or something.

I, however, got to have a little sunshine in my life by spending it with these two:Now if those two faces don't brighten up your day--well, all I can say is that you have one cold, cold heart.

This is Emily, my granddaughter and, of course, you all have met Lucy.

And Emily, God bless her, is my kind of child because as she told her mother, "I don't really want to do sports. I really just want to do crafts." Could there be any more perfect character trait in any grandchild?

So we just took that old rainy day and crafted the heck out of it. First we made Easter eggs. Not the old boring dip in dye and wait four hours to turn into a pale pink Easter eggs. Oh no. We made cool tie-dye eggs.

It's just food coloring, paper towels and some plastic wrap, but so much more fun than the traditional egg dying. I found the directions over at Oakadoodle Primitives and since she has done such a great job spelling it out, you can go right over there if you are in the mood for egg dying. Here is a pic of Emily contemplating the design process: And the beginning of one of her designs:Hmmmm....I don't know about you, but I definitely see the beginnings of a quilt or rug designer here.

Afterwards, we had the great cupcake bake-off---just to make sure that every artist had adequate nurishiment.

Lucy approves and will take her cupcake in liver flavor please.

Here's hoping that all your rainy spring days can be filled with sunshine!!

I just may have to change the name of this blog to Cats and Corgis In My Wool. I give you exhibit A:I put it on the floor to take a picture and before I could pick up my camera, look who comes along and makes herself at home! But with a face like that, you can get away with just about anything even when a certain miss someone has a perfectly brand new comfy, comfy bed all of her own.

So excuse me one moment while I get little Miss Lucy moving.........

I'm finally getting some of the background put in. This is most definitely the busiest rug I've done. I think the dark border will help tone it down a bit--and, if not, it certainly will be a day brightener! This rug has been a great learning experience for me and while I'm enjoying the process I'm looking forward to working on a nice, simple project when this is finished.