Just a quick check in. We are back up north relaxing and enjoying life. I brought up bunches of wool to dye, and I'm just having the best time! I decided I was going to give myself a gift and concern myself with the process and not be so worried about the final product. In other words, I have been playing and trying all sorts of new things.
I've been taking pictures, but forgot to bring the thingy that will transfer my pictures to my computer! Oh well, next post.

I've also been working on my Expect Good Things rug. I generally like to hook my background as I go and not leave it all until the end. This time I got so caught up in hooking the motifs that before I knew it everything was done except for the background. So I am grinding that out right now with the help of HGTV and a couple of good movies.

Tomorrow brings breakfast with a friend from work and then off to the Blueberry Festival. Great chicken dinners and a quilt show--oh yeah--and blueberries!

And just so this post is not totally pictureless--check out my niece's new etsy shop Flying Hammer Forge.

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.......

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.