Please Give a Welcome!

I always like to welcome in a new blogger to Blogland!  I recently stumbled across Patty's blog!  She can be found over at Bluebirds and Jam.  Patty is a fellow primitive rug hooker and makes wonderful rugs.  She also makes some lovely dolls as well.  I know you'll like what you see and give her a wonderful hooker's welcome!

My fight with the woodchucks has tapered off, I'm happy to say!!  I've only seen one a couple of times lately...I think the fact that I was running out there every 15 minutes did the trick.  LOL  So, now, I'm only fighting the drought we're having.  Funny, the lack of rain doesn't seem to stop the zucchini from producing!

Looks like some stuffed zucchini is in my future!  I like to use a recipe from Susan Branch's Heart of the Home Cookbook.  She stuffs it with zucchini, onion, tomato, and herbs, then tops it off with jack cheese and sourdough croutons...yum!  

Despite the heat of summer, I've been hooking steadily on the chicken rug.

Mama hen is almost finished...except for one foot.  I'm almost half way finished.  The blue is not as bright as this picture shows.  It's getting heavy though.  I have a puritan frame which I should be using, but I don't really like it all that well.  I need a gripper frame which I can turn and tilt.  Right now, I'm using a hoop frame and feel like I'm going to bust it with this rug!  Anyone have a favorite rug frame they can recommend?  I'd actually like to sell the puritan.  It has a floor stand as well.

Not much else happening.  I had to work last week for two days.  We were creating a curriculum map which would align to the common core standards.  Sounds fascinating, huh?  It was actually pretty interesting and the two days went by fast.  I'm glad to be back on vacation though.  Mr. S & W is off this week...so hopefully we'll get out to take a couple of good day trips.  

Stay cool, my friends!

Woodchucks: 12, Me: 0

The battle is on!   I have not one, but perhaps three or four, woodchucks attacking my garden.  Do I have a fence?  No.  Do a have a decent scarecrow?  No.  I do have a garden angel.

But, as you can see from her expression, she's horrified!  They like my lettuce, my Swiss chard, my parsley, my nasturtiums...well, actually, they like everything.  I've been spending my days on constant vigil...watching for furry blobs headed up the hill to the salad bar.  Any advice is appreciated.

I promised to show you my new rug project.  It's a fun pattern designed by Tom McNerny.  He hooks in a wide cut (a #10), and I thought I'd try it...but it was too much for my poor hands, and hook, so I went back to a #8 cut.  He gave me some color tips and wool (thanks!) and off I went.  I am having fun with this.  Here's a little peek--or should I say peep!

My biggest challenge has been determining if I will have enough wool for the backgrounds.  I didn't have enough blues so I spent the other day dyeing up a batch of Robin's Egg Blue from Vintage Colors by Karen Kahle.  I dyed it over white, oatmeal, and a gray check.  I have a darker teal plaid that I'm weaving in as I go.  The blue/brown in the outside border I got at a hook-in this year and it was the wool I more or less color planned around.  I hope it makes it around the whole border, but I can always add more to the outside edge which I'm doing in antique brown.  There's a nice big chicken in the center of the rug, which I'll be tackling today, in between guard duty.

Elsewhere in the garden, my butterfly bush is making good on it's promise to bring butterflies to the garden.

Tomatoes are starting to ripen.  Hopefully I can keep the varmints away long enough to actually enjoy these.

By the way, is it too late to plant Sweet Annie seeds?  I just got a pack and thought I try it by the shed.

Have a lovely day, everyone!

Way Overdue!!

I could get into a long list of excuses.  I could apologize...again.  I could make up whopping good stories of how I was abducted by aliens.  But, I'll spare you all that and just get a blooming post on this poor blog!

School is finally over.  Well, actually it's been over for a week, but Mr. S & W has been home on vacation, so I've been hanging out with him.  We've been having our first mini heat wave and I now remember how much I don't like hot weather.  After today, we're back in the 70s and 80s.

I'm so glad to be off from work.  We've been walking in the mornings, then I water the garden.  I've been having a ball picking salad greens, radishes, and peas for our nightly meal.

I've got strawberries, peas, onions, zucchini, cukes, lettuce, swiss chard, lots of tomatoes, beets, carrots, peppers, beans, and lots of herbs.  The chard is great...just keeps producing.  I love it sauteed in olive oil then tossed with golden raisins and toasted pine nuts.  Yum!

I planted a large David Austin rose called Falstaff.  It is a dark reddish/purple and smells wonderful.  It doesn't love this heat, though.

I have nothing on the rug frame right now.  Shame on me!  I did finish the spiral chair pad from Karen Kahle's blog.  I used the crocheted strip method around the edge.  I discovered (again) that I don't really like to crochet.  I can't get a good rhythm going.  I do like the finish though.

I have some new yarn on the wheel.  A co-worker of mine has a General Store and Ice-Cream shop nearby and asked if I'd like to sell my yarn in her shop for the summer.  So, I closed the Etsy shop for the time being and I'll try to sell a bit with her.  

As soon as the heat breaks...I'm starting a new rug.  Stay tuned.

5 AM Surprise, 5 PM Surprise

Mr. S & W has been dragging me out walking early in the morning.  Goodness knows, I need it.  Nothing else is working against the chocolate covered grahams...

Sitting and rug hooking...well pulling about 5 worms worth of loops...isn't burning any real calories!  So, I've been brave.  Half asleep, I've pulled on some old yoga pants that really don't fit me anymore, an old ratty T-shirt, a warm sweatshirt, and have hobbled off after him.  This morning we were walking along, climbing up the road near our house, when we spotted a furry little ball waddling along in front of us.  

"Oooo," we cooed.  "Look!"

Well, no sooner did we speak then the ball turned, bared teeth and launched itself at us!

Well, my husband jumped about three feet in the air and landed across the road, while I let out a growl that was worthy of a sumo wrestler.  Thankfully, my growl scared the varmint off!   At least I woke up at this point!  Plus, I may have burned a couple more calories than I would have with just the walk!

Later in the afternoon, I got a second, but much more lovely surprise!  I won a giveaway over at Cobblestone Corner & Grandmas Bisquits!  Jody has the nicest blog going on over there!  She had her first giveaway, and the winners were treated to her wonderful homemade soap.  Now, I've been following her blog and watching batches of lovely soap emerge.  I'm trying to find a way to travel half-way across the country to get her to teach me soap making!  She is a master of soap!  

The package was beautifully wrapped with a little cinnamon heart tied to the bag.  She sent two different soaps...a sandalwood and a sweet grass.  They are so yummy!  I wish you could smell them!  The sandalwood bar has a color swirl.  Jody, thank you so much!  You've inspired me!

Welcome to my new followers!  With all that's been going on, I've just about reached my 200 follower mark without hardly realizing it.  Looks like I need to think about some sort of giveaway soon!

Thanks to all my blogger friends for all of your caring and support, your emails, prayers, and sympathy.  I'm so fortunate to have this lovely community to turn to!

Things I've Learned Lately

• I don't know how to post on Facebook.  There are too many layer between the "likes",  the "sharing", and the "tagging".  Let's just hope anything I've commented on gets back to the original poster!
• You can have no appetite and still gain weight.  It could be the chocolate covered graham diet I'm currently on...just saying!
• Hooking in a spiral doesn't mean your lines will curve.  All of a sudden, the rows run straight, and you have to turn the wheel sharply.  Same thing happens with life!

 (could I hook any more slowly...)

• I spin more wool than I knit and skeins of yarn are piling up!  Where are the knitters?
• Some people actually have and go on vacations--to really neat places--and relax and have fun--I'm totally going to look into this!
• I currently have the bedtime of a preschooler--it's still light out!  Do they still make Geritol?  I could use some.
• I don't have a maid...I just discovered this when I realized my house hadn't been cleaned in over a month.... now, if someone could just explain to me how to use the vacuum...
• Hard boiled eggs explode when you boil them dry.  Really.

Just a quick post to thank all of you for your kind words and prayers during the last couple of weeks.  My courageous mother passed away last Monday.  Though there is much sadness, her pain and suffering are over.  She brought much creativity into the world, through her painting, drawing, gardening, quilting, knitting, and rug braiding.  There wasn't anything she couldn't master in the creative arts. 

Your support during these days has meant so much.  I am blessed.

Downward Spiral

 (trying to work on Karen Kahle's spiral chair pad)

It's been so long since my last post that I'm not sure I know how to post anymore!  In any event, in the meantime, blogger has changed the posting format.  That shouldn't surprise me!  I've been gone for such a long time.  It first started with some extremely challenging weeks in my classroom.  My energy was drained each day to the point of no return.  I sometimes wish I had an education blog...the stories I could tell! LOL  

I was very, very much looking forward to my spring vacation.  But, life often has other plans.  

My mother's breast cancer came back in March and took a dramatic turn for the worse a week and a half ago.  After a full round of radiation to try and buy her some time, she ended up with a complication which was not repairable.  My brother and I are both teachers, so we spent the better part of the last week at her side as she began to make her transition to be with God.  She is still fighting the good fight, but her time is limited, and it's just a waiting game.  To say that we are numb and exhausted is really an understatement.  It's awful to be in this state of limbo--where you know the outcome, but await God's grace to take away her pain.

I'll leave you with a few pictures of my mother's paintings.

Prayers are most welcome.