Cotton Eyed Jo takes a look at life

New Year ~ New Goals ~New Hip~New Me

2012-01-10T08:10:00.000-08:00

Funny how my spirit rises to "adversity", but slowly sinks when all seems calm and well...

I am "ready" emotionally to have my hip replaced, but after a visit to the surgeon, I learned the path is a little longer and needs to be uphill. (slight incline is acceptable) :) You might think this would have made my spirits sink. Au contrare dear reader... I used to have a mini poster (Hallmark fold out card) in my classroom that read Kites fly higher against the wind... Lots of untold stories about that. :)

Anyway, I truly belief that what we need most in any moment is generally placed within easy reach, but we need to look around, sometimes wake from our dreaming through our life and reach, stretch, touch our toes. :)

My legs are swelling, so until that is under control, no surgery. In the next four months, my posts should be about that focus which will include resources like the one I found this morning. I've been pinning things for a month or two, and drooling over what I've thought of as food porn, oooey gooey this and that. but this morning one of the pins lead me to this site.

http://www.skinnytaste.com/2011/02/baked-potato-soup.html This blogger posts recipes for common favorites that she has redesigned to keep her family healthier. Now I haven't a clue how accurate her nutritional info is, if you are a dietician you may find her right on target, or missing by a mile, but I don't do this kind of information well. I intend to try some or maybe lots of her recipes.

I went back and have now pinned, saved, and printed out a number of her recipes. I may make this site my homepage for awhile. :) But the reason I came back to add to my post, was to tell you about more about this wonderful site. On the right side bar she has another way to access her recipes. Numerically, by points per serving, which could be AWESOME for meal planning to balance and still easily keep track of points... And by course, you know the traditional ones like Appetizers, soups, etc. Yep, seriously thinking it needs to be my home page. :)

Hope you'll check it out, cause all of us can get healthier in the next year...especially if someone else did the heavy lifting. :)

Happy New Year! Just hours from 2012

2011-12-31T08:39:00.000-08:00

http://www.jacquielawson.com/viewcard.asp?code=3282058858431&source=jl999

Wishing You and Yours a wonderful New Year's Eve, filled with safe celebration of the turn of the year. I have temporarily left the path of dyeing and hooking, because of a failing left hip. I'm hoping to return to my adventure with my TX Palette extended colors after recuperation from my hip replacement. At the present time, it isn't yet scheduled.

2011 was a year of changes for me. Most notably in the direction this blog probably best shows. I will try to refrain from political discourse in the next year. However, even if my posts offended people, they were an exercise of my American Right to Freedom of Speech.

While I was a growing up girl, both my mother and Grandmother discouraged me from speaking my mind. As a Grandmother, I can understand this, for we want our children and grandchildren to sail through life with happiness, abounding friendships, and good manners. As they both put it, "A lady doesn't discuss politics, religion, or sex." I've broken their pronouncement many times in my personal life, and after the fact pondered on the wisdom of their rule. However, I shall try to remember it in the New Year.

Currently, I'm working on a Karen Kahle rug, called "Sweet Bower" It was intended to be a Christmas gift for my dh, but as many creative people do, especially those of us with Adult ADD, my focus has lately shifted to counted cross stitch. So much easier to carry a project somewhere. I'm starting to think about hooking again, as I am less and less out of my chair.

Happy New Year. It may be awhile until I post again, Wishing you and myself a healthier New Year, and hope you vote in the upcoming November election, using information you can rely on. Tricky in these times, but it always has been. Follow your heart and brain, choose your Congressmen/women well and vote for the Presidential Candidate that best represents your vision for America. After listening to all the speeches and thinking about what their carefully worded speeches really mean, cast your vote, it is not only your right but your responsibility.

Should auld acquaintance be forgot....

An Open Letter to Ted Poe, Texas Representative

2011-12-06T10:21:00.000-08:00

Dear Mr. Poe, I tried to reply to the email sent to me, but it goes to an unattended mailbox. Hmmm.
At the bottom of the automated response was a link to a different site... unfortunately, that link says "Request URL is not found" Another thing that makes me go Hmmm. So I'm am posting your original email to me, and my reply, surrounded by the automatic reply message I got back. Chances you'll be reading this are fairly low. But hopefully a few other Texans googling Ted Poe might.
*******************************************
This mailbox is unattended.

Thank you for your correspondence, however to better serve the constituents of the 2nd District, I have established a contact form on my web site. Please go to: http://poe.house.gov/contact/contactform.htm

If you are contacting my office regarding casework or if your request is timely and requires an immediate response, please call one of my offices: Residents of Harris County, please call: 281-446-0242; Residents of Jefferson and Liberty Counties, please call: 409-212-1997; For my Washington, DC office, please call: 202-225-6565.

Sincerely,

Ted Poe
Member of Congress
Texas

-----Original Message-----
From: "Jo Leland"
Sent: 12/6/2011 12:27:41 PM
To: "Congressman Ted Poe" <TX02IMA@mail.house.gov>
Cc:
Subject: Re: A message from the office of Congressman Ted Poe

I don't agree with much of what you are suggesting. Again, it favors those with means over middle class and lower class American citizens. If I have to pay 23% sales tax on top of 8.25% state sales tax that reduces my buying power by 33 cents per dollar. With no disrespect intended, as a retired teacher, with insurance and medical costs that keeping get higher, and all of the impacts of the recent wall street frauds that as yet seem to go unpunished, that seems ridiculous.

While it is true that my one vote is not enough to remove a Representative from office, I will clearly never be able to vote for your return to Congress. I was pleased and proud to vote for you the first time, as I didn't really understand your positions clearly. The second time I was beginning to have doubts, but as a former teacher I believed that sharing alternative opinions with you was possibly a way to let you know your constituents don't all agree with them, and my civic duty. Now, it seems clear to me, that our visions of the future of America are so different, that it would be irresponsible for me to give you my support. I worked with children, while you worked as a judge, with the results of disenfranchised, uneducated adults among the many types of criminals.

You talk of individuals cheating the tax system, and if by that you are referring to corporations that don't pay their fair share of taxes, I agree. If you are talking about individual citizens, and you mean the 1% of the population that doesn't pay their fair share, I agree. Tax Preparation companies give JOBS to people and reassurance to customers, do you really want to do away with them? I trust our tax preparer fair more than you to protect my families welfare.

http://cotton-eyed-jo.blogspot.com/ http://www.etsy.com/shop/cottoneyedjo

________________________________
From: Congressman Ted Poe <tx02reply@mail.house.gov>
To: elegantdragonfly@yahoo.com
Sent: Tuesday, December 6, 2011 8:20 AM
Subject: A message from the office of Congressman Ted Poe

[http://poe.house.gov/images/poe_newsheader.png]

Dear Mrs. Leland :

Thank you for you for contacting me regarding taxes. I appreciate having the benefit of your views on this important issue.

Our tax system is broken. It is now so complicated that getting help for your taxes is a multi-billion dollar business. I believe we need to completely overhaul the system, close loopholes, and reduce the burden that we put on our taxpayers every April. There are many proposals out there, and I am open to new ideas that accomplish the goals stated above. One of those proposals is the Fair Tax Act of 2011, of which I am a cosponsor. The bill would replace the individual income tax, the corporate income tax, all payroll taxes, the self-employment tax, and the estate and gift taxes with a 23% national retail sales tax. We would no longer have the need for the IRS or a serious problem with people cheating the system and not paying their fair share. People simply would pay their taxes every time they purchased a good. But, there are many other good ideas as well. The important thing is that we reform our tax system and do it soon. Whatever tax vehicle we end up adopting, it n! eeds to result in a simpler, less burdensome tax code for households and small businesses.

I also believe we need to drastically cut the corporate income tax. At a combined government rate of 40%, the U.S. has the second highest corporate income tax rate in the world. This means that businesses are more likely to move to other countries where they will not be taxed as much as they are here. The result is we lose our jobs and become less competitive in the world market. We have to stop this trend and restore America to the business-friendly climate it once was. The U.S. corporate tax rate should be set at or below the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) average of 26% to eliminate the incentive to move businesses and jobs overseas.

Thank you again for contacting me with your thoughts. Your continued input is important to me. For additional information regarding current legislation and my representation of the 2 nd District, please refer to my website: poe.house.gov. While you are visiting the website, be sure to sign up for my electronic newsletter.

If you are contacting the Office of Congressman Poe regarding casework or if your request is timely and requires an immediate response, please call one of my offices: Residents of Harris County, please call: 281-446-0242; Residents of Jefferson and Liberty Counties, please call: 409-212-1997; For my Washington, DC office, please call: 202-225-6565.

*******************************************************

Be Still My Beating Heart... I've Got Alpha Male Mail

2011-12-05T07:33:00.000-08:00

Imagine my delight to open my email this morning, to discover an email FROM Robert Redford, with the subject line "I haven't heard from you, Jo".

Of course, it will be no surprise to you to read I'm a tree hugger...it probably is a required subset of my liberal views, so I'm going to share the link to the contribution site. If you have children or grandchildren consider making a small donation to save one of the best parts of our heritage for future Americans.
https://secure3.convio.net/lcv/site/Donation2?3580.donation=form1&df_id=3580&JServSessionIdr004=k98qlvaqf9.app334b

So sweet....

2011-11-29T23:04:00.000-08:00

Our daughter just emailed me a picture of the play table in our granddaughter's room. The two elves are Poppy and Moppy and anyday I expect another may appear to watch me. But what I so wanted to share was Livvie's note to Santa on the drawing board. It says"I will be good for toys..."

When she was less than 2 was her first Christmas with an elf. One time while she was on the changing table, I was talking to her about Santa, and being good, and she literally did an eye roll signal to me to look up at the elf... lol. I made sure to brag about how nicely she was cooperating, whenever the elf was near. She is a good hearted little girl, with a streak of mischief. The elves may have to turn their heads a time or two between now and Christmas.

Put some $$ where you want your mouth to be...anyway!

2011-11-05T17:27:00.000-07:00

Have you made a trip to Starbucks lately? Would you like to help create some jobs in America. This project reminds me of Kiva, where a small amount of money from lots of individual donors, can mount up to a substantial amount of help for individuals.

We can't do it all, but until Congress gets involved, we can get something started. I'm tired of the politics and rhetoric. The founder of this fund, Starbucks CEO? is also contacting businesses to try to get them not to contribute to any campaign funds until Job Creation gets rolling from the government. Of course, we're not naive, that only means the people who are already supporting candidates who campaign fairly will most likely quit. "Corporations/People" who are using underhanded campaign donations will still do that, because that is how they gain their "owe ya ones".

Still, I bought myself a wristband, and one for a Christmas gift. Got a smaller size Eggnog Latte, and still didn't use quite all of my personal $20. The wristbands and cards are made in America, so those jobs are a start at least.

If you need an excuse to treat yourself to a Latte, Machiatto, or whatever, drop by and invest $5. in job creation. Who knows the job you create might help someone you know and love. Anyway, Americans pulling together can show politicians, that they are done listening, and are digging in to get job creation started. If everyone invested only $5. between now and Christmas, that could help, and if the line at your drive-through StarBucks is like the one at ours...well, that could be alot of money. Consider giving them as gifts to coworkers, family members or even kids that are college students.

Put some Soul Cakes into Your Halloween or Samhain Celebrations

2011-10-30T10:40:00.000-07:00

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=15536354

Soul Cakes: Hallowed Offerings for Hungry Ghosts

For a fuller history of Soul Cakes, check out the link above... You really didn't want to get the burned cake.

It is always fun to learn something new, especially if it is really old... We never made Soul Cakes when I was growing up, so I learned about them just this week. So of course had to try them. As these are originally a pagan food, later adopted and blessed by Christians a perfect treat this time of year.

Soul Cakes

T. Susan Chang for NPR

Soul cakes get stale within a day or two, so eat 'em while they're hot.

Makes 12 to 15 2-inch soul cakes

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg, ground fresh if possible

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, ground fresh if possible

1/2 teaspoon salt

Generous pinch of saffron

1/2 cup milk

1 stick (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter, softened

1/2 cup sugar

2 egg yolks

1/2 cup currants

For the Glaze:

1 egg yolk, beaten

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Combine the flour, the nutmeg, cinnamon and salt in a small bowl. Mix well with a fork.

Crumble the saffron threads into a small saucepan and heat over low heat just until they become aromatic, taking care not to burn them. Add the milk and heat just until hot to the touch. The milk will have turned a bright yellow. Remove from heat.

Cream the butter and sugar together in a medium bowl with a wooden spoon (or use an electric mixer with the paddle attachment). Add the egg yolks and blend in thoroughly with the back of the spoon. Add the spiced flour and combine as thoroughly as possible; the mixture will be dry and crumbly.

One tablespoon at a time, begin adding in the warm saffron milk, blending vigorously with the spoon. When you have a soft dough, stop adding milk; you probably won't need the entire half-cup.

Turn the dough out onto a floured counter and knead gently, with floured hands, until the dough is uniform. Roll out gently to a thickness of 1/2 inch. Using a floured 2-inch round cookie or biscuit cutter, cut out as many rounds as you can and set on an ungreased baking sheet. You can gather and re-roll the scraps, gently.

Decorate the soul cakes with currants and then brush liberally with the beaten egg yolk. Bake for 15 minutes, until just golden and shiny. Serve warm, with cold pumpkin juice.

Tips from Cotton Eyed Jo

******Important tip to self, brush the cookies with egg wash before putting on raisins to make life simpler... :)

I used Parkay, rather than butter as we don't generally keep it in our fridge except for Christmas cookies.
lightly floured board and hands would keep yours from being too floury. It didn't make them taste bad, but not better either.
In my oven, (electric) it took the full 15 minutes for them to be finished. I know cause I always under time, but the second sheet full I set at 15 minutes and they came out great.
Next time I'm adding a little more milk too, I added about 9 tablespoons of milk or slightly more if I forgot.
Raisins instead of currants, cause we don't keep currants on hand, but do almost always have raisins.

When you look at the recipe and think about the middle ages or renaissance, it's clear these wouldn't have been baking up in a serf's or poor person's cottage. Saffron, nutmeg, cinnamon, salt... all those and the currants too would have been in very limited supply. So count our blessings today for the easy availability of all kinds of wonderful ingredients from all over the world, at bargain prices, at least compared to gathering it yourself.

Happy Halloween. Grandpaparazzi will be in his traditional pirate costume, I'll be a somewhat whimsical penguin at the request of Livvie. She will be Belle and has the Disney store tiara to toes and everything beautiful in between version. Her mama and Daddy will go with her as Mrs. Potts and the Beast. Ya gotta love when parents are willing to be the supporting roles so Belle can trick or treat safely.

Ps Grandpaparazzi and I are making Mummy Wraps and Baked Apples for dinner. We'll hold down their candy bowl and answer the doorbell while they are gone... The mummy wraps are hot dogs with breadstick wrapped around them, part of some great quick Halloween foods that don't take much time. Check our the others by visiting http://www.parents.com/recipes/holidays/halloween/easy-last-minute-halloween-recipes/ Anybody want some spiderweb soup?

Post script.... sadly, the stomach flu hit two of the three cast members. Belle and her daddy, weren't able to go on the trick or treating tour. Grandpaparazzi and I just ate regular hot dogs, and the first evening in November used a couple of the left over soul cakes as a base for serving baked apples that didn't get done on Halloween. I'll be planning baked apples ala soul cakes from now on out. :)

Knitting bug bit me...

2011-10-16T10:36:00.000-07:00

I've had some fun the last couple of weeks knitting little and bigger caps. My first project was all the sizes of the pumpkin caps. A teacher friend now in another state, has a precious preemie son named Eli. She's used Facebook to share all his growth during the first weeks of life, and I wanted to knit him a little cap or two, so he will get a package this week with the smallest pumpkin, and the smaller of the two variegated caps. The larger variegated and pumpkin caps are for Livvie. Her two cousins will get the cap with the snowflake and the one to its left. Our Alaskan part of the family will be coming back for a short visit! Visits from faraway family and friends are always too short!

My rug hook has been calling my name the whole time, I'm working on my Karen Kahle "Sweet Bower", and have a new one from Kris Miller, Spruce Ridge Studios. It is Kris's adaptation of Not Forgotten Farms *Lori Brechlin* original note card of a Mermaid. I'm in the thinking about a story part of the planning. I've been thinking about weather above and below the water, whether I want a "fancy Nancy" type mermaid, or one more simple and elegant. Thinking about the colors I'll want above and below the waterline...

So even while I've been using my hands to knit, my mind has been hooking, rehooking, and the rug is starting to come into focus for me. Sometimes that daily 10 minute rughooking stretches out to much longer even without picking up a hook.

I've started dyeing the extended colors for my personal palette, and again love April DeConick's organization method, for her book, THE WOOL PALETTE. Just heard that Lulu's book's will soon be downloadable on a Barnes and Noble Nook, so that might be another way to get a look at and try her method.

I can choose colors for MY grays, blue greens, yellow greens or deeper blue violets. The extended colors are even easier than the original 12 because of her method... but no less exciting to see in the reveal. At one point in my life, I'd have enjoyed combining to see what happens, now I appreciate knowing that combining orange and yellow green will give me.... if you'd like to know the answer to that question...read her book, or try dyeing it to find out. ]:)

Peter, Peter, Pumpkin Eater

2011-09-24T16:50:00.000-07:00

If you FB, you may have a friend who shared this video, but it is amazing. I learned a bit more about growing pumpkins by watching it as well.

Another amazing feature this week, was how quickly our pool cooled down to too cold for ME once our 100+ degree weather left. Today's high was ? but at 6:48 it is still 82 degrees, so we aren't exactly having a cold snap. Sadly, the gulf water isn't cooling as quickly, fire danger is back up, no significant chances for rain in the forecast either. Still, although we miss the pool and will for several months, I bid a fond farewell to the weather from HELL!

What I hope to do on September 11, 2011

2011-09-08T21:52:00.000-07:00

This will just be a short post tonight:
I hope I'll remember to tell all the people in my life how much I love them. If you are reading this, my love includes you.

I hope that I'll remember to pray for the families of the people lost on 9 -11 or as a result of something that happened because of it.

I hope that the choices I make Sunday and at least most other days, will be ones to help make the world a better place.

I hope and pray that the rumor about another attack on New York on Sunday turns out to be just a rumor. But if it is true, that Americans will once again draw together.

I hope that all the people in TX who are threatened by fire, or have had their home destroyed will find a place of shelter and love. I will try to dial back my political upsets. If a fireman came to my home, I wouldn't care if he was Republican, Democrat, Tea Party or Libertarian. I'd say thank you for helping me and my family.

Congressional Reform Act of 2011

2011-08-28T16:57:00.000-07:00

Congressional Reform Act of 2011

I have totally cleaned this e-mail from all other names, sending it to you in hopes you will keep it going and keep it clean. This is something I will fight for and I hope you all read it all the way through. You will be glad you did. from my friend, body of the reform is below. Feel free to share it with anyone or to link back to this post. I didn't write it, but I'm sure ready to share it!

The 26th amendment (granting the right to vote for 18 year-olds) took only 3 months & 8 days to be ratified! Why? Simple! The people demanded it. That was in 1971...before computers, before e-mail, before cell phones, etc.

Of the 27 amendments to the Constitution, seven (7) took 1 year or less to become the law of the land...all because of public pressure.

I'm asking each addressee to forward this email to a minimum of twenty people on their address list; in turn ask each of those to do likewise.

In three days, most people in The United States of America will have the message. This is one idea that really should be passed around.

Congressional Reform Act of 2011

1. No Tenure / No Pension.
A Congressman collects a salary while in office and receives no pay when they are out of office.

2. Congress (past, present & future) participates in Social Security.
All funds in the Congressional retirement fund move to the Social Security system immediately. All future funds flow into the Social Security system, and Congress participates with the American people. It may not be used for any other purpose.

3. Congress can purchase their own retirement plan, just as all Americans do.

4. Congress will no longer vote themselves a pay raise. Congressional pay will rise by the lower of CPI or 3%.

5. Congress loses their current health care system and participates in the same health care system as the American people.

6. Congress must equally abide by all laws they impose on the American people.

7. All contracts with past and present Congressmen are void effective 1/1/12.
The American people did not make this contract with Congressmen. Congressmen made all these contracts for themselves. Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, so ours should serve their term(s), then go home and back to work.

If each person contacts a minimum of twenty people then it will only take three days for most people (in the U.S. ) to receive the message. Maybe it is time.

THIS IS HOW YOU FIX CONGRESS!!!!!
If you agree with the above, pass it on. If not, just delete.

My Etsy shop @Cotton Eyed Jo

2011-08-27T19:11:00.000-07:00

I've just started adding quite a few rubber stamps and stamping supplies like chocolate scented ink for reinking a brown stamp pad. At one time, I used stamps on student papers instead of stickers, for recognition of good work, such as a halo stamp that was stamped over 100% on a Spelling Test.

I had a tax license and then ordered stamps to share with other teachers. This had the down side of ending up with an additional stamp, if they were the only one interested, and the company had a required 2 as a minimum. But it was also a great way to get wonderful stamps to use, and I hauled them out at garage sales etc... but still have many that were unsold.

In addition, I got the most lovely feedback from a customer recently, after my Witches Pillow sold. :)
After nearly a year without being sold, I was about to give up on listing it again, so it was especially nice to read:

WOW!!! Lightning Speed Shipping of a Fantastic Piece! The Work put into this special Pillow! It is a work of Art! I love it!! Thank You for sharing Your Talent! Take Care, (I've left off her name as I didn't ask permission to reveal who she is).

I've got permission from Prairie Schooler to stitch and sell some of her designs, only my hands working on these things. But after all the nonsense(to me and many other American citizens as well), I stitched up a small sampler, and some cabinet hangers from her American Primitive Book 8.
One of her requests is that I provide a link to her website, and since Ebay isn't allowing links off site in just a few days, I figured that this might still be in order. It will be on my Etsy site sometime tomorrow or Monday. I've also come up with my own Tea Party design, so look for a cabinet hanger for them as well. That inspired me to complete an alphabet for the few letters I did use and need, so I'm now working on a Sampler design of my own. :)

If you've read down this far, and like Prairie Schooler designs, here is a link to her free one for July. (A Christmas Tree). Plenty of time till Christmas if you start now!

A Great Tool for Beginning Quilters

2011-08-12T20:03:00.000-07:00

http://www.equilter.com/cgi-bin/webc.cgi/st_patmain.html?sid=31U9Hz2j90E@45u-15111614699.9a

I love to buy fabrics at equilter.com but now there is a really nifty new tool for beginning quilter's that have a hard time selecting fabrics. Check out the link above, and prepare to be dazzled. You might not use it right away, with the economy like it is, but save this link!

Sometimes You Just Don't Know

2011-07-07T16:40:00.000-07:00

Grieving the loss of a family member, can sometimes be soothed with remembering events during happier times.

We've been cleaning out our garage, well, in all honesty, my dh has been cleaning out the side with his treasures gathered over the years. We haven't gotten to his baseball cards quite yet, and it has been an inspiration to see how easily he is releasing things. I have definite issues about letting go of things with emotional memories, or anything with more than a square inch of possibility left in it.

So when we were working on listing one of these items for ebay, it came as a small shock to me, when he wanted to list his knife and pouch for it. So many of my memories as a young wife include that knife and pouch. Camping, fishing, coming home from camp with his extra cute tan...wearing shorts and knee socks in uniform left some strange untanned areas. :) In all those times, that faithful knife, snug at his belt waited to be used, and was many times. He thinks of it as "opened more boxes with it than anything else" knife. And of course, he is most likely right. We sure had lots to open unpacking in the move to this home we've been in for the last (impossible but true) eleven years.

It sold today, so before it gets packed up to be shipped away, I wanted to officially wish it God speed. My dh says the guy collects all kinds of Swiss Army style knives. Hope it doesn't go into a box in his garage. The knife might like retirement from use, but I prefer to remember it on my husband's belt, then off to sharpen a branch for a hot dog stick. That isn't a made up memory...

So sometimes you just don't know when the grief of losing a spouse may begin. We are still in each others' way, smiling, snarling, and hugging. Parting most often with "luv you!" or now with Livvie about it is more likely to be "later gator"... I hope that won't change for years, because I could bearly stand the loss of his old knife and pouch. Silly old bear.

A Giveaway of Heavens to Betsy Wools - but be quick!

2011-06-28T09:34:00.000-07:00

http://alice-folkartprimitives.blogspot.com/ Hop on over to Alice Frazier's blog and leave a comment telling why you like being a Hooker, to be in the running for 1.5 yards of the new Summer Assortment of wools. 1/2 yard of 9 different great wools! I particularily like Jinx and need to get some for a cat rug I'll be hooking for Halloween. On these sweltering Houston Days, I'd rather be thinking about pumpkins, and black cats than sweating and skeeeters! I'm adding Alice's blog to my blog roll at the right. If you haven't been reading her blog, you'll be able to easily link there from mine.

Before we know it, the 4th of July will be here. If I don't get back to blog before then, have a happy and safe 4th and God watch over our Armed Service men and women and their families. God bless America and you!

Jam Jar Jubilee and a Whole Lotta Pickles

2011-06-13T09:33:00.000-07:00

This post is a bit overdue, but not too late yet. The giant pickle jars I love to use for scrap and using up my dye solution in a technique I call Jam Jar Dyeing are in the store now. Got mine at Walmart and in all honesty, they may be there year round. Have always found them in the summer, so that is when I think to look for them. This year, instead of being a special display near the grocery aisles, they were actually on the pickle aisle. Look toward the lower shelves.

This one was a bargain! At under $3.00, it was the least expensive. But even at just under $5.00 Vlasik had the same sized jar in dill spears. We are blessed to have an old fridge in our garage, and mostly keep sodas, adult beverages, and defrosting turkeys in October or November. ;)

Here is a link to the description of how I do Jam Jar Dyeing. This summer, I've finally gotten a big dye pot, so that I'll be able to just use one burner for strip dyeing. April DeConick mentioned to me, that she thought that heating the jar would make the color less likely to fade. So my second burner will be used one of two ways. Dyeing some 1/2 or 1 yard pieces, or heating up that jam jar...

Here are some of my jars cooling on the outside baker's rack we use for herbs. This picture was taken last summer when I got to my palette purple which I call Wine Cup because the shades do remind me so of those spring wild flowers along the sides of the road.

With summer entertaining in full swing, now is a great time to buy an 80 oz jar of pickles. If you can keep it in a "backup fridge" you can put a smaller sized pickle jar in your kitchen fridge and refill it as needed from the big jar. Before you know it, you'll have a jam jar of your own. Least wise if you eat pickles almost every day...like we do. My dh's mom home canned some of the best pickles you could ever imagine. So the guy likes pickles on the side of almost any sandwich we eat. (Me too!)

The last day of School (and the first day of Summer Vacation!)

2011-06-01T19:26:00.000-07:00

If you are one of my Facebook Friends, you may have already read about the moment of joy I saw today. It was only a few minutes after school let out for the summer at the middle school near our home. The first thing I saw was four middle school boys leaping like gazelles along the green belt. If not for having reveled in nearly the same way (without their athletic ability) it might have made me wonder what was happening. But, as a teacher, I saw that joyous moment acted out before my eyes many many times, and felt that joy myself, once all the paperwork was completely finished, bulletin boards cleaned off, books and supplies packed away....

My best memory of the beginning of summer vacation happened on my last day at my first TX school. I was leaving for another building that was opening in the fall, so that meant everything that was mine must go in the trash or the back of my car. Just as the door clicked behind me for the last time, I heard in the near distance, the delightful tune of an ice cream truck. If you saw it in a movie, you might think it was an unbelievable coincidence. But such miracles surround us, if we just allow them in.

I've got lots to write about in the next few days. Finished the last of my 12 colors(Red Orange) and absolutely love the way it turned out. I'll be calling that family of shades Crawfish Boil. Which allowed me to finish my color wheel project, except for the binding and whipping. Which really must be done to take a picture for the pattern envelope.

Our challenge rug for the June Hookin, is nearly finished and I'll be showing a pic of it real soon too. Can't find the wool for finishing it...hate to use black, but that may be exactly what it turns out to be.

Hope your summer is as enjoyable as can be hoped for!

Making things for Children

2011-05-25T16:28:00.001-07:00

http://www.cpsc.gov/about/cpsia/leadpolicy.pdf

I just learned today, (I'll admit I just gave up on trying to understand it) and well worth taking your time to read it. Sarah Faix of Bit of Whimsey Dolls was the lovely lady to give the information to me. Whimsical not prim at all, but I enjoyed making these dolls for our granddaughter and sold several locally when I was doing the Sunday Market at Discovery Green.

If you make items for children, you might think, well that is OLD NEWS, but perhaps you are like many of us, we make dolls as carefully for others as we would for our own grandchildren. I couldn't afford testing items that are basically one of a kind, so I quit making dolls for young children. Having seen kids reactions to some of my creations with Sarah's patterns, it was disappointing, but necessary.

I want to be sure that items I buy for our granddaughter are made with reasonable care. But dolls with rusty pins or rusted star garlands should clearly be for decorative purposes only. Parents and grandparents should chose things that are safe, and supervise their use. With infants and toddlers, most folks do just that. If you have a grandchild that loves dolls, younger than 12, please purchase appropriate items for their use.

Kirby Hooking Circle will be having our Second Annual Hook-in June 25th

2011-05-16T15:47:00.000-07:00

Kirby Hooking Circle at our 2nd annual hook-in to be held on June 25, 2011 at Bethany Christian Church in Houston.

Our theme this year is "Out of Africa -- A Rug Hooking Safari".. All the information and a registration form are attached. We've got great vendors, door prizes, a rug challenge, and rug show featuring the ATHA Seeing RED Challenge rugs. It's a great way to spend the day.

We had a great time at the first one last year. If you live in the Houston Area which for Texans means San Antonio (shout out to Cora) and beyond, this year we'll be having two rug displays. Here is a tiny peek at my rug for the challenge. It's way bigger than last year's, and called "Cape Town Musicians" .

An American Primitive Group has lots of very talented artists whom I'm pleased to call friend. One of them, Rebecca, goodwool on Ebay, recently shared a rug with an interesting technique for doing her background. I wanted to try it in hooking my design, but saw it first in one of her rugs. Another person who inspired my idea this year was Martha Lowry winner of the Peoples' Choice award at the first rug show. Her whimsical "cow jumping over the moon" helped me think outside the box... Rug Hooking is one of those crafts where we are so lucky to see individuals styles, and can then use them in our own way. Every rug show I've attended including those on-line, I've been amazed at the diversity of styles in the rugs created.

I'll have to add the pic later as my dh is currently using the camera...

Below is a copy of the email sent out to people who attended last year or are current members of Kirby Hooking Circle. It has a delightful graphic at the top that didn't make it!

Out of Africa – a Rug Hooking Safari

Take a walk on the Wild Side and join the Kirby Hooking Circle on Saturday,
June 25, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Bethany Christian Church,
3223 Westheimer Road, Houston, TX 77098
Registration $25, includes boxed lunch, & is limited to 70, so sign up today!

Come for a day of beautiful rugs, great shopping, door prizes, & spending
time with your friends, all while working on your latest project!

Shop our wonderful vendors: Cal Creations, Country Gatherings,
My Little House Rugs, and Red Jack Rugs

Special Features for 2011:
ATHA’s Seeing RED Challenge Rugs will be on Display!
Bring your own finished piece to place in our rug show from
1 p.m. to 3 pm., complete with Viewer’s Choice Award!
Participate in this year’s Safari Rug Challenge: Create a rug with an animal
theme (any animal – not just jungle) with a minimum size of 12x12 inches
(or 144 sq. in), and in any shape you wish. All Challenge Rugs will be on
display as well, with an opportunity to select your Viewer’s Choice!
Register today by completing the registration form below, and mail your
registration and check payable to Lurie McAdow at 11210 Huggins Drive,
Houston, TX 77035. Contact Lurie at luriemcadow@aol.com for more
information. Any proceeds from the Rug Hooking Safari will benefit the
Houston Zoo!

Out of Africa – A Rug Hooking Safari – Registration
June 25, 2011 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Name: __________________________________________________________________
Address: __________________________________________________________________
Phone: ____________________
E-mail: __________________________________________________________________
Registration: $25 (limited to first 70 registrants)
Choice of Boxed Lunch (Please indicate your preference)
__________ Mixed Green Salad with grilled chicken
__________ Turkey Sandwich on Multi-Grain Ciabatta bread
****Please note: no outside sales are allowed.****
I agree that the representatives of the Kirby Hooking Circle, Bethany Christian Church or any vendors attending the Out of Africa – Rug Hooking Safari shall not be held accountable or liable for any damage, loss, harm, or injury to person or property resulting from my attendance at the Rug Hooking Safari on June 25th.
Signature: _____________________________________________ Date: _______________
Please mail your completed, signed form and $25 registration fee by June 10th to:
The Kirby Hooking Circle, c/o Lurie McAdow, 11210 Huggins Drive, Houston, TX 77035

Trying to Complete my Color Wheel and a Pattern for It

2011-04-28T13:05:00.000-07:00

I have one last color to dye in 8 shades for my Texas Palette to be complete. *Red Orange*. Seems like this could get done pretty quickly, but I'm also working on hooking the palette parts already dyed into a rug, and making a pattern for it. Have gotten some good reactions to how I did the color wheel, with all the primary and secondary colors to the inside, and all the tertiary color pointing out. One thing that you might be wondering about is the numerals.

Here is a picture of the finished red orange shades. This one is called Crawfish Boil. The lightest tones are the lovely color of boiled fresh gulf shrimp!

I included them, because April refers to colors by number, so this is going to help me start thinking of them that way too. She started with Red as the first primary in her palette, while I started with blue. That confused me for awhile(I'm easily confused), because although I've hooked quite a bit, there are so many things in the rug hooking culture I don't know. For awhile I thought red was always first in a color wheel...Anyway, since she would refer to these first 12 by number if we were talking, wanted to learn them that way too. You might want to know that before starting a palette of your own, by using her directions.

Should I include the numerals on my pattern? I think they might be rather confusing to someone who doesn't read all the accompanying pages, what do you think? My numbers aren't hooked very well, would rehooking them for the final picture that goes on the pattern be a good idea?

Originally, I started out with this design for my own project to display the colors in my palette. After a couple of good reactions, and since I've done paper patterns of my own drawings before, decided to do a paper pattern for this one. If you leave a comment, I'd truly appreciate your opinions on a couple of things. Finishing the rug as a hexagon would be the most economical in terms of wool, but would it keep you from using the pattern? Most rughookers adapt things readily, so changing it into a square would be as simple as hooking an outline along woven lines, as shown in the picture below.

To hook it into a round rug, a circle drawn onto the backing prior to hooking seems like it would be the easiest. Should I include a circle on the paper pattern? I've learned a couple of the pitfalls possible while hooking my own, and will give some tips to avoiding those problems... For example I didn't tape the shape completely perpendicularly for 8 between 7 and 9. As a result, it sits a bit closer to 7 than 8. I plan to sell the complete design, and include a single of the base shapes for photocopying.

Last but not least, I also have small numbers on the paper pattern referring to the space's placement within the 8 values. That can be explained in the directions. But if you don't do value strips would you have any interest in hooking a color wheel using wools in those colors that don't necessarily shade as well. Would the hunt for 8 shades of blue violet (etc.) turn you on or off? Because although you'd have some of the colors already in your stash, it could mean having to buy 8 x 12 =96 smallish pieces of wool if you were starting from scratch. Of course, it would be quite simple to choose a color of yellow you like and hook the whole design portion in one color. Should I say that in the directions?

Hope you will give me your, how do I say this, honest feedback implies hookers are a bunch of liars. What they are in actuality is kind ladies... so while tact is always appreciated, I am asking for constructive criticism that will help me to market a better pattern. Any other comments about improvements, or how beautiful the colors are together (she wrote modestly wink wink) are also welcome. Thanks in advance!

One of my Favorite Hymns

2011-04-24T05:59:00.000-07:00

http://www.hymnsite.com/lyrics/umh302.sht

302. Christ the Lord Is Risen Today
Text: Charles Wesley, 1707-1788
Music: Lyra Davidica, 1708
Tune: EASTER HYMN, Meter: 77.77 D

1.    Christ the Lord is risen today, Alleluia!
    Earth and heaven in chorus say, Alleluia!
    Raise your joys and triumphs high, Alleluia!
    Sing, ye heavens, and earth reply, Alleluia!

2.    Love's redeeming work is done, Alleluia!
    Fought the fight, the battle won, Alleluia!
    Death in vain forbids him rise, Alleluia!
    Christ has opened paradise, Alleluia!

3.    Lives again our glorious King, Alleluia!
    Where, O death, is now thy sting? Alleluia!
    Once he died our souls to save, Alleluia!
    Where's thy victory, boasting grave? Alleluia!

4.    Soar we now where Christ has led, Alleluia!
    Following our exalted Head, Alleluia!
    Made like him, like him we rise, Alleluia!
    Ours the cross, the grave, the skies, Alleluia!

5.    Hail the Lord of earth and heaven, Alleluia!
    Praise to thee by both be given, Alleluia!
    Thee we greet triumphant now, Alleluia!
    Hail the Resurrection, thou, Alleluia!

6.    King of glory, soul of bliss, Alleluia!
    Everlasting life is this, Alleluia!
    Thee to know, thy power to prove, Alleluia!
    Thus to sing, and thus to love, Alleluia!

Pure Joy!

2011-04-20T17:53:00.000-07:00

Try to remember when you got into a wading pool on a hot day, remove most of your fear, like most three year olds and hope this is what you feel like!

And the Winner is.....

2011-04-18T04:31:00.000-07:00

Before the announcement, this turned out to be one of my followers. A relatively new follower, but old friend, and I used a random number generator to select the winner.

Sharon Bennett, Moosecraft, is the winner of the eight value strips in the colors of Red Violet. :)

What a greal tool! Find recipes by What's in Season

2011-04-13T15:15:00.000-07:00

http://www.kraftrecipes.com/budget-tips/whatsinseason.aspx

Trying to eat healthier and save some money can be a real challenge, although of course if you are eating in, chances are it is going to be healthier in terms of at least knowing for sure what it contains and how it was made. Aside from turning a blind eye to how much sugar you are adding, or cheese, or sour cream, or whatever, you know. Can leave out ingredients that someone has an allergy or doesn't like, and so forth.

Beside recipes it has portions on preparation and the nutritional parts available. Simple serving tips, and tips on what to look for when purchasing that ingredient. We'll be checking this out lots!

April 12 is Equal Pay for Women Day

2011-04-11T21:01:00.000-07:00

April 12th is Equal Pay Day, the day that marks how much longer working women need to work to catch up to their male counterparts’ income from the previous year.

That’s right. A woman has had to work an extra three months this year to match a man’s income in 2010. Minority women have an even greater disparity in their wages.

To acknowledge this staggering discrepancy, fair pay supporters nationwide will wear red April 12th to symbolize that women’s wages are “in the red.”

So many women are the heads of households, especially in minority families.

Giveaway of Heavens to Betsy Wools at Back to Larkrise blog

2011-04-05T20:27:00.000-07:00

Cheri at Back to Larkrise is a participant in the Heavens to Betsy Giveaway of wool. I hope my blog will also be selected to participate in giving away some other wools from them at a later time.

The drawing will be on April 10, so you need to scoot on over to Cheri's blog soon. There are rules to follow and a way to add an additional chance. But that isn't featuring her giveaway on your blog. I was going to put a picture of my latest project that is done with regard to hooking. I'll add a photo to this post in the morning, While you are looking at the rug, I hope you'll agree that the background wool sets off the floral design wonderfully and still has an "old" look to it. It was wool from their samples in January, called "Kermit the Frog". It quickly sold out, but I was lucky enough to get some for this rug.

First, the lovely rug was designed by J. Soehnge in 2001. I was a lucky duck to get it in 2009. Another story for another day.

Second, it is one of the larger rugs I've hooked at 28 x 52 inches, and the first I did color planning on.
Clearly, this is a rug that is designed to be used on the floor, so that was different about it as well. I am toying with the idea of it across the foot of a bed, say in our guestroom. :)

Enough teasing, here is Kirby examining the rug and giving it his blessing. The "Kermit the Frog" wool from Heavens to Betsy, combined with the beautiful hand dyes done by Christy Mason of Double M Wools on Ebay.

Giveaway ~ Saturday Night in my Dye Pot!!!

2011-04-04T17:24:00.000-07:00

Just about to glug in some vinegar, for my next to the last color in my basic 12 colors for the color wheel. I've been calling my palette my TX Palette, so now I need to name my blue violet and red violet colors.

Red Violets

FarmGirl Kim has a prior claim on the blue violets shown below, so she is excluded from this giveaway. If you wonder why there is a label on them called identifying mark, look at the post below this one. :) If you have already received some of my palette strips, sorry, but you too are not eligible to win. Leave a comment to let me know you'd like the hand dyed strips. The one exclusion to that will be my new follower as of last night. But the rest of you entering the giveaway need to let me know that you want the wool. Maybe you come because of my music play list. It gets lots of nice comments. But the wool is for someone who works with wool.

If you are a follower of my blog, you will automatically be given a second chance. So if you aren't already a follower, you can double your chance to win by becoming a follower. :) I'll post pictures tomorrow, but you can be thinking already of good color names that match up TX and red violet! Y'all come back now right soon, because the giveaway will close as soon as there are 5 or more suggestions. Even if I don't choose to use your suggestion, you may win. If you are not a regular follower of my blog, you might need to leave an email address or some other way for me to contact you. Good luck!

Red Violet ? Blue Violet? How I could Tell

2011-04-03T09:25:00.000-07:00

First off, you might be thinking, who cares, or why would I want to know for sure! In the palette dyeing I've been doing so far, it usually has been quite simple to identify the hue of the color. But for these two colors, there was only a 1/4 tsp difference in the formula. That might be a mistake, but it is how it figured up, and how the formulas were measure for the dye pot. Hmmmm, seemed to me like it could make them very similar. The blue violet had an identifying permanent mark on one of the strips. So that meant I could keep them straight, no matter how they came out. Washed and dried separately, pinned as soon as they came out of the dryer, so confident that these are correctly divided into the two colors and their 8 values.

So here they are side by side.

On top of that, these were the first two batches I added kosher salt (1/2 tsp) to the jars of water. This is to help maintain a more uniform color. Why did mine still have mottling? Because I didn't stir them during processing. I like mottled wool, feel like it gives my hooking more depth.

My red formula contains quite a bit of turkey red, and this has led to a very red orientation of the palette colors. I had to redux the blue and yellow formulas to come up with more balenced hues of the secondary colors. In all honesty, it seems likely that the red formula will now be undergoing a redeux. That will mean a completely different palette, even if I keep my current blue and yellow formulas. Like them alot, and so I will. But the original red can always be dyed, now that I have the formula. Turkey Red has some orange undertones, which as a new dyer, I didn't realize.

When the Moon is in the second house, and Jupiter realigns with Mars

2011-03-30T17:13:00.000-07:00

We just got a box filled with a major connection to our younger healthier selves. I'm going to start sprouting again. More than 25 years ago, my dh and I, were on a camping trip in Leadville, CO with friends. We ate our first deliberately veggie sandwich. I'm sure both of us had eaten tomato sandwiches as kids, but didn't really store those memories for easy retrieval. *Just remembered PB&J are also veggie sandwiches. Both of us ate tons of them growing up.

On that trip, we literally sat around the campfire, singing "Rocky Mountain High", caught and cooked lots of trout, and I learned about sprouts. For years afterward, I faithfully sprouted mostly alfalfa sprouts to add to salads and sandwiches. During that time, I was also making homemade whole wheat or rye bread and we had a Salton Yogurt Maker. We weren't hippies or vegans (although we did go to Colorado in a van ☺), but the times were encouraging to eat healthy foods, and we didn't have a child yet. Although one of her earliest favorites to eat was alfalfa sprouts... When we moved to TX, she was still a preschooler, and still eating those sprouts, but then the differences in climate did in my sprouting green thumb. High humidity and air conditioning for a much longer portion of the year didn't bring much success. Luckily, at about that time, sprouts began appearing at the grocery store.

We got our sprouting supplies from Sprout People so if you've sprouted earlier in your life, or miss being able to buy sprouts at the grocery store, check 'em out. We decided to add sprouting to Greek yogurt and quinoa in our attempt to get back to healthier eating. But I don't intend to give up marshmallow creme, which for me is a quality of life decision. Back in the good old days, I used a Mayo jar and a set of plastic screen lids with increasingly larger openings. The new and improved EasySprout has 6 parts and came with a set of directions, which to be honest I had to read through several times. Back then, there were health food stores that sold bulk alfalfa seeds. Good luck finding those in your home town now!

I'll let you see some pictures in a day or two, and give you our favorite variation of ingredients for veggie sandwiches. But for now I'm off to scrub the sprouters before using them. We'll be doing alfalfa and a seed mixture called LongLife for our sprouts.

Paper pattern for Sharing My Wool now available in my Etsy Shop

2011-03-26T16:10:00.000-07:00

This rug was finished finally just this year(binding and whipping are just not fun~) but I have taken it around, showed it online to help people who might want a pattern on see how it might turn out, and probably on here as well. The rug has been chosen for several treasuries, and always comments about it tend to include words like cozy or homey.

You might paint, needlepunch, rug hook or do applique, and like the rug, but don't really want it traced on linen. I'm now offering a paper copy of the basic pattern in my etsy shop Cotton Eyed Jo. If you'd like to make it larger or smaller that will be permitted in the paperwork of the pattern. This pattern is approx 11 inches by 15 inches.

I fiddled around getting the paper pattern done, because I thought if another rug (completely different) say more primitive style, with a Siamese cat with much simpler markings it might seem more achievable. I worked from photos of our Kirby Kat, and captured his likeness well enough to make it a keepsake. He won't be with us forever, but the rug will last longer than we do.

Don't forget to turn out the lights for Earth Hour tonight!

Earth Hour 2011

2011-03-14T19:48:00.000-07:00

http://www.earthhour.org/LatestNews.aspx

For the third year in a row, my dh and I will be turning out our lights for an hour (or longer) to join with millions of other citizens of the earth. Sustainability is an important issue, which will probably not impact our life too much. However, we are grandparents, and this has changed our perspective on so many issues.

8:30 PM, Saturday, March 26 , 2011 Whether you want to save a bit on your electric bill or save the world for our descendants, join in.... and switch off your lights, computer, tv, whatever!

I created this lantern at the site.

Here is a list of suggestions from Miranda Kerr, I found on the news release at earthhour.org

Buy local produce from markets thereby reducing food miles
Walking or riding the bike wherever possible as opposed to driving
Ensure the car tyres are always inflated to the correct level as they use less fuel
Use fuel with Ethanol
Turn off the lights and use organic or beeswax candles a lot of the time
Unplug appliances when they are not in use
Use heating and cooling when absolutely necessary
Wash in mostly cold water
Use chemical-free dish washing, washing powder and cleaning products
Recycle, recycle, recycle
Buy products with the highest recyclability
Purchase clothes that are ethically made, not mass produced
Dress in Organic clothing
Install water-saving nozzles on all taps including showers
Compost scraps whenever possible
Prepare food plans so as to avoid food wastage
Grow herbs and spices
Have timed showers to use less water
Water the plants of an evening
Bury food scraps in the garden bed to feed the earth worms or compost
Collecting grey water from bath and use it to water plants
Using Certified Organic personal care products (avoid using chemicals)
Wash the car on the grass with environmentally friendly car wash
Buy Certified Organic or Farmers markets produce. I understand that certified organics can be expensive, but local farmers markets for the most part are usually reasonable. On my blog (www.koraorganics.com/blog) I include a list of Farmers Markets from around the world so that people will have ready access to the same.

See many of these suggestions are not that difficult. Maybe, you can actually do your own garden, nothing tastes better than veggies you've grown yourself.

How cookies can stay with you forever...

2011-03-12T11:39:00.000-08:00

I'm pretty sure you know the story on cookies that you eat at the holidays, so this is about those other cookies. You know, the ones your computer gobbles up when you are not looking. What? My computer does cookies too? But here is something I observed just a night or two ago while entering one of my two favorite games over at Facebook. If you know me, you probably know that a lot of my discretionary time is wasted that way now.

A while back we were having trouble while in our Yahoo mail accounts, with a warning message that came up from our internet provider about a dangerous site. The interesting thing was that there is a little check by safe site inside Yahoo, so clearly something else was triggering the alert. My dh and I used to be fairly nimble and quick at computers, although I could tell a few stories about our early days that might make you giggle. Just one and then on to the point. When we got our first PC set up, I was 100% a MAC/Apple user and lover! Did Appleworks spreadsheet on one of the early 2Cs!(just bragging and none too good at it, but hey, was a mindblowing program for me at that point. Manual was written for geeks -definitely not for grade school teachers) So anyway, one of us, won't tell who, switched off the toolbars inside Word, just clicking around... and requested the other of us to restore them. Well... how the heck do you do that? Might as well have been a CRAY running linneux.... and I don't even know if that is a possibility. Think I got that fragment of might be knowledge from watching Golden Eye(Bond, James Bond ♥) That exploration cost $30. for the book at BookStop, plus whatever else I picked up making the trip....

ANYWAY, hope you skipped ahead if you found the story lame. We reconfigured our Firefox Browser, so that every new cookie has to be approved by the user as presented. NOW here was something that AMAZED me. As soon as I accepted a cookie for one of the game pages set to expire at the end of the session, a veritable blizzard of other cookies from the same site were INCOMING!!!!!!! Most of those cookies expired in anywhere from 1 year to 9 years. So if your computer is slowing down, it might be bloated with cookies. On Firefox you go to Tools/options/privacy. If you can't read a pathname, don't just click around or you may have to go buy a $30 or more book. Just saying....

Do You Remember the Alamo?

2011-03-06T11:52:00.000-08:00

http://www.thealamo.org/

Even as a child growing up in Nebraska, the phrase "Remember the Alamo" was a thrilling call for brave behavior. Like jumping off a tree branch a little or lot higher than was comfortable. But I didn't really know what it meant or about the courage and sacrifice that it honored.

" Let your tongue speak what your heart thinks."
Davy Crockett Read more: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/d/davy_crockett.html#ixzz1FqjXV1EK

With fewer than 200 known defenders of the Alamo, these men held off thousands of Mexican soldiers under the leadership of General Santa Anna, for 13 days. The first time we visited the Alamo after moving to Texas I viewed a diorama, that put this into real perspective for me. You can feel the sacredness of this place.

Growing up in the 1950s the names of Davy Crockett and Jim Bowie were both familiar to me, from tv shows I loved to watch. I even knew from that show, that Davy's rifle was called Old Betsy. I nearly passed out, standing there on a hot summer day looking down into the display case on this actual artifact. (Our daughter teases me about it to this day).

He had been a Congressman, who views on taxation were undoubtedly different from mine. If I continue to reflect on that, it might make it possible for me to vote again for our current representative, Ted Poe, although I doubt it ~ and digress. I read that the Mexican Army flew a red flag during the battle, which meant that no quarter would be given to the defenders. (An earlier version of the saying, "We take no prisoners")

Texas, Our Texas http://www.lsjunction.com/midi/songs.htm
Texas, Our Texas! all hail the mighty State!
Texas, Our Texas! so wonderful so great!
Boldest and grandest, withstanding ev'ry test
O Empire wide and glorious, you stand supremely blest.
[CHORUS]
God bless you Texas! And keep you brave and strong,
That you may grow in power and worth, throughout the ages long.
God bless you Texas! And keep you brave and strong,
That you may grow in power and worth, throughout the ages long.
Texas, O Texas! your freeborn single star,
Sends out its radiance to nations near and far,
Emblem of Freedom! it set our hearts aglow,
With thoughts of San Jacinto and glorious Alamo. [to chorus]
Texas, dear Texas! from tyrant grip now free,
Shines forth in splendor, your star of destiny!
Mother of heroes, we come your children true,
Proclaiming our allegiance, our faith, our love for you. [to chorus]

I hope our Livvie, never lives through times like those, but if she does, that she will stand Texas true for her beliefs. Although through no accomplishment of my own, other than giving birth to her mother, I'm so proud to have a native Texan in our family.

Back home safely, despite the weather!

2011-03-05T16:38:00.000-08:00

Awful storms and flooding between home and the hook in this morning! Well, since I woke up sore from head to toe, and it was pouring, this was a great excuse to roll over and catch a few extra winks. ;) I did get up, and after a hot shower finally start moving easier...The restorative power of hot water is nearly miraculous.

I headed out, and despite obvious signs of heavy rains earlier, the trip passed without any difficulty. I'll post a couple of pictures tomorrow, but the best one will be the water just in front of the sidewalk leading to the door. That was literally, the only deep water (only 2 - 3 inches worth at that) that I had to deal with... Came on in settled in and hooked, or looked at the rug show, other people's work, a couple of sketch books, etc....

More tomorrow, or maybe Monday... but didn't want anyone worrying while I was just playing my froggie game on facebook!

A Recipe to Share...

2011-03-04T18:24:00.000-08:00

First off, one of the best things about Rug Hooking events is getting to see people you've met at other ones. I was disappointed not to get a visit with Nancy, Katie Hartner's mom, who is recouperating after surgery. But delighted to bump into Cora and Marsh, who were both in Maria Barton's Star of Texas Camp class with me in the spring last year. :)

Last week, my good friend :) shared a muffin recipe called glazed pear muffins with me. It was delicious, but a since I'm a lazy cook a bit labor intensive for my tastes.... even though they tasted wonderful to my tongue. I'd omitted the glaze to save on carbs. Anything that starts out with 3 bowls, doesn't usually get a return visit to the kitchen.

Here is my lazy cooks version of "Spiced Pear Bread" It went out on the serving table at the Hook In this morning, and so I got to actually try it.(yes, sadly it is true, offered it without ever having tried it).

Store brand of "Cinnamon Swirl bread" It came with premade Cinnamon Struesal (my kind of mix!) To that I added 2 eggs(glues the bread together) and a can of pear halves I'd drained and rinsed to get rid of the nasty high fructose corn syrup. Oops, almost forgot the spices, which were 1/4 tsp of ginger and 1/4 tsp cardamom. Next time (yes there definitely will be a next time) I may add a bit of nutmeg as well.

Put everything but the Struesal mix in one bowl and fired up the portable mixer. :) The pears blended in completely, and since I've replace oil the box calls for with applesauce before, I crossed my fingers and finished construction on the loaf. Half the batter in the pan, and a layer of strusal then the other half of the batter and topped it with streusal again. Followed the directions for baking on the box, and it came out nice and finished(clean toothpick test).

I snagged a piece from the serving tray, and was delighted to bite into a moist slightly pear flavored bread. A nice dense well crumbed bread at that! Hope you'll give it a try, it was tasty, and it certainly was easy to make.

Hankamer Hook In next two days!

2011-03-03T18:38:00.000-08:00

We set up tables, brought breads, wiped off tables, helped vendors bring in some luscious wools, Katie has one I'm planning to buy a piece of for sure! I wasn't much help with a cane in one hand and another appointment next week to see my orthopedic surgeon. But it was great to get together with the Stash Sisters today to make things ready for the next two days!

Lots of fun ahead, I'll take some pics if I remember, but will be in hooker heaven for the next two days. Surrounded by friends, wool, meals taken care of, and still sleeping at home. It just seldom gets better than that. :) Have a great weekend, I know we will!

Wow does time fly!

2011-02-27T09:21:00.000-08:00

It is a whole week since the last time I got in to post, but that week has been a busy one. Gpa and I made a trip to the zoo, with our favorite toddler. She had her third birthday on Saturday, and of course, I've been hooking as much as I could. Almost finished whipping a small Easter mat I made for her, will finish it this afternoon. It is a redeux of a mat from before I had control over my supplies.(learned to dye)Will post a before and after shot sometime soon.

This week looks to be almost as busy, as I'll be headed off to the Hankamer Hookin on Thursday - Saturday. This hook in is hostessed by Stash Sisters, the Atha Chapter that I attend once per month. This will be the anniversary of my first hook in ever attended, and my first exposure to wool vendors in the same room. I did fairly well last year, keeping my spending under $100. Not entirely by choice, ;), but it was just as easy to stop there as it would have been to stop anywhere below a $1000, and a good deal more realistic. As in "Get Real", and I was saving up for my first rug camp at Tyler in May. Last year was a memorable one in my rug hooking life. Began dyeing as well as traveling for fun. This year, still working on finishing the last 3 of my 12 basic color wheel colors. In all honesty, I need to redye some of my favorites as well, but standing is more difficulty this year.

Our granddaughter's birthday will always be a good way to keep track of how many years I've been retired. She turned 1 the first year I retired, so that will always be a way to remember.

Progress is so slow.... but worth the time, a conundrum

2011-02-20T09:04:00.000-08:00

Hooked rugs have to by their very nature be made one loop at a time. Here is the rose floral rug I've shown before. The BRIGHT yellow outlining near the top left is a place holder. I've begun filling in the background with wool recently purchased from Heavens to Betsy. Wanted darker green to help separate the floral motif from the varied greens in the background. Christy Mason of Double M Woolens dyed the remainder of the wools for this rug, as I had not yet begun to dye... Although the colors in my personal palette tend to look very similar to what you see here.

Being in the moment isn't absolutely necessary to pull loops, but it makes such a difference in how much enjoyment you can derive from hooking. This rug has been in progress for well over a year, and it will be awhile until it can be bound and whipped. So important to me, to finish it with consciousness. Life is made of such moments.

Winner! Winner! Chicken Dinner!

2011-02-19T16:13:00.000-08:00

This has been a lucky month for me, in many large and small ways, but the win that delighted me the most was the result of posting a picture of our grandaughter's birthday rug, on Rug Hooking Daily in the 10 Minute Rug Hookers Group. The purpose of this group is to encourage using 10 minutes every day doing rug hooking. Now although my favorite form of rug hooking activity involves pulling wool through the backing, April has made it clear that other kinds of things like dyeing, sketching or making your foundation, cutting wool for a project also count. So if you've been thinking about joining, but think you might not be able to keep up, give it a try! It has given me the impetus to dye my own palette in 8 color strips, draw several patterns of my own, and definitely finish much more than I had previously. (My biggest problem could have been to limit it to 10 minutes.) Being retired, but busy does make that a beginning not a limitation.

April is one of the most generous people I've known in the rug hooking community. If you are a rug hooker, you know that generosity is a trait common to those people who create. But none the less she would be near the top of my list for a lifetime. She shares knowledge freely, and has helped me to grow as a fiber artist without a doubt to me.

She gives prizes to people who finish projects, and post a picture of the finished rug, purse, or whatever. I was one of the lucky winners this time! I received an apron with the motto "Dyeing to Hook" and a pack of palette wool from her as well. I requested her Macintosh Million 101 ~ Red. (Haven't seen a batch of her wool I didn't want)

Hi, Margaret! ;)

How bout some Boom Boom Pow?

2011-02-06T09:19:00.001-08:00

While we're waiting for the kickoff and then half time.... here is one of my fav black eyed peas songs/videos. Caution to parents/grandparents it does have the s word in it... your call.

This is a great video shown originally on the Oprah show, I dare you to watch it without feeling happy!
This one is family friendly!

Have you got $25. to help rebuild our economy?

2011-02-03T18:16:00.000-08:00

http://www.kiva.org/lend/270328

I'm currently in my fourth loan to Kiva.org When I first heard about Kiva, the thing that attracted me was the idea of ordinary people putting a small amount into a loan to someone in the third world, where a relatively small amount of money might have huge leverage. This last time, I loaned money to a man in San Antonio, TX. He is a handyman who needed $$$ for parts and supplies. If he can grow his business, his family will have more to take care of their own needs, such as food, clothing, housing. If his business is really successful, he could hire an additional worker.

Currently there was only one loan that came up for the United States, and that is linked above. It is for a woman entrepreneur so for some of my readers that might be a plus. But if you'd prefer Canada, Mexico, Haiti or another country it is relatively easy to join. They do take Paypal, and my $25 dollar donation has been repaid 3 times, and is in process of pay back now. When that is repaid, I'll loan it again. You might have more to invest in building our economy, or changing the life of a hard working woman or man somewhere in the world.

Why not check www.kiva.org out One loan at a time ordinary people can help change the world.

Houston has two seasons.....Summer and February

2011-02-02T05:00:00.000-08:00

Are you kidding me? Our temperature this morning is 18 degrees. With the 25 mph wind that means the wind chill brings it down to what we usually call our "feels like" temperature of 12!(above) Ya know when they say, "When Hell freezes over" well, that seems likely to occur this week! Know some of you are laughing, my dh and I kinda snickered at the locals here when we came down to look for a home some 25 years ago. We had nice warm jackets, although we'd shed them by the end of that week as too warm. But folks were walking around with blazers and sweaters, no coats in sight....probably because like us now, no coats in the closet. First we kept them in a back closet, but eventually they didn't fit on the one week or so they were needed, so off to Good Will for somebody who could use them.

If we get the 1-3 inches of snow this Friday as predicted it will be the first time ever in recorded weather history which goes back over a century that Houston has ever had snow 3 winters in a row. But our problems while possibly fatal to those who are homeless and can't or won't go into a shelter are nothing compared to what is going on in other parts of the country. So although I'm whining and complaining, I do have some understanding or rather in our case reactivation of memory of what winter really means! Hang in there, before long you'll read my whining and complaining about our summer that starts early and goes on for what seems like forever!

Grandpaparazzi does it again!

2011-01-29T16:56:00.000-08:00

http://www.photoshow.com/watch/zE5Ga5Kv?source=em_ps_show_recipient

My dh loves to take pictures and make photoshows from them. Last week our daughter had about 12 inches cut off to donate to Locks of Love, which is an organization that cuts hair to make wigs for children with cancer.

Jen was quite touched recently, by the story of a young family from the Houston area. Their daughter was just a bit younger than Livvie at the time, that their daughter died with a quickly growing type of brain cancer. Although she didn't remember it, this was actually her second encounter with this disease. Before we moved to TX, a neighbor's son passed away with the same type of cancer. He was a great kid, and it was truly tragic. From diagnosis, surgery, and treatment to his death was less than a year.

Anyway, we have an assemblage at the above link of numerous family members, but the majority of them are our daughter at various ages, and her daughter. Steve selected the tune "Hair" and although a big part of it is always knowing the people, he did a great job compiling many different hair "do" and possibly a few "dont's" :)

Respectfully hoping.....

2011-01-26T06:11:00.000-08:00

My husband's pick for the Superbowl. My pick will be watching the commercials, and having unlimited access to the computer! But as he said, both teams represent blue collar towns where Made in America means made with pride and a product you can trust! Go Packers!

Another Great Color Tool and Way to Play!!!

2011-01-18T18:07:00.000-08:00

http://labs.ideeinc.com/multicolr/ is a tool that was shared on the Welcome Mat, and online rughooking group.

Basic directions, go in and slowly select up to 10 colors from the grid to the right. Common photos from Flicker that include the selected colors will swap out. WAY COOL!

A Finish, and a WIP (another rug for Livvie when she's grown)

2011-01-12T19:56:00.000-08:00

The quilt above is for a friend, made from tshirts. The shirts were a man's so finding flannel that went with them was a bit of a challenge. This backing really did well, blending with the quilting.

I found this rug backing at our quilt guild garage sale a little more than a year ago for $25. (Figured the linen was worth than that, and called to its owner to sell it to me sight unseen.) What a delight, when I opened up the linen to discover a pattern called Victoria's Rug by J. Soehnge! The dimensions of the rug are 28" x 52" and it is clearly meant to be a rug for the floor. Christy Mason did the hand dyed wools for this rug, are they gorgeous?! Livvie is almost 3 and this rug is clearly not for a child's room, so it is fun to work on without a deadline. I got the wool already cut into strips, so on evenings when I'm tired, it is a perfect rug to work on! This is the only rug I've ever actually color planned and stuck to the plan. My dear friend, Lurie McAdow, helped me choose the colors for it. We made some good choices!

Want to Know how Popular your name is/was?

2011-01-10T16:15:00.000-08:00

http://www.birthdayalarm.com/name will send you to a web page that will tell you and show you graphically when your given name was most and least popular. Kinda interesting to me, and thought you might enjoy seeing it too. We're freezing cold but no snow!

Another One Bites the Dust!

2011-01-03T14:42:00.000-08:00

Today I had an amazing realization! We have just finished the first decade of the twenty-first century. How in all of the reminiscing about a passing year did it escape my attention that we've just burned the first ten of this new millennium? Remember when we were wondering about the Y2K bug? Well maybe you weren't but my dh and I stocked the pantry just in case. We have a pool, so I wasn't real worried about water. Can boil it, on the gas grill till we ran out of fuel... Then like so many other straw men, the problem didn't turn out to be the downfall of society at all.

10 Years! That was the year that I got my hip replacement and moved from a world of pain to a world of no yoga, but no pain either. The joy of getting into a swimming pool after enough weeks of recuperation that the incision could get underwater...the wonderful sensation of being able to do a frog kick with what had been a frozen joint.

Dr. Glen Landon transformed my hip joint as one of the miracles he performed that day. He wouldn't think of it as a miracle, or the chance to work magic. He is talented and shares that talent not by building skyscrapers, but by rebuilding people's lives. My prosthesis even has some bling. ;) While pounding the titanium spike into my femur the bone developed a tiny crack, but he knew that could lead to problems later. A twist of wire to secure the bone, and voila!

He is a modest man, at least if you try to give him praise. But he will be forever my hero.

I still limp, but now it is my other hip, this old body keeps on moving, and still haven't lost the weight I vowed to myself would come off. It did, then came back, lost the same 10 lbs lots of times. Karma really does operate in life. If you eat too many or too much of the wrong foods, your body protests! Why is it, that good habits are tough to form, but easy to set aside? Hard won muscle tissue turns to flab without the daily use of them. Oh well, gonna keep on keeping on. Maybe I'll be around when we put the next decade to bed...

Back to Work or Off to School

2011-01-02T20:51:00.000-08:00

The first Monday after New Year's Eve is traditionally the time I'd head back to school. Like teachers all over the country, two weeks of much needed rest brought a new burst of enthusiasm.

No longer a teacher, but this first Monday will be a day of work for me and most folks anyway. Whether you work with your hands, make your home a sanctuary from the world, drive a cab, work all day between the phone and computer, or wait on folks at a diner, I wish you a Happy New Year! Remember to appreciate all those who help you through their work this year. When it comes right down to it, they improve our life (mostly or most of the time) while working to provide for their families.

Santa, I've been pretty good finishing things this last two weeks...

2010-12-23T16:21:00.000-08:00

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2091745&id=1562000351&l=485a89be38 I finished a commissioned quilt for a friend's granddaughter. It is for her first Christmas, and has her complete name and birthdate. Since I don't want to help anybody whose hobby is identity theft, I deleted the portion of the picture that might help them.

The quilt looks even better than it does in the picture. The back is the same purple fabric that you see in the binding, and has a couple of pieces of her clothing cut into a heart (pink onesie) and an oval(embroidered portion of a bib) layered as an applique. Sorry, didn't think to take a pic of that, and the quilt had to be delivered to leave grandma sometime to wrap it. She'd purchased a Glowworm that actually had matching colors to the quilt. I had fun figuring out how to combine so many bright and diverse colors.

Livvie's Christmas dress turned out great. She is somewhat engulfed by it, but as it is a twirly dress for our twirly girl, that is fine. The poinsettia fabrics caught my eye when I was in buying fabric for the quilt. I behaved myself that day, but went back later for the fabrics I needed to make the dress. It is my goal to have made a willing sacrifice of sugar and spending this last week on the Solstice. Excess is out in my goal. Balance is in. :)

I doubt there will be any more posts for the next couple of days. So Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Good Yule, to any readers who wander by. Hope that you get to spend some wonderful time with family and friends. Our family was enlarged by one beautiful baby born on the Solstice. Her parents are in Alaska, and I won't post pictures of her either, but I'll think of her as a light bringer. Each day will grow longer until the summer Solstice.

Craneyolla ?

2010-12-21T21:27:00.000-08:00

Today our granddaughter showed how much she is trying to read. :) She commented to me, "That word is craneyolla" Hmmmm, craneyolla? Wonder if you can guess what she was pointing to...

If you are the first to guess correctly, I'll split my values strips of blue violet that I'm hoping to dye during the week between Christmas and New Years! Leave your guess, a way to contact you, or just come back to find out who is the winner. My plan is to mail out the package before New Years' Eve.

A Wonderful Animated Card

2010-12-13T21:29:00.000-08:00

http://www.jacquielawson.com/viewcard.asp?code=2007134554829&source=jl999

A friend sent this to me, and I hope as it was okay for her to share it with friends and family, that it will be okay to post it for you to see as well. We've been enjoying her Advent Calender this month, found here:
http://www.jacquielawson.com//advent/landing

We got one for our computer and another for Livvie's as well. Some of the best $$ spent this Christmas. :)

Livvie's Birthday rug is Finished, Bound, Whipped and Steamed!

2010-12-12T21:18:00.000-08:00

With still 2 months and one half I have finished completely the rug I'm making for Livvie's 3 birthday. It is a design by Karen Kahle, Primitive Spirits. The rug is called "Waterlilies", and I fell in love at first sight with it.
Maria helped me to find lots of luscious blues, lavenders, and heathery purple tones when I was at rug camp last May. To that I added a variety of colors from my TX palette, mostly the shades found in the blossoms. The sky is one of my jam jar dye jobs, using my reformulated blue.

The largest frog, closer to the blooms has a number of shades of green. Sadly, I'd run out of most of them when it was time to hook the other two croakers. .. So the rug sat for awhile then at the Kirby Hookin last July, I found the perfect blending green and purple wool. That worked both for lines of water, and for the submerged bodies of the two frogs poking their eyes above water.

Didn't make too many changes from the way the pattern was drawn on Monk's Cloth. Added the little rainbow shapes at the sides, and although it is difficult to see, I used the adjacent colors changing as I moved along the sides. There is also some type of insect, that froggie 3 has captured with his long sticky tongue. Like my rugs to have some science in them. At the bottom, I hooked Grandma Loves You, as my way of signing this rug. The outside of the rug was zigzagged about 1.5 inches from the edge of the design, wrapped around large soft cotton cording, and then whipped with a luscious yarn that is hand painted in Peru. The blues, purples, oranges, and browns blend well, and I think set the rug off perfectly!

This year's Baking Day was a Super Sucess!

2010-12-04T18:34:00.000-08:00

Baking Day is over, and we baked several dozen cookies, and decorated Livvie's first Gingerbread house. I truly earned my nickname of Swedish Chef, during the construction of that house! But when it was finished, we all agreed it had been fun!

Grandma is super exhausted, grandpaparazzi needs to download the photos/ videos of the day so just this short update.

Lemon spritz cookies-melted in your mouth but still a flop because the cookie gun was having a bad day.

Gooey butter cookies - DELICIOUS!

Super sized sugar cookies - good but just big sugar cookies, no complaints from anyone

picture cookies snowmen and reindeer ala Pillsbury hey, they help fill up a cookie plate and add some zing. Nobody's gonna think I made these myself...

frosted bar sugar cookies simple and fun to decorate with Livvie...yes her hands were clean...all the way up to the elbow! :)

Still have gingerbread train cookies to make for Papa, and Mexican Hot Chocolate cookies with chile in the mix... an experiment, but maybe a repeater next year.

Jen has a couple more she wants to make too.

Missed Stash Sisters, and wished for not the first time, I had a clone. But the clone would never get to do the family part. Hope I remember today when I'm in the home or heaven!

Hmmm, the directions didn't say anything about this.... would you have evicted the home builder(me) about then?

Jen called this one the money shot! LOL this was after the "royal icing" had made a puddle in my hand out of the top of the bag.

When all was said and done, it stayed together and we had a great time putting on the candy, frosting, and sprinkles.

Jen our beloved daughter who put up with all the craziness and mess sent these pictures of the construction and final gingerbread house. This wasn't her first rodeo with my creativity and excess of confidence. In the end it usually does turn out fine. Leap without looking into what you desire...

Remember the disastrous beginning and that the main decorator is less than 3 years old and I'm sure you'll agree it was a miraculous finish. ♥ If not, remember beauty is said to be in the eye of the beholder...

Quinoa for Christmas or New Year's Eve

2010-11-30T21:44:00.000-08:00

http://shine.yahoo.com/event/green/how-to-make-quinoa-the-powerhouse-seed-2410950/

If you haven't tried quinoa, the two upcoming holidays are a great time to try to rather different ways to serve it. Another benefit is that it is gluten free.

I cook ours quite simply. I buy a small box at grocery, dump the contents into a stockpot along with stock (chicken is my favorite but any stock works). 1 can + 1 of water. Bring the stock to a full rolling boil, stir and cook at boil for about 3 min. turn off the heat, and put on a lid. I usually get busy doing other things and forget it. lol
Once the pot has cooled down, empty the quinoa into a covered refrigerator container . It stays good for about 7 days without things added to it. Once you add veggies and greek yogurt, I don't keep it longer than 1 day. But for the two of us that isn't a problem. Of course, I'm only using a part of the quinoa.

With so many sweets around right now, upping your protein intake helps you stay feeling full longer. Too many sweets equal a blood sugar roller coaster that can leave you feeling shakey, and trigger excess snacking.

Quinoa Salad and Quinoa with Herring in Sour Cream and Onion are two recipes I shared earlier. Click on the link for salad and you'll find both recipes (rather more like guidelines). Happy healthy eating ~ this time of year it is even more important~

A wonderful Giveaway on Old Farmhouse Gathering's Blog

2010-11-15T05:54:00.000-08:00

If you win the Warm Winter Hugs Giveaway going on now on Old Farmhouse Gathering's Blog until November 15th, it will be like getting Christmas in a box. I'm a member of this group, but because of being in too many groups, have been rather a deadbeat with consideration to them. Too many wonderful things in life, too much time on computer, but now that Etsy has opened a group area I can check in more frequently!

Anyway, if you celebrate Christmas you really should go over and sign up by making a comment.

What fun this is! Grandmas and Moms who love to decorate cookies!

2010-11-13T15:36:00.000-08:00

Our daughter refers to me as the Swedish Chef, mostly because my cooking messes are a given. Plus there is nothing like cooking together over the years, to go from mom on the pedestal to mom, the Swedish chef!

I added the above to today's post, because the Swedish Chef rather than Julia Child has always been my kitchen hero. This one is short, and well to the point, but if you enjoy him too, click on the title to take you to You Tube for more of his delightful creating.

http://createacookie.parents.com/createacookie/index.php?CardID=107577
My first, but definitely not my last creation!

We're starting to get ready for our annual "Baking Day" on the first Saturday in December. This started after our daughter was about 5 and we lived in TX. DH had the Scout Fair on that day, so he was gone all day, and would come home worn out, but pretty quickly revived after smelling the wonderful creations of the day. His favorites are Spritz cookies, and this recipe for Lemon Cheese Spritz Cookies is one I plan to try this year.

But the fun(and work!) of the day is in making cutout cookies to decorate. You might do sugar or gingerbread, and probably have a favorite family recipe. But especially for those of you out there who have older kids, comfortable with using a mouse, the site below is free, offers a great tool for practicing designing Christmas fun, and best of all calorie and mess free! Lots of colors of frosting to chose from, one button icing of the whole cookie, sprinkles, candy... well you really can have some fun. On the first page there is a link to the official rules, if the sweepstake is the most important part for you, and someone is going to win $1000. (Just saying...) But I've already created a couple while writing this post, just cause they are so much fun. Went in to count the available shapes and got carried away and sent one to our dd. :) Just couldn't resist, and you can personalize them with a message and email them to someone you love. If you have a son or daughter in one of the armed services, this could be a great beginning to a wonderful Christmas surprise of getting cookies in the mail...

URL below is the entry point to the cookie creator Have you some free fun!
http://www.parents.com/fun/create-a-cookie/?sssdmh=dm17.484718&esrc=nwbhgsweeps&email=1342371238

Two tertiary tones ~ TA DA!

2010-11-07T13:14:00.000-08:00

I've been away from my dyepot for awhile, and even though these were both dyed in October, it was to use for various projects, so no pictures to share. These two don't really have names that are necessarily Texas sounding although I can assure you that we have dragonflies and fiddle-heads in plenty around Houston. You may think of Texas as more like a desert than lush, and some parts of it definitely look like they could be part of the background in a cowboy shoot em up.

Around these parts, we have a semi tropical climate, so summer is our main season. Even spring and fall are quite often hot and humid. This is the first weekend all fall, we've been able to turn off the air conditioner and let the doors stand open. It is pure heaven! 0 :) When we first moved to Texas we heard that it has two seasons, Summer and February. :) But other parts of the country have hot weather too, it was while we still lived in Missouri that I heard someone remark, "I believe someone left the door open, between here and Hell."

I was trying to come up with shades for the Luna Moth in the Wizard rug, which has a lot of Yellow Green tones in it. So the first attempt looked like this.

These shades are really nice, and remind me a lot of the lush mosses that grow on the moss rock beside our pool. But they didn't stand out much from the background.

April showed me the combination I needed to dye for a great tone, but since I hadn't finished my color wheel yet, ignored the advice(I'm hard to lead) and went with the blue green my TX palette dyes produce. Since I prefer mottled strips, I seldom stir, so in this case the forward edge of the darkest strip appears out of order.

These are the wools I worked into the finished Wizard pillow for the Luna Moth. Not actually the color of a Luna Moth, but they worked for the pillow. I'm going to offer my formulas for dyeing eventually, but still have a few more shades of the color wheel to complete. My blue violet and red violets will be next, and I'm actually beginning to wonder what they will look like. For awhile, with the heat, my health problems, and changes going on, I'd kind of lost interest. Add in to that the cost of white wool, and it just didn't call me quite as much. But one good thing about down times, is that you know your mood will eventually go back up to where it normally centers.

Halloween giveaway!

2010-10-29T22:05:00.000-07:00

http://www.dixiesamplardesigns.com/2010/10/spooktacular-halloween-giveaway-2010.html But you have to hurry, the sign up period ends tomorrow night at Midnight! Hope the winner is someone who needs it most! :)

Final Finishes :)

2010-10-29T16:46:00.000-07:00

Any of you with kats know that as soon as you put something down to get a picture, kats will come from the other side of the house to get into the picture, and examine the new item. :) Here Kirbykat gives you a sneak peek of my sampler finished as a pillow. This design, by Prairie Schooler (link to all of their available designs) is called Sweeping Cobwebs, available in latest designs.

Here you have a better view of the finished pillow which is currently available on Etsy. It is so close to Halloween, will probably be there for awhile, since Halloween is just two days away. But if you don't care whether it is October or not for witches, black cats, jack-o-lanterns to be on display. Check it out!

The second finish today is my Wizard adaptation of the "2009 Santa" by April Deconick. I've used quotes, but that may not be quite the actual title. April taught a class at our Kirby Hooking Circle, on hooking by value. My wool selection really didn't lend itself to a Santa, so she gave me permission to adapt the pattern to make a wizard. I thought about the wizard, Radagast, from LOTR as I designed my version. It has a number of added features from her Santa, but I'll design my own wizard before offering a pattern. It is currently under development. :) Sounds very professional, huh?

Chose to finish it as a pillow, with rectangular dimensions, before checking out the available pillow forms. Did you know that the majority of forms are now square? There are a few rectangular ones, and the one I selected was wide enough, but not tall enough. So although it isn't obvious in this picture, the upper part of the pillow isn't supported by a form. This pillow contains both as is and hand dyed wools, The colors in his cap were hand dyed by April. The remaining hand dyes are my own, from my Texas palette. I still have a few colors that need to be dyed, and then the formulas will be available, including swatches.

This design is supposed to suggest both a wizard and an owl... He is turned looking back toward the viewer, and I hope you can feel his piercing gaze. The luna moth is an homage to the LOTR movies, where they used a luna moth to take a message that Gandalf needed assistance. Luna moths live in TX, and have always been one of my favorites!

Halloween is just one week away!

2010-10-24T12:54:00.000-07:00

Halloween was always one of my favorite holidays as a kid. Costumes to imagine and make, special treats to eat, and a party or at least a costume parade at school.

Soon after becoming a teacher, I discovered a wonderful sort of scary story that was called The Red Room Riddle , by Scott Corbett. It was a dark and storm night, the first time I read it, and just like many adult books it was a book hard to put down. It was a great book for reader response's and it had two boys as it's lead characters. So I could always count on keeping the attention of all the kids in the room, as I read it aloud ~ usually after recess.

I googled it today and found that there was a weekend program back in 1983, right during the time we were relocating to TX. I watched three videos on YouTube, and while they were well done for their time, they had to change up the story a bit for tv. I guarantee the book is a great book. I especially liked that at the end the author, let the reader decide whether it was a real event or the lively imaginations of two boys on a special Halloween adventure. Ordered a copy on Amazon today, so that Livvie can know the fun of the story when she is old enough to enjoy it. Right now Tinkerbell is scary, so the hair raising tale in this story wouldn't be appropriate. It is a chapter book, with lots of good stopping points. when kids groaned and wanted more that meant sometimes we'd work a bit harder so we could finish earlier for a bit more story before the buses came and the bell rang. :)

After watching this and the two other clips, I want to read the real story again. As a matter of fact, I'd love to read it to a group of kids again!

Grateful for a wonderful Circle of Friends!

2010-10-16T18:15:00.000-07:00

Today was our regular meeting for the Kirby Hooking Circle, and although Halloween is not this weekend, we planned some activities to have a party for all of us. We brought salads to share or other foods. I made a "spider web pizza" Wish I'd left enough time for myself this morning to take a picture. Here's a quick description, pizza crust bottom, sauce in the middle, and string cheese torn apart to make the spokes and connecting threads that looked like a spider web. Pepperonis added here and there to look like a few spiders on the web. If I were serving this at home, I'd thought about cutting some short piece of onion into 4 legs and sticking one side under the pepperoni while fanning out the other side.

A few of us brought some "costuming" mostly witches hats. Lurie's hat has black and purple stripes on the crown. She is holding a piece she recently finished. It has a giant Jack-o-Lantern rising behind a little cottage. A great mat for this time of year, when big ole Harvest Moons hang in the sky.

April is the one wearing a witch's hat and a jack-o-lantern t-shirt . She worked on ATC cards for our group exchanging on Rug Hooking Daily. These use "leftovers" from her Got Wool? rug, where she hooked and evaluated different materials. She is doing a column/series of short articles? in the ATHA newsletter telling about each of the alternative materials, how it was to cut, hook, and general appearance in the rug.

Pat is holding some hooked Indian corn she brought for our show and tell. The colors seemed really perfect to me. Louise has a make do black cat with wire whiskers that doesn't really show up well against her shirt. It was super cute!

I'm the old crone on the right wearing the hat with a veil and cats eye glasses. You can't really see how great a hat this is from this angle. I may add a pic tomorrow to show the wonderful features it has. My almost finished Brown Wizard rug is an adaptation of April's Santa design from last year. She gave us a class on hooking by value in February or March. I didn't have very many shades suitable for a Santa(a brown Santa seemed sad to me) hadn't started dyeing yet at that point in time, so April gave me permission to transform her design into a wizard that combined features of a man and an owl. Cindy , Barbara , and another Barbara (holding the wonderful sheep rug), and Toni are the other ladies between Lurie and Pat.

I'm hoping to construct a pillow from the Wizard mat, that will be for sale at our Artisan's of Houston show next Saturday, October 23rd, at Bethany Church of Christ, 3223 Westheimer Rd, Houston, TX. Open to the public from 10 am ~ 3 pm with free entry. If you are in the Houston area, hope you'll drop by!

A Gift of the Spirit

2010-10-14T15:47:00.000-07:00

Was touching to hear about the rescue of the Chilean miners in general, but especially touching to me was a comment I heard on the news that one of the men who was rescued gave rocks as a gift of remembrance to onlookers after being pulled to the surface. This article on Yahoo gives sounds and sights to 5 touching moments.

Next time that you or I have a gift to give, and wonder how we'll manage, lets remember that it isn't the gift that matters. It is the loving spirit of gratitude, celebration, humility, or whatever was in that miner's heart or our own. The most magnificient gift in the world, won't satisfy if the person receiving it, knows it was done merely because of a had to do it spirit. But I imagine all of those who received or even heard of the rocks as gifts will remember how a simple gift can speak volumes.

I wish for you the feeling that you have enough, and the knowledge that for most of us, we have all we need right here in any moment.

One of my best birthdays ever!

2010-10-08T20:00:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday, was my birthday and I'm way older than 29 so not telling how old. But I did learn how to use a phone when they were all black and had rotary dials. Or at least the standard phones installed were like that, and that's all my family ever had. Even years after my sis and I were married and came home, the same paint spattered phones were right where they always had been. That was a good thing.

My parents have been gone for years now, and died within less than a year of each other. Our family is small, and wanting to have more family has been a lifelong wish of mine. When our daughter wed, her husband has two brothers, his mother is a wonderful warm hearted hostess who seems to want all the cooking and mess of all the families combined. And my wish began to come true. When his younger brother married, it just got better!

Now, they are living away from TX in Alaska, for a time, not long I hope, but since TX is so large, they lived far enough away we only got to see them occasionally. I am going to learn how to use Skype, so that I can stay in touch with them. They were back to be in a wedding, so all of the parts of our families got together for a baby shower. We only contributed 4 to the gathering. By coincidence the shower and my birthday were on the same day, we got to help prepare food the day before, and just a little bit on the actual day of the shower. The day was a swirl of conversations, hugs, watching babies, toddlers, and teens. Seeing baby pictures and well just a great day in general. You can see me behind the trio posing for a picture. Not too clearly, which is just as well. A 4 or 5 story cake sat on the table...but not a candle in sight. :) So right now, I feel like a wish made long ago on some birthday or other came true, and my family has grown in ways unexpected but delightful.

I also wish to thank Kim of My Field of Dreams the giving me an award on her blog, which I appreciated, but don't participate in awards any longer since it was weeks before passing on the honor...

A family party ~ baby shower coming up this weekend

2010-09-30T14:51:00.000-07:00

Depending on your personal role, baby showers can be fun, entertaining, or lots of work. We are going to help get food ready for the couple's shower being given to our darling daughter's brother and sister -n- law. Her dh's brother is working in Alaska for a local company, and they moved to Anchorage back in June. Not so long, but since I still haven't figured out how to Skype, my dh and daughter both tell me all I have to do is turn on the camera, but I've been so tired this summer.(heat, heat, and more heat) Anyway, it seems lots longer since I saw them. Especially as they are expecting their first child.

Last I heard, there were more than 60 folks coming to the shower, lots of family members + friends, so even if I'm just chopping celery for the chicken salad sandwiches...(don't know what we are making) they'll appreciate an extra set of hands. Livvie and Jen will be there too, so part of the time may be just my regular Friday with Livvie, which will also be fine with me. Son in law was supposed to get the pinata today, I bought some of the candy for it yesterday. There will be lots of kids at the party too. So, this is a really exciting event, and as usual my imagination has been working overtime.

It seems like a lifetime since I had my baby shower for Jen, and it was 30+ years ago, so a few years short of half of my life. Just about 3 years ago this sister in law and her sister gave Jen's baby shower for Olivia. A blink of time...

At that shower we played two games that were partly gross, but mostly fun so here are quick directions for them. Who knows who may be planning a baby shower out there.

First, was the name the baby food game. The plastic containers of baby food were passed around, and we got to guess, taste if we wished, then write down the veggies each of the numbered containers contained. It wasn't as easy as you might think, as many of the foods contain blends of fruits and veggies....

If tasting baby food doesn't seem all that bad, this one was fun but definitely gross. I wished I'd thought to take pictures of the contestants gently sniffing the diapers. In about 8 diapers, the hostesses put a different fun size chocolate candy bar. (think Baby Ruth, Milky Way, Snickers) Then they stuck them in the microwave for about 20 seconds. Just enough to melt the candy into a glob. The diapers also had a number on them, and we had a list of candy used and had to figure out which was which. Not telling who, and it wasn't anyone I'm related to thank heaven, one of Jen's friends stuck a finger into one glob and then tasted it.... she didn't win, but we all teased her about it! This game was much harder than the one with the baby food. Many of the candy bars look a lot alike when they are semi melted! Wonder if we'll play that on Saturday?

Too sweet not to share...

2010-09-25T13:17:00.000-07:00

Grandpa,

Olivia asked to email you. the below is from her - good luck!

xxxxxxnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn ( I love grandpa)

7777777 (I LOVE GRANDPA!) she was yelling

all498888888833333333333333333333333333333311477 (I LOVE Grandma!)

ooozddddddddddddddddddwwwwaaaa,,,,,,, (hello)

66644waaa,////////////////////000000000000000000000099999999999-pppppp (I love YOU!)

222ttttrrrrrpmmwwwwww (ice ice baby)

on this note. hope you guys are having a fun day :)

Our daughter typed in the translation of her message. Hoping all the time she spent on the keypad is an early indicator of a love of math! ♥

Know what is scarier than finding a Black Widow in your storage unit?

2010-09-25T08:28:00.001-07:00

Finding a black widow spider and her egg sack.... to be continued if I survive! Off to mail a package, and spray the daylights and black widow(hopefully the only one) to infinity and beyond!

Didn''t mean to tease, but didn't want anyone worrying if I don't post till Monday. Still now that you know, I wouldn't mind you saying a prayer for me to drive the beast and her progeny out! (Actually, I took care of the egg case already.) But wasn't dressed for battle when I discovered the spider under a rolling hand cart. Flip flops not being my considered best footwear for battling poisonous spiders. Which turned out to be against more than I'd hoped.

Within minutes of getting the door open on the unit, out of the corner of my eye, (Thank you, Lord) I caught a furtive movement on the back of the ladderback chair I keep over there. I'd stopped at the store and had a new broom(to sweep clean with) and a gigantic can of bug spray for crawling insects. Grandma was ready to bring it on!

They say a brave soul dies but once, but a coward dies a thousand deaths. To that I'd like to add that an old lady who gets the creeps from spiders and yet loved Eight Legged Freaks, and Arachnophobia(both great spider movies) will suffer at least 500 imaginary attacks during the scourging of a storage unit. I only had one real battle today, and that was with a male black widow.

Before leaving to do battle, I mailed my witch rug to its new owner. She had been out of town, I'm not just that tardy about getting it into the mail. Went to the store to stock up on spider nuking items, and had googled for:
http://www.emedicinehealth.com/black_widow_spider_bite/article_em.htm#Black%20Widow%20Spider%20Bite%20Overview
Black Widow Spider Bite Symptoms The black widow spider produces a protein venom that affects the victim's nervous system. This neurotoxic protein is one of the most potent venoms secreted by an animal. Some people are slightly affected by the venom, but others may have a severe response. The first symptom is acute pain at the site of the bite, although there may only be a minimal local reaction. Symptoms usually start within 20 minutes to one hour after the bite. There are several pages of info, and none of it made me feel better. Who is most vulnerable? Elderly and children are the most likely to die from such a bite.

Now some- THATS GOOD, they aren't very likely to bite humans, NO THATS BAD unless they are tending an egg sac... THATS GOOD I smooshed to smitherins the egg sack several days ago, NO THATS BAD WITH NO SIGHT OF THE FEMALE BUT A SIGHTING OF A MALE..... BTW males can mate several times before being devoured by the female. Me, Oh My, why did I have to google about them?

In the end, it was the TX heat that forced me to abandon my Search and Destroy mission for today. We are supposed to get a cold front in tomorrow, but today after 45 minutes in blazing humid sunlight, I felt dizzy and weak. She who runs away, lives to fight another day. After returning home, I showered and put every stitch I was wearing into the washer. Now I can relax and work on finishing my ATC cards for October 1st.
I really would appreciate your prayers of protection for my next foray into the storage unit early next week.

A new season is starting!

2010-09-24T18:52:00.000-07:00

Today was still muggy and humid when I went out to go to Livvie's today. It was a great day when we came back over here for lunch and about an hour of pool time. Around 2 pm we had a typical summer downpour...

And yet, there is a real cold front coming to us on Sunday! I endure Houston summers for the pleasure of the remainder of the year. We will have some fall color in December, and a few cold days in February when chicken and dumplings might be considered a must. Chili is acceptable at any time of the year in Houston, but we generally save it for cooler weather.

Best of all, we've been enjoying new tv shows! My favorite so far is Hawaii Five - O A friend ;) told me it will be rebroadcast Saturday if you missed it on Monday(CBS). Bluebloods the new one with Tom Selleck and Mark Wahlburg is due to start in a few minutes.

I may have an exciting adventure to share after tomorrow.

Sunrise Sunset Swiftly Fly the Years....

2010-09-23T16:40:00.000-07:00

Today is our daughter's birthday, and since she is older than 29 I won't say by how much. But last Sunday as we were sitting next to each other at church I was thinking that it really doesn't seem that long ago that I was going to church with my mom and grandmother. My attention was on the sermon, so that thought just skittered through quickly and was gone for then.

Later, my dh and I planned a dinner for our daughter and her family. Today*Thursday* is the day she stays late at her office. So we had the dinner last night. I fixed chicken and rice, a dish she'd liked as a girl, and one that can stay in the oven a little longer if traffic is heavy. Peas a veggie Livvie loves, salad and her favorite cake.

Every week on Thursdays she gets to sleep a tiny bit later, because her hours are shifted so that she can answer the phones in the office until 6. She works for an international company, and although she talks to people around the world, the majority of the business for her office is here in the US. Sleeping in is a good way to begin your birthday. I made sure to post a HBirthday to her Facebook, and called and left a message on her cell...today was busy for all of us. :) The world has changed so much since I was the granddaughter until now, when I'm grandma.

My Grannie was born before the turn of the twentieth century. She grew up in a time completely different from the time I did. No electricity, no indoor plumbing, no cars, no tv, no lots of things that I consider pretty good stuff now. My infancy was filled with illness, in fact if there hadn't been antibiotics it likely I'd never have survived. Life is so fragile in those early years.

This all is starting to seem pretty random to me. Premiere episodes of my tv shows are about to begin, so guess that is enough for now. I wonder what the world will be like when Livvie is the grandma.

Tra La the Witch Rug Sold, Oh Happy Day~ October sold! :)

2010-09-16T10:36:00.000-07:00

I just got an email saying that my witch rug of Lori Brechlin's October design, as made into a backing by Kris Miller of Spruce Ridge Rugs sold for its opening bid! I am so excited, I could dance! I had a great time hooking this rug, and hope it brings much happiness and fun to its new owner. Now what new pattern of Lori's will I get?

LOL, well, maybe I can put off shopping for awhile. I do have those wonderful birdhouses to hook.

Sometimes things just work themselves out

2010-09-16T08:48:00.000-07:00

Okay this is a TERRIBLE picture, but I had to take it while I still had some of the wool left! I've been sitting here looking at my unfinished brown wizard rug. Unhappily, because the background needed to suggest a deep forest to match my mental picture of what I was trying to create. The wizard has stopped and is looking behind him, before turning to disappear from sight. Once I began cutting strips and filling in the areas of the background it was perfect to me. Isn't that a wonderful feeling when your mental picture and reality converge? It has been sitting for a long time, because I couldn't find the right background wool. Then rug camp came along bringing the wonderful stacked jack-o-lanterns rug from Maria, and I also worked on the rug that will be for our granddaughter's birthday next February, the Karen Kahle design, Waterlilies. In fact, this summer was the first for a long time, where quilting didn't eclipse hooking.

I finally began palette dyeing in May. It has taken me 5 months to get to Yellow Green, so this wonderful wool nearly was overdyed several times earlier... but it would always have disappeared in my "creative piles" just at the time I needed to find it to presoak. I can be looking right at something and not see it. If you are the same you understand. If not, well although there are times it is a curse, but sometimes it saves something special from being used or thrown away. Of course this wool was never a candidate for the trashbag. ;)

What is he looking at? I hope you will feel he is searching your soul. His face is the merging of a human and owl face. I especially love his eyebrows, which are somewhat like proddy, but merely very long loops cut to twist this way and that.

This jacquard wool is a piece of Pendleton wool, that was transformed via my Jam Jar with extra Khaki Drab added to my yellow green formula. The large white area will be a luna moth, my nod to LOTR movie where a luna moth is a messenger to Radagast, the brown wizard. This design is an adaptation of April DeConick's Santa for 2009. She used that rug to teach us value hooking at the Kirby Circle. I hadn't started dyeing my wool yet, and had more brown than anything. A brown Santa seemed sad. So with April's permission, I adapted her pattern to be a wizard instead. The beautiful lavenders of his cap were a swatch pack from April, to add an extra memory of the class and her teaching for me. This rug will be finished as a pillow most likely.

Quick and Easy Breakfasts from Grocery Store Staples

2010-09-16T08:39:00.000-07:00

Ok, so not everyone keeps flaxseeds in their fridge. We do have them and so do people who are aware of how good flaxseed oil is for their heart. My favorite breakfast didn't make this list, Honey Nut Chex, blueberries, and a cup of vanilla yogurt or soy milk. It just says summer, and starts the day off with a smile.

Quick and easy breakfasts For those of us on the run first thing in the morning, it will taste great and take less time than the drive-thru!

A thank you to Cheryl for her Generosity

2010-09-16T08:30:00.000-07:00

Cheryl McKenzie had a contest for at picture finished of one of her rugs to be sent to her. I really didn't remember, but had finished her rooster from the Peaceful Valley series for my sis in March, and wanted to show Cheryl how I'd done it. I love Cheryl's designs and also have the sheep from Peaceful valley and a couple of her quilt square designs. So after a couple of contacts by email and Facebook, she told me I'd be getting a rug pattern from her as my prize. Her next series of rugs was based on Bird Houses, so I requested one of those, expecting a smaller pattern of one of the individual houses. Wow, did my face light up when the package arrived this week. This is the largest of the rugs, that shows the individual 4 small houses altogether in one rug. This rug is almost as large as my retirement rug, so it will be awhile in the working. But what a fun rug this will be to work on! My dh and I have been birders(backyard variety) not checking off a lifetime list(other than verbally to each other). Still we have always fed birds to draw them in.

I haven't decided for sure, but think it would be fun to hook this as if the season is autumn. The colors would be wonderful to work with, and because we have lived in northern states it would whisper to us of lots of memories of our younger lives. Winter would be fun too, but it would change the look of this rug so much... I remember looking out the dining room window at my grandparents home at their bird feeder. Once that opens, it can bring several versions, grandpa filling the feeder, or feeding his "pet squirrel", snow swirling around and lots of hungry birds at the feeder or eating off the ground, and so many others.

Cheryl was in the midst of family illness and injury at the time this was all going on. She went the extra mile at a time when she was already dealing with so much. So gratitude for her gift really doesn't seem like enough. I can be such a drama queen, that her quiet dignity was quite touching to me, and inspires me to try harder. I do thank her with my heart and will enjoy working on her design. Nostalgia will be with me while the loops are pulled one at a time. The good old days of our life...

Catching up with a much overdue thank you!

2010-09-11T14:35:00.000-07:00

I received a box filled with wonderful treasures a few weeks ago. I'm not sure if it even got mentioned here. Our AAPG An American Primitive Gathering celebrated it's 2nd anniversary and I receive gifts from my friend Merrie. She was stupendously generous, and I've long admired her work. She gets some of the credit for the beautiful red in my TX palette, as it is based in part on her favorite shade of red.

She sent me lots of wool, what hooker doesn't love that. But she sent two categories of it. Some for hooking and a couple of good sized pieces for the dye pot. I'll make sure her generosity is returned with one of the tertiary colors that will be coming up soon. Or maybe a neutral. She sent me a new color of dye that I haven't had a chance to use before, but it was on my list for my next order. A wonderful np of lavender, filled with lavender and backed in the most wonderful upcycled tweed from a gent's coat. She know what I like!
Charm squares, a kit to make a cat toy, the market bag itself, walnut shells for filling pinkeeps, even a swimsuit for our granddaughter. One of those great ones that help prevent sunburn... Tags, a pin for my hooking apron... well, a girl couldn't possibly ask for more. All of it "artfully" arranged on a rocking chair made for my husband's mother by one of her uncles. So now 4 generations of toddlers have rocked and used it like a very tricky step stool. Plain and simple, we'll keep it till she's older and has a babe of her own.

Not sure if these are less expensive, but way cool Solar lights

2010-09-11T10:47:00.000-07:00

Handmedown House Blogspot has some great directions for making nifty hand crafted solar lights. I'm telling you, ya gotta go see these. I think this project could even be done with a scout troop(girls or boys) and I'm definitely gonna go looking for out door Mod Podge. We already have some solar lights similar to the one shown, now I just just gotta talk DH out of one to try it out! :)

Another road to success with this project is to see how to tint glass. This tutorial is from Gingerbread Snowflakes She shows the process of coloring the jars and used some tea lights in hers. This technique is great! The blogger about solar lights also gives this link, if you are like me and likely to go clicking quickly.

Prairie Schooler xstitching for Artisans of Houston Show on October 23rd

2010-09-10T17:10:00.000-07:00

It will be awhile until I start showing finished pieces, but I've been having so much fun x stitching this year. I hope lots of people like Prairie Schooler's style. It is somewhat primitive and definitely an old fashioned look, with lots of variety in Santas, Old World style too. Fun for me, as I'm only doing one of each design, hopefully fun for shoppers too. Each piece at my booth will be one of a kind for that show....

Because she has given me permission to sell her designs, with the request that I provide a link to her website. I'm going to do that right here, inventory form. The inventory form is very well designed. The titles are linked to a picture of the front of the chart(s), so if you aren't already familiar with the designs, you can view stitched samples.

You might prefer to look around at the whole site, before hitting the inventory form, so here is the home page of www.prairieschooler.com Most of the charts don't include finishing tips, although the later charts sometimes do have a tip or two.

I started doing handwork when just a girl. Beautiful colored flosses, stamped goods, and later counted cross stitch charts provide a way for me to transform a blank piece of cloth into a sampler, Christmas ornament, or a decorative pillow... like the sampler I made for my friend Debbie St. Germain(Woolen Sails). She is one of the leaders of USA PRIM, and my recipient of the alphabet sampler I showed in progress a few weeks ago. I finished it with some jam jar wool, stuffed it with wool, and was pleased with it overall. She let me know she was happy to be the owner! :)

Haven't been doing cross stitch recently, and have discovered or rediscovered the technique. One favorite trick is when doing a single line "frame" or a long line of stitches in a row, it is easy to keep track of what stitch you are on by actually crossing every 10th one. :) Senior moments or a houseful of kids, can mean easily losing count, but that little trick makes finding your place in the count a cinch!

After completing a chart, I sometimes add a sticky note, or even write on the card something that could make it easier the next time. For example, the size count of fabric I did it last time, the size of the whole piece of cloth I actually used, and for example with the alphabet sampler, grid count was 21<-> but only 15 up and down... Right now, it seems easy to remember, but a year from now? And next time will definitely start by stitching the entire grid first. Instead of working some grid, some letters, and discovering a big OOPS again.

My Liberty's Crown Rug selected for Etsy Treasury! :)

2010-09-09T15:31:00.000-07:00

Ev'ry heart beats true
'neath the Red, White and Blue,

Whos doesn't get a thrill seeing the Red, White, and Blue? If you don't check your pulse! :)

ETSY TREASURY GRAND OLD FLAG I LOVE YOU! A rug of my own original design, it is available in this one finished, or as a rug pattern on linen. Design area approx. 14 sq. inches. Love each other, fellow citizens! It's fine to take different positions, but respect another's rights as much as you guard your own.

TX Palette has two new Colors Pumpkin Patch and Wine Cup

2010-09-09T10:51:00.000-07:00

Just in time for some fall pumpkins, I've finished the Yellow Orange strips in my TX Palette Color Wheel.
For a primer look I just increase one of the dyes in the formula. I do love clear colors a lot, but at times one needs to change it up to achieve a different look!

Driving along the highway in the spring is a real treat for the eyes. One of my favorite blooms to spot is commonly called a wine cup, and comes in a whole range of shades. This is the purple from my palette. You can see how the effects of my strong red are still bringing the secondary colors into a redder version. It's going to be fun to finish this set of colors, then explore more. After all, after dyeing 12 different colors, in 8 shade gradients I'll finally be able to say I'm no longer a beginner! And I'll have 96 colors of wool that work well with each other, from the lightest to darkest values. Because of the way I've formulated this palette, all strips in a 2 jar have the exact same value, although the color varies... :) Should be fun to "play" around with that and see where it leads. And unlimited supplies of my favorite colors...wowzers!

It is still only partially done, as the only tertiary color dyed so far is the Yellow Orange shown above. But, here's a pic of the partially done color wheel for my TX Palette hope you like it as much as I do!

Items Good Enough for the Fair!

2010-09-04T06:01:00.000-07:00

The smaller photo gives a more accurate picture of RedlocksCreation's Prize Pumpkin, but kinda hard to see. I enlarged it to show more details, but then it get blurry.

C&PLG is having a launch all through the month of September for Items Good Enough to take to the Fair. Maureen, is our resident ribbon winner. Each year she enters items in an Ohio Fair, and comes home with ribbons. Our launch items aren't actually ones we entered at a fair, just ones good enough to enter!

This launch has Maureen's wonderful doorhanger of a witchy owl! I've already put in a bid, but if you beat my bid, I'll understand... I've also bid on a set of hand dyed bottle brush trees from Barefoot Primitives. All of these wonderful treasures and more can be found by searching EBAY for C&PLG! Hope y'all will take a look and do some shopping. You couldn't buy them at the fair, but these items are all yours for the right bid!

Jam Jar Dyeing ~ Easy Peasy but only if you like mottled wools

2010-09-02T10:47:00.000-07:00

This may be something those of you who dye do all the time, but I've had some great results using up the remains of the dye solution, once I set up my 8 jars. April suggested using all the dye or pouring the remainder down the drain, so I wouldn't have to worry about Livvie getting into it. Couldn't even imagine pouring it down the drain, so I've been using my big ole pickle jar that I did koolaid dyeing in. (Vlasic Dills about 60 oz or so ~ found 'em at Wallyworld.) It's still technically summer for awhile, so they might still have some.

Anyway, after the pickles are used(or down the garbage disposal if you prefer) or if you have an empty glass mayo jar, I do the presoaking of wool, yarn, embroidery floss, whatever... couple of squirts of plain Dawn dish soap and lots of warm/hot water. JAM as much as possible into the water. That is how I got the name.

Next step is to take out all the soaked items after 30 minutes. Approx half of the wool in the jar goes into my small jars, and the other half plus yarn, upcycled wide strips, etc get put back into the jar after setting up my graduated strips. I'd say generally about 1/2 of the original solution(1 cbw+Cushing/Prochem dyes)

Add dye solution remainder to jar of presoaking water that contains a small amount of dawn. Stir. Jam the rest of the wool, yarn, etc back into the jar. Leave it along for about an 45 minutes, and then glug in plenty of vinegar. I set mine outside like a sun tea jar. Usually leave it alone until the next day. Most of the time, the solution isn't taken up completely, as this isn't ever really heated, (except by the sun). So rinse the wool in washer, warm water, then dryer with a dryer sheet.

I've gotten good reactions from other hookers to my jam jar results, so you might want to try it with some upcycled strips, yarn hanks(I put mine in 10 yd bundles) or maybe some ugly floss that you'd like to alter. If you like the results, then take a formula you know and love, and risk some white wool. I can't guarantee you'll love the results. But then, life comes with so few guarantees, and most of them are from hucksters...

I visited with April at our last hooking circle, Stash Sisters, about how I do this. She suggested that the jar should be heated, as that is the way the dyes "take" in the wool. So from here on out, I'll be using one of my big pots, to simmer the jam jar for at least 30 minutes. :) Very fortunate girl I am, to be able to run it by her. I've had great success with my formulas, but really am still a novice at dyeing wool. :)

My October Rug is up for auction right now!

2010-09-01T19:52:00.000-07:00

October Rug Auction

When I finish a rug for selling, it is near and dear to my heart. For that reason, and especially if I feel there is something special about it, my willing to part with it price is higher. It is now almost a whole year since this rug was completed, and it has been taken to the Green Market, and displayed at a couple of shows. It has not been used as a rug in my home. So it is new, even after celebrating its' first birthday. But it is also time for this rug to have a home. Starting bid is the lowest it will ever be, no reserve, and I'm seriously thinking about sending it to Lori if it doesn't sell this time... Lori is the original designer of the artwork that inspired this rug. I got the pattern from Spruce Ridge Rugs who is allowed to offer Lori's designs as rug patterns. I'm interested in a couple of other patterns, and a piece of jewelry from Hannah Willow, so an old fashioned bidding war would be grand!

The right side of the rug is hooked with more control, and somewhat more muted colors. This side of the rug represents the little witch's everyday life. So lines are straighter, shadows realistic and so on. The left side of the rug represents a magical moment as this "witch draws down the moon". So the hooking is more chaotic and there is evidence of what is happening. Down her spine runs a brilliant blue line, where the power is flowing through her. Her hand is extended, but worked in a blue similar to the background so as to be somewhat camoflaged. Behind her the colors are swirling and richer, and the shadow she casts is the Triple Moon symbol favored by Wiccans.

I love to watched CHARMED and fantasy has always been my favorite reading genre.(Lord of the Rings, Dragonriders of Pern, etc) but the thing I love best about Charmed is that these witches are on the side of good and vanquish demons. Plus the stories are often funny, costumes cool, and just the general concept intrigues me. Some of the music in my playlist is Wiccan, and that took a decided upswing after I went to Avatar. The spirituality of the movie may have seemed unlikely to you, but that was part of what really connected with me. Growing up on the plains of Nebraska, learning to do Indian beadwork, teaching about Native American traditions(very limited way) deeply connected my soul to the Earth. Sure, I don't really like to sweat, so a sweat lodge would definitely not be high on my list. LOL As I said earlier, fantasy has always been strong in me.

Red Jack Rugs is online in a different location

2010-08-30T20:50:00.000-07:00

April has moved her blog over to her new website. It (so far as I could tell) contains all the posts from when she set up the blog in 2009. The links at the top of the page are easier to use, than they were on Blogspot. You can float over a topic and subtopics will dropdown. :)

She will be offering wool for sale, but due to some problems with a flood in her home while she was away at Sauder, that part of the site will not begin yet. She has put up a follower button, and is having a giveaway on September 6th, for people who have signed up. Whatever she is giving away will be a great prize! :)

Yoda Yoga - a creative way of celebrating a 30 year anniversary

2010-08-29T06:10:00.000-07:00

My yoga days are over, sadly, due to a hip replacement. It is one of the few regrets I have. Especially wish I could try some of these poses! :)

Always love being chosen for a treasury! ♥ at Etsy

2010-08-28T14:58:00.000-07:00

catnapinnprimitives an Etsy seller wrote to let me know my kat pattern called Sharing My Wool has been included in her treasury called More Prim Treasures I Love. :) Hope you'll go check it out if you like Prim Handdids.

If you are not a hooker, but would like a custom rug of your own cat or dog, sleeping in a basket, or a rug and have a few good pictures of that pet, I invite custom orders. As a matter of fact, if you haven't been to Etsy in awhile, you might like to go check out its new look. Let my shop be your doorway! Or you might click her link at the beginning of the post, for a different way to begin.

My New Favorite Breakfast Recipe --- Experimenting in the kitchen :)

2010-08-28T10:35:00.000-07:00

Even though it is nearly 90 degrees outside, I made cooked oatmeal today. ? Puzzling? As my dh and I continue to search for ways to lose weight and lower our cholesterol, breakfast is one of my hardest parts of the day.

Used to love bacon, eggs, and homefries for breakfast. drool   As a matter of fact, writing about them makes me wish I could dig in right now.... a thing I did with unhealthy abandon for years. Not every morning or even every week. Nope, worse yet, I frequently skipped breakfast and sometime even lunch on the same day. Was young, full of energy(and diet coke) so why worry? Returning home after a day of school ready to eat the linoleum off the floor. Big dinner couldn't possibly hurt... I'd skipped two meals already anyway. WELL, LIVE AND LEARN!

Now, twice the weight I should be, from years of overindulgence and a sedentary life, reforming my ways ain't all that easy. Not complaining...just putting it out there. Pretty sure no teenagers are reading my thoughts, but if you are, start eating right ~ right this minute! It never gets easier to lose weight or reform bad habits.

Okay, off the soapbox! This morning I made a pot of cooked oatmeal, something I've enjoyed since childhood. My dh had pointed out to me that oatmeal can be refrigerated for 3 to 5 days. I've bagged it up by servings and am trying whether most of the bowl can't be frozen. I'll let you know how it works next week. I can cook a pot up easier on the weekend, because I'm still getting up around 5:40 most weekdays, and out the door in less than an hour. Not that cooking it takes all that much time, but showering, taking meds and fasting bloodsugar, do leave me looking for something quick and easy.

I bagged up per bag
2/3 cup cooked oatmeal   about 27 g carbs (but low glycemic index)
6-8 raisins or Craisins per serving <10 g carbs guesstimated high
1 tsp brown sugar     4 g carbs
1 capful of almond flavoring (or another you prefer) free?
Total carbs <40 g carbs    Our dietitian recommended hitting as close under 35 carbs as possible per meal, but I'm hoping that a good breakfast will give me a jumpstart for the day. This kind of thinking is my typical how can I bend the rules to my favor.

Especially, as adding 1/4 cup of plain greek yogurt adds just 5 g carbs more to create an absolutely decadent and fairly large serving of oatmeal good enough to be a dessert flavor wise, although I shouldn't use it that way!

I'll be nuking the contents of the baggie, and adding the yogurt this next week. Will try to remember to report back to all y'all whether it is worth trying. (with regard to the freezing) The actual results from freshly cooked oatmeal this morning were divine!

Have a great weekend... I'll be working in my dyepot this afternoon hoping to come up with some prim pumpkin tones... Quite behind on photos, so won't even promise tomorrow!

Thank you Lord, for an answered set of prayers!

2010-08-27T17:25:00.000-07:00

This has been a long week, after our daughter went to the doctor, and he found something to be concerned about. Her test was today, and the big C was NOT her diagnosis! I' ve prayed many times this week, for that result, and that we'd have the strength to live with whatever God's plan for her life was. Still WILL CONTINUE TO PRAY that the plan does NOT include Cancer for her or our Granddaughter.

I've said my prayers of Thanksgiving, but want to say to those of you who knew my worries...All is well, and God's Grace is just that~ :)

Hoping Everyone has a Wonderful School Year!

2010-08-22T15:47:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow another school year begins for teachers and students in my old school district Humble ISD and many others across Texas. I wish everyone a wonderful school year filled with homework done and turned in on time. An understanding that learning things really is fun and essential for life.

My retirement rug was completed a couple of years ago. After 36 years as a public school teacher, thousands of wonderful kids, (the ones who weren't so wonderful were generally dealing with some mighty big issues), and the chance to be an American school teacher during a time that spanned the year preceding the first Moon landing until the year Barack Obama was elected our President. From chalkboards to Journey North and the Jason Project it was quite a wonderful career.

I do wonder if our country will ever put the proper value on things. The $$$ spent on kids education and health care can never be too much.

Finished my donation for Central City Co-Op auction in September....

2010-08-20T09:25:00.000-07:00

This will be turned into a pillow shortly, but just finished hooking and steaming it this morning. It has a combination of upcycled wools, my TX palette red chilis, bluebonnets,and yellow rose wools. Hope you like it and think it might be worth a bid.

The design is by T J JohnMartin, and has things TX Women say....such as Love your hair!, How's your momma? and Bless Your ♥ It came with 3 other designs in TX Rounders.

6 of one, half a dozen of the other? Grateful to have achieved Half Way!

2010-08-19T18:05:00.000-07:00

Half way through my personal palette of wool colors. Have the 3 primaries, Bluebonnets, Yellow Rose, and Chili Red, and now the three secondary colors! Hill Country Herb Garden, Red River(oranges), and soon to be debuted Wine Cup! That is half way to the development of my own palette, and although I've been looking at the color wheel lots more in the last 6 months than probably ever in any other 6 month period, surprised me that there are as many tertiary colors still left to dye. I'll most likely do Yellow Orange next as April suggested it for great pumpkin tones.

I love plants especially wild flowers, so I'm naming as many of the colors in My TX Palette as possible after one or another of our wonderful wild flowers! Red River would really work for Paint Brush, so if I hook a field of wild flowers next spring.... :)

Got a bit distracted when finishing up on these. The first four jars had absorbed all the dye, and the "jam jar" and 4 darker values needed to still absorb some dye. I'll finish them in the morning. :)

I call it a "jam jar" because I basically jam as much wool, yarn, this time yards of cotton triple knotted fringe from a chenille bedspread, upcycled scraps... and what comes out is very mottled and incredibly great to me! You can see an example of what jam jar wool can do by looking at the sky in the Waterlilies rug.

Knocked My Socks Off! :)

2010-08-14T10:18:00.000-07:00

I just received my copy of April Deconick's book describing her methods.
The Wool Palette
click above :)

Pretty sure I'd never have been tempted to try the graduated strip process on my own. It is a bit time consuming, but very doable. I've been very delighted, and gotten good feedback from other hookers on the colors that I've created. She shares her technique for dyeing yardage using the formula as well.

Even though I've begun my adventure into palette dyeing, I didn't really understand how simple it was to have an organized (by April) method for creating not just the 12 shades of the color wheel in 8 value swatches which would be 96 individual colors. But by following her method for extended colors and combinations from the color wheel there are 976 possibilities. This was the part that knocked my socks off! Not that doing this would be extremely difficult. For years I wanted to dye wool, and whined online while doing just a little experimenting with koolaid dyeing. My whining was just that the whole possibility of poisoning my family by improper handling was a big STOP sign. After meeting April, seeing her beautiful wools, and even "consulting her" on how to avoid having our granddaughter be harmed, it was not only doable, but compelling!

April has a link to her book on her blog, Red Jack Rugs, but I so strongly recommend you get this book I'm putting a link in this post to make it easy for you to do so. Haven't asked April's permission, getting nothing in commission, just want you to have a chance to transform your hooking. I've had fun experimenting with my own dye formulas. I've only gotten one color I didn't want, at the time, and yet used already in my Waterlilies Rug, recently shown. LOL because these wools work together, even the shades of that Unwanted color worked, and in fact added(in my opinion) some spark to the finished rug.

There is a place in the back of the book for putting samples, plenty of room to write down the formulas you use, and some lovely pictures of rugs I've watched April working on over the past year. She is a phenomenal artist, and I believe this book will become a new have to have for rughookers who dye their own wool.

2010-08-11T15:42:00.000-07:00

A hibiscus blossom in the outstretched hand of our granddaughter might not ever win a prize in a photo contest but seemed perfect for use on the blog. Much of this summer has been spent in our pool, staying cool and watching as she has improved her swimming skills. She is on the brink of a great dog paddle, and with two more months of pool time left that should be a lock by the time it takes Vikings to get into the water.

My dh loves to float hibiscus blossoms in the pool, and I've been known to tuck one behind an ear, silly ole bear that I am. She loves it when grandpa tosses them in. Here is a chance to offer a lovely blossom to you!

Redeux is under way

2010-08-08T10:58:00.000-07:00

Redeux (my nonsense Frenchified spelling of redo) is underway. I don't like making mistakes ~ who does? But reverse hooking is kinda fun by comparision with this. :( Pull a wool strip and toss it like confetti!

LOL, didn't know the camera was in catepillar pic mode. So the metamorphosis shot is rather fuzzy in two ways. Snips of floss and out of focus! Almost ready to go forward to finishing that last row. Life is good!

Oops! Grrrrr

2010-08-06T17:41:00.000-07:00

Some people are able to concentrate and work on complicated charts to produce wonderful heirloom quality cross stitching. That group would not include me. But, none the less, I love Prairie Schooler charts, as well as Blackbird Designs.

This shows the progress I've made on a sampler I'm stitching for our Anniversary Swap(2nd) in AAPG. If you are my swap partner, I want you to see this, because when you receive the sampler it will be redone correctly. :) I was stitching the L, M, N this afternoon and having a heck of a time with the chart/sampler matching for M. I'm not really the ideal type of stitcher for counted cross stitch. I've yet to make one without a major error. At least most of the time, I've learned not to adjust....find the mistake and fix it! Well, today, I kept comparing the pattern and the chart, knew it was wrong, and "adjusted", because I couldn't spot my mistake Know better, and should have set it down for awhile. Ah duh! Slapping forehead once the light finally came on. An afternoon's work that has to be picked out and redone. My recipient does absolutely perfect work. She deserves my best efforts. I'm hoping to still make the mid August mailing guideline. Especially as Patijane and I are sharing the job of Swap Mamas.

It is humbling to realize I spent the afternoon stitching this very area, looking so hard, and yet missed the forest for the trees! In case you are having the same difficulty I did, notice the pattern of double green bars separating the letters is missing for M and N. sigh.... now why did I start stitching the letters without finishing the grids? Had red thread in my needle....

Almost finished with Livvie's Birthday rug. A Better Look without Kirby :)

2010-07-23T16:50:00.000-07:00

It is more than 6 months to Livvie's 3rd birthday, and I've finished most of the hooking for her first rug from me. This is a rug design by Karen Kahle, "Waterlilies" I fell in love with at first sight. Livvie's birthday was the Leap Day in 2008. So frogs have become something we connected with her design wise. In Grandpaparazzi's mind and mine...it wasn't that much of a stretch. :)

I added a small strip to the bottom of the design that reads Grandma Loves YOU so that she will remember who made it for her. We've had wonderful times together in these early years of her life, but I really don't expect to be around by the time she is 30 or so. No one but the Good Lord knows the number of our days, but my years are piling up. Trouble is, Grandma has some values problems. Not values like personal beliefs, my own are fairly apparent if you are a regular reader. If your's are way different, like the creep that keeps leaving comments in some oriental alphabet that will never be approved(link to a girlie site) you probably aren't returning.

Not as obvious to the eye when you are working on it as in the top picture, but I've learned that a picture often reveals surprises. And check it out in grayscale! So reverse hooking will take place this evening or at least sometime this weekend. After the pizza (a Friday night tradition) is cleaned up, I plan to do the new green. This will be completely different as Hill Country Herb Garden, as the reformulated blue and yellow are very different from my first tries. In addition, I plan to majorly increase my unifying color. I love these clear colors, but do want some primmer colors. So after asking advice at AAPG (An American Primitive Gathering) I'm going to increase my "secret ingredient" :) Not a secret to Merrie, Debbie, or anyone who reads that forum. from 1/32 to 1/2 tsp....should make a dramatic difference.

Happy that Green Woman Rugs has reopened!

2010-07-23T15:57:00.000-07:00

Just today, I got an email saying that Green Woman Rugs has reopened their website. :) I have a permanent link over in the blogs column to the right. The style of rugs at the website I'd think of as similar to stained glass, or Tiffany lamps. Complex designs that would be fun to hook. If you need a gift for someone who is a Mason, they have a wonderful rug called Masonic Allegory and that isn't something you find every day. In addition, a couple of Southwestern Pottery Designs for rugs. Some great stuff!

Friends for a short time, but moving to another state in this century doesn't have to mean losing touch.

Grateful to have finished my Tyler Star rug camp project!

2010-07-17T10:22:00.000-07:00

Back in May I attended my first rug camp at Tyler, TX. Texas Star was a wonderful experience on so many different levels. First and foremost was getting to meet three ladies I've known online for years. Maria Barton of Star Rug Company is a great teacher!, designer of this rug called "Toppling Down" She helped us color plan our rugs, brought lots of wonderful wool pieces that we could shop from, and supported us throughout the time we began work on our rugs. Special stitches like using a knot, herringbone hooking, beading, and a "chicken eye" were other special lessons. These will all reappear in my rugs from here on out, but with this group of jack o lanterns it was easy to find a spot to use them all! Using them right away was a help to remembering them. :) Also my own idea to add eyelashes to the third pumpkin added some whimsey to the rug as well.

Maria has been one of the most formative people/teachers of my rug hooking style, first with a challenge in PRHG to hook a sheep design. That challenge provided me with 400 woolstrips in 40 different colors. Eyeopening to say the least! Up until that point, I'd been doing kits or using upcycled wool from local thrift stores, and strips from ebay. These were handdyed, as is in wonderful weaves, and the challenge of using them all in a design. Maria complimented my rug in the group, after receiving my picture showing it finished. I was delighted! It was the beginning of my hope that I had the makings of a real rug hooker in me.

Within the last year, she again offered a challenge. This time to our group in An American Primitive Gathering. I truly love these ladies! With the exception of my family it is the most powerful and positive force in my life. This challenge was to use a background color we'd never tried before. Antique black is a fairly common background for primitive rugs, but one I hadn't tried. Many of my rugs tell a story, and thankfully those backgrounds have been filled with light and color.

We again had an exchange of wool strips, and the ones I received in dark shades of color really helped me to get excited with this background. This rug tells an imaginary story of a cat regaling a sheep it is barn-cat to with "Hair-raising Tales From the Other Side of the Fence". I made only a few changes to the basic design~basically adding the moon, fence, and a scarf on the cat. The sheep's forehead and body have some raw wool worked into the curls that projects above the loops, my intention was to resemble the way one's hairs stand up in goosebumps when cold or frightened. :) It was possible to suggest the moon's real shape, a pinetree in the background and just have lots of fun with the background. I may never rise to the level of success I aspire to, but it is not as important as the enjoyment and learning that can continue as my skills grow. Thank you a million times over, Maria!

A sneek peek into my hooking basket :)

2010-07-16T17:57:00.000-07:00

I'm currently working on a Karen Kahle design called Waterlilies for our granddaughter's 3 rd birthday. I absolutely fell in love with this design at first sight. The pattern was available at a wonderful shop in Tyler, TX called THE NIMBLE THIMBLE.

Maria helped me to color plan, but I've combined some of the new hand dyes in my personal palette. The waterlilies are in shades of my orange called Ruby Red, because it is a rather unexpected series of shades that reminded be of our(TX) delicious grapefruits..

The rug is coming along nicely to me, but then it's my own work, and like a child, it generally does. :) I am using a technique I admired that Carol used in her Santa rug. The froggies are hooked organically with movement, but the water is basically hooked in straight lines, except where it touches a frog...

Although it is as hot as can be, KirbyKat has given this rug his blessing and approved it! Not every rug is worthy of a nap! :)

Remembering Dallas, and glad an old dog learned a new trick! :)

2010-07-14T18:09:00.000-07:00

Wonder what JR Ewing of Dallas thinks about power? Click this link to see.

JR speaks about the future of energy

Red River turned out to be more like Pink Grapefruit, so Ruby Red! :)

2010-07-05T15:20:00.000-07:00

Well, it isn't the orange I was hoping for.... but Ruby Red/Pink Grapefruit. I'll be photographing them soon, but they were really a surprise! Was hoping for a nice burnt orange with those deep golds and dark reds. A mottled red orange from lightest blush to a dark shade. This dyeing adventure is really fun, but this isn't an orange for just any project. Oh well. Guess it was bound to happen... Definitely will have to tone the red down for this to be a great pumpkin or utilitarian orange. Believe it or not, I've already been using some of these in a rug for our granddaughter's 3rd birthday. The Karen Kahle "Waterlilies" It might be too bright for many folks, but these tones make a gorgeous waterlilly to me. I'll try to get a pic of the rug so far later today...

After thinking about it for a short while, I decided to reformulate the yellow. I have the recipe for the original batch which had lots more deep gold tones than the one in the pot at the moment :) seems to have. After they cool down and I finish rinsing, drying them I'll add a new post.

Here is a picture of my reformulated yellow dye. I'm calling this one Yellow Rose in my official TX Palette. One of the light shades is the exact color of lemon ice box pie! The second picture is my new orange, the change is subtle, and really not at all obvious in the picture, but the oranges combining the red chilies and new yellow rose formula has a warmer more yellow quality to it. The Orange is called Red River in my official TX Palette. A friend said that some of the shades are exactly the shade of the red dirt in East TX, which I was privileged to see as I drove to Tyler for Star of TX rug camp. I'm much happier with this orange. One of the shades reminds me very much of orange pop! As a girl, that was one of my favorite flavors ~ especially if it came out of one of the old time pop coolers, where the bottles hung down from a metal rack into a gigantic pool of crushed ice and water. They were especially good and cold after riding in a car with no air conditioning other than the rolled down window.

One of the Blessings from which others flow!

2010-07-03T16:39:00.000-07:00

http://www.seema.org/911/proud_to_be_american.htm

Proud to be American

Music and Lyrics by Lee Greenwood

If tomorrow all the things were gone I’d worked for all my life,
And I had to start again with just my children and my wife.
I’d thank my lucky stars to be living here today,
‘Cause the flag still stands for freedom and they can’t take that away.

And I’m proud to be an American where as least I know I’m free.
And I won’t forget the men who died, who gave that right to me.
And I’d gladly stand up next to you and defend her still today.
‘Cause there ain’t no doubt I love this land God bless the U.S.A.

From the lakes of Minnesota, to the hills of Tennessee,
across the plains of Texas, from sea to shining sea,

From Detroit down to Houston and New York to LA,
Well, there’s pride in every American heart,
and it’s time to stand and say:

I’m proud to be an American where at least I know I’m free.
And I won’t forget the men who died, who gave that right to me.
And I’d gladly stand up next to you and defend her still today.
‘Cause there ain’t no doubt I love this land God bless the U.S.A

Wave a flag, eat some of your favorite foods of the fourth and remember that when we start to count our blessings that being American is one of the basics. Our country isn't perfect, but we have the freedoms of worship, free speech, and the right to vote for our leaders. I AM PROUD TO BE AN AMERICAN!