What a great day!

Today has been a great day.....a little sunshine, a little rain and LOTS of wool dyeing!!!

I had a chance to try out some dye recipes from the Doo Dye Inn book and all I can say is FAB-U-LOUS!!

These colors are rich and earthy and yummy!!! Saturated with color, yet distinctly primitive!!!

I have more in the dryer, but this is my first batch.

From left to right:

Buster Brown, Cinnamon, Butternut, Vintage Stone, Bittersweet

It's always so satisfying to have a great day in the dye pots!!!

Here are a couple of pictures of the girls from yesterday.

It's so rare that I can get them both in the same picture and have them both awake!!! Cleopatra...the small one is obsessed with her ball.....her favorite thing to do is to throw it in the pool and bark at it until you get it out and throw it for her again......silly girl!

Go forth and be creative,

Tammy

Memorial Day weekend

The flag is out in remembrance of loved ones and what a beautiful day to decorate.....the temperature has stayed in the low 70's and so far not much rain to spoil the outdoor fun.

In Flanders Fields

John McCrae, 1915.

In Flanders fields the poppies blow

Between the crosses, row on row

That mark our place; and in the sky

The larks, still bravely singing, fly

Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago

We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,

Loved and were loved, and now we lie

In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:

To you from failing hands we throw

The torch; be yours to hold it high.

If ye break faith with us who die

We shall not sleep, though poppies grow

In Flanders fields.

We didn't see fields of poppies today on our outing through the countryside to the graveyard, but we did stop and gather wildflowers along the roadside....have you ever seen so many wild coneflowers?! The brown speck at the top left of the picture is me!

More of the beautiful countryside.

My husband is able to find beauty in everything....even a thistle weed!

There was a wee bit of magic in our garden this morning....little mushrooms that look like parasols for fairies....just those little things that make you smile.

Go forth and be creative,

Tammy

What a beautiful bride!

Has there been a more lovely bride?

Natasha was glowing at her wedding and worked the reception room like the pro she is.

Oh yeah, the groom......Jess was handsome as well!!!

Time, time, time....where does it go?!

I must say I'm feeling a bit behind lately!!!

Like the rabbit in Alice in Wonderland....I'm late, I'm late (I hear that over and over in my head). I was wanting to dye wool on Saturday, but I remembered when I woke up this morning that tomorrow one of my former co-workers is getting married.

Natasha....she is a wonderful girl that worked in our department and was like a little sister to us.

All of us older gals gave her advice on relationships and saw her end a relationship with a guy who had two kids and was always expecting her to watch them for him and she left and moved out on her own.

In the meantime she met a wonderful guy, Jess, who would make out study cards for her while she's going through nursing school and bought her tennis shoes for her birthday while she was in a working out phase. Truly a guy who "gets" her.....it's been a wonderful thing to see and I wouldn't miss her wedding for the world!

Here's to you Natasha! I hope you and Jess have a long and happy marriage!!!

On the rug hooking front....I haven't hooked hardly at all this week....I did get a chance to dye a little bit of wool on Wednesday, but then remembered I had booked an annual dr.'s appointment right smack in the middle of the day. So, I dyed a little, took the dogs to the park with my husband, then the appointment, then I went and ran some other errands since I was already out and about.

We ended up at the book store and they had just put in a new "Seattle's Best" coffee house in there. I got a chocolate mocha and of course then I couldn't fall asleep until around midnight.

Are you getting the picture?

Over busy, over tired, over worked.....

I'm hoping Sunday and Monday to just chill and if the weather is good I'm hoping to work on my "lack of tan".

Sorry, I'm really rambling on today.

Here's a little wool eye candy from my rushed Wednesday dye session.

I must have been feeling golden!!!

Go forth and be creative,

Tammy

Sleeping, creeping and leaping!

Spring is in full swing here in the Ozarks and I can feel summer nipping at it's heels!! I've been out in the garden that my husband, Kenny, so diligently works on every single day that he can and snapped a few pics to share with you.

The first is the Dutchman's pipe that grows over an arbor that seperates our backyard from the side yard.

Bits of purple.

The ever watchful cranes. They have moved up from the ground to the trees...these are stumps left from the maple tree that bit the dust during the ice storm.

A view inside the sunroom. Kenny's antique garden supplies collection.
They keep house in this old seedbox.

One of the orchids in bloom...what a beauty.

The babbling pond...home to a few small koi.



The "Basketful" auction for the Convoy of Hope" ends tonight.

Thanks so much to all of you who have bid to support this wonderful organization!!

Basketful Auction

Go forth and be creative,

Tammy

Porch project complete!

YAY! I got the porch painted this weekend.....now I'm paying....can you say SORE?!

I should have invested in an extension pole, but instead was bent over painting on primer and then the paint.

I'm really happy with how it turned out!

Go forth and be creative,

Tammy

I've been tagged!

Today I got tagged by Toni over at Rabbit Hill Creations to share 7 random things with you that you might not know about me and then I have to tag seven more people to play along so here goes.





1. I love Springfield style cashew chicken and really never get tired of it....I could honestly eat it several times a week!


2. I have a murderer's thumb, I found this out from a palm reading at a Nuclear Medicine convention when I was in school. Click on the link to see what this says about me......it's true. I also have mismatched thumbs.


3. I have a hard time sitting completely still....I fidget a lot....yes, I'm the person tapping their foot that just drives you crazy. I'm generally not aware that I'm doing it.


4. I love glitz!! The more sparkles the better...I think that's why I love Las Vegas....glitz just doesn't look so gawdy when you're there.....not like it does living here in the Midwest.


5. I'm allergic to horses. My father-in-law raises Missouri Fox Trotters, but I can't even pet them when we go out to his farm.


6. I dated my husband, Kenny, on and off for 7 years before we took the plunge and got married.


7. I love reality TV!!!! Watching it is like watching a train wreck....you know you should turn away, but you just can't help but gawking at it....marathons are the worst....I'll just watch and watch and watch.

Now here are the folks I'm tagging....I'm only tagging 4 since I'm new to blogging.

1. Kelley at With Hook and Needle
2. Dulcy at Dulcy's Doorstep
3. Renee at Skip To My Ewe Too
4. Sunnie at Vermont Rug Hooker's Diary

Go forth and be who you are,
Tammy

Trash to Treasure

First of all...a special shout out to my girlfriend Reba for introducing me to the music of Regina Spektor....it's the featured music on the left hand side of the blog...click on one of the pictures to listen along while you read.

I am one of the board managers at Wool Snippets....an on-line group that talks about what else....rug hooking. http://groups.msn.com/WoolSnippets/_whatsnew.msnw



I've just issued a Trash to Treasure challenge for the members of our group. Taking something that you don't like or that you found for a couple of dollars and turning it into something new and wonderful. This could be a hooked project, something sewn, painted....whatever. I just want to get people's creative juices going and nothing is better than seeing how others do things. Sometimes a picture really is worth a thousand words!

You see something in a magazine, art show, store, etc. and you go "AHA! I could do something like that".....or "What if....I did something sort of like that, but did it like this instead?!"

I'm working on transforming this tall metal stool. It's an avacado green and then has a really retro (yet, in my opinion...UGLY) fabric on it. I'm in the process of hooking a new top for it and then I'll decide how to paint the legs....maybe one color...maybe stripes of color like the rug topper...haven't really decided yet. No doubt I'm hoping that it's an improvement when it's finished....stay tuned...this is yet ANOTHER project that I'm going to be working on.



I'm happy to say that bids are still coming in on the "Basketful" rug on eBay for the Convoy of Hope charity....again....THANK YOU!!!!
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ih=008&sspagename=STRK%3AMESE%3AIT&viewitem=&item=180118245434&rd=1&rd=1

For the rest of the day I'm going to be working on the "porch project" that I posted about a few days ago....if I can remember I'll take pictures so you can see the progress. Of course I hope to have it all completed by the end of the day...we'll see!
Go forth and be creative,
Tammy

Thanks for the bids!

Wow! How exciting to get up this morning and come to work and log on and see that people out there are already bidding on the "Basketful" rug that I'm auctioning off for the Convoy of Hope!!! Here is the link to see it.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ih=008&sspagename=STRK%3AMESE%3AIT&viewitem=&item=180118245434&rd=1&rd=1

Thank you, thank you, thank you!!

On another note, I'm kind of at a loss of what to share with you today. I'm sitting here at work scanning patients and surfing the internet. Found a really cool t-shirt that would be fun to wear to my Pilates class.

Pilates is tonight after work...I go on Monday and Friday....a great way to start and end my week.

Now, that makes me think of something that I get several e-mails and comments about.....how do I do everything that I do?

Ya know what? I have no earthly idea!! I'm always looking for balance in my life....as I'm sure lots of us are. I'm very fortunate to have a job where I can use my laptop. For example, today my job is scanning patients. Each patient scan takes about 20 minutes and they can't talk while they are being scanned...this is when I do a lot of my "stuff" on the internet. Everything from ebay, blogging and paying bills.

I try to exercise on most days, but a lot of times that gets lost in the wayside. However, most nights there are the dog walks which can range from full out running as they chase rabbits or leisurely strolls where they just want to sniff.

Supper....sometimes I cook, sometimes Kenny cooks and a lot of the time we end up eating out or eating cereal. Last night he made these great sausages on the grill that were chicken, asiago cheese and spinach...they were wonderful!!

I'm constantly looking for new recipes and love to try new things. I have one new recipe that I found that I'm wanting to try sometime this week.

It's called Black Bean and Corn Salad II. If you want to try it along with me here is the link to the recipe.

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Black-Bean-And-Corn-Salad-II/Detail.aspx

Thanks for all of you that post and e-mail me. It's what keeps me inspired!!

Go forth and be creative,

Tammy

Auction starts Thursday night!

I finally completed the binding on the "Basketful" rug that I'm going to auction off for the Convoy of Hope on eBay. For those of you who would like to bid or just want to follow along the item number will be 180118245434. Once the auction starts I will post a direct link.

I was really happy with how it turned out and was actually quite impressed with myself that I was able to cover the cording with the cotton fabric and sew it down with mitered edges and all!!

I just love the shabby cottage carribean colors that Maddi picked out for this!

In the mean time I've still been plugging away on the "Flower Girl" rug. I've got some beading sewn down and have the flowers applied. Here is a picture of the progress I've made.

It's not much, but running the wire through the beads and just figuring out how to do this has taken up a lot of time. I really can't wait to be finished with the embellishing and get the binding on....I think that is going to make all the difference in the world.....at least I hope so.

On the home front, we're having fabulous cool weather today and I'm hoping to go and pick out paint for the front porch deck.
I'm thinking a white like the trim, but in that glossy paint. I stained it a few years ago, but it is really in bad need of a face lift!

We got a new cushion this year for the wicker love seat...love it's retro style!

Go forth and be creative,

Tammy

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day

I hope everyone is enjoying their Mother's Day!

I hosted a mother's day brunch for my mother, mother-in-law and my grandmother this morning.

We had "Clark's Quiche" and "Apricot Cheese Danish" from www.allrecipes.com ...one of my favorite recipe sites. We also had fresh pineapple, strawberries and grapes...YUM! I had made the danish before, so I was not worried about that....it's always good!!

I assembled the quiche last night and baked it this morning. It took a little longer to bake than I had planned, but things still turned out nice. The weather is beautiful today and hopefully everyone will get to wear their new Lexee's sandals that I bought them.....I ran across these in our local Hallmark store the other night and went back and got them as Mother's Day gifts. Here's their website....they are pretty cool....you have one pair of sandals and the strap part that goes across your foot you can snap off and on with different designs....just too cool.

http://www.lexees.com/

They also got Gerbera Daisy's.....they are just such a happy flower!

Now I'm just going to try and get caught up with my eBay store, finish binding my Basketful rug and maybe catch a little sunshine!

Go forth and be creative,

Tammy

Finishing up!

YAY! I've got fabric picked out so that I can finish up two of my rugs....I've never finished with a cotton fabric, so this will be an experiment of sorts for me. Not sure if I even have cording to make the piping edge...guess I'd better go look before I get too excited. I hope this polka dotted border works out with the Flower Girl.

This is the border for the Basketful rug.....I could not have dreamed of finding something that coordinates with the rug so well.....It really has ALL of the same colors.....what a stroke of luck!

Storing wool.....this is a cool little basket that I got a few years back....right now it's holding assorted gold wools .....looks pretty fall-ish...perhaps I'll brighten things up a bit and load the basket with pinks for spring and let the crow have the summer off.

There is something about spring that just makes me want to totally re-do everything in my house.....everything is just looking so dark to me right now. I feel cluttered and overwhelmed. Just tonight I added more clothes to the "donate" bag that I keep in my closet....it seems if it's faded or doesn't fit just right then I'm wanting rid of it. Perhaps it's all the bright natural light....or the fact that I've been seeing all of these Cath Kidston colors on just about every blog I visit like the picture above. I find myself wanting to paint my front porch with something that glistens and says "look at me....I'm fresh and new". Have any of you painted your porch with the really glossy paint? That always appeals to me when I see it in magazines, but it looks like it would be really hard to get it all smooth and nice and I also wonder how well it would wear from year to year....will it start to look dull quickly and will it show every little dusty footprint? It could be a weekend project for NEXT weekend.....as you know....or you'd best remember....this weekend is Mother's Day.

In your face!

I'm wanting to do a series of rugs called "In Your Face".....Big Truvy (the basset hound rug that I'm currently working on) is one of them as well as the big Turkey rug that hangs in my rug hooking room. I'm sure that the next one I do will be of my other dog...Cleopatra. After that these are some animals that I am considering.

I just love this shaggy Poitou donkey which I found out is an endangered species....the white around it's eyes is just wonderous!!

The guernsey cow is another consideration.....they have the sweetest faces and my great-grandparents had a dairy farm when I was growing up...they sold their milk in the old glass bottles with paper lids. Guernseys are prided on their rich cream. Seeing guernsey cows brings back wonderful childhood memories for me.

This is a Scottish Highland cow. They are the oldest known cattle breed. Records of this breed's existence date back as far as the 12th century. The breed was first imported into the United States in the late 1880s. They are known for their gentle disposition, hardiness in adverse weather conditions and strong resistance to disease. I love their bangs!!

This is a Texas Longhorn. I saw one of these lying in a field on my way back from Arkansas earlier this spring and just couldn't get it out of my my mind. I can see the face at the right side of the rug with a little bit of horn showing on that side and then having the entire left side of the rug taken up by it's other long horn. I've had a hard time finding close up pictures of their faces....I can see why....I wouldn't want to get up to close to those long horns!!! I've just got to do a white dappled one, because that is what I saw lying in the field.

Of course, who can resist sheep!!! Especiallly this one with all it's long curly hair and adorable face!

If you have any other ideas of animals that would make great "close up" rugs I'd love to hear your suggestions!

Go forth and be creative,

Tammy