A night to hook

Last night a few of us met at Simply Fibers

to sit around and rug hook.

Okay, there was SOME rug hooking going on,

but a lot of chattering,

checking out what everyone was working on.

Looking through pattern catalogs,

adding to our stashes from the new wools

that came in from Rebecca Erb

....running to Andy's to get frozen custard or ice tea

(meeting at 5pm is hard....

not quite hungry enough for supper yet,

but by the time it gets to be 7pm

.....stomachs are grumbling to be fed!)

In the middle of March,

my friend Renee,

had a sale and Belva picked

up a pattern from her for $10

.....she showed up to hooking and it's

almost complete and it's

totally beautiful!!!!

She is hooking it in,

I think, a 4-5 cut....

truly amazing as

most of the folks in our group

are 6-9 folks...we were in awe!

If anyone knows the name of the pattern

she would love to know.....

it was simply marked with

a piece of masking tape "#6" .....go figure.

I totally needed to be stocking the shelves

with the new wools that came in,

but instead,

I indulged,

and sat down

and drank in the camraderie of our group

......I was really needing to hook

and connect with everyone last night.

It was such a girls night!

We laughed and talked about the silliest things

and we had a visitor,

Doris,

from Wisconsin

and her daughter,

Linda,

who lives in Ozark join our group

.....what a delight!

I did make progress on Cleopatra's rug

that I've been working on.

Last night I worked on the sky.....

I just love these watery turquoisy/tealy colors

that I'm working with.

Background is such a great thing

to work on when you're just wanting to sit around

and talk and hook....

will hook more on Cleopatra herself

when I'm at home by myself.

If you'd like to see more pictures of this rug as

it progresses

visit the "Wool Snippets Works in Progress" blog

HERE.

Spring's prom

Yesterday was such a beautiful day....
more and more plants are starting to bloom.

The tree peonies are in full glory like girls going to prom.....

fluffy and colorful and romantic....

dancing in the spring breeze.

The Solomon's Seal looks like dainty jewels hanging from their neck.

and their outfit would not be complete

without the viburnum

adorning their upswept hair.

Can you tell I'm a bit romantic about springtime?

I love it.....

everything reminds me of jewels or dresses or hats.

We also hooked last night

and I will write more about that

in my next post,

perhaps later today.

Go forth and be creative,

Tammy

Treasure hunting

This morning we got up early to hit some garage sales........Kenny found this yesterday....crack me up! This is a little white short jumper with beading around the waist and then this long beaded jacket that goes with it.....flashback to an earlier time....almost so old that it's new again.....just needs some white go-go boots to go with it.

Groovy! I got 4 boxes of letters and numbers....

some are vintage and way cool.....

the others I'm going to try to make up sayings and then paint them in cool colors.

Couldn't resist!

I love this seashell planter.....this is going to be gifted to a friend. It will look great in his house! Lastly, I got these paintings....just 25 cents each....I'm thinking I will alter them and add words, more painting on top of them and who knows what....just dreaming of the possibilities is worth 25 cents each.

I also got some darling vintage books!

May your day be filled with unexpected treasures,

Tammy

A good kind of tired

I'll be dropping into bed tonight and sleeping like a log.

Long day at work

Long walk with Lonnie

Long drive with Cleopatra (it's too hot for the princess to walk)

Laundry

FINALLY cleaning off the top bunk bed of all the "flea market treasures" and taking all the extra boxes and packing materials to the attic.

Swept out the garage

Put away all the new woolens from Rebecca Erb

FINALLY rid of the headache that I've had for the past 2 days.

Tiny margarita

Sleep tight

Altered hooking/journal bag

Wednesday I took some time out to sit down and work on a few ideas that have been swirling around in my head.

I'm not a "seamstress", but I do like to dabble around with my sewing machine. I have a few cute fabrics left over from other projects and I wanted to see what I could come up with.

Here it is. A little bag to hold your hooking or journaling tools while you are "on the go".

Made from cottons, vintage hankies, hand-dyed wool, fabric transfer that I got from an Etsy person a few years back, various threads.

Go forth and be creative,

Tammy

Glorious

Monday evening we took the dogs for a walk and the weather here has been glorious.....a bit windy, but glorious indeed!

For those of you familiar with Springfield these photos were taken over in the Meadowmere area. The neighborhood behind the old Red Cross/Smith-Glynn building. it was chilly enough for a jacket because it was a bit windy. i loved it because it was just windy enough to blow in scents of fresh cut grass and lilac.
and windy enough for the dogs to catch scent of a rabbit. in the photo below the dogs have spotted a rabbit...you have to look REALLY close, but the rabbit is near the bush in the upper left hand corner


the dogwoods and redbuds are so colorful this year


azaleas and tulips are in full bloom. i love this house, it is surrounded by azaleas.....they are all budded out, but this one is in full bloom....i imagine this is how it would look in England.


May your day be glorious,
Tammy

Time to hook

Sunday was pretty rainy and icky out, so I got time to hook. I'm working on a pattern from Nola called "Fall Frolick"....I've adjusted it to fit the colors of my dog, Cleopatra. I dyed a funky piece of wool a while back and I thought this would be a great rug to use it on. I'm using the yellow/green parts of it for the "floor" and the rest of it for the "sky"....I might have to go back and change the leaves a bit, but for now I'm going to leave them like they are until I see how things progress.
This is one of those rugs that I have to keep taking off of my frame and throwing it on the floor and standing back at it to take a look.


To see more pictures go to the new blog that shows rugs in progress from the members of Wool Snippets by clicking
HERE
Go forth and be creative,
Tammy

Ahhhhh.....sweet rewards

There is no love, like a dog's love.

I got home from the boathouse hook-in and hung out with the dogs for a few hours and then when I went back out in the garage to unpack the car. Poor Lonnie was afraid I was leaving again.....he said he would not be left behind.....if the wool is going....he is going! Kenny would never admit it, but Lonnie is SUCH a momma's boy!

75 pounds of pure love that can squish his whole big body onto my lap.....I also refer to him as the dog blanket.
How can you resist those eyes?

The hook-in was a blur of activity! So many great people, beautiful wools and patterns, de-lish food......and NO RAIN until we started to load up to leave.

I didn't have time to take photos but lots of people who were there did, so I'll be BEGGING for them to share.

I can't even begin to express what a beautiful day it was!
Thank you to everyone!

Wow! I finally feel like I'm just about ready for the boathouse hook-in on Saturday. I've been dyeing wool like a banshee and just being around all of the bright colors that I've dyed has me re-energized.

I'm hoping to run a few more errands tonight after work and pick up name tags

and drinking cups (trying to find something biodegradable/recycleable), bag up some give-away prizes and work on my visual journal so I can take that along as well.

Then, Friday night all I'll have to do is make my snacks to take. Salty? Sweet? Both? Hmmm....decisions decisions.

Can you say EXCITED!

What to do....

.....with all of those odd pieces of wool that you've accumulated over the years?

(this is just 2 pounds of the umpteen pounds of scrap wool that I have dyed in the past few weeks)

I have accumulated so many odd pieces of wool that I'm having a hard time sorting them into piles that make any kind of sense to me and I've found that my color palette has been changing from dark and drab to bright and colorful.

So what's a girl to do?

Gather them up and overdye them......

....and take them to the boathouse!

Don't forget the hook-in at the boathouse! Click HERE to read about it and get directions!

Happy Easter

May your joys be many

your sorrows be few

Jesus died on the cross for you.

Spring is here!

As I'm writing we're having severe thunderstorm warnings and the dogs are wigged out....Cleopatra is in bed with Kenny and Lonnie is lying here by my feet shivering and panting.

Poor babies.

But it takes lots of rain to make things as beautiful as it's been here lately. Here are a few pictures of Kenny's garden that I took the other day when it was nice outside.....so much color!

Bleeding hearts with wild violets underneath.

Japanese maple towering over a tulip. Sculpted rock made by a friend.

I think this plant is called bruneria? The dogs love to eat it.

Flowering almond.

Flowering almond behind water fountain.

Iris coming up.

Some little woodland flowers that look like orchids.

Go forth and be creative,

Tammy