Hanging it up

This is something that I’ve hesitated to write about for a while, but it’s been coming for quite some time.  In the summer/fall of 2004, I started teaching rug hooking and selling wool at Simply Fibers.  I was so full of energy and ideas and the students came and they learned to hook and they bought my wool and the group grew and grew and grew and I loved it.

(photo by Cuba Gallery)

I loved it so much that I decided to venture on-line and start selling my wool on eBay and brought along my friend, Renee, to join in on the fun.  Once again, the customers came and they bought and they bought more and I loved it. Skip To My Ewe was born.

(photo from Marc Pinter)

…..then one day I woke up and it was just too much.  Working full-time in nuclear medicine, dyeing wool and teaching at the store as well as dyeing wool and taking pictures and writing ads and shipping wool for the ebay store.  So, I decided to scale back and leave the eBay, “Skip To My Ewe” store,  to Renee and she has done remarkably well with it…..and I didn’t miss it and I threw myself more into teaching and dyeing wool for the customers at Simply Fibers.

(photo from JLM)

Jump forward to November 2009……I started feeling overwhelmed again, so I decided to scale back and take a break from teaching and dyeing…….wow, all of a sudden I had all of this extra time….I wasn’t chained to the dye pots every day that I had off from work….I wrapped all of my Christmas gifts instead of hurriedly stuffing them in bags, I took on another home remodeling project, the den this time around…..I started cooking at home most nights….okay, maybe 3  nights a week….now I’ve started re-designing our living room and next is my little studio room.

(photo from DCI Photography)

Yes, there has been guilt along this new found path…..my inner voice:

“How can you leave all of these people who have depended on you for wool?……You got them hooking and now you’re just going to up and LEAVE them?…..What about how nice Carol has been to you at Simply Fibers?…..Where are you going to put all that wool that was at the store?……and on and on….”

(photo from bweech)

I thought I would get the “itch” to resume all of the dyeing and teaching, but the truth is…..I’ve grown to love my life without all the stress I had been putting on myself to “have it all”.  If you’ve followed my blog you know I have always been searching for balance.  I’m getting it, I feel more balanced because I’ve shed a lot of the plates that I was spinning in the air…..while it was a good act while it lasted, it exhausted me…..I didn’t realize just how much until I took away several of the plates.

(photo from Sunset magazine)

Carol has been wonderful in keeping my wools that I have left at the store and just condensing my space down as it sells and when I leave later this summer I will most likely have a sale on books and patterns and MAYBE some wool…..I’m still planning on hooking for myself, but let’s be reasonable….right now I have enough wool to hook until Jesus comes.

(photo from Words of Randomness)

So for now I’m “hanging it up” with retail sales and teaching…..will I ever start back up….possibly….I’m just trying to do what “feels right”.

Will my blog continue on?  Certainly

Will the name of the blog change?  Possibly

Ahhhhhhh…….

……a 3-day weekend……

I’ve had my coffee…..had my breakfast and mowed the yard….now on to spray painting the rest of the metal cabinets.

Normally, I’m not a huge fan of summer, but I’m really excited about it this year…..long days that melt into evenings….cooking out by the pool….freshly made salsa…..cucumbers and onions….the smell of freshly cut grass….suntan lotion….freshly muddled mint and lime mojitos…..

What are you looking forward to?

Covering up

For those of you who check in to see what I am doing in rug hooking, sorry to disappoint again….I’ve got the re-decorating bug….now that I have the walls painted, I’m in search of curtains…..here are a few that I like….

Lakarri Curtains from Anthropologie….I love how they look hand-painted….I think these would add some “crisp whimsey” to the room.

These are more subtle, but I love the DETAILS and TEXTURE….again from Anthropologie….

Even MORE from Anthropologie….love the hand-painted look and the colors too……

….and these…..

….again with the DETAILS….lots of little cross stitches to make up the birds…..again…..Anthropologie….these are on sale. The only thing I DON’T like about all of the Anthropologie curtains is the price and that they all slip over the rod…..is it just me?

“Iron Gate” curtains from “Drape-Style”….or course they are sold out, but I still love them. This is what they call an inverted pleat….love the crispness of the design, colors and pleats.

I also like this idea of combining shades with curtains….hang the curtain rod high and add the shades….makes it look like you have really tall windows. I also like the layered look that it achieves.

Also in love with these London shades….again, hung right up next to the molding to make it look like you have really tall windows……and the room is to die for!

The safe choice

I admit it and my husband confirmed it….I went for the “safe choice” with the paint to go with our silver wall…..it’s called “Indian River” from Benjamin Moore paint.

Here were the other contenders….

Frosted Green Grape

Wood Smoke

Warm Gray Flannel

I’ve got most of the cutting in done….except one wall, which has a massive display case of cookie jars…..Kenny will have to move that before I can do that wall…..which will most likely happen next week….

….back to painting…..

Did I mention I’ve gone through about 1/2 of a container of spackle…..old plaster walls…..ya gotta love em!

Glossy White

Thanks to Kenny, I scored 3 vintage metal cabinets at $20 each on Friday.  Kenny picked them up for me on Saturday and on Sunday I started the process of whipping them into shape.

It was a beautiful day on Sunday, so I pulled it out under the birch tree and set to work.

I removed the handles…..

Next, I had to sand down the rusty spots on the inside of the cabinet.

Put on my grubby clothes, get a big cold glass of ice water and spray paint…..I picked glossy white….white goes with everything….and I might have one more little trick up my sleeve before it’s all said and done.

I finished one coat on two cabinets…..still need to do the 3rd cabinet and then give them all a second coat…..hope to have AFTER pictures soon.

yes

they

are

for

wool

storage……..

what else?

Hold your tongue

Many projects taking place around here……Kenny has repotted one of his “mother-in-laws tongues”…..it was HUGE….I think he got it at a garage sale and it was in a really ugly plastic pot…..then he got a beautiful cobalt blue pot to put it in…..where did the repotting take place…..in the dining room….where else?

Here is a picture of the plant on the dining room floor….it’s HUGE!  Look at the other “mil tongues” in the window….I think this is what people are used to seeing.

Here it is repotted…..an old, antique type of plant in a modern vessel….makes all the difference in the world.

Today, I started a DIY project….more on that later this week….or maybe tomorrow.

A big smile and hope….

A big smile because Gretchen has finally found her forever home…..I’m not sure how long Gretchen has been featured on my blog, but I know it’s been for months…. I got a nice e-mail from Kim of www.clumbersinneed.com today letting me know that one of my blog readers had told her about Gretchen on my blog and she kindly let me know that Gretchen had found her forever home……YAY!

So, after a little searching I’ve found this cutie who needs a home…..let’s hope he’s as lucky…..Pogo is an 8-year old silky terrier…..just look at those eyes…I’ve picked out 2 of my dogs from looking at their eyes….they are windows to the soul….this little guy, I think, is very wise and sweet. Click on his picture to find out more…..he’s right here in Springfield, Missouri if you are one of my local blog readers.

A little bit of this….

I haven’t been hooking very much lately…..still obsessed with the new eating plan and now I’ve added exercise to the mix…..feeling good….just re-wiring my “habit circuits” I guess.

Here are some pictures of Kenny’s “salsa garden” …..peppers, tomatoes, cilantro…..

…..all in a huge pot on the back deck…..

Kenny calls this area of the back deck, “Mexico”, …..there are lots of cactus and agave back there…..he’s thinking of painting the bare tree trunk in a really bright color….this is what is left after we had this tree removed from the ice storm a few years back…..

…..I think the stormy skies that we’ve had for days on end

  are supposed to come to an end and we’re supposed to have a sunny weekend….YAY!

By the way, still talking about paint colors to finish up the living room……

In between the raindrops

I shot these pictures of the garden….

Scripted Rugs

There was a discussion on RHD (Rug Hooking Daily) on having quotes on rugs…..this is one of my favorite things to do…..as much as I detest hooking words, I love having something you can read as you go by it every day….either to remind you of where you have been or where you want to go.

This is the first rug that I hooked that had words incorporated into it….our basset hound “Geairmo” loved to go for walks….I remember him on a daily basis when I see this rug in our living room.

This next rug is in our entryway…..the design is from the cover or a vintage book and the saying is from the book, “The Little Prince”…..actually my husband picked the picture AND the quote.

….And the fox said to the Little Prince… “Men have forgotten this Truth.  But you must not forget it.  You become responsible forever for what you have tamed.”

It’s a daily reminder to be responsible with animals….even though there are no animals in this particular rug.

The next two rugs are on the floor in my hooking room….they are reminders to me to follow my dreams….

I don’t really have any quotes in mind for future rugs, but I’m sure that when I come upon one I’ll be able to dream up a rug to incorporate it into.

More cooking, less blogging

Is it bad when  new eating plan is pretty much all-consuming?  I picked up this magazine at Borders the other day and I’ve started their 14 day plan.

This involves whole foods, no preservatives, no processed sugar, no white flour. Lots of fresh foods means lots of cooking and shopping more frequently.

However, I started on Monday and I’m feeling great….haven’t felt hungry so far….yes, it’s a bit about losing weight….Kenny took pictures of me cleaning out the pool this past weekend and I was like, “OMG….I’ve got to do SOMETHING”…..so this week it’s focusing on the eating….eating FRESH….next week I’ll introduce more exercise while still eating FRESH.  I like lifting weights…it’s just getting to the gym that is the hard part for me.

I’ve been eating a lot of things that I don’t normally LIKE…….carrots

and cantaloupe

  are topping the list of things that I’m MAKING myself eat….but there are a lot of things that I DO like….salmon, strawberries, cilantro, whole wheat tortillas….and a few new things that I”m trying out….red quinoa, making my own hummus,

trying out new recipes….tomorrow night….Spinach and Dill Rollatinis. Of course the store close to me doesn’t carry silken tofu or soft tofu….just firm tofu….so, looks like a trip to Mama Jean’s after work.

I got to have a small portion of pork loin tonight, so don’t cry for me. Maybe this is the eating plan that I can LIVE with…..a lifestyle change.