Water is all hooked

Day 1 of my STAY-cation I spent it lolling about a bit and also doing a little work on the garden rug. I have the water feature finished and am getting ready to move on to working on the flower portion of the mullen "weed flower".

The flower will consist of different values of yellow and I think I've decided to make it a bit 3-dimensional by tying larger and smaller wool strips into knots and then sewing them onto the backing....I've never done this before, so I'm sure it will be more labor intensive than I think it will be, but hopefully will be worth the extra effort. Plus it's fun to stretch creatively and try new things.

I'm happy with how the water turned out going from darker at the bottom and then getting lighter towards the top. Kenny told me that the bubbles represented our backyard pool and my hooking is my interpretation of the water.

I'm also loving how the flowers come "off" of the canvas and I tried to work bits of purple into the water to make it look like the flower is reflecting in the water.

I'm hoping if you click on the pictures you can see them larger.

First Day of STAY-cation

Yay! STAY-cation!



9 days in a row with no work. Today, I think I'll be throwing on my favorite
t-shirt and shorts and rug hooking and working over the rug room.

This shirt cracks me up. Kenny got it for me for Christmas one year. It makes me laugh! I only wear it at home.

Just sharing.

The GOOD news

Here is some good news that we don't always get to see.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Change of plans

Today my plan was to get up, install the new computer for my husband while he was at work today and then rug hook.



Oh contraire.....I couldn't get the speakers to work and spent probably 2-3 hours on-line with tech support trying to get them to work. The last person I chatted with (a woman) was able to get me up and running.

Go figure.

Now, I'm just trying to figure out how to get the itunes up and running again.

Oh well, maybe Saturday will be better.

More video of the den

I now have the den painted. The walls are Apple Polish from Behr paint. I will take pictures tomorrow of how the ceiling technique turned out. It's very subtle, but worth the effort.

I took the video at 4:30 am the other day when I couldn't sleep...that's why the video ends at the coffee pot :)

This is entering our den from the kitchen. We have an antique canoe that has been made into a shelf that we picked up several years ago and hauled from Kansas City to Springfield in my old Subaru Forester....it went from the front seat all the way out the back...that was quite a trip I must say.

A few more notes, we still have the flooring to replace and the fireplace to repaint...Kenny painted the inside of the fireplace black with heat resistant paint....then he had to turn off the a/c and turn on the attic fan to get rid of the fumes...it was horrible.

The pack basket on the floor by the fireplace is great for storing magazines.

If you see anything you are curious about, just ask, and if you have any ideas for the fireplace, I'd love to hear your suggestions.

We still need to hang artwork on the red walls....we're waiting until the fireplace and flooring are finished, because we might change the furniture arrangement around.

Hooking water

Yesterday I decided to dye a little wool to use as the water in the rug I'm working on. What a nice day....sitting by the pool hooking water.
Go forth and be creative,
Tammy

Decision made

I've decided that today I'm going to dye a little wool for the rug, then sit outside and hook and swim (better than the gym)....it's supposed to be 82.

Tomorrow they are calling for scattered rain....a much better day to spend inside painting.

Thanks Debbie for helping me get my priorities straight :)

Indecision

I'm sitting here this morning trying to decide what to do. Finish painting the ceiling.....dye some wool for the rug I'm working on....go to the gym.....instead I just sit here and drink coffee.

Thoughts marinating.

I really want to finish the ceiling, but I'm afraid.

I've never done a "technique" before....what if it turns out a big hideous mess?

Sure, I could paint over it, but then the ceiling is going to have a texture on it and then that will be weird.....should I do a test board?

Help!

Happy Anniversary

Today is our 14th Anniversary.

I wish I had a scanner, so I could share some of our wedding pictures. We got married in St. Thomas, Virgin Islands.

It was perfect and beautiful.

Have a great day!

A little bit of THIS and a whole lot of THAT

Saturday and Sunday I worked a bit on my garden rug. I'm liking how it's coming together I especially like the coneflowers....however, I'm going to rehook the centers at some point to incorporate some orange and green (Kenny informed me that this is the color that the centers are on the purple coneflowers, however, he was very pleased with the color of the petals)


I think I got fairly close to the velvety/silver color of the mullen leaves.


In the mean time....don't they say it's good luck when a bird craps on you :)
Not everything is glamourous in my little corner of the world....even though I'd like for you to think it is :)

Ter'e, I worked all day yesterday on painting the ceiling of the den yesterday that I started back here....actually, the red walls and the trim are all painted. I was hoping to finish the ceiling in a day, however, when I went back and looked at the instructions for doing the glazing, it said you had to let your base coat dry for 24 hours......so, I'm planning on tackling that this weekend.

I really wish I knew how to do time lapse photography, because it would have been quite entertaining. Up the step-ladder, down the step-ladder, taping off the crown molding. Then up and down the step-ladder taping up plastic sheeting to cover the red walls...(yes, I know, paint the ceiling first, but we weren't sure if we were going to paint the ceiling or not). Then I would move the furniture to one end of the room....couch, loveseat, wingback chair, tables, lamps, plants, etc....then move everything to the OTHER end,,,,then the other SIDE. I'm not sore today, but check back with me tomorrow :0

I promise there will be video to come when it's finished. I might even take some video tonight...the furniture is all pushed back, but the plastic sheeting is still on the walls....it's an odd look to say the least.

Yes, I live with a brush in my hand....coloring my world.

Go forth and be creative,
Tammy

Dakota has a home

First off.....Dakota...the Newfoundland from my dream a while back has been adopted....YAY!

Dyeing for mullens

For the mullen leaves I scrunched up 1/2 yard of natural Pendleoton wool in a pan and then did the following:

This is OLIVE DRAB....

but somehow when they made up the label they goofed on the spelling.

in measuring cup 1 I added 1/64 tsp olive drab and just a bit of citric acid....you could use vinegar

in measuring cup 2 I added 1/32 tsp olive drab and just a bit of CA

in measuring cup 3 I added 1/16 tsp olive drab and just a bit of CA

to these measuring cups I added 1 cup boiling water to each.

I should also note that I added about 2 cups of water to the scrunched up wool in my pan and put it on simmer on my stove top.

Once the water was warmed up on the stove I added my 3 cups of dye down the wool parallel to the selvedge from light to dark...massaged them into the wool with my new gloves I picked up at Home Depot a few weeks back. HINT: when buying gloves to dye with....

get a size larger than you need.....

You'll love me for this tip!

After the wool massage I sprinkled the wool with a bit of salt...like you would a roast and then covered it with foil. HINT: covering your pots or pans with foil keeps the heat in....processing your wool a bit faster and keeping your home cooler in this warm weather.

Here is the result....a little more blue than I anticipated, but not bad.Since I'm no quitter I tried making up two more formulas that I cooked in pots rather than pans that resulted in these wools. I was most satisfied with the wool on the bottom....not too blue, but still shadowy. I'll share those recipes with you as time allows.

Stay tuned tomorrow when I'll share some of my hooking.

Go forth and be creative,

Tammy

The journey of a new rug begins

This rug has been brewing for about a year now.....actually there will be 5 panels that will go across our dining room wall.

These have been drawn by my husband, Kenny. It's so nice to have a man who is involved with what you love to do.

For those of you who have visited my blog for a while know....Kenny is as obsessed with gardening as I am with rug hooking.



We're collaborating on this project.....he is the artist and I'm the hooker.



I'll keep you up to date as this project progresses....sharing how I make color choices and I also intend to share recipes that I come up with along the way.



I hope you'll join me on this journey.


Here is what I'm working on today. The rug has a representation of the mullen plant....it's actually a weed, but a weed that Kenny is in love with....it has really soft leaves and beautiful yellow flowers when it blooms....today I'm going to be working on coming up with some colors to use in the mullen leaves.



I've picked a leaf off of the mullen and then went through my swatch books to pull a few colors that I think might work.....I've pulled Pro Chem "olive drab" and "grasshopper" to work with, but may add other wools that I already have to the mix.

Go forth and be creative,
Tammy

Caribou redo

BEFORE

This is the rug that has been lying in my dining room for several years....the dogs love to scratch at it and make themselves a nest before reclining on it....it has suffered from this treatment and really was in bad need of repair. Click HERE to see the progression from disrepair to repaired and washed. I was always afraid to wash my rugs, but now I'm a believer in living with my rugs and washing them when they need it.

AFTER

Insight?

okay, this may be totally random and weird and it may give you too much insight into my psyche....but here goes.


last night i woke up at 2:30 am with a horrible migraine headache.

i don't get these very often any more and when i do i can usually knock them out with some excedrin....or it's equivilant. however, i'd taken the last one sometime last week and failed to get more....bad thing about being a procrastinator....so now i'm up at 2:30 and having to throw on shorts and a sweatshirt and drive to walgreen's in the middle of the night.


so, i get home, take my excedrin and go to the den to try and stretch and relax and do things that i think might help me unwind.

i did this for about 15 minutes and then headed back to bed.


now, backtracking, earlier in the evening, i got a message from someone in a group i'm in on facebook. we had a page with our favorite quotes and i had put mine as "live the life you've imagined".

she asked me what that was.....i still haven't answered as i wanted to think about it for a while......creating rugs, being able to get up early and walk the dogs down some path in the woods that we'd created ourselves, having the luxury to plan and cook meals most nights, working part time at the job i'm currently in, vacationing to different spots every year....lots of things come to mind.

also, before falling asleep i started reading a new book called "saved".


it has stories of animal rescues and the people the animals are now with....i read the preface and 1 story from this book before going to bed last night. i had also finished reading "the big leap" earlier in the day.




it's about taking your life to the next level and about how we have "upper limit problems"....that we have a thermostat that is set to let us only feel "so good" and how to go about breaking those barriers....sometimes when people have a good day or have hit a milestone they either start destroying their relationships or get illnesses or what have you.



so, of course in the middle of the night when i woke up with the migraine i started wondering if my migraine was caused from an "upper limit problem"....i had just had a great day off work, had time to plan a nice supper and everyone loved it and i had also gotten the laundry caught up, the dogs were calm, we had decided on what to do with the rest of the decorating scheme in the den....things were really starting to come together....it really couldn't have been a more perfect day.



now, i go back to bed and i have the oddest dream. i go out to my backyard and i have lonnie with me (lonnie is not that great with dogs he doesnt' know) and there is a rottweiler in our backyard. lonnie doesn't seem to mind him and goes back in the house. when lonnie is back in the house i go up to the rottweiler to see if he has a collar or tags on....he doesn't, but he starts talking to me

....telling me that he is so sorry he scared me, but he just needed a place to stay for the night, that he us really friendly, but that people judge him by the way he looks and how sad it made him that he didn't have a home or someone to love him. so we are talking about his problems and when i turn around their is a humongous dog behind me lying down

.....he looks like a big newfoundland but he is probably 10 feet long....he started telling me in his elvis sounding voice that he has also lost his home because he is so big and eats so much but he really just wants to find a home where he can be of service and help protect people and their animals.....while i'm talking to these two dogs I wonder out loud to myself, "i wonder how many dogs talk and feel this way" , as i turned around there were about 20 dogs at my back fence gate waiting to talk to me and tell me their stories and needing my help.

and then I woke up.

What does this mean?

Rug repairs

Upon first looking at this picture of my caribou rug it really doesn't look all that bad.

But upon closer inspection you can see how much dog hair it has on it and how many pieces of wool have been partially pulled out or pulled completely out.

The dogs LOVE to lie on this rug, and before they do, they paw and scratch at it and turn around and get everything just right. However, it makes it comfy for them....but not so great for the rug.

So what do you do with something like this?

Tune in tomorrow and I'll show you what I did.

Click on the pictures to see them larger.

She's hooked!

I was hoping to finish hooking Cleopatra's rug during Memorial Day weekend and I'm happy to say that she is finished.....finished as in hooked. I'm pleased with how she turned out....maybe a little tweaking here and there, but always happy to complete a project.

Want to rather than need to

Ahhhhh....I have all 3 walls of the den painted "Apple Polish" red.....I was going to paint the trim today, but I'm really not happy with the color I chose....I guess I should have brought the paint swatches home with me first.

I bought a color called "renoir bisque"...once I got it home and next to the ceiling tiles it looked a little too peachy....definitely need something more in the brown tone.

I find this as a good excuse to hook....it's a holiday after all....an EXTRA day....I plan on spending it doing things I WANT to do....not necessarily NEED to do.

I'm hoping to get the rest of Cleopatra's ear hooked in and having her rug completed.

Enjoy your EXTRA day,

Tammy

Close Memorial Gardens

Last weekend we went to Close Memorial Gardens here in Springfield. It was a beautiful day and the dogs loved having a new place to explore.
Once again, I've been playing with my new Flip Video.



Playing on the swings!


One of the many beautiful flower beds...this one overlooks the pond.


More footage of the gardens.


This iris gardens.


Seldom seen footage of Cleopatra on the run....she's so cute when she runs!

This is "I think" the native garden display.

Lonnie stalking squirrels

Memorial Day plans

So what does everyone out there in the blog world have planned for Memorial Day?

Grave decorating?

Personally, I get it, but I find it rather depressing......plastic flowers......yech....I just hate them.....I buy those cute little pinwheels to put on the graves I visit.

They are calling for spotty rainshowers here over our 3-day weekend, but I was hoping it would be nice and we could spend the weekend out by the pool, cooking out and just "hanging out".

If it does rain, I suppose I have lots of projects to work on.....finishing up painting the den red and then also all of the trim needs to be painted.

I'm hoping to make some time for hooking and journaling and maybe a little road trip....to where? Not sure, but sometimes it's just great to hit the open road.

Seeing if this works

I'm still working on learning some of the video software and how to upload it to Blogger....it's making me want to pull my hair out!

Making a nest

Just a quick video of Lonnie making his nest to suit him. He's such a sweet boy! He likes to lay in his dog bed next to me while I'm on the computer. I've got some new video software that I'm trying to figure out....it's quite a challenge and I'm working on a hooking video from last night.

Stay tuned.

Painting!

I love having a brush in my hand and making something look completely different.

the possibilities

the newness

the smell of new paint

Yesterday I started painting our den "Apple Polish" red.....LOVE IT!!

The paint is from Behr at Home Depot. It's a new line they have that has the primer mixed right in with the paint.....it said it would cover in 2 coats....did it deliver....YES!!!

Here is a little video of the before and after of the first wall.

The paint is not quite dry in the video, but I'm sure you'll get the idea of the transformation. I'll share more pics and video as things progress.

Not sure what we are going to do with the mantle and fireplace.....paint it red as well?.....we're thinking the trim might be an almond color....decisions, decisions.

At the end of the video you'll see my dog, Lonnie, with his favorite doll...he likes to undress her and carry her around by her hair...funny boy. He tends to be in more of my pictures because he follows me everywhere.

Today, I'll be removing the painters tape and probably be catching up on other projects....I expect all three walls to be finished by next week and then on to the trim.....or at least that's the plan.

Best of Missouri Hands

Yesterday, in the mail I received my copy of the

directory.

I've had fun today perusing some of the artists in my spare time.

If you'd like to go to their website just click on the symbol above.

This will be a great resource to shop for unique gifts and help support artists in Missouri.

New toy!

So, now that I messed around with my old camera being on the fritz for a month or so I broke down yesterday and got a Flip Video camera and also a new digital Cannon camera.....yeah baby...I was giddy from the whole experience!!!

Hope you enjoy the crazy little video that I made yesterday...my first one....of course it features the dogs.

I haven't been blogging as much as normal, because my digital camera has been on the fritz. It's maddening! Sometimes it will run long enough to take videos and other times I can't get it to turn on at all.....

....me thinks it's time to go shopping and get a new one.

Here is one of the last pictures I was able to snap the other day. Kenny and I came home from taking the dogs on a long walk and I found this huge-mongous vase of flowers sitting on my front porch.

Beautiful!

They are from my aunt Jo An.

The vase can be used to put crushed ice in and chill a bottle of wine....how wonderful is that?!

Misty Morning

Misty Morning
Originally uploaded by Skip To My Ewe

It soooo pays to get up early! I love the backyard when it looks like this....totally enveloped in a fine mist like a gift waiting to be unwrapped.
If you have sound you can hear the birds chirping their early morning melodies.

Brightening up an overcast day with wool

Yesterday was cool and overcast...I imagine our rainy, gloomy weather we've been having is how it would be if I lived in Seattle. It was a perfect day for dyeing wool. I had a previous customer contact me needing more wool for a project she was working on.....of course it wasn't a recipe that I had written down....that would make it too easy. I winged it and I think I came up with something that was fairly close and hopefully will work for her. The sample she sent me is on top and underneath is what came out of the dye pot. The white is a bit more white, due to a difference in wool suppliers.

Here are more wools that came out of the oven yesterday....mainly spot dyes.

In the photo below I think the first piece would make great fluffy peonies.

The second piece a wonderful sky and the last piece could be a night sky or some type of shadows.

Now, in the pics below, I think the first piece could make a great sky or water...going from dark to light.

The second piece would make a great background on a garden rug.

The last piece was my first attempt to match the wool in the very first picture....yep...not a winner for that, but would make a nice sky or ice.

Here is a bigger picture of the water/sky piece....I think this is one of my favorites!

Tomorrow I'll post pictures of further progress on Cleopatra's rug....it's coming along nicely and with all the gloomy weather we've been having I've had more time to hook!

YAY!

Go forth and be creative,

Tammy