Barb's birthday!!

Happy birthday Barb!! A couple weeks ago we had a little birthday party and a good time was had by all! Wish you were here!!! (not sure what was up with the marker on the face... Barb passed) Cake was good and the singing was pretty good too!!

This is a sampler that Kris did a while back and gifted to me, it hangs over my fireplace and I think of her every time I look at it. Thursday the 7th was her birthday and she spent it in the hospital after having a heart attack. She is ok now, but please keep her in your thoughts and prayers. Will keep you posted...

Where did May go???

This is an odd collection of pictures from last month...

Behind the shop is a bare 20 x 40 foot area and we decided to use up some old bricks to make a little garden and here is the start. Since the picture we have added dirt, a bed headboard, a bunch of vines, some flowers, school beans  (the kind we all started...right before school lets out), and a few flowers. Will update as it progresses.
 We took a day trip to pick up a cabinet to one of our favorite antique shops. Here is Grace looking at Kris on the ride to Buffalo. She is the sweetest dog and the best traveling bud.


The cabinet is loaded!! 

 I got so many good ideas for the shop. Their shop is actually inside an old barn. They have insulated the ceiling and used all manner of old doors, windows, screens, shelves, etc. to fashion into walls between vendor areas. 

It is just so cool!!!!

Plus we have been working really, really we have. Patterns for hooked rugs, felting and needle punch. I have been asked to bring my rug patterns to rug school this fall. It is such an honor and I am so excited!! The pressure is on... no just kidding, but it is so much easier to think up the patterns and much more work to get them all drawn up and hooked.

The Eclectic Event

a vendor with gifts inside balloons
another with the greatest soaps, lotions and candles

 The weekend vending went pretty good...

We had snow... huge flakes that actually stayed on the ground to the tune of a couple inches. It made the roads a bit slippery and probably kept a few people home, but we still had quite a few adventurous souls come out to check out our wares.

wine bottle lamps

The girls billed it as the Eclectic Event so we had a few come out just to see what we were up to!1 We had a lot of fun, the other vendors were great!! Everyone brought cookies or bars to go with coffee and we probably spent more time visiting and checking out each others booths. Everyone agreed it was better than a day at work and agreed to do it again next year.

Sandra's awesome jewelry

Kris is busy working on a blackbird sampler...

The start of a busy weekend...

Summer started...

Winter finished..

Winter hostile takeover...

Moo doesn't give up easy...

Soothing blues...

This weekend we are vending at a local craft/art sale. This is the first one put on by this group of women and I am so very flattered to be asked to vend it. It is at the Fayal Town Hall - nice big hall, wonderful parking, easy to find and well marked with signs. Hopefully we will have a good turnout!!


Have been working on the rug series and just waiting for some new monk's cloth so we can do up some patterns..


Lost my camera... got a new one... please excuse me while I figure it out again... colors are funny...


Thank you everyone for such kind comments...


I really appreciate you all...

a few more new wool colors...

some very spring like colors... flowers maybe...

When we were at the April rug hooking meeting, I asked Kay for a lesson in making the jelly roll thingys I had seen on some of the rugs at last years rug school exhibit. She assured me they were not hard and proceeded to show me how. She was so right... not hard and fun too!! The absolute perfect thing for sheeps wool..

This one is hung from an old wool card (it got estranged from it's partner)... and backed with a piece of  brown wool. I think I'm going to give ebay another try and see how my luck goes. So if anyone is interested it will soon be listed..


...and last is progress on my winter horse. I have some lighter gray thick thin handspun yarn about done to finish off the edge. Already the other three seasons are drawn up and waiting for color choices.

Endings & Beginnings...

"Eggs" finished and mounted on an old hoosier door

 I have been having the most fun making up some new patterns using the new wool in the shop!!


Combining a love for wool, horses and color... does it get any better??

 

a new rug started.. hopefully this one will be a series
of four season antique horse weather vanes

two abandoned horses we took care of this winter have found new homes!!

Beau has lost almost all his winter coat already!!

Reba was not feeling like a photo today

Our summer project
I can just imagine this as a wonderful warm spot for the horses this winter...
we'll see how it plays out

Rug hooking...

a needle felted chicken attached to an old salvaged hoosier
cabinet door

an old teacup, several old silver plated spoons hung from an old board sign
in colors I very seldom use, very springy

an old bench Kris and I found is the perfect spot cushioned
by a tombstone angel

a chicken in progress, destined for an old cabinet door

a fish pattern from Kay, turned into a fanciful trout as a gift
for my husband

some of the new Heaven to Betsy wools we got in the shop
they are just awesome, I already have several projects in mind

On the first Monday of the month Kris and I head down to Duluth for our rug hooking club meeting. I remembered to bring everyone's wool that they ordered, some of my projects and something to work on but I forgot my camera!!!

 Everyone brought their projects, very short meeting, much gabbing, a little hooking, a wonderful lunch... it was great!!


Seeing as how I had no camera, here are some of my latest projects...


The new wools we have been getting in at the shop are just beautiful! I already have several ideas in mind and I am working on paying closer attention to putting things down on paper and taking pictures so they can be made into patterns!! Hoooo rah!! that really is a big achievement for me. Kris always asks me if I remembered to do a pattern and I hate to tell her that I never even think of it.