Joy in Little Things

 The trees are full of robins. The hills are full of snow. It may feel like winter today, but the birds say no.

They were taking a bath in the puddles left over from the rain. Its that time of year that fills me with joy. Knowing that it will be time to dream of planting seeds and watching the tiny blades stick up out of the damp and warming earth. I am so glad I live in a place that even though the snow is falling in the hills the robins are taking baths in the rain. It has been a nice week. 

For the first time in two years,( after the 10 days to slow the spread) Ron finally went back to the office. 

It has taken me a bit to adapt. I am reminded again of how many things I take for granted. We had lunch together everyday. I forget to eat when I am here alone. He is always on time for dinner. He just has a short walk to his office, but a twenty minute drive after he gets off work. Just those things that I didn't notice before. 

I finally had enough brain power to work on my Dancing Rabbit rug.

 

I am still working on ideas in my brain for this. So it really is a work in progress. I am so glad that Saundra is holding another hook along. She posted pictures of the people that are doing great work over there on her blog. Saundra of Woodland Junction.

I have to stop hooking sometimes to do some counted cross stitch. It could be that all of the cross stitch artists have been posting their wares on Instagram of the wonderful patterns that will be going to market in Nashville next week. I have thoroughly enjoyed seeing what they will be offering. I remarked to my husband there just isn't enough time to sew all of those wonderful patterns I would love to make. 

This is what I worked on this week, while not hooking. 

  Its called Hen and Chicks by Brenda Gervais. I have had the pattern for awhile and its almost spring, and the only chicks I will have now will be sewing them. 

I hope you have the best weekend and it isn't too filled up with snow. 

Thanks for stopping by,

Kim

 

"You can cut all the flowers but you cannot keep spring from coming.
 

---Pablo Neruda---

Valentines Day

 

 

 Happy Valentines Day! 

The trees like this are all in bloom. They even have leaves. That is how warm its been. Yesterday I went out in the back yard and it smelled like flowers. I know that this is a false spring, but it does make me just a bit crazy. I really don't want to go in the house. 

I did though, I got closets cleaned and straightened. I de-cluttered too. I wondered why I saved things that I did. I have a box of old cassette tapes, I still couldn't throw away. I don't have anything to play them on, but I still kept them. I even walked to the trash can with them and made a U turn at the cupboard in my laundry room and put them there. 

While I was working on my Granny rug, I was also working on a rug for one of my tables. I have one more side to bind, but I thought I would show you anyway. Since it is a heart rug.

Its going to be for that table. I thought it would look nice. I was recounting my work that we have accomplished by today, and having finished three rugs since Christmas that is a big deal for me. 

I also was digging through my finished rugs and I found this one, I had forgot about. 

If I remember correctly, I had all of these different red leftover worms and I decided to make them into this rug. I really liked it when I found it and I wished I had found it sooner. Its a nice little rug. 

I wanted to show you a lamp that Ron fixed

 

 

When we had the floor redone, the cord for the lamp was to far away and there was a electric cord to the wall. He got online and figured out how he could make it turn on with just a battery. He had to buy new light bulbs and a power source, but now the light works about four days, on one charge of its battery. So if the power goes out we have a light, if it doesn't last more than three or four  days.

Max our cat, is in the background. Can you see him? He thought I was taking pictures of him. He really likes all of the work we did for him. We are just here to serve him and he rules even the dog. He was playing with her ball last night. Sasha was so grumpy about it. 

I hope you have a great Valentines Day, I think I am going to make Chicken Cordon Bleu and a raspberry cheesecake today. 

~Kim~

“Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend.” ― Melody Beattie

My Finished Rug

 Good Morning,

Its going to be another beautiful day here. We have been in the 70s and I always go a bit crazy. We worked in the flowerbeds, and yesterday we washed our cars. Today, I am washing my windows. I guess you could say its my rain and cold weather rain dance. February does that. It whispers" Spring is here, plant those tomato plants. I will stay this time, I promise." Then boom! We have wind and rain and the frost comes and all of those tomato plants freeze. It goes without fail. Now I just enjoy this brief warm up and rejoice that I can sit outside without a coat. But the sun shining in the windows,to show me what a slacker I have been. 

I did finish my rug on Sunday afternoon. I steamed it and I meant all day yesterday to post a picture, but I was taken up with outside and visiting with a neighbor, I had never met and the day got away from me. 

Granny Donaldson's rug, has been a fun hook along. In fact, I have had the best time and I love seeing all of the other members progress. It really has helped me to keep a hook in my hand

I am so critical of my work. I will leave it as it is and just enjoy it. I really was out of wool and I used only my stash and my worms I had. It really challenged me in a way I did not expect. The rug was done on bleached linen. Which was really stiff had hard to pull loops. It has been a long time since I pulled loops through bleached linen. Trying to work on the house at the same time I joined the hook along was challenging in itself. But it was so good, because I could push myself in ways I had not thought I could and that was a very good feeling. I can always do more than I think I could. In January, I have to focus on fighting depression and I have every year for as long as I can remember. With this hook along, I didn't have time to feel sorry for myself. Every minute I sat down, I would pick up my rug and hook and Saundra would post these lovely updates, and it really helped my mind. I appreciate it so much, to have been apart of the group. 

I will be binding next. I was going to try and bind it before I posted the picture, but then we have had these nice days, and I just have to be in the sun. 

I hope your day is a wonderful day today. Thank you Saundra!

 "Gratitude turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos into order, confusion into clarity...it makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow." Melody Beattie

Past Rugs

 Good Morning!

 I have been thinking about this post for three days. I even tracked down some of my past rugs. Of course,  I have a story that must go with it. Back in the old days, when I was a student. I loved art, any kind of art. One of my teachers in third grade, gave us burlap and yarn and let us sew with big needles and showed us how to stitch all of the embroidery stitches. I was in heaven. Then a girl in our class taught us how to knit. You couldn't do this now, but we sat on the playground after lunch with our knitting needles and yarn and knitted our little projects. I was hooked. My Mom got a pattern, a flour sack and I happily embroidered sitting by her on the couch. That has never left me. 

In high school, I really wanted to learn how to do pottery. I took a class, but I got kicked out. Because the teacher said, " In all my years of teaching, I have never encountered a student with no artistic ability whatsoever." (I still hear that in my head all of these years later, like before I said yes to the granny rug. I have to fight myself all the time.) But all of this to show you my rugs I sold, in my Etsy store. There were people that paid money for my rugs. I still laugh to myself. That aside, my daughter told me long, long ago. " Mom, I am not really a good artist, but I want to do it, so I work really hard at what I do, saying you don't have any artistic talent is a cop out, what you are really saying, is you don't want to work hard enough." It has really changed my thinking. I hear that in my head too. When I am making excuses in my head.

These will be my own patterns.

This was one of my early patterns. I started hooking because I thought I know I can draw rug patterns, and hook them and this was my attempt. 

 

This was Stretch. I actually had people contact me to draw out and hook patterns. This was a fun rug to hook. I only made one. Maybe I should go back and try to replace it. 

When I first started hooking, I really loved guineas and chickens. Well, I still do. I had a man in Ohio who was redoing his house, and he would contact me and give me ideas and I would try to do that. He also hung my rugs in his business. It still gives me a feeling of embarrassment when I think of it. 

 He wanted a dog rug. He mounted this one on a frame. I tried to send him lots of other dog rugs ideas, but he said no, he wanted me to do it. So this was it. I have never done another one of these either. 

 

Here is one of my early chicken rugs. I had never met anyone except on the internet, I have never gone to a rug hooking class, so I had to be entirely self taught. I am so glad  there was You Tube videos, but the other day, I was cleaning off one of my bookcases, I have so many books on how to hook rugs, that I read over and over. So in a way, I had the best of teachers.

These were my early rugs. As you can see, I was still trying to figure out how to bind them. I enjoy binding now, but it was something I had to make myself like. 

Then there was this. The original rug was a pattern from Sharon Smith. The first one I did, I was gradually loosing my sight. The colors in my other rabbit rug, are not good because I hooked with what I could see. After I had my eyes fixed, I had this idea in my head. I told my daughter and she was living in Arizona at the time. I sent her the paper and she drew out that pattern for me. This became and is my favorite rug. 

This rug still makes me a happy and I still have this one. I never could sell this one. I had to dye the wool to match the colors in my mind. Looking at it now, of course I see my mistakes, and what I would change but for the most part, I still like it. This was the first rug I did, because I could see. I never take my sight for granted now.

So that is my long, long post. Thank you so much for still being here. Its really what I love is waiting such a long time to learn to rug hook, and it still is my passion. I just wish I wasn't out of room because I have so many rugs now. I think a bit longer in the choosing of a pattern.

Oh, here is my update on my Granny rug.

 

 

 

I am working on the background. I am enjoying seeing all of the other rugs. This has been such a fun time for me. 

Thank you so much for visiting me today,

~Kim~ 

“Never be limited by other people’s limited imaginations.”
— Mae Jemison