Friday...Part Two?

This week has been all messed up for me. My husband was on vacation Monday and Tuesday. The Fourth was on Wednesday, which felt like Saturday, but then my husband went back to work on Thursday which felt like Monday and now today, Friday feels like well, not Friday, Tuesday???

I thought I would have some finished rugs to show you this week. I am going to go ahead and show you what I have. We are going into 100+ temps for the next week so I hope to be able to get some hooking done as I won't be outside as much.

My stacks of rugs are growing and I need to just pony up and get it done. I have been weeding so much that when I hook for long periods of time I can't do simple things like open doors or carry things. I have tried to rest my hand so that I can start hooking again.

Okay here are some of my projects, now that it is past Fourth of July, I can hook pumpkins again. :)

I love this little rug, but I stopped as I felt I didn't have enough skill to hook it the way it should be hooked. I had never used a size three piece of wool when I started hooking so I put this aside until I had hooked more rugs and I needed to teach myself to dye wool. I have done those things now, so I am ready to finish this. This pattern came from a very old issue of Rug Hooking magazine.

I was dreaming of fall things the other day and I thought to myself, I wonder if I could free hand some pumpkins, stars and a crow. I did so even though it looks a bit funky, I thought it looks okay so I will be working on this one too. Now that I know how to get orange for pumpkins out of  Kool aid.

My Whale-is-huge!! When I first started to look into rug hooking it was in the 1990s but my children were small and I had so much going on even though I dreamed of being a rug hooker life wasn't set up for me to do that. In 2006 I bought a magazine called Country Home and in it they had pictures of  Polly Minick's house and her rugs. I knew then I wanted to hook a whale rug. When they published the book American Summer and the pattern of the whale was in there I knew of course I would be hooking that.  Of course though, in 2006, my Dad had just died, and my two oldest children were getting married and I was planning weddings. No time for rugs.

By 2008 my husband had left his position and started on a new path and I was trying to keep life together the best way I knew how, and having grand children  and watching as my Mom's life drew to a close, I still had no time for rugs.

In 2009 a lovely lady gave me everything I would need to get started in rug hooking. She was making quilts and sent me a box filled with everything I had dreamed about through the years. Jacque is such a giver.

So I have read everything I could, I have yet to see anyone besides myself hook a rug. I have watched videos on You Tube on how to hook. I stare at blogs with rugs on them while I continue to teach myself by what I read.

I do love rug hooking because every time I pick up a hook I am reminded of how long it took to get here and how thankful I am that even though sometimes you have to wait, the more special things become when you are given the chance to live that dream.

The rug I am currently working on I love. I showed my daughter a pot holder I had and she drew this pattern out on the backing for me. It almost feels like a new baby to me as it is something that I have stared at and now to see it becoming a rug is wonderful.

I went to the library once and there was a lady who had passed away and left the library more books than you can imagine. The librarian took me back and let me browse the books. Stacks and stacks on everything you could possibly ever dream of doing. That day I picked up books on raising chickens, growing gardens,
hooking rugs. I came home and started reading and always in the back of my mind was, " I am tired of reading about life, I want to start living it." Life until that point in time had been too filled with grief and I was numb from life.
I started blogging at this time too, and bit by bit I have come back to life. I am thankful for all of it, because as the saying goes," without rain there is no rainbow."   
This will be my fourth year blogging soon, I don't think I would be so happy as I am now, because I have had someone to share it with, so thank you for reading and allowing me to learn to walk again, down this path we call life.
Have a wonderful weekend,
~Kim~

Thankful on Thursday

Yesterday was a lovely day. My husband was able to catch a beautiful moment in time. I thought I would share  them with you as it makes me so thankful to be at this place in life. These are my grand children and their uncle. That tree has stood there all of my life, I climbed it, my children climbed it and now my grand children. Such a place of memories.

The babies were with the mommies. It was a nice day, I do hope yours was as nice.
Have a  lovely Thursday,
~Kim~
Thanks for having patience with me and all of these photos. I just found out how to load a bunch of pictures. I never knew how before. :) I promise I won't make it a habit.

Happy 4th and a Chat on The Farmhouse Porch

As you can see my chair if filled with hydrangeas. My husband had been on vacation and we have worked the whole time. One of these years we will go on a real vacation. One of the last things we wanted to get finished was cleaning all of the flowerbeds and planting new flowers. We got the beds all cleaned yesterday and will plant Feverfew in the flowerbeds. Feverfew has tiny daisy flowers. If you get a headache you can stop and eat some. :) Now onto this week's questions:

1.    What are your plans for the 4th of July?
All of my children will be home with all of our grandchildren. My extended family and my kids friends. We will BBQ hot dogs and hamburgers and make home made ice cream. We will do fireworks and people go crazy around here with fireworks so if you look in any direction you can see lovely light shows.  It will be a busy day.

 2.   What's your favorite ethnic food?
Mexican I think is my favorite and next would be Chinese.

 3.   What's your least favorite chore?
This is silly, but I hate getting the coffee ready for in the morning. I always make it last thing as I am cleaning up the dinner dishes and for some reason that is my least favorite chore in the world.

 4.   What really "stopped you in your tracks" and made you think twice?
There have been lots lately. I think though if I wanted to say something it is a quote by Margaret Thatcher " The problem with socialism is you eventually run out of other peoples money." I thought about it all day.

  5.  Would you rather dry your clothes on a clothes line or in a dryer?
When we moved here I didn't have a clothesline put in and I wish I did. I use the swimming pool fence to dry things but a clothesline would be so much better. I always have enjoyed hanging out clothes. I use my dryer the most.
Thanks to Patrice for this weeks questions,
I hope you all have a lovely day,
~Kim~

Just a Chicky Post

I thought I would share some photos my my chicks. This is my little rooster. I have some hoarder things going on in my brain. I already have him grown up and letting my hens set on eggs and having more Silkie chicks. In my head are baby chicks in all different colors. He has crowed three times. It is so adorable, I find myself standing at the cage saying, " Oh come on, one more little crow, just one more."

This is and I am going out on a limb, I think a little black hen. She is my favorite. Horrible mother that I am, I admit it. She is just so cute, when I am getting her feed and changing water she wants to be right with me, she already wants to eat out of my hand and she gets out of the cage and runs around and flaps her teeny-tiny wings.

I have to show you her little powder puff of a tail. It is very cute too.

Her feathers have all come in now so it looks like she is getting ready for a rodeo wearing her chaps. I just love all of the feathers on their feet.

 This morning, it was Monday morning, I was supposed to be cleaning house and doing laundry, and what was I doing? I was sitting in a lawn chair with my camera taking pictures of chickens. Sasha was doing her job of keep the chicks safe. She takes all of her jobs so seriously. 

It is hard to describe how much I love this silly dog. I have always loved dogs, cats, people, chickens, but this certain dog has both my husband and I acting like the worst kind of parents. He shares string cheese with her when he is having some, she sleeps under my bed. Things I would have never done before in a million years. It is rather scary. She gets sick and the whole house stops. It scares me sometimes. 

The one with her head up I am hoping is another hen. In fact, I am hoping I have 3 hens and one rooster. None of the others are aggressive as the little rooster. But with Silkies and as I have learned in the past, you can't ever tell with Silkies. They could just be a little rooster. In 25 years of having chickens, we have only had three Silkie hens, one was killed by our other dog and one was killed by something that broke into my coop. 

The one white one I still have that is older, is the only one left. If  I  get 3 this time I will be over the moon. None of the others have wattles. Just the little rooster. So I pick them up a couple times a day and stare at their faces. 

I think I am obsessed. I hope your week is off to a good start. 

Stay cool if it is at all possible,

~Kim~