Eye Candy

I received another delicious package on Friday!! Fabulous. Here's a lovely pic to make you drool. Haven't done anything with it yet, other than take this picture. I don't even have plans for it, I will simply wait until I need just the right colour and.....voilà one of these will fit the need.

Visions of beautiful rugs dance in my mind. Meanwhile, June is Ca-Ray-Zee!! Absolutely action-packed with non-stop busy-ness. So I won't be bloggin much until July 2nd or 3rd. The list of stuff going on is astounding and then ramps up on the 23rd until July 2nd. So forgive me my absences....

I wil say this, I try to get a 10 minute sit at my hooking frame even on the most insane day, because I find it calms me. Makes me feel better. How about you?

Enjoy June, it's slipping away into our memories so quickly!

Oh To Be a Kid

Not many of us are completely confident in our creativity. I don't think I'm going out on a shakey limb to say that. Time and time again, we're reminded about how free kids are in their creativity and are encouraged to let go and be more child-like. Well if you're anything like me, I can self-talk all I want but it's like talking to the proverbial brick wall.

It is inspiring and helpful though to read, watch and listen to ideas on being more confident, enjoying one's creativity and 'letting go'. I took Deanne Fitzpatrick's first Wild with Wool online course, and that was one of her main themes, letting go. And it really was fun and helpful. I must immerse myself back into those thoughts and allow myself to just. have. fun.

I stumbled on this old blog post on Annekata's blog. I found both her words insightful and the TED video fun to watch. Enjoy!

Bits and Pieces

I hereby declare June the month of insanity! I don't like to say that I'm wishing it away, and I won't, but boy oh boy I think July will be a heck of a lot more peaceful. So if I'm not posting much in June, forgive me. Have mercy on me. I'm going insane. Nothing bad, just busyness to the extreme!

That being said, I've not been able to hook much and won't be able to hook much through June. Another reason to look forward to July.

What do I have to share? Stash! Received a lovely squishy package today from Heavens to Betsy. Nice!

On the weekend, I took a few more rugs to my friend to put in her store. While there she gifted me with a rug hooking book she bought in the 90s, when she thought she too might take up hooking. She never did, but loves hooked rugs. How lucky am I to receive a rug hooking book out of nowhere? Yuppers, thanks HB!

And here's what's on my frame right now. Jen Manuell's amazing matrix pattern and even her rug warp as a backing. This is my first time trying rug warp, boy is it different! I'm doing a table runner, at least I hope so if I can get to the end of the table runner before the end of the wool. I have a chronic shortage of wool. Poor me. Hence the Heavens to Betsy purchase and a couple other packages headed this way. tee hee

I also ordered Wanda Kerr's overdyeing colour chart today. Which you can purchase on her blog.  

Finally, I thought I'd share a pic of Owl #2, which I actually called "In the Middle of the Night", in its finished state.

Finally, a shameless plug for my friend's store on Locke Street in Hamilton. If you haven't been to Locke Street, it's one of those downtown streets that you just want to stroll along and visit every shop. What a great atmosphere and an eclectic mix of stores, galleries, eateries, etc. I can't visit without buying something, LuLu and Lavigne has a particularly fabulous mix of product that is sure to pique your interest.

That's it from me, hope you're enjoying June and all its many activities. Join me in my mantra, "must find time to hook, must fine time to hook". Ciao for now.

A Little Rug Maker

No this isn't another post about my daughter. Found Meg Little's site today and thought I would share it. Her gallery pages are worth a look through. Enjoy!

My Daughter's a (rug) Hooker!

It's likely a proud moment in any rug hooker's life when passing on the love of rug hooking to another genereation. My 5-year-old, Smidge, has been an avid supporter of mine for years. She loves reading rug hooking magazines, in fact a few months ago we had a period of time when she would select a new issue of RHM each night for her bedtime story, wanting to read "first rug on the last page". She loves rug hooking shows and watching the progress of my rugs.

In the past, she has sat on my lap and pulled a few loops in my rugs, but this past weekend I felt it was high time that she start her own piece.

So I grabbed a hoop, and cut her a piece of linen. Because if you've read one of my earlier posts, she claims to be allergic to burlap. Very convenient, wouldn't you say? She reminded me of this as I found materials for her, so I had to cut into my newly purchased Dorr stash of linen.

First things first, she started drawing her pattern. You can see I pulled out bags of worms for her to use. Let's hope she doesn't start eyeing up my good stash.

Her pattern is called "The Sun", apparently.

And the first few loops, after mom got her started.

She was extremely proud of her first snippits. She actually wants to keep them. She also was yabbering on Sunday afternoon about how relaxing rug hooking is, and then she'd stop hooking and lie on the floor for a while. Too funny.

Apparently after school on Monday, she proudly showed off her work to her grandparents and then immediately launched into teaching them how to hook. Methinks she's a confident one.

And now, she's sitting hooking beside me. The thrill hasn't fizzled. She's hard at work, and like any rug hooker, her gums are flapping the whole time she's hooking!

Smidge says: "Rug hooking is so fun and so relaxing too. You can say that again."

My baby's hooked on hooking - how it warms my heart.