Hooking and Stripping! Dyeing and Dreaming!

I guess it's pretty clear where my mind has been lately! With Christmas past, and even before the last Santa laughed, I was out in the Wool Studio doing my hooking dance!
This rug will entertain many firsts for me. The first and most enjoyable being the tearing and stripping of the wool by hand instead of using a cutter! Why have I not tried this before? I think I may just toss out the old Bliss cutter and never look back! I love it because you hook with these gigantic wide strips of color and texture. Speeds the process up and you cover a lot of ground in a hooking session. The look is fabulous! Big plushy loops. Kind of a contained sloppiness if you will. Okay, primitive. Isn't that the look we primitive lovers crave? This rug measures 18 inches by 38 inches long. A bigger rug for me than the mostly smaller projects I've had the time to work on these last few months!
I'm having my hooking fix big time here. My mind wanders to the new year and the plans I'm conjuring up! Lots and lots of plans! I feel I must make up for this last year I lost due to caring for Mom. I'll still be limited for time as my duties are not over concerning her care in the coming months. But maybe, just maybe I can get back on track a little here. There's so much to do. Mounds of wool waiting to be dyed, rugs in my brain waiting to be drawn on paper! So much, so much! Universe, what have you in mind for me this year?

Birthday Tears, Friends With Good Cheers!

Whew! Another birthday gone with the wind and snow! Thanks to all of you great blogger friends for all your heartfelt birthday wishes! Pat,Dulcy,Corinne,Laurie,Katie,Julie,Marilyn,and all who commented! I'm glad you like the blog header of Smokey and Max dashing through the snow. Dave is a sports photographer and captures the most amazing action shots of the dogs. If he lets me I hope to share more of his photography with you this coming year!
My most amazing friends who are my next door neighbors, saved me from sitting in front of the computer all day yesterday with tears and feeling old and blue! Lisa foraged the neighborhood for fresh pine, cedar,sumac and all kinds of dried stuff from the garden for making arrangements. Lisa's dining room table and floor became the creating center! Mary shared a box of vintage ornaments that Lisa and I drooled over! Then the creating began! After much chatter about everything from eating fiddle-head ferns to actually eating some of Mary's amazing meal-in-themselves fruitcake cookies, we had some gorgeous arrangements to carry home! Lisa got so caught up in the creative spirit she went on to create more arrangements for some older people in our neighborhood who live alone! What can I say, blessed are we to live here amongst strangers who have become the closest of friends! Merry Christmas you guys and please when you see Dave shoveling the 15 inches of snow tomorrow send someone over with their snowblower!

Birthday Girl Blues

I'm digging through old family photos today. Today is kinda special. December 22nd, my birthday. My Dad's birthday was Dec. 20th. We always shared one birthday cake. Mom got away with only making one cake for our combined birthdays! Just kind of teary eyed today.