A big step

There has been a lot going on in a short period of time.  But hopefully in the next few lines you will understand why I've been quiet in blogland recently.  I have had a lot of major life changes in this first half of 2014 and I'm about to take another huge step towards change.

Huge is an understatement perhaps.  

YES.....I have bought a cute little bungalow for myself.  The mortgage is in place, home inspection complete, insurance has been quoted, lawyers have been hired and the closing date is July 30th.  

Eeeeeeeeeeee!  A new adventure!  Pictures will come later.  It needs a little updating inside but I'm in no rush. I want to live in it a few months before I decide on paint colors etc.   it even has a little den which I have already labelled as my hooking room.  But I'm really excited and a little terrified but I think every first time home buyer feels that way.  

Once things settle down a bit here I will be back to visitng around your blogs.  Right now I'm a little overwhelmed and my head is spinning.  

Is it lucky?

I've always heard this was a lucky sign.  Part of me hopes it really is true......the other part of me just thinks it's gross

Yes, this afternoon while sitting poolside at a friends house, some rude bird decided to relieve itself ......on my foot!  I am grateful it was just my foot and not my head.  But still, who wants bird shit on any part of them?    I am continuing to tell myself it's a lucky sign.  (If you know different, please don't burst my bubble). Lol 

There has been lots going on but not blog appropriate so for now I will just show you my little finished chair pad.  

"Strawberries To Go" is a Red House Wool Studio pattern.  It just love the little hanging strawberries.  I also have a 2nd chair pad hooked but not bound so I'll share that one when it's finished.  

Summer is here and tomorrow night is my last evening meeting until September.   Eeeeeeee - happy dance!  

Hopefully soon I'll be able to share more exciting news.  (And hopefully it's not related to bird poop)

A Berry Quiet Weekend

Not much exciting happening here this weekend.  You could probably tell that from my lack of a creative title to this post.   Sigh....some weekends don't provide much blog fodder.  

The weather suited my mood this weekend, grey and rainy but on the bright side, that's perfect hooking weather.  I did a little chicken chair pad a few weeks ago and still had some room left on the burlap.  Just enough to add another chair pad.  

This one is a pattern by Red House Wool Studio.  I love Cathy's patterns.  And it's almost strawberry season so it's perfect timing.  Almost done

Still figuring out what to do with the border.  Cathy's design used a hit and miss around the edge but I'm not sure if I'm going that way or not.   

Hope you all have a great week.

2 versions

The hooking is complete.  The hook-along has ended and here is the reveal of 2 versions of this pattern.   Yvonne Buus of Vintage Heart Primitives designed this sweet pattern - "Hand Dyed Woolens".  

Here is her version.  She did an outstanding job!  Her hooking is wonderful and her little pieces of wool attached just make this so sweet

And here is my version.  (Yes, I know, it's not bound yet.....you know I hate that part)

I decided to hook-in my clothesline but I really like Yvonne's attached wool better.  But it's fun to see it done both ways.  

I want to thank Yvonne for allowing me to hook along with her on this fun project 

Hook-along progress

My little hook-along project with Yvonne Buus (Vintage Heart Primitives) is coming close to an end.  I will show you our work to-date, starting with Yvonne's piece

She has tweaked the original design a bit and she will be adding pieces of wool to the hooked piece, hanging off the little girls stick and on the clothesline 

I'm anxious to see her finished work.

Now for mine. I'm still not happy with the lady and I may change her a little at the last minute. Nothing major, a little tweak here or there 

I decided to hook-in my pieces on the clothesline (as opposed to Yvonne who is adding hers after). 

A bit more hooking along the bottom and then we will both do our final reveal in the next few days. 

Hooking with Yvonne

A fun new project is underway.  A few months ago I connected with a wonderful pattern designer Yvonne Buus from Vintage Heart Primitives.  She designs lovely old fashioned themed patterns.  I've hooked 2 of them so far and just love them.  

Recently she offered me the opportunity to "hook along" on her newest design "Hand Dyed Woolens". We are hooking it together and sharing our progress online.   

I started with the sheep

And then I hopped around to the little girl

Here is Yvonne's progress. Yvonne is a more focused hooker.  She stayed in one area.  Lol

Now, since this afternoon I started hooking in some of my sky and now I realize I need to change the lighter blue in the little girl.  It blends right in.  Not sure where my head was when I picked that color!  Guess I was just so excited to start, I wasn't thinking.  

It will be fun to watch the two versions take shape.  Stay tuned. 

The Loot

Here's my wooly goodness from the wild weekend.  Really, the Dorr Woolen Mill was sensory overload.  The colors, the textures, the massive piles of wool.....it was so hard to choose.  But I did....

And when I arrived in Maine to meet the girls, they had gifts too.  Cathy gave me this bundle of wool - some of her own dye work and a scented candle

And Donna made us each these sweet beachy coasters 

And this sweet little concrete planter filled with succulents.

And this little planter turned me in to an accidental smuggler.  When I left I put it on the floor of my back seat.  I headed to Vermont for 2 days and completely forgot about it.  When I crossed the border, the guard asked me if I had any plant-life with me and I said No.  I forgot about this in the back seat.  If he had looked in my car I would have pee'ed my pants!!  Ooooops ;)

All kinds of wonderful

I hardly know where to start with this post. Our Girls Hooker Getaway Weekend was a HUGE success.   I spent a couple of days with 2 of the loveliest hookers and we had a grand time.   I couldn't have picked better to share my first trip away with. 

It all started with a trip across the border.  Yay, no line ups.

In a few hours I would be meeting Cathy from Acorn Hollow blog.  We have been following each other's blogs for years and were finally going to meet.  Excited is an understatement.  And our terrific trio was completed with Donna from the blog "a little of this and a little of that".  She is a talented artist and crafter and was our gracious host for the weekend.

Donna, Cathy, and Me outside our cottage.    Here is Cathy unpacking in the kitchen

Yes, all the supplies are in order - chips, crackers, cheese, wine :).  After lounging on the deck and gabbing for awhile we headed out for an amazing seafood dinner - clam chowder, lobster and scallops.  Luckily we returned in time to catch this sunset.  Gorgeous eh!

In the morning it was all about hooking.  (Well, shopping for hooking stuff).  We first hit Woolen Goods, a sweet little shop with an amazing collection of patterns.  Guess I was too busy with all the eye candy to take any pictures.  Maybe the other girls did?

Then it was off to Camp Wool.  It's an eclectic shop in downtown Kennebunk with antiques mixed throughout.

I think we each picked up a few patterns here.  I won't have to worry about running out of hooking ideas for awhile.  I'm all stocked up.  Then we stopped at W. Cushing & Company in Kennebunkport and had a great visit.  If I ever decide to start to dye my own wool, I'm going back there.  And they had some bolts of wool "on sale".  Yay!

We also managed a visit to the Stonewall Kitchen shop and I picked up a few odds and ends 

Now we were getting hungry after all that shopping so Donna took us somewhere "special" for lunch......a biker bar.  No, not a wannabe yuppie biker bar -  a real one.

See what's hanging from the rafters? Hundred and hundreds of bras.  I'm happy to report we kept ours on.  However there was some talk of visitors having to get up on a table and ride this large metal hog.   Yeah, that wasn't happening!!  Even when the rather large leather clad man behind us thought it was a necessity.   Nope!  Cathy and I did agree to stand beside it but that was the limit!  Lol. I believe there is a picture.  

The next day Cathy and I left and went to.........

Yes Virginia there is a Santa clause because this was just like Christmas!   Walls and walls and walls of wool.  Bolts, swatches, yardage .......heaven

I'll post my purchases in another post later.  

It was all so much fun.  Thanks to Cathy and Donna for making Girls Weekend so enjoyable.  Last week I had 2 blog friends and now I have 2 friends who blog :).