Cat Naps

What's a little tiger to do but stretch and roll and stretch some more while I'm on the phone?

 

I was on the phone today talking with my Dad and Jonesy was rolling and stretching and yawning and rolling some more.  At one point he was wrapped around my leg!  He's just too funny.

Well this weekend my Dad was in the hospital again.   He's doing much better and was released this afternoon.  I knew he was feeling better, he was making his corny jokes that a lot of time only he finds funny!  One thing he did say was that he seems to check into the hospital as often as people pop into the grocery store for something!  Now he's exaggerating of course, but it's a shame with his health problems that he has to go - each time wears him down more and more.  Anyway - like I said - he's home now, feeling a bit better,  and hoping for a good nights sleep as you can't seem to get one in the hospital. 

This afternoon when I got home from errands both Miles and Jonesy came to welcome me home.  No Riley, which is unusual, he's usually the first one down the steps to see me.  So I thought he must be upstairs under the the comforter - a favorite spot.  So later I realize I still haven't seen him and he wasn't in his usual spots so I was yelling for him - No Riley.  Jonesy was walking around with me looking for him and then he disappeared.  -I thought this is weird then thought that Jonesy must be in the cat bed under our bed - a favorite napping place of his.  So I lifted up the bedskirt and put my hand under there to see if was under there and felt two  heads - this cat bed is little and both Riley and Jonesy were curled up in there.  So me being as weird as I am, I grabbed my camera and put it on the "night" setting and stuck the camera under the bed and snapped a few pictures This is what the camera captured - Aren't they just too cute! LOL Well I think so anyway!

I have been hooking on and off but have nothing to show just yet - Sometimes I even have a critic!

Hope everyone has a wonderful week

Happy Valentine Day

Wishing everyone a Happy Valentine's Day - Hope your day is filled with lots of whatever makes you happy!

One Long White Week

Well in my last post I mentioned our heater wasn't working - That night it wasn't working at all - Tuesday morning when we got up it was 50 in the house - Brrrrrrrr - felt bad for the boys - their paw pads and ears were so cold - tried to keep them warm as best as I could - My husband called the HVAC company and got them to move up the appointment to noon that day.  Well around 2:30 they showed up.  You will never believe what was the cause of the heater shutting down!  It was candles!   He showed us the filter (something my husband didn't check because 3 weeks prior he had just changed the filter - a fact since he writes the date on it and knows when he did it) Anyway the filter was solid black.  The HVAC guy said "Do you smoke a lot in the house?" - No we do not smoke, and then he said "Do you burn a lot of candles", and  just this past week I have been burning a candle on a daily basis - for about 4 days in the past week I was burning this one candle I had (it smelled so good - forgot the brand but it comes in a yellowware crock).  I guess this one was particularly smokey?  Who knows - but the heater (we have all electric in the house) shut down to avoid the motor burning up since the filter was totally clogged.  Well that was a $95 lesson (cost just to have them just show up at your door).  No more burning candles for long periods of time for me.   We did ask him if we had changed the filter would he have had to come out - apparently yes, to re-set the system.  Well all I can say is we are all toasty warm now and everyone is happy again!

Here's one little guy that loves to sit in my lap while I'm hooking or on the computer so we were able to keep each other warm (Matter of fact my legs are numb right now as he's in my lap and Riley is pressed into my side taking a bath!)

The big topic of conversation this week has been the weather - We got all that snow last weekend and then got hit again Tuesday night.  Wednesday the skies were gray all day with the white stuff coming down full force most of the day and night - There was no way to keep up with the shoveling, we tried but gave up!  so on Thursday was the big dig out in the neighborhood  - I don't think anything was lost - i think everyone finally undercovered their garbage cans and their cars - The neighborhood looks funny with mountains and mountains of snow and little habi-trails for a car to get in and out!  I am just so happy we never lost power. Here's a pic of my deck  - the previous post I had a pic from the previous snow over the weekend - - well all that snow was cleared off - this is this Wednesday's snowfall - it started to fall like before but then crashed - so no cool "curving!

 Spent most of the week watching movies and hooking and cooking!  First time in a long time I made dinner every night of the week!   So also spent a lot of time doing dishes - One night we had stuffed pork chops, another Eggplant Lasagne, another Shrimp Scampi, another Grilled Chicken, and so on - at least I got out on Monday to go grocery shopping and stocked up on all fresh veggies and stuff before the storm!  

Here's some pics of some of the mats I was making - I was hoping to get all this hooked and take with me on Thursday to Grant Street to bind but of course with the weather I wasn't able to get out there! I was bummed - I wanted to go.  Anyway decided to do whatever - i have so many leftover woolie worms that I want to use up - and refuse to cut any more wool until i get these under control - so I didn't even draw anything - just sat and started hooking. 

I figured these are a good size to put on the back of toilet, or use on a window sill or whatever, and also made some mug rugs (bad pic - colors are off - Hope to have better pics after I finish (bind) them. 

Right now i have a piece of linen on my frame that I'm just doing complete hit and miss - Might use it as a bathroom mat in front of sink.  

I'll leave you with a pic of Miles - he was sitting on my lap and  pestering for my lunch yesterday (soup -he loves soup) - We always call him "the paw" - you will only see a paw come up to the table searching for something to grab!  Anyway there was a piece from the linen hanging off the frame so i grabbed it and wrapped it around his ears!  As you can tell from that mug I was getting the hairy eyeball!

Have a great weekend!

Decorating the Deck With Cotton Batting

Just kidding - Isn't that weird though - Saturday night I looked out our back slider and saw the ledge of snow "fell" in this formation -  you can actually see the curve in it.   It was just hanging there like that - Thought it was weird but cool!  Sunday morning I looked out again and it had fallen.   We certainly got enough snow Friday/Saturday and I'm so done with this winter already!

Hope everyone is staying warm - right now our heater isn't working correctly - it's running but not putting out enough heat - and the earliest the HVAC man can get here is Wednesday and another storm is expected for tomorrow!  Pain in the you know where as the unit is only five years old this year.  Right now its 55 degrees in here and I feel bad for the kitties - I think it's really affecting Jonesy - I have him all snuggled under a blanket right now but he seems "off" - Hope he's not getting sick!  Will definitely keep my eye on him.  

Have a good week!

Where to Start? Birthday Fun!

There was no hiding from my birthday this year - Not that they bother me that much - just hard to believe it rolled around so fast again!   I think it was only a few years ago I was looking forward to turning 16 to drive, right? 

I have to say - I am one of the luckiest people in the friends department!  I just am in awe at the generosity and talent that comes from their hearts and hands.   Truly overwhelming.   Will show you all the wonderful goodies I received in person and via the mailbox!

Yesterday - Kathy gave me this bowl of goodies - A wonderful (and very heavy) resin bowl that resembles the old treenware, some floss, some praire cloth, some dye, some wool, and she stitched up this great kitty using a pattern by Betty Dekat.  Whatever Kathy puts her hand to is wonderful whether stitching, hooking, sewing, whatever!  She is one talented lady!  I'm so happy to call her friend!

Pam sent me a wonderful tea towel and some gorgeous wool! Thank you so much Pam - just love it and can't wait to hook with it!  (that would be Riley and Miles watching the men pick up the recycling!)

Chris (Mystical Primitives) is another wonderful and talented lady - I think she's been in my house and knows just what I like - Chris sent me some old cookie cutters (of which i have a small collection !), some wonderful wool, the coolest wooden bunny from old wood, note pad, calendar and coupon caddy!  Thank you so much Chris!

Rebecca - who is another talented hooker - check out her ebay auctions,  sent me a "Punkin Pincushion" - Just love it - it's made from wool !  Too cool - Thanks Rebecca!

Another extremely talented lady Debbie sent me some treasures from her hands.  She and I both share a love of kitties!  She got me this Beeleek Irish Kitty dish - really cute, some bubble bath, a tiger, and she made these wonderful envelope kitties (out of ticking no less - love that ticking!)  Another lady that whatever she puts her hands to is great - She and Chris amaze me at what they accomplish.  Check out Debbie's auctions on ebay -

Yesterday when I was at the Grant Street hook-in, Linda treated me to some wool!  If you live in the area or are 2 1/2 hours or whatever from Grant Street- it's worth the trip - Linda has everything you need to hook - and I mean everything - I call it a full service salon - she and Kathy even sew around your rugs for your and steam them for you if you ask - heck she will even hook a few loops if you ask her!  THANK YOU LINDA FOR BEING YOU!

Like I mentioned above, yesterday I decided to spend my birthday out in Chambersburg at the Grant Street hook-in - I didn't tell the girls I was coming as I didn't want any to-do for my birthday.  Instead I decided to go and bring everyone cupcakes.  It was another fun day and productive!  Can't show you what I was working on as it was my challenge pattern for AAPG but I did manage to pull a few loops.  It was a busy day there - I think there must have been 15 or more hookers milling about at one time!   Poor Kathy's butt never made friends with her chair because she was always up up and running and helping everyone out. What a girl!   Looks of chatting and talking going on and lots of sillyness like normal. 

See that Jill in the background giggling and Kathy in the foreground - they were up to something I think - Beth and Barb were good girls - working hard!

Had to laugh - Kathy went to cut some wool for Joan and everyone gathered around - Okay - "How many hookers does it take to cut a yard of wool?"

Kathy still working checking people out - (told you there was a lot of new wool that people could not resist buying!)

This is towards the end of the night - Poor poor Linda - look how weary she is - Well I don't blame her - That Kathy and Aaron are handfuls - they are like two little kids picking on each other when they get together and Linda has to deal with them on a daily basis! LOL! 

Another long nite but I left early at around 11:15!   Really wanted to stay but as much as I don't mind driving - i don't like winter - and driving where i have to stay closed up in the car and can't open my windows isn't much fun.  I'm still happy I went!

This pic is for Beth -- it's a rug I did a few years ago - It is by Wendy Miller of the Red Saltbox and was a free pattern in the Jan/Feb 2006 issue of Rug Hooking Magazine - So here you go Beth - you asked me to put a pic of it on the blog! 

I'll leave you with a few pics that I took on Wednesday --

(sure glad I'm not Riley - sometimes Jonesy can be a little "stinker"!)

Presents and Pictures!

Thought I would share with you some of the gifts I got from some of my friends this week.  Later this week is my birthday - but we don't have to talk about that!

I have been receiving little packages of woolie worms the past week for a challenge we are doing on our group AAPG - we are being challenged to do a background with worms from everyone that is participating - we had to pick a color we do not usually use for backgrounds.  I generally use darks so I picked a red - not really sure what colors I would get but they have been wonderful.   Maria Barton of Star Rug Company designed two patterns and we can do whichever we prefer.  I can't show pictures of that yet!

Inside one of my packages of worms I found a sweet needlepunched Christmas Kitty from Kelley - she designs the most wonderful kitties -she has inspiration from her gorgeous furry kids!  Just love it - I have one with an orange background from her for Fall too which i absolutely love, so will leave this one out for a bit!

Another package was from Kimmie, another talented lady who is always creating treasures.  She  sent me a bundle of wools - a prim star hooked hanger, and some pralines -oh my goodness- i had one - so creamy and good!  Thank you Kimmie!

And if all that wasn't enough I received a package from Merrie.  Merrie sewed a bag (and I just love bags - always carrying stuff here and there!) and it's so cool - love the green color and the fabric is a cross sttich sampler - it's also reversible - great job!  There is a sweet stitched piece put into a keychain - absolutely love that too.  She also sent a bundle of wool, some recipe cards and note pad - Thank you so much Merrie

The girls of AAPG are the most generous and wonderful group of ladies.  And did I mention how talented they are - just floors me everytime I'm a a recipient of something made from their hands.  Wish I had half their talent!

Today my husband called and asked if i wanted to meet him for lunch so after a filling mexican meal, I stopped at my parents to drop off some Potato Cheddar soup I made yesterday.  Well my Mom comes in the room with this large garbage bag and says Happy Birthday Early! I knew she didn't have my quilt done (she's making me a queen sized quilt for my bed) but i could see thru the bag it was something quilted!  She had decided to clean out some of her quilts - My Mother has been quilting since the 1960's but not so much until the 90's - an earlier post shows that green and yellow one she made in the 1960's which is one of her first and she doesn't call that "quilting")  Well she decided for my birthday and my SIL's (her's is the end of this month) to give us each a bag of quilts!  So here are pics of the ones I got - I put everything in my "pink" room - not sure if i ever shared pics of that room here but I'm not really crazy but my walls in this other bedroom are a deep rose.  I got the color from this quilt

I took the deepest pink and matched it up with paint at Lowes.  This is a bowtie quilt and even though it's not my normal colors - love the quilt - it was made by my great great grandmother.   Oh and that's my mom's little slip and dress from when she was 2 hanging there.   So anyway - this room is the "pink" room - I have an antique white iron bed in there and I have this dresser I refinished in a dark color and an old white wash stand - it's a spare room and I go in there to read and sleep when my husband snores way too loudly! LOL

So back to my birthday presents - inside the bag I found this double bed quilt - My Mom calls this the "first one" she did -

Now I guess I will have to get some new pillow shame - Looks good  on the bed though - Riley and Jonesy were checking it out for "wrasslin" effect"

Also in the bag was this heart quilt wall hanging - I'm not a "heart" person so much but it kinda fits with the room and I do have some empty walls (the rugs i have made are on the floor in here and I just thought of this - the one rug is cats and hearts - so I guess I do have hearts!)

Also this tabletopper that matches the pattern in the quilt

And also this pillow - which needs a form - Not sure about this because this has "ruffles" - I'm not a ruffle person - My Mom knows this and said for me to throw it out - but I can't do that - not sure if it will go in trunk or maybe I'll try to take off the ruffle - Anyway - here it is

This wasn't a present - just thought I'd show you what I did with some old ladies hankerchiefs I found in my husband's parents attic - I framed them - some have several in a frame - and hung them on the wall over the bed - If you notice the 3rd one on the bottom row you can see the hook - had to reinforce that one - for some reason Riley bats at that one and has broken the back hook off - it will not stay up the way i have the others hung! weird he only goes after that one - i was laying there reading a book one day and he bonked it off my head! Not funny! LOL!

Hope everyone is enjoying their week! They are calling for snow tonite - Oh joy! NOT!

A Clean Room = Creativity....Hopefully

I keep cleaning up my rug hooking room and it just won't stay clean. This room is where I spend most of my time when I'm home- I do all my rug hooking (try to keep the wool dust in one room!), watch movies and TV, my laptop is in there, and of course the kitties are generally with me in here. It's not a big room and seems like I'm forever stacking things and it becomes a catch all for whatever doesn't fit anywhere else in the house!

Well Friday night as I was sitting here watching TV and doing some stitching, I was looking around and felt so claustrophobic and closed in and just didn't want to be in here. So Saturday morning I got up and decided enough was enough! I had to do something - I didn't know what - but I started pulling almost everything out of the room except the big stuff and totally rearranged things and organized.

I'll show some pictures of the "after" - It will never win any "house beautiful" awards and I'm sure I did the first thing decorators tell you not to - lining things up like they are under arrest on the walls - but what I did was just that - it opened up the room and it feels so much bigger - and I even added a piece of furniture! LOL

This is the corner where I used to have my antique cobbler's rack - I pulled my pie safe over there and pulled out all the wool in the pie safe, refolded and restacked and there is so much more room. I have that big old basket up there full of tiny pieces of wool - you know those pieces that just aren't big enough to keep with the folded ones. Then under that quilt is 4 of those metal cubes stuffed full of wool of course. On top of that is one of the large wooden boxes I found at a thrift - it's filled with paper patterns and such - and of course there is a basket for the kitties - they love laying near the window looking out. And yes, that is a large piece of wool rolled up at the base of the window - it's so cold out and we desperately need new windows - there was actually ice on the inside! On the floor is a tall cheese box that is filled with more "stuff" and my spare chair. I won't even go into what is in that closet!

Over in this corner (which is the other side of the window) are shelves with more "stuff and supplies", my sewing machine, a toy chest filled with more "stuff", and my cordless vacuum which is used daily in this room!

Then of course next to that is the daybed which has to stay on that wall since the TV is on the other wall which has to stay there because of the cable). Anyway - i moved the cobblers rack (which holds all my hand dyed wool over to this wall and then I moved this big cabinet to this wall - This used to be in front of the daybed and had the TV and cable boxes in. I took those out and put the printer in there (which used to precariously sit atop of my metal cubes which used to be on this wall and are now dismantled), and also int eh big section put in some of the metal cubs and filled them with wool, and then also have all that pesky stuff like my filing of bills, rulers, scissors, tape, stapler, envelopes, paper, etc. I put the other large wooden box that I got at the thrift store on top of the cobbler's bench and filled that with more "stuff", On top of that I filled my old baskets with wool strips (of which I have way too many) If you notice there is a lot of empty space on top of the hutch - well that's because a certain tiger named Riley loves to sleep up there - so not sure if i will be putting a basket or a quilt up there. You can't see it but on the side of the white cabinet is this old weird table that doesn't have a flat top but sort of a "V" shaped - perfect size for CDS or DVD's -s o i have that filled with movies and things i want to watch- i had crackle painted this years ago - fits perfectly there between the hutch and the door.

Then in the spirit of using what I had, I brought a black bookcase up from the basement and put my TV, VCR and cable box on that. Oh and that's my new 26" flat screen TV I bought myself with some of the money I made from the Folk Art Sale this year (I was so happy to have sold almost everything!) Also one of the shelves holds all my stitching supplies (thread, patterns, linen, etc.) and of course there is cat treats stores on one of the shelves too! LOL My hooking frame is there too and I can pull that straight across to the daybed to hook -


Like I said - no awards for beauty but it sure feels good in here - I feel like I can breath again. There is room to finally be able to get things done - I was able to pull out my roll of linen and just toss it on the floor to cut a piece for my next hooking project! And after that the sewing machine was actually set right up to sit and sew on without a huge production, and if that wasn't enough, I was able to transfer my pattern right there in the room too since the table was on hand! Wow - usually i'm dragging things all over the house to find room! Just felt good everything was in a place that made it much easier than spending half the day looking for this and that and setting up this or that!

Anyway - that's what I did on Saturday - I didn't sit down all day but it was worth the minor aches this morning1

This evening I found Riley sitting on top of the white cabinet. So I went and got an old quilt and threw it up there - notice that lump....

Yep that's my crazy man Riley! And don't you just love those colors of that quilt - That's practically an antique - that's one of the first quilts my Mom made way back in the 60's - my room was yellow and green and she made that quilt for my bed - It's in sad shape but it's so funny - my husband and the kitties love it - it's so soft and well worn and still cozy to curl up in - as you can see1

This pic is from Friday - I was shocked to see them all together and touching butt to butt!

Hope everyone had a wonderful day and wishing everyone a very happy first week of February!