Victoria Day Weekend

The second funeral during the covid period...  I dislike most funerals but this one was a tad more celebratory of a life well lived. The tough part of both is that people can’t comfort each other physically AND many cannot attend because of spread. Neither funeral was from the virus however.

I’m close to done with my antique replica:

I’m not overjoyed with it, but I like the hidden birds.

My next rug is drawn and ready; it will be a tavern sign for my bro-in-law’s billiards room. 

Their house is huge and his man room is sacred space for him.

My son celebrates  his “champagne birthday” this year:

31 in the 31st.

We never called it that, have you heard of it?

I do recall the old custom for Sweet 16 females: a pink corsage with a netting holding sugar lumps attached. 

Anyone remember  that one?

Well, I’m well and truly addicted to online auctions and marketplace now. I couldn’t resist this sweet old wood container...

And joy of joys! The woods are full of trillium.

Well, mosquitos and trillium, but dog and I were forced to walk faster, which is a positive.

We searched for mayflowers but I saw none at all. A bit strange, but it’s a weird sort of year.

It’s Victoria Day weekend here in Canada.

Waiting for vacation plans to be okayed...

An extra long one with a slow rv drive down the coast to my family in NC. 

Seeing our kids takes priority and we’re still trying to work that out.

And there’s a big box from The Wool Studio waiting at my folks’ house. Bonus!

May your weekend be blessed with absorbing all God’s goodness around you: whether you’re in a bad place or a good one.

Weekend Escape

Very little beats a weekend away to a quiet peninsula in New Brunswick with ones pals.

The home is an old country house with wide wooden floorboards, iron bed frames, and the squeak of a mouse in the walls.

We walked, we ate, we laughed, sat in front of a roaring fireplace, petted horse, watched deer, looked at pottery picked up treasures at the end of driveways...

Isn’t it beautiful?

We located a waterfalls walk too...

Sandy is the animal whisperer.

Lisa is trying out an antique rocking chair in the middle of the road. Discarded trash became her treasure. A beautiful piece with nothing wrong with it!

The only prob with the whole weekend was that it was too short.

Our little area of the province is ramping up with a variant so another lockdown may be in our near future.

This afternoon a friend and I will hook and also tune in to a live video with the Ontario hooking store of Sande Gunning. We’ll shop while she shows us her wares.

A shadowy snap of my antique recreation which I’m struggling to love.

May JOY find its way into your day

Lighter Things

Our rug hooking community here had an unexpected death and two more on their way in hospital. Not covid. I’m grieving. Grieving is especially difficult when it feels like depression which I wrestle with. ♥️

So I will post a couple spirit lifting events. My former client and now plain old friend had her 82nd birthday yesterday. Two of us brought her cake and chicken salad lunch. Here she is:

She is also deaf AND blind. A former librarian and a lover of gardening and dirty jokes. Just seeing this pic uplifts me. 

On kijiji this week (our version of Craig’s List) there were two hooked rugs for $20 TOTAL.

Photos at top: Butterflies and Flowers, Horse and Buggy.

 I contacted the woman right away and gave her $25. Both rugs went into the deep freeze, both underwent some repairs where strips had come out, and both are on fb marketplace now, at a modest $65 and $75.

Another lovely thing: Friday my girlfriends in my covid “bubble” are going to a country cottage an hour away to spend the weekend. Wine, walks, laughter, prayer time and tears will be part (as always!)

One of our five has a rare and aggressive form of cancer. Well, that seems to be shadowing me this week but doesn’t it shadow is every day of our lives? 

Enough! 

May the beauty of life sing to me and to you today!

 

Thursday Catch Up

I purchased this twin sized quilt for $15 from our local thrift. I like the wonky spots too. Currently it’s soaking in some oxi and mild detergent. Tomorrow I’ll hang it on the line outside.

Maybe a first quilt for someone. 😀

I’ve also been hooking on my antique repro and 

perhaps liking it a smidge more. 

Our rug hooking guild continues to zoom every Tuesday. There are talks of meeting outdoors with distance between, once temps rise. 

In Atlantic Canada this may be a while.

My daughter finished her Master’s in Library Science. 

She wants to be an archivist. 

Here she is with our son yesterday.

They both live in Montreal but have to be careful about visits.

Our son is a PhD student- a hard thing to swing in this  time. Some of his peers opted to keep their masters and

dropped out. 

                 

This weekend we’ll have friends from our

Covid bubble over for supper (ham noodle casserole and peanut butter pie) and I’ve reserved a spot to view a fibre exhibit at our local university.

May you feel JOY as you create !

          

 

1879 Folksy Rug

 I found this on an antiques’ site

Having no clues about size I sketched 

it on my remaining chunk of linen.

It’s 18x25.

Overly bright, I’ve toned down my wool post- hooking

with strong coffee and a paint brush.

Like the creator, I’m making do with the colours I have. 

We’re still in an apartment, have a lot in storage, and are house hunting. 

Not happy with it at first, I am coming around.

The raffle draw for the rug our guild hooked is tonight.

The thing has been around my home for a year. 

(No, I didn’t buy any tickets, but sold many.)

We’ve raised around $1,050 for an historic mat registry of our province.

If you’re interested:

http://mats-tapisnb.com/

The past weeks have been up and down:

news of a friend with another bout of aggressive cancer as she expects her second grandchild and hasn’t hit 60,

joy of talking to family via phone and zoom, 

a bad report from the scan of a yet to be born relative,

and the miracle celebration of the God man

come to earth...

Is life always like this? 

I think it must be after all.

May you experience the joys of the day more than the pains.

Sunday Notes

Atlantic Canada is heating up! Welcome Spring! Goodbye snows. Actually we call this Mud Season and we keep old towels by the entry for dogs and people alike.

My son’s rug is finished and en route to Montreal via Ups.

If I could afford an embroidered label for every rug I would buy them. And personally, I don’t like the fill in the blank labels or the messy look of writing on the rug tape.

I’ve been creating simple wool pockets on the back of the rug and writing a personal notes (with rug information) for the pocket. Here I’ve pulled the paper out for show, but it fits down deep in the pocket. 

That’s it! Nothing much new. Having some apps and wine on the deck of a friend’s home later. We haven’t seen her in ages due to covid. Church services have long been meeting for prayer with close friends anyway (nothing to do with covid tho), and that doesn’t always fall on Sunday.  

Have a week of hope as Easter nears...

Hooked Rugs and life

I’m done hooking the rug I designed for 

my son’s 30th — last year.

More obvious in reality, but still subdued, are

words between the leaves which describe his interests and abilities.

I didn’t want that too bright as he may be embarrassed to display it.

I will make a little wool pocket on the back to house 

details of the rug and of my son♥️

The other small mat I made was the product of a challenge from the blog of 

Saundra of Woodland Junction.

It’s an antique design which Saundra drew out for me

but I had no means to print it so I drew it.

We were asked to use no wool but other materials we had around. I used pillowcases and T-shirts and jeans.

The pink was too bright so I coffeed it down.

The cotton pillowcase strips were wide enough to make my arm and shoulder ache so I smartened up and made them narrower. Same with the jeans. The tshirts were a pleasure to hook.

I visited a friend at her lake house Friday and Saturday.

What a treat!

Though the lake was still frozen enough to bring out the snowmobiles, the sun was warm and the conversation good.

She has a flair for making it cozy.

And Miss. Lucy was almost as excited as I when a box from The Wool Studio arrived! She is testing out her sleep quality on it.                                                      That was a splurge purchase with customs 😤

And our hooking group finished Chicago by RHF in memory of Gisele, our former coordinator. The centre is purple. Looks black here. We’re raffling it off with proceeds going to NB May Registry. So far we’ve made $900! Sorry that we can’t take etransfers from the US.

The week ahead begins cold and hits 52f. Crazy warm.

Have a good week!