Happy Memorial Day

Pete and I are just back from our local Memorial Day Celebration on the village dock (I wrote about it last year on the blog I share with my sister Barb, Hallowed Hill Primitives. You can read that post here).




We have had the most glorious weekend -- blue, blue skies, no clouds, and warm southerly breezes off the water. We rode our bikes to town, which is sort of a necessity once the tourists arrive for the season -- there's no place to park until after Labor Day.) It is great to chat with neighbors while we wait for the veterans and the scouts to arrive from the war memorial at Steamboat Corner.



After the ceremony we stopped to watch a very happy fellow who caught a striped bass right before our eyes. He'll have a good dinner tonight. Pete and I will head back into the village for supper tonight and stroll along the boardwalk like the tourists. . . I hope all of you enjoy yourselves this weekend, too.

Something New . . .

I took part in a challenge given by The Primitive Rug Hookers Group on ebay. We had to come up with a geometric shape and hook it only with strips of wool left over from previous projects. This is my entry -- and I was actually a runner up (although there were several runners up. . . ) It isn't the best rug I've ever hooked, but it has given me an idea for a new pattern that will use my sister Barb's (Thimblefolk) newly dyed wool. I'l be listing this one for sale soon in my etsy shop if you're interested.

Happy Mother's Day!

I am already having a happy one. . . it is 20 minutes after nine in the morning and I am still in my pjs, having stayed up late to watch Becoming Jane with my reason for celebrating Mother's Day -- my sweet daughter Clara. She arrived home just in time for dinner last night -- her timing is always perfect! It is a joy for us to have her in the house again, though she is at loose ends after all the hubbub of finals and packing up her dorm room.

When I arrived in Saratoga Springs on Wednesday afternoon, Clara was still in her drawing critique. She hadn't packed a thing! So after dinner we worked til 10 pm getting stuff together, and started again the next morning at 10 am. We finally finished at 3 pm! That girl has more clothes than Blooomingdales, I swear!

We had a late lunch at Putnam Market -- they make such delicious sandwiches. I had the Royal -- roast beef, Stilton cheese, mango chutney and alfalfa sprouts on French bread. Yummy -- and it was so big I saved half for supper on the road. Of course, Clara stocked up on cheese while we were there. And the cheese guy remembered me from 3 weeks ago and saved me this fabulous sea scallop tin I admired in the seafood case. What fun! I'll use it in the studio to store stuff.



Anyway -- now it's time to shower, walk the dog, and finish painting the trim on my newly refurbished front porch. Look for it in a future post . . .

Another Trip to Saratoga Springs . . .

No rug hooking this time -- Clara takes her last final this morning and I'm going to help pack her up and move her home. She's worked really hard this semester and done really well and she really needs a rest! It'll be great to have her home again. . .

Another UFO . . .

Here is another unfinished object I need to finish sometime soon . . . This one is not so old -- I started in November 2007 for my friends Anne-Marie & Mike and their two daughters, Natalie and Charlotte. It's a housewarming rug (they moved at the end of October) featuring their two basset hounds, James Bond and Lola. James is the big guy -- Charlotte and Natalie say he's "portly." Lola is mostly black and has a big chunk missing out of her left ear. They are characters -- like all basset hounds -- and they are built like Mac trucks. I know, I've tripped over them more than once. It's like hitting a brick wall -- they don't move, but I go flying.

So my aim is to finish this one up sometime this summer. I just took on a job to finish the background on a rug for a lovely woman who had rotator cuff surgery and can't hook anymore, so my ufos are going to take the back burner again. But I'll keep you posted!

Happy May Day . . .

a day late . . .

When I was a little girl, I would weave small baskets out of colored construction paper on May Day, then fill them with violets and periwinkle and hang them on my neighbor's doorknobs. I was planning on doing that this year for a few of my favorite people, but work and construction got in the way . . .

So you get a picture of our cherry trees. Years ago, the village of Greenport planted tons of cherry trees all over the village. We're lucky enough to live on a street that has them lining both sides of the road. I smile every time I walk or drive down the street and see them. I have a rug in mind for this scene -- an impressionistic landscape of sorts . . . Soon it will be "Pink Snow" time -- when the wind sends the petals swirling through the air. . .