When It Rains, It Pours . . .

and not just outside!

I am honored to have another one of my rugs featured in another etsy treasury.  It's called Orange You Glad Summer Is On Its Way.  Thank you BearStitches for including me.  Take a look and post a comment! Click here: etsy Treasury.

Don't Be a Day Late and a Dollar Short . . .

Like me!

Tomorrow is the Long Island Fleece and Fiber Fair at Hallockville Museum Farm.  Barb and I will be vending.  My guild, the Peconic Ruggers, will be there, too, demonstrating and spreading the gospel of rug hooking.  Come and join us, pet the animals, and try your hand at a variety of fiber arts.  It will be a great day out on the farm.  Hope to see you there.

For pictures of last year's fair and more info, click here: Hallockville

In a Treasury

My rug Fleur the Fox Terrier made it into an etsy Treasury this weekend.  How cool is that?  Thank you littleredhen44 for taking notice!

The Lovely Month of May

We have had a fabulous week of spring weather here, lots of clear skies and sun but a little nip in the air.  We traveled down to East Hampton on Thursday to celebrate Cinqo de Mayo with Paula and Ann.  We had a fabulous array of delicious Mexican specialties from La Fondita and a relaxing ride home on the ferries.  Pete and I spent the weekend in the garden and shopping for a few new plants.  We cleaned up the grill and cooked out for the first time on Sunday.

Mother's Day was fun.  Clara, my reason for celebrating Mother's Day,  couldn't be here, but she called.  Pete took me out to breakfast and then we went for a ride to buy some freshly picked asparagus for dinner.  He showered me with gifts, too: chocolates (yum!), a pretty pale purple verbena for the garden, some seeds, and some lavender soap.  The little boy across the street brought me purple lilacs.  I only have white ones since the renovation (we had to tear out 2 purple lilacs to make room for the addition.)  So I felt pretty special all day long.

I worked for a woman once who insisted Mother's Day was created by Hallmark to sell cards.  She obviously never had a child and never spent 6 years driving her child an hour to and an hour from swim practice five times a week (Sometimes I can't believe I did that . . . ).    Mother's Day was actually started by suffragette and abolitionist Julia Ward Howe, who also wrote one of my all time favorite songs, The Battle Hymn of the Republic (don't ask me why -- I am as un-religious as you can get, but the words always move me).  In 1870 she wrote Mothers Day Proclamation, a reaction to the horrors of the Civil War, calling women to become more active members of society and to strive for peace.  Frankly, I think women's rights and women's work are as important to celebrate as Labor Day or Memorial Day . . .   Who cares if Hallmark makes a buck or two?

 

I'm doing more gardening than hooking or blogging it seems, but that will change -- Barb and I have another show coming up soon.  More about that later.  I hope you all are enjoying spring as much as I am. 

Blossoms

The cherry trees and lilacs are blooming here on Fifth Street. I cut a branch from the flowering quince in the front yard to brighten up the kitchen, since tomorrow is supposed to be gloomy again. Pete and I brought the quince to Greenport from the house I grew up in, which was once my great grandmother's house. We moved in after her death when I was 4 years old. I don't know if she or my mother planted the quince. At one point, the original bush actually produced fruit and Mommy made the most wonderful pale pink tart jelly from it. Today would have been her 90th birthday. Happy Birthday, Mom.

Be There or Be Square!

51st Annual Fairfield Rug Show

Saturday, April 30, 2011

9 am to 3 pm

Fairfield Grace United Methodist Church

1089 Fairfield Woods Road

Fairfield, CT 06825

(203)374-6528

$5 admission

Color Planning for Rug Hookers

presentation by Eric Sandberg

1 pm

Door Prizes, Vendors, Hook In

  Refreshments 

Free admission to registrants who arrive by 9:30 with 5 or more hooked rugs  for display

Barb and I will be in the same room as last year on the north side of the building.  Please come and see us.   And come see the talented Eric Sandberg -- his rugs are amazing and he is a font of rug hooking knowledge -- a nice guy to boot! 

Another Opening, Another Show . . . .

Barb and I are pleased to announce that we will be vending at the Southern Adirondack Fiber Festival September 24 & 25 at the Washington County Fairgrounds in Greenwich, New York.  It is not far from Saratoga Springs, a town I dearly love and miss visiting since my daughter graduated from Skidmore College last May.  So not only do we get to have fun at the festival, but we get to visit with Barb's friend Martha and her sheep, and we get to have dinner at Max London's, one of my all time favorite restaurants!

In its third year, the SAFF, which runs from 10 am to 5 pm both days,  is either a great counterpart or counterpoint to the New York State Sheep and Wool Festival (aka Rhinebeck), depending on your viewpoint.  If you love all things fiber and can't get enough of it, this festival is 3 weeks before Rhinebeck, so you can rest up a bit in between.  If Rhinebeck is just too crowded and too overwhelming for you (as it is for Martha), the Southern Adirondack Fiber Festival is much more intimate -- and I have heard they plan to keep it that way.

Visit their website (Southern Adirondack Fiber Festival) to see a list of this year's events and to get a $1.00 off coupon.  The entrance fee without the coupon is $5 (children under 14 free), and there is lots of free parking.  Barb and I hope to see you there!