Happy Mother's Day

Couldn't be happier.  My son and I this morning in the garden we planted together.

Thinking about creativity

The semester has been busy for me, and so rug hooking got the short end of the stick.  As did my blog.  So this is a check up post.

Alexander and I have been growing things this spring.  He has helped me plant flowers and some vegetables on the patio, and tend them with water.  We choose a couple of cherry tomato plants.  So Alexander is showing off the few we picked yesterday and I ate.  Alexander wouldn't try one.  Oh well.  I thought growing them might prick his interest in eating tomatoes.  Guess I was wrong.

I bought a bunch of ranunculus.  They are so beautiful in a cottage-garden way, that I have to post a picture.  The crisp circular forms are so profuse and bundled.  Love them.

Alexander and I went to an orchid show yesterday.  I have always loved orchids.  Yesterday as we studied their lips and flares, stunned by their elogence, I asked myself why I have neither bought an orchid before.  And at that minute, I carried an orchid to the cashier and now it sits in my window.  We named it Venus.

Also this week I had to attend a three-day workshop on creativitiy in leadership for my workplace.  While I'm not sure I learned a whole lot about being a creative leader, I did decide that the time has come to build a creativity center in our home.  It will have to be a small niche in our dining room, but it will be a place where all the art supplies are out and available for anyone to sit down and get creative. So more on this as we build the space up over the next week or so.

Part of our workshop involved going over to the Menil Museum and sitting with one painting for 30 minutes.  Then we had to record our interaction with the painting in our art journals.  I had so much fun seeing how much I normally don't see because I am in too much of a hurry, that I think I may go and sit in front of a painting once a month and slow down. 

The workshop also convinced me that I need to be keeping an art journal in addition to my rug journal.  So I am going to try to do that and see what comes of it.  It was fun to scribble without purpose.  My rug journal is too purposed and so I need another place to splatter and scribble and slow down.

Gone are the Christmas decorations

As the holidays come to an end today, I have gathered up the Christmas decorations and repacked them in their boxes.  I reorganized my mantel which I decorate all year long as the seasons change.  It is covered now in icy branches and cones. 

I was at a lost for what rug to put in my shadow box since I have nothing yet hooked for January.  I went upstairs and rummaged through my box of old hooked rugs and came upon a little rug that is perfect. 

It is the only rug that my mom hooked for me.  She and my sister started hooking two years after I began the craft.  At the time, I was living in another state, so I never really got to hook with my mom before she died in '99.  The last year of her life, she designed and hooked Fawn for me and gave it to me for Christmas in '98. 

When I look at Fawn, I am drawn to the sweetness of the animal and the boldness of the flora she encounters.  I am also struck by the  the fawn as she stands alone, her mother nowhere in the setting.  The metaphor is not lost on me.  Only a few months after receiving this mat, I stood alone, my mother gone from this life. 

Yet the mat leaves me not with feelings of loneliness or abandonment as you might imagine, but feelings of strength and direction.  Like the fawn standing proudly on the bank, I can journey confidently in this world on my own.  This confidence was shaped in me when I was a child by my mother who loved me deeply.  So I am comforted by the mat, with the traces of my mother's hand that cut and hooked each strip of wool and worked her initials into the corner.  In this mat, she is still here and she has left me with a powerful message whether she intended to or not.

In this New Year, if there is a mat that needs to be hooked for someone, hook it and give it.  Our time with each other is shorter than we imagine.

Merry Christmas from my house to yours!

It has been a very busy holiday here.  My sister's family and my inlaws are staying with us and we have been traveling around Houston, San Antonio and Austin.  Today we go down to Galveston Island for a nice dinner on the pier. 

Santa was good to all of us, but me especially.  Wade and Alexander gave me a Snap Dragon frame for my stand.  I declare it to be the Cadillac of frames now that I have been using it the last couple of days.  Here is a picture of me hooking my Palette Constellation Rug on the Snap Dragon frame.  It is getting BIG and finally I have a frame that can handle it!  My goal is to finish this rug by the end of February.

Pretty cool greens

It is warming up here in Houston.  This has been a lovely winter and spring...very long and lingering.  The azaleas are just blooming, and the bluebonnets are peeking out.  We went on our annual family excursion in the bluebonnet meadows last weekend.  And we visited the sea down on the island of Galveston.

The colors of green are so vivid here, in the fields, in the foliage, in the sea. 

I'm posting a picture of a clutch of Caspian Green 108 that I dyed recently since it reminds me of ocean waves: a bunch of 8-values and textures.  Wouldn't they be great to hook into elements in any of these pictures?  The sea line, the porch boards, the old wood.

Winter storm that brought Houston to a halt

HISD schools and Rice University were cancelled today.  Actually they were closed last night due to the forecast that threatened us with ice and snow.  It is a very rare thing to have snow, even a flake, in Houston.  So there is really no equipment for salting down the roads or dealing with winter weather.  This week has been so cold that the power company put us all on rotation, shutting off our power for 30-minutes blocks, in order to conserve. 

So we were prepared for winter this morning.  But when we woke up and Alexander looked out the window, he cried for 10 minutes.  This is the winter storm that brought Houston to a stand still today.  A bit of ice on the cars and trees, and the fountains are frozen.  But no snow. 

But hey, I'm not complaining.   We got a snowday out of it.  So I've been dyeing up some reds and oranges in the garage.  And Wade has made a pot of chili for dinner and played chess with Alexander most of the day.

Home for the holidays

We have had a busy and fun filled holiday.  My family (see photo on right) came down from Michigan and Wade's folks from Illinois.  So we had a GREAT Christmas.  We visited San Antonio, Fredricksburg, Galveston, and Brenham, and had Christmas in Houston at our home. 

From Wade, I received a 9-cut Townsend cutter head produced by Beeline, and I couldn't be happier.  It is exactly the same product as the Townsend line, except that it has a "B" etched on the under side of the cutter head.  So now, on to designing and hooking my big widecut abstract that I am calling "All in the Family".  It will consist of my 12 color families, and show every value of every color in each of the families.

Visiting Santa

We had a wonderful time over Thanksgiving.  We finally (sigh!) finished getting our house in order following the construction, following the flood.  We celebrated Saturday by going down to Galveston Island and visiting Santa on the Strand.  We also had a nice meal on the Pier, watched the Carvinal cruise ship sail away into the sunset, and walked around Post Office Street where the artwalk was happening. 

Now that my chair is back in place and I can find my rug hooking stuff, I have been rug hooking, but it is something secret yet.  A hint: it's not a rug.  Will post a picture when I am finished, which should be by the weekend.

The garage reorganization is planned for this weekend.

No rug hooking, but kitchen cabinets are done

So my house is still too much a construction zone for me to get out my hooking.  Today all three toilets were removed.  As I type this, the downstairs bath has had its toilet put back in, but the two in the upstairs bathrooms await more tile.

I have been tearing apart my kitchen cabinets - 24 doors and 12 drawers - removing the old hardware, sanding, repainting with oil-based paint which I hate to use but I had no choice since that is what they were originally painted with, and remounting.  It took me over a week to do this.  My recommendation if you are thinking about doing this in your home.  Keep your hinges.  Clean them or repaint them.  Don't try to replace them because if you do you will have a mess on your hands.  Guard the little screws with your life.  New hinges are junk and expensive - 2 per door - and they don't fit old doors because the depth of new door wood is thinner to keep cabinets cheaper.

I did find great new handles though - in bulk on ebay at a great price.

Celebrate with me - at least my cabinet doors are done, mainly because I did them myself (smile!) - the rest of the house is still in progress.

So this is my bedroom

where I am trying to sleep...check out the little path to the bed.  It's not only a job to sleep in here, but imagine trying to find clothes and get dressed in the morning.  No I'm not a slob.  This is what happens when Alexander's room is getting a new floor installed.  The remodel is more than half over, I can say with relief.

Remodel progress: Day 7

This is what my living room looks like today.  And my dining room where the new tile is being installed.  And my garage where I am painting my kitchen cabinet doors.

I have developed a sinus infection from it all.  My allergies are wild with the dust and remodel air, and my body has succumbed.

Remodel progress: Days 3-4

Yesterday and today were painting days.  The crew has been working on the living room (pictured), dining room and kitchen.  I took the opportunity to pull off my kitchen cabinet doors and set up shop in my garage to repaint them.  I only got about 1/3 of the doors off and sanded this morning.  Alexander had a half day, so we went to lunch (can't do a thing in my kitchen now), and then to see the movie Secretariat which I especially loved being a horse person all my life.  I remember Secretariat when I was a child and got my first horse (Santa brought him for Christmas when I was 10). 

Tile is supposed to be in on Tuesday.

Remodel progress: Day 1

The contractor has come in and started the demolition.  It has been almost three months since the pipe burst under my kitchen sink and my life changed.  The thing to go first?  The warped bamboo floor.  The workers spent the entire day with crowbars and hammers, tearing out a floor that was REALLY glued down.  But they did it.  My downstairs toilet is in the middle of my living room.  And the sawdust has kicked up my allergies in a bad way.  But progress is being made on Day 1.

In the afternoon, I retreated to our one room upstairs where I have set up my hooking chair.  I worked on Alex in Pop Color, hooking a substantial part of the wide color wheel border.

The other feat: I am making headway in my garage which means I can see my dye pots again.  I hope to clear enough of the debris away to be able to get them cooking again.  Maybe Sunday?

Nothing to do with rug hooking

but a cute picture of Alexander holding his friend's turtle when he had a playdate at her house.

Alexander's first day of school

I can't believe it but Alexander is in first grade already. Despite the aftermath of our flood and the fact that we are living in a small room in the upstairs of our home, Alexander made it to his first day of school this morning, I made it to my office, and Wade made it to his classroom. He is starting a new career as a science high school teacher.

I haven't been able to set up a rug hooking spot yet but hope to figure it out soon. I need some relaxation!

Returned to a flood

I have returned from Sauder to a first floor that flooded. A pipe burst under our kitchen sink and flooded the entire first floor of our house. So I'll try to get some posts up about Sauder and the ATC swap which was a blast, but it may take me some time as I try to sort out my house and get started teaching monday.

Alex's first tooth lost

Monday Alexander lost his first tooth. Here he is proudly smiling just moments after losing his tooth. He is very excited to have lost this tooth because it means to him that he is getting to be a big boy, which he is. Where has my baby gone?

Super Alex

When I was at the Stash Sister's hook in, I bought a punch needle for Alexander. I thought that punching would be easier and more fun for him than hooking loops of wool. Today I finally got around to transferring his drawing of "Super Alex" onto the monk's cloth for him and stitching the fabric to an old frame. He has picked out some yarn and is ready to go. After this picture was taken, he outlined the face in black and hooked one of the eyes in blue.

"Super Alex" is himself as a superhero. He appears to have picked the heart as his symbol and has told me that the eyes shoot red lasers.

Happy Easter

Just got back from a scooter ride...the easter bunny brought Alexander and I scooters and so we spent the afternoon scooting around the neighborhood. Okay. I'm out of shape. If you think these scooters are easier than walking, well, they might look it. But they take a lot of balance and pushing energy, and I can tell already that my thighs are going to be sore tomorrow. But it was FUN. And liberating rolling along at a good pace on the board.

Did some dyeing yesterday and need to do more this week. But not tonight. I'm off to the shower (yes I'm sweating from the scooter ride!) and maybe an early night.

Update on Alexander

Alexander is going to town on his sunflower. This weekend he picked out the wools he wanted for his petals. Since he is only six and I'm not comfortable having him use the big sharp scissors, I trimmed the petals for him the size he wanted and here he is (accompanied by Maggie dog) hooking in some of the petals. I showed him how to grab the little end of the petal and pull it up through the linen. He is talking about hooking a blue sky. I had him look at several pictures of sunflowers to decide how he wanted his center to look. He decided he wanted the very center trimmed down, while the outside left proddy. So again I trimmed the center for him because I don't want him using the fabric scissors until he is older and has more hand coordination.