Yahoo, It's a Snow Day!

The dichotomy of March.

A sweet little bunny on the frame. 

I dyed a piece of Pewter White wool from The Old Tattered Flag with Cushing's Seal Brown to hook the bunny. I'm hooking in #6 strips, but I think #3- #4 would be better for definition. I would rather not hook that narrow.

 

Sunday Singing

Just sharing a beautiful song that we sang in church today.

Another Year Older Much Too Quickly

 
     The daughters' birthdays are certainly rolling by. Chelsea celebrated her birthday in January and now Audrey's twenty-fifth was this week. The years go by so quickly!
     We started off the week by moving Claire and Chelsea's childhood bedroom set to Claire's house in Raleigh. It's an antique maple set that I inherited from my aunt and uncle back in the 1990's. The beds are designed with wooden slats that attach to the rails under the box springs. When we disassembled them last weekend, Steve noticed writing on the slats. It turned out to be scribbles and notes penciled by the girls. They listed the names of their best friends and play dates and other happy things that little girls like to document. They even dated their notes, 1994, 1995, etc. We need to downsize and we're happy to send this furniture to good use, but it was a little sad to know that we no longer need it here.
      Along notes of bittersweetness, Tess will drive back to college tomorrow after being home for spring break. It was so nice having her around. I enjoyed feeling her presence in the house. She baked a yummy birthday cake for Audrey on Tuesday and I cooked lunch and we girls had a mini party for Audrey with gifts and all. We played with Violet and made a great to do over every smile and noise that she made. I blew raspberries on violet's chubby baby thighs just like we did to Audrey when she was a baby.. and life came around full circle again. 
     This song strikes a chord with the thoughts of our little girls growing older and that long ago time when they were all still little.



     Steve snapped a picture of Tess and Ian and me just before dinner tonight. Even Henri is included. The poor little dog had a huge burr in his Schnoodle beard and I had to cut it out. I still need to trim the rest of it to blend it all in but, after drinking the wine I thought it best that the beard trimming wait until tomorrow. ; )

     I got to play with a lovely stash of wool that I was given by a lady downsizing into a retirement home. I washed and sorted it all and it's ready to hook or dye. I really need to get busy and put all this wool to use! I have so many ideas of what I would like to hook and so little time to do it! Like time, I will keep marching forward while still trying to embrace every moment.

A Week In the Life...

     It is much too early for this to be happening- flowers budding on the trees! The forsythia is doing the same along with the daffodils. In other signs of spring, I heard a redwing blackbird earlier this week. While my heart leaps at seeing and hearing all these signs of spring, it feels like winter came and went in the blink of an eye. We could still have a blizzard here but, how confusing would that be?! The real news today is the wind. March is roaring in like a lion for sure. I just received notice that schools in this and surrounding counties are closed on Friday due to widespread power outages.
     Today is another soggy day and perfect for reading a good book. I just finished a thick, 499-page book called "A Trip to the Stars" by Nicholas Christopher. It is lavishly descriptive with much more detail than I sometimes had the patience for. But it entertained me and I enjoyed the story. I'm now reading the second Maisie Dobbs book, "Birds of a Feather" by Jacqueline Winspear for lighter entertainment. I read in the bedroom in order to not distracy Steve while he worked from home today. I returned to the bedroom after doing a few chores and realized how cozy the corner spot is. There's a nice view out the window for daydreaming and I think a little pot of flowers on the side table would make it perfection. I'll have to start reading there more often.

     I finished my table rug. I call it, "My Spring Ditty". I bound the edges at our weekly hook-in at Eleanor's yesterday and it now sits on the trunk in the living room. On to my next project! (I still have to decide what that will be.) Georganna brought cupcakes from The Cupcake Cottage to our hook-in yesterday and we celebrated Eleanor's upcoming birthday. She will turn eighty-five years young! I can only hope to have Eleanor's health and lifestyle should I live to this wonderful age.

     Although the week has been routine, it hasn't been without its lighter moments, pleasant walks, and good conversations. William's chickens and ducks have been visiting our field and I love to watch them. If you ever need a chuckle, just watch ducks run. The kids at school also never fail to entertain. Yesterday was, "Wear a Mustache to School Day." Talk about funny little creatures. One boy had his eyebrows mustachioed as well as his upper lip. I spotted another little guy wearing his mustache down on his chin, like a beard. And then we have those parents who write funny things in the check-out log book where they sign their child out from school. One dad likes to write interesting reasons for checking his daughters out. He'll write reasons like, "World Domination" or "Solving the North Korean Issue". I wonder if he wonders if we really read the log book. We do.
     It's been a special week at school for, "Reading Across America". The librarian video recorded willing staff members reading a book. Teachers will use these videos later on in their classrooms. I read, "I Am a Wonder" and I chose a breathtaking panoramic photograph of the Milkway Galaxy as the background to go with my book. We recorded in front of a green screen and the backgrounds were added in afterward. By the way, if you have a chance to watch the movie, "Wonder" do so! It's a great family movie.
     I'll leave this post with one last bright spot of spring from the back steps.  They've been sitting there all winter and just started blooming again this week. : )

Morning Commute

Sometimes it's really hard to make it all the way to work. I'm prone to wander. The light was so beautiful this morning that I took a detour. This view is from a side road in Fincastle, looking north up the valley toward home. I still made it to work on time. : )

Valentine- A Little Cupboard Door Project

Oh, my lovely Annie Sloan's Chalk Paint. How I love thee.

This project started out with an extra cupboard door we had from a bathroom vanity. I thought it would be the perfect frame for rug. I hooked my rug to the dimensions of the inner panel which measured 7 inches x 18 inches. When it was completed, I chose two colors of chalk paint that I thought would nicely frame the rug. I applied two coats of brown as a base color and then topped it with two coats of off-white.

 The beauty of chalk paint is that there is no need for priming. (as long as the finish on the wood is post 1940's) After all four coats and two colors have been applied and completely dried, I distressed the paint to my liking with fine sandpaper. I then finished it with two coats of Polyvine flat polyurethene. Flat Polyvine seals the painted finish without taking away from the look of the chalk paint. It makes it much nicer to touch and prevents leaving fingerprints and smudges that seem to so easily stick to unfinished chalk paint. I prefer it over waxing.

Voila! It makes a great beginner rug hooking project.

Balmy, Birds, and a Chick

   

     Using the word, "balmy" to describe the weather in the month of February is not something I take for granted. It began raining on Saturday and continued into Sunday, but it turned so warm that the rain was no bother at all. To step outside on Sunday morning was to step into spring. Low-lying fog had settled in all the hollows, which always looks beautiful in these mountains. The ground squished like a sponge when I walked in the field. By afternoon it had reached sixty-one degrees so I cracked open the kitchen window to let in some of that balmy air.
     The birds must love this mild, saturated weather because they were all over the yard. We've been seeing flocks of robins for a couple of weeks now. (To my northern family and friends, I'm sure they are headed your way!) Yesterday they were joined by bluebirds, cardinals, and blue jays. Steve and I really enjoyed watching them out the window, The cardinals are here year round, but I'm not sure about the others. I thought they were all migratory birds but, I learned all of that during my childhood in New York, so maybe Virginia is where they migrated to. I don't know about any of this from the Virginia perspective. Anyway, it was fun watching the birds in the crab apple tree, especially the bluebirds, which are my favorite.
     During the ice storm last Sunday I started the small, tabletop rug with a spring theme, pictured above. I'm also finishing up a small, cupboard door rug with a heart on it. Just in time to hang for Valentine's Day. I didn't intend it for such, it just happened that way : ) I'm waiting for the paint to dry on the cupboard door and I'll post photos of that project tomorrow. In the meantime, enjoy this beautiful song by Robin Trower called, "Bluebird".