Ta da!!!!

It's done!  And I had enough yarn!  

Just had to share ... more later.  I hope you've had a great Memorial Day break.

Melvina Miller's pattern, hooked by me, Judy Foster, 2014.  Phew!

I feel lighter ...

I finally feel like I'm getting my life back.  Just a little thing like dropping out of an organization that I really had lost interest in has made all the difference to me this week.  When I was driving home after my "last meeting" I felt like I had just taken off my winter coat and it was spring.  I just don't know how else to describe it.  Why do we stay in clubs or groups or jobs that aren't doing it for us anymore?  You know we all do it sometime in our lives.  Sometimes you need to step back and think what your goals are and mine didn't include that anymore.  (And yes, I do have goals.)

It's been a busy last few days for me!  I did a lesson on fondue making at the Braysville Extension Homemakers Club meeting in Spencer last Tuesday night.  So fun!  That was a great group of women (and one man).  They were interested and interesting.  They had some good questions, too.  It was a good night.  Then Wednesday I was co-hostess of my extension homemakers club, which means I had to prepare the main course for 20 people; made sloppy Joe sandwiches, oriental coleslaw, and Barbara J.'s corn taco salad.  My co-hostess did the desserts and drinks.  Everything was well received and I was relieved when the evening was over (for obvious reasons -- see hint above).  Thursday was a fun day with lunch at the diner in Worthington with some hookers followed by hooking at the library.  Luckily Paul S. joined us and he is so fun to be around.  I think laughing is good for you!  Friday I went to Washington to the conservation club where our rug hooking guild set up for the 11th annual fiber arts fair.  It was a long, tiring day.  (I don't think I'm as young as I used to be ...)  Then of course, Saturday was the fiber fair!  Wow!  It was a really good day; weather perfect, good-size crowd, interesting vendors, and great visitors.  I demonstrated rug hooking with Marsha M. at a table where Jan Cabel was doing needlefelting and we had a lot of interested visitors most all of the day.  I like talking about rug hooking and answering questions.  It slowed way down at about 2 p.m. and we were packing up at 3.  Guess what????  I WON THE RAFFLE RUG!

I never win ANYTHING! Wow! (I think I was in shock!)

So, after that wonderful day was over I stopped at the grocery and drug myself through, getting last minute things for the NEXT day's event.  Our church had their quarterly fellowship dinner on Sunday evening.  Wendell took his grill and grilled hamburgers and hot dogs.  We had more people than we were expecting but we had 'just' enough meat.  Really, it went over very well.  I'm the lead on the fellowship dinner committee and I came up with this cookout idea.  Several people told me they hadn't done that before.  So I felt good about that because people seemed to really enjoy themselves.  That's what's important.  So when I got home from that I just collapsed!  Some days, like yesterday, I am so sorry we built our house on two levels.  About 8 p.m. all I was looking for was that LAST load up the stairs! LOL!

Here's some other stuff that's been happening with us ...

A friend from church brought us a big bag of pecans so I toasted some and made a from-scratch pecan pie.  It was so good!  I don't do pies very often ...

Wendell found this ONE lone mushroom a couple weeks ago (it was about 6-8" long) so I added it to some scrambled eggs for lunch one day.  I think I made my friend Benjie laugh and laugh when I called all excited about that ONE mushroom, asking her how to soak it, how to cook it, etc., (her hubby finds lots of them). 

We were out yard-saleing on the Freedom-Arney Road last week and saw this very interesting truck/tractor for sale!  I had to drag Wendell away ...

One of the duties of the head of the fellowship dinner committee is taking home ALL of the silverware just before each meal and washing it.  (I understand; that is how we have always done it ...)  We use paper products but we draw the line at plastic silverware!  So I had to sneak that chore into this past week, too.

This is the wall hanging I'm working on right now.  Since this pix was taken I got a lot more hooked on it at the fiber fair.  BUT I figured out a long time ago that the yarn I am using for sheep's body is not going to go all the way so I was lucky enough at the fiber fair to commission Lynn H. to spin some more to match.  I'm excited!  (I'll be glad to get this one done.)  What do you think?

Wendell took me to New Harmony for Mother's Day weekend.  It was really a trip I needed; he knew what was coming up for me and thought I needed it, too.  So relaxing!  We walked the town, we shopped, we took a couple drives, we went to church Sunday, we ate Saturday night dinner at a restaurant with belly dancing and Mother's Day lunch at the Red Geranium (talk about from the ridiculous to the sublime -- LOL!)  Anyway, we sat on a bench on Granary Street in front of this wall and I wanted to share it with you.  Something to ponder as you begin another week.

So now you know what's been going on in my life.

If you want to see pictures from the fiber fair I mentioned above, I'm putting them on later tonight.  The web address is www.hoosierhills.blogspot.com

Have a blessed week! 

At last, an almost clear calendar!

Looked at my calendar today and this week was almost free!  Yeah!  Think I'll plant my annual flower garden today after I get the laundry started and it's a little warmer outside.  Wendell divided the vegetable garden in half and I'm going to have 4 rows of annuals; I think zinnias, sunflowers, cock's comb and moonflowers, with some starts of hollyhocks to transplant up by the house in the fall.  So pleased to have the perennials flower beds cleared out and I have a BIG tub of iris to give away now.  Anyone?!  Let me know!  If not they're going over the side of the hill to be eaten by the squirrels.  I only lost one lavender and replaced it with a Knockout rose bush.  Hey!  Now I know spring is here; our hummingbirds came back yesterday.  They sure have me trained; I went right in the house and made a batch of food and they were guzzling before dark ...

Thought I'd show in pictures what's been going on around here recently.  First!  Here are before and after pictures of the library desk I got when mom moved from independent living to assisted living.  Neil White took it home and applied some TLC and presto-chango, I now have a beautiful piece of furniture for the great room to replace the gun cabinet (which moved to Michigan).  Now I just need to find a nice mission-style or Tiffany-style lamp to go on top.  And perhaps a chair?  We'll see ...

BEFORE

AFTER

Margo and I went to Greencastle to the Fiber Event a couple weeks ago.  It was just a gorgeous day and Margo went the entire afternoon without a break to sit down (after having both knees "replaced" this winter).  Yeah for her!  I kept asking her if she needed to sit down but she said 'no' ... really it was ME who needed to rest.  LOL!  Supriseingly, neither of us bought much.  (I still can't believe it.)  And it seems like usually it rains or blows or something for that fair, but this year it was just perfect.  Since I'm a rug hooker, I was disappointed that there weren't more rug hooking vendors.  But I crochet, too, so you'd think I would have bought at least one hank of yarn ... No, just some oatmeal soap.  We had lunch before at Almost Home and I must say, that was some good Key Lime Pie I had there.  I'm ready to go back! 

Just some of the beautiful yarn and gorgeous fiber products we saw in Greencastle at the Fiber Event.  There were three buildings of vendors and outside vendors, too.

Couple weeks ago I went to Indy to pick up the remainder of the rug hooking "stuff" Rita C. sold and gave to me for distribution at HHRHG.  Here's the truck with the bed full as well as the back seat!  Lots of recycled wool but I'm sorry to say that about three bags of that went to the trash.  But there are now three bags left of recycled wool and five tubs of patterns and new wool to take to Guild this week.  I couldn't have done any of this without Wendell to go along to help.  Thank goodness I didn't take my car and go alone!!

Rita has stopped hooking and this is the second "load" of rug hooking supplies I've received from her.  I think this is all of it now.  She just saved enough to keep as a personal hobby; she had been a teacher for 25 years.  Just a very talented woman -- besides her hooked rugs, her home is filled with her other art -- painting, sculpture, quilts.  Impressive.

Next week will be a busy one for me, giving a lesson on fondue to Braysville Extension Club Tuesday, co-hostess of my own extension club Wednesday, hooking at the library Thursday, set up for the fiber fair in Washington Friday, the fiber fair itself Saturday, and Sunday I'm the lead for our quarterly church fellowship dinner.  (Man, I'm tired just typing that ...)  So pray for me; I'll need it.  I keep saying I must give something up and deciding which is difficult.  But I need to make a decision.

Have a great week!