In progress pics

A couple more in progress rugs from camp...

Andrea's roses

Carol's Sparhawk


Sharon's rooster
Sheri's koi pond (her design)
Lisa's circles
Bonnie's angel
Carla's secret garden



A great time was had by all! The gals that put this on did a fantastic job!! The food was wonderfulllll!! There were sweet little goodies in the morning at your spot to greet you - all hand made by Sue, that put a smile on your face the minute you walked in!
The lighting was wonderful in the room - surrounded by windows - they found a perfect location! Couldn't have been any better!
Thank you Sue, Carol and Andrea! And Jayne!! :)

Surgeries and Rugs

Good morning!
Well there was a large change of plans the night i got home from rug camp! My MIL had rescheduled her knee surgery to the next morning - monday! Yikes! So it was scramble scramble scramble to get everything in order for the next day - who would take care of Calli, other kids getting instruction so everyone was in the loop.
We left at 5 am to go to the hospital, and she was in surgery by 7:45 - and unbelievably out by 8:45 !!! Normally it's several hours long!! She had had some big complications with the anesthesia and narcotics last time, and they were able to adjust all that this time and she came through with FLYING COLORS!!! Wow what a difference it was this time around! :) And it was just a day of trying to recover from having her body cut open, and all the drugs. Hard!!
I didn't get home from the hospital until about 8pm last night - and promptly crashed!! I was exhausted!

Seems like there hasn't been even one day without stress and major things to do, since the beginning of May! And it all caught up with me last night. LOL I think i was more comatose than my MIL last night!! haha!

So today is blessedly quiet. Thank God!!
I plan on taking a long hot shower, and then hooking on a traveling round robin rug so i can get that in the mail today. Also hoping to get an inventory done on my ecrater store, and get a boatload of wools listed. One can hope right? :) Somethin to shoot for!

I did get some hooking done at the hospital yesterday. Got three different portions hooked in of the background. Slow but sure. I can't wait to see it finished - i think it will be really cool when it's done!!
We all had a great time at camp!!! It's official!! We LOVE JAYNE!!!! :D
She is a wonderful teacher, that has an incredible eye for color and value in the primitive sense!! And she is so down to earth and "real" - can't help but love her! LOL!

I will leave you with a couple of pics ... this is Sandy and Jayne working on Sandy's rug. They were discussing different ways to hook the big lollipop flowers. They decided on a medium value hit or miss in the same color family. I learned soo much by watching Sandy's and Sue's rugs grow - the same design, being hooked totally different. I think Sue's rug is the closest to what I thought i would be doing in Jayne's class (color and value wise - more neutrals than color) - so it was a blast to see them hooked so differently! This is Sandy's rug..... you can see she hooked up that lollipop flower - looks great, doesn't it?!?!? The whole rug is medium values with a dark background - looks sooo old!!
And this is Sue's rug... omgosh YUM!!!!!!!!!

This was taken on the last day, and she had gotten some background filled in. Hers was hooked with different values of lights, bordering into the lighter shades of mediums, with a dark background, and focusing more on neutrals.

I can't wait to see what the next class does!

I will post more in progress rugs through out the week :) Hope you enjoy!

Bright blessings !

Rug Camp

Just wanted to pop in and say i am having a WONDERFUL time at rug camp!! Jayne Hester is a GREAT teacher (as i knew she would be!! woohoo!!) She has such an amazing eye for old and primitive, and color and value placements!

This is the last day of camp.... sadness!

I will post pics of my rug in progress probably next week. Monday i will be getting orders out that came in the last couple days. Tuesday i will be listing GOBS of gorgeous new wools on ecrater and etsy. And the kids get out of school on Weds. So I should be able to hook by Weds or Thurs night! LOL!

Ok.. gotta shower and get ready to go! Have a wonderful day!

xo

Bren :)

Gavin Graduated!

Holy cow!!!!! Life is sooo busy right now!!
Yesterday my son Gavin graduated!!!!!!!!
wooohooooo!!!!!!!! Praise God!!!!!!!!!
HE DID IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :D

I can't even begin to tell you how proud I am of him! And i wish i had a bit of time to wax poetic on how it seems like just yesterday that i was dropping him off to his first day of kindegarten!

Seriously - it does feel like just yesterday!

(And the thanks to the stress of the last two weeks and the coming week i have a cold sore on my lip that is so large, it has it's own zip code!

Holy cow.)

But what's important is that HE DID IT!! He made it!

Most kids.. that's a no brainer, and they are off to college. But it was really touch and go whether he would accomplish this. So yah, this is a big deal! LOL!

Congratulations Gavin!

We are SO proud of you!!

And now, I need to focus on TODAY and get my butt in gear!
I will be away the next three days at rug camp - starting this morning!

I am soo looking forward to it! But i guess it would help if i actually had my wools and frame and pattern gathered up and ready to walk out the door in the next 2 hours! haha! I have not had one moment to even think about it the last two weeks! So racing around this morning trying to get everything together and ready to roll, shower (still yet to do) and make myself presentable!

Woohoooo!!!!!!!!! Let the good times roll !!! :D

Hope you have a very blessed day, friends!

I won a giveaway!!

Oh my gosh, look at what i saw this morning when doing my morning "blog roll" !!

I had just opened Michelle my belle (Allen Designs) blog, and only saw the top half of this little girl and the "winner is" - and thought oh my gosh she is soo creative - even with announcing a winner!!! Then i scrolled down and saw MY NAME!! Holy cow!

I was soo surprised! And shocked! And excited! LOL

hee hee I felt like a little kid and was doing the happy dance! :D

Needless to say it made my day! Too fun!

Well the last few days have been busy. I haven't hooked for several days, until last night. I will post a photo of my small progress in the morning when I have some decent light. Don't get too excited - snot a whole lot done yet! LOL

I had a wonderful Mother's Day.

Danny bought several bouquets of flowers and put them in all the places of the house that i frequent. The kids woke me up with breakfast in bed (how fun, huh?!) We got ready and went to church, and then my wonderful husband took us all out for a picinic in the park, with KFC chicken and chocolate chip cookies (healthy, eh?lol) and then we all played basketball! It was sooo much fun! :) Forgot the sunscreen though so we were only able to stay about 2 hours. Then we came home and the kids mowed the lawn and started to weed the garden. And danny took me out for an all you can eat crab leg dinner!!

Oh my heart be still! LOL

I have been hankerin for that for weeks!! Tasted soo good!

And then the week kicked in and i've been chasing my tail ever since.

My son Gavin is graduating tomorrow morning!

wooohooo!!!!!!!

I am so excited for him, and totally proud!

I hope it all goes smoothly, and I hope he feels like a million bucks tomorrow - holding his head high with a sense of accomplishment!

My rug camp with Jayne Hester also starts tomorrow, but i will be foregoing the first day, and joining in on the second day. I still have to get everything gathered up for that!! Ack!

But i am soo looking forward to learning from her! I love her work, and i just know it's going to be a rockin awesome class! I will report next week what i learned! :)

That's it for now.

I'm going to leave you with a photo that i love!

Bright blessings,

Bren :)

Christ is represented as both these animals throughout the bible. The lion - He is power and authority, and the lamb - He was the sacrificial lamb, also symbolizing his total submission to God's will.

I was reading Isaiah 11 & 12 today, and for some reason i had always remembered that passage to say that the lion will lie with the lamb. But it doesn't! It says the wolf will lie with the lamb. So i went looking for the passage that i thought i remembered! LOL I didn't find it! But i ended up in Revelation 5 about the scroll and the lamb. I won't quote it all here, but i loved how the commentary brought it all together!

"Christ the Lamb won the greatest battle of all. He defeated all the forces of evil by dying on the cross. The role of Christ the Lion will be to lead the battle where Satan is finally defeated. Christ the Lion is victorious because of what Christ the Lamb has already done. We will participate in his victory not because of our effort or goodness, but because He has promised eternal life to all who believe in him."

Are you ready? What if the rapture happened today or tomorrow? Can you comfortably say you are ready? Or has God been knocking on your door for a while?

If these questions make you uneasy - there's a reason!

I pray that you will search Him out!

<><

Basketball Championships

Emily's basketball championship game was early this morning - and i went and forgot my camera!! So I used my phone to snap about 6 or 7 photos - they didn't come out toooo badly! But.. i seem to have lost about 4 of them!? Mebbe my phone was "full" ?
Regardless.. at least we have a couple, right?!
I was too busy cheering during the game to take anymore pics-lol

And guess what?

THEY WON!!!!

They are the 7th grade girls champions of the district.

It doesn't go any farther than that, like state champions etc, until high school.

The girls started out very similar to "the bad news bears". LOL And over the short season have grown sooooo much as individuals and as a team! It's awesome to watch their progress and growth!! They were fantastic today!

Congratulations girls!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm very proud of you!!! :D

(this one was of them practicing right before the game)

my daughter is number 13

We came home and picked up the house a bit, i ran gavin to work, stopped to pick up some lunch on the way home, visited with my mom and she took the kids swimming today! Woohoo! The first swim of the season! Granted... it was windy and raining (cold) so they went to the indoor pool - but they sure didn't seem to mind!

I had a blessedly peaceful afternoon, and then got dinner going and delivered mother's day gifts to my MIL and came home, had dinner and just got the kids to bed! Phew!

Looking forward to a nice day with my family tomorrow :)

Happy mother's day to all of you moms out there!!

You're awesome - and don't you ever forget it!

xo

bren :)

Calli turned 6

It was Calli's birthday yesterday. She is now a 6 year old!

Wow i can't believe how time has just sped up the last several years! Wish someone would slow the clock down just a bit!

We had her party in mcdonalds, as this is such an awkward age - not old enough to do other cool stuff, (like roller skating, or putt putt) at least not in an organized way! lol We needed room to run and play - and I needed a place that I didn't need to clean before AND after! Good thing... there were three spilled sundaes... two spilled drinks... and cake icing everywhere. ! Holy cow.

All her last parties were done at home, with 6-8 little ones running around and bouncing off the walls! LOL This year i knew what i was up to, and what i wasn't! haha! She had a great time, and was thrilled to have her friends with her!

We invited the kids to dress up in their favorite costume - just to "spice up" the "mcdonalds experience" a bit. And all kids like to play dress up!

This is Calli and Donald.

She has a crush on Donald! She was thrilled he was there yesterday!

She can read her own birthday cards now! And wow did she!

LOL the perfect goofy picture of my perfect little IMP!!!

This is a TRUE FACE of Calli!! LOL

Beaver day 2

Ok, don't laugh at my funky beaver! LOL

You know it's slow goin, and things don't always look like they are coming together, but they are! I only got to hook for about an hour last night. So didn't get tons done. But remember this beaver is like 2 feet across! him's BIG! :D

There are going to be many different browns in this rug, and not tons of "color". The flowers will have color and the fence... and the tree.. everything else is different tones of browns. Should be fun ! Shooting for a very aged antique look.

OH! And on the lemon cake note -

Emily must have seen the track back on her lemon cake! LOL! Apparently it WAS supposed to be 1 1/2 cups of flour. haha! I knew something wasn't right! But.. ya know i just don't bake often enough to recognize it right away!

Thanks for letting me know Emily! Check out her darling blog - she's so fun and so creative!

That's it for me today. I have to get off the computer and get busy!! Hope you all have a very blessed day!!! :D

Ramblings

Well i was going nuts, not having something to work on! So I started this rug that I have been itching to do! Here is how far I got last night. I will post progress pics as i go along. It's not huge, 24" x 36" and I should be able to get a little bit done each day and have it done in a week or two - IF i get time to hook each day! LOL This is what it looked like a couple days ago. This is why i don't start my garden until late may, early June! I LOVE this kind of snow! Big big clumpy flakes - the size of cotton balls densly falling from the sky. It's magical!! And today... is going to be in the 70's and warm and sunny! LOL I love Colorado!! :D
Well i got my calendar done for May and part of June. I know have forgotten some things.. and for the life of me cannot remember what they are. Hopefully they aren't HUGE things!!

Got Calli's birthday party scheduled, and got all the invitations written out yesterday, and handed out this morning. So that's done! Yay!

When i am feeling overwhelmed, sometimes it's the simplest things that help! Being able to make a list and accomplish one thing at a time and getting to cross it off and seeing that list grow smaller helps me to not feel sooooo out of control. Know what i mean?

Even silly repeating occurances like dishes and laundry, they still need to be done everyday, and being able to cross them off and have a clean kitchen helps me to focus better through out the day!

I'm battling yet another migraine "session". This is the 4th day, and i'm just praying it will go away and it's nothing serious. Hard to get things done when your head is pounding so badly. But i'm not one to lay around moaning. LOL No.. i'm the idiot that just keeps trying to push through it and keep moving. I don't know if that's a good thing or not? haha!

I saw a yummmyyy looking lemon pound cake here, the other day. And started salivating!

So I made it the other night!

Hmm...

didn't turn out so good :(

It didn't rise. LOL

See how pretty and TALL hers is?

Mine was about 2" high! lolol

I double checked the ingredients. Everything went in!

So... either it's a high altitude thing... or i messed up... or there's something off in the recipe.

Wondering if it was supposed to be 1 1/2 cups flour? and not 1/2 cup?

Bummer too - my taste buds were allll waiting and ready for that lemon cake!!

Van done!

Yay! my van is done being fixed!! I get to go pick it up this morning! woohoo!!

It was the starter. Apparently it engaged and never DISengaged, and caught fire, consequently frying out all the wiring along with it. :(
And for the unbelievably cheap price of $$$$$$ i can go get it today!

I tried to hook yesterday. Depserately wanted to hook on my BHR, so started on one of the borders. I got about 14" x 8 inches hooked.. took it off the frame and .. NOPE!!! It's gotta come out! Which would be fine.. if i knew WHAT exactly i was going to do with it! But what i just hooked isn't working. Donchya hate that? So i sat and stared at it last night. Unfortunately that didn't change anything on the rug. LOL But i thought it might jump start seomthing IN ME. Nope. That didn't happen either! LOL!! I was sooo in the mood to hook, and had nothing to hook on! Almost went down and drew out another design to start on! But since i have TWO sitting here unfinished, i just couldn't allow myself to do it. Granted, one is a "year long" project. And the other i am completely stuck on, and it will require a few hours of playing in the wool in the broad day light (so i can see actual colors) so unless i start a new one, i will have nothing to hook on. But unless i finish that new one in the next two weeks, i will be starting a long runner with Jayne Hester as my teacher. haha.. see my conundrum?
Do you think my "need to create" has anything to do with my stress level right now? hahaha. It is after all "that thing i do" ! :D

Calli is turning 6 next fridaythe 9th.. and i am trying to plan a birthday party for her with 13 kids.
Gavin is graduating on the 15th. My camp starts on the 15th running thru the 18th. Planning dinner parties, presents, and the calendar for this month has got me a bit tense. Emily's bball tournaments are on the 10th. We have to have their summer camp funds in by the 11th. They are out of school on the 21st, and grama is having knee surgery on the 27th.
SHOOT ME NOW???
Trying to get at least ONE thing finished and under my belt so i can move onto the next one!
Good news is i DID get my windows washed!! LOL!
Ooh and i made blueberry muffins last night for breakfast this morning. Kids were thrilled!
Hope you have a blessed day, and can keep your sense of humor thru the rough parts! :D