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The Van Gogh Chair Challenge.... it's about time right! Kirsten had the great idea to describe the project and really broadcast here in the blog! Firstly, this challenge is Barbara's idea, and below is the original post from our Facebook group (Rug Hooking & Punch Needle Club):  #vangoghchairchallenge This challenge is inspired by Deana’s presentation on Van Gogh and one of his paintings, “Van Gogh’s Chair,” 1888. “Van Gogh’s Chair” is considered to be both a still life and a self-portrait. The chair is made of wood and rusk representing a person of modest means and the pipe and tobacco...

Cape Cod I've been back over two weeks and still haven't unpacked my suitcase. Somehow it seems too real to put all those gauzy cover-ups and sundresses into heavy Connecticut drawers. There are only a couple Cape Cod swatch sets left, and although I'll always keep the individual colors in stock, they were so time-consuming to produce as a set, I probably won't put them out again until next summer. Like the sundresses, they're bound to go into a drawer for a little while anyway.  I never got a chance to walk you through the colors behind the set; I...

If you saw Coffee Time this morning you know I'm trying to work out a pattern I can hook as a gift for my brother-in-law. He's a German with a strong Irish accent because he learned English in Ireland. He's curious about EVERYTHING, loves kitschy U.S. history, roadside motels,  cocktails from Chinese restaurants, old time beach resorts, the Superman skyscraper in Providence, vinyl records... and he's very VERY interested in my hooking projects.I've given him a hand knitted sweater that says 'Heavy Metal', a handmade ukulele, an album of vintage motel postcards, and now I'm hitting a wall. I noticed...

Last week my mom and I took off on our first post-Covid (not that we're really post) adventure to Cape May. We went an entire year in 2020 without doing our CONSTANT jaunts to historic houses and sweet little towns for meals and good times. We missed those times terribly over the holidays - all those beautiful old houses we always visit, all over New England, dressed in garlands and evergreens. Well, this is the year (God willing) we reinstate it all. A return (as Norma Desmond would say)- a renaissance (as Michelangelo would say). I was actually reinstating and...

This weekend was rough. Isn't Springtime supposed to be filled with gentle breezes, little crocuses and daffies springing up in the grass as I step? Cinderella birds twittling around my head, songs like 'Lavender's Blue' dilly dilly? Well, I tried to hunker down. Working on orders is a godsend during rough times; it makes me feel like I'm really building something. I'm a mom AND I have something of my own again. And it's something I love, so that's a Huck Finn life raft for sure. (Moon River, wider than a mile, I'm crossing you in style, someday...wherever you're going,...