Summer

 I've been trying to work a bit on my rug each evening. The edges are now outlined and I"m slowly outlining each object. I do want to outline the trees before I start the background by them. That way the trees will have the exact shape, and (hopefully) no need to reverse  hook.  Now that summer school is done, I'll have a few more hours to play around.

 Today is rained! My youngest was so excited that he and his friends did a dance outside. We've had a some rain in the past week, so shady parts of the lawn are green. Now yellow. Not tan. Not brown. But green. The sunny parts are still brown. Even my hostas are dried up. My annuals haven't liked the hot, hot weather. I've given up trying to keep some of them alive. But, a few have survived to brighten up the yard.

 I've been job hunting for the past couple months. It's a tough market out there. It takes a lot of time to search on line, and then fill out online applications. Gotta love the ones that have lengthy questionnaires attached to them. After spending a hour filling out just one application and questionnaire, it's quick to reject you. I'm hoping the right job is out there - one that is close to home, high pay, and something that I enjoy. Maybe I should just play the Lotto instead??  :)

~*~ Laura ~*~

Rug Progress

Now that the yellow areas are completed,  I've started working on the background.  I'm using about 5 different textures, and really like the look of it. I was getting a nice variation of black, greys, brown, and a hint of green. But, I thought it needed a kick of something else. So, I took a blue that I had and tried a few pieces of it. it goes better than I expected! I really like the look of it being old and primitive, with lots of color variation. I'm hoping I have enough of the dark wools to complete the entire background.

It's just been WAY too hot to work on the rug the past couple weeks. A week ago, we had temperatures that exceeded over 100 - yuck. My hubby and youngest boy were at scout camp that entire week ~ outdoors in the heat. I'm surprised they came home in good moods after having no air conditioning for the week.  Now if we can get some rain, as my lawn looks like a hay field.

I did start another project of adding some trim to the door leading to the garage. It's a flat, metal door. Kinda boring if you ask me. I had some leftover trim (I bought the wrong stuff when trying to repair the deck when the squirrels chewed through the screens.) that was just waiting for me to use it. I adhered the trim to the door with some Liquid Nails.  I tried to miter the corners, but didn't do a great job. A little bit of caulk in between the gaps fixed that easily.  I now have a door that has a paneled look. Now to paint the door, plus the rest of the foyer. I can't  decide on colors. Decisions, decisions....

* Perfect *

 Yesterday I  went in search of a yellow wool for my snowman rug. The yellows I had at home were just a bit too dark, too gold. I saw a piece of wool I really liked, but it was bundled in a kit. There was a similar wool, but not as yellow. I thought it would do, but after getting it home, I decided I didn't like it enough for the sections I needed to hook. So... I took a chance and put the new, mottled wool into the dye pot with just a hint of yellow dye. My sample strip came out better than I expected. So, I put another section of wool into the pot, and it came out  *perfect*! I lovely shade of yellow, with hints of tan. (so much prettier in person). You can see the before piece, and the after piece that has been  cut into worms.

 I hooked all the sections that needed yellow last evening. I love how the yellow makes the blue jacket pop.

Next up is the background and the trees!

~*~ Laura ~*~