On The Move

 Can Spring be here finally?

Well the March winds sure have arrived.

When I left my mom's yesterday morn,

the waves were at least 5 feet or more

crashing over the break wall on Lake Huron.

Thursday night I found out you could see

the Northern lights as far as 2 miles

south of my mom's.

Unfortunately Friday night the clouds

moved in so I could not see them.

A day late and a dollar short as they say.

The February winds

forced me to leave my back room for work.

I move my desk to the living room

and we closed off that room for now.

While sitting there during the day now,

I noticed the sun come out after many

cloudy and/or snowy days.

Now don't get me wrong.

I so love seeing the sun in the Winter.

It males me more happy,

however I digress it was shining right

 on my delicate early sampler.

Although I do not know how old this is,

it was stitched on a silky linen

which was often the linen choice of

early samplers from the 1800's.

Well after I saw this...

the sampler had to be moved.

Move it I did.

Since this is the sampler I use for most of

my stitching pillows, I needed to save it

from the scorching sun which was fading it out.

Will show you later where it was moved.

In other news,

Mary from 

Windy Meadows Farm blog

asked me if the wool for my rug was cut.

I purchase wool in various sizes.

While most rug hookers have a cutter

to cut their wool into strips,

I hand cut mine.

When Bob and I vended antique shows,

I always purchased my wool from a lady

who sold her wool at the show.

She was from Missouri and I wish I new her name.

You see here in Michigan where I live,

not many wool stores to be found.

Those that do only sell solids.

Am running out of my stash now.

Need to find some soon.

On my way up to my mom's,

I visited my two fav antique friends shops.

I bought something from each.

Will show you in another post. 

Tundra was so excited to see me back.

Bob said he did not even sleep in the bed

like he does when we are both here.

He is a bed hog. LOL

Well we are off to work the stores.

I also have to check in some Summer inventory

that arrived on Friday.

On The Move Blessings To All!

Janice

Are You Ready For An Update

Hello friends.

I am really loving hooking this rug!

Since I am only able to hook on weekends

when I am at the store...

not much was accomplished the first day after

my last update.

I had to do inventory and check in more inventory. 

I was only able to complete the Woman's head,

hat and collar.

The next day it was snowing,

so I was able to accomplish more

with hardly any customers coming in.

Started the dress in a tweed-like wool.

Blues, reds and white.

I also reverse hooked the collar.

I felt the gray I first had chosen

washed out and there was no definition.

I like the darker green I chose.

Yeah I know I dont like green, but in person

its hard to tell this is a green wool.

Here is the wool I chose for her dress.

 I used the same green for her riding gloves.

Saundra added lines in the bottom part

of the dress to show the direction to hook.

I took advantage of these lines to add in a darker

wool for an added rendition. Also hooked one row

to the left in the same darker wool.

Was going to redo the dress buttons

that I did as French knots...but heck this 

makes it more primitive.

Well this is my update of

Woman On Horseback.

My last post had her as a Lady.

I realized Saundra wrote the name on the linen. 

DUH

The green at the bottom was the shirt I was wearing.

I was bent over a bit at the store when taking this last pic.

You can also see my black shoes. 

In other news,

my mom's eye appt went well.

She usually spends a few days with us,

but this time wanted to get back as her

church was doing a soup and bread dinner.

Everyone brings a soup to try while others

bring homemade breads.

Sounds wonderful.

She was making cabbage soup.

(I love this veggie soup) 

Tomorrow I go back to the same eye doctor.

Bob is having another peripheral vision test.

Hopefully his left eye is getting better,

but my gut is telling me it is not.

Since my mom left early,

I will head to her house Friday after work

and spend the night with her this time.

Gives us more time together.

Well have to get to work now.

Update Blessings To All!

Janice

 

Sneak Peek Of Spring

Hello friends.

Today's post are pics

of some Spring decor up front

at our gift shop.

Bunnies have been hopping out

at a fast pace.

I purchased lots of greens and flowers

for this year's Spring decor.

These large cement girl heads 

have already been hit.

I only have 2 left.

I added some faux onion grass to this one.

A grass sphere to the smaller one.

I think there are only 2 or 3 dragonflies left.

White lilies in a galvanized vase.

The sign is metal and 2 are left.

It's bunny season!

The lil birds are hopping a ride on this bunny.

I only have one of these left.

Wish I could buy more, but Easter orders

are done 6 months in advance.

I actually took a pair of these bunnies home.

I loved how they look like they are made from wood.

Bunny bookends.

A bunny pic all written in French.

Took one of these home too!

In other news,

Bob and I had a quiet St Patty's Day at home.

Chicken noodle soup & grilled cheese sandwiches.

Crocheted a bit more for a Christmas item

my mom told me about.

She will be coming down on Monday,

so we will do dinner out.

Usually she spends a few days,

but this time she has something planned

for Tuesday night at her church,

so she will leave in the afternoon. 

Well Tundra. Bob and I are all headed

to Tim Hortons and then work the stores.

I have Summer inventory to check in

that arrived yesterday before I open.

What are your plans for the weekend?

Spring Sneak Peek Blessings To All!

Janice

Hooked Me Some Eggs

 

Hello friends!

So back in January I decided to pick up

my hook to make some hooked Easter eggs

for the gift shop. 

I dont have a serger, so I always have to whip stitch

my linen so t does not fray.

I really don't like green,

but it is most appropriate for Easter eggs.

Same for pink and purple, but great for

Easter eggs.

The back of each egg is this white wool.

I only hooked 5.

However I did enjoy hooking them all!

In other news, we have had snow and/or flurries

every day now.

Snowed all day yesterday.

Bob has to have a sleep study soon.

They are concerned his breathing may be

hindering him at night and he may need a cpap machine.

Hope everyone enjoys their St Patrick's Day.

We will stay home and do nothing.

Easter Egg Blessings To All!

Janice

A Tisket

 

A Tasket

A Green and Yellow Basket

(Ella Fitzgerald)

I love baskets!

Since Easter is approaching,

I decided to play show and tell on my baskets.

Not Easter baskets, but baskets in general.

Did you know that early splint baskets

were made from either ash or oak?

These were formed in a woven fashion from

wet splint wood such as the above basket.

All three of these baskets are splint ones.

You can tell an early one from by a newer one

as the older ones are much heavier.

The older ones are all woven too.

I also loved how this one had a hand carved handle

which was also woven in to the top.

You wont see this in baskets today.

The next baskets I would like to talk about are

rye baskets.

Did you know these baskets were mostly used

in bread making?

Our foremothers would make their bread dough

by adding a linen piece to the rye baskets,

and let the dough rise.

All rye baskets were formed by coiling

wet rye grass around a strand of rye grass 

to form these baskets.

The coil would always start at the middle and

the weaver would work the coil around and around

until forming the basket of their choosing.

Some were deep, while others shallow.

This next basket is called a feather basket.

When collecting goose and duck feathers,

it was necessary to have a lidded basket

so your feathers would not fly away.

You would lift the top to add your feathers.

Gramma B had a basket like this one.

(this was not hers)

I helped collect feather for her so she

could make feather beds and pillows.

They were the best and warm in the Winter months.

In the early days our foremothers

used their aprons to collect eggs.

Vintage wire metal baskets were created to hold eggs.

It was thought that eggs would stay more fresh

if they had air circulation.

There are all types of sizes and shapes to these.

I dont really see the practicality of the chicken

 shaped one though.

Growing up on my grandparents farms,

one of my chores was to collect the eggs each day.

While at gramma B's I grabbed a large

enamelware bowl to collect the eggs.

She had about 50 hens.

Now at gramma H's, I used an egg basket

similar to the one above as she had about

250 hens.

Gramma always helped helped me and we needed 

a bigger basket.

This particular one one I use in my bathroom 

to hold our toilet paper rolls.

In other news,

we lost 6 treasures two days ago.

Back in the 1800's a club was built on one of our islands.

It was created for the doctors and lawyers

in the day to take their families to the island

from Detroit for weekends and vacations.

A steamer named the Tashmoo would set sail

from Detroit and make the trip to the island,

and then also stop at different ports along our 

mighty river before going back down.

The Tashmoo also stopped about a mile from our house.

Where I currently live was considered

a Summer home residence too.

The Old club itself was built on land, but the many

cottages to the South were all built on stilts.

Each cottage was painted a different 

color and it was the first thing folks saw

when entering the channel from Lake St Clair.

You could only access if you had your own boat

or travelled on the Tashmoo.

In the 1940's they built a bridge from

Harsen's Island to this private island,

however access is still only for members.

Since the cottages were built over water,

they also built wooden docks to get to them.

These were eventually replaced by steel ones.

I found this pic on the internet of the cottages.

Six of them burned and all that is left are

the docks. A total loss.

At least a few of the cottages were saved along

with the club itself.

The winds that day caused so much devastation.

Well it is snowing right now.

We might get another 6 inches.

Hope everyone enjoys their weekend!

Basket Blessings To All!

Janice

What A Cmbo

 Hello friends!

Hope all is well with you in your neck of the woods.

The last snowstorm we had there was 

Thundersnow with it.

As soon as I saw the first lightning 

then heard the clap of thunder I knew what what it was.

My daughter called and said can you believe it

mom I just saw lightning and heard thunder

 and it is snowing hard.

I told her yep, thundersnow.

The last time I had seen this phenomenon 

was back in the 80's. 

Fortunately we only got 4 inches of snow.

My mom got 8.

More goodies I created for the store.

Baby carrots.

All of the orange ones have been spoken for already.

I still have a few white Winter ones.

These were packaged in threes.

I also packaged some grass.

Placed some in the back room,

while others were scattered around the front. 

You can see some of the Easter eggs I crocheted

to the left.

Some I even added to these cute wheelbarrows.

These were also packaged in threes.

All different colors.

Then I decided to crochet some in just

colors of normal eggs.

I know there are blue and green eggs that hens lay,

but just did the whites and browns.

Perfect for my prim lovers.

I so love the colored ones though too!

Like I said, many color combinations to choose from.

The regular eggs were also packaged in threes.

So glad my gramma B was able to teach

 me how to crochet.

Its funny though, the stitches I was use to working on,

are called totally something different now.

The younger generation it seems does not want to

give credit to their foremothers with the names

of their stitches.

A granny square is now called a Farmhouse Square.

A picot stitch is now called a chunky stitch. 

Magic circles replace chaining and joining to form a circle.

Now also called Modern Crochet.

I guess we should be thankful that there are those

Tik Tok influencers out there are showing off crochet.

I myself am now crocheting strawberries at night.

For Autumn I will once again crochet

 more pumpkins and acorns.

Also some mushrooms this year.

My wool ones from last year were a hit.

All sold out.

Would like to try new ones for this year.

In other news,

Bob's eye appt did not go very well

His peripheral vision is still not getting any better.

Very frustrating, but the ophthalmologist 

keeps saying its not even a year since his stroke.

It takes time....but what happens if it dont come back?

Well off to work.

Hope everyone enjoys this new week of March!

Combo Blessings To All!

Janice