Blue Is A Busy Dog

Have you finished your Christmas shopping yet?  Here is a suggestion for you!  My own Blue dog has been a busy guy.  He is the poster child for our fundraising campaign  "COATS FOR KIDS" which is raising money for coats and warm clothes  for the children of our area.

I wrote this children's book about Blue and all his activities.  As you may know, Blue is a store dog and a theatre dog and a therapy dog and a reading dog…..etc, etc.  I hired a wonderful artist, Jana Sesow of Lincoln to do the illustrations and they are beautiful.  Shown here, right, is a painting showing rug hooker Colleen Cochrane and Blue.  Blue likes to help the rug hookers in the store by hiding his ball in their baskets of wool. He then barks at them until they find it and throw it for him.  Big help, Blue!!!!!!

So this very pretty book with 10 illustrations, is for sale for $20, postage and shipping are included.  Help the children of our area get warm clothes for the winter and see more of Blue's adventures!  All you have to do is send me your address, I will send you the book and then you can send your check for $20.  Absolutely all proceeds go to our "COATS FOR KIDS CAMPAIGN".

Our rug hooking Christmas Party is Saturday Dec 12 from 10-5.  Join us for a fun day of rug hooking and friendship!

Merry Christmas
Janice

RETREAT COMPLETION

 Our 2016 Rug Hooking RETREATS are done, and a wonderful time was had by all who attended.  Two weeks ago, we had Diane Stoffel and Pris Buttler here for class.  Diane's students made some beautiful rugs and in Pris' class we did these fabulous footstools.  The one on the left is Pris' footstool, the one on the right is my finished project.

Both Diane and Pris will be back next Oct 28,29,30 2016 and sign ups are in progress NOW.  Diane's class is open and Pris will offer an open class AND the footstool option again.

My little baby rug, shown on top, was completed in
Donna Hrkman's class last weekend.   The baby is my little darling Quinn, of course she is more beautiful in person, but my little rug shows her adorable  personality.  Donna specializes in portraits, both human and animal, and her students did some marvelous rugs.   Donna will back next Nov 11,12,13  along with Kathy Morton of Oak Ridge Cottage Rugs.  Kathy has a wonderful pattern  line and is a terrific colorist.  Sign up now to take class from Diane, Pris, Donna or Kathy.  I guarantee you will have a marvelous time!

I am already reminding people we will have our annual Christmas party (hooking and eating and hooking and eating)  on Saturday Dec 12 from 10-5.  Dec 5 will be first Saturday hooking, from 12-5.  Join us for some holiday fun!

Soon…..Janice

More Heirloom Rugs

 As promised, here are a couple of rugs from our Heirloom Rug Workshop.  Of course, they are only partially completed, but the ladies all got a lot done is only 3 days.

On top is Erin Schulz' tulip rug, a design from The Sampling.  Erin tore and cut strips and her rug looks marvelously old.

Jeanette O'Brien hooked this Maggie Bonanomi design.  She also tore and cut strips.  Her flowers and flags are terrific and the bronze urn may be my favorite part of all.

These experienced rug hookers really embraced
the idea of making rugs that look 100 years old, a task that is really harder than you may think!

I will show you their projects again when they are completed.

In the meantime, remember Donna Hrkman will be here November 13,14,15 for a retreat weekend.   Contact me if you are interested.  I have a few spots left with this fantastic teacher.  Hook a face or primitive rug, she can tackle it all.

Janice

Heirloom Workshop

We just finished a terrific 3 days of rug hooking with a great group of ladies.  This was my Heirloom Rug Workshop and these brave souls came together to make their truly 'ugly bug rugs'.

We have all been hooking some really beautiful projects.  Detailed faces and landscapes, 3 cuts for detailed minutia  have become common place for this group of former 'primitive' rug hookers.

The point of this class is to hook like a prairie hooker.  I wrote a book outlining 15 different techniques you can use to make your rug look 100 years old.  This year we took it a step farther.
These ladies had all taken the class before, a time or two….or many times.  So this year I raised the bar.  Now they could't just make a lovely primitive rug, using their 15 techniques.  NO…..now they had to make it down right homely.  I told them to hook like their children's feet were cold.  Hook high, hook low, hook like you are 9 yrs old or 90 years old, just get it done.   Commit to a decision, don't pull it out.  That prairie hooker made mistakes, ran out of wool and didn't have time to fuss with every loop.  EMBRACE IMPERFECTION was our mantra.

Well guess what?  They are awesome.  The look old and homely and used.  Each of these fabulous rug hookers did the seemingly impossible and made a wonderfully ugly bug rug.

I will show some partially done projects in my next post, but had to include one more picture.  Blue gets to attend class too, although he slows down progress by insisting every hooker take a turn throwing his toy.  This was one of the best moments of the 3 day class.  Pat Shafer, who is a highly regarded rug hooker, Celebration finalist and teacher of a dynamo face class here in January and February, made a rug for her dog Tucker.  Now, it would not be out of line  for me to tell you that Pat is a beautiful rug hooker.  I mean….her rugs are BEAUTIFUL (and she is beautiful her own self).  This homely rug concept kind of makes her cringe.  She is a game gal, tho, and hooked a great whale rug in last year's class and really grew to like it.  This year she chose the Woolley Fox pattern RAGS and decided to hook it for a rug for her beloved Golden Retriever Tucker to sleep on.  It is a great rug, full of rusts and plums and it was a difficult challenge for Pat to make it homely.  But she kept on course and this rug has many of the elements we attempted to include in the rugs, with great textured wools, no shading, no details, just simple shapes.

At the end of the day, Pat threw her rug down and we all came round to admire it.  Pat said, "My only concern is that Tucker will not know it is for him, how will I convince him it is his to sleep on?'  With that, the big Poodlie Blue dog came and plopped down on the rug.  He snuggled, he curled up into as tiny a ball as his extra large self could accomplish.  He laid out flat, he arranged himself in every possible direction on this rug.  He knew he had an audience of course, we were all laughing at him, which just egged him on further.  It was as if her was going to show Pat that THIS was exactly how her dog was going to like this rug.  Thanks Blue and Pat and Tucker.  It was a great way to end the day.

Soon…
Janice

Fantastic Weekend

We just spent a fantastic 2 days with a great bunch of rug hookers at our 'Hook-in Weekend' event.  We hooked all day yesterday and today, just for the fun of it!  We had perfect fall weather, cool and sunshiny.  Kathleen Salak taught us how to crochet a binding on a rug and Sandy Weller taught us how to make a pillow from our favorite hooked project.  Pillows….ok…sure.  Crocheting, YIKES, that was hard, but Kathleen was a great teacher and with a little practice, I might be able to do it.  Sandy gave us a great hand out with all the details to make our pillows.  Thanks to both Sandy and Kathleen for the classes.

Shown is Hidden House, a pattern I hooked in a Maggie Bonanomi class.  I know I have shown it before, but it is just a nice fall rug, I had to use for my blog tonight!

Oh…and just so you know…..the winner of the $100 gift certificate (all you had to do is make a purchase this weekend to be put in the drawing) was JANICE NAVRATIL.  Congratulations Janice!

Next time I will show you my NEBRASKA rug and tell you all about that project.  Can't wait.

Janice

More Holiday Patterns

 Here they are…the last of the hook-in event HOLIDAY PATTERNS.  On top is CHRISTMAS HOUSE and below is FEATHER TREE.  Both of these patterns will be available at our hook-in weekend event.  You can order ahead to make sure your pattern (or patterns) will be ready for you on Friday Oct 2 after the Omaha hook-in or Saturday Oct 3 for our all day hooking party.  We will hook until 10pm on Friday night and open bright and early at 9am on Saturday and hook until 6;pm.

You can now order:

Long Lean Jack
Bad Ass Jack
I'm Melting
4 Pumpkins 4 Sale
Sunflower
Christmas House
Feather Tree

Each pattern is $48.  Check out the last few blogs to see all the finished projects.  Here comes the fun part…..at our hooking weekend party on Oct 2 and 3, I will have 1/2 yards of every imaginable color needed for the projects.  Then we can tear off just what you need.  These will make wonderful gifts or holiday projects for your own decorating.

AND…..on Saturday Oct 3, Kathleen Salak will teach us how to crochet the edge of your project, instead of our usual binding.  Kathleen's class will be at 11am.  At 2pm Sandy Weller will teach how to turn these projects into a pillow.  Both classes are free!

Hope to see you at our weekend event Oct 2 and 3.  It is free and fun for all.

Soon….
Janice

Bad Ass Jack

3 Days in a row, blogging!!!!  Beate will be so proud of me.
Here is another in the fall event pattern series.  This guy is one I drew a few years ago.  I call him BAD ASS JACK (can I get in trouble for blogging that word?)  if so, we can just call him BAD JACK.

Bad Jack is 14x14 and hooks up in a skinny instant.  I used Sweet Potato Pie for the pumpkin, Spunky Monkey for the background and  one of my favorites, Moose on the Loose for the tree.  The green were just pulled from my noodles bin.

I think this would make a great pillow and Sandy and I are going to try that tomorrow.  Did I mention that Sandy has agreed to give a little tutorial on making a rug into a pillow at the hook-in event.  She will do a demo at 2pm on Saturday.  Thank you Sandy.  I know how much you hate public speaking.  But you do such a beautiful job we will all appreciate it soooooooo much.

Maybe I will have another done for tomorrow.  Who knows.  I think it is time for a Christmas pillow!

Janice

More fall patterns

As promised, here are two more of the patterns for the fall Hook-In event here at The Rug Hooking Store on Oct 2 and 3.  These patterns are $48 each and all you need to do is call or write me, to reserve your pattern.  janicelee@me.com  or 402-359-2699

On top is I"M MELTING.  As you can see The Wicked Witch of the West pushed Dorothy too far.  Splashed with water, all that is left is her hat and her own green self melting out underneath  You can see her castle with the rising pumpkin moon, all for Halloween fun.  This pattern is 15 x 17.

Below is 4 PUMPKINS 4 SALE.  Please note 2 ghosts floating thru the sky.  Leave off the little faces and you have 2 clouds, if you prefer.  This pattern is 14X14 and the perfect size for a little mat or holiday pillow.

Want to see more?  Check back tomorrow.  I am on a blogging roll…2 days in a row.

Janice

Hook- In Weekend

The Omaha Hook-In will be coming up Friday October 2 from 9-4 at St Robert Bellarmine Church, 120 and Pacific.  As you know, I no longer 'do' hook-ins, but this should be a fun one to attend.  After the hook-in, you are all invited to the store for a fun weekend of hooking.  We will hook until 10pm on Friday night and then start up again on Saturday from 9 to 6.  There will be food, a drawing for $100 Gift Certificate from The Rug Hooking Store and much more.

I have been drawing up fun fall patterns that will be available at our special hook-in weekend.  I will show the first two today and will show more tomorrow.  There will be about 8 of these small, easy to complete patterns.  I have hooked up 5 of them, so far, and they go quickly.

The top pattern is called LONG LEAN JACK.  The pattern is 12x15.  I picked a poisony green, mustard gold, violet, orange and black for the striped background.  It went so quickly, I almost completed it during 3 episodes of Breaking Bad, my latest binge watching addiction.  I am thinking I will make him into a pillow, perfect for Halloween decorating.

The bottom pattern is 15x15 and I call it SIMPLY SUNFLOWER.  This was fun to hook!  I used three golds of very different values.  The center on the sunflower was done with a gold that was over dyed over a dark black and white texture.  I alternated that with a rich golden brown, in a higglety pigglety style to get the chunky look of the sunflower center.

These patterns will be $48 each.  I have already started a list for people who want a pattern or patterns.  I will have them all ready by our hook-in  weekend event on Oct 2 and 3.   Call or write to order!  Janice at 402-359-2699 or janicelee@me.com

More soon,
Janice

Hooked Houses

Dear Blog Followers…..
I should be admonished for not blogging more regularly.  And although I have a million different excuses, like there was another pot of wool that needed to be dyed or Blue needed some attention, there really is no excuse.  I could promise to be better about my blogging, but no one would believe it at this time.

However, I have made some nice rugs lately and thought you might like to see them.  The top photo shows a Lori Brechlin design from Kris Miller's Spruce Ridge Studio.  Kris was here teaching a class in June and this was my class project.   I love the sunflowers and outhouse and the bright blue door.  All of Kris' patterns are great and I have a zillion of them here in the store to choose from .

The bottom rug is the second of the rugs I color planned with Maggie Bonanomi when she was here in May.  The first was the floral with the bunting shown in my last blog.  This HIDDEN HOUSE pattern is a charmer.  We strayed from my usual color palette and went with chrysanthemum and pink mums, persimmon and sittin' pretty.  The greens were blue greens, yellow greens, poisony greens all mixed together.  I used Maggie's method of tearing each strip wide, then hand cutting it in half.  It gives such a uniquely primative look and I actually find the hand cutting sort of relaxing.  Who KNEW?  I whined and complained about it enough when we first started, but grew to LOVE it.

It has been pointed out to me that I do whine and complain a lot when doing something new or difficult.  This became most immediately apparent during the July Diane Stoffel class.  I did the hardest rug I have ever tackled.  And….according to all who attended, whined thru most of the first two days.  Was that me?  Yes, I guess it was.  I will try to blog soon to show you the difficult little devil of a rug.  It is all done now, and looking at it, I think….what was so hard.   With Diane Stoffel standing next to you, everything seems doable.

Did you hear we are having a 3 day hooking weekend starting tomorrow.  This is FREE to all, we will potluck lunch and finish our unfinished projects, to get ready for more of the wonderful classes we have coming up this fall.

Pris Buttler is here for the annual MASTER CLASS this September.  Then I will do my yearly HEIRLOOM RUG CLASS in October.  The Hook-In Weekend will be Oct 3 and 4, with lots of great hooking here at the store after the Omaha hook-in is over.   Then Oct 31 Nov 1 and 2, Diane Stoffel will be here to teach, along with Pris Buttler for the RETREAT, then Nov 13,14,15 Donna Hrkman and Ali Strebel will be here for their RETREAT weekend.  Contact me if you are interested in signing up for any classes.  We bring in fantastic teachers every month.

All for now.  There is wool on the stove, better go.
Janice

Class/Kisses

Our Maggie Bonanomi class last month was terrific.
We loved Maggie, we loved her patterns, her color style and her unique hooking technique.  I tried to follow everything she recommended and the rug to the right is the result.  I love it!

She brought many one of a kind patterns and we all went nuts over them.  Some people had her help them color plan 3 or 4 rugs.  I got her help color planning 2 patterns and bought 5 more for the future and to have here at the store.

I love the bunting on the urn of flowers.  The colors are so soft, faded and worn looking.  Just like an old flag should be.  Of course, I have lots of wool here in the store that Maggie likes to use!  She picked Persimmon for the red, Grease Monkey for the blue and a textured birch bark for the white.  Gloriously dirty and old looking.

The flowers were a mixture of marmalade, dijon and pumpkin pie.  The background was a mixture of textured and mottled Spunkey Monkeys.  It made for a wonderful faded, dark blacky brown background.  The urn was Itty Bitty Moose, another favorite here at the store.  Loved it, loved the class, loved Maggie.  She is coming back next year for a 2 day rug hooking class and a 1 day appliqué class with an original pattern drawn just for us!  Can't wait.  Thanks again Maggie.

Now in case you have been wondering what Blue and I have been up to.....we just finished our therapy dog training class, 10 weeks with Domesti-Pups.  Saturday was the big testing day and the Blue dog passed with flying colors.  He already had his Canine Good Citizen rating, but had to take it again along with the advanced Community Canine test too.  Of course he is a genius and he and I take our higher education very seriously.  We start 3 months of supervised therapy visits in nursing homes and then in the fall, we will also be in the
'reading pups' program, where we will  be assigned  several students at our local elementary school who need help with their reading.  They say reading to a friendly canine listener can make reading fun and something to look forward to, for the young reader who may be struggling.  Blue and I can't wait for our first assignments.  We plan to work with 3 kids, every 6-8 week session.  

In the picture, Blue is giving me a big slurpy kiss for being his best friend and driving him around to all his fun classes.  We start Rally class tonight and have agility on Wednesday.  He is agile.....I am not....but there is much to be learned in every class.

See you soon,
Janice

Maggie Bonanomi is coming!

Exciting news!  Maggie Bonanomi is coming for a 2 day class next week, Friday and Saturday May 15 and 16.  Maggie will bring along her patterns for you to choose from and color plan from wool here at the store.  I know all her favorite colors and there will be plenty to choose from.

If you don't know Maggie, you are in for a treat.  She has a really beautiful color sense and her style is primitive.  She has wonderful books out and promises to bring along some of those too.   Her creativity is endless and the ideas will flow, I guarantee that.

The two day class is $185.  Please contact me if you would like to attend.  It will be a fun time for sure!

Email me at janicelee@me.com or call at 402-359-2699 for more information.

Soon….

Janice

Finish Your Projects Weekend

Guess what we are doing next weekend, April 17,18,19??   We are having a FINISH YOUR PROJECTS weekend here at the store.  Join us to finish up some of your projects, and get ready for some new ones!  The weekend is only $50, Carl will make us lunch and we will have a relaxing 3 days of rug hooking, chatting and fun!   We have room for a few more…..so going us!!!!!

You may have been wondering what the Blue man has been up to lately, and frankly, he has been very busy.  A few weeks ago, we started a Competitive Obedience class at Companion Dog Club in Omaha.  The teacher is awesome and we are really enjoying that class.

Last night we started classes for Blue to be a certified therapy dog, thru Domesti-Pups.  After classes and testing, he will do a 3 month trial visiting nursing homes and assisted living facilities.  When he graduates he will be ready to go for nursing home visits several times s month.  Blue is already my official theatre dog and store dog, this will be a new adventure for us.  Blue loves children and old people (after all, his mom is an official old person, difficult to admit but true, haha).

Blue loves going to these classes as much as I do.  I think he knows he is pretty awesome and always a well behaved boy.  I have learned so much in the competitive obedience classes.  I had no idea of the detail and nuance expected of these dogs.  But Blue is a game guy and tries his best at everything.  I couldn't ask for a better dog.

See you soon….
Janice and Blue

Hayden's Rug Complete!

This is Hayden Moss, one of Leah's voice students that I taught to hook over Christmas break.  Here is Hayden with his finished rug, a great little star with an very nice coral and turquoise background.  Hayden left it with me to bind, maybe as a Mother's Day present for his mom.  (I am actually going to try to talk Sandy into binding this one…..it is so winky, Sandy could do it in a flash)

Hayden spent quite a bit of time with me here in the store in the last few weeks.  He was a member of our cast of MUSIC MAN at The Elkhorn Valley Community Theatre.  He played the part of Tommy Dijlas, his favorite voice teacher (my daughter Leah) played Marian the Librarian, and I played Mrs. Paroo……therefore playing my own daughter's mother in the show.  We had a wonderful time on stage and during the rehearsal process, but also had some fun on the nights that Leah and Hayden stayed over at my house, between shows.  On Sunday afternoons, Hayden had plenty of time to work on his rug….and VOILA…..it is done.  Congratulations Hayden!!

Till next time….
Janice

Hooking Faces

I have not been blogging lately, but I certainly have been doing a lot of hooking.  These two rugs are from 2 classes we had here at the store.  Please excuse the slight distortion, I photoed them on the floor and it always monkey's with the top of the rug.

The little dancing girl is my daughter Leah, age 5 at the time.  I tackled this project in Pat Shafer's face class in January.  Leah loved wearing make up for recital, so I wanted to emphasize the blush and mascara on this little doll.  The face was a breeze with Pat's excellent tutelage.  The tough part was the ruffles.  Who knew.  I particularly enjoyed the tile floor and striped wallpaper.  I drew in lots of straight lines before hooking, so I could keep my stripes straight.

The picture above shows my son Will, at about age 5 with his little red rope.  He got that rope at age 2 and it was rarely out of his hands for the next many years.  He was dangerous, for sure.  If you moved, he roped you.  Even if you didn't move, he roped you.  I got used to having skinned shins and bruises on my legs.  Of course I threatened him within an inch of his life, to get him to stop, but after a brief reprieve, he was always back at it again.  He roped the dogs, the cats, his sister, dad and the various customers at his dad's training stable.  One of the customers, Sandy Weller is the person who took this picture.  Sandy is also the one who talked me into taking my first rug hooking lesson with her in 2001.  I didn't want to learn to rug hook at the time, but am certainly glad I went along for the lesson.  I loved it with my very first loop.

The little roper rug I tackled in the Diane Stoffel class we had here last weekend.  I blew up the photo, and transferred it onto the linen with red dot.  Will's face was fun to do, because not only did we have to get the shading right, we had to make it look dirty as well.  Diane is the master and she lead me thru the process without too much whining on my part.  In the background of the picture, you see Will's dad and another roper, heading and heeling a steer.  These were little tiny figures, but with the 3 cut, it was fun to do.  Diane helped me with the sky process before she left and I tackled the dirt by myself. She pulled the colors during class and we decided to make the dirt in short strips.  No hooked line is more than 4 or 5 inches.  It really help give the variegated look.   Dirt should be easy to do, but as I found in last year's cowboy rug "The End of the Day"  dirt can present it's own hooking dilemma's.  

The little roper's face is a 3 cut, the rest of the rug is 4 and 5 cuts.  Little Leah's face is 3 cut and the rest is 5,6 and 8 cuts.  I have to admit after all the wide cut rugs I have made, I am enjoying these narrower cuts too.

I have more rugs and more pics, but I better wait till tomorrow.
Bye for now.

Janice

Santa Face Class

We have had Santa Face Classes for the last two Saturdays, here at the store.  Pat Shafer teaches them for us every January.  Here is my Santa face from yesterday.  It is a Spruce Ridge pattern.  Most of the ladies hook those beautiful Santa faces from Kathy Morton Mullvain at Oak Ridge Cottage Designs.  Since this is my 4th Santa face class and I have already done 4 of Kathy's designs, I picked this one from Kris Miller's studio.  Kris is coming to teach a workshop in June and we are all excited to work with her for the first time.

Pat Shafer is a wonderful rug hooker, who just happens to be a former china painter and artist.  She breaks doing these faces down into easy to understand steps, complete with visual aids and take home extras.
I must say, that each time I do a face, it becomes easier to accomplish and less intimidating.  I love this beautiful Santa and will enjoy completing the rug.

When will I be completing the rug????  Well on Downton Abbey Day of course.  Tomorrow, because it is MLK Day and many people have the day off, we decided to spend the day with our favorite things…….rug hooking, rug hookers, Downton Abbey and FOOD.  We will start at 9am and watch until we are thru with the whole season….we think around 6pm.  Fortunately, Jeanette got this season and is bringing it out for all to watch.   Carl and I bought a new, bigger, TV for the store at Christmas time, for this very reason.  I can't wait to see what will happen with Mary and her suitors, and that darn sister of hers with the disappearing baby daddy.  Of course, we know Thomas will be making trouble somewhere, but will they finally catch up with Bates for the unfortunate accident involving Anna's rapist.  My head is spinning……I just can't wait.

If you happen to be available tomorrow and would like to come watch with us…..you are welcome.  We have 13 coming and I am sure we could squeeze in a few more.  Just remember, we will all be speaking with a British accent by the end of the day.  Even Blue will bark in Cockney.

Can't wait…..

Janice

Brand New Rug Hookers

 Happy New Year!  I hope you all had wonderful holidays.  We had a terrific time this Christmas.  Carl hates the holidays, but my daughter Leah and I make up for it because WE LOVE CHRISTMAS!

Leah borrows some costumes from me, or actually, The Elkhorn Valley Community Theatre, here in Valley.  She often brings her students along to help load or unload or just to have company on the drive.  They stop at the store to get the key to the theatre, so I know many of her students from their performances at Leah's theatre in Lincoln, Theatre Arts for Kids, as well as their visits to our theatre and the store.

Several of her students expressed interest in rug hooking, so Leah asked if I would teach them over the holiday break.  I said SURE…..as long as Leah learned too.  This was very funny to me, because Leah has longed expressed NO DESIRE to be a rug hooker.

So here they are….8 kids, Leah and Shelley, a mom who came along to drive.  Little did she know that she was going to learn to rug hook too.  I drew simple stars on linen, cut up bright colors of wool and let them pick their colors.  They were 5 to 14 in age, and all did a fine job.  Peggy, above with Claire, is a foreign exchange student from China.  I am not sure she understood why she had been kidnapped and drug off to learn rug hooking, but she was a champ and did a fine job.  Our only boy student, Hayden was the one most interested in rug hooking and he did a great job too.  He is a leftie, so I had Ken Petersen, another leftie, come show him how he holds his hook etc.

Because I have the best rug hooking group of ladies EVER…..I asked several to come out to help….you know, more eyes, more hands.  Well, Pat Shafer, shown right with Ken and the kids came out, as did the mother/ daughter team of Jackie Brown and Jeanette O"Brien.   Sandy Weller, (a real lover of small children haha) came too, always game to help.  I noticed she stayed close to Leah the whole time for protection. They were all wonderful, patient teachers and we all enjoyed it as much as the kids.

I had to include this picture below, right.  This is Maddie and we should all look so happy while we hook!!!!!!!

Of course, no trip to the farm would be complete without a visit to the barn.  It was a miserably cold day, so the horses didn't get turned out that morning.

Perfect….so they were inside and happy to be visited and petted by this rug hooking gang.  Hairy, always the gentleman, was first and stood patiently for all to pet.    Next we went to Ava Crowder's stall.  Ava took one look at all those kids and must have decided that her life of leisure being Carl's personal mount was all over.  She was a lesson horse for a while in the last few years.  One look at all those kids and she went and stood in the corner.  I think she was happy when they left and she was unscathed.

Last but never least, was Tooey, pictured on the bottom.  Tooey is a girl who knows what she wants.  When it is dinner time, she bangs the stall door til dinner arrives.  When those kids walked in the barn, she started in.  Banging the door, while we paid attention to Hairy.  Banging the door, while we took our passing glance at Ava.  Then it was her turn.
She fairly oohed and aahed at those children.  She would have
stood for days for their attention.  You can see her at the bottom with little Maya.  Tooey is just soaking it up.  Fortunately Tooey missed the comment, when one little girl said "Oh, she looks like a mule".   Hmmmmm…..well in the winter her chocolate buckskin self, does get light around the muzzle.  We didn't mention it again, so as not to hurt Princess Charming's feelings.

If you need to brighten your day….I recommend teaching children to rug hook.  Or at least teach THESE children to rug hook.  It made for a marvelous time for MAN, WOMAN, CHILD AND BEAST!

Remember, 1st Saturday hooking is tomorrow January 3rd from noon to 5.

Auditions for Music Man are Sunday, January 4th at The EVCT at 6pm.

Pat Shafer's Santa face classes are on Saturday Jan. 10th AND another one on Jan. 17th.  Write me for more info.

Pat Shafer is teaching 2 weekends of REAL FACE classes in Feb, the 7th and 8th and the 14th and 15th. Bring a picture of any face and she will teach you to hook it.

Wayne Kalal is going to teach an ART and COLOR class on January 24th.  This is $50, lunch included.  Wayne will talk about everything color, value, perspective etc.  This is a wonderful class for all rug hookers, to incorporate what painters know that we should know.  Great class, wonderful teacher.  Bring a problem rug along for problem solving.  Contact me at 402-359-2699 or janicelee@me for more information.

Whew…that is is for now.
Soon…
Janice

PS  Leah turned out to be the most perfect and meticulous rug hooker you have ever seen.  Far more persnickety than her mother.  See Leah….I knew you would be a GREAT rug hooker.  What do you want to do for your next project?