Cape May mini-Tour

Yes, there really are more rugs to come but thought I'd give you a treat and take you back in time with a tour of the Victorian hotel The Chalfonte.  It has quite a colorful history which you can read about here.  AND, to share a little time with me and my gal pals.  

I mentioned that Deb, Char and I sit on the...oops OUR "Veranda" in the evenings.  Unfortunately there was no one to take a picture of all three of us together so I took pictures of them and Deb took a picture of me.  These were taken the afternoon of the 25 year celebration of Rugs by the Sea at The Chalfonte.    This is me toasting and saying "CHEERS".  

The building behind me is another Chalfonte property and where Joan, Annie and others rug hookers stayed.  They were there celebrating also.  They could hear laughter coming from the veranda on Thursday evening when Kris, her sister and we three were snacking and chatting.  Joan said she...."wished she could have been a fly on the wall', but all she had to do was come join us ~ HEY..... it is open season on party time at Cape May and all are welcome.

And here is my roomie Deb toasting with her glass of bubbly Champagne while looking up something on her iPad.  Frankly, I forget what it was but hey, if I had an iPad I'd have one on my lap all the time.

And our sweet Char, who balked at getting her picture taken.  I've lots of pictures that she ruined with her juvenile behavior since she hates having her picture taken.... but won't post those.  She is a dear sweet woman, as is Deb and it is a treasure for me to have both of them in my life.  So....  here is Char who is talking to Deb and I caught her off guard with the photo taking.  She also has a glass of Rose' wine for the 25 year celebration.  

There is a room on the lower floor and to the left of the registration desk which has vintage phone booths and and olde timey phone.  Just had to take pictures to inspire me for maybe a future rug..... and I do have some plans.

Oh dang, sorry about that.  I wish that when the camera is tilted sideways, and even when I go to paint program and upright it in my view it still doesn't post it properly.  If any of you computer savy people know what I can do I'd love to know.  Send me a personal e-mail to saundra125@comcast.net.

But here it is up close..... hey, I remember the old dial shape but not this old.  This is a beauty for sure.

This is only part of the camp store.  It is set up near the dining area to tempt us as we stand in line at lunch.  Oh..... wool, patterns, antique paisley, jewelry, flower pins and other hooker needs.

And, in the Secret Garden, which is an access route to the ice machine, and between the two hooking rooms (which house two classes each) this is only part of the visual joy.  Actually, there is an additional sink above what you see but it would require me to either back up or tilt my camera.  Uh, and you know what happens when I tilt my camera, you have to lay on your side to see the pictures.

Thanks for stopping by to see what is going on in my humble life.  And YES there really are MORE pictures of rugs finished as well as those which were started at camp.  But thought perhaps you'd like to see a smidgen of the Chalfonte.  Maybe next year I'll take pictures of the climb to the tower and other interesting areas which we have investigated.  Deb, Char and I vowed to re-visit the tower this trip but we didn't get there.  Seems we're getting tired more early.  Even Deb commented that years past we used to stay up until after midnight and sometimes one ~ uh, this year I think we were in bed by 10:30.  BUT..... BUT.... we DID PARTEEEEEEEEE.

Thanks for stopping by and sharing the fun we had at Cape May.

Saundra

More Rugs from Cape May Show

Yesterday I showed you some animal rugs but there were more... this one has a whole lot of animals in it.

And this is Mr. Iggy which is a free pattern in Rug Hooking Magazine; I just love it.  And to the left is part of my log cabin rug that I started last year in Kris Miller's class.  I didn't take a picture of it since you had seen it before.

And feathered friends are animals too.

Okay, maybe this isn't feathered NOR a friend, but it winged and sure is cute as the dickens.  I've hooked this mat and sold it but this one is hooked by Kris Miller.

And here is another 'winged' friend.

Yes, there will be more pictures coming up tomorrow.  In addition to more hooked rugs from the show I will eventually have pictures to show of what we had accomplished from Monday to Thursday afternoon in our class.  So stay tuned and thanks for stopping by.

Saundra

Cape May Rug Show

There were lots of wonderful rugs on display for the show this past week, too many for me to put here so will be posting more tomorrow.  This is a proddy baby bear rug that my friend Char did.  It was done with all the bad wool that one starts saving when they first start their stash, thinking that any wool is good to use.

Two years ago Char also hooked a larger Mama bear for their mountain cabin and it was on display at Cape May.  So Joann Hendrix captured it in her rendition of the Chalfonte and outside rug display, you can see it among the rugs in the foreground.

Since I'm on the theme of animals I'll post a few here and hopefully you will be able to see the hooker's name and design on the tag.  Just double-click and it will enlarge the rug.

The eagle rug was wonderful but since it was on a table was hard to get the whole rug in the photo, so took two other pictures of them.

This pup with his ears blowing in the wind was adorable!!!!!

There were two of us who hooked the E.S. Frost sheep rug and this one was by Susan Foley.

This one was by me.

There are more rugs to show and I'll post them tomorrow.  Hope you have enjoyed the show so far.  Thanks for stopping by.

Saundra

Cape May a Mini Installment

I am slowly going thru the over 100 pictures taken at Cape May, reducing the size, cropping some and changing the name from the DSC number to a name, so it may take a while for me to post the rug pictures you are so interested in.  

Plus, today this gal was very busy ~ I drew out dozens of patterns, designed two patterns and drew them out.  So tomorrow I'm shipping out 43 patterns with still about 75 to go.  And THEN, I cut the grass, walked Ben a few times and I'm quite tired so am ready to stop and pull a few loops.

Finally had the great opportunity to meet in person, in the flesh, Joan Strausbaugh a/k/a fishgirl.  Joan was in Laura Pierce's class but her friend Annie was in Bev's class working on a 5' 10" Santa.  Yup, you read that right.  The Santa is going to be on a dummy board and he will be 5' 10" and quite an undertaking.  You will eventually see what Annie accomplished from Monday until Thursday afternoon once I get all the pictures named.

However, for all of you who are wondering who our friend Joan Strausbaugh is, she is on the left and visiting her friend Annie in Bev's classroom.  Most everyone else is hooking on the porch but there are a few of us still hooking in the room to the left.

This is Bev with some of her class, second in from the left (in the blue).  Again, a lot of students have chosen to hook on the porch in the rocking chairs since the weather was so great and a nice breeze.  

Another shot of same group.

I still have lots of pictures to re-size and rename before they can be posted.  So let this be a teaser of things to come.

Thanks for stopping by.
Saundra

Camp Rug and Ducks Rug

Honey's, I'm HOME!  

Got home late yesterday afternoon and Ben was waiting for me at the house/garage door since he could see me when I pulled into the driveway.  I gave him a huge long hug around the neck and lots of rubs and he licked me from head to toe (Ben loves to give kisses).  Camp was loads of fun, as usual, and I'll talk more about camp when I have more time. However, did want to post a couple pictures and say, "hi" to everyone. And, needless to say, I've not had time to read anyone else's blog so am sure I've missed out on a LOT of good pictures and information.

This is the rug I started at camp; it is called Wee Folk and is a design of Vermont Folk Art Rugs.  This rug will stay this way for a while because I want to finish the Ducks and Egg Nest rug, need to finish up the sheep rug someone wants me to hook for them, and have over 100 patterns (smallish ones tho) to draw up for someone who needs to kit them up and ship before the end of October, so I'll be quite busy.

And this is just about finished.  I haven't checked for vacations on the back yet plus I'm rethinking the nest colors.  My plans were to take some creative license with the nest because it had a lot of black in the nest in the original antique, which I didn't want.  When I put it on the floor to look at it again was thinking that maybe the ducks and nest would flow better if I pulled out the most yellow of the wool in the nest and replaced it with the duck color.  So if you have an opinion I would love to hear your thoughts.

Took lots of pictures and have lots to tell you, but tomorrow I MUST cut my grass so not sure if I'll have time to spend that much time on my blog, however I might post a few pictures.

Thanks for stopping by and will post more later.

Saundra

Cape May Tomorrow

Tomorrow I'm leaving NLT 9:15 a.m. since I need to stop and get ice which will chill the white wine so it is ready to drink when we gals check in our room.  Yesssss, we will sip it on OUR veranda and chat about happenin's we've missed sharing since Barb Carrol's this past May.

Here is a picture (left to right) of me, Char and Deb at Cape May last year.  We have SO MUCH fun together and hang out the whole time.  Yeah we each do our own thing too; Deb and Char both like to walk the beach in search of the perfect beach glass and stones, and we all three love looking at the Victorian and colorful Bed and Breakfasts in the area as we walk to the shopping area.

Since the Chalfonte is a Victorian hotel it only has one room with a TV and shows are decided among those who go there at night to watch.  Well, not us three.  Deb (far right) brings a small TV/DVD player and we bring a bunch of DVDs and decide which movie we want to watch that night.  We share snacks, drink wine, laugh, hook and have a merry time in our room.

More boring stuff.... I did get my van washed and my Mag wheels are sparkling bright.  I made sure to wash the van before the severe thunderstorm which is forecast.  Also managed to get most of the house vacuumed and dusted before Ben's sitter comes to stay.  But must say I'm exhausted and will sleep like a baby tonight.......I HOPE.  Because I want to get up early and pack the cooler, pack a lunch to eat on the ferry ride over.

Yeah, they sell burgers, chips and stuff on the ferry but I'll be eating enough that isn't normally in my diet for the next five days so plan to make a green salad, take a banana, apple, water and healthy snacks.  My girlfriends make fun of me and even my neighbor says that I eat "twigs and berries".

I'm running low on energy and gotta finish what needs to be done so guess I'll say TA TA until I return from Cape May.

Thanks for visiting.

Saundra

One Day and a Wake-up.....

.... before I leave for Cape May.  But before I ramble on about that, I know how all of you look forward to looking at rugs so thought I'd post a wide cut hooked rug of my departed Rottweilers Shumba and Panzer.  The other day I posted a picture of them hooked in #3 cut and as soon as that was hung on the wall I immediately started hooking a wide cut, primitive rug of them.  Just had to get it out of my system and prove to everyone that you can get some detail with #8 strips.  

Shumba measures 13" tall and Panzer is about 14 1/2" tall, both hooked in #8 cuts.  Yes, I've very proud of that narrow cut piece and even incorporated some of their own hair which I saved in a bag when I would groom them during happy days.  Then I had a friend spin the hair on a narrow core of wool.  That wool/hair combination can be seen at the neck where the color changes.  Hard to see in the picture (from the other day's blog) but very easy to see in person.  Frankly, I think this rug shows the essense of who these great dogs were.  So here is the wide cut:

You can see my Townsend Orbiter on the floor, two small totes with wool for my rug, but already in the van is a container which holds those rings with samples of all the wool I'm taking.  So the totes of wool will stay in the van and I'll only pull out larger pieces of what is selected for the rug...saves time unloading and loading back up .

Also the OTT light is patiently waiting in the back of the chair, there are some items I'm taking to 'hopefully' sell at the camp store ~ flower pins in the long vintage sewing machine drawer, some pouches for snippets or hooks with a magnet on top to hold scissors.  Then, inside that patriotic sack are 10 rugs and mats that I am taking for the show display.  Good grief, that is the most I've ever taken in one year.

Suitcase still has to be packed because I'm watching the weather to see what kind of wardrobe will be needed, my Townsend cutter is still upstairs and being used before I go so HOPE I don't forget to take it.

Now, I'm going to talk about Blogger.  Yes, they are generous to give us free blogging capabilities, but sometimes it drives me NUTS!!!  Nuts I tell you!!!!  Somehow my blog spot disappeared between yesterday and sometime this morning.  Even I couldn't find it.  I did notice yesterday that I was given a box to put my telephone number in and I refused.  So here is what I surmise......

First must tell you all that I HATE the word verification thing.  A lot of times the letters are so squished together that you can't tell an 'a' from an 'e', or an 'f' from an 'r'.  Sometimes the numbers are so blurry they are hard to detect too.  So I do know that on some blogs where I tried to post a comment I didn't get the letters right so it prompted me to another series of  letter/number combinations.  Maybe that is what happened and Blogger wanted to verify it really was me and not some stupid robot trying to decipher the numbers.

Anyway, this morning I did put in my phone number and had an automated return call giving me a code to type in a box which gave me my blog back.  So people, let me say that from this day forward I will not make any comment to any one's blog who has that stupid and hard to read word identification.  There, nuf said and glad I got it off my chest.

Thanks for this visit and this girl has to get of'n this machine and work more toward getting ready for camp.  TA TA.

Saundra

Prelude to Cape May

Even tho it seems like an eternity, it has only been one year since last rug camp at Cape May.  I'm sure that I've previously posted about the 'hidden messages' technique that Bev was teaching last year and it would be in last September or October 2011 blog.  While I wasn't in her class last year she spoke about the technique at mealtime and was interesting.  But just in case you didn't see that post I'll do it again to let you know what a part of our class will include.  You can see my initials and date hooked into the the Rottweiler Memorial (Shumba and Panzer) hooked and seen from the top.  The initials were before the divorce when I took back my deceased husband's last name of Porter ~ yeah, more than you needed to know.

However there is a way to hide initials as well as secret messages that can be seen from the back and won't destroy the beauty of the front.  An example would be a rug which Bev hooked for her daughter's Wedding Rug.  This is what the wonderful top looks like.

The full message hooked says, "Life isn't measured by how many breaths you take, but rather by how many times it takes your breath away." 2010 Ashley Jeff All my love bmc

I don't plan to do a whole long message but will put my initials and date so it can be seen from the back and not the front.  It does take a little more effort to do Bev's technique but you can definitely see the benefits.

Thanks for visiting.

Saundra

Labor Day Weekend

Hard to believe it is September already and this time next Sunday I'll be in Cape May for rug camp.  So this week I have this pig sty to clean before my house/Ben sitter arrives, wash the van before loading it up, make the requested chili for my house/Ben sitter and other miscellaneous and boring duties.  I'm looking forward to the packing for camp but not the cleaning.

A couple weeks ago I read with envy a post on Rugs and Pugs that my friend Lauren posted. She met her friend Ann at Sauder where they exchanged gifts ~ Ann received the spoon necklace from Lauren and Ann gave Lauren a hand woven basket.  Oh my but I turned green with envy and posted that jealousy on Lauren's blog, even mentioning that I almost weakened and bought one even tho I've as many baskets as I have patterns to hook.

Well don't you know that I received a personal message from Ann inviting me to do a swap for a basket.  She mentioned three patterns she liked and I offered to draw them in exchange for a basket.  So look at this beauty that arrived in the mail yesterday for me!!!  It will go to Cape May with me filled full of wool and goodies and I will proudly strut my stuff with my stash in the wonderful handmade basket by Ann of 1803 OHIO FARM BASKETS.  

Ann's swap request was to get the patterns for:  School Primary, Cat and Bowl of Flowers.  Then she wrote back saying she'd changed her mind and chose the Crow purse instead of Bowl of Flowers.  Well, I misunderstood, and thought she had changed her mind on getting patterns to hook but instead wanted the finished purse, so that is what I sent.

However, when her great basket arrived with a card, she wrote ....'that she was looking forward to hooking my patterns'.  OOPS!  I had goofed!  So it seemed she did want 3 patterns (School Primary, Cat, Crow Purse pattern),  but I'd sent her a finished purse instead.  I offered to have her return the purse and would happily draw the patterns for her to hook but she said she would rather keep the completed project instead, if it was okay with me.  Well of course I was more than thrilled and to have the opportunity to make a new friend and have a handcrafted basket by her as well..... thank you Ann!!!!!  If you are interested in checking out Ann's items on etsy, enjoy, she does wonderful work.

And, speaking of the holiday weekend......Labor Day 9 years ago really was a Labor Day for my delightful and sweet daughter-in-love when she gave birth to my grandson Zachary.   Here he is blowing out the candle on his cake.

I hope you all have a safe and happy holiday weekend.  Thanks for stopping by for a spell.

Saundra

Lion, Ducks, Dog and Air

Yes I totally understand the order of words used in the title but FIRST...let me get to the AIR part.  Thank goodness I am enjoying the luxury of air conditioning and just in the nick of time.  The last couple days has only been in the upper 80's but today exceeded the 90 degree point with elevated humidity so this expensive endeavor feels worth it. Okay, okay......

To the LION.  Since I wanted to take the Lion rug to Cape May for the rug show and departure time is getting close finally HAD to work on the binding.  So here is my beauty.  I never seem to be able to pull the corners just right or stand just right to get the perfect picture.  Oh well... here's the king of the jungle.

Now to the DUCKS.  Perhaps many rug hookers fall in love with their new project and I'm no different.  But there is something about this rug from the very beginning that beckoned me.  As I hooked the last few leaves my initial response was to pull out the loops and hook another color.  But decided to just keep it like it is, wait and decide later.  So this will remain unfinished for a bit longer.  Here is a picture with a flash.

And here is a picture in natural light.

There are a few reasons I'm putting this aside.  One is that I need something to hook while awaiting Bev to come to me for color planning my camp rug so will hook in the background and the other foot of the duck on the right hand side.  The other reason is that I've been commissioned to hook a small rug/mat for someone.  I'd really like to start that here where I can concentrate and have my wool available for color planning.   But won't take it to Cape May.

Okay, NOW to the DOG part.  Now what dog do you THINK I'd be talking about????? That would be my Benny Ben.  My wonderful adopted Rottweiler.  The A/C workers here were not threatened by the big boy but he WAS a menace since he wanted to be their best buddie.  So Mom had to intervene and take him for walks and put him on the back porch from time to time.

But here is my big boy living the good life in a climate controlled home.

I love this boy dog.  He is such a gentle giant; loves people and will run past adults to greet the kids.  This was a very wonderful adoption and I've had him about 11 months now.

Tomorrow is September 1st, which means there are only 8 days and a wake up before I leave for camp!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  YAAAAA HOOOOOO.  And, I will go to bed tonight also in a climate controled home..... aaah, Life is Good!!!

OH, I need to buy another LIFE IS GOOD tee shirt when I go to Cape May.  I LOVE the Life is Good tee shirts.

Thanks for stopping by.

Saundra

Too Hot To Handle

Don't let that title get you all excited.  I'm sitting in my house where the temperature is now 77 degrees at 5:45 p.m. and the third day without A/C.  Oh, and this is with the ceiling fans going on.  Thank God today there was less humidity and the morning temps allowed me to open the windows to let cooler air flow in the windows until the heat of the morning sun forced me to shut the windows and take advantage of the coolness.

I'm having to buy a whole new unit to the tune of $4,700 because this unit uses the unacceptable freon R22 and the unit is old so the furnace would nickle dime me to death.  Again, today is Wednesday and I won't have the new unit installed and working until late the afternoon on Friday.  So, there goes any great wool buying at Cape May, ya think?

Anyway, enough of the bad news, because I know you want to see a picture of my Duck's and Egg Nest rug.  This is the way it looks now but I've got to put it aside so that I can finally finish binding the Lion rug and update my web site with hooked purses and eye glass cases.  Plus I want to hook a ghost to hang on my front door for October.  So I figure the rest of this rug can even wait until Cape May for me to work on while awaiting Bev to color plan the Wee Folk rug.

Okay, so even beyond the rug stuff, I've really really really got to clean up this pig sty.  Right now I've an excuse since it is too hot to even vacuum.  And  it is too hot for me to go upstairs to finish pulling wool for Cape May because heat RISES.

Here are some eye glass cases  which will go on my web site when I EVER find the time. These went on a travel tour with Polly ( yeah, Polly Minick).

And also these purses.  Actually the black and white flag purse has been listed on my web site but the others were on a longer 'tour' with Polly for a few months.  

Okay, time for me to open the windows to the cooler outside air so gonna close for the night.  So, thanks for stopping by.

Saundra