Woolie Wednesday!~ Older Rug Hookings

Hi friends! I've been away from blogland for almost a week due to the crazy parenting role of 3 very active kids! :) Everyone at this time of year just seems so busy and active with all the school activities, sports, outdoor care and activities, and planning the summer season just ahead of us!
So, since its Woolie Wednesday, I wanted to show you my two rug hookings that I did quite awhile back that I mentioned in last weeks' post.
This is my very first one:

It is a fluffy sheep with 4 log cabin squares out around it. I saw this pattern in Gettysburg years ago, and just knew that I could draw something out on some scotch burlap for my own pattern that would be quite similar to the one I saw. So that is what I did. I didn't have a lot of wool colors at the time, so the squares out around it are quite bright for my taste, but again, it was my very first attempt at rug hooking, and I was just thrilled that I did it. So Please, PLEASE don't look too close at it for some uneven loops! ;)

My next rug hooking came a year or so later and once again, it was just drawn out by me, using the hit-n-miss type pattern. I really like the look of these for some reason....

This rug isn't laying nice and flat because of all the pinning in the back....I'll explain in a couple sentences.....
Here is what the back looks like:

So simple to make! These are very good, and easy projects to do if you are just starting out with rug hooking!
Now, you can see that after all this time I STILL have not finished the backing of this rug (you can see some of the burlap peeking out around the edges on the front).

Can I tell ya that I HATE finishing things like this off, because it takes a lot of time, and it is kind of tricky! But, I just pinned it a week ago and I literally have it sitting at the exact same spot where I put it down a week ago....haven't touched it since then. The rug was sitting out on a shelf but there were some things on top of it, so it always looked finished....but it is high time that I finish it now, since I FINALLY got some black binding for it! LOL!! Again, can I use the 'just too busy' card?! LOL!!! :)
On a side note....for some of you that know me really well know that I have a doggie that isn't doing so well and realizing that her time with us is very short. She is 13, and my husband and I got her a few months before we got married, so she has always been in our lives and we are really sad to know that she won't be with us much longer. She is holding her own right now, but we have decided that we can't keep her alive through medication, especially since it really isn't helping that much. So, I wanted to share a picture of her.....my dog, Martha.


Well, have a wonderful week! Hope you all are enjoying time with your families! :) Tarrah

Woolie Wednesday!~ A new rug hooking

Well, here it is....Wednesday is once again upon us, and I have another new wool project to show you.
This one is "also in the works", and was actually just started about a week ago. I wish I had a lot more done than I do, but finding free time right now is extremely hard. I must say though that this is one project that will really bug me and I will continue to work at until it is done. I have a lot of other projects that I just put off to the side for some time and pick it back up when I feel inspired, but this is NOT one of them.....I want to see this one finished baby! :)
So, after receiving my material to do my rug hooking on, I had Bob help me draw out my design. I wanted to hook a PARCHESSI BOARD!......

*We only made one little line error while doing this with a sharpie!!!! :)
The colors I am using is an assortment of blues and cremes/oatmeal colors.

Here is the start of it......

And here is my progress.....this is as far as I got.



It measures 24 inches square, and I am quite excited about it. This is my first ever large rug hooking. I have made only 2 previous ones (I hope to show you one next week), and the are really, really small. So this is a big jump for me, and I am by no means an expert on this! It will not be perfect, but that is ok....as long as it is perfect for me! ;)

Now, onto some other things.....Bob is still trying to play catch up with some pottery orders.....
I wanted to show you these little salt cellars we started making awhile back. People really like these little things and one lady needed 15 this week, so I snapped a picture so you could see them before she picked them up. She noticed that I have some here to keep my rings or earrings in when I take them off......so since she sells jewelry, she is giving these away as little gifts! How cute is that?!

And in between holding the fort down while life is just crazy, I managed to get an old cabinet painted. I found this piece antiquing about a week ago and it was just perfect for up in my craft room. I needed a nice cabinet with shelves and storage space....the only problem was the color! It was an awful shade of yellow.....but that doesn't ever pose a problem.....a little bit of paint gave this cabinet just what it needed! (The pictures show it being much brighter and glossier than it was.....I shot this with the flash on b/c it was still dark this morning when I took the pic!) :)


Ok, well let me just say BBBBRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR! The weather is just crazy right now in Pa and it is quite frigid and windy....so I need to turn on the fire (by a remote) and catch up on all your blogs!
Have a great day!
Tarrah

Dessert Recipes!

As per your request I have the recipes for the two desserts from the previous post!

Strawberry Pretzel Dessert
2 C. crushed pretzels
3/4 C. softened butter
2 Tbsp sugar
1/3 C. chopped pecan pieces
*Mix this together and press into a 9x13 pan. Bake at 400 for 8 minutes. Cool.

1- 8 oz. cream cheese
1 C. sugar
1 8 oz. cool whip
* Mix cream cheese and sugar, fold in cool whip last and mix together and spread over cooled pretzels.

2 small packets of strawberry jello
2 C. boiling water
20 oz. frozen strawberries
*Add frozen berries to hot jello. Let stand 10 minutes and then spoon over cheese mixture. Refrigerate a few hours before serving.


Macaroons
14oz. shredded coconut
14 oz. sweetened condensed milk
1 tsp. vanilla
2 xlg. egg whites at room temperature (or 3 lg)
1/4 tsp. kosher salt
*Combine milk, coconut, vanilla in a large bowl. In seperate bowl whip egg whites and salt with mixer with wisk attachment. Beat on high until medium firm peaks form. Carefully fold egg whites into coconut mixture. Scoop mixture into mounds on cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake at 325 for 25-30 minutes. After these cool, I drizzle them with chocolate....so yummy! ;)

So there you have it.....enjoy them! These are some of my favorite recipes! :)
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Also wanted to show you what Char received from my trivia giveaway last week!

Have a great day everyone!
Tarrah

Being Busy!

Hi friends! It has been crazy busy once again...life just doesn't seem to slow down for us, but that is ok. I guess we are all just active, and not idle?! :)
With 3 kids on 3 different baseball/softball teams it has my husband and I running all over creation constantly. On Saturday we have 4 games....now how in the heck am I going to do that?!
But anyway....I am sorry that I missed Woolie Wednesday yesterday. I have a good reason, I swear! ;) I was at the Gettysburg Cash and Carry Show! Patti and I headed out early in the morning so we could get a good spot in line, and then we later met up with some friends...some of you may know them: Teresa, Linda Stinson, and Ree (don't remember her last name, sorry Ree). Anyway, we had a good time and it was nice to get out and check out some very neat prim displays, and buy goodies!
On Monday, I was busy baking desserts for a get together with some friends. They were making dinner, and I was in charge of the desserts....our friends are a family of 7, and we are a family of 5, so I decided to make a few things! :)


Strawberry Pretzel Dessert....


More strawberries, but chocolate covered ones!

And chocolate drizzled coconut macaroons!
Everything turned out great!
I also started yet another craft that is just itching for me to work at today...will show you that later on.
I also have pictures of the prize that Char won, but I am going to wait to post the picture....that way it will even be more of a surprise. Thanks to everyone who entered.....wish I could give something to all of ya! You guys are the best! Have a great day!
Tarrah

IT WAS MARTHA! WINNER!

And the winner of the drawing is:.........drum roll please!



Char from The Pickled Pepper Patch!


I will show you the goodies that she won later in the week!

And the answer is...........

Well the answers are in....and you all had some great guesses! Anywhere from Donald Trump to Regis, to Lady Liberty herself. But, I am sorry to say that none of you were correct.....so do you really want to know who I met?




















Are you sure?





I will give you a hint....it is a woman! ;)















With the name of:


MARTHA STEWART!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yes, I did indeed met Miss Martha 3 years ago on April 13th, which was a Friday.....then on April 16th I was on national television talking to Martha on HER SHOW!!!!!!!!!(Being aired)


*Let me just tell you that it was the WORST hair day to be on national television! We got to NYC in the late morning and it was so cold, and extremely windy! Well, we stood outside for awhile before going in to the show and there went my long nice curly hair....it was then a tangled mess! UGH!




YYYYYYYYYIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE~! :)
Can you tell that I am still excited?!
I was given a very rare oppurtunity to sit in the very front row beside the monitor that Martha reads from along with 2 friends, at a taping of Martha! And the guest that day was GENE WILDER!!! And I got to sit beside his wife and TALK WITH HER TOO!!!! :0)
It was truely a day I will never,ever, ever forget!
To see the show from that day, click HERE!
To see the Ask Martha segment where I got to ask her a question click on the Ask Martha segment clip! Hopefully it will load for you....it seems to take a long time, but then if you go back to it later it will 'hopefully' work....not sure why it is having a hard time playing it. :(

This is me here with Amy in the above photo, and me with Abby in the photo below...2 of my dear closest friends that I was with. (Our other friend didn't make it... :(, and thanks to Amy for making this allllll possible!!!) Again with my bad hair....Amy's hair is all nice and combed, but I am trying to keep some curl in mine and.....well, it just wasn't happening.


Here is her beautiful set, filled with huge crocks!

Here I am eating one of Marthas' cookies outside the set! YUM!!
P.S. I stole 3 more cookies to take home to my kids so they could each have a Martha cookie too! :) THEY WERE THE BOMB!!!!! :)

More set pictures!


Me outside the building! :)

Let me just tell you I was going crazy that day....my friend recalls that I nearly "wet myself when they sat me in the front row...right in front of Martha!" It's true....I was ecstatic! It was a life changing moment...and then to chat it up with her (in between commercial breaks) and Mrs. Gene Wilder...which you can see me right beside her when they show her, (I was always trying to get in front of the camera).

So, anyway....that is my little 5 minutes of fame story! LOL!!! And now, I guess you are all waiting to hear who won my giveaway.....well I can tell you that there weren't many who responded at all, so that is good for you guys! But, I can't tell you yet, because I am waiting on my kids to pick out the name tonight.....sorry....you will have to wait just a little bit longer! :(

Trivia Giveaway!

Well, I have some very exciting news! I am having a giveaway! Yep, my very first one! It's a celebration, a party....on a blog! LOL!!! :)I have a very big anniversary today and Monday, so that is the reason for my giveaway....I will explain the big anniversary on Monday!
But first here are the details:

3 YEARS AGO I TOOK A TRIP TO NYC AND MET SOMEONE QUITE FAMOUS! IT CHANGED MY LIFE...I DON'T KNOW HOW, IT JUST DID!!!! :) WHO WAS IT?

Now, I know some of you know who this special person is, and sorry but you guys are excluded from this giveaway (and those people that know would be my dear close friends that follow my blog)....so please don't give away the secret. For those of you who don't know who that special person is, this is your chance to try and guess at this fun trivia question and be entered in my giveaway. I don't know exactly what will be given away yet...of course it will be pottery with a little bit of something else in there. This giveaway is only open to my followers in the US and Canada...sorry for that, just really high shipping costs.
Just post or email me your answer and if you have a blog and email address so I can find you. But Hurry! This answer will be posted Monday morning, so you only have until then to get your answer in....BTW, you don't have to be right to win the giveaway, it's just something fun to get your creative minds going! ;)
I also want to thank each and everyone of you for visiting my blog and following....who'da thought anyone would want to listen to my ramblings! :) But I really love meeting you (blog meeting) and I feel like I have developed some really great friendships with you! Now, doesn't that just make you feel all warm and fuzzy?! :)
Ok.....so here it goes....here is a really weird and awful looking snapshot of me in NYC....I look ridiculous I know.... *there are no hints about who I met in this picture....just me being silly!

SEE YOU MONDAY! :)