My Favourite things to do!

Hello all you peeps! My mommy has left for the day and I have decided to try out this machine thingy.

My name is Maddy Petunia Brown and I am two years old and they call me a Jack Rascal , whatever that means.

I would like to share my top five things to do.

1) Squeek my squeeky things especially when the tv monster is on.

2) Sleeping and getting enough rest for my evening of running around with my squeeky things.

3) Sitting beside mommy when she is doing that hOOking thing and then, quietly, grabbing one of the little wooly balls and making mommy run after me. Loads of fun!

4) Being very picky about foods and turning on my heel when any food is presented with my nose held high...this one drives them nuts! You expect me to eat that! Just like a cat!

5) Going in the big truck and sitting up high and watching the road for mooseys. I used to hate this but now, I love it and want to go everywhere.

Well, I better go have a nap to rest up for this evening's fun.

licks, snuffs and hugs

from

Maddy

Coming Along!

Well, I am coming along with the small table pads for Christmas gifts but I definitely overestimated my completion of 10 by Christmas. Anyway, I will have to improvise for sure!

Weather has been unusually warm but we went from 15 C to about 5 today and with some snow activity. I guess it won't be long now before IT comes to stay.

Answers to the NL Quiz

I am still laughing at some of yesterday's answers to the latest NL Quiz. Here is a picture from the Grumpy Goat with Mummers in the design. Here are the definitions.

1) Mummers: A person who dresses up like a fool and participates in Christmas activities. Although, this isn't done very often anymore, people used to disguise themselves and go from house to house during Christmas, putting on a little dance and expecting a drink of something, in return.

2)Ugly Stick: This is a homemade musical instrument usually topped with a mop head and has lots of bottle caps and bells to jingle. It is usually made out of a skinned tree branch and is 4-5 feet height. It is then tapped with a small baton and bounced up and down to the beat of a song.

3) Mamateek: A Beothuk winter wigwam. Beothuks have been extinct for many years in NL.

4) Sod: A cap or a flat hat.

5) Quat: Just like it sounds, to crouch or squat down.

More to come in the future as NLers have their own unique vocabulary, thats for sure, b'y

Newfoundland Quiz

Here is the next NL Quiz for all you Mainlanders. Let's see what interesting definitions we get this time.

1) Mummer
2) Ugly Stick
3) Mamateek
4) Sod
5) Quat


Stay tuned for the definitions later in the week.

Whirlwind Weekend!

Not the weather fortunately, just the business of the weekend. Cleaning, vaccuming, dusting, playing cards with friends, making sausage and blueberry jam and grinding up the last of the moose. Oh yes, and a little rug hooking for good measure.

Taking a rest this Monday on the day job!

Seed Catalogue Therapy

What should be in the mail box last night on the way home. The Stokes Seed Catalogue. The garden gods must have heard my whining and tears about the weather and the darkness.

So I had a good read and circled some potential choices for next year's garden. I will be making some changes as any good gardener does; sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't but at least, the gardener hopes for the best!

Garden Withdrawal!

I am having serious garden withdrawal. Last night, on the way home from the day job, it was almost dark by 4:45. Between the H1N1 pandemic, lack of sunlight and too busy a schedule, I think I am starting to look forward to seeing some seed catalogues in the post.

I still hook at least for a half hour or so everyday and almost finished the second Santa this morning. I saw this beautiful quilt on someone's blog, and thought it was a great idea for a rug. Interesting the way the four seasons are presented.

In the Distance

These are the Blow Me Down moutains which are in the distance. They are beginning to be covered in the horrible white stuff that falls this time of year.

It was a beautiful day yesterday and unlike my dear rug pal, Anne, only got my ten minutes in rug hooking or so. Still a few jobs to do outside and we weren't going to pass up a day with warm sunshine and calm winds.

By the way, anyone wonder why they call these mountains, Blow Me Down?

Ho Ho Ho!

I finished the first of the little mats on the weekend and I think he turned out pretty good. I added the "2009" as a last thought as I feel it personalizes the gift even more. I started the second one, but didn't get to far as the continuing saga of NL winter preparations took priority.

The snow that fell is all gone and only a grim reminder of things to come.

Quietly, it came

And quietly, it left again.

Nothing changes faster in NL than the weather. If you don't like the weather out the front door, go on out the back door. Here is a picture of my inukshuk, Gabby, on Saturday morning. By Sunday, morning, it was gone.

It was a busy weekend with final preparations for the winter. Solar lights are put away, plastic sheeting around the front deck to keep the weather out. Only one or two more jobs.

Seems like there is always a job or two left, does there?

Cleaning Hand Hooked Rugs

I asked Mary from Victora BC, a question about cleaning our rug hooking projects and as she is heavily involved in the "business", she posted these tips which I would like to highlight in today's post.

The cleaning concerns about hand hooked area rugs are as follows:

-the colours could bleed

-the backing could shrink, making the rug bumpy and mis-shapened

-stitches could unhook

-the stitches could shrink, causing the design to look funny

These are possible things that can go wrong if hand hooked rugs are improperly cleaned.

Since hand hooked rugs are mostly used as wall hangings they don't need to be cleaned very often, about once a year or so. Vacuuming them about once a month with the little brush attachment on your vacuum will remove the dust that the rug collects on a daily basis.
Ask your local rug cleaner if they clean hand hooked rugs and how they clean them. It may be best to use a rug that you don't like or make a sample rug with lots of bright colours and get them to clean it.
A reminder if you don't feel comfortable with the way the cleaner is answering your questions, then follow your gut. You put a lot of effort into making your works of art don't leave it to chance that it will be cleaned properly.

When we get in a hand hooked rug for cleaning I explain the following:

We test the colours to make sure they won't run
We do try to do a wet clean, but most of the time hand hooked may get dry cleaned depending on the types of fibers used and the delicacy of the rug
If our cleaning guy has an hesitation about the cleaning results of a rug he simply will not chance it.When it comes to your hand hooked rugs find a cleaner you feel comfortable with.

Again let them clean a sample rug and see if you are happy with the results. Not cleaning hand hooks rugs can make a rug look dull and make you fall out of love with it. That is not good.

I also learned from Mary's blog which is listed here in hOOkwOrM, is that vaccuming the underside or backing of carpets and mats is almost as important as vaccuming the topside.

Thanks Mary!

Many of the rug hookers I have contact are all over the world and quite often have no idea where Newfoundland is in Canada. I thought that in this dull, grey month, it would be nice to show off my adopted province. It is easy to see where our inspirations come for our rugs in this beautiful land.

Sounds and Sights of Newfoundland

thoughts of Christmas

As I was saying last week, I always like to make small Christmas gifts for a few people in the office. So this year, I decided to use my new skills of rug hooking to design a small keepsake.

I liked this Santa and went ahead started with the first four. This will be small trivets or mats with the year, 2009 on it. I found a great tip from Cindi Gaye and used it to make sure the border was straight by using a pencil and drawing it along the "ditch" of the fabric.

I mounted this little Santas on my lap frame and will work on them. I need a total of 10 or so small gifts, so I better get busy!

Puffin all Finished

Well, another of the icons of NL completed and only two more to do. The weather was very wet and this was a great weekend at home with lots of rug hooking too.

With all the threats of picking up H1N1 virus, it is better if most people stay out of public venues and nested at home.

I am going to stop working on the icons for now and turn my thoughts to Christmas. I have some ideas and I will post tomorrow, the results.