Good News For Once

It seems like so much of my blog has been bad news lately, with family illnesses and so many struggling with cancer.  So I wanted to share my good news.....

Mammo time: 

Spring is finally trying to poke it's head around the corner and take a peek at us.  Although this morning it is bitterly cold, complete with sleet pellets.  Brrrrrr We had high winds last night that shook the house, but the weathermen are promising that we WILL get up in the mid fifties by the weekend.  Hmmmmm


Three years ago we planted this weeping cherry tree as my Mother's Day present.  The first two years we some had blossoms on it and even some small cherries.  This year, despite a cracked trunk from the winter cold, we have an abundance of blossoms!

The cascading blooms are so thick on the branches,

and the tree is just buzzing with honeybees! 

On the topic of Steve's new cuckoo clock hobby, well---- he has one completely working already and is awaiting some ordered parts on the other one. So much for waiting for retirement to work on them??? He has this one proudly displayed in the front porch. It can stay out there for the spring, summer and fall months.  In the winter months we will relocate it back inside to a spot on the landing of the staircase in the foyer.

This one chimes on the half hour with one bong and one cuckoo.  But then on the full hour it will sound off with the cuckoos and the bongs for the number of the hour.  Then as a special surprise, a music box kicks in with a lovely tune while four little dancing couples come out and twirl around!  It's delightful and I can not wait until the grandkids come to see it!

Steve figures we will keep rotating cuckoo clocks as he finds them, fixes them, and then sells them again.  Someday we will inherit my mother's cuckoo clock that she brought back from Germany.  That will have a permanent place in our home.


I am working on five different rug orders here...  some are in multi colors with random striping. I achieve this look by weaving in two strands of thin rags in the same opening, with starting and stopping various patterns and colors mid stream.

I like using a multi-colored weft (string) that matches with any rug I choose to weave.  Since I wind on enough string for 50 rugs at a time, it's nice to have an all-purpose colorway.  Next, I am going to sew up the red, white and blue rags today for the last rug on the order list.

I picked up new sash cord the auction loom I bought last weekend. I have not had time yet to tie it all on and snug everything up. Perhaps next week.  For now it's fully assembled in the loom room in front of the window, kinda blocking up the open area.  Once I weave on it, I will decide to keep it, relocate it, or sell it as a fully functional weaving rug loom. 

In between the other stuff, I have been working on a quilt for the front porch.  It's all together now, I sandwich quilted each square, then joined the blocks and sewed in between rows called sashing.  All of it is free motion quilted and completed except for the border.  When finished, it will be queen/king sized.  But I want it to cuddle up on the front porch together.  Maybe later today I can get to that part and finish it up?

Oh... on the RVing front:  the motorhome water pump repair, Steve and I are heading to the Cat dealer in Green Bay after work today to pick up the new gasket and O rings.  Hopefully that will fix it up and we can be ready to roll in 2 weeks for Mother's Day weekend. We are heading down to my friend Juanita's Vavning Studio in Shopiere and then to our friends Jim and Norma's wedding anniversary party in Beloit.  Nice to have the motorhome as our mobile hotel room, a place to keep the doggies, and have comfort in travelling there and back without hotels, restaurants and all that hassle.

Here's to hoping we don't get any more

 **S*N*O*W**

Mammo Wednesday and Fibery Tuesday

Oooh today is my mammo day.  I approach the day with trepidation, since I had a tumor removed when I was 15. With all of the cancer issues cropping up in our family, this is necessary.  My younger sister deals with cysts and lumps all the time, and had repeated surgeries to keep her healthy and safe and alive!

I go regularly, but always seem to get called back for a second scanning due to the scar tissue.  No matter how many times I tell them of the previous surgery, and they mark the spots with an arrow, there always seems to be some new radiologist reading the scans. Erring on the side of caution, they insist on calling me back for a second imaging. Of course, I go.  I breathe a HUGE sigh of relief when the results come back as okay, just old scar tissue.

So that is my public service announcement for today.  

Go get a mammo! 

Yesterday was cold and damp in Wisconsin.  We had a cloudy day with no sunshine at all. I opted to stay inside and work on weaving some rugs.  I am doing these in a neutral theme of beiges, creams and browns.  I cut up recycled fabric, sew into strips and then weave them up into rugs.  This is one of my favorite patterns, "random stripes" I call it.

I weave my rugs on my Newcomb Studio Rug Loom. I have two of these looms, identical to each other that I love the way they work.  I have had so many looms over the years, but these are my choice for doing rugs.

My Etsy store ( http://kareninthewoods.etsy.com/ ) where I sell my rugs and other things, recently offered a new shadowing program called "Pattern".  This feature will update my own separate standalone www.kareninthewoods.com website with my current inventory.  So anytime I add something, sell something, or change info on the Etsy store, it will change it automatically on my own website. It has a shopping cart too. But the most exciting part is that there is also a spot that I can add a video clip of myself weaving and explaining how I weave rugs.  So ---- my brain is thinking I might do up a video clip one of these days.  

As it is, I have videotaped myself in two different instructional DVD's that I sell online.  One is the complicated process of warping up a sectional loom for weaving.  The other is how to run those frustrating, futzy, finicky antique sockknitting machines!   And it even ends up with a finished sock!

I self-produced and self-duplicate those DVDS and sell those on my etsy site too.  I would think that making a little video clip of myself weaving for the website should be a breeze. Maybe if I have a Good Hair Day and a clean studio, I can set up my video camera and make a clip of my weaving process.


After lunch, I decided to go upstairs to my sewing room and work on my newest quilt.  I don't make quilts to sell, because you can never recover enough financially to cover your basic materials and time per hour put into making a quilt.  This is one that will go out on my front porch.  

It started like this: 

It has now evolved into this so far....

(those are numbered stickers in the centers to keep them in proper order) 

It will be queen sized when completed.

All of the blocks are stitched, 

sandwiched with batting and backing, 

and free-motion quilted.

 I am now joining them with "sashing" 

My last blog talked about the 20 year old bird house which Steve built for me, that came back into our possession in a roundabout way.  I decided to clean it up and coat it with some clear poly.  For now.  

But first I had to vacuum out the "innards"   ---  Steve had never made a clean-out trap door on this birdhouse so I had to stick in the shop vac hose and hope for the best.  I had no idea it was packed that full inside!  It took quite a while of alternating the vac hose nozzle, along with stick-poking and pliers-pulling out the contents.  This birdhouse accumulated a LOT of stuff over the last 20 years!  

Besides the traditional grass used in nest building, I found fishing line, Xmas decor tinsel, birthday balloon ribbons, clumps of dog hair, pieces of plastic bags, and amazingly parts of children's toys like Legos and Barbie shoes and puzzle pieces!  I think those might have been from my own kids back in the 1990's because they were at the bottom of the birdhouse????   

I can just about visualize them playing in the backyard and stuffing small things in the birdhouse hole because it was within reach of the during those years.  Silly kids! 

One other thing I want to clear up was in the last blog, I might have left the impression that Steve had painted the birdhouse prior to giving it to me.  Nope... he hates painting.  He only built it in the shape and form of my home I owned while we were dating. It was up to me to paint it he said.  LOL So I was the one that painted it 20 years ago.  Now that it has a good sealed surface, I might just spruce it up with new paint again.  

One of my readers, Linda Sand, comment was: "It looks well weathered--just like we are. But, I have some newer body parts and new clothes so why shouldn't it get the same treatment? Oh, dear. I don't think I helped, did I?"

I think it is going to remain indoors and protected the rest of it's lifetime.  Perhaps out in my front porch.  Soooo I might just spruce it up with new paint afterall.  It's the structure that is the memory of Steve's thoughtfulness, not the paint job so much... because that was from me.

For now I will look at it and enjoy it.  

And smile.  

Well, off to get ready for the mammo!