Short and sweet today. It's Saturday and I'm usually run of my feet..but in a good way! Lots of tourists wanting hooking demos and asking questions. I love to see the spark form and grow into a healthy flicker as I talk about all the wonderful aspects of this passion we all share.
This morning I passed up on coffee for a big olfactory cup of the sweet smelling peony. My garden is ablaze with huge flower heads. Hundreds of them in a full range of colour from white to a deep magenta pink. The yellow tree peony bloomed earlier and are now gone, leaving their pinkish cousins to carry the scented torch.
The rose may be the preferred flower of romance, but for me a bouquet of the aromatic peony hits the spot, creating the swoon factor. They come and go so quickly you have to savour their heavenly essence. For some reason this is the year for the peony as they are heavy laden with hundreds of flower heads and all for me!
The new plants that went in the ground last year, after a peony shopping blitz, have all come up and are blooming. The entire end section of my garden is peony nirvana. Their only flaw is the ant boarder that always accompanies the flower, which keeps me from cutting them for inside. Ah well, some things are to be admired from afar. They last for such a short time it's better to leave them for all of nature to admire.
I haven't been able to get out in the garden to weed so the plants are being held up by all the growth around them. Usually the dripping flowers heads bow to the ground under their own weight. This year they are all upright and ready for sniffing. I suppose I should accept this gift horse although I'm starting to feel pretty guilty about not attending to them as I normally do. I've hung up my super woman cape as the stress of having to wear it all the time outweighed the good it was doing, so now I pace myself and work within my means. Live is better but some things are suffering. Maybe I need to find a dependable gardener to lend a hand and a hoe.
My garden is also full of ladybugs this year and I'm finding them in greater numbers than usual wandering about the house. It always makes me smile when I find one and an "ahhhh" escapes my lips. There's something magical about that little red bug with black spots so they get a gentle removal and relocation out of doors where they can do what they do best, rid us of garden pests. In many cultures they are also revered as good luck, so you never want to harm the lovely little ladybug.
A client came in the shop and asked for a ladybug kit and that's what they got! I designed and quickly hooked the piece so she would have a picture to use as a guide. She wanted the traditional red ladybugs, although since then, I've seen this hooked with multiple bright colours and it was so sweet, I got a cavity just looking at it. She told me that a friend's mother told her daughter just before she passed away that every time she sees a ladybug it would be her. The customer wanted to hook this piece as a memory for her friend to be a constant reminder of the mother who is no longer with her. Well, it worked! Every time I see this piece I think of that mother and I've never even met her, so I'm sure the daughter smiles every time she sees the chair pad! The power of suggestion is a marvelous thing and what a lovely sentiment to leave her daughter.
I tried that with a boyfriend once as he dumped me. I told him every time he kissed another girl he'd think of me...but that didn't work so much.....
This morning I passed up on coffee for a big olfactory cup of the sweet smelling peony. My garden is ablaze with huge flower heads. Hundreds of them in a full range of colour from white to a deep magenta pink. The yellow tree peony bloomed earlier and are now gone, leaving their pinkish cousins to carry the scented torch.
The rose may be the preferred flower of romance, but for me a bouquet of the aromatic peony hits the spot, creating the swoon factor. They come and go so quickly you have to savour their heavenly essence. For some reason this is the year for the peony as they are heavy laden with hundreds of flower heads and all for me!
The new plants that went in the ground last year, after a peony shopping blitz, have all come up and are blooming. The entire end section of my garden is peony nirvana. Their only flaw is the ant boarder that always accompanies the flower, which keeps me from cutting them for inside. Ah well, some things are to be admired from afar. They last for such a short time it's better to leave them for all of nature to admire.
I haven't been able to get out in the garden to weed so the plants are being held up by all the growth around them. Usually the dripping flowers heads bow to the ground under their own weight. This year they are all upright and ready for sniffing. I suppose I should accept this gift horse although I'm starting to feel pretty guilty about not attending to them as I normally do. I've hung up my super woman cape as the stress of having to wear it all the time outweighed the good it was doing, so now I pace myself and work within my means. Live is better but some things are suffering. Maybe I need to find a dependable gardener to lend a hand and a hoe.
My garden is also full of ladybugs this year and I'm finding them in greater numbers than usual wandering about the house. It always makes me smile when I find one and an "ahhhh" escapes my lips. There's something magical about that little red bug with black spots so they get a gentle removal and relocation out of doors where they can do what they do best, rid us of garden pests. In many cultures they are also revered as good luck, so you never want to harm the lovely little ladybug.
A client came in the shop and asked for a ladybug kit and that's what they got! I designed and quickly hooked the piece so she would have a picture to use as a guide. She wanted the traditional red ladybugs, although since then, I've seen this hooked with multiple bright colours and it was so sweet, I got a cavity just looking at it. She told me that a friend's mother told her daughter just before she passed away that every time she sees a ladybug it would be her. The customer wanted to hook this piece as a memory for her friend to be a constant reminder of the mother who is no longer with her. Well, it worked! Every time I see this piece I think of that mother and I've never even met her, so I'm sure the daughter smiles every time she sees the chair pad! The power of suggestion is a marvelous thing and what a lovely sentiment to leave her daughter.
I tried that with a boyfriend once as he dumped me. I told him every time he kissed another girl he'd think of me...but that didn't work so much.....
This larger rug is just two of the smaller ones fused together by computer magic.
The ladybugs are hooked with Heart Red formula dyed over herringbone, a solid and hound's tooth wools. This allows for different levels of colour for a bit more interest. The background is Sage Green done as an abrash in a pot on the stove. The leaves are a very pale green with a light abrash and Antique Black Dorr for the veins. Straight black was used on the border and the head and spots of the bugs. A bit of Anjou Pear for the eyes and the rug is colour planned! I hooked this using #6 strips. The pattern can be viewed on my site under Signature patterns. http://www.encompassingdesigns.com/signature-designs.html
Kit can be view under Kits http://www.encompassingdesigns.com/kits.html
Kit can be view under Kits http://www.encompassingdesigns.com/kits.html
RSS Feed
