On our way to 250 ~

Every year DSO has a 4th of July cookout.  He is a most patriotic guy and lines his yard with American flags in addition to the large ones displayed.  He lives in a former shipyard and his front yard is a water filled channel.  Once upon a time the channel was a dry dock where they built 1,000' ore carriers.  When the carrier was finished, they would flood the dry dock and it would proceed upriver to Lake Erie.

The city puts on a great fireworks display and from his upper deck we have a perfect view.  There were many other private citizens also shooting off  huge fireworks.  I cannot even begin to imagine how much money individuals spent!

He also displays a listing of all the American casualties from the Revolutionary War to present day.  Some very sobering statistics.

About a month ago, my left heel started to be painful.  It has gotten really bad.  I mean bad like when I get up I can barely walk.  It does get better the more steps I take, but the pain never goes away.  I did not do a Google search because I was afraid of what I might read.  Ignorance is bliss, right?  Anywho . . . in a text I mentioned it to to Nurse Ratchet . . . er I mean retired RN Sue of Vernon Junction.  She said it sounded like a heel spur.  I did a quick search and it sure does sound like she has diagnosed me correctly.  I have my annual appointment with my PCP on Monday.  One more thing to discuss . . . sigh.

I hope everyone had the most wonderful 4th of July, doing whatever made you happy.

Thanks so much for stopping by.
Pug hugs 😊
Lauren

Happy 249th Birthday!!!

 

~ HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMERICA ~

I am proud to be an American and live in this great Land of ours.

Nowhere else can a person go and enjoy the freedoms we have.

Thank you so much for stopping by.
Pug hugs 😊
Lauren

A (very) Little Progress ~

Just wanted to pop in for a quick second!

I have been working on Proud Lion, but I sure haven't made much progress in the last week, but as I always say, a little progress is better than none.  I really need to figure out what color the lion's body is supposed to be.  Hopefully that is not wool I "borrowed" years ago.

I did another cross stitch on the rug linen.  I have a plan for this . . . well maybe . . . but executing said plan is another story!  (What appears to be brown yarn, is more of a barn red but I'm not in the mood to fight with my camera to get better color!)

I always say that once the 4th of July gets here, summer is half over.  Tell me it isn't so!!!!!!!!  We went from chilly and rainy to stinkin' hot and humid.  Today we got some much needed rain.  I am always amazed how quickly things dry out.  I'm sure the flowers are doing a little happy dance tonight.

Thanks so much for stopping by.
Pug hugs 😊
Lauren

More Cross Stitch ~

You'd think I had not start doing counted cross stitch five decades ago.  I think I did more frogging on this piece than I have ever done.  Not sure why I kept making so many counting errors 😡.  It was supposed to say God Bless America, but I didn't plan my spacing so it didn't fit.

The colors do show up a bit better in person.  I haven't a clue what I will do with it.  Perhaps just tack it to a cupboard.

I thought this would be my last cigar box (#8), but the boxes are coming in a little more slowly than hoped for, so to help our cigar box "coordinator", I brought two more boxes home with me from guild today.

This may be my least favorite box so far 😒

The inside is just kind of blah.

That's it!  Only two more days of eye restrictions and I can wash my hair without help and not have to wear my eye shield at night.  YEAH!  But as anyone who has had cataract surgery knows, 2+ more weeks of eyedrops.

Thanks so much for stopping by.
Pug hugs 😊
Lauren

One for Sue, One for Saundra ~

When Sue spent the night after the first day of our scrappy hooking class, she wanted to know why I had my Proud Lion wool in a cardboard banker's box and was not using one of my many vintage baskets.  It was in the same box for the past eight years and had not seen the light of day since the day the class ended!

So Sue motivated me to move the wool to this big ole basket . . . 

. . . and once the wool I will use for the background is cut, it will be stored in the top basket.

Thanks for the nudge, Sue.  The baskets looks much better me thinks.

Saundra had asked for an update on Proud Lion.  I had barely pulled any loops in the past month (but I did hook my pumpkin teapot, a couple cigar box tops, the sheep for the pie basket, and my scrappy horse in the interim),  Here's what Proud Lion looked like a month ago . . . 

. . . and here he is today.

A little progress in better than none 😁.  Hopefully I will continue working on him until my next class mid July, though I have been kicking a little project around in my head.

Stay cool everyone.

Thanks so much for stopping by.
Pug hugs 😊
Lauren

Raffle Prize ~

In addition to making the cigar boxes for door prizes, I will also donate a couple raffle prizes.  It is the biggest money maker at the hook in.  I love vintage baskets!  This one is a pie basket that still has the little pie shelf inside.

I hooked a sweet little Maria Barton sheep and attached it to the top in the same way I attached hooked pieces to the cigar boxes.

Now maybe I can get back to pulling a few loops on Proud Lion.  He has been totally neglected for a few weeks.

Happy summer solstice.  Argh!  The days will now start getting shorter 😢

Thanks so much for stopping by.

Pug hugs 😊

Lauren

Horse Stitches ~

I often wondered if you could cross stitch on rug hooking linen, but of course never tried.  Jenny from the Wooly Horse answered that question for me.  She had a couple examples, but I failed to take pictures.  I grabbed a scrap piece of linen I had and gave it a whirl.  It is being stitched with hand dyed sock weight yarn that Jenny dyes.  The biggest alphabet I could find in any of my books/sampler charts was 11 stitches tall.  I could have charted larger, but chose not to be bothered.

These are definitely horse stitches.  Six crosses to the inch!

Jenny had pieces of linen that she had serged and were free for the taking.  Here is the start of God Bless America.

Not sure what I will do with these, but they are fun.

Cataract surgery went well.  Now it's the follow up visits and the eye drops for the next 3+ weeks.  It is wonderful to no longer have blurry vision.  As everyone says, colors are much more vibrant.  And I am much more grey than I was pre-surgery 😁  I thought I was just blonde . . . lol!

Thanks so much for stopping by.
Pug hugs 😊
Lauren