Happy 2012!

Happy New Year!  Ok, I'm a day late, but yesterday was filled with putting away Christmas and cleaning.  We had a great celebration at our friends, the Neals, then headed home so hubby could sleep for a few hours then head to work.

Our 2012 is going to be a year of changes. Hubby's job is doing a weird flip flop, which could have been pretty devastating, but because of his hard work, is going to be pretty great!  I can't really say more than that because the whole situation is a bit hush hush.  Let's just leave it at I'm married to a great guy that has been working for the past 17 years to do what he's doing now....he just didn't know it...lol  I'm sure as the year progresses, I will be able to tell a bit more. 

I'm not good at resolutions, but this year, I would like to hook more and get a lot better at my spinning!  I also have a "secret" resolution which is something I've been wanting to do for a few years. After a tarot reading I had in December, I am really going to knuckle down and go for it.  I do believe if something is talked about a lot, it loses its power, so this is something I'm going to just do, and talk about later..lol

I'm planning on more rug pictures this year for my blog, and have been loading up in Pinterest board with ideas! 

Today.....

Today is a beautiful sunny day....very much like this same day 10 years ago. Aaron and I were watching the Today show at 8:46am eastern time when the world changed. Aaron, who works in the aviation industry, knew it wasn't an accident. I held onto the belief that that's exactly what it was, and not what was feared. All denial fled at 9:03am.

We watched for about another hour, all the time debating whether to pull our kids out of school. We decided to leave them where they were and headed into town. We live in a relatively small town in Connecticut, so finding the streets virtually empty and quiet was not so odd. I went into our bank and while business was happening, people spoke in whispers, as if saying anything out loud would make it too real.

The next weekend I went with some friends to a renaissance faire in Tuxedo Park, NY. As we crossed the Tappan Zee bridge, the traffic was at a crawl. On clear days, you can see the New York city skyline, and it's an awesome sight. That Saturday, it was all clear except for the smoke still pouring from Ground Zero. Nobody honked, nobody yelled at the others to "get a move on", we all just looked. Again, it was made real.

I watched the tributes on tv today, so wrapped up in the scenes from ten years ago, it almost felt like it was happening in the present. Today is a day to remember....remember the heroes that are the first responders....remember the people lost in the World Trade Center towers....remember the families. While it is a difficult thing to do, don't think about hate for who did this. They don't deserve a second of our time today. September 11 should be a day reserved for love, respect, and pride.

Decompressing

While I should've been busy stitching and hooking for the Harvest Moon Festival last night, hubby came home with the idea to take the kayaks out. I agreed immediately and off we went!! His job is stressful, and he usually de-stresses by taking out his boat. Unfortunately, the water was about eight feet too low for a propeller, so it was paddle power time!


This is coming down the channel and into Lake Lilinoah.


After the hurricane, everything from the shore headed out into open water. This is a huge tree trunk that looked just like a submarine floating through the water.
Here's hubby (Aaron) giving what we call the "Andrew" pose...lol


That rock is what Aaron calls "Deadman's Island". We took our nephew to see it, and at the time, he was swimming around it and we saw a little family of snakes...it's now high and dry.


On our way in. What a beautiful way to end the float!

This weekend will be all hooking and sewing!

Bring it on Irene!

So the pantry has been stocked, chainsaw bought, cars gassed, water bought, my boy is home from Alaska, and our daughter .....we're ready for ya Irene!!! The chainsaw was a last minute addition....let's hope we don't have to use it!

I have two projects on the frame so I'll be plenty busy. It's two more Nook covers, and I really like them. Here's a picture of the first one. I'll take a picture of the second one when I start working on it.

I love sock monkeys!


Two finished products....not perfect but a lot closer than the first tries!

Last but not least....pictures of Andrew back from Alaska and Jess heading to her first day of college.

Keeping an eye out for flying monkeys!

So....some nasty weather is headed our way! Hurricane Irene has decided to make a visit and we're ramping up for the possibility of losing power for an entire week, not to mention 100 mile an hour winds and up to ten inches of rain! Guess that means hooking will be limited to daylight hours only...Oh yeah, and bailing water out of the unfinished side of the basement! Wish us luck!!

Movers and Shakers

We had some excitement on the east coast today in the form of an earthquake! Luckily nobody was hurt, but there was quite a bit of property damage especially in Virginia and Washington DC. It was felt here in Connecticut, especially in the tall buildings.

Now we just have to cross our fingers that Hurricane Irene heads out to sea before the weekend!!

What I've been working on!

The annual Harvest Moon Festival is coming up in September and I've decided to take a table yet again! This is a small fair that is held by our local Boy Scout troop every September, and I've vended for the past two years without much luck. This year I'm sharing a table with one of my neighbors, so I've been working on some things to bring. I came up with an idea of making hooked e-reader and iPad holders, and since I'm not a seamstress, it took quite a bit of trial and error! (oh, and getting another neighbor to help out with the sewing part..lol) I have three fails, and finally hit a good prototype on number four.


I hooked a simple flower and grabbed some scrap material. Everything's much darker than it looks in the picture and this is without the flash! There is some tweaking needed, and I've got two more hooked pieces on the frame ready to sew.

I need a top that will fold over and somehow latch closed, maybe a look over a fabric or wooden covered button. These will fit a Nook, and once I've got the pattern down, I'll start on a few for a Kindle and iPad.