Break in Maine

( click on photos to enlarge)

Finally, hubby and I got away for a couple of days......to a favorite place of mine. Lafayett'es Oceanfront Resort in Wells Beach. It is right on the water, and this time of year, it is beautifully quiet and not a bit crowded.
I love the sound of the waves. Both nights we were there, we left the sliding glass doors open so we could fall asleep to the music of the water hitting the shore.
These first pictures were taken at dusk, it was windy, and a little chilly.
But my theory is that you might as well go to Maine off season. You can't swim in the ocean in July anyway, it is too cold in my opinion.

As you can see, there aren't many people out there on the beach.
We got to eat lots of fresh fish.
We spent some time in the great outlets in Kittery.
We swam in the pool, and soaked in the hot tub.

Just lots of sand, and lots of rocks.
Did I ever tell you that I love rocks?
Two nights and three days wasn't really long enough, but it was better than nothing at all.
Before we left we stopped at our favorite breakfast spot.
We got a box to go!
And here they are.
Yum.

Man Translator

Man Translator.......? Hmm.
Linda over at Jollieprimitives.com mentioned in a comment to one of my posts, that she needed a "man translator", and today, oh my, I know what she means.

Garage sale find

Pretty boring stuff for most everyone, but I am psyched!!! I bought this very cool fabric cutter at a garage sale yesterday, for $75.
I cut literally TONS of fabric at the studio, that I use to make rugs with. I have an electric hand held rotary cutter, that works very well, the only problem is the pain in my shoulder blade after cutting fabric for hours.
This old cutter actually has wheels on the bottom, and you hold the red handle, and move the cutter over a table, cutting the fabric as you go.
I am not exactly sure how this is going to work for me, but I'm sure I can figure it out.
If not, there's always Ebay.
I spent most of today planting perennials, hauling manure, and pulling weeds. I didn't take any pictures, because the sky was dark, and the wind was blowing up a storm, and I was really afraid that if I brought my camera outside and put it down, I might forget it, and it would get ruined when the rain came.
This is not a frivolous fear.......I have done it before.
Ouch.
Pictures later.

Kizzy Update and late Mother's day gift

Here is my baby boy, Kizzy. He stayed at the vet's for 3 days, and now he is home, and OK. I was so worried about him. So now and forever he is on a special food for urinary tract health.
Gotta love those vet bills!! But he is worth every penny.
My daughters came on mother's day, and they brought me plants for my garden, but apparently, the plants were just to throw me off course. The real gift was supposed to be photos taken by a friend of Morgan's, of all of them. I have seen his work before, it is outstanding, and I had requested this quite a while back. Go to www.joeelariophotography.com to be knocked off your feet. I am serious.
Unfortunately, he had to cancel their photo shoot, so the pictures were not ready for mother's day...thus the plants.....which, by the way, I was totally satisfied with.
Then the other night, I was online, and checking out what people had written on my Facebook wall.......please understand that I do not GET Facebook, and I don't participate much other than to read what other people write there.....and I only joined because my cousin in ENGLAND invited me, and I wanted to see her pictures........anyway, it annoys me mostly.
But I went on there, and clicked on one of their names, after I had read their comment, and voila..........pictures.....39 of them. And I knew right away what they were. Oops. I was supposed to be surprised.
Here are just a few............I love them all......and I don't understand how I ever got this lucky, to have beautiful girls like this. I have said it before, and will say it again......if I never did one other thing besides raise these girls, and love them, my life has been a success.




I think what I like most about these photos, is how their personalities shine out of their eyes..............too beautiful for words.
I say wow a lot these days....maybe it is my age.....but "Wow".


Coming soon.....a tour of the studio all cleaned up!!!

Balancing Act

I love seeing the end result of a lot of hard work. I especially love it when it turns out this good.
This is a 10x12 blue jean rug, woven in two pieces, and sewn together. The lady who ordered it actually lived close by, and not much out of my way, so I offered to deliver it. Then when I got there, of course we both wanted to see it on the floor, so I helped her move the furniture and put the rug down.
I can not tell you how many pairs of jeans are in this rug, I lost count. I know it was so heavy, we had to carry it in together.


After the weaving weekend, I was tired. But today, I feel like I am catching up. But there are times when I feel like this.
Going round, and round, chasing myself......
meeting myself coming and going.........
slowing down, speeding up.......hanging on.....
getting a little dizzy.....

It is great to do what I love, it "moves" me to recycle textiles into rugs, and have them hit the floor smiling.
But there is more to life than work. Like watching little girls spin around trees. Walking my dog, spending the afternoon with my aging mother, going to Maine with my husband for a quick getaway.

Self proclaimed workaholic, I am trying to learn balance. I will be doing it til the day I die.

Gratitude, again

Monday, and I am tired.

I hosted a weaving weekend from Friday to Sunday, had these 5 lovely ladies in residence.
This is the first weaving weekend that I have had this many at one time, but it actually worked out well, and everybody had a lot of fun. All the looms were warped up and ready to go. We didn't do the usual learning to warp the loom thing..........since none of them had a loom at home, instead they just got down to business, and started weaving. I was pretty busy for awhile, getting them all started on something. But once they were weaving, they really amazed me.

For more pictures of the weekend, go here.
On Saturday, the rain poured down. I noticed that there was water dripping down in the doorway between the dining room and the porch. The rain didn't last long, and we were so busy, I kind of forgot about it until last night. When I remembered it, I called someone to come over this morning to check out the roof.


Cory, a friend who has done work for me before, went to the studio early this morning.

The news wasn't good........one whole side of the roof over the oldest part of the house needs to be replaced. I climbed up so I could see it. The shingles broke apart in my hand like graham crackers. When he walked across the roof, you cold hear them breaking.
So the bad news is, I have to spend a lot of money to replace the roof.
The good news is, I can pay for it.

I didn't get upset about it. It just is what it is. I am grateful that I can work, and make what I need to take care of things like this.
Yes, I would have liked to buy a new lens for my camera, but not this time.
Oh, well.
Gratitude is the attitude.

Kitty Update

It is early Sunday morning.......Mother's Day, and I am hosting a Weaving Weekend at Crazy as a Loom Weaving Studio. Five fresh new weavers! I am always amazed. They catch on so quickly, which sometimes makes me think that I really do know what I am doing. But seriously, in the past 10 years, I have learned so much, it is very rewarding to pass it on.
They are all sleeping still. I didn't have a clock in my room, and thought maybe I was being slack and sleeping in, but when I came downstairs, it was 6am. Oops. So I am making a pot of tea.
I wanted to update everyone on the kitty situation. I took Miss Puss to the vet last week, and since she had a high white count, we assumed she was the culprit, and she has been taking an antibiotic.
But yesterday, in the midst of us all weaving, Kismet came into a room, jumped up on a box of fabric, and squatted.
Ack!!!!!!!
I yelled at him, and he ran away. In the next hour, he did that four more times, and the last time, I just let him crouch in a position that looked like he was sitting on the toilet, while he stared at me. But he didn't leave any wet spot when he moved away.
Right about that time, my friend Sheila called, and I told her what he was doing. She said, omg, he can't pee.
What!!!????!!!
She said, no, really. She said it happens to her goats. Who knew?
I put him in a room with a litter box, food and water, and closed the door, trying to see if he really couldn't pee. But after he sat in the litter box for 2o minutes looking at me with those eyes, I knew.
So I called the vet, who was closed, then I called their emergency number.
Then I called my dear, sweet, supportive husband, and said "can you help?"
And he came right over, picked up little Kizzy, and took him to the vet.
When he got there, the vet said that if we had waited even 12 more hours, he probably wouldn't have made it.
Even though he didn't seem real sick, his bladder, which should be the size of a golf ball, was the size of an orange. He squeezed his bladder, and only a drop came out. And Kizzy, who started life as a feral cat, just looked at him sadly. No growling, biting, scratching. Just the look.
So the plan was to catheterize him, flush him out with IV fluids, and keep him over the weekend.
And he should be just fine.
And Miss Puss is looking at me, as if she is saying...............so, I went through all that, why?????
And she turns and walks away, disgusted.
Oops.
More on the weaving weekend tomorrow.
Happy Mother's Day!

Glad to be home

A couple of weeks ago, a lady called me and asked if I would give a presentation about Crazy as a Loom Weaving Studio, at a mother daughter dinner at the United Church in Greenwich.
I said, sure.
What possessed me?
I have no clue. Except that I love to talk about what I do, and I was sure that these were very nice people who wanted to hear my story.
So last evening, my mother and I took a drive to Greenwich, about a 40 minute drive. I stopped to take these pictures of the Battenkill River.
I never know exactly what I am going to say, but I am always sure that once I get started, I will be fine. I usually start with how I learned to weave, then talk about how I bought the house in Kingsbury, and go from there.
I spend quite a bit of time talking about HOW I do what I do and what materials I use. My business is all about recycling, so I bring samples of everything I use to make rugs with.
They were very attentive, and when I was finished, they all came up and posed with my rugs.

On the way there, I told my mother not to chirp in with any comments while I was talking, because I would lose my train of thought. She said, "Oh, my goodness, I won't do that.....I don't even know these people, I wouldn't dream of talking to them".
When I finished my little spiel, several women came up to look over the rugs, and I wandered over to see what my mother was up to. She was talking animatedly, and all the women at her table were laughing loudly.
Yup. That's my mother. She wouldn't DREAM of talking to people she didn't know.
The truth of the matter is that she would start up a conversation with a convicted felon.
So today, Tammy and I worked on the blue jean rugs, and here is one of them, ready to have its fringes tied.
Now the big news at the studio is that for two mornings in a row, I have found little puddles of "pee" on the hardwood floor. I have two cats, so I figured one of them was guilty. But they never, ever go outside the litter box, so this behavior was totally unlike either one of them. I called the vet, and he said that it was likely that one of them had a urinary tract infection.
But which one????
I put my 4 and 5 year old granddaughters on the case. They spent quite a bit of time, "spying" on the cats, to see if they could catch the culprit. No luck.
So I decided to take a chance. Kismet looked the most contented and carefree of the two, so Miss Puss got the trip to the vet.
She was not happy.
But she WAS the one. So I picked her up this morning, because she stayed the night at the vet's, waiting to get a urine sample from her. And apparently, she was VERY happy to be home. While she is not usually a cuddly cat, she did spend a lot of time on the bench next to us, while we were weaving.
Then she jumped up on the loom, and if you think cats can't talk, well, check this out. Seems to me like she is saying plenty.





Tis true, folks, there is NO place like home.

Rainy day blues

Blues meaning denim.....lots of it. One blue jean rug 10'x12', made in 2 sections, each 5'x12'. I sewed for a week to get enough stuff ready for this rug.
The warp is mostly blue, with a little cream, variegated beige, and an occasional rust. It is very nice, if I do say so myself.

Tammy is back from her vacay in Myrtle Beach, where EVERYONE had a good time. Ahem.

And she is back to work, thank goodness. I missed her.

I could use the rolling stool to weave this width rug myself, but to be honest, it is very labor intensive doing it that way, and slow.

She and I together though, now that is another story. We are "in sync", and we can get an unbelievable amount of weaving done together. It makes big rugs doable.

And here is the Macomber with its new sectional beam. Gotta love those Macomber people...they make nice looms, and they are helpful when you call them. I just wish they would put instructions, or a simple diagram in with their pieces parts, so kinda slow folks like me wouldn't have so much trouble putting their stuff together.

Now I just have to decide what to put on the Macomber........probably towels. I am thinking some blue and white towels......

The house has to be cleaned this week, from top to bottom, for a Weaving Weekend from Friday to Sunday.

I love weaving weekends. My husband calls it "weaving boot camp", and says I am a drill instructor. Which isn't really true. I just love what I do, and I love to show people how to do it. Intense, perhaps.

There will be 6 of us, so that sounds like a lot of fun. I like to think that as well as being a weaving studio, Crazy as a Loom is also a retreat, a place to go and leave your cares at home.

Which is kind of what I do every day.
Lucky me.

rhubarb pie

Sunday I checked the rhubarb patch behind the studio, and it was ready to pick.
If there is one thing I love, it is rhubarb pie!!
Not strawberry rhubarb, which is pretty much blasphemy in my house, but plain old rhubarb pie.
First, the pie dough.
Many years ago, a cousin of mine gave me this recipe, for Never Fail Pie Crust. I didn't think that it would work for me, but it did, and since then I have made more pies than I would like to count.

My 84 year old mom likes to help out in the kitchen, so she got to cut up the rhubarb. She loves dessert, so she is especially willing.
One thing I can't deny, I make an incredible mess when I bake. Just the way it is.
Here is one of two.


Sunday. Dinner with the family. Rhubarb pie.
It's a wonderful life, for sure.