Tynan presents one of the “rugs on the frame” this week. As you can see, I managed to get around the whole perimeter of the “Big Boucherouite.” Woohoo! Unfortunately, it has to take a back seat to the rug below. But I’m getting more excited the farther I get with it. Soon color!
Sure, “what’s on the frames this week,” but more like “what’s nothappening this week?” Too much stuff is breaking as I get ready to take my first vacation with Tom for the first time in, like, 10 or 11 years! And it’s a good vacation, made more special because it’s the year of our 25th wedding anniversary (long gone by back in January). But more on that another time.
Just take in all these things I have to get done this week :
an acupuncture visit;
a “see you in September” luncheon and group hooking for Mary, a guild member who’s moving back to Wisconsin, but, fortunately, will be back in September for our Sharon Smith workshop (and this winter too, we hope);
find some GOOD earplugs so that I can sleep when “Snoring Tom” when we go away;
pay my New Mexico gross receipts tax for the first six months of 2018 (the rest the country just calls it a sales tax);
update my inventory after Sunday’s Rail Yards Market – hey, I did really well; some lady bought out almost half of my mug rugs to send here and there for gifts;
all the other things you usually have to do just to live – clean, bake, shop, etc., etc.
Look familiar? Yep, it’ll be an almost-clone of “Woof.” A lady saw the original in my Etsy shop but didn’t want the OD green background that I hooked in. She prefers a blue-based background. Perfect for last week’s Fourth of July holiday judging by the great pic of her pups that she sent. All SIX! were decked out in red, white, and blue and had American flags. Gotta love the dogs!
I won’t bother you any with any more specifics, but I’ll show you the other rug that’s on the frame this week. How’s your summer going? Busy???
A new mug rug set: “Meanderings.” And it’s all wool! Not a t-shirt or bedsheet loop in sight. It “debuted” at Albuquerque’s Rail Yards Market Sunday.
So last week’s post was all about making changes; not necessarily BIG life changes, but the small ones that you hope really take hold. This week is about the progress I’ve made in the last week. Or not made.
The good news:
I did not turn on my laptop two whole days last week.
I managed to make one journal entry. And one is better than zero.
I did NOT freak when I decided not to pass on various blog and Facebook posts.
After such a busy two months, I finally got to clean up some of the dirt and clutter piles that had grown in my house. I have more to go vis à vis “life clutter,” but more on that later.
I’ve realized that looking at Pinterest just before I go to bed results in brain-racing and too many ideas all at once which in turn results in no sleep. Knowledge is power…when I choose to use it.
Today I took a whole day to make a field trip with friends. Cathy, Melinda, and I headed up to Española Valley Fiber Arts Center to drop off some guild donations. After that we investigated a thrift store (where they were selling four – 4 – iced tea spoons for $600!) and had a leisurely lunch in Santa Fe. No one looked at her phone during the meal. (I think.)
The bad news:
I spent more time on my phone and tablet on the days that the laptop was off. At least I can’t play Scrabble on my phone. Thank goodness; the game is a HUGE time-suck.
While I’m glad about being off the laptop and doing other non-electronic activities, certain things haven’t gotten done that need to be done, particularly, updating my Etsy shop. That’s a definite negative especially as I’ve sold a couple of listed items at shows.
Since I can’t seem to come up with another negative, it appears that there’s been progress. We’ll see what happens this week and beyond.
How about you? How do you manage the whole balance thing when it comes to electronics, real life, and what you really want out of that real life?
Tynan brings you “What’s on the frame” this week. It’s long and narrow. Hang it horizontally over a door or vertically down a wall.
After a super busy two months of fiber art shows and vending, spending a slow three days at Casa San Ysidro last weekend demonstrating and attempting to sell gave me some down time, a chance to think, to come to a few epiphanies.
This was the kick-ass set-up that Cathy and I had at last week’s Heritage Days and New Mexican Fiber Crawl, both happening at Casa San Ysidro in Coralles. They were very generous in providing us space; what a change for us! Though we both made sales, we hope that next year there will be more vendors and better publicizing of our location in the Crawl.
Hooking and husbands Cathy Kelly and I would have a wicked hard time (yes, there’s still some New England twang left in this now Southwestern girl) vending without our husbands Bill and Tom. (Sorry, never got any pics of them Sunday evening.) Between my recent RA flare-up and Cathy’s emergency appendicitis (the same night as our last vending gig!), those display grids were not going up or down by themselves. Thank you, Bill! Tom, unfortunately, has been suffering his own autoimmune failure – gout – for the last two or three weeks, but he gamely showed up with iced tea and helped with break-down. Hooking – it’s best when it involves a village, but it’s nothing without a helpful spouse.
Living or reading about living?
During last weekend’s New Mexico Fiber Crawl, we were at Casa San Ysidro from about 9:15 to 5:00. Those were three long days, and we didn’t see the traffic we expected. But what a great place to hang and hook! By the time I made it home each evening, though, my laptop was the last place I wanted to be. So, I wasn’t. Lo and behold, the world didn’t cave in because I didn’t share as much on the three Facebook pages I manage (my own two and the guild’s). Don’t get me wrong. I managed to do most of my daily computer and email “toilettte” on my phone as I sat enjoying the weather and the ambiance of the old casa’s courtyard. But I didn’t worry much about passing anything further down the information highway. Sure, if a blog or Facebook post came along that had an easy share button, I’d click it away to others. If not, oh, well…
Here’s how “Zinnias” looked finished. Now to get them up on the Etsy shop.
This got me to thinking about how tethered I am to seeing info and, more importantly, passing it on. Which I generally think is a nice thing to do for everyone. But it takes time, time I want back. Summer is perfect for letting go of the self-imposed idea of me as the town crier. After this weekend’s Rail Yards Market, I’ll have a couple of months with only one gig each before fall festivals and such heat up again. I have products to make, a BIG rug on the Anderson frame, a friendship rug to finish, and a whole slew of new ideas running through my brain after I turn off my light each night. And…I think it’s finally time to try some weaving. Starting with a triangular loom, but it’s a start.
So…actually working, playing, and experimenting more are on tap this summer, less so reading and passing on other folks’ work, play, and experiments, much as I like to do all that. Don’t take it personally, anyone. And thank goodness that Instagramonly requires pressing that little ♥ button. We won’t even mention my late night Pinteresthabit right now.
Change happens
Awhile back I mentioned how I really wanted to get back to writing short fiction. I spent years writing and even had some bits published. It was creative and incredibly challenging. But emotional family issues got in the way making it difficult to access the place in my head where
Not about writing or even hooking. Just about freeing your time up to do the things you want to do, making a change. I was getting pretty testy; with everything going on, Tom and I hadn’t managed to plant anything this spring. We live in New Mexico; it all could’ve gone into the ground or pots over a month ago! Finally did some today like this mini-succulent garden. We managed it without the usual domestic squabbles that crop up when we do this kind of thing. Even after another very prickly cactus kept biting us.
stories came from. Hooking showed up too, gradually taking up more and more of my available time. Frankly, making rugs, visual art, is easier for me, and it’s been quite healing. Still, every few months I’d beat myself up and drag out the pen and paper. It’s part of who I am I’d tell myself. After countless false re-starts, though, sometimes we have to grasp that CHANGE REALLY HAPPENS, and I think I’ve finally gotten to a point in my life where I can admit that writing short stories is more about who I was. It’s a hard thing to admit, but it’s where I am NOW. And it’s rather freeing. Fiber art’s it for me right now. I’m happily looking into things to become better at and new techniques to try. Maybe I’ll even pick up my journal again now that I can ignore the guilt monster. Even better, it gives me more time to read. There are so many great books out there just waiting for me!
Like I said , ramblings… Nothing earth-shattering; in fact, most is stuff I already knew, but so often we need a good reminder about just those very everyday things in our lives. Three quiet days can give you that, can remind you of the life you really want to live.
Happy Memorial Day, all! Remember those who should be remembered. And enjoy this first summer weekend.
Tynan’s back with this week’s “What’s on the frame.” It’s three mug rugs destined for Sunday’s Rail Yards Market here in Albuquerque. After that, I’ll have a bit of a break and finally be able to clean up all the clutter-piles that have collected around the house these past two months. Tom’s been very patient, but don’t tell him I said that. Usually, I’m the clean one.
Me with Amy Buesing, former Facebook friend and now just…friend at the Albuquerque Recycled Art Fair last weekend.
So, Saturday dawned bright and COLD – about 35 degrees. At least the windstorm had passed.(If you’re from New Mexico, you know that spring goes by another name here: wind.) Tom and I toodled down the road a couple of miles to Albuquerque’s Open Space Visitors’ Center to participate in the Recycled Art Fair.
Got the tent up and all the rugs and such in place by 10:00’s opening. People were already showing up looking to score good stuff made from other folks’ waste. Music was playing. It was gonna be a great weekend. Certainly better than last year when it snowed and rained and winded the first day. All I had to do was wait for the customers to come to me.
And they did. To see what I was working on. I like to hook when I do shows. For one thing, it draws people in either to 1) figure out what the hell I’m doing or 2) tell me a story how they (or their mother/father/grandparent) used to hook. And, of course, there are the latch hook tales, but we’ll skip over that today. Fortunately, I love to chat up folks and to spread the hooking gospel, so no problem there.
The mug rug Amy purchased. In reality, being a double mug rug, it comes with two of those mugs.
The problem was that no one was buying.
And then, suddenly, none of that mattered. A woman approached my tent; I was in my camp chair working away muttering trash talk about people who weren’t buying my trash-to-treasures. She says, “Laura?” I respond affirmatively, pleasantly even, because I have to I’m that kind of person. And then she tells me who she is: Amy Buesing of Las Cruces!
If you don’t know Amy, and I know many of you do, she’s a member of my guild but can’t make the monthly meetings given the five-hour drive between Albuquerque and Las Cruces. I’m pretty sure that she and I became Facebook friends before I left Massachusetts and even knew there was such a thing as the Adobe Wool Arts Guild. We bonded over family matters and such. Last October she and Mary Ramsey, our guild president, roomed together at the ATHA Biennial. Neither had met the other, but hookers are game for that kind of thing. Mary told me that Amy and I would hit it off when we finally met.
Here’s the thing, I thought that would be in September when Sharon Smith of Off the Wool Rugs comes to give a workshop. But Amy surprised me. She was in town and, knowing that I had a show, she made time before driving home to come meet me. I was touched. So touched
Duh! One of the two mugs that actually got wrapped up and went home with Amy. Fortunately, it’s easy to find a mug to go with this rug. Undoubtedly, I already have one on the shelf.
and discombobulated that, when she bought one of my rugs, I 1) almost didn’t give her her $10 of change and 2) sent her home with a mug that didn’t match the double mug rug that she bought. Duh! I’ll get the right one out to you later this week, Amy!
Not only did I get to chat with Amy and her friend/travel buddy Michele, but she must’ve brought some good luck for me too. I managed to sell a few rugs the next day, including the sunflower table runner/wall-hanging I just finished. And then I was invited by the fair’s organizers to participate in their Cinco de Mayo Folk Art Fest on May 5 here in town. Woohoo! And all because of Amy. Cathy Kelly, also of AWAG and general hooking fame, will be doing that one with me. Come visit us!
Have you met any Facebook folks years after friending them? Heaven or a horror story?
Tynan’s back with “What’s on the frame today.” It’s being hooked out of mostly bed sheets. Not that he cares. He just wanted the treat I was holding. Have to get this one done so that I can remake the sunflower rug.
That’s the thumbnail of first rug I put up on my Etsy shop: “Hatch’s BIG Chile.” I thought that it was pretty appropriate given how much I love my new state of New Mexico. But can you believe that I’ve lived her for almost three years?!!?
After about three years of telling myself that I was going to put an Etsy shop together, I finally broke down and did it. Woohoo! (Okay, the last vow was to do it this past winter. I got close; it went up the first day of spring, which is still practically winter in a lot of the country.)
You’ll find the shop at: https://www.etsy.com/shop/HighonHooking. Now, no sniggers. I know it’s still just an itty bitty shop with – at the moment – two listings. But everyone’s got to start somewhere. And not only did I have to figure out all that was involved with the shop and creating listings and taking pics, I had to do some updating of the website here, so that things would match. Okay too, maybe I hadn’t taken care of the Gallery in a while. Maybe some of those items were sold last year. But it’s better now. Not perfect; I’ll work more on completing the website after the Etsy show has a little more…heft.
So, spread the news! You might want to add that I’ll be adding more rugs to the shop on a regular basis. If you have any ideas of how to make it a more inviting shop, give me a yell. I’m happy to get advice, especially if you already have your own Etsy shop. And if you do have a rug hooking ETSY shop, feel free to share the address below in the comments. Later I’ll transfer the info onto the “Cool Resources” page.
To those who celebrate as I do, have a joyful Easter surrounded by friends and family!
“What’s on the frame” this week isn’t what’s on the frame. Instead I’m doing a LOT of sewing: starting and finishing rugs. If you’ve been around awhile, you know that I sew my rug binding on before I start to hook. It’s just the way I was taught. Plus I can hook right up to the tape and rarely need to do any whipping. But maybe you enjoy the tedium of whipping? Said NO ONE ever! Because I have Albuquerque’s Recycled Art Fair next month, I’m trying to get a jump on several mug rugs. Then there are the finished rugs; well, not completely finished rugs. I’ve been putting off their hemming. Also not my favorite thing, but so much faster than whipping (she said gleefully). And unless they sell right off, all these rugs and mats will appear in my Etsy shop. For those missing Tynan, I thought it best to keep him away from all the pins and needles. He can’t get hurt. Tomorrow’s his 10th birthday!
