So much I wanna do, so little time...

It's a snowy day here in Missouri, I'm hoping it's the last one we have, after all, it is spring!!  I expected this weather up in NY, but not here.  Anyway though, I love a crappy Sunday, it makes me feel less guilty if I putter around the house doing mundane things in my pajamas.  

Right now I have my hands in so many different pots that I am getting a little overwhelmed.  Yesterday I woke up at 5 am and decided to get up because, the minute I have a creative thought sneak in my head, it's all over, I can't get back to sleep.  Plus, I had one son on the road driving to Myrtle Beach for spring break and the other one was flying out to head back to school.  It's tough being a mom sometimes!!  Much harder to be the Mom of older kids than younger ones.  At least the younger ones are under your roof and you know where they are most of the time.

Before he did leave though I made Jeremy his favorite breakfast, stuffed french toast with Strawberries!!  Yum!

Jeremy's breakfast

Mom finished up the third in my game board series "Backgammon".  She did a great job as usual, gosh I just love the colors we chose!! Next is the most daunting one, the Chinese checkers.  Lots of little "holes" to hook.  I know why she saved it for last.  

"Backgammon" Game Board   Great job Mom!!
Look for the pattern and kit soon on www.theoldtatteredflag.com 

In between all the smaller rugs, Mom is also plugging away on our "Christmas in New England" tree skirt.  At 52 inches round, and with lots of little subject matter, this one has taken awhile.  In fact, she has been a hooking demon lately so needs to take a break today as her right arm is bothering her.  She hooks with her left hand, but her right arm that holds the frame is the one bothering her.  This happens to me too, does it happen to you??  

"Christmas in New England" tree skirt progress

She did the snow with a hand dyed silver gray off white wool.  For the record (Kitty, you should be good with your two yards), she had 1 1/2 yards for herself and just ran out at the very end so will have to dye more.  

For the background she wants to use a hand dyed dark blue, for the night sky, so she threw about 5 yards of different wools in the dye pot.  Some as you can see, came out lighter than others.  She is going to re-dye, some more to be darker.  We both feel that although a mix of the blues would be great, since there is so much subject matter, the mix might make it too busy.  A soft mottle will be great though!

For the past couple of days I have been working on getting my Stars and Flowers gigantic pattern on monks cloth.  I am going to do the wool applique pattern in antique blues as I mentioned before, and had thought I'd have mom hook it in the same colors, but have since changed my mind.  I think I'm going to have her hook it with an Antique Black background with the greenery a nice vintage green and for the flowers and buds, red and gold.  I think the red, gold and green will really pop from the Antique Black and it will be stunning.  So, my next step is to cut out the wool pieces for the applique and get to stitching. Mom says she wants to really put some thought into this before she starts hooking it, but the funny thing is, when I give her a new design, she's like a kid and just can't wait to "play" with it.  I'm betting she starts hooking it before the end of the week...

"Stars and Flowers" Hooked Rug pattern   ~ 50 x 62 inches

1/4 yd. Carpetbag purses

I am also in the process of developing a pattern for Carpetbag purses.  The body of the purse will use a 1/4 yd piece of wool.  In the pattern I will offer the templates for all four of the seasonal bags you see above with instructions on how to put them together.  So fun!!

So, as you can see, we are working on lots of fun things.  I'll keep you posted on the progress of them and let you know when patterns are available on the website. Have a great Sunday everyone!!

Until next time....