I spent the day updating my website so that you could actually purchase my hooked rugs online. I had always had people call but as shopping on the web becomes more and more normal I decided that if people can purchase kits and supplies on line, buying original rugs should be just as easy. I also added a few new rugs that I just finished. … Read entire article »

Dear Diary, I bought four new albums yesterday on itunes. New Music for my walking. I completely erased the old so that I would not be able to go back and rely on old favorites. Right now I am hooking some rugs, old favorite designs actually. They are small rugs for the studio walls, the kind that I know I can make beautiful just with the ride shade of rust or yellow. They are not a challenge. In fact you might say they were easy for me. So is it wrong to do the easy thing? Should you always challenge yourself? I say no. Sometimes comfort, and ease is what you need. It is why you might hook rugs in the first place. It is a weakness of mine to think … Read entire article »

Dear Diary, I got up at ten to nine, and quickly showered and got out of the house to catch a nine fifteen yoga class. While I was there I thought wouldn’t it be great to have a rug hooking yoga creative retreat here in my community. It would not be a workshop but a retreat to hook, and walk, do yodga, eat great food food , share ideas. I am excited already.There is a local woman who has opened a music studio, maybe we could integrate music too. I am dreaming because a rug hooker from Lunenburg emailed the other day suggesting a retreat and it got  me thinking. Thinking, thinking, dreaming, mulling ideas about, is the fodder for the creative mind. I’ll come up with something for next … Read entire article »

Dear Diary, Last weekend during our summer texture workshop, Sally Austin held a knitting workshop downstairs in the basement of the studio. We have a nice little creative space down there, and Sally asked if she could use it to host a class on making thrum mittens. It worked out lovely to have someone use the basement. You could hear the laughter rolling up the stairs. I have been writing for a new book but I have to say that it keeps getting swept under the rug. I have some lovely stuff written but I can’t seem to get things organized and put together. I think I will start with images and gather all of those into one file, as pictures speak, they say. Perhaps by gathering all the new images … Read entire article »

Dear Diary, I am writing to you now from a tiny little eight inch computer that fits in my purse and can be carried with me. I no longer need to be in one place to sit down and free my thoughts with a ping ping of the keyboard. Today, after school, my daughter went to hockey practice, and my son to a friends house. Neither needed me. It is a new thing, them needing you only when they do, and thats it. This year is my first taste of it, and it has been bitter. Lemon, without the honey. It is time now though, as my son turns sixteen that I step back a bit into my own world, so that he has room to step into his. When you … Read entire article »

Dear Diary, Today we waited for the sun to shine, but promises were not kept. Grey settled on this January day, and it is what we got.  Promises reign again for the rest of the week. Sunshine is necessary in the winter. I worked on my rug for two hours today. I am changing up my routine, or my creative habit(Twila Tharp). For years I have followed the same routines. I value them, but the darkness in the morning here changes things for me a bit. I need the daylight to get working, to see. The colours in my latest rug are warm and moving, mauves, yellows, and a rust border that is tarted up with a shimmering orange. It is beautiful I think, so far at least. It is … Read entire article »

Dear Diary, I spent the morning hooking on  very personal rugs. They are all personal I suppose. They are all meaningful, but some strike a cord with you right from the moment you begin them, you know that they run deep and hit a chord. It is a landscape rug, but the colours of the land are bright  and rich mauves and yellows rather than greens.  As I hooked I listened to the radio and forgot about the personalness of the rug. I did not want to deal with all its meaning and ease myself into some understanding. I just needed to to soothe myself thru my fingers,  so I got lost in CBC radio. The winter freeze is beginning to thaw here. For four days I have slept under the … Read entire article »

We just finished a nice one day workshop called summer garden. It is just about the coldesty day of the year but we made it feel like july in our minds. It was so interesting to see how each set of hands given virtually the same materials could create something so unique and individualized. It seems that many of the people had never worked with many of the textures before. We used silk, cotton, rayon, and bamboo yarns, fleece, wool cloth, and even some silk hankies. There were big wildflower garden, and delicately tended cultivated ones. each one had a beauty all its own. … Read entire article »