Dear Diary, here is one of the blues that inspired my latest go at the Bay of Fundy. I was coming down the stairs yesterday and it struck me once again how beautiful the colurs were. Sometimes the light is just right.

Today I spent the day with fifteen women from all over, New Jersey, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Texas, Ontario and Newfoundland, and we started the Abstract Workskhop. We have two days ahead of us and lots of ideas. Miles and miles of ideas to be developed, played with, turned inside out and upside down. So tonight, I went to the library and got a a stack of books. I bought some peanut butter chocolate ice cream, and I am going to rest , so I’ll be ready for tomorrow. Looking forward to see how everyone’s minds worked tonight and what they will bring to their canvasses tomorrow.

Dear Diary, I have driven this road to Parrsboro a hundred times I am sure. There are weeks that I have gone down there three or four times. Yet last weekend there was this tree, a tree I had never seen before. It looked like something from the Group of Seven, but there it was standing alone on top of a blueberry field in Cumberland County. I drove by it on the way down. I had a sudden urge to stop and take a picture but I kept going. What is wrong with me I do not stop when that urge strikes I wonder. Why not stop everything you are doing when the inspiration stikes. Just stop right there and bow to inspiration.

But I don’t because I am week, because I already by, because the picture might not turn out, because what I am seeing might not really be much of anything. I need to listen to inspiration because sometimes I do not. I just whiz by the moment, on the road to no where.

All along the rest of the drive I thought about that lone tree. It’s starkness, it’s subtlety, it’s uncommon elegance standing there alone on top of the field, beyond a gravel road.

A lonely tree, maybe? maybe not? This was a tree that I felt could stand alone. Why had it not been plower over for one more pint of blueberries.

Someone else must have known it was too beautiful. A farmer must have felt that to cut such a stoic beauty would be nothing less than a tragedy. Maybe? Or maybe not? Perhaps it was just overlooked.

I need a bumper sticker that says,” I brake for beauty.” or perhaps, ” This car runs on inspiration.”

I stopped on the way back and I took about twenty shots and I love them all. I love the tree. I love it’s ability to be just itself standing there in the field for all to see, unadorned, siple and good.

Beauty thrives.

I forgave myself for whizzing by. Somethings are just part of the learning curve.

Dear Diary, Since my escapades of Friday I have been having such a nice time. Sometimes when you get to that crazy point you know you need to step back a bit. So I have a tiny bit. Though I was up til after midnight on Saturday touching up the blog with a pink sidebar for the new newsletter and beginner rug hooking guide. Consumed, that is how you might describe me.

This, my friends, whether you are aware of it or not, is the diary of a mad woman.

Though I did meander on Saturday. Spending the morning on a drive and the afternoon on a few really good visits. On Sunday I enjoyed myself too. The body goes other places but the brain keeps going back to it’s head full of ideas. I  need a sifter.

The Bay of Fundy rug is done. I also finished an abstract today that stunned me, it was so beautiful once I hung it. That is the greatest feeling when your work surprises you.I had not even really seen it until then.

I visited the Bay of Fundy today and Saturday, but Sunday I headed to the Northumberland straight. I am so lucky to be situated between two really different bodies of water. They are both dramatic, so different though from each other.

I also got some clear messages about spring. My apple blossoms are about to come, and the hillside here are full of alders that bloom white flowers for about a week. I do not know what they are called but they change the way the whole country side looks. I burned a tank of gas driving around since Friday looking at them, and seeing that shade of green that only comes in spring. The deep bright one, that you forget about over the winter and are always surprised by when it returns. And the smells. You forget about them too. I rolled down the window at one point and just breathed in that spring scent. Beauty is everywhere right now. Don’t stay in, I keep telling myself, get outside and drink it up. Drink up the beauty, it is sweeter than wine.

When you Subscribe to my Newsletter List I will send you this…

 I believe that everyone can make something beautiful.

I believe that you can make something beautiful.

 You just need someone to show you how.

This full colour 18 page Guide to Rug Hooking will do just that. It will teach how to hook rug.

It will inspire you to create beauty everyday.

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Dear Diary,

So today I spent all day working to create a beginners guide to rug hooking that I can send to people who subscribe to my newsletter list so that they know what rug hooking and my studio is all about.

Here is how it went.

I wrote and put together the pictures for three hours this morning. I got excited about it and decided to bring it in to show Brenda. I save it but when I go to show her my three hours work not on my stick. I feel sick. I take the sticks and go home. I don’t cry. I don’t throw a hissy fit. I just rush out the door.

I walk down past the deli cause I parked far away. I get home check my computer, and all my work is gone. Still no hissy fit. Then I go to work and do it all over again, but make it even nicer. I go to save it on a stick. I look everywhere for my little blue velvet bag with the sticks. Now there is no sticks. I still do not crack up though it occurs to me that perhaps there is a conspiracy, but I relax when I remember there are no conspirators, just me, stunned arse that I am.

I call Brenda, certain I left it at the studio. She says it is not there. I empty my purse and walk slowly through the house like I am creeping up on someone. Sill no stick. I call Brenda again, thinking, the bag was little and she did not see it.  She checks again, no little blue three inch blue velvet bag. She looks around the studio. No, not there.

I then empty my purse again and check my car. Not there. I think about calling Brenda again but the I picture her rolling her eyes and decide not to. I decide to retrace my steps. I drive back downtown pulling into the parking lot, looking out for the blue velvet bag, careful I too not run over it. I love these sticks, they are the back up for my brain. My brain needs back up.

I do not see. I am still calm, but kinda sweaty. No hissy fit. I walk past the deli. It is  busy and full of people and Simon yells out at me, “Deanne Deanne” I hear him say to his customers ” Someone stop that woman” ( I might have made that part up, not sure but it sounds familiar). Then he showed me this picture.

He said, Some guy came in here and showed me this picture and said “Do you know this woman?” and I said, “that’s Deanne.” A man had found my sticks and went home opened them and printed off a picture he found on it of me taking a picture of myself in the mirror at the deli, and brought it in to the deli so he could return it. He bothered. I thought it was so nice. The sticks were returned.

I continued to work on a free beginner’s guide for rug hookers and I finished it tonight. I just love the idea that rug hooking is easy to learn, and that now I have a handy little guide that teacher’s can give away to students, that I can share with readers. And I love a small town where some one bothers to return the sticks of a fool like me.

Sweet old small town life.

Dear Diary, I headed to the island last week and took a few shots going over the big bridge. It was the Deanne and Delia Road trip that I referred to before. We had a grand time, teasing and carrying on with Elga at the woollen mill. She has the patience of Job. Having the energy of me and Delia to deal with at the same time is medal deserving. She rolled along, showing us everything she thought was  beautiful, including a box of merino that Delia and I agreed to split. That might have been a little fight if we both were not so kind. Neither one of us was leaving with out some of it. Brenda used some yesterday to make the beards for our Santa Kits. So Santa will have a very soft beard this year. Colleen, our beautiful part time summer student will draw the patterns on Thursday for the kits. So Delia and I took a few pictures along the way , of the clouds in the sky because, she liked the grey underneath and wanted to remember it for a felting project. I love the picture of the big wool winder down below because it is the biggest spool of thread we’ll ever see. I love the machinery at MacAuslands. Everything about that place is beautiful, including the wool, and the people who work there. We are still working on the blog and the new server. I finished my Bay of Fundy rug but it is not bound yet. Keep reading and checking in.             

Dear Diary, Here is what I love about teaching online. Diane took the online course this winter while she was sitting beside Lake Michigan, not outside mind you ! But she was there and I was here and we learned together. Then she came to visit at the studio with her sister. It was so nice to have her here. That has happened quite a bit. Once someone takes the online course, they often do show up at the studio and we like that.

She enjoyed her visit I think, and got to know the Mocker, who is now an off broadway star. She is starring in “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels” , which Showcase is having this week at the High School. If you can go I hear she kissing a young stranger, who is no longer a stranger apparently. Anyway if you can be sure to go out and support the mocker. I’ll be there ! Plus she’s wearing a bed sheet and she said to tell you that she has no tan lines.

I hope Diane still likes us after this visit!

Dear Diary, On my road trip with Delia I saw these mittens hanging. I know it is the wrong time of year to show you but they are so gorgeous I just could not help but take a picture and show you them her. They are just so perfect and beautiful. There is nothing so simple and yet so complicated as a pair of handmade mittens. Look at the pattern on these. I find them beautiful. So beautiful.

We have been working on the blog loading time so that it will load faster if you experienced any trouble here in the last week or so , we should have it resolved. Keep reading . I appreciate you checking in. We are working on the site quite a bit so if you notice a bit of slowness, hang in there we shall fix it.

Dear Diary, Learning online is easy. I just wanted you to know that. If you can use Facebook, you’ll be an expert in my online course site. If you can upload a picture and send email then you’ll be an expert. It is easy to learn online. I just started teaching online this winter and at the same time I started learning online and taking courses.

I took a creative business course and I learned that I can just read, listen and watch, and participate as much as I wanted. I did not have to be an expert in anything I just had to be able to read , watch and listen. It was like taking any course. I also took a photography course and learned the same thing. Learning online is not complicated. If you are concerned you do not know enough about computers to do it, don’t be because many of the women who took the course this winter felt the same. They discovered that the online course taught them a lot about rug hooking and just naturally through doing it they learned about computers.

In the course I gave I was able to help lots of people just by answering a few simple questions about the computer.  I just wanted you to know that if you are thinking of taking the online course it is easy to do. You do not have to be computer savvy. If you are, like some of our first participants, you can teach me a thing or two about computers as we go along. If you are not, then we will help you get online, find the website, look at the lessons, and from there it is easy to upload pictures of your work to show to the class if you like.

I am writing this today because someone told me last week that they were nervous to take the online class. I know that is true for some people because it is new. I understand that. I just got into online learning this year. It opened up so many new ideas for me that I was astounded. I am really glad I got over my cautiousness about it and embraced it. So don’t be afraid of it cause it’s easy as pie, just like opening a book full of new ideas.

So many of the people who took this years Getting Wild with Wool Course said that they really gained a lot of confidence in their computer skills from taking it as well. They learned that they already knew lots and going on the computer each day with their cup of tea  to learn became something they really looked forward to.

The course works like this, Several times a week I post lessons that include videos, audios, written articles and activities for you to do. You click on a button enter in your user name and password and the lessons come up. It is as easy as that. If you want me to see what you have been working on there is a button that allows you to send pictures from your computer to the course site. You can also ask questions and I will answer them on the site. It is a great way to learn from the comfort of your own home. In some communities across North America , four or five women all registered for the course and they got together in their communities to discuss and hook together and learned even more.

Our next online course will be Getting Wild with Wool in September. By October I hope to have the second level of Getting Wild with Wool. I’d love to have you join me. We are having a lot of fun.

This post got lost last week when I transferred servers so here it is again…too good too loose

I work with Brenda. She is serious and kind and lovely and she can turn her hand at

anything. I am jealous of her that way…..the way she can do everything…but still I love her cause she shares her talent..She looks like this sometimes…

Then last week when I came back to the studio with a pile of wool she  changed from this ( see above) to this ( see below) ….. look what a nice pile of wool can do