MARCH MAYHEM !!!

It's been exactly one month today since I posted on my blog.  Dear friends are you still with me ?

I hope so - my blog title sounds somewhat ominous but it's just because we had some drama around the old homestead yesterday.  We had two huge 70ft laurel oak trees taken out of our yard.  I hated to do it - they were beautiful and so tall and majestic but one arborist had told us they were at the end of their lifespan and needed to come down.  It was very disconcerting after they took them down to discover they were in very good shape internally.  Made me want to cry actually and while I get annoyed at the squirrels - I did feel sorry for them as they scurried around the yard looking like they had lost their house and home and indeed they have.  Before you think ill of me for deforesting my yard - we have 11 more of these huge oaks on our lot so there is plenty of places for squirrels and birds and other wildlife to hunt, play and so forth.

I updated my blog face with my very oldest rug WIP - it is Bunnies at Play adapted from Warren Kimble and is a Woolly Fox design.  Probably isn't even available any more. 

I included another shot so you can see the border which is black like dirt and has carrots growing in it.  You can see by looking at this bunny that it is a beginners attempt at rug hooking.  I look at it now and somewhat cringe - I would never hook a bunny like that now - what is that black thing?  is that his poor foot - shoot!  I thought about pulling out the bunnies but I knew if I started tearing out - it would surely never ever get done.  It was very long about 72" x 16" and I already had 2 of the 5 bunnies cut out.  I want to finish this rug because it has special sentimental meaning to me.  It was my first "away" rug camp.  Castle in the Clouds which is no more, it was my first class with Dianne Kelly who has done many wonderful rugs for me in the years following this one and it was also significant because it was Dianne's first teaching assignment.

This was a very plain boring rug - Dianne drew every one of those abstract cabbages in the backround and while I am not totally pleased with the bunnies, there are some elements of the rug I really do love.

Here is my dear mom with a sampler she finished for our EGA chapter challenge last year.  It recently came back from the framer and I think it's just wonderful !!!!!!!!!!

It is Forget Me Not by Needlework Press and is a repro sampler. I don't think much was known about the samplermaker.  It is stitched with the called for Belle Soie silks and is done on hand dyed aida - the framing is just lovely.  Our framer did a great job suggesting a frame and the blue inner frame (not sure what that technique is called) really set it off.  Congrats Mom - another beauty for your sampler wall.

Here is that huge tree being cut - notice it is inches from our house - they used a bucket to make the cuts and then a crane - yes a real crane to haul out the humongous pieces.

So sad to see all this beautiful wood piles on our lawn waiting for pickup by the tree company.  That concludes the March mayhem at my house.  Hopeful there will be no more mayhem.

One final shot for this post - these are DF's Carol and Ellen (of With My Needle fame) as we hurried around Eustis FL on the coldest day of the year in NE FL.  Ellen was down in our area last month to deal with a family emergency.  I was so thankful she could take a day of respite to spend with friends that meet weekly in Mt Dora to stitch.  These are the times that are so special - the times you will never forget as our lives change sometimes forever.  I always say - never pass up an opportunity because you may never go that way again.  If I don't make it here again my friends - I hope you all have the blessings and bunnies at Easter time.