Thursday Live, Binding Joe's rug, Flouf yarn, naming Angela's cat and the Caribou rug reveal.
- Angela Davis
- Tags: design details finishing hooked rugs hooked rug hooking
Accidental Texts and Emojis. Oh I've sent a few.
Good Morning,
On my walk I sometimes listen to our church service live on Sunday Mornings. I put the phone in my pocket and walk along. This morning when I put the phone in my pocket, Will the minister said, Hello Deanne, Happy Valentines Day. I was slightly bewildered. I took my phone out of my pocket and saw that in the act of putting my phone in my pocket I sent Will a little red heart. Several weeks ago I accidentally sent praying hands three times during this service. From now on I will carry my phone.
I am not the most likely person to send a heart emoji even Valentines day.
Still that little accidental heart reminded me that today is about love. Since I stopped thinking about Valentines as a romantic celebration, and more as a love your neighbor kind of thing, I have come to enjoy it quite a bit. Remember the pleasure of receiving valentines as a child at school? I give a valentine to anyone I feel like, sometimes even accidentally.
When I started seeing it this way I saw how really it is just a day for kindness set in the coldest month of the year. A day to consider and appreciate the sweetness around you.
Love is such a beautiful complicated thing. It isn't simple and it isn't always easy. But if we are lucky it's always there. The interesting thing about it, is that to really receive it, and understand it, you have to give it. In reaching out to others in kindness, somehow we become better ourselves.
My friend once said to me, "It is one thing to love someone but it is another thing altogether to be loved." To receive love, even in the simplest of forms, is a message to you that you are here and you are good. We can never tell people often enough about their goodness.
Love is not about even trades. Sometimes you wonder if in fact it is doing any good at all.
We have all been on the irritating end of love. The love that nags or bothers. I myself have initiated this love time and time again.
Sometimes love must bear the burdens of sadness and loss. This is too hard to talk about today but we know it.
Love, in it's simplest form is the gift of bread to neighbors. It is hello to a lonely face on the street. It is dropping a few dollars in a coffee cup without wondering if you are doing any good,. It is about suspending judgement and passing on what you have.
When I was twenty I was with my Uncle Donald in Brooklyn, NY. There were people asking for money on every corner. I had not seen this before. I said what do you do? He said, " Whadda ya mean? You got a quarter in your pocket, give it to em, for #@% sakes."
That was love.
There was love in the giving and love in the teaching, though my uncle would never have recognized that.
And that's the way with love. We can give it without knowing just by doing what we can. Just by being ourselves.
Happy Valentines Day... I hope you like this day too.
Deanne
PS.Last Day!Today is the last day to receive oatcakes with your shipped order.
PPS.Last Day ! That you can purchase the course only for just $99 until Feb 15.
- Angela Davis
- Tags: design hooked rug hooking how to hook rugs
Thursday Live: Changing directions, textures and a new rug reveal
Sunday Newsletter, January 17, 2021
Good Morning,
I want to tell you about my walks on these last two mornings. Yesterday morning there was a hoarfrost so every plant was covered in these tiny miracles. There were millions of little ice crystals creating thin layers over the structure of every stem and seed on my path. The night prior had been foggy and misty and it had gotten colder and the forest and the dale that surround me became majestic.
Now today is a new day. I walked early this morning in the pouring rain. The magical frosts of yesterday have disappeared and there is a skating rink in my driveway that I have salted so I can get to the road safely. The little miracles have dissapeared & the world is grey.
Winter here changes daily. Its cold, it's warm, it's wet, then it's snowy. The thing I know is that whatever it is like out I have to get out in it and accept it. It is something that is a given. I cannot control it. At the same time, except for the most severe storms where we need to stay off the roads, I cannot let it control me.
I cannot let the weather determine how I feel. I'd be so moody living here if I did. I live in a place where the weather is ever changing. We have seasons with in seasons.
And it is these seasons that I watch as I walk the same road everyday. Once my neighbour said, "I don't know how you can walk the same road everyday, day after day." I wondered about that for awhile too.
I wondered if I was dull perhaps hoofing it up and down this road. Then one day on a walk it occurred to me I have never walked the same road twice.
Between the light, the weather, and the charm of nature itself nothing ever stays the same. For the last seven months I have been watching the wild caraway along the side of the road. Honestly, I have seen some gorgeous sculptures but never one as delicately beautiful as this.
Yesterday in that hoarfrost she was covered in diamonds. At other times she is the black and grey of coal going to ash. In summer she was lit with gold. I can barely keep up with her. "She never walks in the room the same way twice", as Jim Cuddy says.
As creatives ( that's all of us...yes, even you, if you are doubting it) we are profoundly effected by what is going on around us. What we see, what we take in, the weather, the moods of others. Some of these things we have no control over.
While there are other things where we do have some control. For example, what I am reading, what I am seeing, and what media I am taking in. I have learned that watching flowers bloom and change and hearing birds sing has lead to me to art in a way that so much does not. I try to choose what leads me to beauty with out burying my head in the sand. For the world needs us, the creatives to contribute and make a little noise now and then.
As I write this the rain has stopped pounding on the windows here in mid January and the sun has lit up the snow for at least a few minutes. It is just the weather. It won't make this day. I have to do that myself with my spirit. I'll go to my frame after writing this and I'll try to create a little beauty. I'll try to contribute. It's the least I can do.
I think I should tell you that's it grey again. But that's okay.
Enjoy your day. I hope you see something beautiful today.
I hope you feel beautiful today.
Thank you for reading,
Deanne
PS.We have sold out of kits for the years winter online course. I have asked Angie to dye some colours for our texture wall and have created a texture package of twenty textures, the pattern and the course. Limited Quantities are available below . You can then use your stash or purchase some green, blues, and other colours in the rug to go with your texture pack.
PPS. I am going to add an extra video in the course about how to work from your stash to create the rug. I want to hook the pattern again in a different way anyway. I love the pattern. It is full of opportunity to be creative.
- Angela Davis
- Tags: colours design Inspiration Journal novascotia rug hookling simplicity
Thursday Live January 14, 2021
Each week Deanne shares her thoughts, latest projects and helpful hints from her rug hooking studio. She talks about creativity, rug hooking techniques, and offers suggestions and encouragement to help you create your own projects. You can watch this week's here. THURSDAY LIVE
Hooking the Velvet Caribou and Framing a Rug
- Deanne Fitzpatrick
- Tags: design framing a hooked rug how to rug hook velvet caribou
