Kirk ... looks like you've got some great pics for Christmas cards next yr! Bart is lookin' so GOOD this Winter! Love both the "before" & "after" pics! And I am so tickled to see that IA birdhse in your bkyard! & adding that BEAR just makes it so you! That birdfdr snowman is just the CUTEST...love the additions of the earmuffs & pine trees & such a cute idea to have the enamel pan for a feeder! (I think I remember you getting that.) Looks great out in the snow! Those poinsetta's on your ladder trellis certainly brings it to life for the Winter mos! A work of art, Kirk, love those old hinge type thingies & vine wreath...beautiful! Hope you use that last pic for something special! It's a WONDERFUL visual of God's beauty at your home! TFS! Happy New Year to you & your family! Jeanne S.

Thanks, everyone! I love sharing this stuff with you. Have you designed a project for a larger hooked rug yet? With your new frame how large of a rug can you create? One of my first hooked projects 20+ years ago was a small rug I designed. Then later I bought a pattern that appealed to me and hooked that. I think both still need to be bound and finished (procrastinating about this step is a problem common to many rug hookers). Currently, the two projects I have lined up are a chair seat (I have five but need one more) and a new cover for my footstool. My new frame (which should arrive in less than two weeks) is the same size as my old one, but both can accommodate any size project, as you just lift the rug up and move it to work on different sections. Here's a story for you: Last night I was trying to come up with a design idea for the hooked chair seat. I looked through one of my books on rug hooking, and got nowhere with that. Then I reached for a book on folk art, thinking as I did so that it had been years since I'd opened it. Inside the front cover I found cut-out patterns my daughter Jill and I had drawn for a quilted table runner I made years ago. I didn't use the horse she drew at the time, but there it was, a perfect size for the chair seat. I feel that I was guided to open that book. Here's a picture of the pattern I drew on the linen burlap last night. I'll do some sort of design in the outer border. Now all I have to do is pick which wools I'm going to use. It's like coloring. :-)

LOL, Toni! If I posted my senior picture, you would really think DD & I look alike! I am sure your third graders love Nacho. Sydney is in DH's lap right now. They are watching W. C. Fields. The hawk showed up a few days after Christmas, it might have been New Years Eve. I made cabbage rolls & made DH help, since it was his idea. I wasn't in the mood to fool with them, but when I bought cabbage for me for New Years, since I hate saurkraut, he thought I should buy two heads and use the biggest leaves for cabbage rolls. I told him if I had to make them he had to help. It was while we were making them, that the hawk showed up. I have another pic of it flying away. He might have had lunch in his talons, but we aren't sure. We have a pine tree and a mongo pine bush out front that has turned into bird condos, so he might have had a caught a meal. Tami

Really enjoyed looking @ everyone's lovely trees! Sorry a bit late, but here's ours. After years of elaborate real trees decorated w/ traditional ornaments, garlands, lights & candy, once our kids were grown, I got a small vintage aluminum tree on eBay & have enjoyed its convenience & simplicity ever since. No lights, no topper, no watering - takes me about 1/2 hour to complete... Here it is the first year we had it - 2007. Only year w/ icicles, after I learned (the hard way) that my cat liked to eat them... & here's a tree @ work - all decorations by kids in my arts & crafts classes... Merry Christmas to everyone!