Pocketful of Posies

Our library just cataloged a wonderful new children's book by author and illustrator Salley Mavor.  She is a brilliant needleworker and this new book Pocketful of Posies is illustrated completely in what she calls fabric relief pages.  The pages are just full of beautiful embroidery, needlework and all kinds of cute, whimsical creatures that she has made herself.  Each page is created by gluing or attaching in some way the embroidery, etc. to a backround fabric and then are photographed for the book.

I'm very intrigued and interested by this type of art and she has also written a book with actual projects that you can do yourself.  The book is titled Felted Wee Folk.

I went ahead and ordered an inexpensive used copy of the book.  I'm always interested in how others make their artwork and how the artwork is used.  I think it's really interesting how she has used her art to illustrate children's books.

Stressed

September has been a stressful month.  I haven't been on here much, and I'm sorry about that.  My mother fell and broke her hip on her birthday of all days.  Not that it's good any time, but on your birthday?  That's terrible.  She had surgery the next day and they put screws in and by the second day she was already transported to rehab.  This is her second week there and she's making pretty good progress.  She's not confined to the bed anymore and she doesn't stay in the bed unless it's at night and she's sleeping.  She is spending most of her time in a wheelchair so she can roll herself around the rehab facility and also so she can roll herself to the dining room for her meals.  She's getting therapy 2 times a day and it's really helping.

But ... and I feel so guilty for saying this ... I'm exhausted.  I'm her only child, so I'm the one doing all the running around errands, doing things for her that she can't do herself right now.  It's hard because I work a full time job and after work, instead of going home, I go to my mom's apartment and then to the rehab place.  It puts me getting home usually no earlier than 6 p.m. and by that time I'm not in the mood to cook.  My husband, Eddie, helps when he can, but he's out of town right now and I really miss him.  Plus, his mother is not doing well, and he's been helping out alot with her too.  His mother has had 2 heart attacks in the last 3 years.  Her arteries are almost completed blocked and she elected not to have the open heart surgery because of her age and the risks involved.  So, the sad truth is that she will never get better.

Well, on a more upbeat note.  I decided, for some reason, to start a latch hook project.  I was in Hobby Lobby the other day and I saw this cute Santa Claus and since I had a 40% coupon, I bought it. It looks like this:

It's really cute and so far pretty easy. I thought I'd better get a fairly easy one since it's been years since I did latch hook.