Good progress on the rug and a bit of bird watching

Dad's getting better but in baby steps.  Still very tired and napping a lot.  While he's been napping I've been hooking away and watching the birds outside the kitchen window. 

The rug I'm working on is a project from teacher's workshop I acquired some years ago.  I pulled it out because it is very straight forward to hook.  I had gotten the horse hooked way back but hadn't decided what to do with the rest of it.  I had a lot of leftovers from other projects laying around and I wanted to get them used up.  I threw a bunch of medium to medium/dark values of blues and blue-greens into a pot and overdyed them with Prochem 401 to "marry" them together.  I've gotten a lot done in the past week.  It  helps that I'm using a #8 cut.  I'm thinking I may add a simple border. To me, it needs it to "set the rug down".  It seem to float a bit for me as it is.  I'll make a final judgement when I get the rest of the background hooked. 

I managed to get a picture of the male bluebird as well.  I guess I'm in my blue period. 

A Stressful Winter

It's been a long time since I've posted.  Things have been better.  We moved into our new house in mid November. Stress number one.  My dad became ill and ended up in the hospital the day before we closed. He was in for 6 days and they never did figure out what caused his problem.  After he got out I was traveling back and forth to his house twice a day to tend to him, a 40 mile round trip. Stress number two.  He eventually got better. Christmas was coming and I hadn't even thought about shopping.  Stress number three.  Last week dad started feeling lousy.  We got him to the doctor's who sent him for some tests.  The diagnosis is pneumonia.  He's on mega antibiotics and we pray he'll bounce back soon.  I'm staying with him to keep watch and make sure he eats and drinks something.  Stress number four.

 Enough of my problems.  The sun is shining today and the outlook is for some warmer weather.  The bluebirds are starting to nest in my dad's birdhouse.

 I did manage to design and put together a new applique pattern between Christmas and New Years.  Here it is... 

I also pulled out a rug I started a few years back and am working on that as dad sleeps.  It is a good stress relief to pull some loops.  I don't have a picture right now but will post one when I do.