Well.....

Ok, I'm a day late with my "update", and actually.....I HAVE NO UPDATE!!!

So many things have conspired against me this week, and now I'm having BROWSER problems....!!!  UGH!  SO annoying, but I'm hoping that my much-loved (computer-nerdy, er...."savvy"!) brother-in-law will give me some direction about how to FIX it today.... (Amy....?? Are you reading this...?)!!! :-D

So in the meantime, my browser keeps freezing ("not responding") constantly, and then CRASHES!

But that's not the real thing holding up my forum creation ---- I'm STILL NOT FINISHED with the little yarn mutants!!!
However, I am ALMOST done, and after posting this blog entry, I'm going to crochet until finished!!

Here is a picture of the last few I have made.....

And once I finish the purple one, I'm DONE!!

Cheryl's comment on my last post made me laugh out loud! :-D  But I wanted to clarify about the women wanting these -- there's actually only 9 of them (I think...), and they have two different sizes of dogs: small and smaller!! LOL  The craziness started when I made the first three, which were identical to the biggest pink one in the middle -- that woman wanted one and her sister wanted two -- and she brought her dog to her Bible study or something like that and all the other women with little dogs wanted one or two!  Three women asked me to make (huge!) ones for their larger dogs, but I wisely declined THAT "adventure" -- modifying and then crocheting a person-sized sweater for a dog....??  WAAAY too much work for me right now!  They are buying the yarn, but I'm doing the crocheting for free (just because I want to).  And even if I was paid, I don't want to make huge ones!! LOL

Anyway, I wanted to share some fun things too!  Well, fun FOR ME...! :-D
I saw and pinned this MONTHS ago.....

It's from an Early American Life magazine article about Windsor Chairs, but what caught my eye was that STENCIL!!!!  Look at it -- it's gorgeous!  I've never seen anything like it in all my stencil resources and searches over the years, and I love it!!
The problem is, it's too small of an image for me to correctly draw and cut it for myself!  I even own the issue that this is from, and the picture in the magazine is zoomed in a bit more and cuts off the stencil! :-(

So for months, literally, I have been looking everywhere for this stencil design -- I've done Google and Bing searches, I've looked through every stencil website I know of (and others I never heard of), I spent hours pouring over Pinterest pins of stencils, I've scoured all my many books and magazines and stencil catalogs -- nothing!  NOTHING!!!   BOOOO HOOOO!!!!!

Where did this come from???
I was almost ready to contact EAL directly to get any info I could from them!  But then in my third book scouring, I noticed a book I had forgotten I owned, and it had been accidentally put away with my Christmas books in the back of my craft closet....."Early American Stencils on Walls and Furniture" by Janet Waring" -- it's a GEM of a book, and I can't believe I forgot all about owning it!!  It's a Dover book published recently, but it was originally published in 1937 after the author went all over New England looking at old houses with original stencils, and even to the descendants of Moses Eaton who gave her his stencil kit!!!  It's a wonderful book!

It's the book on the left, and the other two books are also TERRIFIC and filled with color pictures of stencils from walls and floors.  Janet Waring's book has TONS of pictures, but they are mostly black and white, which doesn't matter to me!!  I can still copy the stencils easily if I wanted to!

I had already checked (and double-checked!) the other two books for that stencil, but two nights ago, I became obsessed with finding it again, and dug further around here (after a 2 hour internet search), and when I found that book I was so excited, even if it didn't have my stencil!!
BUT.....IT DID!!!!.....

THERE IT IS!!!!!  I LOVE IT!!!! :-D
I think I'm going to use it for my bedroom, when I get to it!  Yay, Yay, Yay!!! :-)

Here are some other images from the book....

See how the lack of color doesn't detract from the gorgeous stenciling....SO amazing!!  I think I want to have a couple of these stencils! :-D

Look at Moses Eaton's actual stencils.....

WOW!!

See what a wonderful resource this book is?

The other two are equally as wonderful.....

Look at the last picture -- there is a whole section in that book about the stencils used and found on coverlets and quilts..... for real!  I had never heard of that before reading it in that book!!  As someone who has never quilted (and is a little afraid of it!), I love LOVE the idea of stenciling on fabric to make an authentic Early American coverlet!!!!
Something to think of for a future project.....! :-D

Lastly, remember THIS....

I finally finished painting mine two weeks ago -- I struggle when trying to create a two colored, layered paint look, but I did ok I think.....

Layer one..... (I LOVE this color!!  I almost didn't want to cover it! LOL)
And......

Layer two, plus sanding and staining, and it's all done!!!  It looks better in real life, but you can still see most of the details -- I tried to keep the drawer imperfections (in the wood) exposed, and I think it came out alright....I stressed over it enough! LOL
It looks great in my kitchen!  Now to clean the counters so I can see it better....! :-D

Ok, so I will be working on the forum ASAP (tonight, maybe??), so hopefully I'll have it ready by the weekend, or by the end of the weekend at the latest!!
Don't worry about me "working too hard" or being too stressed over it -- it's NOT difficult at all, it just requires time, that which I don't have at the moment! LOL  But once I get to it, it won't be hard for me at all......besides, the outcome/reward will be SO FUN and WONDERFUL, it's all worth it!!! ^-^