At the Beach

We are in Maine for a week. Brother, sister and family...my the water is cold but having a blast at Ocean Park and York Beach - eating lots of fresh fish! Just pictures.....

Happy Birthday Sally

My dear mother-in-law has her birthday today. It is not polite to say a ladies age so I won't - but my lord she does not look her age. What did she want for her birthday but a chocolate milk shake. I said at your age you can get or do anything you like! and what a fun day it was.  We went to a new place for us -- Jukebox in Dollard des Ormeaux. She of course had her chocolate milkshake for her lunch and a shot glass of chocolate fudge sundae. Yummy! I had ....

a turkey burger with Suzie Q's - half of it came home with me because of course I had to have a chocolate milkshake which I have not had in years. My better half had the beef burger and Suzie Q's along with a shake. It was all so good!!!! Nice to find a new place that was a success.

My Sally in front of the giant sundae. She finds pleasure in such simple things. Funny you hear horror stories about mother-in-laws but I have to say I love my MIL with all her quirks and her huge smile. She is a special person and I wouldn't have it any other way.

The only thing missing was the little jukeboxes in each booth but there was a big one and the tables and chairs reminded me of our old kitchen sets when we were kids. This place brought back fond memories and we'll go back!

Some pictures of  Liam, my little boy at 6-1/2 months...what a good puppy. 

He is having a good time with his new orange Canada moose I bought him. That's what happens when you have no children - the dog gets it all :)

Sweet face...............

Sorry I have been absent for a month - don't know how often I will get to blog. We are going through a family crisis right now with a member being quite ill so all my energy and focus has been there. So there has been no rug hooking happening. I think at night I only have enough energy to pick up a pair of knitting needles. I am hoping to get some hooking done next month when on holiday in PEI at the cottage on the ocean....sigh...sigh

Have a great day! Joni

Family and Baking

It's been a busy few days as it always seems before Christmas, for a lot of you too I am sure! Mom's birthday was celebrated on the weekend and the family got together at Madison's for a lunch get together. There were 13 of us and it was nice to see everyone. This is not the entire family - I don't even know how many we are - easily 25 - I guess... and no I am not in the picture.

I have been baking up a storm. I managed to take a picture of my specialty (meaning I make it every Christmas), they all seem to like these cream cheese pastries. Here is the link for the recipe if you want to download it.. I also baked some chocolate espresso cookies but the picture did not take on that one. Will try again before they are all eaten. It would be kind of nice if we had some snow though - it certainly would make it more like Christmas. I hope it will not be a green Christmas. That will be a first in a long long time! More baking scheduled for this week. 


I have been doing some rug hooking. I am doing a series of owls.. Why owls I don't know! I think I was inspired by a calendar that was done by my cousin Susan Black (Etsy Shop), and thought I would try my hand at sketching some designs. They are pretty simple and not very big. Can't seem to handle too many big projects these days. Yesterday I got my proddy tool. I looked at it and said "Now What". I had no clue as to how this thing worked. With the help of a friend I have mastered it LOL. I am going to Proddy the edge of a snowman rug (aka pillow)...We'll just see how that turns out. 


I am a little slow in posting/pictures as I am without glasses right now - broken - no spare - bad news. So working half blind...at least I have my sunglasses to drive with. Hopefully get them today.. so that has slowed me down. Off to do some more baking.. Have a great day! Joni 

Happy Confederation Day!

I am a day early but tomorrow is a busy day - July 1st. Driving my brother and his family to the airport as they are winging away to Crete, Greece for a month. Lucky devils!

It's been busy here in the Black household..besides planning some reno jobs for the house I have a show in November that I have to prepare for now in order to have everything ready for then. I am almost finished my cat rug and that has turned out quite nice - hmmmm I may have to keep that one. Also working on some cross stitch patterns that need to be ready and published under my other name "Island Cottage Needlearts" which are available wholesale from Kelmscott Designs.

Finally got the shed all built and what do you know it is already stacked with boxes of supplies. I need a warehouse - just kidding. I just need to seriously divest myself of STUFF I will never use.

Fully Wooly has some new pattern books available from Notforgotten Farm. You can see them on my Facebook page and I have ordered some new cross stitch patterns that will be available mid July on the new website.

You know how you have a great plan and have everything set out and then something just happens to whack it out of place. I was hoping to have the newly redesigned website up and running last weekend but unfortunately my mom took a serious tumble and the priority has been her care. I am happy to say that she is pretty resilient for an 81 year old woman and has strong European stock that has allowed her to bounce back quicker than I thought. So it will get launched, I promise, sometime within the next couple of weeks with some new wool bundles using my hand dyes and some wonderful Rebecca Erb AS IS wools.

So I am off to get the dye pots going and we'll be talking. thanks Joni 

Happy New Year

I have been very busy with the holiday season and have not not been very diligent about posting to my blog.

Had a lovely Christmas! Santa was very good to me and went shopping at Deanne Fitzpatrick's website bringing me all kinds of rug hooking goodies. Got this new hook that I am very anxious to try out. It will get a lot of use finishing up the cat rug I have promised myself to finish by the end of January. Mine is the wood grain one on the far left - cool!!

photo copyright Deanne Fitzpatrick

This is a print I got from her which is one of my favourite rugs of hers. It is called "Standing by the Monument" and is based on a photograph taken by Ted Pritchard of women in their later years that were babies during the Halifax Explosion. The border reads - "Unlike the poet, my life has most often taken the road that is well travelled and I have made it whole with gifts of bread to neighbours."

copyright Deanne Fitzpatrick

I don't make NY resolutions. I know what I have to do and I try my best to do it and if it does not happen I don't stress out. Life happens. Sure there are goals I would like to achieve and hopefully by the end of 2009 it will happen - if not - oh well!

Did lots of baking and had lots of big family dinner parties = 19 for a sit down dinner (my sister loves to host them..thank you for that). I even made some confectionery which I never do. Get some pictures of those posted on the weekend. We had lots of family fun which I think is important. Soon it will be time to take down the tree and put the decorations away and settle down for the winter and some punch needle and rug hooking.

Have taken up knitting again. I love the new hand painted yarns out there. My preference is for small quick projects so i stick to socks, mittens, scarves and shawls. May try my hand at felting purses. Found a great website with some very creative knitting - Cat Bordhi and of course that led to all kinds of surfing. These have to be the cutest place markers I have seen. I usually keep track of stitches on paper but then thought place markers and where could I find some really creative ones - on Etsy of course. These are wonderful from Crimson Orchid.

copyright photo Crimson Orchid

So as I said it has been a busy month and I am already into knitting socks for next year's gift. 2008 I was so behind that that stressed me out. 2009 goal is to make sure I get more hand made gifts done.

All the best for 2009 - good health, much happiness and may you be successful in all your endeavours!

Good night - Joni

To Be Thankful

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It's been awhile since I've posted. Time seems to just runaway. Today is our Canadian Thanksgiving, which means thoughts of what we are thankful for and turkey dinners. Our family celebrated yesterday rather than today because unlike the USA Thanksgiving not all businesses are closed today. To be honest I prefer American Thanksgiving as it is taken more seriously and it is a time for family get togethers. More attention is paid to it and for me it is the beginning of the holiday season. So although the sentiment for Thanksgiving is not as strong here, we as a family celebrated yesterday with all the pomp and ceremony that made it a wonderful Thanksgiving celebration.


We all went to my sister's "house in the woods", where we had an outdoor bonfire, the kids played pretend games in the woods and we gathered in the kitchen and talked about topics relevant for these times. In Canada we are also having our election so there was lots to discuss. It was a general melee of family atmosphere and I guess if I were asked what I was most thankful for it would be family. There were 15 of us from 7 years old to 79 years young. We are a very passionate family with different opinions but are always there for each other. So being together for a wonderful dinner of turkey and fixings is something to be very thankful for.



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I think that with what is going on in the world today we should be so thankful for what we have. I have always felt that as long as I was able to put food on the table and have a roof over our heads that would be enough. The rest is just glitter and it tarnishes with age. As long as you have the basics - to me my life has foundation. I think that is why I love my primitives so much. It evokes an era of simplicity. Not that I am giving up modern plumbing or anything like that, but I think that you need to put your wants and needs into perspective. There is so much unnecessary consumerism in today's world and I think that the current economic crisis brings that home. I guess it is a question of what you NEED vs what you WANT. I have been more conscientious of that mantra over the past few years and I always question my wants. With what has happened this year, we question ourselves more as to the necessity of "things". It helps to say NO to things that really add no value to your life.

So what am I thankful for:

a husband who takes care of the household chores while I create
a 4 legged best friend who loves me unconditionally with his puppy love
a great big passionate family
my quiet life

I think it is important to take stock of what you have and to be thankful for what you have. There are so many out there in dire situations - how can we not be thankful and appreciate what we have; maybe not complain so much of what we don't have and really don't need.



Be Thankful and Happy Thanksgiving.....

My Mom

Mom and her kids - 1969 (L-R, Lorraine,Michael(the baby),Ronald, me (with the braids) & Carole)

A baby asked God, "They tell me you are sending me to earth tomorrow, but how am I going to live there being so small and helpless?"
"Your angel will be waiting for you and will take care of you."
The child further inquired, "But tell me, here in heaven I don't have to do anything but sing and smile to be happy."
God said, "Your angel will sing for you and will also smile for you. And you will feel your angel's love and be very happy."
Again the child asked, "And how am I going to be able to understand when people talk to me if I don't know the language?"
God said, "Your angel will tell you the most beautiful and sweet words you will ever hear, and with much patience and care, your angel will teach you how to speak."
"And what am I going to do when I want to talk to you?"
God said, "Your angel will place your hands together and will teach you how to pray."
"Who will protect me?"
God said, "Your angel will defend you even if it means risking it's life."
"But I will always be sad because I will not see you anymore."
God said, "Your angel will always talk to you about Me and will teach you the way to come back to Me, even though I will always be next to you."
At that moment there was much peace in Heaven, but voices from Earth could be heard and the child hurriedly asked, "God, if I am to leave now, please tell me my angel's name."
"You will simply call her, 'Mom.'" - unknown

Hectic Days

I have not been able to get to my blog in a couple of weeks. All my good intentions have gone out the door in the face of reality. My in-laws, both within two weeks of each other have had a medical crisis so poor Peter (only child) and I have been negotiating and finding our way through the mechanisms of caring for aging parents. If you have not done this before - once immersed you will become an expert. Thank God I have a friend who has helped by pointing us in the right direction, since she has just gone through the same thing.

My poor pup grabs whatever affection he can get from me in between running to work and hospital. Our schedule is definitely up in the air. So this morning I decided to take some time for myself, put a few thoughts to cyberspace and veg out before the daily rituals start.

I am finishing up an order for some wonderful pear and cardamom cameo soaps and filigree hearts for a customer who plans on using them in her Valentine baskets. I just bought a new oil - Rose Garden - that smells so much like a rose garden and reminds me of summer days when the air is laden with the scent of roses. That definitely has to be done up in my filigree heart soaps. I'll be selling those for sure on my website and ETSY.

In this time of turmoil I am finding much joy in working with my soaps and tomorrow it will be the dye pots - making up some spice pumpkin and herb garden wool threads. Have not had much time for punch needle though I do have a couple of designs worked up. I want to finish those soon for the spring season.

Here is my honey soy wheat bran soap layered and permeated with lemon and lemongrass essential oils. I just love the freshness of anything lemon. To the right is my strawberry cream soy soap all packaged up with butcher paper and pretty red fibre paper found on one of my excursions to the art store. These can be found at TDIPT Mercantile and PFATT Marketplace



I promised that I would show my sheep rug that was part of a challenge. I was so glad to be able to finish it on time before all this started happening. It certainly was a challenge but a fun one using up other people's colour choices of wool strips. I loved doing it and sometimes challenges are the best thing in order to get out of a rut. I have spent the better part of a year doing punch needle so this little exercise rekindled my first love of rug hooking. Thank you to Maria of PRHG for making this happen.

two sheep - hooked by Joni & designed by Maria

Roby has just been introduced to the newest member of our family (Gustav - the in-laws cat) and there was much growling and sniffing and a late chase up the stairs but all in all a successful introduction. Everyone is asserting their territory which is normal and we will all just have to be one happy family!

My Dad & 1998

The weather is so weird these past couple of days. It is our January thaw and the abundance of snow we have received in December is melting like crazy. Some people are talking flooding but since I live on a hill I am not too worried. It certainly is easier to get up it than when it was snow covered. 10 years ago was the ice storm and that is all you hear on the radio and TV these days. It was a weather event I hope never to see again that struck a city that was totally unprepared. 10 days without power does something to your morale. Some people south of the city had to endure a month without power - could not even imagine that. There were stories galore that made the rounds but I have to say that the story of my dad and his street patrol has a place in my heart. Photos copyright Le Journal de Montreal.

My Dad (who has since passed away), was a WWII junkie who could not get enough of the memorabilia of WWII in the form of movies, books and other items he would pick up. He was a young 15 year old lad who joined the French Resistance and saw his share of the war. He never talked about it - I think there were things he saw that he preferred to forget.

So here is Dad in the middle of an ice storm with his army beret on - his fatigues picked up in an army surplus store - boots firmly planted on the icy road directing traffic over a concoction of extension wires running from house to house - side by side and across. A veritable tangled mess of wiring keeping homes warm and fridges running. Neighbours sharing generators and so much kindness was found those days. Unfortunately did it last? How quickly people forget. But for that short time -tales were made - people shared what they had, friendships were formed and my dad felt so important as people thanked him for his efforts as a soldier in the Canadian Armed Forces - him at 68 :) but oh it made his day and he was so proud to be able to do his part in what was the Storm of the Century here in our city.

the young Bailoux clan with our dad - Michael, Lorraine, Ronald, Carole and me on the right -

I started off wanting to show you my soap all freshly cut and packaged but I have just had my Dad in my thoughts with fond memories these past few days with . So I wanted to put this short little story down on paper. Tomorrow I will show my soap.