Eileen Hull

Three dimensional art... with heart

My 24 year old daughter, Pam, has recently moved back in with us due to a job in the area. She also brings Lexi, her 3 year old pit bull. This dog is like a baby. I have gotten pretty attached to her in the month she’s been with us. She is very well-behaved but usually if we are going out we leave her in her crate.

The other day I came home and she greeted me at the door smiling her little doggy smile. No one else was home. As I walked through the house I noticed the rugs were all flipped up and it seemed she had had enjoyed her alone time with the run of the house. Nothing too much else seemed out of place. I started a load of wash and went on about my business. A few hours later I came upon a My Little Pony laying on the floor. My youngest daughter had gotten her pony collection out for my niece who had come to visit at Thanksgiving. As I picked it up, I noticed that one of the pony’s legs had been severed and another one had some serious bite marks. Upon further investigation, I found the amputated plastic leg in several hacked up pieces.
I called my daughter at college with the bad news.
Me: Mary, you know that turquoise My Little Pony?
Mary: (screams in horror) WHAT??? Oh NO… What happened to it? (accusingly) I told Kelly to put it away! (Kelly is 5)
Me: Well, Lexi might have played with it a little…
Mary: Was it the one with the pink and purple hair? That was my favorite.
Me: I think it was pink hair. (it actually was pink and purple)
This kid is almost 20 years old! Anyway, when Pam came home I showed her Lexi’s work. She had a good laugh and then I told her of Maryanne’s reaction. I suggested that since she is a nurse. she could perhaps fashion a cast or prosthetic limb. Here’s what she did…
By the way, I scored a photo booth at an auction I went to a few weeks ago for $9. I think it does a pretty good job.

https://www.eileenhull.com/2008/12/my-24-year-old-daughter-pam-has.html


OK so the Gourmet luncheon LOOKED spectacular. The secret was supposed to be that all of the recipes were Weight Watchers or lo-cal. However in the course of the event, one oven turned off for about 45 minutes causing the meat to be way behind in cooking time. So we quickly adjusted the menu to serve an appetizer as part of the main course. Luckily, the ladies were having so much fun talking, we were behind schedule and one of the pork loins was checked and the meat thermometer pronounced it fit for human consumption! So all was well and no one knew any thing was out of order. The funny thing was I was going to post the recipe book and invitation that I made but they were all put in the file and taken to Janis’s house and I never got one! Now I have to make another one to show you how they looked! Oh well, I could probably put them together in my sleep. And Hayward loved the pork loin (one that didn’t heat fast enough- we split it 4 ways and brought it home) and Great Harvest bread that I served when he got home from work at 11PM.
Tonight I went up to Leesburg to see my friend Patty’s 2 watercolors (and my matting) that are hanging in a gallery. They have a really nice event every first Friday night. All the shops stay open- some serve food, there were carolers singing (I was so excited to kind of hum along with “Lo, a Rose E’er Blooming”- one of my absolute favorite Christmas songs) and an air of community wrapped me in. It was cold and crisp and I loved it.
Then I went to Home Depot to buy cinder blocks for the manger at church which we’ll put up in the morning. So the Christmas season is officially in gear for me…

https://www.eileenhull.com/2008/12/ok-so-gourmet-luncheon-looked.html

Tiny Ornaments


These were some fun little ornaments that I did for the Barn Sale while watching TV. Will use the ones that are left for package ornaments. Love gifts that can be used in several ways! I used glitter pipe cleaners as hangers- they were adorable.

My company is finally gone but I have so much to do I don’t know where to start. I should make a list. That always calms me down. Unless the list is too long. Then I freak out. Hmmm… Maybe I’ll make a list later.

I am a member of an International Gourmet Group (if you know me, you are laughing your head off right this minute). I love the ladies but the cooking, not so much. Well, Friday is our groups’ turn to host. Thankfully, my very nice friend Patty said she could have it at her house. So today we went out and set the tables and made final arrangements. It looks beautiful. I am trying to decide if we should put a tree up since we’ll be away for Christmas. Maybe a little one…

We had such a nice weekend and visit with Hayward’s brother, sister and families… But now, back to work. I am working on new products for CHA and my License and Design booth coming up in less than 2 months!!! I have some ideas but need to start getting this stuff DONE. Because pretty soon it will be Christmas and the holidays and I’ll be goofing off again. This year we are headed to Caribou, Maine where we’ll meet up with my family and hopefully get some snowmobiling in, although I hear that normally they do not have snow in December 🙁

Found out that the secret product I have been working on will not be unveiled till July 09 🙁 This is killing me. What I am working on right now: orders for Christmas Joy, luncheon invitations and coordinating recipe book for group of 21, CHA stuff, recycled project for the Green Gallery, scanning product to be posted on website, creating designs to be submitted to magazines, FoamWerks designs for projects sheets for AC Moore… and so on. Nothing so exciting, but I am so happy that this is actually my job.

https://www.eileenhull.com/2008/11/we-had-such-nice-weekend-and-visit-with.html

The seventh annual Barn Sale was a huge success despite the frigid temps! Many thanks to all who came, shopped and stayed to visit. Sales surpassed those of last year, despite the state of the economy. This says a lot about the loyalty of our wonderful customers, and I THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart!

Our vendors are outstanding and were so helpful in set up and stocking. It takes a lot of time to prepare for the show and I really appreciate their help- the show couldn’t happen without their great products and presence.

If you didn’t receive an invitation, please email me at EileenHull@aol.com and I’ll add you to the mailing list. Until next year…

https://www.eileenhull.com/2008/11/seventh-annual-barn-sale-was-huge.html

Yesterday I traveled to Temple, PA to do a book signing as part of the Grand Opening celebration in the newest AC Moore store. Here’s a picture of a happy little customer named Sarah. She and her mom returned to watch the demo of the FoamWerks tools several times. She is standing in front of the table where I signed books and demo’d the groovy new tools. Traffic was good due to the efforts of KC and the local country radio station- in fact, within five minutes of my arrival, she came over and asked me to do a radio spot introducing myself and inviting the listeners to come on down! Gak!

It’s a beautiful new store with all the latest products (different than my local store) so it was fun to look around and see everything. On the way home, I was overwhelmed by the beautiful scenery and foliage- how amazing is this circle of life we are riding on. The leaves bud, flower, change color and die and we get to watch every year…

So now it’s back to work. The Barn Sale is approaching quickly and I have to make stuff to sell! Have some good ideas- time to just sit down and DO them!. Will send some preview pics soon.

My PhotoShop class is over. The day after I finished I ordered a used copy of PhotoShop for Dummies on Amazon. I probably should have started there 🙁

https://www.eileenhull.com/2008/10/yesterday-i-traveled-to-temple-pa-to-do.html


This past week I traveled to Saugerties, NY to meet my mom and sisters Kathy and Janet for our 7th annual Garlic Festival appearance. Our booth featured fleece hats, slippers, scarves, baby car seat covers and a few dog coats. Unfortunately, the weather was bad and attendance was down 60% the first day.

Although we’ve always at least covered the cost of the trip including a nice dinner, a few whiskey sours and some change to spare, this time it didn’t happen. But one thing that can be said about my family is we don’t let something like that affect our ability to have a good time. And this was no exception 🙂

After the show, I traveled to Watertown NY where I cleaned and polished and got our house ready to rent. It looks great and yesterday we received a signed lease- mission accomplished!
I am starting the PhotoShop class tomorrow night and hope things go better than they did with the Illustrator class 🙁 although that info is slowly sinking in.
Yesterday Hayward and I went to AC Moore and saw Tanya demo the pumpkin project sheet that I designed! How cool is that?

https://www.eileenhull.com/2008/10/this-past-week-i-traveled-to-saugerties.html

Coming your way! Last week I completed a training class to be a certified Logan Mat Cutting instructor. Classes will be held at AC Moore stores in certain areas so keep your eyes out for more info in your local store. If you don’t see anything and are interested in learning more, Logan is still looking for teachers, experience helpful. Contact Connie Cook at www.logangraphic.com.

Hayward and I had the pleasure of attending a York Revolutions baseball game yesterday in York, PA with my friend Stephen (since second grade) and his wife Nancy. What a fun time! The town is just beautiful and the stadium was full of folks from the community having a good time enjoying the perfect weather. In between innings there was sumo wrestling, little kids doing sack races, free t-shirts being launched from gigantic rubber band catapults, contests, etc. Plus their hot dogs were, well, everything a hot dog eaten during a baseball game should be. To make things extra special, we were in the company of a celebrity- Nancy has worked on the committee that actually built the stadium and we saw her name right in the entrance on an mpressive brass plaque- yeah- she’s my peep 🙂 uh huh… Wish we lived closer- I’d be there a lot.

Which makes me think about how lucky I am living where I do- 25 miles from DC and all the museums and landmarks. When we moved here I decided to take the kids in and visit once a week. We did for a few weeks but then they made friends and decided the pool was more fun- and it was sure easier than loading everyone up for a day in DC. But now I am free to go where I want and don’t! OK, note to self- go exploring!

https://www.eileenhull.com/2008/09/coming-your-way-last-week-i-completed.html

No photo tonight. I am just trying to keep to 5 blogs a week! I finally decided I would again hold the annual Barn Sale here November 21-22. We bought our house from a guy who was a (an?) historical preservationist. He would take old buildings down, number the parts and reconstruct them elsewhere. As a result, we have a very cool 1888 barn in our back yard. So every year I invite crafting buddies of mine to set up our wares boutique style and pack the place. It’s a very fun event- exhausting getting ready for- but so great to see friends from church, school, scouts, NJROTC, military, etc. This year I had to change the weekend we usually have it so hope the vendors can still come. Somehow, we always wind up with just the right numbe of folks. My sister and Mom come down from NY to do the show and everyone winds up visiting, eating, shopping and lots of TALKING! Last year, I had a big banner on the barn door which hundreds of people signed. I brought it up to Chris at Thanksgiving- he was just home from Iraq and he was quite touched that people had thought of him and had been keeping him in their thoughts and prayers. Can’t believe it has been almost a year already and he’s preparing to go back there 🙁 . I can only hope that God will keep him safe again.

So tonight I was sending out the paperwork to the vendors to see if they would like to participate again.

Monday night I return to school. I’ll be attending 3 classes at NOVA. Subject matter- learning computer graphic programs. It will probably be painful but something has to sink in… I’m hoping, anyway.

https://www.eileenhull.com/2008/09/no-photo-tonight.html