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Elegant Stitch
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WHAT'S NEW
february 6, 2010 okay...here we go...quick, to the point...and i'm out of here - so much stuff on my plate i am having trouble seeing over the top. YES, we are absolutely going to market a week from thursday on february 18th. we are doing pre-orders with the designers and if you have seen it elsewhere - so have i and of course you can pre-order it with us - odds are that it has already been ordered by us and will be waiting at nashville for us to bring it home... i am not going to put the things that are nashville up - quite a few of the designers are still playing with printing and bagging and pricing...and until i know EXACTLY what we're doing...i'm going to do nothing. honestly, i love market and while having some pre-information is a great thing...having too much takes all the fun out of going... so...with that in mind...here we go: carriage house - autumn at hawk run hollow: we do have all the information on this and yes, our fabric in both 40 and 36 count have been ordered as well as our silks. we are offering a special price on the thread pack - 60 skeins of npi and 1 skein of threadgathers retails at $229.00 and we are offering it for $185.00 in limited numbers. our fabric comes as lakeside linens sand dune: 36 count is a linear half at $52.00 and 40 count is 18x37 for $40.00. just FYI - this newest piece is laid out 2 squares x 6 squares and is not square but rectangle...and there has been some confusion on that. we are on automatic with ellen chester (with my needle) and her new things are beautiful...and will be out at nashville...but you can see them on her website at www.withmyneedle.com. some sweet things. what we do know is that there are some wonderful things coming from kelmscott and part I of her newsletter is out and here are the following things available for pre-order and will be shipped as soon as we get home from nashville!!!
there will be an additional newletter from kelmscott - i'm thinking in about a week - with some other beautiful designs from wendy's k.c. designs and some trinkets too!! look for that in the next update. gloriana silk threads: 4 lovely new colors have been
added to the line...just beautiful... samsarah design studio country cottage needleworks little house needleworks the sampler house and finally...there is a new computer sitting in boxes in my home hallway. there is a new website writing program out there waiting to be installed. this website will be changing drastically, but that won't be happening until after the nashville market or i will go stark raving insane. so...yes, we have taken down all the old cumbersome pictures under each of the designers - the pictures were old, some of the things were out of print, it was getting s l o w e r and s......l.....o.....w.....e.....r to load and so we just removed the links. there are so many places around to find pictures - and most of the designers have web sites now - whether they sell directly or not. the new website will absolutely not have a shopping cart...i don't like them and they just don't suit our business model...but the new web site will be easier to maintain and all of the new things are in the "what's new" files by quarters and then years - just like saved newsletters. we do our best to provide top notch service and that is the main focus of our business here...and we hope we do a good job for you all...and if we fall short - all we can do is apologize and re-focus and try to make it right. anyway...on the 18th we are flying to nashville. a
bitter sweet trip - a year ago was the last time i saw my dear friend, kris
stott of norden. not a day goes by that i don't miss her beyond the
beyond...there are going to be some amazing samplers shown from designers who
honored her with a special design just in her memory...and we got to help bring
this special project to life (with some other really dear friends) and i can
hardly wait to see what the finished products look like. but market will
be just a little bit weird - nashville without her...but the world has been
quite odd since march 5, 2009 - without her. february 1, 2010 but of course we have ordered these...we have a list...they
are limited in quantity...we will know more as to when they are due to
arrive...but i believe fairly quickly. january 30, 2010 first off - we have a good friend in sacramento who is having a very special b'day tomorrow - many more ms. lisa...happy, happy!!! we've had 11 days straight of rain, we are now above "normal" and the snow pack is good up in the mountains...we are expecting more...and now that we don't live in leak shop - we'll take it all thank you. california has been in drought mode for a few years now...we'll take whatever we can get...and be grateful because it goes in the lakes and reservoirs and they have been painfully low... we are getting closer and closer to the "end" of our move...all boxes are emptied, rest of pictures hung today...now it's just remembering where we put everything and not wandering around looking for the newest "parking" spot that made perfect sense when we parked it there - and absolutely no sense when looking for it. sound familiar??? i'll just bet it does!!! and, the older we get the more sense the "parking" makes and the less sense the "finding it" makes. so...nashville is getting closer...and we leave on the 18th of february to fly to nashville...new hotel this year - little farther than the old hotel...but a beautiful property and we are very excited. in the meantime...while we pack our bags and cases we are also getting some other people ready for market...so our crush starts about a week ago and will continue right up until the evening of the 17th when we lock all the bins and bags and close the "party" down. there are bags and bins and printers going in every direction at the moment...and it's very nice to be able to have some space to work in to organize all of this chaos. mia and didnot continue to be a little "crabby"...but it's just settling in...mia is quite possessive of me...spends a great deal of time napping on my office floor...and chasing didnot around...if they can't find their respectful ways in 5,200 square feet of shop and adjoining warehouse...then mama lois is going to continue to step in and remind them to behave as ladies. eventually - they might get it...we shall all hope... so...because we have a group of friends coming down today for a visit and because i need to get a few things done before that...and because i have a quite a few things to get finished before i head home this evening... off we go... little house needlework - our ornament club is being sent
today... here is a little peek at what is coming in the mail to you.... lizzie kate - way cute!!! blackbird designs our new sign will be arriving this week (can't put up electrical signs in the rain...somehow just doesn't work) and they couldn't open anything up and leave it exposed because we have had more rain last week but we do have our front door "wrapped" and our front door is a giant "essy" that covers the entire entrance door...and it's pretty cute. we will wait patiently for the big sign above...and be so excited when it arrives. am out of here - enjoy the weekend - watch for pictures of the shop next week sometime...have a good weekend...and thanks for visiting...
january 22, 2010 yes, don't fall over - this is an update...amazing as that sounds...although it could be frustrating to accomplish...we shall see how it goes. the move is over...however the last of the picky details (frontage signs/signs of hours posted/computer programs that can manage the web site/computers that can manage the computer programs that manage the web site...these are all still making me a bit cranky and it always amazes me what can totally botch up because one tiny cog in the wheel has been changed. we have built an ark in the central valley - we are on day six of rain...it hasn't stopped. wednesday was the absolute worst...over an inch of rain in one day is unheard of here - and yes, that's what we had on wednesday. everywhere in modesto is flooded - all the streets - the old shop has got water pouring in thru all the south facing windows - actually pouring in thru all the un-chalked sign cans on the front of the building - we are just so very relieved to be somewhere other than there... do i sound a little frustrated...probably so...but with a little luck and a few deep breaths...it will all pass and we can just go back to the business at hand.
stands by dave just nan heartstring samplery erica michaels nashville market is four weeks from this weekend...we are very excited about it - new hotel in the same city we've been visiting every february for 15 years...it will be good to see old friends and i am very anxious to see all the new treasures... the web site is a work in progress - it is being maintained with a very old front page system that is no longer being supported and we are in the midst of purchasing new software, but i can't install the new software until i get the new computer which has been ordered from dell so in the meantime we are paring everything down and making it far less cumbersome. i have removed all the individual "designer" pages and just listed the designers that we carry on a regular basis, as well links to our distributors. the bottom line of all of this was very old charts on the designer pages when, in reality, it was all listed on the what's new archives which we keep and are listed above. it seems to have speeded things up quite a bit. anyway - it's a house of cards - everything depends on everything else which depends on everything else which depends....and so the story goes. kinda reminds me of moving this shop over christmas/new years... we've been getting lots of questions about the kitties. didnot is just fine - still figuring out the territorial boundaries with mama mia and there are a few morning skirmishes but they appear to be of less frequency. mia has decided that i am her mother - so she spends a great deal of time in my office on the floor and then takes possession of my chair as soon as i leave it. she is also getting to be the size of a football (with legs and tail of course) and i have a strange feeling that very soon (for her own good) we will stop the feedings on demand... the little ones are being fed and cared for by our old neighbor...she is feeding them but reports that they are still as wild as march hares...they are just not pro-creating any more so that's all good. so...that's the end of it...back to do more stuff and prepare all that needs to be done for market and to work on the spring priss and to finish the second ornament (pear) from little house - i found the best fabric last night - it's just perfect...so we can start cutting and putting those kits together. in the meantime - we now have our beautiful banners hung in the shop so now we can start putting up the models...they are all back and whole again - we had to open about 30 of them because they had hung on the "bad" wall at the old shop and just sucked up the water right thru the dust jackets...they are all well and happy now and kay and i can do hammer and nails tomorrow - annie has saturday off and will be off running with trumpet boy...who, is doing the summer in the mid west with the blue devils...playing and doing shows...it's quite an exciting time around here. more later - thanks for visiting - and quack quack...everbody in california has now gotten web feets and learned to quack...quite the rainy week. we are high and dry and very thankful for our new digs. january 13, 2010 there are angels amongst us...and i don't have the foggest idea who Jeanne W. is but she found all my old 4th quarter of 2009 what's news somewhere on google...and she sent me the link and i owe her beyond the beyond...and i THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart....it's all cut and copied back into the rightful place and again, thank you thank you thank you than you. january 11, 2010 you guessed it... madly cleaning up all the messy website and managed to delete "what's new" and so we are going to be starting over again with a new year... shall we just not even go there at this point :) and so...over the course of the next couple of days, i'm going to try and recreate some of this that was here before...or, i could just consider this a "clean slate" like everything else in my life so far this year and just "go for it". i think this was probably the most grueling month i have ever spent...i really do believe that. moving my house and my shop in 2000 at the exact same time was nothing compared to this. i had time to plan and time to get things in order...this time - we had 2 weeks...and it was 2 weeks over the holidays and although we were all working and trying our best - it seemed that the rest of the world was taking christmas and new year's off...and that would have been fine - but i had to move and i had to move quickly!!! we are still finding things that need tweeking...but generally speaking - it's amazing what we have accomplished in such a short period of time. i'm going to try desperately for a camera this week...i should be able to get most of that done by mid-week sometime. so...enjoy the "fresh" start to this "what's new" page because there was absolutely no way i could find the older version...it was nowhere to be found...so...we'll just pretend that it was all for a reason...and move forward. i'll be back later this week - i can actually find my desk and i've got expert help loading software that needs to be done and a couple of kinks in the website software that can be fixed easily and i'm good to go for at least another 2 weeks :) thanks for your patience...this is certainly not something i ever intended having to do 22 months after the last move...but i can guarantee you - this will be the last time!!! the final thing i really need to figure out is how to stop my right eye from twitching from nerves :) january 1, 2010 it's early here - not really early...but rich has just arrived to double check the floor paint in the warehouse...and touch up a couple of spots...and then we are both going home - me to put my hands in a bucket of warm water and see if i can get the kinks out of them...and of course, to help mr. bear supervise the many bowl games that are on today. living on the west coast - our rosebowl game is in the afternoon instead of the evening...so we have lots of opportunities for lots of games today... we are moved...we made it...and were totally out of the other space yesterday by 10:30 a.m. it's always the last smootz stuff that gets brought over...stuff that you say to yourself "no, why in the hell did i want to save this and bring it over?" and then the decision is made when you are of clearer mind and soul - and out to the NEW dumpster it goes and you promise yourself never to make those kinds of mistakes again - but we always do...it's just one of those things. my new office has carpet in it - i have to get a floor doodle or really build up the calf muscles pushing out from my desk - i had forgotten what it was like to have carpet in here - the rest of the shop and the warehouse are all cement floors which are so incredibly easy to clean...but in here - it's carpet and thus..... we should have some pictures up by monday of the new place, annie and i going to work on monday getting the last of it in semi-order...but, this has been quite the stressful time - i have never packed in 2 weeks and moved over the holidays - it all worked - thank heavens...but the last move we had 2.5 months to pack - this time - not so much - we had to be out of there. i think this new place will be just wonderful...and i'm very excited about it all...it was just a tremendous amount of work and i am so blessed to have friends, co-workers, husbands and sons who came and busted their behinds to get us over here on monday so the movers could come for the heavy stuff on tuesday. and then one of them was silly enough to show back up here on wednesday and worked her behind off again - i am truly blessed. not only did we have the physical support but we also had a huge fan club cheering us on from afar...and i knew everybody was there - pushing us to get it finished and to make it all right..... stressful times...but that's for another time and place. i'm heading over to the web site now and will cross post this but we wanted to wish you all a happy new year and let's make 2010 a good year - i was so ready for 2009 to be finished... so very ready indeed!!!!! HAPPY HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! december 26, 2009 good morning and we all hope you had a great holiday...now a couple of days off and more holidays come thursday and friday. the physical shop is now closed until tuesday, january 5, 2010. our internet is being moved over on monday the 29th and hopefully that will go without a glitch.....in the interim...keep good thoughts as we do this for the very last time - certainly not our our choosing but because there was no alternative to a move available to us. as soon as the internet is re-established kelly is going to move my computer over...and i can process stuff thru tomorrow...to be pulled as soon as we get moved...and we will be back up and in good order by this time next week to be sure. in the meantime - a happy new year to you and let's just rock 2010...we need a good year to happen for all of us....i'm so done with 2009..... HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!! december 18, 2009 and so...i'm playing with font and some other things on the web site but it's a very slow process to get everything churned and turned over...but it's coming bit at a time...but there are many other things happening around here at the moment that require my utmost attention...and no, it isn't christmas :) so i'll work on the website a little bit at a time...and see if i can get this all to work the way i want it to. first - i promised you pictures of two things that we were working on...so i'm going to do that for you right now. here is the first little house needleworks ornament that annie stitched up for me and i finished. this is how we finished the first one and with the second one due here next week and the linen all cut and ready - we are very excited. i am going to show you this first one and then...the next ones will be a surprise...but the finishing kits will be sold so that supplies for finishing charts 1 thru 6 will be in one kit and supplies for finishing charts 7 thru 12 will be in the 2nd kit. we are assembling the ingredients as we get them finished and there will be instructions for each ornament. so...without further ado...here is fa la la the other thing i was going to show you is our first "priss" so...the final bit of news is as follows - with all due respect to robert louis stevenson and the paraphrase of his poem...with a little help from my literary genius of a friend in fresno... "The rain is raining all around. It falls on field and tree. It rains on the umbrellas here and" (this is where it changes) NOT on the ships at sea, but rather in our shop and all over ME. and, as you all know, we just can't have that inside our needlework store so desperate times call for desperate measures and this means that elegant stitch is moving to higher and drier ground the week between christmas and new years. so...we are shutting it down on christmas eve...we have a great deal of it packed already and the new place is almost ready to go... all the internet information has been changed... we are doing everything we can to be back up and running with the doors open before saturday, january 2nd, 2010. we should have the internet back up and running by late in the day tuesday, december 29th. we have found an amazing space (actually two spaces right next door to each other that are now hooked together) over on bangs avenue and we share our new place with edwards cake decorating, modesto hobby, root farms, the lunch pail restaurant and some other great places. we are very excited and are so proud of us - it's just been amazing what can happen in just a few short weeks. we've also had some amazing help from our terrific real estate guy and some fabulous assistance from our new landlord and his real estate guy. so...give us a couple of days to get settled in and then come see us at our new place...and they will be burying me in this place because we will absolutely NEVER move again. so...i will try and do a quick update again before they shut us down to move all the phone lines over...and we'll be wishing you a very happy holiday then. in the meantime...the time is ticking...and the holidays start a week from last night... all of us here at elegant stitch...hiding in packing boxes :) december 11, 2009 it is raining absolutely buckets here right now...mama mia and the babes have all scampered for cover after we "convinced" them to inhale 2 big cans of cat food as a snack after their big portions of dried food throughout the day...the babes played on my car this morning - that's the newest trick...king of the hood of my car...merlin and chesterfield had quite a go of it - poor frankee kept sliding off because the car was quite wet. i've downloaded both albums of glee from itunes and it's on almost full blast and i am singing along and feeling quite okay - annie and kay knew that things were getting better around here when "don't stop believing" came blazing out of the back room - i could hear them giggling... we've got lots of stuff going on here - a little housekeeping and then i'll move on to some new things that have arrived and we'll have some more news and housekeeping with the next update sometime next week. first: in our furious cleaning and rearranging and
doing other things - we have found some "special" cuts of lakeside
linen that managed to get "lost" and have now been found... we
are offering them at a good discount...and first come/first served and once they
are gone - poof.... we have the first ornament of little house needlework stitched and finished...it is as cute as a button and i'll post a picture of it next week...and thus the finishing kits for the first six ornaments have been started as the first one is finished and instructions written - but the finishing is different from the instructions and i promise - i haven't made it more difficult than i know you can all handle - right, ms. mary??? i have a couple more ornaments to finish over the weekend and stockings for annie's great nephew and grandbaby and then we are finished and moving on to some other things that will need our absolute attention over the next couple of weeks. some very, very dear friends of mine are working on an amazing project to celebrate the life of kris stott from norden who we lost in early march. designers from all over the world have donated incredible designs and they are all being put into samplers and charts and not only have we been a part of this but we have the privilege of stitching one of the models... annie and i are trading off in this endeavor. we are so honored and proud and some of these completed and stitched samplers will be previewed at nashville market in february of 2010 in the norden booth. so...they are just amazing...and you will be so excited with all the different things you will be able to do with each gorgeous design...she would have been (and is) so very proud of this project...i can feel her smiling on all of us - she is still so much a part of our every day here...she surrounds all who loved her. there has been lots of discussion on industry bulletin boards as of late about copyright infringement and what that actually consists of. a shopowner made a posting today about it...all i can say about the subject at this point without doing the "lecture" is: if it doesn't feel "right" - please don't do it. not only does it create issues for shops - but for the designers and everybody else in this industry and in every industry or art form that involves any intellectual property in any form. remember, ultimately you are hurting yourself and everybody else...is it worth the cost of a chart - i somehow don't think so. stepping down off the box before i fall off it. blackbird designs acorn house little house needle country cottage needleworks raise the roof designs tree of life samplings midsummer night designs homespun elegance gloriana threads next update we will also have a little preview of our new little kit that we are calling "priss" - this one will be for valentine's day and we will release in mid-january. this is one of those where we found X number of the "thing" that it needed and when those are gone - the kit is gone too... we've got a couple of others up our sleeves too...we think they are pretty cute and i'm very proud of them... so...i was actually thinking about stopping to do a couple of errands on the way home - but i left my ducky water wings in the closet - daisy buchanan actually had dibbies on them this morning - might have to make that the job to do on the way home tomorrow...off to more glee singing... have a wonderful weekend...get lots done - the holidays are swiftly approaching...stay safe...enjoy the lights and decorations and the season...the beautiful things i wish could stay out all year round...if we could just have the joy and beauty without the insane crazies that seem to be attached to the season...but we shall give it our best shot..... from all of us...and happy hanukkah as well!!! december 1, 2009 the weeks have made me a crazy person - where did they disappear to when i wasn't looking? anybody find a couple of extra weeks that seem to have gone missing when i wasn't looking??? we have a couple of new things - but i think christmas is quickly overtaking even the best of intentions...i know that i'm working like a wild woman getting things finished and as soon as i get home from a business trip leaving tomorrow - it will be non-stop insanity until i get the last of the few things finished - but the biggest thing is i have to put some bows on 3 cubes sitting here - and that has to be finished before i leave so that annie and kay can ship while i'm away. anyway - way too much to do before i hit the road for the airport tomorrow morning early...so...here we go lizzie kate impy, hattie & bea milady's needle the world in general is definitely off axis it seems - and it is making me slightly cranky in response to the "bite your head off and spit it at you" attitude that seems to be overtaking the world at the moment...but...we shall see what we shall see - button up the hatches and ride out the attitudes that seem to be flying fast and furious...and move along. i just wonder if anybody ever "owns" behaviors anymore or is it all about blaming other people and circumstances? quite an amazing mindset i think!! so...it isn't much i fear - but we are wiggling and dancing and running hard and fast and the world is going to be a whole lot different with news and plans and other things on the other side of my trip starting a week from today. we are making plans and moving forward into the new year and although i'm scared to death...i am anxious to leap into the unknown...life is far too settled at the moment and i think we are getting complacent in our old age....time to shake it up a little bit... we'll see how right i am. enjoy the week...stay warm and safe...i'm out of here for a couple of days but annie and kay are holding down the fort and i'll be back on monday afternoon and then the chaos can start for real :) happy december 1st to you all.... lgm and everybody here november 15, 2009 the week got away from me again...and i keep asking myself how all of this happens...i'm here all the time - i know i'm fairly efficient because of what does get done around here - but how the devil does it get so out of control in such a relatively short period of time? i just don't get it? horrendous ear infection - can't hear for spit out of my left ear - went the the doctor on wednesday and have been swallowing horse pills since wednesday afternoon and so far - no help...the ear drops are my personal favorites - mr. bear tries to drown me in them...so annie has been gracious enough to put them in for me...it's just a stinker trying to get those in by yourself. mama kitty went down on thursday morning for her surgery - that was a comedy of funnies because of ms. angie's brilliant idea - we lured them into their safe spot on wednesday morning...and gave them about 24 hours to get used to it before i took mama in and they had to spend thursday night by themselves safe in a big room with a big blankie, food and kitty boxes...and then bruce went and fetched mama kitty and brought her home on friday morning...and i just let all of them go outside this morning...but honestly, i think they'll be wishing for their big blankies tonight - it's gotten cold. we did get permission from the project X group that we can take the babes in and they will fund the excess neutering fees and our doc has said that he will do them as soon as they hit 4 months so i don't have to worry about "spring" coming before we get them in and taken care of. we are all quite proud of ourselves for this endeavor...and of course we've gotten far too attached...but it's not like they were ferals...goodness - didnot was a true feral and look at her now - spoiled rotten. of course we've named them all...and even named the silly teenager that we will never get our hands on - "merlin" there one minute and "poof" - gone the next. i'm going to do my best to get some better pictures of them - they truly are sweet kitty meows...and pretty soon...the "family line" will stop with them. we are also working on an exclusive fun thing for valentine's day (i know, it's not even thanksgiving yet) but there were special things to order and wool to order and some pins to be made...and all of that takes time...but it's pretty cute and we are naming it "priss". watch here for some details...our special pins will be here by january... so...here we go...the pups want to go to pet smart and i've got a full day down here tomorrow...and then it all cranks up again on tuesday and the weekend, like merlin, just went poof!!! little house needleworks: check out right below on november 6th entry...we are putting in our final numbers on tuesday and if you check www.littlehouseneedleworks.com - ornament of the month - there is "pear" which will be the next one. please let us know if you are interested. we will not be selling these individually but as an "ornament" club only...and i have already started on ideas for the finishing kits. we will do those in 2 groups: group 1 will have everything needed & pictures for the first 6 designs (so you can get started finishing half way thru) and then finishing stuff for design 7 - 12 will come at the end of ornament 12. we are keeping these finishing kits reasonable and easy...and requiring that you just provide the basics (white glue, stuffing, pencil, scissors, etc.) we'll take care of everything else. cross-eyed cricket/cricket collection: blue ribbon designs: we just love these too!!! beyond
sweet!!! wendy kc designs kelmscott designs cherished stitches: just nan little house needleworks part 2 of three part series: and...with that - i'm finished this update. i have a date with a bottle of eardrops and three doggers and a husband...and then with the piles of "stuff" that i have to get done at home - including cleaning off the mountains of stuff around my chair so that my dear suffering husband can bring in some firewood - that chore is pretty much impossible until i get my end of the "deal" finished...and there is nothing the doggers and the kitty meows like more than a fire in the evening. so.............tomorrow is a full day here and then more of the same next week...more work on this website and another website that we are fiddling with - shipping more boxes hither and yon, packing some suitcases for a trip back east in two weeks...and then the holiday crazies and more crazy than that...but it's all still up in the air at the moment and no plans that can be let loose. off to pet smart - enjoy your week...we'll be back ;) november 6th, 2009 ha ha... i've been silently sneaking around in the background... deleting, cleaning, dusting, mopping and so far - you haven't even noticed yet...i'll keep chipping away...and sooner or later you will see a difference and smile...little bits at a time...little bits. mama kitty has a date with dr. mike on thursday this coming week...so we are trapping the babes to keep them safe while mama is away for the day and evening and then we are going to start the paperwork on them and get them taken care of during the winter so that we won't hear the patter of tiny paws in the spring time. i know we've got one girl - a calico who will be the hardest to catch - she's a real skitzy little girl so i'm hoping to tame her a little bit before we have to seriously catch her. they do love the dry food but i've also been tempting them with some wet food hoping that when they smell that - they will be bounding right into the "safe" spot we plan to keep them while mama is "out of town". keep your fingers crossed that our plan works well on thursday morning!!! it's been just an insane week here too - all kinds of stuff going on...it seems i've been spinning my wheels for a couple of days now and although i know i am accomplishing things - somehow the stacks and piles are not going away and i'm just flat running out of room to hide things. i looked for a bin for 10 minutes yesterday - not a tiny bin - 55 quarts - finally called home - it was in the family room. that's some small idea as to what is actually going on here behind the scenes. and so - it's friday night, i've been here since early, i've got a full day tomorrow and here we go. little house needleworks: midsummer night designs: so...off i go - i have to go download an album from itunes that i want...and hit the road...only to start again tomorrow. i'm taking my container of pumpkins home and playing in those - april is approaching faster than my brain can work...and i have to get caught up quickly here. enjoy your weekend - we'll see ya next week - and keep good thoughts for mama kitty...we'll have an update for you next week and maybe i can get some pictures of the babes once we have them contained :) november 1st, 2009 we had trick or treat and daylight savings time disappear all in the same day yesterday!!! it was so nice to have some light at 6:00 a.m. this morning - i can handle the dark much better at night than day upon day of it in the mornings...it's depressing...i don't know why they have extended it so far into the fall and so early in the spring...it just doesn't seem natural and it's very hard to get used to and it's sooooooo dark in the morning this time of year. i've updated the information on the april spooky retreat called "tricks or treats" and although spooky day might be over for another year every where else - not here...we are very spooky and will be right thru april. these are being released in about two weeks - we are just so
excited about them...and i didn't want them to get lost in the shuffle of other
things...we would be delighted to sign you up for the series - they will be
released about every three months - the next one will come out at nashville
market in february 2010. and...another tiny bit of info...i know i've been whittling away at this web site and trying to get it under control...but over the next two weeks - we are going to streamline it down and take away some of the bulky and overblown - maybe change out some colors and make a couple of announcements too...and show you some other tricks we have going here. bruce is home for the next couple of weeks - no trips to orange county or to sweden and so i can work late when it's quiet here because he will take good care of the doggers until i get home...and i don't have to worry about ms. daisy playing in mama's yarn bins (yes - and the best place to take those sock yarn balls is out under the redwood trees so they get full of dried tree smootch!!! wonderful fun to pick out of a ball of sock yarn!!!) we will have an updated blogspot and a new link for you to follow to another business venture that we are heading into with a very, very dear friend. it's madly exciting, a bit scary and way, way much fun. lots of changes on the horizons for elegant stitch and kay, annie and i are very excited about them. so...i want to get home and see part of a football game while i play in my april 2010 collection of pumpkins and other fun stuff - so here we go...it's short this week - i think everybody blew themselves out at st. charles...but there are some great new things coming in the next week or two. shakespeare's peddler: theresa has done an amazing job
with these beautiful little samplers - we are so excited about the newest one
and the christmas ornament that goes with... i was a little late in
getting these up - theresa and i were playing "the e-mails are going to
china via mongolia" and we just weren't connecting...but here it is little house needlework: country cottage needleworks PREORDER - arriving 2nd week in november next week i will show you some absolutely GORGEOUS and tiny and small and so beautiful hand-crocheted buttons from an artist in the mid-west. we are selling them in sets of two buttons...black, white or cream...and there are even some crocheted pins too!!! the thread is almost spider-web and they are so incredibly beautiful...we are very lucky to have them. off to do work at home...lots on the plate and it's getting even fuller...just remembered to change my calendar on my wall - it just can't be november 1st already but i fear it is. all the orchards and grapevines are looking quite tattered and tired from their harvests this year...time to let the trees and vines go sleeping for a few months so they can be beautiful and lush next spring...and i have to get some walnuts in the shell and put them away for a year - not the nut part i want - but the shell - i have some great ideas i want to play with - did you know that the older a walnut - the easier it is to crack the shell and keep it in the little halves - fresh walnuts don't crack in half worth a flip - the shell shatters... mama kitty and the babes are fed and happy sitting in the sun on the little hill outside the fence. i am calling the vet on monday to see what his surgical schedule is for this week. think the babes are old enough now to withstand a night without mama (especially if we keep them contained in a safe spot) and it's just time for mama. they are all fat and well fed now and since we are on our 2nd giant bag of dry food - they are growing like little weeds and it's time for our vet appointment - at least for mama - the babes need to grown just a little bit more. off i go - enjoy your week - and thanks for visiting. october 23, 2009 i know - it seems like years - for me too...but we are back, we have had a wonderful retreat last weekend...truly a wonderful retreat - one of the best i think - and jackie concurs with me - amazing group of women who stitch...and love to learn and are fearless at new techniques and new agendas...an amazing group - thank you one and all for "going with us" on this retreat!!! so...our typhoon that blew in here on the 13th and all the water - you guessed it - soaked thru framed pieces that were hung on the outside walls, wall board has to be replaced throughout the entire front of the shop - insane, me - not yet...but i know it's going to happen and i'm just going to run away from home...but i believe this is how i will be spending my november - just shoot me now :) we have a referral to get mama kitty fixed on the spay
program here thru our vet - we just need to figure out what to do with the babes
while mama is in hospital - they are too young for unsupervised "mama out
of town" for a day stuff - i think we are going to lure them into the unit
next door which is empty and lock them in there - i know they will be safe there
until mama gets home and can supervise them again...i think that is next week's
venture...annie has a trap and we have food and they are eating us out of house
and home - but it's all good. they have little fat belly pads now and mama
is filling out too (and i hope it's only the amount of food she has been chowing
down). so...here is mama - and one of three of the babes. so...because this has been stacked on my desk for 2 weeks and because i'm way embarrassed about that...here we go...as they are stacked and maybe if i get these cleared off i'll be able to find the stack of bills that i need to write checks for. hope - it always springs eternal. la-d-da: we are so pleased that lori has published the
chart - the kits flew out of here from market - and now we have the chart only -
it's all good. with my needle: beautiful charts the good huswife: the companion piece to carriage house
raven rosewood manor raise the roof designs prairie grove peddler plum pudding needleart heartstring sampling primitives - love this pumpkin little house needleworks/crescent colours wool roving: we found the most wonderful wool roving at market - we've packaged it into 2 yard packages for $2.50. it is just fab for stuffing pincushions - the lanolin is still there a little tiny bit - so it's terrific for needles and pins - it is clean and beautiful and a creamy off white color. drawn thread: we have not done automatics on these releases.
if you are on the automatic list here and are interested - please let us know. and so...that's it...am off to try and finish the last of the putting away and finding all the things i so carefully hid before our guests arrived last week...that is a job i will find very interesting - and we will continue to dig out and see where our big piles of stuff lead us. have a great weekend...and thanks for visiting... october 15, 2009 and so with the best intentions i have everything scanned in and ready to go - but somewhere between tuesday when the shop flooded during the huge storm we had - and the tons and piles of towels we used to mop everything up and all the time it took us to mop up and move everything out of the way of the water - obviously we got behind. our guests started arriving this afternoon and i really did try hard - but it just never happened.....sooooooooooooooooooooo am coming in early tomorrow and getting an update up...and i do apologize...so much for the best intentions and a storm that nearly got us on tuesday... wonder what the rest of the week will bring :) october 7, 2009 new things a'coming...and there is a whole basket full on my desk - i'm flying - another morning at 5:30 and i could just shoot myself :) so...while i get the rest of this stuff organized...here is something to munch on: island cottage needlearts:
PREORDER carolina house: PREORDER plum street samplers:
PREORDER so...i'm back to shoveling out more mess in the back room and hopefully finding my butt - that has been lost for days...and i'll do my best to get up the rest of the basket in a couple of days. this 5:30 in the shop stuff is for the birds..... thanks for visiting...lgm
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