Red, White, & Blue!

A little finish. Bless Our Home from Country Cottage Needleworks. I actually stitched this ages ago but finally decided how I would finish it. I’ve made a little sachet; I put a pillow of last year’s lavender inside. I just tacked it shut because this year’s lavender is getting ready to bloom!

A little red white and blue treat, berries and Fage Yogurt – I love this stuff!!

4th of July Webshop Specials - Happy 229th birthday America!!

Shipping on any US order only .76 cents, 2.29 for international orders.
Special Patriotic Sale Page
All orders receive a free gift

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French General, Blackbird, Books and More

Trying to take better pictures = taking lots of pictures, so I hope you don’t mind picture heavy posts…..still not quite happy, I think it’s a summer lighting thing.

First of all, I have two of these gorgeous French General Pincushions and Tape Measure sets I’ll be listing at Etsy.  The pincushion is very large (as you can see) and very heavy – over 2 pounds.  I love the fabric on the back and that wonderful French General Tag!!

I whipped up a little cover for my serger this morning. Yzma likes to unthread the darn thing whenever I’m not looking and if you have a serger like mine you know you need the hands of brain surgeon to get it threaded correctly and if you’re lucky it only takes about 6 attempts. Hopefully this little cover will help.

Made a quick run to Borders with my coupon in hand to pick up a new book I’ve had my eye on for a while now.  I’m half way through this book and enjoying it immensely. Oh, that’s a picture of my lunch…

Here you can see my progress on the Summer SAL over at the Blackbird Yahoo group.  SALs are usually the ‘kiss of death’ when it comes to me ever finishing – we’ll see if I do better this time.

Yzma says ‘Stay Cool’.

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Rocky Mountain Wednesdays

I hope you’ll forgive me for recycling some older RMW photos today. I just can’t seem to take a good picture lately. Today was very productive otherwise so I won’t complain.

It has been very hot, of course I’ve been trying to get vacuuming and ironing done of all things and we don’t have air conditioning (on purpose, I prefer fresh air, even if it’s really hot). I think I need to sit by the fan and stitch for a bit.

We are seeing the last of the snow melt fast each day, there’s still enough there to be refreshing to look at, but not for long.

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Everything Austen Challenge

A finish!! Jane Austen on the Weather, this is from The Sampler Girl’s Companion Booklet #4. I stitched this on light sand Belfast Linen using Carrie’s Creation Silks. I think these threads are beautiful, and by the way, it is dreadful hot here today!

This is the perfect kickoff for the Everything Austen Challenge! For the challenge you choose 6 Austen ‘projects’ you would like to complete by January 1, 2010. The challenge is mainly about reading and viewing….but I plan to include crafty things in my list as well.  Actually I didn’t include any viewing since I will probably rewatch everything available at least once by 1/1/2010 anyway.

For the challenge I plan 1. to get at least four things framed and hung on my….

…very pitiful Jane Austen Sampler ‘wall’…

2. 3. & 4. Read three Jane Austen-ish books….

and for 5. & 6. finish stitching two Jane Austen projects (at least).

I’m already planning to include  the challenge ‘prize’ to my next Amazon order so I’m only joining for the Austen Fellowship of the challenge but what fun! 

 

 

 

 

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on travel and more

On Travel with Jane Austen from the Sampler Girl is coming along. Love the colors for this sampler and the large size of it. I’m stitching this on Country French Latte Linen (32 count). The little blue Butterfly scissors shown here are quickly becoming my current favorites. They are from Dinky Dyes. Please note: if you leave these scissors in the sunshine you may be in danger of leaving a butterfly shaped brand on your palm – trust me!

Ethan and I made a farmer’s market stop after shipping orders this morning. Brought home good stuff as you can see. I enjoy going to the market on the weekend but I have to say, I wish that everyone who owned a dog (or 3 or 4) didn’t feel they needed to bring them to market. I like dogs, I really do, but I don’t enjoy tripping over them when I’m trying to buy veggies, or when they try to get Ethan’s cookie from him as we walk along, or when there is about to be a dog rumble in the only aisle between stands….you get the idea.

Some goodies that arrived from Hoffman’s and Crescent Colours this week – so many good things to stitch, so little time…..

Jerry called me for a last minute lunch date today, we had the whole restaurant to ourselves, then went paint shopping. Come to find out it was buy one gallon get a gallon free day…..Oh the possibilities.

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PS -

I’m stitching Red House Sampler on 35ct Lambswool from Wichelt.

PPS -

You can find the strawberry freezer jam recipe here.

 

red house, blue paint

Still plugging away at my Red House Sampler by Brenda Keyes. The house took quite a while, I love how this is turning out.

As I mentioned Amber and I whipped up several batches of strawberry freezer jam. I taste tested a batch by having some with this extra delicious yogurt – yum!

We are doing a little work around the house. I’m going to do some painting. Most of the walls are white, the trim is white, this carpet is white…..you get the idea. I plan to do the boys bathroom first. I like white in the master bath (with the purple towel) but I am planning on blue for the boys’. Here are some color samples with the artwork from their bath, I’m leaning toward the third color from the top on the card closest to The Wild Things.

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Rocky Mountain Wednesdays

Just squeezing in this Rocky Mountain Wednesday post during the last minutes of Wednesday here. Amber and I got busy making strawberry freezer jam and I almost forgot to get back on to post!

It finally feels like Summer after a very cool, wet, and prolonged Spring. I enjoyed every minute of that cooler weather and the cozy rainy days. It has made things very green as you can see and our warm weather is now melting the snow quickly. We still have a daily thunderstorm to cool things off for a bit each afternoon.

I took the sunset photo above this past Sunday night while driving home from locations south of us, it was a beautiful evening.

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BBD + other new things

Gathering fabrics for the BBD stockings, yes these will be available through the webshop shortly :0)

Love the new Loose Feathers design. I would like to stitch it in blue silk I think. It reminds me of the children’s book Blueberries for Sal (McCloskey). Over at the BBD group, someone suggested stitching it in brown as well.

New autoship program underway for the adorable new thread packs from Country Cottage Needlworks, please email me if you would like to get these each month – super low shipping on autoship items.

New at Handcrafts Online, Lakeside Linens and Gloriana threads — very nice! I’m getting these pages ready to load.

Did you know if you close your eyes, the Slip and Slide sounds just like a beautiful fountain (when no one is screaming)???

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remember me?

Hello, I hope someone is still checking here for posts, out of sight – out of mind and all that….

The past two weeks just flew by.  As you can see I did lots of stitching.  It was a good time of rest, relaxation, and taking care of some long overdue personal tasks which included a doctor’s visit, getting enough sleep (for the first time in 2009 I think), and making sure exercise fits into my daily routine.  My time ‘away’ has made me see the need for having one day each week that I don’t even open my laptop so that day will be Sunday after today.  That will be hard for me, I love checking my email, blog reader, and yahoo groups – often!

I’ll begin catching up on my correspondence tomorrow morning; I have missed my stitching friends.

Projects shown:

The Busy Bee ~ Elizabeth’s Designs

Flea Market Souvenir - Blackbird Designs

Stories to Live by Noah ~ Plum Street Samplers

On Travel with Jane Austen ~ The Sampler Girl

My Home is Built in Glory ~ Heartstring Primitives

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see you soon!

Leaving you with a little finish…..I chose to personalize this with the name Cassandra because of the book I’ve been reading. I’m enjoying the letters very much. This is the Loving and Faithful silk thread pack from Little House Needleworks and Crescent Colours. Stitched on Confederate Grey Belfast linen and framed in the ‘Eve’ frame from Crescent Colours.

Some pictures from my garden today including my first rose bloom of 2009. A bit of blue sky, about all we saw  of sunshine today as it has been quite dark and stormy, we even had a tornado warning after lunch.

I’ll be twittering but not blogging til after the 20th – see you then!

This is where I take many of the Rocky Mountain Wednesday photos

Shop Announcement -

Handcrafts Online is taking short summer break June 7-20, 2009. Orders received during that period will continue to be processed but will not ship until after June 20th. Thank you again for all your support and friendship.

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