Needlework Show

Today is the final day of browsing at www.needleshow.com ! It has been another fun day for me. I have a door prize offered on the "What's New" page of my website, and will do a drawing for ~5 people for goodies from my line. There are many new vendors at the show, and a gorgeous selection of stitchy stash. Each year it amazes me how much talent is out in the stitching world!

Life in ID - rainy! We are in for a full day of rain, followed by most of the week of rain, and I am thankful for the watered grass. The chickens will be thankful for the worms, and the doodlebug will be thankful for the mud puddles. I will not be thankful for the wet dog. Tonight is the local EGA meeting and I am looking forward to an hour of stitching and chatting with friends. And a couple hours of escape ;o) Time out of the house with people over 4' tall!!! Woo hooo!!!!!! Was that too much excitement?

Stitching projects are moving along. Two of the models are done, and I started working on the third. The two completed models are companion pieces, cutsie ones, and one of them has the most fun button accents. I look forward to sharing it with you in a couple of months! So far I'm planning on an ornament chart, a whimsical chart, a cutsie chart, and a building block to round out the batch. Fall releases should include another repro style, another ornament set, a small scripture and something fun, but don't hold me to that... September is a loooong way away.

Exodus 33:14 My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.

Up and coming in 2014

I had a question about designs that have to do with our celebration of the resurrection of Jesus (and I haven't figured out how to reply directly to that person!), and if I have any designs that will be coming about for that. The "Grief and Sorrows" design is probably the closest I currently have that deals with that, and if done with spring colors, separating out the florals from the stems from the rest of the design, I can see it as being stitched as a remembrance of this event. Here's a little preview of what I could see with colors. I always welcome the encouragement towards new designs, so please don't hesitate to email me directly with any scripture that you would like to bring to my attention. To me, this design is an encouragement that He has been there through it all, worse than I could imagine or experience, and borne it all for my salvation. There is nothing that He hasn't gone through first, no agony that He hasn't suffered, and the struggles that I go through are weights that He will take, if I'm willing to let Him.

Yesterday was a *great* day for designing. For the quilters who are asking for a workable number of blocks in the Building Blocks series - number 16 is designed!!! I still have ideas in my head for a few more, but this will give you a concrete number that makes sense in a quilt layout. The rest can always be made into pillows :-) You'll have to wait until summer for the official release (and the small detail of stitching the model), but it will be coming soon. I've been working on a few scripture charts AND another witty, stitchy design, that goes along with the "Stitch All Day" style of chart, AND some fun button accented charts AND, AND, AND!!!! It is so strange to have new stuff just come out, and already be excited about SIX more! Now to find where I hid that stitching time.....

On the home front - SPRING IS HERE!!!!! It's raining a lot, but there is GREEN stuff growing and I got to mow the yard. It's always an answered prayer when the mower starts the first time. The hens are still laying ~5 eggs per day, and we get to share the little orbs with the neighbors. The chicks are a month and a half old, and in their awkward tween look. They love meal worms, but not spinach. I am much happier now that they are in the garage, and NOT the guest room. I will be even happier when they are outside. I used an old dog crate, ratty towels, a piece of a wooden tomato cage (that had been disassembled and turned into a tiger pit cover), and office binder clips to make their temporary home and I'm quite proud of myself ;-)

It's not that clean anymore, but it is working out quite well. They are getting used to the sound of the shop vac, as I obsessively tidy up the wood pellets that they take joy in shoving out of the kennel.

Home school is going mostly well (echoes of Princess Bride - he's been mostly dead all day!). I'm thankful we have the opportunity to choose curriculum and move at a pace that is workable for our family, and it keeps the doodlebug challenged. I'm thankful for the relationship we get to work on as mother and daughter, the scripture we can put in every lesson. I'm thankful that I get to witness the excitement when a new concept is mastered, a science experiment spews goo up to the ceiling, or a story comes to life. At the end of the day, I'm grateful for the movie "Frozen," and the two hours a week that it gives me to regroup and remember to "Let it go" (hahaha!).