Almost the Needlework Show!

I'm so awful about keeping things under wraps, so I figure I can update things here and not update the website, and then I'm not really releasing anything early. Or I'm just too overwrought with technology at the moment (my color printer died...again!) and am afraid that I'll break the website. I'm not going to share everything coming up, but here are a few teasers...

Fall is a time for lots of trunk shows and gift items, and I was picking through merchandise to see what was going out to shops. I got to my pins and thought they had become a little bit bland. Soooo many new beads have  been added to my stash  been released by my wholesalers since I started designing the pins years ago. I decided to redo every. single. marking pin. set. Every single one. It has been a lot of fun to see the colors come to life and the new combinations now available.

I'm also adding new specialty needle minders to my line! There will be more than these available, but here are a couple of them... you'll have to wait a whole week until I showcase the other new sets.

Persian Tapestry

Mod Floral

There are a couple other sets that will be official in a week, as well as a new scissor hugger, and a new perfectly pretty pin set, AND a new funky chunky mini fob set with a pet theme!

We are still settling in with the house, but I am making progress in the barn. Two whole more boxes came in the house for me to put away! My plan was to do a box a day. I should have been more realistic and set my sights on a box a week. Maybe a box a month. 

The new biggest hurdle, for being settled, has been the mice. Oh, the joys of an old farm house! About six weeks ago we had a mouse in the house. The cat found it to be the greatest new toy, killed it, and left it for me in her food bowl. Not a big deal. She puts everything she steals into her food bowl; my needle threaders, fob wire, thread pickers, pipe cleaners, hair ties. My cat is a thief. I did my best CSI impression, found where she had 'played' with it in my office, and cleaned everything up. Then a few weeks ago I start towards the office at 5:30 am. It's dark, lights are off, again not a big deal. See the shadow of the cat, avoid tripping over her. Head down the stairs, hear squeaking. Now it is a big deal. I turn on the lights to find the cat being backed around the coffee table by a mouse! You read that right - my CAT was being chased by a MOUSE! And here I thought the chickens were all out in the dog kennel (another story for another day). She is the biggest chicken! I grab a towel, catch the mouse, return it to its field outside, and the cat spends thirty minutes pouting and howling that I took away her friend. Dear hubby has plenty of time to ruminate over the cat drama, so he comes home with this line... "While the mouse was chasing the cat, was it saying 'Halo, my name is Inigo Mousetoya, you killed my father, prepare to die!'" One of the absolute delights of our marriage is the humor in these walls. Fast forward a week and I wake up to find the cat has redeemed herself and left a dead mouse on the coffee table. I found where they are coming in and fixed it. I hope I fixed it.

I did find a few boxes of stitchy goodies and am more excited than ever to have the craft group back at my house next month. A few of the girls have chatted about new projects, some have picked them up, and then I had to order a few new stitchable items (the wooden die cuts are cute!). One of their projects was entered in the county fair and won a ribbon!

The design is a modified version of MBT-188 Alphablooms.