Thursday, December 8, 2016

February 2017 issue of Just Cross Stitch magazine!

I am very excited to share with everyone that I have two designs in the brand new issue of Just Cross Stitch in the February 2010 issue!  When you see the "Love is a Journey" just know that I stitched that design 3 separate times until I was 100% happy with the colors working together - I think it turned out great!

I am still not able to post blog updates using my iPhone and it continues to make me crazy - so if I am slow to update my blog that is why! I am finally having my website updated for the new year and am excited to get it back up and running and most importantly UPDATED!!!








Thursday, November 24, 2016

Happy Thanksgiving!

From our home to your's I wish everyone a great Thanksgiving today. I don't know about you, but I am so thankful for my family and of course each and every one of you - celebrate!






Sunday, November 6, 2016

Blog posting woes and a sneak peek!

Something good and something bad!  First off I did the IOS update for my iPhone a couple of weeks ago and apparently the fine folks at Blogger haven't released their compatible Blogger update - sigh - so every time I try and post to my blog via cell phone it lets me write everything and as soon as I click "post to blog" my new blog posts vanishes - whoooosh and GONE! 😳😰. So please be patient with me while I wait for Blogger to offer their update.

Then the good news is I am almost finished a lovely Christmas design - sneak peek below - can you believe Christmas is only about 6 1/2 weeks away - and don't get me started on Thanksgiving!!! I love my Black Friday shopping too!

Happy Stitching and I hope you are all enjoying the great weather that we are currently - Nov. 5th and 70 degrees... I'll take it!


Saturday, October 29, 2016

Take a walk down my "Haunted Halloween Hallway"!

Both of our kiddos are in elementary school and what is a Mom to do when she goes to a PTA meeting to hear they won't be doing a Haunted Hallway this year because it is too much work and no one is willing to give the time up to do it - not to mention that the Mom who organized it last year switched schools for this school year and ALL of the supplies personally belonged to her!

Ahhhhh so of course my hand shot up in the air and I offered to do it! EEK, perhaps I had a lack of oxygen to my brain at that very moment because really....what the heck was I thinking!!!! Three weeks later, 2 dry run throughs set up in our garage, a TON of supplies and approximately 5,321 "Mom" hours later (with the amazing help of my sister Karen!), we did that Haunted Hallway on Thursday night. It was a great hit and note to self...never use leaves as decor inside of a carpeted school!!!!

Happy Halloween from my house to your house and of course happy stitching!
















Saturday, October 22, 2016

Sullivan's Thread Packs - check it out!

I am doing some work with Sullivan's Threads in the next year and just received these seasonal thread collections - aren't they so cool! I love that you can have the thread color palettes by season already chosen and you don't have to try and figure out what goes together!


Wednesday, October 12, 2016

New Hanukkah treat bag design featured in "Just Cross Stitch"!

In the brand new December 2016 issue of Just Cross Stitch I have a Hanukkah treat bag featured - it turned out so cute that I couldn't wait to share it with you!






Saturday, October 8, 2016

Hiking into Autumn and plenty of stitching

I know I've been slow in posting to my blog recently and have to say that it was a combination of getting designs ready that are appearing in upcoming print publications as well as stitching my new Christmas designs - whoohoooo - there are some good ones coming out, I promise it will be worth the wait!

In other news I went hiking today with the kiddos at Buffalo River State Park in Minnesota and enjoyed the changing colors of Autumn. Here's the worst story ever - my sister came along with us and is a huge photography fiend and brought her fancy camera along with various specialty lenses - walked the trails with us capturing the scenes around us then realized at the end that her camera didn't have an SD memory card in her camera and poof - no pictures at all - everything she so carefully framed out and snapped didn't exist...EEEEK! 🙀😱😩😤😰

I will post a bunch of the photos that I took today though!






 













Thursday, September 29, 2016

Releasing next week - "Christmas Town"

I am just getting ready to ship out two new Christmas designs next week! First up is "Christmas Town" as pictured below....who doesn't love stitching Christmas designs plus with a nip in the air, crunching leaves underfoot and shorter days now is the perfect time to start your holiday stitching projects!


Friday, September 23, 2016

Remember the song "Walking in Memphis" by Marc Cohn?

I really loved that song - which is already 25 years old eeeeeek - and the entire album it came in back when you still could buy a record on vinyl - not a CD and not a digital download but a good old fashioned record!

I saw Marc Cohn perform in Fargo back in 2008 which happened to be about two weeks after our son was born - loved the concert - fast forward to last month when I discovered Marc Cohn would be performing in Detroit Lakes, Minnesota at this little 550 seat venue called the Historic Holmes Theater and ALL tickets were only $35/each!  Whoohoooo, I snapped up two of them in the 2nd row and drove the hour out there last night.

Great concert, the songs are as good as always and the crowd all had a wonderful time singing along. Funny story but we were walking upstairs to where the doors are to get into the actual concert theater and a door opens and just about hits me in the face- I jerk to a fast stop and out rushes none other than Marc Cohn and a lady who was rushing him into a dinner going in - darn it because if I had quicker reflexes I totally would have asked for a picture with him!




Marc is the one wearing all blue second from the left









Saturday, September 17, 2016

Autumn is here for certain

Fall in the Midwest has officially launched!  We went to an annual Fall Festival this afternoon that our Park Service puts on each year. Lots of pumpkins to choose from - big and small - perfect or warty - and all perfectly laid out for your shopping pleasure!










Monday, September 12, 2016

Best Bride Photo EVER!

Hubby and I went out to a wonderful restaurant called Rustica this weekend along with 2 very dear friends who are like family to us. While sitting at our table by big windows I looked out and realized there was a fully dressed BRIDE riding behind her Groom on a motorcycle about to drive by so I jumped up with my iPhone to try and snap a photo it was that cute! So I will share that great snap here along with photos of our two entrees that night - the night's specialty which was a strip steak with ratatouille and the other is a pan cooked chicken breast on a sweet potato mash with a cranberry glaze - fantastic food - fantastic friends - and truly a fun night when we needed it!






Saturday, September 10, 2016

We must never forget

On September 11, 2001 I remember we were living in San Francisco. We woke up, showered and we were getting dressed and ready to leave for work while the morning news clattered on in the background. I walk by the TV and hear the morning show announcer tell everyone that they are getting word of a plane hitting the World Trade Center but don't know much yet. It was just after 6 am California time and just after 9 am New York time. We drove into the city to work shortly thereafter and everyone - and I mean everyone in the office was gathered in the board room watching the events of September 11th unfolding in front of us. I remember standing there and watching as the first tower fell and thinking in my head that I hope a lot of people on the ground didn't get killed - there were audible gasps from everyone in the room and finally someone said what the rest of us just couldn't fathom or even understand that there were thousands of office workers still INSIDE those towers that wouldn't survive. My brain could not fully comprehend that in the first seconds.

The whole city literally shut down, all government buildings were evacuated and the skies above us grew eerily quiet as the FAA stopped all air traffic and the only thing we saw were fighter jets streaking across the blue skies. That silence spoke volumes.

It was the sort of event that could define the times - that this attack was so evil and so scary and so completely unbelievable on so many levels. 

Years later I was watching the TV show "Undercover Boss" and it was the CEO of Waste Management who went undercover.  As he talked to other workers, they said how at about 3 pm every afternoon over the construction site of the new Freedom Tower the light turns a golden color and all you can see out of the windows is the sight of sparkling particles glittering in the late afternoon air. They said it is sacred ground at the site of the former Twin Towers and that in their hearts they feel it is the souls of everyone who died that day that glitters in the late day sunshine.  That was truly something that has stuck in my mind to this day.

I have not been to the 9-11 Memorial in NYC to pay my respects yet - to honor those who perished - and for everyone who was somehow, inexplicably connected to this part of our US history - and the site of the worst terrorist attack at home on US soil. I don't know if I would be able to hold it together if I did go - but I will make it there one day.

So on September 11th please take a moment and remember.


Sunday, September 4, 2016

Presenting the Annual Christmas Ornament Issue from Just Cross Stitch Magazine

OHow excited am I that I have a Christmas ornament design in the new specialty issue of Just Cross Stitch - it is an old fashioned style Santa head with the word "Believe" below it.  I'll attach pictures below but the issue is now out on newsstands or at your LNS and has tons of fun and fabulous ornaments to stitch!






Monday, August 29, 2016

Christmas isn't that far off...

And do you know what that means? New Christmas designs - hurray! So in the spirit of the season here is the Christmas design that I literally just finished stitching about 2 hours ago - as they say it is hot off the presses and ready for your sneak peek my friendly stitchers - let me know how you like it! Ho Ho Ho!


Friday, August 26, 2016

Eating Fresh!

So here is something I can share with everyone and that is for the third year we joined a farm co-op so we get to pick up farm fresh veggies all summer long from Bluebird Gardens in Fergus Falls, Minnesota. I'm not joking when I tell you these hardworking folks are passionate about bringing a strong, healthy non GMO organic vegetable out of the earth on their farm in the morning to your dinner table that evening!

Our stop to select what produce we want is once a week at a local church parking lot and we can pick and choose what we want to fill our "Share" container with.  I thought I would snap some photos for you to better understand what I am describing, so here they are...it's pretty darn cool to be able to eat this nutrient packed produce all summer long and well into the Fall.






And the end product using these veggies along with chicken breasts and noodles is an amazing stir fry!

I am working on a fab Christmas design and will post a sneak peek of it later this weekend!




Tuesday, August 23, 2016

A tour of Western North Dakota

So to end our summer vacation with the kids we took them on a day trip to Western North Dakota yesterday for a 12-hour day - nothing like driving 600 miles in one day!  We stopped in Jamestown, ND to see the world's biggest buffalo (statue), the Double Ditch Indian Village (important to history), Fort Mandan, the Lewis & Clark Interpretive Center then to Garrison Dam and Lake Sakakawea then back to our capital in Bismarck for our 8 year old to see the actual Capital Building! Whew! I thought I would share some of the day's photos with you - enjoy your armchair tour of Western North Dakota!

The Buffalo in Jamestown

Where Louis L'Amour wrote a lot of his novels

At the Double Ditch Indian Village

Lewis & Clark Interpretive Center

Lewis & Clark Center

The kids at Lake Sakakawea and on the other side is the Garrison Dam (locks side seen below)