Holy Cold Weather Batman!

Let me begin by saying the only word that can possibly come out of otherwise frozen body and that is BRRRRR! I don't even know what the temperature is today because once you get past it being cold, then colder it still remains COLD! On the way into the office this morning we saw more sundogs in the sky due to the cold weather and have been under a blizzard watch all day - I'll attach a photo out the 2nd storey window at the office so you can see how little visibility we have - I can hardly wait until Spring!!!!

Snowmen and Cross Stitch Magazines

First off we have had a great weather weekend here - today the temperature was in the 40's...can you imagine that last Sunday it was MINUS 50 DEGREES with the wind chill and one week later there is a 90 degree temperature difference. Note to Mother Nature, could you please make up your mind what season it currently is!!!

I received a great email from the editor of a German Cross Stitch magazine saying that the Germans love my designs and they would like to do a feature on Pickle Barrel Designs in an upcoming issue along with a design - the magazine is published all over Europe and it is a very exciting opportunity for me - here is the name of the magazine...

                  Kreuzstich Motive 

I will keep you posted on this adventure! Happy Stitching this week friends!

A sad sight in a flood zone....

IWhen you live in a flood zone and 3 times in the last 15 years you have endured 100-year floods and one 500-year old flood, then you get use to seeing entire neighborhoods being bought out by the government to make way for flood protection. Dikes and flood walls and diversions. And in the sweep of a hand an entire street of old, majestic, stately homes go up for auction and either get cut into pieces and sold & moved to new locations or sold to salvage companies before they are ripped down and just disappear. One of our neighbors who sold their house said it broke her heart because when they bought it and moved in 15 years ago they thought it would be their "forever home" - where they were raising their two sons - making memories - and now they have moved to a different area of town and their family home sold to the City to disappear and make way for flood protection. It is a necessary evil in order to help protect the entire City, but it still is hard to watch. 

The above picture shows the garage ready to roll...

This picture shows an entire house with the brick exterior stripped off and it is already minted and ready to move ...

Imagine my surprise this morning when I went to drive down the street and here was a giant house blocking all the lanes of traffic - what a job involving a LOT of different people and agencies - wow!