Sick! and a New Start!

Good Morning!

I don't have too much to write about today. I'm still sick and when you spend your days laying around there isn't much interesting to talk about. But I'll give it my best shot.

Our open house on Saturday went very well. I think everyone found something they couldn't live without, with maybe the exception of 1 person. I was a bit surprised by the limited edition scissors we brought back from the Dinky Dyes booth. We brought 10 pairs of them home from market and I think we only had 1 pair left when we closed. Did not expect that! The charts by AuryTM sold very well also, along with Shakespeare's Peddler's Sampler Roundy. I was somewhat surprised that the Jennie Bean Friendship sampler did not sell at all as I think it's a wonderful chart. Her Halloween sampler however, sold out. But that's the nature of the business, it's hard to predict what will sell and what won't. All in all, it was a good day!

Market itself was good. I enjoyed seeing everything in person and meeting all the designers. There were a lot of needlepoint designers there but I never saw many people in those rooms. Doesn't mean there weren't any, I just didn't see them. It didn't seem very crowded to me in the counted stitch rooms either. Which for me was great, it was easier to see everything and to talk to the designers and such but I'm sure it must have disappointed the designers although I have heard from several that they were very happy with the turn out and sales. I was somewhat disappointed to see when we arrived home from Market that almost everything, with a few exceptions, we saw at Market was available already from Hoffmans. If you want more people to attend the Markets, might I suggest you make it worth their time and money by delaying the availability of Market Releases by a week or three to the general public, thus giving those that do make the effort an advantage over those that didn't. I'm just saying...

I had planned to show you my latest finish but I took it to the shop on Saturday and didn't take a picture of it beforehand. I've been home sick since then so I still haven't taken a picture of it. It'll have to wait. I did just get a call from the Dr. with a cancellation for today so hopefully I will be feeling better soon. The cough is gonna be the death of me.

In the meantime...here is a picture of my latest start. Can you guess what it is?

I'm still working on my Chatelaine piece also but haven't taken a picture of it.

In family news....

Amy was home from college this past weekend. She's doing well at school and is settling in quite nicely. She's discovered that she cannot do everything and still keep the 3.5 gpa she needs to keep her scholarship so she has backed off a bit on some extra curricular activities for the school paper but otherwise is managing to study and have a bit of a social life too.

Adam is well from what we hear. He is still super busy at work and as far as I know will still be headed to D.C. after the first of the year. That could still change but it's not looking like it will.

Abby is also doing well with school. She's been doing a lot of tailgating down in Lincoln on the weekends but sticking pretty close to home during the week.

That pretty much catches you up on the goings on in my world. I'm busy working on things for the spring retreat. We're halfway booked now which I think is fabulous. I was getting caught up with the framing at work before I got sick but imagine I will be behind again when I get back. I know I have a graduation collage to design when I get back as it came in Saturday. Oh well, it's better than not being busy at all!

Enjoy this first week of October everyone! We're having beautiful weather here, too bad I haven't been out to enjoy it!

Take care till next time!

Julie