Retreat part I

Finally I have time to sit down and tell you all about our Retreat.  It's been a crazy couple of weeks leading up to it and a busy past couple of days catching up somewhat on all the things around the house that were let go while I was getting ready for retreat.  I have a lot to tell you so I'm going to have to do this in several posts or I'll scare all of you away!

Mary Ann, Connie, Carole and I left Papillion last Thursday in three separate cars...all loaded to the top with luggage, food, retreat goodie bags and projects.  Calvin Crest is only an hour away so we timed our arrival in Fremont to coincide with a stop for lunch at Arby's.  Arriving at the retreat center sometime around 12:30, we quickly set to work unloading our cars, setting up the greeting area, assigning rooms and putting chocolates on everyone's pillows.

Chocolates

There were only 9 of us attending Thursday and 4 of those were "staff" so once we had everything set up we sat down to catch our breath and cool off a bit as it was very hot and humid outside.

Connie waiting to scare greet the stitcher's.

 As each attendee arrived, they were greeted by one of us at the curb with a cart to help bring in the massive (some more than others) amounts of stuff each stitcher brought with them.  I'm not going to name names but some of these ladies do not travel light.  Of course I have no room to talk, I had enough stuff with me to last at least a month!

 Linda was the first to arrive.

She was followed by Mary, Pam, Doreen, Stacy and Laurie.    Upon entering the retreat center, they were surrounded by the sound of Frog song in keeping with our theme of Fear the Frog. At this time they were asked to sign up for a massage and the beaded fob class if they were interested.

Then they were given their goodie bag, their Fear the Frog tote if they purchased one and the retreat project.  Each attendee was also given a raffle ticket for the door prizes.  They had to put one half of the ticket into the frog on the desk.  When you opened it's mouth it croaked at you.  Surprised a couple of them!  Fear the Frog!!

Paulette Stewart of Plum Street Samplers once again designed our shop exclusive chart and I must say she did an outstanding job of tying in the theme.  Paulette...you rock!  Thank you so much for helping to make our retreat a success!

Notice the little frog stealing a stitch in the lower right hand corner?  And the lady with the cage trying to catch him?  Too stinking cute!  Some of you might have noticed that there is something missing in this picture.  I didn't notice until I was viewing it on my computer screen that I had completely left out one flower!  Don't worry, I corrected my mistake but by then I had already stitched the ends together and didn't want to take the time to "ripit" so I wasn't able to take another full picture of the piece.

Once stitched the piece would then be placed if the stitcher so desires, around the "spool" that was provided for each person attending retreat.  Like this:

 The lid of the spool lifts off  to store orts or whatever else one might wish to keep in there.  When they received it the floss and fabric were inside along with a thread holder that included fun frog facts

Once the business of retreat was taken care of we showed each person to their room and helped them take their stitching paraphernalia  to the stitching area where they lost no time in getting down to the important business of stitching.  Before we knew it,  it was time for supper.  As it was such a small group Thursday, it was pretty laid back and easy going and after eating we spent the rest of the evening stitching and visiting.  For Connie, Mary Ann and I, it was a nice break from the craziness that would be the rest of the weekend.    Friday morning we had breakfast at 8:00 followed by more stitching until lunch at noon.  After lunch we set everything up to greet the rest of the stitcher's that were scheduled to arrive after 3:00 that afternoon.  Then we all chose our beads for the fob class to be held later that night.  As the rest of the stitcher's arrived and got settled in Carole and Connie helped them choose their beads so that by supper at 6:30 everyone had their beads chosen for their fobs and we were able start class as soon as we got back.

I believe everyone had a good time making their fobs and it was amazing how pretty and unique each persons fobs were.

Here's a close up of mine:

After class there was more stitching until one by one the stitcher's drifted off to their beds.

I hope you are enjoying part one of our retreat recap.  I'll try to post part 2 this weekend if not before.

Take care till next time!!

Julie

Short and Sweet

Well shoot, I turn my back for one minute and the powers that be totally change the layout of blogger on me!  When did this happen??

Just posting a quickie as I really have nothing much to say that's happy and upbeat and I am tired of always posting negative stuff.  So here goes...

Progress on Parrot

New kitchen floor was supposed to have been installed last week.  Due to estimator error it did not happen.  When the installers arrived to install the new hardwood floor they discovered it was not going to work.  So they left.  And this is  how we have been living ever since as Dan refuses to move everything again.

Top vote getter of Reflections 4th annual Needleart Exhibit:

February Word Play stitched by my boss and framed by me.  It's stitched on 30ct Dolphin if anyone is interested.

Retreat is less than 2 weeks away.  I think we will be ready...cross your fingers.

Adam and his girlfriend are settled into their new apt and are as happy as can be.

Abby is going through a tough breakup

Amy is looking down the barrel of finals week and will be home in a week and a half.

Dan has been working his tail off getting the retreat project finished.  His part is done now and he is extremely happy to have them all finished.

Gracie is a miracle dog.  Doing well and is off the medicine they told me she would never be able to be off.

I have had a terrible case of the dizzys since Saturday.  Hope it goes away soon.

Have an awesome week everyone and take care till next time!

Julie

Hello, it's been a while...

When I ended my last post with take care till next time, I really wasn't expecting an entire month to have passed by before I found the time and the energy to post again.  But alas, it has.  And while I could fill you in on everything that prevented me from blogging, I think I will choose to spare you the gory details and just move on.

The weather has been incredible around the Midwest.  In fact, it got so hot that I briefly considered turning the A/C on at one point but then the stubborn side of my personality kicked in and I said no way am I turning the A/C on in March.  NO.FREAKING.WAY.  So we didn't.  And I must admit that one particular day I was a sticky, slimy, melted mess.  I disgusted even myself.  But I didn't give in.  So take that Mother Nature!! (she says as she sticks her tongue out)  I probably shouldn't say that too loudly.  I have heard from several sources that we are supposed to have a rough spring so lets just keep my childish behaviour between us.  Shhhh...I won't tell if you don't. :)

A couple of weeks ago, Connie and I attended our local Embroidery Guilds Spring Retreat.  We just went for the day on Friday and Saturday.  Most folks stay in the cabins that are provided but since I do not like camping, and the cabins are pretty rustic (although I hear they are nice) and the spiders have awakened from their winter sleep, (if they ever went to sleep that is)  Connie and I opted to drive back and forth.  It's only a 20 min. drive so no biggie.  We had a wonderful time, got to know some new folks and reconnect with some we had met the previous year.  While I was there, I did a bad, bad thing.  (can you hear that song in your head now?)  Sorry about that.  Anyway, whilst I was away having fun I totally disregarded my "you have to finish Tuscan Rose before you start anything else" edict and I started something new. I couldn't help myself.  Connie and Carole made me.  They are a bad influence.  Yep.  I was helpless against the two of them.  So totally not my fault.  Okay, fine...maybe it was partly my fault.  I did after all bring it with me.  But I had no intention of starting it.  I just wanted to fondle it.  That's all.  Fondle.  Yep yep!  So...Have you guessed yet what it is yet?  If you're thinking the Parrot you would be correct!   My progress as of last night...

I am loving all the purty colors and can't wait to start on some of the flowers.  But, I have not forsaken Tuscan Rose.  I'm still working on her also.  It's been a while since the last time I showed a progress picture so here it is before Retreat.

And as of this past weekend it looks like this.

Speaking of Retreat, our Spring Retreat is only a couple of weeks away now.  We have 28 people signed up as of yesterday.  I have the retreat project stitched and installed on it's doo-hickey.  I have to call it a doo-hickey cuz I can't tell anyone what it is yet.  But it's cute.  I can tell you that much!  I'm going to be pretty busy between now and then wrapping up all the little details so if I am absent, please forgive me and know I will be back afterwards.

I'm going to wrap this up now.  I'll save some other stuff for next time.  I hope everyone has a wonderful Easter if you celebrate Easter and if you don't,  have a wonderful weekend as I doubt I will return before then!

Take care till next time!

Julie
 

An unproductive day and a stitching update

I have had a rather unproductive day today which is a bad thing since I had just shy of a million things to get done.  First up on my list was to choose new flooring for the kitchen.  The kitchen you say?  Didn't you just put new flooring in the kitchen this summer?  And my answer to you would be yes indeedy Mindy McCreedy I most certainly did put new flooring in my kitchen this past summer.  And every time you drop something, or slide a chair or push the vacuum cleaner across it, it leaves a divot in the floor, a bright white spot in all that brown that stands out like a sore thumb.  Then you'd say,  Well what kind of cheap crap did you put in your kitchen Julie?  And I would say, trust me...it wasn't cheap.   And because it wasn't cheap and because I was very unhappy with it, I put in a claim to the store where we bought it.  And they sent a dude out who took pictures and told me that every floor will scratch.  To which I replied...when you accidentally drop a car key on your kitchen floor does it leave a white hole?  And the smart ass replied no, we don't drop things on our floor.  And I said I suppose you don't walk on it either and he said no, we float 6 inches above it.  At that point I figured I was SOL.  But surprisingly enough, I got a call from the store saying that Armstrong had agreed to replace my kitchen floor and I needed to let them know if I wanted the same product, something different or monetary compensation.  So today I took my happy self off to the Mart to find out what other options are out there.  I'm a bit leery of replacing it with what we already have, even though I love the look and feel of it.  I'd be afraid it would do the same thing and they for damn sure aren't going to replace it a second time.  I know I don't want ceramic tile...too cold and hard on the feet, ankles and legs.  Had laminate before and did not like the clickity clack of the dogs, nor the buckling caused by dripping dog beards, or ice cubes not picked up.  Ixnayed the sheet vinyl cuz I don't think it wears very well.  And although I would love a hardwood floor, I'm afraid of the dripping dog beards and ice cubes not picked up problem.    So the sales guy approaches and asks me if  he can help me.  I explained all of the above and asked him if there was any other type of flooring out there that I was not aware of and immediately he goes on the defensive.  My floor happens to be laid in the flooring dept and he starts to tell me how it's a great floor and how he has it in his own home (funny how no matter what floor I am looking at the sales guy always has it in his own home) and I shouldn't be afraid of replacing it with the same thing.  Or maybe I just need another color he says.  So I point out all the white spots on their floor and I get a long explanation about how long the floor had been down and how many people walk on it every day yada yada yada.  I let him finish up and then ask him my original question again.  Is there anything else out there that I am not aware of...his response...maybe you need to talk to a supervisor. I said yes, maybe I do and went in and spoke with customer service.  On Sunday I will go back and meet up with the guy who originally sold me the floor.  I really liked him and I feel he will be a bit more helpful.
I know I'm asking for a lot in a floor and perhaps it doesn't exist, and I can accept that.  But then I want to know what my options are.  I might have to just replace it with the same thing, but I'm not going to make that decision without some serious thinking.  Wish me luck.

The rest of my day went downhill from there.  But I won't bore you with those details.

I have an update on The Inn.  The house is done and the water has now started to flow across the picture.  Won't be long!

The husband unit has just walked in the door and I need to make some supper before Idol is on so I wish you all a wonderful evening!

Take care till next time!

Julie

My Favorite Find from Market, NeedleArt Exhibit and Gracie update

I want to share  my favorite purchase from the Nashville Market,  but first please join me in sending a little prayer to all those that have been affected by the horrific weather they have experienced in that part of the country this past week.   When I stop and think that it could so easily have been the previous week when we were there I just shake my head in wonder.  I've survived a tornado  once before when I was in high school and it wiped out  a pretty big chunk of our  neighborhood.  Although our house had some significant damage it was one of the few still standing after the storm.  With time the people affected will re-build their lives and their homes, but they will never forget the fear they felt as they huddled together praying that everything would be fine or the horror of coming out of their homes or wherever they took cover and seeing the destruction all around them.  Life can change in an instant, so let's all make the most of it while we can.

Now back to the fun stuff.  I saw lots of beautiful charts, fabrics, and finished projects at Market.  But the thing I am most thrilled with, the thing that has me smiling every time I use it...is this little device.

Now I am sure some of you already have one, know what it is and are thinking, "that's so yesterday." But if, like me, you didn't know such a thing existed, you might be about to jump for joy!  When I stitch, I am never alone.  There is always a dog...or two sitting next to me.

 And lately there has been a husband.  He's decided he likes the love seat instead of the sofa for sitting.  Now all four of us are crammed onto it and I can't tell you how many times a night my scissors would be knocked off of the table, the arm of the love seat, the cushion of the love seat, the cushy shelf permanently attached to my body known around here as the booby shelf, or my thighs.  Didn't matter where I put them or what I put them in, including my scissor beak bird, some how, some way one of the three bodies sitting with me would knock them off.  Until Now.  Now I have a Scissor Sitter and I.AM.IN.LOVE!!!  Such a simple idea, we all have needleminders, how could it take me so long to find Scissor Sitters???  It utilizes the same idea as a needleminder only you use it on your shirt.

It holds the scissors just fine, I've tested it all week long and the scissors haven't budged.  Ingenious!!   I don't know if anyone else makes these, but  the one I have is from Puffin and Co.   One last thing...you can also hook your readers through the hoop so you don't lose them a hundred times a day like someone I know has a habit of doing.  I'm not going to name names cuz she knows who she is.  LOL!!

Not much progress has been made on the stitching front this past week.  We've been super busy at work getting ready for our Market Open House and this month is also our NeedleArt Exhibit so I was busy getting that set up as well.  By the time I got home from work I was too tired to do more than sit and stare at the TV.  So my little red house is not done yet.  But it's further along than it was before.

I don't think I ever showed a picture of Mary's framed Anniversaries of the Heart.  And if I did too bad, it deserves another picture!  She brought it back to the shop for the Exhibit so I took a picture of it to share with you, along with a picture of all the entries for the exhibit this year. Last year Mary got the most votes with her One Nation piece.  One has to wonder if this year she'll get the most votes with Anniversaries.  She has some pretty good competition this year though.   The pictures should all be clickable so you can see the entries better.

Sorry about the glare on some of them.  Hard to get a decent picture  when it has glass on it.

OH!  Something exciting happened at the shop while we were away in Nashville.  You know how we used to share the bay we are in with a Vacuum Cleaner store and you know he moved out in September.  Well he left his huge Vacuum Sign on the building when he left and wouldn't take it down.  He wanted us to pay for the removal.  That wasn't going to happen.  So we've been dealing with people still thinking we sell vacuum supplies and vacuums.  Even though we put a sign on the door saying he was gone, they would still come in and ask "So you don't sell vacuum bags anymore?"  We'd politely tell them he moved, they'd ask us either where he went or where the next closest store was (cuz ya know since we used to share the bay we are up on where all the vacuum stores are) and they would go about their merry way.  And we all couldn't wait for the day when the Vacuum sign would come down so we wouldn't have to answer that question a million times a day.  Well on the 24th of February, history was made and vacuum guy had someone take the sign away!!!  Of course our sign went away too as it needs to be re-wired so now we have no sign, but in a few short weeks our sign will be back better than ever.  Before it said:

                                                            VACUUM Framing

His letters were way larger and more visible than ours and the landlord wouldn't give us another 6 inches to put an ampersand between the words and to answer your next question, yes people asked us if we could frame their vacuum.  Of course we always responded with we would be happy to.  Now it will say Framing & Stitching.  Much better.  Much Much better.  One would think that since the sign is gone, the vinyl window decals are gone, and all traces of vacuums are gone that we would be done with people coming in and asking us if we still sell vacuums.  After all, it's been 6 months since he moved out.   But alas that thought would be erroneous.  They read the sign on the door saying he's moved, they come into the shop, look around, see no traces of a vacuum belt or bag anywhere and then ask  if we still sell vacuum supplies!!!  Here's your sign...

And an update on Gracie...she has been off the antibiotic for 2 weeks and is doing okay.  She is still on the prednisone but I will be talking with the vet this week about whether we want to see what happens if we wean her off of them.  I  found a lump that I am hoping is just a fatty tumor but will need to have it checked out and I've noticed she is limping today Not sure what the heck is going on there.  So for now she is holding her own. Thanks to those that inquired about how she is doing.  Here's a pic taken of her earlier today.

Not a very ladylike pose is it.  The dog has no shame whatsoever.

Well if you made it this far, more power to you!  I could go on a bit more but will take pity on you and call it a night.

Thanks for stopping in and thanks for the comments!

Take care till next time!

Julie

Back from Nashville

I thought about coming home from work today and just plopping my large behind down on the sofa until bedtime...but since I really am trying to post a bit more often, I came home from work and plopped my large behind on the computer chair and here I am.

Got home from Nashville late last night.  It was a loooong drive home.  I didn't think the drive down there was too bad, even with the unexplained traffic back up on the interstate which we will now refer to as "the incident".  That's how Mary Ann's phone referred to it and since we saw no reason for the stoppage, we'll go with it.  And when I say we saw no reason, I mean no reason.  Traffic was backed up for miles which would lead one to think that something happened but when traffic started moving we saw nothing.  No flashing lights, no debris, no marks on the pavement.  I guess it will forever remain a mystery.

Market was great!  Spoke with a ton of designers, had cocktails with other shop owners, we bought a ton of charts, fabrics, and accessories and generally had a good experience.  There were some missing designers that I was hoping to see which was disappointing, and to me it felt like fewer shop owners were there but I could be mistaken.  I hope I am mistaken.  I would hate to see events like this disappear.

Saturday we're having Market Open House at the shop so this week we'll be busy getting everything ready.  But our Needleart Exhibit opens on the 1st so I need to get all the exhibitors pieces up on the wall first.  Should be able to get that done tomorrow.  

I'm fading fast here so I think I will head to bed.  Just wanted to get something posted, even if it is a bit boring.  Thanks for stopping in and thanks for the wonderful comments on the Double Dutch's .  The pictures don't do them justice.  Speaking of pictures not doing a piece justice, one last comment for tonight on market.  Cherries Jubilee by Glendon Place...Stunning in person.  The pictures don't show all the sparkle and dimension.  Check it out at your local LNS.

Good night everyone!

Take care till next time!

Julie  

A finish, a party and the Double Dutch's are framed!

Gosh, where has the time gone??  I have been meaning to post something for the last 2 weeks and yet every day has gone by and no post.  Seems as though the hurrier I go the behinder I get!  So lets take a step back into the past and start with what I intended to post about 2 weeks ago.  I have a finish!!!!!!  Forest Snowfall is all done and it is just too cute.  I have chosen a shabby white frame for it but haven't had the time to get it stretched yet with everything else I have had to do.  But you can see it anyway in all it's stitched if not framed glory.

Right after I finished Forest Snowfall, and I mean right after, I opened up my gmail and found an email from Paulette Stewart of Plum Street Samplers.  You might remember that she is designing a retreat exclusive for the shop I work at and lo and behold there was a chart attached to the email.  I was so excited to see it and OMG she did a wonderful job on it!!  It ties in beautifully with the theme of Fear the Frog.  Of course I had to shove the Inn at Fox River Mill to the side and start stitching on it immediately and last night I got it all done.  I love it.  I wish I could share it with you all but I can't. Not until after retreat anyway.    But I really wanna show you (she says in a whiney voice)!  We have met our minimum goal now for retreaters but there is still room in case you were thinking about attending.

My nephew Ben turned 6 last week and my husband ( a 6 year old at heart) decided to build Ben a submarine for his birthday.  And I'm not talking a model.  So for the last couple of weeks he's been gathering supplies and making drawings and doing secret things down in the basement, all in anticipation of Ben's birthday party.  He built this submarine with a working periscope, red lights inside (cuz that's how it is on a real submarine.  You see better with the red lights because it makes your eyes dilate larger.  So says Dan anyway) and Dan wanted the sub to have a torpedo launcher.  About a week ago as Amy and I were watching TV, here comes Dan with some PVC pipe, a dowel, some springs and a piece of styrofoam made to look like a torpedo.  The man was ready to test his launcher.  I got the camera.   We were either going to make history or I was going to record an epic failure, I just wasn't sure which.  I'll let you decide which it was based on the expressions on the mans face.  I about wet my pants laughing when I saw the pictures. Please click on the pic to get the full experience!

Fail Fail Fail...yep, you guessed correctly, it was an epic failure.  He finally threw everything to the floor in disgust and went the Nerf gun route instead.  At this point in time I had yet to see the submarine.  I was quite happy living in a state of blissful ignorance.   I knew my sister wasn't going to be pleased with this "little" gift so when Dan announced he would need to borrow a truck to transport it to her house I knew we were in trouble.  She was going to kill us.  Even though I had nothing to do with it, I knew I would be in trouble for not stopping Dan.  Amy on the other hand was quite happy to be a co-conspirator and went with her father to deliver the gift prior to the party.  Her job?  To distract any and all people in my sister's house so Dan could get the thing down to the basement without being seen.   A mission that was accomplished without any mishaps.  That evening we arrived for the party and Ben came running up to tell us that Caitie (the younger sister) had spilled the beans and he knew there was a rocket ship in his basement.  To which Dan replied Nuh-uh just like the grown-up that he is.  Ben wanted to immediately head downstairs but his mom ixnayed that idea and said he had to eat first.  Soon enough it was time to open presents.  Dan had wrapped up the nerf gun and a Captains hat along with some official looking documents saying Ben was going to be sent out on secret missions.  Here's a shot of him with his hat on. 

Captains Hat and Nerf Gun

My mom reading Ben's Commission Papers

Then it was time to head downstairs.  You would have thought it was a real submarine by the reaction from Ben.  He thought it was the neatest thing.  Dan had even thought to print large pictures of destroyers and set them up as targets for Ben to shoot at (so as to avoid shooting the younger sister and having the Nerf gun taken away).

The sub in our basement-Periscope up

Ben, tuckered out after the party

In the end, Mel didn't kill us.  She wasn't happy about the gun but she did call the next day to say her kids had been in the basement since 7 that morning playing with the submarine and the targets.  For her kids, that's a record!

And I can't end the party talk without sharing a couple of other pictures.

Ben, Amy and Cait

 You have to see the picture of my dad playing with Ben's new Bruder truck.  He was rolling it back and forth and checking out all the bells and whistles!

I finally had a chance to get the 3 Double Dutch's framed.  I had a customer in the shop last week that made a comment about how you don't mat samplers and then she looked around and said, well most people don't.  It got me to thinking.  Is there a hard and fast rule about matting a sampler?  To my knowledge there is not. But please if you know of one, let me know.  Not that I would necessarily quit matting samplers, cuz I have never been one to follow rules but it would be nice to know if there is.   All of this to say, I matted 2 of the 3 Double Dutch samplers. LOL!!

Mary Ann and I are leaving for Nashville in the morning. It's a 13 hour drive without stops. Gonna be a loooong day.  I am mostly ready but still have some last minute things to do and I need to decide what stitching project to take with me.  We sometimes sit in the lobby and people watch while stitching which means no ott light.  No ott light means I need to take something fairly easy to stitch or at least something with  bigger stitches than 40 count.  This is a problem.  Most of my projects are on 36 or 40 ct.  So do I start something new???  I just don't know.  Guess I'll figure it out at some point before morning arrives!

I need to finish up supper and then I need to go run an errand or two before Revenge is on tonight.  So you all have a great weekend and I'll see ya soon.

Take care till next time!

Julie