Warning...Lots of Eye Candy!

Good Morning!

The Midwest is gearing up for what is supposed to be a large winter storm.  I myself am hoping that it's all hype.  But just in case I told Dan to pick up some extra milk at the store tonight on his way home.  I have to have my glass of milk every morning and with my luck I would run out on Thursday when the storm is due to hit.  Otherwise, I'm not going to get too frenzied about the whole thing although the weather guy on TV is already foaming at the mouth over the whole thing.  Really Bill?  It's snow.  We've had snow before.  We've had large snow storms before.  I think we can handle it without all the hype.  Take up cross stitch, it'll calm you down some!

Now that I have that off my chest, I will leave you with pictures of this years Needleart Exhibit at the shop.  They are in no particular order since I am running out of time this morning and I won't comment on any of it for the same reason except to say I hope you enjoy viewing these lovely pieces by our customer's.  I had to beg, plead and threaten to get people to participate this year so we aren't sure we will be doing it next year.
Such a shame as many people love to come in to see them.  So if you find yourself in the Omaha area in the next week or two, stop by and vote for your favorites!  Click on the pictures to view larger!

I tried to get closeups of them all before my battery died but it didn't happen.  Sorry to those that have a piece that did not get a good close up.

Have a great day all!

Take care till next time!

Julie

For Catherine...thanks!

Just a fly by post today.  Dan and I went grocery shopping this morning and while we were there I spotted some Goose Island Orange Cream Soda.  This brought to mind a comment left by Catherine on a previous post where I mentioned Goose Island Rootbeer and how much I love it.  Her comment was...

"Great goodies!  I think I would be afraid of carrying a Coach bag too!.  Have you ever had the Orange Cream soda by Goose Island?  So good to make a float  with vanilla ice cream ~ tastes like an orange creamsicle!"

What was a girl to do but buy a bottle and bring it home to try!  Dan was highly skeptical when I told  him I was going to put the orange soda over vanilla ice cream.  He said he would try it but he thought it sounded nasty!

The verdict?  We both loved it!  Thanks for the recommendation Catherine, I'll think of you every time we indulge!

Have a great rest of the weekend everyone!

Take care till next time!

Julie  

Nashville Market & Jeans

Good Evening!

I planned to do this earlier but I got distracted by my fireplace mantel.  I've been fussing with it now for over a week, trying to make it look good without spending any money.  Easier said than done but I think it's okay for now.  What do you all think?

click on the pic to view larger

 I imagine I'll end up tweaking it some more after I stare at it for a week.  Do any of you do that?  Fuss with something, stare at it for a week and fuss some more?  Once I get the mantel to my liking I'll move on down to the hearth.  It needs some help too but it's not gonna happen today.

 I had this whole list of things I was going to get done today but I've only managed to accomplish a few of them.  I started out at Kohls this morning.  I needed to buy some new jeans.  I can always tell when Nashville Market is coming up because I feel the need to buy new jeans every year, you know, ones that don't have the hem all messed up because I'm short and always buy my jeans too long.  LOL! One would think I would be smart enough after 53 years to buy jeans that aren't too long but it's hard to find my size in a short length.  It's like they think if you're a certain size you must be tall too.  I got news for them, I'm a short fat woman, not a tall or average fat woman!  Hemming them is not an option.  I don't do hemming. Ever.  I don't suppose that anyone would mind or even notice that the hems of my jeans are worn.  It's not like all the other shop people or the designers are going to stop and point and say EWWW...her hem is all ratty.  At least I hope they wouldn't,  they wouldn't would they?  Nah, they wouldn't.  But then again we are women.  And women can be very catty sometimes.  So I would rather err on the side of new jeans and present a fresh, non-ratty appearance so they all point and say look how nice that short fat woman's jeans are! Her hems hardly look worn at all.  This year I did get lucky though.  Not only did I find the short length I require but I am also down a size from last year!  I'm still fat but now I'm a little less fluffy than before which is nice.

After Kohls, I stopped in at the shop to drop something off for Mary Ann and then I headed to the thrift store.  I was looking for some tins but didn't find the size I needed so I headed on down the street to Weathered and Worn.  My in-laws gave me a gift certificate for Christmas and I thought I might want to use it on some items for the mantel.  I didn't find anything for the mantel but I did find a few things that followed me home.

The bobbins that you see in the picture can be attached to the wall by their bottoms and then be used to hang a kitchen towel or whatever else you might want to hang.  I haven't decided where they will go but there were only 4 of them left so I snagged 2 of them.  I have learned not to snooze and lose when it comes to these things.  The shoe form may go back, I haven't decided about it yet.  The flower pillow was too cute to pass up.  It's small enough to tuck in any number of places.

After Weathered and Worn I intended to go on a shoe  hunt.  But by this time my ankle was squawking at me so I just came on home where I piddle farted my way through the rest of the afternoon with the mantel and now here it is 6:00 in the evening and aside from getting jeans I really didn't accomplish a whole lot. Oh well,   there's always this weekend!

I took a break from Holly Berry Farm this week and went back to With Thy Needle's Strawberry Hill Sampler.  This is such a pretty little piece.

Won't be long now and I'll have her finished and then all I need to do is the finishing.   I don't know about you but I have a terrible time finishing my own stuff.  It's gets done eventually but certainly not in a timely manner!

I think that's all I will cover for today.  I have a ton of pics to share of our annual Needleart Exhibit at the shop but I will save them for the next time.  Thanks so much for the comments, they are much appreciated.

Have wonderful evening!

Take care till next time,

Julie

  

I got nothing...

I'm sorry folks but I have nothing of value to say.  I've been waiting for something to happen that I could talk about but so far nothing has come up. This is not altogether a bad thing.  At least I don't have long horrifying stories about how screwed up everything is!  But it does make for dull blog posts.

I was sick as you know, Amy got sick, then Dan got sick, but we are all in varying stages of recovery.  I don't feel like telling you all about the trials and tribulations of having the flu and really, no one wants to hear about snotty noses anyway as you've probably had your own recently.

I have the retreat project stitched and tweaked finally  but I can't talk about that until May except to say that it's very cute!  So no stitching of my own to talk about at this point.

Other retreat things are taking up my free time and I can't talk about that either!

A commentary on the weather is about as exciting as watching water boil.

I even made a special trip today to the thrift store to see what I could see and I took Dan with me since he's usually good for a laugh or two.  He was not inspired.  I saw nothing of interest with the exception of this big weaving loom that was pretty cool.  Not something I would ever want but still interesting to look at. But it isn't something I can talk about at length.

I did have a birthday during my absence.  The kids gave me a Coach purse.  It's beautiful but to be honest, I'm afraid to carry it around in case someone steals it!

Dan gave me a case of my very favorite Goose Island Root beer.  Now you might think that a case of root beer is a bit strange to receive as a gift.  What you don't know is I love root beer, but it has to be smooth going down.  Goose Island is smoooooooth.  Our local grocery store quit carrying it about a year ago so imagine my surprise over Christmas when I spied a display of it on an end cap.  It wasn't being sold in a 6 pack anymore.  Instead it was being sold by the one liter bottle.  So I bought a bottle.  I hadn't had any root beer in a year or so and it was calling my name.  Oh was it good.  Sadly, when I went back to buy another bottle, they were all gone.  Oh well I thought,  that's 480 calories I didn't really need to be drinking anyway.  Enter my husband. Sneaky little man had already bought a case of it and stashed it under the village in the basement and on the morning of my birthday I came downstairs to find a large wrapped present on the kitchen table with a note attached saying...Have a drink on me!  I was thinking WTH does that mean as I tore off the paper to find my case of Goose Island.  Now i know I should have groaned and cursed the man for bringing an entire case of this crack soda into the house but I gotta be honest and say Damn! I love that man and boy does he know me or what!??  To prevent myself from over indulging I am limiting myself to one bottle per month. I had him take the case to the basement and put it back under the village where it will stay out of sight out of mind until I ask him to bring up a bottle.

February's bottle

My friend Connie must tuck little bits of information away in that maze she calls a brain.  I swear I don't know how she manages to remember some of the things I say but she does and for my birthday she gave me a couple of flea market/vintage decor magazines and Prairie Schooler's Autumn Samplers leaflet.  Something I had mentioned wanting  back in November I believe.  It's OOP so she had to track it down and get it second hand for what she says was a reasonable price.

She also included this sweet pair of  Scissors from Sullivans.  So pretty!

Finally, my friend Mary Ann, owner of Reflections, gave me a gift card to Texas Roadhouse, one of my fave places to eat, some scrumptious chocolate from Stam's (sorry no picture, I ate it already) and some great smelling Bath & Body Works items.

After all that wonderfulness I figured my birthday was over and life would just continue on till next year rolled around.  Not so my friends.  Dan had one more trick up his sleeve.  Arriving home from work 2 days after my birthday, I grabbed the mail and entered the house.  Dan had stayed home that day since he was sick with the crud but he grabbed the mail out of my hands as soon as he saw I had it.  Thumbing through it he pulled a slip of paper out that said there was a package waiting for us at Fed Ex. Putting his coat on he told me he had an errand to run.   I told him he was sick and whatever it was could wait but he wouldn't hear of it so off he went.  When he got back home he handed the package to me and said Happy Birthday.  I was a bit confused but not one to turn down a present I set about opening the package.  Inside was a Millennium Frame!

Frame with what little stitching I have done on it. 

 To say I was surprised was an understatement.  I had mentioned wanting one after Christmas but Dan doesn't order on line so I didn't expect it to happen.  Sometimes he really surprises me and this was one of them!  I haven't had a whole lot of time to use it.  Just a few stitches here and there but I like it.  I think I need to get a smaller set of bars for it and the stand would be awesome too but for now I have figured out a way to hold it and stitch double handed which is something I have been wanting to try.  It's very well made, a bit heavy to hold in this size but still manageable.  Dan said he wanted to order the stand too but the buy button was grayed out so he couldn't.  I told him that was okay, Valentine's Day and Mother's day were just around the corner!!  LOL!!

Well would you look at that!  I did find something to write about after all.  Not the most exciting post in the world but better than a blow by blow of me watching water boil!

I need to get back to working on my projects so will call it a night.  Thanks so much for the comments on my previous post.  I do appreciate knowing that someone somewhere is reading my blog even if I don't write as often as I should.    I think I will work on creating some drama this week so I have something more exciting to talk about in my next post!

Take care till next time!

Julie

  



  

SICK

It's Wednesday, it's my day off, it's beautiful out for a mid-January day in Nebraska and how do I get to spend it??  SICK.  I caught the crud.  At least I have lots of company.  Seems like everyone I know is or has been recently sick with one thing or another. Hope I feel better tomorrow cuz I need to get some stretching of cross stitch done at work.  I can't order the frames until I've stretched the pieces and some of them need to be done for the shops annual Needleart Exhibit.  That begins in February.  And if my calculations are correct February is 15 days away.  Just around the corner in fact.  So virus, run your course and then let me get back to normal, I don't have time for this crap.

I wish I had lots and lots of stitching updates for you but in reality retreat planning has been interfering with my stitching time.  Well,that and Rags.  Rags has decided that every time I pick up my stitching she needs to lay on my chest and be petted.  Planning retreat pretty much has taken all the rest of my time.  But I think I've got a handle on retreat for right now with the exception of stitching the retreat project which arrived in my mail box today.  So I will give you an update on what little I have done and then it'll be a while since I obviously can't show the retreat piece until after retreat.

First up is Christmas At HollyBerry Farm by the most wonderful Stacy Nash.  I chose to stitch mine on Weeks Dye works Cocoa, 40 count over 2.

And although I haven't stitched on it since HollyBerry Farm came out, I do have some progress to show you on my Peace Sampler.  Can't wait to get back to it but it's going to be a while I think.

While at Hobby Lobby not too long ago I was heading to the checkout counter when my eyes landed on this sweet piece.

I love it!  I haven't found a spot that's perfect for it yet but then I haven't really tried. Shouldn't be too difficult though.

And finally, just in case you're curious and since the shops newsletter came out today announcing retreat, I thought I'd share our theme for this year.  It's a bit different and I'm betting some are going to wonder what the heck they're in for, but trust me.  It's all good.  If any of you are interested in attending let me know and I can email you all the information.  This years theme is....

The Stinky Feet Retreat!!

And that's all I have for today.  My energy is fading fast so I think I will head over to the sofa, pet Rags until she is in a deep deep sleep and then start stitching the Retreat piece.  

Take care till next time!

Julie

Surprised to see me so soon?  I said I was going to try  harder and I like to think that I am a woman of my word.  Sometimes anyway! Thanks to all those that managed to make it through the last post and I am happy that you all enjoyed Dan and the latest chapter of his "Moosecapades".  Catherine called them Moose Escapades but I've condensed it a bit so it rolls more easily off the tongue.  


  I promised a stitching update so tonight I will begin with two pieces that were framed right before Christmas.   The first is my Prairie Schooler Christmas Greetings that I showed before it was framed.  I stitched this piece over one on 40 ct Ivory linen using the tent stitch.

And the second piece is one that I finished years ago and had framed but I never liked the frame or the top mat being red.  This is the before pic:

And here is the after. Sorry for the angle, I put glass on it this time and I couldn't get a good pic without glare.  It's from a Mill Hill book and is mostly beads.

And now I'm going to call it a night and go get some stitching done.  But I will be back with some more updates in a couple of days!

Come on, pick your jaw up off the table, I can be brief when I want to!  LOL!!

Take care till next time!

Julie

The Mother of all Blog Posts

I have a few loyal readers (whom I love dearly) that have been on my case for weeks now because I haven't blogged in 46 days. I haven't actually kept track of how long it's been but apparently one of them has as she posted that little tidbit on my Facebook page today.  Tonight, I am bowing to peer pressure, putting aside my work on our upcoming Spring Retreat and ignoring my stitching so I can blog and they can get on with their lives.  I do apologize for the long absence, hopefully I can catch everyone up and then post on a more regular basis but I'm not going to promise anything since as I stated earlier, I've been working almost non-stop on plans for our retreat and that won't end for another 4 months.

So.  Where to start.  In the words of a famous song, let's start at the very beginning, it's a very good place to start lalala...only in this case we'll start back in the beginning of December.  Dan and I had decided that we wouldn't be hosting our annual Christmas Village Open House prior to Thanksgiving.  He didn't have the village ready and there were projects throughout the house that were only half done that needed finishing before Adam and his fiance arrived for Christmas.  It was decided the projects needed finishing more than we needed to finish the village.  And then folks started asking when the Open House was. When we realized that for some our Christmas Village had become a tradition we decided to do our best to get things finished.  But that meant working almost non-stop on house projects, village expansion and Christmas decorating.  That was the beginning of the no blog post period.  A lot had to get done and it had to get done in a short period of time.  One of the things that Dan had to take care of much to my dismay was the annual deployment of the Moose.  Or is it Mooses?  Some of you have read back and know about Dan, the moose and my mother.  I'm not going to rehash it again, this post is going to be long enough without me covering old ground.  If you aren't aware of the history, you can read all about it in this post.  This year, in addition to the one horned moose in the canoe I showed you before, he also found a lovely polka dotted moose.

 And, while my father was in the hospital and my mother was sitting by his bedside and away from home, my dear darling adorable husband took advantage of her absence and proceeded to deploy said dotted moose. In her Nativity Set.  On her China Hutch.  Right next to the table where she eats her breakfast every morning.  Due to Dad being in the hospital and mom spending all her time there it was actually a few days later, after Dad was allowed to come and they were eating dinner, that she first noticed out of the corner of her eye something that didn't belong.  I received a call shortly after.  And I got an earful.  The damn thing scared her half to death.  Took 10 years off her life. It was the eyes,  she could feel them staring at her. Gonna get even with that boy somehow.  Yada, yada, yada.  Then she went on to say how she called my sister first because she had to tell my  6 year old nephew Ben what a rotten dirty thing Dan had done.  Ben wanted his mom to take him to Grandma's house right away so he could check the place over because he was sure that Dan had left more than one moose but since he was sick his mom wouldn't allow it.    Mom wanted Dan to know that Ben was on to him and would be keeping an eye on things.  This did not deter Dan.  At.All.   His next deployment was an ornament.  Only this time he didn't put it at mom's.  Nope.  He hung it on the tree at Ben's house while Ben wasn't home.  When my sister mentioned that Dan had stopped by Ben's spidey senses went on alert and it took him no time at all to find that ornament. His first reaction of outrage was then followed by the desire to smash that moose to pieces.  His mom convinced him that since the ornament moose had a red nose it was in fact not a moose but a reindeer and therefore it should not be smashed.   As far as I know it survived the season intact.  Of course that wasn't the end of the story.  It continued when we went to my mom's for Christmas.  First she unwrapped the one-horned moose.  And then Ben and Grandma each got to open a gift that was supposedly from Santa.  Yeah right.  Santa Dan maybe.  I wish I had thought to take a picture of Ben as he opened his gift but I didn't.  Luckily my sister snapped this picture and shared it with me.

My mom and Ben with their slippers!

The really ironic part of this whole slipper thing was the gift Dan received from my mom before she opened her gift.  Slippers! Are these not the ugliest things you've ever seen?

We received a nice thank you note from Ben the other day.  He thanked Dan for the slippers and wrote how  nice and warm they kept his feet.  Not quite the reaction Dan was hoping for!

On the 15th of December we had a wonderful open house with about 30 people dropping by to see the village.  Dan managed to get it finished the night before and while some of the house projects did not get done, the most important ones did.

The guests looking for the hidden moose and lego gladiator

Eating snacks and visiting

Devin gave Kallie a new do!

Connie visiting with her new buddies

Our neighbors the Bertones

Once we had the open house under our belts it was time to get the Christmas shopping underway. Most of it was done online but those pesky stocking stuffers have to be searched out in person.  I was most proud of the handmade soaps I found on Etsy.  I bought Adam a Millennium Falcon soap from Star Wars.  He's been lusting for a certain Lego set of said Millennium Falcon and since it's selling for $3000.00 now he's going to have to continue to lust.  For Abby I found a fish in a bag soap.  Her latest Beta fish had died not too long before the holidays.   She has a terrible time keeping them alive.  It looks like a real goldfish in a bag like you bring home from the store.  I figure she can keep the bag in a bowl and it will look like she is just acclimating it to it's new surroundings.  For Amy, my resident Zombie apocalypse lover, I found Zombie repellent soap so she'll be safe if the Zombie's ever try to take over the world.  And for Marcia, Adams fiance, I found a beautiful snowflake soap.  Seems like every time she visits in the winter months we have the coldest weather of the season so I thought a snowflake was fitting.

Along with shopping, baking and cleaning the house I was also trying to get all the Christmas deadline framing done at the shop.

Adam and Marcia arrived for Christmas on the 23rd.  It was a trip that was not without it's problems but they got here safely and that is what matters.  It's not easy being away from your family during the Holidays and I wanted to make sure Marcia had a good time while she was here.  One of Adams favorite things are the cookie press cookies we always have at Christmas.  He enjoys decorating them and giving Amy a bad time about how she decorates them so I didn't even bake them until the day before he arrived so he could  share the activity with Marcia.  Abby came over before she had to go to work and the 4 kids had a good time making a mess creating their masterpieces.

Abby got creative

Which meant Adam had to get creative

Which led to Amy getting creative

One of the other activities we used to enjoy before the kids got "too old" was painting the ceramic ornaments you can buy at places like Hobby Lobby and Michaels.  Here's an example of the kids earliest works of art.

L-R: Adam, Abby and Amy

And here is a conversation the kids had on Facebook when Amy posted this picture on her timeline.

Adam:  i am the greatest
Amy:  mom says she and dad touched yours up, which is why it looks so good.
Adam: Bull
Me:  Sorry son but I did touch it up.  after you went to bed.
Abby:  Mine is actually pretty good.
Abby:  I had no help.
Adam:  Whatever, mine is the best.
Amy: False Yellow bear don't care.

Now you know why I still call them kids.

Dan decided to revive the tradition this year so Marcia would have a painted ornament on the kids tree.

the kids tree

After church on Christmas Eve we enjoyed some Tortilla Soup before I gave the kids their Christmas Eve gift to open.  To make it a bit more interesting, I set a timer for 5 minutes and they had to wear oven mitts while trying to open their gift.  If they didn't do it before the timer went off they had to wait till the next morning.   Adam was up first.  It was a bit of a challenge for the boy.  He almost didn't get his present!

Amy was next.  She learned from Adam's mistakes and was done in a little over a minute.

Marcia wasn't challenged at all.  She had that package open in seconds.

Amy relaxing in her new jammies

Adam enjoying his Ninja Turtle pants

Christmas morning we had breakfast and then opened presents.

Dan got a bobblehead in his likeness from Adam

My new computer from Adam

My new computer desk that Dan bought at the thrift store and painted /distressed

And in the afternoon we headed over to my folks. I sorta forgot to take pictures while I was there but I did get this one of Adam helping my dad with the tablet he received for Christmas.  You can sure see the family resemblance here! 

We were back home by 8p.m. and everyone headed to bed fairly early, worn out from all the fun.
Adam and Marcia headed home on the 27th.  Adam came down with the stomach flu during the flight.  Not a good time for anyone.  I hope they enjoyed Christmas though. It was a very special one for me and I think it will be one that stands out in my mind for years to come.

And with the holidays over I started working in earnest on our Spring Retreat.  I've spent hours over the last 2 weeks researching various aspects of the retreat experience.  And hours shopping, looking for all the pieces parts that will be needed for the project, trying to get the best price possible so I can keep the costs down as much as I can.  It's a lot of work but I enjoy doing it.   I think I've got a handle on it now which is a good thing since I have to send out the announcement next week!  

So as you can see, I've been a bit busy and what little free time I have had I used to squeeze some stitching in.  Not much got done and I haven't taken any pics so that will have to wait till the next time. It's late and I'm tired and this is already so long that no one is going to read the whole thing.  Except for those people, and you know who you are, who had better be ready to take a quiz on the content the next time I see you!

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas like I did and I hope that the New Year will be a good one for all!

Take care till next time!

Julie