• Uncategorized

    Heart Attack (with a video)

     Spring break was quite an eventful one for Sabrina this year.. and quite a nervous one for me. She decided to go skydiving with a friend of hers, which completely surprised me, as my Bean has never been quite the adrenaline-junkie her dad and Bre have been. Mind you, Sabrina is a crazy-on-the-mountain ski bum, and all 90 pounds of her joined the women's rugby team last fall, but I never thought she'd be one to jump out of an airplane, 10,000 feet off the ground.

    I was very much mistaken.

    Here she is, waiting her turn in the plane, alongside her crazy, skydiving friend Nate. (She said she was fairly calm until the door opened, and the sudden rush of air and noise was more than what she was expecting, leaving her wondering what she may have gotten herself into.)

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    And here is my middle child's leg, hanging out of the side of the plane. I suddenly feel a need to go hug her blanket and her pillow and all her clothing to me and snivel. Don't you dare drop my baby.

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    And then the jump…

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    No way, no way, no way, not in a million, gazillion years. Not even for a Venti Vanilla Spice Latte.

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    But throw in a Pumpkin Spice Latte on the side, and we'll talk.

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    Some of you may remember Big Papa's skydive video, but this one was filmed differently. In Mike's, there was a videographer jumping next to him taking the video. In Sabrina's, the guy who was doing the jump with her was taking the video himself. I thought that was interesting, and quite a different perspective. Either way though, for the rest of my days my feet shall remain planted firmly on the earth, as God intended them to be. 

     

    Sabrina Skydives! from Paulette Stewart on Vimeo.

    By the way, Sabrina said that the wind you hear on the video is deceiving; once the chute opened, it was extremely calm and peaceful, and there was no sound at all, besides their voices. 🙂

  • Critters,  New Designs

    Coming Soon…

    As I drove through my neighborhood today, I noticed all the robins in people's front yards. Around here, when one sees a robin, one knows spring is very near. So this gives me hope, despite all the snow on the ground (and still floating down from the gray sky today), that the beautiful pastel colors of the new season are almost here. I'm so looking forward to the grass slowly waking up and blushing its bright green, the sunshine coming out from behind the clouds and staying for more than just a few minutes at a time, and especially for my lilacs to start blooming, accenting the breeze with their gorgeous scent. (The part I will miss is my sweet boy Friday laying under them, and then coming back into the house with perfumed fur.)

    I don't normally design in light, spring colors (although they are my favorites); I tend to want to dabble in autumn designs more than the other seasons. So for my next release, I've combined my two loves (spring and autumn) and come up with this:

    Spring Jack.

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    This was stitched by Sherri Berkman, and she did a fantastic job on it! She also chose the amazing frame for it, which can be ordered from Total Framing. Thank you so much, Sherri!

    Here is the information you'll need, if you plan to order Spring Jack…

    Release Date: April 1
    Stitch Count: 125 x 99
    Fabric: 40 ct. Vintage Tundra by Lakeside Linens
    Threads: Gentle Art Sampler Threads (Old Hickory, Wood Trail, Brandy, Lambswool, Cornhusk, Endive, Old Brick, And Picket Fence) and Crescent Colours (Ye Olde Gold, Antique Lace, Cobbled Peach, and Tennessee Red Clay).

    Another option to the Tundra linen would be to go with something darker, like Vintage Examplar or one of R&R's rich coffee-colored linens. The lighter floss colors will show up beautifully on any of these neutral colors.

    By the way, when I was trying to get the photo taken for the chart, Miss Tilly-Roux decided to photo-bomb the vignette:

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    Silly girl. She's ready for spring as well, but more for the robins than the pastel colors.

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  • Crazy Kids,  Family

    God’s Creatures

    Sabrina has always had an intense love for animals. But she drew the line when Bre, a few years ago, suggested she buy herself a Spirit Hood. Spirit Hoods are faux-animal-fur hoods often seen worn by the mountain-loving younger crowd in Colorado (Breanna included) and a few other places.

    However, the idea soon grew on Bean, and she decided that she wanted to support the Spirit Hood cause, which is to preserve wildlife with the help of hood sales.

    Recently, they went on sale, and she bought herself the Red Wolf one…

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    I love it! She already owned the Night Owl hood, which is one of my favorites…

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    This is another picture of her in the Red Wolf… if I'm not mistaken, I believe this is also the one that Bre owns. I loved Bre's so much, I wanted one for my own!

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    The girls surprised me this year for Christmas with a large box that said "To Mom, From Grey Wolf." I was absolutely thrilled! Thank you again, my sweet girls!

    I really only showed you these crazy animal hoods because I wanted an excuse to tell you that Sabrina won a much-coveted internship at the Henry Doorly Zoo for this summer. I'm so happy for her, as she's been saying since she was about 6 years old that she wanted to work at this zoo some day. If you're ever in Omaha, take the time to visit it.. it's a fabulous place, beautifully built and huge! I think Bean will be very, very happy there, and she's feeling like she won the Internship Lottery since yesterday. 🙂 Congratulations, Bean! We always knew, somehow, that you belonged in the zoo.

    Har har.

     

  • New Designs,  Stitching

    Elizabeth is Framed!

    I've been meaning to show you all what Jill did for my finished Elizabeth Sheffield (Scarlet Letter)! I was blown away once again by Jill's talent for choosing just the right moulding, and I had planned on immediately sending another piece to her as soon as Elizabeth arrived on my doorstep, but I've not had time to finish the next project on my list just yet. Maybe this spring some time, I'll have Ruth Bacheler (also a Scarlet Letter) ready to send to her.

    Here is Elizabeth, hanging between my front door and a bright window in my entry way…

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    I'm in love! Thank you so very, very much, sweet Jill. 🙂

    And speaking of frames, I got Viktor & Irina put in their frame and whisked away to market, just in the knick of time. I showed this photo on Facebook, but forgot to show it here as well! So sorry about that! The frame is from Hobby Lobby, for those of you who asked me…

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    I hope you found lots of stuff at this year's Nashville Market to be excited about. I know I spied a thing or two I won't be long without. 😉