• New Designs,  Stitching

    And Finally…

    September 8, 2011

    Here is Buttons Black…

    Buttons Black MODEL tp

    The stitch count for this one is 94 x 97, and it is stitched on Lakeside's 36 ct. Autumn Gold using Gentle Art Sampler Threads in Nutmeg, Raven, Walnut, Endive, Mulberry, and Shaker White.

    The frame is called "The June," and it was provided by The Family Tree Frame Company. I love the swirly accents on the corners!

    And aren't those witch boot scissors the cutest things? They're new from Kelmscott Designs! (Btw, I got those gorgeous buttons from Kelmscott too… they're polished mother-of-pearl on one side, and unfinished mother-of-pearl on the other. I prefer the unfinished side!)

    Btw, Hodgepodge Cottage has a few new designs coming out as well, so check back on her Facebook page to see if she's updated! :)  Yoohooo…. Bre!

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  • Stitching

    New for September…

    September 7, 2011

    I realize this was supposed to be released last month, but the release was pushed off to September, so here it is – along with another one that's releasing tomorrow:

    This is Beans, Beans…

    Beans, Beans MODEL tp

    (Sound familiar? Maybe you're thinking of the Musical Fruit version, of which I have no plans to design a sampler around.)

    Here's the pattern info:

    Stitch count is 245 x 86, and it was stitched on Lakeside's 36 ct. Vintage Autumn Gold. I used two Belle Soie silks: Vanilla Pudding (DMC 712) and Old Crow (DMC 3371).

    The frame is the best part, in my humble opinion! The molding reminds me of coffee beans, and I love anything that reminds me of coffee beans. :)  If you'd like to order the frame, contact the lovely ladies (Maryann or Julie) of Reflections Framing at 402-331-1740 or email Maryann here: maryann@reflectionsframing.com.

    Next up:

    Salem Hornbook…

    Salem Hornbook MODEL tp

    The info:

    This was stitched on Lakeside's 36 ct. Vintage Pecan Butter (doesn't that make you hungry?) using Crescent Colours in Black Coffee, Whatley Woodlands, Stepping Stones, Zach Black, Avocado, Chai, Hickory Sticks, Joshua Tree, Green Onion, Fool's Gold, and Used Brick. The stitch count is roughly the same as Halloween Hornbook: 121 x 136. (Halloween Hornbook is 121 x 140).

    A little extra info about this sampler: The bottom right block represents John Hale, a minister who approved of the court's witch trials in Salem, but later reconsidered his stance when his wife was accused and arrested for witchcraft in 1692. He wrote this book in 1697, challenging the way the courts handled the trials:

    380px-ModestEnquiry

    The middle square on the bottom represents Giles Corey, who was crushed to death with stones when he refused to enter a plea regarding whether or not he was indeed a wizard/warlock. Reputedly, his last words to his torturers were "more weight."

    As for the frame, check out the texture on that hornbook, provided by the talented folks at Valley House Primitives! If you're interested, ask your shop owner to contact them at valleyhouseprim@aol.com.

    One error I just noticed (and not before already sending these to the distributor) was that the chart states that I used silk (Belle Soie) in this piece; I did not, as Crescent Colours are most certainly made of cotton. 😉

    I have one more release to show you tomorrow, as I'm out of time today! I must dash off to pick up Sabrina's car from the shop, as it's been making noises akin to what one would make after consuming musical fruit.

    I hope you like the new releases! And Happy Fall!

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  • Crazy Kids,  Family

    Bre’s Apartment

    September 2, 2011

    Well aren't you all just so clever, suggesting Sophie get a cat of her own? I had to laugh at the comments on the last post.. yes, my Sophie does think she deserves her own kitten, but she does have a guinea pig named Ruby and a fish named Shamudeedee (don't ask) who would disagree with the majority of you. 😉

    Here are a few pictures I took of Bre's room when we were down there the last time…I love her little room! It's so cheery, and it's so Bre!

    Apt tp 1

    Apt tp 2

    My dad made her this cool necklace rack…

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    …complete with these charming little knobs (each one is different)…

    Apt tp 4

    I made her this earring frame…

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    …and these kitties make her crazy!

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    I thought it was cute how Tilly jumped up on the bed when she heard Bre opening a new bag of food and pouring it into the food jar…

    Apt tp 8

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    Breanna loves her Tilly Charlotte Sox..

    Apt tp 10

    I thought it was funny how Tilly ran underneath Bre when Bre was squatting down to put something away… oh, the fun I have at my oldest daughter's expense!

    Apt tp 11

    I bought this little bird for Frieda's room when she came to live with us. Bre decided to take it with her to her apartment, and it sits on a windowsill…

    Apt tp 12

    Love that lamp!

    Apt tp 13

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    I think Bre's room is perfectly cozy. It smells amazing too, bc she has that Huskers Scentsy burner on her nightstand that she got from my sister, Audrey, who is a Scentsy dealer. That was a shameless plug for my sister. 

    Bre, I'm so proud of you, and I'm especially proud that your bed was made when I came over. 😉

    078

    Heeheeheeheehee…

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  • Family

    A Sweet Reunion

    August 30, 2011

    Last weekend, when I told Soph I'd be visiting Bean and Bre, she begged to go along so she could play with Tilly. She missed Bre's kitten like crazy, and even cried when Bre had to take Tilly with her to her new apartment.

    I was afraid that Tilly had possibly outgrown her cuddly-kitten ways, but that wasn't the case.

    Tilly tp 1

    Tilly tp 2

    Tilly's sister, Lux, belongs to Bre's roommate. She has a bit more of a bobcat look to her…

    Tilly tp 3

    Such a gorgeous kitten! Sophie decided to give her some love as well…

    Tilly tp 4

    I can tell them apart by the ear tufts. 🙂

    Tilly tp 5

    Meanwhile, Tilly stared at her reflection in the camera lens…

    Tilly tp 6

    And inevitably, this is what happened:

    Tilly tp 6b

    Back up in Sophie's arms Tilly went…

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    What a sweet baby girl!

    Tilly tp 12

    We sure enjoyed our visit with Tilly and Lux Bean and Bre. 🙂

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  • Junk in the Trunk

    Junk in the Trunk II

    August 23, 2011

    I've never been very good at dropping by the thrift stores to see if there's anything worth overhauling, but when Bre mentioned to me that she wanted a desk for her new apartment, we decided that Good Will was the first place we'd look.

    In case you're wondering why I titled this post "Junk in the Trunk TWO," I actually did one post on re-doing something a long time ago: the hanging basket that I painted black and stuffed with autumn foliage. Remember that? If not, there's a "Junk in the Trunk" category in the sidebar that only has these two posts in it now. 🙂

    Bre spotted this old, beat up desk right away.. the legs aren't really bowed, but at my angle, my camera made it look a bit distorted…

    Tp 1

    Here's a chair we found. It had a dirty chair cushion that went with it, but we left that at the store.

    Tp 2

    Bre and her dad quickly got to work sanding (thank you for your hard work, Big Papa!)…

    Tp 4

    …And then she and I started the painting…

    Tp 5

    We decided to do something a little bit different and paint some wonky diamonds on the top of the desk…but first, it was break time. It was about 90 degrees in our little workspace…

    Tp 7

    Tp 8

    The way it turned out was exactly how I had envisioned it in my mind, but I wasn't happy with it. Bre thought it was odd too, and neither of us could figure out if we should start over or not. She went ahead and added the glass knobs she'd chosen for it, and that instantly added some charm…

    Tp 6

    Finally, we decided to leave it as is until we could see what the "fixins" looked like on it… her one "splurge" item for her desk was the gorgeous lamp…

    Tp 9

    She also found these glass bottles at Good Will, and we chose these silks flowers from Hobby Lobby to go inside them (btw, Bre, it was fun looking at all the different combinations of flowers with you!)…

    Tp 10

    We ended up loving the desk after all was placed on top, and it looks so cute in her apartment room! The chair was painted red, but I forgot to take a picture of the "after" on that one.

    Over all, not bad for $30 and a little elbow grease. And a Big Papa, of course!

    P.S. When I visited Bre this past weekend, I took some pictures of her apartment. I'll post them soon, if you'd like to see them! And if not, then fair warning! 😉

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  • Crazy Kids,  Family,  Travel

    Finale

    August 20, 2011

    I know I'm backtracking, but I thought I'd go ahead and post the last couple of days we spent on our family vacation to California. 🙂

    When I last posted about it, we had been visiting Mike's relatives in Salinas, which is a 7-hour drive from where we had been staying in San Diego…which means we had to drive 7 hours back. I do believe that for most of that drive, it was the worst traffic I've ever seen in my life. Those 7 hours turned into 10 hours, and made Dallas traffic look more like what you'd see in Mayberry. I'm told it's always like that.

    Tp 108

    This was one of the more boring stretches of the trip, with hardly any traffic…

    Tp 109

    I kept myself busy with Dainty Housewren by Carriage House Samplings…

    Tp 110

    …And the girls tried their best to entertain themselves…

    Tp 111

    Tp 112

    I armed myself with this, in case there was any bickering amongst the rival siblings… one must stay awake and energized in these cases, ready to threaten them with the handy green eye-poker that comes with these drinks…

    Tp 113

    We found a lovely neighborhood to stop and stretch our legs…

    Tp 115

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    Tp 114

    With all of the tragedies at Yellowstone this year, I wasn't very happy with Mike being a rule-breaker…

    Tp 117

    Tp 120

    These birds were so graceful, but the way their feet dangled behind them struck me as funny…

    Tp 121

    Tp 129

    Bre…

    Tp 125

    Tp 128

    I love this vest she's wearing. It looked so pretty to me, the way it moved in the breeze…

    Tp 127

    Tp 123

    Here's Mike at the bottom of that hill he was standing on…

    Tp 126

    I was so hoping he'd go for a swim…

    Tp 124

    But instead, he (and Sophie) climbed back up the hill, and away we went, all the way back to San Diego…

    Tp 130

    The next morning we decided to go to the historical Gaslamp Quarter. Here's Bean, waiting for everyone to be finished so we could get moving…

    Tp 131

    Tp 132

    We ate here, after a local gave us rave reviews on it…

    Tp 133

    It's a mafia-themed restaurant, with lots of framed pictures of Al Capone, John Gotti, and others. There was even a Thompson submachine gun hanging on the wall called The Chicago Typewriter, which I thought was really interesting. Apparently, Mr. Capone used it a time or two.

    Best of all, however, were the burgers. The best, hands down! If I ever end up in the trunk of a car, on the way to suddenly "disappearing," I wouldn't mind one of these being my last meal:

    Tp 134

    This is the Yuma Building, one of the first brick buildings in San Diego… Wyatt Earp used to hang out here, and eventually it became a brothel – the first one to be shut down in San Diego in 1912.

    Tp 135

    Just next to the Yuma Building is a hat shop…

    Tp 136

    Tp 137

    I could have stayed much longer in there, as it sort of felt like stepping back in time…

    Tp 138

    Tp 140

    Tp 142

    Tp 141

    Next stop:

    Tp 143

    This is where the San Diego Padres play…

    Tp 144

    Our plane was going to leave in a few short hours, so we decided it was time to go. It was such an enjoyable trip, and we packed as much into it as we could. Which is why the last photo taken was one of 2 of us looking awfully exhausted..

    Tp 145

    Thank you for a fun trip, Big Papa. 😉

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  • Crazy Kids

    Class of 2015

    August 15, 2011

    We got my girl all moved into her dorm today at the university, ready to start her freshman year. Classes don't begin until the 22nd, but some of the kids moved in early so they could attend a Kick-Off Camp this week, which is something Sabrina has been looking forward to all summer.

    Sabrina and I drove in her car, and Mike hauled the rest of the stuff in his. Here's what the back of our car looked like… it wasn't nearly as packed as it was when we took Bre's stuff down, but back then we had it all crammed into one vehicle.

    Tp 1

    I made Sabrina do the driving so she was comfortable with how to get there… here she is, telling me I was being critical of her driving skills bc she is certain she was not tailgating…

    Tp 2

    She was also certain she was not multi-tasking…

    Tp 4

    And yes, she's rockin' a Spider-Man watch…

    Tp 3

    It was cute to hear her say the same thing Bre said when the campus came into view: "Wow, I'm going to be living here!"

    (Btw, about half-way there, we realized she left her camp duffel bag on the kitchen floor, so her dad had to turn around and go back to get it.)

    Here she is after meeting her new roommate, who is a very sweet girl…

    Tp 5

    Right away, they had two things in common: they both love to wear their hair in crazy buns, and they both lose their keys and cell phones constantly.

    Tp 6

    The drive back didn't seem to ruin Mike's day too much…

    Tp 7

    Tp 8

    Tp 9

    When Sabrina felt as if she was losing control of the situation with her dad, she pulled out a sure-fire trick to get him to fall into a spell and settle down:

    The ol' Hook 'Em Horns move.

    Behold:

    Tp 10

    Tp 11

    Tp 12

    Works every time.

    Look at the pillowcase my mom made for Bean.. I love the fabric!

    Tp 13

    Mike did too…

    Tp 15

    Are we going to have to bring out the Horns again?

    Tp 14

    Fine.

    When in Rome…

    Tp 19

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    (I suddenly want to rent Young Frankenstein.)

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    We love you so much, Sabrina. You are smart and intelligent, and I'm so happy that you're happy. Come home soon, even if it's with your laundry basket. And have fun at Kick-Off Camp!

    Tp 24

    P.S. No roommates were harmed in the making of this blog post. She had left the room while we carried on like crazies.

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  • Crazy Kids,  Friends,  Good Things

    Who Says

    August 14, 2011

    Back in the '90's, Bre and Sabrina got to go to their first concert: 'NSync. (That happened to be my first concert too, but that will be our little secret.) And this week, after asking, "Who the heck is 'NSync?" Sophie attended hers too:

    Selena Gomez!

    We went with one of Soph's BFF's (and business partner for The Glitz Girlz) and her mom, and on the way there, the girls took quite a few self-portraits of themselves. Here is one:

    Tp 1a

    And here is another, after reaching the concert venue:

    Tp 1

    They were so excited. That is, until we walked about a mile to the end of the line. It turns out 9,000 other people had the same idea we did about what to do on a Friday night.

    Nevertheless, after standing in line for over an hour, we finally made it into the concert area and headed down to the field…

    Tp 2

    Selena brought a band called The Scene along with her, and all the tweens went wild…

    Tp 3

    It wasn't until an hour-and-a-half later, when Miss Gomez herself appeared, that the REAL screaming began. Behold: the teenager every young girl in America wants to be…

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    …including my own.

    Tp 7

    Tp 6

    A quick change into her boyfriend's (Justin Bieber) favorite color…

    Tp 8

    …and then again, into Sophie's favorite outfit of the night…

    Tp 9

    Tp 10

    Sophie and her BFF kept disappearing into the crowd to wriggle their way toward the front, dancing and jumping and singing like seasoned pros…

    Tp 11

    …and when Selena closed the show with the tween anthem Who Says, they came back to their moms, who were exhausted from watching all the dancing.

    I do believe these two got our money's worth. 😉

    Tp 12 

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  • Crazy Kids

    Middle School

    August 10, 2011

    My Joonie began 6th grade today, and she is very happy to finally be there. She's always been treated like the baby in the house (for some reason), so this has given her a much-needed boost in making others see that she's truly an independent, free-spirited tween.

    Tp 4

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    Besides, would a baby start their own flip-flop business? That's what she and a friend of hers did this summer, calling themselves "The Glitz Girlz."

    Tp 2

    Tp 1

    GG 1 tp

    GG 2 tp

    They sold a few pairs and then retired.

    Maybe her 6th grade sewing class will inspire her to start a new business next summer. Either way, I'm very proud of my baby girl.

    Oops.

    Tp 2

    Okay, I'm very proud of my very mature Sophie.

    Tp 1

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