• Class Pieces,  Friends,  Retreats

    A Workshop in the Mountains

    July 2, 2013

    Knock-knock.

    Who's there?

    Paulette.

    Paulette who?

    Exactly.

    I've been MIA for so long, I almost forgot how to sign into my blog. But there has been a very good reason for this… since returning from Colorado, I've had this insatiable desire to overhaul my entire house! New paint in every room, new blinds on every window, a new stitching chair in every room (okay, just one room), and new carpeting everywhere, which will arrive in a couple of weeks. I'm not sure if this mission I was on was due to the fresh mountain air or simply from being with friends who give me lots of positive energy, but whatever it was, I'll take it.

    And I must say, Colorado was wonderful! What a beautiful place to present a workshop, and the Sampler Guild of the Rockies' ladies couldn't have been more welcoming. I enjoyed every moment I was able to spend with them! The room was full of not only everyone's stitching belongings, but a large boutique area (I couldn't fit that into the photo) where I did plenty of shopping. 🙂

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    It was the Guild's 20th anniversary, and since the theme was Crowns and Jubilee, I presented a reproduction of the first antique sampler I've ever purchased, called 1837 Crowns Sampler. Here is the original:

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    The smalls I designed were based on the sampler, and I called them A Crowning Effort.

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    Judy Yunt and Katrina Devine did the most amazing job putting this workshop day together for the ladies, and I can't thank them enough for the honor of being invited to attend. The decorations were beautiful (which included fresh flowers in beautiful blue Mason jars at every table!), the gifts given to every single attendee were outstanding (stitched scissors fobs – 65 of them, front and back stitched! – black Kelmscott Storklette scissors, and beautiful beeswax crowns), and the door prizes were absolutely fantastic (Lady's Trimkeeps and stitching wallets – again, stitched by the sweetest, most generous ladies – sampler charts, and so much more!). And the food! Absolutely delicious, and I think every single person there needed one recipe or another.

    It was sad for the day to end, but I left knowing I'd made many new stitching friends. 🙂

    After the workshop was over, I stayed a few extra days at Katrina's house, along with good friends Natalia and Karin (and we got to visit Jen's house for a stitching day as well!). We had such a fun time chatting endlessly, eating everything Katrina cooked (because everything she made was amazing), and "shopping" in her stash room, which holds more kitted samplers and Natalia's stitching wallets than you can imagine.

    And did I mention that everything was organized by designer, and then alphabetically?

    I'm not even kidding.

    We also spent a day going shopping and walking around Garden of the Gods. It was such an awe-inspiring place, with the way the rocks had formed there…

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    This particular rock formation is called the Kissing Camels…

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    Hi Natalia and Karin!

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    And of course, for Instagram:

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    By the way, Katrina's house is lovely, and I'm quite envious of the view from her kitchen window in the mornings:

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    And these are her little princesses:

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    But there's one little princess that will be even more spoiled than these two, and her Grandpa can vouch for that:

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    Thank you for having me as your guest, Katrina! It was a perfect mini vacation, at least for me. 😉

    And by the way, for those of you on Instagram, you can follow Katrina as she works on her Crowns Sampler, and see the color changes she's made. It's coming along beautifully, and if I were to stitch this sampler again, I'd go with her conversion!

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    (The 1837 Crowns Sampler chart will be available at the upcoming needlework market in St. Charles.)

    I suppose I'll sign off of here and get back to my stitching a bit before I go to bed. I'm almost finished with a project I got from Katrina's stash room, which I'll show you in another post. That is, if I remember how to sign back into my blog again. 😉

    I'll see you soon!

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  • Friends,  Stitching

    The Primitive Hare

    January 29, 2013

    By now, I'm sure most of you have heard of this wonderful Italian designer and her fabulous style of needlework patterns. I adore her! When I was at the Shepherd's Bush retreat this past October, I picked up my first chart from her collection, and soon afterward she surprised me with an email, telling me of a design of mine she had completed…

    Fromisabella

    I've decided I'm going to try to talk her into designing all my covers. heehee

    Check out Isabella's gorgeous blog and all of her patterns, if you haven't already!

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  • Family,  Friends,  Sports

    Warrior Dash!

    June 12, 2012

    This past weekend, Mike and his buddy Jeff ran together in Omaha's Warrior Dash. The day was extremely windy and hot, leaving me to wonder how those who survived the Dust Bowl did it with their sanity intact. But nothing would deter these two – and 20,000 others – from embarking on this much-anticipated race.

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    Here we go!

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    Here they are, in line for a drink of water before heading to the start line…

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    Minutes after wishing them luck and watching them disappear into the crowd of contestants, they returned and told us that despite the fright it may cause, the heat had forced them to come to this critical decision: they needed to run shirtless.

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    You go, boys.

    The race was supposed to take around an hour or so to complete, and involved 1.5 miles of running up and down steep hills, and then leading into another 2 miles of challenging obstacles, including climbing 15' walls, swimming through a lake, hurdling fire pits, and wading waste-high through thick mud. Just to name a few.

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    Once they took off, Soph and I desperately sought a shady place to sit, but there was none to be found. With dirt in our teeth, grit on our faces, and hot sun on our necks, we roamed the grounds, hoping the boys could break all records and complete the race in about 6 minutes tops. 

    Eventually, we found a place to purchase some lunch, and discovered that there was a shady place to have a picnic after all…

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    This was the view from where we lunched:

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    And these were my once-white tennis shoes:

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    After eating, we decided to head over to where the finish line was, hoping to catch Mike and Jeff cross in. We were there about 2 minutes before they came into view. (Thank goodness we got there when we did; it only took them about 44 minutes to complete the race!)

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    Soph wouldn't pose with her dad until he promised not to touch her…

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    After receiving their medals, they headed over to the Warrior Wash, which was an area where a truck stood, rigged with a huge water hose. Everyone massed together to be hosed off, and I imagine Mike probably did his best Charlton Heston imitation (in Planet of the Apes) when it happened. Just sayin'.

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    This was where one could leave their shoes if they didn't want to wear them back home…

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    But of course, the boys decided to keep their shoes on. And their wives had no idea why.

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    Btw, the above photo was taken after their shower.

    Here they are with their race shirts back on, celebrating their victory over the course…

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    Jeff decided to check if the medals were real gold, and Mike just wanted to bite something.

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    Then, in true warrior fashion, they started chewing on their turkey legs…

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    And in true juvenile fashion, they started sparring with them…

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    They thought it would be good to show off their sponsor's tee shirts…

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    And since their sponsor was a martial arts school, they started making those "hy-YAH" noises and kicking the air…

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    Once they calmed down, we headed for home. And all the while, Mike insisted I would love running the race with him next year. But I'll leave that to these two hooligans.

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    Next goal: The Tough Mudder 2013!

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  • Friends,  Stitching,  Travel

    Myrtle Beach

    October 24, 2011

    What a nice time I had at the Pals Convention this past week! Although I'm happy to be home, I truly miss each person I met there, and came away with new friendships and aching sides from laughing so hard.

    Shortly after arriving, I met up with Tanya Brockmeyer from The Scarlett House and we headed straight down to the beach…

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    We stood in the ocean until the jellyfish started washing up, so we decided it would be better to chat further up on the sand. ;)  (Besides, Tanya was better able to photograph cute surfer boys that way.)

    Would you believe I barely got any pictures while I was at the retreat? I had decided ahead of time that I wasn't going to barge up to people and ask them if I could take their photos, so I only took a few random shots and some of the grab bags. Now I wish I'd imposed myself on people, bc I'm bummed that I don't have fun photos!

    Here's one though. This is Amy of Down Sunshine Lane – the founder of the Pals Convention. 🙂

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    I do have a "real" photo of her, but it was taken on my iPad. Hi, Amy!

    This is her husband and right-hand-man, Ray, trying to get a group photo…

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    Hi, Ray!

    The days were spent stitching and chatting and eating and shopping, but the highlight of the week was the annual Grab Bag Exchange. Each person brought a container filled with stitching goodies, and they were lined up on a table. Then everyone received a ticket…

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    When your ticket number wascalled, you could either approach the table and choose whichever container you fancied (the objects inside were a mystery), or "steal" a container that someone else had taken. Once the last container had been received, everyone opened their grab bags at the same time, finding out what was inside and who brought it. It was such a fun event, and I still laugh when I think about Fiona-from-Scotland whispering to me, "She's a baracoota, that one!" when one of the attendees started scanning the tables for something to steal.

    This is Fiona, trolling the room, looking for the container she most desired…

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    Here are some of the grab bags that were on display…

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    This one got stolen the most… Amy made the bag, and it was gorgeous!

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    There were 3 ornament exchanges: fall, Halloween, and Christmas. Here are the ladies, checking out all the Christmas ornaments on display before getting to exchange them.

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    If you've never been to a stitching retreat like Pals, I highly suggest you give one a try! What a great way to meet new stitching friends and get really motivated to finish up the projects you've started. I'm so happy I went!

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    I leave you with a shot of Miss (The) Scarlett House herself, taking a photo of me; I'm sure, though, that there must have been some surfer dudes in the background. 😉

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    If any of you who were at the retreat are reading this, I sure enjoyed meeting you all!

    *************************************************************************************

    Carol: We will go snorkel-drowning together one day.

    Toni: Niiiice.

    Amy: Mike says it's perfectly fine if you have a crush on him, as long as Ray doesn't mind.

    Chris: Sure wish I had a stocking ornament. I wonder if anyone will make one for me?

    Fiona: I have one Scottish product left, and I'm thinking of saving it to remind me of you. teehee.

    Ray: I think you need to give those collard greens a chance.

    Susan: You buy all the fabric you want – I won't tell a soul.

    Lorrie: I still want your hair color.

    Karen: Where WERE you sitting on that flight?

    Faye: Now that's a calling card! You sneaky thing, you… 😉

    Diane: Mike says he does those all the time. ???

    Michelle: That pink feather just cracks me up!

    Nicole: You should have been the one stitching Angry Bird. It would have been done in about 2 hours, no doubt.

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  • Friends,  Home

    Siobhan is Pining for My Plums.

    October 9, 2011

    I'm sorry, this post has absolutely nothing to do with that title, but after reading Siobhan's blog, I was kind of bummed that she didn't go with the original title she came up with for her post, so I decided that someone had to use it. So there it is.

    Kind of looks bad up there, now that I think about it.

    Anyway, if you haven't read Siobhan's blog before, you should head on over with a cup of coffee and look around. And keep a credit card next to your mouse, bc you're going to need it after seeing all of her stitching posts.

    But before you go over there, I'd love to share with you some pictures of Sophie's bathroom! (I know, who cares about stitching when you can look at bathroom photos!)

    When Sabrina left for college this year, Sophie decided it was time for her to move in to Sabrina's bathroom and claim it as her own. She carefully cleaned out drawers and cabinets, and then placed all of her own cosmetics and cotton balls lovingly inside the newly-emptied spaces. Then she asked to be taken to Wal-Mart to choose a new color scheme, and since she's the baby, I dropped everything I was doing and took her there.

    Since I wasn't going to be painting the bathroom, she chose bright colors to go with the aqua color that was already in there. I love how it turned out!

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    I stitched this little Bent Creek design for her when she was a toddler…

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    She insisted that the handsoap match the decor…

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    …and I surprised her with a little iHome iPod dock that plays all the Selena Gomez tracks a girl could want… and trust me when I say that Sophie takes singing in the shower to a new level..

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    This is my favorite part of her bathroom… she used to love taking baths in the kitchen sink.

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    And that's it!

    Okay, you can go look at Siobhan's stitching now. And before I forget – you'll not only need your credit card handy, but you may need a bottle of Clearasil too. Just sayin'…

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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:

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    And here is another, after reaching the concert venue:

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    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…

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

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    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.

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

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

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

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    …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. 😉

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  • Crazy Kids,  Family,  Friends

    Ladder Ball and Other Nonsense

    May 4, 2011

    This past weekend we had a cookout, and Bre brought her friend Adam (who had just gotten himself a mohawk for an '80's-themed party). After our burgers and sides and Sophie's Incredible Orange Edible, Mike decided everyone would enjoy a game of Ladder Ball (also called Monkey Ball), so outside we went…

    Here's Adam, looking fierce, focused, and ready to dominate:

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    But he'd better watch out for Soph, who has her dad as her partner…

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    During warmups, Bre whacked herself in the top of the head…

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    And while she recovered, Mike got ready for his big move…

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    There he goes!

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    Bre's up…

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    An excited spectator…

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    And an excited player…

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    When the game was over, the winners congratulated each other…

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    …Although Mike took the lion's share of the congratulatory cheers…

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    When Mike and his lowly teammate started to do their victory dance again, Bre decided she would rather pretend she was on their team the whole time…

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    …Than admit to losing.

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    Sabrina had to leave for work before the games began, so she and her dad went at it the next day…

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    And if you thought MIKE was bad when it came to winning, you ain't seen nothin' yet.

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    Adam, if you never come back to the Stewart House, I will understand.

     

     

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  • Friends,  Stitching

    Retreat!

    April 12, 2011

    Saturday I had the pleasure of attending the annual stitchers retreat hosted by the lovely ladies of Reflections Framing and Cross Stitch. What fun it was to meet so many new friends and to enjoy time with this group of ladies who genuinely love all things cross stitch. The venue was wonderful and the food was fantastic – and I even won a gorgeous eggplant-colored Namaste clutch as a door prize! Who knew walking through the door would be this much fun! 😉

    Here is one of the lovely Reflections ladies, Julie, working on a sampler by Sampler Cove… her stitching is superb, and her eyes are very blue. Those two things don't really go together, but I just had to mention her blue eyes. 🙂

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    Here is something that Patty was working on… it's the entire alphabet by Prairie Schooler, all on one 40-ct piece of linen. This is the bottom half.. the top is folded under. To die for, Patty! Seriously!

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    Praire Schooler has the coolest designs, don't you think? Here are some close-ups of Patty's masterpiece…

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    I think the fox is my favorite!

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    And another stunning sampler, this time from The Sampler Company, tent stitched over one thread by Merry…

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    It's just gorgeous, Merry! Merry has a twin, btw, named Merrilyn. I really hope I gave the correct sister credit regarding this sampler! 🙂

    Sweet Sandy and her mom Jane (who offered to teach me how to knit) gave me these dish cloths, since I love love love them and can't can't can't make my own…

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    There is actually another one in the bunch, but it's currently draped on my kitchen sink, drying out. Once you go knit, you never go back, btw. Thank you SO MUCH, Sandy and Jane!

    I designed an exclusive pattern for the retreat to go with the weekend's theme, which was A Stitcher's Recipe for Friendship. Julie stitched it up and her husband created the gorgeous pedestal for its finish, and I can't get over what a fantastic job they both did!

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    Each lady attending the retreat received the pattern kit, as well as a pedestal and all the materials needed to finish it. Here is the darling box the kit came in, courtesy of Julie (who spent many long hours getting these to look just right)…

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    Before I left that day, I had the honor of being asked to draw the winning ticket for the raffle of a pair of plaid Sajou scissors worth $100. (I could barely draw the ticket for all the drooling I was doing over them!) A special lady (and first-time retreater) by the name of Abbie won them, and I'm so happy she did: earlier in the day, she had quietly asked for each attendee's mailing address bc she wanted to mail each person a custom beaded scissors fob as a token of friendship. Congratulations, Abbie, on a prize well-deserved!

    I truly hope you'll be able to join next year's retreat. Maryann (and Maryann's significant other), Connie, and Julie are the most gracious and energetic hostesses you'll ever meet. Thank you so much, ladies, for a wonderful day of stitching (stop laughing, Julie – I got at least a dozen x's in!), food, and lots of new friendships!

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  • Friends,  Good Things

    Nothing In Particular Day

    March 22, 2011

    I got the most wonderful package in the mail last week, from my dear friend Chris. Once in a while Chris will send something along that is completely unexpected, and this particular something was accompanied by a note that said "Happy Nothing-in-Particular Day!" (Btw, Chris is the most fabulous gift-wrapper, and tends to details that I would never even think of; while I'm spending time looking for a stick-on bow in the party aisle at Target, she's perusing the much-more interesting Aisles of Chris's Imagination.) (And is it "Chris's" or "Chris' "? Either way, she's got the imagination!)

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    For some reason, I'm one of those people who thinks if I open a package carefully enough, I may be able to re-use the wrapping on another gift some time. It's not out of a desire to be frugal, but rather bc I hate to see beautiful wrapping go to waste. However, I'm never careful enough, and once I hear that tiny accidental rip, the game is over and I tear into it like my mother on Christmas morning.

    Here's what was inside! What a sweet Nothing-In-Particular Day surprise!

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    Isn't that the most adorable tiny coffee mug? She made it into a pincushion with the sweetest pins from Just Another Button Company. I love love love it!

    And take a look at this…

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    I was completely blown away by this sweet gesture. I just sat and stared at it, thinking that in a million years I never would have expected that someone would actually stitch one of my designs, personalize it, and give it to me as a gift! It was the most thoughtful, wonderful gift to receive.

    Thank you so much, Chris! They are happily displayed in my home, and whenever I see them I'm reminded of your friendship and how you can turn a nothing-in-particular day into a very special one.

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