Good Things – Page 3 – Plum Street Samplers

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!)

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!

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…

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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Paulette Stewart 12 Comments
Crazy Kids, Fridays with Bre, Good Things

Fridays with Bre

March 1, 2011

Last week I visited my Breanna, as I've been trying to do every other Friday. The way the poor girl talks, I believe she's always lonely and hungry, so I make my way to the capital city, ready to take care of her sweet starving self.

First stop: Qdoba. I thought her southwestern-style shirt was fitting for a Mexican eatery.

Believe it or not, there was steak underneath all the lettuce and sour cream…

After lunch, we headed back for our second trip to Trader Joe's…

Bre decided to balance out all the chocolate by picking up some Greek yogurt as well…

We ended up with quite a cartfull when we were finished. Bre got all sorts of late-night-munchies, while I took home a few things I was curious about (mostly bc of the very cool packaging)… we'll start with what is obviously the most important purchase of the day:

Oh my, can't you just smell them?? Mmmmmmmm…..

The last can I bought (the Trader Joe's Joe) went to my mother bc it reminded me of Dunkin' Donuts coffee. I like DD coffee once in a while, but not every morning, noon, and night – which is how I like to drink my java. So I went with a different kind this time…

Again, whoever is in charge of designing these cans deserves a raise.

Mom recently made her first trip to Trader Joe's and got me hooked on these:

Delicious!

This stuff was really good too.. we ate it with Tostitos-with-lime chips, which was an interesting combination – and we loved it!

Mike loves orange jellies, so I bought these for him. So far, he's only eaten one and I've eaten about 20 1/2.

Since I'm unfortunately wheat-intolerant, I was happy to stumble across these… but I didn't really care for their crispy-crumbly texture:

But the dogs absolutely love them!

I bought these bc of the pretty Victorian look to them (and that description!), but again – I just didn't like their texture. I love shortbread and I love lemon cookies, but not together, apparently.

I'm not sure what we'll be purchasing on our next TJ trip, but no doubt it will be another cartfull of things we really don't need (besides the coffee). Of course, if my lonely, hungry girl wants it, then I guess it doesn't matter if we need it or not.

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Paulette Stewart 7 Comments
Friends, Good Things

Beginning

February 28, 2011

I went to the funeral of a neighbor and friend on Saturday afternoon. When I stepped out into the gloomy day, I was astounded at what I saw: hundreds of robins in all the trees over his family's house and in several trees surrounding. The birds were all chirping in unison, and the sound was so pleasant that other neighbors were coming out of their houses to look up. I have no idea why they chose to sing in those particular trees, but it's something I'll never forget.

Before leaving for the church, I snapped what photos I could. What beauties these little spring birds are. And may God bless the family whose house they gathered over.

Psalm 147:7-9

"Sing unto the LORD with thanksgiving; sing praise upon the harp unto our God: Who covereth the heaven with clouds, who prepareth rain for the earth, who maketh grass to grow upon the mountains. He giveth the beast his food, and to the young ravens which cry." (KJV)

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I like to change out the image on my desktop every once in a while, and just in case you do too, and you'd like to use one of these spring robins, here are a few semi-hi-res photos for you to use. Simply right-click the photo and choose "Save image as…" You may need to reduce the size, however, to fit your monitor.

Here's a different version of the above photo:

Enjoy your day!

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Paulette Stewart 18 Comments
Good Things, Ramblings

His Number is Up.

February 11, 2011

After several days of gloomy skies, the sun graced us yesterday. Its loveliness was so welcome, I decided to head out to the back yard and enjoy the crunch under my boots and the sparkliness of the snow.

I love it that God gave us evergreens. They're so reliably happy when all other color has faded.

And this guy has kept his color fairly well too…

The sky was a gorgeous blue!

And I wish you could have seen all the glimmer on the snow…

I'm very excited for this mulberry to come back to life. This year, I vow to get to the fruit before the birds do!

As I looked around the winter landscape, imagining birdsong and harpists, I was thankful for ——- wait a sec.

Back up.

Stare.

Still staring, suddenly speechless.

(If there were any crickets around these frozen parts, they'd be chirping.)

The birdsong stopped, the harpists left my head, and cold reality settled over me.

I crunched my way back inside the house, and this guy chose to stay outside enjoying the day's loveliness.

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Paulette Stewart 10 Comments
Crazy Kids, Good Things

Friendly Romance

February 10, 2011

A fun thing happened to Sabrina yesterday…

Sitting down with her friends at their usual lunch table, she noticed that their friend Mikey wasn't there to join them, as he usually does. She assumed he was out for the day, but when her friends seemed unusually giddy – and started whispering to each other – she began to suspect that something was going on, and she was left out of it. After all, she had been sick and out of school for a few days.

Some of the girls sitting at the table excused themselves, saying they'd be back, so Sabrina continued eating her burrito and idly chatting with the few who remained at the table. Suddenly one of the county sheriffs who works at the school showed up at the table and asked, "Which one of you is Sabrina Stewart?" Startled, she answered, "I am." The sheriff then said, "You need to come with me, bc the principal needs to speak with you."

This was a little embarrassing (and confusing) for Sabrina, needless to say, bc any time the cops show up at your table, it's going to garner unwanted attention and whispering. But she followed him out obediently, and he lead her out to the main part of the commons area – which is also the main part of the lunch room…

There, in front of an entire high school cafeteria audience, stood four of her friends – and Mikey. They all unzipped their jackets at the same time, and each of their shirts displayed a different letter of the alphabet:

P – R – O – M – ?

Mikey's shirt had the question mark, and he was holding a lovely flower for Sabrina. I can imagine that she blushed profusely at this point, but she ran to him and accepted the flower and said, "Yes!"

The entire cafeteria erupted in applause, and the sheriffs whipped out their cellphones to record the fun.

Who says romance is dead? 🙂

Btw, I posted a picture of the flower on my focus on today blog.

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Paulette Stewart 20 Comments
Good Things

Trader Joe’s

February 9, 2011

If there are two things I've been curious about, the are: What in the world is this IKEA that everyone seems to love, and why is everyone so excited that a Trader Joe's has come to Omaha?

I'm still not certain about the IKEA thing (although I do believe it is a home goods/decorating store?), but when I visited Bre in Lincoln last, we decided to visit the Trader Joe's there, since we were both so darned curious about it.

Since visiting this most happy place (the employees were so friendly!), full of food samples and coffee canisters and organic goodness – and chocolate! They literally cover everything in chocolate! – I now know why it's not uncommon to see people all over the city carrying around their Trader Joe's tote bags. Bre and I had a lot of fun, and when I told her, "I'm going to take a picture of all these crazy chocolate things!" she didn't even balk. Well, okay, she balked a little, reminding me that I'd look like a freak, but I told her, "Who cares!? Look at all these crazy chocolate things!" So I pulled my camera out of my bag, got it in focus, and… CRUD-IT (as my niece, Natalie, would say)… I had left my memory card at home in Omaha.

We filled our shopping cart with a variety of completely senseless-but-cool things (we blame it on the caramelized butter toffee walnuts we'd just sampled), and headed to the checkout.

Here are some of the fun things we brought home… I'll post the best thing first.

It's no understatement to say I was very excited in the coffee bean aisle. I've always been a sucker for good packaging, so even if this can said "Our beans are harvested from the finest dunghills in America!" I would have brought it home with me.

Here's the back of the can, which I thought was exceptionally artistic:

Btw, if you like Dunkin' Donuts coffee, then you may like this. It had sort of a nutty flavor to it (and for those Austin Powers fans out there, I don't want to hear any "It's a bit nutty!" comments out of you. You know the part I mean.).

Here are a few of the chocolate-covered things we decided to try… first up are these "Powerberries," which Bre claims have made her the skinny fitness freak that she is:

If you follow me on Twitter, you may remember that I consumed almost the entire bag of these things recently, and never transformed into a skinny fitness freak. I did, however, gain quite a stomach ache.

(Btw, I would have said "If you've read my tweets lately," but Mom can't stand that word. Tweet. For some reason, it just rubs her the wrong way. Tweet. I guess we all have words we don't like the sound of, but hers is tweet. Tweet.)

We LOVE edamame in our house (okay, we'll call it what it is: soybeans), so who tweet wouldn't love it covered in rich, dark chocolate?

Me, that's who. I'm giving these to Bre when she tweet comes home. But I'm not so sure I'm giving up the espresso beans, cuz they make me stitch reallyreallyreally fast.

I can't wait to go back to TJ's to try some more things tweet. There were some lemon cookies I wanted so badly bc they were in the most luscious yellow Victorian packaging, and of course there were more fabulous coffee canisters to be had.

If an IKEA ever opens up here in Omaha, I'll make sure to remember my memory card so I won't have another CRUD-IT moment. And I'll also put it on my Twitter, so my mom knows about it. 😉

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Paulette Stewart 16 Comments
Crazy Kids, Good Things

Canvas People

January 25, 2011

I've always wanted some canvas prints of the girls for over my fireplace, but I couldn't decide where to have them done. Since it would be my first "photographic creation," I didn't want to spend a lot of money on something that I wasn't entirely sure would turn out well.

Then I stumbled on Canvas People. And they were having a sale. 🙂 I took a chance, and I'm thrilled that I did!

If you ever want a canvas made, I highly recommend this company. (Right now they're having a Valentine's Day sale.) My only suggestion – before you start creating your canvas – is that you use an uncropped photo, bc when they wrap the print around the frame, you'll lose the outside part of your image. However, they do show you a preview ahead of time so that you can approve your choice or discard it and start over. 🙂 The site is extremely easy to use, and they even offer different photo effects, if that's something you want done.

I had one made of Breanna too, but I'm going to make her pose with hers as soon as she comes home again. 😉

You can run, Bre, but you can't hide. If you want a homecooked meal, you will pose.

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Paulette Stewart 13 Comments
Family, Good Things

See You Soon!

January 7, 2011

I'll be heading out of town for about a week, so I won't be posting until after I return. I sure will miss you all! Before I leave, here' a cell phone photo Sabrina took when we were celebrating my birthday at Olive Garden. (Mike always treats the birthday-person to a birthday dinner of their choice. I couldn't decide where I wanted to go, but when Sophie reminded me of Olive Garden's Celebration Cake, I knew that was the place. It's my very favorite dessert!)

Oh wait! Don't leave just yet! Among other lovely birthday treasures, I also got a couple of gift cards to a local camera shop. Mike got me one, and Sabrina got me the other.

Here is Mike's:

Sabrina, being annoyed that she was issued a Christmas gift card to give as a birthday present, decided to make the best of it…

I hope you all have a fantastic week, and I'll see you soon! In the meantime, go get yourself a Celebration Cake! Next to the buttercream frosting, the $6.95 price tag for the entire cake is the best thing!

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Paulette Stewart 14 Comments
Good Things, Holidays, Home

I Resolve To…

January 3, 2011

I have really looked forward to 2011, bc I've been feeling completely overwhelmed with inspiration and lots of creative energy. One wouldn't know this, judging from the state of my house, but 'tis true: I am feeling fabulous!

Earlier today I tweeted that I want to experience the feeling of actually finishing something I started. So I gathered together all the lists I made (don't you just love lists?) on New Year's Eve and decided that if I read them enough throughout the year, surely everything on them will happen. 🙂

1. I will learn to knit dishrags.

Yes, dishrags. I love them. And after that, I shall knit baby hats. I want a whole collection of baby hats, and no one can talk me out of it.

2. I want to be nicer to the Yorkie.

I've been working on that lately, but no one around here seems to appreciate it. I heard Mike recently tell Sophie, "Don't tell Mom that there's pee on the carpet. It's better for everyone that way." So I got to thinking that maybe I shouldn't behave like Genghis Khan on crack every time it happens. Instead, I decided to sweet-talk her throughout the day, which prompted Sabrina to tell me that it's ridiculous when I talk to her like a baby. Go figure.

3. I will finish 3 of my cross stitch projects.

I came to the number 3 bc I have 6 total unfinished projects. I cut that number in half, bc if you could see the size of the things I have to finish… well, let's just say they're not ornaments.

Here's one of them… Frances Eden. It was started by my dear friend Kim before she passed it on to me, and I worked on it only a little. I'm very excited to see this finished!

The second one is Ruth Bacheler. I started this with Samplermaker-Extraordinaire-Margaret, but we both grew sidetracked with other projects, and it never got finished. I find these colors to be extremely relaxing, and it's one of my favorite projects I have going.

Finally, there is Dutch Beauty. I've completed 13 of 21 pages so far, and desperately want this hanging over the back of the couch in my family room!

Did you know that the Yorkie and the Chen are stitched on it?

Oh, and look. The Yorkie is doing what she does best…

I still can't quite figure out why the original stitcher included that naughty dog in her masterpiece, unless she wanted to give her mother fits.

I do have a few other things on my list of resolutions, but none with accompanying pictures. For example, I'd love to live a healthier lifestyle; this is not defined by one thing like "I'd like to lose weight" or "I will go to the gym every day," but rather just learning to do what I can and be happy with that for the day. I learned some time last year to stop picking fights with myself over what I did or didn't get accomplished, bc it would leave me feeling very dissatisfied at the end of the day. And who wants to wake up the next morning with leftover dissatisfactions? It leads to an awful lot of negative thinking, and that's something that definitely prohibits creative energy!

One last thing I'm doing this year.. a 365-day blog. In case you've never heard of one, it's a way for people to document a year, one photo per day for each of the 365 days. If you enjoy taking photos, join in! Here's where my pictures will be posted: focus on today.

Thank you for always taking the time to visit me. I hope this new year brings you all the joys that you deserve!

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BEFORE YOU LEAVE…

1. Heike, I've been trying to email you, but my emails keep getting bounced back to me! I'm not sure why this is happenening, so do you have an alternate email address I can send to?

2. Constantina, I still have your Christmas issue of Just Cross Stitch to send to you! I've tried emailing you, but the address doesn't appear to be valid. Can you email me your mailing address? I'd love for you to have your magazine – at least by next Christmas! 🙂

3. I want a huge collection of baby hats despite the fact that I am not pregnant, nor plan to be. Just in case you were wondering.

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Paulette Stewart 23 Comments
Family, Good Things, Holidays

Santa Baby

December 29, 2010

Would you believe I'm still trying to clean up the house from all the Christmas spirit? It was a wonderfully happy time we all had, despite having to accomodate Sabrina's work schedule (she had to work both Christmas Eve and Christmas day!).

In years past, Mike has always surprised me with the most wonderful gifts. And this year was no different… not only did he get me the new camera I've been pining for (the Canon 7D), but I just have to show you these adorable Betsy Johnson earrings he got for me!

I've been wearing them constantly. 🙂

I got Mike an iPad, which has worked out very well for me: if he says he wants dinner, I just tell him there's an app for that.

Same with the laundry.

I truly hope your Christmas, no matter how it was spent, was a joyous occasion. We celebrated Christmas with my family, and we learned to adjust to new traditions as we celebrated in our hearts with Mike's.

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Paulette Stewart 13 Comments