Original Designs by Paulette Stewart
If you'd like to print these pages out, here are the PDF's for you (keep in mind, however, that the colored background will use a significant amount of ink or toner):
Download Introduction to SMS 1
Download Introduction to SMS 2
Download Introduction to SMS 3
Don't worry – the chart posts will be perfectly printable! See you next week!
How exciting that the Just Cross Stitch Halloween issue is out! And how sad that I haven't seen it in person yet. 🙁
I've received several emails lately from stitchers wanting to know if they should "stitch the pumpkin to the right of the cart." Unfortunately, I'm not sure what pumpkin you mean, but I don't believe there is supposed to be a pumpkin next to the cart… I stitched the model myself, so just use the model photo as a reference! 🙂
Happy early Halloween! 🙂
Our Independence Day was wonderful, crazy, messy fun with sweet family and good friends and great food. Mom called me earlier that week to prepare the menu for our "event," as she calls our cookouts, and Mike spent hours trying to come up with a way to trick us all into playing board games with him after the fireworks were over.
Mom's menu worked. Mike's plans did not. (He did, however, convince a few good sports to play Monkey Ball with him, which is always fun.)
My mom's dearest friend Anne came all the way from Wyoming to spend the holiday with us, my sister Audrey and her family drove all the way from Dallas, and Bre and Josh and Kaia joined us from way out in western Nebraska. The only person missing from the festivities was my brother. We missed you, Paul!
While Anne knows full well what it's like to be at a Kwaak gathering, poor Josh had not yet been introduced to such an experience.
I'm never sure who the bigger ham is, when it comes to Mike and my sister.
And then there's Bre (with her signature mouthful of ice cubes), pretending to be her dad (with his signature Hook 'em Horns sign)…
I think Josh was looking for a quick escape…
Baby Kaia was certainly the star of the evening, and got lots of love and reassuring hugs, since the fireworks had her a bit rattled…
(My beautiful mom.)
(I think my dad was in love.)
Later on, we moved out front to shoot all the fireworks the menfolk had purchased.
And the girls had fun writing things with their sparklers. It takes a lot of practice, and we usually run out of sparklers by the time the writing becomes legible, but here was one of our earlier attempts: Bre was trying to spell "I (heart) Cheese," which you can make out somewhat, if you look really closely. (Cheese is the nickname of her and Josh's favorite band, the String Cheese Incident.)
(I think Bean was missing someone, but I'm not sure who…. I'll let you know, as soon as I find out…)
There's my girl!
Little Natalie, my niece…
I love this picture of my mom and Sabrina chatting…
My darling Bre…
Sophie spent the whole night out in the street with her dad and Pops and Uncle Shaun, shooting one firework off after another, but she did take the time to come over and sparkle a heart for me…
I'll leave you with this last family photo, and with any luck, someone out there will be able to offer up an explanation as to what Sabrina could possibly be doing in it.
Poor Josh. Hopefully our event hasn't scarred scared him away for good.
We finally got the Christmas tree taken down, and if you follow me on Instagram, you may remember all the needles in the carpet I got to clean up. 🙂 Last week Mike loaded up the tree into the back of the car, and the three of us headed to a nearby tree recycling area to say goodbye. It was pitch-black out, even though it was only around 7 pm, so we had to shine the headlights on the pile of discarded trees just to see where we were placing it.
Mike and Sophie decided it would be best to make a huge production of throwing the tree, and they spent a few minutes formulating a huge plan for doing so. I was to be the videographer (with my cell phone), and they would be the Grandest Tree Tossers of All Time.
I'd like to share that major feat with you now, if you can bear to watch. And please know that after viewing this video myself, I've decided to try to come up with a laugh more akin to a chortle than a cackle.
Saying Goodbye to the Tree from Paulette Stewart on Vimeo.
And yes, Mike did actually say that the tree wanted to come back home with us.
ETA: The red item you see in the tree isn't a forgotten ornament, but rather the tag that was on it when we first purchased the tree; I had completely forgotten it was there, and never noticed it during the holidays.
The year is quickly winding to a close, and I'm still reeling from all the Christmas chaos. It was so much fun having all the family together, and I actually wish I could rewind everything and enjoy it all again. But no, I must pack away all the little things that have decorated the house for the season, back to their tissue paper and boxes, down to the basement.
Here's the Colonial-styled centerpiece I put on my dinette table… it smelled delicious, and I loved it! That is, until Sabrina came home and stopped dead in her tracks, horrified that the oranges had attracted that many houseflies. I suppose cloves do look like flies from a distance.
Mike and Sophie set up their Lego Winter Village, and I'm looking forward to them adding more pieces to their collection. I'm not, however, looking forward to them arguing with me when I tell them it's time to move it off the dining room table and put it away…
I love that the little bakery lights up…
This is one of the many candles I accumulated over the month of December… it's by Keepers of the Light, which is one of my favorite candle companies! This particular one is called Butter Maple Toddy… I also got Caramel Apple with Nuts, and Carmelized Creme Brulee from Mom for Christmas. We don't need to discuss all the Yankee candles I purchased this season.
This Santa figure is a reproduction antique candy dish. The top half of the Santa comes off of his hollowed-out legs, where candy would have been stored… I think he's beautiful, with all of his details…
I stitched Bringing Home the Tree by Pineberry Lane last January, then sent it to Jill for framing, and as soon as it returned to me, I wrapped it and put it away until it was time for Christmas decorating. It twas so much fun to do, I'm planning on doing the same thing this year, but with Stacy Nash's Christmas at Hollyberry Farm.
This little battery-operated candle is on a timer, so it comes on for a few hours in the evening and then turns off until the next evening. I love that!
This is a top view of my coffee table… you can see what's in Candy-dish Santa's bag from this angle. 🙂
I have a hundred and thirteen Starbucks ornaments so many more things that need to be put back in their places, but the last thing I'd love to share with you is a precious gift sent to me by an old friend. She stitched this ornament for me, with PSS for Plum Street Samplers, and the year I started designing. I was so touched by her sweet gesture, I'm going to be leaving it out year-round.
It's been a lovely Christmas season, and I'm very much looking forward to the new year! We'll be spending it in Colorado, which I'm really excited about. And that means this is most likely my last blog post of the year. Thank you all so very, very much for all of your comments and emails that you took the time to send to me. It's been so fun getting to know you, and to even meet some of you in person.
I leave you with a family picture, taken on Christmas night, using the camera's timer.We've done this the last few years, and for some reason it always makes me want to laugh… probably bc I'm always the only one that has to scramble as fast as I can back to my place before the shutter clicks.
First, however, I have to show you the outtake, which I absolutely love bc it reminds me of all the commotion our small group can make. It's amazing how loud we can get, but I love it every year.
I hope the joy of Christmas still lingers in your home, and that you have a blessed New Year.
I tried taking the Hooligans' photo recently for Christmas, and my hair still hasn't grown back yet from where I snatched it out.
"Come on, hoolies, let's do this. Sit nice for me and you can have a Wheat Thin."
"Tasha, you need to move forward."
"Tasha, move forward so I can take the picture. You can have a Wheat Thin afterward."
"Tasha that's enough. I'm setting the Wheat Thins behind me. You can have one if you move forward."
"Look at me, Tasha. Not the crackers."
"Tasha!"
"Oh for Pete's Sake. Just have one now."
"Thank you. Now was that so hard?"
The Hooligans hope you're having a lovely Christmas season so far.
I was sorting through some photos on the computer and thought I'd share a few moments from the fall season. With my older girls away from home, sometimes the only way they can catch up with what's going on around here is through my blog, bc there really isn't time in their whirlwind trips back to Omaha to go through all of the pictures I've taken – even if the photos are of them! So I show some here, and the rest I email to them.. if they actually open their email. 😉
On one beautiful, brisk afternoon back in October, we drove out to the pumpkin patch…
My younger girls have never matched their socks, btw. I'm not sure why, but Bre is the only one of the three who can't stand mismatched socks. Sabrina and Sophie think it's the only way to go.
These chili dogs and root beer are a highlight of mine every October!
We decided to go through the corn maze, but when I expressed a concern for getting lost (which happened one year), Sophie said that she'd be the leader by holding up the bag of remaining kettle corn as a spot to focus on. If any of us were to get lost, just look for the bag held high over the corn.
That's when it occurred to me that Sophie's arm should be too short to be seen over the cornstalks, and then it dawned on all of us that the corn had already been cut for the season. Doh.
But she continued to hold it up anyway, as a beacon of hope.
Moving into November… Thanksgiving was completely wonderful, as usual. The only thing missing was the rest of the family: Audrey, Shaun, Natalie, and my brother Paul.
We hauled lots of food over to Mom and Dad's house, but I ended up forgetting the Honeybaked Ham. Not at my house, but at the store. What a disappointment that was! But all was forgiven when I explained that I'd pick one up for Christmas Eve this year. (Thank goodness one doesn't pay for their ham until it's picked up, or I'm not sure the Christmas Eve white flag would have worked on Big Papa.)
Bre picks up my camera once in a while to snap photos, and I love it when she does this bc it's always when I'm not around, and I can see what I missed. I love these moments… In the kitchen commotion of getting all the food wrapped and ready to load into the car, Sabrina cleared a space and painted her nails. Bre took her picture, and even though the focus is a bit soft, I love it anyway… (Bre is going to be mad at me for posting this with the soft focus, bc she really does know how to take an amazing photo!)
One of my favorite things about Thanksgiving this year is that Josh joined us!
Have I mentioned that Josh is a very patient man?
Only once in a while does he break his silence.
I just love these two.
And now we've come to December, and I can't wait to see what the month brings. I love this time of year… all the comings and goings, gift-shopping and wrapping, and mostly family members coming back home.
May this season bring you much joy!
Oh my goodness, you have no idea how giddy Mom and I have been about our annual sampler exchange, and it finally happened yesterday! We were only waiting for the boxes from Jill's studio to arrive, and as soon as they did, my plan was to run every red light bw here and Mom's house in my excitement to swap samplers at last!
As soon as the UPS man rang the doorbell, I knew it was time. I felt like that Target lady from past Black Friday television ads…
With brute strength I snatched the box off the front porch, yanked the phone up to my ear, then dialed Mom's number, informing her in a breathless burst that she needed to immediately stop watching tv and eating petit fours working and open the front door with her Jill-box in hand, bc I'd be there in a single bound or less.
After squealing insanely and having a supersonic conversation that I can no longer remember the words to, I loaded up the package and headed out. When I arrived, I found that Mom had the same wild-eyed look in her eyes that I had, so we decided it was best to begin the exchange posthaste.
I'm laughing in the photo below bc I was trying to scramble back in time before the timer clicked the camera shutter…
Mom had the fun idea to exchange boxes rather than the opened samplers (which we usually wrap in Christmas paper… except for the year I didn't know she was wrapping hers, and mine was just in wrinkly brown kraft paper). Those of you who order from Jill know that unwrapping one of her packages can take a few hours, so when we finally got to the sampler inside, we removed the packing paper without looking at it, and turned it so that it was facing away from us. This way, Mom could see what she had stitched for me before I saw it, and I could see what I'd stitched for her.
(See how much effort goes into this process? It takes a very clean diet and weeks of steady gym workouts to prepare for.)
Then it was time to turn the samplers around, and after a brief, suspensful silence, our reactions were identical:
Gasp.
Gasp again.
Say "OH MY GOSH" in unison.
Cover our mouths with one hand while holding our samplers with the other.
Crawl across the floor and give each other big hugs.
Here's what my wonderful mom stitched for me:
(The verse is amazing!)
Hannah Cummins, 1828
Reproduced by Ellen Chester of With My Needle
Mom said she chose it for me bc she loved the verse on it. I couldn't be more thrilled with it, and it now proudly hangs in my George & Martha Suite! (And is that moulding not absolutely amazing?)
Here is what I stitched for my mom…
I stitched my name and the year in place of what was originally charted, bc this is not a reproduction sampler.
Sarah Spurr
Carriage House Samplings
I chose this sampler for Mom because of the red bird, and because she had mentioned in the past wanting to stitch it for herself. I absolutely loved every stitch of it, and fondly remember working on it with my coffee in the early mornings during the Shepherd's Bush retreat, while Pat from R&R worked on her sampler on the couch next to me. We'd have long chats in the peace and quiet, and I loved watching the sampler slowly come together. I have no idea what linen I used to stitch it (although I suspect it's by Lakeside Linens), and I used my own AVAS conversion because I didn't have the NPI on hand that it called for.
Jill, you did an outstanding job on our framed pieces, as usual, and we can't thank you enough! I think this was our most fun exchange so far, and I'm already looking forward to next year's.
Mom, you are the most perfect mother in the world, and I thank the Lord that you're mine. And not just because I got this amazing sampler.
Merry Christmas!
Wait a minute. Where did July 4th go? Has it been that long?
Our celebration was a bit smaller this year than in years past, but it was just as much fun as it always is. Once again, we went to my parents' house, and there was no shortage of camera hams.
I love this urn on my parent's front porch…
I love her cute 12-year-old hands…
…And her middle school sense of style…
You'd think the child had thrown a grenade…
Sabrina had ideas of her own, until her Pops busted her…
I set the camera up in the grass for this picture, but I have no idea what we were laughing at!
Here's Mike, getting in touch with his inner Harry Potter…
I hope your July fourth celebrations were fun! Bre, we sure missed having you here with us this year. But just think… at least you didn't have to deal with this:
I have a friend who has been getting me into trouble lately, and her initials are Miss Katrina. She's got me hooked on these:
They're Cadbury Mini Eggs, and I've eaten them for breakfast and dessert for the past three days. (What, you don't have dessert after breakfast?) I've never been a big chocolate addict, but for some reason I can't stop eating them.
Katrina, you are a very bad influence, but I think you already knew that.
Which brings me to my next topic: Easter. I found myself humming an old hymn today, called He Lives, and I thought that a few of the lyrics would fit perfectly into a little Easter sampler. Feel free to download this by clicking on the link below, and not the actual image. (Keep in mind that the image colors you see on your monitor are not true to the actual DMC colors used.. they're similar, but not exact.)
If this is something you plan on stitching for Easter, then I so hope you enjoy your time spent with it. But whatever you choose to work on, don't forget to have these by your stitching spot:
ETA: For the lyrics to He Lives and to read a bit about the composer, Alfred Ackley, please visit http://www.popularhymns.com/he_lives.php. And Happy early Easter!