If you need a laugh....

just please, pardon the ape...

A Snowy Sunday

The weather outside is telling me it needs to be a lovely, lazy and  "stitchy" sort of day.

 

 

The furry folk are wearing a dusting of snow...

 

 

and

 our

 feathered folk friends

are in sort of  a feeding frenzy today...

 

 

 The birds had pretty good manners this snowy morning...

they waited their turn

and

didn't seem to mind sharing,

for the most part...

 

all

 but

the big red boy...

 

 he's spent his morning chasing off other big red boys...

he is territorial

and this is

 HIS

 buffet! 

 

 As you can see,

our ground is pretty barren,

an unusual site for mid January...

so the morning's dusting was somewhat welcome.

 

Can you spot the fat bunny?

 

 This boy comes out at night

 to feed on dropped bird seed.

   He just minds his own business,

quietly eating in solitude under the moonlight. 

He then can be seen for a short while

 in the early morning hours

 and

 then he disappears for the rest of the day.     

Isn't he nicely camouflaged

with this morning's

 snowy surroundings?

 

 

He looks well fed,

doesn't he?

 This morning I caught him do a little pruning nibbling on my Viburnum bush. 

{sigh} 

I'm okay with a little pruning,

 just hoping he doesn't get too carried away!

 

I hope you all are enjoying a relaxing Sunday afternoon. 

 The dh treated me to a late morning breakfast

 of

 griddle cakes and oven-baked Apple smoked bacon.

  Pot roast and veggies for an early dinner is the plan...

 I'm set to stitch the day away.

 

Have a good week everyone,

Brenda

NEW Floss Keeps!

There are a couple NEW additions

 to the floss keep line!

  Of course,

we couldn't resist

 offering the

 new Valentine Sampler in a floss keep,

for your stitching pleasure...

 Isn't it sweet? 

Perfect little Valentines gift for that someone special!

And lastly,

ABC Sampler Floss Keep is the other new addition... 

The Floss Keep inventory

 has been replenished

 once again,

take a peek here to see them all.

 

Have a good evening,

Brenda

Coming Tomorrow!

Printing, collating & packaging has begun!

 

Now that the chocolates are gone,

it's time to tempt your needle

with the new

"Valentine Sampler" pattern...

 with it's 6 sweet, quick-stitch projects!

  Chart includes patterns

 for a

 needle/scissor roll,

 pinkeep,

 spool thread winders,

scissor fob,

 thimble box

 and a

 sewing box.

 

X X X X X

 

With thy Needle & Thread,

Brenda

Elizabeth Clark, 1822

My New Year's Day start,

meet

Elizabeth Clark, 1822.

 

This is an antique reproduction

 that is currently in my hoop,

and

 I'm having a hard time putting her down...

 

The original is from my personal collection

 and

 is heavily faded.

I love faded samplers.  

I'm always intrigued

 with how beautiful

 a faded sampler

 can still look...

 

 When Elizabeth Clark arrived,

she was glued to a piece of wood.

  Over time,

 the glue had hardened,

 and the sampler

 pulled away from the board

 with ease...shew!

  I turned it over,

 and to see the sampler

 in her un-faded state

 made me gasp...

she is beautiful!

 

Sharing snippets

 of some of my favorite motifs...

 

Look real hard,

and you'll find a sweet little man

in the corner.

 

 

a large grape vine

stitched in a somewhat quirky fashion...

&

a lovely brick house

{sigh}

 

X X X X X

 

And here's where

 I am,

stitching row upon row of

 tiny clay bricks...

 

 

 

The verse on the sampler reads,

"with humble heart and tongue

my god to thee I pray

o make me learn whilst I am young

how I may cleanse my way" 

 

The sampler originates from Everthorp, England

 and may have been

 Elizabeth's second piece she stitched. 

  From my readings,

 most girls often stitched two samplers. 

 The first being more simplistic,

with the alphabet and a few motifs.

  These samplers

often times

 did not get displayed in the homes. 

 

 Their second sampler

 was much more

 detailed and elaborate.

  It was this sampler that was often hung

 by the parents

 in the parlor to enjoy.

 This sampler

 was somewhat of  a status symbol...

  one must remember,

that this was the only formal education

 these young girls had,

 at about a cost of $2.00 a day.

 

 

A Sneak Peek...

at the upcoming

 new pattern release,

            "Valentine Sampler".    

 

Pictured is the "Thimble Box" project from the chart. 

The pattern will include patterns

 for

 6 sweet, love-themed cross stitch projects

 that just hint

Valentines

 and are suitable

 for keeping out year-round.

   All for the price of $12.00.

   One payment,

 6 patterns in one,

 and no club to join...

so everyone

can take in the fun

 of re-purposing their spent

 Valentines

candy boxes. 

  Are your chocolates gone yet?

 

My story....

After purchasing

 my two boxes of  Russell Stover's

 heart sampler chocolates,

I broke into the small heart box first...

just because it was so small,

 and so cute...

just 3 pieces of candy. 

 

  Inside was a milk chocolate caramel (love these),

 a coconut haystack (love those, too),

 and some other creme-filled candy

 that I'm not too fond of.   

 I opted for the coconut haystack first,

 saving the caramel

 for the next morning

 to have with  my morning coffee.....mmmmmm.  

That takes a lot of discipline,

 you know...

saving a piece of candy

 until the next day.

 

  Woke up,

 filled my coffee cup up,

 and off to find my little box of chocolates,

 specifically thee caramel...

no caramel.  

 Thee caramel is gone!

 So thoughtful of him

 to leave me the creme-filled candy... 

I think I might have said a naughty word... 

 The dh beat me to my caramel,

how dare him!  

  Now,

 dh usually stands for "dear husband",

 but,

 when he starts messing with my caramels,

 I'm thinking

 the d

in dh

could stand for something else........

you can be the judge!

 

Have a good weekend,

Brenda

 

A New Find!

I imagine there are a few of you,

 like myself,

 where your local Wal-Mart

 is your only source for craft supplies,

specifically craft paint.

  I've used their little bottles of craft paint

for years,

 and have problems

 with my paint drying out,

and

 locating just the right color.

    I don't feel like the craft paint companies

 have done their best

to kept up on color trends...JMHO.

 

   So,

 I wandered down the house paint isle,

 while perusing my local Wal-Mart,

 and

 found these...

Cute little paint tester jars in gobs of colors. 

 Even varying shades of within a color! 

My paint dilemma

 has been resolved!

And,

 you know what is my favorite part of these little 2 oz. jars?

Looky!  

A paint brush is even included! 

 No paint brushes to wash,

 how nifty is that?!!

Now,

 I know you aren't going to be able to paint much detail

 with this size of brush,

 but

 for large surface background painting,

the brush is ideal.

 

As you can see,

 I am readying my heart-shaped boxes

 for the upcoming

 "Valentine Sampler"

cross stitch chart. 

 After buying an ivory, red and brown paint,

 I've decided upon the Ground Nutmeg Brown (#WGN32) paint,

making the boxes look like a milk chocolate heart. 

If you would like to step outside of the box,

and paint your boxes a different color,

paint colors Cranberry Zing (#WGR32) or Whispering Wheat (#WGN30) also match the floss selections very nicely.

 

 

Wishing you all a fun-filled winter weekend,

Brenda

 

It's that time of year again!

 

Time to wander down the candy isle!

This year

 I'm even going to give you reason

to treat yourself

 to

two boxes

 of chocolates!

 

Hurry up,

 and

 sink your teeth into

 the chocolates,

cause we are going

 to be re-purposing

 the

heart-shaped boxes

 into

 cute little sewing/ditty boxes,

with

 cross stitched

embellishments!

 

This year you will need the 4.75 oz. Red Foil Heart

and

the teeny little 1.75 oz Photo Heart

 

Valentines candies

are now showing up

 in the candy aisles,

 check your local retailer!

 

  If not available for you locally,

you can purchase directly

 from

 Russel Stover. 

 

Click on red hyper-links above,

 to take you directly

 to the correct heart-shaped boxes. 

It is very important that you use the correct sized

hearts, to fit the cross stitched work.

 

For those of you who didn't partake

 in this annual

 Valentines event,

here is last years chart...

 

 

With thy Needle & Thread,

Brenda