10.15.2009

2 bags later...

Yeppers...
after 2 bags of Haribo Gold bears,
(I call these gummi bears)
& a few cups of coffee
(okay, maybe more then a few)
the pattern instructions for
the 3 new Christmas ornament
cross stitch patterns
are written
& proofed....
yipppeeeee!!!!

As for the gummi bears...
if I don't stop
doing this,
my belly
is going to shake
like a bowlful of jelly...
just like Santa's!!!
Oh dear...

Friday we will begin printing,
collating & packaging the new patterns.
Monday we will begin shipping
&
Tuesday I'll begin my exercise regimen
to work off
those darn gummi bears!


P.S.
The new patterns are now posted on our website for purchase!


With thy Needle & Thread,
Brenda

10.14.2009

They're almost ready...


...shouldn't be too much longer!

Here is a little
pattern preview
of the
NEW 2009 Christmas Ornament
cross stitch patterns...

"JOY TO THE WORLD"
Vintage ivory buttons from Grandma's button jar & wings constructed from old sheet music adds extra charm to this angelic ornament!


"RUDOLPH & CO."
Sweet Huck branches make perfect little antlers for this tree ornament. A tiny french knot works perfectly for Rudolph's nose...just love the simplicity of this guy!


"FRENCH HEN"
Inspiration for this design comes from the olde favorite Christmas carol, 12 days of Christmas. This pleasingly plump French hen has various holiday motifs stitched upon her body. Old sheet music for tail feathers and wings gives the French Hen a nice olde-time look. In keeping with the French theme, Merry Christmas is spelled out in French!



I call these "day project" patterns... You can easily finish one of these in a day!
Got to love that!



With thy Needle & Thread,

Brenda









10.13.2009

Oh dear...these are cute!!!

After a couple of long days
of intense cross stitching,
I decided it was time
to give the eyes,
hands,
and the neck
a rest for the evening.
Soooo.....
instead of stitching tonight,
I've been baking
these darling
little things...
Oh dear, these are dangerous!!!
You see,
these are bite-sized
treats
&
I am eating
them by the handfuls...
just like popcorn!
Aren't they cute?
Do you want to make some too?
Sure you do...
& I betcha
you can't eat just one!


SPARKLING CANDY CORN COOKIES
1 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon pure orange extract
1/8 teaspoon salt
3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
Orange paste or gel food color
Yellow paste or gel food color
Line bottom and sides of a 9" x 5" loaf pan with waxed paper or plastic food wrap. Set aside.

Combine butter and 1 cup sugar in large bowl; beat at medium speed until creamy. Add egg, orange extract and salt. Continue beating until well mixed. Reduce speed to low; add flour and baking soda. Beat until well mixed.

Divide dough into thirds. Press one-third of white dough evenly onto bottom of prepared pan. Place another one-third of dough back into same bowl. Add small amount of orange food color; mix until color is well blended. Press orange dough evenly over white dough in pan. Place remaining one-third of dough into another medium bowl. Add small amount of yellow food color; mix until color is well blended. Press yellow dough evenly over orange dough in pan. Cover with plastic food wrap; refrigerate until firm (at least 2 hours).

Place 1/2 cup sugar in large bowl; set aside.

Heat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Invert loaf pan to remove dough. Peel off waxed paper. Place layered dough onto cutting surface. Cut loaf crosswise into 1/4 inch slices using sharp knife, trimming edges to make even if necessary. Cut each slice into 6-8 wedges. Place 1 inch apart onto un-greased cookie sheets. Bake for 7 - 10 minutes or until edges are firm and bottoms are very lightly browned. Cool 1 minute; remove from cookie sheets. Immediately place warm cookies in bowl of sugar; roll in sugar to coat. Place cookies onto cooling rack. Cool completely.

Store in loosely covered container.
Makes 15 dozen miniature cookies.
Enjoy,
Brenda

10.12.2009

Brrr......

Frost on the pumpkins....



No, take a closer look... that is snow on the pumpkins!


We awoke this morning to a pretty little dusting of snow...


the first of the season.




The growing season has sadly come to an end...




Time to clear off the gardens,


heap on the wood


&


get the warm woolly sweaters out...




Summer is over...the reality of it is just settlin' in.



A good day to nestle in and do some stitching

&

cook up a batch of soup

to warm

the tummy...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Come along & let's make some soup...
Some
Cheesy Pepper Chowder, that is.

Super easy & and equally delicious!


Melt 2 tablespoons butter in large skillet. Add 1 package (3 cups) frozen pepper and onion stir-fry mixture. This can be found in your frozen foods section. Cook vegetables for 5 - 7 minutes or until tender.


Add 2 minced cloves of garlic, stir for 30 seconds.



Add 1/2 pound of chicken fajita meat. Available in the deli-meat section of the grocery store.




Mix 2 teaspoons of chicken bouillon granules into 1 cup of warm water. Stir in 1/8 - 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper. Pour into vegetable/chicken mixture.



Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 5 minutes. It is at this time that I cut up the pepper strips into shorter lengths with the edge of a spatula.



Over medium heat, add 8 ounces shredded Velveeta cheese.



Add 1 cup whipping cream to chicken mixture. Cook and stir until cheese is melted.



Add 1/4 - 1/2 tsp. dried Cilantro; stir to mix in. Let simmer on low heat for 30 minutes, stirring frequently. Watch closely as you don't want this to boil.


I like to serve this chowder with Avocado flavored corn chips (available at Wal-greens...they are yummy!)

Wishing you a warm & cozy evening,

brenda


REMINDER...
there are just a few hours left in our FREE SHIPPING offer! Hurry on over to www.countrystitchesonline.com before it ends tonight at 10:00 pm CST.
















10.09.2009

Free Shipping at Country Stitches!

WE'RE CELEBRATING COLUMBUS DAY!

In celebration of Columbus Day,
Country Stitches is offering
FREE SHIPPING
to our online shoppers.


Offer applies to orders
shipped within the
United States only.


The free shipping special
ends
Monday, October 12th
at 10:00 pm CST,
no exceptions!


With thy Needle & Thread,
Brenda

10.06.2009

A visit to my favorite blog...

How many times a day do you visit your favorite blog?
5 times...
10 times...
15 times...

I'm too embarrased to say how many times I check mine...

Imagine visiting your favorite blog
and finding this...
or this...

Get's me everytime...

This little one really knows how to melt grandma's heart...

New hat to go with two new "toofers", priceless!

have a good wednesday,

brenda

10.05.2009

Handy dandy...

The "try it" sample of the Highlighter Tape arrived today
so....
I had to give it a try!
Yeppers, gets my stamp of approval...tis wonderful!
Saves lots of time too...

In fact,
I like it so much
that we will be offering this tape for purchase
to our customers.
Item can be found
under the
NEW ITEMS category on our website.
The tape is a cute little 1/6" wide,
perfect to hold the row you are currently stitching
and then the next.
Tape is removable,
therefore reusable.
You simply tear a strip long enough
to fit the area you are stitching...
I actually have two pieces of tape going...
one on my chart
and the other just off to the side.
After I have stitched the 2 rows
of cross stitches
under the Highlighter tape,
I place the 2nd piece of tape
directly below the originally placed tape,
before removing the top piece of tape.
Now my next two rows
are precisely marked
and I can begin stitching.
I continue this "leap frog" method
with the 2 pieces of tape.


With thy Needle & Thread,
Brenda







10.02.2009

My silly one...




I enjoy reading the comments people leave here on my blog. I read each and every one of them and then enjoy checking out the blogs of the people who posts comments...



This morning I was reading through comments from my October 1st post (Welcome October) and came upon the following comment...thought I'd share it with you.



Matthew comments:



Thank you so much Brenda for this freebie! I will have to get my needle and thread out and start it right after I get home from watching Iowa State beat Kansas State!



Now first of all, a comment coming from the male gender doesn't happen too often on my needlework, cross stitching & sewing blog...so the male name sort of stood out! Red flag number 1.



Second of all, the commentators name is Matthew...have I mentioned my #2 child's name is Matthew? Red flag number 2, or just a coincidence?




Third of all, our #2 child is currently in a RV crossing the state of Kansas on his way to the mentioned football game in the comment. Just a coincidence, or red flag number 3!




Hmmm.....




Smells sort of like a stinky fish, don't ya think???




I giggled a bit, finished posting the comments, and then was on my merry way to work. But not before I visited my #2 child's Facebook page. I told him if he needed help threading his needle to just let me know and that I had no idea he enjoyed doing cross stitch in his free time...



Later in the morning the phone rings at Country Stitches...I answer and there is a male sounding voice on the other end. A male that needs to order some DMC floss....



Hmmmmm........
Another stinky fish, perhaps????



Often times it is just fun to play along with this silly one of mine and act like I have no idea who I am talking to...



And then it gets to him, usually when I ask for his address, he can't stand it any longer and bursts into his familiar giggle...love it when he does that! I miss that giggle...darn it, why'd he have to grow up & move halfway across the country???



The blog comment and phone order today don't come as no surprise to me, coming from this silly child of mine. He has been doing this for years...calling mom's answering machine at Country Stitches, after hours, to order some patterns. He consistently ordered pattern number 109...and lots of them! On occasion he would talk a buddy into doing the same...the buddy ordered 50 patterns and then put the order on his credit card. With all seriousness in his voice, he proceeds to give his credit card #0000 0000 0000 0000...at that point I hear that familiar giggle in the background...BUSTED!!!! So reassuring to us parents, knowing this is how your college student is spending his evenings...


Then there is my poor employee Bev, the sweet gal that takes your phone in orders. Bev is well aware of my sons tendencies to do this silly stuff. The phone rings, she answers, a man looking for supplies to make tie dyed shirts....she blurts out "Hi, Matthew" and the gentleman on the other end of the phone says, "no this isn't Matthew, this is so & so and I am interested in supplies for making tie dye shirts (he is dead serious...no silly giggle here), do you carry supplies for this?" Needless to say, we spent the remainder of our day rolling off of our chairs laughing at this poor gentleman...hopefully he found someone that would sell him tie dye supplies!!



The above photo, yes, you're probably wondering what the photo at the top of the post has to do with anything about this post...My son is one of the cheerleaders in this picture , it is SO him...and it is payback time! Can you guess which cheerleader is my son? Hint, he is not one of the two cheerleaders in red plaid skirts...no they are teachers in our school system...scary, huh?



The above photo was taken in 2000 and I am happy to say all of the fine boys pictured have grown up, gone on to be successful in their jobs & some are even married with little ones. As for the two in the red skirts...they are still teachers in our school system...



Yes, this silly child of mine is now 26 years old...perhaps too old to be called a child? He may be all big and grown up now, but he will always be my silly one with the silly giggle. I hope he knows he can call his mother any day at work to order patterns or DMC floss...miss that silly giggle!



Have a good weekend,


Brenda































Find us in the "FINDS"...

Our supply of the new December issue
of the Create & Decorate magazine arrived!
What a thrill
to find our cross stitch pattern line,
With thy Needle & Thread,
featured in their
editorial "FINDS" section of the magazine!
Yeeeeehaaaaa....free publicity is always exciting!
A big "Thank You" to the editors of the Create & Decorate
for giving us this exposure!


Be sure to check out
another wonderful product
featured in the "FINDS" category...
Highlighter Tape!
A brightly colored,
yet translucent,
removable tape
that
marks your row
while working
on cross stitch.
I'm off to order some today!
We have a limited supply
of this magazine
now for sale
on our website.


Have a good weekend,
Brenda

10.01.2009

Welcome October!

In celebration of the arrival of October
we are offering
you a FREE
cross stitch chart
for your
stitching pleasure!


copyright 2009 - With thy Needle & Thread

Stitch count: 85 wide X 84 high
Suggested DMC floss colors are:
301
370
371
372
3012
3013
3021
3776


Pattern printing instructions:
You can simply right click on the photo and select print option from right here.


So grab yourself a piece of
your favorite linen,
some yummy autumn colors
of floss,
&
a cup of mulled cider
and stitch until
your hearts
content!
And please do remember...
we love to see
photo finishes!

IMPORTANT ~ this chart is for your own personel use. Chart may not be printed and sold, shared electronically via email, websites or blogs, or used as a free hand out.


Happy October,
brenda


9.27.2009

PLAYING WITH BEADS...

I spent yesterday playing with my beads
& pliers again...
I find it so relaxing & somewhat
mindless...
I love running beads
through my fingers...
in search
of that
perfect bead
Three new jewelry pieces
are now available
for purchase here.

Feather your Nest Pin

Indian Summer Pin

Miss Snow Fairy Pin

Artwork in the above jewelry pieces
are high quality color prints
of my original
punch needle designs.

For those of you attending the upcoming International Quilt Market, stop by my sister's booth Pieces from my Heart ~ Sandy Gervais. I have created a line of jewelry using her quilt designs and fabrics. A limited amount of jewelry will be for sale in her booth.

Have a good week,
Brenda

9.24.2009

A birthday treat...

I'm taking a skip

day from

work

tomorrow...


I'm going

to visit

this

little

punkin'...



...I can hardly wait!


'Tis my birthday gift

to myself!!



Have a good one,
brenda






A Good Harvest...

Freshly picked bittersweet...
a good harvest...
I'll bring it inside tonight
where it is dry
and cozy warm
&
by tomorrow morning
the golden yellow capsules
will burst,
exposing the beautiful
orangish red flesh
of the
bittersweet plant.

Bittersweet...
an autumn tradition at our home.
I'll tuck sprigs in amongst autumn decorations
&
on the mantel
&
in my old step~back cupboards.
Remaining sprigs will be tucked
around mini pumpkins
in my window planter boxes.

happy autumn,
brenda

.

9.19.2009

Time to un-wind...

Spending my day unwinding...
Not with my feet up on the couch
&
eating bon-bons
type of unwinding...
NO...
There are new cross stitch designs that are
charted
&
now need
to be stitched...
Spending the day
by the screen door
enjoying
periodic visits
from a
very hungry
little hummingbird
&
unwinding
& re-winding
floss for
the stitchers!
Relaxing
in its
own
sort of
way...

Watch for 3
new
cross stitch
pattern
designs...
Coming soon!

Hoping you are having an "unwinding"
type of day
also,
brenda

9.17.2009

Going Buggy!



ANYONE ELSE GOIN' BUGGY???


About 3:oo pm
our lawn becomes invaded
with tiny
little
flying
creatures...

clouds of them...



too buggy to mow...

too buggy to weed the flower beds...

too buggy to enjoy the beautiful weather outdoors...

Perfect if you're a spider...

Spider smorgasbord!


have a good evening,

brenda


9.13.2009

Raining Acorns...

Have you noticed???
The squirrels
are busy
scurrying from tree to tree,
gathering acorns,
&
digging
in the
flower
pots...
This
can
only
mean
one thing...
summer is
coming
to
an end.
It's thyme to gather...


In honor of these busy little furry creatures,
I have created for
your stitching pleasure...
"Harvest Thyme"
penny rug pattern.
Now available for purchase on our website.

P.S.

Don't you often wonder...

if they

remember

where they

buried

all

of their

nuts!

Enjoying the beautiful weather,

brenda


9.10.2009

So sweet...

JUST ARRIVED...
4 new charms!
Now available for sale
on
our
These charms add perfect detail to pins & pendants
created with the
Patera Jewelry Findings!
have a good day,
brenda

9.03.2009

{Shoe Shine Anyone??}

While I was gone a big box arrived at my doorstep...

what a fun surprise!


I had forgot I had purchased this little piece with all the craziness life has been the past couple of weeks...


Isn't it a sweet little thing?

Just 15" tall...


I thought that stripping/painting/waxing & distressing this piece would be a fun winter project,

but

after seeing her in person

i think

i'll leave the paint as is...

Flip open the lid

and this

is what

you see...

Shoe shine anyone?

I don't know much about this piece other then it came from Ohio.

I'm thinking it may have been something someone crafted on their own and wasn't a purchased piece...

but that is what I loved about it...

looks like something my dad would have built...

that is what attracted me to the piece.

Doesn't she have the cutest little legs??

I love her green chippy paint...

Then there is the cloth part of the lid...

It is about the size of a piece of note book paper.

Do I replace it or leave it?

Hmmm...

replace it with a

cross stitched sampler

or a

needle punched design

or a

hooked piece

or how

about a

wool appliqued design??

You have seen the before pictures...

hopefully I will have

after pictures

by winter's end...


According to the Farmer's Almanac

it sounds like tis

going to be

a

long

cold

& snowy

winter

here in the midwest...

time to start

gathering up

projects

to fill

the long

winter evenings...


hoping your holiday weekend is filled with family, friends & fun,

brenda