Shorttakes
Vintage Christmas Ornaments - from Cherry Blossoms. Tracy stitched up 2 of these ~ the snowman & the reindeer ~ in no time! The best part? You can also get the wooden pieces to finish the ornament! They come unpainted & you can paint them any color. I have ours pictured a little later in the newsletter.
Christmas Nest - from Shannon Christine. Is this not so pretty?? There have been several Christmasy cardinal designs over the years, but this one is a definite standout!
Belle of the Ball - from Hands On. It just never ceases to amaze me how colors just pop on dark fabric! This is a WINNER!
That's a Wrap - from Hands On. Cathy & Beth (from Summer House Stitche Workes) started this fun idea in their "Between Friends" Autumn book & I love that they have Christmas sets! You are stitching the bands that wrap around the little pillows. Not only do they give you the chart for stitching, but they also lead you thru the process of hemming the bands using a Nun's stitch ~ it is a super easy way of hemming a piece...you don't even have to fold the hem under! They also tell you how to make the little pillows!
That's a Wrap Christmas Collection - from Summer House Stitche Workes. I KNOW! I KNOW! How do you decide which ones you like best?? Can't help you there ~ I love all of them!
Christmas Biscornu - from Erin Elizabeth. This is so pretty!! And biscornus are easy to put together! Really. Don't believe me? No worries ~ I have another class coming up to get you over the hump! Maybe this will be your first one!
Merry Minis - from Little Robin. I just love these. They are inspired by the old woven coverlet blankets & they have that wintery North Woods feel to them. Also, small enough even I might get them done....
Peace On Earth - from Erica Michaels. GORGEOUS. No other word for these, simply GORGEOUS! I can't decide if I like the red better or the beige...decisions, decisions...
Merry Merry - from Mirabilia. Now I will admit, sometimes I get overwhelmed by all the Mirabilia ladies & I almost get numb to them. This one has snapped me right out of that! I think she's fantastic!!!!
Hello Santa - from Teresa Kogut. Woohoo! Another of her "Hello" books, chock full of 7 different amazing Christmas designs! So far I have gotten 2 of the Hello books & obviously this will become #3 added to my stash! The following 6 designs are included in the book, along with the green Santa pictured above. The only problem is, which one to stitch first!
Christmas Swan - from With Thy Needle & Thread. The Christmas addition to this delightful series! This is so elegant!
Peace & Good Will - from With Thy Needle & Thread. I love this sampler! Brenda is such a talented designer, her things are simply beautiful!
One of the many things that I have embraced (sometimes grudgingly, other times better...) over the last 8-9 months is the old cliche ~ "One day at a time". Guess what? Cliches are cliches because they're so true. And while I'm not a touchy-feely, mystic doodah person (I'm too much of a pragmatist ~ sometimes to a fault), I have begun to accept that YOU ONLY GET TODAY! That's not to say you don't plan for the future, or look forward to an upcoming event, but all you really have RIGHT NOW is today. And if you spend your time always thinking, "well, when I get ___________ I'll be happy" or "when I make this much more money, I'll be happy" or "when I get married I'll be happy" or "when I go on vacation I'll be happy"....well, you'll perhaps find that you'll never be happy. No one else can make you happy if you aren't happy with yourself. Other people can ADD to your contentment, but relying on someone else, something else to happen...that sets you up for a roller coaster of ups & downs. Because I promise you, that person shouldn't be responsible for your happiness (just as you shouldn't be responsible for someone else's happiness). There will never be enough money to make you happy (I learned that at my first job as a CPA ~ made plenty of money....was absolutely miserable). So I am living only for today ~ whether it's an amazingly fun day or I made it to the end of it day. No one is guaranteed tomorrow.
Having said that, another thing I am actively aware of is saying yes. Saying yes I will meet you for dinner or lunch. Saying yes I will put my work away to help you work something out. Saying yes to spending a day with a friend instead of doing all the chores that are stacked up. Because at the end of all the days, you aren't gonna think, "Gosh, I sure wish I'd done more laundry". You'll never regret having dinner with your bestie, or meeting your grown up (!) nephew for lunch (on his lunch hour from his "real job" ~ WHAT??) or hugging your dog or stitching a piece that soothes your mind (and boy howdy do we all need that!). I used to say to Molly when she would go spend time with her mom (& she would feel bad about not being at work) ~ you'll never regret spending time with her, and you'll never say "I wish I'd worked instead of seeing my mom".
So when I saw this design below it reached me (or as I often say around here ~ yep, this one hugs me).
Really Good Day - from Jan Hicks. I think I need to stitch this & hang it right beside my mirror where I can see it each morning. And maybe it'll be a really good day....or maybe it'll just be a day. And that's okay too.
It's been a while since I posted pictures of new models (well, I mean, it's been a while since I wrote a decent newsletter, so there's that...). But we have a few I want to share with y'all!
Vintage Ornaments - from Cherry Blossoms. 2 fun little ornaments from this chartpak! Mr Snowman was finished on the wooden ornament created for the design. And Rudolph was finished as a simple round ornament. Being that he's such a cute snowman, he could stay up all winter (which, of course, I hope is VERY SHORT!).
Exceptional Friends - from My Big Toe Designs. This is more true than many folks realize!! And we need every one of those friends!
Liberty Games - from Erica Michaels. Now, this is not a new design per se, but being that we are so close to all the historical treasures in Philadelphia, we really wanted to get this stitched!
Home - from Cricket Collection. Isn't this great? This would be a wonderful housewarming gift ~ for a new family or anyone moving into a new home (particularly their first home!).
Nope, not a new model, but a whole slew of NEW FRAME MOULDINGS! We've added loads of new frames from East Side Frames. These folks are LOCAL ~ as in right down the road in Honey Brook ~ and we are so excited to add their frames to our walls. Believe it or not, most of the colors are referenced to DMC floss! How awesome is that? When Tracy began selecting ones to add, she really focused on getting a wide range across all their offerings ~ so we have several from each style & color. Most styles are also available in even more colors & I can already tell that "we're gonna need a bigger wall" ~ because I think we're gonna want ALL the choices. I've grouped all the new goodies together so you can check 'em all out. And the rest of the frames are all sorted, organized & straightened up (which of course means we will NEVER find the exact one we're looking for...but we'll surely find the right one for your piece.).
Speaking finished stitching, I want to start out the new year by ENCOURAGING you to get anything you want finished by Therese (like CHRISTMAS stockings, pillows, ornaments, stand ups, etc) stitched & in to the shop sooner rather than later. Therese has no less than 3 weddings (one of which is the first of her boys to get married!) & a few other planned events this year on her calendar, and she is anticipating another early cutoff for Christmas finishing. Can you even believe we're ALREADY talking about Christmas? But I don't want you to be caught off guard. So if you're gonna have a stocking or ornaments or something you'll want for Christmas, the sooner the better!
Doesn't this look cozy for this chilly time of year? When it starts getting cold (which, in my world, means as soon as the daily high temperature is consistently BELOW 70 degrees...), I haul out my recipe for Russian Tea (aka, Friendship Tea, aka Spiced Tea, aka Tang tea...you get the idea). If you've never had it, basically it's Tang, tea, lemonade & spices. Some recipes call for sugar as well, but I have never been a fan of sugar in my tea, so I skip that (plus Tang has enough!). And is there anything better than cookies? No there is not. I have often thought that I would enjoy being a baker (except they get up WAY TOO EARLY!!), but I would concentrate on cookies! I started baking with my mom when I was little ~ we had one of those old cookie presses that you had to turn the top...my wrist hurts just thinking about it. I love spritz cookies (or as we call them, press cookies or "shooter cookies" ~ that's from Chris ~ because one of the presses I've had was called a Super Shooter). But I also love sugar cookies. My Aunt Marya always makes roll out sugar cookies at Christmas using a gingerbread person cookie cutter, then decorates them & puts everyone's name on one. In reality, there are very few cookies I don't like ~ for instance, I hate peanut butter cookies (because I hate peanut butter), not a fan of oatmeal raisin because I hate raisins, and anything with coconut is a no-go...gross, it's like eating hair! Other than that, I'm there! This February, my bestie Carol & I are gonna once again do the Ronald McDonald House Charities Baking fundraiser. We did it last year & had the best time! Each week we got together & made whatever was that week's assigned item: cookies, tarts, bread, cake. We were concerned on bread week, but that actually ended up being our favorite! Mostly we just enjoyed yet another excuse to spend the day together!! But baking is yet another way to "create" something. And of course the product is THE BEST! I'll keep you posted about our efforts!
Okay, well I gotta believe you've about OD'ed on my yipyap for a while! Haven't you missed me?? I have to say it is wonderful to get back to this.
Make your plans to join us for Super Bowl Sunday Sale on February 9th! You should have already gotten my Super Bowl Sale email, but if you somehow missed it, click on the logo above!
Holy cow!! Our Eagles are playing in the Super Bowl!! As you might imagine, that means we will be having EXTRA SPECIAL fun at our Super Bowl Sale! So put on your best Eagles attire, brush up on your Eagles knowledge (no you DON'T need to know stats ~ just one little jersey number) & join us in the shop from 11-2 on Sunday, or all day long on line! Again, click the logo for ALL the pertinent info!
FLY EAGLES FLY!
Hugs & stitches ~
Beth & all the yipyappers at TSS
