A Lovely Christmas walk with the dog

I just have to tell you that my walk with the dog last night was lovely. It had been a busy day, doing inventory with Wilma and Kathy and then a quick run out to do my work out routine and then late in the evening Cleo let me know with those teddy bear brown eyes that I had not taken her for her walk yet! Feeling rather that I wanted to put in a few stitches and have a cup of tea, than go out in the cold and snow, I sort of begrudgingly decided to put on my boots much to her delight. Off we set, me with my ear muffs on - ones I received from my daughter that despite loosing just about every pair of mittens I have ever had - I haven't lost these ear muffs - and my cozy coat.

Cleo set a rather fast pace and I was hard pressed to keep up. I seem to have my face to my feet in this weather and when she suddenly came to a stop, I glanced up and to my delight; just a few houses away from our house, were 3 deer on the lawn grazing at the mountain ash tree in my neighbor's front yard. They calmly watched us and we made a little detour to not disturb them and what with the twinkling Christmas lights on the street and the snow covered lawns, it was a true Christmas scene before my eyes. They kept their eyes on us but didn't move, their ears twitching but I guess those red berries were just too good to leave. To put the final touch to the picture there were 2 white coated hares munching away on a piece of grass free of snow. I thoroughly enjoyed my view and Cleo was just perplexed by the deer and wanted to run after the rabbits! What a wonderful surprise at the end of a busy day. So glad she made me get out and go!

I am in the midst of doing year end bookeeping and next year's designing..... wow, lots of new things!! Look for some terrific new pieces for the Nashville Needlework Market. I am doing just a little class for the shop owners, a fun 'tag' trio piece that I so enjoyed stitching.I think I have posted most events for the the first half of the year and the fall items should be up soon. Check out the piece for Stitcher's Hideaway on Sue's website for the retreat in July - it is very Americana, well patriotic really.That red, white and blue was great but a challenge to work with.

Prior to Nashville I will be at Needle In A Haystack event on February 23,24 - come and join us in lovely CA. And then April we will be Hangin' Loose in Hawaii.

Wishing you a very Merry Christmas and all the best in 2013! Hope to see you at an event soon.

Warm wishes, Jeannette

PS the picture is off my back deck earlier in December

A New Look

Yes! a new look for the website. I am thrilled to say Veronique from Evoque Designs worked her magic to revise our website as it had just given us some problems the last couple of years. To add new products and events wasn't as easy as it should be, so V. hooked me up to this and WOW she has done a fabulous job! Thanks V. As you can see the tabs are at the top to move you to the different pages; but right on the front page you can see what is new, and go to a category right away. Otherwise you can go to the design page and the different categories will come up. But alternately you can sort by most recent or alphabetically. It does give you an option of sort by price but that is actually not connected. I encourage you to shop at your local needlework shop - all my designs are available through 3 distributors. Again having said that if you are having difficulty getting a certain item please don't hesitate to ask for anything you are interested in.

I love how the EVENTS page has an actual calender! That makes it very easy to see where in the month the event actually is. I love the BUY page as it has the shop spots pop up on a map. Aren't we a visual bunch!

You can see me on facebook and pinterest also. How fun is that! I always say I am going to post more or do more with blogging, but..... I just run out of time. But maybe now that it is an easier set up, it all might go smoothly and be great! In the meantime look around the new website and enjoy!

Jeannette

A lovely Canadian Thanksgiving

It was a lovely weekend indeed. My niece had all of us Douglas’ over for a wonderful time with family. We always look forward to catching up with each other. I finally felt recuperated somewhat from the week of festivities in Utah! The theme for the Shepherd’s Bush retreat was Christmas, so I can say festivities with gusto and mean it. By now you have seen some pretty scary pictures of me on facebook! ack! either in total concentration because I did not want to make a mistake at the till with Tina or like a crazy woman showing the design for the retreat at the big reveal on Thursday Sept 27. Haha… I laughed at them. And then that Paulette Stewart of Plum Street Samplers took the most amazing pictures and then one of me photo bombing her shot! Check out her blog – she wrote a great overview and super pictures of our time in Utah - http://plumstreetsamplers.typepad.com/ what a treat to spend some time with Paulette, we both enjoyed every minute. So I feel I don’t need to repeat her great rendition on her blog! Thanks Paulette. Another wonderful blog on the retreat is from Bonny Woomer - http://thenebbyneedle.blogspot.ca/ – she is a new designer on the block, doing some lovely things and she did a super write up of the retreat also. Thanks Bonny! I am afraid there is not much from me…. I came home last Monday and have been working tons on my further events for October – this weekend at Camp Chief Hector out in the mountains for Stitching Corner here locally and then next weekend in Portland for Acorns and Threads.

I just have to say that spending time with fellow designers is terrific. Sometimes I feel in a bubble all wrapped up in my own concerns, so it is so nice to share. I had some great times with Pat and Ann from R& R Reproductions, I always say I want to repin everything they do on pinterest so you know from that – that you like the same things…. it’s nice and comfy that way. It was so great to get to know Linda  Lautenschlager  of Chessie and Me- I had to go check her website to see how to spell her last name and good grief, she has a great blog on the retreat too! Okay I feel totally bad that I didn’t take pictures and do a story, but here is her’s too, check it out too – http://chessieandme.blogspot.ca/ – this way you can see them all and enjoy a variety – that’s my excuse…… Thanks Linda, we had fun and you forgave me for that first day where I kept calling you “Chessie” instead of Linda….. I totally kept doing it too!  What can I say about that “Charland’ but that she is the best. I hope you read my little JCS story with the ornament because it is about Charland! Charland always brings her fabulous sense of humour and I love it. It was Ann’s birthday at the beginning of retreat and Sydney of Charland Designs at the end so we had birthday festivities too! Cece of The Thread Gatherer did a wonderful project for one of the evenings at retreat and I am always amazed at her talent. She can do so many things and be good at them all! Tina and Teri – well they do put on an awesome retreat. It is an event!! and amidst all that planning and fun stuff for retreat a great sampler design yet too.

As I look to the next events on my calender I can only say “WOW” what an awesome 2013 we will have!! Look for it to come on the events page soon, and yes we are working on the website….. renewal coming up soon. I need to firm a couple of dates yet for next year and then I can post that. But of course the Hawaiian cruise is set – April 6th 2013 – see pdf on front page of the website.

Well Calgary and area ladies, looking forward to seeing you on the weekend! Hope the weather gets nicer…. and Portland ladies, I am thrilled to come again, and you are going to love the project!! It turned out great and we have some nice surprises for you!

See you soon, Jeannette