WhoHoo....we're at the Nashville Market...Let the games begin

It's been a hard month leading into the Nashville trip, and for a while it was questionable that I would even be able to go, but Sara kept saying I was going so I got in the van Tuesday morning and I'm glad I decided to suck it up and come.  But let me fill you in a little on what happened prior to the trip.  We had such a wonderful Super bowl weekend, and had stitchers from Pennsylvania, Virginia, Delaware and Maryland staying on the property for the weekend so it was like partying with old friends all weekend.  Sara and I were so thrilled to see so many stitchers who stopped by to talk and to shop, and we had plenty of mail orders, etc., so the weekend was a success for Salty Yarns.   But for Sara and me it was about connecting with our friends, stitching, show and tell, etc., as well as working.  Debbie Shiowaza  brought in a large box filled with finished class projects from Jackie Du Plessis, Betsy Morgan, Sherri Jones, Catherine Theron as well as projects from other designers.  Fabulous, and amazing, inspiring the rest of us to pull out unfinished class projects and get them done.    We also have to thank everyone who came to the shop, text orders or e-mail orders we are so grateful and appreciative.  Thank you, thank you, thank you!  I spent Tuesday, after the sale, recuperating (I really think I'm too old to continue participating as it takes me all week to rest up), but Tuesday afternoon Mary called and asked if Izi, my youngest grandson, could spent time with me as she and Brian has school duties with Solomon.  I love spending time with Izi, especially since he's over his "Mine craft" phase, which I never understood.  I thought it would be fun to let him pick a restaurant and we'd go out to dinner.  He picked Panera's so off we went and on leaving the restaurant, I fell on the grass.  Since people were sitting outside, my slip and fall did not go unnoticed and poor Izi was absolutely dumb founded.  After assuring him I was alright,  as I fell on the soft grassy section, and letting him know that his pulling on my arm was appreciated but wasn't going to get me off the ground, I rolled over, got on my knees, and managed to get up.  Once home we ate and I was fine, since the ground was damp and soft the only thing damaged was my pride, my mud soaked sweater, and my pants. So I changed my clothes and we continued our little dinner party.  Brian called to let me know he was on his way to pick up Izi, so I got him ready to go and proceeded out the door to the front porch to wait.  As I stepped on the threshold, wearing my new slippers with rubber soles, my feet apparently slid causing my knees to buckle and I went down on my knees (2nd fall in 2 hours), and I knew I was hurt as I moaned and groaned.  Brian was waiting at the door and heard me  and finally got Izi who was frozen in place, to open the door.  Brian was wonderful in keeping me calm, and comforting me.  All I could think of was how the hell was I going to get off the ground with two injured knees.  But with Brian's help I was able to get up and get on the sofa where I lived for 2 days, barely moving.  After 2 days, with the help of 2 canes and a walker I was able to start moving around the apartment.  After a week I was able to stand in the shower and finally get out of the house, February 14th.  Mary and her family were leaving later on the 14th for Florida so they came down around 5:30 to say goodbye.  As I was walking them out to the porch, in the same slippers, my knees buckled again as I hit the threshold and down I went once again, but this time as I realized what was happening I twisted a little and went down on my side as opposed to my knees.  I was so distraught that I was just feeling better after the fall a week ago,  that I just lay there and cried.  But Mary rallied the troops and Brian, Vernon and Jake showed up to get me off the floor once again.  Once I settled down I assured Mary I was fine and she should continue with her vacation plans, let Sara know I'd be find and sent she and her troop home, however, in another hour I was trying to adjust my sweat pants which were slidding down my butt and managed to fall off the sofa (4th fall-or roll in this case- in 2 weeks) and I got wedged in between the sofa and a table and couldn't get unwedged so I had to call Sara for help getting off the floor.  She and Vernon arrived, got me unwedged and up again (I have to tell you my life was really becoming an embarrassment) and Sara informed me she was moving in.  I felt terrible for Sara feeling she couldn't stay home and would miss having a free weekend, as her boys and Vernon were going to the Daytona Races that weekend. She had talked endlessly how much she was going to enjoy the weekend, not cooking, and just lounging around stitching....and then she gets stuck with me.  I felt so guilty and the thought about Nashville had been on my mind since my first fall.  But in this last fall my foot got stuck under the front porch door and Mary tried closing the door without realizing it, and between that and the fall my ankle hurt.  I knew this wasn't going to be fixed by Nashville so I suggested Sara call Stasi Buhrman and see if she was available to take my place.  Sara kept saying I would be going as well, but felt we did need Stasi and we were thrilled when she said she could do it. So that was a major problem solved.   Each time I walked on the foot my ankle really hurt so I felt it was sprained and would get better, but after a week the ankle was hurting more not less so  I told Sara we needed to call my doctor who has trouble getting me into his office so when I called he told us to come right in.    He then sent us for x-rays which revealed a fracture.  Then we went to get a boot.  He also booked an appointment with an orthopedic doctor to look at the foot on Monday.  We were to leave on Tuesday for Nashville.  Both doctors felt going to Nashville wasn't a good move and both said it was urgent that I stay off that one foot.  But Tuesday morning Sara came and picked me up and we headed to Stasi's house in Virginia to get her on board.  We did stop, before picking up Stasi for lunch and found that a wheel had jammed on the walker I was using and while trying to fix it, the wheel fell off the walker.  This didn't bode well for the rest of the week, but we had no choice by continue.  We got to Stasi's where her husband checked out the walker and decided the best choice was to use Stasi's mother's walker which they keep for her when she comes to visit so we switched out the walkers and we were once again on our way.  We arrived in Nashville Wednesday and the hotel had a wheel chair I could use so things were looking up.  I was thrilled and I felt better after using it for a while.  Exhausted I chose to stay in the room while I sent Sara and Stasi out to eat, etc.  After an exhausting day we all turned in.  I had trouble getting comfortable around the pain of the ankle but finally found a way to prop it and get comfortable when what I thought was the smoke alarm started beeping. As I was trying to figure out whether to call and bother Sara or just the front desk,  I heard "We have an emergency, please evacuate to the first floor, go to the stairways, do not use the elevators".  Meanwhile I'm wondering why Sara hadn't come over as she has spent the last two weeks making sure I was alright at all times.  But I got out of bed, picked up the boot, which I take off to sleep, and headed for the door in the wheelchair.  As soon as I opened the door Sara was standing there in a panic because she couldn't get my room key to work and couldn't get to me.  Next thing Stasi was at the door. We were all looking around and I just said, Look there is no way I can get down 7 floors of stairs..  I'm just going down with the building but you two go down, but as we looked over the railing we see Peggy and Pat from Fern Ridge designs standing at the railing on their floor just looking down to the lobby as well along with many others.  No one seemed to be headed to the lobby so Sara said, no we will all just stay here.  Sara did call the front desk to see tell them I was in a wheel chair and couldn't go down the stairs.  They said to just stay where we were as the fire company was on the way, plus no one  knew why the alarm went off as they couldn't find a problem. After less than 5 minutes the alarm stopped and everything returned to normal.  When Sara and Stasi ran into the ladies from Fern Ridge and Sharon from Purple Thread,  who also knew I was wheel chair bound,  these sweet ladies said they were all ready to come up to us and get me down the stairs.  Even though I knew that would be impossible it was so sweet of these ladies thinking of us.  Thanks ladies.   Anyway we went back to bed.  Thursday Sara and Stasi did a 2 mile walk around the neighborhood while I stayed in the room.  Because I actually wasn't walking at all, my foot was feeling better but I still didn't want to leave the room.  So Sara and Stasi went out for lunch and some retail therapy and brought me a present and some desserts from Puffy Muffin...yummo.  The room door was propped open and as stitchers went by they were waving to us and greeting us and one group even stopped in and invited us to their room for adult refreshments.  Stitchers are such welcoming people and fun people.  The Nashville market begins today, Friday and we are ready.  Stasi and Sara will start the run tonight after dinner and I will be in the room to do tickets and price everything.  Having Stasi join us  makes Nashville easier for both of us and I think will become our new tradition.  Let the games begin!

Superbowl Sale now in progress

Friday-Sara and I are in retreat mode for the stitchers  arriving from Maryland, Virginia, Delaware and Pennsylvania as well as Superbowl Sale mode which starts today.  Yesterday, Sara was in her usual spot, the grocery store while I chose to elude the cold weather by stitching and finishing models for February.  First up was the "Year of Celebration"-February from Hands on Design.  Such a fun fast stitch and an easy finish, although I seem to struggle to cut the Weeks Wool straight, but I do the best I can and let it fly.  In this case I used Merlot Wool and love it.  I had the heart button covers from who knows where for so long and why I ever bought them is another mystery, but finally found a use for one, only 4 more to find a home for, so count me thrilled to use something out of my older stash.  Anyway, the metal on the back of the heart, which is a casing for the button on a shirt it is suppose to cover, actually wouldn't stick to the magnet, but since the heart has the little casing that opens for the button,  I stuck a small magnet in the cover and now it sticks beautifully.  I'm having as much fun finding these charms, buttons, etc to use to decorate the hanger as everything else.  I've talked about my issue with things being balanced or odd colors together and at first when I started January's piece I was having a problem with Cathy's use of the orange to outline but I used it and once done it didn't bother me at all.  On February she also used a turquoise color which seemed so out of place on this piece, but again, I decided to go with the flow (Sara hates it when I change things) and again, it doesn't bother me once it's stitched.  Sometimes you just have to step out of your box.  At 70 years of age it's getting easier for me apparently to try new things....10 years ago I doubt I'd go with the flow.  Or maybe I'm getting too old to make decisions, who knows....I like going with the flow because it's mindless...I have no decisions to make except what to use to hang it.

On to the next finish.  I finally got Brenda Gervais', "All Bundled Up" finished and it was no easy task.  Everything that could go wrong, well, not everything but I did have constant issues including breaking the sewing machine needle because I got excited that I was finally getting it done and I didn't pay attention when I changed to a zipper foot and didn't move the needle over.  Lesson learned again!  Anyway, the important thing here is that the piece is done.  It is the largest pillow I've stitched and finished and I wasn't really aiming for that so even though I measured it to begin with and knew it was going to be approx 18",  I guess I just didn't think about it then.  As I was working it at some point I told Sara I thought I made a mistake for stitching this on the 20 count over 2 because I could see that it was going to be bigger than I imagined, but once you are at the halfway point you don't want to give up and start again so I just plowed on.   The size however, created a problem for me with the pillow insert, however I ended up taking a pillow off the bed, took out some of the stuffing (I didn't realize it would be that difficult to do until I started the process and while I struggled with getting rid of approx. 5" of stuffing, I finally won the battle and that is what I stuffed it with.   You can get the idea of it's size as it's sitting on one of my dining room chairs.  (you can see the needlepoint seat it sits on which is one of the 6 chairs with needlepoint seats my grandmother stitched around 1940, and which I still use the set in my dining room.  

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Brenda Gervais is always a  really fun stitch and allowed me to use several creative stitches.  Stitched on 20 ct. Weeks Dye Works Blue Jeans linen using WDW and DMC pearl cotton fibers.  And my final finish this week was one of Heartstring Samplery Festive Fobs-Valentine Edition.  Stitched on 32 ct. Antique White linen over 1 thread using the called for threads, these are fun to stitch and it's an easy finish although because the scissor fob is so small I do have a problem finishing those, but muddle through anyway, but I definitely need to improve that finish. 

Because this is a Valentine pin cushion I decided to use my 3 grandson's initials as they are my Valentines (although Sara and Mary could also think it's for them since two of the initials match them.  In any event I decided to put the 3 names on the back so years from now people won't be wondering who the "I" stands for.  The most exciting thing this morning is I get to pick out new projects (although I might just work on the 4, which I started along with the 3 shown here.  But then again, Hands on Design latest short stack is calling to me and it is for Valentine's day so I think it should be the next to stitch.  Right now I'm off to get ready for a fun weekend with some great stitchers who will keep me entertained all weekend.  Well, regardless of my prediction that if everyone else sees snow we will see rain.....here is what we saw starting around 10:30 a.m.  This continued until 5.00 p.m.  So we weren't left out of the actual snow storm...while it wasn't exactly a snow store we did get some, perhaps around an inch, at most.   Don't you hate it when it snows and you don't get a snow day from it.  UGH...but with our stitchers in town and staying here on the property we just couldn't do it.  But it sure stopped me from going to the grocery store to get the food I'm making for our shop Superbowl party, so tomorrow better be clear and hopefully sunny so I can get there.  Now I'm one day away from prep work.  UGH!  We've had a great first day and oh the finishing I've seen today.  Unbelievable...damn I should have taken pictures.  Maybe someone will bring them back in so I can do just that.  Crap! I never remember to do that.  Have a great stitching weekend whatever the weekend.  Talk to you soon.