January 31st.

An Update....the Superbowl Sale on Sunday...is open to everyone. You can call in your order, or e-mail your order...everyone can participate. And here is how the sale is structured. Up to $24.99 gives you 10% off your total purchases.....from $25.00-$49.99 gives you 20% off the total and anything above $50 gives you 30% off.

So don't worry if you live out of town and can't get here....just call or e-mail and its as good as your being in the shop...well, maybe not as good, but certainly good. See you or hope to hear from you on Sunday.

January 30th....

It's been a few days, but we've been so busy down here...this is always a hectic time as we are getting ready for the journey to Nashville, getting our paperwork together, making sure we have all the necessary items, computers, paper, labels, etc., and then on top of that we have our one big sale of the year, Superbowl Sale, and of course this year we have 3 groups on retreat, and we're having the Peacock Chair finishing class taking place....I'm exhausted just listing everything. In prep for Nashville I always take my Caravan in to have the tires checked, etc. I have to tell you, this is one job I wish I had a big brawny man do....I have taken the van in for the last year, and each time I do I tell them the back hatch remote isn't working properly. Last year they said it was the remote, so I purchased a new remote only to find it still didn't work all the time. But the next time I took it in they said, "well it works when we try it." Don't you just love that! "Oh, then pardon me, if it worked the one time you tried it I must be a friggin idiot and just didn't push the button properly." I've had the car since 2002, I think I know how to work the remote, O.K. Well, now it doesn't work at all....not even once since I last had it serviced...so now I want him to tell me it works when he pushes the button and do it with me standing there...jackass. Anyway, with the route 50 bridge out of service this is annoying anyway because I have to go all the way around which takes about 25-30 minutes. While many of you commute for an hour so this seems minor...my commute is 2 minutes...this is a major pain in my neck. But minor next to others problems...so I'll try to contain my aggravation. I'm stitching every minute possible anymore because I dearly love my two projects right now. I did one of the panels of the "Maiden of the Sea"...only to find that I had counted incorrectly and the panel is actually a couple of stitches short....but did I let that stop me, hell no! Usually I never do borders without working part of the design along with it to make sure I haven't counted incorrectly, and I have to say I counted each panel going down very carefully, and thought I had counted the top as as....but obviously I didn't. But I figure it's not going to make that much difference as I can move the design on it over a couple of stitches so I moved forward. I've changed many of the colors as I wanted more than blue on it (which is the predominate color)...that and we didn't have all the colors in yet and I wanted to start the design since I was done with the border. Anyway, adding more colors is a treat and I hope I do it proud, but the major thing is that I love it and the enjoyment I get out of stitching it is unmatched. I cannot wait to get home, sit down and stitch. And the second piece, ABC Sampler from Drawn Thread, well, I've finished the second panel and tonight move on to the 3rd, GHI. This is so gorgeous as well, who would have thought an ABC piece would give me such pleasure. And then Debbie L. e-mailed me the next installment for the Hawk Run series (I think that's what it was) and it's nautical, so you know I have to do that....oh, my I'm getting a bigger head ache thinking about all I have to do. Today I was suppose to have off, but since I had to go out to take the car over, I decided to come into work anyway....on my days off I want to do just what I want, not take cars to be serviced, or go pick up mail...it's got to me all about me or what's the point? Yesterday I spent most of the day in Salisbury getting all the supplies for the Peacock Chair finishing class. I have to report people....easy returns has to go to Target. I picked up a questionable CD for CJ for Christmas (yes I'm still dealing with Christmas and the tree...still on it's side sitting in the living room...but the tree bag is laying on top...too bad the damn tree won't fit in it...I've got to figure something out, I'm just too tired mentally to deal with it). Anyway, returned the CD with no problem (of course I do keep all my receipts so that was probably helpful)..but it was a no pain return...I recommend Target in Salisbury for your shopping pleasure. Then I went to Michaels to purchase a bead...a bead....$76 later I left that store. Why is it I can't walk into a craft store and walk out with exactly what I went in to purchase? What is wrong with me. Same thing is true of a grocery store. I walk in for bread and come out with a cart load. I have a disorder I'm sure...I need a diagnosis. (Sort of like my shirt fetish at Walmart) I don't know if I mentioned about the shirt at Walmart...if I did excuse me...and stop reading. Anyway, everytime I go into Walmart I go look at the t-shirts and pants just to see if they have any I like in my size. Once I found I could shop for clothes at Walmart, well, life just doesn't get any better for me. Well, I've purchased enough that I'm now boxing them up...(in my defense I began boxing up the summer weight stuff however over Christmas I needed to get the folded clothes off my freezer so I boxed up 2 boxes of winter stuff). At that time I told myself it was ridiculous and I had to stop purchasing t-shirts and pants (that's all I buy for everyday)....then I went into Walmart again and purchased another pair of pants (which were new and I really like the way they are made.) So I told Sara about them but then also told her about the problem I have with purchasing new pants and shirts and swore I wasn't going to purchase another thing, except those pants in other colors. So I go back into Walmart, they don't have the pants so I purchased 2 new t-shirts. Even as I was walking out I thought, "What the hell am I doing"...thankfully with the bridge closed Walmart is too far away for me to visit weekly, but who knows what they will have in a month...new colors, new weights...oh, mercy....I don't know if I have the strength to leave them at Walmart. Got to do it though, just got to do it. Anyway, that's another store I can't just walk in pick up what I need and walk out. I envy those who can. Speaking of the bridge I might have to apologize to all the men out there. On the news last night they said that the bridge repair was on schedule and the men had been working in the really cold, rainy, weather to get it completed on time. Could this be true...could the men really get this done when they said they would? I had my doubts, but now I'm wondering if I could be really, really wrong. While I'm not saying I was wrong, I'm open for the possibility, however, the month is far from up so we'll just have to wait and see. But for those traveling in, allow for the extra time to use the Route 90 bridge. Traveling down to our end is really easy this time of year, and without the bridge traffic is really light so come on down. Called the Bank today to get a change of signature card going for the new church officiers (and get my name off the card)...and got voice mail. Really, all I want is a signature card change and now I have to sit and wait for someone to call me back? Couldn't anyone just about, take that message and give it to the correct person. What are they, in the union...and can only do one thing without getting into union trouble? My ex (the jackass) use to work union jobs in Connecticut and he'd come home and say, "we got nothing done today because the guy that was suppose to dig the ditch didn't show up so we sat around and waited for someone to show but they couldn't find anyone else. So every man, on the job, sat around and waited...why didn't one of them dig the damn ditch...well if you are on a union job just the guy hired to dig ditches can dig a ditch...my ex. was heavy equipment so he could only drive the heavy equipment. Does this make sense to anyone. All the men on the job got paid, but no one did anything because the ditch had to be dug first. Are you kidding me? So exactly when did Common Sense leave the area? Although I could explain my tree with this reasoning. I can say, "I run a union house, and I have to have the guy that moves trees get this tree out of my living room and he hasn't come yet." Yea, I think I'll try that for a month and then next month I'll come up with something different...maybe I should just take it outside and plant it and let neighbors say whatever.

January 24th....

Christmas is almost behind me...yes I finally got all (almost all) the Christmas decorations back in their closet...almost. The tree is still laying on the living room carpet waiting for it's day to go back (I'll need a truck to get it moved...damn thing is too heavy for me), but it's so nice to be almost back where I was pre-Christmas. The dining room is completely cleaned, no..I do have to dust and mop but the carpet has been vacuumed, the table is back in position and the dishes and what nots are put away...alleluia, alleluia! I was so excited I got back on track and finished the ABC sampler...part 1 of 9 (I think) but excited as if I'd finished the entire thing and I LOVED it...this was so much fun to stitch....if you don't like a stitch no problem because you only have a minutes worth to stitch in the first place. And there are stitches here I've never heard of before, (I swear they make these things up), and of course never stitched before. I forgot to pick up DEF so I was able to start a new piece (Alleluia)..oops, I did pull from the ufo bag a towel and a book from Homespun Elegance (darn , should have taken pictures...I will tonight and put it up tomorrow)...and finished the towel, although I started with the chart as it was and then began adding to it...because I had to make it fit the towel. Sometimes this is more trouble than it's worth, but I did like the end result, although a border would have been nice, but I was anxious to move on. Then I becan the With My Needle Mermaids of the Sea needlework smalls. Oh, my God, I love this so much I have done nothing but the backstitching and the border and I still love every stitch. Problem is, I don't have all the threads so you know this is definitely going to drive me nuts. But they are on order so sooner or later they will get here or I will make substitutions (which is probably what I'll do). Anyway, it's good to get back to stitching and good to have the clean up in motion. We are having the strangest day here....first it looks like snow but it's really too warm (by that I mean 40 degrees)...yet we went to lunch and when we came back out there it was....the tinest snowflakes (we've seen this before) so even if it snows all night we still won't have a handfull which means...no snow day. I feel like the kid on the news today who called the supervisor's home to complain about the lack of a snow day. I want to call someone and complain too, but I sure as heck won't call the supervisor's home...I'd hate to have to speak to his wife. In her defense however, how many people do you think call there? Now that I think about it, I don't think the supervisor would get as many as the principal. And then I think, a job paid for by the taxes...therefore an employee of the taxpayer, so shouldn't the taxpayer have a right to call, however, do that right mean anytime of day or night? I don't know what the answer to this quandry is, but I do think children today have a sense of entitlement. I have never called a superintendent ever and that was with 2 children in the school system, but then as a kid I wouldn't have dared do it, but then I lived in a time when you respected your elders, and you didn't talk back, and you would never curse at an elder...ah, yes, a gentler time, a more gracious time and I think an easier time. Ooops, Sara just walked in...yikes, she noticed I wasn't doing brochures...ohhhhh, I'm in trouble now. I may just have to call her supervisor. Have a great day!

January 20th....

Folks, hell has definitely frozen over....when Sara and I walked out of work yesterday we noticed a very fine white flake and I mean fine so small you hardly knew what it was, but yes, we did have snow...well, I guess you could call it snow. As I said, the flakes were so miniscule that you could barely see that they were snow, and because it was so small it never did really cover the ground even though it probably snowed about 4-5 hrs. Yes, 4-5 hours and it never covered the ground, in fact it never layed on the road, it did lay on the grass but you could still see the grass that's how light it was. It did manage to cover every window in my car, and since I didn't think I'd see snow again I threw out my scraper which had a broken handle anyway in the fall. So when I got in the car to go to church this morning I had to sit there 10 minutes getting the car heated enough it would melt the ice on the windows....I couldn't even get the windows down as they were frozen in place...however, I finally got enough ice off the window so I could make it to church and there were so few people at church we didn't even fill up one communion rail. Shouldn't I get extra credit or something for going on a day like today? Anyway, the sun is now out, it's still around 26 degrees, but the ice is definitely melting under the glare of the sun...perhaps we'll get back to normal by tomorrow. I wasn't home yesterday more than an hour when I got a call back from Sara. The generator hooked up to the alarm system at the hotel had failed, so bells and whistles were sounding, the alarm company was going nuts calling all the numbers they had to announce this and of course the Fire Company got involved....and that's why she lives upstairs instead of me. No way was I taking that ocean front unit, as beautiful as it is and with a killer view...but you also are #1 for anything that happens at the hotel. I was more than willing to let Sara take it and I stayed on 10th street. There's only so much I'm willing to handle. Anyway, after leaving work Sara then had to deal with the pain in the butt alarm system. Until the generator motor can be replaced, Monday, Sara was instructed to take a run through of the hotel every hour just to make sure everythings alright. She and Vernon left 5 minutes after the fire company to go to dinner...so much for running through the hotel every hour. And that's why I live off the hotel property. What I don't know won't kill me. And my mantra on that..."better she than me." I know I seem to be obsessing over the darn bridge closing, but the downtown area is like a ghost town. No traffic in that area at all, and yet, I know people live down there. Where the hell is everyone? And today I had to trek up to Food Lion on 120th street. God, shoot me, shoot me now. I decided that after church I should make the run (I get out at 9:00 am) and I could still get to work close to 10:00 a.m. When I grew up in Ocean City, it ended (yes, the town ended) on 28th Street at the Dunes (the old Dunes Motel). Until the Carousel was built on 120th street, there was nothing but dunes past 28th. So for me, Ocean City still doesn't exist beyond 28th street. I feel like I need my passport when I travel past 28th...I've entered a foreign country, and today I really felt that way. I don't recognize the place...oh, my God, we're having some kind of condo craze down here. Have these people heard about the recession (why should they have heard of it when our own government keeps telling us we aren't in one)...anyway, the housing market is no different here than anywhere else...it sucks...and yet, they are building down here like they have good sense. At least it is comforting to know if I go broke, I'll have plenty of company. Anyway, I drove for what seemed like hours, (O.K., it took maybe 20 minutes...alright..perhaps 15) finally reached my destination and now I'm in a store I don't recognize, nothing is where the other Food Lion has stuff...it was awful. Don't get me wrong, I still bought food (I'm not crazy)...but I didn't get any joy from it. And then the trek back home...I almost had to stop midway for food and water the journey was so long. Thank God there was no traffic going that way either...but after all it's Sunday and unless you are going to church you aren't up yet and it's freezing out so why go out. Last night I worked on my UFO, Drawn Thread's ABC Sampler. I've been inspired to get some of my UFO's completed by looking at other's websites...and what they've finished...I need to do that...finish more, so that's my New Year's Resolution (a little late with at announcement but I wanted to announcement something that I wouldn't break too easily). Got to go, it's 3:42pm., my fingers are frozen, my eyes are trying to close, and I need to help Sara close the shops. Have a great night...see you soon I hope, stay warm and toasty and do a little stitching.

January 19th....Part 2

Just talked to Sandy J. and have an update for the Peacock Chair finishing class in February...ladies, we need to do as much prep work as we can prior to that class so that we will have the chair almost finished, all the hard parts completed before leaving the class. We'll have the class on Saturday, but since most of you are here for the weekend, we can finish ourselves on Sunday anything that didn't get done on Saturday. Sandy will only be working with us on Saturday though, so as long as we get our gluing done prior to the class we should be able to complete the chair over the weekend. Oh, I forgot, Jackie J. is also here with one of the retreats and she is a finisher as well, so I know she'll help, and Stasi B. is here, oh, ladies forget it we will definitely get these done with all these finishers in house. We will have expertise coming out the whazoo (not sure where that is, could be the same as the VaJaJa)...so if any of you ladies are listening...don't worry we won't monopolize all your time and talents, but we may ask questions when we see you. I'll make sure we have the necessary finishing items so don't worry about that. I've ordered the ribbon and it shipped so we will have that, Jackie J. kindly donated the silk duponi, I'll have the glue, thread, buttons, clothes pins, awl, and quilter's batting. Ladies we are ready to rock and roll.

January 19th....

Managed to fit a small project in while I was suppose to be de-Christmasing, finished the latest Pine Mountain top tie pillow, Love. One night folks and you are done. It's another of their wrap pillows, about an 11" x 11" finished pillow...ties on the top...but important for me...fast and easy. So I started it last night while watching my Monk...love that little guy, and around 11:30 pm decided to lay my head back and shut my eyes and next thing I knew it was 1:30 a.m. So I got back up and finished the pillow and of course by then I was up so I started getting another project ready to go and as soon as I opened the cabinet door, well, here we go again, I now have to search all over again. So at 5:30 a.m. I decided this day was going to really be long if I didn't try to catch some sleep so I laid back down, shut my eyes, and woke up at 9:45 a.m., with 15 minutes to get dressed and get to work. That's how my day started and so I've been behind now since 5:30 a.m. Things have to get better! I am trying to get back to scanning for the web site and managed to put a couple of things up yesterday, did you see the Garden Chair...oh, my God! I've got to do this one....before I'm done I'm going to have an entire room of furniture....but this piece is so pretty and the umbrella to go with it...well priceless people, it's simply priceless...I can't wait for Nashville! Kelmscott has also come out with new scissors and some mother of pearl stuff for Nashville that will be coming back with us and I have the new Sajou mother of pearl scissors due in any day now...had to have those. Oh, my God, I'm actually talking about shop business...my life has taken a serious turn when I'm actually talking business instead of my usual ramblings. Anyway, just to let you know....I'm really having fun with this new blog interface. Adding pictures is so much easier...you know I'm going to be adding these like crazy now...who knows what will show up on the blog. Janet S. stopped by the shop yesterday, in town for a convention and took a chance during the break to run down and pick out a couple of new projects. Good to see familiar faces and especially at this time of year. The winter months in Ocean City can be a bit gloomy, mainly in January and the first of February. People have spent too much money for Christmas and don't come down and the weather is so iffy, overcast and gloomy and Sara and I are just sitting here waiting to have a conversation with someone other than each other. So to see someone is a treat and someone we know...well that's just a bonus. I'm telling you after a while you are almost willing to talk to the sea gulls...speaking of which I haven't seen my friend from Christmas lately. You remember me talking about that big seagull and I do mean big, hell he was the biggest bird I've seen in a long time....anyway, he was on my front porch Christmas day going through my bags of fruits (I put them out there because my refrigerator couldn't hold another thing so I thought they'd be safe. I hadn't counted on that big bird. He also stole my ribbon bag twice....I was just too stupid to figure it out the first time I found it sitting in the middle of 10th Street....anyway, I'm even starting to miss that dumb bird....oh, I must be loney now. Anyway, if you are down here, and can get to us, remember the bridge thing, stop on by so we have a new face to look at. We're getting kind of sick of each other. As much as we've talked about the bridge closing on the 17th..on the 18th Mary announced she had a doctor's appointment...she announced it at 9:50 and her appointment on the other side of the bridge no less was at 10:00. Sara said, "Mary have you forgotten that the bridge is closed and you are going to have to go around? You are not going to make a 10:00 appointment." And of course she had forgotten...the first day no less....so she ended up calling and rescheduling. I'm telling you, closing the main route is throwing us all for a loop...even if I didn't want something across the bridge, every day I feel a little stress from knowing I can't use that darn bridge. Crap!!!

January 18th...Part 2

I don't know what that was about, anyway, my de-Christmasing my house hit a snag last night when like a child I got distracted, opened up the cabinets of the entertainment center (in which I keep some of my stash of needlework) and pulled everything out to pick a new project. That made me decide to clean out the cabinet and there you go...one more reason Christmas is still not put away...and now I have needlework that hasn't been put back. Soon I'll be able to call Clean House and not have to mess up my house at all. Anyway I found several UFO's (unfinished projects) and pulled out "and they sinned" and started working on it yet again...I'd love to be able to finish that one but I seem to now have the attention span of a gnat. Watched Oprah yesterday (don't always get to do that and frankly didn't think I'd be interested in this one about Women's health...cause we all know I haven't paid much attention in that area), however, I could not believe the one part I happen to catch....a woman, very embarrassed, said, "I'm embarrassed to ask but need to know....as soon as I turned 50 I began to have a problem with burping and gas, and it's pretty constant and I can't figure out what is causing it as my diet hasn't changed." Don't you love it....as you get older you constantly get these little surprises. When I turned 30 I woke up one day to find this thing had grown on my check. It was slow and each day when I brushed my teeth or washed my face I was slowly becoming aware of it, but thought it would go away....well, 30 years later and it's still there only now it's set up a little condo on my face. And the moles, good God, it's like I'm a superwalmart of moles...I've got them in all sizes and shapes...what the heck is this about? I firmly believe that at some point in your life you should just be able to slide off into the blue yonder (of course I firmly believe you should have a few good years debt free, illness free, mole free, and everything else free) without worrying about anything else. Wouldn't that be perfect? But clearly that isn't going to happen so each day I get up, look in the mirror and thank God I'm able to get up and look in the mirror...forget the gas, the moles, the fat, the wrinkles, and everything else, I'm just thrilled to be invited to the party one more time. Clearly I have lost control of topics and need to go do some work for a change....perhaps get the brochures done...yes, that's an idea. So have a great day, or evening, and keep on stitching.