Wednesday, December 30, 2009

"Almost" Happy New Year!!!


I know I'm a little early with my "Happy New Year!" We've been closed this week and I find that I just can't stay out of the studio! I'm in that.......... Christmas is over...... time to take down the decorations, organize and do the spring cleaning mood. Out with the old and in with the new just in time for the new year!!

There are going to be so many changes this year. New house (can't wait till they're done & I can start decorating and moving in furniture...sigh!) new layout in the studio, new designs (of course, and by the way the new quilt pattern shown above is called Susan's Dresden Garden and will be available next month some time. The fabric line used is by April Cornell for MODA and is called Nature's Notebook. It should be new in stores right now! ), new floss to play with ( OH! JUST WAIT TILL YOU SEE THE NEW FLOSS!!!!!!!) What new floss you say????..................you'll just have to wait & see! New gardens to plant, a new market booth design (I already have it all worked out, it's going to be SO COOL!!) New products to carry (looks like we're going to be able to make scissor charms again! Yahoo!!) New ideas (OH, I love having new ideas! It's so exciting!) A full schedule of workshops planned for the year (hint.... purses!) and our first Crabapple Hill Retreat this fall! (I'm having so much fun making plans!)

So... I know I'm a little early, but I just couldn't wait.... HAPPY NEW YEAR!


xoxoxoxoxoxox! Meg

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Blue Christmas

"I-I'll...ha-have...a-a...BLUE (ooo-ooo-EEE-ooo-ooo) CHRISTMAS (ooo-ooo-EEE-ooo-ooo) without you! (ooo-ooo-EEE-ooo-ooo, ooo-ooo-EEE-ooo-ooo)

Aren't these Martha Stewart glitters and tinsel glitters yummy???? I loaded up on them... don't quite know what to DO with them yet! Maybe just hang them on the tree???
As you can see, I'm going through a "blue" phase. If it's aqua I actually go into spasms of delight!! Really embarrassing if I'm out in public when it happens! LOL!!!!
It snowed a little bit.... looks like someone dusted everything with powdered sugar doesn't it? We woke up to freezing rain this morning. It doesn't show up in the picture, but everything is coated with about 1/4" of glass! Sheila stayed home today (school closures) and Geri, our bookeeper called in and told me she's a "weenie" (her words, not mine!) and didn't want to drive out to the studio from town. I don't blame her, I'm very grateful that my commute is just a treacherous walk over from the house. I tried to walk in the snow wherever possible and not on the walkways (temporary ice skating rink!) Cindy braved the ice and drove out to do the shipping... she's such a sweetie!
This photo shows my new trees! None of that was there a couple of weeks ago. It's amazing how quickly they can put all that stuff in! In years past, Phil and I would have done it all ourselves.... many, many months and backbreaking work! If you look really closely you can see that all the stickers are still in the windows of the new house.......I'm trying to be REALLY calm about this...... we won't be able to move until late next month (well, at least that's the latest story they're giving me.... first it was September, then October, then after Christmas....see, it's getting more & more vague as time goes by!) Oh well, all the furniture hasn't arrived anyway so this was destined to happen.... that's my story & I'm sticking to it for my own peace of mind! I had really looked forward to decorating the house for Christmas. Now I'll have almost a whole year to plan for next year!!..........................was that too "Pollyanna"?

Speaking of "blue"... I just finished stitching Windflowers and sewed the borders on and sent it to Jill to quilt. When it gets home I'll stitch the mother of pearl buttons and beads to it. I found blue, aqua, aquamarine and purple saworski, sworski, sajworski..... (aw, the heck with it!)....crystals, to sew on it too.
I'm sewing together Susan's Dresden Garden. That's it above. Gracie did all the appliqued dresdens (they're so perfect and lay so flat, they look like they're printed on the fabric!) Jan, Judy, Cyndy, Sheila and I split up the stitched dresdens and then I did the center block and the mini dresdens. I'm going to sew it all together this week and then hand sew the little dresdens and the yo-yo plate centers on before we hand it over to Jill for quilting........ and yes, see! It's mostly blue!

Time to turn on the Christmas lights outside while it's still light enough to find the plug-ins!
Merry Christmas!! xox Meg