Guardian Angels

Did you ever notice how the chapters of your life will have themes?  I began to notice years ago when I was
driving myself too hard and found myself in the middle of the "crash and total your car" theme.  Actually, I only had to do it twice before I caught on that I needed to rewrite the "screenplay" of my life but quick.

Right now, I'm finding the theme to be much more to my liking.  Twice last week it was pointed out to me by sweet clients that I am blessed with guardian angels.  Dear Clarice mentioned that, "Angels come in all shapes and sizes.  Maybe yours are mermaids and faeries."   And sweet Linda told me, "Heavenly Father was with you when you did my Angels."  I am just now working on a cross stitch for my friend Barbara that simply states, "Angels are often disguised as stitchers."  I've got to say, I do feel blessed to have fallen into an occupation that I not only love, but brings me in contact with such loving, gracious, and gentle "angels".

I adore you all.

Speaking of angels...
Today I received an e-mail with the most lovely and gracious recipient I've ever seen.  Isn't she scrumptious?
Vivienne, I hope the mermaid that your Mom stitched for you brings you a lifetime of enjoyment.

And here are more angels in rare form...

Getting personal

As most of you know, I am a fairly private person.  I don't usually share much about my daily life unless it has to do with my 3 lovely furbabies.  Today I want to share something personal.

I went for my annual mammogram a few weeks ago, and as I was getting back to the studio, I got a phone call to come back in for an ultrasound.  I went for the ultrasound a few days later and it got rather intense
after about a half an hour.  Luckily, the team at the radiology department saw the look on my face and took
pity on me.  Rather than schedule a biopsy at a later date, they all skipped their lunches and took care of it immediately.  Long story short, everything is fine.  I spoke with a surgeon a few days ago and, after yet another ultrasound, she and the radiologist have decided that it's a whole lot of nothing.  (My brain is thankful even if my pocketbook isn't!)

The reason I'm telling you this story is twofold.  First, I want to thank all of you for your kindness.  I really didn't tell very many people what was going on.  It's hard to keep appointments and deadlines when you add those pesky doctor visits into your schedule, though, so I did mention it to those of you who got the short end of the schedule.  I found, through the process, that everybody has bumps in the road.  It helped me a great deal to know that I'm in good company.  Even those of you who didn't know there was anything amiss - you kept my brain right where it should be:  creating beautiful finishes for your lovely works of art.  I couldn't have gotten through it without a busy brain.

Second, I want to beg all of you to pay attention to your bodies.  I know we all dread pap smears, mammograms and colonoscopies, but having those invasive yucky tests is a small price to pay for early detection.  Please don't skip it just because it's yucky.  Schedule it.  For me.

Now... The good stuff!

I recently completed the most lovely set of cross stitches you've ever seen.  They were patterned after an
antique set of playing cards and each was a confection in and of itself.  I've made the photos extra large in hopes that you could see the incredible bead work on each one. Yes, Megan.  We make an incredible team!

Pirates and Snowmen

I've had a few pieces lately that have just been a dream to work on.

I'm only going to show you two pieces today because they are each worthy of a long look and consideration.

The first one is the Red Lady Pirate sent in by Lori.  I think she turned out (as Lori would say) EPIC.  Lori had the foresight to send me some of the "treasures" to work with on the embellishment phase of the process.

I thought the doubloon was genius.  What a great team we make!  I don't know Lori very well, but I suspect

she's somewhat of a swashbuckling pirate lady herself.

The next piece was stitched by Darlene.  Around here we call her Darlene the Machine.  This is just one of many masterpieces Darlene has sent our way.  I wish you could see the intense detail on this piece.  The iridescent touches are delicious.  The crazy thing about this project is how generous Darlene is.  This piece was a given as a gift to her friend Pam.  Pam, you must be an extraordinary person to have someone bless you with such a gift.

Happy Easter to all of you.

Jill

Can't we all just get along?

A few weeks ago the American framing industry had quite an upheaval.  Our largest matboard manufacturer announced that it will no longer be distributing it's products through our largest framing supply distributor.  Now I don't pretend to know anything about big business (or small for that matter), but it seems to me that this is no small decision.  As I am a loyal customer to both the matboard manufacturer and the distributor, I am remaining firmly neutral on the subject.  I can see both sides of the disagreement between them and I think I feel much like a Mother who's children have irreconcilable differences and have chosen to never speak to each other again.  I love them both and will continue to have my own relationship with them.  Of course I will continue to hope that they will work out their differences, but I won't hold my breath.

The end result is yet to be seen, but I suspect the supply of matboard will be a little slower as other distributors try to adjust to the volume.  It may very well open the door for other manufacturers who were once struggling to re-establish a foothold in the market.  It's a brave new world.  I will be fascinated to see how all the pieces and parts come together.  You can be sure that Midge, Gidget, Eddie and I will all ride
the wave and continue to provide our custom mats using whatever means necessary.

Eddie is growing like a weed.  I force myself to take time to enjoy his puppyhood because I know all too
well how quickly they grow up.  He is as smart as they come.  He learned the "sit" command in one short session.  He's learned everything that Midge has to teach him and more. (mostly the naughty stuff) He rings the doorbell when he wants to go outside. (and sometimes when he's just bored)  He figured out that mommy responds well to puppy kisses to wake her up in the morning.
I finally feel that He is fully integrated into the "pack".  It's only been about two weeks ago now that I looked over to their "den" and saw this for the first time...

What a relief to know that they are now a family.

In response to the query from Joann... the Fruit Wreath is officially called Holiday Wreath by Janlynn.
I hope that helps.


Here's another batch from our "not posted yet" file.
Enjoy.
Jill

The calm between the storms

We're at that uncomfortable part of winter where the snow is still deep but it has acquired a hard crust.  It's just hard enough that the puppies can walk on the surface with ease, but not hard enough for mommy.  I just sink in up to my knees and usually lose a shoe in the process.  I'm terrified that naughty Midge will misjudge the edge of the pond and take an icy bath while I wade through three feet of snow in a desperate attempt to reach her before she freezes to death.

This is the first year I can remember having an ice storm.  No matter how much salt you put down, you really cannot take a step outside the door without landing on your bottom!  I watched some poor guy fall three times in the same spot before he figured out that the only way to make it home was to walk in the street where the cars have left some texture in the ice.

The inversion has been rough this year too.  I hate that there's a sun up there somewhere but you know you won't see it again until another storm blows through.

So just when I thought I couldn't survive one more minute of winter, I wake up to one of those sparkling days where the trees are covered in hoarfrost and the sun turns everything to diamonds.  The sky is crystal blue and the mountains shimmer as if they're showing off.  Even the garden is celebrating as I find crocuses blooming in the back corner of the garden where the snow has melted off.  Whew.  I can breathe again.  I soak in as much of the sunshine as I can because there's another storm moving in tomorrow.

There's a part of me that relishes a snow day, but the grown-up in me says, "Put on your big girl galoshes and get the shoveling done.  Ugh.

Here are some of this winter's projects that I don't think I've shown you yet. I had intended to show you all the week's work as it happens, but as I haven't posted in a while, I've forgotten when I did what.  At this point they are in no particular order.
Enjoy.
Jill

A day in the life of a furbaby.

Well, I'm pleased to say the puppy transition is going well.  My Midge is such a wild child that I knew she and Eddie would be fast friends.  Gidget, on the other hand, is still not willing to accept that he's a permanent fixture in her life.  I was worried that she would be grumpy forever, but today I caught them napping together.  She doesn't look terribly concerned that her little brother is "touching" her.

Tonight, Midge is the gang leader.  She's found a ball of twine and, well...

I still have a rather large file of "haven't put on the blog yet" pictures, so forgive me if I repeat myself.

Here are more of our creations of the season.