Sean's Star Wars Party

As I had mentioned in my previous post, Sean's birthday was the kickoff to a very busy month for us. So I am just now getting around to sharing some pictures with you. Sean is a huge Star Wars fan, and so for his 7th birthday we decided to have a Lego Star Wars Party. I borrowed some really cool ideas from people off the internet and we came up with some stuff ourselves. We made Yoda Soda (green punch), Wookie Cookies, Death Star Donuts, and Pretzel Lightsabers (pictured above). The party turned out wonderfully and the kids had a blast! Derrick created the R2-D2 out of a trash can and some foam - pretty cool huh?

This is a picture of the kids in their costumes. Don't you just love baby Andrew as Yoda?!

Derrick created very large Luke and Darth Vader Lego characters. He's very artistic, that hubby of mine.

Derrick also made the Death Star Pinata and Lightsaber pinata stick.

Here are Sean, Juliet and Luke (with his lightsaber!) in the landspeeder that Derrick constructed.

The Nutcracker

Hello everyone! I admit that I have been a bad blogger as of late. I hope that you all have had a wonderful holiday. It has been such a busy month for our family. My son Sean's birthday was in late November followed by Thanksgiving. And then December was packed with all the usual holiday activities, including Juliet's participation in her ballet company's production of the Nutcracker. This year she was a Party Girl, Arabian dancer, and Candy Cane. She adores the Nutcracker and it is truly a joy for us as a family to watch her.

Strawberry Shortcake

Strawberry Shortcake will be the first released in the Cottage Cakes series, so I wanted you all to have a little closer look at it :)

Country Cottage Cakes

We are proud to introduce our newest line of Thread Packs with Crescent Colours called Country Cottage Cakes. Each cake is approximately 7" square and comes with 5 skeins of Crescent Colours cotton thread in the pack. These are the largest size Thread Packs that we have done to date, which means you are getting a very nice sized finished design.

You can stitch just one cake or several together - it's completely up to you! You can look on my website on the Thread Packs page for more details about these upcoming designs.

Snowflake Serenade

I'm so excited to show you all this new design! It is called Snowflake Serenade and is the last of the holiday themed designs from CCN this year. It also happens to be my personal favorite! I just love decorating with blues and greens and whites during the holidays. And the snowflake frame from The Family Tree is such a perfect match for the piece. The complete information for this design will be on my website in about a week, right around the time the patterns ship out to the distributors, so be sure to check in!

Joy * Love * Peace

As promised, here is the second of our two new holiday themed designs. This one is entitled Joy * Love * Peace and is similar in theme and coloring to our ornament Merry & Bright that is appearing in the Just Cross Stitch Ornament Issue this year. I just love pinks and greens in holiday decorating, and I know that some of you do too! So I hope that you'll enjoy this one. It is shipping at the same time as Christmas Carols. All the details about both designs will be available on my website later next week.

Christmas Carols

It is officially the beginning of holiday stitching at CCN! Christmas Carols is the first of two new holiday designs that I will be releasing later this month. The designs will ship to the distributors later next week and will be available in your shops either late October or early November. Look for a picture of Joy * Love * Peace to debut in a couple of days. Happy Holiday Stitching everyone!

My Little Cub Scout

So, I just have to tell you how proud I am of my little man, Sean. He is an official Cub Scout now! He just earned his Bobcat Badge last night, which is the first of many patches he will be earning. I am actually in awe of the number of achievments and patches that the boys can earn - I had no idea!

This is a picture of him selling popcorn in front of Sunflower Market. Popcorn is the Boy Scout equivalent of Girl Scout Cookies, which is to say their biggest fundraiser of the year.

He's really enjoying all the activities and just loves getting to wear his uniform. So cute!!

Go Wildcats!!!

So for the first time ever, we have season tickets to the University of Arizona Wildcats football games this year. So exciting! We used to go more when I was in college (and sit in the cheap student section!) but we decided to really make an effort to go to the games this season.
This past Saturday night, Derrick, Sean, me, and my dad went to the game. And what a game it was, as our Wildcats upset Iowa 34 to 27!

This picture shows Sean while he was still happy and awake. Poor guy fell asleep on the bleachers as the game stretched on into the night!

Pumpkin Cottage

For those of you who have been waiting, here is the full picture of Pumpkin Cottage! I hope you all like it, as it is a very "cottage" take on a fall design. I'm a big fan of using lighter colors in fall decorating, but I'm sure that doesn't really surprise anyone! The patterns for this design are being shipped today so you can look for them to appear at your LNS either later this month or early October. And for all the details about the pattern, head on over to my website.

Sneak Peek!

For everyone who is ready for a little taste of fall, here is a sneak peek of Pumpkin Cottage! This design will be shipping to distributor's in a couple of weeks, so look for it in shops towards the end of this month. I will also post a complete picture of the design in a couple of weeks, so keep a look out!

Even here in the Tucson desert we can tell that fall is approaching, as our evenings and mornings have (thankfully!) begun to cool down a bit.

Two New Patterns!

So here are the final two patterns in our Cottage Kids Nursery Rhyme Collection. They are Little Miss Muffet and Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater! You can see the entire collection of six together on the Cottage Kids page under "Nursery Rhymes" on my website. I think there are a lot of possibilities for this little collection as far as finishing goes. They could be finished as cubes to reflect a kind of nursery, building block feeling. Or they could be stitched into blocks for a baby quilt or a wall hanging. I've also heard the idea of finishing them as a little nursery rhyme book. Lots of ideas and I'm sure you can come up with even more! In any case, I hope you enjoy them because I've had lots of fun designing them!

Attention Annette: Winner of the Summer Giveaway

Hi Annette,

I have not yet received your address and pattern choice. Please email me at CottageStitching@msn.com so that I can mail you your pattern. Thanks!

And the Winners Are . . .

The random number finder has picked our two winners and they are: Jane from the U.K. (seventh post from the top) and Annette - My Life in Stitches (twelfth post from the top). Both of you will need to email me at CottageStitching@msn.com with your pattern choice and address by Monday. Congratulations to our winners and thank you to everyone who entered!

Summer Giveaway!

While it is still terribly hot here in the desert of Arizona, "summer" as a concept is coming quickly to an end for me. My kids are going back to school this coming Thursday, which of course is both exciting and sad for them (and me!) at the same time. And so to celebrate the end of summer, I am having a giveaway! I will choose two winners who can each choose one of three of my summer themed patterns to have. The choices are Summer at the Shore, Beach Cottage, or She Sells Seashells. All you have to do is respond to this post and I will enter you in the drawing. The winners will be announced Friday July 6th at about 7:00 a.m. my time. Good luck everyone!

Fall Festival

For everyone that's looking for a little relief from the summer heat, how about stitching the Fall Festival? This is the last in the series of seasonally inspired thread packs that I have designed and distributed with Crescent Colours. I have enjoyed designing each of these in the series and hope that some of you out there have enjoyed stitching them as well. Take a look over on my website on the "Thread Pack" page for more information about this series.

Summer Vacation

As you all know, I've got a thing for the beach. And as a family one of our favorite vacation spots is San Diego, which is where we have been for the past week. We had a great time visiting Legoland, Sea World, the San Diego Zoo, and of course the beach. So I thought I'd share a couple pictures with you.

Juliet loves animals and so she really liked Sea World and the zoo. This is a picture of her holding a star fish in one of Sea World's tide pools.

Sean is a Lego fanatic so this is a picture of him in front of a Lego workroom in Legoland. I don't think we'd ever get him out if he had a chance to go in there and build!

One of My Favorite Things

So, have you ever wondered about my blog list, and why all the party blogs? The answer is that I am obsessed! I love love love throwing parties (as anyone who knows me will attest to!) I love everything from the planning to the decorating, from the food to the music - and everything in between. That has to be why the Sweet Treats thread packs are one of my favorite designs. Any one of these treats look like they could show up as dessert at one of my parties. If only my cake decorating talents could match that of my stitching!

My Kids

So my mom has been playing (and learning!) a lot with her camera recently. This is of course to my benefit since she uses my kids as her models, and then I get lots of great pictures of them! She took this picture of Juliet, Sean and Luke that I just love.

Happy 4th of July!

I hope that everyone has a wonderful 4th of July this weekend, filled with family, good food, and hopefully some fireworks! I'm not sure what our plans are yet but I know that we will be spending time together as a family. I attached this picture of "Bless Our Home" as it seemed a fitting theme for a time when we love to celebrate all that is American. So be safe and have fun everyone, and may all your homes be blessed as well!

Our Puppy

Those of you familiar with my mom's blog have of course learned that we have a couple of golden retreiver pups. They are brother and sister and my parents have Gracie and we have Luke. Both of their very favorite thing in the world is to be around each other. This picture was taken on what was a great day for Luke. He is relaxing in the shade in my parents' back yard after an exhausting morning of tumbling around with Gracie. For him, life just doesn't get much better :)

Just Cross Stitch Ornament

Straight from the pages of the Just Cross Stitch Ornament Preview Issue, here is a picture of my ornament, Season of Love. My mom and I had fun coordinating our ornaments with a gingerbread theme for this issue. I hope you enjoy them!

My Little Nephew

Here is little Andrew! What a cutie he is, don't you think? I love getting to hold babies - they just feel so good in your arms. My kids are in love with him too. Sean has always liked babies, and even Juliet (who has never liked babies!) adores him. They just love how soft and tiny he is. And they just laugh when I tell them how I was never able to see them when they were this small because they were such big babies! Juliet was 9.1 pounds and Sean was 9.8 pounds. So we're all just enjoying this little guy right now :)

New Stuff!

So here are the complete pictures of the new designs, Summer at the Shore and Mary Mary Quite Contrary. I'm particularly in love with Summer at the Shore because I wish that I could really spend my whole summer there! Just put me at the beach and I'm happy! I think that Mary Mary is a nice addition to the Nursery Rhyme Collection as well. She will be joined by Little Miss Muffet and Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater in the next couple of months to complete that series. All the details about the new designs are available on my website.

You can also see a new ornament that I've designed called Season of Love in the Just Cross Stitch Ornament Preview Issue. It has a gingerbread theme that compliments my mom's ornament that is in the issue as well.

And finally, I would like to thank all of you who have so warmly welcomed me into blogland and left such nice comments on my posts. I really like hearing from you and hope you continue to check in here on my blog!

Recital Time!

So, my very busy week with Juliet's dance recital is over, and I have to admit I'm a little sad. I loved watching her perform but knowing it was the last time she would do those dances was a little bittersweet. Before too long though, they'll be working on dances for next year, and I can't wait to see what she'll do next!

She of course had a great time with her friends. You can always count on a bunch of 8 year old girls for lots of excitement and drama!

Busy Week!

It has been such a busy week! As many of you know who follow my mom's blog, my nephew Andrew was born yesterday. He is such a cute little baby. I got to see him and hold him yesterday and can't wait till I get to again!

Also, my daughter Juliet has her summer dance recital this weekend, so we will be very busy down at the theater the rest of this week. It's lots of fun but also very tiring!

And finally, I have a little snippet of Mary Mary Quite Contrary for you to see. I think she's so cute standing in her little garden.

My New Blog

Hello everyone. . . . I have finally started a blog! My first post is a preview of an upcoming design called Summer at the Shore. I love all things beachy and blue, don't you?

I also have another nursery rhyme coming out at the same time. Mary Mary Quite Contrary is the fourth design in my collection. I'll post a photo preview of that too in a day or so.


Thanks for stopping by!