Sheep in the Meadow

To kick off the new year, I thought I'd give you all a picture of my newest design! It is entitled Sheep in the Meadow and will be shipping to distributors mid January. All of the design details will be available on my website around the same time. This is a very sweet, springy design - perhaps the perfect thing to stitch when it's very cold and you're wishing for a preview of spring! You can also check back here in a couple of days when I will also be posting a picture of my other design I will be releasing, Bunny Hop.

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.