Merry Christmas

 To each and every one, one and all~ from the Dollyes & me~ we hope you all have the Merriest Christmas ever, and a New Year filled with Joy, Love & Peace

On Stands in Januray 2018

Prims Winter 2018

 I am honored to be in the upcoming issue of Prims Magazine, and even moreso to have my name on the cover. This next issue is the best yet, and along with my little story of Minie & Moxie I am in a couple of the interview pages. I was included in the very first issue of  Prims when it came out, and it has been really fun to see the issue grow to what it is now.

 If you have a subscription to Prims, you should be getting your issue any time now,  and if not, it will be on news stands and in bookstores like Barnes & Noble on January 1st....I cordially invite you to come to High Tea with Minie, Moxie & I! 

on eBay this week!

12 Spool Flemish Spool Palette

   My last offering before Christmas~ if you would like to see more views or perhaps place a bid, you can find it here, or click the sidebar link to my eBay specials. 

Blog Only Special!

 6 Merrie Christmas Snow Angels to offer~

Merry Christmas!  I have been working like crazy to get orders out, dollys too! I managed to fit these little cutie pies in ~ they are mischievous little squirts! That number 4....got to watch that one...in every picture~ there she was, poking her head out! Hand made with love, these will sit alone by themselves (a festive little winter companion to your tea or sewing table....they will be nice and not tangle any threads)..or they can watch & sing over your Christmas tree~( I just turn up a branch and fir their cone body over it). Mache heads are painted and bathed in a thick coating of real mica flakes, each wears a white German crepe paper gown sprinkled with gold foil Dresden stars over a hand stitched card cone body.  The edging on their cones & beautiful heavy wings are German gold foil Dresden as well. 

All are trimmed in silver tinsel,  signed, numbered and dated inside the cones & on the back of their necks
.

 Little Snow Angels are each a little different~ looking up or to the side, some sway or tilt~ all are 75.00 each, including shipping within the USA. If you would like to purchase one, and are not in the US, I will invoice you for half our international shipping before sending your angel on to you in a small flat rate Priority mail box.

There is only one of each available~  

Sold~ thankyou so much!

Sold~ thankyou so much!

Sold~ thankyou so much!!! 

Snow Angel 4 is the 'peeker'...while Snow Angel 5 is looking left....

Sold~ Thankyou so much! 

Sold! Thankyou so much!

Sold~ thankyou so much!

Thankyou for visiting!

One eBay this week!

A Posey of Roses for Christmas

I really loved the round rose thread winder I sold a bit ago so I decided to make a palette set with similar posies. I kept the red & green colours and think, tho they are roses...it looks quite Christmassey! If you would like to see it in more detail, and perhaps place a much appreciated bid, you can see it here on eBay.

Merry Christmas!

Happy Sunday!

It's Half....& Half  Time!

  Happy Sunday All! Well, it must be Christmas time...we finished putting up the trees today. It's 3.40....on Sunday, not much time left for stitching, but I am going to try and get a sleeve worked for one of my angels on my casket...havent put in a stitch in over a week and that actually makes me rather grumpy. I am celebrating getting the two trees up in the gallery with a  half & half in my favorite Harrods cup. Half eggnog, and half Piehole Pecan Pie whiskey~ ohhh my golly is it good. If you have never tried Piehole Whiskey....you are missing out. I dont care for Apple or Cherry...but the Pecan Pie, tastes exactly like a pecan pie....mmmmm.....tis the season to be Merry!

 I put up two trees in the gallery this year, this one is only glass ornaments~ I left all the pictures today big, so you can see all the pretty ornaments. The Christmas Tree, is my favorite part of Christmas, for they hold all my most precious memories.

 This trees especially, save for a couple very precious glass ornaments that have been gifted me, and my Hummels, this tree is most Dear~ these are all ornaments made by my family, many now gone. There are some cuties I have made too...and both Flemish Fantasy & Winter Queen joined the party this year~ they fit right in!

Speaking of Winter Queen~ (doesn't she look so pretty)...if you have a kit on your wish list, you only have until Dec 31st to get one~ she's almost gone! You can find out more about her here.

Last on my UK trip

About That Time Machine......

 I hope ya'll have enjoyed visiting the UK & France with me on the blog. I took literally thousands of pictures....and for the next trip....I will get me a new camera! (Did I tell you that 2 weeks before I was set to leave, I dropped my Nikon and broke it? I had to bend the outer case back so it would turn on....it was horrible! But I made do....I love Nikon cameras...if mine could get stuck round a dogs neck and zoomed thru the house crashing into everything, and still somewhat work...they have my patronage till the end of time)

The second half of my free day on Wednesday during school was spent in the beautiful Cotswolds. For lunch, we stopped over in Lacock village.  What is amazing about Lacock, is that just about the entire village is owned by the National Trust...but the descendants of the original villagers still live there. The village dates from the 13th century~ I know they have electricity, but I am unsure if they have indoor plumbing...I am thinking they do not.  If the cars weren't there, one would think they walked back in time several hundred years.....I was totally at home.

If some of these buildings look familiar to you, thats because Lacock is a favorite backdrop for many movies over the years~ Harry Potter being one of them. 

 I really loved the colors~ and the textures. Everything has such character~ it is really magical to just stand there, and take it all in. To know, that what my eyes are looking at, has not changed for centuries.

 I I didnt want to spend my time in Lacock sitting in the Red Lion eating, so I grabbed a quick, but really awesome sandwich from the  Lacock Bakery 

Every home, every sight the eye can see, is a picture perfect postcard. :::::sigh::::: just look at this trailing rose....hello! Beautiful!

 Of coarse one cannot go to Lacock without visiting the famous Lacock Abbey.  The link I just posted has a beautiful view of the entire thing, built in 1232 if I remember right~ they were currently filming a series there, so blue tents were set up on the greens...and the famous Cloisters seen in Harry Potter were closed, as thats where the filming was taking place.

 The cloisters can be seen from the outside here, the courtyard you may recognize as Madame Hooch's Flying School scenes in Harry Potter were filmed here.

 Harry Potter & Dumbledore were filmed walking down the streets here in front of this pub

 These yellow roses just took my breath away~ I could literally just sit here and stare at them all day long, literally, I really mean it.

Does this home look familiar? It was used for Harry Potter's parent's home in the movies.  After Lunch and time to mingle in Lacock, we were off to another early village~ 

Welcome to Castle Combe

 Known as the prettiest village in England, it easy to see why....

 The shops and residences open straight away onto the streets, everyone has such beautiful gardens! And yes, it is as quiet and peaceful as it looks. There are no cars in the pictures because there is no parking ~ we parked in a lot to the edge of the village and walked in

 Oh. my. Golly.  Can I please have my home built over the road....please

 I would like to know, how old this rose is? I really wanted to knock on the door and ask...but didnt want to seem like a rude foreigner, so I didnt.

 One of the interesting features, if you want to call it that, of some of the homes, were the witch crosses...if not pointed out, one would never know what they were looking at. In medieval times they did very much believe in witches, and beneath the stone ball finial at the crest of the roof here, you can just make out 3 prongs of a cross. From below, they look like a normal base to the finial, but from above, they are seen as a cross. Witches flying overhead could see them and not be able to enter the home.

I wish there was space here for all my pictures! These were just some of my favorites~ it was such an enjoyable time for me, I am very much looking forward to going back in 2019...

Happy Thanksgiving

May A Very Blessed Day Ye Have~

 Happy Thanksgiving! My daughter has to work today, so we are having our Thanksgiving Day celebrations tomorrow, but I wish all of  ya'll a wonderful, Happy Daye filled with friends, family & food! I get too emotional to ever say Grace on Thanksgiving,  because when my mind tries to condense all that I am thankful for into words, I just start to cry. I am thankful for each and every day on this earth, no matter how good, or bad it is~ and all the people in it, for you all have helped to make me who I am today. 

May we all have Love & Peace...Love & Peace

If you would like an interesting read on what foods were served at the first Thanksgiving, here is a short little article by National Geographic

It's so Dark....

Makes me Want to Hibernate

I don't know what is up with it being so dark lately...but I don't like it. Here in southern Colorado, its midnight dark by 5pm! Depressing. I don't remember it getting so dark, so early last year.... Its hard to get things done when all I want to do is sleep. I have been working very hard tho, tho at the moment it doesnt look like I have anything to show for it. Last weekend I worked the four butterflies on the top panel of my flat top casket...so this weekend I was super excited to get to start my two angels. Their wings are a big focal point~ each feather I am working separately.  I drew in lightly with pencil where each feather would go....eventually.

 So there's not much to show for an entire weekend of work...the two angel busts are attached now...but thats about it.  You can see their poor feet dangling on the panel~ I just have them pinned in....not sure if they will even have feet or not yet....

 The entire weekend, just about, I spent working 2 pieces of needle weaving....for portions of their gowns. I wanted them to be open and kind of lacey...so made up my own stitch. The second piece has more open areas, so they both wont be totally the same. It was fun, but took what seemed like eons...

 I have been working like crazy out in the shop trying to get orders filled for Christmas, and working on orders due in January and Feb(I just can't crank out things in a day)....I think it is hard for people to really understand how much time and effort I put into my work....so I took a few pictures of the shop yesterday to try and maybe show why ya'll have to wait for things.  When you open up one of my kits and see all the cut and portioned threads....they didnt arrive like that! We had to measure, cut, package and label each and every container....me...myself and I. We have a great time doing it...but it takes time.  Oh...and that awesome picture on the cover....of the finished model....we stitched that too, so that we can write you the most complete stitching instructions possible. We make an awesome team, ....me, myself, and I...but we can only do so much in a day.

 The wood for my stitching tools I mill myself...we are planing down stock for padded mirror cases in the picture above.... Each and every hole on a thread palette, gets drilled not once, but twice~ once from the front, half way, and then again from the back, so there is no tear out....same goes for holes in the slats of my slate frames....there are 48 holes on a single large slat, so 96 holes per large slate frame, drilled twice is 196 holes I have to drill for one large slate frame....then they all get sanded.....and yes, each and every hole I drill, gets sanded inside the hole!  When you see a shaped thread winder...I cut out each and every one, myself, on a scroll saw. If it's a circle.....dont even dare think I use some hole saw jig....absolutely not~ I cut that sucker out freehand, absolutely.

 Speaking of slate frames.... I had a visitor to the shop the other day see this stack of frames I have to make the mortise & tenon joints for, and he says...'so you use a mortising bit on a router for those I been thinking about getting one'   To which I replied, "no~ I dont use power tools for my slate frames~ theyre too small. A power bit has too much power and bends in the wood when its this small~ I use rasps and a chisel."  ...He didn't believe me until I showed him, to which I then got the~ you are crazy comment. Its  what I do~ I enjoy the process just as much as I enjoy the finished product.

I wanted to have a slide top spool box ready for eBay this weekend...I got the box done, but not painted, so it will be coming soon! I am also working on some regular spool palettes for those of you who dont want a hole box. Here are three sets of spindles....and yes, I make them too~
  

 It took an entire afternoon, and I mean an entire afternoon to sand and shape the tops of the spindles!

 I have been working on some new designs in between other things. Got in some new wood, this is quarter sawn sycamore, and I love love love the design of the grain~ its only achievable by sawing the wood this way.  I have been wanting to make this shape of a thread winder for a while~ I have to have a steady hand on my saw....it's a replica of a c1840 winder...coming to eBay this week!

 As you can see, we(me, myself and I) have all sorts of things going at once...while some things are getting clamped...I work on something else....everyone is patiently waiting for their turn!

 Ok...I'm so excited about it, here is a peek of the thread winder going on eBay this week! For me, this is the best winder I have made to date~ I have been experimenting with different finishes to try and get a more Early American looking finish to my work, and finally, finally have a lacquer based finish that I am super super happy with. Its strong and super smooth to the touch. The varnish I have been using sometimes can feel tacky to the touch after fully cured~ which was just the nature of the varnish...I have been trying to get my finish to look and feel like a hand rubbed and worn finish....and finally, success! I know ya'll will be as happy with it as I am....not to mention the colors of the design~ these are water colours folks!

And if all that wasnt enough to keep me busy... husband decided to throw a new puppy into my day. We lost our beloved Yetti on the 4th of July, and well...I really wasnt ready for another Pyrenees yet....any puppy for that matter. But what can you do~ that wicked little face is so cute. I personally wanted to name him 'White Devil'....because he tears around the house, eats everything in sight...my shoes, the kids shoes....pots, pans...I caught him chewing up tiles from the floor the other day :::sigh:::  ...but alas, his name is Yukon, so everyone~ say hello to Yukon....he wont be little little for long!