Happy New Year!!!

Happy 2008 everyone!!

I wish you all joy and prosperity and an abundance of creative muse in the coming new year!

~Annie

ATS progress and a Valentine!

Here is my progress on And They Sinned. Tomorrow I hope to get to the center angel.

And I thought I would share my rough draft of my bunny valentine design. This is just a rough. You can see I still have some spacing and colors to work out, but it is coming along nicely, don't you think? Tomorrow I will transfer it to bristol board and try to get the spacing on the left side and the lettering into better shape.

A tiny bit more!

And They Sinned

Well, I have absolutely "NO" business starting anything new, but, when did that ever stop me? hehe!
Here is my very little bit of progress on And They Sinned by Examplars from the Heart. I ordered my sampler threads from Stitching Bits and Bobs, which is notoriously slow to ship, so who knows when they will ever get here, But I pulled what I had from my stash and that is enough to make a start. I have wanted to stitch this sampler F_O_R_E_V_E_R!!! So I am excited to finally begin. It is on 35 ct. elegant bean from Elegant Stitch. I am using Gentle Art sampler threads, which is what the pattern calls for.
For those of you unfamiliar with this sampler, it is 5 feet long when finished!

I've been tagged!

I've been tagged by Sharon Stevens of Mustard Seed Originals(hi Sharon!!) to post 5 random things about myself, so here goes!

1.I married my high school sweetheart. We actually went to prom together, and I have a picture of us all dressed up and goofy lookin! We had a great time!

2.I have a severe purse fetish. I love purses of all kinds from designer to quirky. I will not count all that I have, lets just leave it at that!

3.I love NFL football. I will watch any game, anytime. My favorite Sunday afternoon activity is to watch football, drink margaritas, and work on some sort of stitching or sewing project. I usually watch with my boys and husband, and Sunday is order out pizza day!

4.I am addicted to Chai Tea Latte'! I started drinking tea as a way to get less caffeine in my life-I have been a coffee drinker since I was about 17. Now I only drink coffee in the morning and its tea for me in the afternoons!

5.I love the idea of organization. I love to read books about it, websites, flylady, what have you. However I never seem to be able to sustain it in real life!

25 Christmas Questions

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Both.
2. Real tree or artificial? Artificial. My hubby insists, or I would have real. This year we bought a pre-lit tree and it really is beautiful. I hate putting lights on.
   
3. When do you put up the tree? The Sunday after Thanksgiving.
4. When do you take the tree down? After the feast of the Epiphany-Jan.6.
   
5. Do you like egg nog? Love it! Especially with a little Bailey's! "wink!"
   
6. Favorite gift received as a child? Victoria! A beautiful Madam Alexander baby doll.
7. Do you have a nativity scene? Yes, of course!
   
8. Hardest person to buy for? My brother who is a catholic priest.
   
9. Easiest person to buy for? My two daughters. I could buy stuff for them all day!
   
10. Mail or e-mail Christmas cards? Handmade in the mail.
11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? I love everything anyone ever takes the time to pick out for me. However I always do really badly in grab-bags!
    
12. Favorite Christmas movie?It's a Wonderful Life, followed closely by Meet Me in St. Louis.
    
13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? After Thanksgiving.
    
14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? Yes.
15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? One of my brother's parishioners always gives him a tin of the absolute best cookies ever made, anywhere, anytime. I can't even describe!
    
16. Clear lights or colored on the tree? Colored this year, I have done both. I actually prefer white, but my kids have protested and my cute little primitive tree and ornies have been put aside in favor of the traditional.
    
17. Favorite Christmas song? "The Christmas Song"
18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? Stay in town.
    
19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer? Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comit, Cupid, Donner, and Blitzen, and of course old twinkle -nose!
    
20. Angel on the tree top or a star? Star
21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? With my extended family on Christmas eve, and at home with the immediate family on Christmas morning.
    
22. Most annoying thing about this time of year? This sounds really bad, but its the people who come to church who never come the rest of the year. They are noisy and disrespectful, and make it very hard to concentrate on the mass. But I always try to be nice and welcoming anyway. Last year there were 3 teenagers in front of me, one was reading a magazine, one could not stop whispering and bugging her sisters and one was knitting!
23. Favorite ornament theme or color? I have an extensive snowman collection!
    
24. Favorite thing for Christmas dinner? Whatever. I never cook, so I am happy with whatever my family makes.
    
25. What do you want for Christmas this year? For a couple of peaceful hours with my family to enjoy each others company.

Also, I was the lucky recipient of a hand stamped Christmas card and old willow thread from Belgium! Thank you SO much, who ever you are!!

Long time-no blog!

Oh I've been a bad bad girl! I haven't posted or read my blog(s) is so long! I have been so busy with all of the activities of the season, and both my sons sport schedules have really heated up in December. Also my mother has just gotten over a horrible staff infection-which lasted for weeks and involved many trips back and forth to the doctor. So its been busy, busy, busy! But I am done with my Christmas shopping and just have this little half day before my youngest is off for Christmas vacation for the next 2 weeks.
I have been busy this season making hand made cards-what fun! I have a good friend who is a Stampin up demonstrator and of course she got me addicted. (it wasn't that hard, I am an easy target!)




I have also been slowly working on my next model. I say slowly, as I just don't seem to be able to sit down and work on it. Too much stuff going on. But I am nearly done, and then I will have 2 new charts to release in January. Here's a sneek peek of "I love Ewe"!



I am hoping in the year 2008 to really start cranking out some stuff. I have learned punch needle now pretty well, after a couple of Punch and Cookie sessions at my LNS.(I didn't really need more than one session-it is that easy to learn, but I found I enjoyed the company). So I hope to produce some cute punchneedle designs. Also, I hear the wool calling to me, so I think I will be doing some wool applique and some rug hooking in the fututre.I am hoping to release some designs in January and then concentrate on some new stuff for the April Online Needlework Show, and in between sell some handcrafted stuff on ebay. As you can see, what really plagues me is my desire to have my fingers in dozens of different pies! But it keeps me busy and excited!

Merry Christmas to all of you who are of that persuasion, and Happy Holidays to those of you who aren't. I hope you all enjoy the warmth of this season as I am lucky enough to do with my family and friends!

Wonderland by Trilogy

I have been stitching! I promise! I completed this design for my secret stitcher at my guild. She doesn't read my blog(that I know of). I gave it to her last night at our Christmas party. She seemed to like it. Its fun to watch her open it incognito!

I finished it using the directions found here. Love the little button accents, don't you? I will definitely be finishing more pillows in this way.

Winter Wonderland

House #3 of Hawk Run Hollow

I finally finished the third house of Houses of Hawk Run Hollow. I needed to take a little break from my model stitching and Christmas stitching, and this block was almost done. I hope I can find time to work on this in 2008. It really would be nice to get it done. I started it in 2005!

Trying to figure it out

I've been to the doctor today to have my blood drawn. I am supposed to do this every 3 months for my thyroid but I am late this time. I think something is up because I feel terrible. I am exhausted by 11 in the morning and I have body aches every day. On friday I will meet with my physician and discuss these horrible symptoms. Hopefully we can figure it out cuz I can't function like this.
So sorry about the lack of updates on my wednesday feature, workbasket wednesday. I just haven't been able to get it together. Hopefully when I feel better I will be able to get back to it.
One positive thing about all of this is that I am getting quite a bit of stitching done.
I have a new model finished and am about 1/3 finished with another one. I also finished a little Shepherd's Bush kit and I'm halfway through a Christmas kit by Trilogy. So all is not a total loss.

Halloween punchneedle

I went to my local needlework store's punch and cookie night and learned the art of punchneedle. It is really fun and addicting. Here is the first design I did. Then I punched another design that I already have at home.

And finally, a picture of the awesome gift I received at my EGA group from my secret stitcher. I just love it, it's so cute!

A little Chicago football Halloween humor!

Chicago Bear's coach Lovie Smith's house was bombed with eggs! About a dozen eggs seem to have been thrown.
2 went over the house.
1 landed on the roof.
About 3 were in his yard to the left, and a few more were in the front yard, didn't even make it to the house.

Only 1 or 2 actually hit the front door.

The prime suspect?

Rex Grossman!

Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!

New charts!

Well I've been nuts getting ready for the Online Needlework Show, but its so much fun isn't it? I love looking at all of the different designs and discovering new "must haves"!

Here are my 2 newest charts:
Folk Art Stocking and Crows and Pumpkins. They are not available on my website until the show is over.

Speaking of my website, I am having NOTHING but trouble with it. After all these years of smooth running, now I am having big time problems. My shopping cart is not charging for shipping. I cannot figure it out on my end, and I am getting absolutely NO HELP from Paypal. I have a distress signal in to my webmaster, and guess what! I'm getting no reply there either. I mean what the heck! I am seriously considering going wholesale only and having just a web page. I mean what am I paying for here?

Sorry, didn't mean to turn this into a gripe fest, but Wow! It can really be frustrating!

Needlework Show

Work basket Wednesdays will return next week as I am preparing for the Needlework Show which will begin October 17. Hope to see you there!

Shepherd's Bush stockings

I have been admiring a lot of the SB stockings that
are being stitched on different blogs lately. I stitched one for my son Aidan in the mid-90's.

I will be getting it out soon with my Christmas decorations and I promise to take a pic when I do.

I started looking at all of the stockings SB has now, WOW! There are tons! Some I really love! Like this one~Elisabeth's Stocking, and this one~
Reed's Stocking. Both are really nice.


















But what is with this one? Jillian's Stocking, below. Have we just forsaken the stocking shape altogether? Is this a new interpretation of the Christmas stocking-the Christmas sack? I'm confused...





However I love this design-I think it is my favorite one. I am thinking about
collecting all of the charts and embellishment packs for these to stash away for future grandchildren, as I know I will not be having more kids. (wink!)

Gorgeous day here in Chicago!

And I should be outside painting my porch. But instead I am inside working on my next model because I have decided to join the Needlework Show in October, and I want to get 2 more patterns done for it! I am so excited about doing this show and getting my designs seen by more people and more shops! Here is a little peak at whats in my hoop, I will be releasing 2 Christmas designs.

Workbasket Wednesday!

This week's tool is the Boo Boo Stick. Sadly, I use this tool a lot! But I love it because once you are done frogging out all those mistaken stitches, this little thing works wonders for getting out all of those little tiny "hairs" that are left behind. This is especially effective when you have used a black or red fiber, which can actually leave a little shadow on the fabric.

I don't know where I got this tool, I've had it for years. But if you don't have one and you ever come across it don't hesitate-its a great tool!

P.S. that sweet little blackbird is an unfinished exchange piece I received this week from Chris over at the OOE bulletin Board. It's a freebie design from Waxing Moon, isn't it cute!

Workbasket Wednesday!

This week's tool is the embroidery hoop. I love these beautiful wooden Hardwicke Manor hoops. They are made from birch, and they have a beautiful finish. They have a tightening screw made from brass, and they are very lightweight and easy to hold.

The skinniest one in my grouping I actually bought from Hobby Lobby. I was so surprised when I brought it home to see the Hardwicke stamp on the side! The finish is a little different, still smooth-perhaps a different wood? The price was a lot less, I think it was about 5 dollars.

The 2 larger hoops are 6" and 8" wide. I have wrapped the inside hoop with bandage gauze to protect my fabric. The only caution I have is to be careful when pulling your fabric taut, if the hoop is too tight it can really damage your linen, especially on the looser counts such as 28 or anything lower. Love these hoops though-try one!

Sunflowers chart is ready!

The chart for Sunflowers! is ready. You can order at my website on the stitchery page.

www.anniebeezfolkart.com

On another note, I received a wholesale catalog from Just Another Button Company yesterday, and there are just so many cute buttons to use in my designing! I'm really excited about the idea of doing a cute Christmas stocking using some of their buttons. Well, more later!

Sunflowers

My newest offering is Sunflowers! The chart will be ready early next week. I am so happy with the way the framing came out, the frame is absolutely perfect! My daughter Chelsea said it looks exactly like me-she called it "happy folky!" Click on the picture for a close up. Thanks so much for looking!

Workbasket Wednesday!

This weeks tool of the week is "My Favorite Doololly". I love this little gadget!

If you are like me, when you turn over your project the back is littered with little thread "tails"! Either you left a long tail when you began your thread, or you only ran it under a few stitches when you ended it. The solution for a quick tidying up of the back of your piece is this little tool. You run the loop end(the part that looks like a needle threader) under several stitches, then you use the little hook to pull the thread tail through the loop. Pull the loop through the stitches and your tail is secure! Who ever came up with the idea for this little gem is a genius! I love this little thing and keep it on hand wherever I take my stitching.

Such a busy weekend!!

We had relatives visiting from out of town, and they were kind enough to watch the kids while Gary and I went out to dinner Friday night~alone! I cannot remember the last time we had a date like that! It was really nice.





Saturday morning Isabel and I had the girls leadership club. This is an awesome thing where girls come and do a craft, which I help my really talented friend Elda organize, and then some teenage girls do a little virtue talk. There is nothing like a teenage girl to get the attention of younger girls-it is a wonderful mentoring opportunity. Saturday's talk was about friendship, they talked about how to be a good friend and not gossip, etc. the teenage girls put the talk together themselves and then answer questions and give advice. It is really cool. We had the girls make a journal using Stampin Up supplies, they all came out SO cute! During this time all of the Mom's get together in a separate room and listen to an adult virtue talk, very inspirational and designed to speak to the spirituality of mothers. The whole thing is very cool!

Then it was off to Isabel's first soccer game of the season (which they lost 2-1), and later that night the Back-to-School Sock Hop! which was a blast! Sunday was of course-All Football All the Time!!(along with a mountain of laundry and plenty of stitching time thrown in!) Fun weekend-now I need a nap! haha!

Another little tease!

This is a little part of a chart that should be ready by the end of the week. It is the first in a series of samplers reflecting the seasons and done on this pretty misty blue linen. I can't wait to show you the whole thing!

Design teaser!

Here is just a small sample of what is currently in my hoop. This will be an upcoming Fall release. Thanks for lookin'!

Workbasket Wednesday!

Wednesday is hump day here in America. A day right in the middle, easily the dullest day in the work week. Not early enough in the week to feel ambitious, and not late enough in the week to start looking forward to the weekend. Its the hump you have to get over. So in celebration of hump day, I am starting a new weekly post called Work Basket Wednesday. Each Wednesday I will feature a different tool from my work basket, why I like it, how I use and and where I got it. I think every embroiderer has their tried and true tools that they just can't live without, and I thought I would share mine. Maybe you will see something you don't have, and need, or maybe you have something that does the job even better. Feel free to post any and all comments!

I have decided to start this off with the workbasket itself. This is the little sewing box that I use every day. It is a fabric covered box that I made myself, from one of those oval shaped paper mache boxes you can buy at the craft store. I covered it with a pretty green floral fabric that I like, and made a matching pin cushion. What I like about this box is that I can turn the lid upside down and it acts as sort of a handy little tray that I put all of my tools, threads and pincushion on. No more losing scissors or needles. I am a many-needled-embroiderer! Meaning that I like to have a needle threaded in each color I am working with, so this little tray-pincushion combination works great for me.

I have left my pincushion messy so you can see how I work-all of those needles are for a single project. When I am done for the day, everything on the tray goes inside the box and I pop the lid on and everything is safe and sound until the next stitching session!

What city do you belong in?

You Belong in Paris

Stylish and expressive, you were meant for Paris. The art, the fashion, the wine! Whether you're enjoying the cafe life or a beautiful park... You'll love living in the most chic place on earth.

What City Do You Belong In?

Margaret Rose on Ebay!

Check out all of the details!

Colonial Home~my second offering!

Here is my second chart~Colonial Home! This is finished as a sewing box, but you could frame it in an oval frame as well. The initials are my husband's and mine and the year we were married! NOT! OK the year we were married give or take a couple of centuries!

Just click on the picture to get a really great close-up view of the box.

Edited to say: patterns are available to order at my website on the Stitchery page
www.anniebeezfolkart.com

A little more AOS!

I didn't have much time to stitch on Angel of Spring this weekend-football has started and Isabel had her first game as a cheerleader. She is so good at it. I'm not sure how I feel about that-she comes from a long line of uncoordinated females and geeks!-not sure where this talent came from! LOL! But she sure looked cute and did a great job, especially with the pom-pon portion.

Introducing Annie Beez Samplings

Here is my very first commercial design! It is called Cottage Sweet Cottage. It will be available early next week on my website and at a few select shops that have been kind enough to agree to carry it! I am so excited about this! Yippee!!

Mirabilia stashing!

I went to my LNS today to pick up my first original design all framed and ready for a photo shoot! I'm so excited! I promise a sneak peek tomorrow!

But while I was there I had to pick up a couple of Mirabilia charts(which I will be stitching in my sleep, obviously)! I have been looking for a mermaid chart to stitch for Chelsea and I found one! I took the advice of others and checked out Deepest Love and I fell madly for it! It's gorgeous! I also picked up Cinderella to someday stitch for Isabel.

Hilarious auction on ebay!

Any mom can relate to this one, especially if you have 4 or more kids!

Check this out! Ebay Auction

Thanks Dix! For the heads up on this one!

Model stitching and other commitments

I know this is not stitching related, but I just wanted to show you what I'm doing when I'm not stitching. This is the other compartment in my creative head. :)


Finally... I am done with my doll deadline! I am having a pattern published in Soft Dolls & Animals magazine in December, and the deadline was this week. So I have been going crazy trying to get it all together. It is a pattern for the Snow Queen above in the foreground. The finished doll has a crown and scepter and it dressed in a French style costume. I sent it off yesterday with a great *sigh* of relief. NOW!! BACK TO STITCHING-HOORAY!!


And finally...my first cross stitch design is ready at the framers. I will be picking it up on wednesday or thursday. It took forever, so I am going to have to get another framer-you know how impatient I am. :)

I am about 3/4 done with the model for my next cross stitch design too! So hopefully I will have that one finished and ready for press by the end of the month. So after what felt like a long sluggish summer is finally coming to fruition. The kids are back in school and I can breathe again! Woot!

Progress on AOS!

It's starting to look like something, right? I am really enjoying stitching this one. I got most of my 3000 word article done on friday so yesterday I felt free to indulge in a lengthy stitching session. I worked on this last evening for several hours, only taking a break to do Isabel's nails(she's such a girly-girl!). I am really enjoying this one, and I'm having trouble putting it down!
I received my order from Down Sunshine Lane yesterday which had most of the beads for this project in it. I am just waiting for a few more. I also received Mirabilia's Shimmering Mermaid, which I was going to stitch for my oldest daughter Chelsea-who is a mermaid collector. But as soon as I saw it close up I was disappointed. I have only ever seen the pattern online and I didn't realize the body was made up of geometric shapes. I just don't really care for it. So now I'm not sure if I'll stitch it or not. Probably not. So I am still on the hunt for a mermaid pattern. I will have to look at my local LNS where I can really see the patterns, and see if I can find one I really like.

Angel of Spring

I got a little more done on Angel of Spring last night.Right now it sort of looks like some kind of crazt watermelon! ha!ha! I am loving stitching this! The chart is so nice and big, its easier to follow than the Mirabilia one. Now I really have to put it aside for a few days as I have a huge deadline looming. Gotta be disciplined-darn it!

Some dolls

Here's a pic of some dolls I've been working on.
Summer is almost over, only one week left until the kids are back in school. I will miss them but at the same time I really need to be able to get back to work. It has been really hard to get anything done while they are home. Not a productive summer this year. So heres lookin' forward to a great fall!

Angel of Spring start

I can't believe I found a piece of Twilight Blue linen at Hobby Lobby in their needlework clearance section! It was the right size and on sale! So unexpectedly I was able to begin this weekend. All I have done so far doesn't look like much, but I am encouraged!I will be so happy if I can get this done in time for Christmas, which actually means November, so I have time to get it framed.

Angel of Spring

I won the Angel of Spring chart on ebay for $1.04! I received it yesterday-I got it in like 2 days! Wow! I wish some of the ONS I order from were that quick! I want to stitch this for my mom for Christmas. I know she would be blown away. This is exactly her style, she is an angel collector and her house is decorated in victorian colors. Its perfect for her. Its a huge stitch for me, 230 by 270. I don't think I've ever finished anything that big before. I would have to put everything aside and keep it as my focus piece to get it done in time, but I know she would really love it. Also, time is of the essence. Although she is in good health, she is going to be 82 this year, so ya never know.
It is stitched on 32 ct. twilight blue linen. There are 35 floss colors and 5 different colors of beads. So now I'm off to ebay to bid on some linen, I have a seller bookmarked who sell the twilight blue.

Tell me about yourself!

1. Where is your Cellphone? - pocket
2. Relationship? - married
3. Your Hair? - blonde
4. Work? - artist
   
5. Your sister? - Em
   
6. Your favorite thing? - beach
   
7. Your dream last night? - Harry Potter
   
8. Your favorite drink? - coffee
   
9. Your dream car? - cruiser
   
10. The room you’re in? - studio
    
11. Your shoes? - berkies
    
12. Your fears? - health
    
13. What do you want to be in 10 years? -thinner
    
14. Who did you hang out with this weekend? - daughter
    
15. What are you not good at? -cooking
    
16. Muffin? - banana
    
17. One of your wish list items? - ipod
    
18. Where you grew up? - Chicago
    
19. Last thing you did? - paint
    
20. What are you wearing? - yellow
    
21. What aren’t you wearing? - socks
    
22. Your pet? - cats
    
23. Your computer? - dell
    
24. Your life? - chaotic
    
25. Your mood? - stressed
    
26. Missing? - nature
    
27. What are you thinking about right now? - deadlines
    
28. Your car? - Windstar
    
29. Your kitchen? - country
    
30. Your summer? - hectic
    
31. Your favorite color? - blue
    
32. Last time you laughed? - today
    
33. Last time you cried? - Feb.11,2006
    
34. School? - nah!
    
35. Love? - yes!

A little more Fairy Flora

I got a little bit of time over the weekend to work on Fairy Flora. Wish I could work on it some more, but I have so much work to do at present. Ah well, I'm happy with what I've gotten done so far.

More stashing!

I don't know why! I am overwhelmed right now by deadlines and back to school duties(already!). Isabel has started cheerleading for the fall which is 3 nights a week, so at least there is lots of stitching time.
I have recently purchased some Lavender and Lace charts from ebay, and got just a few more stitches in on Fairy Flora last night. Here are the charts I purchased. The top is called Emma's Garden, and the next is Nantucket Rose.




I am thinking of doing Angel of Spring for my mother-who's decor is really victorian. This design would fit into her decor so well and I know she would absolutely love it! OK, I've talked myself into it! Ha! Ha!