My Christmas Cactus is blooming early this year! and yes there are cats everywhere in my home. I had bought this piece of artwork years ago in one of the best shops at that time in La Jolla called Bo Danica. We shared the alleyway behind the needlepoint shop where I worked and it was so easy just to walk in the back door and enjoy a little retail therapy. By the way that’s where AlleyCat rescued me as she captured us with her meows and that tiny little face…and oh Bo Danica is no longer, I am sad to say.

Speaking of AlleyCat, we thank you so much from the bottom of our little paws for all of your well wishes and notes of support. Giving her pills in an adventure like non other! After I realized that she was not going to open that mouth and take the pill without a fight, I decided to cut in 1/2 and try that. You know I was thinking that I was pretty smart, but AlleyCat proved that she is smarter than I! I hid it in her cat food and she ate all around it…I then tried a piece of chicken and I thought that was working until I noticed that she spit the pill out! later I tried it in a piece of cheese and she spit that out too. Like I said she is smarter than I.

Not to give up on my challenge, I tried cutting the pill up a little smaller and buried it in the flavored cat food of the day…and that worked! and it worked again this morning, making sure that I just feed her a little to start with, so that I know that she is a member of the clean plate club.

All this pill giving stuff yesterday worked up quite an appetite for breakfast at The Cottage and a little retail therapy. It was a beautiful morning in La Jolla and I took a nice long walk as I window shopped and shopped…

I found this darling little bag! do you think that I need another bag? no…but what’s need got to do with anything? It would be great for small canvases or just to take along on my shopping trips. A few threads were added to my purchases and I was good to go.

While we are talking about cats, I remembered that I never shared these pictures with you.

That ribbon winning cat bag…I think my favorite part of this is the eyes. I remembered that one of the judges commented that I should have used more Kreinik in the eyes. I did pursue that avenue and I was challenged finding just the right colors.

and the Cat’s Night Out. I think that my ribbon needs a little ironing! Missy are you reading this?

I think the best part of getting the ribbons, are these beautifully hand stitched pieces that are awarded!

as I continue my countdown of thanks I realize that I have so much to be thankful for…

and until next time…keep on stitching

AlleyCat’s hiding her naked belly from you…which you really only see when she is sitting or showing it off when laying on her back.

She was diagnosed with irritable bowel disease… and when I asked why it’s called that? when you would think that would be issues with the litter box detail and the answer was “go figure…that’s a cat for you!”

So she will be on steroids along with another pill that I can’t even find a place to fill that script. Check the blood every so often and then soon a new diet.

The vet told me that I was a woman after his own heart after hearing that I had cancelled my travel plans for the Thanksgiving holidays for the cat. Well, she is much more than just a cat to me…and how could I leave her? I was supposed to winging my way to Missy’s to partake in her newly remodeled kitchen, adult beverages, Thanksgiving festivities, big girl drinks, lots of laughs and giggles, the monumentous dessert party on the day after and so much more. I’m sorry Missy, but you will have Colleen to help you.

So thank you for all of your emails, texts, phone calls and messages wishing us the best. Now just wish me well giving her those pills!

and until next time…keep on stitching

From the cold shoulder that I got after leaving her alone for a very long time while I took care of those d-o-g-s…

to sitting exactly where I need to be at that moment…

to that most lady like position…

I have realized that she is not getting any better with keeping food in her tummy. Granted I know that she could lose a few pounds, but that’s what you deal with when you rescue a street cat or should I say an alley cat. I love her with every inch of my soul and I realize that as much as I wanted it to be a food issue, it is not…so we are back to the vet’s today so that she can get an ultra sound. I am very worried of what they might find.

yes I know that they will shave that tummy of hers…and I promised her no pictures that will embarass her!

so my thanks today is for every moment of joy that she has brought me and how very entertaining she is, always. From that little bratty meow to her motor that purrs up a storm…

and until next time…keep on stitching

The opening of stores on Thanksgiving Day has sparked up quite the controversary. What do you think? For years and years…well too many to count, I had always worked on Thanksgiving. Working in a restaurant, well that was part of the job, you just worked holidays. But I always got the day after off. Did I go out shopping? you bet I did!

Nordstrom’s decorate their stores late night Thanksgiving night as they ready for the shopping season. Black Friday is one of the biggest shopping days of the year and stores have been opening earlier and earlier for those die hard shoppers. It can be kinda fun to be out on that day. Yes I know I am crazy!

But now many large chain stores are opening on varying hours onThanksgiving, for those really early shoppers. I have read lots of pros and cons which makes you think both ways. Of course the big outcry is let people stay home with their friends and family and enjoy the Thanksgiving Feast. On the other hand some are thrilled for the overtime pay, are thankful that they even have a job and can use the extra money. So I see both sides and I hear both sides.

So as we are busy planning our final menus and getting ready to shop for the big feast, I am thinking food! This is the last of the pictures from my Saturday Market visits while I was in Eugene.

These tomatoes make me think of Laura Taylor!

I didn’t realize that this area was such a haven for mushrooms! and so many varities that I had never seen or heard of before. I wanted to try them all…another time.

As Mooch and I continue our countdown of thanks…

I give thanks for the food that I will share with friends and family.

The kids and I were enjoying a bit of time together. No updates on you know who…I am learning that changing food needs to be a gradual change.

and until next time…keep on stitching

No trip to Oregon is complete without a stop or 2 to Mindy’s Needlepoint Factory located in the 5th St Market in Eugene, OR. I had missed her the last few times, so it was a great excuse to go back again…well come on let’s get serious I didn’t really need an excuse to go back. Anyway I was on official Needlepoint Now business as I was delivering her newest issues of the magazine.

Mindy’s is an eclectic mix of needlepoint, cross-stitch, ribbons, buttons and the wonderful clothes that Mindy herself wears so beautifully. It still amazes when I walk in and she is sitting behind the counter painting away on one of her new designs. Nothing drawn out…it is all in her head and she just paints. And she keeps painting till its just right.

I didn’t add to Mindy collection this trip as I anxiously await her new designs at market. I moved on to indulge in some retail therapy in the great shops that neighbor Mindy’s.

The 5th St Market was a festive mix of pumpkins and fall.

I am thinking that they must have had a very talented carver work their magic on these pumpkins.

They were pretty amazing!

All this walking and shopping really was hard work and I had built up quite an appetite! Time to head over to Steelhead Brewery, where they serve some of the best onion rings around…

They did not dissapoint! and the Cajun burger with guacamole was pretty good too. This picture is for you Joanne C. and I hope you made it there during your latest trip to Eugene. BTW, this is making me very hungry!

The give thanks countdown continues as Earl and Sourpuss talk about Mondays…

I was one that never hated Mondays as it was the start of a new week and what would it hold? The needlepoint shops are opened today, and guaranteed that the thread that you were stitching with…you ran out of over the weekend! So let’s go shopping.

AlleyCat is her usual mischevious, ornery, bratty self. We have been having a pretty good week, well until Satruday when she didn’t keep her breakfast down. First time I saw her vomit so soon after she ate. A few more times during the day and I am thinking maybe it’s the food. After what I have been hearing about buying grain free, no dyes, no food coloring and of course my vet was now off for the weekend…so I went kitty food shopping. All I can do is wait and hope.

and until next time…keep on stitching

Too early? well if you like to stitch “in the season?” as I do, it’s not! What is stitching in the season you ask? Stitching on turkey type canvases now as we are less than 2 weeks away from our day of thanks. Or Christmas ornaments next month, well I think that you get the idea. I don’t always have that luxury as it seems that I am working on things that I need to be stitching on…like models for the January Market. But I can hope. can’t I?

This is a 3 piece set, when finished creates a dimensional turkey for Thanksgiving. A canvas by Sew Much Fun. I have hopes to get this on bars and at least start this. I have taken it out of the deepest recesses of the closet, stretcher bars have been located, the threads and beads have been shopped for and stitch guide is at hand. No thinking, no designing, just stitching! It is a cool and rainy weekend, so it will be great stitching weather.

I am still finishing up my work for the January/February issue for Needlepoint Now….when it comes to charting the stitches, I am good for about 4 hours, 5 hours max than I need to step away from the computer. I have a few other “needlepoint related” things that need my attention, along with ordering the threads and beads for my January Market TNNA classes. One group of canvases have already arrived.

So see I don’t always have as much time to stitch as I would like to!

as my countdown to Thanksgiving coninues and what I am most thankful for is my stitching…or maybe I should say too much of it!

and until next time…keep on stitching

Floss you say? what is she thinking? Well when I started stitching just a few too many years ago, that’s really all there was…floss, pearl, Balger, Medici and Paternayan.

There still is a great need for floss in our stitching. You are trying to find just that perfect color or a basic stable thread, I turn to floss. I stitched my Enabler’s Anonymous canvas using all floss…yes I did! Well the colors just worked.

These are the first new colors of floss in over 15 years! There are 8 colors in a vibrant range and then 8 colors in a muted range to bring the colors up to a total of 488…wow that is allot of colors. I am sure that you can find just that one that you are in need of.

They blend into existing color ranges as seen here. Even though there are no official color names yet, this is a great refernce tool to see how they come together.

At the moment these colors are only sold as a unit with all 16 together. So what happens if you use up one of them and need some more? hmmm…I wonder?!

Susan Portra teaches a little trick in her classes to find the correct end to grab that pull thread. Slide the bands/wrappers together towards the center and then pull the end that is located below the numbered end. Anchor floss is best pulled from the other end.

Did you follow along with the DMC Memories Contest that was held last year? Well the winners of the contest have embarked upon their tour of the DMC factory in France and you can share their experiences through these blogs.

Allie in Stitches was one of the winners and she takes us on her tour “My day in Mullhouse, France: Part 1, Touring the DMC Factory”

And then “My day in Mulhouse, France: Part 2, The DMC Archives”

I do know someone else that has been to the DMC Factories, Cassie Prescott, owner of Sundance Designs. What a fantastic opportunity and one not soon forgotten I am sure! I have been honored to hear Cassie speak of her tours (yes I think she went there more than once) through her words and photographs more than once. I never get tired of hearing about her trip.

You know what piece of trivia fascinates me most? Is that fact that once upon a time there were 5,000 employees at the DMC factories and now there are only 250. But it speaks volumes for a company that is still in operation after 267 years!

As Mooch and I continue our reasons to give thanks…

and I am thankful for this 4 legged person of mine who has her paws on my keyboard!

and until next time…keep on stitching

You know these magnets are like potato chips…you can’t eat just 1 potato chip, now can you? Okay be honest now! I know that I can’t stop at 1, so that’s the reason I rarley buy a bag of chips for late night snacks.

Well these magents are just like potato chips! You keep picking up another and another. Do you like to theme your magnet to the canvas? Like a Fleur de Lis piece by Lani or a seaside canvas to go with the crab. A mustache canvas might be a little challenge…but if I was in class with Tony Minieri, I would definitely be using that magnet in his class!

These are some of the newest magnets from Elizabeth Turner Collection. Also in that new collection is a gingerbread house that would be perfect on a Christmas canvas. How about a Day of the Dead Scull with a basket of fruit on her head that makes me think of Carmen Miranda?

Meredith, my sistah in black cats sent me a pressie with these magnets while I was out of town, and it was a great surprise to find the package when I got back. Purr~fect timing to place that crab magnet on this canvas that I am working on…a little ocean and a little sand, what could be better than that crab?

or even this fish? Who says you can’t use more than 1 on your canvas?

AlleyCat has been to the vets 2x now and has been prodded and poked, x-rayed, blood work and urine drawn and they can find nothing wrong with her at the moment. The vet suggested that I feed her on a plate to slow down her food intake so that she can keep it in that tummy of hers. So far it is drastically reduced the fact that she is being challenged keeping her food down. If that doesn’t do the trick, then there are more evasive tests and as much as I love my kitties, I really don’t want to put them through that. At least she’s good and doesn’t get sick in our bed!

As we near the day of Thanksgiving, I begin to think of some of the things that I am most thankful for… my kitties.

and until next time…keep on stitching

There’s no place like home! I loved spending time with my pup-ups and being in the beautiful Pacific Northwest…but Annie reminded me that there’s no place like home. And you know what? she was right (okay Annie don’t get used to that!) and Dorothy was right.

I was looking for a needlepoint canvas of Dorothy’s red shoes and this was the closest that I came. Toto wasn’t being very nice here, was he?

AlleyCat was being her mischevious self and looking for something that she could get into! We went to see the kitty doctor again yesterday as she is being challenged by keeping food in her tummy… absolutely not normal for her. At first the vet thought is was ’cause I had left her way too long, and maybe she was eating too fast. We went for some more tests yesterday and she was such a good girl, chirping and purring and talking to everybody while she mesmerized them with her beauty. Nothing showed up and we will just have to wait and see for now. I am trying a different way to leave her dry food out.

Have you seen the new Christmas stamps? Gingerbread, royal icing, fruit shingles and pepppermint stick support beams…so charming! What makes this even more special it’s pictures of her original handmade gingerbread houses, works of art by Teresa Layman. So you ask, what’s this got to do with needlepoint?

Teresa publishes her artwork in miniature knotted rugs for the needlework industry…so you could say she’s “big” in the miniatures industry… and she has gingerbread doll houses in several museums across the US!

Congratulations to Teresa for making our holiday stamps so special this year.

and until next time…keep on stitching

What a marvelous reason to salute the veterans today! I would like to thank each and every veteran and active military member for answering the call to serve our country. I wish that I could thank each and every one of you personally from Cindy (who I just found out retired from 31 years in the Air Force as a Colonel!) to Nancy to my niece Miranda and everyone else in between.

This is my niece standing in the middle as her 7 month deployment aboard the USS Nimitz was coming to end a few years ago. Waiting for the ship to come into the naval station San Diego was a very memorable moment and one I won’t forget for many years to come. I was there for her along with her boyfriend and a surprise visit from her Mom! Very special day indeed! can I tell you how proud of her that I am?

The Nimitz seemed like it took forever to dock! The USS Ronald Reagan is in her view. This is part of our landscape of San Diego.

I worked the day away yesterday only after breakfast again at The Cottage…can you tell I am making up for all the days that I missed? doing what you ask? well designing the charts for the January/February issue of Needlepoint Now. One of the new projects has about 25 stitches and still counting! Wow I don’t know how Elizabeth does it as I understand that this might be another big issue.

AlleyCat was keeping herself toasty under the lamp. and until next time…keep on stitching

p.s. she is a little under the weather, even though you couldn’t tell by the way she is acting, eating and drinking, but I see a trip to her vet in her very near future. Wish us well.