April Update

Well, hello (somewhat sheepishly). I know it's been a looooong time since I last posted. All I can say is, sometimes life gives you lemons and I had to suck on some for awhile before deciding it was time to make lemonade.

WIP--Another Maggie Design!

Not that it's been all bad. Kiska continues to grow and has the sweetest nature. She does not sit still for long unless she's sleeping, so getting a photo of her is very hard so they all tend to be somewhat blurry.

We enjoyed spending spring break in rural Texas with FIL and MIL and witnessing some typical ranch life...

Visit From the Farrier

How a City Boy Feeds the Chickens

with a side trip to New Orleans where we enjoyed touring the Garden District

 The French Quarter

 listening to live music

 and the food!

 

I've never been to New Orleans before but it was absolutely wonderful! We loved walking through the French Quarter and hearing all the street musicians--from an electric cello ensemble to traditional New Orleans jazz. Of course, all that walking makes you hungry which is good because the food is unique and excellent. Wish we could have spent more time there!

February Update

February is beginning on a very chilly note here in Kansas City. What a crazy week of weather we've had! Monday it was in the 70's and today single digits. One of the church's ministry partners from Malawi has been visiting for the past couple of weeks and wanted to see snow and we even had some of that this week! I was driving our guest to the church last week and she asked me whether the trees were green when it snowed. That idea surprised me but I would guess that when people in other countries see photos of snow it's usually depicted on evergreens so they assume all the trees are green.

Here's a couple of projects I've listed on this month's Early Work Mercantile. Both are from designs by Lyn Hosford. I hope you'll check out what all the talented artists have listed on this month's EWM!

I also completed the Maggie Bononomi runner. I believe it has been sold but know that sometimes people change their minds so I posted it on EWM just in case.

Kiska is still a bundle of energy. She is the happiest, most playful cat. Even in the middle of the night when we'd like to sleep, which isn't quite so delightful. In fact, it's hard to get a photo of her because she never is still. We have found she is strangely attracted to bags and that's how this photo came about.

MLK Weekend

I'm almost done with the long runner I showed a couple of weeks ago and have also been working on a couple of Valentine's Day projects. I haven't had the opportunity to do much sewing lately, however, Last week I put in a lot of overtime as part of the team preparing for our church's weekend MLK luncheon celebration which included a performance by our local treasures, The McFadden Brothers

and a keynote address by author Clifton Anderson on Living Dr. King's dream. 

This morning members and staff gathered at the church to sign up for a variety of serving events in the community, including picking up trash in the inner city, serving meals at soup kitchens, playing games with kids at a children's shelter, stocking shelves at a food pantry, organizing clothing in a thrift store whose proceeds benefit charities, writing notes of encouragement and assembling snack bags for students taking assessment testing and making Valentines with seniors.

We are honored that our senior pastor, Adam Hamilton, has been invited to deliver a sermon tomorrow at the National Prayer Service. DH and I visited the National Cathedral last March. I was impressed by its size and grandeur (and, of course, especially appreciated the beautifully handcrafted needlework prayer stools and stolls on display).

I can't imagine what it would be like to give a sermon in such a majestic church, let alone before the president and other high ranking officials. We're all praying for him and if you wouldn't mind saying a prayer for him, too, that would be great! 

Designer?

I saw this design on Pinterest and love it! However, I have not been able to trace it back to the designer. Do you know who created it?

2013 is off and running! The pace between Christmas and New Year's slows down and lulls me into believing that life will always be that way, but then the calendar turns and once again I'm behind and trying to catch up. Thank goodness the church is growing but with that comes new job assignments and changes. I am blessed to be stepping into working with our children's literacy team in 2013. We will be seeking ways to encourage the love of reading and distributing more books so inner city kiddos can acquire personal libraries. I just take it for granted that all kids have access to books at home, but that is not the case. What a difference it makes to kids to have fun books at home to read, alone or with their family.  However, this new assignment means more work hours and less crafting time, so I've had to step away from Simply Primitives. I was sad to do that, but have to be realistic about my time and, having done so now feel relief which confirms it was the right thing to do. What changes are you facing this year?

New Year's Resolution

Son and I were running errands this evening and he asked me if I made any New Year's Resolutions. "Yes", I said "I plan to do more online shopping this year." He laughed and I admit that, on the face, it may seem like a rather frivolous resolution. But I'm always trying to find ways to save time and I think I'd save a lot of time if I don't have to drive somewhere and park and then walk around looking for whatever I'm looking for but in the meantime get distracted by something that's on sale or just plain appealing. And on a more serious note, I hope to frequent some of the talented artisans I've met online and be a better friend to small businesses. I know it has meant a lot to me over the years to have the support of customers across the country. Are you a resolution maker?

Maggie Bononomi Design

We got a good dusting of snow and a blast of cold here yesterday, so we all stayed indoors and attended to various projects. In addition to taking down the tree and putting most of the Christmas decor away I  assembled a long botanical penny rug and I'm off to stitch away.

Happy New Year!

Wishing you a year ahead full of health and good times with friends and family.

Early Work Mercantile has updated for the first of the month! I hope you'll drop by and see all the new offerings for this month! I created this hanging pocket from a design by Robin Leuschen.  The design is stitched in wool with embroidered banner and attached to a flannel backing with coordinating flannel pocket on the back.

Wishing you a safe New Year's Eve celebration. We had a lovely dinner out with friends and will be lucky to be awake to ring the new year in here!

Seasons Greetings!

 

Hope your Christmas was full of merriment. I love the beautiful candlelight Christmas Eve service at our church. I needed the comfort of this familiar service and the message of hope about how all of us can do our part to push back the darkness that many experience just by doing little acts of kindness. "We cannot all do great things, but we can do small things with great love." Mother Teresa

Many of our Christmas decorations will be taken down and packed away next week, but I'm going to keep this arrangement of fresh greens in my urn as long as it holds up. It's a nice spot of cheer when everything else is brown and drab.

A.J. & Mark arrived home safely very early Christmas Eve, so while I was anxiously awaiting their arrival I used the extra time to finally finish up my very first Prim Sisters Club project, an adorable design by Pineberry Lane. It has a little pocket on the back for sewing needfuls so it will help keep me organized in 2013.

I worked on Christmas Eve but am fortunate to have some time off this week so after all the busyness of the season I'm looking forward to spending time in my sewing room assembling projects! What do you do to unwind from the hectic holiday season?